Life After Humanity

by Gillian St. Kevern

  “Then you’ll be charged with resisting arrest and threatening the police as well as public endangerment,” Grant was matter of fact. “Playing into Wisner’s hands.”

  The man hesitated, but the siren getting closer decided him. “What do I do?”

  “Turn yourselves in,” Ben said. “Tell them everything. That Wisner ordered you here, that he ordered you to tell him if the missing werewolf tried to use your pound—show him that he’s not going to get away with manipulating your pack.”

  The man snarled. “No one tells us what to do.” He shouldered his way past Ben and climbed into the driver’s seat of the van. “You ain’t heard the last of us,” he yelled through the open window as the van made a U-turn and careened wildly down the street.

  “Back!” Aki darted across the road. “You would not believe the wait—” He came to a halt, noticing the torn clothing and vines littering the street. “What the hell did I miss?”

  Ben fought the urge to laugh. “That is a very good question.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  “I DON’T KNOW how Ben’s done it, but the police are leaving.” Nate leaned out the window, watching the patrol car and the animal control vehicle go down the street.

  “Probably unleashed his personality on them.” Aki sat on the sofa of their apartment’s living room, drumming his heels against the floor. “It’s going to be our turn next.”

  Nate frowned at him. “That’s not a bad thing. Ben’s got a much better idea of what to do in this kind of situation than any of us.”

  “And if he doesn’t, I’m sure the hunter with him has a few ideas.” Aki scowled at the door. “We’re not turning Grant over to them.”

  Nate raised an eyebrow. This was an abrupt reversal from Aki’s attitude earlier—not that he wanted to point that out. “We don’t know what George or Ben plan to do. And they did rescue me and Grant from the…Juggawolves.”

  Aki winced. “How do you manage to get yourself targeted by the single most embarrassing wolf pack in the entire city? I left you alone for what, five minutes!”

  “You being there wouldn’t have made any difference.” Nate paused. “Was that one of your…moments?”

  “An intuition?” Aki worried at his lip. “Maybe. At the time, I just thought that coffee sounded like a really good idea.” He leaned over to the coffee table where he’d deposited the cups. “We’re in luck,” he reported, snagging one cup. “Still warm.”

  Nate swallowed. His stomach was jittery enough without the caffeine. He and Ben hadn’t exchanged more than a dozen words downstairs before Ben had ordered them to get Grant upstairs and out of sight. That was enough. It felt like the clouds had parted, letting the sun shine down on Nate for the first time in days. And now, his stomach rolled in equal parts trepidation and excitement. “I’m not really thirsty.”

  “I am.” The door opened and George sauntered into the apartment. “Mind if I?”

  Nate gulped. “Help yourself.” He hadn’t expected George and Ben to arrive so soon.

  Ben scanned the hallway before closing the door behind him. “We took the elevator to my apartment and then walked down the stairs. I’m pretty sure we weren’t observed. You?”

  Nate closed the window, pulling the curtain shut. “We took the stairs like you said.” He tugged the hem of his T-shirt.

  Aki stood, crossing his arms over his chest and staring at Ben. “Just so you know, Grant’s here because we invited him. So don’t think you can tell us what to do about him.”

  If Ben was surprised, he didn’t show it. “Noted. Though I have to remind you that I am the landlord of this building and have a responsibility to protect the safety of all tenants.” He leaned back against the door.

  Aki’s eyes flashed. “What about Nate’s safety when you—”

  “Not the time,” Nate said loudly. Ben had stiffened and his skin drained of what little color he had. He hasn’t forgiven himself—or me. And he won’t, either. “We’re here to talk about Grant, not me.”

  “And as the reason that you’re all in a lot of trouble, I’m ready to answer any questions you have.” Grant had opened the bathroom door without any of them noticing. He wore a T-shirt and jeans of Nate’s and had a towel around his shoulders. He’d shaved his beard into order, revealing a lean face with sharp angles and an alert air. “I owe you an explanation.”

  Aki shot Ben and George a hostile look, as if he thought they might interrupt him. “We’re very interested in what you have to say.” He waved Grant toward one of the two armchairs.

  “Fascinated.” George dropped into the remaining armchair happily.

  Ben shot a look at the empty space on the sofa beside Aki, and then at the bean bag, before deciding to remain standing. “I think we’ve worked out most of it. There’s more to the story than the papers are telling, isn’t there?” His tone was rueful, and Nate felt something inside him ease. The situation was tense, but Ben was taking it in stride. That had to be a good sign.

  He sank onto the sofa. “Is Wisner really your stepdad?”

  Grant’s mouth twisted and he nodded. “I’m from California, originally. Dad was the leader of our pack in LA. It wasn’t a good place to be a werewolf. There was a history of turf wars between packs, the competition for land mixed up with gang rivalries. Dad tried to leave it behind, and he moved Mom and me to Anaheim, only to get killed in a revenge attack. Wisner was the specialist in werewolves brought in to advise the Orange County police on how to handle the resulting fights. He spent a lot of time with Mom and eventually asked her to marry him. He promised her that we’d both be safe, and—well, you can’t blame Mom for wanting that. He was a widower with three pups of his own, so she decided she could trust him. They were married within the year, and we moved to New Camden with him.”

  Grant looked down. His hands were long and lean like the rest of him, and they rested on his knees as he talked. “At first it wasn’t so bad. Wisner was a lot stricter than my dad, and I quickly learned not to offer my opinion. But after I hit puberty, transformed for the first time…things just got worse and worse. Wisner’s pack was bigger, and he was busier than ever. The decision-making process became more and more arbitrary, until in the end, he was the one making all the calls about pack business. If anyone questioned him, he took it as a personal attack.”

  “Has he been challenged?” Ben stepped forward to lean against the back of George’s chair.

  “He challenges others. Goads them into a position where they have no choice and then devastates them.” Grant’s fingers curled into fists. “He’s been alpha for decades and is still a strong man. He’s got more clout than any other wolf in this city, and he knows it. All the same, I think he’s scared.”

  “Scared?” Nate knew he sounded startled, but he didn’t care. “Wisner?”

  Grant nodded. “He’s getting older and he knows it. Once his strength goes, he won’t be able to dominate the pack like he did, so he’s obsessed with power. Securing more of it, proving his own… He’s forced more and more packs to join us, painting a picture of a New Camden ruled by werewolves. At the same time, his rules started becoming increasingly strict. No one but his team was allowed to leave the housing compound without telling him where they’re going. Single wolves needed permission to leave. I wasn’t allowed after-school activities—and then I wasn’t allowed to see friends. Disobedience resulted in physical punishment—”

  “He beat you?” Aki sounded horrified.

  Grant’s tawny eyes rested on Aki. He’d been matter-of-fact throughout his recital, but Aki’s reaction flustered him. “Not just me. It was accepted. Wolves—werewolves—pride ourselves on being closer to nature than others. That comes with an emphasis against suppressing instinctual reactions. It doesn’t always work well.”

  Aki swallowed but didn’t say anything. After a moment, Grant continued his explanation.

  Nate slipped onto the sofa beside Aki, bumping him with his elbow so that he knew Nate was there. Aki didn’t turn
to look at him, but he leaned back so that Nate was supporting him.

  Upset. And who can blame him? Grant’s story raised a lot of questions.

  “As I got older, I felt more and more like I was being targeted specifically. Things my stepbrothers did with impunity, I was punished for—and continually humiliated in front of the entire pack. The compound felt suffocating. I made plans to escape. Wisner paid my stepbrothers’ entire way through law school, but when I said I wanted to go to college, it was as if I was challenging everything the pack stood for. I’d been expecting it, and I’d managed to secure a scholarship. I didn’t need Wisner’s permission to go to school. The scholarship included accommodation. I had moved out, made arrangements for the full moon. For three glorious weeks, I was free, living life on my own. Then the day before the full moon, Wisner’s squad showed up to drag me back.” Grant’s hands flexed, wanting to curl into fists. “I was locked inside for a week. Made to show throat to the entire pack. You—don’t know what that does to a wolf.”

  Grant didn’t meet their eyes. His cheeks burned. “It’s devastating. I was absolutely shattered. Wisner sent me back to school three weeks later, knowing I’d missed assignments and confident that he’d ruined my chances of a second scholarship. But I had friends. My roommate, Vazul, and my study partner, Charlotte. I was so low when I got back to school that I broke down and told them everything. And they wanted to help. While I concentrated on getting my grades back up, they researched my options. We found out that Wisner had warned all the hotels in New Camden against taking me.”

  Nate stared at Grant. He couldn’t imagine that situation—finding every door shut before you reached it. That’s a lie. I don’t have to imagine what it's like to be cut off without another word… The difference was that Grant hadn’t let it rattle him.

  Nate looked up. George’s gaze was fixed on Grant, but Ben—Nate felt a jolt of awareness shoot through his body—Ben was looking at him. His eyes widened as they met Nate’s and he turned aside—but not before Nate had seen a flash of emotion in them.

  It’s not that Ben doesn’t feel. It’s that his feelings go deep. What was it that Ben hadn’t wanted Nate to see? Nate let his gaze linger over Ben.

  He leaned against the back of George’s chair, his posture casual, but there was an inner tension that couldn’t be suppressed. His long fingers were clasped together, as if it took effort to keep them from moving. Outwardly, his expression was calm, but Nate was pretty sure that Ben was furious—as furious as Aki, seated beside him. He placed a hand on Aki’s shoulder.

  “What did you do?” Aki asked.

  Grant’s eyes softened as they rested on him before quickly darting away. “For a long time, there wasn’t much we could do. Asking about the hotels brought Char and Vaz to Wisner’s knowledge. He had us watched and then lodged trumped up charges against them with Department Seven.” For the first time, Grant smiled. “That was supposed to scare them off. Not bring us together. And it introduced me to the first non-pack werewolf I’d spoken to in years.”

  “Kenzies.” Nate grinned. “She’s great.”

  Grant’s gaze alighted on him and he smiled faintly. “We didn’t see eye to eye on everything. And that in itself was a revelation. In Wisner’s pack, the single males were kept apart from the women and me—well I was more isolated than anyone else, being on the lowest rung of the pack hierarchy. I haven’t talked to my mom in over a year, but I know that the restrictions on what they can do are even tougher. Mom was an interior designer in California, but she had to give that up when we moved here. Kenzies had a career outside her pack, and she worked alongside nonwolves. And she told me how she’d emancipated herself from her birth pack and joined her current one. That got me thinking I could do the same.” Grant winced, pausing to run his hand through his hair. “I don’t know how he found out about it, but he knew that I was planning to file for independence as soon as I had a suitable place to spend the full moon. I came home from lectures one day, and the compound was shut against me. I thought I’d just been forgotten at first, so I went to Vazul’s to crash. And he told me that Department Seven had already been by to ask if he knew where I was, that Wisner had launched a runaway charge.”

  “What a dick.” George leaned back.

  Grant was startled into laughter. “Yeah. We didn’t have time to plan or to find a place—everyone in the city was looking for me. Luckily, Vazul and Charlotte had been working on something.”

  “The dog collar!” Nate straightened. “Those runes—”

  “Were a transformation spell,” Ben finished. “No wonder you didn’t want us looking closely at them.”

  Grant squirmed. “The city was looking for a wolf. Not a stray dog. And if the magic was inherent in the object, it would be harder to detect. I smelled different as a dog to a human or a wolf, so it seemed foolproof.”

  “You’ve spent the last three weeks living as a dog?” George shook her head. “Seriously?”

  “I didn’t have a choice. Wisner had gone to the pounds directly, and I knew that he would continue to watch Char and Vazul. I didn’t want to risk bringing anyone else into it. I was afraid of what Wisner might do.”

  “So that had occurred to you.” Aki folded his arms.

  Grant winced. “Yeah. I should have kept my distance, but…weeks without talking to anyone had taken a toll on me. I was lonely, and you and Nate… I guess I felt drawn to you.”

  “Wolves may be social creatures, but that doesn’t give you the right to take advantage of Nate and Aki’s hospitality on false pretenses.” Ben’s voice was stern. As unhappy about this as Aki was?

  Still looking out for me. Nate fumbled for words to let Ben know that it was cool, that he and Aki could handle themselves.

  “I know.” Grant’s admission took him by surprise. There was a note of sorrow in his voice, but his expression was clear as he turned to face his inadvertent hosts. “I’m not proud of my behavior. I told myself that if I thought I’d get you in trouble, I’d leave—but then I heard you talking about the attack at the club you work at. You were already involved. I was horrified. In that short time, I’d—well, I’d come to think of you as friends.” Grant dropped his gaze. “I told myself I was staying to keep an eye on the two of you, but if I’m honest, I think—I just wasn’t strong enough to make myself leave. I—” His eyes flickered up to rest on Aki and then immediately looked away. “Well, that’s my explanation, such as it is. I know it doesn’t excuse my actions. I’ll leave—”

  Nate felt Aki’s body tense beside him. “Leave?” Aki’s mouth snapped shut, and he shrugged as everyone looked at him. “Where would you go?”

  “Department Seven.” Grant glanced around the room. “Charlotte got me the paperwork for my application for independence. I’ve got everything except for the secure location for the full moon. But Department Seven has cells. If I time it right, Wisner won’t have time to drag me out of there and the courts will count it.”

  “Department Seven’s not got a lot of power where Wisner is concerned.” Aki shot Nate a look. “At Century, remember? The wolf didn’t even get charged.”

  “It’s a risk I have to take,” Grant said. “The full moon’s almost here. I have no other options, not unless I want to risk transforming in an insecure place—and that would be a disaster. Even in the worst case scenario, if Wisner takes me back to the compound before the full moon, my paperwork will be in as proof I wanted to do this legally, so Char and Vaz can continue the fight on my behalf.”

  While Wisner put his stepson through another round of punishment? Nate felt sick. They couldn’t let that happen. “You just need a secure place to wait out the full moon, and you’re legal?”

  “Essentially. It’s a bit more complicated than that.” Grant scratched his neck.

  Nate stood. “Aki, can I have a word?”

  AKI FOLLOWED NATE into his room without a word. He waited until Nate shut the door behind them to speak. “You want to let Grant crash here for the fu
ll moon.”

  “It’s just one night.”

  “And one werewolf. It’s not going to be like taking care of the dog. Werewolves go nuts at the full moon. It’ll make what happened with those clowns outside look like obedience training.”

  “I know. But I can handle a wolf—and Grant—well, the guy needs a break.”

  Aki sucked in a breath. “And you really think we should give it to him?”

  Nate sat down on the edge of the bed. “I’ve made a lot of dumb decisions. Maybe I don’t condone what Grant did, but I can understand it. Not that I’m saying it’s okay for anyone to hurt you or that you shouldn’t be mad—”

  Aki smiled faintly. “I liked him. Really, really liked him. Should have known the situation was too good to be true.”

  Nate patted his shoulder. “Nobody’s perfect. Grant can’t help being a werewolf.”

  “Yeah, but—I feel like I’m setting myself up for a fall.” Aki hunched his shoulders, looking at his knees. He kicked the side of the bed with his heel. “He’s still—he’s trying not to say anything, but he’s still interested in me, Nate. I can tell. And I don’t know how I feel about that. I’m afraid that—the more time I spend with him, the more I’m going to want to forgive him.”

  “And that’s a bad thing?”

  “Yeah.” Aki snorted. “I do not want to end up making your level of bad decisions.”

  “No fear of that.”

  Nate’s head whipped up. “Ben!”

  To his dismay, Ben was shutting Nate’s bedroom door behind him. “Nate’s logic is unique. And even if it wasn’t, your ability should be able to counter it.”

  “Do you mind?” Aki glared at him. “This is a private conversation between myself and Nate.”

  “I don’t want to interrupt,” Ben said. “But there’s some information that I thought you should know.” He leaned back against the door. “To provide a safe place for a werewolf to be contained during the full moon, the room has to satisfy a Department Seven or Registry agent that certain safety conditions are met.”