“Just keep your head down.” Nox popped the handle on the truck. “This’ll only take a few minutes.” He got out and shut the door. An ache settled in Nox’s chest, thumping to the tune of his pulse. With every step farther from Luca, the urgency to return grew teeth.
It had always been like that when Koda needed Nox or his team. The Anubis prickled Nox’s skin.
Nox reminded himself Luca was not his Alpha.
He repeated the mantra on his way to the ATM.
Half a dozen small children orbited their parents as they walked from their car to one of the stores. An elderly man held on to the arm of his wife, helping her from their sedan.
Nox knelt behind the ATM. Laughing children and the excited voices of shoppers threatened to steal his attention. Luca coughed, and even fifty yards away, the sound overrode everything else.
The world refocused, and Nox eased out the breath he held. The sooner he got this done, the sooner they could go.
He’d told Luca he could open the ATM and he meant it. He just had to remember how. As if answering the question an invisible touch moved through his muscles. The familiarity kept him from panicking when black speckles formed on his tan flesh.
Memories flowed with hair thin filaments that slithered from the pores of his skin, snaking around his hand. The ebony strands filled in until they melded together into thicker threads. Imperfections smoothed out, and a subtle glitter floated beyond the surface, creating a three-dimensional effect. Then details like creases of skin, tufts of hair, and claws shattered the illusion.
The long-fingered paws were identical to the ones on the wolflike creatures that were after Luca.
Nox touched the tips of his claws to the metal. It parted without more than a whisper. He caught the loose pieces and set them on the ground. After a few inches, he reached the cartridge containing the cash. The thicker steel box offered no resistance. Nox opened the container. Stacks of fifties filled the inside.
Nox willed the changes in his hand to recoil. There was a moment of hesitation, then the filaments withdrew.
Shoes clicked on asphalt. Three small children followed a woman to the minivan sitting at the end of the row of cars just beyond the pickup truck. They chased each other around the vehicle while their mother searched her purse for her keys.
The colors of night faded into a flat monochrome, leaving behind the smooth glow of life emanating from their human forms. Their hearts thumped. Their blood surged.
Nox tracked them with his eyes.
Prey.
A growl rose in his throat.
Control. He needed control. Nox’s muscles hardened, his skin burned, his knees threatened to dislocate.
The high-pitched laughter of children might as well have been the plaintive cry of an injured animal.
Pain shot through Nox’s jaw, sharp points pricked his tongue.
The wind shifted, blanketing him in a sweeter scent. It drew the Anubis’s attention from the erratic movements of the excited children to the passenger window of the truck.
Worry marred Luca’s expression.
The doors on the van thumped closed. Tail lights punched holes in the mundane gray of Nox’s night vision. The vehicle headed down the aisle between parked cars, followed by a dingy cloud of exhaust.
Color bled back into the night. That had been too close. Too fucking close. Nox grabbed several bundles of fifties held together with paper belts and crammed them into the pocket of his sweatpants.
He waited for a car to go by, then slipped out from the shadows of the ATM and headed back to the truck. His muscles trembled from the leftover rush of adrenaline. Luca would be in the truck, he could take care of Nox.
No.
Nox grabbed hold of the emaciated sapling planted among the shrubs in the island.
Luca was almost in his reach. Nox’s entire body hummed at the thought. His blood boiled with the need to press himself skin to skin with Luca. To fill his body, to make him cry out. Nox would soak him in cum. Fuck him till he couldn’t walk. Possess him. Protect him. Worship him.
All the things Nox had done to Koda almost every day. All of them, taking turns, sometimes fighting over the privilege. But they lived for the opportunity. They existed for Koda and all the things he needed from them.
But Luca wasn’t Koda and treating him that way would destroy him.