Burdened Beasts

chapter three: strangers

Viola

I can’t stop myself, can’t get my errant hands back under my control. He’s so strong. My palms skate over his chest, down his flat stomach, up again over his ribs. His hair smells like heaven, the entire car full of cedar and pine. My lips press the back of his neck, my chest flush against his broad back. From behind, I snake my legs around his middle, pull him closer. Morgan has gone absolutely incoherent with joy in my head.

For weeks, I’ve seen pictures of him, intel gathered from the team. Glimpses through the windows of his back-alley business, tousled head bent over a laptop. On the rare occasions he actually left the building, there were snapshots of his long gait, his broad shoulders up against those of that fox girl with the pink hair. Rarely smiling, still, it was a punch to the gut how much be looked like Sam. How alike and unalike twins can be.

But through pictures, I couldn’t have known. Only when he came bursting through that back door, the sun hitting the hot-coal red of his curly hair. Only when fear touched his features, so familiar to me and at the same time so new. Fear, then rage, then determination. He was going back for his friend. After all this time, after all these years, he was about to slip past me again.

Mate! Morgan had howled.

My limbs wind tight around him, both hands slipping into his curls. With a quick flip, I spin over him, straddle his lap. Goddess, his face. Even in the dark, his green eyes are huge. His big chest is heaving, too fast, and I realize he may be hurt. How could I have let myself get so distracted? Why haven’t I been checking him for injuries? My palms turn his face, this way, then that. So much like Sam, but so different. A scar through one eyebrow. Another under his chin. I lift his sharp jaw, and he lets me set his head back. When I see his throat stretch down into the deep v of his t-shirt, revealing a low smattering of chest hair, I purr.

Fingers in his hair again, I pull his head further back, not gently. I press my face into the hot curve before his shoulder. My lips brush the spot where one day he will bear my mark, and he shudders, hard. His whole body shakes with it, and I hold him to me. A wave of spoiled longing, of agony washes through me. All this time, I’ve wondered. I thought maybe I’d never find my mate, because of what I was. He’s been right here, all this time. If they hadn’t done what they did to him, he could have been mine all along. He could have come home. He could have sat at his brother’s side, laughing with us. He could have known Lily.

I shift his head back, look into his eyes. I bring my forehead down to his, lean in, ready to kiss him. Beyond ready to make up for all the time that’s been lost between us. Ready to mate him, to mark him, to let our wolves roam the dark together. Finally, whole. Ready, at last, not to feel so f*****g lonely. Then he says the worst thing, the absolute last thing I ever thought I would hear if I found who the Moon Goddess had designed only for me.

“Who are you?” he asks.

* * *

An hour later, we finally stop the sedans beside the dusty two lane we’ve been following through a flat landscape. I haven’t seen another car for forty-five minutes or more, but that doesn’t mean anything. There had been no sign before, no cars outside the office, even the attackers themselves had been hidden. An invisible assault, and I still have no idea how.

Diego climbs out of the other car, nods his head toward a crop of trees far enough away that we won’t be overheard. I’m already headed there. He tosses me a bottle of water, and I gulp it gratefully. My entire body is trembling, even though it’s probably well over a hundred degrees out here. Why anyone would live like this willingly is beyond me.

The drivers stand guard while our guests scramble out of each car. They run to each other, falling into one another’s arms. My mate, the life partner that destiny deemed perfect for me, takes that little girl’s face between his hands as if checking to make sure she’s unharmed. The bottle of water in my hand explodes and I’m surprised that the drops don’t sizzle in the dust.

Forget the water, Morgan suggests helpfully. Drink her blood, instead.

“We’ve got a big f*****g problem,” I hiss.

“We’ve got about a dozen,” Diego drawls, sipping his water. “The first being that this heat is giving me the shits.”

I gape.

“That’s the first?” I demand. “Your errant bowels somehow rank higher than, I don’t know, the hidden assailants that are after the future Alpha of our pack? The pack that we now can’t get to without leading said assassins right to them, since they could be watching us right now and we’d have no idea? The fact that we also have no idea who these people are, or why they’re after the future Alpha of our pack, or even who the future Alpha of our pack actually is – other than my mate?”

Diego howls, actually howls, with laughter.

“Oh, this is hilarious,” he gasps.

“It really isn’t.”

“It is,” he insists. “It is.”

“It’s not, and you are not going to mention it to anyone, especially not to him.”

“I’m not gonna embarrass you, if that’s what you’re worried about,” Diego says, holding up his hands. “I’m just surprised he didn’t have to limp out of that SUV after an hour on the road with you when…”

He trails off, assesses my glare.

“Wait,” he says, glancing over to where my mate still has his hands on that chick. “Oh, s**t,” he says.

“Yes. s**t,” I hiss. “He has no clue.”

“He doesn’t feel the mate bond?!”

“If he does, he’s shown exactly zero indication of it. He’s barely glanced at me.”

“His wolf is in there, though. It’s gotta be.”

“It’s in there,” I confirm, ignoring Morgan’s whines of agreement. “But it’s like he’s got no connection with it whatsoever.”

“f**k,” Diego says. “You think he can’t shift?”

“I think we better be damn sure that he can before we drag him in front of an entire pack we expect him to lead and protect.”

“You should check with Dr. Navarro, see what he thinks,” Diego suggests.

“I’ll call him as soon as I can, but first I have to update Sam. What the hell am I supposed to tell him?!”

“Well, I already briefed him on the attack. He’s arranging accommodations now, so we can lay low for a while. He sent out reinforcements to see what they could find from the site. There’s gotta be something we missed, some trace of them.”

“Alright, okay,” I say, minorly mollified. “I won’t worry Sam until I know more. I’ll see what I can get out of… him.”

“You mean your mate.”

“Shut up, Diego.”

Diego sets a heavy hand on my shoulder.

“Seriously, Vile. It’s gonna be okay. We’re gonna figure this out.”

I turn to look back and find my mate’s eyes on me.

Two things happen at the same time. First, my phone rings. It’s Sam, I already know. Second, the chick makes a break for it. She makes it about twenty feet before she shifts. Her fox is scrappy, like she is, tall and lean. I’ve only seen a handful of werefoxes in my life, and she’s bigger than I thought she’d be. Her black tail tucks over her back, which bleeds from a speckled grey to a brighter crest of orange on her chest. Sebastian screams at her to run, but her fox is awkward, seems unused to being in this form. The guards shift and break for her.

“Ah, hell,” Diego groans, jogging toward them.

I press my phone to my ear.

“Alpha Hunt,” I say.

“Vile,” Sam breathes in relief. “I’ve been worried sick, I thought I’d hear from you by now. Is everything alright?”

“Yes, sir,” I say, as the guards catch up with the lanky fox. “Absolutely, sir.”

“I’ve sent over coordinates for a safe house outside the city. It’s not going to be the finest accommodations, I’m sorry to say, but it’s under the radar,” he tells me.

The guards clip her fox’s heels, bring it down hard into the dust. They’re on it in a moment, bundling it over, trying not to hurt it. Sebastian is still standing by the sedan, hands in his fiery hair. I bite back a sigh. No, he definitely can’t shift. If he could, he’d have run already. He'd be defending her now, much to my dismay.

Unaware, Sam goes on in my ear.

“So he’s… with you now, then?” he asks.

“He is,” I answer.

“How… does he seem?”

“Well,” I begin, carefully. “Confused. A bit wary.”

I’m not used to lying to Sam, not even used to watering the truth down for him. I’m not now, not exactly. Sebastian certainly does seem both confused and wary. Of course, I’m leaving out the part where he also seems full of rage and ready to make an attempt on our lives at any moment. Though, he wouldn’t get far without his wolf. I’m certainly leaving that part out.

The guards have her now, all of them back in their human forms. She kicks, screeching and hissing. Sebastian moves to try and make the guards drop her, but Diego is already there, is already holding him back. The fight goes out of him, falls away from his broad shoulders. They force her into her car, slamming the door on her still spitting expletives.

“Could I… Would it be alright if I spoke with him?” Sam asks.

“Sure,” I say, cringing. “Of course.”

I pick my way down toward them, making eye contact with Diego. Nodding, he backs up, moves into the vehicle with the she devil. Sebastian won’t look at me, fully refuses to even acknowledge my presence until I’m waiting in front of him with my hand out. He glances down at the phone in my palm, then glares back up at me, eyes hot in the bright light.

“Your brother wants to speak with you,” I tell him.

He stares at the phone.

“Base?” I hear Sam’s voice ask softly.

Sebastian takes the phone, tosses it up into the air. As it falls, he swings his leg forward, neatly punting my cell across the flat plain. It gets distance. He should go pro. When it lands, it sprays into several pieces, an expensive grenade. He looks back at me, green eyes ablaze.

“f**k him,” he spits. “And f**k you.”

With that, he climbs back into the car.