“What happens in my bedroom is none of your concern,” Lucas replied coolly, hoping that Sly would just drop it.
Sly scoffed, dashing that hope. “You’re not sleeping with her otherwise you’d have been bragging about it from the moment you walked in here. So, what is going on?”
“I already said it’s not your concern.”
Sly leaned back in his chair, his eyes hardening into the ‘Alpha Look’ that Lucas knew all too well.
“We have an agreement, okay?” Lucas turned his face away, scowling at the wall. “You can tell Chloe not to worry. It’s not like I’m groping Miriam or anything. She’s just coming up to clean my place and Kristoff’s every so often.”
“Why?” Sly’s voice deepened to more dangerous levels.
Lucas rolled his eyes. Suspicious much? Even though it was over a flub he and Kristoff had, they were handling it just fine. “Why don’t you trust me, Sly? After everything this pack has been through, I would have thought that you could at least know that I’m not doing anything wrong. Less wrong,” he added, “than when you took Chloe prisoner and then decided to start fucking her.”
“Nothing happened without Chloe wanting it,” Sly was quick to answer. “But the comparison does worry me. I took Chloe prisoner because she’s a vampire and I was concerned she was a threat… So why are you comparing that situation to what’s happening with Miriam?”
“And what is between Kristoff, Miriam, and I was suggested by Miriam,” Lucas was quick to answer. “And with that vampire skulking around Deville, Kristoff and I decided it was best to move her and her nephews up to my place.” Rage entered Sly’s eyes and Lucas held up his hands. “I am not saying that Chloe is the vampire skulking around! Sheesh! I meant Miriam’s brother, obviously.”
They’d only discovered it the previous night. Normally, there weren’t a lot of vampires around Deville and Devil Mountain. When vampires did show up, the pack made sure they kept tabs on them. But with Miriam’s brother, they knew he had to be a recently turned vampire. It’d been less than a year since he’d dropped the boys off, after all. It made him all the more dangerous.
The problem with vampires was that they could be practically normal like Chloe. Still empathetic, still with human emotion and trying their best not to hurt others. Chloe lived on the blood that Tyler and Max procured from the funeral home. But other vampires weren’t so good.
Lucas had dealt with plenty of vampires in the past when he was undercover in a terrorist organization called the Pack (as though they were the only pack to exist—Lucas would forever hate them for using that term as their name) and they’d used vampires to develop a serum to block a shifter’s ability to commune with their animal or shift into their other forms.
And a freshly turned vampire was the most dangerous of all vampires because they had to deal with new bouts of bloodlust. The blood that tasted best to a vamp was blood they shared. So Miriam’s brother could be here to see his sister and sons… or he could be here to kill them and drink their blood.
Sly looked appeased as he nodded. “You have not told her that we found him, right?”
“Right,” Lucas agreed. It would be more difficult to contain the situation if Miriam knew her brother was skulking around. She wouldn’t understand the necessity of what might need to happen.
She knew that Chloe was a vampire, but that was it. She didn’t know what being a vampire meant. There was far too much for her to understand in a short length of time, especially where her brother was concerned. It was for her own good that they were keeping it a secret from her.
And the slave games they were playing, well that was for her own good, too. If she did start talking about what she’d seen, the pack would have to basically ruin her life. Not kill her, of course; they didn’t murder innocent people, but life would be very difficult for her. They’d have to make her out to be crazy and whatnot so nobody would take her seriously.
Sly snapped his fingers and Lucas looked back at him. “What?”
Sly frowned. “Stop drifting off, Lucas. What’s got you so spacy?”
“Oh, that.” Lucas shrugged and grinned at him. “It’s just that I’ve got this adorable pink harem outfit that Miriam wears when she’s cleaning up. You can imagine that it’s a bit distracting.” He winked and chuckled.
As expected, Sly’s expression hardened even more. He stood slowly, radiating Alpha-rays from him. Lucas had to resist the urge to grin even more. Ahh, he loved riling Sly up like this. “Don’t make fucking fools of this pack, Lucas. I don’t want to hear in town that you’re dressing up women in racist costumes for your sex games.”
“Racist?” Lucas laughed. “How is it racist? It’s—”
“You know exactly what I’m talking about. You are going to stop treating Miriam like one of your games. Keep it in your pants or I’ll cut off your balls and you’ll have nothing left to keep in your pants.”
Lucas’ smile faded. “You’re telling me not to sleep with her?”
“I’m telling you not to sleep with her.”
Lucas’ hand clenched. There was riling Sly up and then there was this, whatever this was. “Go fuck yourself! I’ll sleep with whoever I want. It’s not your choice whether I fuck Miriam; it’s hers.”
“Miriam has enough complications in her life. I don’t want to see her get hurt.”
“Yeah, right. You don’t care two shakes about her.”
Sly narrowed his eyes. “My mate cares about her and so I care. Miriam is well-known and well-liked in Deville. She is constantly giving to others and running a goddamn compassionate service to everyone here. You hurt her and everyone in town is going to come after all of us wolves with pitchforks and torches. Besides which, I won’t even try to protect you from Chloe.”
Lucas snorted, but even as he did so, he glanced at the basement door. Chloe was down there, probably listening. She couldn’t leave the cabin in daylight without getting dreadfully sick, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t be planning what to do with him. All the wolves had started to think of her as almost a mother figure to the pack, especially now that she was pregnant. Lucas didn’t like to imagine what pleasant, kind, soft-spoken Chloe would do to him if she got mad at him.
“I just said it was Miriam’s choice,” Lucas grumbled, unwilling to admit defeat but also wanting to ease Sly’s worries. “It’s not like I’m going to make her do anything, Sly. We’re playing games right now is all. And we are moving her and her nephews to my place to keep her safe from her vampire brother.”
Sly kept his eyes narrowed. He sat, though, shaking his head. Lucas waited a moment but took it as dismissal. Sly hadn’t told him to leave Miriam where she was. That must mean that he agreed with the plan to keep her with the wolves, avoid leaving her for the vampire to come after.
“If Chloe is concerned,” Lucas said, suddenly hit by a stroke of genius, “you can tell her that she’s welcome to come out and check on Miriam whenever she wants. Or I could bring Miriam here so they can talk. Anything to ease her worries.”
Sly laced his fingers. “That is acceptable,” he said, the tension easing out of his shoulders. “You can go now.”
Lucas grinned as he turned to the door. He’d handled that well, he thought. But of course, he did—things always worked out the way he wanted them to. Always.
Chapter Three
The moon shone brightly overhead with a hint of dawn behind the eastern mountains. Kristoff sucked in deep breaths of fresh air, staring up at the silvery orb flashing through the pine trees as he went along his way. After almost a full night below the earth’s surface, he was glad to finally be on his way home. Back to where he could have some time to himself in his own space. No more worrying about anything other than what was actually happening in life.
When he got to the fork in the path that would take him to either his home or to Lucas’ place, however, his wolf had other ideas. It wasn’t happy with him just going home and shoved him hard in the chest, urging him down the lef
t path and toward Lucas’ cabin—toward Miriam. He growled at it, but it only growled back.
Well. He had just spent the whole night chasing Miriam’s vampire brother through the tunnels beneath Devil Mountain. It wouldn’t hurt to go check on her. While he knew that Lucas was more than capable of handling any vampire who tried to get into his cabin, it didn’t mean Kristoff couldn’t lend a hand. Especially since Miriam was gonna have the wrong idea about all of this.
With a shrug, he headed toward Lucas’ cabin. His wolf huffed in satisfaction, pacing back and forth in his chest. What the damn thing was so obsessed with, Kristoff didn’t know. But no matter. If it wanted to go this way, he could.
One thing was for certain, though. Miriam’s brother was not looking for a reunion.
If he had called Miriam before showing up, it would be one thing. If he had gone looking for her, that was another thing. If he had been hunting animals on the regular was another.
But the fact was that the pack had chased him off attacking campers four times this past week, and there was no evidence he was interested in animal blood except when he was too thirsty to wait for human blood.
Omar and Roman had even cornered him, explaining that they knew that vampire law cast him as illegal and marked for death by the vampire government if they found out about him, and promised they could help. In turn, he’d only tried to kill them. The bastard was strong and a skilled fighter to boot.
The vampire also knew the tunnels crisscrossing Devil Mountain well enough that he must have been around here for at least a couple of months. Kristoff could understand wanting to keep his distance if he was worried about losing control and hurting his sister or boys. But that wasn’t what this behavior read like. This was hunting.
Part of Kristoff wished he could be horrified that someone would do that to his own family. But he wasn’t so naïve as to think that family was some special, sacred thing that bound people together. No. Families were nothing but a bunch of people who felt like they had a right to do whatever they wanted to each other, and who expected forgiveness because of some genetic fluke.
In Miriam’s family, that was clearly her brother’s outlook. A man who abandoned his kids to his sister, expecting that she’d take on his responsibilities with no questions asked, wouldn’t hesitate to do worse to them if he felt entitled to it.
When he trotted out into the clearing that held Lucas’ cabin, the first thing he saw was the front door wide open. He tensed, a snarl rising in his throat. The cabin was utterly dark, but there was a light flashing in Lucas’ truck. He bound over to it in a single leap, landing with his paws on the hood as he let out a fierce snarl.
A snarl he quickly swallowed when four screams echoed from inside the truck and the flashlight swung up to reveal Miriam’s face and the faces of three little boys. Kristoff hopped off the truck, cursing rapidly in his mind. What the fuck was going on here?
He circled to the driver’s side and peered in. Miriam had a screwdriver and some wire clippers in her hands. From the jumbled mess he saw sitting on her lap, he surmised that she was trying to hotwire the car. He let out a huff as he opened the door with his mouth and gestured to the house.
Miriam stumbled from the truck. She shook from head to toe as she gathered the boys and led them silently back into the cabin. The littlest one, only six, clung to her sobbing while the others gathered tight around her. Miriam looked about ready to throw herself in front of a train to keep the boys safe, terrified but still with a fierce determination in her eyes.
Not all family was terrible, Kristoff decided. Some people did what they should and protected the people they were meant to protect.
He went around back to get dressed, then headed into the cabin. There was no sign of Lucas anywhere, and he frowned heavily. But he’d deal with Lucas later. The boys were all gathered around Miriam as she put her arms around them like a mother hen with her chicks gathered under her wings. Kristoff let out a sigh—he had no desire to terrify children.
“Sorry about that,” he said, keeping his voice gentle. He wasn’t entirely certain how one spoke to children, but he figured they were frightened enough already. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I thought you’d seen me.” What sort of lie would ease these children’s fears? “I… You see,” he said, an idea blossoming in his mind as he knelt to eye-level to the kids. “You see, your Aunt Miriam and I had a little game planned. She was going to try to sneak out and I was going to try to see if I could figure out when and how and stop her. I thought you’d seen me coming and that’s why I jumped like that. I didn’t want to scare you.”
The oldest boy, who was somewhere between ten and thirteen (Kristoff didn’t know how to judge kids’ ages), pulled away from Miriam a little. “It was a game?”
“Yeah. If I won, Miriam had to buy me ice cream. If she won, I’d have to buy her ice cream. And I won, but I’ll be buying all of you ice cream because I frightened you.”
The boys looked at Miriam. Even though the fear was still in her eyes, she smiled, and if he hadn’t known better, he would have thought it was genuine. “Yes, it was a game. Just like I said. Only Lucas lost so he has to buy the ice cream.”
Kristoff laughed and the tension in the children disappeared. Chuckling, he waited for Miriam to usher them to bed. When she returned, her hands twisted in front of her and she looked at him with clear fear in her eyes, but she nodded at him all the same.
“Thank you for not making it worse for them.”
“Trust me, it’s Lucas who’s going to get it for this, not you.”
Miriam wrapped her arms around her waist, looking so small and fragile that Kristoff’s heart tugged. His wolf pawed at his chest, whining at him to comfort her. Kristoff coughed and moved back from her. Why should he be comforting her? What did she mean to him? He looked away, trying not to see the glimmer in her eyes or the trembling of her arms. What was Lucas doing, anyway? He was supposed to be watching her, not letting her nearly run away, putting herself and the boys in danger.
“You shouldn’t try that again,” Kristoff said gruffly, keeping his gaze turned from the gorgeous curvy woman who was looking at him with eyes that made him want to sweep her into his arms and tell her everything was going to be okay. “Trying to run away like that is only going to scare your nephews. You’re lucky that we both thought to tell them it was a game.”
Miriam let out a heavy sigh. “Yes… thank you for that. It’s just that…”
Kristoff looked back at her and smiled bitterly. “I know. You don’t trust us, and you’re afraid of what we might do to you.”
Miriam shivered and Kristoff’s wolf pushed even harder. When he stepped forward, though, she drew back, her eyes widening. And his wolf immediately growled, threatening him away from her. What was up with it? He resisted the urge to roll his eyes at it. The damn thing would figure out what it wanted sooner or later.
“I just don’t know what you want with me,” Miriam whispered, her voice so low that Kristoff had to strain to hear what she was saying. “It’s been months. I won’t tell anybody; you didn’t have to drag me up here. You didn’t have to drag them up here!”
Kristoff took a moment to consider what he needed to say. They couldn’t tell her that she was being stalked by a vampire. Certainly not that her brother was a vampire!
So he fell back on the agreement they had made. “Lucas gets lonely sometimes. He wanted his slave with him. And people were getting suspicious as to why you were coming up here all the time. We wanted you here, so we brought you here. And do you really think we’d do anything when it’s known you’re living here? If anything happened to you now, the whole town would be after Lucas and me, not to mention Chloe would have us skinned and our hides tacked to the wall.”
“Chloe isn’t that sort of person.”
Kristoff shrugged. “But Sly is. If we hurt you, it would hurt Chloe, and he would show no mercy for hurting her. You don’t have to be afraid of us.”
The look she gave him
was all the answer he needed to know that she wasn’t going to stop being afraid any time soon. Kristoff shrugged. It was no skin off his nose… right? He didn’t even like having her around. Just another person to be all judgy-judgy and he didn’t need that in his life. He was quite happy being a hermit. If it wasn’t for people like Lucas and Tyler and Sly being all up in his business and making life annoying if he didn’t contact them regularly, he’d have found some nice uninhabited mountain and lived out the rest of his life in his wolf form anyway.
People were stupid and didn’t deserve his attention.
Footsteps sounded down the hall and Lucas finally emerged. He wore only his boxers and his hair was standing up every which way. He yawned, then frowned at Kristoff. “What are you doing here?”
Kristoff punched him in the face in reply.
Miriam yelped, slapping both her hands across her face in shock. Lucas stumbled back, growled, and threw himself forward. Kristoff sidestepped the clumsy attack and tripped him.
“What the fuck were you doing, Lucas?” Kristoff growled. “You’re supposed to be the one stopping Miriam from stealing your truck, not me. You’re just lucky I happened to show up when I did.”
Lucas scrambled to his feet and glanced at Miriam. “What the fuck?”
“You heard me,” Kristoff growled as he stepped closer. “You’re supposed to be watching her. So what happened?” He glowered, making sure that Lucas understood. If you can let her sneak out like this, then you can let a vampire sneak in. How would you explain to Sly that you allowed Miriam and her nephews to be massacred in your own house?
Lucas scratched the back of his head. “Well. Guess some things need to change around here, don’t they?”
“They do.” Miriam shook from head to toe, but she straightened herself and clenched her hands at her sides. Her eyes were wide as she looked from one to the other like she was afraid they were going to attack her right there. “I’m taking my nephews and I’m leaving. Give me back my car or I’ll… I’ll…”
Enslaved by the Wolves Page 2
