Gideon had to push through the crowd of frightened men and women rushing past him in a panic. The sound of gunfire and inhuman growling made it worse.
Fucking Palmer.
Not that he hadn’t known what might happen. It was his own fault for letting Alex take the lead. Hell, the whole team knew he was a bomb waiting to go off. In the three months since they’d come together to form a pack, Alex had gone from a genial, compassionate member to a combative aggressor more concerned with bringing the pain than ending conflict peacefully.
The weeks going by with no news of Katie’s killers put Alex in a foul mood. Even Bailey had a difficult time pulling him out of it. Gideon’s mate, and the pack’s resident empath, Bailey helped keep them stable, easing their rages when blood and sex could not. She sure the hell kept him steady, he thought with grim amusement.
But lately Alex wanted nothing to do with her. Though the entire pack—team, damn it, it’s a team, we’re not animals—shared intimacies daily, Alex had been pulling away. Gideon didn’t like it.
And now this. Flaunting Gideon’s authority? Hell no. Alex was growing out of control. Time to reassert dominance.
He entered Alex’s room to find a bloodbath. Eli arrived at the same time and gaped.
“Day-um, Palmer. Started the party early, eh?” Eli grinned, the savage never as happy as when he stood surrounded by carnage and chaos.
Gideon sighed.
Eli’s grin widened.
Alex stared at Gideon, his gaze unwavering. Challenging.
Eli swore. “Uh-oh. Look, guys, we should probably settle this somewhere else. I hear sirens.”
From several miles away. Gideon heard them too. “Great advice, Eli. I’m so glad we brought you along. Never would have figured that out myself.”
Eli, wisely, said nothing. The cocky bastard liked to needle Gideon’s authority while not actually meaning anything by it. But this new Alex… He was hurting, and he lashed out. What he needed was discipline. But Bailey kept insisting they go easy on the guy.
Gideon grunted. Fat lot she knew about the male mind. “Let’s go. Hurry up and lose the blood. Eli, meet us back at the rendezvous point.”
Eli nodded, grabbed the laptop, and left.
Gideon waited for Alex to do as he’d been told. And Alex did, but slowly.
Gritting his teeth and doing his best not to lose his shit before they left the hotel, Gideon followed Alex out a side door. They lost themselves in the crowd that had gathered outside the White Orchid, then hurried through several narrow alleys toward the motorbikes Bailey had stashed for them.
When Alex made to get on a bike, Gideon stopped him. “No. Come with me.”
Alex glared but said nothing, and they walked in silence to a room in the back of an abandoned building. Having scouted the place out earlier for a possibly safe house, Gideon knew the owners wouldn’t be back until the following week.
He easily manipulated the lock and let them in to a small, empty building being converted into a restaurant. Gideon nodded for Alex to follow him, and they walked into the back, where Gideon flicked on a dim bulb once inside a storage closet no bigger than six by six feet.
Alex frowned as he looked around.
Gideon moved so that he stood with his back to the door. The small room would feel more like a cage to Alex in his current state. Which was what Gideon wanted. A limited space to engage, to keep Alex close, unable to escape.
Not until they settled this.
“What the fuck is your problem?” Gideon growled.
When Alex snarled, flexed handfuls of claws, and let his fangs show, Gideon didn’t hesitate. He shocked Alex with a mental blast designed to incapacitate, not kill. And not harm, overly. He needed to settle Alex the easiest and quickest way possible, because apparently Alex had been skipping out on their nightly training sessions. The bottled up aggression in a Circ needed an outlet, and Alex had been denying his.
Why?
“What the fuck, man? Why have you been avoiding the pack?”
Alex groaned and clutched his temples. “Ihatewhen you do that.” Gideon waited for his answer, surprised when it came. “It’s Bailey.”
“Bailey?” Gideon hadn’t been expecting that. “But you’re bi. I get Carter not wanting to sex her up so much. But I though you liked it.”
