Razed, p.1
Razed, page 1
Razed
Moon & Magic, Volume 1
Fannie Price
Published by Platinum Dragon Publishing, 2023.
This is a work of fiction. Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.
RAZED
First edition. November 7, 2023.
Copyright © 2023 Fannie Price.
ISBN: 979-8223932291
Written by Fannie Price.
Also by Fannie Price
Moon & Magic
Razed
The Cambion Rider Chronicles
Siren
Demon Hunt
After the Flesh
Tonight, Tonight
Burn
Carnival of the Lost
Came Back Haunted
Watch for more at Fannie Price’s site.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Also By Fannie Price
Dedication
1 – Amina
2 – Beto
3 – Amina
4 – Amina
5 – Beto
6 – Beto
7 – Amina
8 – Beto
9 – Amina
10 – Amina
11 – Beto
12 – Amina
13 – Amina
14 – Beto
15 – Beto
16 – Amina
17 – Amina
18 – Beto
19 – Beto
20 – Amina
21 – Amina
22 – Beto
23 – Amina
24 – Amina
Copyright © Fannie Price, 2023
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About the Author
This one is for the readers who have accompanied me on this journey. Thank you for your support. It means more than you will ever know.
1 – Amina
“Where is Amina?”
I scoffed at Bodhi’s words. Noises of skepticism worked better over the phone than the usual quirked lips and eyebrow I often used to convey the same sentiment.
“You expect me to believe your mother actually inquired on my whereabouts?”
“It’s the God’s honest truth. If you don’t believe me, I can go inside and put Will on the phone.” Bodhi offered.
“That won’t be necessary,” I flipped on my turn signal and switched lanes. According to the GPS display in my truck, I’d reach the exit I needed for Lake Geneva in less than five miles. “She was probably secretly hoping we broke up.”
“The second half of her statement may have been something along those lines.” Bodhi replied. “She asked why I rode up with Will and not you?”
“What did you tell her?”
“That you had family business to take care of last night and that you would arrive today in time for the rehearsal.”
“You didn’t tell her about my meeting with Engle, did you?”
“Of course not.”
I exited I-94 and experienced the first moment of relief since I got into my truck and pointed it towards Lake Geneva. I doubted if Bodhi’s mother connected my absence last night to the full moon. Not that I considered Blanca to be a stupid woman, quite the opposite. Her intelligent and manipulation skills rivaled my mother’s, but the average human didn’t track the cycles of the moon. And why should they? The moon held no sway over them, not like therianthropes. At least, not in ways they were aware. Or willing to admit.
“Where are you?” Bodhi asked.
His deep voice took on a soft, heavier quality than it held a moment ago. I called it his bedroom voice, because even though he didn’t reserve that husky timbre solely for the bedroom, hearing it aroused me. The barest wisp of a Spanish accent clung to his words.
“I just exited the expressway.”
“How was it last night?” He questioned.
“Oh, you know. The usual,” I answered.
The sniffle brought on from the cold nullified the annoyance in his resigned exhalation. “Ace, I’m not a werewolf. I have no idea what is ‘usual’. In two years, you’ve never talked about your full moon hunts with your mother’s pack.”
The use of the nickname brought the hints of a smile to my lips. If he was calling me Ace, he couldn’t be that upset. He started using the nickname, slash, term of endearment a little over a year ago. After I made him binge watch all seven seasons of Gilmore Girls. My payment for taking care of him when he came down with chicken pox. I think he’d been searching for a nickname for me because I gave him one.
His parents named him Beto. I began calling him Bodhi after I discovered both his love of surfing and Point Break. It turned into a term of endearment on the streets of Guatemala. In truth, until our time in the Central American country, my head resisted acknowledging what both my heart and wolf already decided. I never dated a human before Bodhi. If our relationship failed, I doubted I’d date another.
“Trust me, Bodhi. It’s not as exciting as humans think. We ran. We hunted. I bailed shortly after we bagged a deer. This morning Aunt Gisselle gave me the typical ‘I belong with the pack, not solo’ speech she gives after every full moon hunt, and then I headed up here. Like I said, nothing interesting.”
“What did you tell her?”
“Same thing I always tell her. I’m not ready to commit to the pack.”
“Does she know why?”
Bodhi’s question caused me to part my lips but close them while I reconsidered my response. If I answered truthfully, I knew what he would follow up with. I also knew I wasn’t ready to have that conversation. Not on the phone. Especially not while I was operating heavy machinery. But I didn’t like lying to him. On occasions when the situation called for corrupting the truth, or lying by omission, I felt like my brain stabbed my heart.
“Yes. She does.”
An extended pause lulled before he filled the silence with words. “Are you ever going to tell me?”
There it was. The question I dreaded. Feared? Less the question itself, but the implication behind the answer. Bodhi knew I was a werewolf. His fingertips knew the scars on my body long before I worked up the courage to let him see them. He knew things happened in my past to inflict them, but not the depths of what. I didn’t comprehend my reluctance to tell him. Bodhi used to be a cop, a homicide detective. He had seen to some treacherous shit, but telling him about the attacks opened wounds I wasn’t ready to expose. Not to him. Not yet. Maybe never.
I heard him sniffle again and seized onto that as an opportunity.
“It’s thirty degrees. Why are you outside?”
“Because inside is a house filled with a lot of nosey people. Being out here makes it impossible for anyone to eavesdrop. Besides, it makes me feel closer to you.”
I laughed and shook my head despite being alone in the truck. I pictured him dressed in a pair of jeans, snow boots, and his cable, turtleneck sweater in a sandy color that brought out the chocolate of his eyes. His nose, no doubt impersonated Rudolph.
“You’re so weird.” I teased.
“That’s why you love me.”
“One of the many reasons,” I freely admitted. “Leave it to your sister to want to get married in February, in Wisconsin.”
“Bella has always been a hopeless romantic. It’s a Dacal sibling trait.”
“Can’t get much more romantic than getting married on Valentine’s Day.”
“As long as she doesn’t get divorced.” Cynicism weighed down Bodhi’s words.
“Is Pilar there yet?”
The question rolled off my tongue and through my lips without hesitation. The exact opposite of my intentions. I spent the first leg of the drive making a deal with my wolf that I wouldn’t bring her up, since we both found her to be foul. But my heart decided to direct the conversation over the instructions of my brain. At least I sounded nonchalant.
“She rode in last night with Bella and Adam.”
The seconds multiplied without a reply to disrupt the silence. I trusted Bodhi. We’d been dating for two years, and I recognized the same fierce loyalty in him that lived in me. We’d go through hell for the person we loved, but once that trust was broken... My wolf assured me, he loved me. My heart reminded me they shared a child together, and Pilar wanted him back. She would take advantage of their ‘alone time’ if she could.
“Hey,” Bodhi’s voice intruded into my thoughts. “She’s my ex-wife for a reason. You’re the one I’m in love with.”
“You should go inside. Bella will kill you if you get sick the night before her wedding.”
“What’s wrong, Ace?”
“Nothing’s wrong.”
“You always change the subject when you’re upset.”
“Weren’t you a Chicago police detective before you became an assistant district attorney?”
He chuckled softly before he asked, “And?”
“And it took you two years of dating to figure that one out.”
He rewarded my sarcasm with a scoffing laugh. “I rest my case. But for the record, I figured that out over a year ago.”
Hitting city limits of Lake Geneva, I slowed my speed and cruised past picturesque sidewalk cafes. Shops with large plate glass windows served as wordless invitations for people to come inside. In the next block I spotted an awning with The Abbey printed in white lettering on green fabric. It hung over a bar on the other side of the street.
At three in the afternoon, The Abbey looked completely unimposing. And why shouldn’t it? A dark brick building tucked between a cafe and a pizza joint. Both housed in equally dark brick buildings. The neon sign in the window of the bar advertised Coors beer. Was that meant to attract, or warn potential patrons?
“I’m putting my armor on,” I confessed to his original question. I drove past the building and made a left at the end of the block. According to the satellite view of the GPS, the center of the city contained a park. A perfect place to leave my truck and walk back to the bar where I agreed to meet Engle.
“I have no idea what that means.”
“In a very short amount of time I am going to be in the presence of your mother and your ex. There is about to be nuclear levels of hate headed my way for the next thirty-six hours.”
“Pilar doesn’t hate you.”
“Yes, she does. She’s still in love with you. Or re-in love with you.”
“I think you’re reading into things.”
“No, I’m smelling into things. Her scent is thicker and muskier when you’re close. She watches you when she thinks no one is watching her. A piece of paper doesn’t make feelings go away. As far as she’s concerned the only thing in her path to you two getting back together, is me.”
“She cheated on me.”
“Well, she’s definitely having quitter’s remorse.”
The park came into view, and I tucked my jeep into an empty slot in front of the greenery covered with snow.
“She can’t date me without my consent,” he pointed out. “And I have absolutely no interest in Pilar. I’m in love with you.”
“She spent last Thanksgiving weekend with your family.”
“She’s still my sister’s best friend. Besides my mother invited her to see her granddaughter. And it’s not like I didn’t invite you.”
“That’s a world of no for me.”
I cut the engine off and settled back into the seat. Outside, a group of children engaged in a snowball fight, shrieked, and laughed as they ran away and closer to each other.
“Give me a second,” Bodhi said. “I’m gonna sneak inside.”
He muted his phone for his undercover mission, and I took the opportunity to take in the heart of Lake Geneva. It looked like Anywhere, Small Town, USA. I imagined two months ago the entire city transformed into something out of a Hallmark Christmas movie set. Despite Bodhi being from the town, I never had a reason to go before. Maybe next year I would take him up on his Holiday invitation. Did Bodhi like growing up here? Maybe he didn’t consider it home. He was already sixteen when his parents moved him and his sister here from Spain. He rarely talked about it, but not in an avoidance sort of way.
“Back,” Bodhi’s voice filled the interior again.
“Just in time for me to say I’ll see you in an hour or so.”
“I don’t get why you have to meet with this guy.”
“Because he’s the alpha of Lake Geneva’s pack. I told you this.”
“I know,” he confirmed. “What I don’t understand is why you have to meet with him since you’re not a member of your mother’s pack.”
“I am still Jacqueline Reeves’s daughter.” I toyed with one of my braids. The length allowed the end to touch the steering wheel. This time around, the longest ones nearly reached my waist.
“I have no idea what that means,” Bodhi replied.
“When my mom formed all the wolves of Chicago into one super pack, the packs in the neighboring towns and cities saw it as a power grab. It made them nervous. Female alphas are rare. And here’s this woman, not a wolf through genetics, but created by an attack, who became the alpha of a pack in a major city and had the vision and fortitude to consolidate all the wolves under her rule.” I shook my head.
“Ballsy?” Bodhi asked.
“Hmph,” I huffed. “Had she been male, it would have been seen as a testament to her leadership ability and strength. But because she’s female, it’s met with derision and scorn. So now, even though I’m not a member of Jacque’s pack, a meeting with the Lake Geneva area pack assures them I’ve not been sent in as a spy.”
“Should I be worried?”
“It’s just a formality,” I replied dismissively. “Unless Engle challenges me and I die.”
“Not funny, Ace.”
“I’ll be fine,” I assured him.
Unless my mouth made a liar out of me
I arrived early by design.
Leaving my car parked, I doubled backed on foot. I didn’t expect trouble, but experience taught me to take precautions. Another of those precautions came in the form of posting up in the ice cream parlor across the street from our designated meeting spot.
The vantage point allowed me to watch the arrival of my host without being seen. It also meant I would be able to make sure no additional members of the pack arrived with him to wait around and follow me, or worse, jump me when I left. They could always arrive after the fact, but it was doubtful.
Gunther Engle arrived precisely ten minutes before our agreed upon time. He looked exactly as he described himself in the text. Salt and pepper hair with more salt than pepper. Jeans and a heavy brown and white sweater under a peacoat style coat. He failed to mention he could have made money on the side as one of Santa’s elves. He couldn’t have been more than five-six... five-seven with the right shoes but he was a werewolf. Moreover, he was an alpha. For werewolves, size really meant nothing.
He moved with confidence. Even without the aid of his description I would have pegged him as a werewolf. Despite being behind the thick glass of the storefront he gave off alpha vibes. More important than anything, he kept his word and arrived alone.
With two minutes to spare, I left my perch and headed across the street. It dawned on me when I pulled the door opened, I spent so much time focused on the exterior, I never considered there might be other pack members already inside. To my relief, the total werewolves in the establishment numbered only two after my entrance.
Nothing about Engle decried him as particularly handsome, but power and authority radiated from him. For some, that was more attractive. He occupied one of the tables with his back to the door. He dropped his jacket across the chair next to him and sat with his hands folded atop the table without a care in the world. His position suggested one of two things. Either he purposely left the seat facing the door open for me as a gesture of goodwill, or he sat with his back to the door as a means to emphasize how he felt wholly unthreatened by me. In the end, the gesture probably borrowed from both column A and B, but I appreciated the optics of the former.
My entrance earned me a look from the bartender. Not because I stood out in my jeans and leather jacket, although from a quick inventory of the patrons, my skin ranked the darkest, but he gave me the type of look shop owners give people they’re unfamiliar with. An assessment to determine if I was up to trouble, and dismissal when the answer came back ‘no’.
Engle studied me when I slid onto the chair across from him. Something familiar watched me from behind those blue eyes, but I couldn’t identify it. The sensation reminded me of being watched by a disincorporated ghost, only more foreign. At least I could identify when a ghost watched me. This impression remained a mystery.
“Punctual,” Engle greeted. His voice matched his appearance. Unobtrusive and unremarkable. “But then I’d expect nothing less from a Reeves. Or did you reclaim your father’s name once you became an adult?”
“It’s Reeves,” I assured him. “But Amina is fine.”
“Thank you. You may call me Gunther.”
Even though I barely knew him, calling him Gunther sounded strange in my head. Nevertheless, I nodded.
“Excellent. Buy you a beer?” He asked.
“Yes. Thanks.”
He glanced over his shoulder in the direction of the bartender and gave an upward nod. In less than thirty seconds, he arrived at our table with two open bottles of Sam Adams. I didn’t particularly care for domestic beers, lagers even less, but I picked up the dark bottle by the neck and took a sip.
“You don’t favor your mother,” he commented after he took a swig from his own beer.
“Do you know my mother?”
“Every pack in the Midwest, possibly the whole of the United States is familiar with Jacqueline Reeves. Your mother is quite an impressive woman.”
