by Peyton Bogue
The pictures where Rhys’s eyes do cause a camera flare are photos Sage refuses to throw away or delete from his phone, though. Rhys should never have to hide who he is, even though he lives his life in secret compared to anyone else. Sage loves those pictures, even if he can’t ever do anything with them.
Sage has his own picture like the one on Kai’s fridge from Tahoe amongst the many more photos of he and Rhys together back at their brownstone. The picture Sage has on his nightstand is from the same scenery, only it’s a candid of just the two of them in front of the lake—where Sage is smiling brightly at Rhys with a hand on his chest, and Rhys is grinning back down at him fondly, his right arm resting around Sage’s waist. They hadn’t realized that Kai had been taking their picture, and the way Rhys is looking at Sage in the photo is enough to make Sage's heart flutter—so much love and affection sparkling all over Rhys's face from the sun’s reflection off the crystal blue lake behind them.
From all of the pictures he and Rhys have taken together over the course of the three years they’ve been together, the picture of them in Tahoe is undoubtedly Sage's favorite.
“I mean, what was Richards thinking?” Kai asks suddenly, a berating edge to his voice, and Sage draws his eyes away from the photo on the fridge, looking up to see Kai leaning against the wall opposite to him and huffing.
“I know, Kai. This gun is incredibly dangerous, and there’s two hundred and nineteen of them out there. The FBI could have at least warned us about what we’d be dealing with,” Sage says in agreement, crossing his arms and leaning back against the corner of Kai’s kitchen counter.
Kai shakes his head. “I hate this case. We can’t let any more of these guns fall into the public’s hands, man. We’ve got to get them off of the streets.”
“We will, Kai,” Sage replies, nodding his head confidently. “Hazel said that she found a fiber wedged into the trigger of the gun. It might be able to lead us to where the other guns are being stored.”
Hazel had called him only a few minutes ago while they were riding up in the elevator to Kai’s apartment to tell him her findings. They’d taken Richards back to the precinct to drop him off, and neither Sage nor Kai had been very forthcoming with much friendly conversation.
Having this gun out on the streets is a serious problem. The FBI’s neglect of that oversight isn’t an excuse for keeping that knowledge private. If Richards hadn’t told them the truth, their investigation could have ended up going a lot worse than it currently is. Sage understands Kai’s frustration. He’s frustrated. Mikalina was absolutely livid when she found out. But they’ve got a case to solve. Now that they know this information, they can take the necessary next steps in order to do something with it. Hazel is currently looking through the rest of the soldiers’ backgrounds in Aldridge’s battalion, and all they can do, at this moment, is wait until she finds something.
“That’s good,” Kai tells him, moving to open the fridge. “Did she say what kind of fiber it was yet?”
“Some kind of cloth tied into a knot. She thinks it’s from a Persian rug.”
Kai steps back, raising an eyebrow. “Didn’t Steven Aldridge have a Persian rug in his cabin?”
Sage tilts his head, thinking. A moment later, he nods in reconciliation. “Actually, yeah. I think he did.” He purses his lips. “Are you thinking he’s a smuggler?”
Kai shrugs, uncapping the water bottle he’s pulled out from the fridge. “Maybe. But at least that gives us another option to pursue.”
Sage nods, crossing his arms.
Kai takes a sip of his water, giving Sage a knowing smile after he’s swallowed.
“Did Hazel tell you all of that information before or after she flirted with you?” he asks, his smile twisting into a smirk.
Sage groans. “Can you not mention that when Rhys gets here, please? I really don’t want him to get all worked up again about nothing.”
Kai points at him accusingly, still gripping the water bottle in his hand. “That girl is halfway in love with you, man. You’re going to have to let her down eventually. She’s starting to look desperate, Sage. Especially when she already knows that you’re in a committed relationship.”
Sage rolls his eyes, fixing Kai with a patient look.
“I know I need to talk to her about it, and I will, Kai,” his eyes dart towards the door, “but Rhys is also going to be here any minute, and I don’t want him to hear about how someone else flirted with me, especially not when he’s already on edge and probably not in the best of moods, so can we please drop it?”
Kai stares back at him tentatively, raising the hand not gripping the water bottle to scratch at the back of his neck bashfully. Sage can see that Kai is a little shocked by his outburst, and guilt pools in Sage’s chest, and he grimaces at himself.
“I’m dropping it,” Kai says, his eyes flicking back to Sage’s apologetically. “I promise. I didn’t mean anything by it when I brought it up.”
“I know. I’m sorry I got snappy with you. I didn’t mean to jump down your throat,” Sage offers, giving Kai a small, apologetic smile.
Kai waves his hand in dismissal, giving Sage an overexaggerated ‘tsk’ sound. “You’re fine, Sage. I get it. I know how Rhys can be.”
Sage sighs at that, bringing his left hand up to rub tiredly over his eyes. “I know how dramatic I sound. He’s just so out of control lately, Kai. He’s even more possessive than he normally is, and if he hears that Hazel’s been flirting with me, he’ll get all upset about it and work himself up. We already had another bad night last night,” Sage exhales another sigh, “and I really don’t want to have another one tonight.”
“Do you want to cancel dinner?” Kai asks, and Sage knows that he’s being genuine. He doesn’t think that Sage is making a big deal out of nothing. He knows how serious and bad it could be if Rhys wolfed out right now when he’s barely got a lid on his control. “I know you’re tired, man, and Rhys probably isn’t going to mind if you decide we should cancel and that you guys should stay in for the night.”
Sage shakes his head, giving Kai a reassuring smile. “No, Kai. Family dinner is a tradition.” Kai gives him a wide grin and a chuckle. “I’m alright. I’m just worried about Rhys. You know how I get when I’m worried.”
Kai scoffs, but he gives Sage another smile, nudging him fondly. “I have received the wrath of your worry one too many times, Kaelan.”
Sage punches him lightly on the arm, pointing at him jokingly and mockingly scolding, “You know as well as I do that if I’d let you sign up to join the Army with me, we both would have never have heard the end of it from your Ma, and you know that, Kai.”
Kai laughs loudly, nodding his head in agreement. They both know how much Kai’s Ma would have fussed over them, dragging them down to her height by their ears so she could properly talk some sense into them. Kai should be eternally grateful for dodging the bullet on that one. Sage wasn’t as fortunate.
“I would have had your back over there,” Kai says gently, slapping Sage’s hand away from him. “You would have had someone in your corner. I could have maybe—”
“I know, Kai,” Sage cuts him off, unwilling to dreg up the memories he knows that Kai is referring to. Tonight’s not the night for that.
Kai just gives him another nod and a soft smile, gently patting Sage’s shoulder before moving away, catching on to Sage’s reluctance to revisit the past. It’s not that Sage isn’t acknowledging those memories, or that he doesn’t feel comfortable talking about them with Kai. Those memories feel irrelevant to him now. He doesn’t want to think about them because they aren’t important enough for him to grant them space in his thoughts.
The dog tags on his neck burn hot, though, and he can feel them scorching into his chest like a beacon to his heart, as if to say I’m a part of you, whether you choose to acknowledge it or not.
The sound of the window in the dining room opening draws Sage out of his thoughts, and his hand falls away from his chest where he’d
been clutching at the dog tags unconsciously. Both Sage and Kai glance towards the dining room, their hands immediately moving to their guns still on their waistbands, only to see Rhys duck through the open pane a moment later, landing eloquently next to the wooden chair at the back of the dining room table.
He looks better than he did this morning, like he’s gotten some sleep and was able to completely dispel the nightmare out of his head. It makes Sage grin, and he drops his hands away from his gun, and his smile only widens when he hears Kai make an exasperated sound next to him, moving to unclip his holster and lay it on his kitchen counter.
“Jesus Christ, Lon Chaney. Ever heard of coming in through the front door?”
Rhys just grins at him, moving to the front door to take off his shoes.
Kai continues, waving his hand towards the window. “There’s not even a fire escape near that window, dude. What did you do—climb up the wall?”
Rhys turns back around, shrugging, a hint of a smirk on his lips, and says nonchalantly, “Yes.”
Kai makes another exasperated sound, but Sage knows that he’s not actually annoyed, just trying to act put-out like he always does when Rhys does something normal humans can’t do.
“Who would be Bela Lugosi?” Sage asks him, grinning harder when Kai lightly punches him on the shoulder.
Rhys smiles, moving closer to them. He stops in his tracks though, sniffing the air like he can’t help himself, and a dark look settles over his face immediately. He snarls, and the sound of it echoes disparagingly off of the brick walls.
Both Kai and Sage turn to him in surprised confusion, shocked at the sudden hostile shift, and Rhys makes another deep, guttural sound in the back of his throat before he’s at Sage’s side in an instant, inhaling deeply.
“Why do you smell like that?” he asks, a growl in his voice. His tone isn’t demanding or abrasive, just genuinely confused, but it’s as if he can’t stop himself from growling, clearly irritated by Sage’s, apparently, execrable smell.
Sage glances over at Kai quizzically, who’s watching Rhys with a tenacious look, and feels like he’s missed something. Kai just shrugs his shoulders in confusion at Sage’s wide-eyed look, caught off guard by Rhys’s hostility as much as Sage is. Sage turns back to Rhys, careful to keep his voice level and calm.
“You always say that I smell weird when I get back from work, Rhys. I’ve been around a lot of people today.”
Rhys snarls again, shaking his head derisively. “It’s not that.” He moves to Sage’s other side, pushed up right against Sage’s front. “You smell like . . .” Rhys growls low in his throat, and there’s no mistaking the sharp edge of danger that lies underneath his frustration.
“Like what, Ree?” Sage asks him gently, inhaling slowly, trying to unconsciously get Rhys to mimic his movements, to take a breath, to calm down before he loses it.
“Like another werewolf,” Rhys bites out, and Sage’s entire body runs cold at the venom in his voice.
“What?” he asks, trying to hold back his confusion as he looks at Rhys hesitantly. Another werewolf? Sage had barely known that werewolves had existed three and a half years ago, and Rhys is the only one he’s ever met. There’s no way he could smell like another werewolf.
“Rhys,” Kai says slowly, ever the calm in the storm, “take a deep breath, man. Use your words. You’re starting to freak us out, buddy.”
Sage knows that his heart is racing in his chest. He’s not scared—he would never be scared of Rhys—but he’s on edge, and he can feel his anxiety thrumming through his veins at the way Rhys looks moments away from completely wolfing out.
Rhys darts his normal gray eyes over to Kai, still growling threateningly, and Sage watches, mildly surprised, as Rhys takes a small step away from him, sensing Sage’s anxiety, and takes a deep breath. He’s clearly not happy about putting space between them, but Sage can see that he’s desperately trying to hold himself back to ease Sage’s worry.
His face twists up discomfortingly once more though, as if the other werewolf’s scent is flooding his senses again, and a low growl sounds in his throat as his eyes briefly flicker Alpha red before they dim back into gray.
“Why would I smell like another werewolf?” Sage asks him, watching Rhys carefully. “Are there any other werewolves in New York?”
“Not that I know of,” Rhys says through clenched teeth, clearly trying to listen to Kai and rein himself back in before he worries Sage even more.
“Who have we talked to today, Sage? You and I have pretty much been together all day, man. It’s not like we went or did anything out of the usual for us,” Kai says rationally, and Sage nods.
“I don’t know, Kai. We’ve talked to a lot of people today.” He bites his bottom lip, eyeing Rhys’s defensive stance. “How would we have run into another werewolf? What’s another werewolf even doing here?”
Rhys growls and both Sage and Kai jump slightly at the sound.
“New York City is my territory,” he bites out, his breathing picking up. “I’m the Alpha, and this omega has entered my territory without my permission, and he’s scented you, which means he’s directly challenging me, so he knows who you are, and he knows who I am.”
Sage’s eyes widen, and he looks at Rhys sharply. “Omega? What does that even mean?”
Rhys places his hands on top of the kitchen counter, leaning against it to try to anchor himself. His claws are out, and Sage eyes them warily, his entire body tense.
“An omega is a werewolf without a pack,” Rhys says after a long pause, his face impassive. “They’re desperate to belong, but they’re drifters and deserters. They’re basically betas, but betas belong to a pack. Since this one is here, spreading his scent all over you, it means that he wants me to know that he’s in my territory and willing to do whatever it takes to challenge me.” A pause and another growl. “Which means that he’s incredibly dangerous.”
Sage takes a deep breath, comprehension dawning on him. “You think he’s going to try to do something to me, don’t you?”
“I will rip his throat out if he so much as touches you again,” Rhys growls, but it’s all the confirmation that Sage needs. Sage swallows around the dry tongue in his mouth, feeling apprehension begin to curl in his stomach.
Rhys clenches his hands into fists, and the sound of his claws ripping into the skin of his palms is audible in the tense silence of the kitchen.
Kai takes a step forward, moving to grab a dish rag hanging on a rod by the sink, careful to put space between himself and Rhys, who looks absolutely murderous. The last thing neither Kai nor Sage needs is for Rhys to feel like they’re cornering him when he’s on the verge of wolfing out.
“Let’s take it easy, guys,” Kai says steadily, handing the rag to Rhys, who stares at it menacingly. A second later, he reaches out and takes it, nodding in thanks, and wipes the towel between his hands so he can clean the blood resting over his already healed wounds.
“He scented you, Sage,” Rhys says, his voice low but still sharp. His words are heavy, the weight of them knocking a breath out of Sage’s lungs. “Right near your neck. That’s where I scent you.”
Understanding washes over Sage then, flooding through his veins like ice. Rhys always scents him on his neck because it’s intimate, a type of affection that Rhys has always told him would only be shared between lovers because of how private and personal it is.
Rhys would never scent anyone else like that, not even Kai, no matter how much he wants those closest to him to smell like him. Rhys said it himself: he’s territorial.
Sage suddenly feels wrong, violated, as if his skin’s on fire. This werewolf practically defiled him.
“You said that this werewolf is an omega, right? Someone who doesn’t have a pack?” Kai asks, and Sage appreciates his ability to bring everyone’s attention back to what matters. “Why aren’t you considered an omega?”
Rhys looks at him blankly, his eyes pinched in confusion, as if he doesn’t know why Kai woul
d ask something so offensive. “I’m the Alpha,” he says, like it’s obvious.
“Well, yeah,” Kai replies patronizingly. “I know that. But you said it yourself, man, there aren’t any other werewolves in New York. Well, except for our uninvited guest.” He grins a little at his joke. “So, you don’t have a pack.”
Rhys looks at him, scowling, but he seems to understand what Kai is saying. “I have a pack.”
“You do?” Sage asks, tilting his head to the side. He hadn’t quite understood why Rhys isn’t considered an omega, either.
“Yes,” Rhys says patiently, giving Sage an odd look. “You two,” he gestures to Kai and Sage, “are my pack.”
Sage’s eyes widen in shock. He didn’t even know that was a thing.
“But Sage and I are human,” Kai says, confused, glancing over at Sage. “We’re not betas. Is that even possible?”
Rhys crosses his arms, tossing the rag onto the counter. He nods. “Yes. Human pack members are just as valuable and as important to the pack as wolf members are.”
Sage knows that a few of Rhys’s family members that were slaughtered in the fire that took his entire family’s lives were human. His brother was a human, barely fourteen years old when he was murdered. Rhys himself was almost seventeen, innocent and young, when he’d woken up in the burning house that would haunt his dreams for the rest of his life.
Sage reaches out towards Rhys, taking his hand and squeezing it. Rhys’s claws have disappeared back into his fingernails, and he looks calmer, less likely to wolf out at any second.
Rhys squeezes Sage’s hand gently, running the pad of his thumb in soothing circles over Sage’s skin.
“Why don’t we all just relax for a few, alright? Our food’s going to be here in like ten minutes. Let’s enjoy our family dinner,” Kai says, clapping his hands together. “Then we can talk about this werewolf situation, and what we’re going to do about it.”
It’s quiet for a moment, and both Rhys and Sage let out matching exhales, nodding. Kai grins at them, patting Sage on the back in reassurance before he steps towards the dining room.