Misery County

Chapter 2 - Part 2

The full moon illuminated them as Chopper lathered up Cassie's face with his tongue with such gusto, that she didn't even know how to return the kiss. Instead, she tried to push him off, though their size difference and the alcohol-fueled strength he'd developed from way too many drinks made it a bit of a challenge.

"Whoa, slow down there, cowboy. Let's get to your place first. The middle of the street is hardly the place for... whatever it is you're trying to do."

"You like to play hard-to-get, do you?"

"Not so much. Mostly I just like to be able to breathe without filtering my air through a layer of someone else's saliva."

"Ha, I like you."

I wish I could say the same, Cassie thought, but she held her tongue.

"Well, we're here," Chopper said as he stopped in front of a decrepit house with an overgrown lawn.

"You must be joking. This place looks like no one's lived in it in a decade."

"It's just for the time being. I moved here quite recently."

"You don't say." Now we're getting somewhere.

"Yeah, only been here a few weeks."

"So what brought you to these parts?" Cassie tried as they walked up to the front door.

"I'm something of an entrepreneur."

"A businessman squatting in an abandoned house. I'm almost afraid to ask what your trade is."

"Hey, it beats paying for motels."

"It sounds more like your business isn't bringing in any returns."

The man chuckled. "Not yet, but in no time, I'll be leading an empire."

"An empire, you say? How... grandiose." Megalomaniacal was more what Cassie was thinking, but she didn't want to get on Chopper's wrong side just yet. There would be plenty of time for that very soon.

"You mock me now, but you'll be bowing before me when the time comes," he said as he undid a latch bolted to the outside of the door.

"You're on the top of this organization then, are you? You don't report to anyone?"

"I may as well be at the top," Chopper slurred, ushering the two of them into the house. "I do the important work - the boots on the ground stuff, you know."

"So who is it hiding behind the curtain then?"

"Girl, why you keep on bringing that up? I don't want to think about her."

Her? Interesting. "Fine, we don't have to talk about the big bad boss. Tell me instead why it had to be Missouri County, since you're not from around here."

"You're asking a lot of questions," he said as he bolted the door shut from the inside.

"And you're not providing many answers." Cassie was now digging through her purse. She could feel that in spite of his inebriation, she was losing him.

"What are you looking for? Not trying to call someone, are you?" The menace was now showing in his voice.

"Believe me, I don't need anyone, not even against the likes of you," she said, pulling a small spray bottle out of her purse.

"Oh, you don't know what you've gotten yourself in-" His sentence was interrupted by an agonizing howl as Cassie sprayed him in the face.

"Colloidal silver, bitch. How's that feel?"

"You whore!" he yelled, desperately trying to wipe down his face with his hands. "Do you know who I am?"

"Maybe not, but I know what you are."

"You have no idea," he growled, still fighting the pain as the silver particles burned on his face. "You must think I'm just a lowly -"

"Werewolf?" Cassie interrupted. "No, I know better. I've dealt with plenty of lowly werewolves. I know you're an alpha. Not like any other I've seen before, though. Every other alpha I've dealt with has been able to transform on command, sure, but you're the first I've seen that can retain his human form under a full moon. Well, most of it, anyway."

Cassie took the opportunity while the wolf was leering at her to spray him in the face again for good measure.

He recoiled and whimpered as she did.

"Maybe you'd like to tell me why -" Cassie was about to start the interrogation proper, but she was halted by something alarming. The wolf's ears were growing, his hair thickening. "It can't be," she muttered to no one in particular, but it was.