Chapter 2
chapter
two
Tobias’s night was looking up.
Sure, he was having a bad pain day. Sure, that day was made even worse when Muzzle activated that fucking amulet and made him stumble away from a perfectly good flirt.
Sure, he just ripped a man’s throat out for screwing over his alpha—a crime that Tobias would sorely like to replicate—and woke up in the recovery room aching and dazed, with a hunter’s strange, bony knife posed over his throat.
But he knew that hunter. And more importantly, the hunter knew him. Enough to come up with a nickname for him. Hot Scar Guy wasn’t the most flattering nickname he’d ever gotten, but it was far from the worst.
“It’s actually Tobias Rook,” Tobias said, grinning as wide as he could even as post-transformation pains wracked his body. “But you can keep calling me Hot Scar Guy if you want. I didn’t expect to see you here, Al.”
He didn’t look at the knife. He kept his gaze squarely on the hunter’s face, which was going a lovely shade of red.
“That’s not my name,” the hunter snapped. “I’m…you aren’t…”
Tobias didn’t have to fake his delight. He’d assumed Al—or whatever his name turned out to be—was in his early twenties, like him.
Now he wondered if the guy was younger. Come to think of it, even his flirting back at Burgers N’ Beats had been strained, like he didn’t have much experience with it.
Maybe he’d overshot the guy’s age thanks to his ridiculous jawline.
“How old are you?” Tobias asked, pushing himself up on his elbows. “You’re not in high school, right? That would make me feel super creepy.”
“I’m nineteen,” Al snapped. “And it’s not Al, it’s Alexander.” Then he winced, like he hadn’t meant to do that. It was the tiniest tense of his unfairly defined jaw—but a wince nonetheless. Hunters were probably told not to make a connection with the enemy, after all.
“Alexander,” Tobias drawled. “Well, Alex. I’d say it’s nice to meet you, but as you can see I’m having a bit of a crappy night—”
He stopped. Footsteps were coming down the hall, louder than the distant cheering.
“Down,” he instructed.
Alexander’s eyes narrowed. “What?”
Tobias grabbed him and slid a hand over his mouth.
Alexander shoved his bony knife in a deadly arc toward his neck. Tobias caught his wrist and squeezed. It took a surprising amount of pressure to make him let go. Tobias almost expected to hear a bone crack. But then Alexander grunted as the knife clattered to the concrete.
“Now do us both a favor and stay quiet,” Tobias told him. “Alright?”
Alexander struggled. But Tobias could feel him slowing, weighing his options. Then he went still.
“Good boy,” Tobias whispered.
Alexander let out a shocked grunt against his hand.
But Tobias barely heard it, too overwhelmed by the scent that washed over him.
It was incredible: thick and deep and oddly clean.
Like a freshwater spring, without the background noise of dirt and greenery and snuffling woodland creatures.
Just cleanness, pure and simple. He’d caught whiffs of it back at Burgers N’ Beats.
It was the main reason he kept slinking back to flirt with the strange, gorgeous server wearing a too-neat uniform.
But Tobias had never shoved his face into Alexander’s skin before, never inhaled so deeply. It was intoxicating.
Tobias held his breath. He didn’t have time to get distracted by some hunter’s scent. He needed to focus.
The footsteps paused. There was a tiny, timid mutter that Tobias recognized. Then a knock on the door.
“Um,” said Josh Waters, sounding just as weird and squirrely as when he’d shown up tonight with his arm in a cast. “Tobias? Are you awake?”
Tobias cleared his throat. “Unfortunately, yeah. What’s up? You sound weird. Arm giving you trouble?”
“No,” Josh said, too fast.
“Muzzle giving you trouble?”
“No,” Josh said, even faster. “I’m fine. Everything’s fine.”
Tobias met Alexander’s eyes, which were glaring at him from above Tobias’s hand.
Tobias considered. A hunter showing up in the recovery room, Josh showing up tonight and giving him some bullshit excuse about where he got a broken arm—something was fishy here.
“Oookay,” Tobias said. “Well, if everything isn’t fine, you know you can talk to me. I’m still looking out for you, even if you are dead set on joining this bullshit pack.”
Alexander’s glare became confused. Tobias bet he didn’t get a lot of werewolves badmouthing their pack.
Tobias winked at him. Alexander’s confusion quickly turned to outrage. He struggled in vain as Tobias held him still and silent.
“I know,” Josh said, all hollow confidence Tobias could see right through. “I can handle myself. Just…let me know if you see anything weird, okay?”
“Weird,” Tobias said, staring down at Alexander wrestling in earnest against his grip. The hunter was being hunted. He could work with that. He could figure out what the hell was up with Josh later.
“You got it,” he said. He waited until Josh’s footsteps faded. Then he let Alexander shove his hand off his mouth.
“Get off me, mutt,” Alexander snarled. Then he drove an elbow into Tobias’s side.
Tobias grimaced. It was a particularly hard hit from a human, plus he had a cluster of scars there that had been acting up all day.
“Calm down,” he told Alexander. “I’ll let you go, alright?”
As soon as he made good on his word, Alexander scrambled up and grabbed his knife. It was a jawbone, Tobias realized, appalled. The hilt was an animal jawbone, polished and gleaming, the teeth sanded down and glued into their sockets.
He eyed Alexander’s stance. Maybe this guy wasn’t too experienced in flirting. But this wasn’t some dude who had stumbled into the hunting life by mistake. This hunter was trained, and he was happy to put that training to use.
Tobias held up his hands, fighting down that screaming urge to take off running. Or worse, lunge for the guy’s throat. “I’m not here to hurt anyone,” he said.
“You killed that man back in the ring,” Alexander spat. Then he flipped his knife in his hand without looking.
Tobias’s raised his eyebrows. Experienced and a show-off. Alright.
“I wasn’t exactly me back in that ring,” Tobias said slowly.
He stood, rolling his stiff shoulders and ignoring the agony that resulted.
“Look, baby hunter. The kid knows you’re here.
Which means he can tell the alpha. And if Muzzle finds out, you’re stuck in a giant pit of vipers with no way out. How many are with you?”
Alexander glared at him. Tobias could smell sweat prickling under his shirt, shockingly tantalizing as it mixed with that strange clean scent that made it difficult to think.
“You’re alone,” Tobias realized. He laughed. “You snuck into a wolf den alone? What are you, suicidal?”
“Dedicated,” Alexander corrected. He leaped at Tobias, knife raised. The silver blade swiped along Tobias’s shoulder, slicing his sleeve and making the skin underneath blister. He pulled back, aiming for Tobias’s throat.
Tobias caught his wrist. Then he turned it, maneuvering it easily until the blade Alexander clutched was sitting pretty in Alexander’s own shoulder, a mirror of where he had swiped Tobias.
To his credit, the human barely made a noise when Tobias stabbed him. Nor did he make a noise when Tobias ripped the blade out, knocked it across the room, and slammed Alexander belly-first into the wall.
“I don’t know much about hunters,” Tobias lied. “But I know two things: one, you’re useless without a pack. Two, you rely on long-range weapons and traps. If you ever get into a hand-to-hand fight with a monster—”
He twisted Alexander’s injured arm behind his back, making him cry out.
“You’re fucked,” he continued. He grazed his mouth over Alexander’s ear, feeling the man shiver against him as he continued, “You need out. Now are you gonna let me help you or…?”
He trailed off.
That strange, clean scent was getting stronger. So strong he couldn’t ignore what it meant anymore. He wanted to smack himself for not realizing earlier, for not clueing in when this clean, intoxicating scent dragged him into the Burger N’ Beats so many times:
This hunter was his mate.
Al, or Alexander, or whatever his name was. The boy he had shoved into a wall, who tried to kill him while he was unconscious—Tobias was bound to him for the rest of his days.
It was impossible. It was as true as his heartbeat. Tobias almost wanted to giggle at his bad fucking luck.
The human writhed against him, twisting his chin enough to glare.
“Or?” Alexander spat.
Tobias swallowed back a sudden gush of saliva. The wolf in him wanted to pin him down harder, scent him, mark him up. But every other part of him was hollering what a bad idea that was, and priority number one had to be getting out of here right the hell now.
“Or nothing,” Tobias said. “I get you out. You don’t kill me. Sounds good?”
Alexander squirmed against the concrete wall. “You want to help me escape?”
“I do,” Tobias said, trying not to get lightheaded from the heady scent wafting from Alexander’s skin.
Alexander scoffed. “Why?”
For a moment, Tobias imagined telling him. Then he imagined Alexander’s disbelieving laugh, or worse, his abject disgust. Tobias was an easygoing guy, but he would be shaken by his mate rejecting him. Even if his mate was some nineteen-year-old hunter who had been thrown out of his pack.
“What can I say?” Tobias turned Alexander around until their chests were pressed together. “You’re just too cute to die.”
Alexander’s face went through a dozen expressions in the span of three seconds. Then he startled, bucking against the wall as he noticed Tobias’s shoulder wound dripping awfully close to Alexander’s shoulder wound.
“Careful,” he hissed.
Tobias rolled his eyes. “Only bites will turn you, remember? I can bleed, cry, or spit on you as much as I want.”
Alexander bared his useless human teeth. “Try it, mutt.”