-7- Lily

Lily hurried towards the employee break room that also served as a locker room. She tossed her things into a small gray locker and slipped on the mandatory white lab coat. The whole time she ran over her cover story. She’s there two hours early because she wanted to try to get on top of the backlog they currently had. Lily put on a pair of latex gloves and took out the pills her dad gave her from the evidence locker.

She had only done a basic test of the pills against known drugs, but it came up negative on all counts. So today she was going to go into a deeper analysis. Crushing one pill, Lily brushed the power into a petri dish and placed it into a large machine. The machine would tell her the chemical makeup and it should help her determine what the pill was for.

Putting the bottle back into the locker, she decided to give some truth to her cover story. Taking one of the many samples waiting to be tested, Lily began to work. She’d made more progress when she heard shouting. Lily glanced up, wondering if Henry, the lead chemist, had pissed off Celine, the very pregnant and very irritable biochemist.

Lily shook her head with an eye roll. When would that man learn to stop messing with her? Lily wondered as she returned to work. She was starting to see why he’s divorced. Men like him were one reason she avoided relationships. The benefits didn’t come close to outweighing the bullshit that came with it.

“Henry, I swear if you dare try your shit on me-“ Lily started when she heard the door keyed open.

“Henry’s busy at the moment,” an unfamiliar voice replied. Lily spun around in her chair to see a muscular man with a ski mask standing in the doorway. Fear slid through her as she watched him toss the card key to the floor and walked towards her. “Where are they?” He demanded, standing before her now.

“Where’s what?” she asked, though she felt she knew what he came looking for.

He made a sound of disgust as he grabbed her lab coat and pulled her out of the chair. “You know perfectly well what,” he told her coldly.

This was serious, she realized. Those dead teens, the attempted kidnapping. Someone was out to hurt her father’s pack. Feeling a strange sense of bravery. Lily looked up at him. “No, I don’t know. There are so many dru-“ she started.

The thief interrupted her as he made the sound of a buzzer from a game show. “Wrong answer!” Then backhanded her across the face hard.

Lily felt her world spin, and she shook her head as the metallic taste of blood filled her mouth. She tried to clear her blurred vision, then looked up at the man before her. She had learned one thing from all her time studying criminal investigation. Details, any and all details, mattered. The thief had cold, dark eyes and light brown or blonde hair, judging by his eyebrows. He was pale with full lips that were only a little darker than his skin complexion.

“I don’t have all day, human,” he snapped, shaking her and breaking her concentration.

Human, did he just call her human? Werewolf! He’s a werewolf! Another slice of fear slid through her.

“Where is it?” he insisted, and she noticed his dark eyes were changing into a yellowish brown color.

“I’m not going to tell you,” she said, glaring up at him.

The thief was not expecting her defiance as he growled. “What do you mean, you’re not going to tell me?”

She smirked at him, feeling some confidence in the fact that the werewolf had to have half a brain. He’d have to know killing her would bring much attention to this area and his kind. “Wow, fluffy,” she teased. “You sure aren’t a bright one; I mean what I said. I am not going to tell you anything!”

He snarled like a rabid dog, and his eyes almost glowed like molten gold. “Stupid woman,” he spat, then tossed her across the room.

Lily screamed as she flew, crashing into the wall and slid down it to the floor. Okay, teasing the big bad wolf maybe not such a good idea. She groaned as she pushed herself up onto her hands and knees. It appeared that everything remained in working order and nothing had been broken. Bruised as hell, but not broken. Thank God for small miracles.

Lily cried out in surprise as the thief pulled her up and once more demanded to know where the pills were. “I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. I’m not going to tell you,” she said and flinched when he punched a hole in the wall close to her head.

“If you do not tell me, then I promise I’ll kill everyone in this building as you watch. Then I’ll kill you,” he threatened.

Lily smirked at him again. “No you won’t! Theft in a crime lab is bad enough, but killing everyone? That’d be beyond stupid. You’d bring down so much attention on this town. There’d be no way you’d be able to prevent them from discovering what you are.”

“Unless I make it look like some junkie or gang hit,” the thief said, taking out a Glock 45. He waved it around as if saying, See what I’ve got.

Lily’s eyes widened, and she swallowed a lump in her throat. “Alright,” she relented, and he let her go. She stumbled back. Her limbs were a little shaky. She leaned against the large analyst machine for support.

“Where?” he barked, causing her to flinch.

She looked up at him with a glare. If there was one thing she hated more than anything, it was bullies and this guy was a big one. “I’m going, Fur Ball,” she barked back then walked over towards the evidence locker. Lily unlocked the cabinet and grabbed a similar orange pill bottle. Only this one contained ecstasy. “Here,” she said, thrusting them into his hand. She hoped he wouldn’t be able to know the difference.

He shook the bottle and tossed it across the room, growling at her. The thief grabbed her by the back of her neck and pulled her close to him. “I’m losing my patience with you! Give me what I want or I will kill people!”

Lily let a breath out through her gritted teeth, sounding much like a hiss. She took the pills out of her pocket and held them out to him.

“Good girl,” he said with a tone of approval as he took them.

She glared at him, furious with him and herself. “Bite me,” she snapped before she could stop herself. Her eyes widened as she realized the implications of what she’d said.

He raised an eyebrow up and gave her a curious look as he tucked away the pills in his pants pocket. “That pretty little mouth is going to get you into big trouble someday,” he told her. His tone made it sound almost as if he was flirting with her. A small, sly smile spread across his mouth. The thief pulled his hand into a fist and slammed it hard into one machine next to her, destroying it.

“What are you doing, asshole?” Lily shrieked as he repeated his attack on another machine. “Stop it! What are you doing?” She insisted, grabbing his arm to stop him.

“Should have done what I told you the first time, human,” he replied as he then swung around and hit her.

Lily felt as if her head had exploded. Bright white light burst behind her eyelids and then everything went to black.