In this chapter, a trap is set to see if it can be discovered who shot Jessica. The shifters spend some time in the Greenbriar household, meeting Joshua's children. A few people try wolf sex with Conor and Brigitte, seeing why it's considered so good, but generally, this chapter does not contain much in the way of descriptive sex. My thanks to JohnnyGalt for his editing assistance, without whom this wouldn't be nearly as clean. This is a copyrighted work and should not be altered, edited, changed, or published or used for any other purpose without the author's express permission, including audio works. Copyright, 2025
Wedded to the Pack, Ch 4
A Trap
I don't know how long I was out, but when I came to, I hurt like hell and there was still gunfire going on around me, though not much. I just laid still and hoped I'd quit hurting. The gunfire eventually slowed, then stopped. Gretchen was lying over me, and I wondered if she was alive or dead. I could feel my chest knitting itself back together.
I groaned.
"She's alive," Gretchen said. She got off me.
"Didn't they use silver?" Sahar asked. "She's not bleeding."
"They did," Conor said. "I smell it."
"Then why the hell is she breathing?" Sahar asked. "That sounded like a.307 caliber sniper round."
"Body armor," Brigitte said. "It stops silver as well as lead."
"Was she the target?" Edgar asked. "Or was it one of us?"
"If they used silver, it had to be a wolf target," Brigitte said. "Silver costs too much to use in normal rifle loads."
"Even with body armor, how the hell is she still alive?" Edgar said. "The body shock alone should have killed her. It had to break every bone in her chest."
"We're used to broken bones," Conor said. "Every time we shift, we're breaking every bone in our body."
"Fuckin' A. What next? Send her to the hospital?" Edgar asked.
"No," Sahar said. "Send her to the morgue."
"What?" Brigitte said. "Why the hell would we do that?"
"Because no one knows what her status is," Sahar said. "They probably think she's dead. They just hit her with a silver rifle round. If not for the body armor, she would be dead. Let them think she's dead."
"What are you thinking?" Edgar asked.
"We don't know who attacked her or why," Sahar said. "The sniper has faded into the woodwork. If they wanted to kill her, and didn't, they'll try again. If they think she's dead, they won't try again, with something body armor won't stop. Maybe a fucking bomb, and more people will die. If Jessica's dead, they accomplished what they wanted, and maybe it's over, or maybe this was just the start, and we need to know who's coming after her, or Weres generally. If they go after the other Weres, we know it's a coordinated attack on shifters generally. If no one else is attacked, we know Jessica was the specific target.
"Weres think that at least one reason people are interested in shape-shifters is they want to know what makes them tick. If that's the case, won't someone want her dead body to carve up? If we send her to the morgue, we can see if anyone shows up to collect her body. That's what I'd do, although I don't have the smarts to set it up."
"You may be right," Edgar said. "Police are on the way. I'll call Joshua and see if he can pull a little magic. When we carry Jessica out of here, there has to be a ton of blood, or whoever is watching won't be fooled."
Edgar made a phone call, stepping away from us.
"Do I get a say?" I asked, finally able to breathe.
"No," Sahar said. "You need to act dead. Not talking or moving helps with the illusion. We don't know who's watching, so act dead."
"We can supply the blood," Conor said, who then cut his arm and let it pour over my torso. Gretchen and Brigitte did the same. Their wounds closed up relatively quickly, and they each had to do it twice to leave a lot of blood on my clothes.
"Am I in sight of the street?" I asked.
"No. We dragged you into an interior corridor," Sahar said, "and returned fire on the sniper across the street. He or she probably left to get away before the police arrived so they wouldn't get trapped in the building."
"Did anyone else get hit?"
"No. We returned fire so quickly. I don't think anyone expected that. We don't usually have so many security here," Sahar replied. "Because we weren't sure of Conor and Brigitte, there were more armed responders than normal."
"So they could still be after Gretchen?" I asked.
"Possibly," Sahar admitted. "We don't know if it was you, specifically, or all Weres they were targeting. You've been making a good case for toning down the anti-shifter rhetoric, making people wonder what all the fuss is about. It could be Jessica herself, or both of you because you've been so vocal, or maybe they don't like the thought of shifters."
"Is there any chance you killed the sniper?" I asked.
"I don't think so," Sahar said. "It would have been an extremely lucky shot. All we had were handguns until the response team got here."
"I need to see the sniper nest," Brigitte said. "I'm a hunter/tracker, and I need to follow, or at least scent the perp's hidey hole. If I ever scent him again, I'll know who the fuck it is."
"Do you have body armor for your wolf body?" Sahar asked.
"Not with me."
"Do you want to chance it?"
"I have to. It's my job."
"Will do. Smitty, send some guys across the street, keep some more here. Keep traffic off the street until the police get here. I'll go with you and carry your clothes and shit," Sahar said.
"Got it," another grizzled guy said, looking a lot like Edgar, not in looks, but competence. He immediately sent three across the street, while a half dozen rifle-armed men were setting up roadblocks on either end of the street in front of the building, and four more remained with us.