Dire Desires

“Lots of males. They were big, like you. But none of them were you,” she said quietly. “I wanted to go outside, but Gwen told me I couldn’t. So I left.”

“And they followed you,” Jinx said, noting Rifter’s truck. Vice would’ve been the first one on her tail, but he was no doubt helping Liam get ready.

Liam. Cyd. Cain. Jinx felt the guilt of not being there ball in his stomach. As if sensing this, Gillian squeezed his hand a little tighter.

“That’s Rifter. He’s my . . . boss. Both he and Gwen are.” Technically, it was the truth.

Rifter came toward them and Jinx willed himself not to growl as he got close. But the possessive feelings couldn’t be ignored or tamed.

Gwen must’ve mentioned it to the king, because Rifter stayed at a respectable distance as he spoke. “Gillian, you scared the hell out of us.”

“I can’t believe a girl gave you the slip,” Jez said and Rifter growled at him. Jez crossed his arms and looked unimpressed.

“You’ve got to go back to the house,” Jinx told her.

“No, I don’t. I won’t.”

She might only be out of prison because of him, but she wasn’t giving up any other freedoms easily, if at all. Hell, he was lucky she wanted to stick close to him, because her Houdini act was hard to top.

“It’s dangerous, Gillian,” Rifter said. “You don’t understand yet—”

“I’m staying with Jinx.” Her words were firm and for a long moment, the king pondered in silence. Finally, he nodded his consent.

He hadn’t asked Jinx to come back and stay at the mansion, which was a relief.

“Fine. But Jinx, you need to report in and make preparations. Come use the yard, the woods at night. Much safer,” Rifter said.

Jinx nodded and Gillian smiled at him. “Will you get in the truck with Jez? I’ll be right there.”

Jez motioned to her and she nodded, slipped her hand from his. He immediately missed the contact.

“Thank you for bringing her to Gwen, instead of asking Gwen to come to you,” Rifter said. “We both know she would’ve done it.”

Jinx nodded, didn’t know what else to say.

“You know Rogue is awake.”

“I saw him when I left the mansion, yes.”

Rifter opened his mouth as if to say something else, but stopped. Jinx broke in with, “Liam’s going to fight any time now.”

“Yes.”

And you should be with him and your twins was the unspoken phrase. More guilt.

“I’ll make sure her shift is smooth. I’ll try to have her at the mansion when it happens,” Jinx told his king, because he owed the man, his brother in arms, that, if not more. Rifter nodded and dismissed him. Jinx ran his hand along the deep scars on the side of his neck that Rifter had given him recently and knew that nothing between them would ever be the same.

Chapter 8

It was close to three in the morning, Vice’s favorite time of night and it was rapidly becoming Liam’s as well. That afternoon, Liam had captured a young Were who’d been working with the outlaw wolves. In doing so, he gained valuable intel on his biggest enemies, Tals and Walker, the wolves in charge of the outlaw werepack currently trying to oust Liam as rightful king. Now, with only the sliver of a moon for company, Liam was tense— Cyd, not much better.

Cain, his omega, was remarkably calm, which Liam took to mean they were on the right path, hopefully both literally and figuratively. Their truck cut through the night quietly, purposefully as Cain drove them and Cyd remained in the backseat, armed and dangerous.

The twins had permission from Jinx to fight. Cyd had proven his control a couple of months earlier when he took down a rogue Were who threatened Jinx and the entire werepack with his actions, and again during Seb’s most recent attempt to take over the town. But tonight’s fight would be different, enough to push a Were who’d suffered from moon craze over the edge.

Cain was worried about his twin, Liam knew, and Liam wasn’t sure if he was as worried about himself. But they’d made their decision about tonight—none of them were immortal and all three had to be prepared to suffer life-threatening injuries during a kill like this.

Was anyone really prepared? Liam wondered now. His father hadn’t been—Liam could still hear the man’s screams echoing in his ears, his death anything but peaceful.

“What are you doing with Max?” Cain asked him as they neared their destination, ripping him from his heartbreaking reverie and throwing him into another one of almost equal pain.

“I can’t answer that now. How the hell can you ask me that at a time like this?” Liam ran his hands through his hair and he heard Cyd’s muffled curse from the backseat. No doubt that alpha was as pissed as he was for Cain’s question, but the omega was undeterred, and undaunted.

“You have to. You need to be decisive in every damned thing you do,” Cain said, his voice strong and sure.

The pain of having Max, his mate—his human mate—cheat on him with an outlaw wolf was something that could rip Liam’s heart out if he thought about it too much, which was why he’d been avoiding anything to do with the subject of her unborn son.

“You let that pup out of your sight, he’s going to come back and kill you,” Cain told him.

“You’re a soothsayer now?” Liam demanded.

“You know I’m telling the truth, right?”

Liam thought about Max and the last time he’d seen her, holding her swollen belly and staring out the window. “He could kill me either way when he finds out what I did to his father and mother.”

“I guess you’ve made the decision on what you’re doing with the human. But the baby, keep him close.” Cain spoke quietly but every word was a boom to Liam’s ears.

“And what? Lock it up?” Liam asked.

“You could raise it as yours,” Cain agreed.

“You’re kidding, right?”

“Nature, nurture.” Cain paused. “You don’t know what kind of half wolf you’ll be turning away. Sometimes, it pays to keep your enemies close.”

“The Dires took us in when our own Weres didn’t want us,” Cyd said. “I don’t think they made the wrong choice.”

“The Dires can’t die,” Liam pointed out and the twins left him in silence for the rest of the trip, with Cain’s favorite Floyd, The Dark Side of the Moon, playing.

Liam let him have that. Stared out the window at the dark road ahead and thought about his night to come—and the long stretch of road that lay after it.

He was charged with getting all the Weres to follow him, without question. He wouldn’t tell the majority of the Weres about what their mission was until their loyalty was completely secured.

Even then, it was a risk.

Half the Manhattan pack was behind him. Another quarter was undecided and the rest were decidedly rebelling with Tals and Walker leading them after Liam had killed Teague, who’d been the real leader of the outlaws.

Which was why those wolves needed to die.

“I’m ready,” Liam said, not bothering to ask Cyd or Cain if they were. They had to be, if for no other reason than the man they’d decided to call their king was, and the two fell into step next to him.

Flanked by Cyd and Cain, he prepared for his first official act as king. His first unofficial one had been killing