Preston hadn’t spoken with authority so much as panic, though he’d been feigning very hard not to seem as scared as Luke.
The rats continued toward Ethan, lovely creatures, clean and well cared for, so he didn’t flinch when they climbed up his legs and perched one each atop his shoulders.
“Hi there,” Ethan said cautiously, letting his hands drop from his mouth. “Bash didn’t tell me much about the other people here. Are you a rat person—” He glanced at Preston. “—and they listen to you? Wait, are they part of your pack too?” Suddenly, he wondered if he had two normal adults on his shoulders who just happened to turn into rats.
“I’m a Rat King,” Preston said, staring in open amazement at Ethan now, while Luke lowered the machete, at which point it fizzled like it had been made of nothing more than light. “A wererat, but a special kind. Only those of us with magic can commune with normal rats and mice.”
“Magic,” Ethan repeated. “That’s how you conjured a machete?”
“We can defend ourselves fine, but Luke didn’t want to get any closer to you than he had to. My rats only listen to me, though, and outside of me, they only like Luke. And you, apparently….”
“Yeah?” Ethan returned to the rats. His fangs were still out, he could feel them, but he smiled nonetheless. “I’ve always liked rats, maybe that’s why. I loved taking care of the ones we had in school as class pets. That’s why I couldn’t do the dissection in middle school. Got my first F for it, but I didn’t care. I dealt with a lot of rats in my college courses, too, but only if they were treated humanely.
“So,” he addressed his furry friends directly, “are you two named after The Great Mouse Detective?”
They squeaked at him, sniffing around his head and letting him stroke their chins when he reached up to pet them, not seeming to mind that he was a vampire.
“Are they saying anything back to me? Do you understand them?” he asked Preston.
“No, they’re rats.”
“Oh, I just thought… like a psychic connection, then?”
“It is, but I don’t hear English. It’s a sense, instinct. I’m not a Disney princess.”
Ethan snorted before he could stop himself. “I get the feeling I’m going to be reminded life isn’t a movie a lot from now on. I just don’t know anything about your world. My world now.”
“Vampires aren’t part of our world,” Preston said, though with more amazement than malice, Ethan thought.
“Right….”
“But you seem to be something else.”
“You look like a vampire,” Luke said cautiously, “but you don’t act like one.”
“How should I act? Have you met a lot of vampires?”
“No. Never.”
“Then how do you know?”
Luke didn’t have an answer for that, but he moved toward Ethan, just in time for the rats to scurry away and head back to their master. They climbed up Preston’s legs and onto his shoulders just as they had Ethan’s.
“Your eyes change color,” Luke said. “Ours don’t.”
“Yellow, right?”
He nodded, then with some hesitation, continued closer. “Your fangs are so small. See.” He opened his mouth and shifted to Stage Two as easily as changing facial expressions. His fangs looked larger than how Ethan’s felt. Luke also looked very different from Bash, more like Deanna maybe.
“Are you a cat?” Ethan asked, recognizing the feline shape to his nose and sprouting of whiskers. “A cat and a rat are friends?”
“More than friends, sweetheart,” Preston said with a warning look.
Oh. Well, at least Ethan knew Bash liking him wasn’t a fluke in the pack. They were tolerant of more than just opposing shifter types. “That’s cool, not having to worry about stigma among shifters or around your sexuality.”
Luke glanced back at Preston by the door as he shifted fully human, and Ethan felt compelled to look human again too, tonguing his teeth when he was done to be sure he’d succeeded.
“If you’re asking whether me being gay and falling for a cat didn’t get me shunned by my holier-than-thou traditional rat family, think again,” Preston spat. “Earning a place in the inner circle of Centrus City’s pack had them begging forgiveness, but only once they could gain something. I told them to shove it.”
Ethan cringed, realizing how much of his foot he’d just eaten. “Sorry.”
“Don’t be. Doesn’t matter anymore.”
“What about you?” Ethan asked Luke, who’d started to inch closer again.
“I’m an alley cat. Like, literally. I grew up at the Shelter.”
“Shelter?”
“Kind of our asylum for people without a place to go,” Luke said, satisfied at last that Ethan wasn’t going to lunge at him. “Like elders or orphans who can’t control shifting, so it’s risky for them to live on their own. Families hoping to relocate from other cities end up there, too, temporary until the Alpha and his circle can help them find a place. There never seems to be enough help, though, or housing or jobs. And well, say or do the wrong thing when you’re a shifter and everyone’s at risk.”
Families, Deanna had said. Now Ethan understood. “Sounds like a lot to fall on Bash’s shoulders. Yours too, if you’re his circle, taking care of a whole community under the nose of humans.”
“Which is why sometimes our methods need to fall under the radar.” Preston moved to join Luke finally. “If you get my meaning.”
“Illegal, yeah. Pretty easy to get.”
“Sometimes for food,” Luke explained, “for the Shelter. Sometimes for money, sometimes just us muscling somebody out who won’t play nice, ya know? But no matter what, it’s always fun for us. Boss makes sure of that.”
Ethan felt a twitch at his lips thinking of Bash as a criminal with a heart of gold. “Are all Alphas in other cities like that? What about the one before Bash?”
The pair exchanged a tense look.
“Other cities… sure,” Preston said. “They try. Centrus is new to the benevolent leader type, though. The boss’s father was a special sort of bastard. Wolves have always run this city, so my parents stayed out of it, stuck to rat neighborhoods, but Luke….” He looked to his partner with a mix of pity and anger.
“Baraka Bain liked to use the Shelter as a resource,” Luke said quietly.
“Resource?”
“Fresh blood for runners, pickpockets, anything he needed. No one could say no. You never say no to the Alpha.”
“He used you like slaves?”
“I was a good runner,” Luke said with a crook to his smile, “even at only six, when I started.”
Ethan felt nauseated again.
“It’s okay. Didn’t last long. Boss offed his dad to make things better for everyone. He changed things. I got to stay at the Shelter after that without doing anything I didn’t want to.”
Bash killed his father? The former Alpha sounded like an asshole, but still, that had to weigh on Bash no matter how many years had passed. Ethan couldn’t imagine what it must have felt like.
“You still help Bash with illegal dealings now?”
“Sure, because I want to, not ’cause the boss forces me,” Luke said. “There are some great perks being in the inner circle. Werecats like me and rats like Pres are never high up in wolf packs. Cities are usually run by one type, whichever type of shifter is most powerful or with the most numbers, but Boss treats everyone equal, even humans who know about us. I could have lived a normal life if I wanted to, gotten a normal job, but I’m not normal.” His smile remained crooked, eyes a little wild with mischief.
“Well, you are a shifter,” Ethan said.
“Shifters in general aren’t any less normal than humans. We just have sharper teeth.” Luke chomped his together, and even dulled to human size, he got the point across.
“Can I ask how you’re different from Bash?” Ethan pressed. “Do you all have four forms?”
“Yep,” Luke said with a grin. “Sig
ht, partial, full, and fun size. Wanna see?”
“Luke.” Preston frowned in contrast. “You are not undressing for the new guy. Not until I approve anyway.”
“Aw, but Basil and Dawson like him.” Luke motioned to the rats on Preston’s shoulders, then cocked his head at Ethan. “I like you too.”
Ethan beamed at the welcome he hadn’t expected after a machete crossed his threshold. “You don’t think I’m scary anymore?”
“Nah. It’s weird, but… you’re really easy to be around.” Luke even reached out, hesitating a moment before eventually deciding it was worth the risk to playfully slap Ethan’s shoulder.
“Thanks,” Ethan said, noting Preston’s defensiveness continuing to crumble too. “And you don’t have to show me right now, but I am pretty curious. What kind of cat do you turn into when you’re ‘fun size’?”
Luke giggled, and Ethan thought he could get used to these people if given the chance. “One thing first before it drives me crazy. You and the boss.” Luke nudged Ethan’s shoulder more forcefully. “You still smell like him. How did that even happen?”
“Oh, um….”
“Shh!” Preston shushed them and turned his head back toward the door.
Ethan craned his ears as well, able to pick up two voices at the top of the stairs.
“Why so nervous?” a gruff, menacing man asked. “Is your Alpha hiding something down there?”
“Only a terrible taste in wine,” a female voice replied.
“Shit,” Preston grumbled. “Come on. We better rescue Nell before Maximus eats her alive.” He hooked his arm with Luke’s and tugged him out the cellar door.
“See ya, Ethan!” Luke flailed a halfhearted wave goodbye.
Maximus? Ethan wondered. Who was that? Not part of the pack apparently, though Ethan thought he could smell… huh.
A wolf. The man was definitely a wolf because there was an undercurrent of something similar to Bash—though nothing compared to Bash himself—and now Ethan also knew the way a cat and rat smelled, each unique in a way he couldn’t explain.
The other person—Nell, Preston had said? She smelled amazing. Not the same as Bash, more like….
Ethan’s stomach plummeted. Delicious. She smelled delicious. Nell was human. It was strange and terrible how that new scent made Ethan think immediately of feeding.
He didn’t have his phone, but Bash had provided a small clock on the desk. It was lunchtime, just past. Stranger than all of Ethan’s new abilities was having no rumble of normal hunger in his stomach.
People had often called him skinny—when they were being nice about it. Otherwise, it was Beanpole or String Bean, and why were there so many beans involved anyway? Growing up, Ethan had felt self-conscious about his slender frame. Prison helped him bulk up a little, but his body wasn’t built for more than mild definition.
Despite that, he’d always had a ravenous hunger. He didn’t starve himself like concerned councilors had worried when he was younger; he ate all the time. Food was no longer what he craved, though, and it scared him to think that once he did feel real hunger again, beyond Nell smelling so enticing, that his old appetite might translate into a ravenous hunger for blood.
And right now, he wasn’t locked in.
Luke hadn’t closed the door behind him! Ethan could leave. He could walk right upstairs and….
No, he didn’t want to escape. He understood why Bash wanted him to stay. Now that he’d smelled what was so obviously human blood, he feared what he might do if he had a human in his sights. Would he attack even though he wasn’t hungry?
“Give it up, Max, you’re not going to find anything untoward about our Alpha.” Preston’s voice filtered from upstairs. “Why are you so against this merger anyway? Got a thing for sweet ol’ Jay?”
“That’s Mr. Russell to you. You do not address the Alpha of Brookdale so informally,” Maximus growled. “And I am his Second. It’s my job to protect him. I am within my rights to drop in unannounced and see what Mr. Bain might be keeping from us. If he has nothing to hide, then I’ll happily endorse the marriage, but that has yet to be proven.”
Mr. Russell—Jay—was the one Bash was betrothed to. And this Maximus was part of his pack.
What was Jay like, Ethan wondered, if his Second was so ominous? Why was Bash marrying him anyway? To unite the packs, for political reasons, he’d said, but he didn’t love him, so why? It wasn’t Ethan’s business, but he couldn’t stop thinking about it.
Terse argument continued upstairs, Preston expertly deflecting anything Maximus threw at him, but it wasn’t long before a new voice entered the conversation.
“Maximus,” someone said, commandingly but without anger. “Why did your GPS tell me you were here? You knew I was having lunch with Bash. How dare you use that opportunity to snoop and pry without my knowledge.”
“Forgive me,” Maximus said with genuine remorse, though he still spoke up to defend himself. “I did not mean to undermine you, but you put too much trust—”
“I decide who I trust.”
“Yes, of course, Alpha.”
This was Jay. He was here, right at the top of the stairs, within such easy reach that all Ethan had to do was open the door and take a walk.
He shouldn’t, he knew he shouldn’t, he had no intention of making a break for it, yet if he could sneak a peek to understand something of the man—wolf—that Bash was going to marry, maybe it would ease his mind.
Sliding his hand inside the gap of the door, Ethan nudged it farther open.
“What are you doing here?” he heard Jay ask as Ethan peered up out of the dark at the door above that was similarly propped to how the wine cellar’s had been, leaving just enough of a crack to stream down a sliver of light.
“I saw their Shaman poised before this door like she was guarding something,” Maximus said.
“Luke and I were going to swipe a bottle of wine and not tell the boss,” Preston answered. “Not exactly above board, but not mutiny either. Then we heard Max’s snarling voice and figured the jig was up.”
“See, Max, just an innocent lookout for a theft,” Jay said. “I doubt Bash would even be that upset.”
“But you are,” Maximus said almost accusingly. “Why? Where is Bain? Why aren’t you together after your lunch?”
Silence prompted Ethan to ascend the stairs. He could still smell Nell. He could smell Preston and Luke, and both wolves. Being an Alpha didn’t make Jay smell any different from Maximus. He carried his own scent, but not stronger or more alluring. No, what drew Ethan to Bash was still unique.
He was almost at the crack in the door. He just wanted a peek, a tiny peek at what Jay looked like.
“Stop,” Maximus said, audibly sniffing for several seconds before his voice came through much lower and closer than before. “What is that?”
“Wait!” Luke protested, but too late did Ethan realize the door was opening, and a huge man with dark skin and long braided black hair loomed over him.
Chapter 7
ETHAN COULD flash around the wine cellar like a whirlwind, so fast he doubted most people would be able to see him, but in that moment, with Maximus glaring daggers and then realizing with a sniff what Ethan was, Ethan couldn’t think to react until strong hands fisted in his shirt and hauled him up into the light.
Then, finally, Ethan’s fight-or-flight kicked in, and because he was more terrified than angry, he kicked outward, dislodging himself from Maximus’s grasp and zipping several yards away before he stopped.
He was upstairs, in a living area of the pack’s building with sunlight pouring in from various curtains that blinded him as he soon as he looked around.
Fuck, that hurt.
“Traitor!” Maximus growled, barreling after Ethan, though Ethan could barely see him, only spots, like his eyes were burning. “I knew Bain was a traitor! Did he hire you? Is that it? Was he going to sick you on us like some damn assassin if Jay didn’t agree to his terms, or just toss us down there li
ke scraps of meat?”
“I—”
Maximus seized Ethan by the front of his shirt again.
“Maximus,” Jay said in warning. “I’m sure there is an explanation for all this.”
Ethan could hardly see anything. He wished he had sunglasses like Bash had said, and he wasn’t even outside yet. Once his vision started to focus, he could see Maximus had shifted into something between Stage Two and Stage Three—definitely a wolf.
Instinct told him to fight—enemy—but he could also smell Nell—prey—throwing his senses into turmoil while the sunlight blinded him. He felt his fangs growing regardless and his eyesight sharpening.
“Maximus!” Jay shouted now, and at last Maximus faltered, loosening his grip, though he didn’t release Ethan.
Now was Ethan’s chance. He needed to push away again, lash out, do everything he could to—
“What is the meaning of this?”
Peace overtook Ethan as all those mingling scents of enemy and prey faded in lieu of something stronger.
Bash.
Maximus’s clawed hands twisted tighter in Ethan’s ruined shirt even as he returned to human, refusing to let Ethan go, while Ethan turned to see Bash walking swiftly toward them. He could make out the common room more clearly now as his eyes adjusted to the sun, but the room wasn’t what held his attention.
Fresh and clean and beautiful, Bash soothed Ethan’s heightened adrenaline in an instant. Ethan let himself relax and his fangs retract, though he still tore himself from Maximus’s hold with an ease that seemed to surprise the wolf.
Feeling somewhat dizzy, Ethan backed away, wondering where he should retreat to if he’d ruined things enough to get himself killed—to the basement or somewhere farther out into the sun—
“Ethan.” Bash stopped his frantic train of thought. “Don’t.”
Again, Ethan relaxed. “I’m sorry. I know I was supposed to stay down there—”
“Stop. It doesn’t matter.”
“Then you admit it!” Maximus snarled as Bash joined them in the large high-ceilinged common room with plush furniture and—huh, an overdone assortment of Halloween decorations.
By the Red Moonlight Page 6
