32. Chapter 32
Chapter 32
Ryder
Minutes earlier
D amon was here. Standing in front of us like nothing had changed. The same smile on his face and that glint in his eye that told just how much trouble he could get us into. Or out of, when it came to Damon.
I wanted to move, to go to the man we’d fought so hard to return to, but my wolf held me steady. He knew this wasn’t the man I thought him to be, not truly, anyway.
Dean turned and left, shocking the life out of me.
We were here. This had been our goal all along, and now he was abandoning it? What the hell was going on?
I looked behind me to see him disappearing between the trees. The two remaining soldiers of The Endless disappeared after him, and I didn’t know if I was happy about that or not. I knew there was only one place he’d go, and I found it hard to hate him for it.
Perhaps it was what we should all do. Besides, we had no way of knowing if it was actually possible to get back the brother we knew and loved.
But this was the first time I’d laid eyes on him since he’d walked out the door that fateful morning. I couldn’t let go of the hope yet, not if there was even the slimmest of possibilities.
“Brother, you’ve changed,” Damon said, his attention turning away from Dean like he didn’t even matter, and fixing firmly on Maddox in front of him. “I love what you’ve done with your hair.”
He laughed like it was the best joke he’d ever heard, and even as I was questioning his sanity, I also had to wonder, how did he know that was Maddox?
Maddox chuffed, moving closer as he did. I could see he was trying to gauge how much of his brother was left in the man in front of us. As Damon slowly pulled his sword, it became blatantly obvious, though—nothing at all.
“Oh, come now. Dean can run off in a tantrum just because I stabbed him, but you and me should be closer than that, Maddox. We’re real brothers. Not like with the other tagalongs. You know what I’m talking about, don’t you, Ryder?”
He pointed his sword at me as he grinned, and my heart just about broke as he spoke the words I’d long wondered in my darkest moments.
“Don’t listen. He is poisoned,” the wolf grumbled to me, and I tried my hardest to do as he said.
“Nothing to say? Just a lowly wolf amongst kings. Always the runner-up, right, Ryder? It must be hard having this second chance at life and ending up being nothing but a burden. Again .”
Maddox snarled and dived for his brother. If it hadn’t been for Tank’s bear charging at the same time, he no doubt would have ended up with a sword straight through the chest. Instead, Tank slammed into the side of Damon and they tumbled across the ground, fighting for control.
The sound of tearing fabric and Tank’s bear’s satisfied roar should have given me some peace, but all I could hear were his words echoing around my brain. Because if he was saying the things I’d thought in those moments when I hated myself, then it had to mean it was all true. Right? Otherwise, he wouldn’t have known what haunted me. The whispers of my own hatred that kept that fake smile on my face when I didn’t want the others to worry. Or cast me aside for being too much trouble, just like my other family before them.
Tank pulled back, panting, rearing up on his back legs as he batted the sword out of Damon’s reach.
Most people would piss themselves when facing down a bear, but Damon did nothing but laugh.
“Now, now. Someone’s a bit touchy. Is the whore not filling your needs? It can’t be that fulfilling passing the bitch around. Or can she keep up with the four of you? She must be panting for it by the time you get her into bed every night.”
Maddox moved then, seeing red and taking out his anger on the man in front of him, taunting the purest thing any of us had in our lives, belittling the connection that made us better for having it.
We should have realised something wasn’t right, as he didn’t cry out as Maddox raked his talons across Damon’s chest.
All he did was laugh.
The smile never once left his face.
Maddox prowled away, his lion clearly agitated as he paced in front of our brother.
This wasn’t anything like the man who had pulled together our family through sheer grit and determination. Was there anything of the man we knew left inside?
The sound of fighting was getting louder, and my wolf whined in agitation. Dean had the right idea of going back to Alyssa. He was there to keep her safe. As much as I was kicking myself for not having done the same, at least being here meant Damon wasn’t anywhere near her. He couldn’t infect her with the poisonous words he aimed so true.
“It won’t be long now. Once Arik has her, his plan will nearly be ready. I wonder if he’ll let you watch as he tames the bitch,” Damon spat.
I couldn’t take it anymore. I couldn’t listen to the threats, to the insults, to the poison that dripped from his lips. My wolf clearly felt the same way because he darted forward, quicker than I’d ever seen him move. Catching Damon by the throat with our jaws, we pinned him to the ground beneath our weight. I tried not to feel satisfied at the way my claws dug into his chest, ripping open his wounds just a little bit more.
It would be so easy to tear out his throat now. A part of my wolf wanted to. It craved the violence, the feeling of blood slipping down our throat. It called out to the wolf’s base instincts and spoke to something deep inside me. A need I didn’t want to think about.
People always thought Dean was the scary one in our group because he wore his disdain for all to see. They never looked twice at me. The comic of the group, the one who learned about their weaknesses to help them through the day. But I knew where to strike. I knew the most vulnerable pieces of them, and it would be nothing to tear it away in one bloody strike.
A growl filled with the anger I’d long tried to hide inside bubbled to the surface, and I could have sworn, for a moment, there was a glimmer of fear in Damon’s eyes.
“Ryder! Wait!” Maddox shouted from behind me.
I hadn’t realised he’d shifted and when he strode into my eyeline. I saw Tank there beside him. Both of them with looks of concern on their faces.
Didn’t they realise we were in the middle of a fight here? They couldn’t allow themselves to be this vulnerable when we didn’t know who else was waiting amongst the trees for us.
“Ryder, listen. The fighting has stopped. It’s over,” Maddox tried again.
I glanced down at the brother beneath me in time to see his eyes roll back in his head as he passed out. Scrambling backwards, I fell away. I knew I hadn’t been holding onto him that tightly. He should have been able to breathe.
The shock of worry had me shifting back into my human form as Maddox moved, pressing his fingers to Damon’s neck and feeling for a pulse.
I watched as his fingers pressed onto the bloodied skin. Shame filled me, knowing that I’d been the one to put it there.
Tank knelt at Maddox’s side, his head cocked slightly as he concentrated. “Alyssa’s bond is weakened, but she’s still there. I don’t think we have anything to worry about.”
I could still feel her. I could always feel her. Of course, she would have found a way to get through this. She always did.
“He’s alive. I’m not sure why he passed out. He was breathing just fine,” Maddox mumbled, but it was something I’d needed to hear.
We clustered closer around our fallen brother. It wasn’t really the smartest thing, considering we were now unarmed and kneeling naked on the forest floor. Not exactly a smart offensive plan, but at least we’d already disarmed the man we were now apparently concerned about.
“Should we… restrain him or something?” Tank asked, clearly thinking the same thing.
“Sure, let me just pull the cuffs out of my ass,” Maddox quipped before he rocked back on his heels and sat down on said ass in the mud. “Is this over?”
“No, I hate to break it to you, but your brother is either insane or a completely different person. Getting him back was just the first step in whatever crazy journey we’re on. And I’m not entirely sure we have him. One of us needs to scout ahead and make sure that we’re not about to be ambushed by any Endless that might be retreating.”
“I can shift and run ahead,” I offered, trying to climb to my feet and then falling back to my knees. “Or… I might just need a minute.”
My head suddenly swam, and it felt like the world tilted at an angle.
“Don’t worry about it. We should have warned you that the first couple of shifts would leave you disorientated if you don’t take enough time in between. It messes with your head to quickly change forms at first.” Tank gave me a wry smile, and I couldn’t help but shake my head and then massively regret it when I thought I might actually throw up in response.
Damon groaned and our full attention was back on him as he tried to roll to the side, only for Maddox to grab his shoulders and hold him still. We had no idea what side of him was about to wake up, and personally, if it was the rat bastard we’d suffered through moments ago, I was more than ready to knock him back the fuck out.
“Urgh, fuck” he groaned as his eyes slowly fluttered open. “Why are there so many balls near my face right now?”
Yeah, Damon was back. Now we just needed to make sure we didn’t lose him again.