Disclaimer: Laurell K. Hamilton and the Berkley Publishing Group do not authorize this author. All characters that you recognize belong to Laurell K. Hamilton except for the ones created by the people in this group. This is solely for entertainment purposes.

Rating: R just to be on the safe side

Authors Notes: I would like to let you know a couple of things before you get started.  One it has not been beta'ed.  I know that for this group I don't really have to worry about that but I thought I'd let you know before had.  The second is that this is supposed to coincide with Lilli's break up story.  However, this is not the official break-up of Luna and Shang-Da.  That's coming soon I promise.  Well without further ado.

Hard Days Night

It was a long night; made even longer by the fact that Anita wouldn't put her foot down and absolutely forbid the more submissive of our pard to go out without an alpha.  It didn't help any that Narcissus wouldn't let me go and retrieve my pard mates.  The better part of an hour and some cash exchanging hands got me inside.  I wasn't allowed to go anywhere in the club without a shadow.

I'd had to convince our wayward pard members that if they didn't bring their sorry asses out of that club that instant, I was going to personally make sure they suffered for it.  They'd ruined my night out.  I'd wanted to stay with Lilli especially after that incident at the club.  Instead I was playing stand in, yet again.  I didn't want to take over the pard, not really. But if things didn't change and soon I didn't see a way around it.

Those thoughts clouded my mind.  It wasn't until I found myself sitting in front of the little dive bar watching the band load their gear that I realized that I was letting this get to me.  The other thing I noticed was that they were one band mate short.  I could feel the blood freeze in my veins.  I don't know why, but Lilli had panicked, and that wasn't like Lil at all.  Slowly pulling away from the curb made sure that Lil had indeed gone home

'Man,' I thought, I'm more stressed then I wanted to admit.'  Too bad I couldn't blame it all on pard business.  I was also still at a loss as to how to deal with Shang-Da.  We'd start to make progress as a couple then it was like we took fifteen steps back and had to begin all over again.  I knew it was time to let him go.  To give him an out, but still some part of me was hurt by the prospect.

Barely even registering the black Honda that followed I pulled onto the highway and headed home.  I rolled my shoulders and even tried popping my neck to see if I could relieve some of the tension that had built up there.  It was all in vain as I gripped the steering wheel so tight my knuckles were white.

I don't know if I'd have noticed the car was following me if it hadn't flashed its lights at me.  I mean we were on a busy highway and I was close to home.  For some reason a finger of fear raced up my spine.  I was not going to pull over here.  If there was any possibility of a fight I wanted to be on familiar ground.  Not to mention that I wanted help to be only a shout away.  I didn't really believe I'd need it but you could never be too sure any more and I was taking no chances.

Pulling up in front of the house the black Honda pulled in behind me.  My brain kept nagging me.  It was like I was missing or forgetting something but for the life of me I couldn't figure out what it was.  I leaned across the seat popped open the glove compartment and pulled out the spare Browning.

I felt like shit.  I was tired, sweaty and in need of a shower, some sleep wouldn't hurt either.  Somehow I didn't think I was going to get much of the latter.

Exiting Igor slowly, cautiously, every sense on high alert.  A familiar scent drifted over me and I couldn't quite help the groan that escaped my lips.  A deep familiar voice broke the silence of the nearly deserted street, "Awww, don't tell me you're not happy to see me."  Closing my eyes I offered a prayer for patience and strength.  I was going to need both.

Turning to face the voice I took in the fact he was dressed, as usual, to GQ perfection.  Not a hair was out of place and the smile, if you could call it that showed white even teeth.  I sighed.  "Shang-Da why are you here?  It's late and I just want to go to bed."

His smile turned feral.  The glint in his eyes did nothing to lessen the fear in me.  I couldn't explain it.  The more I tried to rationalize it to myself the less sense it made.  This man had seen me in far less yet I'd never felt more exposed than I did at that moment.  "Sounds like a plan to me," he said.

It took a moment for understanding to come to me.  When it did I just shook my head.  "Not tonight Shang-Da.  It's been a long night and I just want some sleep."  I could feel my brow wrinkling.  "You never did say why you were here so late, what gives?"

"Couldn't I just want to spend some time with MY girlfriend.  I mean we still are a couple aren't we?"  He walked while he spoke.  It had a decidedly predatory feel to it.  As if I were prey.  I would not give into the panic that was trying to worm its way into me.  If I did that it would only excite him further especially given his current frame of mind.

It was on the tip of my tongue to tell him no we weren't a couple.  We hadn't been in some time, but I wasn't sure just what kind of response that would evoke.  I knew we were over, and if he was honest with himself he'd known it too.  I decided to try and be reasonable about this.  "You've never just stopped by before, why now?"

He halted an arms length away from me.  It was close enough for his cologne to waft over me, and temporarily short circuit my brain. While I was busy noticing how good he smelled he'd closed the distance between us.  The warmth of his hand on my cheek startled me.  I hadn't even realized I'd closed my eyes.  It was damn careless of me and likely to end up biting me in the ass.

I quickly stepped back out of reach.  "Shang-Da, don't.  You need to go home. I need a shower and some sleep."

The anger flashed instantly in his eyes, his voice became a low growl, hardly intelligible. "What, now I can't even come in and sleep in the same bed with you."

I pleaded with my eyes while I back peddled.  "Please honey, stop.  You know that it's never just sleep when you're around.  We always wind up doing other things.  It's NEVER just sleep.  And you know it."

He advanced as swiftly as I retreated.  "Where were you tonight?  You said that you were going to be home all night but when I called the house you weren't home.  In fact no one was home."

The change in topics threw me for a second and I blinked.  It was a mistake.  The instant my eyes closed his fingers closed around my bare arm.  His fingers were like bands of steel and I knew I was going to have a bruise.  His voice was as cold as ice when he spoke.  "Were you with that wolf?"

I didn't even have to pretend to be insulted.  "No as a matter of fact I wasn't with Dante.  Not that it's any of your concern but I was attending to pard business."

He raised a skeptical brow.  "Dressed like that?"

I looked down at myself and could feel heat creeping up my neck and face.  I'd abandoned the shirt when I'd found out that our wayward pard members were at Narcissus's club.  The shoes and socks had also suffered the same fate as the shirt.  So I was standing in the middle of my street dressed in a red plaid skirt and a fire engine red bra.  I could see why he would be so doubtful.  But he could smell the truth of my words so he should know I wasn't lying.

This was our perpetual problem.  We were both too dominant and neither one of us were willing to give an inch.  Although to be honest I think Shang-Da gave more often than I did.  That didn't mean that he didn't have his faults he did.  He was suspicious and granted so was I, but it seemed he took it to the extreme.  If I said I didn't want to see him, he would automatically have someone come by the house and make sure that there were no strange cars in the driveway.  At first I'd thought it was cute, then it began to be irritating then it was just down right mean.

He'd started leaving notes on my windshield.  At first they were harmless.  I was here and I miss you.  Nothing to draw attention.  Then they began to get tiresome.  What now?  When do I get to see you?  Then it began to get weird.  What no other wolf in your bed?

I'd never told anyone about them.  When one did show up on my window I automatically crumpled it up and threw it on the ground.  The rational, logical, part of me kept telling me I should report him.  If to no one else than at least to Anita.  I hadn't and to be honest I probably wouldn't now either.

"Shang-Da, I'm in no mood for this kind of shit tonight.  What do you want?"  I pried his fingers off my arm.

"Well I wanted to talk to you, but I can see you're in no mood to listen to anything I have to say."  He managed to look both irritated and hurt.

However I was in no frame of mind to put up with it.  "Well if you'd really just wanted to talk I might have been willing to hear you out.  But after your stunt why would I subject myself to this?"  I was busy rubbing my abused arm.

Shang-Da occupied himself with staring at his immaculate nails.  "You know Luna, you should be more careful when you go out."

His tone raised the hair at the nape of my neck and I couldn't quite keep the tremor out of my voice as I asked, "Why is that?"

The bored almost casual way he spoke made my blood flow like ice water in my veins.  "Because you never know who might be following you."

I shook my head in denial.  "No.  No, you're not having me followed.  I would have noticed."  A fine tremble had developed in me.

"Oh please Luna, I'm not so stupid as to follow you myself.  But there are others.  And they change vehicles often enough that they could follow you without you even knowing that you're being followed."  He laughed a harsh angry sound. His eyes roamed over the street an evil smile lighting his face.  "Even now you're being watched.  The pack is huge.  I have a few friends that decided to relocate.  Friends that don't mind watching over a wandering girlfriend."

My eyes searched the enshrouded street for some clue as to where they were.  If they were in fact, here now.  A fear unlike any I had previously known welled up inside me.  I could feel it digging into me making my breathing shallow and speeding my pulse.   He was watching me closely, too closely.  I searched the darkened street again.  A glance over my shoulder showed the house further away then I would have thought.

Almost dream like.  It was like you should be able to get to it but the closer you got to it the further away it went.  Panic was beginning to set in.  I could see the triumph shinning in Shang-Da's once handsome face.  I don't know if I'd ever been afraid of any one as I was of him in that moment.

Even though I knew it was wrong I turned and was going to make a run for the door. I'd broken the cardinal rule I'd run when I was scared, only prey did that.  I hadn't gotten more than a couple of steps when his arms wrapped around me like iron bands.  Struggling only excited him further.

My eyes began to fill with tears.  No!  Not Shang-Da.  I knew that he, like me, was possessive but somehow I didn't expect him to go off the deep end like this.  He licked the curve of my ear and I couldn't help the shudder of revulsion that filled me.  He however thought it was a totally different response.   "You know it's okay for you to like this Luna.  After all you are mine."  His hand began caressing my exposed abdomen.  He went on oblivious.  "We were meant to be together.  I feel it every time I touch you.  I see it every time I look at you.  And I know it every time I think about you."

The tears fell freely from my eyes.  I was sickened by the way he was acting.  He actually thought I was enjoying this.  I couldn't believe it.  I couldn't believe that someone could spend the amount of time together that we had and still not know the other.  It was totally beyond me.

I may have been more powerful than he was but I was untrained.  In the lycanthrope world I was the equivalent of a child with a handgun.  I knew essential how to use my power but without help without someone to act as a focus I was flying blind. The instinct to fight burned bright within me though.  I used that which was known and familiar to me.  I used police tactics.  Knowing that his grip was solid I went after the only thing I could.  His feet.

I stomped down as hard as I could on his right foot, catching the instep.  He hissed in pain and loosened his grip enough to allow me to elbow him in the ribs on his left side.  That arm released me and I turned out of his grasp.  So intent was I on getting away that I never felt his energy shift all I felt was a great searing pain in my back.

It was such a shock that I missed the curb and fell on the grass there.  Gasping as the hurt invaded my brain.  I couldn't believe that he'd done this to me.  Of all the people likely to hurt me, and really mean to.  Shang-Da hadn't even made the top one hundred.  I have to admit that I was stunned.  If someone had told me this was going to happen I would have laughed in their face and told them that they didn't know him the way that I knew him.

He flipped me over and he wasn't gentle about it either.  My lower back connected painfully with the curb, the top portion of my head cracked the sidewalk between the curb and the house.  It left me disoriented.  My vision swam and when my eyes finally decided to refocus what I saw increased my fear to stark terror.

His eyes were amber yellow.  His beast was near the surface and that was not a good sign.  His face was twisted with animalistic rage.  His voice, if you could call it that, was low and unrecognizable.  "That wasn't nice Luna."

I could feel my mind separating from my body.  It was classic dissociative syndrome.   I knew the feeling all too well.  It was how I had coped with being molested by my cousin.  He could have my body but he'd never really get the real me.  He could never touch me, not ever!

However some distant part of me was angry that I was letting it happen.  Was angry that I wasn't fighting any more.  As soon as I thought it I could feel anger begin to build up in me.  But some part of me was afraid, some part of me would be constantly be a ten year old little girl afraid to be alone with her cousin.  I pleaded within myself to find the courage, to find the will and the strength to fight him.

Little did I know that help was already on its way.  I could feel Gabriel gently prodding me aside, begging for me to step aside and allow him control.  It was control I was more than happy to give him.  My whole body language changed.  We became more relaxed.  More in control of the situation.  Gabriel liked pain so the wound at my shoulder was more arousing than hurting.

You could see the confusion chase across Shang-Da's face.  The change in attitude threw him and he didn't know what to make of it.  I could feel a smile spread across my face.  My voice was not mine at all. It was too deep an octave for me to be able to reach normally.  "Hey baby, don't you wanna play now?"

The change in Shang-Da's face was almost comical, almost.  Shock was chased swiftly by disbelief, followed closely by disgust.  However he made no move to release us.  The Browning, which in all that had happened remained clutched in our right hand, was now pointed at his head.  We leaned up and licked his face.  The utter distaste he showed only served to heighten our pleasure.  The laugh that welled up inside me was too deep and too satisfied to be mine.  "If this were chess, this is were I would say check and mate."  I couldn't help the almost sadistic smile that crept across our face.  Gabriel was having far too much fun with this.  "Now if you would be so kind as to get up off me."

Shang-Da rolled off me.  His eyes had bled back to his normal rich brown.  However the hatred the anger that burned in them was not normal.  His mouth was compressed.  "This isnt over Luna.  Not by a long shot."  Without another word he turned and walked back to his car.  With one last parting glare he got into his Honda, started the engine, and drove off.

Gabriel made sure we laid there a good long while to ensure that he didn't change his mind and come back.  We slowly got to our feet aware of our injury and being careful of it.  Then like a whispered dream Gabriel retreated.  He hadn't been paid for his service.  Well if he wasn't going to mention it then I would be damned if I was.

His parting though had a several down sides.  One I was left feeling weaker than I had with just the wound that Shang-Da had inflicted.  The other was that now the pain in my back and shoulder had intensified to agony.  I knew why the wounds weren't healing.  They weren't healing because another lycanthrope's claws had caused them.  I could heal them but it would be at almost human slow process.

Hurt and more tired then I'd arrived home I trudged up to the door.  I tried the door but found it locked.  Of all the times the girls decided to lock the door was the time I needed it unlocked the most.  I pressed my forehead to the door and began to cry in earnest.  Gathering myself quickly I turned and retraced my steps to Igor.  Now conscious of my nearly nude state I grabbed the shirt out of the front seat along with the keys from the ignition.

Walking slowly and carefully back to the front door.  I slipped the key into the lock and had to work the key to disengage the lock.  Finally it gave way and I was through the door.  It was on the tip of my tongue to call out and see if Lilli was here.  I thought better of it when I opened my mouth.  Instead I was standing there bleeding on the carpet wondering what I should do now.  God, some days it just doesn't pay to be me.