The Black Wolves of Boston (eARC)

by Wen Spencer

  He should go make sure Joshua lay still as Dr. Huff removed the bullets. If his brother struggled, he could hurt the very human woman. If he left, Jack might die.

  "Seth," Jack whispered. "I'm sorry."

  Seth's heart seized in his chest. "No, you are not going to die on me, Jack."

  "I've screwed up so many times. I should have gone to the barn with Samuels. I should have sent Ilya to New York. I should have made you..."

  "You did what you could! I'm the prince! I should have known..."

  "You're sixteen, Seth. Everyone keeps forgetting that because you've stepped up and been the prince. You shouldn't have to be making these kinds of decisions."

  "I don't care."

  "Then go take care of Ilya. Your brother needs you."

  Dr. Huff was shaving Joshua's fur away from the bullet holes so she could see the wounds clearly. At any moment, she would start digging out the slugs. Seth couldn't imagine staying still as someone did that to him, not even someone he trusted as much as Dr. Huff.

  But if he left Jack, he'd die.

  "Jack..."

  "Go!"

  Seth staggered to his feet. He picked up the bottle of Earthblood. He knew Jack was right. He had a duty to keep Dr. Huff safe. If Joshua bit her, she'd go feral. But even as he started down the hall, he could feel Jack get weaker.

  Seth stopped in the living room, stranded between his remaining family members. Jack or Joshua? Which one did he save? Both had just put their life on the line for him. Joshua was his duty to protect, a puppy in his territory, and his brother who already once been lost to the family. Jack would rather die than fail Joshua again. But to lose Jack? Seth couldn't bear that.

  The door suddenly open and Alexander stalked into the vet's surgery.

  "Sire!" Seth was never so glad to see his foster father. Relief swept through him so strong that his knees gave out.

  Alexander paused to put his hand on Seth's head. "Get to your cousin." The king took the bottle of Earthblood. "I'll see to your brother."

  "Yes, sire."

  58: Decker

  Decker had spent over three hundred years living in the shadow of the Wolf King but he'd never met the creature. He recognized Alexander instantly. It felt like someone had opened the door to summer; magic radiated off the king in a wave of sun-warmed green.

  The Wolf King was surprisingly average height, although at one time he would have been considered tall. His hair was snowy white and gathered back into a braid. It was difficult to tell if the color of his hair was because he was a white wolf or merely ancient. He wore a charcoal gray suit and tie tailored of the most recent fashion.

  Decker stood holding Joshua's head as Dr. Huff shaved away the fur around the bullet wounds. All his instincts were screaming to run. He tightened his hold.

  "Your majesty," Decker managed to whisper. It pleased him that anything came out. Now if he could keep from letting anything improper leak out. This time his humor would get him killed instantly. He didn't want to upset Joshua.

  Dr. Huff's eyes went wide over her surgical mask. She glanced behind her. "Oh! Oh God!"

  Joshua growled weakly.

  "Sh," Decker whispered. "We're safe. There's nothing to harm us."

  The king gave Decker a long hard stare. "You're the Grigori's pet monster."

  That was his heart leaping up his throat. It been a long time since he'd felt fear this sharply. He'd almost forgotten how horrible it was. "Yes."

  Joshua growled and tried to get up.

  "Hush." Decker leaned down to press his forehead to Joshua's. "He's here to help you."

  Joshua whined but laid still.

  "Why are you even here?" The king moved no closer. "Do you not know that a werewolf's bite is a wound that will never fully heal? He could cripple you for the rest of your very long life."

  "He needs me," Decker said. "I cannot abandon him in his time of need. If he hurts me, so be it. It will be without malice." Good, now stop talking. Don't make any jokes.

  "We will keep him still," the king said to Dr. Huff. "Get the bullets out of him."

  We? Decker had expected to be chased away. He pressed his lips tight on the questions. If he started talking, something stupid could slip in. Best to be quiet while things were going the way he wanted them.

  "This is a topical. It will numb the pain." Dr. Huff flushed the wound. "Not for long, but it's better than nothing. Sweetie, I'm going to have to ask you to be brave."

  Joshua whimpered.

  "Just do it," the king ordered. "He's growing weaker as you baby him."

  Dr. Huff frowned over her mask at the king but picked up a scalpel and pair of clamps and started.

  She dropped the bloody, misshapen bullets into a pan one at a time. They made dull chimes of metal on metal. They were joined by countless wads of gauze soaked in blood. Joshua had gone still, barely breathing. Decker didn't want to believe he was dying, but the evidence was too clear.

  Dr. Huff rinsed the wounds out with Earthblood. "There. It's done."

  "Ilya." The king brushed her aside. He gathered Joshua's limp body. "I have looked for you too long for you to die on me."

  The heat from the king became white hot and Joshua flared into brilliance, as if his entire body became light itself. When the light faded, the black wolf had become a confused-looking boy.

  "Who are you?" Joshua whispered.

  "I am your king."

  "King?" Joshua frowned at him a moment and then his eyes went wide. "Oh shit! You're the Wolf King!"

  The boy flailed in the king's hold. He transformed into a black wolf pup and leapt at Decker.

  "He's shy," Decker lied as the puppy burrowed under his arm.

  "I see." Alexander stared at Decker for a minute before nodding.

  Decker wasn't sure what the nod meant.

  "I need to go see to my Thane." The Wolf King turned and walked out of the operating room. Surely it was a day that miracles could happen.

  59: Elise

  "We have to stop meeting like this," Cabot whispered weakly as Elise poured Earthblood over his wounds. The gleaming liquid splashed over the bullet holes and drained out of the bathtub bloody red.

  "Yes, we do," she said.

  She'd been afraid that both Cabot and Joshua would be dead when she returned. She never thought she'd be so happy to see the Wolf King. Judging by Seth's face, Cabot's baby cousin felt much the same. Seth sat in the massive bathtub with Cabot. She could feel his power radiating off him like the morning sun. It filled the bathroom with the scent of deep forest.

  "We should try just dating like normal people," Cabot said. Was his voice already stronger? "Dinner. Something fun. Regular stuff instead of this witches with silver weapons."

  "I'm open to that." She emptied the bottle over the bullet wounds. Yes, they were healing shut.

  "How about Friday?" Cabot said.

  She took comfort in the fact that he'd probably be fully recovered. The Wolf King's return to United States, though, changed their relationship. "Friday works. Probably. We should check our social calendars. Make sure we're not conflicting with something."

  He nodded, understanding the unspoken part of her reservation. "Like saving the world?"

  "Yes, something like that." She was thinking God and Wolf Kings deciding that they were otherwise unavailable, but saving the world was what Thanes and Virtues did.

  * * *

  The Wolf King was born before even Icarus strapped on wings and took his mythical ill-fated flight. The first verified human flight had been 1903. It meant for two thousand years of his life, flying was something only birds and a handful of Grigori did. It was only natural, then, that the Wolf King didn't think werewolves should fly. It was something to be done only in emergencies. Having landed safely at Logan International, the Wolf King declared that he would not reboard his private jet. He ordered the Thane at the Castle to drive the king's fleet of Bentleys nearly four hours to Boston. The main roads were crowded with holiday travelers
and the side roads were still being cleared from the blizzard. Driving to New York City was extremely impractical but no one even tried to sway the king from this course.

  The decision delayed the process of the werewolves decamping. The night was ticking closer and closer toward dawn.

  Elise found Decker in Dr. Huff's deep walk-in closet. The Royal Vet had an impressive array of patent-leather boots and goth black clothes. Ghost traces of amber, musk, and leather scented the narrow, deep windowless space.

  The vampire had tucked himself under a rack of leather corsets and lace boleros. A black wolf puppy slept in his arms. The puppy stirred to growl sleepily when Elise opened the door.

  "Hush, it's just Elise. Go back to sleep," Decker petted the puppy until it tucked its head back under his arm. The look on Decker's face was heartbreaking. He knew time was running out.

  "The Thane called," Elise said. "They're stuck on the highway behind a big pileup. They'll be here after dawn. You should go home before Isaiah arrives."

  "I'm not leaving," Decker said. "Joshua needs me."

  The man had already faced down the king; he would not flee before the king's son.

  "You're going to be asleep and helpless."

  "I don't care."

  It was what Elise was afraid of. Once the Wolf King took Joshua away, Decker would stop caring about anything. "The Wolf King is not going to be able to keep him in New York City long."

  Decker gave her a confused look. "What?"

  "Joshua's heart is going to be here in Boston. He likes living with you. You're important to him. His brother is going to be here---sooner or later, he'll be back."

  Decker's eyes widen with the realization. "Yes, he will be." He sighed and dimmed. "The house will seem so empty until then."

  "You are my oldest friend. You have been nothing but patient and loyal to me." Elise reached out to take his hand. She couldn't remember the last time she touched him with gentleness. She'd forgotten how cool his skin felt. The vivid memory arose of him holding her in his lap when she was four or five and sick with a fever. His hand felt so good against her forehead. She'd repaid his kindness by throwing up on him. Since she'd returned from Greece, she'd repaid him by treating him like a tool. Something taken out and used when needed but otherwise kept in a box and ignored. Friends were not things to be used.

  "I'm just starting to realize how much I've misunderstood everything. My mother tried to warn me that I was giving my vows too much of myself. She kept saying 'God loves individuality, otherwise he wouldn't make snowflakes.' I thought that was just trite nonsense that she said to pacify me." Usually the phrase was in response to Elise's criticism of her mother's relationship with Decker. "I tried to make myself the perfect weapon and in doing so, I abandoned everything that made me Elise. I've lost track of everything important to me. I don't even know what I like to do for fun."

  Decker gave her a sly smile. "You liked making dioramas."

  He meant the plastic cowboys and Indians tying a vampire to a stake to be burned.

  She smacked him out of sheer habit. "I'm sorry. It was cruel. I hope Joshua threw it away."

  "You were a child and bored. I should have made my house a welcoming place for the living instead of one massive trash bin. I could have had an entire room full of toys."

  "It would have made me more suspicious of you as I got older."

  "Perhaps but it would have made your childhood more bearable."

  It might have, but she doubted it. She'd been happy when she was very young. Much of her unhappiness had come from her own growing surety that she knew how the world worked. It was time to question everything instead of accepting things at face value.

  "We can't change the past but we can make any future that we want." I can be someone I like instead of this hard, angry woman. "I want to find out what I like to do for fun. We can even start with dioramas."

  60: Seth

  Seth braced himself for a fight. The immediate danger to his family was over but his brother wasn't safe. Seth needed to somehow face down the king to make sure Joshua stayed in Boston. The idea of fighting the king was frightening, not for his own well-being, but for the fact that he didn't think he'd win. Still, he'd trained for this fight his entire life.

  Step one was to get the king alone where none of the Thane could hear the argument. The king would never allow himself to seem weak in front of them. Luckily the rooms in Dr. Huff's offices were small and the Thanes were exhausted from their long flight from Belgrade.

  Seth chased the king's lawyer, Bishop, from the room with a hard look and then shut the door. "You need to make a choice. Isaiah and Joshua can't exist in the same house. You've been too lenient on Isaiah; he will not leave Joshua alone. Either you must move Isaiah elsewhere---his grandfather's in Russia---or leave Joshua in Boston."

  "I must?" Alexander gave no hint to his mindset in the dry quiet words.

  The king was never swayed by emotional outburst. During the last three years as he trailed behind the king, Seth had watched passionate pleas fail every time. Only cold logic would move him.

  "I do not dictate this; the facts stand by themselves." Seth forced himself to speak calmly. "My only part in this is that I will not stand by and allow Isaiah harm my brother. I will assume that the first offense is a pattern of intent and I will kill Isaiah."

  "That sounds like you are dictating."

  "Isaiah has made it clear over the last three years that he will not respect me or leave what is mine in peace. If you had supported me, then perhaps I would have options, but as it stands, I have only one means to control Isaiah."

  There were times that Alexander was more like a granite statue than a man. He looked at Seth with his long unending, unblinking stare. It always made Seth's eyes hurt trying to match the king's gaze. In the end, Seth always had to look down, blinking furiously.

  It didn't occur to him to glance up. He wondered how many times that Isaiah had made that mistake.

  "Sire, the leash is destroyed." That was Seth's strongest point. "There is no reason anymore for anyone to try and harm my brother with the exception of Isaiah. Joshua has a safe place with Decker, who has proven for half a century that he can be trusted. My brother can remain with Decker until I return to Boston."

  Seth wanted to push---include himself in the deal---but he knew that now wasn't the time. Alexander would only give him one thing and it had to be that Joshua stayed out of Isaiah's reach.

  "You believe the only solution is to leave Joshua here or to move Isaiah elsewhere?"

  Seth couldn't think of any other solution. "Joshua is too dominant to send to another territory for the interim. If the alpha died while he was part of the pack, he would inherit the alpha over any blood relative. He doesn't know the first thing about being a werewolf. He'd be completely lost as the pack tore itself apart."

  "He can be taught." The king's tone gave no clue to his intent.

  "He's happy here. If he's unhappy, he'll run. He's very good at running. I had trouble catching him in my own territory. He might go back home to his parents and the newborn marquis won't know how to deal with that."

  "If he runs, I can find him."

  Alexander could find Joshua anywhere. Historically, Alexander had a short fuse for wolves that caused him grief.

  The last thing Seth wanted was Alexander's anger coming down on Joshua. "He wasn't given a choice about being a werewolf. He's been resisting integrating the wolf. He managed during the fight to work with the wolf. If he is unhappy..."

  "You should know by now that I do not care about anyone's happiness."

  He plowed on with his reasoning. "If Joshua is unhappy he'll start fighting his wolf again. He still can go feral."

  "He is stronger than you give him credit for."

  Yes, he knew that, but he was hoping to rattle Alexander's determination. One thing he'd learned in the last three years, Alexander ultimately cared only about their people as a whole. He did not allow fondness of any one individu
al to sway him.

  Perhaps that was the key.

  "I need an heir. We need to rebuild the Boston pack. You lost all the bloodstock with the exception of me and Jack."

  Alexander was silent for a moment. "I have lost entire packs before," he stated quietly. "Before the treaty with the Grigori, it was common. With you and Jack, I have more than I have had in the past to rebuild. When the time is right, we'll start to rebuild your pack."

  When the time was right. In other words, not now.

  Seth locked down on a wave of sorrow that went through him. The king wasn't going to listen to reason. Joshua had lost everything. Friends. Home. Foster parents. It seemed as if the king was willing to drop him into the hell of being Isaiah's whipping boy. "Give him to me, then. Make him part of Boston's pack so I can protect him fully. Please."

  "If I give him to you, do you pledge to keep him safe? To put him before even Jack?"

  Was Alexander balking because Seth had left Joshua with Decker? Or because Seth allowed Joshua be taken and nearly killed in the first place? A few days ago he would have blithely promised anything, but the last few hours had been grim reminder that all his power could be rendered moot. What had the old Marquis of Albany said? Good intentions meant nothing in the face of reality?

  Seth knelt in full subservience to his king. "I don't want Joshua hurt. He's a good person. He's nearly died to protect me. He's my brother. The only one I have left. Please. Let me do all that I can to protect him."

  Alexander put a hand on Seth's bowed head. "I put him in your care."

  Without any more of a warning, Seth felt Joshua's presence within the Boston Pack. Decker had tucked himself into a deep windowless closet rather than go home for the oncoming day. Joshua slept as a small black puppy across Decker's chest. For the first time Seth could sense that Joshua was still weak from his near-death experience. Despite that, his brother was calm and content. He obviously felt safe with Decker.