Blood Rule (Book 4, Dirty Blood series) Read online

  “We’ll do that,” Wes said before I could respond. Probably a good thing. I’d only come back with something sarcastic and I knew Nick wasn’t far from wanting to stay and make this into something bigger. Something he shouldn’t.

  I let him go.

  When he was gone, I knelt beside Rafe. “May I?” I asked, gesturing to the singed spots on his fur.

  “Go ahead.”

  The burnt hair was coarse underneath my fingertips, interrupted by the strangely smooth patches of exposed flesh. “Cambria, can you take him to the house so Fee can look at these?” I asked.

  “Sure,” she said.

  “I don’t need all that,” Rafe protested. “I’ll heal fine in my own time.”

  “I know that, but Fee’s special tea will help the process along.”

  Rafe made a face, his snout lifting until his front teeth showed. “That tea of hers is an atrocity. I’m sure I’ll heal without it.”

  I caught the laughter before it escaped. “It is an … acquired taste,” I agreed. “But I need you feeling better. I need us feeling better,” I added with a pointed look.

  He sighed. “Fine. I’ll drink the tea.”

  “Thank you.” I patted his head before I could help myself but he didn’t seem to mind. “I’ll check on you later,” I called as he followed Cambria back through the maze of camp.

  “Check on me too,” Cambria called.

  I cast a long look into the trees in the direction Nick had gone. If I expanded my senses, I could hear his footsteps as he moved farther away from camp. His voice in my head wasn’t as pronounced as I was used to. It felt muted. I strained to listen.

  His mood was … gray. I wasn’t sure what it meant, but it wasn’t the first time I’d sensed it from him.

  “You all right?” Wes asked.

  “Hmm?” I turned my attention away and found Wes studying me. “I’m fine.”

  I began making my way back toward my tent before he could argue. I didn’t want to have this conversation here. Or anywhere, really.

  “I’ll meet you there in five,” Wes said, bounding into the trees. Probably in search of shorts so he could reappear on two legs.

  “Hey, Tara, is Rafe going to be okay?” Emma, a blond hybrid around my age who preferred her human form when her body would cooperate, stood before me with watery eyes and a trembling lip.

  “He’s going to be fine,” I assured her. “He went up to the house to have some of Fee’s tea so he’ll get better even faster.” Emma grimaced.

  I began walking again but she stopped me. “Is there anything I can do for you—or George, or anybody?” she asked. “I want to help.”

  “Um, well. You could try to make some of these tents more stable,” I suggested. “Some look ready to keel over in the next big wind.” I suspected those were the ones whose owners couldn’t shift to their human form. Something that happened more and more often as the animal in them took over. No fingers and thumbs made bolting a tent down pretty hard.

  “No problem. Janie and I will get right on it.”

  “Thanks,” I said as she hurried off in search of her sister.

  I picked my way back through camp, fielding questions and containing squabbles. Nothing like what’d happened with Nick. More like what came from living in close quarters with the same people day in and day out.

  Wes was waiting for me when I finally made it back. He pulled me in for a hug and I pretended not to have a pounding headache as I listened telepathically to the rest of the pack try to figure out what’d happened. Or whether Nick had lost his mind.

  Please don’t ask me to explain any of that because I have no idea.

  “He’s getting worse,” Wes said when I pulled away.

  “Yeah.”

  “What’s his problem? Can you read him?”

  I shook my head. “Not with this. It’s … I don’t know what it is. But it’s not him.”

  Wes frowned but said nothing. I needed to change the subject. To move on—back to normal …ish.

  “So what are your plans for the day?” I asked, making a special effort to lighten my tone. “Are you and Jack still heading out?”

  “That’s the plan. Jack’s in the weapons room doing a reorganize. Figured I had some time.”

  “He must be stressed if he’s doing that.”

  Wes nodded. “The packs are getting nervous about this thing with CHAS. It’s rubbing off on him.”

  “You know we won’t be able to find anything in there for days once he’s done.”

  “I know. Fee started baking when she saw what he was up to.”

  “Great. So I’ll stay away until at least tomorrow.”

  “Probably best. What are you going to do this afternoon?” he asked.

  I rubbed absently at my temples. “Get cleaned up and head over to the hospital.”

  He didn’t answer right away. His arms tightened around me. “Well … be careful,” he said finally.

  Obviously, we still weren’t going to talk about it.

  “I will,” I promised. I kissed his nose before stepping away. “You too. I’ll see you when you get back.”

  “I’ll call you tonight.”

  The strain between us, though unspoken, tugged at me. At my tent’s entrance, I turned back. “Wes, the bond …” I paused, searching for the right words.

  “What about it?”

  “It wasn’t something I chose. You are.”

  Chapter Two

  I’d taken to wearing earphones when my mom threatened to remove every stereo and music-playing device from the house if I didn’t turn it down. By now, everyone knew if they wanted my attention, they better tap my shoulder because I wasn’t going to notice them otherwise.

  I removed my earphones and tucked them into my sweatshirt as I passed through the automatic doors that led inside the hospital.

  The mental hum of voices, thoughts, and feelings rushed back in. I gritted my teeth and focused on my other senses to distract myself: the bright white of the walls as sunlight streamed in through the floor-to-ceiling lobby windows behind me, the smell of disinfectant and rubbing alcohol that was inherent to medical facilities, the comforting feel of fabric where my fingers clutched the inside of my hoodie pockets while I walked. After almost a week of steady rain, the late afternoon was unseasonably cool for August in Washington, DC. That, and I was running low on decent-looking shirts from too many unplanned shifts. Hence, the hood. I was lucky enough to find it buried underneath some unreturned textbooks from the public school I’d been expelled from last year.

  Wow. My life had become a supernatural soap opera.

  As I passed, the pale-faced nurse at the desk looked up and nodded before going back to her computer screen. It’d been two weeks—sixteen days, actually—since Alex had been admitted. I’d been here often enough during that time the staff didn’t bother with me anymore. I almost wished they would since it would mean some sort of update on his condition. Most of all, I wished someone could tell if I’d helped him or made things worse.

  My blood injection had saved him, or it had at the time. But then he’d fallen into a coma and by that time we’d transported him here, a civilian hospital with a wing paid for and dedicated to Hunters—CHAS didn’t skimp on health care. And yet, the doctors were unable to coax him out of it.

  I came every day. Sometimes twice, when my music-fueled runs led me this far north. I didn’t know why. The sight of Alex’s face, unmoving, pale, so devoid of anything that made him Alex, always made my throat constrict and my chest ache. And then there was the anger. I was furious. Still. After days, and now weeks, of wondering whether he’d even get well, I still found it in me to be mad at him for what he’d done.

  The hybrids weren’t happy with him either. Maybe that was part of what fed my own anger. Their irritation pricked whenever they found out this was where I’d been. I told myself that was the reason I spent so much time with them. That I did it to avoid their complaining and snarky remarks. Because the tru
th was, I felt shaky and on edge when I stayed away from them for too long. It was a fact I hadn’t admitted to anyone, in case it wasn’t normal pack-alpha behavior. The last thing I wanted was one more anomaly due to my weird blood connections.

  I made my way down the stretch of hallway hidden behind a non-descript door that led to the Hunter’s wing. I had the impression the civilian staff thought it was for government agents, maybe spies. They weren’t wrong.

  Alex’s door swung open easily and I stepped inside. It looked the same as I’d left it the afternoon before. Across the room, on the table underneath the window, sat a large vase stuffed with carnations courtesy of Grandma. There’d been a smaller vase with lilies from Logan and Victoria, but they’d already died off and been removed. No one else had sent anything. No one else ever came.

  Grandma would if she wasn’t tied up in CHAS business every day of the week. She’d been furious at Alex for what he’d done but her anger wasn’t like the others. I knew she cared about Alex despite his betrayal. That and she’d recovered her Hummer. I suspected things might be different if she hadn’t. No flowers, for one.

  Grandma hadn’t said much about the purpose of the meetings yet. She didn’t have to. I knew Gordon Steppe was getting all he could out of his new prisoner. Not that I expected Olivia to talk, but Gordon didn’t seem like the type to give up easily. Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew I should be concerned. Both Gordon and Olivia would do anything to see me fall. And in Gordon’s case, that included taking down all members of The Cause. But between the voices humming inside my head and the unconscious boy in front of me, I couldn’t bring myself to care very much about a crooked politician bent on exacting vengeance from his corner office throne across the city.

  I lowered myself into the chair and stared at the boy I’d almost killed with my poisonous teeth. Remembering that day always choked me up. The moment when I realized it was Alex I’d sank my Werewolf teeth into. Coupled with the realization he’d betrayed me by coming with a strike team of Hunters and the intent to kill what was now my pack. I wasn’t sure which broke my heart more—the fact that he hadn’t trusted me enough to let me get Olivia on my own or that I’d almost killed him for it.

  I fought back the tears that burned at the edges of my lids and dropped my face into my hands.

  “I’m so sorry, Alex,” I whispered, remembering how the doctor had encouraged us to talk because the sound of our voice could be comforting. “I know I did this. It’s my fault. You can be mad if you want.” I hesitated, wondering if it was okay to go off on a coma patient. But I’d held it in all these days and I needed to vent. Even if it was to an unconscious version of the boy I was angry at. “I’m mad, too. You always said you trusted me to handle myself and then to go behind my back … to bring in Kane …” The heat of guilt crept up my neck, replacing the anger. It was cyclical. One replacing the other. “Wake up so we can yell at each other and get on with it. Please?”

  There was no answer. I hadn’t expected one.

  I used my hand to wipe my eyes and sat, staring without really seeing at the tubes that connected Alex to the monitors above his bed. I didn’t really know what all of the numbers meant but the steady beeping was better than focusing on the hum inside my head or the ache inside my chest.

  From the doorway, someone cleared their throat. “I thought I’d find you here.”

  I shifted in the chair, the cheap cushion protesting my movements. Our eyes met and I attempted a smile, knowing it didn’t fool him for a second. “Hi,” I said.

  Wes was across the room in three steps. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close. I blinked any lingering tears away and focused on the singular sense of inhaling the scent of pine and rich dirt that clung to him underneath his human cologne. The wolf in me couldn’t get enough of that smell. The girl didn’t mind either one.

  “What are you doing here?” I asked. “I thought you were leaving.” And you hate this room.

  “Jack sent Derek and Cord instead,” Wes said, his mouth moving against my hair.

  I looked up at him sharply, my stress level spiking at his tone. “Why? What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing. I think …” His gaze was fixed on the wall behind me. “Cord needed to get away for a while. Derek agreed to take her.”

  I nodded, understanding the reason for his worry. “I see the way she looks at them,” I said quietly. “They make her think of the ones who killed Bailey, don’t they?”

  “A little,” he admitted.

  Bailey had been like a little brother to us all, but especially to Cord. She’d taken him under her wing when she’d found him stuck in the foster care system and he’d been like family to her ever since. A pack of hybrids, under orders from Olivia, had attacked and killed him in an attempt to get to me. Cord still hadn’t recovered from it. Not that I’d deemed her mentally healthy before that, but Bailey’s death had really pushed her into new territory.

  I didn’t say anything. I didn’t want to admit I was just as concerned for the hybrids’ safety as Cord’s emotional state. Maybe more. I couldn’t help that I cared about them, but I wasn’t sure how to explain that to Wes.

  “She needs a few days to clear her head. She’ll be fine,” he added.

  “Did Cambria go with them?”

  Lately, she’d been attached to Derek’s hip. I knew it was partly due to me being such poor company so I couldn’t fault her. I spent most of my time either here at the hospital or in the woods.

  “Yes. They’re stopping on the way back so she can see her mom before school starts again.”

  “CHAS released her?”

  “I guess so.”

  “Cambria’s going to see her mom? I can’t believe she didn’t tell me.”

  He shrugged. “I guess it happened too fast. Her mom called yesterday and said something about meeting up.”

  “Wow. That’s huge for her,” I said.

  CHAS had taken Cambria’s mother into custody when she’d had too much to drink and let slip about the world of Hunters and Werewolves in a very human bar. From the way Grandma had sounded, I hadn’t expected a release anytime soon. “I can’t believe Steppe let her go so easily.”

  “He’s got Olivia. His attention is on bigger things now. I think Edie used that to her advantage,” Wes said. At the mention of Steppe, his tone took on an edge.

  It reminded me of the first time I’d met Gordon Steppe, director of the Council for Hunter Affairs and Security, otherwise known as CHAS, the governing force behind all Hunters. Steppe wasn’t the nicest guy and Wes had almost lost himself and gone after the guy. It wouldn’t have been smart, since Steppe already disliked Wes and was looking for a reason to overlook the peace treaty that gave amnesty to all Werewolves who belonged to The Cause. Wes had walked away that day but not without further angering Steppe. I knew Steppe was still looking for his reason.

  “I feel horrible. I should’ve heard this from Cambria herself, not secondhand from you after the fact. She’s been so worried about her mom. I’m such a sucky friend lately.”

  “Don’t beat yourself up about it. You’ve got a lot on your plate. She’ll be home in a few days and you can catch up then.”

  I sighed. “I can do that.”

  I laid my cheek against his chest and stared at Alex. It should’ve been strange or confusing to stare at one while being held by the other, but it wasn’t. I’d made my choice the day Wes had helped me save the guy who’d betrayed us all, and I grew more certain of it as the days passed.

  I missed Alex terribly. Our banter, his sarcasm, my grumpiness, his twisted pleasure at my dislike of exercise. There were little things, like the way he swiped a hand over his face when he was frustrated with me or the way he bit his lip in concentration when he hunted. But all of those things felt more and more settled into a place of friendship. Like George. Or maybe not quite like that. Certain memories still had the power to make my insides twist—like the goodbye we’d shared during our last night at Wood Poin
t Academy. When he’d promised to always find me and I told him he was my family. The first kiss we’d shared that day in the woods. Or the second kiss, in the hotel room after he’d rescued me from feral hybrids.

  I felt mostly friendship toward Alex Channing. Mostly.

  But being held by Wes—that was something I wouldn’t give up for anything or anyone. And when given the choice I would choose Wesley St. John every single time. I sighed and leaned harder against him.

  His arms tightened around me. “You spend too much time here. It’s making you sad.”

  I didn’t answer.

  Disjointed thoughts, voices that weren’t my own, passed through my mind like a headline news ticker on a television screen.

  Exhaustion.

  Jealousy.

  Confusion.

  Hunger.

  “I do need to get back,” I said after hearing the last one. None of the hybrids had hurt anyone yet but I didn’t want to take a chance. Usually, I kept Chris close by whenever I came into town but today he was running an errand for Fee. The hybrids were on their own at the camp we’d set up in the woods behind Jack and Fee’s house. I didn’t want to leave them hungry for too long.

  “We’ll go whenever you’re ready.”

  “I have my car,” I said. Normally, I ran in and caught a ride home with either Wes or Grandma, but today I’d lost time breaking up the scuffle at camp so I’d driven myself in.

  “I know. Jack dropped me so we can ride back together.”

  “He wouldn’t come in?” I tried to ignore the pang in my ribs. I understood their reasons for hating Alex, but that made it harder to explain to them why I didn’t share their sentiment.

  “He had stuff to do,” Wes said.

  It was a lie. But I let it go.

  “Yeah, okay. We can—” A new thought distracted me, this one more urgent than the others. I concentrated, trying to understand. It was more emotion than words, making it abstract and hard to read at first. Whatever was causing it distressed the one experiencing it. Words formed, startling in their clarity.

  Master. Come quickly.