The Night Beat

was one of the reasons werewolves didn’t run in packs any more. The Prince’s side had used that against us, lying in wait for the moment a werewolf strayed even a little bit from their pack, pouncing on him, dusting him when he was all alone.
    Ralph felt we should have banded more strongly together. The other undeads didn’t. We scattered into different teams, made up of a variety of undeads. It had kept the remaining werewolves alive. But Ralph said we weren’t as strong. And part of me knew he was right.
    He was angry with me, and he had every right to be. He could be the mole, and the Gods and Monsters knew enough signs said it was possible. But he was the only one who would understand, immediately, why I was freaked out. I hit his numbers on my wrist-com.
    “Yes?” Ralph sounded just this side of sleepy and still on that side of angry.
    “I’m sorry. Something’s wrong.”
    “Everything, but what do you mean specifically?”
    “Jack’s taking a shower.” There was dead silence on the other side of my wrist-com. “Ralph? You still there?”
    “Are you alone with him?” Ralph’s voice was strained.
    “Sort of. Cindy, Freddy, Merc and L.K. are on the other side of my apartment. The Necropolis side.”
    “Get over to them. Now.” Ralph wasn’t my superior in Enforcement hierarchy and he wasn’t my mate or my pack leader. But the tone of his voice told me that now wasn’t the time to pull any kind of rank.
    I scrambled towards the line separating Prosaic City from Necropolis just as Jack walked out, one towel around his waist, the other drying his hair. “What’s up?” He sounded normal. He looked normal. He looked totally drool-worthy, too. But the base of my tail said it didn’t care.
    I jumped for the other side, but Jack caught me around my waist, spun and tossed me back onto the bed. “What’s wrong with you?” he asked, as he climbed into bed with me.
    “Nothing.” Canines don’t lie well as a rule and I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to win any awards this time. “Just need to check on the others.”
    “They can wait.” Jack grabbed my wrists and shoved me back onto the bed. “C’mon, Vic.” He smiled, a really sexy, enticing smile. “We haven’t even tried to do it doggy-style yet.”
    I wondered if, on another day, I would have found this appealing. Maybe. But today it struck me as totally wrong, and off-putting to the nth degree. “Jack, now isn’t a good time.”
    His eyes narrowed. “As I understand it, werewolves are a pack-like animal. And that means there’s a pack leader.” He leaned closer to me. “And that pack leader is supposed to be male.” He wasn’t growling, but only just. “And you promised me -- together forever, no one in between.”
    “What about Susan?” The words came from somewhere, but not the front of my mind.
    Jack grinned. “She’s not in between us.”
    “But you’re sleeping with her.”
    He shrugged. “So what?”
    I’d said it in the present tense, not the past. And he hadn’t argued. True we’d only become a couple a day or so earlier, but in my experience, you explained past lovers as being past, if only to appease the current lover. And he wasn’t even trying to make an excuse.
    “Get off me.”
    He bared his teeth at me. He was still in human form, but I realized he made Ralph’s growl look kindly. “You’re mine. And I do what I want with what’s mine.”
    I started to fight in earnest. He’d always been bigger, but as an undead, I’d been stronger. But not any more. My struggles were futile. In fact, I could tell he was enjoying them. I wanted to cry, but that wasn’t an option. Survive first, cry later.
    The shift happened naturally -- I was fighting and I fought best in wolf form. But it didn’t work. He still had my paws in an iron grip. I was reluctant to claw his stomach with my hind claws -- what if he was just having a bad reaction to the transformation?
    Jack grinned, and it looked feral. “You like it rough?”
    I decided, confused or not, he was getting the claws. I raked his stomach, but he transformed to wolf, too, and all I got was fur. “Back off.”
    “Bad girl.”
    “I’ll give you a bad girl.” I lunged up and caught his throat. But he batted my head away with a paw like it was nothing. On the positive side, this meant one of my front paws was free and I raked at his head with it. On the negative side, he’d hit my head hard and I felt it.
    “I don’t know what’s wrong with