Dire Desires

Liam needed to take.

“Fine job, king,” Cain told him. “Fine damned job.”

* * *

The packs would talk about this forever. Vice knew that as surely as he did his vices.

His canines elongated with the violence, the smell of shed blood. The scene in front of him had been so fucking brutal that he was both hard as hell and sick to his stomach, his emotions swinging on a violent pendulum of their own.

It had taken every ounce of self-control he had, which wasn’t much, to not join in the fray. Brother Wolf was mainly responsible for holding him back this time, because his wolf trained with Liam’s.

There are some things a pup has to do alone, Brother Wolf said, and besides, Liam wasn’t alone. He had an alpha and his omega and he had to come into his own at some point.

Doesn’t mean you’re not needed—now, more than ever, Brother Wolf said and Vice sighed as his wolf saw right through him. As much as Vice had fought the pairing at first, spending time with the wolf pup who would be king was good for him. Spending any amount of time with someone balanced was always a plus, and although those effects were only in the short term, Vice still liked how it felt.

But his emotional pendulum swung the other way more quickly than he thought and sorrow washed over him as he watched his charge—and Jinx’s—covered with blood, eyes still lupine and fierce, howling with all the frenzied power and lust that came with victory.

Cyd looked . . . stronger. The kill he’d made had brought out more of his inner alpha. Vice wondered how long he’d stay with Liam’s pack before breaking off into his own. The omega was gaining power too, and it should’ve been the signal of good things to come.

But Vice was so fucking sad. The loss of a certain kind of innocence that these young Weres would never get back.

Vice never had it, but to watch the young ones doing what the Dires had trained them for made him so proud and sick at the same time.

“Hey.” Liam stood in front of him now, uncertain for only a moment before Vice grabbed the back of the young wolf’s neck and pulled him in for a backslapping embrace, a warrior’s congratulations. A charge’s comfort, as Liam buried his head against Vice’s shoulder for a little longer than he should have, as if trying to gain back what he’d just lost.

There was no going back now. There couldn’t be. And humans would be the better for it.

Vice pulled Liam’s head back up, looked the young king in the eye and made sure he knew it too.

Chapter 9

Instead of going straight to the penthouse, Jez pulled into the parking lot of Mo’s Diner.

“I thought we decided home was the best option,” Jinx said, wondered when and how he’d begun to think of the place as home in such a short period of time.

“She’s got to eat, right?” Jez asked and Gillian’s stomach rumbled. She blushed and laughed a little and Jinx felt himself grow lighter every time he heard the sound.

Fucking pansy ass. “You know who owns this, right?”

Jez smiled. “Of course.”

Jinx kept Gillian close when they went inside. Most Weres wouldn’t be able to sense what she was—they just didn’t have that kind of nose when a Dire was preshift, and Dires were good at that kind of camouflage for good reason. But still, that didn’t always stop stupid things from coming out of wolves’ mouths.

“Grab a seat in the back,” the owner called. He was a big Were, head of this family-run business. The Were family considered themselves their own pack, owing loyalty to no one. And yet, Jinx heard they pledged theirs to Liam, if push came to shove.

A smart move to align themselves with the once and future king.

Obviously, Jez had been here before, as none of the Weres looked at him oddly. In fact, the waitress asked if Jez wanted his usual.

Jinx raised a brow when Jez nodded.

“I don’t think I want to know what a deadhead’s usual is,” he murmured without thinking.

“You like the Grateful Dead?” Gillian asked and Jez gave her a smile.

“I followed them one summer.”

Jinx rubbed a hand along the back of his neck as he watched his mate and his vampire roommate bonding over “Sugar Magnolia.” He supposed things could be worse.

They all ate heartily once the food came. Jinx ordered another round of fries for Gillian and a burger and shake for himself—they would be his third—and she didn’t seem to think the way they ate was odd at all.

“I see someone I need to do some business with.” Jez excused himself and made his way to a table across the room where two werechicks sat. They’d been staring at Jez from the moment he’d walked in and Jinx made a mental note to ask his roomie what the hell that was all about.

The extra food came and Gillian put ketchup carefully on the side of her plate. Took a sip of his shake when Jinx offered to share.

“Thanks. This food is so much better than the hospital.” As she spoke the word, her expression tightened a little.

“It’s okay, Gillian. I’ll make sure you stay out of that place.”

“Why are you doing this? Hiding me? Helping me?” she asked.

“Does it matter? You’re free.”

She nibbled a fry dipped in ketchup, then said, “In my experience, there’s a price you pay for everything.”

“I think you’ve paid enough, Gillian.”

She smiled. “I like the way you say my name. You don’t have an accent, but every time you say my name, you do.”

Because he slipped into the cadence of the old language whenever he was around her, couldn’t help it. He felt like he was in the old country; expected he could look out and see the bloom of the Reinrose, the delicate purple Revebejelle that circled around the center of town hall where all the celebrations took place. He could see Gillian dancing in a loose white dress, her hair glinting like diamonds in the sun.

You are losing your ever-loving mind. And after living with both Vice and a vamp, he didn’t have all that far to go.

* * *

Jinx seemed far away for the moment. She took the opportunity to study him carefully. He was like no man she’d ever met before—a mix of modern motorcycle badass and somehow old-fashioned in his manners, the way he opened her doors for her, pulled out her chair. That wasn’t some act, like her father and his friends. No, this was ingrained in him, like it was second nature.

His eyes were green like the fields she ran in during the springtime—she slept on the pads of warm grass during the day, hidden away from the prying eyes of the others in the park, and at night, she ran, smelling the musk of the flowers. His eyes warmed her. His hair felt as silky as it looked and she wanted to run her hands through it again. To kiss him again, although granted the cemetery was possibly the least romantic place for a first kiss.

She grinned at that thought and it faded when she saw his expression had gone serious again. “Whatever happens, Jinx, just don’t send me back.”

“I won’t.”

She pushed her plate away. “My parents won’t give up easily.”

“What do they do when you run away?”

“I always come back within a couple of days.” She left her clothes folded, a sign like DO NOT DISTURB AND I’LL COME BACK PEACEFULLY. “For all I know, the hospital doesn’t even tell them I leave and come back.”

But this time was different. They would know this man took her and while he didn’t appear to be scared of