A Wolf in the Fold

  Instead, he parked a few miles away and hiked in on two feet. Even if he could have shifted, which he couldn’t due to his weak family genetics, he wouldn’t risk it. There was too much of a chance of running into a human.

  Less than a mile away, he smelled the smoke. By the time he reached the hillside where he could see down into the valley, his suspicions were confirmed.

  Fuck.

  It was the work of that Blackestone bitch, no doubt about it. Scorched earth policy.

  That fucking wolf bitch is really pissing me off.

  Screw that, he was beyond the point of pissed. He wanted to skin her alive himself. Now there was no way he’d get paid, and his finances were in the fucking toilet.

  Because of the disaster in Yellowstone, she’d cost him family, their future, and now he was reduced to trying to scrape together enough money to buy ramen noodles and gas for him and his mate.

  It wasn’t even like he could scrounge through the house for anything to pawn. The house was just…gone.

  He stared at the slab. There were no scorch marks, no piles of rubble like the smoking hulk of the barn. It was just…

  Gone.

  He sat and stared at it for a while, puzzling over it and trying to figure it out instead of concentrating on his rage over one more failure in a life full of them. He had a gun. He could stop at some shithole in the middle of nowhere and risk robbing it, hoping he didn’t get shot in the process. They could play stranded motorist and rob and kill anyone who stopped to help them.

  He propped his chin in his hand, his elbow resting on his leg. This is fucked up.

  Weeks he’d fucking put into this job. Goddamned weeks. They’d been close to delivering their first shipment, and he would have been thirty thousand dollars to the good. Enough to last him and Aliah a year, at least, if they were careful.

  He knew he should have learned his lesson after Louisiana, after hearing what happened there once he left, but had chalked that up to dumb luck and even dumber idiots running the operation.

  Who the fuck was stupid enough to challenge the alligators, anyway? That was a no-win situation no matter how you looked at it.

  Dad always told me to stand with our own kind. Looks like that’s getting me fucked six ways to Sunday, now.

  Angry and feeling defeated, he stood and headed back to where he’d parked the truck.

  * * * *

  When Cameron returned to the motel, Aliah didn’t ask but the look on her face told him she wanted to know.

  He shook his head before sitting on the bed.

  “Can we call Carl?” she softly asked.

  “I’d rather not.” He hated talking to his cousin. The bastard had done well for himself and never failed to waste an opportunity to let everyone know about it. He’d stayed out of drugs when he left his home nest, opting instead to take a page from organized crime and going into waste disposal. He would occasionally provide seed money for drug operations, provided sufficient collateral was put up.

  Like the person’s wife or adult daughters.

  Despite not taking a mate, there were rumors Carl had dozens of illegitimate children scattered all over the globe.

  He didn’t want his wife anywhere near the fucker. He damn sure didn’t want to be beholden to the man.

  He stretched out on the bed and turned on the TV. “I need to clear my head and decide what to do.”

  She stretched out next to him without saying anything. The past several days, she’d acted like she didn’t feel good. That also stressed him out, that maybe she was sick, and he couldn’t even afford to get her to any kind of doctor. She had more human than cockatrice lineage and was susceptible to things like the flu or other human ailments.

  All these decades together, maybe it is for the best we don’t have any kids.

  Not that they hadn’t tried. He suspected it was a fault of diluted cockatrice genetics on his side or hers. He also felt guilty about dragging her all over the country, especially since Yellowstone had ended so badly. And now they were stuck in Maine until he could get enough money to get them home.

  Maybe Carl could put him in touch with another nest, someone needing their own Heisenberg. Operations were always popping up all over the country, usually because law enforcement shut them down when they got careless and sold too close to their home turf, or set up too close to other people and the cooking smell got them busted.

  Or they accidentally blew themselves up out of stupidity.

  Right now, all he wanted to do was close his eyes and get some sleep before dealing with the reality of their situation.

  Goddamn that fucking wolf cunt. If I ever get a chance to skin her alive, I will. He added the mystery cockatrice bitch to that list. Because of her, the Yellowstone operation had been a bust.

  He tried to go to sleep.

  Chapter Forty-One

  On the drive home, Brodey didn’t talk much. He knew how exhausted, mentally and physically, everyone was.

  It also allowed him time to attempt to process what he’d seen.

  That proved to be a fairly futile prospect.

  He was no stranger to magick, to strange things, to powers far beyond his ken. He’d seen shifters of nearly every race imaginable. He’d seen violence between humans and shifters and fae, between the races, and even participated in some of it himself.

  What he’d seen that night…

  He gripped the steering wheel a little more tightly, the one thing he knew he could control.

  The force of the magick that had blown back from the women when Lina had them form their Triad had nearly knocked him off his feet, and he wasn’t even a target, just a bystander.

  What will they be able to do when they know what the hell they’re doing?

  He couldn’t begin to fathom it.

  Worse, he felt insignificant in a way. How do I protect her? She’s part of something that may save millions of lives, if Lina’s vision about the bomb is correct. How can I even keep up with her to keep her safe so she can do what she was put on this earth to do?

  Maybe that was the reason she’d been put before them as their One. Maybe it was the Goddess of All, or Baba Yaga, or whatever. Maybe something above and beyond any of them knew Elain would be too much for one man to handle.

  It’s an honor and terrifying at the same time.

  All he knew was that right now, he felt exhausted, ready to drop, and couldn’t think about resting until he got them safely home.

  After he’d had a few hours of sleep, he’d need to have a long talk with Elain, and with his brothers.

  * * * *

  It was after ten o’clock that morning when they finally returned to the cabin. They’d already called Ain and Cail to tell them about the success. The two brothers weren’t there when they reached the cabin because they’d gone to meet with members of the Clan Council. Jan and Rick, and Micah and Jim, were there with the kids, who were already napping after eating breakfast.

  Brodey had remained notably quiet during the return drive. At the cabin, he didn’t say anything, just grabbed Elain by the hand and led her into their bedroom. They had a room with its own bathroom. There he helped her undress and started to pull her into the shower with him.

  “Wait.” She brushed her teeth several times, gargled a couple more times with mouthwash, then got into the shower with him. “Sorry. That’s better.”

  With both hands, he gently brushed her hair away from her face and tucked it behind her ears. Palming her cheeks, he slowly kissed her, sweetly, reaffirming his love and commitment to her. Then he wrapped his arms around her, forehead resting against hers, and leaned against the shower wall.

  “I love you,” he whispered. “Nothing will ever change that. Ever. I swear it.” He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I’ve always wondered in the back of my mind if you’d ever seen us in some of the old days, if you would have wanted to be with us then. The things we had to do.”

  “Kill people?” she whispered.

  “Yea
h. People, shifters, cockatrice. Not without reason. Mostly in self-defense, or in combat. Never an innocent. But it’s never pretty.”

  “Can I ask you something?”

  “Of course. Anything.”

  “What happened to the house?”

  He looked down at her. “Huh?”

  “What’d we do to it? I had my eyes closed. I heard…something. What happened to it? Where did it go?”

  He started to say something, stopped, then looked confounded. Finally, “I’m not sure. It was there, and then it’s like it started shimmering, like it was shrinking, and then it was just…gone. Like it had sucked into itself.”

  “Like a black hole?”

  “Kind of, but there wasn’t anything left. It was just gone.”

  She shivered. He must have thought she was cold, because he reached over and turned the hot water up a little before pulling her closer.

  “Brodey?” she whispered.

  “Yeah?”

  “I’m scared.”

  “I swear we’ll do whatever it takes not to let anything happen to you.”

  “Not that.” She laid a hand flat on his chest and looked up at him. “I’m scared of what we can do. The three of us. If we don’t even know what we’re capable of, and Baba Yaga says our powers will get stronger, what won’t we be able to do?”

  He palmed her cheek again. “The three of you are good. Have good hearts. I have every bit of faith in you that you’ll never abuse your powers.”

  “But look at Baba Yaga.”

  “Yeah, that’s a different story.”

  “And a warning.”

  He lightly stroked her cheek with his thumb. “Then take it as that. A warning. Remember what she did, what you disagree with, and don’t do that. It’s that simple.”

  “I’m sure she thinks she’s doing the right thing.”

  “Maybe. Maybe not. You don’t have to be her. The three of you come from a far different world than she did. You all have different powers. Different agendas. And you have us. I’m sure that Jan and Rick, and Micah and Jim, will agree with me when I say that we’ll all keep you grounded.”

  “And Ain and Cail?”

  He playfully smiled. “Duh.”

  Trying to describe how she felt proved impossible. Such a volatile mix of emotions rushed through her, with fear currently occupying the top rung.

  He reached over, grabbed the bottle of shampoo, and squirted some into his hand. Then he gently turned her to face away from him and started lathering her hair, taking his time, massaging her scalp. Her eyes fell closed as she leaned against him and tried to empty her mind. She wanted to do nothing but just exist in the moment, with him.

  He grabbed the removable showerhead and rinsed her hair, never making her move, pampering her in a way they hadn’t had time for lately.

  Following that with conditioner, he then let it sit in her hair and enveloped her in his arms, his chest against her back, his chin rubbing the top of her head.

  “Lean on us, babe,” he said. “We always have strength for you.”

  A tremor raced through her. “I’m scared,” she whispered. The thought wouldn’t go away, kept drumming through her brain, through her heart, through her soul.

  He held her tighter. “I know. It’s okay.”

  “What’d we do today?”

  “You stopped some really bad guys from being able to hurt anyone else.”

  “Did we lose some of us?”

  “I don’t understand. Everyone came back safe.”

  She turned in his arms. “I feel like maybe I lost a little of myself.”

  She couldn’t read the expression in his green eyes. It took a moment for him to speak. “I wish I had a way of fixing this for you. I don’t, and it kills me to say that. All I can tell you is that I won’t leave your side, physically or emotionally, however you need me. I’m sure Ain and Cail will agree with me on that. You can always count on us. We might not know what to do, but we’ll do everything we can to try to help you figure it out.”

  Despite his words she felt more adrift, like she felt in Montana when she saw the Milky Way for the first time in the clear night sky.

  Infinitely small and unimportant.

  Out of control and disconnected on a cosmic scale.

  Even her Alpha had curled up in a dark corner, hiding.

  Afraid.

  She laid her head on his chest. “I need your Alpha,” she whispered.

  He nudged her under the water and quickly washed her and him. He helped her rinse the conditioner from her hair before shutting the water off and grabbing towels.

  Standing in the steamy bathroom, he toweled her dry, lovingly, gently refusing to let her do it herself.

  When they were both dry, he picked her up and carried her into the darkened bedroom. “Look me in the eye,” he softly said as he stretched his body out on top of hers on the bed.

  She did.

  He nudged her thighs apart, his stiff cock rubbing against her clit in that position. Then he reached up and laced his fingers through hers, pinning her to the bed. When she tried to work her hips against his, he stopped and shook his head. “No,” he firmly said. “Don’t move unless I tell you to.”

  Inside, her Alpha relaxed a little, comforted by Brodey’s quiet strength.

  Elain tried to relax but already her clit had started tingling, her pussy wet, the muscles of her cunt longing to feel his cock fucking her.

  He slowly started moving again, his gaze never wavering from hers. “Who do you belong to?” he whispered.

  Without a will of her own, her lips parted. “You.”

  “That’s right. No matter what, all three of us will protect you and love you. Whenever you need us.” He arched his back a little, changing position, and his cock effortlessly slid home deep inside her pussy.

  His hips fell still. He lowered his head until his lips hovered over hers. “Tell me what you want.”

  She froze, uncertain.

  He smiled. “Tell me what your Alpha wants.”

  The answer came immediately from within. “To know there’s something bigger and stronger than me that I can trust in.”

  He kissed her, slowly, sweetly, tears coming to her eyes as she realized the truth in the words. He nibbled his way down her jaw to her ear. “You can always trust the three of us, Elain. Always. I swear it.”

  In a way, she felt like an utter failure. To have lived her whole life to be independent, strong, self-sufficient and reliant, and now to make that admission.

  Apparently he sensed it. He lifted his head again and looked down at her. “Everyone needs someone to lean on from time to time. It doesn’t make you weaker.”

  “I feel like it.”

  “Cail and I, we lean on Ain.”

  “Who does he get to lean on.”

  “Us.” He rubbed noses with her. “And now you.”

  “I had everything figured out and nothing makes sense anymore.”

  “I know. I’m sorry.”

  She squeezed his hands. “Please make me stop thinking.”

  A smile curled his lips. “My pleasure.” He started moving, slowly, taking his time and gliding his cock along her clit with every thrust. He never broke eye contact with her and stroked the back of her hands with his thumbs even as he kept his fingers laced through hers.

  It was a sweet torture, her clit aching for release he wouldn’t grant. When she finally thought she’d have to beg him to fuck her harder, faster, or at least let her move, he sat up, releasing her hands and withdrawing.

  Before she could ask what he was doing, he flipped her over and pulled her up onto her hands and knees. Then he sank his cock into her, hard and deep and pulling a moan from her. He folded his body around her and then sank his teeth into her shoulder.

  “Shift, mate.”

  She couldn’t have refused the edict if she wanted to. Then the two of them were both shifted into wolf form and she suddenly knew his plan. He started fucking her hard and fast again,
teeth still locked on her flesh.

  She forgot how hot this was, how primal and urgent and just…damn…good it felt.

  Now his cock began to swell inside her, the knot at the base growing, filling her. Her head drooped, a soft whine escaping her at the pleasure building inside her.

  “Yes, that’s what you need right now, isn’t it? Come as much and as hard as you like, mate.”

  Her body shivered, her pussy clenching around Brodey’s cock as the knot swelled and triggered her first orgasm. Then she felt another roll through her, and another as in her mind he howled when his climax hit. Hot juices filled her, once again branding her as his mate, before he rolled over and his weight carried them both onto their sides on the bed.

  Panting, he released his bite on her, her head nestled against his neck. “Sleep,” he whispered in her mind, and she was happy to comply.

  * * * *

  They slept the afternoon away. When Elain awoke sometime before dark to the smell of burgers cooking on the grill on the back porch, she was shifted back into human form and Brodey’s human body was still draped around hers. When she rolled to face him, his eyes flew open as his softened cock fell out of her, jarring him awake.

  She smiled. “Sorry.”

  He looked worried for a moment before relaxing. “Better?”

  She nodded and let him hold her close, her head pressed to his chest.

  He kissed the top of her head. “I’ll be honest, I’m afraid to do that with you sometimes.”

  “Why?”

  “We don’t ever want to force you. Especially in bed.”

  “You didn’t force me. I enjoyed it. I needed it.”

  “I know. But never be afraid to say no. We’ll listen, I promise.”

  “Can I say no if you edict me?”

  He tipped her chin up so she had to look at him. “Yes, I promise. About something like this, absolutely we’ll listen. If it’s something safety related, we might have to overrule you and you might be pissed off at us, but we don’t want to be assholes. We want to be what you need us to be. Just like if you say you need to do something for the Triad, or something as a Seer, we might not like it, but we won’t ever order you not to.”