Werewolves of New York by Faleena Hopkins

the door and watched the old man go in.
    “Well, I don’t know, but I sure am enjoying this weather. Let’s not rush it, okay?” He ambled to the apartment on the left before the stairs began, playing with his keys. “You have a good night.”
    Eli kept his smile friendly and tipped an invisible hat. “You too!” He headed up the stairs like he lived there.
    “You’re on the third floor, right? Do you have bed bugs?”
    Eli whipped around, halfway up the worn steps. “I am, and no sir, I don’t. Do you?”
    The old man shook his head, sneering. “Foul things. Of course I don’t! But I heard a rumor they were getting around.”
    Chuckling, Eli assured him, “I promise to tell you if I get them. But I will be very careful not to.”
    The old man said, “Errr,” and closed his door. The lock turned.
    Eli slowed down, climbing carefully up to level three, his wolf at the ready, ears cocked.
    Outside Diana’s apartment, he stood very still. Dontae had recommended a few days wait, but he couldn’t do that. He needed to keep from sniffing around every apartment building in the Financial District looking for Rose. But now that he had her number in that text, the itch to call her pulled at him like a heroin addiction. He channeled all the obsessive energy to Diana’s paint-chipped door. He heard voices, but of two women. Diana had a friend over, and there were only two heartbeats so Louis wasn’t inside.
    Eli considered waiting. It would give him something healthy to focus on, and hopefully for the whole night. There were only two apartments on each floor, six total. He walked to the other door on this level and heard a T.V. set playing inside, one heartbeat, its owner snoring.
    Eli sat down on the torn carpet and waited. He stayed there a long time staring into nothing, blissfully grateful his brain was quiet. It was like a meditation retreat compared to how his day had been.
    A crash from Diana’s apartment startled him, then a woman shouted, “What’s this! You’ve been looking up shelters? What are you looking up shelters for?” A loud crack sounded that Eli knew from experience was a slap with some power behind it.
    He jumped off the floor, staring at the door, mystified.
    Diana’s voice came muffled through the door, “I was looking them up for a friend!”
    “You’re going to leave me?!!” Another violent crack, this time much louder.
    “Stop, please, Louise, stop it.” Oh, shit! Louise! He gaped at the closed door, stunned. He couldn’t beat up a woman no matter how much of an abusive bitch she might be. Then he heard the horrible, distinctive sound of Diana crawling backwards on a hardwood floor to get away. He closed his eyes in agony. “I don’t want to leave you! I love you, Louise. Please!”
    “If you loved me, you wouldn’t be scaring me like this now would you? Huh?” Diana cried out as a dull noise that sounded like a kick reached Eli. “WOULD YOU?”
    Eli tore the door off the hinges, his rage unleashed. Diana cowered from her lover on the floor under their desk and Louise, a blonde woman who looked like she’d be comfortable on the front of a Harley, turned with surprise.
    Eli growled, “Back away from her, Louise. Get the fuck away. NOW.”
    Diana’s eyes went wide with recognition, but Louise recovered from her shock quickly and snarled at him. “Who the fuck are you?” She looked at Diana. “Who’s your knight in shining armor? Have you been cheating on me, with a MAN?”
    “NO! No, I haven’t cheated on you!” Diana pleaded. She looked at him. “Tell her! Tell her we don’t know each other.”
    Eli moved so fast that both women flinched. He grabbed Louise and turned her upside down, lifting her off the ground as though she weighed as much as the empty envelope lying on the desk behind her. Her hair and arms hung down, not touching the floor.
    His voice was an animalistic growl that gave both women goosebumps. “You are leaving. Tonight. And you’re never coming