Nothing But Trouble (Wild Hearts Book 2)

by Noah Harris

  “I was going to say that he died protecting that which he loved the most,” Michael said quietly.

  “And I had no one after that,” Adrian whispered.

  “And now?” Michael asked after a moment.

  Adrian shivered, trying to shake the old memories from his mind. “Now what?”

  “What do you have now?”

  Adrian hesitated. “A disaster of a life?”

  Michael nudged Adrian, frowning. “You have exactly what you wanted as a boy. If there’s one reason that I value your pack so much as allies, it’s because despite your lack of measurable strength, the bond between your packmates is something all packs should aspire to. You are less a pack of werewolves and more a family that has chosen one another.”

  “A pack of werewolves and a human,” Adrian corrected, thinking of Hunter.

  “You have the family you always wanted and you chose them for yourself,” Michael continued.

  “They chose me a little bit too,” Adrian said with a smile.

  Michael reached up to stroke a stray hair from Adrian’s forehead. “I can never express how sorry I am that you were alone for so long. But you don’t have to drown in the past and risk missing what you have in the present.”

  Adrian said nothing, simply allowing himself to enjoy the feel of Michael running his fingers over him. He knew Michael was telling the truth, and he’d been telling himself the same thing for ages. Yet hearing it from Michael eased the knot in Adrian’s chest, allowing him to breathe a little easier.

  “And I’m sorry that I pulled you into all of this,” Michael continued.

  Adrian pulled himself from his thoughts, narrowing his eyes at Michael. “And what the hell do you have to be sorry about? It’s not your fault that my stupid-ass former sept mate is involved in all of this.”

  “They were here to bring me down and now they know that you’re involved. That’s going to put a target on your back,” Michael said regretfully.

  Adrian snorted. “Didn’t you listen to anything I told you? They’re using you as a test run in some stupid plan to try to find a way to bring city wolves down one by one. After they were done with you, they would have come for the others, which includes Eli and my pack. They might have started off as a threat to you, but they’ve decided to move right into threatening everything that I care about.”

  “Is that the sound of revenge I hear?” Michael asked with a smile.

  Adrian hesitated, realizing that part of him did relish the idea of retaliating against his sept for his old scar. Stephan hadn’t been a member of the original group that attacked him and Blaine years ago, he had been too young at the time. However, the idea of sticking even a small wound into the back of his former sept had its appeal. Despite how much it still stung to think of what had happened, he realized he was more worried about Eli and the rest of his pack. There was a hidden blade pointed at their backs, and unless Adrian acted quickly, everything that he had gained in the past few years would be lost.

  After a long moment, Adrian shook his head. “No, this isn’t about revenge, or at least, it shouldn’t be. What’s more important to me is that they’re going to come for all of us, and I can’t let them threaten the people I care about, not again.”

  “I take it that means that you have a plan of action?”

  Adrian grinned at him. “Oh you can bet the rest of your businesses on that.”

  Michael kissed Adrian, smiling then. “I think I’ll just settle for trusting you on this one instead.”

  Chapter 16

  Gravel crunched beneath his feet as Adrian crept along the side of the warehouse. It wasn’t the same warehouse where he had seen Stephan and his cronies. Adrian had taken a wild guess that the warehouse closest to the water was where he would find the next meeting.

  He was pleased to find that his hunch had been right as he glanced at the adjoining parking lot. Parked side by side were the two vehicles he had seen at the first meeting. Smirking, he slipped back into the shadows, looking for another entry point. It didn’t take him long to find a back door. Adrian was relieved to find that while it had once held a chain and padlock, it had long since rusted and fallen off.

  Adrian slipped into the building, careful to make sure the door hinges didn’t squeal too loudly as he closed it behind him. He paused in the darkness, letting his eyes adjust and listening closely. He could hear distant voices coming from further down the hallway. Adrian cocked his head to try to pinpoint the group’s location. After a moment of attentive listening, he realized that the sounds of the voices were echoing more than before. The little group meeting was taking place in the larger part of this particular warehouse.

  Careful to mind his footing, Adrian moved quietly down the hallway until he came to the large doorway. It opened into a huge room that was in the same state as the last warehouse. There was more clutter blocking his view, the previous owners apparently deciding to leave the storage equipment behind to rust and fall apart.

  Adrian moved carefully around a half-collapsed shelving unit to get closer to the voices. They seemed to be coming from the center of the room and he was trying to get a glimpse through the various shelves.

  He frowned as he drew closer, realizing that he couldn’t see anyone even as he heard their voices. It was possible that they were all sitting on the floor, but his hand stole to the blades hidden in his jacket as he rounded another pile of shelves. He stopped as he took in the sight before him, fingers closing around the hilt of the knife.

  There was a large open space where most of the equipment in the area had been cleaned out, perfect for a group of people to stand. Yet there was no one there, only a barrel with a lamp and what looked like a stereo atop it. The sounds of conversation were coming from the speakers. As if on cue, a light blared over ahead, coming from the upper catwalk. Another followed, and another, all blinding Adrian temporarily as he stood on the warehouse floor.

  Adrian winced. “Alright, congratulations, you tricked me. Do you have to be a dick and blind me in the process?”

  Stephan’s smug voice came from somewhere behind all the blinding light. “It was quite dark in here. I thought if I was going to be greeting my long-lost cousin again, I should do it where the two of us could see each other.”

  Still trying to see around the bright light, Adrian snorted. “You know, as enthusiastic as you seem to be about this, I’m going to have to burst your bubble. I really didn’t want to have anything to do with you guys again. So, I mean, if this is really all for me, I appreciate it, but you can fuck off back to the sept for all I give a shit.”

  He could make out the Stephan near one of the piles of scrap. “I see that your time away hasn’t done anything to improve your disrespectful attitude.”

  Adrian shrugged. “And I bet the sept hasn’t changed in the slightest. Still stuck in the past, still trying to interfere in everyone’s lives. Although I suppose that’s not totally fair on my part, because they do seem to have expanded a bit. They’re no longer happy to just stay the hell in their territory and control their own people. Naw, you guys just had to come way out here to try to stir up some trouble because you can’t stand that there might be other people in the world who are happy not being, well, like you.”

  “I honestly cannot wait until I’ve ripped your throat out. It will almost be as good as when I get to tell everyone at home that I finally caught up with the traitor who abandoned us all those years ago,” Stephan snarled at him.

  Adrian laughed. “Stephan, let me give you a friendly piece of advice: just quit while you’re ahead. None of them care about you, they’ve never cared about you. They’re just going to take advantage of the fact that you want to impress them. Then they’ll squeeze you for every drop you’ve got, and when you’ve had enough, they’ll try to off you for thinking for yourself.”

  “No, that sort of punishment is only for traitors who don’t know the meaning of loyalty. You betrayed us, and you left with that—that animal,” Stephan seet
hed.

  Adrian rankled at the insult to Blaine but kept the smirk on his face. “It’s funny how that ‘animal’ showed more care for my wellbeing than anyone in my supposed family. Sorry, but if your whole speech is about how I’m a horrible traitor, then I accept that title with a smile on my face. Fuck the sept, fuck your family, and fuck you, too, for good measure.”

  “You never should have come here, Alexander,” Stephan said, sounding like he was barely restraining his pleasure.

  Adrian grinned at the shadowy shape. “Oh well, you know me. I never did know how to behave myself when there was a juicy prize waiting.”

  There was a shiver of metal ringing through the air as Stephan spoke. “And here you are, stumbling right into a trap. After all this time, you never learned to keep your nose out of business that wasn’t yours?”

  Adrian wasn’t surprised when he saw the flash of a silver blade somewhere near Stephan’s hip. If he had been dealing with a city wolf, then the use of a blade would have been simple practicality. In a city where humans could wander up at any moment, it was easier to use a silver weapon than it was to risk being seen in wolf form. Adrian knew, however, that Stephan’s motivations were far more insulting. To kill someone with a silver weapon while staying in human form was the equivalent of spitting upon their corpse. Honorable fighting by sept standards required that both werewolves be in their wolf forms for the fight. By dragging out the knife, Stephan meant to gain not only the pleasure of killing Adrian, but of insulting him through death.

  “Aw, did you bring that little ol’ thing for me?” Adrian asked coyly.

  “It will bring me great joy to kill you with this blade. It was a gift from your father before I left. I wonder how much he’ll enjoy knowing that it was used to kill his traitor of a son,” Stephan asked as he twirled the blade in his hand.

  Adrian snorted, sure that his father would be more than happy to reward Stephan for the deed. “I bet you’ll leave out the part where you didn’t actually let me fight you first.”

  Stephan’s stance stiffened. “And why should that matter? You were foolish enough to allow yourself to be caught in a trap. Your fighting prowess matters little.”

  Adrian laughed softly, looking up to where he thought the rest of Stephan’s group was lurking. “Of course not. Because if you did, we both know that you would lose, don’t we?”

  He was only trying to buy himself time, hoping that he wasn’t caught with his pants down. Stephan certainly seemed to enjoy rubbing his victory in Adrian’s face, though his expression was quickly turning to anger. Adrian was perfectly okay with that. For a man with as big of an ego as Stephan seemed to have grown over the years, the angrier he was, the more stupidly he would behave.

  “You may have gotten away from us once, but that was through no skill of your own,” Stephan replied hotly.

  Adrian shrugged. “I mean, it’s kind of hard to survive a fight against seasoned warriors who outnumber you. I could probably do better now. You’d be amazed at the things I’ve learned since then. If I had to guess what would win between your fancy, pampered training and my real world, hard won experience, yeah, I think I’m going to bet that I’ll come out on top.”

  Stephan growled. “Nothing about my life has been pampered! Unlike you, I have thrilled at the honor of the sept’s training and have seen their expectations as the challenge that they truly are! I have passed every rite that you scorned, succeeded in every test that you sneered at, and honored our ancestors, while you only spit upon their grave!”

  “You know, all things considered, I think our ancestors would be ashamed. They’d be ashamed that some little shit like you is somehow supposed to be the next in line for their great lineage. They’d bare their throats and beg for death again if they knew that some arrogant fuck named Stephan was the best that our sept could offer. You’re not important, you’re not great, you’re just the most expendable thing that the sept could throw away on some harebrained scheme that was doomed to fail,” Adrian shot back, hearing real heat in his voice as he spoke.

  Stephan began to advance, his eyes flashing with a wolfish light as they caught the spotlight from above. “I’m going to be the one who brings you and all the dirty wolves of this city down!”

  A howl rent the air of the warehouse, followed by another. More howls joined, the sounds cascading together into a song of battle and fury. Around Adrian, he could sense the tension in the warehouse escalate, the werewolves on the catwalks above him beginning to growl. He could hear them shifting, pushed along by the sudden threat of outside interference.

  Without his back to the light, Stephan’s face was plain to see and it held sudden doubt. The knife in his hand drooped as Stephan looked around, wincing when a crash of glass heralded the arrival of the very people Adrian had been waiting for.

  “Traps work both ways,” Adrian told him cockily.

  Stephan’s brow furrowed, and he whirled on Adrian with a snarl. “They won’t have enough time to save you though!”

  Adrian almost laughed as Stephan leaped forward. He easily twisted away from the other man’s attempt to gut him with the knife. Like so many werewolves, Stephan was big, and while that gave him plenty of power, it didn’t help him much in the speed department. Adrian had learned how to use an opponent’s size against them a long time ago. He sidestepped another slash of the knife.

  Stephan tried to push into Adrian’s space, bringing the knife in low, but Adrian gripped Stephan’s wrist and sent the thrust lower and away. Stephan stumbled and Adrian shoved his head forward into Stephan’s nose with a crack. The werewolf howled in surprised pain and Adrian drove his foot into the man’s knee for extra emphasis. The large man’s knee gave out with another sharp cry.

  “Where’re your superior skills, Stephan?” Adrian taunted.

  Stephan’s grip on the knife tightened and Adrian braced for the next attack. Stephan whirled the knife around and, to Adrian’s surprise, dove forward, shoving his shoulder into Adrian’s gut. The wind was knocked loose from him in a woosh of air, his back slamming into one of the fallen shelves with a shock of pain. A fist slammed across his face before he could recover, his vision swimming as his mind raced to keep up with the sudden shift in the fight.

  As the spinning of his vision eased, Adrian caught sight of a flash of silver and twisted. The sudden force of his movement loosened Stephan’s grip on him, but it didn’t spare Adrian the flare of pain along his side. Stephan grunted in annoyance at having missed with what he’d surely hoped to be a crippling blow. Shoving the pain aside, Adrian brought his knee up between Stephan’s legs, earning a breathless yelp. With another shove, Adrian put some distance between them, driving his foot into Stephan’s upturned face with another dull thud.

  Stephan stumbled away from him, clutching his groin, hate written on his face. “You fight like a dishonorable pup.”

  Considering Stephan had attempted to fight him with his cronies nearby to keep Adrian from getting the upper hand, Adrian wasn’t impressed with Stephan’s commentary on his combat morals. He was more concerned about the knife still clenched in Stephan’s hand like it was his last lifeline. So long as Stephan had the weapon, he could end the fight with a lucky strike. The cut from the earlier blow still burned at his side, and Adrian knew that he would need to get the knife away before the next wound was worse.

  “When I need someone to tell me whether or not I’m fighting honorably enough, I’ll find anyone but you,” Adrian told him, eyes flicking up as he realized that the sounds of battle had begun above them.

  Stephan’s eyes had followed Adrian’s, also aware of the fight overhead. The difference between them was that Adrian knew who was up there fighting Stephan’s little gang, and just how many of them there were. Down in the mess of spotlights, neither of them could actually see above them for Stephan to confirm his odds. Adrian saw Stephan crunching the numbers, considering his odds.

  “Why don’t you save us both the trouble of me killing you and just gi
ve up?” Adrian asked causally.

  Stephan’s face twisted into a grimace of hate. “You won’t be killing me today, traitor.”

  “You dragged yourself out here from the west coast to dig up people who were willing to work with you to bring down a bunch of packs that haven’t done a damn thing to you. You’ve aligned with people looking to take advantage of the chaos or people with an axe to grind. I’m also pretty sure you’ve rounded yourself a traitor from somewhere in Michael’s inner circle. Are you really going to try to put yourself on a pedestal and pretend you’re on the moral high ground here?”

  Stephan chuckled darkly. “Even you have to concede that, sometimes, you have to use dirty tools and underhanded methods to get results. All of them? They’re expendable, they just don’t know it yet.”

  A howl of pain made Adrian wince. “Well, from the sounds of it, they’re getting expended.”

  Stephan winced as he stood, leaning against one of the precariously fallen shelves to hold himself up. “You won’t win this. I’ve invested too much of my time, too much of myself, to fail now. You got the better of me this one time, but you won’t win the war.”

  “There is no war, Stephan. Only your attempts to bring down people who know how to play the game better than you. How about you stop running your mouth and just give up? Your cronies are losing above us and you’ve lost this fight,” Adrian told him, growing annoyed with the man’s stubbornness.

  Stephan’s eyes flicked up to the catwalks, still unable to see anything happening above them. “You brought more than Michael’s pack.”

  Adrian smirked. “It’s amazing what you can accomplish when the people who actually care about you are willing to stand by your side. The nastiest growls and snarls you’re hearing right now? That’s my pack, my family, and they’re here to kick your ass or tear out your throat, that’s up to you.”

  “You won’t be getting that pleasure today,” Stephan growled.

  Adrian motioned up where the sounds of the battle were quickly petering off above them. He was tempted to let out a sigh of relief, knowing his pack would descend from above soon and he wouldn’t have to stand around having a casual conversation with Stephan for much longer. They had caught Stephan and his group in their own trap, and Adrian could finally focus on the things that mattered to him again.