by Hettie Ivers
My jaw had surely dropped at some point. “What—? How did you—?”
“I have my sources,” he supplied evasively.
“How?” I pressed.
“It’s not your concern.”
I grimaced. Ew. What the hell was that tone? He was sounding an awful lot like a certain biological father I never cared to remember.
“The less you know, the better, Miles. Now, about Remy …”—his eyes drilled into mine—“that first night, did he … did he … do … anything …?” He looked wholly uncomfortable trying to spit the words out.
“No,” I immediately put his fears to rest. I had no desire to discuss this sort of thing with my brother either. “He and Alcaeus only healed me,” I expounded, and was impressed when I didn’t blush at the mere mention of it. “And then Alex … Alex also …”—I paused to clear my throat—“healed me.” I chose to omit the part where he’d mind-raped and verbally abused me whilst healing me. “I … I had a head injury.”
He nodded, measuring me with a degree of scrutiny and a level of concern that was unsettling. “So I heard. What about Alex? Did he … did Alex try …?”
I rolled my eyes at him, even as I fought the flush that wanted to sweep over me. “Raul!” I complained. I was so not having this conversation with my brother.
“Did he?” he growled, grabbing me by the upper arms and crouching down to meet my eye level.
“Ow!” I balked at his sudden aggression. “Quit it, Raul. I said I was fine.”
“Sorry.” He released my arms and ran an even shakier hand through his disheveled dark hair, stepping back from me again. “I’m still adjusting to my new strength,” he said by way of apology. It was his turn to pace now.
“And I’m just … a little wound up is all. A lot has happened, Miles. And I’ve been worried fucking sick about what might be happening to you. And I never … never even thought of …”—he swallowed, looking like he might be nauseous—“that … other … stuff …”
Realization dawned as to what he was freaking out over, and I was torn between howling with laughter and beating him over the head with the nearest fallen branch.
I’d still been a kid the last time he saw me? Seriously? The fact it was only now occurring to him that men might look at me as a woman spoke volumes as to just how absent he’d been from my life these past nine years.
“Raul, I got my period when I was eleven and my first training bra when I was twelve,” I announced, much to his wide-eyed horror. “I know I still have a boyish figure, but technically, I am a woman and also legally an adult. Sorry to blow your mind like this, but boys have been trying to get in my pants since the eighth grade.”
“Stop!” He ceased pacing and held his hands up. “I do not need to hear about this.”
“Great.” I folded my arms over my chest. “You’re all caught up with my life then.”
“I just need the names and social security numbers of every boy who has ever tried—”
“Raul! Get over yourself! It’s a little late to show up and play protective big brother. And what kind of double standard is that anyway? I’m pretty sure I caught you making out with half of my babysitters back when you were in high school.”
“Half?” His face scrunched in mock offense. “I made out with way more than half,” he quipped, his tense features finally cracking into a smile.
“Ewww!” I whined. “Shut up, you big pig. I do not need to hear about your shit either.”
“Then I’ll happily spare you,” he said with a chuckle. “Listen, I’m sorry I freaked out. I know I should have noticed you were growing up, I just … missed so much time with you, sometimes it’s been easier to pretend things were still the same … that you were still the same goofy kid sister I left behind.”
“Thanks.” I playfully flipped him off. “I’ll try to be goofier from now on. I’m sorry too. I’m really fine though. Honest. They’ve been …” I struggled for the right way to put it, “good to me … for the most part.”
He frowned. “Who’s been good to you?”
“The Reinosos. You don’t have to worry so much. I mean, it was crazy scary at first when I found out they turned into werewolves and all, but I feel pretty safe there now. And I have Lupe to talk to …” I trailed off, shrugging awkwardly and crinkling my nose when he began to shake his head, regarding me as if I’d grown a set of antlers, his expression morphing from disbelief into one of abject horror, and finally, total disgust.
“You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about,” he disparaged, his eyes catching fire in fury. “They kidnapped you, Milena!” he shouted it in my face, as if I was either deaf or an idiot. “You’re being held fucking hostage!”
Jesus! Apparently his anger was on a hair trigger. I took a cautious step back.
“Well … um … technically, your former friend Felix kidnapped me—”
“Felix was never my friend,” he corrected. “And he was operating under Alex’s orders to kidnap you.”
What?
I shook my head, stealing another step backwards. “No … no Felix was trying to make a trade—”
“It’s a lie!” he insisted, stepping forward to vanquish the small personal space I’d created. “Felix lured and kidnapped you on their behalf.”
My mind struggled over his words, trying to fathom such a scenario. I didn’t want to believe it. But he was so confident, so convinced of this as truth that for a second I doubted my own memory as well as my judgment. I had been suffering a head injury that night, after all. But still, it simply didn’t fit. It felt … wrong. And then my she-wolf raised her muzzle to cry foul as well. It smelled wrong.
“No … no, I don’t think—”
“Listen to me,” he hissed, gripping me firmly by my shoulders once more, “you can’t believe any fucking thing they say, do you understand? They’re all marvelous fucking liars.”
“But Alessandra was so surprised that night when—”
“That self-absorbed bitch is the most deceitful of them all. You are not to trust her under any circumstances. Do you hear me? You are not to trust any of them!”
“Look …”—I swallowed, took a deep breath and attempted to reason—“I know Alessandra has her … err … flaws.” I winced as I saw the disbelief and anger swirling in his eyes. “But … but you loved her once?”
“I was stupid then.” His words were cold. Clipped. His eyes hard. Not like my brother’s.
“But I know she cares for you—”
“She left me to die!” he roared so loudly I cringed.
I paused a moment to take a sobering breath, trying to grasp how we’d gone from making silly manatee faces only minutes ago, to this. I knew I should have stopped, seeing how worked up he already was, but foolishly I chose to still argue on Alessandra’s behalf, all the while knowing there were more important questions I should have been asking.
“Well … not … not exactly. I mean … I can only imagine how horribly betrayed you must have felt,” I rambled. “But I think maybe it was her pleading your case that actually saved you. And she was in a rather untenable situation … caught between her brother … and pack law and … and all …”
My words staggered and died as I realized he was looking me over like he thought I was either a complete naive imbecile or the card-carrying member of a Kool-Aid-drinking, black-and-white Nike-wearing San Diego cult.
“My God, they’ve fucking brainwashed you.”
I drew a shallow breath into my constricted lungs. “Raul, I know you’re upset … and I’m sorry. But I’m not a child. Please stop talking down to me like one.”
He rolled livid, incredulous eyes at me. “Fuck, this isn’t the time! Goddamnit, I need you to listen to me. You are in serious fucking danger, Miles!” He punctuated each word with an angry shake of my shoulders that rattled my teeth and made tears spring to my eyes.
Not because it hurt physically, but because it pained me to see in his eyes how angry and disappointed he wa
s with me. To know how much he despised Alex and the rest of them. Even Alessandra. To recognize how irreparably wounded he might truly be after everything that had happened to him.
Our reunion wasn’t supposed to go like this. This was all wrong! He wasn’t himself. This wasn’t the Raul I knew. And I couldn’t bear it. The cruel realization that after all this time, after all we’d both endured and everything I’d gone through just to find him again in the hopes of us being a happy broken family once more, that the brother Mateus had stolen from me might be gone forever, broke my heart.
“I’m sorry. Please don’t be mad like this,” I sobbed. “I just want to go home, okay? Please, let’s just go back to Santa Cruz and start over again? We can pretend none of this ever happened. We can go back to being who we were before all this insanity.”
“No.” His stony reply was a far cry from the one I needed right now, and it reduced me to a fit of wheezing, choking tears. Sighing wearily, he hauled me against his chest into a tight hug.
“I’m sorry, too,” he whispered to the top of my crown. “But we can’t go back. It’s too late. Everything’s different. We’re part of a different world now. There’s no going back for us. And the sooner you grow up and come to terms with that, the better off you’ll be.”
I shook my head against his chest, full out bawling.
“We’re going to be okay, Miles,” he assured, his voice gentler now. “And you’re going to love it in Bariloche. I know you will.”
“Where?” I squawked.
“Argentina. Our new home.”
Our new home? What was he smoking? I wasn’t interested in leaving the state of California, much less America! I was not moving to Argentina.
“I have a home, and it’s in Santa Cruz!”
“Your home is with me,” he asserted. “We’re family, and we need to stick together. Especially now. I know you’ve been traumatized, and you have every right to be terrified and confused, but that’s all the more reason why I need you to trust me, and respect the fact that I know the Reinoso family better than you do.”
Over the sound of my own noisy weeping, I heard a wolf baying in the distance. My heart tugged as I felt my she-wolf’s excitement barreling to the surface. Alex. He was probably feeling my emotions and growing anxious, no doubt.
Raul withdrew from our embrace, inspecting me at arms’ length. His eyes narrowed. “Alex? I thought you were at Alcaeus’ house? He sounds close.” A look of sheer revulsion slowly altered his features. “What do you mean he’s feeling your emotions and growing anxious?”
I shrugged weakly, an incriminating blush staining my cheeks as I was reminded too late the obvious fact that Raul was in my head and hearing my thoughts in order for him to be present in my dream.
“I am at Alcaeus’ house.” My mouth felt parched, my stomach queasy. “Alex’s wolf has just been sleeping outside my bedroom window ever since …”—I had to look away from his increasingly stunned, appalled expression—“since I’ve been staying here.”
“Ho-l-y fuck …” he murmured slowly, dazedly. “Why?” he demanded, his features hard as granite.
Because he’s mine, my inner wolf chose that moment to yip eagerly inside my head. That lovesick bitch really did have the worst timing.
And my newly turned werelock brother had a serious hair-trigger temper. His irises flashed golden. His pupils narrowed to slits. Veins bulged and rolled to life beneath the taut skin covering his face as his lips peeled back to reveal elongating canines.
Like something out of a horror movie, I watched with twisted fascination while my brother’s very bones shifted, his facial features fusing and distorting, his nose, mouth and chin progressively protruding forward, as an ungodly growl of pure rage arose from his chest. And I simply stood there, transfixed, as fur sprouted over his skin and his grip tightened on my upper arms, his now clawed fingers biting into my flesh.
Then it stopped.
The transformation abruptly reversed itself and he regained his “human” appearance.
“Argh, fuck!” He released my arms as if they’d electrocuted him, snarling and clenching his hands into tight fists.
And then it happened. The telltale sign I’d searched video footage all morning for. His eye twitched. Twice.
“I wasn’t going to hurt her,” he ground out between clenched teeth. “I would never hurt her.” He seemed to be directing the words over his shoulder.
Huh? Who the fuck was he talking to?
“Alex Reinoso is not your mate, Miles,” Raul fumed, his body trembling with suppressed wrath. “He’s deceived you, do you understand me? That son of a bitch put a spell on your wolf or something. He is not your true mate!” He made a move as if to grab me by the arms again, but then stopped short.
His eye twitched.
A shiver ran down my spine. My chest constricted.
“Lay off!” he rumbled in a grated voice, his eyes flying skyward. “She’s my sister! I’d never harm her.”
“Raul?” I questioned, my voice breathless as I felt the blood draining from my face. “Who are you talking to?”
I caught the rustling of leaf litter further up the path, and I didn’t wait for an answer. I stepped around him and my heart nearly exploded when a large, sandy-colored wolf with the most striking blue eyes I’d ever seen emerged from behind a nearby Redwood.
I thought my knees would give out. The sting of betrayal was as choking as the acrid stench of Raul’s guilt.
He’d invited a perfect stranger inside of my head without asking me. Without telling me! And he’d been there listening in on us the whole time? He’d heard all the stuff about mom … and Aunt Kamella. All the private sentiments we’d shared. He’d witnessed moments that were personal—meant to remain between us.
“He’s a friend. He’s perfectly safe. Stop freaking out.”
“Who … wh-who is he?” I stuttered, petrified that I already knew the answer.
“Not your concern.”
“He’s in my goddamn head, Raul! Who the fuck is he?”
“His name’s Gabriel.”
Oh … God, oh God … oh, fuck … holy shit …
I couldn’t breathe for the panic that gripped me. I slumped forward, balancing myself with both hands on my knees as my vision narrowed. Raul grabbed me around the waist to steady me.
“Miles, calm down, he’s not gonna hurt you.”
It was my turn to growl as I wrenched his arm off of me. “How could you?”
“I needed his help,” Raul justified, his eyes softening with the faintest measure of contrition as once more he reached out to steady me. I swatted him away. “He was afraid I’d hurt you again if I tried to access your mind by myself. He’s got about a century of practice on me at it. I figured it’d be safer.”
Safer? Safer to help the devil himself insinuate his way into my subconscious? Not once had I felt his presence intermingled with Raul’s this whole time. Not even a trace. Safe was the furthest thing from how this felt.
I closed my eyes, focusing all of my effort on waking myself up. I needed to wake up. Now.
“Miles, stop it, you’re overreacting. They’ve brainwashed you to think Gabriel is your enemy, but he’s not.”
I wanted to argue, to beat some sense into Raul, but rationally I knew it would do no good as long as that monster was inside of his mind—inside both of our minds! No, I needed to stay singularly focused on waking up.
“Do you have any idea how many of the Salvatella family have been slaughtered in the last century and a half?” Raul proceeded to present a case on the sandy wolf’s behalf. “Between Alcaeus and now Alex’s reign, they’ve reduced the Salvatella pack by at least a third its former size.”
I tried to tune him out. Even covered my ears to block his words. But I still heard them. And my sense of panic was approaching supernatural fever pitch. Alex was howling continuously. And my own wolf was clamoring to get to him.
I cracked. “Get that Salvatella monster out of my
head, Raul!”
“Gabe’s not a monster, Miles. He’s on our side! He’s going to help me to rescue you from them.”
Gabe? Bloody hell, they were on nickname basis?
I opened my eyes to find Gabriel’s wolf had barely moved since making his grand, creepy entrance. He stood calmly on the trail at Raul’s back, appearing for all the world like an innocent werelock bystander who’d just happened upon an unfortunate family drama—whilst strolling through someone’s private fucking dream forest!
“You don’t need his help, Raul! They’ll let me go. I know they will.” It was true, because Alex had bought me my house. Right? I had to believe that meant they’d let me go.
“They’ll let both of us go. Just come and get me, and you’ll see. Without him,” I emphasized with a head jerk in the sandy wolf’s direction.
“You’re an absolute fool if you believe that,” Raul scorned. “My God, they don’t care anything about you or what you want. They’re fucking using you!” he sneered. “A war is coming and they need you. You’re their key to the Rogue, Miles. That’s all this is about to them. Alcaeus damn well knows they can’t afford to lose you and risk losing the Rogue. Trust me, they have no intention of ever letting you go.”
What? I didn’t want to hear this right now. I couldn’t hear this. “Just get him out! I want him out!”
“Face it, you walked straight into their trap, Miles.”
“Now! Make him leave, Raul! I won’t talk to you with that demon inside of my head.”
“Arghahdamnit!” Raul blustered, throwing his fist into the closest Redwood tree within harming range. As the tree he’d once taught me was a sacred living being cracked and splintered apart, so did my dream state.
