Page 7 of Redeemed Wolf (Grim Wilds #4)

Chapter 7

Silas

Every morning before work, I took deep breaths, trying to hold the clean air in my lungs for as long as I could in preparation. City air was a far cry from the crisp dampness of the forest, but I would take anything over the stink of that lab.

Eric remained true to his word, setting me the worst tasks he could come up with. Cleaning toilets and other questionable smears from cell walls and floors. Carting out bins of biohazard to the back of the building to be properly disposed of. Every day, I ended up covered in filth and reeking of sweat and other stenches I chose not to name. I was plagued with headaches after being subjected to the red light all day. Who’d ever heard of a shifter taking painkillers? Ridiculous.

The temperature in the cells was cold enough that I could see my breath, and if what I found in the empty cells was any indication, the “subjects” had nothing more than a thin blanket to keep them warm. I tried my best not to think about where the previous inhabitants of the cells had gone.

My wolf had been retreating further and further from the forefront of my brain throughout the day. Between the odors that seared our nostrils, the red light that made our vision blurry and our thoughts to match, and the mounting pressure in our chest, he was done with the whole mission.

When I asked my wolf if he wanted to go home, though, he was strangely silent. Almost like he was sulking.

At night, though, when I was lying in bed trying to sleep, staring at the ceiling, my limbs exhausted, that was when he would start prodding at me to go for a run. Seriously!

We could not sustain this!

At least Pacey was taking care of the food situation. He’d go shopping and stock the fridge and cupboards with canned, boxed, and frozen meals. He’d been raised to believe omegas did the cooking, so I was grateful he had at least done that much, but I longed for some real food, some meat cooked over a fire.

There’d been no more sightings of Carter, though I swore I could track him with this throbbing pain in my chest acting like a compass. I had my suspicions about that, but I needed to get closer to be sure. Every time I risked walking toward that lab where I’d first seen him, Eric was there, ready with a new task for me. If I didn’t know any better, I’d assume he was trying to cockblock me.

Friday morning, with the weekend ahead of me, I had a new plan to enact. I needed to get him alone, and it was clear that was never going to happen here at the lab. Tonight…

When I pulled up at the gate, Greg greeted me, but he didn’t look so hot. His complexion had taken on a grayish hue. Instead of the usual conversation, he leaned his forearm on the ledge of my car door. I noticed that he’d angled his body away from the camera, though casually, and his voice lowered to a whisper. “Hey, man. Have you, uh, seen Melissa?”

My eyes flicked once briefly to the camera over his shoulder. Keeping my voice low, I even tried not to move my lips more than necessary. “No, not since… actually, not since last Friday. They moved me to another department.”

Greg was chewing on the inside of his cheek and just nodded, not saying anything.

“Maybe she got one of those jobs she applied for?” I suggested, though neither of us really believed that. She would’ve told us, said goodbye. “She’s probably just sick. Have you tried calling her?”

He shot me a look that said, “ Do you think I’m an idiot? ”

I thought of what she’d said at the bar that night. “ I’ve seen things, heard things… They’re not good people .” Maybe she’d seen something she shouldn’t have… Even though I hadn’t had the chance to get to know her, my stomach twisted with unease and more than a fair dose of rage.

Greg pushed off my car and patted my shoulder through the open window. “All right, man. Have a good weekend.” He kept his eyes down, the air around him bitter with his simmering fear.

Greg was right. As I parked my car, I looked around the lot and saw no sign of Melissa’s little Honda. And when I stepped foot in the building, I accidentally dropped my ID tag, and when I bent down to pick it up, I took a moment to tie my shoe. I closed my eyes and pulled the air deeply into my lungs, trying to nudge past the usual bleach smell, but there wasn’t a single whiff of Melissa’s distinctive floral moisturizer. It was like she’d been gone far longer than the week.

Deep inside, I knew what had likely happened to her, and it wasn’t good. She’d seen something, she knew too much, and when she’d slipped up, somehow Dr. Taylor knew about it. Had they been listening through our phones? Had they heard her slip?

How far would he go to keep his secrets?

Speak of the devil and he shall appear… I smelled Eric moments before he rounded the corner, giving me just enough time to finish tying my shoe and to approach the front desk, flashing my card at the guard on duty.

“Ah, Silas! Just the man I was hoping to see this morning.” Eric was all smiles and easy grace, and for the briefest moment, I had a hard time reconciling the monster he was to the man standing before me. But then I reminded myself that he’d stalked Morgan, that he’d threatened to shoot both him and Jude. That he’d been complicit in the experimentation on children.

That he’d somehow brainwashed Carter into believing he was his father…

Even as accustomed as I was to being in his presence, I nearly flinched when he draped his arm over my shoulders and pulled me close as we walked down the hall together. “You’ve been doing good work, Silas. Just wanted to tell you that I’ve noticed.”

I nodded, trying not to think about Melissa’s smiling face, about the life Carter had been meant for before this asshole took what didn’t belong to him. “Thank you, Eric. That means a lot,” I said instead.

“I think I might have something a little more… exciting for you next week. Our tissue samples are running low, and I could really use your help in retrieving a fresh supply. What do you say?”

“I say hell yeah,” I replied, smiling when I remembered the way Dr. Gray’s blood had looked spilled across the lab floor. Eric’s turn was coming, and it was that certainty that carried me through the tasks for the day.

I didn’t even bother trying to get close to Carter today. Instead, I focused on getting out of the building before he did. I went through my usual routine of chatting with Greg for a couple minutes on the way out, but he was subdued and not in the mood to talk. It was Friday, which normally would’ve meant going out for drinks, but without Melissa, was there any point?

Saying our good nights, I pulled out onto the highway, but I didn’t go far. I pulled into a farm supply lot, parking between two trucks, and waited. I didn’t have to wait long before I saw a familiar blue SUV coming down the highway. I backed out of my spot, then slid back out onto the highway behind Carter, leaving several cars between us.

I hoped he wasn’t as paranoid as Eric was, or this was a good way to expose myself.

Though it was still light out, the moon had begun its ascent in the sky, and I could feel its pull. It was nearing full, and maybe that was what made me reckless enough to enact my plan.

I was planning to stage a meet-cute. It always seemed to work in the movies, so…

If Carter had decided to go straight home, I would’ve been out of luck, forced to wait another day, but instead, he turned into a grocery store parking lot, and I blew out a gust of air. I’d been wrestling with my wolf, forcing patience on us both, but now that it was time to take action, my stomach roiled with what most would describe as butterflies, but in reality felt more like I’d kicked a hornets’ nest.

Turning off the car, I waited until Carter was inside, a wadded-up fabric bag in his fist. Then I pulled my phone out of my pocket and dropped it into the cupholder. There would be no listening in for Eric and his cronies—at least not on my side.

I jogged inside, grabbing a cart from the stacked row. I needed to make it look like I was shopping after work, same as Carter. Nothing suspicious going on here.

Following the scent of burnt marshmallows, I charged down the adjacent aisle with my cart, trying to time it strategically for maximum effect. I grabbed food off the shelves indiscriminately without looking at what it was. Didn’t matter. Then I paused just a second before I came careening around the corner as if I were in a hurry.

“Oh, shit!” Carter hissed, jumping back in time to avoid being run over, and I jerked the cart to the side at the last second, clipping a display of diapers, sending a cascade of boxes tumbling across the floor.

“Fuck,” I muttered under my breath. That part was an accident. Why the hell were there diapers in the dairy section? “I’m so sorry, I didn’t see you there.” I bent down and started grabbing boxes to stack in the display.

I wouldn’t have blamed Carter if he kept walking, but instead, he crouched beside me and picked up a box. “No need to apologize. I wasn’t paying attention. Here, let me help.” His voice was slightly breathless, and when I looked up, he was staring right at me, not the boxes.

“Hey, I know you. You’re from Apex, right?” he asked. “Silas?”

He’d remembered my name. “Yeah. And you’re Carter.”

“Yeah.”

We both stood in front of the leaning stack of diapers, and I caught this strange vibration coming off him, that strange sour scent intensifying, sharpening my senses. There was no sign of his wolf, no flash of his eyes or the familiar echo of sameness I always got around shifters, but the air around Carter seemed to buzz against my skin, raising goosebumps all the way up my neck. I couldn’t look away—my beast wouldn’t let me. For better or worse, my wolf was enthralled with him.

Carter rocked back and forth on his heels, searching for something to say. “So… what are you making for dinner tonight?” He peeked into my cart, his eyebrow arching, a dimple appearing as he smiled, pulling out a box of children’s cereal. “Breakfast of champions?”

That glimpse of mischief in his grin made my wolf stagger. “It’s not for me,” I said, rubbing a hand over the back of my neck.

“Oh… you have kids?” Was that disappointment I heard in his voice?

“I have a roommate,” I offered in answer, smiling slyly. This felt awfully close to flirting.

Carter sucked his bottom lip between his teeth, then, as he came to some decision, boldly reached his hand out between us. “I never got the chance to shake your hand.”

I chuffed a laugh and caught his hand in a shake. “It’s nice to officially meet y—” At contact, that pressure I’d been feeling in my chest seemed to pop like a bubble. My wolf went stock-still, and just like that, it was as if the puzzle pieces slotted into place with an audible click. All that pressure I’d been feeling seemed to have moved lower, and my cock began to thicken.

Carter gasped and jerked his hand free, clutching it to his chest as his eyes widened, filled with confusion. “S-sorry, I… got a shock.” We both knew that was a lie. This was far more than the release of static. His throat bobbed with a hard swallow, and he took an involuntary step back, the air ripe with the scent of his arousal. “I should… go.”

“Carter, don’t—” I started to say, reaching for him, but he turned and jogged down the aisle toward the checkout, without a backward glance. There was no way to stop him without causing a public scene.

My wolf growled, low and dangerous, as we watched him leave, and I felt the rumble of it through my chest. A woman turned to look at me with a wary expression before she set the yogurt she’d been holding back in the cooler and shuffled away toward the deli.

He didn’t like letting Carter leave without settling something between us. Because when our skin touched, it had shoved through whatever sludge he was coated in, and one thing became obvious. Carter was our mate.

I wandered the aisles of the grocery store on autopilot, not caring what kind of food I came home with. When I walked through the door to the apartment, I had no recollection of driving home.

Pacey was lying on the couch with his feet hanging off the other end, reading a paperback romance. He glanced over at me, caught one glimpse of my shredded expression, and tossed his book aside. He surged up, every muscle taut, ready for battle.

“What is it, what’s wrong?” he asked, scenting the air in long inhales. His nose scrunched up in disgust. “What is that stench?”

“My—” I barely stopped myself from blurting out that it was my mate. Was someone listening in even now? “Groceries,” I said, hefting the bags into the kitchen. “Something must’ve spilled in the bag. Come help me with dinner.”

He followed behind me and began putting the food away, making idle chitchat in case anyone was listening, while I hunched over a notebook and wrote a shorthand version of what had happened. Only the important parts— talked to Carter, will talk to him again. Next week I see the others. Nobody needed to know the rest, not yet.

Finding my mate should’ve been cause for celebration, but there was something wrong with him. His scent had soured, and perhaps it had something to do with why I couldn’t sense his wolf.

Shit, how was I supposed to tell Jude that his little brother was broken? Dr. Taylor had done something to Carter, and I needed him to fix it before I could take him home.