House of Sky and Breath (Crescent City, #2)

Naomi followed the direction of his gaze. “There’s a terrifying match.”

Hunt chuckled. “Yeah.” His phone buzzed, and he fished it out of his pocket to see that a text had arrived from Bryce Sucks My Dick Like a Champ.

Hunt choked, scrambling to switch screens as Isaiah peered over his shoulder and laughed. “I assume you didn’t put that name in there.”

“No,” Hunt hissed. He’d punish her thoroughly for that one. After he finally got to fuck her. He hadn’t forgotten that he was supposed to be doing exactly that right now. That he’d made dinner and hotel reservations that had been canceled for this awkward-ass shit. Hunt explained to Isaiah, “It’s this stupid running joke we have.”

“A joke, hmmm?” Isaiah’s eyes danced with delight, and he clapped Hunt on the shoulder. “I’m happy for you.”

Hunt smiled to himself, opening up her message, trying not to look at the name she’d put in and think about how accurate it was. “Thanks.” But his smile faded as he read the message.

Sabine here.

Hunt’s heartbeat kicked up a notch. Isaiah read the message and murmured, “Go.”

“What about this?” Hunt jerked his chin at Celestina and Ephraim across the room.

“Go,” Isaiah urged. “You need backup?”

He shouldn’t, but Bryce’s message had been so vague, and—shit. “You can’t come with me. It’ll be too obvious.” He turned to Naomi, but she’d drifted off toward the bar cart again. If he grabbed her, it’d draw everyone’s attention. He scanned the space.

Baxian looked right at him, reading the tension on his face, his body. Fucker. Now someone would know he’d left—

Isaiah sensed it, noted it. “I’ll deal with that,” his friend murmured, and sauntered off toward the black-winged angel. He said something to Baxian that had them both pivoting away from Hunt.

Seizing his chance, Hunt backed up a step, then another, fading into the shadows of the veranda beyond the study. He kept moving, stealthy, until his heels were at the edge of the landing. But as he stepped off, free-falling into the night, he caught Celestina looking at him.

Disappointment and displeasure darkened her eyes.





35

Bryce cursed herself for opening the door. For letting the wolf in. For letting it get to this so quickly: Ithan and Sabine, about to splatter this apartment with blood. Ithan’s blood.

Bryce’s mouth dried out. Think. Think.

Ruhn swiftly glanced at her, but didn’t suggest any bright ideas mind-to-mind.

Sabine snarled at Ithan, “Your brother knew his place. Was content to be Danika’s Second. You’re not nearly as smart as he was.”

Ithan didn’t back down as Sabine advanced. “I might not be as smart as Connor,” he said, “but at least I wasn’t dumb enough to sleep with Mordoc.”

Sabine halted. “Shut your mouth, boy.”

Ithan laughed, cold and lifeless. Bryce had never heard him make such a sound. “We never learned during that last visit: Was it an arranged pairing between you two, or some drunk decision?”

Mordoc—the Hind’s captain?

“I will rip out your throat,” Sabine growled, stepping closer. But Bryce saw it—the glimmer of surprise. Doubt. He’d thrown Sabine off her game a little with that volley.

Again, Ithan didn’t lower his eyes. “He’s here in this city. Are you going to see him? Take him to the Black Dock to bid farewell to his daughter?”

Bryce’s stomach dropped, but she kept her face neutral. Danika had never said. Had always claimed it was a …

A male not worth knowing or remembering.

Bryce had assumed it was some lesser wolf, some male too submissive to keep Sabine’s interest, and Sabine had refused to let Danika see him because of it. Even when Danika had known the truth of Bryce’s parentage, she’d never told Bryce about her own lineage. The thought burned like acid.

Sabine spat, “I know what you’re trying to do, Holstrom, and it won’t work.”

Ithan flexed his broad chest. Bryce had seen that same intense expression while facing off against opponents on the sunball field. Ithan had usually been the one to walk away from the encounter. And he’d always walked away if a teammate joined in the fight.

So Bryce stepped up. Said to Sabine, “Was Danika a rebel?”

Sabine whipped her head to her. “What?”

Bryce kept her shoulders back, head high. She outranked Sabine in position and power now, she reminded herself. “Did Danika have contact with the Ophion rebels?”

Sabine backed away. Just one step. “Why would you ever ask that?”

Ithan ignored the question and countered, “Was it because of Mordoc? She was so disgusted by him that she helped the rebels to spite him?”

Bryce shoved from the other side, “Maybe she did it out of disgust for you, too.”

Sabine backed away one more step. Predator turning into prey. She snarled, “You’re both delusional.”

“Is that so?” Bryce asked, and then took a stab in the dark. “I’m not the one who ran all the way here to make sure Ithan and I weren’t plotting some kind of wolf-coup against you.”

Sabine bristled. Bryce pushed, getting no small delight out of it, “That’s the fear, right? That I’m going to use my fancy princess title to get Holstrom to replace you somehow? I mean, you’ve got no heir beyond Amelie right now. And Ithan’s as dominant as she is. But I don’t think the Den likes Amelie—or you, for that matter—nearly as much as they love him.”

Ithan blinked at her in surprise. But Bryce smiled at Sabine, who’d gone stone-faced as she snarled, “Stay out of wolf business.”

Bryce taunted, “I wonder how hard it would be to convince the Prime and the Den that Ithan is the bright future of the Valbaran wolves—”

“Bryce,” Ithan warned. Had he truly never considered such a thing?

Sabine’s hand drifted to something at her back, and Ruhn aimed his gun. “Nah,” Bryce’s brother said, smiling wickedly. “I don’t think so.”

A familiar ripple of charged air filled the room a moment before Hunt said, “Neither do I,” and appeared in the doorway so silently Bryce knew he’d crept up. Relief nearly buckled her knees as Hunt stepped into the apartment, gun pointed at the back of Sabine’s head. “You’re going to leave, and never fucking bother us again.”

Sabine seethed, “Allow me to give you a bit of advice. You tangle with Mordoc, and you’ll get what’s coming to you. Ask him about Danika and see what he does to get answers out of you.”

Ithan’s teeth flashed. “Get out, Sabine.”

“You don’t give me orders.”

The wolves faced off: one young and brokenhearted, the other in her prime—and heartless. Could someone like Ithan, if he wanted it, ever win in a battle for dominance?

But then another figure stepped into the apartment behind Hunt.

Baxian. The angel shifter had a gun drawn, aimed at Sabine’s legs to disable her if she tried to run.

Only a glimmer of surprise on Hunt’s face told Bryce this wasn’t a planned appearance.

Sabine turned slowly. Recognition flared in her eyes. And something like fear.

Baxian’s teeth gleamed in a feral grin. “Hello, Sabine.”