Were Me Out: Shift Happens Book Four Read online

  “Dude, you are a total badass. I want some knife and computer lessons. I’ll even trade you for some shooting lessons,” she said, texting our order to Juju’s.

  “Deal,” I told her, feeling better about myself. I wasn’t helpless or useless. Some battles needed to be fought with different means. I’d be the Queen of Different Means.

  “Can you hit that dot on the wall over there?” she asked, pointing to the far side of my den.

  It was about thirty feet away and tiny. Without a second thought for the drywall, I picked up a jade handled stiletto dagger, cocked my wrist and fired it off. Bull’s eye.

  “Dang girl,” Essie squealed as she checked for my accuracy. “Perfect. This is way better than TV. Can you pin your curtain to the wall?”

  “Which curtain? Which wall?” I asked cockily with a giggle.

  “The ones over the couch—third stripe on the left—right where it meets the sill,” she challenged.

  Eyeing my target, I picked up an envelope opener and aimed.

  Boom. Done.

  “Holy shit.” Essie whistled with awe. “I know you need to work, but if I mark targets on the walls, will you nail them?”

  “Will you help me spackle and repaint my den next week?”

  “Yep, but you might want to reconsider the ask. I suck at painting. However, Dwayne and Granny rock. I volunteer them with full confidence that they’ll paint your whole dang house.”

  “Full confidence?” I questioned with a squint.

  “I have blackmail pictures of them wearing preppy, conservative clothes,” she confided with a wide-eyed smirk.

  “Deal,” I told her as I lined up things that I could hurl at my wall—a screw driver, a box cutter, some scissors and a few stray daggers I kept around for fun.

  Tossing her a marker so she could deface my walls, I went back to work. There were a few exciting inconsistencies in the banking statements of the notorious Giles’.

  “God, if I had skill like you, the WTF Council would be terrified of me,” Essie said as she searched out the most difficult and obscure targets she could find. “Although they’re pretty terrified of me as is,” she added with a wink.

  And rightly so because I was pretty sure Essie could take Gina Giles out herself. She’d taken out the vicious Dragon that had kidnapped me and several of our friends about a year ago—almost impossible. Essie was my hero and my best friend till the day I died.

  “How do you feel about becoming part of the Council?” I asked, hating that she and Hank would have to move to Chicago soon.

  Essie paused and thought for a moment. “Good and bad,” she admitted. “Not fond of Chicago winters after growing up in the South, but I really think Hank and I can shake their shit up and make some truly positive changes for our people.”

  “They seem to be on sabbatical an awful lot,” I replied absently as I went a different direction with my banking search and hacked into the financials of the Alabama pack.

  Hmmm… that was weird…

  “They’re older than dirt,” Essie grunted with a laugh. “The old coots get tired easily. However, they’re going through a nasty internal audit. Millions are missing from the National Council Treasury. Bad business. They think it’s internal.”

  I paused my search and stared at her. It couldn’t be this easy. It just couldn’t.

  Could it?

  “What does the Alabama pack do for income?” I asked her, pounding away furiously on my keyboard.

  “Not much,” she said. “They’re broke all the time and most live below the poverty line. Giles and Gina aren’t the best at motivating a healthy financial environment for their people. They’re assbuckets of the worst kind. Most of that pack is splintered and woefully uneducated. The Council wants the Gileses out, but it’s tough to remove a long standing Alpha and his bloodthirsty mate.”

  “Interesting,” I muttered, pulling the Gileses’ banking transactions back up. “How long has the embezzling been going on?”

  “Umm…not sure I’m supposed to say,” Essie said with a wrinkled nose. “Classified info.”

  “Got it.” I nodded and did the math in my head. “If I were to guess correctly would you be able to confirm or shoot down my conjecture?”

  “Possibly,” she agreed, walking over to my computer and peering at the screen.

  “Nine months—started July 16th. A total of eight and a half million dollars gone. Syphoned off monthly. Amounts random, but always just under a million. Dates of monthly transactions not consistent, but always on a Tuesday.”

  “Holy shit on a stick, did you hack into the Council’s financials?” she asked searching the screen and trying to figure out exactly what she was looking at.

  “Nope, but I know who did. I’m just shocked they were able to,” I said with a squeal of excitement.

  “Not following. Why are you happy that our National WTF Treasury is getting ripped off?”

  “I’m not excited about that,” I assured her quickly, bouncing in my seat with glee. “Oh, and once you’re on the Council for real, I’ll do you a solid and hackproof all the financials for WTF.”

  “You hacked into the WTF Council’s financials?” she asked, alarmed.

  “No I haven’t—yet, but if Giles and Gina Giles can, I’m sure it can’t be too hard.”

  “Shut the front door,” Essie shouted and began to dance around the room. “Are you sure? Positive?”

  “Did I get the numbers, timeline and random sequences correct?”

  “To the day and penny,” she cried out with a whoop of joy. “You know what this means?”

  I tingled from head to toe with the most profound relief I’d ever known. I knew exactly what this meant.

  “It means there will be no challenge and Gina and Giles Giles are done forever with no bloodshed,” I yelled with glee as I picked up the scissors and nailed the most difficult target Essie’d marked.

  “Bingo!” she cheered and tackled me to the ground. She hugged me so hard I couldn’t breathe.

  “However,” she added while thankfully easing up on the hug pressure, “I’m not so sure about no bloodshed. The Council will not take kindly to this—at all.”

  “Do you think they’ll kill them?” I asked, getting up and moving back to my computers.

  “Doubtful. They’ll be shunned for sure, but I’d guess there might be a little torture included. Those freaks are very old school,” she said.

  “How should I handle this?” I asked as I took screenshots of the damning proof and highlighted dates, amounts and times of the withdrawals.

  “Can I use your laptop?” she asked, pulling up a chair and joining me behind my desk.

  “Be my guest, but use this one,” I said pulling out yet another laptop from the file drawer. “This one has a hidden IP and an anonymous email address. You can email from here. It’s a VPN—virtual private network. You have to use the TOR browser—it’s untraceable—it’s pinged thru so many different servers you can’t trace where it came from. Plus, it’s run off a flash drive so it’s safe. No one can tell it didn’t come from your own home computer.”

  “Dude, you totally lost me. You are such a fabulous geek,” she said with a laugh as she logged on and typed in her access to the Council. “Dang good thing I’m part of the inner circle. This will go directly into every member’s inbox and I’ll encrypt with an SOS code.”

  “Brilliant,” I said as I complied the files and emailed them to her.

  “Do you want to be associated with the bust?” Essie asked, her brow wrinkled in concern. “If your name is on it they’re gonna want to pull you in. I’ll cover for you if that doesn’t appeal.”

  My decision came immediately and gave me complete peace.

  “I’m just your Deep Throat. I want to stay anonymous. I don’t want to work for the Council. I want to make babies with Junior and hack the world into being a better place.”

  “Your wish is my command, my friend.”

  “Today is the second be
st day of my life,” I sang as I saved all the files. “I protected Junior and I didn’t even have to fight.”

  “And the best day was?” Essie asked with a knowing grin.

  “Well, that would be the day I had so many orgasms I couldn’t keep count,” I said as the heat crept up my neck. “Umm…that was probably TMI.”

  “Nope, it’s all kinds of awesome. The Wilson boys are very good at what they do,” she announced grandly, celebrating our good luck in the Big O department.

  “Ohmygod, I need to find Junior,” I shouted, hopping up from my chair and pacing around trying to calm my excitement.

  “Dude, you can call to him,” Essie said giving me an eye roll.

  “Wait… what?”

  “You guys are mated. You have insane telepathy now—it’s like having a personal cell phone with great reception in your head. You didn’t know?”

  “Clearly not. Maybe Junior didn’t tell me because he wanted me to leave him alone,” I said with a frown.

  “Umm…no. It was such a cluster when he left, he just forgot—or maybe he doesn’t know either,” Essie replied thoughtfully while gently elbowing me. “Stop doubting. Turn that frown upside down and call that boy,” she crowed. “And yes, I’m aware that was corny.”

  “What do I do?”

  “Just close your eyes and call to him with your mind,” Essie directed.

  “Do I have to close my eyes?” I asked.

  “Nah, I always do, but I’m pretty sure it works either way.”

  Just to be on the safe side, I shut my eyes and called to the man I adored. I couldn’t wait to tell him the news. He was going to be so proud of me and since we wouldn’t have to hide our mating anymore, we could spend the night creating our own Star Trek adult movie.

  “He’s not answering me,” I told Essie as I opened my eyes. I looked to her with concern.

  “Try again,” she urged. “Maybe he’s sleeping.”

  Closing my eyes again, I concentrated harder. And then I found him—at least I think I did. My body jerked forward and I convulsed in horrifying pain. Fire ran through my veins and my head felt like it was going to explode. The agony was so intense, I could barely breathe.

  “What’s wrong?” Essie cried out, grabbing me by the shoulders and trying to stop my shaking.

  “Don’t know,” I gasped out. “Junior won’t talk to me, but he’s in trouble—pain—he’s in terrible pain.”

  “Shit,” Essie growled. She let go of me and punched numbers into her cell phone at lightning speed.

  I vaguely heard her shouting at Hank and telling him to get a search party together. In my mind, I screamed for Junior, but he wouldn’t answer. All my instincts told me he couldn’t answer. What in the hell was happening?

  “Sandy,” Essie said getting into my face so I would register that she was still there. “Did he say anything to you? Did he tell you where he was?”

  I shook my head no as the pain began to subside. It was as if the connection was cut. “I can’t feel him anymore,” I sobbed. “I lost him.”

  “You didn’t lose him. He probably blocked you to protect you,” she ground out as she texted on her phone.

  “I don’t need protection. I need to find him,” I said flatly as I sucked back my hysteria.

  Crying would help no one. I stood and grabbed the laptop with all the data on it. If something was going down, I couldn’t risk losing the information that would stop the challenge. I was confident that it had been sent to the Council, but…

  “How can he cut the connection? I’m his mate,” I said.

  “He’s also our Alpha. He has more power than any of us. Junior’s main instinct is to protect. I’m just guessing here, but I think I’m right,” Essie said with a confidence that didn’t quite ring true.

  “Or he’s dead.”

  “Nope, not going there… and you shouldn’t either. He has way too much to live for to die today. Get that out of your head.”

  I nodded and continued to gather stuff. What stuff? I had no clue, but moving helped block the need to scream or crawl out of my skin.

  “Where are you going?” Essie barked as she began to disrobe in preparation to shift.

  “To find him.”

  “No. You’ll stay here and lock the door. Keep trying to communicate with him and text me if he tells you where he is. I’m going to shift and search the woods. You’ll have to attach my phone to this strap and put it around my neck after I shift. Hank, Jack and Sadie are taking the shoreline. Granny and Dwayne are meeting up with me,” she said as she read the texts that were coming in like wild fire on her phone. “Caleb and your parents are casing the town and Dima and crew are taking to the sky.”

  “He’s dying. I can feel it,” I whispered.

  “Not tonight,” Essie vowed. “Promise me you’ll stay here.”

  I nodded because it was expected of me and I attached the cell phone to her neck.

  I was a Werewolf. I might be a smart one, but I was definitely a Werewolf. I had no plans to sit and wait.

  None at all.

  Chapter Thirteen

  I let myself cry for five full minutes after Essie left and then I was done. Making sure she was gone, I quickly changed out of the oversized sweats and put on some camo pants and a sleeveless tee.

  I tossed some knives and my computer into a backpack and then laced up my good running shoes. The clothes were baggy enough that I could shed them quickly if I needed to shift.

  On a sickening hunch, I printed out several copies of the evidence against Giles Giles and his horrid excuse for a mate, Gina. Leaving one on top of my desk and tucking two into my pocket, I left my house on foot. My target was three miles away, but if I ran it would take me no time at all.

  I didn’t expect Junior to be at his house, but I was fairly certain I knew where he kept the serum that prohibited a shift. Having no clue if the serum would be useful, it was at least something proactive I could do. My backpack was perfect. I’d find the solution and whatever else looked helpful and then shift and search. I could carry the backpack in my teeth.

  It was a plan. It wasn’t much of one, but it was something. At this point something was better than nothing.

  As I approached his beautiful log house, the burning pain kicked back in and sliced through my body like a hot knife through butter. I fell to my knees in agony about a hundred feet from the front door.

  I took the pain in deeper and smiled through my grimace. If Junior could feel pain he must still be alive.

  “Where are you,” I called out frantically in my mind. “Everyone is looking for you. Are you hurt?”

  “Sandy, go home. Now,” he roared. “It’s not safe where you are.”

  “You can see me?” I asked glancing around wildly and blocking out the searing discomfort as much as I could.

  “I can scent you. Alert Hank and tell him to get to my house—Code Red. And you get the hell out of here.”

  His voice reminded me of the staccato rhythm of bullets being fired from a shotgun—cold and deadly.

  “I’m coming in.”

  “You will do no such thing,” he growled. “Get help and get the hell out, Sandy. I’m serious.”

  “I’m serious too, Junior. You’re hurt and I have proof to stop the challenge. It’s all gonna be okay if you’ll let me help you,” I said, determined to make him understand.

  “What proof?” he demanded as his voice grew weaker.

  “Those bastards have been embezzling from the Council—they’ve taken millions. I hacked in and got everything we need. The Council’s been notified. It’s over, baby. No challenge. You just can’t die tonight.”

  “Listen to me and listen to me good. They’re here. Gina and Giles ambushed me and have me trussed up in silver. You let Hank know. Instruct him to storm my place and take both of them out. I need you to leave. Not sure how much longer I’ve got, but I’ll die in peace if I know you’re okay. Go. If you love me, you’ll go.”

  “You reall
y don’t get it,” I snapped, swiping at the tears on my cheeks. “Without you there is no me. If you’re planning on dying tonight, I’m going with you. I might not be able to fight hand-to-hand, but I can possibly get you out of your chains and you can kill the shit out of them.”

  “Goddangit, I love you, but that’s the worst plan I’ve ever heard,” he shouted. “Please just run. Get help and run.”

  Texting frantically, I sent Hank the instructions while cursing Junior to hell and back. He was out of his ever-lovin’ mind to think I would leave now. I might not be good at one on one physical force, but I could use the information I had as blackmail. There was no reason at all that they had to know it had already been sent to the Council. It might serve as the distraction we needed to free Junior.

  I’d been running from my fate most of my life. Tonight there was no way in hell I’d run.

  “Tell me where you are in the house and where they are,” I said.

  “I told you to leave, damn it.”

  “Tell. Me. Where. You. Are. If you don’t, I’ll walk in the front door. You have five seconds, asshat,” I snarled as I tucked a few knives into my belt.

  This was not a challenge. The rules of a challenge no longer applied. Anything was fair game—including knives.

  “We’re in the den,” he replied tersely. “My bedroom window is unlocked. In two minutes I’ll make a ruckus. Come through and turn on the monitors to the security system—hit Record and also hit the small red button underneath Captain Kirk—he’s on the shelf between Spock and Uhura. It’s a live feed that will go to Hank and the station—he’ll be able to see and proceed accordingly.”

  “Monitors, record, Captain Kirk. Got it.”

  “And then I want you to stay in the dang bedroom until Hank and backup gets here. There’s a bottle of self-tanner on the shelf to the left of the Star Ship. You cover yourself in that immediately when you get to my room. It masks your scent and the bastards won’t know you’re in the house. We clear?”

  I moved stealthily and silently around Junior’s house to his bedroom window.

  “Roger that,” I muttered as I waited for him to cause a ruckus.