The cry that rose up out of Max drowned out the toddler’s cries. He dropped down to his hands and knees, screaming and cursing all the while. One grimy hand clawed at the carpet, reaching for me, and I promptly stomped down on his fingers, adding fresh fuel to his screams of pain. At that point Ted decided that it was his turn to join in on the fun.
Where his friend had been clumsy and slow, Ted was surprisingly fast for his size. One ham-hock fist swung at me before I even had a chance to realize that he wanted to play. I had no doubt that the blow would have left me seeing stars, or worse, if Holbrook hadn’t chosen that moment to swoop in. Appearing out of nowhere, he pushed me back out of harms reach with one strong arm, and knocked Ted’s fist aside with the other.
“I think you’d better leave.”
“Who the fuck are you?” Ted asked, finally speaking. His voice was low and rough as if he had a mouth full of gravel.
“I’m the one telling you to leave before you get you and your friend into more trouble,” Holbrook replied, flipping back the edge of his jacket to reveal the badge hooked over his belt.
“Is that supposed to scare me?”
“It’s supposed to drill some sense through that thick skull. Now, why don’t you scoop up your friend and get out of here?”
“I’m not the one who should have to leave. That dirty wolf bitch has got no business being here. This place is for decent folks. Her kind shouldn’t be allowed in here,” Ted rumbled in a deep baritone.
“Hey man, I just wanted to drink my milkshake and eat my burger. I didn’t have a problem with you,” I said, peering over Holbrook’s shoulder. I’d have added something about how he and his friend were as far from “decent folks” as they could get, but his vitriol laden voice cut me off.
“Your filthy kind is the problem,” he snarled, and then swung his grease stained fist once more.
I couldn’t tell if he was aiming for me or Holbrook, but I flinched nonetheless, shrinking back against the edge of the booth. The meaty impact of his fist striking Holbrook in the shoulder made me wince, and from the change in his stance, I had no doubt that the FBI agent’s arm had just gone numb. Letting out some kind of hoarse war cry, Ted launched himself at Holbrook, hooking one muscled arm around his throat. In a quick blur I caught a flash of the tattoo on Ted’s wrist as the two men struggled against one another.
There was no mistaking the Radiant Cross—a cross surrounded by glowing rays of sunlight—tattooed on the inside of his wrist, or the cold lump of dread that settled in the pit of my stomach. It was the symbol of Humans for Humanity and meant that we were in even deeper shit than I’d originally thought. Ted and his dimwitted buddy weren’t just run of the mill idiots: they had the might of hatred and a sense of supremacy on their side.
As I watched Holbrook gasp for air, his face turning a disturbing shade of red, I struggled to recall if the two men had come into the restaurant after us. I couldn’t remember if they had already been here, and we had just stumbled across their path by pure accident, or if they had followed us in. The last thing I needed was for that bunch of lunatics to be tangled up in this mess too.
Would the fates really be that cruel? I wondered. Yes, yes they would.
“Screw this!” I hissed as I reached down to the wolf.
The bond between us was still weak, but she was eager to fight and rose up to meet me. The strength of her anger was surprising, filling me with a fresh surge of adrenaline that left me feeling weightless and invincible. I felt like I could accomplish anything. I could take out Samson and Johnson both, but first I had to deal with the human trash trying to choke out my mate.
I spared a brief thought to question the sentiment that had flitted through my mind. My what?
A wheezing gasp from Holbrook cleared my thoughts, bringing my attention back to the matter at hand. My surroundings had shifted almost imperceptibly as my eyes bled over to wolf gold, everything visible in sharper relief and finer detail. Giving myself over to the wolf’s impulses, I moved around behind Ted and threw myself onto his back, heedless of the pain in my ribs. I felt him stagger beneath me, and then tense as I raked sharpened nails across his scalp. Howling in pain as I scoured deep lines in his skin, he released his hold on Holbrook and tried to throw me off. Before he was able to dislodge me, I sank my teeth into the meat of his neck, the wolf’s excitement singing in my veins.
“Fuck!” Ted yelled, managing to buck me off his back.
Staggering back against the edge of the table, I flashed him a wide smile, wiping blood from my mouth. I wasn’t sure if it was his or mine until I saw red seeping between his fingers where they were clamped over his neck.
“You fucking bitch. You bit me!” he snarled, his expression looking even more murderous than before.
Panic shone bright in his eyes as he no doubt wondered if he’d been infected. He was far more likely to be struck by lightning than to contract lycanthropy from a bite, but I wasn’t going to share that little nugget of information with him.
Let him worry it over for a while. Hell, it would serve the racist bastard right if he did get infected.