Silent Cravings (11 page)

Analie shuddered, an uncomfortable, tingling feeling bolting up her spine. She wasn’t sure if it was because of some magic going on upstairs or because of the idea of her packmates being collared.

Walk the quiet path only if you choose it
.

Christoph couldn’t help but smile at the memory of hearing the Goliath Code for the first time. It seemed like a long time ago when Barry had read it off a card he kept in his wallet. Christoph had really liked that one line, a warning against being bullied. These days, most Weres used it as an excuse to act up or referenced it when they bragged.

A quiet path is deadly for a wolf,
Christoph thought.
Nothing down that road.

He looked at Ashi, who was silent and staring into space, both hands still clutching the collar.
When have you ever really believed in the Code? Analie, a tiny low-rank, considers the Code holy.

Despite the burn, Christoph didn’t react when Mouse nicked his neck. As Royce approached, Christoph snarled, his mouth full of fangs. He lashed out with quickly-growing claws. Pain lanced his neck and shoulder as he lunged.
Ouch, sword. Screw it.
He growled and lashed out again. Ashi was scrambling across the floor, clumsy without his usual strength and agility, trying to get away from the rapidly shifting Were.

Christoph roared around large fangs.

Royce breathed a sigh, unheard against Christoph’s roaring. He’d thought Ashi more likely to snap and lash out than Christoph, but apparently he had been mistaken.

The aching burn of claw marks on his skin only made him more resolved to what he had to do.

While Mouse was trying to dissuade Christoph from shifting by goading him with a few shallow swipes of the silver-tainted sword, Royce ended the fracas by backhanding the Were. A second time, Christoph’s head cracked against the hardwood.

Shaking a bit of blood from the back of his hand, Royce returned to his original task, snapping the collar around Christoph’s throat before the Were could recover himself and attempt a second attack.

Mouse tucked one of the swords into the thick leather belt riding low on her hips, tossing the other to John who fumbled it. She dropped to her knees, gathering Christoph in her arms and
glaring
at Royce as she cradled the injured Were against her.

“That was immeasurably stupid,” Ashi muttered.

Christoph raised one fist groggily in the air, his head spinning. “Go-go Goliath, mighty-mighty Goli—”

“For fuck’s sake, this not the time for pack fight songs!”

“—ath, fight-fight Goliath, stomp—”

“Jesus Christ on a fucking pogo stick, would you
shut up?”
Ashi shouted.

“—stomp-stomp and chomp-chomp-chomp and—”

“
Christoph!
”

Christoph shut up. God, his head was
killing him
. The cuts from the sword hurt like hell. The usual feeling of being able to launch himself at something or punch through a guy’s face was gone. He felt kind of noodly, kind of weak. Not a feeling he liked at all.

He gingerly felt the back of his head and then his jaw. Intact. He looked up.
Hey, girl. Hey, boobs.
He grinned, stars twinkling at the edges of his vision and his temples throbbing. What he intended to be, “Hey, good-lookin’” came out as, “Think I have a concussion.”

“I think my head is broken,” Christoph groaned.

“I don’t think anyone will notice,” Ashi snapped.

Simultaneously they growled at each other. Or tried to. Christoph let out a hiccupping rasp while Ashi snorted and then wheezed. They stared at each other in horror.

Analie wished she had her cell with her. She could text Freddy and keep him up to date.

Tonight Christoph and Ashi showed up, caused mayhem, were magically neutered, and I had a hissy fit. How’re things in Penn’s Woods?

She sighed and sat back. When Gregory found out about this, he’d be pissed to no end.

John’s brown eyes were locked onto Christoph. “He’s snapped.”

Royce didn’t turn around, pulling his personal checkbook out of one of the drawers of his desk and scrawling some figures on it. “He’s in shock. Give him time to adjust.”

“Shock?” Arnold said, staring with horror at the rambling Were. “He’s loony-tunes. Unhinged.”

Mouse made a faint hissing sound of displeasure, running one of her hands through Christoph’s hair as she practically smashed his face against her chest with the other. Royce sighed, holding out the check to Arnold as he faced Mouse.

“I’m not turning into Max Carlyle. Relax.”

Mouse recoiled as if he’d slapped her, trembling as she clutched Christoph against her cleavage.

Being smashed against a pair of breasts was certainly not a terrible situation. Christoph was having a hard time wrapping his wits around all of this. Ten minutes ago, he assumed he was going to die painfully, but quickly. Five minutes ago he assumed he was not going to die but that there was going to be a lot of pain involved. Two minutes ago he thought he was going to die again. Now he was being held by a beautiful woman (and never mind that she’d wounded him recently).

Hopefully this would all start making sense soon. That hope was not fulfilled when the woman started becoming fearful of something. Certainly not himself in all his collared, concussed glory.

“What’s wrong with her?” Arnold asked, both repulsed and fascinated.

“Max turned and tortured her. Destroyed her voice box, made her into an obedient little puppet. Alec saved her from him,” John replied, tucking his sword into his belt, following Mouse’s example before he crept away from the wall toward Ashi. There was a hungry glint to his eye, and he didn’t seem to care that Royce was frowning at him. “You’re afraid Alec’s going to hurt him just like Max hurt you, aren’t you?”

She didn’t answer him, shifting her glare from Royce to John.

“Leave her alone,” Royce ordered as he eased into a chair. “Mouse, if you want him, you can have him. John, please see Arnold out and then find a place to stick the other one, would you? Oh, and call in a contractor to get this window repaired.”

John nodded, looking all too pleased to carry out his orders.

Ashi, for his part, was slowly scooting backwards. He stopped with a quiet thump against the wall, one hand on his collar. His eyes darted around in search of an escape route. The window was no longer an option. He started sliding across the wall, inch by inch, toward the stairwell.

Mouse relaxed marginally when Royce’s attention went elsewhere. John escorted Arnold out, though the look he gave Ashi before he left promised a great deal of something probably involving pain to come. He deliberately shut the door behind him, leaving Ashi and Christoph alone with Royce and Mouse.

She still clung to Christoph as if afraid Royce might change his mind and drag him away. It hit too close to home to see someone helpless and going through the same kind of mental torture she’d been subjected to. Her actions weren’t simply possessive—she was being protective. She loosened her grip, but that was all. She stroked his curly hair like one might soothe a frightened child. It was more a comfort for her than him, though he didn’t mind very much.

Royce pulled up a number in his phone and dialed. He sorely hoped the alpha of the Goliaths was ready to negotiate a price to pay for the stupidity of his pack members. A very hefty price.

Gregory snarled furiously, his teeth bared and the hair on the back of his neck fluffed out. Bowser and Wario careened around a turn, got stuck in the dirt, and lost speed. Baby Mario and Baby Luigi shot past, cheering. The alpha was laughing.

“Ha! Even as infants, I can still defeat you on Yoshi Island!”

“Wait until we get to the D.K. track,” Gregory growled. His cell phone started buzzing. The race was lost anyway. He kept his eyes on the screen as he picked it up. “Gregory speaking. If you’re asking about our next meeting, hang up and text before I tear your face off because I have told everyone this seven times
and I am counting
.”

The alpha grinned, shooting across the finish line to chipper victory music as Bowser wept. He glanced at Gregory who was turning very, very pale.

“They. Uh. What? They just—okay. Okay. Please wait one moment.”

Gregory turned to the alpha, whose expression was curious and expectant. He placed his hand over the receiver. Swallowed.

“Ashi and Christoph have just broken into Royce’s house.”

The alpha exploded. “
What?
”

Gregory cringed.

“Why the hell are they in New York? They are supposed to be on lockdown until they’re needed! Wasn’t Barry watching them? Who is in charge of troop scheduling? Give me the grid!”

Gregory scurried over to the desk, got the scheduling grid, and handed it to the alpha, who looked it over. His long hair was growing thicker as it became a mane. “Look right here! Look at this gap! Who made this grid?”

Gregory looked down at his phone. Royce was still on the line. “Um, I think Majheed.”

“He is
DEAD!”
The alpha threw the grid at Gregory and stalked the length of his den. “Have they forgotten we are in the middle of a war
?
They could start another! We cannot afford two at once! We’ve got a cub-hide, half of our troops are not even—”

Gregory made frantic “shush” motions. The alpha backhanded him into a bookshelf.

“We cannot afford to have those two in New York! That is fucking
it
. I name them codebreakers and exile them!”

Gregory ran a hand down his face. “That might be a hasty decision—”

The alpha bellowed, growing larger with each word.

Gregory, shaking like a leaf, lifted the phone back to his ear and said as calmly as possible, “We are very regretful for this crime against you and your pack. I would like to offer something in return—”

“He can have them for a goddamn
snack!
” the alpha snarled, his words starting to get garbled as he clamped down on the urge to shift.

“My alpha would like to offer Christoph and Ashi to you, formally. I can probably work out a deal with imported goods between you and Farhad, head of Attenwald Corp.”

The alpha was shrinking. “They have endangered the pack. I am not only talking about the structure or our strength. I am also talking about our
families
. Our
cubs
. Damn it, Ashi was the worst addition to the pack I have ever encountered.”

“I would like to apologize on behalf of my alpha and the entire pack. We did
not
send them out. We do not want relations between our pack and yours to worsen.” Gregory was still shaking. This could go very, very badly.

The alpha threw a bookshelf across the room.

Gregory pulled the phone away from his ear and pleaded with the alpha. “Please don’t tell Gavin! You
know
what will happen.” Into the phone he begged, “I hope you understand, this is something that has
never
happened before. We do
not
condone this sort of behavior.”

Royce had covered his eyes with one hand while he spoke into the phone, ignoring Christoph, Ashi, and Mouse. He was trying hard not to laugh and couldn’t hide the smirk that curved his lips at the sounds of destruction coming from the other end. Apparently, the alpha was peeved.

“They destroyed part of my home. I’ll accept their servitude and the deal with Attenwald, but I also want reimbursement for the repair of any damages they caused while breaking into my property.”