Outcast (Hunter: A Thieves Series Book 4)

by Lexi Blake

  Trent sat down on the bed, but he didn’t reach out to touch me. “Nemcox worked as Myrddin’s focus. I remember reading the documents about that.”

  “He was an excellent focus and he was incredibly good at reading emotions. Much better than anyone else in our House,” Gray agreed. “My father didn’t understand how important he was. From what I understand Lucifer was upset at the loss. If my father doesn’t find a way to placate him, the House of Sloane will be demoted.”

  “I would do it again.” Trent’s eyes were on the floor in front of him. “You should know that.”

  “Yes, you would do it to save her.” Gray kissed my cheek. “You would do it because she’s far too stubborn to ever save herself. I might have to go with him for a while. I’ll need you to watch over her.”

  I rolled off the bed and stared down at him. “Go to the Hell plane? I’m trying to keep you off the Hell plane.”

  He laid back, his eyes closing as though he was infinitely weary. “I’m not going to descend early. I’m thinking of what happens later. I’m worried that there’s no way out of this and I should at least make the best play I can so I don’t end up torturing souls, Kelsey mine. I think we have to do this thing tonight so Trent can come home because I won’t be around for long. I think the two of you should bond with Fen because he’s important and he needs someone to look out for him.”

  “You don’t fucking get to give up.” Trent was on his feet and now he didn’t have any trouble staring down at Gray. “You still have a few years. While you’re free, we still have hope, and I won’t let you lie down.”

  Gray’s eyes opened. “Can we fight later? I’m going to offer to work on a limited basis for my father. It might buy me some time. It will definitely buy the House time with Lucifer. I’m tied to the House, Trent. Where they go, one day I will go, too. Let’s not fight. I feel fairly stable right now. I want to hold her until we have to go down for dinner.”

  “All right,” Trent agreed, “but know this argument isn’t over.”

  “Lie down with us. We have an hour or so,” Gray said, turning on his side. “Can we lie together? I could use the comfort.”

  Trent didn’t need another push. He picked me up and laid me down, following me onto the big bed. I was happily smooshed between them.

  Happily? I don’t think I should use that word, but I was content to be between them.

  “We’re keeping Fen?” Gray asked.

  Trent’s head came up, and though I couldn’t see the look he gave Gray, it seemed to have an effect.

  “We’re keeping Fen,” Gray said with a nod.

  “How do we think Donovan is going to handle having a wolf king in his midst?” I asked.

  “It won’t matter,” Trent said with a chuckle. “Zoey’s going to take one look at that kid and fall madly in love. We’ll have to make her understand that we picked up this stray. He’s ours.”

  “You don’t think we should let Zoey be his foster mom?” My insecurities were coming to the forefront. I had mad babysitting skills, but this was a big-ass commitment. It felt right to me. It had felt right from that moment I’d seen him in the woods, but Zoey might be able to give him a better life.

  “Nope.” Trent sighed against my neck. “The queen has enough on her plate. That kid is our responsibility.”

  “Have you thought about the fact that he’s everything you were supposed to be?” Gray asked, and I knew he wasn’t talking to me.

  “I’m exactly what I was supposed to be,” Trent replied quietly. “So is Fen. And I have to believe that things happen for a reason. Fen has been through something terrible. He’s out there playing and laughing but there’s such darkness in that boy. He doesn’t know how to handle it yet. Somehow he’s landed in the middle of three people who know a bit about darkness, who know something of loss. I know taking him on feels like a burden, but we were put here for a reason.”

  “Who’s the prophet?” Gray asked, and I could feel his arm sliding over my waist. It would touch Trent’s torso, but neither of the men moved.

  “I don’t envy you,” Trent acknowledged. “Your road is hard, but we can help you if you let us.”

  “I know you think you’re going to change when you descend.” This was a talk we needed to have while we were warm and comfortable and together. “I know you’ve seen what happened to others, but did any of them have what we have?”

  “No.” Gray’s body pressed to mine. “But I’m also sure they all thought they would be the same. No one thinks they’ll break.”

  “And none of them had the leverage you have,” Trent pointed out. “We need a game plan. When we get back to Dallas, we settle in and then we take this whole problem to Devinshea. No one works politics the way Dev can. Everyone thinks Daniel is the ultimate authority figure, and he is, but Dev is the hand guiding him. Dev sees possibilities the rest of us often don’t. I know I’m mostly muscle.”

  “According to Lord Sloane, so am I.” I was okay with that but someone had to be the brains.

  That got Gray chuckling. “Yeah, you’re just muscle, baby. You never put together a bunch of clues and solve a mystery. And I think it will probably be good for Fen to be around Trent and you. He needs a couple of wolves in his life.”

  “He’s going to be a hell of a teenager.” Trent shook a little behind me.

  “He’s sweet,” I argued. But that brain Lord Sloane didn’t think I had was kind of working on a few things.

  Lupus Solum didn’t have a problem working with humans when they absolutely had to. They had proven that by hiring my father, and they obviously had the local law enforcement in their back pocket. That meant they had to deal with them on some level.

  “He’s a handful,” Trent replied. “And you have no idea what a teenaged werewolf is like.”

  “I have two brothers.” Jamie and Nate would be surprised to have an insta-nephew, but my bros were pretty used to me springing things on them. Of course I would also have to tell them their bio dad was back and had threatened to kill our mom.

  Fen had lost his mom. Had he watched as one of the Lupus Solum members had torn her up and killed his father?

  What had they done with his father’s body? Why leave Hester there and hide Christopher’s body? Why erase all traces of Fenrir?

  “You have two human brothers,” Trent corrected.

  “I don’t know,” Gray mused. “I’m pretty sure Jamie was a handful. I’ve heard Nate was the perfect child, but I heard that from Jamie, who is still hell on wheels.”

  Jamie was Gray’s partner in many of his Ranger investigations. They used to be closer than brothers and they were still friends, but I worried Gray’s relationship with me had caused them some distance.

  Hester and Christopher had put some distance between themselves and Lupus Solum, but not as much as they should have. They’d run years before, but they’d only made it as far as Colorado. How had they stayed hidden all that time?

  “Werewolves tend to come into their true power during puberty,” Trent explained. “It can be a rough transition. Right now Fen is all about playing and having fun, but if he’s not properly handled he could be quite violent when the hormones hit. It’s why wolf parents tend to start training their kids young. We’ll take him out and run with him every full moon. We’ll teach him to control his power so he can focus it properly.”

  “Isn’t that what Lupus Solum does?” A couple of ideas played in my mind. It was like this sometimes. I had to take in all the seemingly unconnected information and stir it around to see if I came up with any kind of rational soup.

  “Lupus Solum trains young wolves to be devoted to the cause.” Trent’s voice had taken on that flat monotone it got when he discussed his family pack.

  “Why not train Fen? I get that he’s not pure,” I said quickly because I knew what his argument was going to be. “But he’s the strongest wolf I’ve ever seen and he’s a kid. Why not take him in and train him to protect the pack?”

  “They fea
r him.” Gray’s nose brushed against mine. “They worry that he’ll take over at some point.”

  “I don’t know about that.” Trent rolled onto his back. “It’s actually a good point. Look, they don’t like non-pure wolves, but that doesn’t mean they’ve never used them before. There are so few purebreds that there’s a whole segment of believers who serve the pure.”

  I remembered all those women who looked out of the windows, their eyes wide as Lee and I had walked down the road.

  “They’re the lowest in the pack,” Trent went on. “When times are lean, they eat last and the least. They do much of the manual labor. The women tend to the children and they’re all sterilized. So are the non-pure men who join the cult.”

  “That’s insane,” Gray said with a shudder.

  “They don’t want to bring impure wolves into the world, but they also don’t have enough purebreds to do all the work. If there are a hundred wolves in a Lupus Solum compound, at least forty or so of them would be considered omega class,” Trent explained.

  “Then why not bring Fen in? He’s so young he won’t remember much.” It didn’t make sense. He was so powerful. Why not use him? “Isn’t the training intensive? I mean, they’re pretty good at brainwashing people. Why be afraid of a kid? Why not turn him so he’s an asset to Lupus Solum? They’re not simply trying to kill him. They’re attempting to erase his existence. They removed almost every sign of him from the home. Why? And why would Hester and Christopher feel safe? They were what? Four hundred miles from here?”

  “Well, Fen should have felt safe,” Trent said with a grumble. “I can’t smell him. We’re going to have to know going in that other wolves will have an issue with that. It’s not normal. There will be some wolves who won’t accept him.”

  “Lee accepts him,” Gray replied, and he seemed restless. His legs moved against mine, his hands starting to cup my hips. “If Lee accepts him, the rest of the royal group will. They don’t seem to need anyone else. They’re a tight group of kids, a good group of kids. I envy them sometimes because all I had growing up was…”

  He shot up and turned his back.

  “You thought of Nemcox.” Trent sat up.

  “It’s always there. Always in the back of my mind, that moment when he died,” Gray admitted. “He was my first friend. My mother wouldn’t let me play with other kids. Not when I was young.”

  “I understand,” Trent replied. “I wasn’t allowed friendships. Not when I was meant to be the wolf king.”

  The boys were bonding. That was great.

  I lay back and wondered about how we’d all ended up with such shitastic father figures growing up.

  Lupus Solum hated Fen’s father so much they’d destroyed his body and called his son an abomination. They’d hated his mother, but at least there had been pieces of her left behind.

  Pieces. The image shot through my brain, a horror story I wouldn’t soon forget.

  “There wasn’t much blood,” I murmured. Celine had mentioned it, too. The witches who’d been killed had been torn apart, their blood taken, but their flesh left behind.

  “What are you talking about, baby?” Gray asked.

  I ignored him, my mind racing.

  But wolves ate flesh.

  Do you know what doesn’t? A vampire.

  All the killings had happened at night. Wolves like the night but they don’t require it. Do you know what does? A freaking vampire.

  Lupus Solum doesn’t like humans, but they’ll use them. You know what they hate? What they would call an abomination? A werewolf who happened to be the son of a vampire.

  I sat straight up in bed as the pieces fell into place. “I need to talk to Fen.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  The heavenly scent of dinner filled my nose even as I looked down at Fen. I’d tracked him to the room Lee was using as a bedroom. Gray and Trent had followed behind me and Liv had joined us along the way. I was sure a cadre of adults invading their territory had the boys on edge.

  He and Lee sat on the bed, staring up at us like they were sure they were about to get into trouble. Any mother, big sister or favored auntie knows that look in a kid’s eyes. I’m pretty sure it’s where anime style came from. Their eyes get super big and they kind of shimmer. It cuts right through a girl.

  If it affected Trent at all, I couldn’t tell. Gray was looking from the boys to me like he could do something to stop this terrible train from hitting us all. I could see which one of them was going to be the hardass dad.

  But I had to stand firm because I needed information.

  “It was only a little ice cream,” Lee said, his voice wavering in that way designed to illicit sympathy. “Fen didn’t have a lot of ice cream growing up. They lived in a place without electricity. He didn’t even have a refrigerator.”

  Yeah, Fen hadn’t “grown up” at all. Fen was still a baby in my eyes, and I hated the fact that I had to make him relive what had to be the worst day of his young life. God, I hoped it was the worst day.

  “We need to talk to Fen alone,” I said to Lee. “He’s not in trouble. I just have a couple of questions I need to ask him.”

  Fen reached out and grabbed Lee’s arm, his panic obvious.

  Lee shook his head. “Don’t change.”

  Trent sighed. “Please don’t change. Eddie’s only got so many miracles in him, and you’re down to your last pair of jeans. You have got to learn how to get undressed before you change.”

  “Fen, everything is all right.” I kept my voice even and calm though I was panicked because he was getting paler by the second.

  Lee put a hand on the younger kid’s head, almost like he was giving him a pet. “You don’t need to change. Kelsey’s cool. She won’t hurt you. She could be super upset and she would still never hurt you.”

  I got down to one knee. “Baby boy, you’re safe here. You’re okay. But I need to know what happened. I need to know where your dad is.”

  “I thought his dad was…” Liv flushed a rosy color as she looked at me. “You know. Is there a chance he’s not?”

  Trent shrugged. “She’s caught the scent of something. I’m not sure what it is.”

  “Something we said while we were resting,” Gray murmured.

  “Resting?” Liv prompted in that tone that said she didn’t believe any resting had gone on.

  “I do not need help,” I said, wishing they would stay a silent audience. If I was right, he might not need a foster mom, but there were still massive pieces of the puzzle missing.

  Like if what I thought was true and Lupus Solum had murdered Christopher Miller, thereby forcing his turn, then I needed to know why Donovan hadn’t felt it. Long story short—vampirism is a trick of the DNA, and obviously a very rare one. Joe Schmo could be a latent vampire and no one would know it until he dies. He would wake—hopefully not on an autopsy table, though I’ve been told it happens—with a thirst for blood and a whole lot of violent confusion. If he isn’t fed the blood of another vampire or doesn’t happen to have a handy companion around to feed from, he’ll go crazy and kill anything in his path.

  I was worried Christopher Miller had killed his wife.

  Fen’s shoulders slumped. “It was an accident. Mama didn’t mean to do it.”

  I heard Liv gasp but the other adults stayed silent.

  It looked like Lee was sitting in on this one because I needed to keep the kid talking and he trusted Lee. I nodded his way.

  “Didn’t mean to do what?” Lee asked.

  Fen was silent, looking at me like he was imploring me not to make him talk.

  I would start with something nicer. “How long did you live in Colorado?”

  “All my life. I was born in our cabin. My mama showed me where Dad caught me. She said I came out of her belly like a rocket,” he said with a heartbreaking grin. It was obvious he was happy to talk about his parents like this.

  “Seriously?” Liv asked.

  Trent chuckled. “Wolves mostly opt for home births.
Our labor tends to take far less time than humans and it can freak out doctors if the newborn changes into a pup right before their eyes.”

  “I’ve never heard of that happening,” Gray said. “I thought they couldn’t change until they were at least toddlers.”

  “Alphas can,” I explained. I spent a lot of time with different wolf packs and I’d actually witnessed a couple of births. It was a special time for a pack. I suspected Hester Miller had grown up with the traditions. Had she felt alone? Cheated out of something that should have been her birthright? I was surprised she hadn’t sought out other wolves the way Trent had. She must have been terrified of Lupus Solum. “The pack knows an alpha has been born if the baby changes before his sixth month. When did you change, Trent?”

  “According to my parents, I was six weeks old,” he replied. “Sometimes I wouldn’t change back until I fell asleep. It’s one of the reasons we were accepted into the cult.”

  “Mama told me I was born a wolf and it took a whole day until I was a baby. She was worried she would have to feed me in wolf form and she said that would be weird,” Fen said. “I think it’s all weird. I slept with a pack on my way here and there was a bunch of babies and they were sucking on the mom. I like sandwiches better.”

  “Long live the king,” Trent said under his breath.

  “And he shall be born in his form.” Gray’s voice had gone deep, his eyes filling out. “Though part of his nature shall remain in shadow. His path is divided. Leave the king behind and he shall scorch the earth. Raise the king in love, and though his trail is long and runs through the planes, he shall aid the two in their destiny.”

  “That’s cool,” Fen said. “His eyes are weird.”

  “He’s a prophet,” Lee explained. “I think he’s talking about you. I don’t think we’re supposed to leave you behind. I think you should come with us.”