Cam's Fortune

by Odessa Lynne

Henry wouldn’t have agreed. He would have said it was Cam’s duty to submit to the Alpha. He might have said it was a sign from the universe that Rick had tracked Cam down in the woods and told him about the biotech he was carrying around, especially considering how long Cam had been trying to get his hands on some of it.

  Rick stirred, and between one breath and the next, the shuddering disappeared and his entire body stiffened. His eyes snapped open. His breathing stopped for one heart pounding moment and when it resumed, his eyes focused in on Cam with a sharp awareness of his situation.

  He flashed his teeth at Cam and a low growl rumbled up from his chest before he silenced himself.

  Cam waited.

  Rick moved, letting the ropes bite into the flesh of his arms, a mere testing of the strength of his bonds. His sharp gaze wandered, skipping over Ava and the others, to stop abruptly on Luis.

  He stared at Luis too long.

  Cam fisted his hand at his thigh and held himself still.

  Rick’s gaze slowly returned to Cam. “He shouldn’t be here.”

  “Luis, head back now,” Cam said, not looking away from Rick. “Go clean the stables, see if Dorie made it back. Olly, you stay with him.”

  Somebody would have to check on the horses, kept in a carefully concealed stable about half a mile from the entrance to the bunker. And Cam liked his horse. He hoped Dorie had made it back, hoped that asshole Jay or one of his men hadn’t killed her, or stolen her and taken her with them. Truly, if Jay worked with the wolves, a horse wouldn’t be useful to him anyway; horses were terrified of the wolves.

  “Got it,” Olly said. He gestured to Luis, who looked at Cam as if he’d been betrayed.

  Cam didn’t have to say anything; his look was enough.

  Luis inhaled a deep sigh and moved to Olly’s side without a complaint.

  Olly ruffled the back of Luis’s hair and pushed him forward.

  Luis shrugged off the touch with a good natured huff and headed toward the trail hidden behind what appeared to be the thickest part of the nearby forest.

  Cam watched them go and then gave Rick one last considering look before he pushed himself to his feet. Sweat gleamed along Rick’s forehead and cheeks. Eli had said the drug was a mix of some kind of repression drug and poison. Considering how quickly the effects had worn off, Cam wasn’t going to hold out much hope for the repression drugs included in the mix.

  “Alright then. Let’s see if we can do this without making fools out of ourselves.”

  Ava nodded, repositioning her rifle. “Go ahead. I’d rather make sure he’s not going to break free the moment you try to haul him upright.”

  Cam made a sound of agreement, put his boot in the center of Rick’s chest, and asked, “You going to make this more difficult than it has to be, buddy?”

  Rick growled at him.

  Cam thought that was probably as good as a no.

  Chapter 14

  The bunker air had a bite to it. The heating hadn’t been turned on yet to conserve energy for other things and the location underground meant the sun didn’t heat the air the way it might heat the air in a well-insulated home. The season was turning quickly now, and the forest trees surrounding them had gone from green to red, orange, and gold in what felt like days, although it had been more like a few weeks. Another two weeks and everything but the evergreens would be more brown than gold.

  Water dripped down Cam’s chest where he’d missed drying a few spots after his quick, and too damn cold, shower and he tried not to hiss as Ava poked at the ridged skin at his throat. His spine pressed hard into the back of the chair and her thigh pushed against his knee.

  “They’re healing crazy fast. I can’t believe you’ve had their technology inside you and didn’t even realize it.”

  “I haven’t been in a situation lately where I might’ve noticed.”

  “I know, but still . . .”

  “Trust me, it would’ve taken something big for me to notice it anyway. This is the fastest I’ve healed an injury yet.”

  Her fingers trailed over the pink skin covering what had been the gash from the knife wound to his chest. “You don’t know that. The wounds in your neck were a lot more superficial than a knife in the chest. I don’t know how it missed your heart.”

  Cam huffed. “Didn’t feel like it did at the time.”

  “It’s possible it didn’t. You know what kinds of injuries the wolves can survive. It’s their tech.”

  “Maybe.” Cam pushed away her hand. “Don’t bother with bandages.”

  “You sure?”

  Instead of answering, he asked, “Why’d you bring Luis?”

  Her eyes flickered up from his chest to meet his and she stepped back, crossing her arms as she went. “What’s going on with you and this wolf of yours?”

  “He’s not mine.”

  “Are you sure about that?”

  Cam winced. He’d known the moment he snapped at Marc for elbowing Rick in the groin that he was overreacting. Marc had tripped, and most of that had been Rick’s fault, because Rick had not been unaffected by the scent of the five humans trying to manhandle his heavy body through the forest.

  Everyone had noticed. After the moment had passed and they’d gotten Rick off the ground again, Cordell had even tried to make a joke to ease the tension. Cam couldn’t remember the joke now, but he’d nodded at Cordell, apologized to Marc, and forced himself to calm the fuck down.

  Cam had been the one with his arms wrapped around Rick’s torso, while Marc had been leading with Rick’s feet and Cordell and Tom had been in the middle, keeping Rick from thrashing his way right out of their hold.

  If not for the short distance they’d had to cover, Cam would have taken the time to come up with a better way to haul Rick to the bunker. But speed had been his most important consideration and he hadn’t wanted to take the time to rig up something better.

  It had worked well enough. They’d made it inside of half an hour and now Rick was locked up in a cell he wasn’t getting out of and Cam had a moment’s peace to take care of business.

  “There’s nothing between us more than what had to be to get me back here.”

  “I’m sorry,” Ava said, eyeing him with more sympathy than he deserved.

  “Forget it,” he said. “I didn’t do anything I didn’t want to do.”

  “Seriously?”

  A short huff of breath escaped before he could stop it. “When have I ever—”

  “Yeah, yeah.” She unfolded her arms and sat back against the edge of the table behind her. “What are we supposed to do with him now?” she asked.

  “Nothing for the time being. His heat’s on him again. That’ll keep him from being sensible enough to be too much trouble while he’s locked up.”

  “Are you going to—”

  “No.” He ruffled his damp hair one handed. “He’ll be okay.”

  Cam thought about getting up from the chair he was sitting in, but just the thought was almost more than he could handle. He’d been dealing with a fine tremor running through him for the last half hour and it was getting worse by the minute. Now that he was safe and Rick was secured away from Ava and the boys, fatigue was hitting him hard.

  Still, he had a few things to take care of that couldn’t wait. He’d already asked Cordell to meet him here after he’d seen to gathering up some food for Cam—and Rick.

  “You heard everything from the moment I sent the signal, didn’t you?”

  “Enough,” Ava said. “He’s right about you, you know. You’re reckless as hell, Cam. This could have been a disaster.”

  Cam raised his eyebrows, neither admitting nor denying the truth of her statement. She’d believe what she wanted. She might even be right.

  Her eyebrows rose. “Something funny?”

  “Maybe.”

  Her gaze skimmed over him with a marked narrowing of her eyes. “I could say the same.”

  After his shower, he’d pulled on a pair of jeans he’d barely broken in
and his feet were bare. His white t-shirt was waiting for him on the table at Ava’s back.

  He didn’t really know what she was hinting at, but then she spoke again.

  “You brought your alien lover back to meet your wife. Some people might think that’s a little messed up.”

  “He’s not—” Cam rubbed his tired eyes. “Never mind.”

  Ava laughed softly. “You’re looking kind of rough today, old man. I think you should get some rest before I fill you in on what’s happened while you were off chasing old leads.”

  “I learned something I didn’t know before. The trip wasn’t a complete fuck up.” He moved to cross his arms and stretch out his legs and added, with more guilt than he wanted to feel, “It was definitely something of a fuck up though. I might’ve gotten someone killed.”

  Ava bumped Cam’s foot with the side of her boot and caught his gaze. “You’re a good man, Cam. I don’t believe for a minute you did anything wrong. Accidents and mistakes happen. You’re not responsible for—”

  “I as good as pulled the damn trigger.”

  Her surprise came through as nothing more than a slight hesitation before she spoke again. “And if he was involved with the people you’re after—”

  Cam sat forward abruptly, releasing his arms so he could clench his hands between his knees. “That’s the thing, he wasn’t. Obviously the wolves have taken to planting their own spies. Rick told me—Ah fuck. His name’s Rick, by the way.”

  “I’d guessed that,” Ava said, her knuckles tight around the edge of the table beside her hips. “It’s not a problem.”

  “It was a problem for me.”

  “Yeah. I bet it was.” She shifted her weight from one hip to the other. “Is.”

  “I’m getting used to it.”

  “When he’s gone you won’t have to think about it anymore.”

  “Rick’s not the one I keep—” Cam surged to his feet. The chair screaked against the fake stone floor. “Forget it.”

  Startled by his abrupt move, Ava pushed away from the table.

  “You okay?”

  “I’m fine. Cordell should’ve been here by now.”

  Ava looked over her shoulder toward the door. “Maybe he’s having trouble figuring out what your wolf can eat.”

  Cam gave Ava a sour look. He knew exactly where the boys had picked up their habit of aggravating the shit out of him and he was looking right at her.

  The corner of her mouth turned up. “I’ll go find him. You just get dressed before Bel sees you without your shirt and starts teasing you about all those muscles again.”

  Cam stretched for the shirt just as Ava started out of the room.

  He had no doubt he loved Ava, but they definitely weren’t in love. Never had been, and he’d been very careful not to say outright that Ava was his mate. Rick would have known he was lying the minute the words came out of his mouth.

  She wasn’t Cam’s type.

  Rick, though . . . Rick was definitely Cam’s type.

  But marrying Ava had been necessary to protect the boys. Cam’s mother had given him a lot of money on his eighteenth birthday—money she’d managed to hang on to through the collapse—Lujan money, she’d called it. But when it came to Luis and Mig, Naomi Lujan hadn’t been able to look at either one of them and see anyone but their crazy father. She’d been adamant that Cam shouldn’t let one gold ten-dollar of Lujan money end up in their hands.

  He hadn’t agreed. Just because the treaty with the wolves had helped stabilize the United States, that didn’t mean the government was actually stable. Many of the benefits he’d taken for granted while growing up had been eliminated to conserve the government’s limited economic resources. All the advancements in medical care that had come from the wolves had disappeared for the vast majority of people almost overnight.

  Cam had been too young at sixteen to care. His parents had been wealthy; he had grown up without an understanding of what he had to lose until it was too late.

  He’d had the benefit of expensive implants and pre-birth surgeries to give him a very normal life despite his birth mother’s addictions.

  Life might not be fair, but by God, Cam had done his best to make it that way for the boys.

  They would need Cam’s money if he died. Without it, they’d never be able to get the medical care they needed.

  So he’d married Ava and made sure she and the boys would inherit everything he had if he died.

  He’d been sure at the time his mother was going to cut him out of her will. She hadn’t talked to him for seven months afterward. When they had started to talk again, they stayed away from the topic of Cam’s wife and the boys. But when she’d died unexpectedly a few years ago, he’d discovered she had left him her entire fortune.

  He didn’t regret much that he’d done in his life, but he regretted not trying harder to make her understand why Luis and Mig were so important to him. He liked to imagine that she might have understood, in the end.

  The tremors sliding through him gave his motions a jerky quality as he pulled the t-shirt over his head. He thought about the procedure he’d have to go through to insert his temporary implant into his right eye.

  God, he needed a few hours of sleep before he started that shit.

  The sound of footsteps pounded down the hall outside and Cam frowned.

  He hurried toward the door, and had just stepped outside the room when Luis careened down the short flight of stairs at the end of the hall.

  He looked up when Cam was halfway down the hall and he’d put his foot on the last step.

  “Miguel—” Luis started.

  “Dammit,” Cam said, already grabbing the back of Luis’s shirt and pushing him out of the way. He pounded up the stairs, Luis right behind him.

  “It’s worse than usual.” Several heavy breaths followed.

  Cam topped the stairs and slammed through the door that led to the living quarters. “Where is he?”

  “Kitchen. Ava’s there. I’m scared.”

  No point in trying to comfort him. Cam stormed down the hall, picking up the sounds of Ava’s calm but worried voice and the low whine coming from Miguel. He heard something scrape along the floor and something else fall and break. He heard Olly and Tom and his own damn heartbeat pounding as loud as a drum in his head and the sound of Luis breathing harshly behind him.

  He came to the door just in time to see Miguel thrashing on the floor, the seizure wracking his body with tremendous force.

  Just watching made Cam sick to his stomach with a terrible dread.

  What if he’d returned with what he’d been looking for just to find out it was already too late?

  Thoughts flew through his mind, coalescing into the sure knowledge that he’d kill himself before he let Miguel die right then when he could stop it.

  Rick might not have told Cam much about the biotech, but he’d told him enough for Cam to see one bright and shining possibility in the color of the blood streaked across the side of Ava’s cheek.

  He turned to Luis. “Give me your knife.”

  Luis blinked up at him, eyes dark with confusion.

  “Your knife, dammit.” Cam reached for the sheath still strapped to Luis’s thigh.

  That startled Luis out of his moment of uncertainty. He grabbed the knife just before Cam could and slid the blade out. He offered the handle to Cam with shaking hands.

  Cam took it and crossed the room to the nearest cabinet. He slammed one of the cabinet doors open and grabbed a glass and plunked it down on the counter.

  Before he let himself think too hard, he slashed the knife across his forearm.

  Ava must have caught sight of what he was doing, because she yelled, “Cam!”

  Luis gasped, while someone else—Tom—said, “What the hell is he doing?”

  “The hell if I know,” Olly answered, sounding just as shocked.

  Cam clenched his teeth and let the blood flow.

  His blood clotted a whole lot faster than
he expected.

  “Shit,” he muttered. He clenched his fist and slashed the knife across his arm again, about an inch further up his forearm.

  “You fucking idiot,” Ava said, coming up beside him. “I know what you think you’re doing—”

  “I’m busy here.”

  The blood stopped flowing again, just as quickly as before.

  “Jesus!” Cam said.

  Ava grabbed the wrist of the hand he held the knife in, stopping him from making another cut.

  “Like this,” she said, guiding him.

  He hissed through his teeth, but the pain faded quick enough.

  This time the blood poured faster, a long stream from elbow to wrist. Some of it didn’t make it into the glass, splattering against the counter and flecking his clean white t-shirt with lurid red droplets.

  His stomach churned and his head started to spin.

  One moment he was standing there at the side of the counter and the next his knees gave way.

  Ava tried to catch him, but his elbow hit the glass of blood and she chose to grab it instead.

  Cam thudded against the cabinet and someone grabbed him under the arms to stop his fall.

  He blinked and passed out.

  Chapter 15

  Several hours later, Cam sat on the side of his narrow bed with his head between his hands, elbows on his knees, and a distinct feeling of relief floating through him.

  “It worked,” he repeated. “Jesus, I can’t believe it.”

  “Tom says that particular seizure probably wouldn’t have killed him anyway, but the wolves’ biotech is already doing something for him. Usually he’s out for a day after a seizure like that and—” Ava’s voice broke.

  He didn’t move, just looked up and caught her teary-eyed gaze across from him. She’d pulled the only chair in the tiny room close and their knees were touching.

  “God, Cam, I don’t even know what to do. I’m feeling so hopeful I’m sick with it.”

  “That’s good, right?”

  “Rick’s burning in hell for what he did. I know that, but I haven’t been able to let go because every time I look at Miguel I’ve known he could die on me any day. I hated Rick, but those boys are the only thing I’ve got.”