On the Prowl

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    ON THE PROWL
    A Berkley Book / published by arrangement with the authors
    Copyright © 2007 by The Berkley Publishing Group.
“Alpha and Omega” by Patricia Briggs copyright © 2007 by Hurog, Inc.
“Inhuman” by Eileen Wilks copyright © 2007 by Eileen Wilks.
“Buying Trouble” by Karen Chance copyright © 2007 by Karen Chance.
“Mona Lisa Betwining” by Sunny copyright © 2007 by DS Studies Inc.
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Alpha and Omega
    PATRICIA BRIGGS

C HAPTER 1
    T HE wind was chill and the cold froze the ends of her toes. One of these days she was going to break down and buy boots—if only she didn’t need to eat.
    Anna laughed and buried her nose in her jacket, trudging the last half mile to her home. It was true that being a werewolf gave her greater strength and endurance, even in human form. But the twelve-hour shift she’d just finished at Scorci’s was enough to make even her bones ache. You’d think that people would have better things to do on Thanksgiving than go eat at an Italian restaurant.
    Tim, the restaurant owner (who was Irish, not Italian for all that he made the best gnocchi in Chicago) let her take extra shifts—though he wouldn’t let her work more than fifty hours a week. The biggest bonus was the free meal she got each shift. Even so, she was afraid she was going to have to find a second job to cover her expenses: life as a werewolf, she had found, was as expensive financially as it was personally.
    She used her keys to get into the entryway. There was nothing in her mailbox, so she got Kara’s mail and newspaper and climbed the stairs to Kara’s third-floor apartment. When she opened the door, Kara’s Siamese cat, Mouser, took one look at her, spat in disgust, and disappeared behind the couch.
    For six months she’d been feeding the cat whenever her neighbor was gone—which was often since Kara worked at a travel agency arranging tours. Mouser still hated her. From his hiding place he swore at her, as only a Siamese could do.
    With a sigh, Anna tossed the mail and newspaper on the small table in the dining room and opened a can of cat food, setting it down near the water dish. She sat down at the table and closed her eyes. She was ready to go to her own apartment, one floor up, but she had to wait for the cat to eat. If she just left him there, she’d come back in the morning to a can of untouched food. Hate