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LUKAS

L ukas didn’t like leaving Elliette home alone. Regardless, after she’d taken a hot shower, he’d given her a quick kiss and left Bjorn standing guard in the hall.

Now, Lukas was standing outside another door—a door which he’d arrived at through the process of elimination. He raised his hand and knocked.

The door cracked open, and Tuttle stood in the narrow opening. He gripped the edge of the door, not inviting Lukas in, and gave him the once over before saying, “ Man , it’s after midnight.”

“And yet,” Lukas said, “you’re wide awake. Where’s Rogue?”

Tuttle shot him a look of confused annoyance. “How the hell should I know?”

“Because he’s not at home,” Lukas said, keeping his voice soft and even.

If there was one useful thing he’d learned from his father, it was that a measured, quiet voice could be infinitely more intimidating than an angry rant.

“And he’s not at Petey’s either,” Lukas continued calmly. “And I can smell him all over this place.”

“He comes over here a lot,” Tuttle said, and his gaze slid to Lukas’s neck, which was still streaked in blood. “What’s this about?”

“That’s what I want Rogue to tell me,” Lukas said. “Starting with what kind of shit he’s gotten into.”

Tuttle pulled his chin back into his neck, and though he was trying to look like he had no idea what Lukas was talking about, his eyes gave him away.

“Rogue!” Lukas called, shifting his gaze from Tuttle to the small glimpse he could get of the living room.

“I told you,” Tuttle said. “He’s not here.”

“Yeah, I am,” Rogue called from somewhere in the back of the apartment. “It’s okay.”

“No, it most definitely is not,” Lukas said, barely holding it together now, because at the end of the day, he wasn’t his father, and calm and quiet only went so far.

Rogue finally reached the door, and although he fully opened it, neither he nor Tuttle invited Lukas inside.

“What is it?” Rogue asked, his expression curious.

“Have you seen your sister lately?” Lukas asked, which was not a question he really needed answered.

“No.” Rogue narrowed his eyes. “I mean, I saw her in the stands during practice.”

“Talk to her?” Lukas pressed.

“Not since the Velveteen last night. What the fuck, Lukas? Is she all right?”

“Maybe you’d know the answer to that if you picked up your goddamn phone.”

Rogue pulled his phone from his pocket and glanced down at it. “I saw some of the guys called earlier, but we were out. No one left a message. What’s going on? ”

“Your sister was kidnapped.”

“ What?! ” Rogue’s head shot up.

“Shit,” Tuttle murmured, and he turned back toward his living room where Lukas spotted Petey, rising from the couch.

“Some guy grabbed her,” Lukas said. “Hooded her. Tossed her into a car. Bound her to a chair in a freezing warehouse, and threatened her with a knife.”

Rogue’s face went completely pale. “Where is she now?”

“Safe in her bed.”

Rogue closed his eyes and let out a long sigh of relief. When he opened his eyes, he asked, “I suppose I have you to thank for that?”

“And Rafe and Bjorn. But she has you to thank for what happened to her.”

“Me?” He recoiled.

“The guy told her you owed him money.”

Rogue blinked twice.

“Was he a loan shark?”

Rogue blinked again as if the question took him by surprise. “Uh…no, um….” He quickly glanced over his shoulder at the other two, then added quietly, “I took out one of those paycheck-advance loans.”

“You need to get that taken care of, like, now.”

“I will. I will,” Rogue said. “I was gonna do that tomorrow. Shit.”

“ And you need to call your sister,” Lukas said.

Rogue raised his phone toward his ear.

“Not now,” Lukas said, reaching out and lowering Rogue’s arm. “She needs rest. Call her in the morning. When the sun’s up. ”

Rogue’s mouth tightened. “And since when did you become her knight in shining armor?”

“If you ask her,” Lukas said, “when she was fifteen.”

“We talked about this,” Rogue said. “I won’t let you break her heart.”

“Why don’t you worry about what you’ve done to her already,” Lukas retorted, “and I’ll worry about myself.”

Rogue had nothing to say to that, but Lukas didn’t feel any kind of victory. Rogue’s words had left a mark, even though Lukas had heard them all before. It was just that, each time he heard them, they cut a little deeper. I won’t let you break her heart .

Lukas’s mind was blank as he slid behind the wheel of his Lotus, and when he finally pulled out onto the street, he did it robotically. When his phone rang, he picked it up without looking to see who was calling. He really should have checked who was calling.

“Hello?”

“Lukas. Finally.”

“Dad,” he said wearily. “Now’s not a good time.”

His father’s voice was annoyingly calm and even. “It’s never a good time with you.”

“Listen to me. It’s the middle of the night.” Lukas glanced at the time. It was now nearly one o’clock in the morning, and his body was heavy, having burned through his earlier rush of adrenaline.

“And I’ve been calling since the middle of the afternoon. You’re not the easiest person to get a hold of.”

Lukas scrolled through his call log and saw that his father was right. He guessed Rogue wasn’t the only one dodging phone calls tonight. “What’s so urgent?”

“I got a call from the clan doctor. You never scheduled your blood tests.”

“I didn’t realize there was a looming deadline.”

Up ahead, a glowing neon sign advertised a seedy establishment called The Blind Pig. Lukas swung into its gravel parking lot, too depleted to have this conversation while driving, and parked.

“Not looming ,” Gray Bakken conceded. “But it would be good to get them out of the way. Then, if there’s anything you need to address, there’s time to do so quietly before the official succession announcement is made.”

“Address quietly?” Lukas asked, and he shifted the Lotus into park.

“You know what I mean.”

Yep. He did know what his father meant, he just didn’t like the insinuation. “I don’t know what you’ve heard, Dad, but I don’t fuck everything that moves. Got no need for antibiotics. There’s nothing for me to ‘address.’”

“It would give me some peace of mind to hear a doctor say the same thing.”

“Like I’ve told you a million times, my reputation is undeserved.” In truth, he hadn’t slept with a woman in over a year. He probably had the bluest balls of any rising alpha in a century.

“Notwithstanding,” Gray said, “I’ve played your little delay games, and I’m happy to let you enjoy your final season, but some things must move forward. I’ll instruct Dr. Howe to meet you at your apartment.”

“What?”

“He’ll collect the sample, then you can get back to whatever keeps you out so late at night. ”

“When is this supposed to happen?” Lukas checked the time again, then glanced back at the bar. There was still another hour before the two o’clock closing time.

“I’ll send him now. He can be there by dawn. Assuming things come back as clean as you say, then you only need to keep yourself that way until you assume your position.”

Lukas’s throat tightened as the future he’d dreaded all his life came into clearer focus. In the past, all he’d worried about was himself and his own misery. Now, he had Elliette to worry about.

Who would look out for her when he wasn’t around? After tonight, he realized he couldn’t count on her brother to do it.

“Tell him to be inconspicuous,” Lukas said.

“Why’s that?” Gray asked.

“I don’t want my neighbors thinking there’s anything wrong with me.”

His father scoffed. “Why do you care what your neighbors think? You’re going to be an alpha. They’re beneath your concern.”

“It’s a quiet building.”

“And I highly doubt Dr. Howe is going to disturb anyone. If you want things quiet, that’s entirely in your control. Out of the two of you, you’re the one with the history of making a scene.”

“I’m also a pro athlete. A doctor showing up at my apartment could start rumors. I don’t need the pundits speculating about any injuries.

His father made a dismissive sound in the back of his throat.

“This call is over, Dad.”

“Dr. Howe will be there in four hours. ”

Lukas disconnected, then stared through his windshield at the neon beer sign in the bar’s window.

He turned off the ignition, pocketed his key, and got out.