When he reached up to his cheek, he felt the indents of more claw marks running down the right side, passing his neck.
“You’re still beautiful,” Cain whispered. Maybe he didn’t say it out loud, but it came through Angus’s head as clear as day.
Then again, he’d been given pain meds—couldn’t be feeling this good this close to nearly dying. “Shimmin doesn’t trust me—do you?”
“Not completely,” Cain told him, then shut down the conversation by turning on the TV. Angus stared at the reports of earthquakes that shook New York City and her surrounding areas today. “Did this really happen?”
“You don’t believe your own kind?” Cain asked.
“Where I grew up, we were taught never to believe anything we didn’t see with our own eyes—God performed miracles.”
“Where’d you grow up?” Cain asked.
“Foster care. Nuns took me in until I went to military school.”
“You don’t act like you were raised by nuns.” Cain handed him water and more pills that Angus gratefully accepted. No point in acting like Superman when you weren’t.
“You don’t act like anyone I’ve ever met, so what’s your point?”
Cain smiled, like he’d heard it before. “Yeah, there’s something about you too, human.” He touched Angus’s forehead with a light hand, and Angus wanted him to leave it there forever.
Human. He stared into Cain’s eyes and watched them change—fiercely lupine and then back to normal. He wasn’t sure if it was the strong medicine or a trick of light.
“I know what I saw tonight,” he said finally.
“You believe in fate, human?”
“I believe in fighting like hell to get what you want,” Angus countered. He’d been doing it his whole life and it hadn’t gotten him all that far. Didn’t stop him from trying, though.
Cain settled on the couch across from Angus, continued flipping channels restlessly. Outside, a storm began to rage that shook the building, and the studio apartment was suddenly much too small, bathed in the half-light from the moon shining through the clouds.
Before he could ask more, the power shut with a hard slam, as though someone took a violent fist to a power lever.
“You finally believe, don’t you, human?” Cain asked.
“In what?”
“Others.”
The word came out like a growl and Cain’s eyes shone lupine through the darkness again. Angus fully expected to find a wolf leaping on him any second, but Cain remained frustratingly far away.
“Yes,” Angus admitted. “I believe.”
“Does it scare you?”
“Sometimes. But I think humans scare me more.”
“Smart man. Too smart to think I believe your story. Tell me what the hell really happened to you, Angus. Because if Shimmin sent a possessed Were after you, you’d be DOA. This was the work of a new, uncontrolled Were. So tell me now.”
The words were like a command, although they weren’t loud, but almost whispered. It was like Cain was gripping his insides, forcing an answer Angus hadn’t wanted to give. “I went back to Shimmin, to get more intel. To be initiated, they wanted me to kill a Were.”
“They brought the wolf to you, chained.”
“Yes. How did you—”
“I’m asking the questions—you’re answering. They brought the wolf to you, chained and helpless. Unshifted. They gave you a silver blade. What did you do next?”
“I told them I wanted to do it alone,” Angus told him. The trappers hadn’t given him much trouble with that. In retrospect, maybe they’d known what he’d planned on doing.
“Did the wolf escape?”
He stared at Cain. “No. I freed him.”
“What the hell were you thinking?”
“I got your intel. It was the only way.”
“Wait a minute—the Were gave it to you?”
“His name was—is—Jamie,” Angus said. “He told me … Cain knows me.”
Cain didn’t hesitate to say, “He was from my original pack. Younger than I was. Got beaten often, the same way I did.”
“Because he’s an omega?”
“Because they could.” Cain’s voice sounded as dark as the room they sat in now. “He wouldn’t lie—not to me.”
“Why not?”
“I was the one who snuck back to our old pack last year and freed him. Hooked him up with the Manhattan pack. He wouldn’t betray me.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.” Cain sounded tired. “Tell me what really fucking happened.”
“I was going to kill him. It was the only way. But he begged me not to—said he had information for you. That he could tell I wasn’t like the trappers.”
“He’s a beta. They’re good at reading people,” Cain agreed.
“He told me about the Dire ghost army—what I told you before—that’s all straight from him. He heard Shimmin talking to the other trappers about it when they thought he was passed out. He said the drugs hadn’t worked on him because—”
“Because he hadn’t shifted yet. But he was about to, so his metabolism would’ve been running like a freight train.” Cain sounded tired. “You freed him, then, in exchange for what you told me about the Dire ghost army, right?”
“I did.” Angus hadn’t expected what happened next. One minute, the young boy was limping off toward the woods. Angus waited and began to pretend chase him. And that’s when he heard the shots.
“The trappers shot him. It brought on his first shift,” Cain explained. “He didn’t mean to attack you, necessarily. It’s why Weres aren’t supposed to be out that close to their first shift.”
“It wasn’t nighttime,” Angus said.
“The moon’s always around,” Cain told him. “You’ve got to stop believing all those fucking myths—nothing happens exactly as it’s written. Trust what you saw.”
“That’s all I remember.”
Except his own screams. He didn’t have to tell Cain about those.
“And the trappers never came back to check on you?”
“They found me … afterward. Told me the only way I’d ever be fully trusted is if I brought them your head on a stick,” he finished. “I don’t know what happened to your friend.”
Cain was silent for a long moment and then said, “Cyd found Jamie’s body about five miles from where I found you.”
“I’m sorry, Cain,” Angus whispered.
Lightning flashed, exposing them both. They stared at each other as darkness fell again, and Angus’s chest tightened at how damned beautiful the wolf was. Thought about telling Cain that and then decided to hold off.
“These storms … Shimmin said they’re electrical. Other,” he started hesitantly.
“Shimmin says a lot of things.”
“He says he’s the one pulling the strings to do it. Is he … ?”
“He’s human, but he’s working with the devil,” Cain said bluntly. “And people think Weres are evil. Far fucking from it.”
“Except when they’re murdering women or working for Shimmin,” Angus pointed out, not so helpfully.
“Fuck you, Fed.”
“Might not be one for long.” Angus sat up, the sheet half off, and Cain pointed him in the direction of the bathroom. “Sweats in there for you.”
Angus took him up on the offer, closing the door and staring at the scars in the mirror, probably for too long, because Cain called to ask if he was all right.
“Far from it,” he muttered. “I’ll be right out.”
He used the new toothbrush and took a quick shower. Assessed the rest of the cuts and bruises and realized how lucky he really was.
He looked out the window but couldn’t see much. It was thick glass, double paned and probably bulletproof. He’d driven by these apartments many times since he’d gotten into town, but he’d never have believed wolves lived here.
“Thought you drowned,” Cain commented.
Angus ignored him and looked
out the big windows to the street. “What is this place, a supernatural flophouse?”
“Pretty close, except everyone pays rent.” Cain studied him. “Are you really thinking of resigning from the FBI?”
“I don’t know. Shit, I don’t even know what side is up right now.” He ran a hand through his hair, his injuries still aching as the young wolf—wolf, for chrisssakes—studied him.
Angus suddenly knew what prey felt like.
“Shimmin’s been calling you.” Cain held Angus’s phone in his palm. “If you don’t answer, he’s going to get suspicious, since obviously he couldn’t find your body.”
“What am I supposed to say to him?”
“I guess it’s time to decide whose side you’re on.”
“Is that the only reason you’re being nice to me, because you need my help?”
Cain snorted. “You’ve got a weird idea of what nice is. And I don’t need your help, human. You do need mine, though. So it’s all up to you.”
Cain tossed him the phone in a perfect arc and he caught it, wincing as the muscles in his right arm protested. That made Cain smile, for whatever reason … and it made Angus’s decision infinitely easier.
There were no words, not this time. Cain’s mouth covered his, and Angus felt the breath suck out of him and a hard body rubbing his.
And he was fully found, not lost.
Cain wouldn’t stop, not this time, but Angus didn’t want him to. The phone dropped. The sweats he’d borrowed pushed down easily and he lay under a fully clothed wolf, vulnerable and willing, not caring that his body still ached. Because the kiss was that good—what he’d been dreaming about over the past weeks.
He felt pinned, trapped—and he liked it. He gripped Cain’s hair as the kisses grew more intense, moaned into the wolf’s mouth as their cocks ground together.
Fuck, he could come, just like this. Especially when he felt the brush of sharp teeth against the most sensitive part of his neck. A loud groan escaped his throat, because the rush of fear was nothing compared to the one of equal pleasure.
The teeth scraped and then a rough tongue soothed. “Don’t worry; you can’t be turned.”
“But I can die,” Angus whispered, and immediately wondered why the fuck he’d say something like that. Especially when Cain pulled back and stared at him oddly.
Surely that was something the young wolf knew. Hell, it was a given. Angus caught his wrist before Cain moved away completely.
“Don’t go. Stay,” he told Cain.
The young wolf nearly relented, but his expression shuttered again and he pulled away. “I’ll be back later. There’s plenty of food in the fridge. Don’t leave. With the intel we have from Shimmin, it’s only a matter of time before he figures out that you’re the one who screwed him.” With that, Cain grabbed Angus’s phone and shoved it in his pocket. So much for decisions.
“And then what, Cain? Do I stay in this place forever?”
“Didn’t realize you had a whole lot of places to go,” Cain said coolly.
“Fuck you, wolf.” He jumped up, stood toe-to-toe with Cain, now angrier than he’d been in a long time. “I’m leaving in the morning.”
Whether Cain would let him do that, Angus didn’t get a hint of a clue. The young one just brushed past him and left the apartment without a backward glance.
It was only when Angus heard the lock turn that he realized, for the first time, that there was no turn lock on his side, just a place where a key would fit.
He’d always been a prisoner. Cain had been making a fool of him, purposely, and he’d fallen for it like he was some novice without years of training.
In this world, you are.
Not for long, he promised himself. Not for fucking long.
*
Kate left Stray sleeping, slid out of the room while pulling a shirt over her head. Rogue was calling to her—or maybe she needed him. But either way, she had to go there.
Kate?
Going to Rogue—I’ll be fine, she assured Stray.
Stray didn’t say anything further and she felt him go back to sleep. His trust warmed her.
She stopped with her hand on the doorknob, knowing what she’d face when she went inside. And she was ready.
The mare turned her head sharply and smiled.
“I’m not a kid anymore,” she told her. “You can’t scare me.”
She cackled, like she knew better, but when Kate met her gaze and refused to blink, the mare turned away first and continued marking Rogue’s skin.
Hate for the creature burned through Kate. She paced the floor of Rogue’s room, unable to stop talking to herself. She kept her mind closed, the way she’d learned to, even though she ached to go back and converse with Rogue again. But it was best this way. The brick wall ensured the mare wouldn’t read her thoughts—and the mare could read only internal thoughts, not Kate’s external ones.
“You wouldn’t send me into a battle I couldn’t win, dammit. Why would you tell me to do something you don’t want me to?” she whispered finally. “What am I missing?”
She touched the book. “Lila, come on, you have to help me out here. I’ve messed things up so badly for the wolves—for Stray.”
Nothing. Dammit. She let go of the book, closed her eyes and concentrated. I know you lied to me, Rogue. I know it … But why … ?
She thought back over what he’d told her and the events of the past days.
Something about a wolf in sheep’s clothing …
She let out a small gasp and turned to Rogue. “Okay, I’ve got it. It’s a long shot, and it’s all got to be done in tandem, but I’ve got it.”
She touched his hair and heard the word thanks. Not thank you, as Rogue usually said to her when she’d made the same exact gesture twice before, and she knew she had it right this time.
Then she exited the room as she wiped a few tears from her eyes. She planned on keeping this to herself for the moment. Because none of it would be easy. It would have to be planned perfectly.
And it could all go so horribly wrong.
Chapter 46
After the meeting with Jinx and Jez happened and plans were set, Jinx ordered Cain to stay away from Angus. Now, in the rooms at the end of the Dire tunnels, Cain argued with Cyd.
“He’s not a bad guy. He’s not like Shimmin. He’s just … human,” Cain told his brother.
“Then friend him on Facebook, but in real life, avoid,” Cyd told him. He stripped and headed toward the bathroom. Cain stood there for a few minutes and pondered on whether his brother was right.
The intel Angus had given him could be a big fat trap, although Rifter and the other Dires didn’t seem to think so. Still, Cain had done what Jinx said, systematically avoiding Angus’s many urgent phone messages that all said the same thing.
Come back and let me the hell out.
Where the hell could the human go that he wouldn’t be marked for death?
When Cyd came out, shaking off water droplets like the wolf he was, he grabbed his phone. “Text message from Jez. Angus is gone. Jez claims he heard a racket but didn’t investigate. Found the door yanked off its hinges—must’ve done it with a knife when he couldn’t get through the bolts.”
“Vampires,” Cain muttered. “Why the hell not?”
“He said he thought it was the Were couple—you know, Sharon and Mike Muha and their new werepups, Stephen and Annie? Talk about moon crazed,” Cyd explained. “Jinx wants to know if you can scent Angus. We’ll go together, but you spent more time with him.”
There was no rancor in his twin’s tone—he was simply stating a truth. He’d never cared that Cain’s preferences ran toward men. Maybe because they’d spent a lot of time with Vice, who didn’t discriminate. Wolves in general weren’t picky—most just also came equipped with the strong urge to procreate. “Let’s go make sure he’s not with Shimmin.”
“You don’t think he is, do you?” Cyd asked as he threw clothes on.
“I don’t.
I wish I did,” he muttered, because it would be a hell of a lot easier to reconsider his feelings for a human.
They drove one of the trucks through town. The rain had started that morning, the air warm and supernatural lightning scored the darkening sky.
Cain caught Angus’s scent right up to the building’s parking lot. “He stole a car. I doubt he’s still in town.”
He didn’t want to think about why the human had left.
You drove him away. And Angus was safer for it. Unless …
“We need to check Shimmin,” Cain said after they scoured the apartment. The fed had gotten out of the steel door using brute force Cain’s wolf would’ve approved of. Cain felt the swell of admiration for the man even as the anger rose hot inside of him. He didn’t scent Shimmin anywhere around, but they couldn’t be sure.
“Shouldn’t we bring a Dire?” Cyd asked.
“No. This is my problem.”
“Yours is mine,” Cyd growled. Younger by ten minutes, Cyd was as overprotective of Cain as any big brother.
“And both of yours is mine,” Vice said from behind them as he surveyed the apartment.
“We’re Jinx’s.”
“You’re all of ours,” Vice corrected.
“We still have work to do,” Cain said, tried to slide out past the Dire.
“What happened between you and Angus?” Vice asked, but Cain just shrugged and kept moving. “Don’t make me hurt you.”
Cain turned. “I got too close.”
“And stupid. Remember, we don’t get close to humans.”
“Tell that to Rifter.”
“Gwen’s a wolf,” Vice said. “No human I know can shift like that, so unless Angus has some superpowers—”
“He’s gone. He won’t work for Shimmin. Can we drop it?”
“You know that for sure?”
“Yes.” He was lying. Vice knew it but didn’t call him on it. Cain just had to pray he was right about Angus, and that the agent would stay far away from all his newfound discoveries.
Together the three wolves roamed the woods around the apartment, catching no scent of Angus and a little of Shimmin’s, which wasn’t surprising.
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