by Zoe Perdita
He needed to think.
Quinn tried to break the bargain, but it held. That put Tyler in danger. Though, no matter how pissed he was at Quinn on the surface, he wasn’t going to give up on him.
Maybe that’s how Ken felt when he put Tyler in rehab.
Love did crazy shit to your head, that was for damn sure.
Breaking the spell, no matter what, should be his number one priority.
Quinn already acted against his own nature by trying to give up his own freedom, so the only thing left for Tyler to do was figure out what the fuck he wanted most.
That thought left him cold.
Sunday night was supposed to be dinner with Davis and Ken, but by the time Tyler finished in the shop he was too annoyed to deal with anyone else, especially since he hadn’t told them shit about Quinn, and if he did now it was way too much to explain.
What the hell could he say?
By the way, my mate is this unicorn who’s being held by some evil light mage, and I need to rescue him, only I made a bargain that is sort of dangerous and breaking the spell is even more dangerous—and I’m not sure if I can do it. Oh, and he told me he never wants to see me again.
Yeah, they’d think he was high as fuck, and he couldn’t blame them.
His nerves bristled as he stalked up to his apartment and stared at the sparsely decorated space. A trail of laundry went from the bedroom to the bathroom (which Ken would gather and put in the hamper because he was Ken), and the dishes had piled up all week.
Tyler’s fingers burned to touch Quinn, and his mouth needed to taste him again, kiss him. Get him to see some motherfucking sense, and, at the very least, see each other one last time.
A knock at the door shook him from his thoughts, and he thought about ignoring it until they went away, but that’d just get him another lecture. Dammit.
Tyler turned and opened it.
Ken stood with a green reusable grocery bag nestled in his arms, over loaded with containers. “Say no!” he mouthed and walked inside with a frown.
Tyler didn’t even get a chance to ask what he was supposed to say ‘no’ to because Davis was close behind with another bag.
“It’s pre-cooked this time since I have to be at work in an hour. Big spender in town and Jin doesn’t want to lose the house to this guy,” Davis said, grinning.
Tyler didn’t know which annoyed him more, that Davis worked for Jin Yue or that he acted like the Dragon was just a normal boss and not a powerful Triad leader.
“Don’t do anything dangerous,” Ken muttered and set his load in the kitchen. His dark eyes scanned the room and found it wanting – Tyler knew that look.
He scowled at Ken, but that didn’t stop the omega from tidying up as if he lived there.
“What am I supposed to say ‘no’ to?” Tyler asked as Davis pulled out plates and opened the containers of food.
Ken frowned at Tyler, and Davis opened his mouth in mock surprise. “You told him to say no to my idea? That just means we have to do it. It’ll be fun. He just doesn’t want to go because there’s dirt out there, but we can’t sit in your condo every full moon.”
“I know! Your stupid pacing put gouges in the hardwood floor, and I’m not getting my deposit back now. You’re paying for that, you know,” Ken huffed and tossed the pile of laundry he’d gathered into the hamper, which was already so full the lid wouldn’t close. “And do your laundry, Ty. This place is a wreck.”
Tyler rubbed his head and slumped at the table. He only ever sat at it when they came over for dinner, so it seemed like a huge waste of money, but Ken wouldn’t have it any other way since he wanted them to eat like civilized wolves. The top was smooth wood with a dark grain, and it came with curved wooden chairs that had skinny metal legs which looked like they might break when you sat on them, but they didn’t.
“Well? Explain this shit or I’m kicking you both out,” Tyler grumbled and his stomach tied itself into a knot. If he lived with Quinn would they argue like that? What would these dinners be like with him here? Quinn would probably say weird shit. Or do something inappropriate, and—fuck. It’s not like Tyler would ever get the chance to find out. Unless he broke the stupid spell without dying. Somehow.
They both started talking at once as they carried the food and utensils to the table. Tyler only caught bits of what was said: tent, dirt, dangerous, fun. What the hell?
Finally, as they settled, and Ken fumed at his steak and potato with buttered asparagus at the side, Davis explained. “Remember where mom and dad used to take us during the full moon?”
Tyler shrugged and dished up his own plate. He did remember, but that was a long time ago. So long, in fact, it felt like a different life. “What about it?”
“Just because it’s a family tradition, doesn’t mean it’s any good. My family stayed in the basement during the full moon until we joined your pack,” Ken said and stabbed at his meat violently.
Davis watched him with an amused smile on his lips. “You had some fun back then. Admit it.”
Ken shoved an oversized bite in his mouth. “No!”
“You want to go camping tomorrow?” Tyler said between bites of his baked potato. It didn’t have enough butter or salt for his taste, but the quicker he got this over with the faster they’d leave.
“He does,” Ken said and took a swallow of water like it was wine.
“I’m busy,” Tyler said.
Fuck.
He needed to do something before the full moon passed, no matter what Quinn said. But if he showed up and Quinn really didn’t want anything to do with him. . . .
For once, Davis actually frowned. “How can you be busy on a full moon? There’s nothing else to do but go camping.”
“I’m going to Lake Orlando. I’ve got a friend up there,” he said and started on his steak. It was rare enough that he could still smell the blood, and even that reminded him of Quinn.
“There’s a big enough chunk of forest to camp in out there,” Davis said and pointed his fork at Tyler. “Did you meet a girl? A rich girl?”
Ken promptly kicked Davis under the table—Tyler heard the smack of a foot against a shin, and Davis grimaced. “Stop pestering him. He’ll tell us if he wants to tell us,” Ken said, but his eyes were wide and pleading.
He probably wanted Tyler to get camping off Davis’s mind. Not that it would work. The Harrison family stubbornness set in and didn’t let up. Ever.
“You mean Cage didn’t tell you everything?” Tyler grumbled and chewed his meat. It damn near melted in his mouth, and he smelled more in the kitchen. Knowing Ken, he’d made too many and would leave the leftovers.
“No,” Ken said slowly. “Did you meet someone?”
His heartbeat quickened, and the words were right on the tip of Tyler’s tongue. The more he held shit back, the worse it got. What the fuck could he lose now? “It’s a guy. Boyfriend. But maybe we broke up. I’m not sure yet.”
“Boyfriend?” Ken said, his voice rising into a squeak.
Davis stared. “You’re gay?”
Tyler scowled hard at both of them. “No. I’m not gay, but I’m not strictly straight either. I’m probably bi, and it’s not a big deal.”
Ken nodded and Davis smiled, but Tyler didn’t have anything more to say. Not about Quinn. Not now.
They’d almost finished eating when Tyler’s work cell rang. He frowned at the number that showed up on the screen. It was local but not one he recognized. “Hello? I have regular hours, you know.” Shit. He shouldn’t cop an attitude with a customer, but his nerves felt like the frayed end of cut wire.
“It’s me. Bradley knows! No matter what he says, you can’t come to me tomorrow night. It’s too dangerous. If you look in the mirror you’ll—” Quinn’s voice cut out suddenly.
He sounded frantic.
Pained.
Tyler’s heart caught in his throat, and he found himself standing. The chair toppled on the floor behind him, but he didn’t remember getting up.
<
br /> Davis and Ken stared at him like he just told them he decided to become a flamenco dancer.
He stalked away from the table and redialed the number, but he got nothing but a busy signal. His hands shook as he tried again.
“Fuck!” he said and dropped the phone onto the couch before he broke it.
Quinn was in trouble. And what the fuck did Bradley know? About their bargain or something else?
“What’s wrong,” Ken asked carefully.
Tyler ran his fingers through his hair and let out a long frustrated breath. “I can’t explain. Just—I need to talk to Davis. Alone.”
Ken started, and Davis stared.
“What?” they both said, slightly out of sync.
Who else was he supposed to ask last minute? Rory and the cops hadn’t been any help, and if Quinn was in trouble. . . . Well, Quinn was always in trouble, considering, but this sounded like worse trouble than normal. He warned Tyler not to come see him, which didn’t make sense unless Bradley was going to do something bad.
After a moment, Ken wiped his mouth and ducked out of the room.
When the door clicked shut, Davis leaned forward in his chair and raised an eyebrow. “Okay, what did you steal and how can we return it without getting caught?”
Tyler narrowed his eyes. “I didn’t steal anything, asshole. I haven’t—fuck. Not since the day you got back.”
“Cop trouble? Shit. Did you do something to the Triad?” Davis said, his voice dropped to a low grumble.
He stared at his brother. This might be harder than claiming Quinn—harder than freeing him. Admitting that Davis could actually held him, and then asking for that help.
Dammit.
He took a deep breath and started at the beginning.
Thankfully, Davis didn’t laugh once.
When he got to the end, Tyler slumped on the couch, his legs thumping with the beat of his heart.
Davis handed him the pack of cigarettes from the coffee table. “So you just need me to help you free your mate, who’s a unicorn, from an evil light mage?”
“Pretty much,” Tyler mumbled with the cigarette between his lips.
“Okay. But you have to promise not to do anything too dangerous, and you have got to go camping with us someday soon. And bring the unicorn.”
Tyler nodded stiffly as the alpha howled inside him.
Hopefully, Quinn was okay.
Their plan wasn’t perfect, and it had about a hundred different ways it could go wrong, but it was the best Tyler could do at the last minute. It hinged on their ability to get past the barrier around the Montgomery mansion and overpower Bradley. With Davis’s help, he might be able to pull it off, though Tyler neglected to tell his older brother he might have to sacrifice himself to save Quinn.
If that was the case, he’d write them a note, apologize, and leave his shit to Quinn or something. Nothing else he could do, really. He’d be dead, but at least Quinn would be free.
After Davis and Ken left, Tyler leaned against the door and smoked another cigarette.
Freeing one fucking unicorn shouldn’t be so difficult.
He needed to do something tonight, but he couldn’t shift and run to Lake Orlando since he’d have to travel through the city. If he caught a late bus to Sullivan’s that wouldn’t be weird. Even with the need for sleep pinching his eyes, Tyler made up his mind. Davis would do his part tomorrow, but finding Quinn was more important than anything else right now.
He was ready to leave when the familiar thud of footsteps lighted up the stairs, and the reek of dead things invaded his nose.
Bang.
Bang.
Bang.
The knock rocked the door at his back. Tyler swung it open and stared into the hollow cheeked face of Bradley Montgomery.
The alpha burst free before that bastard could say a word, and Tyler lunged, grabbing a fistful of the man’s shirt and slamming him into the wall opposite the door. No burst of magic threw him back, but the stench was worse so close, and Tyler held his breath to keep from retching.
“What the fuck did you do to Quinn?”
Bradley’s lips twisted into a mocking smile. “You have no idea what you’ve stepped into the middle of, Tyler Harrison. Quinn is—sick. He’s a blight on this world, but I wouldn’t expect someone like you to understand.”
Someone like him?
Tyler’s fingers tightened their hold. It’d be so easy to break Bradley’s neck just like this, but that was way too suspicious. Going to prison for the rest of his life wasn’t on Tyler’s ‘to do’ list, even if he made a deal with a dragon to get rid of the bastard.
Shit. He needed to stop making bargains with weird shifters.
Still, the alpha inside him refused to relent. “I understand enough. He hates you and you hate him. Let him go and you won’t have to deal with his sickness anymore.”
Bradley laughed, and it sounded as hollow as he looked. “And let it infect the rest of the world? My family has a duty, one that you clearly don’t understand. Do you think you can kill me, wolf? Any harm you inflict on me will be transferred to Quinn tenfold. How about that?”
It could be a bluff, but the look in Bradley’s empty eyes didn’t give anything away. And his heart didn’t slam like a human’s should when confronted with an alpha.
Tyler released the man and stepped back. “Wolf?”
“Do you think because I can’t smell you I can’t figure out what you are? Shifters are simple to spot, and you’re no exception,” Bradley said and brushed off the front of his shirt like he was ridding it of Tyler’s filth. “I know all about you. More than you’d think. I have so many connections that someone like you could never understand. For example, the night you found Quinn, several nice young men were beaten by a thug matching your description. He’s still on the loose. Isn’t that a coincidence? Or how about those hunters who found you. Who do you think paid them? Me. I knew Quinn could handle himself, but I thought they’d have more luck with you. Too bad.”
Ice water shot through his veins. Tyler stared, his gut clenched into a ball and his muscles tensed. He held the alpha at bay with the thinnest of threads. “I saved Quinn’s life!”
Bradley smiled thinly. “I can reward you for that. Tomorrow night I think you should come and see him. I think you’ll like the show he puts on under the full moon.”
“I already know what he is,” Tyler said, nails biting into his palms hard enough to bruise. “I’m not scared of him.”
“You should be,” Bradley said. “He’ll show you what you think you want in the most terrible way imaginable. What do you think happened to that other hunter? They found him floating in the Columbia a mile outside of Haven. If I had to guess, I’d say Quinn enticed him to take a swim.”
Tyler’s chest swelled. Quinn killing a hunter who attacked them wasn’t going to faze him. Not in the least. “Is that why you’re so scared of him? You’ll know what you’ll see—what you are—and off yourself because of it?”
Bradley’s eyes narrowed. “How about I give you what you want right now.”
Tyler lifted his lips into a snarl. “What the fuck do you mean? You’ll set him free?”
Bradley shook his head and chuckled. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a ziplock baggie full of white powder. The scent was faint but so familiar Tyler’s mouth watered. “How about this? You know this is what you’ll see. I know all about you—what you really are. You can’t deny something like this, wolf.”
“I’ve been clean for two years,” Tyler growled through gritted teeth.
If Quinn weren’t likely to take the brunt of it, Tyler would have torn out Bradley’s scrawny throat by now.
Bradley dropped the bag on the floor. It landed with a slight thud and, thankfully, didn’t break. “Come to my home tomorrow before nightfall. I’ll even drop the shield and point the way to him. Or you can stay home and enjoy the present I brought you. Either way, the result is the same.”
Tyler hardly heard
Bradley Montgomery leave.
He stared at the bag of heroin—more heroin than he’d seen in his life. It was enough to kill him a few times over, and the thickly sweet memory of its embrace wrapped around him until he was unable to move.
13
Quinn stared at nothing. His stomach twisted into so many shapes he barely noticed the hunger gnawing at his insides. He hardly slept, and the thin layer of clothes he wore (jeans, shirt and sweater) did nothing against the early morning fog which settled over the forest and bathed everything in a dull white glow.
The large flat rock at the stream’s edge never made a comfortable bed, even with a layer of moss on top of it.
He squeezed his eyes shut and took a deep breath.
Maybe he shouldn’t have called Tyler. There was no guarantee the alpha would show if Bradley contacted him in the first place. The only thing Quinn wished for now was that Tyler listened to the warning and stayed away.
No matter what Bradley did, he couldn’t force Tyler there unless he had a silver leash, which Quinn wouldn’t put Bradley above, when he thought about it.
Quinn dipped his fingers into the pool. The water should be icy cold this time of year. It came from the snow melt on the surrounding mountains, but it felt more like velvet across his skin. That was part of the magic too, but Bradley had nothing to do with it.
Neither did Quinn. It was a sort of naturally occurring magic that happened in the perfect circumstances. Quinn remembered his father explained that kind of magic was rare due to humans encroaching on the land. Even shifters who used to live in the forest now preferred city life, and they remained as humans as long as they could instead of subsisting as their animal shapes. His father said all of that with a healthy dose of disdain, and Quinn partially understood what he meant.
But living as a human was easier in many ways. Food was simple to come by. People were interesting, unless they were people like Dr. Ross, but he was an exception and not the rule.
And then there was Tyler.
Quinn’s heart throbbed faster, and he frowned at the dread seeping through him. This entire bargain was a disaster. He could destroy Tyler in an instant, and Quinn never had to worry about that before—the consequences of his actions.
