Words from Day 13 - Lunar Wolves: The Unwanted

This part of the story was a lot of fun to write, and the words flowed as our wolves found themselves biting off a bit more than they could chew.

Starting Words: 43,142

Finishing Words: 49,568

Words Written: 6,426

Other Words: 0

Other Project/Project Aspects Advanced: 0

Excerpt: In which Oliver and Lewis start to understand just how big a favor Rohim is asking:

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The man watched him and Oliver emerge, and indicated the crates.

“What d’you think?”

Lewis came three steps into the room and stopped short. Olive ran into him, and then stepped around him.

“Oh, hell, no…” the alpha rumbled.

Rohim looked puzzled. “Oh, hell, no, what?”

He glanced at the crates. “They’re the right size, aren’t they?”

Oliver regarded him, and Lewis could see the effort it took for the alpha not to yell at the man.

Yes, the boxes were the right size, and no…oh hell-to-the-hells no they were not acceptable. He bit his lip and let Oliver work out exactly how he wanted to handle it.

“You are correct on the size,” Oliver finally admitted, “but…”

Rohim’s puzzlement turned to worry. “You’re not claustrophobic, are you?”

“I… No,” Oliver admitted, and Lewis saw the moment when his alpha decided it was easier not to explain about a history of slavery, werewolf, human, submission, dominance…and everything else wrapped into the knot of complexity tied around his initial reaction.

Coward, he thought, but not anywhere where Oliver could hear it.

It was no surprise when his alpha changed the subject.

“We need access to a search engine,” he said. “Preferably one whose users cannot be traced.”

Rohim’s face sharpened with interest. “What do you need that for?”

“We need to find out what happened on Axis Fifty-Eight,” Oliver told him.

“You mean you didn’t kidnap that child?”

Oliver snorted. “That was no child…or at least no child in anything but form…and no, we did not kidnap her.”

“Then who…”

“It’s a long story,” Oliver cut him off shortly, and we have no time to tell it, but we made a promise and now we need to find out what happened to her.”

Rohim’s eyes narrowed. “What kind of information are you looking for?”

Oliver sighed. “We’re going to hack the Alpha Fifty-Eight flight center and orbital data-bases for a start…and then we’re going to try to get into whatever’s left of the Nettles’ server there, while trying to avoid any detection programs the Shadows and Odyssey have left behind.”

“I take it that’s just the start,” Rohim concluded, and Oliver gave him a sharp nod.

“Our lives depend on finding and retrieving the girl before she is killed and before we are caught.”

Well, if that wasn’t laying it on the line, Lewis didn’t know what was. He stared at Oliver in disbelief.

“We need him,” his alpha said, and Lewis had to wonder how the man was reading his mind.

Rohim glanced from Oliver to Lewis and back. “I’ll see what I can—”

A new chime rang through the apartment, and he grabbed his laptop.

“Well… this can’t be good,” he murmured, turning the screen to Oliver and Lewis were out of the camera’s pick up.

“I need you both in your wolf forms and in the crates, now,” he snapped in their implants. “My nieces have arrived and I don’t know why.”

To the screen, he said, “Briella, I didn’t expect you so soon.”

“You will not believe what these two brats have done!” was not the greeting Oliver or Lewis would have expected, although the “Now, are you going to let us in or not?” was entirely understandable.

“I’m on my way,” Rohim promised, snapping the laptop closed and ending the call.

He glanced at the two wolves. “I really need you furry and confined,” he told them, “or the deal’s off.”

“And you don’t know what this is about?”

“No,” Rohim admitted, “but I can guarantee it’s going to fuck our day.”

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Thanks must go to my cover artists, from left to right: Mihaela Voicu, Jake at JCaleb Design, and Moonchild Ljilja at Fantasy Book Design.