20. Odell
TWENTY
ODELL
Who am I? I asked myself. The teacher with a love of literature who tried to impart that love to his students. That was me. Not a getaway driver with a thirst for blood.
Vengeance. It was a terrible thing that twisted a person’s outlook and morals. But I reasoned, not for the first time, I would never be safe and neither would Hunter if we let Draven live. And Stefan was our road map to finding the guy.
That was the rationale criminals gave for their actions. Was that what I was now? Hunter didn’t think he was. He was obeying the laws of his pack.
We’d parked a ways from Stefan’s house. He wasn’t home, and Hunter said no shifters’ scents were detected around the home. The curtains weren’t drawn in any of the windows, so unless Stefan closed them, Hunter would see me.
Were we foolhardy for not contacting his brothers? Hunter said it was up to him to end whatever this was.
We were parked on the street behind Stefan’s but could see into his yard. A car turned into the driveway, and the headlights lit up the fence that separated the two properties. I hoped a parked car wasn’t out of the ordinary for this area. I didn’t want some nosy neighbor calling the cops.
There was a knot in my belly, but I didn’t admit that to my mate.
My body stiffened. I’d referred to Hunter as my mate. Shoving a fist in my eye, I puzzled over using that expression. People had been repeating it all day yesterday, so it wasn’t surprising I was too.
“You don’t have to do this.”
He was talking about me going into the… well, not the wolf’s den but maybe the bad guy’s lair, while I was considering something different. If something went wrong, I had to leave something of me with Hunter and not just the scar on his hand.
“Going now.” I tugged at my shirt, one that didn’t belong to me. But before I got out, I grabbed Hunter’s face and slammed my lips on his. If I died, he should have experienced his mate’s kiss, just once.
A kiss was just flesh pressed on more flesh. I should have been tentative, maybe pulled away, opened my eyes so I could gauge his reaction. But I was lost in Hunter’s lips, his scent, his hands exploring my back. A voice in my head said this was a mistake but I said to shut it.
The longing in Hunter that he’d repressed was reflected in the passion of his kiss as it deepened, and with a tiny sigh, I allowed his tongue entry to my mouth.
The voice was back, quieter this time, saying I’d regret this, but I didn’t care. His tongue prodded mine, teasing and taunting, and slid around my mouth. There was so much distance between who he was, his lifestyle and mine, and yet in the car, as we leaned into one another, none of that mattered if only for a few seconds.
With the taste of him in my mouth, I pulled away, my eyes opening to discover his gaze fixed on me. No words were sufficient, and besides, I didn’t have any. It was one kiss. It didn’t determine the future or…
It was supposed to be a goodbye until we met again, in five minutes or five hours, and now I was reluctant to leave. But if I didn’t, we’d have the talk about the meaning behind the kiss, so with a final glance at Hunter and a stroke of his cheek, I got out.
Not wanting Stefan to question how I got there, I slid into the driver’s seat, leaving Hunter hiding behind a hedge, and drove in front of his house. After killing the motor, I messed up my hair and tore my shirt, and there were purplish bruises on my skin from where Hunter had gripped me the day before. My huge coat and oversized sweatshirt hid the gun with the silencer in my jeans back pocket. Not that I was confident I could pull the trigger. And I had to make sure Stefan didn’t discover it. Hunter had also given me the phone.
Instinct told me to hit record on the device before thrusting it back in my pocket. I tore up the path and banged on the front door, yelling Stefan’s name and begging him to let me in. The door opened, and I almost fell into the house.
I grabbed his sweater, my garbled speech tripping over words as I got out an explanation about escaping from Hunter. He looked outside as if checking I was alone, and goosebumps scuttled over my skin.
He sniffed and turned up his nose. “You stink of him.”
“I’ve escaped from a vicious mob guy and been stuck underground and you’re complaining that I smell?” I turned toward the door, my fingers grasping the handle, but Stefan grunted and yanked me back.
Another bruise to add to my collection.
This wasn’t the meek guy who’d married us. He was arrogant, and his grip, like his face, had more than a hint of malice.
He smiled and released me, saying he was worried if I left, I’d be recaptured by Hunter.
“You were my lifeline in that hellhole, and when I escaped the place where he was holding me, I had your card and nothing else.”
He sat me down and covered me with a blanket while he made tea. Ha. Just as I predicted. I talked non stop, babbling about everything and nothing, wanting to come across as stressed and in shock.
“But Draven is out there somewhere.” I tugged my hair and pulled the sweatshirt hoodie over my head. “He might be after me too.”
“Don’t worry about him.” His voice was underlaid with venom.
“But I do.” I was shrieking, giving my best terrified performance, which wasn’t an act because Stefan was scaring me.
“He’s insignificant. A pawn. Forget him.”
I clutched my throat. “Thank gods. I thought he was the boss or whatever it’s called, telling you what to do.”
“Never,” he seethed and swirled around to face me, a packet of tea bags in his grasp. “He’s all brawn and no brains, just like his stupid father.”
They knew one another well. “Oh.” I glanced around and wrapped my arms around me. “He’s not here, is he?”
“No, that fool doesn’t come into my house.”
“But how do you know him?”
He slammed a mug on the kitchen counter and narrowed his eyes. “You ask a lot of questions.”
“I’ve been asking them since two nights ago because nothing makes sense.” I paced the floor, wondering if it was too early to bring Hunter in. I’d discovered little, so if I caved, him coming in would achieve nothing.
Still, I wanted Hunter here, by my side, facing Stefan with me. But I had to probe more.
“So, Draven is a bad guy and Hunter is one too. How did I get in the middle of them?”
His nostrils flared and his mouth was shaped into a sneer. “Clever, right? That was my doing, a lifetime of waiting and it finally panned out. And you, Odell, were the key.”
Oh boy. I was in deep doo-doo. Stefan wasn’t a bit player, or perhaps he was exaggerating. But I got the sense he wasn’t. There was a strength about him and a determination that wasn’t there yesterday.
“I don’t understand.” That wasn’t a lie.
“It was me, not Draven or his father, who pulled the threads together after our kind, our family was decimated. And I’m so close to achieving my goal.”
Our family. That was what he said. Draven and his father were part of the Silverback pack. Was he saying he was part of that family or that they’d hurt his own, entirely different family? I fingered my wedding ring ‘cause it reminded me of Hunter and I needed him.
“I understand having an outsider destroy your family. My folks were?—”
He cut me off saying, “Yeah, yeah,” and continuing with, “I was the outsider, the one sent away from them because I was different.”
Ouch! Sounded like a dysfunctional childhood.
“But I returned when my brother was defeated, leaving Draven adrift.”
No, no, no. I had to clarify. “Draven is your… nephew?”
“Technically. But I cast him aside, and I will rise along with the new Silverbacks.”
This guy was human. Hunter told me. How could he be head of a wolf pack? Not that I could ask him because I wasn’t supposed to know shifters existed and maybe he didn’t either. No, he had to know his family had wolves inside them.
Why didn’t he have one? Unless he was hiding and Hunter and the others couldn’t smell him. Was that possible?
“And you, dear Odell, are an important part of my plan. In order to ascend, another group must fall, starting with the Durands of La Luna Noir.”
Okay, it was ear-tugging time, and I yanked one and the other, forgetting if it was the left or right I was supposed to pull.
It didn’t matter because the door was yanked from its hinges, crashing to the floor in a cloud of sawdust.
Stefan aimed a gun at me, while my mate who was sort of in human form, was ready to shoot him.
“You are a fool, Hunter Durand. But just the shifter I wanted to see.”