Page 6 of Wolf Tamer

It’s better for me to not wake up at all.

The thought clangs distantly around in my brain before I peel my eyes open, a herculean effort. My entire body seizes the second I do.

I might have cursed.

I might have said nothing at all.

But a shadow darkens over me, and when I finally manage to blink through the grit gluing my lashes to my cheeks—not literally—I see Julius standing there. He looms over the bed with his gaze scoring, and I’ve got to wonder what he sees. It’s nothing good, because he’s pale and trying his best to look like he doesn’t give a shit.

“It’s about fucking time,” he bites out. “I thought you were done. You’ve been out for… It doesn’t matter. I’ve got you bandaged and ready to get up on your own.”

Hissing, I reach up to probe against the pressure on my forehead.

“Don’t. I took special time to bandage you. If you pry, you’re going to ruin it.”

“I’m living in a parallel dimension,” I mutter. “Because I swear you told me I have to get up on my own and then immediately complained that I’d ruin your bandage art.”

How am I not dead?

Julius scoffs, and the sound is so familiar that a part of me relaxes on the spot.

“Come on. It’s no big deal, Reid.”

“Oh no. I’m in a dimension where you’re actually a kind and decent human being,” I continue. The pain has me delirious because insulting the one person who has the ability to kill me is nothing short of suicide, and yet here we are together.

The house feels quiet around me. With the curtains drawn, I’m not sure of the time, but the other wolf energies I sense are restful. Early morning?

Everyone’s asleep except my Nurse Ratched of a brother who’s taking care of me.

Although… I gave him the chance. He had the perfect opportunity to finish me off, and yet he brought me up to bed and bandaged my head instead. I want to be grateful for small miracles.

Instead, I’m tense, my fingers curling and grasping the sheets around me.

I have more than a sneaking suspicion that if it comes to blows again, I’m not going to find myself on the winning end of things. Julius has another clear opening. He’s already got me on my back, and if the aches in my side and leg are anything to go by… I’m stuck at his mercy.

Whatever my oldest brother decides to do, my fate is still in his hands, and we continue to eye each other like two starving animals with a juicy bone between them.

Only he’s not diving for it the way I would have bet my life on.

He stares at me for a moment longer with a hardness I’m used to seeing in his dark eyes. His hair, black and a few inches too long, falls over his face and ears like he’s been tugging the strands to make them stand at attention.

“Christ, Reid, you’ve got no clue what’s going on in your own house. Some alpha you are.”

“You don’t need to remind me,” I say through a growl.

A weight settles at my side, and when I tilt my head, Julius is seated there, his gaze focused on something outside of my awareness, his hands clasped between his legs, and his elbows balanced on his knees.

“I walked into pure fucking chaos, and you’ve got the gall to sneer at me like I’m waiting in line to tear out your throat.”

I pause for a moment. “Aren’t you?”

It’s an unfair blow considering the current dynamics. He looks more like a man on the edge rather than one with murder on the mind.

“We went through hell together,” he replies. His voice is softer than I’ve heard it in a long time, and I’m at once grateful for my shifter hearing or I might have missed the inflection. “You’ve got the same scars and trauma that I have. Plus, you’ve got creatures you thought you could trust snapping at your heels with a thirst for your blood. But you’re still accusing me of…”

“Can you blame me?”

Julius shakes his head. “I guess I can’t. Because if the positions were reversed, I would assume the same thing.”

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