Chapter 2
Emery
Ididn’t know who the hell I was chasing after. He looked like Hudson. He smelled like Hudson. This little prick that refused to even talk to me, willing to use magic so carelessly with zero regard to who might notice—
That wasn’t my Hudson.
The Animal Control quip was on brand. Would’ve made me laugh if I hadn’t been so goddamn infuriated with him.
Although, I was pretty sure my Hudson had died. Four years ago, when the asshole we both called our friend ripped out his heart, stomped on it, and swaggered away as if he hadn’t just destroyed the most precious thing in all of creation.
All to please his piece of shit father.
I tried to be understanding with Tyler. I really did. I knew the kind of pressure he was under, the abuse he’d suffered. But when he finally stopped treating Hudson like garbage in our senior year and started to find his own way, I genuinely believed he was going to stand up to William.
I believed that he believed Hudson was worth it.
Hudson was worth it. I knew that. Which made it suck all the more that he refused to talk to me.
The shithead had full-on ghosted me after he left.
I barely even got a goodbye, but the fact that I had gotten anything while he left Tyler in the dust had placated me somewhat.
Then he changed his number and told Grams not to give us his new one.
That was when Tyler and I had a little chat—and I was done being understanding.
He got defensive at first. Accused me of being jealous of what he and Hudson had, which, I’ll admit, had some truth to it.
A lot of truth, I suppose. Hudson had always been oblivious to the way I cared about him, but it’s hard to see when the sun shines out of Tyler fucking Hargraves’ asshole.
Ty and I came to blows before it ended. Even as a mortal, though, the guy could hold his own. It was rather impressive. When I finally pinned him to the wall and had him right where I could rip his ridiculously delicious-looking throat out, he broke.
And when he told me exactly what he’d done, when he admitted everything, I was so glad the full moon had been a week off.
Because that would’ve been the end of Tyler.
I knew he regretted it. I knew he cared about Hudson. More than cared about him. I think that’s why he did it.
That’s why he let him go.
But right then, I couldn’t see how Tyler had done anyone any favors.
I leaned against the bar counter of The Hole, drinking watered-down beer in the hopes that it would numb the pain in my ears from the repetitive music and the impending headache from excessive strobe lights.
I hadn’t been more than twenty minutes behind Hudson, yet somehow the guy looked trashed.
Some burly gym rat was halfway up his ass on the dance floor, and a twunk in a baseball cap was hanging off his shoulders from the front. Tyler had been fortunate to avoid my wrath on the night of a full moon. Those two wouldn’t be so lucky if their hands moved any lower on Hudson’s body.
Not that I could blame them. Hudson looked like sex on a silver platter out there, rolling his hips in time with the beat and grinning like sin itself.
A light sweat coated his skin, the flush on his cheeks making those adorable freckles that smattered his nose pop.
And when he lifted his head, and those bright emeralds in his eyes caught the light—there wasn’t a being in heaven or hell with the power to resist that shine.
Certainly not me.
Downing the last of my beer, I pushed off the counter and set my glass down. The gym rat was practically tongue-fucking Hudson’s ear by the time I managed to push my way through the small crowd. Pretty certain I was expected, so I didn’t aim for finesse in removing him.
It takes a long time and a lot of discipline for someone with my curse to be capable of controlling themself in any capacity during the full moon. A few years prior, that man would have been dinner.
With one hand, I grabbed the back of his thick, sweaty neck, and with the other, I latched onto the wrist that was slowly creeping its way toward Hudson’s ass, twisting.
“Ow, what the fuck, man?!” the gym rat yelled, barely audible over the music.
Letting myself go just a bit, my teeth sharpened as I bared them fully. My eyes shifted in the flashing lights, gold and shining with murder. Just like that, all those muscles were useless, and the man disappeared into the crowd.
Hudson was laughing as I slipped into place. He and the twunk hanging off him were seconds from locking lips, completely oblivious to what had occurred. I wrapped a hand around Hudson’s stomach, trying not to give in to the primal elation that rose inside me as I pulled his back against my chest.
I was rock hard in seconds.
My terrible dancing went unnoticed. Hudson pulled away from the other man grinding on him, leaning back against my shoulder and grinding his ass into my growing bulge.
The twunk sneered my way as Hudson reached behind, gripping the back of my neck to pull me closer.
I swallowed my nerves as I dipped in, whispering in his ear. “You and I need to have a chat.”
“Emery, buddy!” Hudson laughed, never faltering in the way he rolled into me, making me harder with every motion.
“Well, you caught me. Guess you’re getting what you wanted after all.
” He dropped all his weight into his ass, pinning my dick so tightly between us that I could practically feel the crease between his cheeks through our clothing.
“You know… that’s not why I’m here.” Fuck, I was getting lightheaded. And he knew it. He knew exactly how difficult it would be for me to focus on anything but my most basic instincts that night.
“Could’ve fooled me,” he muttered with an air of boredom as he turned in my arms. The breeze of his movement gave me a scent I wasn’t familiar with, tangled up in all that he was. The constant pheromones he gave off, I was used to. They always spiked when Tyler was around. But this…
Fear. Panic, even.
Then I caught the scent of something that offended every one of my senses. My eyes watered. My nose burned. And it passed just as quickly.
Wolfsbane. Hudson had fucking wolfsbane on him. He was prepared for a fight.
A fight with me.
His features shifted right back into his poker face, seemingly unaware that I’d caught the scent of his defenses. “I could use the distraction,” he whispered, getting near enough I could taste the alcohol on his breath, “now that you’ve caught your prey.”
The way he referred to himself like a piece of meat lit a fire in my gut that allowed me to push past his attempt at seduction. “You are not my fucking prey, Hudson. I just want to talk to you, for fuck’s sake. What the hell has gotten into you?”
With a roll of his eyes and an irritated growl in his throat, he glanced behind him, finding his previous dance partner had moved on to someone else. “Nothing tonight, apparently.” He shoved off my chest, knocking my shoulder as he stomped past. “You scared them away.”
Between the other patrons and the smoke machines, I lost sight of him in seconds, but his scent was all over me. Easy to follow.
Barreling through the dancers, I caught sight of him headed to the back of the club. A small crowd parted for him at his approach, then proceeded to block my path.
Magically inclined, no doubt.
“Move!” A quick, feral growl sent them scattering.
I reached the back door, finding the chain that had been wrapped around it broken and dangling. If he was able to break it with magic, that meant the metal wasn’t iron, so he could have easily repaired it to impede me further if he’d wanted.
Maybe he was done running. Hopefully.
My nose wrinkled as I shoved the door open, catching a faint whiff of blood, and I stepped out into a cramped alleyway filled with trash.
One direction was enclosed while the other led to the far end of the parking lot.
Hudson slumped against the cinderblock wall halfway between me and the exit, puffing a cigarette.
I stood there for a moment, taking him in.
The real him, not whatever facade he’d been wearing inside.
The gray sleeves of his form-fitting Henley had been rolled up, revealing a gash along his forearm where he’d cut himself during his escape.
He didn’t even seem to notice, his eyes searching the asphalt below his feet with a dead look in them.
“Witches been hiding the cure for cancer all this time?” I chided, kicking a trash bag aside as I made my way to the wall opposite him.
“Probably had it ready to go until the crusades.” Smoke rolled off Hudson’s lips and curled out his nose.
Leaning back, I folded my arms over my chest, looking him up and down as he finished his cigarette.
Giving him his space without another word.
When the embers neared the butt, he tossed it to the ground, twisting the toe of his boot to put it out. “Did he follow you?”
A snide laugh left my nose, and my eyes rolled of their own accord. Of course, this was about him. It was always about him. “That what that was in there?” I scoffed, jutting my chin toward the door. “A show for Tyler?”
Hudson shot me a glare through those wild bangs without lifting his head. “Maybe I just wanted to drink and fuck away my pain, Em. How is it any of your fucking business how I deal?”
“Yeah, I hear those generational curses are the real shit ones to break.”
Okay, maybe my control wasn’t as great as I’d made it out to be. I knew I’d crossed a line—several lines—before I’d even gotten the sentence out.
I said my Hudson had died, but in that fractional second between my slip and the way I paid for it, I saw something extraordinary rise from his ashes. His bangs were whipped from his forehead, but there’d been no wind in the alley until that exact moment when I felt my feet leave the ground.