Cam was still his little brother, all grown up or not. He could do this.
He picked up Cam’s scent the moment he stepped inside the diner. Which was kind of crazy, considering he hadn’t seen his brother since he’d been turned into a hybrid. But in some strange way that only made sense to the animal living just beneath the surface of his awareness, Tanner knew his brother’s scent even though the diner was packed with people.
Tanner ignored the awards filling the walls proclaiming Darryl’s one of the best restaurants in Wenatchee and instead followed his nose, taking Zarina’s hand and winding through a maze of red laminate-topped tables until he found his brother seated near the very back, around a corner that shielded the booth somewhat and provided at least some measure of quiet in the otherwise bustling restaurant. His brother was seated facing the door, dressed in the dark blue uniform of the Seattle PD. It suited him.
His brother glanced up from his menu at their approach, as if sensing Tanner. They locked gazes for a moment, Cam’s blue eyes widening slightly. Tanner had always been taller and more muscular than Cam, but now that he was a hybrid, the differences were even more pronounced.
Cam recovered quickly, taking in Tanner’s long hair, old jeans, worn hiking boots, and the scruff on his jaw. When he was done with him, Cam turned his attention to Zarina, no doubt wondering who she was and what the hell she was doing with someone like Tanner.
“You look different,” Cam said, glancing his way as he put his menu back in the rack near the wall.
Tanner didn’t blame him for not shaking hands or giving him a man hug. Could this get any more uncomfortable?
“You’ve changed, too,” he said.
He wasn’t lying. Cam had changed a hell of a lot since the last time Tanner had seen him nearly three years ago.
For one thing, his brother’s dark-blond hair was shorter than he remembered. His shoulders and chest were also quite a bit bigger. He even had biceps to fill out the sleeves of his uniform shirt. Joining the police force had clearly done him good.
Tanner and Cam regarded each other in silence for what must have been at least a minute before Zarina sighed and moved around Tanner to slide into the booth across from his brother.
“I don’t know about the two of you, but I’m starving,” she declared, taking a menu from the rack. “What’s good here? By the way, I’m Zarina. You must be Cam, though that’s completely a guess on my part, since Tanner has told me next to nothing about you.”
That seemed to break the ice. Cam chuckled as Tanner took a seat beside Zarina on the wooden bench seat.
“Nice to meet you, Zarina.” Cam gave her a warm smile and extended his hand. “I’ve never eaten here, but I was going to order the chili cheeseburger. The menu says they mix chili cheese corn chips into the burger before they cook it.”
Zarina raised a brow. “I have no idea what that would even taste like, but it sounds delicious. Though to be truthful, I’ve been living on beef jerky and granola bars for days. Anything with grease sounds good at this point.”
Cam chuckled again, then fixed Tanner with a glare. “So, where were you for the past three years? Mom has worried herself sick, and Dad thinks you’re dead.”
Shit. This was why he hadn’t wanted to see Cam. Because his brother was going to ask him questions he couldn’t answer.
“It’s complicated,” he said.
“I’m sure it is,” Cam snapped. “But I still expect an answer. Unless you want me to just get up and walk the hell out of here.”
Tanner glanced over at Zarina, hoping for some guidance, but all she did was shrug, as if to say there wasn’t an easy way out of this.
“Dammit, Tanner,” Cam swore. “Talk to me! You can’t call me out of the blue after being gone for three years and expect me to act like nothing ever happened.”
Tanner ground his jaw. His brother was right. But how the hell could he explain all the crap that had happened to him without sounding like he’d escaped from a mental institution? He couldn’t.
Across from him, Cam started sliding out of the booth.
Shit.
“After what happened with Dad, I lived in a homeless shelter in Seattle for a couple of weeks,” Tanner said quietly. “But I couldn’t handle the noise and the crowds, so I moved out here to live in the forest.”
Across from him, Cam stopped moving and gaped at him. Zarina looked equally stunned.
“I ran into some other guys who’d gotten out of the military recently.” Now that he’d started talking, Tanner couldn’t seem to stop. “We helped each other out as much as we could, but I couldn’t stay around them for long either. I wasn’t fit to be around people back then.”
Tanner didn’t say why, and he prayed neither Zarina nor Cam asked. Because then he’d have to admit he’d almost killed his own father.
“I’m not sure how long I lived out here on my own,” he continued. “Days of the week stopped having any real meaning. But I remember camping out through summer, then winter, and well into spring before some people showed up. Bad people.”
Tears filled Zarina’s eyes. She knew where he was going with this and didn’t want to relive it any more than he did.
“Bad people?” Cam asked. “What are you talking about? What kind of bad people?”
How much could
