Chapter 37

The girl in front of us shuffled her feet. She glanced at the dining room, sighed, and then moved into the living room. She pressed her back against the wall so that she could watch everything, but kept herself removed. The other wolves didn’t even give her a second glance.

I repressed the urge to point out how stupid that was of them.

Moving with deliberate slowness, Basil brought the beer he was drinking up to his mouth and took two big gulps. I bet if Asire saw him like this she wouldn’t be interested. The satisfaction of that made it hard to keep the smugness off my face. I didn’t like getting cocky, but this guy…

After he finished with his two gulps, he set the can aside and rose to his feet. Again with that deliberate slowness. It was a power play. Letting us know that we may have invaded his home, but he wasn’t concerned by us at all. If he really wanted to have the upper hand, he should have stayed seated.

Of course, nothing he did would affect what I was about to do.

“Henrik,” Basil said calmly. “What brings you by?”

He ignored the rest of us. Another power play. Acting like he was so unconcerned that he didn’t even need to acknowledge our presence. His arrogance was making me feel better about mine.

Henrik shrugged one shoulder. “I think you know that, Basil.”

“Do I?” The wolf smiled, showing lots of teeth.

Regory and Wynn were watching the other werewolves. They were all standing down and they were all facing us. A failed attempt to make us feel like prey, I suspected. While everyone was watching the overt threats, I was busy watching the girl against the wall. Her head was still down, but she watched the room through her lashes. Her shoulders were too relaxed and the muscles of her arms were twitching. She was prepared to leap forward and into the fray.

And no one noticed but me. And maybe Regory.

“Asire’s fine, by the way,” Henrik said. “Or at least she was the last time that I saw her. She went off to Debienne’s a little while ago.”

The wolf’s muscles cranked up. He didn’t take his eyes off Henrik, but I noticed that some gold flecks appeared in the grey. He was getting upset and the wolf wanted to come out and play.

“Shame,” Basil said.

“That you attacked her and forced us into this corner?” Henrik asked. “Yes. That is a shame.”

Basil’s back was straight.

Henrik glanced at me and I nodded, ever so slightly. Time for us to make our move. Luckily, my move would keep them from doing much. I stretched my senses out and felt all those wolves like strings surrounding me. Their magic was different from what I usually dealt with. It was so tightly woven in to their DNA. Werewolves can be made, but they were almost exclusively born what they were. To get made into one takes all kinds of legal documentation and court dates. Plus, you had to find an alpha willing to do it.

Any wolf can change a human, but doing so without permission from your alpha? Might as well slit your own throat.

Even those changed, their very DNA mutates with them, weaving this special kind of power into it.

I felt along all those strings, down to the wolves that were attached to the people. Not a single person felt me, but all the animals that lived inside them did. Tension rang through the room as their instincts told them that something was wrong. Something was threatening them.

Before any of them could move, I took all that magic. All that power. I took it and held it high. Where only I could touch it.

The change in the room was immediate. Basil’s entire body tensed into a hard line. The gold in his eyes died away because he could no longer touch his wolf, but the fury was still in them. The pure anger.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the blonde girl gasp in a breath and go rock still, leaning against the wall and watching me. She knew what had happened. I waited for her to attack, but she just watched.

Basil rolled forward a step. Neatly, I set myself in his path and nudged Henrik out of the way. If someone was going to get into a fight with the bastard it should really be me. I was the one who wanted to see him bleeding on the ground after all.

“What did you do?” he snarled at Henrik, ignoring me completely.

Hasn’t learned from his mistakes, I see. When we fought in the streets, I had done the same thing.

“It was me, actually,” I said, blandly.

The werewolves were starting to panic. I could hear those in the kitchen moving around. Chairs screeching against linoleum and whispering. In here, they were tensed and watching. Wanting to pounce, but without their instincts to tell them when, they were unwilling to do so.

Basil the Bastard finally focused on me and only me. He was shorter than I was by a couple of inches, but that didn’t seem to bother him. His eyes bored into mine and I smiled blandly when he was taken aback that I didn’t immediately flinch. If a werewolf were enough to bring me down, I’d have been dead a long time ago.

“Fine, then,” he barked. “What did you do?” His shoulders were tight. Tensed to the point of impeding movement. That was how great his fury was.

“Just a little trick,” I told him.

He rolled forward another step and I held a hand up. “Please. If you and I get into a fight there is no guarantee that you’ll get your wolves back, now is there?” It was a lie. If they knocked me out, I couldn’t maintain the block I had on all of them. Any legion would have known that, but werewolves?

I was betting on their ignorance.

He stepped back. He wasn’t quite fooled, but wasn’t willing to risk getting those under his protection in more trouble than they already were. Smart man. I was more than prepared to bring this to whole new level.

I wasn’t sure how much of that was my undeserved jealousy and how much of it was from getting attacked in the streets. He could have hurt Billy. He did hurt Asire and Reggie. He caused us to stop in our efforts to get Millie back by doing so. Literally everyone had said he isn’t usually like this. Right now I didn’t care. I’d just as soon see him in a grave.

His breathing evened out. He turned his back on me, something the wolf would never have let him do, and stretched his head from one side to the other. His neck didn’t pop, but it must have loosened some because he was more relaxed when he turned back to me.

“I am unfamiliar with you,” he said, calmly.

“Does that matter?” I asked.

“I suppose not,” he continued.

“Then why bring it up?” I asked.

“If Reggie got a new legion, she wouldn’t send them out to this kind of thing so quickly. So what are you doing in my city?” The last sentence was more growl than voice. It wasn’t affected at all by his lack of wolf.

In answer, I gave him a bland expression.

His teeth flashed and he moved forward again, stopping himself just short of attacking me. We were starting to play a very dangerous game.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“My name’s Loki,” I said. Amongst my own kind, the name would have been quickly run through a mental list, trying to place me with a Family and therefore Open or Annihilist. Here? It didn’t matter if he had my name because he didn’t know it or my Family’s reputation.

His eyes narrowed, very slightly. “Give my wolves back,” he said, the warning thick in his voice.

“No.”

“What were you trying to pay Debienne for?” Henrik asked from behind me. He had been watching the whole thing with interest. Something told me he didn’t completely trust my Family. Hopefully this swung things a little closer in our favor.

Basil didn’t glance away from my face. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” His words held the ring of a lie.

“Uh huh,” Henrik said. He brought his phone out and held it up so that Basil could look at it. “Asire sent me this earlier. Just as we were arriving here. She’s at Debienne’s as you can see.”

Basil’s eyes locked on the screen when Asire’s name left Henrik’s mouth. It became very tempting to walk out of the house without returning their wolves. I could maintain this for twelve hours and that would be twelve hours where he suffered. That was appealing all of the sudden.

Two weeks ago, if someone had said I had this kind of jealous rage within me, I would have laughed.

What kind of man was I that this seemed okay?

After Basil got an eyeful of whatever was on the screen, a muscle started ticking in his jaw. I could see that his teeth were clenched. “What are they doing there?” he asked almost reluctantly.

“Same thing we’re doing here. Telling you to back the fuck off,” Henrik said. “We are trying to get some very bad people out of the city, Basil,” Henrik said. “That’s getting more and more difficult with every attack you throw at us. Do you want your wolves to die because of this stupid stunt you’ve been pulling?”

Basil’s breathing deepened. He glanced at me. “Give my wolves back.”

“No.”

He growled. “You do not understand.”

“Then enlighten us,” Henrik offered.

With Henrik paying attention to Basil, I quickly checked on Wynn and Regory. They had their back to the room, trusting us to keep ourselves safe. The other five wolves were lined up by the front door. Wynn had a small ball of magic in his hand that look harmless, but would cut through them like a bullet if he unleashed it. Regory was even more relaxed than Wynn was. His arms were crossed over his chest and he was watching them.

One of the wolves couldn’t look away from his green stare. I’d tried and knew firsthand how hard it could be. When he wanted to capture someone’s attention, he usually managed it with stoic ease.

They had everything under control.

As I turned my attention back to my half of the house, I quickly surveyed everyone else. The blonde girl was still standing against the wall, looking fragile and harmless. The others were on their feet and trying to keep from attacking us.

So far, this was going well.

I hadn’t killed Basil, yet, anyway.

With jerky movements, Basil stalked away from us. His hands went into his hair and he pulled at it, growling low in his chest. He paced the room, lacking the grace that he’d shown thus far. His agitation was so great that the other werewolves were beginning to twitch with the need to rend and tear.

Henrik’s phone went off. He had dropped it down to his side, but when it dinged, he lifted it up to his face. His eyes shifted over to the girl against the wall and he nodded once. “Is this why?” He held the phone out to Basil.

The wolf froze. “Who sent that?” he demanded.

“Asire.”

“Ivanna,” Basil barked. The girl against the wall jerked and moved forward on his command. He nodded to the phone and she leaned in and looked at the picture. “Is that what Iowa was wearing when she went missing?”

“Y-yes,” the girl said. I couldn’t tell if the stutter was real or not.

Basil’s body relaxed. He stretched out his neck muscles again, but this time the tension actually left his body. He held his hands up and said, “Would you please give my wolves back?”

Guess we weren’t going to get into a fight. That shouldn’t have ticked me off even more like it did. It’s also the reason I said, “Maybe in a minute.” I was being petty now. Asire had managed to take away all my good attributes and she was not even in the room with me.

He snarled halfheartedly.

“Wanna tell us what’s going on?” Henrik asked.

“Debienne took Iowa and Mark, two of my wolves,” he explained. “A couple of days ago. The check was to ensure they weren’t harmed. The attacks were her doing. I couldn’t let her keep my wolves.”

“You really should have just told us,” Henrik said dryly.

“I take care of my own.”

“Clearly,” Wynn muttered.

Basil rocked forward and Henrik edged into his path. “You attack him and you’re going to have much bigger problems than Debienne, understand?”

The bastard’s eyes shifted over to me and looked me up and down. He relaxed because he was not stupid. I could easily take him without his wolf. If I felt inclined to give it back. Might even some things up.

“If you have gotten my people back,” he said, clearly striving for calm. “I will be more than happy to step aside and let you handle your own business. I do not wish to cause problems with Reggie. It’s just… Sometimes our options aren’t as good as they should be.” The last was said directly to Henrik.

Henrik sighed. “I know. I know…” He looked around the room and shook his head. “However, if we can’t get ours back because of this, you’ll have us all to deal with. Asire included.”

Proving he was smart sometimes, Basil flinched. She was a very calm girl, Asire. But I believed, with all my heart, that when she got angry, buildings would fall just to get out of her way.

Since everything had calmed down, I let my hold on the magic go. Basil the Bastard relaxed immediately, and many of the werewolves around us did the same. All but one man. The second his wolf was settled in his skin, he went to leap forward and at me. I was prepared for this and began to turn to meet the man in the middle.

I needn’t have bothered.

The blonde girl shifted forward on her feet and shoved one of those delicate looking legs between the man’s. He tripped over the obstruction and both wolves went down. The man landed face first on the gray carpet and the girl got tangled up in his legs. She ended up sitting down hard, thumping onto her ass on the ground with a grunt.

The next second, Basil had the man pinned against the floor with a hand to his throat and knee in his stomach. The man wheezed and the girl scooted back, pressing herself against the wall once more.

“Al!” Basil snarled. “Stay down.”