by AJ Merlin
“What a shame,” the man murmured in his ear, his eyes bright golden and canines pointed. “Though I’m not sure what you thought you were doing here, Michael, when I’m sure I remember telling you that you aren’t allowed anywhere near the Heights.”
“I’m-I didn’t-“ his shift was fading, features becoming human again in the slighter man’s grip.
Inhaling, i was shocked to find that this man’s scent had been what I’d found outside. Mint and frosty coldness.
And under that, something strangely violent that I couldn’t place. He was an alpha, that was for damn sure, and I barely needed his scent to tell me that.
I refused to admit how alluring his scent was to my nose. How in the world did this man, who I’d never met and was possibly about to kill Michael Fairfield, wield the same level of temptation and sin as the other two?
Unable to look away, I watched as his grip tightened on the bear shifter’s neck. Michael was panicking, and tried fervently to rip the man’s arm away from his neck.
“I didn’t have a choice!” He howled, eyes rolling in terror. “The enforcers were-“
“Oh I’m sure the enforcers have wanted your ass for much longer than tonight,” the man interrupted, his tone never losing its amused edge. He spoke with an accent that felt English, but at the same time his voice was more refined and deliberate than any I’d ever heard. “What did you do to piss her off?” The man’s yellow eyes found mine and he nodded to draw Michael’s attention to me.
I took a step back, and hated myself for my caution.
“Nothing. I don’t know-she found Calli in the house. She was going to leave me-and it was an accident-“
“Everything with you is always an accident,” the stranger said, clicking his tongue with condescending disapproval. “But I’m sure I told you what would happen if you came back to the Heights, didn’t I?” The eerie yellow of his eyes glittered with malicious glee as Michael’s chest heaved.
“I didn’t have anywhere else to go-“
“Well that doesn’t mean you were welcome to come here. Goodbye, Michael. I don’t think any of us will cry at your funeral.”
Before Michael Fairfield could reply, the stranger tightened his grip and twisted, causing the bear shifter’s neck to emit a sickening crunch.
His eyes rolled up in his head, his knees buckling as he fell to the ground with his head at a severely unnatural angle thanks to this strange and terrifying man.
When the man let go, Michael fell to the ground, deader than a doornail before my eyes.
“Well. This leaves us with a conundrum, doesn’t it?” The stranger asked, sidestepping Michael with his eyes fixed on mine. “I’m sure that I-“
I growled, the sound turning deep and morphing into a bark that rang in my ears.
He blinked, gave me a moment, then went on. “I don’t speak maned wolf, love. If you have something to say-“ he paused again when my snarl filled the air. “You’ll have to tell me the old fashioned way.”
Without a thought I shifted, anger thankfully repressing my fear as I stepped towards him in the cold building.
To his credit, his eyes never left my face.
“He was mine,” I said, striding towards him even though my better instincts warned me away. “I followed him all this way-“
“I’m aware,” the stranger broke in. “Not sure how you didn’t see me in the park. Or did you?”
“You were in…” I trailed off, surprised, and he raised a brow. “Whatever. Do you know what he did?”
“I’m assuming something untoward.”
“I deserved to do that.” I pointed at his body with a harsh gesture and fought back a shiver.
This was a bad season to be naked in a building with no heat.
“You were going to kill him? You?” He snorted. “I think I might have saved you from him–“
Stupidly, I reached for him with fingers tipped in claws. I wasn’t sure what I planned on doing, past making a bad choice, but it didn’t matter anyway.
Quick as lightning, the man grabbed my wrist and walked forward, forcing me to walk backward until my body hit the cold brick behind me. “When I let you go, I suggest you reconsider what you were about to do,” he suggested carefully. “I’m not sure it’s wise for you to tempt the dire wolf to violence, are you?”
The dire wolf?
My blood went cold, and this time I did shiver.
“The…dire wolf?” I murmured. “But-that’s just a story. That’s not-“
“Well I’m right here love. Flesh and bone, right before your eyes. And I’ll go on and assume that shivering is for me.”
“It’s cold,” I shot back, my mind racing.
What in the hell was I going to do now?
Would he kill me too? Just as easily as he’d killed the bear?
“Perhaps you should’ve made better decisions with your night,” he said, eyes shifting to the blood on my hand that had been there since before my shift. “Did he kill her?” The dire wolf asked curiously.
“I don’t think so-I don’t know,” I admitted in a whisper. “My friend stayed with her. He called the enforcers-“
His eyes came back to mine. “Did he?” The man didn’t sound pleased.
I shivered again.
“What’s your name?”
“What’s yours?” I retorted.
He blinked, not rising to my level of aggression, and said simply, “Wilder.”
“Mine’s…I’m Alek,” I replied, surprised at how easily he’d given me his name.
He released my arm and I drew it back quickly. He didn’t seem to mind, only ran a hand through his dark blonde, messy hair.
“Since you are the reason he came here, you get to help me sort it out with the people who are inevitably going to come knocking, Alek,” Wilder informed me, beckoning me to follow him. “You should shift. There aren’t any humans in the Heights, but…”
Now his gaze did trail over me, and I locked my teeth against the feeling of his eyes raking over my form..
“Just shift,” he requested finally.
“You aren’t going to kill me?” I had to ask. It was impossible not to.
He rolled his golden eyes. Was this their natural color? Didn’t they fade to something more subdued, like the rest of ours?
And of course, the biggest question-was he really a dire wolf shifter?
“I might, for inevitably bringing the enforcers to my territory,” Wilder retorted. “But, contrary to what I like people to believe, I try not to kill everyone who stumbles through here.”
“You killed him,” I said, as if either of us had forgotten.
“Yes, I did. Are you still mad about it?”
“Yeah, actually.” While my anger had abated-mostly becoming fear-I couldn’t help the seething frustration at being denied the fight I deserved.
Wilder turned to face me more directly. “Would you like to try to hit me again?” His eyes were a goading challenge that made me itch to fight, no matter how bad of an idea that was.
Still, I couldn’t help the low growl that trickled from between my lips, and by the way he tilted his head in interest, he’d definitely heard it too.
Way to go, me. I was killing it on keeping my impulses under control tonight.
“You would,” he chuckled. “That’s very aggressive of you. Especially for an omega.”
“I’m not afraid of you just because you’re an alpha,” I sneered, clenching my hands at my sides.
“No, of course not. But you should be afraid of me because of what else I am.”
Like I had a death wish, I lifted my chin arrogantly, eyes on his.
Wilder snorted. “You’re trying very hard to end up like him,” he pointed out.
Well, I wasn’t trying to.
“I’m not-“ Arguing probably wasn’t the greatest solution to the situation. “I’m not…going to hit you,” I promised at last.
“Shame,” he shrugged. “Perhaps it would’ve been fun if
you had.”
Chapter Seventeen
At his ‘suggestion,’ I followed Wilder in my maned wolf shape from the old building to his apartment. Though I hesitated at the door, the promising warmth from the heater drew me in like a deceptively well-meaning hug.
Even the welcoming heat couldn’t stop me from worrying about Noah, and about the woman we’d left in the kitchen.
Why hadn’t I gone back? Had it only been because I was afraid of pissing Wilder off?
Or had it been because of his grin and the mystery he presented? He’d told me I’d need to help him with the enforcers.
Was that even true?
Wilder had shown me to the white marble bathroom, and had tossed some clothes inside that he’d told me would probably fit.
Shifting back, I discovered that the clothes were slightly too big and smelled of another woman, though not an omega like me.
I didn’t particularly want to wear them, but I didn’t have much of a choice. Quickly I pulled on the sweatpants and cropped t-shirt, drawing the pants tighter around my waist.
Glancing at myself in the mirror, I wasn’t shocked to find myself very pale, my dark red hair in disarray.
“What have you gotten yourself into?” I asked my reflection as I washed my hands free of blood.
Still my stupid-self needed to know if Wilder really was a dire wolf. Could I just ask? What would stop him from lying to me?
It was entirely possible, in my opinion, that he was just a really big wolf.
Opening the door to the expensive bathroom, I finally took that moment to look around the open apartment.
A kitchen sat against one wall, the appliances gleaming and whirring in the softly-lit space. There was no dining room, only a counter with barstools that separated the kitchen from the big room that served as a living space for Wilder and…whoever else might live here.
“Now that you’re clothed…”
I jumped at his voice and turned to see the shifter coming out of a door that sat open, revealing a bedroom behind him.
“Are you really a dire wolf?” I asked, before I could stop myself.
“Yes,” he replied, striding past me and into the kitchen, where he turned on a light over the stove. “Are you really as much of an idiot as you seem?”
The question caught me off guard. “What?”
“Well…” He sat at the counter and rested his elbow on it. “You followed a man into the Heights without asking my permission, watched me kill him, didn’t run, challenged me, did not run, then let me lead you back to my apartment.”
“Because I’m not afraid of you,” I lied, wondering just why in the world I had done all of those things. “And-wait. You can’t own the Heights. You aren’t an Ahlleron.”
“No, I’m not,” he agreed. “We’ve been over what I am, but I’m starting to think you don’t believe me.”
“I’m not sure I do.”
Wilder contemplated that statement, snagging a cup off the countertop and rolling it between his hands. “I suppose you’ll believe me if I shift,” he offered. “But then again, I’m not sure I want to go through all of that just to prove a point.”
A thrill of fear shot through me. If he was willing to shift to prove me wrong, then I had a feeling I was wrong. “Then maybe-“
“No. I lied. I’ll absolutely do it just to see the look on your face.”
What?
He was bluffing. He had to be bluffing, right?
If he was bluffing, why the hell was he already on his feet, cup discarded so he could strip off his black v-neck sweater.
“You aren’t really going to shift,” I argued, prowling around the counter to put it between him and me.
His yellow eyes slid to mine, luminescent in the dark.
“Oh, I think I am,” he replied crisply, fingers on the button of his jeans.
My gaze dipped to watch his movements, and I found I had to drag them back up over his leaned but toned chest to meet his gaze again.
“You can look, love,” he informed me. “It’s fair, isn’t it? Since I got to look in the warehouse.”
With that sentiment, Wilder pushed his pants and boxers down to his ankles, then off altogether.
I tried very very hard not to look. It was rude, and it wasn’t like I wanted to.
Well, okay. That was a lie.
I had a feeling that below the belt was just as tantalizing as above it, but it seemed a bit taboo to look, when I was still half-convinced this man was going to attack me.
And, not to mention, lying.
“What’s going to convince me that you’re a dire wolf?” I asked, staring at the windows instead of him. “You could just be a really big wolf. How the hell would I know the difference?”
Wilder snorted. “Have you seen a wolf shifter’s animal form before, Alek?”
“Well of course-“
“Then I can assure you, you’ll damn well know the bloody difference.” His words slurred near the end, fading off into a growl as his shift took over.
When I looked back, the dark blonde, yellow eyed man was gone.
And in his place, striding towards me from around the counter, was something that could never in a million years have been just a regular wolf.
Wilder’s wolf was the same dark blonde as his hair and white. A mask that reminded me of a husky’s markings and a long, darker stripe down his back, however, were the only wolf things about him.
He was too big to be a wolf, for one. His head was on level with mine, yellow eyes garishly bright in the darkness of the apartment.
Clicking made me look down as he approached, my heart racing like a rabbit’s, and I found that instead of a wolf’s paws, his were shaped like a great jungle cat’s; claws hooked and scraping against the floor. His front legs weren’t a canine’s, but a lion’s in their shape.
As if, along with running down his prey, he was just as adept at grabbing them and dragging them to the ground, long talons burying themselves in his victim’s body easily.
Holy shit.
But that wasn’t all.
The mane of thick fur around his neck put mine to shame, and as he watched me look at him, some of that fur rose to give him a more intimidating presence.
Even his fangs put a wolf’s-or mine-to shame at their length and deadly sharp points.
“Holy shit,” I breathed, putting voice to my repeating thoughts.
Amusement lit his expression, and his large tail that could most likely knock me down wagged slightly in approval.
At that look, I bit off my next words. I didn’t tell him that he was right and I was wrong.
Even though that was definitely the case.
Instead I shoved my hands in the pockets of my borrowed sweatpants and said, like an idiot, “You just look like a really big wolf to me.”
Disbelief sparked in his gaze and if a dire wolf’s jaw could drop, his would have. He blinked once, then looked back at himself before glaring at me again.
Are you fucking joking? his expression all but screamed.
He stepped forward again, but I held my ground as those massive paws the size of dinner plates came to a stop just mere inches from my feet.
Wilder thrust his face into my own, hot breath buffeting my face.
I should have been terrified. Absolutely petrified at the fact I was staring down a dire wolf and had probably insulted him.
So…why wasn’t I?
My fear of him had ebbed, and I could only marvel at the beauty of his markings and his eyes.
If anything, the fear I’d felt in the warehouse had become something else entirely.
Wilder, even in this shape, radiated safety.
The same way Roman did.
“Big wolf,” I said again, directly into his uniquely marked face.
Wilder tipped his head to the side, somehow less imposing when he couldn’t fire off a quip at my words.
Unthinkingly, I raised my hand, bringing it to his face slowly until I could rest it
against his cheek.
His eyes widened incrementally, the shock being pushed away before I could really appreciate the fact that I’d surprised him with my actions.
“You’re too close for a snoot boop,” I told him with a half grin. “But don’t think I won’t-“
Without warning, Wilder pressed his nose to my neck, inhaling deeply against my throat.
As he did, he shifted back, the great dire wolf’s body smoothly becoming the man once more.
“I am not just a big wolf, he growled, pushing me backward until my back hit the wall. While he was taller, it was only by a little, so it was easy for him to maintain his position of his face against my throat.
My heart fluttered, mouth suddenly going dry as his teeth brushed over my pulse.
“I mean,” I teased breathlessly, unwilling to admit the effect he had on me.
Just like the one both Hades and Roman had whenever they got in my personal space.
I needed to examine this. It was absolutely worth thinking about, and probably even discussing with Noah.
But…not right now. Not now, with Wilder’s hand cupping my jaw and his teeth gentle at my throat.
I cleared my throat, hands still at my sides. “Don’t you uh-have to deal with…the enforcers?”
“Yes.” He nipped at the junction of my collarbone and shoulder, hands going to my hips and sliding deliciously upward. “And the Ahllerons, most likely.”
“T-then shouldn’t you uh…”
“Shouldn’t I be figuring out what to say, maybe move Michael’s body, and acting the proper alpha, love?”
“Yeah.”
“Probably. But….” He pulled away, just enough so our faces were mere inches apart. “I have never in my life been considered a proper alpha. Why start now?”
Before I could reply with some kind of logical answer, Wilder pressed his lips against mine. Hard.
If I’d for a moment expected something sweet or tempting, I was wrong. His kisses were all teeth and tongue, sweeping me away from myself and sending me tumbling down a rabbit hole of him.
Wilder nipped at my lower lip hard, claws skimming up my ribs as a growl trickled from his mouth to mine.
But I wasn’t about to let him have all the fun. Or make all the noise.
