15. Hunter
FIFTEEN
HUNTER
Odell stalked into the bathroom and slammed the door.
This was complete chaos. Not only did my mate hate me, but we were no closer to solving whatever the shit was going on with Draven and the Silverback pack. Once that was behind us, we could concentrate on getting to know one another. Unless he walked out of my life saying he never wanted to see me.
That can’t happen . My wolf was adamant, but he didn’t get to choose. Odell did.
The only thing I knew about Odell other than what he’d told me was that he was my mate and I adored him. He could be a thief, an assassin, or a spy, but I loved him and had marked him.
Damn, I hadn’t called his aunt as I’d promised.
Racing out to the car, I scrambled for the phone my brother had left me.
“What’s happening?” He picked up and didn’t use my name. Smart Alpha.
“He wants to speak to his aunt. It’s been rough.”
“There are reports of shots fired and a car chase.”
“We’re in one piece,” I assured him. Physically that was true, but I couldn’t guarantee Odell wasn’t going to fall apart. He was tough. Most humans would have collapsed in a heap back in the alley. But though Odell survived, he might not thrive. Perhaps he did need his aunt and not just to talk to.
“That can be arranged. I’ll call you back.”
Flint could be anywhere. I suspected the family were still in the panic room, or the bunker as I’d begun to think of it, but they couldn’t stay indefinitely. The air-conditioning drained the resources. His aunt might not be comfortable being around mafia, and it was possible she and her husband had been moved already.
And she wasn’t disposed to think kindly of him, as his addiction led them to Draven.
I sank onto the old couch and put my head in my hands.
My brothers’ relationships with their mates had been a whole lotta mess, but they got through it pretty damned quick. Odell and I took a half step forward and then fell into a deep dark hole.
The phone on my lap vibrated. “Yeah.”
“Put Odell on.”
“Hold on. He’s in the bathroom.” I refused to admit my mate was pissed at me and might shout abuse when I knocked on the door.
I made a light tap with my knuckles on the door with the peeling varnish. “Odell, I’ve got your aunt on the phone.”
He cracked the door and stuck out one hand. I hesitated because I wanted to tell him not to say too much about what had happened in case anyone was listening. But I placed the device in his palm and he slammed the door.
Ouch! That hurt my wolf’s ears. And mine.
Having enhanced hearing wasn’t always an advantage.
I pressed my ear to the wood as Odell spoke. I picked up a few words such as escape and safe. There were a lot of listening noises from him, until his footsteps heading toward the door had me leaping away.
He poked his head out. “I know you were listening.”
How? No way. He was guessing.
“If you’re keeping me safe and my aunt, why can’t we be safe together?”
Oh shit. This wasn’t a party, and I’d been banished, unlike when Ranger took off with Matt. Though there were similarities in that the former head of the Obsidian pack contacted the shifter council. But Ranger was protecting his mate and had done nothing wrong, and I was doing the same. Trouble seemed to find our family. Maybe our scent encouraged strife.
“How about we sleep on it and think how we can undo everything that’s happened and then you can meet up with your aunt?” I gave him the best puppy-dog eyes I could muster, though my wolf complained he was no puppy.
Odell yawned and rubbed his eyes that were a little bloodshot. His shoulders slumped. If I had to guess, the fight had gone out of him.
He nodded and closed the door. But seconds later he returned, dressed in an oversized tee. Pretty damned sure Flint didn’t pack that bag of clothes. He tossed me the phone and his brows shot up when I made an almost impossible catch—for a human.
“How’d you…” He held up a hand and yawned again. “Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know.”
He trailed into the bedroom, yelling over his shoulder, “Do you need bedding from here?”
I did. And I removed a thick quilt and pillow from a closet and said good night. Another door slammed in my face, and I was left with an empty room, a meal that was still partly frozen, and a lumpy couch that was to be my bed.
After shoving the TV dinner in the fridge and making another sandwich, I opened a can of soda and sat on the sofa, wishing Uncle Arnie had a TV. But like my mate, I was exhausted, and I put the empty plate and can on the floor.
Worried that Odell might need to use the bathroom during the night, I left a lamp on so he wouldn’t stumble into anything and closed my eyes. My body ached with tension, and I longed for sleep, but my wolf made sure I stayed awake by insisting a hunt would satisfy him and I could sleep while he was tracking, killing, and eating his dinner.
But Odell might wake up and need me . Even I didn’t believe that based on his behavior before he went to bed. He hated me. Maybe tomorrow he wouldn’t, but as of bedtime, I was his least favorite person in the world.
I reasoned that he was warm, he had access to the bathroom, and the fridge was stuffed with food. I could leave a note saying I’d gone for a walk.
Okay. But make it quick.
My wolf told me he couldn’t put a time on the hunt, that it depended on what food was available.
I undressed and left my clothes on the couch. After scribbling a note to my mate and pushing it under his door, I went onto the porch. Fuck, it was cold and it was snowing. Racing over the ground, my feet scrunching on the fallen snow, I gave myself over to my beast.
As soon as he took his fur and I faded into the background, the tension left me. My problems were when I was in my skin, and for the next however long it would be, I wasn’t me and the chaos I’d created was back in the city, and in the cabin, and in the stupid car.
Stop. You’re messing with my head .
Closing my eyes, I left my wolf to his hunt and enjoyed the floating feeling of being outside my own body.
When my beast caught the scent of a rabbit, I tucked myself further down inside him while his instinct took over. And when he’d eaten his fill, he moseyed back to the cabin. Not wanting to hang around in the freezing weather, I had him leap onto the porch as close to the front door as possible.
It occurred to me as his feet hit the wooden floor, we should have walked around the cabin, making sure Odell wasn’t up. But it was too late because my beast gave me my skin as the door opened.
I was crouching down when I shifted, staring at a pair of feet clad in socks. Raising my head, I ran my eyes over a quilt wrapped around my mate, whose face was frozen in a silent scream.
Could this day get any worse?
Doubt it . Trust my wolf not to know when to stay quiet.
I bundled Odell inside and closed the door, shutting out the cold, the searing wind, and the branches squeaking and groaning. This couldn’t be happening again. His body couldn’t cope with this. I’d have to get him to hospital and then therapy.
“You… you…”
“It’s me, Odell.” Without asking permission, I put my arms around him and held him tight. This was becoming a habit, but I’d prefer we were doing it for reasons other than him freaking the fuck out at the weirdest shit that had ever happened to him.
He mumbled into my chest, and it was then I recalled I was naked. Too late now, as I wasn’t about to push him away. “You were a wolf and then you weren’t.”
“That’s right, and I’ll tell you about me and my family, but you need some hot sweet tea and maybe that TV dinner you didn’t eat earlier.”
I got my mate onto the sofa and covered him with a second quilt, the one I’d been going to use. But his eyes weren’t on my face. Or my hands. They were lower. At his eye level. He was gazing at my cock. If I’d been human, it would have shriveled in the cold. But it was semi hard and swelling.
I bunched my hands over my crotch.
“Too late,” he deadpanned.
He didn’t freak, so that was a plus.
After pulling on my pants, I busied myself in the kitchen and put the dinner in the microwave. I brought the meal and tea on the tray, and Odell sat up.
“I’m not like you.”
He closed one eye as he scooped a mouthful of curry onto the spoon. “I get it. You’re mafia and I’m not.” He studied his mating mark. “But we’re linked through this.”
He was right, but he didn’t understand how we were connected.