She Belongs to Them Both

Chapter Two-2

Moscow, Russia

“i***t,” Ivan Schenko grumbled under his breath. His voice was barely audible above the thumping bass of the club’s dance music vibrating through his plush office. He turned the watch over in his hands, stunned by the gall of the werewolf who’d handed it to him.

His lips curled in a snarl and he shot a look at the zalyavchek standing before his desk. If Yelin was trying to defect from the Kiev pack to his by this lazy deception, he was about to learn otherwise. Ivan may not have born a weyre but he was an alpha, godammit. This low-born beta was not going to make a fool of him. “You think because you have s**t between your ears, Yelin, that everyone else does too, nyet?” He tossed the watch over the surface of the desk. The object landed at Yelin’s feet.

A shadow of frustration passed across Yelin’s oily eyes. He bent and retrieved the watch. “What are you talking about, Ivan?”

“That’s sir to you.”

“Sir.” Yelin held the watch out in a pleading gesture. “I clipped it this morning from a jeweler.”

“From a street vendor, no doubt.” Schenko slapped a large hand on the desktop and stood up, drawing himself to all his six foot three inches. He towered over Yelin, who quailed visibly, yet stood his ground. “You think that because I can’t see color that I can’t spot a fake? I saw you coming from a mile away. I only gave you a chance because I’m soft hearted.” He turned to Yuri and Igor, his lieutenants who were standing a few feet behind Yelin. “This is a weasel, not a wolf. Show him the door and give him a nice going away present.” A good beating would keep Yelin from coming back and bothering him.

Yuri and Igor, nearly as physically strong and imposing as their alpha master, each grabbed Yelin by a thin arm. Yelin looked like a twig caught between two giant pines. He struggled, a lock of his greased hair falling across his forehead. “No! Ivan, sir! Don’t do this! Wait!”

Yuri and Igor started for the door but Yelin twisted and writhed, digging his heels into the carpet with surprising strength. “One more chance, I beg you! I’ve something no one else can give you!”

Schenko hesitated. He’d heard that one before but something in Yelin’s tone made him pause. He held up a hand. “Let him go.”

Yuri and Igor halted as if someone had pushed a button. In unison, they released him.

Yelin glared at them, a brief glow of yellow flickering in his eyes, as if he would change then and there. He remained in human form, however and tugged his rumpled shirt and jacket into place.

“Speak up, Yelin. You’ve got ten seconds and if I don’t like what you have to say, you’re leaving here in a body bag.” He lowered himself back to his seat. “Or should I say, a doggy bag?” He chuckled at his own joke.

Yelin held up his hands. “All right, all right.” He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a folded piece of paper. Quickly he worked open the folds and spread it out on the surface of Schenko’s desk.

Schenko leaned over and examined it. “What the hell is this? This is what you are risking your life for? A piece of paper with a bunch of colored squares and weird writing?”

Yelin shook his head vigorously and grinned, showing the glint of a gold tooth. “It’s Tibetan script. This is an astrological chart, the same kind of chart the Tibetans use to find their holy people. I know how to read them. That’s what made me valuable to the Ukraine alpha. But he does not appreciate my unique ability. I knew you would.” He waved his hand. “He thinks to trot me out like a trained seal and use me for his own greed.”

“And you think that I would not do the same?”

Yelin tilted his head. “Perhaps. However, I know that you treat your own as you, yourself, would wish to be treated. So the saying goes.”

Schenko narrowed his eyes. The flattery was for s**t. But the chart and what it could mean for him was a different matter entirely. The temptation to believe Yelin was nearly overwhelming and he didn’t understand why. It was as if the chart alone held a power over him, making him desperate to have whatever it was showing him. “All right, you bought yourself another five seconds.”

Yelin’s eyes glowed yellow again and his lip curled up. “You see, I worked your chart just this morning and it shows here that there is a woman for you, a mate. The mate.”

Schenko caught his breath, grateful for the continuous thump of the background bass that covered the tiny sound. His mate. The one thing in the world he didn’t have. Money, power, respect. He had all of those things, enough for a thousand more lifetimes. He also had women—humans, she-weyres, all of them, at his disposal with the mere snap of his fingers. s**t, there had even been a woman who’d committed suicide a year ago when she’d learned that he was finished with her. But not the one whom the beast inside him craved. The one woman who would truly belong to him and to no one else. Even if he had another woman with whom he was exclusive, she was not the mate that his nature decreed, the one that would bring peace to his restless animal’s soul.

If Yelin was telling the truth, the little s**t would have earned himself a cushy position in the Moscow pack. If he wasn’t, however…

“Where is she?”

Yelin tapped a spot on the chart. “America. Boston. Where the Chinese live.”

“What does she look like?”

“That I cannot tell you. Except that she will give you smooth ivory, deep jade and golden silk.”

Schenko sat back down to hide his growing erection and reached for the cigarette he’d set in the ashtray when Yelin first came into the office. The butt had nearly burned down. He took a long drag on it and blew the smoke into Yelin’s face. The casual air he affected belied that hungry tightening in his groin. Was it the mere thought of a mate that was getting him hard enough to cut a diamond or was it because she actually existed? “If this is true, then why didn’t you tell me this first? Why did you waste my time with that piece of s**t watch?”

Yelin grinned. “Would you have given me access to your office if I’d said I’m bringing you an astrological chart?”

Schenko looked at him and chuckled. He took a last drag on the cigarette and mashed it out, making a point to blow more smoke into the other werewolf’s face. “Point taken.” He leaned back in his chair, staying pushed in enough to his desk to keep his raging hard-on covered. “All right, Yelin. You are going to take me to her. If you think you’re sending me on a chase to America to have a laugh at me, you’re dead wrong. Emphasis on dead.”

Yelin nodded vigorously. Glee shone in his eyes and his lip curled with his grin, revealing his permanently extended incisors, the birthright of born weyres. “Absolutely. I would not have told you this if I weren’t absolutely certain.”

“We leave tomorrow. Myself, Yuri, Igor.” He pointed to Yelin. “And you. Boston is on the water. If there is no mate like you’ve told me, then we shoot you and dump you in the ocean before we return to Moscow.”

Yelin’s slithery grin curled his lips, giving him the appearance of being in the midst of the change, even though he wasn’t. “That will not be necessary. She is there.”