Hyena Moon by Jeanette Battista Read Free Book Online Page A

haven't figured that part out yet. But we can't keep going like we are. We--as a clan--aren't big enough and Miami is way too large to keep track of every inch of it on a given day." She stopped to meet his eyes. "I've got to figure out something that will work. And it looks like opening the borders is the only way."
    Finn spoke up, also leaning forward, his stance a mimic of his cousin's. "What would you do about Samara? You can't open the borders while she's around. That's just asking her to swarm in here and take over."
    Kess nodded. "I know that. Let's face it, I can't just let her continue to send her raiding parties in here, and I know she won't rest until all my clan is dead and she's got the city for herself." Cormac and Finn nodded. She resumed her pacing again, running her fingers through her hair. "Let's take that off the table for right now. We're talking about what happens after I deal with her."
    Cormac was frowning. "Okay, so hypothetically, Samara is out of the picture somehow. Miami is all yours." He paused and picked at his shorts."Then what?"
    "Exactly. That's my point." Kess shrugged. "Your thoughts?" She looked from one to the other.
    Cormac was looking down at his hands, or maybe the carpet at his feet, as though he could divine answers there. Finn was lounging in the chair, head back. She stopped her pacing and leaned a hip against one of the empty chairs in the room, her arms folded across her chest. Here's where she ran into problems and this was why she'd wanted to talk to Finn and Cormac. Maybe a brainstorming session with brains other than hers would be more effective.
    Cormac spoke slowly, thinking out loud. "So the idea is that you'd open the borders. How do you plan to monitor everybody that comes in? Are you going to require that they report to you upon entry into the city? How do you enforce it?"
    "Yeah," Finn piped in, eyes flicking back and forth between the two of them. "A bunch of strange weres in town could cause a lot of problems, especially if they think no one is going to police them. You could have a much bigger problem on your hands."
    Kess chewed the side of her lip thoughtfully. She knew that most weres were concerned about their anonymity and that they would be circumspect in both their hunting and in hiding what they were. But what about the ones who weren't? "We've got that problem now with Samara. I don't know when her hyenas come and go. If they wanted to, they could cause no end of problems. We're lucky we've got safeguards. You guys saw how we handled those hyenas when Laila was here."
    The last time Samara was in Miami, Finn and Laila had been kidnapped at gunpoint when they were on the beach late at night by a bunch of her werehyenas. Laila and Finn had managed to escape, but they'd left a bloody mess of bodies--some human, some hyena. Kess had the number for Sek's old cleaning crew on speed dial since that night to make sure any signs of were-activity were swiftly erased.
    "So you've got some methods in place already," Cormac offered. Then he spread his hands out in front of him. "How are you going to handle pack law?"
    "Come again?" Kess started another circuit around the room.
    "Right now it's easy to deal with were problems--they're either your clan or they're interlopers. The interlopers know the rules about coming into your territory so they know the punishment and accept the risk. And your clan knows the punishment for stepping out of line. You can control both of those things. But you get some strangers in here--let's say a couple of wolves, maybe a bear, some more cats--and how are you going to enforce the rules? It isn't like there's one pack that they could all belong to. Hell, how are you even going to get the rules out there for them to know what they are?"
    Kess resisted the urge to tear her hair out in frustration. This was what was driving her nuts; all of these what ifs and how will yous were enough to make her want to run away as fast and as far as she