Chapter Twelve #2
My genuine laughter caught me by surprise. “Have at it.” I lowered my head. “I think my guilt-ridden ancestors would haunt me if I turned down this moment of retribution.”
“Damn, it’s soft,” he exclaimed. “When I was a boy, my great-gran told me stories about how we all had streaks in our hair in the color of our wolves. How humans hunted anyone with them down.”
I lifted my head. “The bullies heard those stories too. They picked on me because evolution apparently skipped me.”
He held out a fist. “Lamar.”
“Marcus.” I tapped his fist with my own.
“When did the fuckers stop picking on you, Marcus?”
I smiled. “When they realized I could kick their asses with my eyes closed and hands tied behind my back.”
As luck would have it, Lamar wasn’t merely the first high-ranking wolf I’d found; he was Silas’s beta. We conversed on the front steps for a few minutes, enjoying each other’s company. He was easy to talk to, albeit easily distracted by a pretty face.
Thanks to a redhead in daisy dukes, it took him two tries before he finally asked me who I knew at the party in a complete sentence.
And when a model-thin werewolf with a thick afro and mesmerizing skin the color of the new moon sauntered up the walkway, I couldn’t even mention Latoya’s name before he excused himself to help the woman find the stairs.
I entered the house, less anxious than I’d been when I exited my SUV.
Damn, I thought I had money.
Every visible inch of the mansion screamed wealth. The lustrous marble floors. The ornate paintings on the wall. Even the buffet in the back of the room wasn’t on a dusty folding table; instead, its legs emitted the rare fragrance of Brazilian rosewood.
The humans weren’t hard to find. By listening in to their conversations, I learned they were strangers to each other prior to the party. Yet, the five of them still found themselves huddled in a corner of the enormous living room, drawn to each other like a flock of sheep.
“I can’t wait to sink my teeth into that one,” a fellow alpha said behind me, pointing to one of the humans. “Do you see one you like?”
I took a sip from the bottle of beer in my hand as I shrugged my shoulders. “I didn’t drive all this way for a snack,” I replied plainly. “My friend promised me an opportunity to hear from a visionary.”
“Ah,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck. “You mean Silas.”
“This is his party, isn’t it?” I arched an eyebrow.
The alpha cocked his head. “He’s the type of nut who says nothing is truly his alone. So, he normally brags that it’s our party. Everyone in his house.”
I used the bottle to gesture toward the humans. “Them included?”
The alpha’s green eyes widened. “Why not? Have you heard something that makes you think differently?”
I considered my answer carefully and went with the truth. “I heard Silas is ready to take a stand against those insects; that we won’t have to hide from them much longer. I assumed that meant he hated them as much as I did.” I threw in that last bit for effect.
“Where were you recruited?”
“Club Luna.”
“Many humans attend Club Luna. Well, attended Club Luna,” he corrected.
I shrugged. “I’m usually hungry after I fuck,” I replied matter-of-factly. “It’s a matter of convenience.”
The alpha laughed, causing four of the humans to give him a small smile. But the man he wanted a bite of simply stared—the human’s mouth hung open, ready to catch flies.
The alpha wiped his eyes as if my answer brought him to tears. “Well, I’m sorry to disappoint you.” He patted my back, still rubbing his eyes. “But I don’t hate humans. I pity them.”
The revelation made me both uneasy and relieved. I was close enough to kill Silas in the blink of an eye, and I couldn’t. But that meant I was also close enough for the cloner to do its job.
I held out my hand. “Silas, it’s an honor to meet you.” His grip was firm yet welcoming, as if we’d become friends because I made him laugh. “I’m sorry if my comment offended you.”
He patted my back a second time. “Don’t be ridiculous, Marcus,” he assured. “My beta mentioned a new face with an actual streak in his hair, and I had to see it with my own eyes. I should’ve introduced myself from the beginning.” He placed his other hand over his heart. “I apologize.”
I chuckled. “Let our apologies cancel each other out, then.”
He nodded. “I agree. Let’s go look for a real drink so I can toast to our do-over.”
I chuckled under my breath. This was the alpha of the rogues?
Silas led me through the throng of his constituents to a small office down the hall. As we passed, he hugged a werewolf he introduced as Chris, an alpha with hair down to his back.
Inside the office, Silas moseyed past the leather couch to the bar cart by the bookshelf, where he stopped for the bottle of red wine. “Brought this up from the wine cellar.”
I moved my phone and the cloner from my back pocket to the front one closest to the bookshelf, before taking a seat on the couch. I fixed the bottom of my sweater to cover its protrusion.
Silas raised the bottle, holding it out for me with a sophisticated air about him.
“It cost me hundreds, and I think it tastes like piss,” he chuckled, reaching for a wine glass.
“It’s not the most expensive bottle I own by far, but I’d hoped it’d be a little better, you know? Would you like some?” he offered.
I declined with a shake of my head as he poured, holding up the nearly empty beer bottle.
He swirled around the blood-red liquid in his glass before taking a sip.
I rubbed my hand over the pocket of my jeans. “Why do you pity the humans?” I asked.
Silas placed his glass down and drummed his fingers against the cart. “Because it’s so easy for them to fear what they don’t understand.”
“Doesn’t everyone?”
He turned to face me, resting against the cart with his arms now crossed. “We’re predators, Marcus. We challenge even what makes us uncomfortable. Think about the last time something really scared you; did you run from it?”
Joanna’s smirk flashed before my eyes.
My gaze drifted to the floor, the polished hardwood throwing my pitiful expression right back at me.
“You think I’m full of shit, don’t you?” Silas chuckled, reaching behind him for his glass. “Fine. What if I told you my first love was human?”
My eyes had narrowed to slits as they shot up to Silas’s face.
“I traveled a lot after a dispute with my father rendered me an alpha without a pack,” he began.
“I still do, actually. I’ve owned this house for two years and have spent less than half the time in it.
” He glanced wistfully around the bookshelves lining the office.
“Anyway, we met at the wildlife center where she worked—where she took care of the wolves.” He stared into his glass as if picturing the human’s face.
“She was such a timid little thing.” He took a sip of the wine, scrunching up his nose.
“Don’t worry, I won’t bore you with all the details.
” He pushed off the bar cart and sat next to me on the couch. “I’ll tell you how it ended.”
My hand tightened around the beer bottle as tension filled the room.
“Her boss was an aware but nosy prick… with connections.” Silas’s voice was deceptively calm, but the darkness in his eyes revealed it all—the rage, the agony.
“I’d just given her the Bite, when a team of twenty hunters barged into our home…
Twenty. For a lone wolf and the fragile human whom he would’ve died for…
But humans like those are not only scared sacks of shit, they’re also liars. ”
Silas didn’t need to relive what happened that day for my sake. I let him know with a small shake of my head, but the corners of his frown began to rise.
“They swore they’d spare her life if I didn’t resist… Then they made me watch. The way they made watching my wolf crumple inside of me a spectacle… until we tore their eyes from their heads.” Silas pulled down the collar of his shirt.
Scars sprawled across his skin like spiderwebs between rugged branches.
“Do you think less of me, Marcus?”
“Because you fell in love?”
He shrugged. “With a human. It’s pretty hypocritical, don’t you think?”
My jaw tightened. I looked down and picked at a nonexistent piece of lint on my sweater. “You’re the leader of our revolution… If anything, it validates the cause. Under the right circumstances, we can coexist.”
The wine glass clinked as he set it down on the coaster on his center table. “Well, that was too easy.”
My eyes darted up to meet his. “What do you mean?”
He raised his hands innocently. “I’m just saying, the wolves in my family normally have strong preconceived notions about humans. And one sad story wouldn’t change their minds.”
I remained quiet, holding his gaze the way he’d suggested a predator would.
“So, what’s your sad story, Marcus?” He plucked the bottle from my hand and placed it near his wine glass. “Tell me.” His voice lacked sympathy; instead, a bitter cold curiosity nipped at my emotional walls.
I remembered the night I asked Joanna if she’d let me turn her. She couldn’t run away while her hands were in mine. But they’d trembled as her breath caught in her lungs.
I’d rendered Joanna speechless. Tears welled in her eyes, but only raindrops caressed her flushed cheeks. Mere seconds had gone by, but her silence felt like an eternity—like she was listing off every mistake we’d made in our two weeks together.
“She got scared,” I finally answered.
Silas sat up straight. “Your… human?”
I hated this, but I sighed as I dipped my head. “She tried to separate the man from the wolf and… she couldn’t.” My heart quickened its pace, but thankfully Silas paid it no attention. “She would never accept the Bite… so I left.”
Silas stood up from the couch. “And now you hate humans.”
I massaged my temples… “I guess so.”
Silas walked over to his bottle of wine, re-corking it. “A few years ago, there was a wolf in my pack who forced the Bite on a human he was sleeping with.”
I pressed my lips into a straight line, wondering if he was referring to whom I believed he was.
“Normally, if the human is worthy, I wouldn’t intervene… but the idiot Bit her on a full moon.”
I grimaced. Even though Latoya was a no-good bitch who made her sister’s life hell, as an alpha, it wasn’t an easy thing to hear.
Silas noticed my reaction. “Trust me, I know. He didn’t deserve to live after that, and I dealt with him promptly, but the human… she survived. And she makes a remarkable wolf. She’s proof that humans can truly be worthy of our gift… even if we realize it before them.”
His silence bore an unspoken suggestion.
I thought about Joanna’s goodbye… and how my scent no longer marked her as mine. “I’ve already lost her,” I said, a decibel away from a whisper.
Silas nodded, his eyes softening for the first time since he’d spoken about his human love.
“Are your humans in the living room worthy?” I couldn’t help but wonder.
He smiled. “We’re all family here. It’d be selfish of me to make that decision myself.” He gestured to where the joyful sounds of celebration poured through the crack of the open door. “Go talk to them. Maybe you’ll find one that’ll make you want to give their species a second chance.”
Silas looked up with a twitching nose, and I registered the look of shock on his face when he rushed past me without a word, swinging the door wide open.
“Yo, Alpha!” Lamar called from inside the house. “You won’t believe whose fine ass is strutting up the walkway!”
I followed close behind Silas, and the sweet scent of hyacinth wafting in the house confirmed my suspicions.
Latoya walked through the open doors with her head held high and a seductive grin on her face.
She’d styled her locs into a high bun. Large gold hoop earrings hung from her lobes.
She wore a black and green lace corset that pushed up her supple breasts and framed her small waist. The leather pants she wore seemed made for the curve of her hips.
“Marcus!” she squealed, skipping past Silas in a classic pair of Chucks. Before I could stop her, she grabbed my face and placed a kiss on my closed mouth. “I’m glad you made it.”
I remained silent but knew she read my what-the-fuck-are-you-doing glare.
She tilted her head to the side with feigned innocence. “What’s the matter, sexy? You don’t look happy to see me at all.” She smirked.
“You didn’t tell me Toya was the friend you were referring to,” Silas mused, staring at the back of her head.
I removed Latoya’s hands from my face. “You never asked,” I answered with a friendly smile.
Latoya turned to face Silas. “Hi, Alpha.”
Silas let his gaze travel down her body, his eyes drinking up every inch of her. “Where have you been?” he finally asked, his voice low.
“We thought you were dead,” Lamar added near the door with a shrug. “Your phone has been off for days.”
Latoya rubbed the back of her neck. “Yeah, about that…” She paused. “I guess any girl in my situation wouldn’t be allowed a phone.” She pouted.
I forced my breathing to stay steady. If Latoya betrayed us, there was no way I was dying without first breaking her neck.
Silas crossed his arms. “What does that mean exactly?”
She smiled. “I had a lot of explaining to do for being MIA all these years. My little sister demanded all my attention. No distractions.”
“Your sister…” Silas rubbed his chin. “You found her?”
Latoya all but threw herself into Silas’s arms. “I knew you would remember. Yes, and we…”
Time stood still, and the world quieted as the lavender fragrance I’d craved for hours consumed everything around me, enveloping me in its warmth. My eyes shot up to the door, and I shifted my stance, hoping to make my pants comfortable again.
Breathe, Marcus, breathe. And calm—
Holy fucking shit.
As expected, Joanna walked through the door, and her very human scent made everyone stare, allowing me to take my time breathing her in without being suspicious.
She was so fucking beautiful.
I don’t know when she’d had the time to get her hair done, but she now had braids with curly loose strands peeking out of them. She wore a mesh long-sleeved turtleneck with a black bra underneath. She turned to Lamar, and her ass looked amazing in her high-waisted jeans.
I wanted to smudge her red lipstick all over my cock. I wanted to rub my hands up and down her long legs while they dangled over my shoulders and she came all over my tongue…
But first I would have to kill Lamar, whose eyes were still roaming her body as he greeted her.
“There she is now.” Latoya’s voice cleared the haze in my mind.
Joanna turned to the voice expecting to find her sister. She found my gaze first.
It was showtime.