by Moira Rogers
He caught her arm before she reached the bottom step and waited for her to look up at him. “How well do you know him, Nick? Because I’d find his crush a lot more comforting if the death sentence wasn’t on Aaron’s head.”
She fought a shudder. “Would you kill someone I loved just to get a crack at me?”
Derek released her and looked away. “I’m not saying Luciano is necessarily a bad person. You asked the wrong question. What you should have asked is who I might sacrifice if I thought it was the only way to keep you safe.”
“You have more power over Aaron’s life than Maglieri does. Sacrificing Aaron won’t help Michelle, and it won’t help Luciano, either.”
The railing creaked under his hand. “I’m trying to understand it all, Nick. I’m trying.”
“You have to trust me on this. Can you do that, just for a little while?”
The hesitation hurt but, when he finally spoke, at least his words sounded truthful. “Yes. You’re the only one I can trust.”
“Okay.” She gripped his hand. “Still want to come down here with me?”
He offered her an exhausted smile. “No. But I have to.”
Luciano rose when they walked into view, already tense and wary. “Finish talking about me?”
“For the most part. Be nice, Luke. Derek’s had a shitty day.” Nick approached the cage, but didn’t get too close. “Did Alec hurt you?”
“Not much.” He hesitated and hung his head. “Is Michelle okay? My mother—”
“I figured.” Nick ached for him, and for her sister. For the whole damn situation. “Michelle’s been better.” She turned and addressed Derek. “Did Alec say what he planned to do?”
He shook his head. “Just said he was keeping his options open.”
“Great.” Which could mean anything from trying to pry information out of Luciano to using him as leverage in a Conclave bidding war for Michelle’s pardon. “Can you go get him, Derek? Please?”
For a few seconds, she thought he’d refuse. His heart beat too fast, the heavy weight of his discomfort curling around her as he studied her. Then he pushed away from the wall with a short nod. “I’ll be right back.”
Nick waited until the door at the top of the stairs closed and wrapped her hands around the iron bars of the cage. “If you know anything, Luke, you need to pony up. Now. Because the team your mother sent fucked up. They turned a man, damn near killed him, and Derek’s cousin got mixed up in the middle of it. That’s what sent Alec over the edge.”
He backed to the other side of the cage and slumped against it. “Damn it.”
“Pretty much.”
“I had no part in it, Nick. I swear.” She couldn’t doubt his sincerity or the bleak expression he wore. “What’s he going to do?”
“Who knows? I think I can rein him in, though, at least enough to get this figured out.” She took a deep breath. “What about your mom?”
He looked pensive. “Depends on whether she had the Conclave’s approval. If she sent that team unauthorized…”
The rest of the Conclave would be furious at the exposure. Nick nodded. “We can work with that.”
The door whispered open, followed by heavy footsteps that had to belong to Alec. A moment later he emerged from the stairwell, barefoot and wearing nothing but jeans. He glanced from Nick to Luciano. “Fuck, Peyton, I didn’t hurt the kid too bad.”
“Never can tell with you, Alec.” She jerked her head toward the stairs. “What did Franklin say about Andrew?”
Alec’s eyes hardened. “He was circling the drain two hours ago, and now he’s prowling around in my backyard. Makes you believe in the legends, that your magic is as strong as the wolf that turned you.”
Nick shuddered as she remembered the wild look Andrew had worn. “Kat’s okay. Or she will be, anyway. She needs to see him for herself.”
“He may settle down when he sees her.” Alec shoved his fingers through his damp hair and exhaled sharply. “Or it could all go to shit. I don’t really want to have to smack him down right now, but he’s been freaking the fuck out over her since he came to.”
Behind them, Luciano spoke. “Wait a minute. Is this the guy the team attacked? I thought you said he almost died.”
Nick turned and stared at him, not bothering to hide her fear. “He did.”
“Shit.” He stared at her, his frightened gaze just short of disbelieving. “Is he okay upstairs? Thinking straight, I mean.”
Alec snorted. “No. Gabriel and Mac are keeping an eye on him, but he’s not going to settle down until he sees Kat in one piece. The last thing he remembers is your mama’s attack squad threatening to torture information out of her, so he’s a little riled up.”
“Quit it, Alec.” Nick rubbed her hands over her face. “Unless you’re ready to start damning people for their family’s actions.”
“If I were damning him for his family’s actions, he’d be dead, Peyton. And if I track down whoever escaped the carnage at my office, they will be dead.”
It was a bad sign when Alec started pulling away and calling everyone by last names. He couldn’t deal with the situation calmly, so he was shutting down emotionally. “Tactical usually sends out four-man teams. Considering the men they left behind, who knows what kind of shape those other two will be in. In the meantime, we need to find out if Enrica gave the orders, or if the whole Conclave is ready to kill us all to get to Michelle and Aaron.”
“Well, cowboy?” Alec leaned one hand against the cage. “Convince me I should let you out.”
Luciano held his slumped pose, but tension vibrated off him. “I did what Nick asked. I stalled for time. What else do you want from me?”
“Gabriel says you’ve got a thing for Michelle. Look me in the eyes and tell me you want her safe.”
Instead, he shot Nick a glare. “Your boyfriend’s got a big mouth.”
She sighed. “Just tell him, Luke. He’s alpha. It’s something he understands.”
Luciano straightened and met Alec’s stare evenly. “I care about Michelle. I’ll do whatever I have to do to keep her safe.”
After a tense moment, Alec nodded and moved to a discreet panel on the wall. He flipped it open to reveal a number pad and, of all things, a bright pink smiley-face sticker. He scowled at Nick. “Mariko thinks she’s so damn funny. It’s magically attached. Last time I tried to scrape it off, I triggered a spell that turned the cage pink for a week.”
Nick managed to keep a straight face. “Be glad she didn’t get Jackson in on it. They’d have turned you pink for a week.”
“Probably.” His fingers flew over the pad, and the lock on the door clicked as it disengaged. “Here’s the deal, cowboy. You’re out for good behavior, but that just means you’re not staying in the cage. You are staying with me. If you do anything to fuck up our plans, I’m throwing you back in there, and it won’t be fun.”
“Wasn’t fun the first time, either.” Luciano stepped out, still hesitant. “But thanks.”
“Alec wouldn’t know what to do with himself if he wasn’t threatening someone, Luke. Don’t sweat it.” She had to get back upstairs. Derek would need her, and she didn’t know how much time she’d have for him before duty demanded her attention. “Do we need to move safe houses? I could have been followed when I took Kat there.”
“Not right now. I called Jackson before I came down here, and told him to keep an eye out while he’s leaving to bring Kat here. Right now, your sister’s safer inside that house than moving, even if they do know where she is. No shifter can get past the wards.”
“Unless the Conclave authorizes drastic measures and they just blow the place up.”
Alec’s face tightened. “Peyton, if it comes to that, there’s no place safe enough. They’ll find her, no matter where she goes, so let’s just hope they haven’t lost their minds yet.”
Hearing him say it made it more real somehow, and Nick’s throat closed. “Okay,” she rasped. “When Jackson gets here, we can start looking
for the rest of the strike team.”
And, if they managed to find them, she’d keep Alec the hell away from them. He might want them dead, but he’d have to wait until she found out what she needed to know.
Derek’s chest ached as he watched Andrew complete his third circuit around the backyard. In all the years they’d been friends, Andrew had always been the stable one. The calm, laidback one who steadied the people around him. The months after his own change would have been unbearable without Andrew’s ability to roll with the punches.
Which he’s still doing. The way Andrew studied his surroundings as he started his fourth round made the hair on the back of Derek’s neck rise. Even with anxious, frantic energy vibrating off him, Andrew took in everything, identifying and categorizing.
The sound of a familiar truck engine drifted down the road, and Derek tensed. “You doing okay, buddy?”
“Fine.” It was no more than a growl. “Is that an engine?”
“Jackson’s truck. It rattles like a bitch.”
“He’s bringing Kat.” Andrew headed for the front yard, not bothering to pass through the gate. He just vaulted the fence with inhuman ease and rounded the edge of the house.
It was hard not to flash back to Alec’s office and Andrew’s guts, bared to the world as two men struggled to hold him together. Derek tore open the back door and jumped the steps, startling Luciano and Nick where they sat at the table. “Jackson’s here,” he told Nick as he crossed the kitchen in two strides, heading for the front door.
Mackenzie hit it first, and she was fast. Derek had seen shapeshifters move with a speed that seemed impossible, but Mackenzie moved like gravity couldn’t touch her. By the time he got to the door, Mackenzie had jumped the porch railing and hit the ground running.
Derek swore and jumped as well, but he lacked Mackenzie’s grace. His foot slipped in the grass and he stumbled, hitting the ground hard enough to jar his bones. He ignored it and pushed himself to his feet in time to see Mackenzie slap her hand against the truck’s hood as it rolled to a stop. She spun and placed her body directly in front of the driver’s side door, her entire posture full of protective challenge.
Andrew ignored her and stalked to the other side of the vehicle, where Kat was already scrambling with the handle. Panic shot through Derek as Kat kicked open the door and tumbled out, her erratic heartbeat audible from ten feet away.
Andrew caught her loosely, as if afraid to close his arms around her. “I thought they’d taken you. They were going to.”
Derek had joked a hundred times about his cousin’s crush, but the look on Kat’s face as she lifted her gaze to Andrew’s was naked love, plain and simple. The strength of it made Derek feel uncomfortably voyeuristic, but he couldn’t turn away from the way Andrew’s power flared, fitful and unbalanced.
He was dangerous. His friend was dangerous, frighteningly so, and Derek could do nothing but watch in helpless confusion as Kat pressed her palms to the angry red scars on Andrew’s chest, the ones that had been ugly gashes only a few hours before.
“You’re okay.” Her voice trembled, partly lost in the soft sound of Jackson closing the driver’s side door. “You’re okay. You’re—you’re okay.”
Derek felt the gentle slide of Nick’s hand around his arm as Andrew nodded and frowned. “I guess it wasn’t as bad as they thought.”
Instinct rose again, the terrifying need to intercede battling the knowledge that Andrew would never hurt Kat. But that’s not just Andrew anymore. Derek slipped from Nick’s grasp and took a slow step forward. “Kat, you’re shaking so hard you can barely stand. Let’s go inside. Andrew will come with you.”
Instead, the blond man snatched Kat off her feet with a snarl.
Derek froze, afraid to move and set off a confrontation Kat wouldn’t survive. “Kat, are you—?”
“I’m fine.” She sounded steadier now, and she stroked the side of Andrew’s face. “I’m fine,” she repeated, and this time the words were all for Andrew, low and gentle as her thumb brushed his lips.
Tension made Derek quiver, and he glanced at Nick. “I don’t know what to do.”
She bit her lip. “Just…give him a minute.”
It seemed to be working, the interminable moments where no one moved. Then the front door slammed, and Andrew started, his arms tightening around Kat. Her breath whooshed out in a soft grunt of pain.
Worry snapped the leash on Derek’s self-control, and he lunged forward at the same time as Mackenzie. Andrew spun away, one fist flashing out in a dizzying jab that caught Derek on the jaw hard enough to spin him. He barely had a chance to regain his balance before Andrew swung again, this time at Mackenzie. She twisted out of the way as Kat’s voice rose, loud and edged with anger. “Back off! Leave him alone!”
Derek caught Mackenzie’s arm and dragged her away just as a shivering wave of power spilled over the front yard. The hair on the back of his neck rose, and his legs locked in place. Mackenzie began to tremble next to him, and he glanced over at Nick, who looked mostly annoyed by the wash of commanding energy.
Alec stepped into the sudden, tense silence. “Andrew Callaghan, put that girl down before you hurt her. No one’s going to touch her, but if you’re not going to take care of her, you can’t have her.”
Andrew bared his teeth at Alec with an uncontrolled burst of power. The arm around Kat’s waist tightened again, and her gasp this time was louder, filled with unmistakable pain. Derek’s heart pounded as Kat drew in another unsteady breath and whispered, “Andrew, you’re hurting me.”
He set her down on her feet immediately, though he kept his arm around her. “I’m sorry,” he told her thickly. “I didn’t mean to.”
Kat wrapped her arms around Andrew’s waist and relaxed against him with a trust that terrified Derek. She seemed oblivious to anyone else as she rested her cheek on Andrew’s bare chest. “You wouldn’t have done it if Alec wasn’t an asshole.”
Nick turned to Alec with an irritated hiss. “Next time, poke him a little harder. Call his mother names or something.”
Alec’s worried gaze stayed fixed on Kat and Andrew. “You’re not the one who’s going to have to smack the kid down when he starts challenging people. If I give him a goddamn inch now, I’ll have to beat on him even harder later. Maybe I don’t want to.”
“It doesn’t help Kat at the moment for you to act like you own her and force that challenge.”
Derek cut through the arguing by reaching out for Nick’s arm. Andrew’s power was stronger, but the look in his eyes was familiar. Confusion and instinct tangled and torn between a desperate need to protect Kat and the fear of being the one thing she needed protection from. It was everything he’d felt with Nick those first confusing months after his change, all the emotions that had driven him to avoid her long after instinct had settled and he didn’t have to worry about breaking everything he touched.
He caught his friend’s gaze and nodded once. “Tell me what you need.”
Andrew let go of Kat and backed away. “I think…I need to go home.”
“Okay.” Derek slid his hand down Nick’s arm and grasped her hand. “Nick and I will drive you.”
“And me,” Kat said quickly. “I’m going with Andrew.”
“No.” Andrew took another step back and shook his head. “No, I’m going alone. I need to be— No.”
Watching pain blossom on Kat’s face would have been hard enough, but with Nick standing next to him the guilt cut deeper. He’d done the same thing a dozen times. He’d pushed her away when his instincts had roused, terrified of his less-than-human urges. He’d pushed her away because he was terrified of hurting her.
He’d hurt her every time.
“Andrew.” Kat’s choked voice broke Derek’s heart. “Please…”
“Derek, you and Andrew should get in the car.” Nick dug in her pocket for her keys and held them out. “I want to talk to Kat for a second.”
He clasped the keys and took a shaky breath. “
You okay with that, Andrew?”
Andrew wanted to say no; it was etched on his face, in the tense set of his shoulders. “Yes.”
Derek caught Nick’s gaze. “Thank you.” He didn’t know if he meant, Thank you for taking care of Kat or Thank you helping me with Andrew or even Thank you for giving me a second chance. At that moment all that mattered was that Nick was there, with him. Taking care of the people he cared about.
Taking care of him.
“You’re welcome.” Her expression softened. “I’ll be just a minute.”
Andrew brushed past him, arms crossed over his chest, almost in a daze. Derek followed him to the car and settled into the passenger seat, watching through the windshield as Nick spoke briefly to Kat, her hands on her upper arms. She had to look up to speak to Kat, but everything about her demeanor screamed authority.
Kat’s expression tightened, and Derek swore he saw tears in her eyes. Unable to watch any longer, he turned to the backseat. “You okay?” A stupid question, but the only one he could ask.
“Better than okay,” Andrew rasped, his eyes closed and his head against the back of the seat. “I’m a damn wondrous miracle, right?”
“You’re alive. I know better than anyone that it may not feel like a good thing right now, but it gets easier.”
“I don’t know what to think or feel yet, but I’ll take your word for it.”
Derek turned around again to see Jackson slip his arm around Kat’s waist. Mackenzie laid a hand on her shoulder, and the two of them coaxed her toward Alec’s house. Derek wished there was time to sleep. “Do you want me to tell Kat anything?”
Before he could answer, Nick opened the car door. “Franklin’s going to meet us at your place, Andrew. You want to be at home and I don’t blame you, but you can’t be alone right now. It’s too dangerous.”
Andrew didn’t argue. “Fine. I just want to rest.”
It was a sentiment Derek understood all too well. As Nick started the car, he concentrated on summoning whatever energy he could find.
Something told him he was going to need it.
