by Odessa Lynne
Then Egan dragged Salvadore through the front door and the first thing Salvadore saw was Paul standing across the room, perfectly at ease in the midst of what looked like an entire pack of fucking wolves, wearing the same clothes Salvadore had given him and socks so filthy he couldn’t even tell they’d once been white.
And then Salvadore’s stomach churned as he realized what Paul’s presence meant.
Paul knew who he was. Paul would tell them all Salvadore was one of the renegades. Paul would get him killed.
And then that goddamn bitch would send in El or Chen and—
Fuck. Fuck.
He tried to jerk free of Egan’s grip. He glared at Paul. “What the fuck have you got me mixed up in?”
Egan’s fingers bit into the muscle at the back of Salvadore’s neck and around his arm painfully hard, but he didn’t feel a hint of claw in the hard grip.
Paul didn’t answer, instead glancing quickly toward one of the wolves standing on the other side of the doorway that led deeper into the cabin, and a flash of movement caught Salvadore’s gaze.
“Quiet.” A wolf with brilliant gold eyes stepped forward from the group and Salvadore’s heart stuttered.
The alpha.
His heart took up a hard thudding beat that he could feel in his throat.
“What were you doing following us?”
The excuse he’d given Reed and Egan when they’d found him wouldn’t work now, not with Paul here.
“I wasn’t following you.” His voice sounded weak and unconvincing and he knew it. The alpha’s gaze flickered over him.
He looked quickly at Paul and nodded sharply in his direction. “I was following Paul—Matthew, whatever the fuck his name is.”
The alpha looked toward Paul. “And why were you following him?”
Fuck. Fuck. He could feel Paul’s eyes on him even though he couldn’t seem to tear his gaze away from the alpha’s profile. He couldn’t think fast enough for this. “None of your goddamn business.”
The alpha wolf turned back to him, his gaze considering and calm in a way Salvadore didn’t expect. He took Salvadore’s chin in hand.
A memory of a claw-tipped finger dragging along the underside of Salvadore’s chin surfaced and Salvadore stopped breathing.
Because of Salvadore’s earlier struggles, Egan was pressed hard and tight to Salvadore’s back, his hand still holding tight to the scruff of Salvadore’s neck. The sudden prick of claws against Salvadore’s skin jolted through him and he swallowed hard as a shiver raced across his scalp and down his spine and he shut the memory away.
“It’s very much my business,” the alpha said. “He’s in my care and I need to know if you meant him any harm.”
Paul. This was about Paul.
In my care.
Fuck.
Salvadore could no longer pretend Paul might not be with the wolves of his own free will. He’d let Paul make a total fool out of him over the last five months—Paul had fucked him, made him think he was falling in love, for God’s sake, and none of it had meant anything.
He sniffed to cover the fact that his chest felt like it was being squeezed in a vice and met the alpha’s gaze. “Fuck off, wolf. I’m not answering any questions.”
Even though the inside of the cabin was getting darker with dusk, standing this close, Salvadore could see the subtle flaring of the alpha’s nostrils as he stared at Salvadore. “Do you know why this one was following you, Matthew?”
“He thinks he’s in love with me,” Paul said. “Maybe thought he was trying to protect me.”
But no—not Paul—Matthew. The son of a bitch’s name was Matthew and Paul didn’t exist. He’d never existed. Salvadore had been naïve. Stupid. Living in some kind of fantasy he’d created so he didn’t have to face how grim his life had become, so he didn’t have to dread the start of every day.
Every time the thought of being on his knees for Paul flickered through his mind his stomach roiled and his chest tightened just that much more. He hadn’t fucked that many people and he’d thought Paul cared about him. And—and—and if there was anything left of Paul in the man standing so stiffly across the room, he didn’t want to face the idea that he had been nothing but a tight, hot ass to him.
Chapter 4
“You want me to fuck you?” Paul had asked after Salvadore had sucked him off the first time halfway through the routine walk around the perimeter of the buildings that made up the abandoned elementary school. Salvadore’s knees had been soaked through from the still wet ground after an overnight thunderstorm and he had been bent over knocking off the wet leaves that had stuck to his pants. “God knows I’d love to fuck you,” Paul had continued. “I have a few condoms in my pack.”
Salvadore had said yes and he’d been on his knees again less than an hour later in an empty classroom with Paul pounding into him from behind.
“You have a great ass,” Paul had said on a groan, his hands rubbing along Salvadore’s ribcage. “So tight and hot. I’m going to come so fast it’s just going to be a waste of a good condom.”
Then he’d laughed, light and warm, and Salvadore had gasped out his own startled laugh and thought maybe this thing Gage had dragged him into might not turn out as bad as he’d thought.
They hadn’t had a lot of time together, because Salvadore hadn’t been stupid enough to think Gage wouldn’t have a problem with him fucking Paul. Gage never had warmed up to Paul, most likely because everyone could see that Paul didn’t have a problem thinking for himself. They also didn’t have that many condoms, so Salvadore understood why Paul didn’t fuck him that often. They exchanged blowjobs when they could get time away from the other guys and kept things friendly but cool the rest of the time.
On the trip back to the school, Gage had told him to forget Paul. “Be grateful I still need you, Salvadore. That traitor got what he deserved and if I thought for a minute you weren’t too much of a fucking cunt to have known he was playing you just so he’d have an ass to fuck, you’d be there with him, waiting on the coyotes to clean up the mess.”
Thinking back on it, Salvadore didn’t have any trouble seeing the truth of what he and Paul had been to each other.
Salvadore tried to pull Egan’s hand loose and glared at Matthew. “You fucking asshole,” he said. “I should have listened to Gage.”
Matthew crossed his arms and Salvadore’s gaze went to Matthew’s hand, twisted and broken. The alpha said something and Salvadore’s attention snapped back to him, but too late. He’d missed the first of it, and barely caught the end. “…you hurt?”
“I’m fine,” Matthew said, rubbing his nose, shoulders tense, and Salvadore, goddammit, wanted to reach out and pat his shoulder and offer comfort even after everything. “Just need to see a doctor soon. I had to fight. My hand got hurt.”
“They beat the shit out of you and left you for dead!” He jerked his hand toward Matthew’s crossed arms. “And now you look like nothing happened at all except for that hand. I’m such a goddamn idiot.”
The alpha’s attention returned to Salvadore, eyes hard and bright. “You were there?”
And Salvadore realized what he’d said, what he’d given away. Paul—Matthew—would have told them eventually, he was sure of it, but now there’d be no denying that he was one of the renegades fighting the wolves.
“I didn’t touch him.” He looked to Matthew and couldn’t seem to make himself take a breath.
“He tried to stop them,” Matthew said.
“You’ll tell us everything, but later,” the alpha told Matthew and then his gaze returned to Salvadore.
“What should I do with you?” the alpha said. “The woods aren’t safe enough for me to release you this deep into our territory.”
“Let me go,” he said before he could stop himself. “I can make it to safety. The county shelter isn’t too far away.”
“The closest county shelter is more than two days on foot from here. Is someone waiting for you inside our territory?”
If not for the faint prick of claws on his neck prodding him, he wouldn’t have been able to answer. “No.”
The alpha’s piercing gold eyes stared right through him. “Of course there is,” the alpha said, “but that’s a discussion for later. I can’t release you. There are other wolves in these woods. Wolves who are in league with your renegades and who would not hesitate to take what they believe it’s their right to take.” With that, the alpha glanced to his other side, and Salvadore followed his gaze, only to find himself staring at another wolf, one he didn’t recognize.
“Isn’t that right, watcher?” the alpha said to the other wolf, who was watching Salvadore so closely, so intently that Salvadore couldn’t look away.
And then the wolf spoke. “Yes,” he said, and Salvadore recognized that voice from the night before as the wolf that had dragged Paul off into the woods and left Salvadore sitting on his ass, too shaken and scared to go after them.
“Don’t follow me,” the wolf had said, the moonlight bringing out the glow of his eyes. “If my heat comes on me while you’re near, we’ll mate. If you can’t submit…”
No.
Salvadore jerked against Egan’s grip on his neck. “Kill me then, because there’s no other way you’re keeping me here.”
He couldn’t stay here, not with that wolf. He couldn’t do it. Not even for Chen and El, and just the thought that he would fail them because of something that had happened so long ago made him want to throw up.
“I think not,” the alpha said.
He felt Egan’s hand shift and he looked down to see Egan pulling something from his pocket. Salvadore tried harder to pull away from Egan, even as Egan snapped the top off the narrow tube, and another wolf crowded close to him, taking Salvadore’s arm in his hand.
“Stop!” Salvadore twisted, but he couldn’t break Egan’s hold, and the wolf holding Salvadore’s arm just held tighter. “No, goddammit. No!” He almost lost his footing as his boots skidded on the hardwood but he didn’t care.
Egan pressed the tube hard against Salvadore’s forearm and Salvadore locked onto Egan’s brilliant blue eyes just as a sweet fire started sliding along his nerve endings.
“No, no, no,” Salvadore said, but the world had already started to fade around him. He glanced up to catch Paul staring right at him, and he remembered those eyes on him just like that the last time they’d fucked. Then he stumbled and the moment was gone and Egan caught him before he could fall to the floor.
When he opened his eyes later, it took him a few seconds to figure out that he was staring at a beamed ceiling overhead.
A rustle of movement came from beside him.
He tried to sit up, but his head swam with the too fast movement and his shoulder bumped against the wall beside him.
A hand landed on his arm. He jumped, twisting away from the touch.
“I’ve brought food.”
Salvadore knew that voice. He blinked, trying hard to think but it took a lot longer than it should’ve for Egan’s name to come to mind.
He exhaled a shaky breath and gripped the edges of the narrow cot under him. His stiff fingers didn’t want to curl around the metal bars.
“You’re drugged. The effects aren’t going to go away, so don’t try to fight the lethargy. I’m one of the few left whose heat cycle hasn’t started. I’m here to feed you.”
“No…” Salvadore said, and he wondered how he was supposed to eat when he could hardly speak.
“Alpha doesn’t want you to get too weak. We’ll have a long walk tomorrow.”
“Fuck … off.”
“Stop annoying me.”
“Stop … fuck.” Salvadore let himself lean into the wall and closed his eyes.
A moment later he startled awake again as Egan pushed him firmly up against the wall and pressed something smooth and warm against Salvadore’s lips.
“Drink.”
He spluttered when a warm, thick liquid dribbled into his mouth, grainy and god-awful tasting, both cloyingly sweet and sour at the same time. He sucked in a breath at exactly the wrong moment and started coughing. The liquid splattered all over Salvadore’s lap and the front of Egan’s shirt.
“I shouldn’t be surprised that you’re going to make this difficult.” Egan sounded more frustrated than angry.
A warm hand curled around the back of Salvadore’s neck and Salvadore didn’t even try not to lean into the touch.
“Don’t like you,” Salvadore muttered, even as the warmth of Egan’s palm bled into his skin.
“I’m still going to feed you.”
“Asshole…”
Egan’s huff of breath caught Salvadore on the side of his head, tickling his ear and making gooseflesh rise.
“Here.” The lip of the cup touched Salvadore’s mouth again. “Don’t choke yourself this time. The drink is a thick soup and it has everything you need to stay strong.”
Salvadore tried not to gag as Egan pushed a large swallow of the soupy liquid on him. When he got it down, he rubbed his tongue against the underside of his teeth. “That’s disgusting.”
“It’s meant for children.”
Fucking great. Now he was being compared to a child.
“I’m old enough to fuck,” Salvadore said, and he had no idea where that came from. He shook his head. “Not that I want—I mean…” He stopped, his heart fluttering in his chest uncomfortably.
“I have a mate,” Egan said. “I’ve promised to breed—” and he said something else, but Salvadore couldn’t think fast enough to understand. Or maybe it was a wolf’s name and Salvadore wouldn’t have understood anyway.
Egan’s thumb traced Salvadore’s jaw. “But I wouldn’t hesitate to mate you if you offered submission.”
Salvadore blinked. He couldn’t remember why he’d been so afraid of Egan and the others. He seemed … nice.
Egan pushed another drink on him, and another, until Salvadore closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep again.
The next time he woke up, someone was slapping the side of his face and he couldn’t seem to open his eyes. He’d been deep into a dream, the howl of wolves on the air and the percussion of gunshots ringing in his ears as his harsh breathing gave away his hiding place.
“…hear me?” Slap. “Sal.” Slap. “Sal.” And again and again.
He cracked his eyes open and said, “What’s … going on?” but the words were just a slur of sound. He tried to sit up but his arm gave way and he slipped back down on the cot.
Someone muttered and then yanked on his arm. “You’re going to have to wake up. Come on.”
The roar of a wolf shivered through the air and Salvadore jerked. He shook his head. That hadn’t been part of any dream. He tried harder to wake up, but his damned eyes wouldn’t focus. Someone slapped him again, hard enough to sting like a son of a bitch.
“Come on, Sal. Come on.”
Paul. That was Paul’s voice, tight and worried.
Salvadore pushed himself up and forward and got his feet under him only to feel his knee give way. He gasped and dropped backward and landed hard on the edge of the cot as a gunshot reverberated in the room.
“Goddamn!” Paul cursed.
“Gunshot…” Salvadore said, tongue still too thick to speak clearly. He needed to wake up, dammit. Someone was shooting at them.
“Wasn’t a gunshot. Just the cot.” Paul pulled roughly on Salvadore’s arm and then dug his shoulder into Salvadore’s armpit.
Salvadore’s legs couldn’t hold his weight but Paul supported him enough to keep him upright.
The room’s narrow door slammed open, startling them both and Paul hauled him around so fast Salvadore almost fell again.
A wolf stood at the door. Salvadore sighed and felt himself losing the battle to stay awake.
The wolf didn’t hesitate, just grabbed Salvadore’s arm and pulled his weight off Paul. Salvadore stumbled and the rustle of cloth and stamp of feet interfered with his ability to understand whatever it was
Paul and the wolf said to each other, until…
“… the others are dead…”
“Who’s dead?” Paul demanded.
The wolf started hauling Salvadore through the door and Salvadore didn’t understand, because—
“See for yourself,” the wolf said in his fierce, hard tone and something sparked across Salvadore’s nerves. “The rest of the pack is fighting…”
The wolf said more but his accent was thick and everything sounded like a blur to Salvadore as his feet scraped across the floor and the room wavered around him.
Seconds or minutes later, Salvadore roused as the wolf jostled and lifted him. A hard shoulder jammed into Salvadore’s ribcage and his breath rushed out of his lungs.
He groaned and turned his head and the sight of a bloody Egan lying on the ground nearby was the last thing Salvadore saw before the world slid away.
Chapter 5
Salvadore tried the door handles again, but just like the last time, the heavy doors shuddered but wouldn’t open. He scrubbed his hands through his hair and turned and fell back against the wood with a hard thud. He was trapped in what had once been a hospital cafeteria.
Pale light filtered into the cafeteria through the grimy windows, so he knew it was still daylight outside, but the thick glass had proven impossible for him to break with what he had at hand.
He pushed away from the door and crossed the room to the windows again.
He wove his way through the rusted metal bed frames that filled the room while the remains of whatever had been left on the beds—not people, thank God—but the mattresses and fabrics would’ve been left when the hospital was abandoned. Rats had made nests in one corner at some time, or maybe some other kind of animal. Salvadore couldn’t say.
Tim would’ve known, but of course, Tim wasn’t here, and honestly, Salvadore didn’t want to see Tim or any of the other guys again. He just wanted to get out of the protectorate once and for all with El and Chen.
And if Gage came after him, he’d deal with that then. That son of a bitch wasn’t getting his hands on El—he didn’t care what kind of leverage Gage had.