Moon Lovers Box Set (BBW Werewolf Romance) by Mac Flynn Page A

couple of blocks down, a terrible place of broken windows and wretched residents. Ugly faces looked out of the busted windows and the alleyways were filled with the most vile scum known to man. I thought it was a bit better than my own block.
    They drove down one of those filthy alleys and parked the car at a side entrance to an abandoned restaurant. They dragged me out and into the ruined kitchen, or so I expected it to look. Instead it was in perfect condition complete with fancy French chefs working at the counters. I thought I was experiencing a mirage until the smell hit me and my stomach reminded me it hadn't been fed all evening. Even if it was a mirage my stomach was willing to give it a try.
    Unfortunately, the cops pulled me past the food and out into the front of the restaurant, or rather the middle. To fool everyone who passed by there was a false wall at the front that let in only a little natural light. The real room was filled with clean tables covered in white cloths and most of the places were filled with people in dresses and coattails. Along the walls were booths of curved, overstuffed seats with two chairs on one side. A man in a fancy top hat with a white band and coat passed by us and out into the dark alley.
    The crooked cops led me to one of the stuffed seats where a balding, short bespectacled man in a dark suit sat with his broad, a woman in a wine-colored dress with blond hair that could only have been made in a dye factory. The woman had on a coy smile and a gallon of perfume. She puffed on a long cigarette with a large green ring at the end of one of her fingers, and the man ate spaghetti with all the manners of a one-legged chicken. He glanced up and sneered at me. The look would have been more intimidating if he hadn't had sauce on his chin.
    The policemen set me down in one of the chairs and stood behind me. The man glared at them and jerked his head toward the kitchen. "Get on outta here," he sneered. "She can't get far." The cops glanced at each other and wandered back to the kitchen. I glanced around and couldn't see any other way to escape the posh prison of this restaurant.
    I looked between the pair with the fancy woman smoking her cigarette and the pig-man gorging himself on pasta. Under the circumstances there was only one comment I could make. "If you're going to kill me the least you could do is give me a last meal."
    The woman laughed, but the man didn't even crack a smile. He looked up from his plate and sneered. "You're a bold one, aren't you?" he shot back.
    "I've got nothing to lose except weight, and I don't think your goons brought me here for some exercise," I replied.
    "You must excuse them," the woman spoke up. "They're quite useful, but very stupid."
    "And a great risk," the man added. "You should get rid of them and-"
    "-and you should keep your mouth shut," the woman snapped at him. The short man shrunk back and sulked in his noodles. I glanced between the pair in bewilderment. The woman noticed my face and laughed. "I know what you're thinking, I've seen it on a lot of faces. You thought this butterball here was the leader of the Green Bandanna gang, didn't you?"
    "Um, maybe?" I squeaked out.
    The woman leaned back and puffed out a ring of smoke. "It's an honest mistake, and I keep up appearances by keeping this oaf around. Besides, he makes me laugh." The man raised his head from his spaghetti and gave a toothy grin. She laughed and patted him on the head. "Such a silly little man."
    "Thank you, my dear," he replied before he returned to stuffing his face.
    The woman glanced back to me, and in the dim lighting the green ring on her finger sparkled. "But where are my manners. My name is Madam Sphinx, leader of the Green Bandannas."
    "Madam Sphinx?" I repeated.
    "Don't you like it? It gives a sense of the mysterious." And the ludicrous, but I wasn't about to tell my captor that.
    "Um, Tasha-"
    "-Taylor," Sphinx finished for me. "I know your name, but that's not what I