Salvadore's Luck

by Odessa Lynne

  So maybe he wasn’t as terrified of Wolf as he’d been before, but that didn’t mean he was suddenly going to be able to stand around the wolves with the same ease he’d witnessed Paul doing in that cabin—and goddammit, was he never going to remember to call Paul Matthew?

  “Keep him away from me,” Wolf said.

  For a split second, Salvadore thought Wolf might be talking about him, but then the unnamed wolf moved to the side of the alpha’s favorite, whoever he was, and helped him to his feet.

  Wolf continued, his voice hard and rough as he stared straight at Egan. “If he even looks at my mate, I’ll kill him.”

  “He won’t get near your mate.” Egan turned his head, looking over his shoulder at the others. He nodded and the others seemed to know what he meant even though he never said a word to either of them.

  The weaker wolf leaned on the other’s shoulder and they started walking through the woods, away from them all.

  Salvadore watched silently.

  He didn’t understand the wolves; he didn’t think he ever would. They were alien and so was their society and they talked about peace and free will and none of it meant anything. But Wolf had been willing to kill to keep that other wolf away from Salvadore and that meant something to Salvadore. Tyler’s smarmy grin came to mind and Salvadore shoved the memory away. Wolf had kept his word and Salvadore tucked that feeling close and waited for Wolf to get up and start them on their way again.

  “You’re nervous,” Wolf said. He sat up, started to push to his feet but wavered, and Salvadore broke through his uncertainty and walked over to Wolf.

  “I’m fine,” he said, taking hold of Wolf’s arm. “I’ll help.”

  “Thank you.” Wolf put his arm across Salvadore’s shoulders and leaned on him, but Wolf was heavier than he looked and Salvadore staggered under his weight.

  Salvadore grunted and stiffened his back.

  “I’ll lead the way until his senses have returned,” Egan said. With one more lingering look at Salvadore, Egan started off into the woods in the direction the others had taken.

  “I should be taking care of you,” Wolf said. “I apologize for not being able to meet my obligations as a mate.”

  “Don’t know what obligations you’re talking about and don’t care,” Salvadore said. “You would’ve killed that wolf to keep him away from me. That’s good enough.”

  Salvadore walked along with Wolf for a while, over downed trees and through thickening brush where pine trees started becoming more common than oak, until finally, he cleared his throat and said, “There’s something I need to tell you.” He kicked aside a limb that was in their way and tugged Wolf around a clump of vines he knew from experience would snag the fabric of his pants and pierce his skin when he tried to pull free. “You’re not going to like it.”

  Wolf slowed to a stop and his arm tightened around Salvadore’s shoulders. Salvadore glanced over at Wolf and Wolf stared back, his eyes clear of the drugged haze of earlier, the long slash on his face making him look more dangerous than Salvadore already knew he was. Wolf raised his hand and pressed his finger to Salvadore’s mouth. “Not here. Secrets should be shared in private.”

  Salvadore could smell the sharp scent of the blood drying on Wolf’s hands. He nodded.

  He didn’t argue when Wolf took his arm and started walking him through the woods. The warmth of having someone beside him chased away the chill that had settled under Salvadore’s skin. Maybe Wolf would understand. The tracker hadn’t been Salvadore’s idea. He wasn’t guilty of anything except keeping his mouth shut about it. But still, he glanced at Wolf more times than he could count as they cut through the now piney forest and each time, he had to force himself to look away before Wolf caught him staring.

  “Stop worrying,” Wolf said. “It’s coating your scent.”

  Salvadore rubbed the side of his nose and tried to hide his sniff.

  Wolf huffed a soft sound. “You won’t be able to smell it.”

  “I don’t smell anything but pines. This area’s overrun with them. What’s it smell like?”

  “Sex pheromones,” Wolf said bluntly. “It’s making my cock hard.”

  Salvadore started coughing and had to cover his mouth with his fist.

  Egan’s form came into view. He’d dropped back and was waiting on them.

  “You’re ready to lead again, watcher?”

  “Yes,” Wolf said. “My senses have returned. The den isn’t far but we’re not the only ones heading that way.”

  “How many?”

  “At least four. Possibly more.”

  Egan turned and left as quietly as he’d arrived.

  “I thought he was going to—”

  “They’ll come around behind us without getting too close to you.” Wolf tugged Salvadore forward and they started walking again.

  “How’d you—”

  “I can sense the wolves around us.”

  “What? How?”

  “They communicate with me.”

  “What’s that mean?”

  “I’m a watcher.”

  That again. “What’s a goddamn watcher?”

  Wolf stepped over a fallen tree and Salvadore stumbled down beside him. Wolf’s hand on his arm was the only thing that stopped Salvadore from breaking his ankle in the hole on the other side of the tree.

  “Shit. Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  “You can stop being so polite. I don’t care.”

  “I do. Courtesy toward a mate is important.” Then Wolf gave him a pointed look. “You’ve also been courteous, when you haven’t been overwhelmed with fear. Your irritation doesn’t make sense.”

  “It’s just…” Salvadore knocked a twig out of the laces of his boot. “I don’t understand and I ask questions and I get half-assed answers that don’t help.”

  “Half-assed?”

  “It’s something my grandma used to say. It means, uh… incomplete. Something like that.”

  “So no one’s giving you full-assed answers?”

  Salvadore snorted. “You trying to be funny is actually pretty funny.”

  “I want you to laugh.”

  Salvadore raised his eyebrows and looked sideways at Wolf. “Not got a lot to laugh about these days.”

  “That can change.”

  “Someday. Maybe. But…” Salvadore scratched at a scab on the back of his hand. He wasn’t even sure what he’d done or when. The scab looked relatively fresh, but underneath, the skin had healed and when the scab fell away there was nothing left to remind him of what had happened.

  “But?” Wolf prompted.

  “But I don’t know. Too much has changed. The world’s not the same as I remember it from when I was a kid. Don’t think we can go back.”

  “This world is beautiful,” Wolf said, “and nothing that’s happened can’t be overcome if we work together to make this world fit for all of us.”

  “Yeah,” Salvadore said and he let it go. There was nothing else he wanted to say about that and Wolf didn’t seem in a hurry to force the issue.

  Chapter 14

  Not that long after that, the pine trees thinned and Wolf stopped them outside the edges of one of the wolves’ abandoned dens. Several years ago, the remaining wolves had come down from their ships and built what Salvadore had heard was a massive complex somewhere deep in the protectorate. Very few humans had seen it, but Salvadore had heard it was enormous and was protected by some of the wolves’ advanced technology.

  In the mean time, lots of the smaller dens they’d used before that had been left empty. Or so Gage had said. Salvadore wasn’t sure. Until Gage, he hadn’t had anything to do with either the wolves or their technology, not after his father died, and he certainly hadn’t been interested in what the renegades were doing trying to stir up trouble. He’d met a few guys who’d been part of another group once, even had one of them try to recruit him, but he hadn’t been interested.

  Gage’s and Salvadore’s fathers
had known each other, who knew how well, but they’d known each other and Gage had come sniffing around about the stuff Salvadore’s father had left him just when Salvadore needed the kind of favor only a man like Gage would be willing to do.

  Salvadore had made a mistake trusting Gage—although trust might be a strong word for what Salvadore had actually felt. Salvadore had needed Gage and his need had been stronger than the misgivings he’d harbored about getting involved with someone like Gage.

  And so here he was.

  He never would’ve imagined he’d end up in this kind of situation, even knowing what he was getting into with Gage.

  Salvadore shrugged his back against the tree, letting the rough bark scratch an itch. His neck was also itching and he raised his arm to scratch at the scabs that had formed over the bite marks Egan had left behind.

  He was doing his best to stay out of the way, in the spot where Wolf had told him to stay, keeping his mouth shut, preferring not to draw the attention of any of their small group of wolves.

  Reed and another wolf had gone off into the woods with Wolf, leaving Egan and five others behind with Salvadore, including the one Egan had called the alpha’s favorite. No one had told Salvadore what the fuck they were doing.

  He didn’t know how many wolves Egan, Reed, and Wolf had killed in their fight that morning before sunrise, but there were five of them left. The odds would seem to have been in favor of the others, but obviously Egan, Reed, and Wolf were strong enough to handle a force greater than themselves.

  That thought made Salvadore feel better about the other four unknown wolves Wolf had told Egan were somewhere nearby, also headed in the direction of the den. But how did Wolf know? In fact, how did Wolf know a lot of the things he seemed to know?

  Egan and Reed had deferred to Wolf as they’d planned their approach to the den—Salvadore had heard their quiet words, although he hadn’t understood much of what they said since they were speaking in their own language—and the others had seemed content to defer to Egan.

  It was a puzzle and Salvadore didn’t think he had all the pieces and without them he had no chance of putting it all together.

  He sighed and dropped his hands to his sides, letting his palms rest on the rough bark. The strong scent of pine was nearly overwhelming and he was getting sap on his hands but he didn’t care. Even camouflaging his scent that tiny bit made him feel better with Wolf gone into the woods to do who knew what for who knew what reason and the other wolves lingering nearby.

  His thoughts wandered back to Gage. It’d been Gage who’d set all this in motion, back when he’d first decided Salvadore could provide him with that device Salvadore’s father had stolen from the wolves.

  But no, that wasn’t quite as far back as he could trace the beginnings of his current situation. It really went all the way back to Tyler Brecknell. Salvadore wouldn’t have needed Gage if not for Tyler, and Salvadore never would’ve done what he’d done if Tyler hadn’t started it all.

  Tyler’s reasons? Salvadore didn’t know and he didn’t care.

  Salvadore pushed away from the tree he’d been leaning against for the last half hour, his stomach so empty he couldn’t half think, and gestured toward Egan, catching his eye.

  Egan left the two wolves he was talking to and walked over to Salvadore.

  Salvadore didn’t wait for Egan to get too close. “What’s going on? I thought we were heading into this den you guys kept talking about.”

  “We are.”

  Salvadore waited, but Egan didn’t offer anything else. “Come on. Give me more than that.”

  Egan’s gaze raked over Salvadore and Salvadore crossed his arms again, trying not to stare at Egan’s blood-flecked eye. The color had already started to return, but Salvadore still felt a twinge of sympathy pain every time he looked at it and the long tear that had scabbed over in Egan’s eyebrow.

  “What’s wrong?” Egan asked.

  “I’m starving. I haven’t been so goddamn hungry in my life.” Which might not actually be true but damn if Salvadore could remember another time when he’d gone so long without something to eat. “And I’m tired. I’ve walked so much I have blisters on my goddamn toes.”

  “Watcher will return soon. He’ll feed you as soon as we’re safe inside.”

  “You keep calling him that. What’s a watcher?”

  “Someone who watches.”

  Salvadore opened his mouth and then closed it, then narrowed his eyes on Egan. “Is that a joke?”

  “I answered your question. A watcher watches.”

  Salvadore started to rake his hand through his hair but remembered the pine sap at the last moment and lowered his hand. “Watches what though? What’s he watch?”

  “He watches what needs watched.”

  Salvadore sighed and dropped back against the tree again, deliberately letting the back of his head hit a little harder. “I don’t know what the fuck that means.”

  “It means…” Egan showed the points of his teeth, almost as if he was as frustrated as Salvadore. “He’s a watcher,” Egan finally said, this time in the wolves’ language. “He watches.”

  “Oh my God,” Salvadore said. “Forget it.”

  “Ask your mate to explain.”

  “Yeah. I’ll do that.” It hadn’t done any good the first time, but maybe once they settled down somewhere, Wolf would do a better job answering Salvadore’s questions.

  Or maybe not. It really depended on whether or not Wolf wanted to kill him once he found out about the tracker stuck under Salvadore’s skin.

  That thought made Salvadore regret ever bringing the subject up. He raised his chin. “What are you guys talking about over there?”

  “We’re discussing how we’re going to notify Alpha of our location.”

  Salvadore was actually a little surprised that Egan had told him that. He crossed his ankles and eyed Egan. “Don’t you guys have some kind of communications devices or something?”

  “We don’t carry much of our technology out of the den, especially when human renegades are near.”

  Salvadore thought about that. “You mean you don’t want anyone getting hold of stuff they shouldn’t have.”

  “Yes.”

  “Then why not use human tech? Seriously, none of you guys have a phone?”

  “Human technology is too easy to track.”

  Salvadore shrugged. “Better than being stuck in the woods with no way to get hold of your alpha, huh?”

  Egan stared as Salvadore in a way that made Salvadore feel like he’d hit the mark with that one.

  “What it is is a way to get into a situation we’d rather not be in,” Egan said, voice stern.

  Ah ha. He’d irritated Egan. He couldn’t say he didn’t enjoy a small surge of gleeful satisfaction at the notion. “I bet you guys know plenty of ways to counteract any tracking we could do using our tech.”

  Egan’s eyes narrowed and he seemed to be contemplating Salvadore with much more intent than Salvadore liked, making Salvadore think he probably should’ve kept his mouth shut because now he sounded like he actually knew something about the wolves’ understanding of human technology.

  After a too long silence, Egan answered him. “We do. But there is a faction of our people who would know how to track us anyway. They’re not loyal to First Alpha. They believe we aren’t meant to share Earth with humans, that Traesikeille isn’t meant to lead.” Egan’s gaze flickered across Salvadore’s face. “Your mate was one of them until very recently.”

  “What? How recent?”

  Egan’s gaze stayed fixed on Salvadore. “Two days ago.”

  Salvadore stared back. “What?” Two days ago was … the day after he’d first come across Wolf in the woods, when Wolf had warned him away and dragged Paul off.

  “It’s a subject for another time. He can explain further.”

  Salvadore pushed away from the tree. “The fuck it is. What do you mean? Why’d you tell me that?”

  Egan hesitated b
efore answering. “Beintaegoer broke from his alpha and swore fealty to Traesikeille.”

  “Don’t you fucking—God. You’re telling me that until two days ago, Wolf was one of the bad guys?”

  “He has to be remarkably strong-willed. He overcame his natural instincts to follow his alpha and broke from her and his pack to seek out another. I wouldn’t want to have to break the bond between myself and Alpha. Only those who’ve tried it will ever know if they’re capable of what it takes.”

  “I can’t believe this. Of all the luck, I get mated by—what a fucking joke. These other wolves traveling with us now, they broke with their alpha too?”

  Egan’s brow lowered. “They chose to submit. They didn’t abandon their alpha. They’re already forging bonds with Alpha’s pack through myself and Raeisikeille. So is your mate.”

  “How the fuck is submitting to a new alpha any different from abandoning your old one?”

  Egan’s steady stare made Salvadore feel like he’d missed something important. “Breaking from one’s alpha to seek out another is entirely different from choosing to submit.”

  Salvadore exhaled roughly. “Yeah.” Meaning “no” and “I give up” because he had more important things to worry about now, such as the knowledge that he had no idea who Wolf was. Not that he’d known much before, but he’d thought Reed, Egan, and Wolf were all pack to each other or something like that. Finding out different wasn’t sitting well with him.

  “You shouldn’t have told me,” Salvadore said, glaring at Egan.

  “A friend wouldn’t allow—”

  “Why do you guys keep acting like we’re friends? We’re not friends.”

  Egan started to reach out but stopped and let his hands rest at his sides.

  Salvadore caught sight of a hint of claw and he swallowed and eased back a step as unobtrusively as he could. “Maybe we could be friends, someday, but we’re not friends right now. Now while you’re like this.”

  Egan’s head tilted, his expression almost curious. “Like this?”

  “In heat. Ready to jump me at any moment. You’re scaring the shit out of me. Stop looking at me like that.”