Page 17 of Rising Reign (The Wolves of Crescent Creek #3)

WREN

I gaped at the mercurial man in the middle of the entryway, one with all sorts of opposing identities. “ You’re Ender’s informant?”

“The one and only. With my fingers in all sorts of dark and dastardly pies.” Rhys wiggled his fingers to accentuate the point.

I tried to identify each of his rings. One had an intricate tree carved into a circle as if it could serve as a seal.

Another had a ragged mask that looked like something out of a nightmare.

And on his pinky was a dark stone that looked like a black hole just waiting to swallow anyone it came into contact with.

“Keep all your fingers away from her,” Puck snarled.

Rhys only beamed at him. “This is good. It’s fun seeing your pack coming together in defense of a mate. I wasn’t sure it would happen.”

Something about Rhys’s words set me on edge. Perhaps the way they were spoken or the familiarity. Something about it didn’t sit right. And I clearly wasn’t the only one who felt that way.

Kingston bristled. “Why is he talking like he knows us?”

Ender sighed and squeezed the back of his neck. “Rhys has…some gifts.”

“Excuse me,” Rhys interjected. “Please don’t talk about me like I’m some sort of party trick.”

Even though the vampire spoke jokingly, I felt the undercurrent in the words, the weight of being different. And I understood it. I got the fear of people seeing you as a freak on a deep level. It tugged at me.

“Then tell us what they are,” Hera pushed, wariness in her pale-green eyes.

Rhys sighed, reworking his hair into a knot atop his head. The mane was thick and tangled, dark brown with caramel-colored highlights woven throughout. The strands looked as if they’d been kissed by the sun, the same way his tan skin did.

None of it fit what I thought of when someone said vampire . There was no porcelain skin or blood-red lips. Rhys looked more like he was about to hike up a mountain than hide out from the sun. And he looked very much alive.

His ringed fingers drummed on his jeans-clad thigh. “A smidge of prophecy here and there, but also visions of the present.”

It suddenly made sense how Ender was getting information about Red River without having an inside source. Wonder slid through me as I stared at Rhys. “You can focus your gifts on a specific target, can’t you?”

I could do the same with my empath gifts, but it was difficult, and I definitely couldn’t do it if I wasn’t in the same room as my target.

Rhys shrugged. “Sometimes.”

“You never had any contact with Red River, did you?” I pressed .

His nose wrinkled. “Consort with those animals? No insult intended. Never.”

I turned to Ender. “Why the hell wouldn’t you just tell me that? It would’ve put my mind at ease.”

Rhys crossed his arms over his massive chest. “Yeah, End. Why didn’t you just tell her that?”

“I’m going to kill you,” Ender growled low.

Rhys just laughed. “This is going to be so much fun. I’m so glad I get a front-row seat.”

“You think you’re staying?” King challenged.

“Oh, yes. I’ll be here for the long haul,” Rhys said easily.

Locke scowled at him. “Because your psychic powers told you so?”

Rhys glanced Locke’s way. “You’re usually the nice one. Wake up on the wrong side of the bed today?”

“I don’t like people I don’t know sneaking onto our territory and putting our mate at risk,” Locke snarled.

“Aaaaaah. I threatened your security genius. I get it. Sorry about that. But when I can see in my mind how you put the system in, it’s fairly easy to beat it. Have you considered adding motion detectors with size-specific alerts so human-sized creatures trigger it but nothing else?”

Locke’s jaw went slack. “That’s—you—I?—”

Rhys’s grin was back. “Good idea, right? I’d go with the Excalibur system. They’re less buggy than some of the other options. I’d be happy to help you install it. It’s no problem at all. I like security.”

“You should see his place. It’s like walking a booby-trapped, landmine obstacle course,” Brix muttered.

I glanced at him. “You know him, too?”

Brix shrugged. “He got us out of a sticky situation once.”

“You mean I saved your life. You’re welcome, by the way,” Rhys huffed .

“Because I saved your life at least three times,” Ender shot back.

“Poe-tay-toe, poe-tah-toe,” Rhys singsonged.

Hera took another step forward, her eyes narrowing on the vampire. “If you are trying to screw us over?—”

“I’m not,” he clipped. “I’m here to help.”

“If you’re lying, I’ll turn you into a frog. I can do it,” Hera shot back.

Rhys’s lips twitched. “I love it when you talk dirty to me.”

Her nose wrinkled. “You aren’t my type.”

Rhys straightened his spine, suddenly looking far more affronted at that than at anything else our group had hurled at him. “Because I’m a vampire? Come on. I’ve got that wounded, bad-boy thing going for me. I’m everyone’s type.”

“Not unless you get rid of your dick,” she bit out.

His jaw went slack, surprise lighting his amber eyes. “Oh, well. I guess that’s okay. As long as you know that if you were into dicks, you’d be powerless against my charms.”

“Keep telling yourself that, bloodsucker,” Hera grumbled as she turned to walk out of the entryway.

“You’d be head over heels in love with me,” Rhys called after her.

She just flipped him off.

“She would be,” Rhys muttered.

Ender clapped a hand on his shoulder, turning him toward the back doors. “Come on, you and I need to have a talk.”

“Can Wren come?” Rhys asked hopefully.

“No,” Ender snapped.

“Always such a buzzkill.”