Page 39 of The Enemy to the Living (The Wild Hunt #2)

Quinn

I ’m honestly surprised when I make it all the way to my flat without being stopped—and then even more so to find the inside completely empty of people. There are still signs of everyone who was here. They’ve left the sofa behind they carried in, and things are just in a general state of disarray.

I don’t mind it much. The fact that they were all here when I woke up warms my chest, makes me believe they do want me here.

Still, nerves twist a knot in my stomach, and it might be a delaying tactic, but I figure having a nice cup of tea before I go and speak to Kieran about everything that happened might do me some good.

He has the gist of it, and I’m sure he’s worked out plenty about the things I never managed to tell him.

I make my tea and am just about to drink it when there’s a knock at the door. I set down the mug and breathe in deep. Drew. My wolf barks in excitement, but that knot of nerves becomes a fist rising in my throat to choke me. I clutch the edge of the kitchen side.

Breathe. Drew isn’t here to hurt me. I owe him a real apology for everything I said. I’m sure he feels like he owes me one too, even though he doesn’t. He didn’t blame me for anything at all.

The surprise on his face matches my own when I pull open the door. He hides it faster, hardly a flicker before a genuine smile shoves it aside. “You’re back.”

“Should I not be?” I step back and wave for him to come inside. No one else lingers in the hallway, though another deep breath tells me that at least Adam is close by.

“Thought you might be away for a few days,” Drew says with a shrug. He drops onto the uncomfortable sofa I’ve had in here since I moved in. “Maurice got a few with his mate, didn’t he?”

It’s my turn to shrug. “I think so?” I hardly remember the night of Augustine’s challenge, at least after Asher left the room. I remember Maurice on his knees, and the Huntsman stopping to speak with him, but the specifics are beyond me. “Asher had to go and speak to them.”

“About the two of you?”

“Maybe. I don’t know. Tea?”

Drew nods, and I feel his eyes on me the entire time I’m making his drink. Once finished, I carry both mugs over and sit at the other end of the sofa he’s on.

“I really am sorry,” Drew says before he can even take a sip. “I should have been a better friend to you. Taken care of you better.”

I shake my head. “I never should have said what I did. I know it’s not your fault, what happened. I just felt…”

“Abandoned.”

My cheeks heat. “Yeah.”

Drew hums. He drinks about half of his cup of tea, then sets it aside.

“We did do that, though,” he says. “Kieran and I. Sam talked to me after our argument. After I’d calmed down a bit.

We’ve all seen our parents die, but Kieran and I had an enemy we could really focus our anger on. It wasn’t complicated.”

“Fuck that,” I mutter. “It was.”

“You know what I mean. It’s not—We didn’t think . And we’ve done a shitty job looking after you, even when you trusted us enough to get away and come here.”

“What Hale did wasn’t your fault,” I say slowly. “Any of it. He’s responsible for that, just like I’m responsible for killing the vampire.”

“But Tamesis—”

“Is dead. And manipulation or not, I’m still the one who did it. I can’t take it back.”

“Do you want to stay with us?”

“What?”

“Well, you and Asher…” He sighs. “He can’t leave the Hunt, can he?”

“No. But I’m not leaving my pack. I don’t think he wants me to.”

“Really? I don’t think he likes us much.”

“He doesn’t know you. I’m not leaving, Drew. I can’t imagine another pack I’d want to be in.”

Drew swallows and drops his gaze. “You don’t want to go home?”

“No. I still haven’t sorted the house, you know. Can’t imagine going back. They’re braver than me for doing it.”

“Braver than me, too.”

We sit in silence for a moment. It’s comfortable, for a change, reminiscent of the way things used to be.

Drew reaches over and squeezes my arm. “I want you to stay,” he says. “I-I know I didn’t think about it, but I wish I’d thought to bring you with me in the first place.”

“I wouldn’t have come,” I reply, and when Drew opens his mouth, I shake my head harder. “I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t have left my parents.”

“You’re my best friend. I should have—” He sighs. “Doesn’t matter, does it? I didn’t. But I’m not letting go of you now.”

“No? Even with your mates right there, all the time?”

“They’re not… They’re perfect for me. For each other.

The bond is real enough. But they’re not wolves.

And they’re not the best friend I grew up with, the one who doesn’t just know all the secrets of my childhood and adolescence but was there for it, too.

Kieran was always fighting to protect me, and I love him, but we’re learning how to be friends too, you know? You were right, what you said before.”

I frown, trying to follow his train of thought. “About what?”

“About us being brothers. You’re mine.”

“Drew. I—”

He lunges forward and hugs me before I can get the words out, and I don’t hesitate at all in hugging him back. I noticed him pulling back before he left our pack; I think part of me all along was angry at myself because I really should have realised something was wrong.

Doesn’t matter now.

“If Asher hurts you, I’ll hurt him back,” Drew says, words muffled against my shoulder, and I let out a surprised laugh.

“Yeah, okay. I’m not taking on Sam for you. Kieran can handle that.”

Drew laughs, too. “Just Adam?” He leans back but keeps his hands clasped on my shoulders.

I chew my lower lip. “I don’t know him that well, do I? Either of them.”

“That’s okay. We’ll all just have to spend more time together.”

“Asher too?”

“He’s your mate , Quinn.” Drew’s grin turns wicked, which I’d say he’s learnt from his mates, but he’s right—I know him better than that. “Didn’t know you were going to go after such an old man, by the way.”

I roll my eyes. “Oh, because Adam’s so young, is he?”

“For a vampire,” Drew says, sniffing primly, and then we both collapse into chuckles. Drew lets go of me and leans back on the cushions.

Oh. “Speaking of vampires…”

“Yeah?”

“The Hunt has a young one. Grant.”

“Young?”

“He was turned about fifteen years ago, Asher said.”

I asked about Grant in between everything today.

Asher’s a little worried about him, too.

Not because Vlad turned him and that seems—as far as I can tell—to have given him powers he otherwise might not have—but because he spends all his time at the base and, yeah, doesn’t seem to have his own friends, even if he’s friendly with some of the fae.

“What about him?” Drew asks, no doubt tucking that information away for later. I’m not worried about it. He’ll ask his mates, and they’ll keep whatever they know to themselves.

“He wants to see a wolf shift. I can show him, but I thought it might be nice if he could hang out with you, me, and Dax one morning.”

Drew’s grin splits his face in two. “You’re coming running with us?”

“Yeah? Of course. Now that I can shift again…” I want to. My wolf stretches because he does too but doesn’t push for me to shift now. Drew and I could both shift in here, but we wouldn’t have much room to do anything but lie around afterwards.

“Yeah, he can come,” Drew says, almost breathless. “I mean, I’ll check with Dax, but he won’t care. Oh! Do you think he’ll chase us?”

I snort, then think of the way Vlad never takes his eyes from Grant for too long. “Yeah. We might have to be gentle with him, though. His sire will have something to say about it if not.”

“Yeah, no, that’s fine. It’ll be great. Let’s do it!”

We fall into making plans—this will have to happen at night, of course, and I don’t know exactly when I’ll be spending time with Asher, but Drew can go any day before he has to be at Hallowed Grounds, and Dax seems easygoing enough.

A sharp knock at the door interrupts us. I don’t even need to try to scent who’s there; it’s apparent from the instant way Drew relaxes next to me. “Sam’s here.”

I frown but get up to open the door. Sam smiles up at me, not a hint of dislike in his expression or scent, and my wolf barks at the presence of our pack’s second, forcing my eyes low.

Sam doesn’t seem to care about that. His smile bubbles up into a grin. “Asher’s here.”

He is? I scramble, reaching for that strengthening bond in my chest. He is! But he’s down the hall, in…

“Why isn’t he here?” Drew asks before I can. He rests his chin on my shoulder and Sam snickers at the sight of us.

“Come on,” he says. “Let’s go and find out.”