Page 39 of Deadly Ties

“Okay,” he says, gripping my shoulders like he’s about to waste his breath on a pep talk. “Listen to me, alright? I have a plan. But you’re gonna have to put your fucking beast back in its box for a couple hours. Can you do that?” I just stare at him, and I’m pretty sure my eyes are pure silver, because he sighs. “Three things. Shower. Shave. Put on a suit. That’s all I’m asking.”

My wolf instantly pushes against my skin, trying to break his hold. “I don’t have time…”

“And I’m telling you, I have a legitimate lead. OnKelly, man. But I’m only sharing it with Human Link. The corpse-cold asshole who we put in charge of logistics because his shit is always tight.” He pokes me in the chest, hard enough to bruise. “Is he still in there, or are you only good for the cage in the basement?”

Guilt and regret washes over me at that reminder, and I have to bite back another howl. Fuck, he’s right. I’m so close to becoming rabid, I can feel my mind hanging on by a thread. But he said the magic words.Kelly. Lead.I’ll do just about anything to hold on to those. “You promise? This isn’t just a trick to stop me eating park rangers?”

He jerks, then gives a sharp bark. “Fuck, that’s funny, even though I know you’re not kidding. But Feral Link is staying home tonight. So, get your ass into the shower, and brush those park rangers out of your fangs. They reek.”

I go, because even I can’t take my stench anymore. But I’m still moving like a wolf, and that’s not so great for shaving, so Cam eventually pushes his way into my bathroom and shoves me up against the vanity. I want to stand on my own feet… but well, they’re kind of off-balance since I went from four to two. “You’re a fucking mess,” he grumbles as he lathers me up. “How much weight have you lost? I can feel your bones, bro, and these cheekbones are sharp enough to cut.”

I smirk at him, since my cheekbones are hot. Kelly told me so. But that reminder wipes the smile off my face and when I try to jerk away, he nicks my throat with the razor. My blood smells like gunmetal and old meat, and I feel my wolf twist under my skin. A feral wolf gives into his anger, but a rabid one is lost to it. For a moment, I teeter on that edge of no return.

But Cam hauls me back, grabbing me by the shoulder and shoving a washcloth against the wound. “Jesus. Hold still, asshole. You want to cut your throat, leave me out of it.”

I glare back at him in the mirror, but the silver in my eyes is a good wake-up call. Even though I always thought a bullet would take me out, I’m not so sure my wolf would fight him if he sliced a little deeper. Neither of us want to go rabid.

“Sorry.” I swallow and force myself to hold still. “I think my wolf ate something bad. It’s been hard to keep stuff down, and I guess the weight has fallen off.”

“That’s guilt, bro, but you need to suck it up tonight.” He finishes shaving me and cups my shorn cheeks, which look pale and hollow in the stark light. “You need to own your shit. Apologize.”

I prickle. “I just did.”

He sighs and presses a kiss to my damp cheek. It’s weird; Cam and I aren’t like that. We don’t fuck, and to be honest, we barely touch unless it’s in the gym or because Kelly is around. But even those moments were too rare to make this feel familiar. I shove him with my elbow. “What are you doing, man?”

But he just does it again, this time lingering on my skin. I can feel his big hands cupping my throat, and it’s even weirder. Cam doesn’t do gentle. He likes to think he’s got a great bedside manner, but an inch under his skin, he’s a fucking fighter like the rest of us.

Doesn’t stop him trying to mind-twist me, though. “You need us, Lincoln. Not just Kelly. You need a pack, or you’re gonna go lone wolf.”

I decide to turn the tables on him and grab his ass, pulling him hard against me until we’re rubbing together. “If I have to fuck your ass to prove I’m pack, I will, Cameron. Just bend over and stop squawking at me, okay?”

I expect him to punch me in the gut, but he just looks down at me with his strange pale eyes. Serial killer eyes, I used to tell him as a kid, especially when they get that silver wolf ring around them. Only he leans in and whispers, “I’m a top, bro.”

I’m a bit embarrassed by the way I choke out, “You wish.”

But he just leans in until he’s so close to my ear, I wonder if he can hear the blood pumping in my skull. “Well, most of the time, I am. Sometimes it’s nice to have a bigger, harder guy take care of you. But you and me don’t have to do that. We just need to have each other’s backs, okay?” He pulls away and flicks a hand at my closet. “Find a nice suit. And hide your guns. We’re not fighting tonight.”

That’s all he’ll give me until we’re driving through familiar city streets and I shoot him a glare. “You brought me here of all fucking places? What don’t you get about triggering a feral state, asshole?”

He ignores me, pulling into the parking lot under an office building that’s permanently up for lease. It provides discreet parking for The Looking Glass, the business directly across the street. But when he turns off the engine, I just stare at him and he sighs. “Rory told us to meet him here and we’re doing it. This isn’t just about you, okay? And you fucking owe us, Link.”

He's full of good points tonight. But I haven't seen Rory since he flipped me off at the lake house, right after stopping Cam’s wolf from tearing out my throat. Five minutes after shaking off his drug coma, he issues a command strong enough to paralyze us both. Not that I’d even felt it, since I was still shaking off whatever crap Arben Marku’s goon stuck me with. But none of that hit me as hard as the fact I’d screwed over my brothers, and it had all been for nothing.

Yeah, I owe them. But the part I haven’t even told them - that I can barely admit to myself – is that I didn’t just screw up with Elvana Bisha.

Because my mate – our brother – has got another claiming bite. I don’t know if he wanted it, or it was forced on him, but he’s not just ours anymore.

And I’ll never forgive myself for that.

We enter The Looking Glass through the VIP entrance. There’s a stunning beta on the desk to check us in, though she’s mostly there for eye candy and to remind us we pay a lot for the privilege of membership. But tonight she takes one look at my face and melts into the background. Although, it could just be she remembers my dad. He was a founding patron of the place and liked to fuck anything that moved.

No one else bothers us as we walk to our booth down a dimly lit corridor. Every step pisses me off more, reminding me of the times we snuck in here as teenagers to watch the live porn show. Even after my old man was dead and buried, I’d claimed we were here under his membership, and Rory had fucked whatever coat-check girl dared to challenge us. It was just the beginning of the orgy we held in my dad’s old booth. We had our hands on enough funds from our dead fathers to buy plenty of drinks and drugs, and the coat-check girl often brought a couple of friends along to party.

But this was also the first place I fucked Kelly. Not in the booth, but in a shadowy corner on the way down to the main seating area. That was a free-for-all every night, so it’s not like it raised any eyebrows. We’d been daring each other to go put on a show, and Kelly just looked at me with a half-sneer and a twinkle in his whiskey eyes. I was so gone on him, I bent him over the railing before we even got there and blew my load in under a minute. Of course, like everything with Kelly, I’d instantly felt like a shithead. No prep. No romance. Not even a goddamn view as I railed into him with my unimpressive dick. But I was Hila’s son and an asshole, so what did he expect?

My chest hurts as we reach the door to our booth. “I'm really not in the mood to watch assholes get blowjobs tonight.”

Cam ignores me and goes inside. The booth is clearly empty, but he doesn’t seem concerned. “Sit down, Link. Rory said he’d meet us here.”

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