“I’m not feeling too good. My stomach….” Zach’s head ached, a sharp throb increasing every time he spoke or swallowed. “Did you do something to me? Did you drug me? I can’t… stay awake.”
“I didn’t drug you. You were unconscious the entire time I carried you up here. My guess is that hit rattled your brain,” the man rumbled. “You were out for a long time. You had me worried. And as much as I regret what you saw, I’m just happy you woke up. Landline is out, and we don’t get much cell service up here. As soon as it lets up, I’ll see about getting you back to where you came from, and if you’re smart, you’ll stay there. It would be a lot easier on you if you forget everything about this place, me, and my brother. Or at least until we’re gone, after that I don’t care what you do.”
“You don’t have to leave,” Zach burbled around his tongue, his words thick with confusion. “Told you, I’m not going to say anything. There’s always going to be people. At least here, you can protect him, especially if I help you. Not like I don’t know what it feels like to be chased away from the only place I felt safe.”
“I WISH you would speak to me,” Gibson murmured, scratching at Ellis’s ear. He was hunched over his brother’s shaggy body, his wolf form curled up tight. Ellis’s breathing went jagged when Gibson touched him, then steadied out when he spoke. “I would give anything—anything—to have you break free of the wolf. I miss you, brother. I’m not used to being the adult. That was always your role. It’s been a rude awakening, let me tell you.
“And what were you thinking? Chasing after him?” He sighed, glancing over at the man sleeping off his bruises on the couch. “Are you losing yourself in there? I don’t have anyone I can ask, no one who doesn’t tell me to put a bullet in you because you’ve gone wolf. I know I need to be patient, but if you just give me some kind of sign, something to tell me that you’re still you inside there.”
Nothing.
He’d grown used to Ellis’s unresponsiveness, maybe too used to it. By the time he’d made it up to the cabin by Big Bear Lake, Ellis had already held himself to his wolf form for nearly a month. The call Gibson had gotten from Old Walter alarmed him, then scared him deep down, touching on nightmares he hadn’t known he’d held inside of himself. They’d heard stories about their own going wolf, a death sentence for the most part, the loss of every bit of human to the animal living inside of them. He’d turned away their father, who’d come to deliver Ellis from his misery, and Gibson didn’t know what hurt more, his extended family willing to slaughter one of their own who’d been trapped in a net of horrors or them turning their backs on him because he refused to give up his older brother.
“It’ll be okay,” Gibson said, stroking down his brother’s ruffled black fur. “Just do me a favor, even if the guy hits everything on my must-have list, don’t try to bring him home. I’m telling you, there’s no room in my life right now for dating. Even if he is as hot as this Zach guy.”
The power flickered again, giving Gibson a brief flare of hope, then gave in to the storm, plunging the cabin into darkness. He’d debated firing up the generator, mostly for light, but he had a battery backup to rely on, and if he turned off the now useless Wi-Fi on his laptop, it would last a hell of a lot longer and probably make it easier for him to work without the distraction.
“Might as well work. He’s out, and you’re probably going to pass out in a bit. It’ll keep my mind off of things. So long as I don’t have to do any research,” Gibson muttered, wondering if he was talking to Ellis or just to himself. “With my luck, I’m going to make a wrong turn and suddenly have to know everything there is to know about blue-spotted octopus breeding.”
The fireplace let off enough glow for him to see, a dim, buttery spill of light bright enough to snag the wee bit of wolf in his vision. There were times when he wondered what it would be like to be pure human, to not be able to smell the sweetness of Zach’s skin from across the room or wonder how delicious he would taste when—if—Gibson kissed him. He heard every noise, every slight moan the man made when Zach shifted on the couch.
It probably didn’t help that he’d reached the point of having to work a sex scene into his story. They were always the most difficult part of a novel to craft. It’d been too long since he’d touched someone else, touched another man’s skin, and describing his wants—his own deep desires—on a page for others to read and delve into opened up an intimate part of him he didn’t know if he was really willing to share. The scenes captured on the page were distant imaginings, nearly clinical as he observed them unfolding in his mind. It was easy enough to sketch out the motions, flinging out empty words of affection and love, when he didn’t have one of the most desirable men he’d ever seen lying a few feet away.
Zach Thomas was more of a problem than Gibson wanted to deal with. He believed the man when Zach promised he’d say nothing about Ellis. Still, it was a risk Gibson had to assess. All it took was a single whisper, something overheard by someone who would know Ellis’s condition and take it upon themselves to rid the world of a possibly mad werewolf. Ellis chasing Zach could have been nothing more than a game, that cocky mischievousness his brother was known for, or a sign of Ellis’s final descent into insanity.
“If only you’d stayed human just a little while longer,” Gibson whispered at his slumbering brother. “I just wish I knew. I need something to tell me that it will be okay, that I should still have faith.”
No matter how long he stared into the fire, Gibson gained no answers. The flickering flames crackled, seemingly chuckling at his frustration and ignorance, then chortling over the lust Zach drew out of Gibson’s primal urges. Sighing, Gibson leaned forward and stared at the last few paragraphs he’d written before tumbling down the mountainside to rescue his brother and his prey.
“Okay, let’s turn on the Barry White and get the two of you into your groove,” he grumbled at his half-finished chapter. “If I don’t get this book finished, the only wolf in danger of getting skinned will be me.”