“I’m taking off, Andy!” I call. “Looks like we got a full class on Saturday.”
He gives me a brief nod between spotting the man lying back on the push-up bench. I head to the locker room to grab my bag, rolling my eyes as I go. God knows I can’t be late for Thursday night dinners at the mansion.
* * *
Koa
Running. Pushing. Harder. Faster. Run until the pain is only a distant memory.
Stretching out in my full panther form, I revel in the healing sensation of heat surging through my muscles as my powerful strides consume the miles.
I shouldn’t have gone back to Princeton. I should have left the past in the past. Still, I had to see what he was doing now, the ice-blue-eyed wolf whose life had ended the same night as mine.
Slayer had been my best friend back in those days. We were two shits in a pod, strutting around like we owned the city. Because we did.
Designers gave us clothes for free. Hotels gave us rooms for free, and the chicks fell back on the beds with their legs wide open, panties long gone. Everybody wanted a piece of us. They all wanted us to say we liked their shit or we stayed at their place or we wore their watches.
We were champion middleweight boxers and the only shifters. Of course, that part of the equation was not on the books. Until the night it all ended. The night our world came crashing down. Seven years later, I’m hoping to pick up the pieces.
“You look good,” Slayer had said when I entered the fancy-assed office where he now worked. “Keeping in shape.”
As if shifters have a choice. “It was a long time to do nothing.”
His wolf-eyes narrow, and I can’t resist a verbal jab. “So you’ve joined the dark side?”
“I’m a private investigator.”
Glancing around the mahogany office with its straight lines and stainless accents, I simply nod. “Pretty fancy for a private dick.”
“My boss is an important guy.”
“Right.” Clearing my throat, I say his name. “Derek Alexander.”
It’s a name as bitter on my tongue as wolfsbane, and I can’t get over the sight of my old friend working in that man’s office.
“Mr. Alexander” had made a reputation for himself in both human and paranormal justice. I’ll never forget the day he stood in the front of the panther council and had me cut off from my clan. He’d presented the evidence that left me a rogue — no family, no money, no hope for a mate.
“Is this some kind of… community service gig or something?” To say Slayer and I had diverged would be putting it mildly if he now worked for that guy voluntarily.
“What happened to us was our own fault. Derek gave me a second chance here.”
The framed picture on his desk fills in the rest of the blanks. A beautiful young woman with blue eyes and purple hair smiles back at me. On her lap is a tow-headed little boy with dimples in his cheeks.
“Well… I’m happy for you,” I lie. “Anyway, I’m taking off, headed home. Just stopped in to say goodbye.”
He leans forward in his chair and stands, rounding the desk to shake my hand. I notice he’s dressed in dark jeans and a black tee, and the old tattoos show down his arms. I guess not everything has changed.
“Take care of yourself, Stitch.”
“I go by Koa now.”
He nods as we shake, casting his eyes down to our hands. “I went to Bayville thinking I’d disappear. Instead I found everything I’d lost.”
I’m not sure what to do with that, so I simply nod, releasing his hand. “I’ll keep that in mind. See you around, Slayer.”
“It’s Slayde now.”
“Slayde,” I repeat.