Chapter 8
CHAPTER EIGHT
Griffin grumbled, and his arms didn’t slacken. Couldn ’ t he wait a little longer before waking you up? You went through hell yesterday and need your rest.
I glanced at the clock and saw that it was after ten in the morning. In fairness, he kind of did, too. Besides, we need to get moving and get Julius to talk before something else happens. One thing was certain: whoever it was who’d come after me would attack again. I couldn’t help but suspect Dick, but I couldn’t prove it yet, so I’d keep those thoughts close until there was more to go on. Griffin was already struggling with coming to grips that Dick wasn’t as helpful to him as the man pretended to be.
“Sure, give me a minute,” I called to Julius, and kissed Griffin. However, when I tried to pull away, he tightened his arms around me even more.
Just a few more minutes , he whined and buried his face in my hair. I don ’ t think we ’ ve ever been able to lay leisurely in bed together in the morning.
We hadn’t. With work, his class schedule, and everything in between, we were constantly on the go. I know, but the sooner we can take down whoever keeps hunting us, the quicker we can live out that fantasy.
Using logic on me shouldn ’ t be allowed before noon. He groaned and released his hold on my waist. I hate it. But the only reason I ’ m appeasing you is that I want to figure out who it is before they strike again. Allowing you to put yourself at risk is not an option.
Annoyance surged through me, but I squashed the sensation down. He wasn’t trying to be bossy but rather hated thinking we’d all have to go through this mess once more. However, I couldn’t let the comment go by completely without addressing it. I didn’t want him to think my silence was agreement. I get it, but we all have to do whatever is necessary for the greater good of the people.
His jaw twitched. Clearly, he wasn’t thrilled with my response, either.
This was one of those situations where the two of us were going to have to agree to disagree and hope the situation didn’t present itself. “I love you.” I kissed his cheek, hating that he was already tensing up and we hadn’t gotten out of bed. Hopefully, that wasn’t a sign for how the rest of the day would go.
I love you, too. His face softened as his fingers ran through my hair.
My body protested as I pushed back the covers, but I persevered and quickly grabbed the pajamas that I never got to put on the night before. After Julius said whatever was on his mind, I’d get dressed for the day. I didn’t want to chance taking too long and Julius doing something stupid.
I shut the door behind me and found the rest of the crew in the living room. The television wasn’t on, and Killian stood in the corner of the room, leaning against one of the blue-gray walls. His white shirt and blue jeans contrasted starkly, making him appear even more on edge. He didn’t even acknowledge me when I entered, as his gaze was focused on Julius.
The blinds were drawn against the wall of windows so no one could see in, but the tension in the room was nearly suffocating. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think we had an enemy lurking in our midst.
In fairness, we could, but I meant a much bigger threat than just my brother.
Wow. That was still strange to say.
Rosemary perched on the large pearl-gray couch that sat across from the flat-screen television mounted on the wall. Her long hair was pulled into a braid, and her face was set in a scowl that she directed at Julius.
The only person who seemed like her normal self was Sierra. She sat on the matching loveseat perpendicular to the couch, dressed in her purple Dick’s Bar shirt and jeans. She’d be leaving for work soon, and in a way, I was kind of jealous. Despite her getting involved in the craziness with us, she still had a somewhat normal life. The only thing that made me uncomfortable was that if Dick was, in fact, the person behind everything, he’d have a better opportunity to harass her.
“What’s going on?” Maybe Griffin and I should’ve gotten up earlier.
“Well, Julius here is determined to go to your pack neighborhood.” Killian frowned and cut his gaze to me. “And I told him there’s no way in hell. That the last time we went, we almost didn’t make it out alive.”
My stomach filled with dread. I hadn’t told them yet that Julius was my brother. After last night, he’d confirmed it, so there was no reason to withhold the information. “Well, he was taken as a newborn, and he wants to see our family house.”
“Family house?” Sierra parroted. “Are you saying you’re related to him?”
“Yeah…he’s my twin brother.” The words felt weird passing my lips for the first time out loud.
A strange combination of hope and warmth exploded in my chest through the connection I shared with Julius. But after just a second, the sensations were replaced with skepticism, as if he were afraid to hope.
He cleared his throat. “I didn’t realize we were going to let everyone in on that little fact.” Discomfort wafted through him as if he didn’t like them knowing. “But, yeah. Exactly, and I want to see the house I would’ve grown up in.” Julius tensed next to the back door. “I at least deserve that.”
“You don’t deserve shit.” Rosemary leaned over and gestured at him. “All that went out the window when you hurt your own kind.”
“I never hurt her.” He waved a hand toward me. “In fact, I tried to protect her as much as I could, despite knowing better. I don’t know why, but it was like something inside me couldn’t bear the thought of something bad happening to her. Hell, I saved her from being shot.”
“True, but you were going to hand me over to some sort of sick, demented asshole.” No matter how he tried to make it sound, he still wasn’t truly protecting me. He just didn’t want me to die, and honestly, that could’ve been because he didn’t want the wrath of the big boss. There was a truthfulness to his words, but I had to be careful. I was desperate to connect with him—after all, he was the only blood family I had left. But I was still wary. I would keep that in mind moving forward.
“Wow. Now that you mention it, you two look similar, but, damn, your personalities are completely opposite. Ugh. I want to ask so many more questions, but I have to get to work,” Sierra said as she leaned over, tying her tennis shoes. “This conversation is not over.”
“Be careful.” I was pretty sure she hadn’t officially been lumped in with us by my enemy, but there had been times when we’d been watched and hadn’t been aware. If she didn’t show up to work, that would raise questions, so we were in one of those impossible situations where there wasn't necessarily a good choice. “If anything seems suspect, link with Killian and let him know.” The fact that we all weren’t linked was getting very inconvenient. There had to be a way to at least have our group interconnected.
Luckily, we didn’t have to keep Sierra and Rosemary hidden like Julius. The guards wouldn’t find it strange to see them coming in and out, as they’d been staying with us for a while.
“Of course.” Sierra stood and hugged me, then went to the front door. “I’m heading over to my house to grab my car, and if you guys need me, don’t hesitate to contact me.”
The four of us watched her walk out. I welcomed the silence, trying to gauge how I felt. I understood both sides of this argument.
Our bedroom door shut, and Griffin strolled into the living room a few seconds later. He scanned the room, taking in the varying stances and body language. “What’s he done now?” Griffin sighed as he turned toward Julius.
To prevent either side from starting, I jumped in. “Julius wants to go back to my pack neighborhood and get a feel for what the place was like before everyone died.”
“What?” Julius gasped as his face went pale. “The entire pack is dead?”
“Like you didn’t know.” Rosemary snapped. “Don’t even try to come off innocent.”
Being a silver wolf was his only saving grace with Rosemary. She clearly didn’t like him, never mind her mother’s strong words about protecting our kind.
“But you said it was only our parents!” He blinked and swallowed, and I saw a suspicious glimmer in his eyes. “I had no idea that the pack was annihilated. They promised—” He cut himself off, as if realizing he’d already said too much.
“ Who promised?” Griffin pushed up the sleeves of his mustard-colored shirt like he was preparing to fight.
“No, you have to be lying.” Julius raised both a palm and his voice. “This has to be a sick game you’re playing.”
Each side accusing the other was unproductive; we could go back and forth like this all day. “No one is lying,” I said. “We’d all know if we were. We’re supernaturals, for God’s sake.” And if we wanted him to trust us, we had to give him a reason. One that wasn’t convenient for us. Besides, I felt a tug to go home, too, now that the topic had been brought up. “I think we should take Julius back to the neighborhood. Besides, I’d like to find where they buried the dead.” I glared at Julius. “But you have to give us something after this. Do you understand?”
My words hung in the air.
“If what you say is true, then I might be more inclined.” Julius nodded, though he still wasn’t committing.
Killian’s shoulders slumped, and Rosemary placed a hand over her stomach as she sat upright.
God, I ’ m such an asshole. Griffin wrapped an arm around my waist, and regret wafted from him. I hadn ’ t even thought about that. You haven ’ t gotten any closure or a chance to say goodbye.
His simple statement was obvious, but I hadn’t been able to nail down the negative emotions coursing through me.
Until him.
“Well, I guess that means we’re heading to your pack house.” Killian pinched the bridge of his nose. “But we need to be careful this time.”
“I’ll fly ahead.” Rosemary stood and headed toward the back door. “Wait to hear from me before you drive into the neighborhood. I’ll meet you at the entrance.”
“Thank you.” I hoped she could feel my sincerity. One day, I’d have to do something to pay her back for all she’d risked and done for us. “We’ll be there shortly.”
“See you soon.” Rosemary exited the house.
“Okay, if we’re going to do this, we have to be smart.” We needed to get out of here with Julius staying hidden. “Griffin’s Navigator is our safest bet. Julius can lie down in the back so none of the guards see him.”
“You do realize some of the guards are going to want to come with us.” Griffin pushed his shoulders back as he rubbed his fingers together. “What do we tell them?”
“That we have something that we need to do alone.” Killian and Griffin were their alphas. It was as simple as that. “As long as you don’t come off unsure, they won’t challenge you.”
“And we can reassure them that we’ll link them if anything goes wrong.” Killian shrugged.
“Fine. Let’s just get this over with.” Griffin bared his teeth at Julius. “One wrong move, and I’m bringing our asses back here.”
“I figured that was coming.” Julius rolled his eyes. “But I want to go too badly to argue with you.”
They’d go back and forth all day if I let them. “Let’s get going. We’ll be safer in the daylight, and we all know Rosemary isn’t famous for her patience.”
“You got that right.” Killian clasped his hands together. “We’ll never hear the end of it if she has to wait long.”
I quickly dressed, and then the four of us made it to the car. Julius followed my directions without any prompting, lying down in the back with a blanket over his body so that he’d barely be seen if Griffin had to roll down his window. Killian took his normal spot in the middle row behind me as Griffin got into the driver’s seat.
Once we were all settled, he opened the garage and backed out. Griffin rested his hand on the gear shift when he paused. After a second, he linked with me. They ’ re asking questions. Are we sure that it ’ s smart to go there? The last time, we were attacked.
I can ’ t promise it will all be okay. For some reason, I wasn’t too concerned about what we might face. And this time, we have Rosemary standing guard. Killian wasn ’ t able to alert us until it was too late. With Rosemary, we should be able to get in the car and out of the subdivision before they get close.
“My pack wants to know where we’re going, like we expected they would.” Killian sighed. “At least they’re asking through the pack bond and not in person.”
Even though Julius should be out of sight, stopping would be risky. “Well, we’ll get there and back quickly. We don’t need to spend all day there.” The longer we stayed, the greater our chances of someone ambushing us, but this was something Julius needed. Between the way he reacted to the entire pack being killed and learning that he’d been stolen, maybe this would be the final turn to get him to warm up to us.
Can I get up yet? Julius linked as discomfort slammed into me.
He always got more edgy when he connected with me telepathically. I guessed if I’d been a rogue my entire life, I wouldn’t be enthused with someone having a link inside my head, either. Back in the day, I’d hated that the pack could have access if I wasn’t careful when I got upset, and this had to feel completely foreign to him. Give us another few minutes to get out of our neighborhood.
As Griffin put the car in drive, six guards stood in his front yard with huge frowns on their faces, watching us pull away. I didn’t need a pack link with them to know they weren’t thrilled.
When we pulled onto the main road that would take us to my former neighborhood, I turned toward the back. “You can get up now. We’re clear.”
Julius’s head popped up, reminding me of the whack-a-mole game Mom and I played together when I was little and she’d take me to the arcades. I turned forward before the smile broke across my face. Maybe things would be all right after all.
The ride to my pack neighborhood took less than twenty minutes. As soon as Griffin neared the entrance, he stopped and waited for Rosemary to give us some sort of sign.
“Where is she?” Julius complained.
And here I’d thought Rosemary was the most impatient person I’d ever met. I’d been proven wrong. “We just got here. Give her a few minutes.”
He groaned as he sat back in the seat.
“And I thought women were dramatic,” Killian deadpanned, and leaned between the seats and over the center console with his fist pointed toward Griffin like he expected a bump.
I arched an eyebrow and glared at my mate as he raised his hand. I warned, “You touch his hand, and you’ll see something dramatic.” I was teasing, but at the same time, I was tired of the sexist comments that somehow got thrown my way.
Rosemary landed by my car door and scanned the area like she was expecting some sort of threat to jump out at her. When she chewed on her fingernail, it put me on edge. She was uncertain and nervous about something.
I rolled down the window and asked urgently, “What’s wrong?”
The area around her eyes tightened as she looked at me straight on. “We have a problem.”