Page 54 of Witchblood
“Right. So tell me why I’ve been stuck here for a month like I’m in some b-rated drama flick while Dylan is God knows where?”
“A month?” The words hit me like an iron fist in the gut. That wasn’t possible. Liam said I’d been gone a while. A while. A month was longer than a while. “Holy fuck!”
Sean looked alarmed. “Why are you so surprised?”
“I’ve been gone a month? Dylan has been missing for a month?” Nicky had been missing and presumed dead for a month. No wonder there had been a memorial. A chill began to rise in my gut. Something awakening, slow, and delicate. I barely held back a tremor.
“Why does this surprise you? Where the hell were you anyway? Is Dylan there? Is he being held hostage? No one will tell me anything. They threw me in here a week after he walked away with some strangers that last night. My business, my life, my family, probably all think I’m dead.” He paled. “That’s it, isn’t it? They plan to kill me?”
That sort of was the original plan. Standard operating procedure for werewolf politics. Only I was going to do my best to throw a monkey-wrench in that ideology. “How much do you love Dylan?”
Sean narrowed his eyes at me. “Why?”
“Because I need to gauge whether I can trust you or not. Last time he and I spoke, I could tell he was crazy about you. I’d hate for the emotions to not go both ways.” Or to put myself on the Volkov’s shit list when he was already in a bad mood by telling a human about werewolves.
“I asked him to marry me,” Sean whispered. “That night was great. He dropped you off, arrived for the date. We danced. I asked and he accepted.” He let out a long sigh. “Feels like a dream now. A lifetime ago. I could have grown wings and flown when he said yes, if you’d asked me too. Then when we went out to the parking lot there were men waiting at the car. Dylan told me to go back inside.”
“He was trying to save you.” Because I knew Dylan loved this man and would never let anything happen to him.
“I didn’t need to be saved. Never understood that myself. I have martial arts training. My dad owns a dojo in Portland. Spent most of my life winning competitions and matches. Dylan is smaller than me, but those guys showed up and it’s suddenly like he’s larger than life. Not how he physically is, but just something. I don’t know.” Sean laid back on the bed and reached for the blanket like he was cold. Likely it was more from the memory than any real temperature since he was in the usual unisex sweats and fuzzy socks.
“Can I show you something?” I asked because I had a feeling that a guy like Sean wouldn’t just believe me if I told him. Really, would anyone? Hey werewolves are real and your boyfriend is one? He can probably bench press you without breaking a sweat so your martial arts training doesn’t mean much. He acts like a caveman sometimes because werewolf programming makes his wolf demand your safety. Werewolves functioned a bit like a cult to those who could see the workings from the outside. It didn’t sound sane to most people any more than fanatics ever did.
Sean glanced my way warily. “Can I stop you?”
I shrugged, trying to keep my teeth from chattering from the rising batch of liquid ice cycling through my blood. Was it Liam that kept it at bay? What was it? “It’s your choice. I just thought you’d want the truth about Dylan.”
“Shouldn’t he tell me?”
“He can’t.”
“Won’t.”
“Can’t.” I reaffirmed. I raised a hand when he went to speak again. “Let me show you something and then I’ll explain. Just don’t freak out.”
“I’m way beyond freaking out,” Sean told me. “Pretty sure I’m five stops passed the freaked out station of Crazyville. I’m not even sure I’m talking to you right now. You could just be a figment of my imagination.”
I smiled, liking him a lot. No wonder Dylan had fallen for him. Sad that everyone treated him like he was delicate just because he was human. Sean had a backbone of steel. He wouldn’t have survived a month locked up in an alpha safe room with his sanity if he didn’t.
I lifted up my borrowed hoodie and tugged it off, dropping it on the floor. No need to strip fully, but the shirt would distort too much.
Sean raised a brow. Not at my half nudity and tattoos, but what I now realized was my skinny chest covered in love bites. When had Liam done that? I felt heat rise to my face.
“Not that.” I waved a hand at him. “Pay no attention to that. New boyfriend and all that. We sort of mated last night. Long story…” Then I shifted. Instantly from man to fox. My pants and socks pooled around me.
Sean sat up in the bed, eyes wide and shaking his head like he was trying to convince himself it wasn’t real. I hoped I hadn’t mistaken his personality. Sometimes it happened. A spouse found out about their werewolf lover and spurned them for beingunnatural.
I shifted back to my full human self, adjusting my pants back into place, then grabbed up the hoodie and tugged it back on. The cold intensified. It felt a lot like a tide lapping at the edges of my soul. Each wave rising a little higher as though the tide were about to come in. Like being too far from Liam was just not possible anymore.
“What are you? Am I awake?”
“I’m a shifter. Obviously.”
“Obviously…” His tone dripped with sarcasm. “’Cause that was my first thought. Still thinking maybe I’m not really seeing things. Or…” He glanced back at the bed. “Maybe I’m dreaming?”
“You’re awake. About to get woke, really. They call mewitchborn, but I’m not a witch. Just a fox shifter. There is a whole world ofotherthings that humanity is taught to believe is all fantasy.”
He looked around the room and I could almost see his brain racing, coming up with questions and answers all at once. “Others like what? Vampires, ghosts, and zombies? Dylan is a shifter too?”