by Lori Drake
Joey groaned and rubbed her face. “I guess never isn’t an option.”
“Probably not.”
“But I can put it off for now, since she needs to rest. Which is good, because we need to talk.”
His eyes jumped upward, meeting hers briefly before lowering. “Oh. Okay.” A look of dread came over him, but it barely registered. Joey was too floored by the submissive gesture. She could count on one hand the times Chris had lowered his eyes to her since he became Alpha.
Joey leaned forward and took his hands. “Look at me, babe.”
His eyes lifted to scan her face, but never quite settled on hers. “Yeah?”
“What happened with Lucas, it’s not your fault,” she said firmly.
He laughed, though it was a bitter sound. “I was the one on my back at the end. I lost. How is that not my fault?”
“You may have ended up on your back, but I was the one that put you there.”
Chris finally met her eyes. There was something… unsettled… about his expression. “What are you saying?”
“That you didn’t lose the challenge, Chris. I did.”
“By choosing me.” His voice fell flat, and there was no mistaking the hurt in his eyes.
Joey sighed, shaking her head. “That’s not what I’m trying to say. Shit! I’m fucking it all up, as usual.” She tried to withdraw her hands, but he tightened his grip, holding on.
“Then what are you trying to say?”
Joey struggled to put her thoughts in order. She hadn’t had much time to contemplate just how to do this, acting impulsively, as usual. “Lucas never would’ve challenged me to start with if I hadn’t told him about my injury. It was stupid. You and Sam both tried to warn me about him, but I didn’t see it. He seemed so nice, and he stood up for us against Elijah…” She sighed. “I know it was all part of his plan, now. I knew he wanted to try and get between us, but I didn’t know why. Stupid me, I thought it was an infatuation. But he didn’t want me. He was just like the other assholes Mom imported over the years. I was a means to an end, and when he figured out wooing me wasn’t going to work, he took it to the next level.” She stared down at their joined hands, tears prickling her eyes. Two fat ones escaped and rolled down her cheeks. “But my mistake wasn’t naming you. It was leaping without looking. When I found out that I could name you my second, it opened up a world of possibility I’d never considered before. The perfect first step toward merging our packs, for you to be my second and me to be yours… I wanted that more than anything, and I let it cloud my judgment.”
“Not really seeing how this doesn’t boil down to you making a mistake by choosing me,” Chris said quietly.
“My mistake wasn’t choosing you. It was not talking to Sam first. He had information about Lucas that… well, let’s just say would’ve changed the landscape. I can’t say I wouldn’t have chosen you anyway, but maybe you would’ve fought differently if you’d known. Or, at least, Sam could’ve given you some pointers.”
His brow furrowed. “I don’t understand.”
“Lucas has more than his fair share of fighting experience in wolf form. He used to compete in dog fights. Hell, maybe he still does. I have no idea.”
“And Sam… he knew? And didn’t tell you?” Chris stood and yanked his hands from hers, starting for the door with grim intent.
Joey was on her feet in a flash and grabbed his arm. “Chris, no!”
He turned toward her, eyes flashing angrily. “Why? Why shouldn’t I go give him a piece of my mind? It wasn’t just you he fucked over, you know. Do you have any idea how humiliating that was? How shitty it felt to know how completely I’d failed you? Fuck, if I’d known, I might’ve insisted you name Sam.”
Joey snorted softly. “You don’t mean that.”
Chris rubbed his face, grumbling quietly before letting his hand drop with a sigh. “We’ll never really know. But you can’t shoulder all the blame for this, Joey. I should’ve looked into the guy more, tried to find out what his capabilities were. But I was puffed up like a rooster, ready to defend your honor. Overconfident and foolish. I was the one that lost the fight, and you can’t tell me you weren’t upset about that.”
“We both made mistakes. You didn’t lose. We lost. And yeah, I was upset. Upset that Lucas tricked me. Upset we lost. Upset that I wasn’t able to answer the challenge myself. But Chris… I. Don’t. Blame. You.”
He met her eyes. “You really mean that, don’t you?”
“Yes! Jesus, have you always been this dense?” Joey wrapped her arms around his waist and squeezed tightly, wishing he didn’t hesitate before curling his arms around her in return. Closing her eyes, she pressed her cheek to his chest and listened to the steady thrum of his heart under her ear. “This is really shitty—unbelievably shitty—but we’ll get through it.”
They stood quietly for a few seconds before Chris said, “You can’t let Sam take your pack from you.”
“I lost the challenge. That’s what happens.”
“Yeah, but they didn’t stick around to live under a new Alpha. They left. With you. Technically, there’s a new pack forming, and nothing says you can’t lead it.”
She sighed. “Maybe I don’t want to.”
“You might feel that way now, but give it a few days and you’ll be champing at the bit to be out from under Sam.”
“I could join your pack.”
His hand, which had been rubbing her back, paused. “Then you’d be champing at the bit to be out from under me.”
“Usually when that happens, I just roll you over.” She smirked.
Chris laughed and gave her a squeeze. “Funny, funny. You know what I mean.”
Sighing, Joey nodded. “Yeah, I know. Let me sleep on it. Assuming there’s time for sleep tonight.” She lingered in his arms a few more seconds, than took a deep breath and stepped back. “Take me to the hunter.”
19
Chris led Joey down the stairs and into the basement, where the hunter had been trussed up and left to stew. Justin sat on the bottom step, fiddling with his phone. Chris had invested in a cell signal booster for the house shortly after he’d taken over as Alpha. The reception inside had been terrible, and though he hoped there wouldn’t be any more life-or-death situations in the house… better safe than sorry.
Justin looked up as they descended and then stood, tucking his phone away. “He’s been quiet. Though the gag probably had something to do with that.”
Chris nodded and looked over the railing into the basement to check on the prisoner, the man from the hotel security footage. The last time Chris had seen him, he was tied to a chair and glaring defiantly at anyone that looked at him sideways. The glare was still in place, but chair and hunter were both on their side now.
“What happened?” Chris asked.
“He knocked himself over trying to get free,” Justin answered, shrugging. “It didn’t work, but I figured he could stay there.” His eyes shifted to Joey. “You okay?”
“I will be, thanks Justin,” she said. “Give us a minute?”
Justin nodded. “Sure. Holler if you need me.”
Chris pressed himself against the wall so Justin could squeeze past, then continued down the stairs with Joey at his back. The basement used to have a ton of stuff in it, his birth parents’ stuff, but it’d been cleaned out. He’d rented a couple of those portable storage pods to put out back until he had a chance to go through all the crap his parents had left behind and determine what of it was worth keeping. Eventually, he wanted to turn the basement into a gym, but for now, it was a fairly convenient place to stash a prisoner. As long as no one needed to do laundry, anyway.
Joey brushed past him and leaned over to put her eyes near on level with the hunter’s. “If I set you upright, are you gonna knock yourself over again?”
He glared at her, but shook his head. Joey lifted him like he weighed nothing and set him upright.
Chris took up position beside her and pulled the gag out of the hu
nter’s mouth. “Don’t bother calling for help. No one will hear you. Or, at least, no one who’ll give a shit.”
The hunter tossed his chin-length brown hair out of his face and worked his jaw left and right. “You might as well kill me, hellspawn. I’d rather die than consort with the likes of you.”
Chris exchanged a glance with Joey. She was supposed to be the good cop. He wasn’t entirely sure she could pull it off, but he folded his arms and put on a grim face. It wasn’t hard.
Joey flashed the captive a smile. “Hi, Jack. It’s Jack, right?”
The hunter narrowed his eyes. “Yes.”
“Great. So, here’s the thing. You’ve been causing quite a ruckus, and I’ve got to say… the timing is shitty. You see, we lost our mother a week ago—”
“Good riddance.” Jack spat on the concrete floor.
Chris saw red. He stepped forward and backhanded the asshole, relishing the satisfaction of the smack that echoed off the bare cinder-block walls and the way Jack’s head snapped aside.
Joey put a hand on his arm. “Easy, tiger.”
Chris stepped back and folded his arms again, his point made. Jack worked his jaw back and forth, then popped his neck with a tilt of his head and shot Chris a glare that could curdle milk. Chris just snorted and glared back. This guy made it easy to be the bad cop.
Joey sighed gustily and made a “tsk” noise. “I apologize. He was always a bit of a momma’s boy.”
Chris blinked, his eyes jumping to Joey, but she ignored him in favor of focusing on the prisoner.
“Whatever,” Jack said. “Are you going to kill me or not? I’ve got shit to do.”
Joey made a show of tapping her chin with a manicured fingertip. “That depends on you, Jack. You see, you’ve caused us quite a bit of trouble. Why shouldn’t we kill you?”
The hunter’s eyes shifted between Joey and Chris. It was a cold, calculating look. “Can’t say I can think of a reason.”
“Me either,” Chris muttered. This time, purely for effect.
Joey smiled. “I can. You see… we know you aren’t working alone. Give up your partner and maybe we’ll settle for breaking both your legs and dropping you at a hospital.”
Jack smirked. “Do your worst, monster. I’ll just come back stronger and put you down.”
“Maybe.” Joey shrugged. “But it’d take you a while. All that physical therapy. All those medical bills. Come on, Jack. Where’s Jill?”
“I don’t have a partner. I work alone.”
“Bullshit.” Chris stepped forward again, punching his palm. “Lie to her again, and see where it gets you.”
“I really would prefer this not come to blows,” Joey said, putting a hand on Chris’s shoulder. “We’re not the savages you think we are. I’ve seen your partner’s handiwork firsthand, so I know she exists.” Joey indicated the red skin at her throat. It looked like a thin sunburn at this point, like she’d failed to cover a line across her throat with sunblock. But it couldn’t have been pleasant.
“Savages. Monsters. The spawn of Satan. Take your pick.” Jack spat on the floor again. “Your honeyed lies won’t fool me. Maria’s dead. She’d never let an abomination like you walk away. She’d die first.”
“Maria, is it?” Joey murmured.
Chris prowled a slow circle around Jack, who looked over his shoulder to follow Chris’s movements with wary eyes. At least he’d admitted he had a partner. They were getting somewhere.
“You seem awfully calm for someone who thinks their partner is dead. Did she mean that little to you?” Joey asked.
Still following Chris with his eyes, Jack replied, “Our quest is a holy one. We are God’s warriors, put on this earth to send the devils stalking humanity back to hell. We made our peace with the danger long ago, and if Maria is dead, she is smiling down on me from heaven.”
Belief shone in his eyes, and Chris groaned inwardly as he finished his circuit and stopped beside Joey again. “He’s a zealot. We’re wasting our time.”
Joey’s lips compressed into a thin line, and a muscle in her cheek twitched. Chris knew what was coming before she leaned over and put a hand on Jack’s chest. “Okay. Bad cop it is.” She pushed, and Jack’s chair toppled backward, landing with a clatter.
Joey watched the bloody water circle the drain on its way down. Her hands were clean once more, and yet she still felt dirty. She’d enjoyed pounding on that hunter a little too much. If Chris hadn’t pulled her off him, she couldn’t say for certain Jack would still be breathing. She could feel Chris and Sam’s eyes on her back, and dreaded turning to face the judgmental looks she was certain were coming her way. So she rubbed her hands together under the stream of warm water longer than necessary, girding herself to face them.
“Are you okay?” Chris asked from behind her. “You kind of lost it in there.”
There was no “kind of” about it. Joey sighed inwardly and looked at herself in the bathroom mirror. She barely recognized the woman that looked back. It wasn’t that her appearance had changed dramatically, though her eyes were drawn to the angry red line around her throat. No, it was the hardness in her eyes that gave her pause. Her willingness, nay, eagerness to do harm. It wasn’t that the piece of shit in the basement didn’t have it coming. But the sense of satisfaction that’d come from applying her fist to his face had less to do with punishing him than it had with wanting someone to punish.
Joey took a deep breath and met Chris’s eyes in the mirror. Where she’d expected censure, she found only concern. It was almost worse, somehow. Her throat tightened and she shifted her focus back to her hands. Chris deserved better. She had to do better, had to be better. This wasn’t the time to self-destruct.
“Yeah, I’m okay.” The soft rasp in her voice annoyed her. After turning off the water, she shook some excess moisture from her hands and turned to face the music. Chris and Sam were blocking access to the towel bar, but Chris had a hand towel waiting for her because, well, that was Chris. She dried her hands and avoided looking at Sam for a few heartbeats more.
Coward.
At least her inner critic was still on the job. She leaned against the counter, working the towel between her hands for something to do with them even after they were dry. “Believe it or not, I got an idea while I was trying to rearrange his face. You’re right, babe—he’s not going to give us anything on his partner, not unless we resort to outright torture. And I don’t know about you, but I’m not ready to cross that line.”
Sam snorted, and when Joey finally risked a glance in his direction, she found exactly what she’d been expecting: judgment. But also… disappointment. The latter had more effect on her than the former, or at least on her wolf. That primal part of her retreated, and Joey wondered since when she’d been at all interested in or concerned about gaining her big brother’s approval.
“You do know that he’s not like us, right?” Sam half growled. “It’ll take weeks for his face to heal. We’ll be lucky if he’s even recognizable as the man from the hotel security feed.”
“Come on, Sam. It’s not that bad,” Chris said.
Joey wasn’t sure how she could appreciate and loathe the way he stood up for her at the same time. She met Sam’s eyes in defiance. “Do you want to hear about my idea or not?”
Sam grunted, which was about as close to a yes as Joey figured she’d get.
“We have to let him go,” Joey said. “Or, rather, let him escape.”
Sam narrowed his eyes while Chris straightened, alarm painted on his face.
“Are you crazy?” Chris said.
Joey held up a hand. “Hear me out. Put yourself in his shoes. What would you do if you were captured by your worst enemy but managed to free yourself?”
Chris’s eyes darkened, and Joey realized too late that the question hit a little too close to home. His hands fisted at his sides, and he answered without hesitation, “Kill them all.”
Joey added, “What if you suspected they’d done something to me, a
nd you weren’t sure if I was alive or dead?”
There was a brief pause, then Chris’s eyes widened. “I’d try to find you.”
“Exactly,” Joey said, glancing at Sam. At least he wasn’t dismissing the idea out of hand. “So, we just have to figure out how to let him escape without him realizing we let him and follow him to his partner. Then we bag them both.”
“It’s not a bad idea,” Sam said. “But it’s risky. They’ve killed, what… eight wolves that we know of?”
“Nine,” Joey said, watching Chris. He studied the floor. “But they’re human. They can’t beat us for brawn or speed. They rely on stealth and trickery, modern weaponry and the element of surprise. Take that away, and they’re the underdogs. Not us.”
“But we have no way of separating them from their weapons,” Chris said.
Sam scratched his stubbly jaw. “No, but we confiscated all the silver this guy was packing. I’m sure she has some, but it’s unlikely they’re carrying a lot of spares. That stuff is pretty specialized, and can’t be cheap.”
“And even though he had three guns on him,” Joey added, “there were no silver bullets.”
“Getting shot still hurts,” Chris pointed out.
“True,” Joey said, mentally thanking Cathy for her assistance. “But unless it’s a head shot… it’s unlikely to kill us.”
“What about the ketamine?” Chris asked. “They might have more.”
“I’d say it’s a fair bet that they do,” Sam said. “But that’s the sort of thing you have to prepare for ahead of time.”
Joey shrugged. “Even if they have syringes pre-loaded, they’re not going to be able to shoot us all up. Not in the middle of an assault. They might take down one or two, but that won’t be enough to save them.”
“Still,” Sam said, “we need to be prepared that going head to head with two well-trained hunters could mean that someone doesn’t walk out alive.”
While Sam spoke, Chris pulled his phone out and glanced at the screen. Noting his frown as he began tapping out a response, Joey asked, “What’s wrong?”