Chapter 9 #2
“No,” I admit. I don’t usually share my true feelings with anyone outside my inner circle, but this doesn’t feel like a concession. I could be baiting a trap, luring the human in one confession at a time. “I like your work.”
“Yeah right,” she snorts. “Name one piece of mine that you like.”
“The wall at La Résistance,” I say, surprising myself. “Not the one outside, the small one by the bathroom. With the Brooklyn bridge in the background. That’s your work, right?”
I sense her surprise. “One of my earliest public pieces, yes.”
“I like it.” I sound grudging, and I am. I don’t want to like anything made by a human–especially not this one who drives me insane, but the mural is colorful and wild. “It has…heart.”
“All right, Suit. I accept the compliment.” She turns her smile towards the window, and I want to call her name. Look at me. Smile at me.
Ugh, I usually have better game than this.
Her stomach growls, and she doesn’t seem to notice, but I go on high alert. The human is hungry, and I need to feed her.
“Have you eaten dinner?”
“I had a protein bar. Why?”
I swing into traffic. “Pick a restaurant.”
“What?”
“You heard me.” I glance at her and watch her weigh her options. “You’re hungry. So let’s eat.”
“Are you asking me out, Suit? On a date?”
“Will it get us to dinner faster?”
“Who said I want to eat with you?”
Does everything have to be a fight with this female? “We can get takeout. Or eat at separate tables.” Her stomach growls again, and I bite back my wolf’s whine. “I’m just trying to feed you.”
“I get that. I’m wondering why.”
Some asshole in a truck cuts me off, and I lay on my horn, taking out my frustration on the rude driver. It doesn’t help.
“Can’t I just do something nice?” I mumble.
Aubrey chuckles, and I realize she’s been playing me. “Dinner would be nice.”
I decide to poke her back. “Just nice? Most people would kill to have dinner with a billionaire.”
“A crypto billionaire,” her lip curls. “And I’m not most people.”
“What do you have against blockchain tech?”
“Oh, I don’t know, the rampant waste of resources that exacerbate climate change.”
“It’s a dirty field,” I agree. “Which is why Brick and I make sure all our companies run on green energy. We’re carbon negative. But we need every business to take climate change seriously. As a species, we’re not doing enough.”
She blinks. She didn’t expect me to say that. Then her eyes narrow, and I hide my smirk. She wanted a chance to rip me a new one, and now she’s annoyed.
Dinner is going to be fun.
I open my mouth to ask if she’d prefer sushi or tacos, when my dash lights up with a text. It’s Sully, one of my pack brothers. Need you at HQ now.
I hit reply and dictate with a growl, I’m with a client. Can it wait?
No. Sully isn’t big on words, but he’s head of pack security, so when he calls an in-person meeting, I know it’s important.
“So–now I’m a client.” Aubrey’s eyebrows rise.
I curse and do an illegal U-turn, heading back toward Aubrey’s apartment. “Only so I can expense our time together.” I speed through the streets, swerving around slow cars and delivery vans, and make it to Aubrey’s door in record time.
I illegally park and hop out to get her door, but she’s already sprung out by the time I get to her. “I’ll get your things.”
“No need.” She waves a graceful, paint-stained hand. “You can put them in your apartment, save me a trip.”
The thought that she’ll be in my space soon calms me. I should hate having her around– why am I so annoyed right now at the thought of leaving her side?
I slam her door shut.
“Bye–thank you for the ride that I didn’t ask for,” she calls over her shoulder as she sashays away from me. Her ass is a work of perfection that I am dying to spank.
I don’t bother with a response, but I suspect my eyes glint with my wolf. He wants me to follow her up the stairs and roll around in her bed all night. Naked. I’m hard as steel, imagining her soft skin coated in my scent.
I call the Italian restaurant I know Madi likes and order one of everything delivered to Aubrey’s door. It makes my wolf feel better.
When I get to Sully’s office, I practically tear the door off the hinges. “What is this about?” I snarl. My wolf is surly that we were called away from Aubrey’s side.
Fortunately, Sully doesn’t waste my time. He swivels in his seat, unfazed. “I was reviewing some footage and found this.” He clicks a button, and the image of a street corner fills every screen. I recognize the building–it’s the Adalwulf highrise, right across from Moon Co’s office. “So what?”
“Watch.” The footage rolls, showing a constant stream of street traffic exiting Adalwulf Associates. A few seconds in, a familiar face shows up. Sully hits pause and zooms in.
It’s my dad. This video is proof that he took a meeting with my pack’s sworn enemy.
I shouldn’t feel betrayed by my father’s actions, but I do. I knew he would do anything for power, but an alliance with our enemies? It hits hard.
“This was taken a few minutes before he entered our building and visited you,” Sully says. “Is there any reason your father would be visiting the Adalwulf’s?”
I curse. Damn him. Of course, he’s fucking with my life again. I show my disgust on my face. “Knowing him, he’s playing both sides. He showed up here, angling for an invitation to Brick’s wedding. He also insinuated that Brick’s position in our pack is weak.”
Sully says nothing, just stares at me.
“Are you implying that I knew about this?” I ask.
“Not implying. I’m asking you outright.”
“I don’t control my father’s movements.” I return Sully’s dead-eyed stare, incensed that he’s grilling me like I’m a suspect in a crime. “If he met with our enemy, I had nothing to do with it. The fact that you’d ask me makes me wonder–is my loyalty being called into question?”
Sully leans back in his chair, in a deceptively casual pose. He could easily launch out of his seat and into a fight. “You’ve been at odds with Brick’s decisions lately.”
“Are you talking about my opposition to Brick claiming a human mate? That was in the past. I want what’s best for the pack.
Now that Madi is luna, I stand behind her and Brick, just like you.
” Heat rolls through me, my anger waiting to be unleashed.
The fact that Sully would even group me in with a dog like my father makes me want to explode. “I have this pack’s back.”
“Good to hear,” Sully says. His tone is mild, like we’re discussing the weather, not accusing me of treason. “Then you’ll have no problem with finding out exactly what your father was up to when he visited the Adalwulfs.”
“I know you have spies in the Adalwulf pack.”
“But not in your dad’s. You’re our best bet at finding out what he’s planning.”
I grit my teeth. “I’ll be happy to spy on my father for you, anytime.”
“Wonderful. I’ll tell Brick to expect a report within a week.”
Fuck, now I have to talk to my dad. My mood just went from bad to worse.
My eyes are probably glowing. My wolf doesn’t answer to Sully–which is why he’s careful to clarify that I’ll be reporting to Brick, not him.
Still, the next time we’re on a run, I’m going to unleash my wolf on him.
He needs to remember that I’m second, not him.
“Don’t trouble yourself. I’ll tell him myself.
” I stomp out the door before I challenge him to a dominance fight right in his office.
Wolves and security equipment don’t mix.
I’m pissed I have to deal with this, but Sully is right. Any threat to our pack needs to be dealt with immediately. I have to hunt my dad down and eliminate the threat.
I pull out my phone, scroll to my second favorite contact, and hit talk.
“Billy?” My sister Boudicca answers, sounding confused. “Is everything okay?”
“Our father is here.”
“What?” It takes her a moment to parse what I’m telling her. “In the city?”
“Yes.” I grind my teeth.
She sighs. “I heard he was planning a trip. I would’ve stopped him if I could.”
“I know.”
When my sister turned twenty, she was exiled from our pack for mating a she-wolf. Because, of course, my dad is homophobic as well as a bigot. He can’t stand to let people love who they love; he only wants to spread hate around.
Now she lives in New Hampshire with her mate, but she keeps tabs on the pack. She was always brave and strong and focused on protecting others. Protecting me. When she was exiled, she tried to take me with her, but my father and his enforcers wouldn’t allow it.
Hearing her voice sends me back to an earlier, darker time. For a moment, I’m in the Maine woods of my father’s territory. I can hear the pack shouting. I was five when they caught a hunter trespassing on pack land. I can still recall the stink of sweat and fear and the evil light in my dad’s eye.
He made the pack gather and watch as his enforcers dragged the human forward. “This human thinks he can hunt on our land,” my father sneered. “We’ll teach him who does the hunting around here!”
The rabid cheers fade away as my sister calls my name. “Billy? Are you still there?”
I shake my head to clear the memory. “I’m here. I need you to help me find out where he’s staying.” I know she’s maintained relationships with the more decent members of my father’s pack. She does what she can to help them to spite my father’s tyranny.
“I’ll do what I can,” she promises.
I tell her I love her, and we end the call, but I’m still caught in the grip of memory.
I was only five when they found that hunter in the woods. At the time, my sister was my babysitter. She held me close while my father ranted and raved about humans and how weak they are.
“They think they can take over the earth! But they’re weak.” The disgust in his voice made me cower. If I was in wolf form, I would’ve tucked my tail.
I could feel the anger and triumph in my father, and that was never a good sign. I was a small child and often bore the brunt of my father’s hate.
And he was whipping up the pack, getting them ready for violence.
At one point, I whimpered. I didn’t mean to make a sound, but once it was out, it was too late.
My father heard me.
“Bring him here,” he ordered my sister. She shook her head. Only twelve, and she was brave enough to stand up to him, even when he beat her for it. She tried to protect me.
I didn’t want her to get hurt. I pushed away and made myself go on shaking legs to stand before him.
“This is a human. He thinks he’s strong but take away his gun and…” my father raised a hand, and the man shrieked behind his gag. I didn’t need to hear what he was saying to know he was begging for his life.
My father and his cronies laughed. “See?” My father shouted. “Weak. Come here, boy.’ He gripped my shoulder, and his fingers dug into the muscle and bone. It hurt. I bit back a cry. “You’re a wolf like me. My son. You don’t want to be weak. Right?”
“N-no…”
He slapped me. “Louder.”
“No, sir,” I shouted. I could sense my sister’s distress behind me. I had to be strong. I could do this.
“Good boy. So you’re going to stand here, and you’re going to watch. One day, all of this will be yours. And it’ll be your job to take care of any threats.”
I stared at the human. He was shaking, and tears tracked down his cheeks, dampening his gag. He didn’t look like a threat.
“We’re wolves,” I pointed out. “We’re stronger.”
“That’s right.” My dad slapped my back. “He gets it. And now… it’s time to hunt the human!”
They let the man go. He ran, but he didn’t get far. They turned into wolves and herded him back.
“Don’t look away, boy,” my father snarled before he turned into a wolf to go in for the kill. And I didn’t.
I stood very still and kept my eyes open until the human’s blood sprayed in my face.
And now I’ve grown into everything my father wants me to be. Cold, cunning, controlled. Helping lead a powerful pack.
But I am not my father’s son. I want him out of my city and my life, but mostly I want him far away from any humans he might hurt.
And it’s up to me to stop him.