He could not be like this souped-up image on the shirt. And yet as he looked at the werewolf in the mirror, he wondered how it would feel to be one of these people. Maybe he’d actually fit inside these sweats instead of tying the waist knot super tight like a kid wearing his daddy’s pants. Or maybe his big brother’s pants. His older brother, Bruce, would probably brag that the sweats were tight on him. Asshole.
Sibling rivalry was a familiar anger, and Josh hung on to that. He aimed his emotions at the imagined picture of his brother preening about in all his muscled firefighter glory. What an ass! He’d definitely fit in these sweats, which made Josh yank them off and throw them back into the dresser. He’d wear his jeans from last night. The pair that had been at his knees while Nero had jerked him off.
He stilled in the act of zipping up his fly while more emotions buffeted him. The image of Bruce wasn’t enough to hold his attention. Instead, his mind was caught by memories of Nero wrapping his big arms around Josh. He had thick, strong thighs that had cradled Josh’s hips. And his hand had felt like heaven as it pumped his dick.
Josh started to sweat. He needed to burn off these thoughts with a video game or internet research. Hell, even the news would work. He needed his phone. Which meant he needed to get back to the cage room. His stuff was there. And he needed to find out how Stratos and the other wolves were doing.
Other werewolves.
He felt guilty for crashing last night and not going to find them, but Nero had made it clear that he wasn’t allowed back downstairs yet. The last thing the other werewolves needed—according to Nero—was Josh hanging around confusing the issue.
So, wearing his regular jeans and the Wulf, Inc. tee, he tried his bedroom door and was reassured to find it unlocked. A quick walk down the hall brought him back to the game room and then into the kitchen, where a wiry brown-haired guy was dropping cheese onto an omelet while humming random musical theme songs. This was the guy who’d been singing off-key “Mamma Mia,” and he looked up with a broad grin.
“Good morning!” he cried. Lord, even his voice belonged on a Disney soundtrack. It was happy, excited, and really ought to be making animated squirrels chirp along with him. “I’m making omelets. You want one?”
“Sure,” he answered without thought. He never turned down food someone else cooked for him. But as he spoke, he wondered how his stomach was faring. There was no queasiness right now, but the idea of eating something heavy made his belly clench. “Um, better make that just scrambled eggs. Nothing fancy. I’ll be back in a second.” He saw the door to downstairs and headed for it.
“Sure thing. I’m Laddin Holt, by the way. That’s short for Aladdin ‘cause Mama said I was magical. Who knew she’d be right? And the door’s locked. I already checked.”
Laddin was right. Josh couldn’t budge it. And the palm reader flashed red when he flattened his hand on it.
“You one of the regular wolves or a new guy?” Laddin asked. “I’m new,” he continued without pause. “My trainer says there are five of us, but she still wants more recruits.”
Josh turned away from the locked door and focused on Laddin. Information was key in every situation, and right here was some new info. Giving up on the door, he went deeper into the kitchen. “New one—”
“Wait. Let me try to remember,” Laddin said, his face scrunching up. He also held up his hand to stop Josh from talking, and right there was yet another thing to focus on.
Laddin’s hand was deformed. His thumb, forefinger, and a crooked pinkie looked mostly normal, but the middle two fingers were infant sized. But it didn’t prevent Laddin from using the hand. He managed the omelet and pan without any problem, not to mention all the normal cooking utensils as he started thinking out loud.
“I was still half out of it, but I remember a lot of roaring and barking. There was a fight between a naked guy and a big guy. Gel guy had a… a stick?”
“Naked guy was me. Big guy was Nero. Gel guy had a cattle prod.” Josh kept his voice neutral, but his side twitched in memory. The pain had burned through him like ants eating through his insides. His muscles had clenched, his body had jerked, and yet the fury of his attack hadn’t lessened. If anything, the pain had tripled his anger.
And he’d attacked like an animal. Like a….
Werewolf.
Josh’s side knotted up as he flinched away from the word. It was too alien for him to accept as being attached to him. His words wereboy,chemist,nerd,puny,gay. Alsofriend,man,son, andbrother. But notanimal. And certainly notwerewolf. And yet the word wouldn’t go away.
Laddin did an exaggerated shudder. “I got an up-close-and-personal look at the weird guy’s stomach.” He blew out a breath. “Creepy.”
Josh nodded as he forced himself to focus on Laddin. “Last I saw, you were being sedated. Which… um….”
“Cage was I in?” Laddin supplied. “Second from the last.”
Was his transformation due to a Romani curse? Josh couldn’t remember. There had been so much to absorb yesterday.
“Yeah,” Laddin continued as he poured his omelet onto a plate before breaking a couple more eggs into a bowl and scrambling them with a fork. “I have no idea how long I snoozed. Next thing I know, a woman is calling me by name and telling me to get up and get dressed. We had things to do.” He grinned as he looked up. “She sounded like my grandma. So I got up and got dressed as a man. It took me a moment to even realize I’d crawled out of a cage as a wolf. Weird, huh?”
“Definitely,” Josh said, though he’d experienced something similar. He didn’t even remember shifting, but he sure as hell remembered wanting to beat the shit out of Nero. And there was the anger again. The confusion and the betrayal, rising like acid in his throat. He pushed it down once more. He needed to focus, not emote. Fortunately, Laddin was a chatterbox.
“Captain M says it’s different with every person, but there’s always a trigger. She’s the head honcho around here and the one assigned to me. She’s in her office, over that way.” He gestured down the hallway opposite from the bedroom wing. “Anyway, she just had to sound like my grandmother, and I obeyed.”
“Yeah,” Josh murmured. “Nero sounded like my father, and I wanted to humiliate him. I went human so I could correct his pronunciation.” And beat the shit out of him.
He remembered the hatred burning like hot lava that he couldn’t escape and couldn’t control. He’d been all animal, teeth and claws. He’d needed to taste blood and feel entrails in his claws. Nothing like father issues to bring on the heat.
Laddin shot him a sympathetic look. “One ofthosedads, huh? That sucks. My mama ditched my asshole father when I was too little to remember. I used to want a dad, you know? But then I saw how many dirtbags are out there, and I thought, just having her and Grandmama wasn’t so bad. We got along fine.” He grinned. “And I can’t wait to tell them that I’m not dead!”
