Foxy on the Run: Book One, Supernatural Bounty Hunters Novellas Page 12

  “Carly told me with a little persuasion... I believe you have something that belongs to me.”

  Jackson snarled. “And you have something that belongs to me. If you’ve hurt her...”

  She crisply interrupted him. “No lasting damage has been done. But that can soon change. A car is pulling up in front of you. One of the gentlemen will frisk you whislt the other trains his gun on you. Don’t get any funny ideas. As long as you’re clean you will voluntarily be cuffed and willingly get in the trunk. And to be clear the cuffs will be made of silver so don’t even bother trying to struggle. Any questions?”

  The wolf grunted his assent. “Good.” She purred. “Don’t let me or rather don’t let Carly down.”

  The phone clicked off and Jackson breathed in and out slowly as the black SUV angled toward the curb. The barbaric looking human half of the goon squad got out.

  One blatantly pointed his gun on Jackson. “Don’t even think about it wolf.”

  Jackson sneered as the other roughly checked him for weapons. He twitched under the human’s groping hands. “You enjoying yourself human?”

  The human snorted. “Just practising for when I get my hands on your girlfriend.”

  Jackson growled and bared his fangs.

  “Take it easy furball.” Said the one with the gun whilst the other snapped the handcuffs on.

  The gunman motioned to the trunk and reluctantly Jackson climbed in. “Just try to enjoy the ride.”

  The door was slammed shut and Jackson heard them chuckling. The engine soon rumbled to life and they were moving. Jackson carefully remembered the route. He counted every length of road and remembered every turn. Judging by the distance they travelled and the smell of dead fish they were at the warehouse district by the pier. Exactly where he hoped they’d bring him. They were probably planning on throwing both their bodies to the fishes.

  The car came to a halt and soon the men opened the trunk and ordered him to get out. They were inside an old, disused warehouse.

  A thin middle aged woman in a power suit confidently strode toward him flanked by the huge nasal elephant and the foul, thickset jaguar.

  The woman flashed him a cold toothy smile. “Mr Carr thank you so much for joining us. I’m Teresa Pratchett. You may call me TP, everybody does.” TP waved her hand indifferently.

  Jackal. The wolf turned up his nose at her. Devious creatures.

  “Where’s Carly?” He barked.

  “Where’s my flashdrive?” TP asked seemingly pleasantly.

  “Hand it over!” Snapped the jaguar Hector. He quieted under a severe glare from TP.

  Jackson’s nostrils flared. “Hand over Carly.” He demanded.

  TP’s expression remained serene. Perfect poker player. “You will see her as soon as I have the flashdrive.”

  Jacksons jaw ticked for a few seconds. “It’s in my jacket pocket.”

  TP smiled and nodded to the elephant Bruno. He swiftly found the drive and dropped it into TP’s waiting hand. She turned it round in her fingers.

  She looked at the jaguar and the elephant. “Take him to his girlfriend.”

  The jaguar grabbed Jackson by the scruff.

  TP held up a hand. “Oh and Mr Carr, for Carly’s sake I hope you haven’t made a copy of this or shown it to anyone else.”

  Jackson stared at her with pure hatred before he was forced to move. As the jaguar and the elephant pushed and pulled him through the fusty corridors Jackson relaxed a little as her gentle lavender fragrance invaded his senses.

  The jaguar threw open a door to reveal his pretty little fox handcuffed to a chair.

  “Carly!” His wolf chomped at the bit to get to her. The elephant clamped a meaty paw on his shoulder.

  “Jackson!” Her fox whimpered. Her mate was now in danger too because of her.

  The wolf snarled at seeing Carly’s cut lip and bruised jaw. “Who did that to your face?”

  The jaguar strode into the room and stood excruciatingly close to his mate. The feline smirked as he grabbed her chin making her cringe.

  “I will fucking kill you for this cat.” Warned Jackson in a low, dangerous voice.

  The elephant pushed Jackson against the wall on the opposite side of the room. He uncuffed one hand and then slid it through a solid looking pipe before snapping it shut.

  The jaguar chuckled before pulling out a gun and promptly shooting Jackson through the shoulder. Jackson and his wolf howled as Carly screamed at them.

  “Doesn’t look like you’re in much of a position to do anything dog.” The jaguar bent down and gave Carly an exaggerated sniff before moaning in appreciation. “I’ll be back soon foxy.”

  Jackson’s beast snarled. That was their name for their mate!

  The jaguar strolled out the room and wordlessly the elephant followed shaking his head.

  Jackson groaned at the hot liquid pain in his shoulder. He’d never been shot before. Definitely not an experience he wanted to repeat either. Carly’s lips quivered as she saw and smelt the blood oozing from his shoulder. “Oh god Jackson!”

  Tears started streaming down Carly’s cheeks. His wolf whined pathetically at seeing her so upset. He needed to do something to take her mind of their predicament.

  “Blue.” Jackson said suddenly, clenching his jaw to try and control the pain.

  She looked up shocked. “What?”

  “Actually no, turquoise.”

  Carly was still none the wiser. She sniffled. “What on earth are you talking about?”

  “My favorite color. It’s turquoise. It used to be blue but now it’s turquoise.”

  She stared at him dumbfounded. “I’ve had this thing for turquoise since I found your turquoise underwear.” He explained matter of fact in between painful grunts. “Just seeing that color is a total fucking turn on now.”

  “Oh.” Carly furrowed her brow unsure whether she should be annoyed or not.

  “My favorite meal is chili and my favorite dessert is German chocolate cake. I don’t watch much TV but when I do it’s either Ice Road Truckers or football. My favorite movie is Jaws and my biggest fear is water. Also I smoke but I’m thinking of giving up.”

  “Water?”

  Jackson shrugged before flinching. He should stay still. “Well not any water. Just, you know large bodies of water that you can drown in.”

  Carly cocked her head to one side. “Your favorite film is Jaws and you’re afraid of water? Why are you telling me all this now?”

  Jackson licked his lips. “I want you to know. I want you to know everything about me, just like I want to know everything about you because I think I love you. No I know I love you. I think you’re my mate.” His wolf howled in glee. He’d take a thousand bullets just to be with her.

  Her fox yipped ecstatically. “You do?”

  “I’ve never felt this way about anyone before. And I don’t run with a pack anymore because my home pack kicked me out.” Jackson looked away awkwardly.

  “Why’d they kick you out?”

  Jackson exhaled loudly. “I got into a fight with another wolf when I was 19; I tore him up pretty badly. It was lucky he survived. We were fighting over a she-wolf. She led us both on and made us both think we were her mates. So when we found out we fought each other. The Alpha said I was too violent and he kicked me out.”

  Carly was immediately incensed on his behalf. “That’s completely unfair! You weren’t the only one fighting. Just because the other wolf wasn’t as tough as you...”

  Jackson shook his head. “The other wolf was the Alpha’s only son. He was set to take over as Alpha. It looked bad that he couldn’t beat me in a fight. So I had to go.”

  Carly snorted. “But what about your family...”

  “It was just my mom, she agreed with the Alpha. She said I was too violent.” He gave a half shrug of embarrassment as his wolf whimpered. “I’d always been kind of a handful. I’ve been on my own ever since. I tried to find a new wolf pack but my old Alpha put the word out about h
ow dangerous I was.”

  Carly’s heart almost broke for him as her fox whined piteously for their mate. She knew that packs tended to be quite strict and at times brutal but she also knew that wolves were social animals who craved the love and support of pack mates. To know that Jackson had been without that for so long but still turned out to be such a great guy made her so proud. Okay so he wasn’t likely to win any prizes for being a nice guy but damnit he was certainly her knight in shining armor.

  More than anything she wanted to throw herself over him and wrap him into a bone crushing hug. He had been without his pack for a long time but he had her now, and she wasn’t going anywhere.

  With renewed enthusiasm Carly began struggling against her restraints and bouncing around on her seat. Jackson watched her wonderingly.

  Carly furrowed her brow. “Screw this! We are both getting out of here alive. No way are you getting off the hook that easily. When we get out of here we are going to have a lot of long boring talks about where our relationship is headed.”

  “Here let me help you.” Jackson strolled over to her clutching his injured shoulder.

  “Wha... wha...”

  “Yeah I picked the lock on the cuffs while we were talking... they were made of strong metal but the lock was pretty crappy.” Jackson began picking the cuffs binding his mate.

  Carly’s eyes flashed angry orange. “Why didn’t you just do that right away?!” She snapped.

  “I had to give the others time to get in place, plus I didn’t think it would hurt to have a captive audience when I admitted you were my mate.”

  She blinked at him. “What others? What’s happening?”

  “Well it turns out the goon squad were using a company car, and all the company cars have tracking devices so we could just trace it. It was pretty easy to find where they were keeping you. Then we just had to round up some people to come and rescue you.”

  She gave him a genuine smile. “That’s brilliant, about the car.”

  Jackson grunted. “It was Noah who thought of it.” He said grudgingly.

  Carly chuckled at his hurt tone. “You’re brilliant too wolfy. I...”

  Jackson stood up abruptly and dived back to the wall where he had been handcuffed. A second later the jaguar marched through the door.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Hector the jaguar snorted at seeing Carly’s tears. He didn’t like women who whined and cried. There was no stopping what he was about to do, she should just get over it.

  “No point crying little fox.”

  “Don’t you dare touch her!” Roared Jackson.

  Hector gave him a look of mock pity. The jaguar curled his fingers into her thick wavy hair. “I don’t usually like fat girls. But for this one I’ll make an exception.” Hector’s eyes saturated yellow. “Prettiest red hair I ever saw...” He muttered to himself.

  Hector reached out to her cheek when a solid weight hit him. Jackson had shifted and launched himself at the jaguar. Hector howled in pain as the wolf clamped his mouth round the man’s right arm. Copious amounts of blood poured out of the wound as Hector flustered and tried to shake the wolf off.

  Roaring Hector shifted to his jaguar destroying his clothes. The wolf’s fangs tore through his limb as his muscles transformed in the wolf’s mouth. The sudden shift took the wolf by surprise and the jaguar took the opportunity to kick the wolf away.

  Carly watched horrified as the jaguar and the wolf circled each other snarling. Both were limping but the jaguar’s right front leg was all but useless, his sleek black and tan fur was smeared with oozing blood. It would take him a few weeks to heal from such a deep wound.

  The jaguar was a little bigger than the wolf but whilst Jackson kept it tight Hector was running to fat. And couldn’t possibly have felt more rage than Jackson did at that moment in time.

  Impatiently the jaguar leapt at the wolf, who easily sidestepped him. The wolf although slowed by his wound speedily swiped a paw at the jaguar’s belly. The cat yowled as pain ripped through him. He swiped his own claws at Jackson’s shoulder, slightly grazing him.

  The wolf bobbed back tensing before lunging. The jaguar’s claws sank into the wolf’s flesh making him bellow but it didn’t deter him. Jackson tightly wrapped his jaws round the jaguar’s neck. They skittered around joined together for a few seconds before the wolf gave an almighty yank and ripped the jaguar’s throat out.

  The wolf stood over the now lifeless body of the jaguar. He roared over the kill.

  Jackson shimmered back to his human form. He sniffed the jaguar distastefully. “That was for touching my mate, that was for taking my mate away from me, that was for...

  Growing impatient Carly gently interrupted him. “He’d dead wolfy; you don’t need to tell him what it was for. Please untie me my hands are hurting.”

  The beast in Jackson wanted to revel in the kill but he acquiesced to her wishes. He couldn’t allow her to be in pain.

  Jackson found a key on Hector’s body and unlocked Carly’s cuffs. He pulled her up and into a comforting embrace. He grunted as she rubbed against his wounds. She said she was sorry and tried to pull away but Jackson wouldn’t hear of it, he just clutched at her more tightly. Now that he had her he was never letting her go.

  They stood entwined for a few minutes before hearing the load trumpeting sound of an elephant and the unmistakable roar of a big cat.

  Reluctantly Jackson let her go and took her hand. “We better get out there but make sure you stay behind me.” He wagged his finger at her as she nodded. “I mean it foxy! You are not to leave my side.”

  “Okay! Let’s just go.”

  He stooped and gave her a chaste kiss on the lips before dragging her through the warehouse. When they came to the source of the ruckus Carly paused flabbergasted. There in the middle of the warehouse was an elephant, a jackal, a bear, a white fox, a lion, a witch, a boa constrictor and two humans fighting. It was the strangest thing she had ever seen.

  Soon enough the boa constrictor had wrapped itself round the neck of the protesting elephant whilst the bear swiped at it and the witch performed numerous stunning spells. The elephant soon collapsed under the onslaught. The jackal was fought into submission by the valiant white fox and the two humans were being chased by the very gleeful looking lion.

  Soon enough the ‘bad guys’ were all beaten and the lion, bear and fox shifted back to their human forms to tie them up. She knew the bear and the fox were Logan and Noah but she was a little surprised to find Detective Leeman there.

  “This will never stick!” Spat TP after shifting. “I have excellent lawyers. I knew nothing about the problems with the drug. My Head of Development must have planned all this. I’m a victim in this. You’ve got nothing on me!”

  “What?!” Screeched Carly. “You kidnapped me and handed me over to that monster Hector!”

  “I was kidnapped too!” TP started crying crocodile tears.

  “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me!” Snarled Carly.

  Uncharacteristically Jackson was calm. He stroked Carly’s hair and shushed her. “We already have evidence.”

  Carly yelped as the enormous snake slowly slithered toward them. She really didn’t like snakes. She recoiled as it opened it’s colossal jaws and spat out a cell phone. Shimmering the snake shifted into a lean and cold looking man. Carly’s eyes immediately flicked down, damn talk about snakes!

  She suddenly became very aware that she was surrounded by hot, naked men. Jeez Louise! Up until four days ago she’d only ever seen four men fully naked, that number was now doubled! Her fox skulk was really conservative, no way would they get naked and go on runs together like wolf packs did.

  Jackson saw her gawping and huffed pulling her flush against his bare body. “No looking at other males foxy!”

  Marcus picked up the cell phone and handed it to Detective Leeman.

  “You get it all?” Asked the Detective.

  “Of course.”

  “What? What’s happen
ing?” Came Carly’s muffled voice from Jackson’s chest. And until the other males found some clothes that was where she was going to stay.

  “When we worked out where you were Marcus snuck in as his snake and recorded everything that was happening.”

  Ugh. Carly almost gagged. “You mean on the phone he was keeping in his mouth?!”

  Jackson rubbed her arms. “Yeah I figured these shifters weren’t exactly the greatest at scenting and boa shifters are good at masking their smell.”

  Marcus folded his arms. “I got everything, the jackal admitted to having this Carlton guy killed and admitted to knowing about the effects of the drugs.”

  Jackson nodded at his boss. “I owe you man.”

  Alma strode forward. “Owe him?! You’re indentured to us forever sweetie. You’ll be catching skips until you need a little wolfy hip replacement!”

  TP screamed at them and started babbling with a manic look on her face. “It’ll never stick! Don’t you know who I am? I can buy and sell every single one of you...”

  Thankfully squad cars of uniform cops arrived to take her away. Judging by her ranting a long prison sentence or maybe a straitjacket was in her future.

  The other shifters and Alma talked excitedly over what had happened, still pumped up over the fight. The uniform cops gave them some towels to cover their nudity.

  Jackson relaxed his grip on Carly but instead of moving away she snuggled into him. “I love you wolfy.”

  “Not half as much as I love you foxy.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  The moment Carly stepped out of the police station in the wee hours of the morning Jackson swept her up into his arms. His mouth devoured hers hungrily as if he hadn’t seen her in months when in reality it had only been a few hours.

  A few hours before at the warehouse Detective Leeman had to pry Carly away from Jackson. Technically the fox was still wanted for murder and Jackson needed to go to the hospital to get the bullet removed from his shoulder.

  Jackson had howled and snarled at the lion until Carly had soothed him and assured him they would be together again soon. Still Logan had to hold Jackson back as the Detective took Carly away.