“Maybe next time.” He obediently started tapping his way to the front door, though he knew perfectly well it was eight feet and nine inches away. “See you Monday.”

“And think about the dog!” she yelled after him.

“Not likely,” he muttered under his breath.

Chapter 2

The small gang—two boys and one girl, not one of them out of their teens—followed him off the subway. Typical thugs—they needed reinforcements to rob a blind man. He led them down Milk Street and let them get close.

“Just so you know,” he said, turning, “in about half an hour the moon will be up. So this is a very, very bad idea. I mean”—they rushed him, and his stick caught the first one in the throat—“it’s a bad idea in general. There are only about a thousand”—his elbow clocked down on the skull of the second—“more respectable ways to make a living.” He hesitated with the girl and nearly got his cheek sliced open for his trouble. He pulled his head back, heard the whisper of steel slide past his face, and then grabbed her wrist and pulled, checking his force at the last moment. She flew past him, smacked into the brick wall, and then flopped to the ground like a puppet with her strings cut. “Seriously,” he told the dazed, semiconscious youths. “You should think about it. And what are you up to?”

“Nothing,” the other werewolf said cheerfully. “Just came down to see if you needed a hand. Christ, when was the last time these three had a bath?”

“About two weeks ago.”

“How’s it going, Drake?”

“It’s going like it always does,” he said carefully. He had known Wade when they were younger, but it paid to be careful around pack.

He held out his hand and felt it engulfed by the younger man, who smelled like wood smoke and fried trout. Drake was a large man, but Wade had three inches and twenty pounds on him. If he wasn’t such a pussycat, he’d be terrifying. “Still keeping to your place in the country?”

“Sure. This city is fucking rank, man. I only came in to stock up. The day got away from me.”

“Try not to eat any of the populace.”

“Yuck! Have you seen what they eat? I wouldn’t chew a monkey on a bet.”

“That’s not nice,” Drake said mildly.

“Yeah, yeah, pardon my un-fucking PC behavior. Humans, okay, and never mind what they originated from. No, really! They should be proud to be shaved apes.”

“Tsk.”

“Hey, I’m glad I ran into you—you should head out to the Cape, say hi to the boss and Moira and those guys. Did you hear Moira got hitched?”

“I did, yes. To a monkey, right?”