by Odessa Lynne
She’d watched it. He didn’t even have to hear her say it to know.
She’d watched, because that’s what he would have done if she’d been in the same situation. Too risky not to. The wolves were powerful and dangerous and it didn’t take a lot to get into a life-threatening situation with one of them when the heat and human scent was involved.
He exhaled, dragged his hand free of hers, and scrubbed his fingers through his hair. As Luis was so fond of saying when things didn’t go his way . . .
“This bites a dick.”
A startled look flashed across Ava’s face. Then she sat back in her seat and laughed.
Cam didn’t join her, but the tension that had been riding him since she’d come into the kitchen and demanded to know what he planned to do with Rick finally eased.
He’d handled everything else the universe had ever thrown at him; he could handle this.
* * *
Without access to a batch of the wolves’ newest repression drugs, there wasn’t much Cam could do for Rick’s heat, other than visit Rick in his cell and spend a few hours with Rick’s cock up his ass.
Since Cam wasn’t willing to do that until he’d lost some of the anger eating at him, he chose instead to attend to his missing implant.
What better way to avoid thinking about Rick than to do something that required intense concentration and focus?
The medical room was just a few feet wider than Cam’s bedroom, but without the low ceiling. It was set up galley style, one door in, one door out, with a clean cot pushed up against one wall and a narrow counter along the opposite. He had already settled down on one of the low-backed stools that fit under the counter, spread out his supplies, and started carefully sterilizing his equipment when Luis came in behind him and started watching avidly over Cam’s shoulder.
“If you’re going to stand there, you might as well help.” Cam pulled out the stool next to him and directed Luis to sit.
Luis scurried around Cam and quickly plopped down on the stool.
Cam huffed softly. “I’m not going to change my mind.”
“Not taking my chances. Watching you do this stuff is the only fun I’m allowed to have.”
Cam shook his head and pushed a few of the implements he would be using to precisely set the temporary implant in place toward Luis. The implant’s connections were delicate, and although the implant came out fairly easily, putting one back in wasn’t nearly as simple. He would need help.
Luis bent his head forward and started examining the screen that showed areas of contamination on the tools.
“So when’s Marc coming back?” Luis asked.
“Depends,” Cam said.
“I can’t believe you let someone have one of your implants. You’ve never even let me touch one of ’em.”
“It’s going to stay that way.”
“Come on. Just once.”
“How about never.”
Luis carefully placed one piece of the ring that would hold Cam’s eyelids open inside the sterilizer. “That one’s ready.”
“You got the other one?”
“Looking at it now.”
“Good.”
“So never, huh?”
“Never might be stretching it,” Cam said.
“Yes! Wait’ll I tell Mig you said that.”
“How was he doing the last time you checked on him?”
Luis looked away from the screen and his wide, dark eyes didn’t manage to hide any of the hope he’d been without for so long. A smile broke over his face. “He’s doing absolutely fucking fantastic.”
Cam frowned and gave Luis a pointed look.
Luis flushed. “Sorry.” But then the scar in his cheek flashed deep as his expression turned stubborn. “But you say shit like that all the time. It’s not fair if I can’t. You’re not even that much older than me.”
Cam reached over and ruffled Luis’s dark hair. “First thing you’ve got to remember, brat, is that life ain’t that fair.”
Luis huffed and turned back to the screen. “Yeah, yeah. I’ve heard that one before. Next thing I’ve got to remember is that those ten extra years somehow turned you into an old man.”
Cam humphed and set the last of the implements he was sterilizing into the screener for Luis to examine. Metal clinked and a faint astringent scent tickled the back of his throat.
He slipped one hand into a sterile glove and with the other opened the box that held his temporary backup implant.
Luis immediately leaned over for a closer look.
“Don’t breathe on it, brat.”
“Sorry. It’s just so . . .” He seemed to have no idea how to describe what he thought.
Cam understood. The device had a spike on one end that gave him a cold chill every time he thought about shoving the thing into his eye. The technology was beyond his limited understanding, but it worked, and with it, he had sight he wouldn’t otherwise have.
He owed his father too much to ever turn his back on the man, despite the anger he felt every time he visualized Pace Campbell’s face.
“Uh . . .” Luis cleared his throat. “I was wondering . . .”
“No.”
“Asshole. You don’t even know what I was going to say.”
Cam laughed softly and kept setting up his work space. He would need to see the screen but he would have to keep his head in exactly the right position for the cameras, and—
“I wanted to know if you’d talk to Bel for me.”
“What about?”
“About the fact that she’s the prettiest girl I’ve ever seen and I want to know if she’d be interested in, you know, hooking up or something.”
Cam hadn’t really been paying as much attention to the conversation as he should have been, but that brought his attention back to Luis in a hurry. He frowned, a scowl already half-formed. “If Belinda’s been putting her hands anywhere near you, I’m going to put her through a wall.”
“No, no, no,” Luis sputtered. “She hasn’t been. That’s the problem!”
“Dammit, Luis, Bel’s as old as I am.” Cam gave Luis a direct look. “And she still has a dick. Probably bigger than yours.”
Luis’s face went dull red beneath his dark complexion. “I don’t care. She has these perfect little tits—”
At that, Cam reached over with his gloved hand and smacked the back of Luis’s head. “That’s enough of that. Where the hell did you see her—I’m going to kill her.”
“Jesus, it was an accident, Cam, I swear. I didn’t know she was coming out of the shower and—” Luis ducked his head. “You know how tight that hallway is.”
“You better not be lying to me.”
“I’m not. I swear. The towel just slipped right off.”
Cam pressed his lips together.
Son of a bitch.
The brat had probably engineered the entire accident. Cam would have to warn Bel that Luis had a crush on her. Cam had never known her to chase after the young ones, so it wasn’t likely he had a lot to worry about.
On the other hand, Luis could be a persistent little shit when he set his mind to it.
Cam should really try to find a way for Luis and Mig to spend more time with other teenagers instead of holed up with him and his crew. But . . . Mig had needed him and Ava more than Luis and Mig had needed friends.
Now, though, things might have finally changed. He could finally set in motion the future he’d envisioned for the boys.
“So will you?”
“Will I what?”
“Talk to her,” Luis said. “Come on, old man. Don’t think I don’t know how often you’ve gone off to have a—”
Cam shot Luis a dark look and Luis shut his mouth, eyes wide on Cam.
“I had a conversation with your aunt earlier,” Cam said. “And you know what? I owe her an apology, because she’s right. There are lines, and you just came real close to crossing one of them.”
Luis blinked a few times and swallowed. “Sorry.”<
br />
“Now, you ready to help me get this implant in?”
Luis nodded. He cleared his throat. “Sure thing, old man.”
Chapter 17
Something was wrong with Cam’s eye. The pain of insertion didn’t usually knock him on his ass, but it had very nearly done that today. Then when he’d gotten the implant set, it wouldn’t calibrate.
He couldn’t see shit of out his right eye even though the implant had appeared to be set perfectly.
He still felt a bit like he was going to throw up. He’d had to remove the implant.
And ever since he’d taken it back out, his other implant had been sending distorted images to his brain, causing him the worst case of vertigo he’d ever experienced.
Fear had started to knot his stomach and burn his throat.
What if the alien biotech was screwing up his implants?
How the hell would he survive that?
And so he’d decided to put off his visit to Rick in favor of dropping in to check on Mig for himself.
Because if nothing else, he could live with the thought of the worst case scenario as long as he knew he’d helped Mig.
Pillows propped Mig up against the back wall of the tiny room he shared with Luis. Luis had left his bed unmade and the corner of one of the white sheets hung down from the top bunk. Cam pushed it aside and rested his hand against the bed’s frame so he could look down on the boy he’d been taking care of as best he could for the last six years.
Mig had fallen asleep sitting up and his shoulder was the only thing propping his head up. The piece of his skull that had been crushed by one of his father’s violent outbursts created a dip behind his temple that was almost hidden by the thick fall of his dark hair. The ends curled up at his ear and a line of drool trailed out of the corner of his mouth to pool on his chin.
At nine, Mig had been a firecracker. Over the years, the seizures had started coming closer together, getting worse, lasting longer. They’d started to affect Mig’s speech and his sight. He’d lost more weight than he had to lose. He’d looked like he was on the verge of dying any day and Tom had warned him and Ava that it was a real possibility that the cumulative damage to Mig’s brain would kill him sooner rather than later.
After Henry . . . the boys had been what kept him from imploding, from doing something reckless enough to get himself killed. He already knew he’d never have kids of his own because of the defects his birth mother’s addictions had caused him, but he was okay with that because he had two kids, right here, right now, and he didn’t give a damn that they carried the blood of a monster. Cam knew how little blood meant.
He loved Mig and Luis, and he’d do anything for either one of them.
Mig snorted with a particularly loud snore and Cam had a hard time not laughing.
He reached in and shook Mig’s shoulder.
Mig jerked, then flapped his arm and jerked upright.
“What—?”
Cam tugged on the collar of Mig’s sky blue t-shirt and wiped away the spit on Mig’s chin.
“Hey,” Mig said, smiling. “About time you came to see me.”
“I hear you’ve been feeling better.”
“You better fucking believe it,” Mig said, sounding as bright and sharp as a honed blade.
“You and Luis are going to get my ass kicked when Ava hears you talking like that.”
Mig shrugged but turned a sheepish smile up at Cam. “Ava likes to pretend she doesn’t cuss that much, but she just hides it better.”
“Hmm.”
“Cordell says when I’m not so tired I can start helping him look through that data.”
Cam frowned. “You’ve been tired a lot?”
“Can’t keep my eyes open for more than an hour or two at a time.” As if to prove his point, Mig yawned.
“What’s Tom say about that?”
“It’s probably normal. He thinks the healing is taking a lot out of me. I’ve been sleeping a lot.”
Cam glanced at the two empty trays at the foot of the bed. He reached down with one hand and stacked them, then picked them up. “Looks like you’ve been finding other ways to keep your energy up.”
Mig flashed him a wide grin. “You better believe it.”
Cam felt a small surge of relief and his worry eased. It had been a while since Mig had had much of an appetite.
Mig reached for the bandage covering Cam’s inner arm. “Aren’t you healing faster?”
Cam turned his arm and glanced down, then had to juggle the tray to keep an empty cup from sliding off the edge. He straightened away from the bunks. “Seems to be a little slower than it should be, but who knows. Maybe it’s different with everybody.”
“Maybe.” Mig’s eyes flickered upward, then back to Cam’s arm. “But I’d say something else is going on. You should get Tom to look at you.”
“When I have time.”
Mig’s sharp gaze strayed to Cam’s eyes. “Don’t wait too long.”
The thing about Mig was that he was smart in a way Cam didn’t always understand. Even at nine, Mig had shown a level of intelligence well beyond what was normal for a child, and his intuitiveness sometimes made Cam nervous, as if part of Mig had already gone on to become one with the universe.
It was crazy thinking, but Cam couldn’t shake the feeling that maybe Mig was right. He should have Tom check him out, and he should probably do it soon. It had been an eventful few days and it sure wasn’t going to hurt to have a thorough going over.
He spent a few more minutes with Mig and then he headed out to the kitchen to drop off the trays he’d carried out of Mig’s bedroom.
When he was done with that, he checked for a report from Marc, but still nothing. Finally, he checked the perimeter cameras. Nothing there but one blip that had been a bird landing too close.
And then there was nothing to stop him from going to see Rick again.
Cam stopped by his room, and even though he told himself he wasn’t going to need it, he dug out a bottle of lube from the drawer slotted in under his bed.
He stared down at the bottle. “Fuck,” he muttered, and then he shoved it into his front pocket. He dropped down on the edge of the bed and pulled his computer off the shelf tucked in above him.
Flicking his finger rapidly through the settings, he stopped at the image of Rick curled up on his side on the narrow mattress. Rick had the bed’s only pillow tucked in close to his chest, and he was breathing raggedly, the sheen of sweat coating his skin obvious even in the low light, and the sight did something to Cam he couldn’t explain. His throat tightened and he quickly flicked away from the image and shut down the camera in Rick’s cell.
Three minutes later, he was opening the cell’s thick metal door.
Rick was sitting up on the mattress waiting for him as he let the door shut behind him. The nearly inaudible snick of the lock reengaging whispered through his senses.
“I knew you would return.”
Cam leaned back against the door and crossed his arms. “Did you? I didn’t know if I would.”
“We’re mated now.”
“So you say.”
Rick’s eyes flickered across Cam’s face. “You understand. If you didn’t, you wouldn’t have become so angry last night.”
“I want to tell you about Henry.”
Rick’s eyes flared just a bit and Cam knew he’d surprised him.
“Then tell me.”
Cam rolled his shoulders and cleared his throat. He hadn’t thought this through and getting started was harder than he expected. So he started with a question.
“D’you think you can hold off your heat cycle long enough to listen?”
Rick’s teeth flashed and his fingers curled around the outer edge of the cot’s frame on each side of his thighs. “I won’t make promises I might not be able to keep.”
Cam exhaled and stared at Rick for another moment.
Rick didn’t move.
“Good enough,” Cam said.
; “I appreciate your consideration.” An edge of dark humor laced Rick’s tone.
Cam raised his eyebrows and pressed himself more firmly to the door behind him, getting comfortable. He wouldn’t get closer to Rick, not until he was done.
“I met Henry in one of those exchange programs the first few weeks after you sent your first delegation to Earth to offer trade. You know the ones I’m talking about?”
Rick nodded.
The exchange programs hadn’t really been exchanges so much as an opportunity for wolves and humans to mingle in a controlled environment.
“My father was an important man in those days, and the head of a global business that had already gotten permission to cultivate a working relationship with your people. His technologies were the best we had to offer. My implants, the fact that I’m even alive, it’s because of him and the work his company did.”
Rick’s expression hadn’t changed. He watched Cam with considered attention, and Cam knew Rick was absorbing everything Cam said. He would be able to recall all of it in great detail later, just as Henry has always been able to do. The wolves were highly intelligent and they had excellent recall.
“To make a long story not so damn long, Henry fascinated me. I was fifteen. I was a privileged asshole at the time and I made it my mission to be the first guy I knew to find out just how similar you guys were to us.”
“You were a juvenile.”
“I was a kid, yeah. I think Henry was too. He hadn’t had his first heat. It came the next year.” Cam stared at Rick, the past a rushing river of memories through his brain. “He said there’d been rules put in place that meant he couldn’t choose me as his mate. He planned to stay with me for as long as he could before he had to leave to meet up with the person his father had arranged for him as his first heat mate. But you know what happened when that heat came. Rules didn’t stop him or anybody else from choosing whatever human was nearby. No one knew we’d already been fucking for nearly a month before that.” Cam smiled, but there wasn’t much humor in the memories that brought it forth. “You’d have had to know me back in those days. I had a habit of getting what I wanted. For some reason, Henry actually liked me, even when I wasn’t being all that likeable. You don’t know how much I changed over the next few years because of him.”