Chapter 2
1097 Words
The two men didn’t rush. They walked in like they owned the night.
Rain streaked off their dark coats, dripping onto my clean floor. The taller one had a smooth, office kind of face; the shorter looked like he’d been built out of brick and boredom. Both wore badges on lanyards that flashed in the fluorescent light.
“Evening,” the tall one said, voice warm in the way of cheap coffee. “We’re with a regional investigation unit. Got reports of an accident on this street.”
He flipped the badge just fast enough that I saw an official seal and the word COUNCIL before it vanished.
My ribs locked.
“Accident’s under control,” I said. “You’re dripping on my tools.”
His gaze skimmed over the SUV, then over Caleb, then settled on me. “We’re also following up on reports of… unusual animal activity. Howls, property damage. You haven’t heard anything like that, Ms…?”
“Thorn,” I said. “Maia. And no. Just hydroplaning idiots.”
Caleb’s jaw flexed, but he stayed where he was, leaning against the workbench like he had all the time in the world. He didn’t, and we both knew it.
The shorter guy drifted farther in, slow, eyes cataloguing exits, cameras, tools. He wasn’t interested in the car. He was interested in what might be hiding behind it.
Nyra paced along the inside of my skull, claws clicking. Wolves, she hissed. Council.
I bit my tongue until I tasted copper.
“We’d still like to take a look,” the tall one said pleasantly. “For everyone’s safety.”
“Safety would be you not blocking my door,” I shot back. “I already told 911 nobody’s hurt.”
His smile didn’t move his eyes. “We prefer to confirm personally. Mr…?”
“Hale,” Caleb said. “I hydroplaned, like she said. No animals. No howls. Just bad weather.”
The Council man studied him with professional interest. “Traveling alone, Mr. Hale?”
“Yes.”
“Business or pleasure?”
“Neither.”
A small pause. The tall man shifted his weight, just enough to tell me he didn’t like that answer.
“You understand there have been incidents in nearby towns,” he said. “Unstable individuals. We’re making sure they haven’t slipped into this district.”
Unstable. It landed like a punch. In my head, another voice echoed, from a different room, a different life: She’s unstable, Alpha. For everyone’s safety—
I swallowed hard. “You want to check the street for skid marks, go ahead,” I said. “In here is my jurisdiction. And you’re scaring off my business.”
The shorter man snorted. “Past midnight?”
“I’m very popular,” I said. “Or I was, before everyone started trying to drive through my walls.”
Caleb’s mouth twitched; he covered it with a cough. The tall one’s eyes narrowed, measuring the space between us, the way he reacted when I talked.
“Have you lived here long, Ms. Thorn?” he asked.
“Long enough to know what does and doesn’t scream at night.” I crossed my arms so he wouldn’t see my hands shaking. “Nothing screamed. Except my brakes.”
He watched me for three slow heartbeats. The hairs on the back of my neck prickled; Nyra pressed harder, wanting out, wanting to prowl around this man and peel the smug right off his face.
No, I told her. No more cages. No more white rooms.
“Well.” He smoothed the front of his coat, mask sliding back into place. “If you remember anything—anything at all that seems off—you can reach us at this number.”
He set a card on my counter. Black print. Small, clean logo. I didn’t pick it up.
“We’ll be in town a few days,” he added, now looking at Caleb. “In case you reconsider staying longer, Mr. Hale.”
“I won’t,” Caleb said calmly.
Tension crackled in the air between them. The shorter man waited by the door, a solid, silent wall. The tall one finally inclined his head to me, a parody of politeness.
“Have a good night, Ms. Thorn. Try to stay safe.”
“You first,” I muttered.
They left. Rain gusted in before the door swung shut. Engines started, two cars pulling away slow, like they weren’t in any hurry to get out of my life.
Silence rushed in behind them, thick and humming.
I let out a breath I didn’t realize I’d been choking on and leaned both hands on the SUV’s hood until the metal’s residual warmth seeped into my palms.
“You handled that well,” Caleb said quietly.
“That what you call it?” My laugh came out thin. “Lying to the Council in my pajamas?”
“You didn’t fold.” He pushed away from the bench, moving closer but stopping a respectful distance away. The wild scent of him still threaded through the shop, steadier now that the sterile tang of the Council men was gone. “Most humans do, when they flash a badge.”
“Good thing I’m just a stubborn mechanic,” I said.
His gaze held mine. “That’s not all you are.”
Nyra purred at the certainty in his voice. Traitor.
I looked away first, grabbed the jack handle, forced my body back into motion. “Here’s what’s going to happen, Mr. Hale. I fix your car. You pay me triple because your ‘accident’ nearly killed my door. Then you drive out of my life, and those guys forget my address.”
“And if they don’t?” he asked.
My hands stilled. The old fear rose, bitter and sharp, but there was a new layer over it now—anger, hot and clean.
“Then I deal with it,” I said. “Like I have since I was sixteen.”
I felt him watching me, weighing that. Respect, not pity, in the silence that followed.
“For what it’s worth,” he said finally, “they weren’t looking at you like a mechanic.”
“I know,” I said. “That’s the problem.”
Nyra pressed against my mind, restless but no longer just a distant ache.
And under the rain and the hum of my old lights, I felt the shape of the night changing—like the first c***k in ice before it breaks.
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