Peter froze as he remembered Anthony’s words. “I’m sorry I didn’t even think about you not having anything with you. Did you want me to take you home to collect some things?” Peter had no intention of keeping a separate residence, but he didn’t want Quain to feel destituteeither.
“If I can borrow some clothes for tomorrow, I’ll be fine for the night. We can go pick something up later. Frankly, I’m too tired to go anywhere else,” Quainsaid
Purple marks of exhaustion beneath Quain’s droopy eyes had Peter nodding hisagreement.
“All right. I’ve got some clothes that will work for now.” He didn’t mention they were sweatpants he had cut off at the knees and a shirt that had shrunk in the wash but hadn’t gotten around to throwing out. He doubted Quain cared what he wore the next day as long as he hadsomething.
Quain was silent for a few minutes. “Do you havepaper?”
“Sure, yeah. I probably even have a notebook in a drawer somewhere. Come on.” Peter didn’t know if Quain was on a deadline to write everything down, but he had read that the brain only held onto details for so long before they began tofade.”
“Thanks, I usually have one with me, but the whole abduction thing threw me off my usual schedule. I wonder if it’s still in thecar?”
“Do you know where the vehicle went after yourabduction?”
“I’m sure my parents took it. It was theirs anyway. Next time I see them, I’ll ask about it. If I know my mother, she would have put it in a box for me to get later. She never throws anything away, and she definitely wouldn’t toss a dream journal. She’s the one who got me started writingone.”
“Good.” Peter didn’t ask any questions about Quain’s abduction, no matter how eager he was to hear an account. Quain’s voice when he spoke of his confinement contained too much horror for it to be an easy thing to discuss. He respected his mate too much to interrogate him over hiscaptivity.
Peter led the way out of the garage and into an elevator. He pressed the P button and grinned at Quain’s raised eyebrows. “I know I don’t look like much, but my grandfather left me this place, and along with my nest egg, we should do quite well. My father gambled away most of the family money, but my grandfather put some in trust for me that he couldn’ttouch.”
“Your grandfather sounds like a smartman.”
“He was.” A fond smile curled Peter’s lips when he thought of Grandpa Soran. The old man had a spine of steel and an unbreakable spirit. Unfortunately, he couldn’t fight the effects of time and died of old age a few years back. At the will reading, Peter’s father had screamed over most of the money going toPeter.
He might not have earned his money, but it had been given to him out of love and Grandpa Soran had adored vehicles of all kinds. He would have loved Peter’sgarage.
“Do you mind if I ask you some questions?” Quain tilted his head as he looked up atPeter.
“You can ask me anything. I know you probably can’t tell me all your secrets, but I’d like there to be as much honesty between us as possible.” He wanted Quain to feel comfortable with him, and the best way to get to know your future mate was to talk. Well, that and amazing sex. He would have to work his way up to bedroom antics. Quain struck him as a rather twitchycat.
“You can choose not to answer if you want,” Quain offered with a shysmile.
“Thank you. I’ll keep that in mind. Ask away.” Awkwardness filled the elevator as Peter braced himself for a round of uncomfortable questions. Even before he became a mutant, he’d had privacy issues. He didn’t like anyone poking around into his private life. However, Quain was different. Quain was his private life. Secrets shouldn’t come between mates. With Quain’s seer abilities, he might not be able to share all his information with Peter, but big secrets, personal secrets, should be laid bare betweenthem.
“What is your family like?” Quainasked.
Peter gave a nervous laugh. “Sure, start with the hardquestions.”
“Sorry.” Quain patted his arm. “You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. I didn’t mean to bring up any badmemories.”
He stared into Quain’s remorseful eyes for a few minutes before letting his mate off the hook. “No, that’s all right. It was bound to come out eventually. I don’t know how much you know about the mutantinvasion.”
“Not much. I heard there was a psychotic scientist changing wolf shifters into some sort of creature. I never saw any of them, and no lynx were ever transformed that I know of. At least not in myfamily.”
Peter nodded. “As far as I know, they were mostly wolves and a fewdragons.”
“Dragons?” Quain shuddered as he considered the implication of dragon shifters turned intomutants.
“I don’t even know all the details—mostly rumors but from a believable source. Anyway, a mad scientist by the name of Lorus Korl decided to create a mutant army. It’s suspected he was doing it for the mad light-fae king, but I don’t know if that has ever been proven. Anyway, he injected a chemical mixture into wolf shifters, turning them into mutants. Their bones elongated, all of their senses became enhanced, and their bloodlust tripled that of a regular shifter. Lorus’s goal was to create a super soldier army to take out his enemies and decimate anyone who stood in hisway.”
Peter let the horror of the idea flash through his mind. “I was one of those he changed, except I kept most of my humanity, unlike most of my brethren. The serum brought out the worst in people. If you were a bloodthirsty savage creature as a wolf, it tripled as amutant.”
“Not that I have a problem hearing this, but what does that have to do with your family?” Quainasked.
“I was the only one to survive the transformation. It wiped out the rest of my pack. My father went mad from the change. He has always been a money hungry bastard, but when he was injected, something snapped and he turned feral. He ripped out my mother’s throat in a mad rage, then killed three scientists before they put him down like the rabid beast he had turned into.” Peter blinked back tears. The elevator doors opened, and he rushed out into the hall. Memories crashed through his head, horrible memories he had lived through from the safety of his cage. After his father’s attack, the scientists started giving wolves the serum while standing safe behind bars. The rest of the pack died trapped and angry. The image of his father howling with his mother’s blood smeared across his face had awakened Peter, shaking and sweating, more thanonce.
“I transformed into a mutant, trapped in a cell with the corpses of four of my packmembers.”
