Chapter 17: Husk

I couldn’t wait around anymore, so I headed back home. Sky appeared a little stronger, not a lot, but enough where he could have a short conversation. As for the casino, it seemed to be running itself because when I went to the office, our assistant pointed out she hadn’t seen Winter for three days. He’d left instructions for everyone to carry on as usual, and there was a reason why he’d done it. He’d told Hayley if things couldn’t run without him, then there was no reason for him to hire anyone. It was an arrogant statement, even if there was some truth behind it. We didn’t hire staff to do our jobs. I didn’t expect him to not come in at all. Had he been so blinded by Fagua he’d lost all his senses?

I stormed into the elevator and went to our suite. All the furniture was turned over with several chairs broken apart and lying in a heap. Both Lourdes and Maria pushed the sofa back.

“What happened here?” I yelled.

“We don’t know. We just came to clean and saw the place like this.”

“Leave it@” I barked.

“But sir, we’ve been trying to put everything back,” Lourdes said.

I glared at her for questioning me, and she held her head down, walking away. She knew better than to try and reason with me, especially when I was in this mood. She’d been working for us for over five years. She was our housekeeper and knew our secret. The reason we hired her in the first place was because she’d been raised by wolves. We didn’t know why she’d left her clan or what had happened, but it was a case of we didn’t ask any questions and neither did she.

She could keep her mouth shut, something which was valued in our business. We didn’t need anyone finding out our secrets. Wolves kept to themselves, and outsiders, especially humans, got antsy whenever they’d found out the truth about shifters in the past. It never worked out for either side. We needed loyalty, and Lourdes had it in spades.

On my way to Winter’s room I stopped in my tracks in the hallway. The whole place looked like someone had unleashed a tornado. I had to weave past objects from the kitchen, such as the microwave which was now in the hallway.

“What the fuck?” I growled once I was outside Winter’s door.

Muffled noises and a bed squeaking in rhythm had me clenching my fists. They were acting as if they were on their fucking honeymoon.

“Oh, god, Winter!” Fagua’s shout echoed through the door. “Yes, yes!”

The walls vibrated and cracks shot up from the floor to the ceiling.

It was as if they were in their own world, and they didn’t care about the mess they’d created as they were doing it. Disappointment at my brother’s reaction to being with her clouded my mind filled with rage at Fagua. She’d been with Keith, maybe not sexually, but he’d touched her, and done a lot more than given her a goodnight kiss on the cheek. Why else would she leave town to marry him within a week? I didn’t know all the details, but then again, I didn’t need to.

What made me even more mad was the fact we hadn’t seen Winter for three damn days. He’d called a couple of times, the first day, but then as soon as I sent the text, saying we were held up, he’d forgotten about us.

His own brothers. With Sky in the hospital and dealing with a partial shift and the curse.

It was as if Fagua had made Winter forget us. I could have waited patiently for them to finish their little rendezvous, but I didn’t hesitate as I stormed inside. The door blew back against the wall and I growled.

“Winter, in my room now.”

I stared at the crown molding, broken in hunks along the ceiling. I didn’t want to see her body, or even his in any type of position. It’d be a memory I wouldn’t be able to erase. I didn’t wait for a response, as I left with the same haste in which I entered the room.

I thought for a second Winter had said no. If he wasn’t here in two minutes, I was going to haul his naked ass out pronto. But there’s no way he’d defy me, his older brother. I shook off my paranoia and went to see if the bar in the corner of the living room was still standing for a fucking drink. I didn’t need just a shot of something to make me feel better. No, I needed the whole fucking bottle.

****

“So, you decide to show up?” Winter asked as he caught me sitting on the now righted couch and staring at the bottle.

I needed to get rid of my bad habits like. Seeing the bottle in front of me, my mind drifted to Sky. If he were here, he would be reaching for it. Then again, if we were going to die soon, what was the point of worrying about giving up smoking or anything?

“Really? We’ve been out and all you can do is…”

“Mate!” He smiled coming closer and sitting on the arm of the couch next to me. He had no shirt or shoes. He was dressed as if he were in the Bahamas with linen pants, topless, and his toes stretched out as if he felt sand at the bottom of his feet. Didn’t think I’d ever seen Winter dressed so casually. He always dressed like a damn prep-school guy or in a three-piece suit even on our days off. As though sensing my anger, he stood, pacing toward the patio window across from me. He crossed his arms and face me, his chin high.

“If you and Sky wanted to come home then you could—”

“Shut the fuck up.” I couldn’t listen to him anymore or I would do something I would regret. I stood and moved closer to him because I wanted him to hear and understand everything I had to say. I drew out the cigar I’d been saving and pointed it at him.

“Sky is dying. I’ve been in the hospital trying to see if there was another way. Something to make him better, but there’s nothing.”

He shook his head, then jerked the cigar I was about to light up on the floor.

“Dying? And you just felt the need to tell me now.” He shoved me backward with a fist into my shoulder. “What the fuck, Husk? Whatever your problem is with Fagua, you need to get rid of it. We brought her here to help us, not to tear us apart.”

I chuckled. “Is why you’ve been fucking her for the last few days?”

My blood boiled, my veins popping as I wanted to do something to my brother. Something I’d never felt before. Sure, we argued. Raged. But to physically hurt each other, it had only started when she’d come into our lives, Rage began to take over as Winter stared at me, challenging me to hit him, or even worse, fight him.

“What do we need to do?” Winter said.

I caught my breath and tried to calm down.

“No, what do I need to do?” Fagua said, coming around the corner.

I wondered how long she’d been out there listening, but we didn’t have time to discuss the possibility.

“You need to mate with him,” Winter commanded as I moved towards her.

She stood wearing only a white silk bathe robe, the smell of sex lingering in the air, “No. I can’t just mate with him like that. I’m not some kind of robot goes around sleeping with wolves.”

“It didn’t stop you fucking Winter!” Shit, I knew I had blown any chance of getting her on our side the moment the words escaped my mouth. I regretted them immediately. Winter shot me a look, as if to say, “you’ve gone and done it again”. As for Fagua, she stormed out of the room. I couldn’t believe our plan was falling apart when we’d spent so much time getting her in the first place.

“This is your mess. You go fix it. I’m going to the office. One of us has to work around here.”

With that, I left Winter in the room standing there and looking lost.

When I looked over my shoulder, he scratched his head. I had a feeling their mating had nothing to do with us, and only to do with him. Fagua was more dangerous than I’d imagined. Somewhere along the line she managed to divide us, something which had never happened until now. Our mate was our destroyer. She wasn’t bringing us together, but rather ripping us apart.