“Do I want him to replace my Aidan? Of course not. But can selfish Aidan come out to play sometimes? Yeah he can, whether Sen sticks around with us or not.”
“I like this plan.”
We both looked back to see a sleepy-eyed Peter regarding us. He hauled me back against him, his mouth dropping kisses on my neck. “I’m your safe place?” I nodded. “That’s all I ever wanted.” He looked back at Aidan. “You don’t like Sen directing her, but you’re trying to do the same.”
Aidan looked stung at that.
“That’s not quite right,” I said by way of a rescue. “Some of you have more opinions than others, some of you will back my plays no matter what. The balance is what I like. The responsibility is shared.” I yawned again, both their hands going to my stomach. “Just keep talking, that’s what I think. Rick always stopped that, at first by being snide, then yelling, then—” I stopped still for a moment, a flash of the old fear rising, then falling as I just breathed through it. “We’re gonna have to work through this, no matter which way things go.”
They rolled into me, arms criss-crossing as they went around me and I was held. I just lay there, breathing in time with them, feeling that warm, comforting, suffocating, all-consuming bond rise. It was an intense thing, being pack. Much more than any relationship I’d ever experienced, and the only thing comparable was my love for Kade.
Kade. I extricated myself gently, rolling over and looking at the clock. Time to give him my daily call. Aidan was passing me the phone before I could say anything, Renee’s number cued up. Peter sat up too, so I could lean against his bulk as we made the call.
35
Rick saw the three backpackers walking along the road, thumbs out, and slowed down. She was laughing at something the two blokes said. Her eyes were hidden behind sunglasses, but that long tumble of brown hair, those long limbs…
Her, an instinct growled inside him. That slut, she must be taking both of them on the regular.
Not her, a purring voice argued. But prey all the same. Let them in the vehicle.
“How’s it goin’?” he said when he pulled up beside them, and his smile felt like it tore at his face as he tried to make it easy-going and friendly looking. “Need a lift?”
“So what brings you all the way out here, Rick?” the girl asked in that sweet tone women always use when they want something. The bitch didn’t give a fuck, not when she had those two young bucks pressed up against her on the back seat. One said he was her brother, but Rick didn’t believe that for a second.
“My wife and son went missing,” he said, trying to keep his voice from betraying just what he thought about that. He studied her in the rear vision mirror, waiting for an appropriate level of sympathy to be shown. She did, stupid fucking bitch, cooing some bullshit about finding them soon and trying to imagine how he felt. She wouldn’t be saying shit about what he felt if she actually knew, except for run.
“I figure we stop here for the night,” Rick said, pulling over into a rest stop.
Why don’t we keep going? he’d argued with that inner voice. We could be on that bitch in hours.
Practise, young one, the voice had replied. How will you know the perfect way to punish her, your woman, if you do not explore your options? His gaze had swivelled back to the mirror, watching the hitchhikers dribble shit. They will become willing accomplices. I will make sure of it.
The voice in his head had been spot on. Of course it had. It had helped him punch Macca into a bloody smear when he balked at giving Rick his car. It had him trawling the back roads of god knows where, sniffing for signs of her. And it had the two men’s eyes shining red when the time came. He’d liked the way they glowed, that familiar bright red light, as they tore into the girl. Initially, it was just thrusting into her while she screamed and sobbed and begged, before she realised what these men had become.
Animals, the two black dogs… No, they were wolves, he knew that now. Savage beasts that stood like sentinels as they watched the two of them work her over until there was nothing but a bloody wreckage left. They lifted their muzzles when the men finally stopped, the red light fading for a moment to leave them alone with their actions. Rick hadn’t liked that much, not really understanding the looks of fear and anguish on their faces. But then the red came back, staining their eyes and then their flesh as they tore each other to pieces as well.
He’d looked at the wolves.
That didn’t tell me much. I know what I wanna do to that fucking bitch.
No, but it feeds our power, makes us stronger. We are predators, red of teeth and claw. We must rend, we must tear, if we are to be strong.
He shrugged, pulled out a cigarette, and lit it up, momentarily obscuring the view of the horrors before him in a cloud of smoke.
36
“Is there a rule that we stay here during the heat?” I asked, walking into the lounge room wearing Aidan’s t-shirt. Both Noah and Sen looked up, eyes boring into me and seeming to see past the fabric.
“What did you have in mind?” Sen asked. “Why don’t you take a seat with Noah there?”
I smirked at his tone as he tried to make it a suggestion and failed miserably. I padded over to Noah, who was slouched on the couch. Those pale blue eyes tracked my every moment, his body shifting to make room for me before I’d even sat down. I stopped and reconsidered what I was going to do, then crawled into his lap. I still felt the residual effects of what he had done to me, but I knew little about the man himself. If proximity was what made things happen here, then I may as well put myself in his path.
Which was Sen’s plan all along, I thought as I settled. “This OK?” I asked Noah.
His nod was enthusiastic and fervent, his eyes wide, trying to take everything in as I relaxed against his chest. His arm went around me, stiffly at first, then they softened as I laid my head down, the other stroking down my legs in slow, soothing movements. He tensed again when I tilted my head back and placed a kiss over the rapidly beating pulse, holding himself oh so still. I just waited for him, and sure enough, his head came down, lips perilously close to mine.
“Can I kiss you?”