The Complete Bloodling Serial: Episodes 1-5 Page 9

  Victor's gaze remained riveted on the moving text, but Mr. Pendleton had taken only a single look at the website before hitting number three on his speed dial. Now he was deep in a muttered conversation I wasn't supposed to be able to overhear but could easily make out. Blah, blah, blah, hackers. Blah, blah, blah, security. I listened just long enough to discover that someone was having his ass handed to him on a silver platter, then tuned the rant out.

  "How in the heck did you do it?" Victor asked now, sliding a mug across the coffee table in my direction before running an anxious hand through his no-longer perfect hair. The human male had recovered from his mortification at catching me in dishabille, but something about the experience had taken the shine off his ever-present coat of charisma nonetheless.

  Before I could answer, a couple of the guys we'd been out drinking with two nights before walked past. Victor was too frazzled to recognize them, but I noticed how their eyes initially lit up when they caught sight of my companion. Then his ruffled demeanor sank in and the pair quickly looked away without offering a greeting. How very human of them.

  And isn't that interesting? It seemed Victor's game face was only good for short periods of time...much like my own. No wonder he'd tried to stab me in the back if his previous attempts at friendship had been so short-lived. He probably didn't understand what was and wasn't cool behavior within a pack.

  Mentally removing the hacker from my shit list, I deigned to offer a few tidbits of information on the previous night's coding spree. Then, as the bank manager turned back to face us, I finished, "I'll tell you more about it later, dude."

  Because my attention needed to be fully focused on the matter at hand now that the moment of truth had finally arrived. I sat up straighter in the overstuffed chair that graced the lobby and searched the older gentleman's face with my eyes.

  When I'd thought about this meeting after breaking into the website, I'd hoped Mr. Pendleton would be pleased, would clap me on the back and praise me much as I'd thanked my younger pack mate the night before. But it was obvious now that the win wouldn't be so easy. The bank manager's stance was stiff and his face stern. And once he opened his mouth, his words confirmed my suspicions.

  "I should be offering you a job right now, Mr. Young," he said gravely. "But I honestly don't feel comfortable doing so. The truth is, I've run this bank on gut reactions for the last thirty years, and my gut says there's something not quite right about you."

  The sudden inhalation of air beside me turned into a coughing fit as Victor tried his best not to swallow his own tongue. I knew my cyber buddy was replaying the scene of three naked males in my hotel-room bed one more time, the image burned into his retinas as if he'd peered too closely at the sun. Yes, by human standards, there certainly was something not quite right about me.

  A bank manager from small-town Ohio would probably find my supposed ménage à trois reason enough to refuse to offer me a job. Victor knew that as well as I did. So I fully expected to hear the hacker's voice pounding the final nail into my coffin.

  After all, hadn't Victor made it perfectly clear that this job hunt was just one more challenge, no different from his shoot-em-up video games? All's fair in love and war and all that jazz. So why not push the advantage he had over me?

  Sure enough, Victor spoke as soon as his coughing fit subsided. But his words weren't at all what I expected. "I know Wolf comes across as a little strange at first, sir," the human male said. "But the truth is, I've known him for over a year, and he's as solid as they come. He once paid a speeding ticket for me so my parents wouldn't have to know about it, and he's been supporting his aunt and his entire extended family for pretty much all of his adult life."

  A hint of a smile curved the corner of Mr. Pendleton's lips upward. To the older gentleman, I'm sure neither Victor nor I had spent any time as adults, which dramatically lessened the impact of my friend's second point.

  Meanwhile, I found myself equally surprised by Victor's monologue, but for an entirely different reason. First of all, I hadn't been expecting my opponent to come to my aid, cyber-buddy status aside. And, second of all, since when had he actually started paying attention to the tidbits I let drop about my personal life? Victor had always seemed fully focused on the next video game and the next coding adventure. His own dramas had vastly overshadowed my own...or so I'd assumed.

  Now I realized that my friend must have looked up the nickname we used for Chase's mother—Tia—and drawn his own conclusions about our relationship. As his rant continued, I learned that apparently we were Mexican immigrants struggling to find a place in this new nation of opportunity. I'd been kicked out of my nuclear family due to my sexual orientation, and as a result felt I owed it to my new clan to make their lives easier as they struggled to make ends meet. Unfortunately, my past made it difficult for me to find a job despite more than deserving this very opportunity.

  In other words, I was the golden boy Victor had previously pretended to be. I looked up, expecting a glowing halo to materialize above my head.

  Nope, not there. And, from the uncertain expression on his face, Mr. Pendleton didn't fully buy Victor's fairy tale either.

  Chapter 7

  "You talk a good talk," the bank manager said when my friend's words of praise finally wound down. "But I judge a man's worth by the whites of his eyes"—whatever that meant—"and by a firm handshake. So, let's have it, Mr. Young. It's time to see what you've got."

  A handshake was going to decide my pack's future? Seriously? But as I took in the set of the bank manager's shoulders, I finally got it. Bob was the human equivalent of a bloodling. He had the capacity to understand the depth of a human's character at a glance, and what he'd been seeing in me was a confusing mish-mash of wolf and man. No wonder the older man had blown me off yesterday and hoped to never cross paths with my ilk again.

  A smarter werewolf would have chained down his lupine nature and allowed the bank manager to peer into eyes that rang of nothing but humanity. But Mr. Pendleton had requested honesty, and the unvarnished truth was that I was more wolf than man.

  Which didn't mean I was going to shed clothes and go four-legged here in the hotel lobby, of course. But my own gut told me this wasn't the time to try to hide my lupine nature behind feigned humanity.

  So I relaxed the blinders I'd been carefully holding around my wolf ever since setting foot in this hotel. I let my ears pick up the sound of a vacuum roaring to life two floors above and an annoyed dishwashing assistant griping about his girlfriend a hundred feet west. I let the chemical aroma of new carpet wrinkle my nose and felt the eddies of air currents brushing my cheeks as a revolving door changed the interior pressure with a near-audible pop.

  Then I gazed at the bank manager with my full self on alert. The human possessed no inner wolf, of course, but my lupine gaze made his spine seem straighter than it had previously, his gray hair more like a white crown of wisdom than a weakness of old age. By shifter standards, Mr. Pendleton was mere meat, but I understood now that he was a man to look up to, a man to learn from. Not a man to vanquish via trickery.

  The manager nodded once, and I reached forward to accept his proffered hand. My nostrils flared, taking in the scent of leather seats and bleached office paper. In his purest essence, I now realized, Mr. Pendleton was the bank. Which is why my late-night hack had backfired. Rather than simply proving my prowess as originally intended, the act had violated the man I'd intended to impress.

  In other words, I owed him an apology.

  "Sorry about the neon letters, Mr. Pendleton," I offered quietly. "Give me five minutes and I can put everything back the way it was."

  We stood poised for an eternity...or perhaps for five long seconds. In wolf brain, it was hard to tell the difference.

  Then, the bank manager squeezed my fingers with a strength that would have made a human wince. I considered pretending pain, but instead squeezed back with just one iota less pressure—a peace offering.

  "The removal c
an be your first billable hour," Mr. Pendleton agreed. Then, as he withdrew his hand and turned to go, he called back over his shoulder, "And you can call me Bob."

  ***

  "So we're cool?"

  Victor seemed absurdly concerned that I might now decide he wasn't worth my time and leave him friendless, proof positive that he was indeed as lonely as I'd at first assumed him to be. What the human didn't realize was that I'd long ago decided he was part of my clan. I'd yet to drop a pack mate due to sheer stupidity and I didn't intend to start now.

  Especially not when Victor had come through with such an eloquent defense at the eleventh hour.

  "Of course," I agreed. "And I could hire you on as a part-time consultant if it would get your parents off your back." Because now that I'd won the signing bonus that would let me put a down payment on my opening move against the Chief, I could afford to be magnanimous.

  "That would be awesome!" Victor began, then turned red again as Chase and Wade stepped out of the elevator and into his line of vision.

  My fellow shifters were fully dressed now, Chase in my discarded suit since I'd donned his jeans and t-shirt this morning in my hurry to win the wager. Meanwhile, Wade had clearly embraced his self-determined role of lackey, as evidenced by the suitcase and laptop bag he was carting along in the beta's wake.

  They looked perfectly normal, in other words. But the waves of agonizing discomfort rolling off Victor proved that my pack mates' previous appearance hadn't been forgotten.

  From across the room, my milk brother met my gaze, one eyebrow raised. Need space? he asked without words. I shook my head subtly. Might was well get these introductions over with now rather than later.

  "This is Chase and Wade," I offered, pointing at each pack mate in turn. Then, telling the shifters what they already knew, I finished the human-style introductions. "And this is Victor."

  "Some of my best friends are gay," the latter blurted out in what could only be termed a Freudian non sequitur. I noticed that the expanding blood vessels in his face had managed to color even the tops of his ears, and I couldn't resist waiting a moment as I pondered how far the blush would extend before my cyber buddy fainted dead away.

  Chase rolled his eyes at my subtle form of torture. "None of us are gay," he said, taking pity on the human. "We were just coding really late last night and must have fallen into bed in a strange way. You didn't interrupt anything."

  The explanation left something to be desired, but I didn't particularly care what Victor thought of my sexuality. As long as he didn't realize we were werewolves and run screaming into the night, we were good.

  Well, that wasn't quite true. I enjoyed our chats via write-message and wanted to make sure Victor didn't bow out of my life in the wake of our first physical meeting. So I offered him a chance to get to know my clan in a situation that wouldn't leave any of us blushing.

  "We've still got a few hours left before we have to head home," I spoke up, then paused. Mentally paging through favorite activities that were both shifter and human friendly, I settled at last on the only viable alternative. "Wanna join us in a game of paint ball?"

  Victor's face opened into a guileless grin. "Hell yeah!" He punched me on the shoulder and I returned the gesture, being careful not to damage the tender human. Then I led the trio out into the city to track down some colored explosives.

  There was nothing like a good hunt to welcome a new pack mate into the clan.

  Chapter 8

  The sweet flavor of Terra filled my nostrils as I hid in plain view behind a display of pineapples. The pack princess was even more appealing than she'd appeared on first sighting, but I noticed now that her wolf was strangely silent. Otherwise, she surely would have smelled me as I tracked her through the supermarket aisles.

  My initial urge had been to walk up to the young woman, introduce myself, and invite her to come back with me to our new clan home. Our pack could use more shifters of the female variety, and I could definitely use a heavier dose of Terra in my life.

  But something kept my feet firmly planted on the ground.

  Perhaps it was the way Chief Wilder's daughter had tensed and scanned her surroundings when my scent first wafted into her nostrils. I was pretty sure the other shifter's conscious mind hadn't understood what she was smelling, but her subconscious appeared to be terrified by the slightest hint of any wolf, including her own.

  A potentially problematic situation considering the fact that I was more wolf than man.

  Meanwhile, I kept reminding myself that my hands were already quite full without adding another complication to the mix. Wade and I had whipped Bob's site into order in just a few weeks, but the bank manager was so pleased with our efforts that he recommended us to three of his friends. As a result, our work load was now so high that I'd had to take a sick day to slip away on my current jaunt.

  Before me, Terra plucked a plastic clamshell of cherry tomatoes then eyed the contents consideringly. Take them or leave them? I could almost see the words flitting through her mind. And as she brought the fruit to her nose, I had to clench my fists around the display counter to prevent myself from springing forward.

  She should be taking me.

  Ah, yes, jealousy of garden produce. A definite sign my duties weren't the only thing holding me back from making my move. Even my nonlinear wolf brain could see that I wasn't anywhere near ready to speak to this pack princess. Not when I suspected I'd only have one chance to screw things up before she fled the state without a backward glance.

  The unfortunate truth was that Terra didn't appear ready to speak with me either. The squeal of a grocery cart's wheels caused the pack princess to flinch and she set the tomatoes back down abruptly, pushing her own cart toward the checkout line with hunched shoulders and a jerky stride.

  The girl was scared of her own shadow, let alone a member of the opposite sex. Given the fact that I came with teeth and claws, I might have to accept the fact that Terra would never be ready for me.

  I wanted to howl out my frustration at the mere thought, but I instead shook my human head briskly to bring myself back to the present moment. My thoughts derailed onto the additional puzzles waiting for me at home. Specifically, the Chief's grandson. Soon, my pack would have to find a way to insinuate ourselves into that family and win the father's trust.

  And, eventually, there would be Chief Wilder himself to contend with.

  In other words, I needed to keep my eye on the prize and forget this childish infatuation. Even if the bond between myself and Terra felt like so much more.

  So I let the ties to my pack draw me away from the woman who I found so fascinating. Despite my urge to lunge forward, I hung back as the pack princess wheeled her cart out of the store and out of my life. The distant thud of a closing car door felt like the closing of my heart.

  Maybe Terra will turn back up in my life someday when we're both a little older and wiser.

  Maybe. But, if not, I was content with the territory my clan and I were building on the side of a Virginia mountain. I was content with brotherhood and hacking and long wild runs with the wind brushing out my lupine fur as my pack bumped their shoulders against my own.

  So I walked to the nearest trees, shed my clothes, and turned wolf. It was time to grow into my over-size paws and start acting like an alpha.

  Feint of Heart

  Episode 4

  Chapter 1

  "They're not even a proper team."

  I bared my teeth at the other alpha, daring him to put his money where his mouth was. And, as expected, the opposing shifter averted his eyes immediately, backing down in the face of my stronger alpha dominance.

  Of course, Price did have a point. My crew weighed in at the lower limit of allowable manpower since I'd taken only Wade and Fen along with me to All-Pack this year. We were supposed to be playing it safe and keeping a low profile at this first gathering we'd attended since Chief Wilder caught me in a bind two years prior. But the Winter Hunt had been too en
ticing to pass up.

  Plus, I trusted my team. Sure, Fen was just fourteen, all freckled cheeks and gangly limbs while two-legged. She hadn't felt comfortable stripping and turning wolf when the rest of us did, either.

  But I wasn't concerned about her foot-dragging. The kid would shift when she was good and ready. Because what the girl lacked in muscles, she more than made up for in sheer spunk. Personally, I thought our trio was unbeatable or I wouldn't have entered the contest in the first place.

  Twenty feet away, Chief Wilder turned his cold gaze in our direction, weighing Price's words. I itched to stare the grizzled old pack leader down, but he was both referee and bait in this rough-and-tumble game of skill and power. Oh, yeah, and he also held my personal debt in his iron fist. So I averted my eyes and hoped the overpowering alpha wouldn't call us out on the possible infraction.

  "Two boys and a halfie," Crazy Wilder intoned, a faint smirk widening his lips. "You think the three of you can catch me before the moon rises?"

  That was the goal, after all. Soon, Wilder would shift and lope away, a twenty-minute head start all that stood between the grizzled alpha and the best every other pack had to offer. If he could elude our pursuit until the tiny sliver of moon rose near the end of this cold, dark night, then Crazy Wilder would win bragging rights for another twelve months.

  The patriarch seemed confident of his success. And no wonder—Chief Wilder had eluded pursuit for as long as I could remember.

  But I was bound and determined to take the old alpha down. Because wouldn't the other pack leaders be forced to take me seriously enough to grant my petition for territorial rights if I trumped the strongest alpha of them all?

  In wolf form, I couldn't answer Crazy Wilder in words, of course. But I lifted my nose to the air and spread my nostrils. Beside me, Wade let out a small yip of excitement. Then Fen spoke for all three of us.