Текст книги "Black Moon"
Автор книги: J. Tyler
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Текущая страница: 2 (всего у книги 16 страниц)
“I don’t like it one bit that you fainted,” she said with a frown.
“For God’s sake, I thought Nick had killed Kalen! Give me a break.”
“How long have you been queasy? Don’t think I haven’t noticed.”
She had? Mac blinked at her friend, hedging. “I don’t know. A few days, maybe.”
“How often have you been throwing up?”
Mac stared at her, silent. Shit, shit.
“O-kay,” Melina drawled, brows raised. “Here’s what’s going to happen. Noah is coming in to take blood for a complete standard workup. Then you’re going into the restroom to pee in a cup. Then you’ll come back in here, sit down, and wait for me. Got it?”
She sighed. “Yes.”
“Good girl.”
Melina patted her knee and left. Soon after, Noah came in, swabbed the crook of her elbow, and took three vials of blood. When he was finished, he pressed a cotton ball over the injection site and topped it with a Band-Aid.
Giving her a smile, he pointed in the direction of the restroom. “Go do your thing.”
She absolutely hated peeing in a cup. It was a dicey proposition at best, aiming just right. But she managed and in short order was sitting back in the exam room.
Where the clock on the wall ticked by with unbearable sluggishness.
Ten long minutes passed. Mac was starting to fidget when Melina walked in carrying a sheaf of paper. Her friend closed the door and slowly turned to her. The serious expression on Melina’s face sent a bolt of terror all the way to her toes.
“What is it?” she gasped, gripping the edge of the table. “What’s wrong?”
“Mac, honey. We have to talk.”
Two
“What? Am I sick?” Mac asked, her heart thumping painfully.
“Nothing like that.” Her friend blew out a breath and leaned her hip on the counter. “Mackenzie . . . you’re pregnant.”
The words blew through her like a hurricane. Left her gasping for breath. “What?”
“You heard me. Pregnant, knocked up—”
“Oh, God. But—but how?” Realizing how stupid that sounded, she flushed. “What I mean is, unmated shifters can’t get their females pregnant! Right?”
Melina’s voice was quiet, speculative. “A shifter, huh? Just who are we talking about here? I get that the father is none of my business, but I won’t share anything you choose to tell me.”
Mac paused, but just briefly. Even if their talk wasn’t confidential, she completely trusted that her friend wouldn’t say a word to anyone. “It’s Kalen,” she said hoarsely, searching Melina’s face for the slightest sign of censure. She found nothing but concern.
Instead, the other woman laid the paperwork on the counter and reached out, taking Mac’s hand. A surprising and welcome gesture. “That’s who I suspected, considering how weird you two are acting around each other. Honey, Kalen’s a Sorcerer first and foremost, and his black panther form is second. He’s never been fully human and that makes him very different from the others. Besides, there’s still so much we don’t know about shifters and how their individual circumstances come into play. We can’t take anything for granted.”
Her friend’s words struck a chord and she nodded. “Kalen said pretty much the same thing to me back when we were . . . together.”
“How long ago was that?”
“About a month. Not long after Aric was taken captive, on the night Kalen and I were attacked by that Sluagh. I don’t remember the exact date.”
“I can get it from Nick. He documents all incidents involving the Pack.”
“Oh, sure.” And their boss would know her secret soon if he didn’t already. Hard to keep much from a PreCog.
Melina fell silent for a few moments, consulting her notes, Mac’s test results and personal information, as well as a paper calendar like the ones sitting on the counter in every exam room. “Going just by the dates of your last cycle, I’m guessing you’re about four or five weeks along. We’ll know more as you progress. And since we know next to nothing about pregnancies resulting from shifters and humans mating, I’m going to want reports from your ob-gyn, copies of your sonograms, stuff like that.”
Mac’s hand went over her tummy. “What if the doctor can tell this baby is special somehow? Where in the hell are we going to find a paranormal-friendly ob-gyn who knows how to keep her mouth shut?”
“Nick will find the answer to that, too. One step at a time, all right?”
Mac’s head was spinning. Jesus, how her world had changed in the space of one morning. Kalen’s too, though he didn’t know it yet.
God, Kalen.
Who wanted nothing to do with Mac anymore.
Her eyes filled with scalding tears and she blinked rapidly, trying to stave them off. Her throat burned and she breathed through the grief that crushed her lungs. “I don’t know if I can do this.”
“Many women less prepared and much less capable than you have thought the same thing,” her friend said crisply. “You’re going to be just fine.”
A tear slipped free anyway. “Kalen’s going to flip. He’s already given me the big brush-off.”
“Tough shit,” Melina said, anger creeping into her tone. “He helped make the kid, so he can deal.”
Mac gave a watery laugh in spite of herself. “That simple, huh? Sure.”
Her friend scowled. “You honestly think he won’t take responsibility?”
“It’s not that. There’s something going on with him that has his head all twisted, and he won’t let me in.”
“Anything to do with the pendant he gave you?” Melina glanced questioningly at the silver disk and back to her friend’s face.
“I think it has everythingto do with it,” she said, reaching to clasp the object. It was warm and comforting in her palm. “He gave this to me for protection.”
“Against what?”
“More like who.” Mac paused, clearing her throat. “Earlier, before I went in to tell them Sariel would probably survive, I might have eavesdropped outside the conference room door just a teensy bit.”
“So? They never tell us shit about their ops unless we’re patching them up or they have medical questions.” The other woman pulled a face. “We get answers however we can. Go on.”
“The one after Kalen is Sariel’s Unseelie father, Malik.”
“Is this the same being that encouraged Kalen to free Beryl?”
“They believe so. The bastard is trying to seduce Kalen to his side so he can use his power for whatever terrible reasons.”
“If Malik is so strong, why doesn’t he just go after Sariel himself? Use his son’s power to his advantage, or kill him outright?”
“I don’t know, but there must be a reason or he would’ve done it by now,” Mac speculated. “If Sariel knows, he hasn’t confided in me.”
“Same here.” The other woman shook her head. “But you’ve got more pressing worries. When are you going to tell Kalen about the baby?”
“You’re assuming I am.”
“Aren’t you?”
Looking away, she felt crushed. “I’m not sure. The jerk couldn’t get away from me fast enough after our one-night stand, so how do you think he’ll react to the news that he’s going to have a kid? He’ll either hightail it out of Wyoming like the whole Pack is out for his blood, or worse—he’ll feel obligatedto be with me and take care of our child.”
“You don’t hold a very high opinion of your man.”
“Kalen is notmy man,” she snapped. “He couldn’t have been more clear about that.”
“Well, now it’s not that simple, if it ever was.” Melina sighed and suddenly looked tired, showing an uncharacteristic crack in her usual armor. “Give him a chance to come around.”
The anger bled from Mac’s body, leaving her drained. Disheartened. “Maybe I will, eventually. But first I have to figure out how Ifeel about having his—our—child.”
“Good point.”
Melina shocked her again by closing the distance and pulling her into a warm, comforting embrace. That’s all it took for Mac’s tears to break free and flow. Her chest felt like it had cracked apart and was bleeding everywhere. The smaller, birdlike woman was, at this moment, the stronger of the two of them.
By far.
* * *
Kalen stumbled out of bed and stood blearily in the middle of the room, trying to get his bearings. From the slant of the sunlight filtering through the blinds, it was late afternoon. Seemed like it should be midnight.
After the fucking stressful morning he’d been through, he’d gone down hard the second his body was sprawled facedown on his bed. Not even Mr. Evil Unseelie had been able to break through his mental exhaustion, if in fact he’d tried.
The radio silence made him uneasy. It wouldn’t last long. The bastard was likely crouching in wait, a spider ready to inject his venom at the worst possible moment. God, he despised being the tool of an enemy he didn’t have a clue how to fight.
Walking to the bathroom, he felt a thousand years old. After taking care of business, washing his hands and splashing his face to wake up, he headed out in search of dinner. He wasn’t very hungry, but it wouldn’t help his cause to hole up in his room, isolating himself from the guys. He’d promised them he’d fight Malik, and he meant to do just that.
A couple of minutes later, he walked into the dining room and glanced around. Most of the Pack was there, settled around several tables where the food was served family-style. Mackenzie was present too, sitting with Melina, Jax, his mate, Kira, and Sariel. He hesitated, uncertain, his body flushing with heat at the sight of his beautiful doc.
Not yours, Malik intoned, darkly pleased.
“There you are, you crazy fuck,” he muttered under his breath, tensing. “Don’t you have some kittens to drown or something?”
No response. Just a lingering touch of cold fingers brushing down his cheek, his neck, then squeezing his shoulder in warning, digging in to grind painfully into muscle and bone before releasing him. Kalen sucked in a breath at the realization that the touch had been absolutely physical. Despite the wards Kalen had placed on the Alpha Pack compound, the Unseelie could actually hurt him from a distance, if he chose. Or harm one of his friends. Goddamn him.
But not Mackenzie. Ever. He’d made sure of that.
Shaken, he took a seat across from Hammer, the team’s quiet giant, and tried to relax. The big, bald man simply uttered a polite, “Hey, whatzup?” and went on shoveling in his dinner like he’d never get another meal.
Kalen’s muscles began to uncoil. Unlike some of the others, Hammer never forced conversation, pointed out Kalen’s failings, taunted him, or poked into his biz, and for those things alone he liked the guy. Since the man didn’t really seem to be waiting for an answer, Kalen didn’t give one. Instead, his gaze fell on the dish of lasagna in the center of the table and he willed down sudden nausea.
He loved lasagna. Usually. But today the lumpy red sauce looked like blood, the wavy noodles and ricotta cheese like brains and gray matter. Just like what his head would’ve resembled if Nick hadn’t moved the muzzle of the gun. Swallowing down bile, he scooped a square onto his plate and grabbed a bread stick from the basket beside the main dish.
The first bite of the gooey ensemble went down with difficulty, but he gagged on the second. Putting his fork down, he pushed his plate away and resigned himself to nibbling on the bread.
“You okay?”
He looked up to see Hammer studying him intensely, chewing his food. “Yeah, I’m good.”
“That fuckin’ creep screwin’ around in your head again?”
“Not at the moment. I’m just wound a little tight.”
“Understandable.” Hammer didn’t look like he much bought the simple explanation, but he nodded anyway. “Don’t hesitate to ask for help, man. Do nottry to deal with this on your own. We’re a team. Remember that.”
“And here I was just thinking how you never get into my business,” he tried to joke.
“This doesn’t count. What hurts one of us hurts all of us.”
Like he’d needed the reminder. “I know,” he said, his appetite now completely gone. He tossed the remains of the bread stick onto his plate. “Between the Pack and Malik, I’m not likely to forget, either.”
“Hey, it ain’t just you—we’re allvulnerable to outside threats. That’s why we work, train, and live as a unit. That’s why we’re in a remote building that’s protected like a fuckin’ fortress.”
“And what if all that’s not enough? What then?”
The other man eyed him in silence for a long moment. “It has to be.”
But it wasn’t. “I found out Malik can get to any of us, anytime he wants. Despite the wards I put on this place.” Shame swamped him anew as he made his admission.
“What? How?” A twinge of alarm showed on Hammer’s face before it disappeared.
“He touched me a few minutes ago.” When the other man sat up straight and glanced around sharply, Kalen explained. “No, he’s not here in body. But he projected some type of astral form of himself to me long enough to let me know he could get me whenever he wanted. Or anyone else, too.”
“A warning,” Hammer said in a low, pissed-off tone.
“Yeah.”
“It’s a bluff. Has to be.”
“How so?”
“Think about it. If Malik could actually do significant physical harm to you or anyone here, he would’ve done it already.”
“Maybe,” Kalen conceded. The idea gave him a bit of hope.
“And if he could, wouldn’t he just go straight for Sariel, perhaps snatch you as a bonus? I’m thinking it’s smoke up our asses, man. If the motherfucker was all that strong, he wouldn’t need you, and he sure wouldn’t be so bent on murdering his own son.”
“Makes sense.” God, he hoped Hammer was right.
“Something else just occurred to me.” The big man rested his elbows on the table and eyed Kalen. “Can he hear us talking? Can he hear me, right now?”
“Shit,” he breathed, stunned by the question. Scouring his brain for past contact with the Unseelie, the creature’s taunts, he shook his head. “I don’t think so. He only seems to react to my thoughts or when I speak to him directly, or he’ll project himself into my head and mess with me out of the blue. He likes to prey on my emotions, but I’ve never gleaned any hint of him listening in on my actual conversations with others. If he could do that, I’m sure he’d be driving me crazy with it.”
“You mean, sort of like when you’re in the room with somebody who’s on the phone, you can only hear their end of the conversation?”
“Exactly. For whatever reason, it seems Malik can only tune in to me.”
“Interesting. That’s something helpful, anyway. But while that’s good, you’ll need to work on being careful about your thoughts, or blocking them altogether. Imagine a wall or some crap between your mind and his. Whatever helps.”
“I’ll try.” He didn’t hold out much hope of it working, but it was worth a shot. “Is Nick having any luck tracking down ‘Evan Kerrigan’?” That the Unseelie was walking among the unsuspecting public, posing as a wealthy entrepreneur, was a source of real fear for the team. Involving innocent humans in their battles was always a frightening prospect, to be avoided at all costs.
“Not yet. He and his contacts have to tread carefully so they don’t raise his suspicions.”
“I have a feeling he won’t hide forever,” Kalen speculated grimly. “If we don’t get him under surveillance before he comes out to play, it’s gonna be bad shit.”
Hammer snorted. “A handful of us against an Unseelie king and his army of giant, rabid bats? No fuckin’ problem—we got it handled.”
Those “giant, rabid bats” being the Sluagh—fallen Seelie who’d given themselves to evil and lived to serve Malik. God, they were all going to get massacred. Unless Kalen could pull off a miracle.
There are no miracles, my boy. Only the path that you and I will forge together. Once you learn to embrace your power, accept me as your master, we’ll rule the universe.
“You mean the dark side of my power,” Kalen hissed. “I won’t use it to hurt innocents.”
You will, pet. You have no choice.
“Fuck you.”
“Kalen?” Hammer leaned forward, looking worried. “Is it him?”
Feeling sick again, Kalen pushed from his seat. “I have to go. Thanks for the talk.”
Without giving the other man a chance to reply, he strode for the door. In the hallway, he leaned his back against the wall, sucking in a lungful of air and releasing it slowly. Searching for calm.
“Are you okay?”
Mackenzie had followed him out, and she stood in front of him with her hands tucked in the pockets of her lab coat, blue eyes apprehensive. Christ, he didn’t deserve the concern on her sweet face.
As he fumbled for an answer, he noted that her eyelids were reddened. A bit puffy. Her expression was strained, her body tense, and he immediately went on alert. “I’ve had better days, Doc. Now, same question back at you. What’s wrong?”
Some emotion that might’ve been remorse, or sorrow, flashed across her features and was gone. “Seriously? What’s right? See, I can be evasive, too.”
There was an edge to her tone that was new for the normally happy, bubbly woman. His heart sank. “It’s me,” he said softly, moving from the wall to get closer, touch her cheek. “I put that look on your face. Baby, I’m so sorry—” She stepped back to avoid contact, and the action skewered his gut like a blade.
“No. You don’t get to do that,” she snapped. “You don’t get to babyme and act like you give a damn. I’m not your problem, remember?”
The dagger in his gut twisted. “I never said you weren’t my problem or that I didn’t care. I didn’t mean to imply I felt that way.” Just the opposite, in fact.
She crossed her arms over her chest in a protective stance. “Seemed like it to me. Anyway, does that really change anything?”
He looked away, heart aching. “Maybe not. But either way, staying far away from me is the best thing for you to do right now.”
“Why? Because of this Unseelie character, Malik? He’s the one who tried to get into my head a few weeks ago and now he’s after you, right?”
He snapped his gaze back to hers. “Where did you hear his name?”
She glared at him. “I keep my ears open. I have to if I want to find out anything important around here.”
“What, you eavesdropped on our meeting earlier?” In answer, she merely arched a brow, her militant expression daring him to make something of it. He’d never seen her temper spike so fast—in fact, he hadn’t even been aware she had one. And he didn’t like being the focus of it. “Fine. Then you know what I’m up against.”
“What we’re allup against, not just you!”
“You’re the second person today to remind me of that.”
“Then you should start listening before your stubborn ass gets us all killed.”
He blew out a breath in frustration. “Working with a team isn’t as easy as you make it sound. Not for me. I’ve been alone for almost half my life, and experience has taught me the hard way that the only person I can count on is myself. I can’t change that sort of conditioning overnight.”
Her eyes softened a fraction and some of the tenseness left her posture. “Life’s been a bitch for you. I get that. But it hasn’t exactly been a picnic for the other guys, either. Or me, for that matter.”
“You?” He blinked at her. “Why? What do you mean?”
She gave a sad laugh and shook her head. “Did it ever occur to you to wonder why I gave up a lucrative private psychology practice to work out here, in the middle of nowhere, in a place that doesn’t exist to the rest of the world?”
“Because your daddy—and our boss—the almighty General Jarrod Grant, hooked his baby up with a plum assignment?” The smartass comment did exactly what it was supposed to do.
It pissed her off.
“No, that isn’t why, you jackass,” she hissed, the fire back in those glittering blue eyes. “You know, if you’d wake the hell up and pay attention, you might learn a few things about the people who want to be your friends. I suggest you do that before it’s too late.”
“Yeah, everybody’s got a shitload of great advice,” he spat back. “And maybe I don’t want or need any fucking friends.”
“You know what? I’ll talk to you when you’re in the mood to act like an adult.”
With a scathing look, she turned and walked briskly down the hall, putting distance between them as fast as she could. That’s what he’d wanted. Right?
“Dammit. Mackenzie, wait!” he called, taking a step forward.
His path was blocked by a smirking, redheaded wolf shifter who had apparently seen too much of the exchange. “Way to go, Goth-boy. What’ll you do for an encore? Twist the heads off her Barbie dolls?”
Of all the goddamned people to witness the scene with the doc, this guy was, hands down, the one he would’ve gone miles out of his way to avoid. He and Aric Savage hadn’t gotten along since the night Kalen had met the Pack in the cemetery outside town. Kalen had been investigating a series of murders and was in the process of raising a corpse to get some information from it when he’d become aware of the shifters’ presence. After a short but fierce battle, they’d gotten Kalen pinned and Jax had cheated by knocking him out.
After taking Kalen into the compound for questioning, the team had ascertained that Kalen was innocent. He learned that the Pack was looking into the same murders and that they were on the trail of Orson Chappell, the CEO of NewLife Technology. The man was using his scientists to conduct research on splicing human and shifter DNA, and he especially wanted shifters with Psy abilities like those in the Pack. Chappell and his men were murdering innocents in the process—thus the poor, mutilated bodies the local authorities had found.
But Chappell wasn’t the Big Boss. To their shock, they’d discovered that Malik, masquerading as the wealthy Evan Kerrigan, was the real power behind the gruesome endeavor to create a breed of super-shifter soldier. He’d seduced the now-deceased Chappell and many others to do his bidding.
Just as he was now trying to seduce Kalen into joining him.
But that wasn’t his most pressing problem right this second. He felt his lip curl as he glared at Aric. From day one, the Firestarter/Telekinetic had harassed and mocked him at every opportunity. How the asshole had managed to snag an intelligent, gorgeous mate like Rowan Chase—a former LAPD cop—was beyond Kalen’s comprehension.
He tried to keep his voice even, but it betrayed his anger. “Fuck off, Aric. What goes on between me and Mackenzie is nobody’s business, especially not yours.”
“See, that’s where you’re wrong,” the red wolf replied with a feral smile, clamping down firmly on Kalen’s shoulder. “Mac is—”
“Get your hands off me.”
Aric ignored his warning. “Mac is my friend. Everyone loves her, and none of us are going to stand by and watch you take a giant dump on her.”
Kalen barely heard the words as Aric’s face blurred. In an instant, memories assaulted him. Terrible ones, ghosts of other male hands in years gone by, many of them brutal. Taking what they wanted. And Kalen allowing the unwanted touches so he could put food in his empty, burning stomach.
Never again.
Mackenzie was the only one who had that right. Her hands were like heaven.
“Don’t touch me,” he said hoarsely. Inside, his panther stirred, rumbled in anger.
He’s the enemy, pet,Malik cajoled. Don’t you see? He’s done nothing but hurt you, laugh at you, just as all the others in the past have done. He would toss you back into the cold if he could. Do not give him your loyalty—he does not deserve it. Show him your power, boy! Do not accept this contempt from one so far beneath you! Show him what it means to fuck with a Sorcerer!
Aric’s lips were moving, but it was Malik’s words that resounded in his head. They held the ring of truth, and anger boiled into a barely concealed rage. Under his skin, overwhelming emotions writhed like snakes, grew, and exploded.
With a snarl, he brought up a forearm and broke the other man’s hold, then shoved him backward. Taken by surprise, the red wolf was unprepared when Kalen flung out a hand, palm up, and shouted a spell in Latin, releasing a blue sphere of pure energy.
The blast hit Aric in the chest and blew him off his feet, slamming him into the far wall hard enough to crack the plaster. His face registered shock as the energy hummed, spreading to his torso and limbs, causing his entire body to shake before it dispersed altogether. The man dropped to his knees, but just briefly. His head snapped up and his lips peeled back to bare his lengthening fangs.
“You wanna play dirty, kitty-cat? I can do that.”
As Aric pushed to his feet, Kalen half-expected him to shift into his wolf form. He wasn’t prepared for the other man to fling his hand out, answering Kalen’s challenge with a plume of fire that rocketed toward his face. A shriek echoed in the hallway that he identified as Mac’s frightened voice just as he brought up his hand and pushed his power at the fire, driving it back at his nemesis.
The wolf switched tactics, and the fire vanished. Before Kalen could react, he felt his body rise, feet leaving the floor. The fucker was using his gift of telekinesis to fight back, and quite effectively. Kalen’s body spun around to face away from the wolf, making it almost impossible to throw a spell at him. Then he was body-slammed into the wall, his entire right side taking the hit. Pain shot through his head and arm, and he both heard and felt a sickening snap.
“Ahhg!” Agony swept him, and he was slammed again.
“Like that, kitty?” Aric sneered. “How does that feel?”
“What the fuck is going on here?” Nick’s voice bellowed. “Savage, put him the fuck down!”
“You’re the boss.”
Kalen was unceremoniously dropped. He crumpled to the floor, trying to breathe through the terrible pain. And, as his head slowly cleared of Malik’s coercion, shame. What had he done?
Hands rolled him carefully to his back and he found himself blinking at Nick’s worried face. The commander’s gaze went to Kalen’s right arm.
“Can you lift it? Wiggle your fingers?”
He tried, and a bolt of white-hot fire shot through his arm as a cry escaped his lips. “No.”
Nick glared at Aric, who was standing off to the side, jaw clenched. “You broke his arm. You’d better have a good goddamned reason for attacking one of your own brothers.”
“First, he ain’t my brother. The others, yeah. But not that freak,” he said with undisguised contempt.
This time, the agony hit Kalen in a completely different place, and he struggled not to let it show as the man went on.
“Second, I do have a good reason. He attacked me first.”
Nick’s gaze returned to Kalen. “Is this true?”
Apparently the PreCog couldn’t “see” everything. Kalen swallowed hard. “Yes.”
A small crowd had gathered, some of the other guys muttering, one giving a low whistle. To his mortification, Mac stood with the others, looking at him in horror. Obviously she’d witnessed the whole thing.
“Why?” the commander bit off.
Such a simple question.
“Because he wouldn’t take his hands off me.” Such a sad answer.
Immediately, Nick understood and the anger began to drain from his face. “Flashback?”
“Yeah,” he whispered. The awful memories threatened to overtake him again. “All I felt was his hands and he wouldn’t let me go and I remembered . . .” He couldn’t finish. But he didn’t have to.
Finally catching on, Aric swore. To Nick, he said, “I thought he was just being a dick, especially after how he’d just talked to Mac. I didn’t know.”
Whatever Nick might’ve said was forgotten for the moment as Zander Cole, the Pack’s Healer, knelt beside Nick, forcing him to make room. “Damn, that’s a bad break. Lucky for you, I can fix it right up.” He sent Kalen an encouraging smile, which Kalen couldn’t quite return.
“If you say so.”
“I do. The bad news is I’ve got to realign the bone first or you’re going to be all crooked. Ready?”
“Do your worst.”
Lifting Kalen’s arm, Zan gave him an apologetic look. Working quickly, he pulled the injured limb with all his strength, popping the severed ends back into place. Kalen yelled, dark spots dancing in front of his eyes. Nausea pushed bile into his throat and he nearly passed out. How he kept from either throwing up or losing consciousness was sheer luck.
When Zan’s fingers wrapped over the place where the bone had broken the skin, Kalen panted, sweat trickling down his temples into his hair. Then warmth enveloped the point of the break, and the horrible, stabbing burn gradually lessened. The heat felt good, and soon the pain was gone. Checking out his arm, he saw that his skin was covered in drying blood from the break, but the arm was as good as new.
“Thanks, Z-man,” he said, giving the guy a wan smile.
“No problem. Here.” Pushing to his feet, he offered Kalen a hand up.
He took it and stood awkwardly, not making eye contact with anyone as he waited for Nick to deliver his judgment. It came swiftly.
“I get what happened here,” the commander said in a low, stern tone. “It’s no secret that you two, in addition to your own problems, have had issues with each other from day one. But I’m not a fucking kindergarten teacher and this isn’t a playground for you two to beat the shit out of each other while you work out those issues. Is that clear?”
Kalen winced. “Yes, sir.”
“Yeah,” Aric drawled, earning him a hard stare from Nick. He cleared his throat. “I mean, yes, sir.”
“Find some common ground and do it on your own time. I’ve got a Pack to run. I don’t have time for this bullshit and neither does anyone else. If this happens again, you’re both suspended. Indefinitely.”
“What!” Aric shouted. “It wasn’t my fault! He—”
“And now you know why,” Nick enunciated. He was fast losing his trademark patience. “You know how to read your teammate’s signals better than that, Aric. I knowyou do. You should have stopped and read his body language, and if you had, you’d have known something was wrong. Then you would have let him go like he asked and diffused the situation with a bit of compassion. You’re a better Pack mate and brother than this.”
Aric glanced to Rowan, found her lips tight with disapproval. His high cheekbones colored and he hung his head in shame. “You’re right, Nicky. I’m sorry.”
“It’s not me you owe the apology.”
He didn’t want to speak to Kalen at all. Anyone could see that. It hurt more than Kalen wanted to admit. But the man closed the distance and nodded.
“I’m sorry, Sorcerer. I fucked up.”
“Kalen.”
“What?” Aric’s brow furrowed in confusion.
“You’re always calling me Goth-boy, kitty, pretty boy, whatever. My name is Kalen,” he said quietly.
“Right.” Aric laughed without real humor. “Sure, Kalen, whatever.”
Nick shook his head. “All right, everyone, show’s over. Let’s call it a day.”
Kalen had never heard a better suggestion. As the group broke up, some of the guys clapped him on the back or gave him an encouraging word or two in a show of support. But none, he noted, actually stopped to reallytalk to him. To reach out.
