by Odessa Lynne
Unfortunately, maybe that had been enough, but how could he admit that? What if—
There was no what if. He knew they would recognize his father’s name if he told it to them. He’d always known that, even when he’d pretended otherwise. The thought of what that might mean for him terrified him.
He glanced up and he could see the questions in their eyes, how they didn’t really believe him.
Wolf didn’t even believe him. Had he told Wolf about his father without even realizing what he’d done? Psychically or however the hell Wolf figured things out that he hadn’t said?
A sudden rush of lightheadedness made his shoulders jerk.
Wolf’s hand moved from Salvadore’s shoulder to his neck.
Goddammit. Salvadore clenched his fingers together and forced himself to breathe normally.
“Do we need the drugs?” Craig asked. He was looking at Wolf, his resigned calm a façade for the unease he felt at the possibility that Beintaegoer might lose the only true mate he would ever—
Salvadore jerked upright, staring wide-eyed at Craig.
Craig’s gaze flickered toward Salvadore and then back to Wolf. Otherwise, he didn’t seem to notice anything had happened at all.
“What the fuck?” Salvadore said, turning to Wolf so fast that the sole of his boot screaked against the floor. “What are you doing?”
Wolf turned Salvadore forward again, his hand holding tight to the back of Salvadore’s neck. “The drugs might be best. He wants to tell us what he knows but his fear goes deeper than I can see.”
The green-eyed wolf rose to his feet and handed his small device to Craig. “I’ll tell Ashikid to bring them.”
Salvadore opened this mouth to object stringently but caught a glimpse of the wolves across the room staring at him. He snapped his mouth closed and stared forward, his gaze fixed on a small tear in Craig’s t-shirt. He couldn’t look at them, because when he did, all he saw was—
No. He was past that. He had Wolf here to keep them the hell away from him. They weren’t going to come after him—they were drugged—he didn’t know how he knew that—and he was safe—they smelled the watcher—the human had been claimed—the watcher would fight—Alpha wouldn’t allow—
“We didn’t find a tracker,” Craig said, his voice cutting through the thoughts crowding Salvadore’s head.
Salvadore blinked and looked up at Craig’s face to see him holding two fingers to the device the green-eyed wolf had given him. The lines of his face had shifted and he was watching Salvadore with enough intensity to make Salvadore’s pulse flutter. Craig wasn’t angry; he was curious—unsure—confused—
His head started pounding right behind his eyes.
Salvadore reached behind his neck and grabbed Wolf’s hand. What the fuck was Wolf doing to him?
Wolf’s grip gentled and warmth seeped from Wolf’s palm into Salvadore’s skin. He couldn’t say why, but he felt better almost immediately. Wolf’s thumb rubbed softly at the side of Salvadore’s throat. The powerful throbbing in his head eased.
“He’s communicated with me,” Wolf said. “I don’t understand how he’s been doing it, but I know he believes there’s a tracker inside him.”
“There was one,” Salvadore said. “I don’t know the people who put it there, I swear to God. They stuck a needle in my head and said it would be gone before I got found out.” He pointed to the spot over his ear where the needle had pierced his skin. “Here. They obviously didn’t know some of you are mind readers.”
Craig’s dark eyebrows rose. “None of us are mind readers.”
Salvadore jabbed his thumb in Wolf’s direction. “You know what I mean.”
Craig let out a short huff of breath and exchanged a look with Wolf before returning his attention to Salvadore. “So it wasn’t your people who put the tracker there?”
“My people? Gage and his guys aren’t my fucking people. I didn’t like any of them, except—uh—fuck.” Salvadore snapped his goddamn mouth shut.
“Except?” Craig waited, but when Salvadore didn’t continue, he said, “Ah,” and exchanged glances with the green-eyed wolf standing beside him. He continued in the wolves’ language, “The report from Paetarikeille mentioned a relationship.”
Salvadore felt heat rising in his neck. So they all obviously knew about Paul—or, hell, Matthew. What did Wolf know about Matthew—anything? Salvadore tried to remember what he might have said but he couldn’t think clearly. Too much had happened over the last several days.
Wolf hadn’t been with these guys much longer than Salvadore—except that Wolf was this one’s son—and one of the them, so Wolf might be more knowledgeable than Salvadore could know. He twisted again to look up at Wolf, but he got nothing from him, because Wolf wasn’t watching Salvadore; he was staring at the wolves across the room.
Salvadore fell back against the chair and crossed his arms over his chest. It didn’t matter what Wolf knew, because there was nothing much to know. Salvadore had fucked the guy, he regretted it, and now Salvadore was mated to Wolf.
Forever.
That right there made it clear that his feelings for Wolf were stronger after only a few days than anything he’d felt for the man he’d known as Paul.
Didn’t it? He frowned, considering, but then the alpha returned his full attention to Salvadore and Salvadore’s thoughts scattered, only one of them strong enough to cling. They needed to understand—
“Seriously, I wasn’t part of—Gage—he didn’t tell me anything. I don’t even know why he wanted me around once he had what he wanted. He knew I wasn’t going to be any help out in the field.”
Craig waited, staring at Salvadore as if he expected more. Salvadore shifted on the hard chair, unease wending through him. Wolf didn’t move or speak.
“Okay, maybe I do,” Salvadore said. “Maybe I have an idea why.”
Chapter 23
“Maybe,” Salvadore continued, “it was because he thought—he thought I’d eventually give him access to the rest of my dad’s things.” Salvadore exhaled roughly and rubbed his thigh. “I wouldn’t have though. Handing over that one thing was the deal and I wouldn’t have let him blackmail me into giving up more. He had to know that.”
“How would he know that?” Craig asked, his voice calm, his eyes unnaturally still on Salvadore.
Salvadore cleared his throat. “He knew what I did, so he had to know I’m not a fucking pushover.” He thought about the name calling, but what did that really signify? Gage had called everybody names. Salvadore hadn’t wasted his time taking any of it personally when Gage had been known to call half the guys cunts to their faces. Only Linsey had ever told Gage to shut his mouth. Surprisingly, Gage had listened. Then again, Linsey might’ve cut his balls off the next time he went to sleep if he hadn’t. She’d left a few weeks later and never come back.
One quick glance between Craig and Wolf, and Wolf said, “Go on.”
Salvadore rubbed his hand across his chest, but the tightness didn’t abate. “Maybe he didn’t know I wouldn’t let him have it. I never told him—I was desperate for an alibi and he always did have a tendency to see things his way and ignore anything that didn’t fit. I kept my mouth shut afterward and let him believe whatever he wanted. Maybe he didn’t believe I killed Tyler. Maybe he just thought I was worried about having Tyler’s murder pinned on me. Maybe he was just biding his time, waiting for the right time to push me for the stuff, thinking I’d give in easy.”
Salvadore really should have realized all that sooner, but he thanked God it didn’t matter now anyway.
“Tyler?” Craig asked.
Salvadore wasn’t sure the question was meant for him so he waited, but after a moment, when no one else spoke up, he answered. “Tyler Brecknell. He killed two women so he could take their property on the outer edges of the protectorate for himself. I—I couldn’t let it go. I killed him. The reason I joined up with Gage was because I needed someone to arrange an alibi for me. He’s the only person I
knew who could do it and he… He made a good bargain. I didn’t have to do anything but stick with him, give up one of the—uh, one of my dad’s, uh, gadgets, and, uh…”
“Gadgets,” Craig said, directing a shrewd glance at Wolf.
Fuck. Trying to skirt the truth had tripped Salvadore up and he knew he’d messed up. “My dad, he was a—a scientist and an inventor before he died.” He started to reach into his pocket for his key ring, but the pressure on his neck shifted and the points of Wolf’s claws scraped over his skin. Salvadore stopped moving.
“His father,” Wolf said, his tone sharp and triumphant. “That’s what he’s afraid of.”
“No!” Then calmer, Salvadore said, “I’ve never been afraid of my father.”
“Tell me about him,” Craig said.
“My father doesn’t have anything to do with this.”
“Your mate says otherwise.”
His mate. Despite having used the phrase himself, it sounded weird coming from someone else. He had the sudden realization that when he had to explain this to Chen and El, it’d be like telling them he’d gone away for a weekend and gotten married to somebody he’d just met. His thoughts stuttered over that idea. Wow. He might as well be married and he was only twenty years old. For God’s sake, nobody got married at twenty.
“Tell me about your father,” Craig repeated, less patience in his voice this time.
Salvadore blinked and forced his thoughts back to the moment at hand. “Please. I don’t want to talk about that.”
Craig gave him a thoughtful look. “You aren’t responsible for anything he’s done,” he said, his voice not nearly so unforgivingly hard as before.
Salvadore licked his bottom lip and crossed his arms again. Suddenly Wolf’s hand didn’t feel so comforting. He was trapped and Wolf wasn’t going to let him leave until he’d given up all his secrets. “They have my family,” Salvadore said. “You know, the people who put the tracker under my skin. They picked us up on our way out of the protectorate—”
“Salvadore,” Wolf said from beside him.
Salvadore refused to look over. He kept talking. “I’d be gone now if they hadn’t disabled my truck, but they made me go out in the woods with that tracker and hunt down that group of wolves by threatening my family, I swear to God. I don’t know if they’re going to let them go or how I’m supposed to get them back. I just—I don’t know what to do.”
As he was speaking Wolf turned and hunkered down beside Salvadore, raising his hand and cupping the side of Salvadore’s face, his other hand still holding Salvadore by the back of the neck. He didn’t speak, only turned Salvadore’s face toward him despite Salvadore’s resistance, and the alpha let him do it without a word of objection or a spark of censure in his gaze.
The green-eyed wolf had gone, but he was back now, and Salvadore wasn’t even sure when he’d returned, but he watched too and Salvadore finally gave up and closed his eyes just for one moment before opening them and looking into Wolf’s eyes. The bright crystalline gray glimmered in the light, sparks of color hidden in the depths, and Salvadore couldn’t help thinking of the glitter of diamonds.
He didn’t understand what made the wolves’ eyes so brilliant and arresting but he couldn’t deny that every time he stared at Wolf, he got a little lost in them.
“Alpha’s patience won’t last. He’ll give in to his heat sooner than any of the rest of us, because he is Alpha.” Wolf’s voice had a strangely mesmerizing effect on Salvadore. “The repression drugs become less effective every time we’re forced to use them and their failure becomes less predictable. Your resistance to submission is going to cause the very thing you’re most afraid of. The longer we spend here, the more dangerous your scent becomes for everyone.”
Wolf dragged his fingers along Salvadore’s cheekbone, the touch warm and heavy. “Submit, so we can find our own place to mate and I promise you, as soon as it’s safe, I’ll help you find your family. We’ll find them and bring them here so they remain safe from anyone who would try to use them against you.”
Salvadore swallowed past the knot that had formed somewhere inside his throat. “He was Nathan Jones. Dr. Nathan S. Jones.”
Wolf’s reaction was instantaneous. His nostrils flared and he turned to Craig, his gaze searching out the alpha’s with unnatural speed.
“Jones,” Craig said, so flat that Salvadore couldn’t read a thing into it.
“He was—”
“A thief. A liar.”
“My dad. I loved him.”
“He was untrustworthy and he used his children to steal technology from us.”
That startled Salvadore enough that he didn’t even think about guarding his reply. “That’s not true! I never took anything!”
“He used you—”
“That’s a fucking lie!”
“—to transport information—”
“Goddammit! No he didn’t!”
“—out of the facilities we gave him access to before the first Earth heat.”
“I knew better than to tell you who he was! You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about!”
“Submit!” Craig roared.
Every muscle in Salvadore’s body stiffened.
Wolf made a rumbling sound beside him. Wolf was going to—
Salvadore grabbed Wolf’s shirt and yanked and was surprised when Wolf actually seemed to overbalance out of his crouch for a moment before dropping to his knees and plastering the front of his body to Salvadore’s side.
“I’m sorry,” Salvadore said. “I’m sorry. Please, for God’s sake, don’t do anything stupid. I didn’t mean to yell at him. It’s my fault. I submit.” Salvadore stayed there, hands fisted in the fabric of Wolf’s shirt, breathing in the scent of sweat and skin and soft, clean fabric at Wolf’s collar, trying to get his racing heart under control all the while his skin tingled with the electric jolt from the sound reverberating up through Wolf’s chest.
“Forgive me,” Wolf said, the words coming from somewhere around Salvadore’s throat, aimed away, toward the alpha. “I don’t know how much longer I can fight the—”
Wolf’s words ended abruptly and Salvadore saw Craig’s hand ruffling through Wolf’s hair.
“I understand your struggle,” Craig said, his voice gone quiet. “You have my sympathy. Your patience with your mate, the strength with which you’ve managed to suppress your instincts is remarkable under the circumstances, even for a watcher. He should be proud to have you as his mate. Only fate can account for the blessing he received from the universe when you claimed him.”
Salvadore believed that. How could he have gotten so lucky to have stumbled into Wolf not once but twice if not for fate? Any other wolf and he’d probably be dead. Even Egan had tried to attack him—and Reed, and even that other wolf, the young one. Wolf had held fast against those urges and he’d given Salvadore a gift Salvadore could never return when he’d helped Salvadore feel like he had a choice out there in the woods. He could see rationally that things might have been frighteningly different if he hadn’t given in, but he had, and he couldn’t dwell on “might have” and “could’ve been.” He’d been so fucking lucky he ought to be kissing somebody’s ass for saving him from those other possibilities.
“He is mine,” Wolf said simply.
Salvadore inhaled deeply and pushed away from Wolf’s chest.
Wolf let him go.
The wolves standing on the other side of the room were looking at Salvadore differently now, he could feel it. He made a point of not staring at them even though he could almost hear their whispered comments about him and his father.
Salvadore rubbed his chest again and winced, but forced himself to meet Craig’s gaze. “I’m sorry. I—just can’t accept that my dad was a bad man. He wasn’t. I know he did some stuff he shouldn’t have, but he wasn’t bad. He loved me and Chen and El and you don’t know how bad I miss him sometimes.”
“No one here’s going to hold you responsible for his actio
ns.”
Salvadore nodded.
“But we do want to know where he is. He has technology he cannot keep.”
“He’s dead. He’s been dead for nearly seven years. But I—I have most of the stuff he stole. At least I think so. Except—”
“Except for the ‘gadget’ you gave Gage Rawlins.”
Salvadore cleared his throat. “Yeah. I don’t have that.”
Chapter 24
“How did your father die?” Craig asked, gaze flickering over Salvadore.
“I don’t know,” Salvadore said. “He got sick but he refused to go to a hospital or call anyone in. I couldn’t make him go. I was just a kid. He died three days later.”
His father’s face as he’d last seen it flashed into his memory: the flush of fever bright in his blood-shot eyes and the strangely brittle feel of his father’s skin that last day when his blood had begun to seep through, coating everything his father touched. Salvadore had burned the sheets and bedding in a fire out back of the house and even took the bed apart and burned it too. The metal frame had remained and it had eventually become the border for Chen’s herb garden behind the house. Salvadore had no idea what had killed his father, but he’d learned enough from his studies to know some things were contagious and it was better to be safe than sorry. He’d made a promise to keep El safe and not to let Chen do anything stupid. He’d tried his best to live up to that promise.
Salvadore had had no one to turn to because his step-mother had died the year before. He and Chen had just started to get along. The job with Mel had saved their lives. He’d started working for her within a few weeks of his father’s death, and she had kept them all from starving. She’d helped him grow up while Lacey had kept shoving cards at him for the veo, telling him it was because she didn’t want him to end up like some of the kids in the area—too ignorant to even maintain the water recycling and solar power systems in their homes or repair a damaged phone.