Page 61 of Wrath
Mary pushed through the large men crowding around Wyatt. Flint wasn’t far behind. The two of them had aged. He was used to them being so energetic and youthful. The last he’d tried, Mary could still master him during a sparring session. But the past few months had been hard on them. Sara had blown a hole in their family dynamic, and their children were flirting dangerously with their sins. The Syndicate was knocking at the door, threatening to make Mary’s foreseen diabolical future a reality.
New worry lines were etched around both sets of eyes. Flint had more gray at his temples, and Mary’s slick dark braid had lines of silver streaking through it.
“Mijo.” Mary cupped Wyatt’s face, her brown eyes turning liquid. The woman knew how to kill him a hundred ways, but the tears of gratitude glistening in her eyes hit him the hardest. “I’m so happy you’re home.”
Wyatt drew her small but strong, muscular frame into his body and hugged her tightly. The only mother he’d ever known, she’d been the first to understand the self-destruction and devastation in their futures. Her clairvoyant powers had pointed her in their direction as children and rescued them from the lab and the Hildegard Sisterhood—another faction of fanatics who wanted to use them. It was Mary and Flint who took it upon themselves to give the Lazarus children a semi-normal childhood and then taught them to be warriors for good. Never forced to do anything they didn’t want to—except of course the seven years of combat training—after that, it was up to them who decided to team up and fight crime. Mary and Flint supported them when they fought, they supported them when they all took a few years off after Sara’s first death. And they supported him now. Without the unconditional love from Mary and Flint, Wyatt might have lost faith completely after Sara. Seeing the two of them now, with love for each other still in their eyes, it gave him hope.
Mary pulled away, and then surprisingly, Flint drew Wyatt in for a hug, clapping him on the back proudly. “Good to have you back, son.”
Twenty-Eight
“Right,”Parker said loudly. “Let’s get to work. We need to inform Wyatt about what’s been happening, and he needs to explain what the fuck is going on with this Bratva mess.” He frowned at Wyatt. “Do we need to be worried?”
“He’s in league with the Syndicate,” Wyatt rasped, then cleared his throat when his words caught. “The silver-haired woman was there. They tried to get a sample of my blood, but—” Wyatt strode over to where Liza sat and pulled her pistol from her holster.
Being a Cardinal City detective, she carried one on her most of the time.
Wyatt pressed the pistol into his palm and fired. He bit his tongue at the excruciating pain, and for a moment, when he tasted blood in his mouth, he worried that his invincibility had worn off. But when he pulled the gun away and opened his fist, a squashed bullet fell out. He shook his hand out. Fuck that hurt.
He licked the inside of his teeth, tasting blood. Must only be his outer skin that was invulnerable.
Evan whistled in awe, and a few collective “Oohs” went around the room, but Liza put her phone down and scowled at Wyatt. “You discharged a government-issued weapon, you dick. Now I’ll have paperwork.”
“Get some more rounds from downstairs,” Griffin said, ever the pragmatic one. “No one will know.”
“That’s not the point,” Liza grumbled.
She was acting off today, or maybe it was more noticeable now that he wasn’t in a perpetually foul mood. As a matter of fact, any of the seven who weren’t matched with a mate were snarky. What a difference some time with Misha had made, even more evident now with distance from his past self.
“So,” Evan said. “She didn’t get a drop of your blood.”
Wyatt shook his head.
“Well, she’ll be back for more,” Parker said. “This Falcon woman doesn’t seem the type to give up.”
A ping sounded at the elevator. Suzi from Heaven’s kitchen came in with a bag of takeout. She’d been Wyatt’s sous chef, and a talented one at that. He was surprised to see Parker had given her access to their private rooms. Must trust her.
The robust woman had blond pixie hair and blotchy rosy cheeks from the heat of the kitchen. As she approached, Wyatt noted she wore the uniform of the head chef—his old position.
Upon seeing Wyatt, she froze. “Chef.”
He made a pointed look at her uniform. The old Wyatt would have made some passive aggressive statement, but he honestly didn’t care that she’d taken his job. It wasn’t for him anymore. He loved cooking, but he didn’t want to work in a big kitchen. He didn’t know what he wanted to do with himself. Getting back into his battle gear would be a good start. He had a lot to make up for. All those bodies he’d wasted during his tour across the country with Betty… it did no good except incite more violence in the bars he’d left. Perhaps now, he could approach his sin with a calm head. He could do some good.
“Suzi,” he said. “Uniform looks good on you.”
Her cheeks brightened. “Well, I had a good teacher.”
He folded his arms and snorted. “I was an ass, but I’m glad you think so.”
She handed him the bag and gave Parker a short salute, then left. Once they were sure she’d safely gone, they continued their conversation.
“How did Falcon know about your DNA unlocking so soon after the fact?” Liza asked. “I mean, the Syndicate only want our bloodafterwe’ve met our mate. With Evan, Sara discovered his blood had changed purely by accident. With Griffin, he had a public display of power, but with you, Wyatt, did that happen? How did they get wind of your situation?”
Wyatt cast his mind back over the past few weeks to determine whether anyone other than Misha had witnessed his transformation, and then it came to him. “The fire. I walked out of a burning building unharmed. It wasn’t exactly a secret. I think Dimitri was already working for the Syndicate, so he probably passed the information on.”
“They’re everywhere.” Liza threw her hands up in defeat. “It’s like they have someone who knows us as well as they do. They know our habits, they know our places of work, they probably know what we eat and who we fuck.”
“No need to get crude, Liza.” Parker arched an eyebrow. “But I get what you’re saying. It might even be possible that they know about the importance of the mates. They know too much about us, and we’re still yet to learn about them.”
