Page 36 of Bonded By Blood

The twins straightened and exchanged blatant looks.

Adam stared straight at him for a long, uncomfortable minute.

Joe forced his feet to hold still. “Adam, please.”

The energy in the air seemed to change without warning. It heated, or the smell of the wolf blood in front of him heated, and an echoing series of rips and pops that made Joe wince without even meaning to followed.

Seconds later Adam stood before him in freshly-transformed flesh. It hadn’t occurred to Joe that a wolf shift would look different to a vampire’s eyes. Of course it does. That was just the kind of thing he’d never needed to think about before.

“Joe,” Adam said as he tugged a pair of jeans over his hips. “What the hell? We thought you were dead.” Despite the anger still coloring his words, his voice cracked a little on ‘dead.’

Fresh guilt assailed Joe and he drew a deeper breath. Some part of him noted that the sour scent of werewolf blood didn’t change at all between wolven and human forms. That was probably how vampires spotted wolves in a crowd. But he shook the thought from his head and took a careful step forward. “Depending on your definition, I am,” he said.

Adam didn’t seem to appreciate that comment. Jeans secure, he stalked forward until he was invading Joe’s personal space. Joe was a little surprised he didn’t swing at him. “I’m not in the mood, dammit. We didn’t hear from you for days and we got worried. I sent Jim and Simon to check on you, and Jim barely made it home. We lost Simon.”

Joe’s stomach rolled and he squeezed his eyes shut. It was bad enough one of the pack had been killed—apparently that number had nearly been two—but Simon had died looking for him? “Shit.” He curled a hand over his mouth for a long second.

“What the hell happened?” Adam demanded. His anger wasn’t playing well with his patience. Joe could hardly blame him.

Technically, they were supposed to be asking that question, and giving as little information as they could get away with. Except Joe hadn’t actually agreed to that order. He only hoped Brianna would understand—and that Seth didn’t give him trouble before she got the chance.

Joe swallowed hard, lowered his arm to his side, and said, “In short, the Wilson brothers are back in the area.”