Read Lycan Alpha Claim (#1): (BBW Shifter Romance) (Brief-Bites Novelette) for Free Online Page A

eyebrows rise. That must be the only
look he has. Perpetual question mode.
    Patty nods. Her eyes dart to me.
    I die a little inside.
    “ Further, you mentioned that
Ms. Phisher, and the victim, Jamie Duncan, know each
other.”
    Victim.
    She nods more slowly this time.
    “ It's Doctor, Officer
Cochran,” I correct through clenched teeth.
    He gives a vague nod. “Right.”
    I cross my arms again, stepping into his
personal space. I'm not a small woman. I stand every bit of my five
foot nine inches, staring him down. “Is this it then? I can't get a
restraining order?”
    Cochran spreads his arms away from his body
as though I am the one being unreasonable.
    Holy mother of God.
    “ If there were probable cause.
As it stands, from my perspective as a police officer, there's a
guy that you know, whom your secretary invited in. Then he gives
you a little squeeze and you're crying foul.” He shrugs, giving a
minute shake of his head. “You understand we can't get in the
middle of lover's quarrels.”
    My eyes move to Jamie's.
    He smiles through the drying blood on his
face.
    My head starts to throb then my teeth. When
the flush starts, I give up.
    “ Fine,” my face is on fire,
“if you won't help me, I'll go to someone who will.”
    Cochran's eyes narrow. My subtle threat and
dis being clearly received. “The law doesn't look kindly on any
form of vigilante justice, Ms. Phisher.”
    “ Doctor!” I yell into his
face.
    He smiles benignly.
    I itch to slap him, and he knows it.
    “ Final Enforcement, you weak
man,” I seethe.
    “ Talyn,” Patty says in a timid
voice at my elbow.
    “ You can insult me all you
like, Doctor Phisher.” His tone of
voice tells me how much he doesn't want to acknowledge my
status.
    But he will. I've earned it. Especially
today.
    “ Yet the facts are what they
are. Do not take matters into your own hands. Further, an unknown
assailant attacked Jamie Duncan—yet, somehow he's not a problem?”
    Cochran shakes his head then taps his thumb
to his pulsepad.
    Cochran's silent for a few seconds as he
communicates into his device.
    Then he turns it around for my
perusal. “Both Miss Hershey and Jamie Duncan have thumbed their unique memory signature into
the police record.”
    He steps closer. Uncomfortably so.
    I don't give an inch.
    He notices, looming over me. “Is this the
man who attacked Jamie Duncan?”
    There he is, in living pulse color. The
stranger.
    His eyes are green in the
colored rendering from the short-term memory fragments the pulse
device sucked from the two witnesses ʼ brainwaves.
    Sometimes I loathe technology.
    I glare up at Cochran. “His eyes are
blue.”
    I walk to my office and slam the door,
ending his inquest. He moves to the outside of the wood and says,
“We'll be in touch, Doctor Phisher.”
    I don't reply.
    I pluck my pulse from my pocket and contact
Final Enforcement. They'll find my stranger, and maybe do something
about Duncan.
    I get my message sent even with my fingers
quaking.

12
    Talyn
     
    I drive my car home like a zombie. Go
through the motions of feeding Pooky (who doesn't care that I'm
half-dead and stupid; the miracle of cat ownership), and take off
my blood stained mess of an outfit. I hesitate between the laundry
hamper and the trash.
    I pitch the gory clothes
inside the separator. I don't even recycle them. I pulse the part
of the separator labeled solid waste, and listen to the whir and grind as it evacuates the chute of
the proof of my day.
    I open my freezer and snag a pint of ice
cream. I plop down on my couch with a spoon stuck in a Ben and
Jerry's carton of Chunky Monkey and sigh with bliss.
    At least some things remain the same.
    My hair hangs in wet strands from a
scorching shower, Pooky has taken up residency at my feet and the
flush comes and goes like a malfunctioning stoplight. My female
bits are crying out for attention of the male variety, but they
sort of ache too.
    I'm a mess and Cochran rubbed
me the absolute wrong way. No