CONRAD
THIRTEEN
Ranger drove us to a building I wouldn't have looked at twice.
Dawn was breaking as I eyed the nondescript place of ten floors. It blended into the street without drawing attention. That was the point because both Durand… Not that name. We were mated, though we weren’t really “mates,” but the name I gave him should reflect our status.
Madd. That was my mate, and it was the first time I’d assigned him that name in my head. Not that I’d actually spoken it out loud.
Madd and I were both wanted men. Him because Father had chosen him for my brother and me because I was the one who’d taken Madd away. He would fare better if we were returned to the Solari compound. Me, not so much.
But I was exhausted, and I was sure Madd was too. I needed a shower, clean clothes, and a bed.
The bodyguard in the corridor stood at attention when Flint appeared.
“Alpha.” He nodded at Madd and stared at me.
A guy at this level in the organization wouldn’t have all the details, but as he was protecting a Durand family member, he must’ve been trustworthy.
My mind did go to that mistake Flint had made that nearly cost him, his mate, unborn baby, family, and pack their lives.
The fingerprint lock on the apartment door had been reprogrammed before we arrived with my mate’s thumbprint, and Flint made Madd open the door with his thumb and ushered us inside.
He spoke to the guard while my mate and I stood awkwardly in the entryway, before striding toward us.
“You'll stay here until I figure out the next move. Madd, you can’t go back to the serviced apartment you usually use when you’re in town because there’s a target on your back. There's food in the kitchen, the beds are made, and there are clothes in the bedrooms.”
He said bedrooms. Of course a place this size would have multiple ones, and bathrooms too.
“We’ll talk more tomorrow.” Flint glanced around the bland space. “Nobody comes or goes without my authorization. The guard outside has orders.”
Madd would be used to this level of security and so was I, but I was the one who arranged it for our dragons. It was odd not being the one listing the details, but I’d have to get used to that.
Flint told me to get some sleep. I couldn’t fathom his expression. It wasn’t hostile or warm, but he probably wished my problems hadn’t landed in his lap.
He left and the lock clicked. I was used to being locked in.
Not in a physical sense with doors and windows barred, because I was able to walk freely around the compound and allow my dragon to fly close by.
But there was an unspoken warning that if I strayed too far, I’d be hauled back.
I could never figure out why Father cared.
It would have been better for him and my twin to let me go.
The apartment was so quiet which I’d rarely experienced in the compound. There was always noise in my former home, as if my father associated stillness with something sinister.
Madd had his good hand in the pocket of my too-small jeans and looked around.
The space was large and furnished as if it was staged before putting it on the market.
The walls were white, and there was a gray sofa.
The kitchen was spotless as though it had never been used for anything more than reheating.
It reminded me of my rooms at the compound because it was both functional and impersonal and designed for someone who wasn't expected to feel at home.
My dragon didn't like it. He wanted warmth, texture, and a lived-in space.
It’s no cave.
He’d never lived in a cave, but thousands of years of instinct told him he needed a den.
“It’s not exactly cozy.” Madd picked up a white-and-gray cushion.
“That’s the understatement of the year.” I gathered that Madd's brother had stayed here and he and his mate had escaped. Again, it didn’t give me confidence that the La Luna Noir security system was as professional as the one I’d put in place at the compound.
Madd opened the fridge. Someone had stocked it with fresh food, and there were similar containers to the ones Madd’s grandpa had given us in the car.
He pulled one open and dipped the spring rolls in sauce.
He licked his fingers, and I stared as he lapped off the sweet-and-sour sauce.
My skin prickled with heat, but I couldn’t look away.
I gulped and was also tempted to grab his hand and lick off the sauce myself.
He caught me watching and held out the container.
I wasn’t hungry. My situation was precarious, even though he and I were technically mated. My father and Evander must’ve been fuming, and nothing was resolved. Though I might snatch a few hours of sleep, that pair would have been up all night and wouldn’t sleep today, planning on what to do next.
But the mark on my shoulder throbbed, and Madd’s burn must’ve been even more painful, despite his beast’s healing ability.
A new mate mark was designed to hurt because it was a reminder of a different reality.
But my mate had been wounded, and he’d experienced blood loss and dizziness. He needed rest.
“Go to bed.” I jerked my head at doors I assumed were bedrooms.
He looked down the corridor. “Right.”
We’d mated one another a few hours ago and now we were not making eye contact. My dragon objected to us being apart, but I was in no mood for arguments.
“You take left and I’ll take right?”
“Huh?” That was only the second thing he’d said since we arrived.
“Bedroom.”
Madd didn’t move or speak, and one of us had to.
“I’ll take the one on the left.”
He replaced the container in the fridge before heading down the corridor and opening both bedroom doors.
“This one has a better view.” He glanced back at me. “Not that we'll be looking at the skyline.”
“Take it.”
With his hand gripping the handle, he wished me good night and went inside. The click as the door closed sounded like the end of my old life, and I had no idea what the new one looked like.
I went into the other room and sat on the edge of the bed. It was clean and comfortable and didn’t smell of anything. That was new because since we left the compound, everything had smelled of him. It was safe, but it was as though I’d lost a part of me.
My dragon was rummaging around inside me. I wasn’t worried he’d take his scales without permission because it wasn’t the frantic circling he did in the compound or the rage he’d experienced in the study. He was restless and uneasy because like me, he didn’t know what to do next.
I showered and put on sweats from the closet.
I lay on top of the covers because I was prepared for dragons to show up.
I didn’t have a home and wasn’t sure what tomorrow would look like or where I’d lay my head.
I rubbed the mark on my shoulder. My mate was in the next room, and we were bonded, but I didn’t know his favorite color or how he took his coffee. Did he even like coffee?
With both hands behind my head, I studied the uneven paint in one corner of the ceiling. It’d been touched up, and I wondered if the damage had been caused by a water leak. Thinking about mundane objects and events took my mind off my mate, who was so close that if I breathed heavily, he’d hear me.
My beast stopped pushing me because the urgency had passed, but he was pestering me to go to Madd.
And say what? I’m scared of the dark?
Pfft.
Madd was moving in the other room. Like me, he’d taken a shower, and he got into bed. And then there was nothing other than the rustle of the covers.
I thought about Father. The compound could be rebuilt, but his anger would be focused on me, the omega he’d never forgiven for taking his mate’s life.
And now I was bonded with a wolf shifter from a family he’d been fighting for decades.
He’d see it as a betrayal, but I suspected Evander would consider it theft.
And Madd was in the next room with my mark on his skin. A necessary move that Flint had told him to do because it provided cover.
Around two in the morning, I gave up on sleep. Madd’s door was open, and he was awake because he sighed and turned on the lamp.
“Conrad?”
I froze. “Yeah?”
“Come in.” He had his injured shoulder propped up on a pillow. “Can't sleep either?”
“Mmmm.”
Our eyes locked on one another. “There are extra blankets in the closet,” he told me. “And a pillow.”
I understood what he was saying. Not that I had to take them back to my room. He didn’t need them, and he wasn’t inviting me into his bed. I tossed them on the carpet and covered myself. Despite the hard floor, I was more at ease here than in the comfortable bed next door.
Neither of us spoke again, and his breathing told me he was asleep as my eyes were closing.
For the first time in thirty-one years, the fire in my chest wasn't making me ache. Instead, it was comfortably warm.