Abandoned Treasure Ch. 20-29

"What does Isra mean," I asked as she took my tray.

"It means Freedom in Vietnamese," she replied. She handed me a paper cup with a few pills in it. "Painkillers and antibiotics," she told me.

I swallowed them down with the rest of the orange juice. I wasn't up to walking to the bathroom, so Isra helped me with a bedpan before laying me back down. The food and the painkiller helped me get back to sleep.

My dreams were of the family I'd never have.

Ch. 22

Nathan Storm's POV

Shell, Montana

Monday, September 10th, 2007

I woke up in the morning, sore, hurting, and needing to piss like a racehorse on a flat rock.

I tried to sit up, but the pain was too much. "Isra?"

The middle-aged Vietnamese werecat opened the door a few seconds later. "Good, you're up."

"I can't SIT up, and I need to use the bathroom."

With her help, I managed to get my feet on the floor. She was stronger than she looked, which came in handy as my naked body leaned on her on the way to the bathroom. After washing my hands, she gave me a cup with my pills to swallow down. When I was done, she didn't let me get back in bed. "You need to shift, Nathan. Georgina's orders. Even days a wolf, odd days a human."

That reminded me of something. "I got shot as a werewolf, but woke as a man."

"Georgina gave you a shot to force the shift. You're easier to work on in this form, and every shift helps you heal a little more."

Yeah, but it also moves things around and stretches them out. It wasn't uncommon for sutures to pop or wounds to reopen. This was going to hurt like a bitch. "Now?" She nodded. I eased myself to my hands and knees with her help, then shifted on the carpeting.

The pain was intense, leaving me panting on the floor for a few minutes. Isra checked my stitches while I breathed through the pain until it abated. "Looking better already," she told me. "Come on. Breakfast is in the kitchen."

I struggled to four legs and followed her out the door. She had a folded blanket under the table for me, and I laid down again until food was ready. Scrambled eggs, steak pieces, and hash browns filled a bowl she set down for me. I ate greedily, my tail wagging to show my appreciation.

Communication was decidedly one-way that day, since she could talk to me but I could only use my tail and face to answer. "I know you want to know more about what's going on out there," she said as she waved a piece of sausage in the air with her fork. "There's not much to say. Stanley's interactions with the Council are done, but he thinks they may have surveillance on him. They are going to lay low for a while, while you are going to stay out of sight until they forget about you."

I growled at that; I didn't want them to forget me. I wanted them to curse my name after I exacted my revenge.

Isra didn't like that a bit. "Don't you growl at ME, young man. People like me are risking our lives to save your stubborn ass. The least you can do is to behave and show some damn appreciation."

She was right. I whined and exposed my neck to her.

"That's better. My ranch is not a vacation resort. I work hard to keep it up. You better heal up so you can help out around here. I've got a list about three pages long of chores for you." My eyes blinked a few times. "Single-spaced." I let out a groan. "It's been too long since there was a man around here. If anyone sees you, you're a ranch hand I hired."

I could live with that. "So, let's go over the rules. Rule Number One? My house, my rules. I don't care how dominant you think your wolf is. This is CAT territory. I'M in charge."

I snorted in amusement. Isra weighed maybe a hundred pounds, less than half my size. I could crush her like a bug.

She didn't appreciate the disrespect I showed. She stood up, pulling her dress off before shifting. The middle-aged woman became a three-foot-tall, four-foot-long Clouded Leopard in a second.

Isra was the first Werecat I'd seen in person. She was the most beautiful predator I'd seen in person, both sleek and deadly. Her tan and grey body had spots on her head and a bushy tail. The larger tan patches on her body were outlined with black, making them appear like rain clouds. I could imagine her disappearing into the dappled sun and leaf litter of the forest floor.

Isra opened her mouth, exposing five-inch-long upper canines. She extended a fur-covered front paw in my direction, showing me razor-sharp four-inch claws. I backed up a bit in fear.

Isra shook her head before shifting back. She pulled on her clothes as she continued her lecture. "You understand what I told you?" I nodded my head. "Rule Number Two. You talk to NO ONE outside this house. Ever. I don't care if it's phone, email, shouting across a fence, or sending smoke signals. Any communications with the outside world go through me."

I nodded.

"Rule Number Three. You don't leave the property without me. Stay out of sight as much as possible. I've lived here a long time without attracting the attention of the Council. If wolves scent a cat and dog living together, it WILL attract attention. Neither of us will survive if Enforcers or Pack Warriors show up."

I growled at the thought of Enforcers. I wanted to find the Council Enforcer who killed my family and rip him into little pieces. I dreamed of having Alpha Todd's neck in my teeth in revenge for what he did to my Carol. I wanted to taste his warm blood as his heart pumped its last.

Isra shot me a disapproving glance. "And that brings up Rule Number Four. You give up on any thoughts of revenge."

That was too much. I growled and forced myself to my feet, nearly hitting my head on the underside of the table. Displaying quickness and strength I didn't expect, Isra had my face flat on the floor with her hand on the back of my neck. I struggled, so she let her hand shift until I could feel those claws starting to pierce my skin. Further struggles would get me hurt, so I stilled myself.

"As far as the Packs know, you're dead. That's great for you, as long as they never see or scent you again. If you run off seeking revenge? You may or may not get it. You certainly will die trying. But what happens after that?"

Shit.

"The first question will be why Stanley and his family told the Werewolf Council that you were dead and cremated that night. The second will be to ask where they hid a wolf who was shot twice and near death. They know you didn't stay on his land because they've sent wolves sniffing around his borders. What happens then, Nathan?" She let go of my neck, and I rolled onto my side. I whined. "Your life is no longer your own. Werebears and Werecats put their lives on the line to save you, and we won't let you throw our lives away as well. We OWN your ass now. Get that through your thick head, or I'll kill you myself."

I nodded my head. "Rest and eat. There's a doggie door in the kitchen if you need to go outside to do your business. And don't start peeing on the fenceposts! I've already marked the boundary fences."

She scratched behind my good ear. "Get some sleep. I've got chores to do."

I fell asleep shortly after she headed outside to care for her animals.

Chapter 23

Council Enforcer Vic Knightly's POV

Great Falls Convention Center Holiday Inn, Montana

Monday, September 10, 2007

The beeping of an alarm woke me up, and it wasn't my alarm.

I felt the bed move as the tiny woman rolled to get her phone. The twenty-something blonde silenced the alarm, then rolled back into my side. Her naked body pressed into my side, and her hand ran down my stomach to grasp my morning wood. "I thought I wore you out last night," she whispered, giggling.

"It's morning, Cheri," I replied. "Get me ready."

She rotated in the bed, moving her legs to the side as she kissed down my stomach. "Too bad I don't have more time. You're a great fuck for an old guy." Her mouth opened wide, accepting my spongy head into her mouth.

"I'm a great fuck because I'm an old guy," I replied. If she only knew just how old! I carried a hint of grey on my temples but was in great physical shape. The former cheerleader and pharmaceutical representative I'd picked up in the hotel bar last night probably figured I was in my forties. Nope! Try five times that age. Werewolves live a long time.

She had good technique, and I didn't need much help getting hard. I pulled her legs up to move us into a sixty-nine. I'd fucked her up one side and down the other last night, but that was the past. I prided myself on giving my partners an experience they'd remember, including long dinners at the Y. She wasn't a werewolf, so I couldn't give her the deluxe meal. She'd be waking enough people up as is with her screaming.

The difference in our heights meant I couldn't dive into her honeypot without scrunching my neck and sitting up. Instead, I reached for a condom from the pile on the bedside table, placing the packet in her hand. I grabbed her hips and slid her up my body, making her squeal in pleasure as my tongue speared her sex and went to work.

She came hard almost immediately, then got the condom on while I built to the second. "Jesus, VIC! Fuck! So fucking good! Right there! Yes! YES! FUCKING YES, EAT THAT PUSSY! I'M GONNA CUM! FUUUUUCK!" I pushed a wet finger into her ass and bit down on her clit. It sent her over the edge.

Cheri's athletic thighs locked up, squeezing my head as she screamed her pleasure. I kept tonguing her through the orgasm as her legs shook, extending it until she finally collapsed on my right side. I slid out from underneath her legs and looked down at her curvy gymnast's body with the bubble butt. She was breathing hard on her stomach, and her legs were still twitching as her body recovered.

I didn't give her a chance to catch her breath. I straddled Cheri's legs, spread her cheeks, and slid my considerable length into her hot pussy from behind. "Fuuuuuuck, you're so fucking deep," she said when my hips finally rested on her shapely ass. "Fuck me hard, Vic. I want to feel you all day long."

"As you wish," I said. I held Cheri's hips down and started pounding her hard from behind. The room was filled with the wet smacks of my hips into her ass, the squelches from her wet pussy, and moans into the pillow. I got her off twice before pulling out and placing the tip at her brown star. "Ready?"

"Do it." Her body wasn't ready for me, so it was a tight fit. She was so worked up that she took the pain until I bottomed out. I let her adjust, then began to move. My tiny three-hole slut came hard after a few strokes. "Ride me like you stole me," she begged.

I pulled her hips up, leaving her face in the pillow, and started pounding her hard. I worked out my frustrations on my young human partner, watching her ass cheeks jiggle with each hard thrust. She was losing track of when one orgasm ended, and the next began. "I'm going to cum," I warned her.

"On my face," she said as she pulled away. She spun around so she was looking up at me as I pulled the condom off and furiously jacked my cock. She opened her mouth and closed her eyes. I sprayed three long streams onto her, glazing her from her hairline to her neck. When done, I leaned forward so she could clean the rest off with her tongue. "Yummy. You're amazing, Vic."

I leaned back against the headboards, looking down at the woman I'd ravished. She'd had a dozen or so orgasms this morning, plus the two dozen or so last night. She'd try hookups and affairs in the hopes of a repeat, but nothing would measure up to this night. I'm not bragging; I've seen it happen many times. "Shower?"

"I have to get back to my room and get ready for work," she replied. "Help me up." She moaned a few times as I helped her stand, then walked gingerly to retrieve her underwear. She was still getting dressed when I came out of the bathroom wearing a robe. "I'm going to be so damn sore today," she said. "That was fantastic. I can't believe we have to go to Billings this afternoon."

"We?"

"My mentor, Theresa. She's back in our hotel room, jealous that I got laid while her married ass is stuck with phone sex and a vibrator." She kissed me goodbye, the sticky lines visible on her forehead and cheeks.

"You want to clean that off your face?"

She grinned. "Nope. If you're going to rub it in, what better way than walking funny with a cum face?" She grabbed her purse and left a card on the dresser. "I'd love to get together again, Vic."

"Goodbye, Cheri." I looked over at the clock; it was seven-thirty in the morning. I took a shower, put on dress slacks and a clean button-down shirt, and headed to the hotel restaurant for breakfast.

The news had nothing about the family I'd killed over the weekend. The Council and the Werebears had cleaned things up before the humans could get involved. I read the complimentary copy of USA Today as I picked at my sausage and cheese omelet and pancakes in a quiet corner. "Morning, Vic."

I was so out of it that I didn't smell him coming. "Mark, have a seat," I said. My boss said he was flying out. "How did you find me?"

"Your credit card bills are on our corporate account, and this city isn't that big. Did you catch up on sleep?"

"Somewhat," I replied. Mark leaned over for a sniff and grinned; you can't get the sex smell out of the clothes when the room's full of it. "Whiskey and women are the cure for many an ill."

"And the cause of many more. What's going on?"

"Not much now," he said. "Todd took care of his end, and Stanley did his part. The Boss wants to ensure everything is in order before I return."

"You want to find their house?"

Chief Enforcer Trestman nodded. "The car is registered at a Mailboxes R Us box downtown. There was no forwarding address, and I couldn't sense anything in the area. They might be staying locally or coming into town to get supplies and check mail."

"What did we find in the car?"

"Our friends in the mountains didn't save or look at anything. Everything got crushed with the car."

"Shit." A driver's license, gas receipt, or other clue might point us in the right direction. "They could have been traveling through. I found them at a Five Guys next to the Target store."

"So they were heading east."

"Most likely," I replied. "I'd like to search out that way. Can I get a copy of their files? Maybe I can find something in their history to point the way."

He took a flash drive from his pocket and slid it across the table to me. "Write up your report before you leave town, Vic. I'll finish checking Great Falls locations and call you before I fly out."

"Thanks, boss."

He reached across and tapped my shoulder. "You did good, Vic."

"We lost all three, sir."

"You found the needle in the haystack, and they didn't escape. That's a win in our book." He got up and walked out, leaving me with my now-cold breakfast.

It was as hard to stomach as my responsibility for the death of a child.

Chapter 24

Council Enforcer Vic Knightly's POV

Great Falls Convention Center Holiday Inn, Montana

Monday, September 10th, 2007

I put SportsCenter on the television when I returned to my room. I was exhausted from my lack of sleep. In my first century, I could stay up all weekend fighting and fucking and be good with a few hours of sleep. Now? Changing sleep patterns fucked me up for days.

At least I'd gotten Housekeeping to change the sheets and clean up while I was at breakfast. The scents of sweat and sex weren't as bad, but I wished I could open a window. I took off my shoes and slacks and settled at the little desk in the room. Opening my laptop, I got it booted up and started writing my report for my boss.

I knew I wouldn't be able to fall right back asleep, so I was better off getting some work done and taking a nap after lunch.

My trainers taught me that you never knew what details might be important later. Enforcer reports were extensive and specific when it came to rogue encounters. I started at the first encounter outside Five Guys. I even used Google Maps, my phone's call records, and the time on my Target receipt in the narration.

I bit back my frustration three pages later when describing the conversations with the Council after the rogues changed direction and headed towards the Bear Den. I kept the report factual, using the maps to discuss where I was when ordered to take the car out. I found the precise location of the eventual crash on Google Maps, taking a snip of the satellite image and adding details of where everything ended up. I marked where I stopped my SUV, where their car stopped rolling, and where Nathan Storm fell after I shot him twice.

I wrote four pages covering the pit maneuver until I drove away again. I kept it factual, hoping to keep the second-guessing to a minimum. Some senior leadership wasn't happy that I didn't retrieve Nathan's wolf, and I fled the scene with Carol. I took the time to paint the picture I had. Headlights were coming, maybe Werebears, maybe humans. I laid out my decisions in clinical detail.

There wasn't much I could add to the report without evidence from their car. Carol didn't say much beyond asking to die, so that report section dealt with saving the baby and turning it over to Bitterroot's people. I closed it with a quick summary of actions taken to remove evidence from my vehicle.

The whole thing left a bad taste in my mouth. I proofread it twice before sending it to the Council by encrypted email, then started reading the files he'd given me. Those raised more questions than answers.

Mark called me back just before noon. "Good report, Vic. All we have left to close the file is to find out where they stayed."

"Did you figure anything else out this morning?"

"No, and I'm flying back in a few hours with the other Enforcers. Keep looking for their hideout for the rest of the week, but be back in the office Monday."

"It's a needle in the haystack search without more clues, boss."

"I know. Someone helped those two stay out of our sight for a year."

I let out a sigh. "Maybe, maybe not. Nathan was a sharp kid, and this wasn't a spur-of-the-moment thing. This state is big enough to avoid detection if you don't do something stupid. It was sheer luck I ran across them."

"I agree with you, Vic, but we should pursue the line of inquiry."

"I'll do what I can."

"That's all I'm asking. Call me if you need anything."

One thing was bugging me. "Mark, one last question before you go. I'm looking at the files on the Sampson family in North Dakota. I saw the original report about detecting rogues in the area and the request to investigate, but I didn't see a kill order." Orders to remove or eliminate rogues included their offense. Crimes like attacking or trespassing on Pack lands, threatening human exposure, or impregnating humans were typical of such an order.

Mark let out a sigh. "That's because there wasn't one, Vic. A college student sent in the rogue encounter report. The intelligence got sent to all the Packs, and Bitterroot decided to investigate before we could send Enforcers out. Alpha Todd hates rogues, so he went right to the elimination stage."

"They killed all but one over nothing?"

"It doesn't take much to justify wiping them out, Vic. No Alpha or Council member questioned their actions. You shouldn't either."

"Understood, sir. Have a good flight."

I tossed my phone onto the bed and went back to reading the files. An hour later, my anger and frustration had only built.

The Sampson family had done NOTHING wrong. They kept their wolf nature secret, built a business, and raised a family hundreds of miles from the nearest Pack. The Bitterroot Beta's report detailed executions, not investigations.

Carol's 'crime' was to defend her family against an unprovoked attack, resulting in the death of a Bitterroot warrior. For that 'offense,' Carol was held prisoner for years. The Pack probably tortured her. What must that have been like for Nathan? No wonder he planned and carried out their escape.