Half Truths (A Helheim Wolf Pack Tale) (23 page)

Rhett parked the
car and got out; walking around the front to open Indi’s door. She got out and
walked towards the house. When she opened the door, the smell of bacon, eggs,
pancakes and coffee greeted her. But her body didn’t respond to the sensory
overload. Rhett—on the other hand—nearly picked her up and carried her to the
kitchen when she took too long to walk there.

When they
entered the kitchen, Antain was standing at the stove flipping over a pancake
before adding it to the growing stack next to the range. He glanced up when
Rhett came through the door, his eyes gravitating towards Indi soon after.

‘How’s your
friend?’ he asked, genuinely concerned.

‘She’s fine,’
Indi lied. Antain pressed his lips together in a hard line before he nodded
like he’d known she’d just lied, but his easy expression took over anyway.

‘Breakfast is
ready,’ he called. Nothing happened for a moment then all hell broke loose.
Vaile marched in from the living room while Sabel and Colton came up from the
basement, shirtless and dripping in sweat. Rhett tugged on her hand, dragging
her down to sit next to Vaile while the others spoke over each other, stabbing
at the piles of bacon and pancakes with forks, and drowning everything in
syrup. Antain caught her eye and smiled.

‘They’re growing
boys.’

‘Do you normally
do this?’ she asked; her eyes undoubtedly still wide. This seemed like such a
normal thing for people to do, but here they were—a pack of werewolves—enjoying
a Sunday breakfast together just like anyone else.

A muscle in
Antain’s jaw jumped and all the others went still. Antain cleared his throat.
‘Eaton made it a tradition on Sunday morning to cook for all the boys.’ Antain
looked up at the other wolves, all dropping their eyes to their plates except
for Rhett. She saw the deep hurt and frustration in his eyes. ‘Just because
she’s not here doesn’t mean we’ll stop doing it. And when she gets back, the food
will be even better than today. I never got the hang of cooking,’ he finished
with a weak smile.

‘Do you know
where Eaton is?’ Indi asked softly. Antain’s eyes were gold when he looked up.

‘We know she’s
on Dragos land, more than likely being held at Marcus’s house, but we don’t
have any more information than that. I still can’t feel her.’

Indi looked at
Rhett, raising her eyebrows. ‘Mated pairs can feel each other—emotions mostly,
but if the bond is strong, location can also be felt,’ he explained.

‘Aren’t you
eating?’ Colton asked, breaking the silence. Indi looked towards the young wolf
who had carried her bag for her and shook her head. ‘
Can
you eat solid
food anymore?’

‘Colton,’ Rhett
snarled.

‘What? I haven’t
met a félvair before. I don’t know how it works.’

‘She doesn’t
crave human food anymore. She only craves blood,’ Vaile interrupted. By the
looks on the other wolves’ faces, Indi could tell they were surprised by his
knowledge—all except for Antain this time.

Colton said,
‘How do you know?’

Vaile’s eyes
changed to blue so quickly that if Indi had blinked, she would have missed it.
‘I just know, alright.’

Silence ensued
except for the chink of cutlery against plates.

‘So are you
going to feed?’ Colton started up the conversation like it hadn’t just had a
deadly interruption. ‘I saw the baggies in the fridge.’

Rhett made a
noise down in his throat that sounded like a groan. ‘I’ll go warm up some blood
for you,’ he said, pushing out from the counter and heading toward the fridge
before Indi could tell him she wasn’t hungry even though that was a lie.

‘What does it
taste like?’ Colton asked, drawing Indi’s attention back to the table.

Indi groaned
inwardly, but Sabel cut her off before she could speak. ‘You’ve tasted fresh
deer. It’s like that.’

‘She only drinks
human blood,’ Rhett interrupted, closing the fridge door with a baggy of blood
in his hand. Cutting off the top, he emptied the thick red liquid into a fresh
mug and put it in the microwave.

‘Does that taste
different?’ Colton asked again. Indi began to wonder if there was an “off”
switch on the boy.

‘I don’t know.
I’ve never drunk from a deer before.’

He grinned at
her, revealing straight, white teeth with only slightly longer, sharper
canines. ‘You should come out hunting with us one time then.’

The microwave
beeped and Rhett placed the hot mug down in front of her a second later. The
smell of the blood should have made her mouth water, but it didn’t. She was
starving, but not for the blood in front of her. She looked up. Rhett was
watching her, so she picked up the mug and took a sip. He didn’t look away
until she swallowed.

‘How’s the case
going, Vaile?’ Antain asked.

‘Possible
development. I smelt wolf on the newest body last night.’

‘What pack?
Please don’t tell me it was one of ours.’

Vaile shook his
head. ‘No. I couldn’t get enough of the scent to place the pack, but it’s
definitely not a Helheim wolf.’

‘How can you
tell?’ Indi asked, avoiding taking another sip from her mug.

‘I’m a Tracker,’
Vaile replied. ‘I can smell the dual layer of a wolf’s scent. The bottom layer
is their sire, and the second is their own personal scent. I can track packs
that way.’

Antain asked,
‘Have you gone back to the other bodies to see if the scent is there too?’

‘Tried last
night. They’d been washed clean. All I could smell was formaldehyde.’

‘So, it’s a wolf
who is killing the humans?’ asked Rhett.

‘I doubt it. All
I know is that a wolf was with the three Vics sometime before they died.’

Antain looked
grim. ‘So to top it off, we’ve got rogue wolves on our territory as well as
immara
vampires overrunning the town and making kills under our noses.’ He sighed.
‘Just keep me updated.’

Vaile nodded.
‘Will do.’

‘Maybe we should
patrol tonight, see if we can’t pump some vamps for information?’ Colton said
with fervent hope in his eyes.

 ‘Yes. I think
that would be wise,’ said Antain. ‘I also received a call from the Seer this
morning. She’s planning a trip to come and see how Indi is settling in to her
new life.’

‘Who’s the
Seer?’ Indi asked. She took another sip from her mug when Rhett stared at her a
little too long.

Satisfied that
she’d had enough, Rhett turned his attention back to his food. ‘She’s human,
but her family has been involved in werewolf politics since the beginning of
time,’ said Rhett. ‘Throughout the world, wherever there is a pack of
werewolves, there will be a Seer—all from the same family. As a result of their
loyalty to keeping the secret of our kind, she is blessed with a longer life
than a human. At the moment she’s around the one hundred and fifty mark. She’s
like a shaman.’

‘But these
murders have thrown a spanner in the works,’ Antain added. ‘If they are vampire
kills and if the Seer finds that we are unable to keep vampires from our
territory, she might just take you away from us and place you elsewhere.’

‘But I don’t
want to go elsewhere. I want to stay here.’

‘Unfortunately,
it’s not up to you anymore Indi.’

Fear and anger
licked up her spine, straightening it. ‘Of course it’s up to me. Nobody tells
me what to do or where to go. I can look after myself, and I refuse to be
handed around again.’

Rhett felt for
her hand under the table, settling her cat and cooling her head. Antain watched
with an almost reverent expression. ‘So that is why she said you must care for
her,’ he murmured.

Rhett looked up.
‘What do you mean, Uncle?’

‘You calm her
down, comfort her. You have the same effect on her as a mate would.’

Indi’s heart
began pounding. Hard. At first she thought it was because of the direction the
conversation had taken. But it wasn’t that. It wasn’t that at all. She stared
down at her nearly empty mug of blood and her stomach turned in revolt. She
stood up too quickly, rattling the plates and spilling drinks from the cups as
her legs banged against the table.

‘Indi? What is
it?’ Rhett asked, standing up in one lithe movement, shadowing her.

Her hand came to
her mouth. She could feel it now. Her stomach churned, her muscles seizing
before her body jerked spasmodically. Her skin suddenly felt too hot. Sweat
beaded on her brow, running down the side of her face. She turned to Rhett. His
mouth was moving, but all she could hear was an eardrum piercing sound. She
realised it was her.

Clamping her
mouth shut, she lurched around the island counter and to the industrial-sized,
stainless steel sink. Her fingernails snapped as she tried to clutch onto the
side of the sink. Bile twisted up her throat; hot and acidic. She could feel it
coming now. She was salivating, her body preparing her for the onslaught.
Bending at the waist, she ducked her head into the sink and let the force of
her convulsions bring up the blood she’d just drunk.

Rhett’s strong
hands were there instantly. One hand held back her hair while the other rubbed
circles on her back. She could hear snippets of conversation around her, but
the buzzing in her head blocked out most of the words. She heard Antain speaking,
Rhett answering; his voice vibrating through her back.

She didn’t know
how long she’d been bent over that sink for when she was finally pulled away
and held closely to a warm chest. Rhett’s presence floated around her,
instantly settling the roaring in her head. Her stomach was another matter
altogether. A wave of voices drifted in her mind. They were garbled; worry
threading through them.

She cracked open
her eyes to find Antain, Vaile, Sabel and Colton all staring at her. Their eyes
were a melody of colours: gold, ice-blue, chartreuse-green and silver. If she
looked up, Rhett’s would have been emerald-green and ice-blue; a shade slightly
lighter than Vaile’s. She cleared her throat, trying to speak, but her throat
was raw.

‘Indi? Are you
alright?’ Antain asked in a deep, rumbling voice; his face slowly swimming into
focus.

‘Yeah, I’m—’ black
spots appeared in her vision. She blinked, but that only made it worse.

‘Indi?’ Rhett
murmured; his head dipped down near her ear.

‘I’m—’ she tried
again. But her legs turned to rubber, and the last thing she remembered was the
kitchen tiles getting closer and closer to her face.

Rhett’s hand slid beneath Indi’s
head a split second before it connected with the floor. The rest of his pack,
along with his alpha, just looked down at her, still too shocked to know what
to do. Colton knelt beside him, but a snarl erupted from Rhett’s throat instantly.

‘Don’t fucking
touch her,’ he snarled, staring Colton down.

‘I told you
Rhett would fuck this up for us,’ Sabel commented, but Rhett didn’t react. All
he could think about was Indi. Antain crouched down beside him.

‘Rhett, what
happened just then?’

‘I … I don’t
know.’

‘Has it happened
before?’

He swallowed
thickly, feeling the weight of everyone’s gaze on him. He was responsible for
keeping Indi safe, but if he admitted that it had, would they take her away
from him? Maybe he should just give her up. He knew it couldn’t work. He’d
known it from the very beginning.

‘Rhett?’ Antain
pushed. ‘Has it happened before?’

He nodded.
‘Yes.’ His voice was rough with … what? Fear? Guilt? ‘Yes,’ he repeated again,
scooping Indi up into his arms. ‘I’m going to put her to bed.’

Sabel’s voice
trailed out after him; malicious and hitting closer to home than he wanted to
admit. ‘I
knew
you’d fuck this up. I should have been her Guardian. I’m
stronger, faster, more vicious
and
I’m not some defective wolf with a
chip on his fucking shoulder!’

Rhett spun
around and pinned him with a hard look. ‘At least I’m not a Bitten wolf who was
kicked out of his previous pack and forced to find another with his tail
between his legs.’

A wolf was
nothing but proud, and bringing up a former indiscretion was a sure way to
guarantee a fight. Rhett got the reaction he’d wanted. Sabel’s eyes were
suddenly blazing green with anger. His canines elongated in his mouth; the
teeth dipping dangerously past his lower lip. Sabel’s chest was heaving,
sucking in oxygen like it would run out in the very near future. ‘Whatever
they’ve told you, it’s not true,’ he spat in a voice curling with his wolf’s
influence.

‘We all have
defects, Sabel. At least I man up and accept them.’ Rhett turned around, shifting
Indi’s slight weight in his arms before heading up the stairs. He couldn’t
remember her being this light before. He could feel Sabel’s eyes burning into
the back of his skull as he carried Indi up the stairs, but he didn’t care.
He’d had enough of tiptoeing around Sabel.

Shoving his
bedroom door open with his shoulder, he kicked it shut behind him and lowered
Indi onto his bed. He didn’t like her sleeping across the hall from him. She
was his and she was meant to stay with him. How very fucking caveman of him.

The door creaked
open as he was pulling the quilt up around Indi’s shoulders. Glancing over his
shoulder, he saw Antain standing in the doorway—his face serious.

‘Tell me
everything you know.’ His voice held the edge that every alpha’s voice had. It
was almost as if there was a compulsion to listen, to do whatever they asked.

Rhett sucked in
a breath to steady his nerves. ‘This happened to her last night too, but it
wasn’t as severe. She’d been talking to me like normal when all of a sudden she
had her head over the sink.’ Rhett could feel his eyes go glassy, remembering
every vivid detail of what had happened. ‘So much blood came out. It coated the
sink so thickly that I thought I’d never get it off. Her skin was cold when I
put her to bed, but she was conscious when I did. She didn’t faint like she did
today.’