Page 55 of A Wolf’s Wound
Ryder
There has to be some way I can stall Brian. That’s my only hope of attacking him: keep him off-balance long enough that I can figure out an opening, and then rush him. It’s not much of a plan, but it’s all I’ve got right now.
Maybe it’s just because I’m panicking, but I swear Brian is looking more out of control with each passing minute. I need to figure out a way to stop all of this before he really loses it.
“Well!” Brian says, clapping his hands together so loudly that I inadvertently tense up. “I think we’ve had enough conversation for a while. Time to move on to something else.” He chuckles to himself. I don’t even want to know what he thinks is funny. I get the feeling the humor will be lost on me.
“No!” I blurt out. “Um, I’d like to hear more. You clearly put a lot of thought and energy into all of this. I’d love to hear more details.”
“Really,” Brian says suspiciously.
“Honestly, I would,” I say as sincerely as possible.
I must sound more sincere than I feel, because Brian looks pleased. “Sure, Ryder. Ask away. What do you want to know?”
“Well, the councilman,” I say. “That one didn’t seem to fit into the rest of the pattern. You really kept us guessing with him.”
Brian looks pleased. “I did? That’s funny.”
“Oh yeah? Why?”
“I was trying something out with him,” Brian says. “Let’s call it a little experiment. I had a hypothesis and he was my guinea pig, so to speak.”
My blood runs cold. “What kind of experiment were you trying?”
“All of the great scientists had their failures, of course,” Brian continues, as if he hadn’t heard me. “Einstein, Tesla, Edison. All of them were wrong a lot.”
“Of course, that’s how you learn,” I say encouragingly.
“Exactly! I was still learning,” he says, nodding vigorously. “I’d practiced and tinkered plenty in my lab, but I knew until I tried this out for real, I’d never make any progress.”
“What did you try?”
“It was just random that it happened to be the councilman,” Brian goes on. I don’t know if he’s ignoring me or so deep in his own head that he really didn’t hear me.
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah. I mean, I wasn’t trying to go for someone with any kind of profile. Or someone connected to your family. Although in Stonehaven, that’s kind of hard to find.”
“I guess.” I shrug.
“Oh, it is, man. You guys are everywhere!” Brian chuckles. “Anyway, he just happened to be in the wrong place at the right time.”
Brian grins at his choice of words, and I feel even more uneasy. Whatever grip he had on sanity appears to be weakening by the second.
“So, you just found him?” I ask.
“But, dude, it really messed up his nervous system. I was not expecting that. It was so gnarly!”
“I can imagine,” I say weakly.
“Yeah, I had no idea things would go the way they did. The guy ended up clawing himself to death. Can you believe that? He was bleeding from his eyes and his mouth. I didn’t even know someone could bleed from their eyes.”
“That sounds really painful.”
“It probably was.” Brian shrugs. “He wasn’t really making a lot of sense, though, so maybe it actually felt good!” He laughs, and my skin crawls, both at the mental image and at Brian’s apparent glee at what he’s done.
“But don’t worry, Ryder. After that little experiment went sideways, I didn’t try it again. I didn’t want to hurt more shifters,” Brian says.
“Hey, that’s good.” I try to sound positive. “That’s really decent of you, man. Good idea.”
“Thanks.” He beams, and it kills me a little, how much my approval seems to mean to him. I had no idea Brian was capable of anything even remotely like this. I wonder what else I’ve missed.
“And I promise,” Brian adds, “I’ve figured it out now! I want to help!”
“Help?” I echo.
He nods, still grinning. “Oh, yeah. And you’ll want my help, Ryder. I know you will.”
“I’m sure I will,” I tell him.
“Not just you! Your brothers will want my help too. And your mother. The whole pack will.”
“Yeah, I think you’re right. But you’ll have to give us more details about what you did, Brian. About what you tried with the councilman, and what you figured out.”
“Sure, I’ll tell you whatever you want to know,” Brian says. But something in the way he says it makes me think that he means the exact opposite. I wonder if he knows I’m stalling and if this is all just a game to him.
“That’s great, Brian. That sounds really great.”
“But I gotta say, I didn’t know the attacks on Hannah were going to happen.”
I stare at him. “You didn’t?”
“Nope,” he shakes his head. “But it’s like my experiment. Right? You can plan as much as you want but sometimes, shit just happens.”
Hearing him describe the attacks so cavalierly makes my blood boil. I want to lunge at Brian and rip his throat out. But I can’t. At least, not yet.
“Well, the important thing is that she’s okay now,” I say as calmly as possible.
“Definitely. You know what’s weird, though?”
“What?”
“One of the attackers was actually following you,” Brian says.
“How do you know this?” I ask.
But Brian just shrugs. “I have my ways,” he says.
“You’re not going to tell me anything more than that? Come on, Brian. I thought we were friends.” As his face falls, I quickly add, “I mean, I thought we are friends.”
“Oh, we’re going to be a lot more than that,” Brian says.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, now that all of the trial and error is done, everything is perfect.”
“What do you mean?”
“You know, all of the mistakes, all of the false starts,” Brian says thoughtfully, “I think it was all worth it.”
“Why?”
“Because it brought us together,” Brian says.
“You and me?”
“Yeah, but also, all of us. You know? You and me, sure, but also Hannah and Gavin and Michael. Thomas and Jackson and Evan. Even Hannah’s roommate April and your mom.”
“Brought us together how?”
But Brian’s back to ignoring my questions. “You have a great family, Ryder. Really great.”
“I know. I’m lucky.”
“I used to want a family like that.”
Before I can figure out what to say, Brian’s face lights up. “But now I feel like I do. I feel like your family is mine because everyone’s come together in such a beautiful way.”
To hunt you down , I want to say. But of course I don’t. I don’t want to antagonize him in any way. Not when I have the sense that he’s getting close to telling me what the hell is going on.
So instead, I nod. “They can be your family too, Brian. They’ll get to know you and see how awesome you are. How clever and determined. And you’ll be part of the family too.”
“Do you mean that?”
“Of course I do. I know how lucky I am,” I say again. “Everyone should be as fortunate. And if being a part of my family is what you want, we’ll make that happen.”
“Thanks, Ryder.” Brian looks serious, and for a second I think that I’ve gotten through to him. Maybe now he’ll calm down and tell me what he’s up to.
Instead, Brian claps his hands together again. I should have been expecting it, but I still jump. He doesn’t notice.
“Everyone’s all together,” Brian says. “It’s all so perfect. And now, it’s finally time.”