Chapter 12
Lost and Found
Isaac
Sweat beaded on the back of my neck, my shirt glued to my prickling skin. I peeled it over my head and threw it onto a nearby chair.
The air in my living room was stale. I’d been gone too long.
Eli had been here recently, his scent faint but lingering in all the places he touched. Saul was here too, his scent sharper, hanging only on the furniture near the front door.
Pain tore through my spine. I bent at the knees, trying to catch my breath. Trying to think.
I was out of time. The hunter was ready. Moonlight pressed through the curtains, calling to me.
I stumbled onto the porch and ripped my jeans away. Somehow, I made it down the steps, crouching in the gravel. Stones cut into my knees and I cried out.
A howl echoed distantly.
Another answered.
My throat burned with the urge to call out to them. To join my brothers in the hunt.
My body broke apart, melding back together into fangs and fury. Shaking off the pain, I rose on four feet. Power pulsed through me.
I was the hunter. The fiercest predator. Death in the shadows.
My vision shifted, the world becoming clearer and brighter as moonlight filtered through my eyes.
Discomfort, anger, fear…it all faded, transmuted into nothing but focus.
That was all the hunter knew.
He cared about what belonged to him.
What would belong to him.
What he would subdue if it refused him.
The transformation should have made me feel complete. Like stepping back into my own skin. Instead I was hollow. Hungry.
The hunter understood.
I didn’t understand.
Saul howled again, calling for me. Demanding my presence.
Another pull tugged me sideways, sharper and more insistent. There was a chain around my throat, catching every time I took a step toward my brothers.
The anchor was somewhere out of sight, away from the bayou. Away from everything I knew.
It was brighter than moonlight. Softer than the whisper of Spanish moss against bark as the wind made a trail through the trees. Whatever it was, I needed it more than the thrill of the hunt.
My legs moved before I could stop them. I dove through underbrush and over fallen trees. Mud squelched beneath four paws, branches tangled around me.
Nothing could stop me.
Behind me, I could hear my brothers thundering across the bayou, their worry and anger sharp in every breath.
They didn’t understand.
A flash of distant headlights blurred my vision, and my body finally stilled. The bayou was at my back, wisps of grass tickling my sides where I crouched in a ditch.
There was no sound but the fading hum of a motor. Even the crickets had gone quiet, the whole bayou holding its breath as it waited to see what I would do.
Leave the safety of the bayou—my sanctuary?
Or drag myself back and bear my throat to my brother?
The answer was obvious to the hunter.
Saul could hate me. It wouldn’t make a difference. He didn’t know.
I took a step forward. A step back. My muscles quaked from the internal battle.
Madness. This had to be madness.
Fear cut through the fog. I seized control. Forced the hunter back to my brothers.
If I risked myself, I risked them too.
There was also the memory of Jacques, his silvery words slithering over my skin.
I retreated from the road, my heart rumbling with the distant thunder. I must have stood there longer than I realized. Already the moon was skimming the tops of the trees, the night fading as quickly as it came.
My mind came back in pieces. What possessed me—possessed him?
I didn’t have time to figure it out. A snarl cut through the air, echoing across the Bayou, and I knew what I would find before I crossed the line into Eli‘s property.
Blood coated the air with a coppery tang—my brothers’ blood.
Saul had his jaw locked around Eli‘s neck.
I didn’t think, just moved, crashing into Saul with the full force of my weight. He dislodged from Eli, landing on four feet and baring his teeth. I was already shifting, whirling to swing my arm out and catch Eli with my fist before he could rejoin the fray.
Both wolves shook out their fur. The hunters slipped away.
Saul collapsed onto his knees, chest heaving.
Eli wasn’t nearly as winded, despite the blood trickling from his neck.
My gaze jumped between brothers. “I leave you assholes alone for one full moon and you try to kill each other?”
I passed Saul to open the door to Eli’s utility room. I found a random handful of jeans in the dark and threw a pair at each brother. There were too many dicks out for this conversation.
“Where have you been?” Saul snapped. “Both of you! This is unacceptable.”
“Sorry, Daddy. I didn’t mean to break curfew.” I kept my voice even. “I think you’re the one that has some explaining to do, Kujo.”
“Here’s the cliff notes: I bonded, and Saul took that personally, so he decided to kill me. But only after killing this asshole!” Eli pointed an angry finger at Saul, then at the body lying on the ground near my feet. “This asshole who’s a sheriff’s deputy, by the way. He had information I needed.”
Eli bonded.
Bonded.
The ground dropped out from under me. Air refused to enter my lungs.
He bonded.
But Barbeauxs didn’t bond. Couldn’t. That was what Saul said.
Yes. We could.
My brothers were still talking. I answered. I didn’t know what I was saying because all I could hear was one repeating word.
Bond.
I never needed a break from my routine.
I was looking for her.
The beast knew. He always knew. That was why he fought me so hard. Why I felt empty every time I walked away from another woman.
Because it wasn’t her.
Time snapped back into place as Eli said, “I thought you said Jacques was dead.”
“Dead?” What the hell? “He can’t be dead. I spoke to him today.”
He touched her. He had her. She lived in his home.
He wasn’t dead before. He was going to be now.
I shook the red haze from my vision. Something wasn’t adding up. “Saul, what does Eli mean? Why did you think Jacques was dead?”
“I’m going to get her right now, and I’m telling her everything.” Eli walked to his truck, ignoring both of us.
“Where was he?” Saul jerked my arm, holding me back.
“You answer my question, I’ll answer yours.”
Saul’s eyes unfocused, the color fading until his irises were a perfect match for the moon.
“Saul?”
He blinked, but his skin had gone pale. “I killed him—thought I killed him.”
My hands began to shake. “When?”
“I never exiled him.”
I rubbed my jaw, trying to process those words. Jacques had been gone for more than a decade, and it never occurred to me to ask Saul where he went.
I never hated myself more than in that moment.
Jacques was out of control. I saw it. We all did. He was putting it all at risk for a life we couldn’t have. A fantasy.
But he was family. Blood.
And Saul tried to kill him.
“Where was he?” Saul repeated.
“I didn’t see him. I spoke to him on the phone.”
Saul glared at me. Eli started the truck. I didn’t have time for this. I needed to—
To get back to Tara.
To stay away from her.
To keep her safe.
No. I needed to help my brother, who was catching my eye in the rearview mirror. Pleading.
I had to take Eli’s side. Even if telling this woman of his put us all at risk.
Saul was a liar. He lied about bonds. He lied about Jacques.
What else wasn’t he telling me?
Saul was half-dressed, the taillights reflecting red on his face. Like blood.
An unwanted pang of sadness hit me. He never wanted this. To be firstborn. To carry the burden of the Barbeaux line.
None of us did. That didn’t give us the right to kill each other.
“I’m going with Eli,” I said, turning my back on Saul.
Eli cared enough to tell her everything. To take that risk.
And if he didn’t—Jacques knew who she was. That she mattered to Eli. Would my cousin really do something to hurt her?
After all these years, I didn’t know the answer. I didn’t want to find out.
The first broken bond made us what we were. I knew what would happen to Eli if I didn’t help him.
I climbed in, nodding at my twin. Whatever happened, I was in this with him.
When the time came, I would need him to be in this with me too.