Broods Of Fenrir

chapter 21


Dagny"s fingers drumming against the steering wheel threatened to drive Brand insane. He reached to cover her hands with one of his. “I"ll be fine. I"m not even going in for the grab.” Her irritation prickled in his gut.

With an annoyed grumble rising from her throat, she shook off his hand. “Your healing isn"t going well, and the moon is four days from new. You should be in bed.” She discussed his weakness so casually, but it didn"t bother Brand at all, quite the contrary. He smiled and took her hand again. “Erik needs someone in there that can read Rivera to see if he"s telling the truth, and I"m the only one who can.” He left the absence of Alice unspoken, but Dagny"s softening expression indicated she"d picked up on his sadness.

She exhaled hard, her nostrils flaring. “Mother could do it.”

He tried to calm her mounting aggravation by stroking her hand from palm to fingertips. “Even assuming she agreed to it, Ingrid isn"t an empath. What she does is read body language and brood power. Helpful certainly, but her tricks don"t work as well on humans.”

She curled her fingers around his hand in a tight grip.

“If you let yourself get hurt, I won"t forgive you.” 207

He leaned across to her, ignoring the twinge of pain it caused in his side, and nuzzled her neck. “Oh, I think you will.” The surge of blood under her skin tempted him.

His phone, resting on the console between them, filled the car with the thoroughly obnoxious noise of vibrating plastic. He cursed while bringing it up to his ear. “Yes?”

“We"ve got him.” Erik sounded angry, but not out of control. Brand snapped the phone shut. “Come on.” A shy smile curled the corners of her lips. “Really?”

“Why not? You"re going to ask me. I"m going to struggle to say no while you stare at me with those gorgeous eyes. You"re going to do something really cute, and I"m going to give in. This just saves time.”

She blinked, but her smile deepened. “Call me cute again, and I"m going to punch you.”

He growled, and his mouth lifted into a grin. Her audacity never failed to excite him. “Can we save the foreplay until I"m all the way healed? I think in this state you might break me.”

She scoffed while opening her door. “Not likely.” The furry shape of Gunni in wolf form greeted them at the edge of Rivera"s property. The security gate was open, and the three of them walked through. Brand scanned the dark wooded yard as they followed the path toward the huge house.

“Hey, Gun.” Brand paused to pat the wolf on the head.

“Watch my girl, okay?”

Gunni trotted away from him and took up a position closer to Dagny. She glared at Brand. “You"re the one who repeatedly gets into trouble. He should watch you.” He chuckled. “He"s more likely to watch your tail than mine.” She grumbled, but didn"t argue further.

One of Erik"s brood opened the door for them when they approached. Brand nodded to him when he dropped to one knee. “Which way?”

“Up the stairs and to the left, my king.” The male remained kneeling until they turned away.

The title still sounded strange to Brand, and he wondered if he would ever get used to it. By the time they reached the top of the stairs, his chest ached from the effort of the climb. He stopped, and Dagny rushed to his side.

He pulled her close against him and lowered his head to her shoulder. “Stay outside the room. I don"t want him to see you.”

She tensed. “He"s never leaving that room alive. You and I both know it.”

“If he"s not ultimately the one in charge, we might have to let him go to catch whoever"s above him. If that happens, I"ll feel better if he doesn"t know what you look like.” Glaring at him from under her furrowed brow, she nodded slowly. She moved away, crouched against the wall, and pulled Gunni into a one-armed hug when he sat beside her.

Brand smelled the blood before he opened the door.

Including Erik, half a dozen brood males occupied the room where Javier Rivera sat bound to an expensive-looking ladder-back chair. Bruises already darkened his face. Blood from his nose and split lip soaked the front of his tailored dress shirt.

His eyes were sharp as they focused on Brand. “Are you the big, bad wolf-in-charge, then?”

“You might say that.” Brand pulled another chair in front of Rivera and sat down.

Rivera drew a labored breath. Apparently, they"d been at work on his chest as well. “You can have them beat me up all you want. I"m not saying anything.”

“What makes you believe I have any interest in what you have to say?” Brand fixed him with a searing glare. “You took one of ours and flayed him alive. I"m inclined to let them do the same to you.” He made a vague gesture encompassing the others in the room.

Fear tumbled out of Rivera in waves, but to his credit, he kept it from showing on his face. His eyes darted to 209

something across the room. “I would do it again.” Erik launched himself at Rivera, unable to hold his temper in check any longer.

Brand intercepted Erik before he got in range to tear the man apart with his hands. “Easy. We aren"t done here, yet.” Erik struggled in his grip and snapped his teeth, but eventually backed off. He settled for stalking back and forth across the room and glaring at Rivera with every third or fourth stride.

Anger rolled in Brand"s chest and he took several seconds to calm himself. He wanted nothing more than to help Erik rip the man open. The image of Lucas, tied up and helpless as they experimented on him, was difficult to push away. He sat across from Rivera once he"d calmed. “We"ve never done anything to you. Why would you attack us?” Rivera met his eyes with a strength Brand admired, considering the situation. “I did not attack you, or your…

people, with malicious intent.”

Erik started for Rivera again, but Brand stopped him with a raised hand. The man honestly believed what he said, and Brand needed to know why before he could let them kill him. “Explain yourself.”

Face clouded in thought, Rivera hesitated for several seconds before he inclined his head toward a table near the window.

Brand rose and crossed the room. A dozen pictures covered the table, and the subject of every one of them was the same young boy at different ages. Brand picked up the photo nearest him. The boy had a playful grin and his father"s earnest face. Rivera spoke from behind him. “Albert was ten when he was diagnosed with leukemia. A few months ago, the doctors told me to take him home and make him comfortable.” His voice halted abruptly. The anguish twisted Brand"s stomach as Rivera relived the horror of those memories.

Rivera struggled to regain his composure. “I needed to 210

find a way to help him. One of my labs noticed something strange in a sample of blood that had been mislabeled. The researcher thought what he found there could eventually be used to treat some cancers, but he needed more to work with.

We tracked down the source of the sample and tried to buy the lab.” He turned to look at Erik. “He wouldn"t sell. That intrigued me and made me angry. I hired someone to steal the lab"s files. I think you can figure out what happened from there.”

Brand put down the photo and walked back to Rivera.

“Did it work?”

His eyes glassy, Rivera stared up at him with an expression of confusion. “What?”

“Did you figure out a way to save your son?” Tears ran down Rivera"s face as he shook his head. “He died a week ago.”

Rivera"s sorrow wrenched Brand"s heart. The pain tore at him like a dull knife sawing at his chest. He staggered, and only Erik moving fast to catch him stopped him from hitting the ground.

Erik helped him into the chair and rounded on Rivera.

“Do you think hardship excuses what you did? Lucas was like a son to me.” His pain was every bit as vivid as Rivera"s. Brand had difficulty thinking with so much agony around him.

Rivera lifted his head, his gaunt face fixed in a stricken expression. “It never occurred to me that you would feel the same way about each other that we do.” Erik growled. A hungry beast lurked behind his swiftly lightening eyes. “Yes, we"re no better than animals. Primitive.

Barbaric.” His anger was a caustic, dangerous weapon.

The other males grew more restless with each passing second. Brand recognized the situation was spiraling out of control. Any moment, the tightly held temper of any one of them might snap.

Dagny knelt next to Brand and took hold of his hand.

He"d been so distracted he hadn"t even felt her enter the room.

Her power pulsed through him, and the touch of it soothed him. His barriers slammed back into place, isolating him from the swirl of emotions. Brand concentrated on the calm Dagny created in him whenever she was near. He projected that feeling, filling the room with a sense of ease. The grumbles around him stopped.

Erik turned to face him. His eyes no longer bore the wolfish glow. “What in Loki"s name was that?” Brand"s hand tightened around Dagny"s. She"d saved him again. “I don"t want you to do something in a haze of rage that you"ll regret later.”

“There will be no regret. He killed one of ours. He owes us blood.”

Rivera sat with his head down. He didn"t deny anything, didn"t bargain for his life. “I"m sorry. I truly am,” he said in a halting whisper. Regret more powerful than Brand had ever felt poured from the man.

Erik leveled a disapproving glare at Rivera. “We can"t leave him alive. He knows too much.”

“Killing him isn"t going to solve our problem or make you feel any better.” Brand stood and stared down at Rivera.

“We"re not human. That doesn"t mean we don"t feel as keenly as you. I"m sorry your son died. I"m not sorry you didn"t find the secret to saving him inside of us.” At that, Rivera"s head snapped up, and his lips drew into a scowl.

“I"m not sorry, because if we could somehow heal your sick, how long do you think it would be before you hunted every one of us into the ground? Would you kill us at once or let us linger on as you did Lucas? Do you have any idea the agony he felt? I do, Mr. Rivera. I felt it. You can"t drug what"s inside of us. The wolf feels everything. You tortured him for weeks.” Anger made his voice shake.

“I"m a monster.” Rivera sobbed.

Brand appraised the grieving man. “You"re a father.” He said to Erik, “And soon enough, you will be too. Tell me 212

you wouldn"t kill for your offspring if you thought doing so might save them, and I"ll call you a liar.” Erik folded his arms moodily and turned away without replying.

Brand raised his voice. “Outside, everyone but Erik.” The room cleared in the space of an indrawn breath. Dagny exited last and pulled the door closed behind her.

“Mr. Rivera, I came here to watch you die. I don"t want that anymore. I won"t say I understand what you did, but I understand why. I would ask that you destroy anything that might confirm we exist. Convince the people in your employ who know about us that it was a hoax. Pay them off, threaten them, I don"t care. Just make this go away.” Brand stepped closer. “Promise me you can do that, and we walk away.” Tears still streaming down his face, Rivera gazed up at Brand. “I promise. No one will ever find out about you from me.”

Brand turned to Erik. “Are we good here?” Erik gave a hesitant nod. Brand pulled a knife from his belt and cut Rivera loose.

As Rivera got to his feet, Erik closed the distance between them. “If anyone goes missing, I"m coming to your door first, and I"d best not find anything to make me wonder if your word is good.”

“Understood,” Rivera said, not meeting his eyes. “I hope someday you can forgive me.”

Erik stomped out of the room without offering an answer. Rivera stared after him. “Tell him again how sorry I am.” “He"s quick to anger and slow to forgive, but he"s my oldest friend,” Brand said with a tight smile. “If you hurt him again, I"ll tear you apart.” Brand walked out of the room and into Dagny"s waiting embrace.

THE END