Chapter 6
MARK
I’ve missed the majority of the conference I’d been attending when Auden called on me.
Thankfully, the seminars I missed are available in recordings.
However, despite having sat down to watch them multiple times at this point, I’ve gotten through twenty minutes of the one I left in the middle of.
Twenty minutes. The twenty minutes I’d been present for.
I even see myself getting up and leaving the room during the recording.
I’ve barely sat down with my mug of tea when my phone rings. I close my eyes and try not to feel frustrated. I know who it is.
Reaching for my phone, I’m not disappointed. Rhodes.
Pressing pause on the computer again, I answer. “What is it, Rhodes?”
“I need you to come back.”
“Why?” I ask.
“I have to pee.”
I wait for more of an explanation. I already know what his explanation is, of course. He’s afraid that while he’s gone for thirty seconds, Bennett is suddenly going to implode.
“Then go pee, Rhodes. Bennett will be fine.”
“You don’t know that,” Rhodes argues. “He had a headache an hour ago. What if something is wrong?”
“If something was wrong, it doesn’t matter if you’re with him or not.”
A beat passes, and I know before his words leave his mouth that it was the wrong thing to say. “Is something wrong? Is there an infection? What if he goes to sleep and doesn’t wake back up? What if I can’t wake him up?!”
“Take a breath,” I urge.
“My head doesn’t hurt right now,” Bennett says from somewhere close.
“Okay, okay. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
“Hurry.”
I end the call and pinch the bridge of my nose. I’ve known Rhodes since he was a kid. I began full time with the family when Rhodes was ten or so. Never in my entire life would I have thought that he was capable of this kind of unhinged, obsessive paranoia concerning another person.
Rhodes is almost always composed. He takes delight in watching his pack hunt and tear apart villains. In general, he’s pretty indifferent to those around him, especially outside of his family.
I’ve been inclined to believe that he may have a touch of an antisocial disorder. I was convinced there were parts of his personality that weren’t neurotypical.
Then he brought Bennett home, and I re-examined my assessment of him. There was no missing that he was smitten with Bennett, even though he remained reserved on the matter. No one was fooled. Even the pack looked at Bennett like he was the sun.
Two of Jalon’s kids have antisocial disorders. Loren, officially diagnosed. Ellory, unofficially. In a way, Ellory is more severely impacted than Loren. The family surrounded Loren to shape the world around him and accommodate his sociopathy.
Avory and Imry went out of their way to hide Ellory’s. Since their mother was hell-bent on villainizing Loren as a young child, it wasn’t difficult to conceal Ellory. It wasn’t until Jalon began giving Loren an outlet for his violent urges that Ellory’s antisocial disorder began to shine through.
There are other cousins and uncles and grandparents and long-gone ancestors who have all been afflicted with an antisocial disorder. Mostly unofficially. It wouldn’t surprise me that Rhodes has one as well.
I’m of the mind that there aren’t any true experts on the subject.
I’ve observed Loren and Ellory for almost their entire lives from an up-close perspective.
Much closer than the so-called experts have in their lifetimes by studying case files and serial killers.
Loren is the poster child for what the world can readily identify as a psychopath, even if they have the idiosyncrasies incorrect because he’s not a psychopath but a sociopath.
Ellory is something else. He’s the smiling face and passionate personality who can easily blend into a crowd with no one giving him a second look. He’s the psychopath who will kill you with a smile, play in your blood, and the world will hear his laughter and never guess that he’s a murderer.
That makes him more dangerous.
Rhodes falls somewhere in the middle. Or so I would have thought.
With Bennett’s presence, especially now with Bennett’s injuries, I’m not sure where he falls anymore.
Perhaps I’ve been wrong all along. Maybe that blasé, cold, slightly unhinged personality was for appearances.
It’s what’s expected of a man surrounded by a pack of enormous wolf dogs.
There’s a chance it was an act, and hiding his truth deep underneath his suit and ties.
With tea in hand, I leave the cabin to follow the path back to Auden’s house.
I’ve been trying to stay in the cabin so I don’t encroach on Auden’s space.
He’s a perpetual bachelor and has spent more than a decade living on his own.
I’m sure having Rhodes in his slightly neurotic state back under his roof full time is draining enough.
The house is quiet when I let myself in the back door six minutes later.
I appreciate that the cabin is far enough away that it’s private, but close enough that it’s less than a ten-minute walk.
The trees are dense enough that I can’t see Auden’s house even when I step outside the front door of the cabin.
Rhodes and Bennett have taken up residence in the first bedroom on the second floor, right off the landing. Both men immediately look up at me when I step into the room.
“Go to the bathroom,” I tell Rhodes.
He sighs, stormy eyes turning back to Bennett. Bennett gives him a big smile. “I’m fine. Promise. Lee is here.” He pats the wolf dog’s leg. Lee picks his head up, and his tail gives a couple wags.
Without a word, Rhodes disappears behind the bathroom door. I take a seat on the edge of the bed. “Lean forward,” I tell him. Obediently, Bennett does, and I examine the staples. They’re about ready to come out. His skin is peachy and clean. No redness. No longer raised.
“Looks good,” I inform him, and Bennett leans backward again, his sunny smile once more on his face. “Talk to me about your arm. How much pain are you in?”
He glances toward the bathroom door. “I did have a bit of a headache this morning,” he admits, keeping his voice low.
“But honestly, it wasn’t bad. I might have been dehydrated more than anything else.
My arm hurts a little, though. It’s that dull ache that doesn’t feel like it’s ever going to leave. ” He sighs.
“Is it bad enough that you need an ibuprofen?”
He shakes his head. “Rhodes is just…”
“I know. He’s not used to caring about someone, and we’re all trying to be patient because of that. His anxiety is getting the better of him.”
Bennett sighs again.
I lean in close and say, “When he realizes that you are, in fact, going to be good as new soon, he’s going to begin to feel guilty.”
His eyebrows knit together. “Why?”
“Because he and the pack were right there, and you got hurt. I believe more than anything else, seeing you covered in blood is going to haunt him for a very long time.”
“It wasn’t his fault,” Bennett insists.
“It wasn’t,” I agree. “I’m telling you this now because I think unconsciously, he’s already feeling guilty, and that’s why he’s being so obsessive.
You have a little time before you’re out of the brace and back to your usual activities, but in the meantime, think about ways you can reassure him that this isn’t his fault.
I’ve seen firsthand how guilt plagues this family, even when what they feel guilty about isn’t their fault. ”
He looks sad for a minute. “It’s common?”
I think about Loren, and how, while he was at work, his boyfriend walked into the hunting grounds of a serial killer. He was within minutes of losing his life had Loren not found him when he did.
Avory said something that Ellory misconstrued, which caused Ellory to go hunt down a dozen armed men in the dead of night with no one else. That still haunts Avory.
Then there’s Voss, whose new boyfriend’s car broke down, and when he called a Shuttled, he was trafficked to a human wild game preserve. If Voss had picked him up as he offered, that wouldn’t have happened. Brek nearly died from infection and injuries, something Voss never forgets.
Perhaps worse than his kids is Jalon, who left his six boys with his abusive wife, believing that they were safe, loved, and cared for. He will never stop trying to make up for those years that his boys lived with her emotional abuse while he took care of his brothers and the company instead.
“Yes. Circumstances have made the men of this family very… sensitive to guilt. Even when they don’t realize that it’s guilt they feel.
” Such is the case with Loren. His guilt manifests in an obsessive need to keep Oakley safe.
Since they live on the Van Doren Estate, the only threat Oakley is under is from Loren’s ghosts, which never let him forget the state he found Oakley in that day.
Bennett sighs. “Thanks.”
Rhodes returns to the room, trepidation shining brightly in his eyes.
“You should take the pack out for a run or something,” I propose. “I’ll sit with Bennett.”
He does not like this suggestion. “Can you, Doc?” he asks, a suggestion I wasn’t expecting.
“They’re your pack. They’re not going to listen to me.”
Rhodes turns and calls the wolves. “Here. Assembly. This includes you, Lee.”
Lee picks his head up, and this time, when his big tail thumps on the bed, I’m under the impression it’s in annoyance, much like a cat’s. A minute passes before Lee complies and joins the rest of the pack in front of Rhodes.
Rhodes looks at Lee specifically. “We’re going to return to puppy training if you can’t behave as you should, Lethal.”
I’m pretty sure the wolf narrows his eyes in challenge. One of the other wolves—whichever is beside Lee—nips at Lee in warning. Lee growls in return.
“That’s enough,” Rhodes says. “You’re going hunting with Mark.” He points at me, and all seven wolves turn their predatory eyes on me. “You will listen to him. His every command. Then you will return, and we’ll cuddle up with Bennett together.”
Satisfied that he’s given his animals thorough instructions that they’re going to obey, he looks at me with a smile. “See? You’ll take them now?”
Somehow, I don’t think I have a choice in the matter. Sighing, I nod. “Fine.”
“Thank you.” He waves toward the door, and the pack files out. Lee is last. He looks over his shoulder at Bennett, then meets my eyes. I think he wants to do this as much as I do.
I follow. They’re waiting downstairs at the side door for me, so I open it. They’re not excited to leave the house. I’m not sure it’s so much that they don’t need a hunt. It’s because I’m not who they want to hunt with. Several of them look at me, stealing glances as we move slowly into the trees.
“Yeah, I know,” I agree. “I don’t think this is a good idea either. How about you hunt a few rabbits or… whatever. Maybe a deer? Then we’ll go home. Okay?”
I’m pretty damn confident that they know exactly what I’m saying.
Over the next hour, they kill three rabbits and a deer.
Just as I suggested. They stop in the stream on the way by, and I’m slightly entranced as it appears that they’re actually bathing to get the blood off them. They’re not playing, but bathing.
When we return, they’re pretty dry, and they immediately join Bennett and Rhodes on the bed. All seven massive wolves don’t really fit with two grown men. Bennett talks to them as if they’re tiny golden retrievers, cooing and praising them and telling them how much he missed them.
After checking to make sure Rhodes doesn’t need to piss again, I turn around and head back to the cabin. Maybe I’ll be able to watch ten more minutes of my seminar.