Werewolves of New York: Nathaniel Read Free Page A

but them. It protected them to keep the business small with the strange hours they often kept. Some things in their line of work–meetings with contractors, plumbers, electricians, the city–couldn’t all be done at night by any means, since everyone they worked with was human. Kept normal hours. Might ask questions. Spread rumors. But with a small team of only them, they were able to take at least one day a week to sleep all day long, and let their wolves reset in the way that felt best. Sometimes more than one, if they felt like slacking off. The pleasures of being your own boss…
    Darik leaned forward with a gleam in his blue eyes. “Go on.”
    “Don’t get too excited, Darik,” Nathaniel frowned. “I did what I had to do. Nothing more.”
    Bored with his night’s lack of adventure, Darik wasn’t easily dissuaded. “Come on. Give me some details, Nate. It’s not every day we get to take someone out.”
    Dontae growled, causing all heads to turn, “Darik, if we let you, you’d kill a man for cutting you off in traffic. Put your leash back on.”
    Eli looked to Nathaniel. “What happened?”
    “There was a woman. She was walking by herself. Didn’t see the guy coming. If I hadn’t been there, she would have been…hurt.” Nathaniel downed his glass, thinking, if I’d have just looked up a few moments earlier...
    Eli opened his mouth to speak but Dontae interrupted with authority, “What I don’t understand is why you had to kill him.”
    All eyes locked on Nathaniel for an answer. It was the question of the century, wasn’t it? He’d been asking himself that ever since he’d literally shredded the guy’s arteries.
    Eli ventured, “You’ve stopped people from doing shitty things before…”
    “…We all have,” Darik overlapped.
    Dontae finished, “But we don’t murder them.”
    Green eyes flashed around the room and his fist closed, breaking the glass in his hands. “You think I don’t know that? That I have to be told like some cub?” Blood dripped onto the stone by his feet.
    Eli rubbed his head; the short shave was often where he found his comfort. “Alright. Easy, boy. We’re just a little surprised, and worried about you. About all of us.” He threw a clean, white bar towel to his buddy.
    Darik rose to throw the glass away. He held out his hand and Nathaniel gave it to him, impatient at the whole night. “Give me the towel for a second.” Nathaniel handed it to him and shook his head as Darik wiped up his blood. “I got it, buddy. Don’t look so bummed.” He handed it back so Nathaniel could wrap his nasty wound up.
    As Darik brought the wet broken glass to the kitchen, Dontae asked, “What did you do with the body?”
    Remembering, Nathaniel dropped his head and closed his eyes, blocking out the visual. “I left it there.”
    “YOU WHAT?” Dontae shouted.
    Nathaniel shrugged heavy shoulders. “What was I supposed to do, get caught carrying a carcass to the water? Even if I was successful the body would be found eventually and it’d be obvious an animal did it. If an animal killed the guy, what’d the animal do then, try to hide the body in the fucking Bay? Smart animal.”
    Darik walked back into the living room, processing out loud, “Right. An animal would just leave it there and not give a fuck.”
    “Well, I give a fuck.”
    “Yeah. Wow. So now what?”
    “Let’s wait for the news and find out,” Eli muttered as he handed Nathaniel a fresh, full glass. “Because it’s sure as hell going to be on there.”
    “This is why we don’t kill,” Dontae said, gravely.
    Nathaniel dropped onto the couch and took a generous gulp, not flinching as the heat hit his throat. “Dontae. Enough.”
    “Are your prints anywhere?” he asked. “What about cameras?”
    Nathaniel looked at him. “No cameras. I checked before I shifted. I’m not an idiot.”
    “What about the girl?”
    “She’s not a girl. She’s a woman,” Nathaniel corrected him, aware of the