Page 78 of Wild Wolf

“What they say is mostly true, Maxy boy. I’m a deranged, unusual creature. I don’t know if they represent me as I truly be, all I know is I am what I am and most of the world don’t have time for different.”

“I have time,” he said, his arm brushing mine.

I looked at him and he looked at me. There was no denying our parentage, we shared the same eyes, same hardness to our jaws. But would Maximus really stick around once he knew what I was? It took a special kind of Fae to do that. Jerome and Rosalie being the shining examples. Max Rigel didn’t look like a man who could be easily spooked, but spook him I likely would.

A glint in my periphery made me turn a moment too late and I growled as a dart lodged in my neck at the very same moment one lodged in Max’s. My eyes widened at the familiar feel of Order suppressant slithering through my blood and my Incubus went bye-bye.

The tree shuddered and the branches around us coiled around us like giant arms, snaring my limbs as fire blazed from my hands, trying to burn them away.

Max tried to wrangle the wind and I joined him in his efforts, the whips of air wrapping around us and attempting to yank us from the branches banding around us. But the bark bit deep and dragged my hands back time and again, knots of leaves winding around my fingers, and every time I burned through them, more took their place. The tree was bending, bowing as if to the forest itself and we descended rapidly to the ground, slamming into the mossy dirt with force.

My head connected with a rock and my magic faltered as a daze took hold of me, noises sounding like echoes. Someone slapped cuffs onto my wrists and my magic locked down in an instant, the cold feel of them reminding me sharply of Darkmore.

The muffled sounds of a struggle made me turn my head, and I found Max being shoved into the back of a black van, magical cuffs glinting on his wrists and a wild look in his eyes. Ethan was on his knees beside it, his hands cuffed too and his mouth gagged with a vine.

The branches of the tree forced me to kneel and one slid under my chin, making me raise my head to the Fae who had done this.

Jerome stood over me, my dear brother giving me a look that left my brain confused. Behind him were a group of Fae, his followers all clustered close to Jerome with their hands on his shoulders, power sharing to gift him unspeakable strength.

I glanced around, sure he had come to save me from whoever had made this tree attack me, but his fingers moved and the branches holding me did too, telling me without doubt that it was him controlling them.

A wild laugh escaped me, my grin so very wide. “No fair, you didn’t give me a chance to fight back! Let’s go for round two but this time you can’t go sneaking up on me, you cheeky chappy.”

Jerome didn’t smile, regarding me with all the coldness of deep winter snowfall. He was playing a real good game here, committing to the bit and I wanted to play too. So I’d have to accept being the helpless prisoner.

“Please! Please don’t hurt me!” I screamed at the top of my lungs then laughed and laughed. Jeromeo didn’t crack. My foster bro still looked all murderous and shit. He was good at this game.

“Sin,” he growled and the branches around my limbs tightened enough to bruise. “You had a chance to return to me. More than one in fact. But you chose that Wolf time and again. You’ve abandoned me.”

I frowned, not seeing the glint of fun in his eyes I was waiting for. It was all serious Simon in those eyes, and I suddenly didn’t feel like laughing anymore.

“Abandoned you?” I scoffed. “Never, J man. I’m just in love, that’s all. My heart’s gone and made itself a home with someone else. You can’t undo shit like that. Least, I don’t think you can. And anyways, I don’t want to. Not ever.”

“That’s precisely the issue,” he said cuttingly and even the birds in the trees fell quiet.

I was feeling a sense of the uh-ohs that I was pretty sure I needed to pay attention to. But this was my Jeromeo, what could there be to worry about?

“Okay untie me now, it’s my turn to play big bad boss man,” I insisted.

“You’re a fucking fool,” he barked and one of the branches punched me in the face, splitting my lip open.

My gaze settled on the earth, my frown deepening and the cogs whirring in my head as I was left with the confused feeling that something wasn’t right about all this. I just couldn’t say what exactly. I looked to Ethan who had rage in his eyes as he glared at Jerome, and I got the sense that I should trust that anger.

“You think all those years I would have put up with your incessant chatter, your mindless, crazy bullshit if you didn’t hold value to me?” Jerome demanded.

“Crazy?” I echoed in a whisper, that single word among his sentence sticking in my head like a needle.

“Yes, crazy. Fucking moronic too. You took a pittance for the hits I organised for you while I pocketed the real cash.”

“What do you mean? I have two million auras and this really cool cabin,” I said, trying a laugh, but Jerome didn’t break character. He was really committing to being this angry, bitter man with a stick up his ass.

“You killed Fae across Solaria whose heads were worth millions, Sin,” he said, shaking his head at me like I was so very idiotic.

“Pfffft, you’re making stuff up now,” I said. “That’s my brother in the van by the way. Do you want to meet him? I think you guys will really get along.”

“That’s Tiberius Rigel’s son?” Jerome’s head snapped up to look at the van and I guessed he was super excited to meet him.

“Yeah, come on. Get this tree off of me and let’s go have a cup of tea in the house,” I urged.

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