Chapter 2
Alyssa barely caught herself before tumbling onto her ass. Which meant she had no time at all to catch the door before it closed with a resoundingthud.
“Oh no, no, no! You did not just slam a door in my face!” Except, obviously, he had. But no way in hell had she driven all this way just to end with a shut door. She shoved forward and twisted the knob. To her shock, the thing swung open. How the hell had he forgotten to lock it? Didn’t matter. He was standing in the center of the living room staring at a pile of mail that looked like Mount Everest. “Look, Vic is a dick, no question, but he wasn’t lying about this,” she said as she waved her phone in the air.
Simon wasn’t looking. In truth, he just stood there, all bare-assed and frozen. Was that stillness a military thing? Or an animal thing? Didn’t matter. She walked around him and got straight in his face.
“Vic is dying. Don’t you guys swear to defend each other until death or something? He’s your friend and he needs you.”
His gaze focused on her. His green eyes shifted then narrowed, and the build in intensity felt like it took eons while her breath caught and held. How could eyes be scary? Like they were picking apart her face piece by piece and memorizing every detail.
“You swore an oath,” she tried, her voice weaker than she wanted.
“That’s only in the movies.” His voice was thick and growly. No other word for it. Like a bear with a sore paw.
“You came to our house.”
“Don’t care. Shifting is not like that.”
“You so sure about that?” she challenged. Then she thumbed on her phone and pulled up a news video. Something about a strange illness killing people all over Detroit. And that some died grossly disfigured. There was only one picture and it was grainy, but it clearly showed a man with a dog face except for human ears.
“Bullshit,” he repeated.
“You keep saying that, but the news doesn’t lie.”
He arched a look at her, and she felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment. Accusations of fake news were everywhere, but this wasn’t fake. She’d seen it herself. She’d seen what her brother had become.
“I’m not lying,” she stressed. “It really happened, and Vic says you understand it.”
“Vic is wrong.” He turned away and stomped to the kitchen where he stopped in the middle and frowned. A moment later he went to the refrigerator and opened it. She trailed after him, watching while she scrambled for some argument that would persuade him. And all the while, he just stared into his empty refrigerator. There was nothing inside. Not even beer or stale bread, which were the only things her brother ever bought.
Meanwhile, his naked body was illuminated by the refrigerator light to the point that she could see every cut line of his body, every ropy muscle, every bony ridge, and an abundance of hair that ought to have repulsed her, but honestly, she thought was sexy as hell. She’d never gone for the hairless guys, and God, he was a ruggedly cut he-man if ever there was one.
And damn her libido for noticing something like that when her brother’s life was at stake. And double damn him for looking better than he did in her fantasies. The ones that had started nearly two years ago when she’d watched him play basketball shirtless with her brother.
“Just come see him,” she said, hating the pleading note in her voice. “You promised to do me a favor. This is it. Just come with me. See for yourself.”
“A contract made under duress is not valid.” His voice was flat and he still hadn’t moved.
“Food is not going to magically appear in there. So turn your hairy ass around and look at me!”
He straightened, his expression clearly startled. Then he did indeed turn around. Sadly, full frontal was no less enticing than his chiseled, not-really-hairy ass. Especially since the man was hung very nicely.
“You are upset,” he said.
Well, duh.
“You believe Vic’s lie.” He gave her a pitying look. “He’s tricked you many times before.”
Yes, her brother could be a first-class dick, and he loved nothing else than to get her all riled up just so he could laugh his ass off at her. But this wasn’t one of those times. “It’s real,” she repeated. “He’s scared shitless and he sent me to find you.”
He lifted his hands, palm outward. “I can’t help him.”
He had a point, especially since looking as he did now—naked and stained with his own blood—it didn’t look like he could help himself, much less her brother.
“Vic said you would understand this.”
“I don’t understand how to turn on the plumbing right now.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “I have been too long in the wild.” He dropped his hand and his gaze focused past her to stare out the back window.
