Thrown to the Wolves (Big Bad Wolf)

by Adhara, Charlie

  “What property deeds?”

  Geoff shrugged. “Who cares? Soon as he got there he pulled a total one-eighty and accused me of romancing his wife.”

  Cooper frowned, surprised. “And? Were you?”

  A low, warning grumbling sound came from Geoff’s massive chest. “That eighty-pound human licking at my heels, kneeling in my shit and panting over my paw prints?”

  “Kinky,” Cooper said calmly. “So is that a yes or a no?”

  The grumbling became more intense, and Geoff’s eyes widened and glowed as the wolf woke up at the blatant disrespect. Around them several guests had turned to stare.

  “I like my lovers a lot less breakable.” He took a step closer to Cooper, squaring his shoulders. “I don’t know how Oliver doesn’t snap you in half every time he fucks you.” He looked pointedly down at Cooper’s brace and back up to the bruise on his head. “Or maybe he does and you like it.”

  “Don’t back down,” Park had told him once. It had been a really good day spent slobbin’ around the apartment and ending up half-undressed on the couch. After nothing but sex, food and sleep, it was of those rare times Park seemed genuinely relaxed to be talking about wolf things. Eager, even. “If you feel them trying to dominate or intimidate you, the best reaction is no reaction. Let’s practice.”

  He’d crawled over Cooper’s splayed body, chest out, chin up, suddenly seeming twice his normal size. “Roar,” he’d said, entirely seriously.

  Cooper couldn’t help it. He’d just surged up and kissed him.

  “That is not how I want you disarming threatening wolves,” Park had said sternly.

  “Oh, well, guess I need more practice.”

  Cooper grinned, remembering it now. It had been a really good night, too.

  Geoff’s eyes widened and he pulled back abruptly, as if deeply disturbed by Cooper’s reaction. He glanced around, expression turning dismayed at how many wolves were now openly watching their exchange. A small but intent audience not even pretending not to eavesdrop. Even Helena was lingering by the fireplace, watching them with an inscrutable expression.

  “Who the fuck do you think you are?” Geoff hissed.

  Cooper felt his first trickle of genuine concern. There was nothing worse or more dangerously unpredictable than a humiliated man. But he knew even without Park to tell him that backing down now with all these witnesses was an even worse idea than before.

  “I’m going to need you to calm down and get out of my face,” Cooper said evenly.

  Geoff was shocked now. His face was turning red, from rage or embarrassment, it didn’t matter. Neither outcome boded well. “You think you’re hot shit because of the Shepherd, don’t you?”

  Cooper frowned. Was that slang for the BSI? Or—

  Geoff didn’t wait for a response. “I still have contacts in the States, you know. I’ve heard all about you. How you’re half the man you used to be.” He tapped his own gut, then leaned in closer, whispering, just barely audible, “How you and your human partner liked to kill wolves and film it to get off on. What does Helena say about that, I wonder?”

  Cooper felt his spine turn to ice.

  “Unless she doesn’t know. Uh-oh. Well, I hope for your sake nobody—”

  His eyes flickered over Cooper’s shoulder. They were no longer alone. Before he fully turned to look, for one disconcerting moment Cooper thought Park had arrived before realizing it was Marcus. They really did look similar.

  “Everything okay?” Marcus said cheerfully. His head dipped a little in polite deference.

  Geoff straightened and nodded considerably less deferentially back. “I was just leaving.” He made eye contact with Cooper once more, and despite everything Cooper made sure to stare right back. Geoff winced a little. “Keep your fucking pets in place, would you?” he said before storming off, nearly shoulder checking Marcus.

  “What was that about?” Marcus asked, watching Geoff cross the room and lean down to whisper something in Sylvia’s ear.

  “I don’t know,” Cooper muttered, heart beating wildly. Did Park’s family know the details of what happened in Florence? Since they hadn’t even known who he was, he doubted it. Either way, Geoff was threatening to make sure they did now. It had come on so suddenly. “We were just discussing the Freemans and he lost it.”

  Marcus’s mouth tightened slightly in displeasure and he, for one, didn’t bother pretending not to recognize the name. “Why? What did you say to him?”

  “Nothing! Sylvia said I could ask him how to get in touch with them. That’s literally why she called him over here. Then he just flipped out.”

  “Geoff is Sylvia Rosetti’s right-hand man. He doesn’t just flip out. She might have pretended to want to help you, but anything Geoff did or said was at her command.”

  “I don’t know,” Cooper said hesitantly. At the end of the day, wolves were still people. Alpha or no, people did things behind each other’s backs all the time. He supposed it was possible Sylvia’s wacky persona was all an act. But wasn’t it also possible Geoff had his own reasons for threatening Cooper the second he started asking about Dr. Freeman specifically? “Any idea why David Freeman would be asking about property deeds?”

  “I’m sorry, I can’t help you. Keeping humans out of our business is more Stuart’s arena. You might want to ask him.”

  Cooper grimaced at the thought of a one-on-one fishing expedition with Stuart, talking about why humans were the worst.

  “You mustn’t take his reticence toward you too personally,” Marcus said gently, catching his look.

  Cooper thought reticence was not really the word he’d have chosen. Not when disgust, open hostility and abhorrence were all ripe for the picking.

  Marcus continued, “He’s had some...poor experiences with your sort before.”

  “Yeah, so have I, but I try not to hold it against myself.”

  Marcus laughed. “You’re nothing like what I expected. And not just because you’re not a wolf.” He paused thoughtfully. “You’re actually quite like Delia’s mother. She was a human, too, you know.”

  Cooper gaped. “Stuart’s ex? No, I didn’t know. I mean, Oliver said his family disapproved of the relationship, but he didn’t say why.”

  “It’s not a happy story. They met quite young, Stuart and Delia’s mother. Joe didn’t approve, of course, and they fought about it constantly. When he was forbidden from seeing her, Stuart left the pack.”

  “What happened?”

  Marcus stared into space, seemingly lost in memory. “It ended quite abruptly, two years later. She didn’t know what we were, you see. What he was. Stuart’s misguided attempt at protecting her from our world. From Joe. When she found out...well, long story short, that was the end of that. Now the thought of any human knowing our secret is enough to get his claws out.”

  Cooper couldn’t help touching his belly. “I didn’t realize.”

  “How could you have if Ollie didn’t tell you?” Marcus said matter-of-factly. “Just like Stuart did, I’m sure Ollie means well, but he’s put you in a risky situation without all the facts.”

  “Oliver doesn’t think we’re in any danger.”

  Mild surprise flickered across Marcus’s face before settling into a tender, almost pitying sort of amusement. “If he told you that, maybe he thinks you need protecting, too.”

  Cooper frowned and scanned the room for Park, who seemed to have disappeared. Now that he was thinking about it, it was weird Park hadn’t been the one to step in when Geoff got in his face. Hell, he was surprised Park hadn’t shown up as soon as Sylvia had reentered the room. She was deep in conversation with Lorelei now, but Geoff had managed to disappear his hulking body into the crowd as well.

  Cooper felt the tiniest niggle of worry at the base of his skull. Instead of Park, he’d caught sight of another familiar and unexpected face. The wo
man in sunglasses from the market. The Double Indemnity knockoff. She’d passed by the entrance to the sitting room, paused in the doorway, stared at Cooper, then continued out of sight.

  “Did you see that?”

  Marcus blinked. “Sorry?”

  “That woman, walking past the door just now.”

  Marcus still looked perplexed.

  “Never mind. Will you excuse me?” Cooper said. He started to follow the woman when Marcus caught his elbow in a surprisingly strong grip.

  “I hope I haven’t said anything to upset you.”

  “No, no, of course not.” He glanced anxiously at the empty door.

  “I just—” Marcus hesitated, considering, then spoke the rest in a rush as if knowing he had one shot to say this. “I hope you know that Ollie is in a precarious position. He might not like it, but everything he does, every choice he makes, matters this weekend. And now that he’s announced you, your actions reflect back on him to those watching. And trust me, they are watching.”

  Cooper frowned. “You mean Geoff?”

  “I mean everyone in this room. And everyone that everyone in this room tells. It may not seem like it to you, but we wolves live in a deceptively small world. And it’s shrinking every day.”

  Marcus looked distant for a moment, then released Cooper’s arm. “I just think you should know what you’re getting into. I don’t like secrets. I’ve never found them to be particularly helpful in the end.”

  “Yeah, I’ve heard that about you.”

  “Good. Talk to Ollie. Remind him he doesn’t like them, either.”

  Cooper hesitated. “Oliver told me what you did for him, when his father died. He’s always admired you for that.”

  “Really?” Marcus’s expression was surprised but pleased. “Well, he might be the only one.”

  “Surely they realize they should never have lied about it to begin with.” He remembered Helena’s sharp rebuttal of Marcus just that afternoon. The tension and flare-up of long-burning anger that had nearly suffocated the room. He amended, guiltily, “Or at least Oliver’s brothers and sisters must have been glad to know the truth.”

  Marcus smiled oddly, an unhappy little twist of his mouth. “I think you’ve underestimated just how much of our lives as wolves are dedicated to maintaining one fiction or another. Honesty is an unexpected and frightening thing to creatures like us. They all blamed me for his leaving the pack, you know. Joe could never really forgive me for that.”

  The now he never will didn’t need to be said.

  “I’m sorry,” Cooper mumbled.

  “It was the right thing to do,” Marcus said firmly, and his face was warm and apologetic once more, amaretto eyes reminding Cooper of the man he loved. Loved and had potentially lost for the moment, at least.

  Cooper glanced back at the door.

  “Look at me getting gloomy. And at a wake of all places.” Marcus winked and waved him away with a shoo gesture. “I’m sorry I’ve kept you so long. Go. Find Oliver and be honest with each other. Convince an old wolf it’s not too late for us to learn new tricks.”

  Cooper said his goodbyes again and crossed the room. He stepped out of the noisy sitting room into the foyer, where the woman had disappeared. At first he didn’t see her. Then, there, on the second level overlooking the main floor. Her hands rested on the rail, as if she’d been waiting for him. As soon as Cooper saw her, she disappeared again, down a hall leading deeper into the house.

  He started for the stairs, but before he could reach the first step, the door to the outside opened and Stuart slipped in, bringing with him a blast of frigid air, swirling snow and a heavy scent of cigarettes.

  When he saw Cooper, he froze and his face darkened. “What are you doing wandering around?”

  “I—” Cooper stopped. He willed himself not to look up at the balcony. It was Stuart’s house, his right to know if some nut was wandering around, but Cooper felt strangely uneasy telling him about the woman. He doubted it was Marcus’s intention, but his story about Delia’s mother had made Cooper pity Stuart more...and trust him less. “It was getting tense in there. I thought it would be better for everyone if I went upstairs for the evening.”

  Stuart tugged on his mustache thoughtfully, and when he spoke, his voice was surprisingly not unkind. “Oliver was right to want to keep you out of this. It isn’t safe.”

  It was a strange déjà vu to his conversation with Marcus. As different as the brothers were, they seemed to agree that all was not as safe and simple as Park made it sound, which was frustrating.

  “I can look after myself.”

  “I wasn’t talking about you,” Stuart snapped. “Typical self-centered human. You can’t even see how much danger you put us in just by being here. Know that if anything happens to Oliver, it will be because of you.”

  Stuart leaned closer. “Your weakness makes him weak. It always will.”

  Before Cooper could stop gaping, Stuart slipped past him, careful not to touch, and reentered the living room.

  What the actual fuck. Cooper stared after him. What the hell was that supposed to mean? And more importantly, was it a warning or threat? He looked up at the balcony, but of course the woman was gone. Goddamn Stuart and his ominous bullshit. Him and Marcus, honestly. Cooper would have half wondered if it’d been planned if Stuart hadn’t looked so surprised to see him.

  Cooper made sure no one in the living room was watching him, then hurriedly climbed the stairs, two at a time—then one at a time when his weak shin laughed at such foolhardiness—and continued past the balcony, down the hall he’d seen her take. But there was no one.

  He slowed, listening for some sign of her, but the house was sturdily built with incredibly thick walls and even the hushed sounds of condolences and artificial chitchat downstairs grew rapidly fainter as he crept across the carpet. What were all these rooms? He hadn’t been down here before. His and Park’s bedroom was not on this side of the house, and it wasn’t like he had been offered a tour.

  All the doors were closed unwelcomingly, and the weight of his brace made an uneven thud against the floor. He kept expecting a half-transformed Raymond to leap out any second, roaring, The West Wing is forbidden!

  Cooper allowed himself one protective sweep of his hand over his scars and continued. At the end of the hall he came to a fork in the road, so to speak. There was a light on to the left. The right was dark.

  “Two paths diverged in a wood, and I took the one less terrifying,” Cooper murmured, and headed into the light. Literally and not metaphorically, he hoped.

  He’d barely moved ten feet when he heard the soft click and thud of a door closing from behind him, down the dark end of the hall. He quickly backtracked. There. Muffled voices. He pressed his ear to the wood, wishing not for the first time for wolf hearing. Someone was angry.

  Cooper took a deep breath, opened the door and froze.

  That was not the woman.

  Chapter Eight

  “Oliver?”

  The room was some sort of office slash library, with floor-to-ceiling bookcases all along the walls and a heavy desk and leather chair in the center. Park was behind the desk standing closely—very closely—with a man Cooper didn’t recognize. A handsome man whose hand was currently gripping the lapel of Park’s blazer.

  They were both looking at Cooper with twin expressions of shock that would have been funny under other circumstances. What those circumstances were, he could not begin to guess.

  “What...”

  Park took a hasty step back—expression uncomfortable and a little guilty—and the man’s hand fell away from him. “Cooper. What are you doing up here?” He winced at his own words. “I mean, is something wrong? Were you looking for me?”

  “I thought I saw that woman come up here,” Cooper said slowly. “The weird one from the market.” He couldn’t st
op looking from the man to Park and back, trying to read the body language. He trusted Park. Trusted him with his life. He didn’t think he would cheat or intentionally hurt him. But seriously. Who the fuck?

  The man—white guy, dark hair, Cooper’s age or younger—was watching him back, obviously curious and a little...smug? Amused? “We didn’t see anyone strange come up here,” he said. “Present company excluded, of course.”

  Cooper stiffened. “I’m sorry, and you are?”

  Park shot the man a look and beckoned Cooper into the room. “Ah, this is Eli. Eli, Cooper.”

  “We’ve met,” the man said, moving slowly and delicately around the desk to shake Cooper’s hand. His grip was gentle, almost limp, forcing Cooper to hold tighter or drop him.

  “Have we? I don’t remember you.”

  “That’s funny. I haven’t been able to get the memory of you on your back, gasping, out of my head.” Eli’s thumb traced a little circle on the inside of his wrist, and that was all the warning he got before Eli darted forward and inhaled the air by Cooper’s neck, his grip on Cooper’s hand suddenly as unbreakable as iron. “Mmm, faded already. Did I really leave such a fleeting impression?”

  He pressed a quick, dry kiss to Cooper’s cheek. Across the room, Park growled and Cooper jerked away. This time Eli released him without resistance.

  “You’re the wolf.”

  “The wolf.” Eli put a hand to his heart. “That’s quite a moniker. Especially around here. Especially today.”

  “The wolf in the car. You licked me.”

  “Sorry about that. You smelled like...someone I used to know, and I got a little overexcited.” Eli blinked at him, faux innocently. “Just be thankful I didn’t pee on you.” He circled Cooper with an appreciative look. “You’re even cuter than Ollie said you were.”

  “Well, he hasn’t told me anything about you,” Cooper said, voice tight. He tried not to fidget or cover himself at the blatant appraisal.

  “Oh, I’m the boy next door.” Eli stopped in front of him and winked. “The one who got away. The old beau. The doused flame. The ex.”