Chapter 6
chapter
six
Tobias lay perfectly still, waiting for the horrible pain to go away as his sleep-addled mind tried to piece together why he felt like hammered shit.
This was a specific bone-deep ache that came with transformation.
This time it had the sharp quality that only came when the transformation was forced, so Tobias bet he had a shitty time last night.
He cracked his eyes open, expecting to see his bedroom walls.
He was met with his living room instead. But before he could figure out why he had passed out on his couch, he caught a whiff of that tantalizing scent that had been haunting his dreams for days.
Tobias breathed deep, pressing his face into what turned out to be a couch cushion, inhaling the pure, heady scent that made him feel at home for the first time in years. Then he remembered what the smell meant and sat up.
A blanket fell off him. A cushion fell with it, tumbling off the couch and onto the coffee table, almost knocking the items Alexander had left out for him last night.
Tobias grinned, ignoring the pain racing through his joints as he took the coconut water and aspirin. He crunched the aspirin between his teeth, wrinkling his nose at the chalky taste.
“That’s what the water is for,” came a voice from the hallway.
Tobias twisted.
Alexander stood in the kitchen doorway, arms crossed. He was fully dressed, which was a disappointment. Tobias had been wondering what he wore to bed. He was wearing the same clothes as last night, more wrinkled than Tobias had ever seen them.
“Habit,” Tobias said. “Sorry. Did you sleep in your clothes? You could’ve borrowed some of mine.”
“I’m fine,” Alexander insisted.
“Suit yourself.” Tobias downed the coconut water in three large gulps, curling his mouth around the glass when he noticed Alexander watching a drop trail down his neck.
He let it drip further, feeling it trickle down his collarbone and into his stretched shirt.
The wolf inside him rumbled in satisfaction at the sight of Alexander’s mouth going slack, his cheeks reddening as he followed the drop’s trajectory.
He smelled delicious. Tobias wanted to bury his face in his neck like he had done with the pillow.
Wanted to scruff up that neat hair, get him gasping, make him admit he still wanted Tobias, monster or not.
Soul or not, Tobias reminded himself. Monster souls are dust. What a crock of hunter bullshit.
All too soon, Alexander averted his eyes. “I should go.”
The wolf inside Tobias growled.
Shut up, Tobias told it. He plastered on a coy grin. “Aw. Here I was, hoping we could hang out.”
Alexander frowned. “Why?”
“I’m bored,” Tobias lied. “C’mon, what do you have on today? You’re not working.”
“I’m…running errands,” Alexander said. The hesitance didn’t sound like a lie, it sounded like he wasn’t used to people asking what he was doing with his day. “And later, I’m working out.”
Tobias heaved himself off the couch. “Can I come?”
“Don’t you have other people to see?”
“Not really,” Tobias said. “I don’t like my pack. And my construction guys are dull as rocks.”
It was only half a lie. He could see himself becoming genuine friends with some of his construction coworkers. But Muzzle wanted him isolated. Better not to risk his coworkers’ safety just because Tobias wanted buddies to hang out with after work.
He had tried to befriend some of the more reluctant members of Muzzle’s pack early on, only to be ostracized when Muzzle warned them that associating with him had consequences.
Participate properly and receive benefits, Muzzle told him once. Apparently one of those ‘benefits’ was being allowed to have friends.
“I’m dull,” Alexander said. It sounded bitter, like he didn’t want to believe it but had been told too many times to believe otherwise.
“You’re not,” Tobias assured him. “You’re weird as fuck.”
“I’m not weird,” Alexander said. “I’m normal.”
“Dude. You’re an isolated, stuck-up nineteen-year-old who”—Tobias bit his tongue about the serial killer thing—“has some bizarre fucking hobbies. You’re so weird.”
Alexander’s chiseled jaw tightened. He looked less insulted than Tobias expected.
“Is that better than dull?” he asked dryly.
“With me it is,” Tobias said. He bounded forward, wrapped an arm around Alexander’s shoulders, and shook him in a way that made him miss high school football. “Let’s go work out! You can sit on me while I do pushups.”
Alexander shoved him away. “That’s not…we are not…”
Tobias grabbed his chin. Alexander spluttered to a stop.
“Come on,” Tobias said, quieter. “Please?”
Alexander stared at him, lips parted in shock.
His hands were braced against Tobias’s chest like he was going to shove him away but hadn’t quite gotten to it.
His eyes were the kind of blue you could drown in, and for an aching moment Tobias wondered what he looked like first thing in the morning, rumpled and sleepy.
He wanted to see Alexander without his guard up.
If he’d gotten to be Hot Scar Guy a little longer, maybe he could’ve gotten there.
Finally, Alexander stumbled back, his chin falling from Tobias’s grasp. “You keep having this assumption that we’re more than reluctant hunting partners.”
“We could be whatever you want,” Tobias said. He tried to make his voice low and seductive, like he’d done in Burgers N’ Beats. It came out horrendously tender instead. “What do you want, Alex?”
Alexander scoffed weakly. The question seemed to panic him, eyes darting like he expected someone to come jumping out from behind the sofa to yell at him for befriending a werewolf.
Tobias chewed his cheek, waiting for Alexander to leave. His mouth still tasted like coconut water.
Alexander swallowed. “I should go.”
Tobias thought about grabbing his ankles. But he’d been pathetic enough for one day, so he lay back against the couch and shrugged.
“If that’s what you want,” he said.
Alexander hesitated. For a moment Tobias thought he was going to say something more. Then he headed for the door, turning so abruptly it looked like he was on strings.
Tobias was so distracted by Alexander’s imminent departure that he didn’t hear the footsteps until it was too late.
Alexander opened the door.
Tobias surged up, wincing at the pull on his sore joints. “Wait!”
Alexander froze. But not before they got a good look at Josh Waters, who had his uninjured hand raised to knock on the door. His mouth fell open, eyes widening as he realized who was standing in the apartment.
“It’s you,” Josh cried. Then, adorably, he squared up. With his injured arm and everything. “What did you do to Tobias?”
Tobias raced over and caught the door as Alexander tried to slam it shut.
“It’s fine,” he assured Josh, pulling the door back open. “Nobody get any weapons out. Alex! Stop it!”
Alexander straightened, grudgingly not holding his jawbone knife.
Josh gaped. He turned to Tobias, eyes huge with betrayal.
“What are you doing?” he demanded. “That’s the hunter that’s been sneaking around the club!”
“The one who broke your arm, got it.”
Josh hunched his shoulders. He started making noises like he was going to deny it when Alexander cut him off.
“You can’t tell anyone,” Alexander snapped. “Muzzle will punish you if he finds out you gave me the password.”
Tobias swatted him in the shoulder. “Go easy on him! Oh shit, sorry.”
Alexander glared, rubbing the bandaged shoulder that Tobias had just smacked.
Josh scrutinized them. His shock was giving way to the calculating shrewdness that had Tobias convinced the kid could be a detective if he figured out how to handle his anxiety. A weird, shy detective who built explosives on weekends.
“You’re planning something,” Josh accused Tobias. “What’s going on?”
“Planning?” Tobias snorted, almost going for a double shoulder-slap before they eyed him warily. He aborted the movement into a cool, casual hair ruffle.
“Who’s planning?” he said. “This is just an ill-advised hookup after we politely agreed not to kill each other the other night.”
“I don’t think…” Josh trailed off, eyes narrowing. “No. You would. But he wouldn’t.”
“You don’t know me,” Alexander said, straight-faced and slowly going red under Tobias’s hair ruffle. He batted Tobias’s hand away with a glare.
Tobias wanted to lick a stripe up his neck. He almost did, just to see if it would convince Josh.
“You’re planning something,” Josh repeated. “You’ve always been unhappy in the pack. Now you’re teaming up with a hunter to—”
Tobias surged forward and slapped a hand over Josh’s mouth. Josh yanked at his hand, but he was no match for Tobias’s strength. Even if Tobias wasn’t a werewolf, he was twice Josh’s body weight.
“Say we are planning something,” Tobias said. “Do you really want to know?”
Josh made a muffled noise against his palm, struggling.
“Josh,” Tobias said, wrenching his head to look him in the eye. “Hey. Do you want to know, bomb boy?”
Josh stilled. Tobias watched him work through the possibilities in his head.
Finally, Josh tugged gently on Tobias’s hand.
“I want to be in that pack,” he whispered when Tobias had dropped his hand. “I need it. I don’t know what else to do.”
“Anything,” Tobias said desperately. “Literally anything. I know it’s hard out there, but—”
Josh set his narrow jaw. “Promise me there will still be a pack for me to join. Whatever you do.”
Tobias looked at Alexander. Alexander looked back at him with surprise, like he didn’t expect to be consulted.
“There will still be a pack,” Alexander said.
“See? Everything’s fine.” Tobias squeezed Josh’s gaunt cheeks. Then he realized how threatening that felt and let go, rocking back on his heels. “And no one’s saying anything. Right?”
“Right,” Josh said, rubbing his cast dejectedly.
“Great,” Tobias said. “Okay. Now we can get to the real shit. How do you know where I live?”
“Muzzle told me,” Josh said, his gaze flickering warily between them. “He wants to talk with you. And…the ‘guy who carried you home.’”