Page 33 of Big Bad Bully
“Wonderful. I’ll tell Brick to expect a report within a week.”
Fuck, now I have to talk to my dad. My mood just went from bad to worse.
My eyes are probably glowing. My wolf doesn’t answer to Sully–which is why he’s careful to clarify that I’ll be reporting to Brick, not him. Still, the next time we’re on a run, I’m going to unleash my wolf on him. He needs to remember that I’m second, not him. “Don’t trouble yourself. I’ll tell him myself.” I stomp out the door before I challenge him to a dominance fight right in his office. Wolves and security equipment don’t mix.
I’m pissed I have to deal with this, but Sully is right. Any threat to our pack needs to be dealt with immediately. I have to hunt my dad down and eliminate the threat.
I pull out my phone, scroll to my second favorite contact, and hit talk.
“Billy?” My sister Boudicca answers, sounding confused. “Is everything okay?”
“Our father is here.”
“What?” It takes her a moment to parse what I’m telling her. “In the city?”
“Yes.” I grind my teeth.
She sighs. “I heard he was planning a trip. I would’ve stopped him if I could.”
“I know.”
When my sister turned twenty, she was exiled from our pack for mating a she-wolf. Because, of course, my dad is homophobic as well as a bigot. He can’t stand to let people love who they love; he only wants to spread hate around.
Now she lives in New Hampshire with her mate, but she keeps tabs on the pack. She was always brave and strong and focused on protecting others. Protecting me. When she was exiled, she tried to take me with her, but my father and his enforcers wouldn’t allow it.
Hearing her voice sends me back to an earlier, darker time. For a moment, I’m in the Maine woods of my father’s territory. I can hear the pack shouting. I was five when they caught a hunter trespassing on pack land. I can still recall the stink of sweat and fear and the evil light in my dad’s eye.
He made the pack gather and watch as his enforcers dragged the human forward. “This human thinks he can hunt on our land,” my father sneered. “We’ll teach him who does the hunting around here!”
The rabid cheers fade away as my sister calls my name. “Billy? Are you still there?”
I shake my head to clear the memory. “I’m here. I need you to help me find out where he’s staying.” I know she’s maintained relationships with the more decent members of my father’s pack. She does what she can to help them to spite my father’s tyranny.
“I’ll do what I can,” she promises.
I tell her I love her, and we end the call, but I’m still caught in the grip of memory.
I was only five when they found that hunter in the woods. At the time, my sister was my babysitter. She held me close while my father ranted and raved about humans and how weak they are.
“They think they can take over the earth! But they’re weak.” The disgust in his voice made me cower. If I was in wolf form, I would’ve tucked my tail.
I could feel the anger and triumph in my father, and that was never a good sign. I was a small child and often bore the brunt of my father’s hate.
And he was whipping up the pack, getting them ready for violence.
At one point, I whimpered. I didn’t mean to make a sound, but once it was out, it was too late.
My father heard me.
“Bring him here,” he ordered my sister. She shook her head. Only twelve, and she was brave enough to stand up to him, even when he beat her for it. She tried to protect me.
I didn’t want her to get hurt. I pushed away and made myself go on shaking legs to stand before him.
“This is a human. He thinks he’s strong but take away his gun and…” my father raised a hand, and the man shrieked behind his gag. I didn’t need to hear what he was saying to know he was begging for his life.
My father and his cronies laughed. “See?” My father shouted. “Weak. Come here, boy.’ He gripped my shoulder, and his fingers dug into the muscle and bone. It hurt. I bit back a cry. “You’re a wolf like me. My son. You don’t want to be weak. Right?”
“N-no…”
