Page 67 of The Forbidden Wolf

“We will,” I sniffled. “We’ll get you a new one tomorrow.”

“And it had damn well better be plated in gold,” Evan joked through his own sniffles.

I laughed and pressed my face into his chest. “I’ll hold him to it.”

“She probably went to her folks’ apartment,” Evan said as if convincing himself. “She wouldn’t want to go back to ours without—”

“Charlie,” I moaned. “Oh, gods, Charlie.”

My knees buckled, and we both slid down to the floor. I clung to his neck, practically crawling into his lap. His own sobs broke free at least, tears falling like hot drops of lava onto my neck. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d held or been held by one of my own kind, and even as the waves of guilt and grief kept crashing over me, I felt a tiny ember of pride begin to burn deep inside. I made him. I did that.

I was the most powerful shifter alive.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Damian sat on a metal folding chair in the center of a small room with silver-coated, steel-reinforced walls. Contrary to popular belief, silver couldn’t kill us, but the fiction was based on some fact. In large concentrations, silver could interfere with our ability to summon our wolves and their associated powers. For that reason, I had been relegated to watching the interrogation on a closed-circuit television in Maximo’s office.

Personally, I thought that reason was a load of crap considering how Sebastian hadn’t had any problem stuffing his beloved mother in the very same bunker to keep her safe when the Bronx wolves attacked. I was pretty sure my patronizing partner and his more charming but equally patronizing father were afraid my delicate female emotions would spiral out of control. Damian couldn’t tell the truth if his lips were hanging on by threads.

Are they wrong?

She had a point. Hating Damian felt good. Really, really good.

Killing him would probably feel even better.

He wore a silver-infused shiftskin designed to prevent shifting, and the clingy material showed off just how much weight he’d lost in the past week. His flaxen hair hung in two greasy unwashed curtains on either side of his sunken cheeks, which were beginning to boast a scraggly beard for once in his life. His head wobbled on his shoulders, eyes fluttering like he couldn’t quite stay awake. He’d been sedated ever since his capture, tube fed just enough to keep him alive for questioning.

“What will you do with him when this is over?” I asked Max, who stood beside me in front of the large flat-screen TV, cupping his mouth in one hand. We were the only two people in the room. Yara was safely tucked away in bed, and Mateo had been sent to see what he could do with his own powers to keep the subway story under control.

“Depends on his answers,” Max said, without lowering his hand or removing his eyes from the screen. “But we can’t keep him like this forever.”

A metal door opened into the frame, momentarily blocking our view before it closed. Sebastian stood in front of Damian, his dark mane looking fresh and fluffy after his own shower. His shiftskin hugged the contours of his broad back and muscular hindquarters, prompting a brief, scandalous daydream about numbing all my festering feelings with a quick and dirty mating up against a random wall. But he was a romantic. I’d have to pledge the rest of my life to him before I could have the only thing I knew for certain that I wanted from him.

Kenzo circled behind Damian, wearing sweatpants and a T-shirt over his long-sleeve shiftskin. Cocky as he might be, it appeared he still lacked the Alpha-sized self-esteem it took to prance around in a costume that rivaled George Clooney’s batsuit in terms of attention to detail. I had also opted to throw a T-shirt and jeans over mine. In spite of the layers, a shiver ran down my spine, and I wrapped myself in a tight hug, suddenly afraid the Beta would say what I suspected he would say.

Everything will change.

I know.

You deserve for it to.

Now that I don’t know…

You do, or I couldn’t say it.

I shrugged her off and trained my focus on the screen. Damian tilted his head back and laughed for no apparent reason. Sebastian took a quick step forward, one hand raised as if to backhand the Beta, but that only made Damian’s shoulders shake even harder with mirth. Sebastian glanced up at the camera, and I didn’t know if he was asking me or his father for permission to knock Damian’s head off.

Max lifted his chin even though Sebastian couldn’t see him, and Sebastian gave a slight nod—they were communicating telepathically. I sighed with frustration. Of course they would find a way to leave me out of half the conversation.

Sebastian grasped Damian by the chin, squeezing his lips together to stop the eerie sound emanating from his mouth. He tilted Daman’s face down, and Kenzo plunged a syringe into the top of the Beta’s spinal column. Damian went rigid and then relaxed to the point that Kenzo had to steady him on the chair. He looked up at Sebastian with a grin that could only be described as dopey.

“You are more spectacular than I ever imagined,” he slurred.

Sebastian recoiled. “Why are you so obsessed with me, Beta?”

“Who wouldn’t be?” Damian’s glassy eyes roamed Sebastian’s face. “Such a beautiful boy. So fierce. So strong. Made from the finest Alpha stock in New York! A triumph of genetics!”

“Well,” Sebastian said carefully. “You’re not wrong. But why do you care? What is your investment in my mateship with Kiana?”

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