Page 27 of Last But Not Leashed

Given the choice, I normally wouldn’t have sacrificed my chance to nuzzle Ethel, but Allison deserved a dose of my breath, too. I pulled away from Ethel, inhaled, and roared in Allison’s face.

“Holy fuck, leash him! Are you part lion? You must be part lion. Fuck, Dale. Your breath! Brush your teeth. For the love of God and fear of Satan, brush your teeth!”

I enjoyed panting in her face and following her when she attempted to escape.

“Five hundred thousand, Dale,” Ethel said, snatching a handful of my chest fur and giving it a tug. I halted, giving her my undivided attention. “Six hundred thousand if I’m captured, too. I could see them gift wrapping you for me.”

“Who knew? I’m a very expensive present. If you can confirm they’re responsible, then we only need to worry about who attacked the security guard and why.” Ethel snorted, and unable to resist the temptation, I grabbed her by the waist and sat her on the kitchen island so she’d be closer to eye level. “Confirming the situation with the security guard is more important than a live-capture bounty.”

“Like hell it is! Most lycanthropes don’t attack people like that, which makes me think it was a hit—a deliberate attack. Maybe by a pack member or one of her friends? That only leads to one problem: she’s verified before an angel she was going to ask him to mate with her. That’s why her pack was with her. They were expecting to be introduced formally. Why would anyone interfere when nature would run its course given a little time? It doesn’t make sense. What I don’t understand is why someone would want to infect him with lycanthropy.”

I had one idea: Mr. Coolridge. “His boss was interested in the benefits of lycanthropy, especially in a security context.”

“Not him. We asked.”

“Before an angel?” I asked, well aware how difficult it could be to detect a clever human’s lies.

“Well, no.”

“How do you know he didn’t lie—or that his boss put out the hit? The CDC has access to the bounty lists through covert ops, don’t they? Have someone check.”

Ethel wrinkled her nose at me. “I refuse to accept there’s a criminal that stupid, Dale. I refuse. No. I refuse to even consider that a stupid criminal got you mauled.”

Lycanthrope males had a reputation of being overly protective, but the females were no different. I worried what would happen if Ethel got her hands on the lycanthrope who’d infected Mr. Jones. “If we can trace the virus to its source, we can find the hire if you can’t locate the bounty, right? That’s assuming we can’t just pull out the bounty—assuming there is one.”

Ethel grunted, crossed her arms over her chest, and refused to look me in the eyes. “I refuse to believe someone would be stupid enough to infect someone with lycanthropy to have a better mall security guard.”

“There’s some logic, and it would let him test drive a lycanthrope, in this case, me.”

“That’s the dumbest damned reason to infect someone with lycanthropy I’ve ever heard.”

“Free test drive of a lycanthrope as a security guard, option to fire an employee he potentially dislikes or doesn’t think is suitable? I can see it happening. The lycanthropy virus does lose the infected certain rights. Mr. Jones could be fired for the infection.”

Ethel bared her teeth and growled, still refusing to meet my gaze. “No, no, no.”

If she found out how much I was enjoying myself, she’d probably kill me—and she’d make me like it, too. “The world is plagued with dumb criminals.”

She hissed like a demented cat. “No!”

“Could be mercenaries looking to recruit,” Jerome said.

Ethel’s frustrated scream was enough to make me grin, and I turned to face my alpha before she caught sight of my amusement. “What?”

“It could be a mercenary outfit looking for fresh blood from the securities sector. Lycanthropes get shortchanged outside of certain fields. It’d be a great way to get new hires. Baltimore has at least five outfits, and a new lycanthrope would be an asset for them.”

Ethel’s sigh recaptured my attention, and I twisted to face her. She relaxed and shook her head. “There’s only been one attack. I really don’t want a dumbfuck criminal to be the cause of all this trouble.”

“Head of mall security,” I corrected.

“Dumbfuck criminal.”

“Does it matter if he’s a dumbfuck criminal? Doesn’t it make it easier to solve and move on?”

Ethel reached for me, snagged my fur in her hands, and tugged until I moved closer. Snarling, she replied, “Unacceptable! Are you seriously telling me you’re okay with having been mauled over some dumbfuck criminal with a shitty motive?”

I took my time thinking it over. The so-called dumbfuck criminal with shitty motives had gotten me into the same bed with Ethel multiple times and had bagged me the oddest kiss of my life. Was I supposed to have a problem with the dumbfuck criminal?

Because of the dumbfuck criminal, Ethel had her hands in my fur, demonstrating every possessive tendency of a lycanthrope out to protect her territory. I liked it enough I ducked my head and nuzzled her, breathing in her scent and savoring the undertones of her annoyance.