Page 69 of Bad Moon Rising (Dark-Hunter 17)
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Weeks later, Fang still hadn't left.
I am a total head case.
No, he was a moron and he couldn't bring himself to leave Aimee. He would rather stay here and be miserable where he could at least hold her when no one was around than leave and be completely miserable without her.
But every day he stayed, it was worse.
Thorn had been right. There was all kinds of shit brewing at Sanctuary. Wren had been thrown out after he'd taken up with some politician's daughter and now the Peltiers and the entire Omegrion were hot after the tigard to kill him over something his own cousin had said at the last council meeting.
Nicolette was convinced the kid was a threat to her precious family and Aimee was hell-bent that it was all a misunderstanding. Mother and daughter had been fighting over it constantly and there had been a time or two when Fang had almost gone for Nicolette's throat over the way she talked to her daughter.
"Please, Fang. Let it go. She's my mother and I love her." That was all Aimee ever said, but it was hard to do nothing while her mother treated her like shit.
As far as Wren was concerned, Fang agreed with Aimee that it smacked of Wren's distant relations trying to lay hands on his inheritance. But there was no way to prove it. Right now there was a blood hunt out for the tigard and a pack of tigers were stalking him.
Fang felt for him and hoped for the best where Wren was concerned.
Tonight he was on bar duty with Sasha, Etienne, Colt, and Cherif. Out of all the Peltier brothers, Dev was his favorite, but Cherif was a close second. Cherif lacked Remi's nasty attitude. Instead he had a badass aura that said he didn't have to pick or bully to reign supreme.
He simply was, and death to anyone who wanted to knock him off that throne.
Sasha was another Katagari Lykos who stayed here off and on depending on his mood. The last survivor of his pack, he was technically the bodyguard for a goddess. But since his goddess had married, his duties had been light, which meant that whenever he was bored, he'd come hang out with the rest of the animals at Sanctuary.
Tall and blond, Sasha had a nasty temper and a biting sarcasm he could definitely appreciate. All in all, Fang liked the other wolf, but the nature of their species made it hard for them to be around each other too much. Since they weren't in the same pack, they were extremely territorial here.
Kyle's twin, Cody, was sitting at the bar beside Sasha, drinking a Coke. He choked on his drink.
Frowning, Fang turned to see what had set him off. His gaze focused on Aimee who was wearing a tight string tank top and a pair of cutoff shorts that were way too short.
"Oh, hell no," he said before he could even think not to. "You're not working in that."
Cherif agreed. "Hear, hear! Get your ass back upstairs and change before Maman or Papa sees you."
She gave them all a go-to-hell glower. "Were you people born on the sun? It's stifling hot in here and unlike you losers, I'm the one who has to run orders back and forth."
Fang scoffed. "Then be glad we're not putting you in a parka."
She narrowed her gaze at him. "You got no authority over me, wolf." She raked her brother with a curled lip. "You even less so."
Cherif pulled his phone out of his pocket. "I'm calling Maman. Right now."
She hissed at him. "I hate you. I swear one day, I'm going to poison your food." Then she turned her fury to Fang. "And I'm not talking to you for the rest of the night."
That was fine by him so long as she covered herself up. He wasn't about to have her walk around like that with the body she had. They already had enough trouble keeping men and animal hands off her.
Cherif held his beer bottle up toward Fang. "Here's to you, my brother."
Laughing, Fang held his up to tap the bottom of the bottles together in a salute of solidarity against public female fashions that only looked good on a woman you didn't have a relationship with.
"Hey, Fang, you got a visitor."
He frowned at Dev's voice in his earpiece. "Vane or Fury?"
"Neither."
Fang set his bottle down as he frowned. The only other person he could think of would be Thorn, but Thorn didn't usually come in the front door.
His breath caught as a searing pain cut through his shoulder where Thorn's mark was.
What the hell?
Trying not to show the pain, he scanned the room until his eyes fell on Varyk. He didn't know how he knew that, but the name popped into his head like a beacon.
Dressed in a light linen suit and with his hair immaculately combed, he looked as out of place here as Fang would on a billionaire's fancy boat.
Pulling the earpiece out and turning it off, Fang met him in the middle of the bar. "What are you doing here?"
Before Varyk could answer, Sasha was there, looking like he was staring at a ghost.
"You survived?"
Varyk's gaze went to him slowly. Unlike Sasha, his features were completely blank. "Betrayer." There was enough venom in that one word to supply an army of cobras.
Sasha let out a deep, vicious growl. "I betrayed no one."
By Varyk's face it was obvious he didn't believe a word of it. "And yet you survived while the rest of us were hunted into the ground."
"For a dead man, you look awfully hale."
"There's more irony in that statement than you realize, punk. Now get out of my face before I decide killing you is more important to me than Savitar's bullshit laws."
Sasha started away, then stopped. "Lera made her decision based solely on my age."
"And my brother was younger than you and still he was slaughtered. Get out of my presence, Sasha, or lose your life."
Sasha left.
Fang didn't speak until the wolf was gone. "What is up with you two?"
Varyk, obviously one who didn't like to elaborate, shrugged it off. "Forgotten history. You, however, are my present."
"Oh, goody. Do I have to wear a bow?"
His face unamused, Varyk pulled out a scrap of cloth. "Recognize the scent?"
Fang caught the whiff even before he put it to his nose. The stench was unmistakable and it made him see red. "Misery."
He nodded. "She broke out. I can't find her. I've alerted Wynter and now I'm letting you know. I'm sure she's in someone else's body. The question is . . . whose. Keep your eyes open since she has a hard-on for you. We're hoping she makes contact or screws up so that we can find her and send her back to where she belongs."
"I'll be watching for her."
Varyk inclined his head before he turned and left the bar. Fang put his headphone back on and switched it on just as Varyk paused at the door where Dev was standing.
"I feel the need for a bearskin rug."
Dev scoffed. "Funny. I was thinking a wolf's head would look good on my mantel."
"Watch your back, bear."
