Chapter 2


   “Isi, I really don't have time for this right now.” She paused, her voice straining so slightly that no mortal ear could hear. “I'm so close I can feel it in my veins. There was something he didn't want me to find. He left me in Georgia. I have to go back.”
   “There's nothing I can say to bring you home.”
   “See that Shadow's taken care of.” She paused again and I could hear the smile in her voice as she spoke. “Please don't let Braedan put her in the garage...” the call broke with a faint click at the other end of the line.
   I sighed, pondering the questions she'd left. What was Cain protecting? I turned to press the intercom button safely hidden at the base of the alarm clock. “Braedan I need to see the two of you.”
   “I'll be up in a minute.” Braedan's dark voice boomed back with a staticy click.
   I pushed the soft purple and white plush covers back and forced myself out of their comforts. My bare toes touched warm wooden floors that were as deep as my already tanned skin. I pulled on a pair of jeans that had been sitting on the floor from the day before and wandered into the bathroom. Bright pink shortly cropped hair beamed at me from the mirror as I tilted my face up from the cold water I had just splashed upon it. Grey eyes were dark with worry as they always were after conversations with her.
   The more than gentle tap on the bedroom door startled me out of my own thoughts. The quiet actions of a man who hid what he really was, trying to make up for the thing he didn't want to be.
   “Yeah, I'm decent.”
   He opened the door slowly filling the door frame with his tall and broad shoulders, muscular arms that ripped with each movement, and a dark curl that was always matted to the top of his head in a style slightly longer than one would normally like. Sweat at his temple dripped slightly down, proof of his long nights in the garage under a hood. His white t-shirt was damp from the curve of his back to his neck, his dark blue jeans clung to him like second skin, and his worn dark brown work books were tucked neatly into their hem.
   “Your brother coming?”
   He shrugged, leaning into the frame imposing himself into the small space of the bathroom. “He's working on the master.”
   “Okay... guess who just checked in...”
   “Is she okay? Where the hell is she?”
   “She thinks she's onto something. She called me for a point close to the last one.” I slid myself around his towering frame and into the closet to find a clean t-shirt.
   His amber eyes moved with me, narrowing as he attempted to read my face in a way no other could. I turned my back to him, which most would not have dared to with his anger so close to the surface, and pulled on a clean one from a stack on the wall feeling the fierceness in his eyes send a shiver down my spine.
   “Is she okay?”
   “I'm not sure, you know how she is over the phone.” I turned to face him, “She sounded tired.”
   He pulled himself away from the door frame and fell into a brooding pace in the narrow hallway from the door to my room. His anger bringing the wolf closer to the surface.
   “Damnit...”
   “She may have checked in when she called, but she really wasn't.”
   He stopped mid-stride turning those amber eyes back to me long enough for me to catch the annoyance in them. “The car?”
   I nodded shortly, “Yeah, you're going to need to go get her.”
   “What did she buy?”
   “That is not something she happened to share with me, but you know how her taste favors. You could always call Deyanira and find out...”
   He pondered it for a moment, “I'll go get Blake and see what we can do about going to get the car.”
   “Thank you.”
   The front door closed firmly behind him, me still standing partially in the closet and I could feel the tension flood from me. There were times when I wondered if he even knew the effect he had on me with those golden eyes trying so hard not to view me as the prey.
   But of course he knew.




   The wolf saw all.

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