Page 32 of Nightshade

I held up a hand for quiet and leaned forward, holding Viktor’s eye steadily even while my stomach rolled.

This was a man who not only wanted me dead, but could manage the feat. I’d known plenty of killers in my life, and Viktor was undoubtedly one of them.

“Why?” I asked.

His eyes narrowed further. A muscle in his jaw flexed.

He hated me, and I was certain I’d never met him. This was something beyond fear of me as an individual threat.

This was⁠—

He knew vampires, and the sort to justify all his seething rage. I didn’t doubt it, I’d known some of the same, but I didn’t understand how he was so certain when the rest of his family was open. How did he alone know enough about us to feel so strongly?

“Why do you want me dead?” I pressed when he didn’t respond.

Whatever it was, he wouldn’t say it. Instead, he turned his hot glare on his brother.

“You’ve smelled off for days,” he accused. “This leech fed on you.”

Behind me, I heard Leo suck in a soft breath. “I offered.”

“Durak,” Viktor spat, baring his teeth at his brother.

I tensed, the shape of the Russian word in his mouth making my hair stand on end.

Glancing up at Leo, I couldn’t see much but the paleness at his jawline from clenching his teeth so hard. I felt his fingers tighten on the back of my chair.

He replied in Russian, and while I’d picked up some words and phrases in my time with Ivan, he spoke fast and low, and I couldn’t make sense of what he said.

Aleks heaved a loud sigh that interrupted the twins. “You’re wrong about one thing, Viktor. Leo didn’t bring Altair here—I did.”

“Then you’re just as much of an idiot as he is.”

I’d always gotten the sense that within a werewolf pack, the alpha’s word was absolute, but even when Aleks rolled his shoulders back, Viktor didn’t back down.

Of course, neither one of them rose to attack the other, either.

Aleks said, as measured and calm as he seemed able, “Leo left him in the woods. The witches came looking for him. You’d have me leave him out there so we can have more incursions into our territory?”

Viktor’s hand hit the table hard enough that I jumped in my seat, and Leo squeezed my shoulder. “I’d have you put down a threat to the pack when one pops up.”

“I will,” Aleks said, “when it’s necessary. Altair . . . ” Aleks’s eyes slipped toward Leo, like he wasn’t totally sure the next thing he was about to say was entirely true. His frown deepened, but he didn’t waver on his stance. Not yet. “Altair hasn’t hurt anyone.”

“He ate my brother,” Viktor bellowed.

I flinched back. That was . . . not entirely untrue.

A flash of hurt crossed Aleks’s features. “Our brother,” he corrected in a quiet voice.

Katya huffed, tossing her golden hair back behind her shoulder. “Enough, Vitya. Altair is a guest in my home, and as long as he doesn’t hurt anyone, he’s a welcome one. I won’t have you disrespecting him under my roof.”

Viktor snarled, rising from the table. “None of you have any idea what you’re dealing with.” He marched toward the door just as it opened, and demanded the man coming in talk sense into his mate.

The newcomer himself was of medium height, and he stood like someone who—well, like someone who stood a lot, used to balancing his weight on one foot or the other. His jeans were well worn, and his dark hair was combed back from his face. The belt he wore had pouches for who knew what.

He visibly flinched when Viktor slammed the door behind him. Beyond the door, I could hear Viktor stalking heavily, back and forth on the long porch.

Even furious, he wouldn’t go far. He wouldn’t leave his loved ones behind when I was there. He wouldn’t go so far that he couldn’t hear them scream, like I might try and take down nearly half a dozen werewolves all on my own.