Desire Unchained

“Ky, buddy, would you mind checking on Wraith?”

Eidolon strode into the ER, where Kynan and Gem had been treating a Trillah demon—a sleek, catlike species—with a mangled foot. Gem had just come on shift, so they still hadn’t dealt with how Kynan had practically run out of the break room yesterday, and the air between them crackled with unacknowledged tension.

“What’s wrong with Wraith?” Ky tossed some bloody gauze into the trash.

“Remember the dead brother I told you about?”

Kynan nodded. “Roag, right?”

“He’s alive.”

“What?” Gem looked up from spiking a bag of saline. “That can’t be right.”

Fury flared in Eidolon’s expression, quickly snuffed by the doctor’s usual cool fa?ade. “I’m having a hard time believing it myself.” He snapped on some surgical gloves, all business, which was, Ky had discovered, how the guy handled stress. “Shade says he’s behind the newest black market operation that’s been filling our ER and morgue. He captured Shade, forced him to bond with a warg, and … and he killed Skulk.”

“Jesus,” Kynan muttered. He watched Eidolon assess the patient as though nothing out of the ordinary had just happened, but his eyes, flecked with red that came out when he was extremely pissed off, were flashing.

“I don’t know how Wraith is going to react to all of this once it sinks in. I’d appreciate it if you could help me keep an eye on him.”

Great. Just his luck to get tasked with babysitting detail. “No problem.” He stripped off his bloody gloves and checked his watch. Six hours. He’d be off duty in six hours and drunk as a skunk in seven. Couldn’t happen soon enough.

He’d wanted to get lit last night after the encounter with Gem, but there’d been a minor crisis at Aegis headquarters, a rookie Guardian who’d fallen apart after her first battle. Tayla could handle pretty much anything that came up during normal operations, but she was a little too hard-edged to deal with meltdowns. The traumatized Guardian had also required medical attention, so he’d pulled double duty as medic and shrink. Afterward, he’d gone straight to the tiny bachelor pad he’d moved into after his wife left him and crashed out of exhaustion rather than an alcohol binge. Tayla had offered to let him stay on the couch at headquarters, a six-bedroom house where two dozen Guardians lived, but he couldn’t bear to stay where he and Lori had been happy.

Happy. What a joke. He had no idea how long Lori had been cheating on him before he caught her, but now their entire relationship was in doubt, all the way back to his first military deployment. She could have been screwing anyone while he was getting his ass shot at in deserts and jungles.

“I left him in Shade’s room,” E said. “Thanks, man. I owe you.”

“Damn straight.” Kynan stalked out of the emergency department, made it to Shade’s room a minute later.

The door opened as he reached for it, and Ciska brushed past him, a secret smile on her lips. The secret became less of one when he entered the room and saw Wraith zipping up.

Wraith rolled his eyes. “E sent you, right?”

“Yep.” Kynan closed the door.

“I don’t need a babysitter, so take a hike.”

Ignoring Wraith, Kynan sank down in a chair. “Where’s Shade?”

“Probably fucking his mate by now.”

Yeah, that news had spread like hellfire through the hospital. Ky wasn’t sure why Shade taking a mate was such a big deal, since E had done the same, but apparently it was a Very Bad Thing.

“It’ll work out, Wraith. It’ll be fine.”

“Whatever. I don’t care.”

“Don’t give me that shit. You care a lot.”

Wraith snorted. “I don’t care about anyone or anything, human.” He jabbed Ky in the chest with one finger, leaned in close to growl in his ear, “I’d sell out my own brothers for the right price. Get that through your thick skull.”

With that, Wraith stalked out of the room. As the door shut, Kynan heard him shout, “Hey, female! Come here!”

Kynan stared at the door. Wraith might not be looking for a fight or making a beeline for a junkie right now, but he had a tendency to use sex in place of drugs or violence when he was upset.

When the sex ran out, Wraith was going to go for one of his other two vices, and then things would get ugly fast.





Wraith waited until the lab technician he’d just screwed closed the door to the supply closet in which they’d just bumped uglies. Strike that—he’d bumped ugly. With her underbite, overgrown lower canines, and patchy fur, she wasn’t the most attractive Slogthu he’d ever banged.

As soon as she was gone, he slid to the floor, spine against the wall, and buried his face in his hands.

Fucking Kynan. What made him think Wraith cared about anything?

I’d sell out my own brothers for the right price.