Page 3 of Frenzy
“Juan Luca has been good to us all these years. Trustworthy. He’ll continue his father’s legacy.” Juan Pablo had died nearly a decade ago of cancer, a testament to how tough the man really was. Because in this business? You didn’t live long enough to die of natural causes.
I slumped back into the couch and tried not to think about all the money we were flushing down the toilet to become fucking average Joes. But in the back of my brain, I might also have been relieved not to play this game anymore. Always watching my back. The drugs and bitches and the constant double-crosses.
Courtland finally turned to look at me completely. “What do you want, Dom? We’ve been chasing my dreams for so long, I don’t even know what it is you wanted to do with your life.”
Now it was my turn to shrug, because I didn’t know either. I’d been sold to Courtland’s father as a child. I didn’t remember my parents or Pack. Courtland was my Pack, my whole world. His missions had become my missions. His needs became my needs. He was ingrained in the very fabric of my being.
I loved him. Too much. He was my Pack, and he was so much more. Not that he knew that.
I cleared my throat and gave him my manic grin. “Fucked if I know. I’ve always been about the mission, you know? And a life of fucking pretty woman and spending bucketloads of money hasn’t hurt. You don’t need goals when you have pretty red lips wrapped around your cock, right?”
He snorted, shaking his head. “They aren’t dreams. That isn’t even a lifestyle.” He cleared his throat. “I think I’d like a quieter life. Take Abuela and the kids somewhere where Uzis aren’t as common as teddy bears, you know?”
I nodded. Courtland was my Alpha, of that I was certain, and if Courtland was my Alpha, then that ragtag bunch of brats was my Pack. I loved each one of them, even if they fucking drove me crazy. “We’d have to leave Mexico. Abuela won’t like that.”
Courtland’s grandmother was as steadfast as an old tree, rooted deep into the rocky dirt of the town she’d lived in her whole life. I knew she wouldn’t leave. Courtland knew it too, even though he was pretending he didn’t know he’d have to leave her.
I’d noticed a difference in him since he’d arrived back from Maxton, the stronghold of the Manix. Fuck me, for so long we’d thought he and Naja, and that damn kid from when he’d been fourteen, were the last of the Manix, but we’d been so damn wrong. There were literally hundreds of them hiding up in the wilds of Montana. Being in that town had awoken something in Courtland, and the restlessness of his energy was beginning to rile my wolf.
As if he could read my face, he stepped closer until I felt his breath on my cheek when he whispered, “Do you remember the boy? Pryce?”
Fuck. I knew it. I knew this was coming as soon as he said he was done. Courtland had shaped his entire life around being a savior, so I knew he’d have this void when he was done saving Naja. And that boy, this Pryce, had plagued Courtland for nearly as long as Naja. I should have known that we wouldn’t just up and leave with that decade-old mystery burning a guilt-ridden hole in his soul.
“Yeah, Court. I remember the boy.” If I thought hard enough, I could almost remember the faint notes of his scent too.
“Do you want to burn some shit down on our way out of here?” he asked softly, his face so close to mine I thought for a moment he might kiss me. But we didn’t do that shit.
Instead, I leaned away and took a gulp of my tequila, and hoped his superhuman fucking senses couldn’t hear the race of my heart. “Hell fucking yeah. Let’s fuck some shit up.”
He gave me a rare smile, the one that meant we were either going to get rich or get beat to shit. I hadn’t seen it in years, and now my heart was racing for all sorts of other reasons. While Iago’s organization was scrabbling to replace their numbers and their head honcho, I knew now was the perfect time to strike at a different enemy, one that would definitely get our asses kicked if the Convocation found out.
The fucking suit who had delivered all of Rosa’s siblings? We’d later learned he was some sort of government lackey. Discovered that they had some underground lab in the desert somewhere that held a whole bunch of people. Some like the kid, Pryce. Some humans. Who the fuck knew who else?
“You know he’s probably not there anymore, right? He’s probably dead.”
Courtland sucked in a deep breath, his nostrils flaring. “I know. But there are others there that are alive. I don’t know, Dom. It feels unfinished.”
And unfinished business drove Courtland crazy. I reached out and slapped his bicep. “Don’t have to woo me to madness, Alpha. I’m with you all the way.”
Courtland straightened and shook his head at me, amusement chasing away the normal coldness of his eyes. He kept that mask up for everyone—everyone except his family and me. “I don’t know what I did to deserve you, Dom, but I thank your Moon Goddess every single day that you’re my Beta.”
I flipped him my middle finger, because I didn’t know how to respond to something as insane asfeelings.“No you don’t, fucker. You don’t believe in her.”
He just smiled at me enigmatically, but didn’t contradict me. He pulled his cell phone out and started mashing numbers, doing whatever it was he did to work his magic.
“I’ll prep the muscle,” I said softly, throwing back the last of my tequila. He did the brain work and I did the brawn. Because I was much more comfortable with a gun in my hand than delving around inside my head.
2
Bonnie
“Listen, Bonnie. Your predecessor ran the Sanctum with half the money and less help. You’re a smart girl. You’ll figure it out.”
I gritted my teeth to stop myself from snarling. You didn’t snarl at the Alpha General. “Yes, Sir.”
The Alpha General gave me a patronizing look and sent me on my way with a flick of his fingers. I gave him a tight smile, hotfooting it out of there before I said something I regretted.
Radic was waiting for me outside the door, a pained look on his face. “Didn't go well?” he whispered, because we all had spectacular hearing. For instance, I could hear the Legion Generals inside the office talking about how it was a shame that a Beta female of my age hadn’t found a Pack yet. Hell, at this point they’d even take just a mate, as long as I was doing my bit to increase the population of the Manix. Yet those bastards didn’t want to give me a cent, or another set of hands, to solve the problems we had with the growing number of half-Manix kids being dumped on the doorstep. They wanted to pretend it wasn’t an issue, but we’d had two this year alone. As the number of Manix females decreased, the more the Manix men roamed, and not just the Alphas. The Betas too. And the babies almost always ended up on the boundaries of Maxton—sometimes at the age of two, sometimes not until they presented their Manix traits in their teens. There were fifteen kids in the Sanctum now, and no one would take responsibility for them.
