8. Apollo
Apollo
A wolf. There was apparently a wolf living in my head. It felt impossible to believe I could be one of the very monsters I hunted. When I looked in the mirror, I didn’t look any different. Certainly not like I might spontaneously sprout fur and teeth and claws and feel the urge to commit murder.
Not a monster, the voice asserted yet again, but no matter how many times he said it, it didn’t get any easier to believe.
I couldn’t very well ask Pater about where he’d found me as a child, or the circumstances of how I became an orphan.
Because if he knew what I was, then that meant…
No, I couldn’t bring myself to go down that path yet.
But if I couldn’t ask the elders, that left only one person who might be willing to talk to me about it.
The beautiful man from the woods who made my heart race, who’d called me Conroy and threatened to crumble my entire existence to the ground. But how did one go about contacting someone whose name they didn’t know?
Hunters weren’t given a lot of leisure time. When we weren’t hunting, we were expected to train or do research, improve our skills. But since most of this was done solo, I thought I might be able to sneak into the city for a little recon on this elusive wolf.
As soon as Pater called lights out, I lay in wait, listening to the compound go silent.
My whole body felt electrified, willing myself to lie still and be patient.
When I was sure the others were asleep, I slid my window up and climbed out, dropping to the soil below with soft steps.
This was the easy part of sneaking out. I wasn’t sure how I was going to get my truck down the driveway without the sound of the engine waking the whole compound.
Maybe I could put it in neutral and push it.
I was so focused on making plans that I wasn’t paying enough attention to my surroundings.
“Where the fuck are you off to?” Seth was standing just around the corner, leaning on the wall with his arms crossed, as if he’d been waiting for me all along.
My skin crawled with an uneasy sensation. “I’m just—” There was no excuse I could give that would make sense for sneaking out, and the way Seth’s sly grin widened, he knew it too.
“Sneaking off to the city?” he asked pointedly.
A cold sweat broke out across the back of my neck, and the voice in my head urged me to bolt. I was just calculating the chances of outrunning him when he snorted a laugh and said, “About time you joined us.”
I blinked a few times, wondering if I was misunderstanding something. “What?”
And then from behind me, I heard a few whispered voices as Brahm, Castor, and Moros joined us, shoving each other playfully. “What is this?” I asked, frowning as I looked from one to the other. “Are you guys sneaking out?”
Moros shrugged and flashed me a wicked grin, his dark curls falling across one eye. “After the full moon, we like to head into the city and blow off a little steam. It’s no big deal, just a few drinks, maybe find someone willing to play.”
A strange emotion thickened low in my gut—jealousy, resentment. “How long have you been doing this? And why didn’t I know about it?”
Moros’s smile dimmed, and he shot a guilty look over at Seth.
When I turned to Seth, he bared his teeth at me, all playfulness gone. “We all know you’re Pater’s obedient little pet, always so eager to please. Tell me you wouldn’t have blabbed if you’d known.”
I tried not to grimace. Honestly, even a few months ago, I probably would’ve. But things had changed since I started hearing the voice in my head. Now, I found myself questioning everything I thought I knew.
Seth jabbed a finger hard into my chest. “But since you decided not to be so boring and to sneak out on your own, you can come with us tonight, as long as you aren’t going to be a dick about it and rat us out.”
I wanted to be the kind of person they could trust with their secrets, while acknowledging the irony of how unwilling I was to share my own in return. I nodded. “You can trust me not to tell. I would get in just as much trouble as you would.”
Seth’s dark eyes seemed to glitter as he glared at me, hard enough to believe he could see all the way through to my core. Whatever he saw, he seemed satisfied. “Fine. Let’s go. Move fast and quiet, and if you fall behind, we won’t wait for you.”
We didn’t head for the vehicles like I expected.
Instead, they cut across the weedy lawn and headed straight for the trees surrounding the compound.
In the dark, my eyes could just pick out the faint traces of the paths they’d cut through the woods in the past. The birch trees grew close together here, their white bark glowing in the moonlight, but as we moved deeper into the forest, the trunks were more spaced out, allowing us room to run.
It felt good to stretch my legs and push myself.
So much of our hunting was spent lying in wait, but this…
there was something about the chase that woke me up in a way that made me wonder if I’d been asleep all these years.
My heart beat a steady rhythm in my chest, blood coursing through me, making me stronger, faster than I’d ever been before.
It wasn’t hard to keep up with the others.
In fact, if I’d known where we were headed, I suspected I could’ve outpaced them all.
Too soon, they began to slow, and we emerged quietly from the woods to an old section of road, and parked off to one side, an old red truck, half turned to rust. “Is this yours?”
Castor nudged me with his elbow. “What, you didn’t think we were going to run all the way to the city, did you?
” He hopped up into the flatbed and leaned against the back of the cab, making himself comfortable.
“Seth made a deal with this old guy in the city. In exchange for the truck, he does some odd jobs around the house for him.”
“That’s nice of Seth to help him out.” Especially since the truck didn’t look like it was worth much.
“Careful calling me nice,” Seth said, coming up behind me. “It’ll ruin my reputation. You’re in the back with Castor.” He climbed behind the wheel, and Brahm and Moros hauled themselves into the cab.
I wasn’t about to argue about the seating arrangement, since I had no interest in being crammed into the bench seat with them. The fresh breeze in the back seemed a much better deal to me.
We didn’t talk much on the hour-long drive, but it felt natural to be around them. I hadn’t realized just how lonely I’d been until I was surrounded by other warm bodies. Their scents seemed familiar to me, even as they were carried off in the breeze. It was… nice.
“Lie down,” Castor said as he flattened himself out, gesturing for me to do the same. “Riding in the flatbed isn’t strictly legal.” He said it with a wide grin, as if gambling over whether or not we got caught was half the fun.
It was hard to tell where we were going from down here, beyond feeling the truck rock back and forth as it took the turns, but the stars in the sky overhead winked out one by one, overwhelmed by light pollution.
The silence of the woods outside the city was banished by so much noise, and I had to fight against the flutter of panic that threatened to rise up and choke me.
Finally, the truck came to a rumbling stop, and Seth turned off the engine.
I hopped over the edge of the flatbed to find myself standing on a concrete sidewalk in front of a gray-brick building.
There was music coming from inside, and I could smell the sour reek of vomit where someone had been sick right beside the door.
“Classy place,” I said snidely.
“I had no idea you were such a connoisseur,” Seth said with a mocking sneer. “We can’t exactly afford to be picky. They don’t ask for ID here.” Because of course none of us had proper identification. “You coming?”
As tempting as it was to join them for a drink, I’d had a reason for sneaking out tonight. “I have something I need to do first. I’ll meet you back here in an hour.”
Seth shrugged. “Suit yourself, loser.”
Brahm pulled open the door, and the music swelled, a thumping drum beat and a man singing about dirty deeds done cheap.
Brahm paused, holding the door open for the others, then he gave me a level stare.
“Don’t be late. Seth won’t hesitate to leave without you.
” Then with a final nod, he slipped into the bar, the door once more muffling the music.
“Now what?” I muttered out loud, not really expecting an answer, but the voice gave me one all the same.
I can find him. Trust me.
While I was used to trusting my instincts, believing that this voice could somehow track down the wolf from the woods seemed impossible.
One man in a city this size? Yeah, right.
And yet, I found myself listening to his directions.
When he told me to take a deep breath, I did.
Then left and right, through the blocks we went.
And when I found myself standing in front of a mechanic’s garage, closed at this time of night, it was impossible to ignore the scent of apples and amber that lingered in the air.
Did he work here? I closed my eyes and breathed him in.
The scent brought his image back to mind, the contrasting memories of a scrawny boy with blue eyes overlapping with the green-haired man.
He’d certainly had a serious growth spurt.
My body reacted to this mere hint of his presence. It was honestly embarrassing to be standing on the sidewalk like this and getting a random boner. My curiosity warred with my hormones. I’d never been attracted to someone before, not like this. What was so special about him?
Mate, the voice said for the millionth time, and even though I didn’t really get the meaning of the word, I thought I was starting to catch the drift.
It took everything I had to peel myself away from that garage in order to get back to the bar in time. I sat with my fellow hunters and drank a watered-down beer, all while my mind lingered on what I’d learned tonight. And on the drive home, I was already planning on when I could come back.