Chapter 20
CHAPTER TWENTY
CATALINA
I glanced at my watch and fought not to grind my teeth, “They’re almost late.”
There was nothing I hated more than tardiness. Second was dealing with overgrown puppies who thought they were sneaky. Dealing with one pack back home was e-fucking-nough.
Our soldiers guarded the entrance to the warehouse, silent in their black suits and not attempting to respond to me. Which was just as well. Any wrong answer might resort in their blood streaking the concrete floor.
A metal door creaked open, letting in the orange-tinted light of late morning, and we all stiffened. Weapons trained on the figure slipping through the side entrance, but I kept my own piece holstered within my blazer jacket. The stiletto knife stayed hidden in my boot.
A lumbering figure rounded a set of shelving, hips shimmying and leather shoes purposefully clacking toward me. “Desculpe pelo atraso.” I was used to that booming voice by now, as well as the wide grin and eyes. Wired headphones blared music loud enough for me to hear the Mariah Carey song very clearly.
I tsked, “You’re not late, but they’re about to be. Of all the packs to give us trouble and be so disrespectful. This little town was supposed to be a break .”
Xo’s head tilted back and forth in contemplation, teeth clacking against a sucker between two pursed lips. “S’not all bad, mana.” a pause and some obnoxious slurping revealed a bright red tongue. “This is about to be fun. And ,” the baritone flipped in a singsong rhythm that spelled trouble, “I’ve got a surprise for you.”
I sighed, “Not too much fun, mana.” Xo’s manic laugh, deep and rumbly, grated on my ears. If this got out of hand, it’d be me cleaning up the mess. At least it wouldn’t be me getting dirty . No, my suit would stay clean whilst Xo’s—barely stretched over bulging muscles—all too often ended up drenched in blood and whatever else.
We continued to wait as I tried to not keep glancing at my watch and count down the minutes. Almost waiting for the moment I could deem the Wolves tardy and kick this whole thing up a notch. It’d serve this Leader fucking right.
Xo was prattling on about the journey, the mess down South that we were still fucking cleaning up, when a clear voice called, “They’re coming in!”
I straightened and clenched my teeth. Right on time.
This leader had balls—had to at least give him that. He strolled in the warehouse with four other Wolves, nonchalant as anything. And every single one of them was dressed down in jeans, which made me even more irritated. They all stood proud and unbothered, the Leader’s white face blank and revealing nothing.
Xo laughed in anticipation, and I followed the uneasy glances the lesser Wolves gave at the unprovoked noise.
Instead of shooting Xo a silencing glare, I tried to catch the Leader’s eyes, but he kept them sweeping around the warehouse that wouldn’t be empty for too much longer.
“Thank you for coming.” I broke the silence to only be met with a curt nod of acknowledgement in return. When he finally met my eyes, the Leader raised his brows, as if—as if he was commanding me to get on with it.
How fucking arrogant. “We brought you here so that you could further understand what we’re proposing,” I waved a hand to gesture at the large space around us. “Leave to conduct our business on your land and move our products as needed. No more, no less.”
The Leader crossed his arms, but the gesture lacked the usual chest-puffing that so many usually did. At least until they remembered Xo’s hulking form at my side.
“Demanding.”
“Huh?” Xo asked around the cherry red sucker.
The Leader clarified, “You’re demanding that we do this. Not proposing. There is no benefit to us or our territory, yet we are the ones that stand to face the consequences.”
I kept my face neutral while I imagined how my penthouse bedroom would look with a Wolf-skin rug. With a small smile, I countered, “Our more… human-facing business will add revenue to this town’s economy, as well as providing employment and benefits to all who may work with us. This side of our affairs, should you agree, will never need to affect you at all.”
The Wolves behind him stood tall, committed to their roles as backup and muscle, just as Xo was to me. They obviously deferred to him, so I didn’t spare them a second glance as their Leader thought this over. Though I could appreciate it, I was unaffected by the dense smell of Pack Leader that wafted off of him, rolling with wild power.
“And just what will you be moving through here? Will you not eventually demand that we not only allow this venture but directly support it with our labor and protection, as you’ve done to the River Fall Pack in Georgia?” His voice remained dry, blank, and he pressed on, “Or overrun our community with drugs, ripping our pack apart from the inside out with chaos? To the point that the humans nearly catch wind? I’d assume that this outcome isn’t solely reserved for what used to be the Howl’s Fury Pack.”
Cold. It settled so easily. “Unfortunate outliers. And any additional involvement on you or your pack members’ parts is entirely your choice. Any and all would be compensated significantly?—”
“At the cost of honor and lives. My refusal stands. Was this all?” He took another glance around and looked at me expectantly.
Was this all ? No, I was wishing I could rip open his stomach and make him watch me decorate our new space with his entrails. Which would be a mercy compared to what would happen when I reported back.
I crossed my arms, let the shifting of my jacket reveal the twin Glock’s that I much preferred to use than my own claws or fangs. “That is all, Leader Orion.”
One of the Wolves’ eyes flickered, showing their uncertainty, before they schooled their expression once again. That aside, for a pack, they were surprisingly stoic.
“Oh, one more thing!” Xo gleefully added and ran to one of our soldiers.
I watched the Wolves, bracing for what was coming, and tracked the wariness with which they watched, what they assumed, my right hand skipping with his hands behind his back.
“Don’t forget this!” Xo’s smile was sunny, bright, and a beat of confusion coursed through the little group at the meaty thud before them.
One of them screamed. Another turned green, another began trembling. The last took one look at the severed head and shot their eyes to the ceiling, tears falling.
The Leader, though, tilted his head for a beat and then crouched. He sniffed the air, gave a long exhale, and took the head in his steady hands. And when he straightened, he stood tall with what was left of the sandy-blond Wolf they’d sent to spy on us.
“You and your brother have made your point. We won’t forget this.” Though his eye contact had been fleeting during our brief parley, it was unflinching, now. A decade or so ago, I may have been moved by the steely determination in the hard edge of his jaw, but he knew as well as I that if they attempted to retaliate now, they’d never leave here alive. While all of us would. I had also been doing this long enough to know that Wolves were far too proud to take something like this lying down.
Xo and that damned katana had probably just started a war.
The Leader turned around with the felled Wolf’s head held close and led his pack members back out the way they came. Our soldiers watched with disinterested attention, having seen far worse displays than this, and returned to their rounds once the pack had officially left.
I pulled my phone from my back pocket and put it on camera mode to check my makeup. I set to reapplying my lipgloss. “You said that you had a surprise for me, Xo?”
“Hmm?”
I rolled my eyes at my reflection and pursed and puckered my lips to make sure the tinted sheen was to my liking. “Sua mente é um lugar podre.”
“Vai se fuder, Cata.” But Xo’s grousing only lasted long enough for a maniacal grin to spread. “Guess whose scent I picked up on after I caught that little weasel.”
I put my phone and lipgloss back in my pockets and crossed my arms. Xo kept nodding, waiting for me to guess, but I really wasn’t in the mood. We stared at each other, the only sounds being the music still blaring from Xo’s headphones, the shifting of our soldiers near the perimeter, and the buzzing of the fluorescent lights above.
Tone dry as the Sahara, I gave in, “You finally found Benny?” The little shithead had gone and disappeared on us when I’d given him the most simplest of tasks that wasn’t even really that necessary. If Pai hadn’t been on our asses about it, I would’ve been perfectly fine to let him just fuck off or rot wherever he was.
Xo’s eyes sparkled, and two giant hands interlocked to tuck under a dimpled chin with a dreamy shine in black eyes that matched mine, “ Better . Nosso irm?ozinho querido.”