Page 61 of Brock’s Mate

Brock was just shaking his head. “That’s in there for good,” he muttered.

While they were getting dressed, Desi, still getting intermittent fits of the giggles, said to Brock, “I’d ask if that shit was because of something I said, but this obviously was not a spur-of-the-moment reaction to me being here.”

“Hell, no,” Brock said. “They’ve no doubt been planning it for weeks, hoping I’d bring someone home with me. I can’t imagine how thrilled they were when you showed up and kept all their hard work from going to waste.”

“What I want to know is, where the hell did they get musical condoms?”

“Brandon’s dad.” Brock rolled his eyes. “Xander has an online shop. Glitter novelties and sex toys. They’re always begging samples off him.”

Of course they were. “I’d like to see those samples,” she said. “Think they have any sexy butler costumes in there?”

Even though Brock made a show of muttering about Colt and Remy’s prank, he was glad they’d done it. It had helped Desi relax, and maybe even feel a little bit part of the crew.

And it made him feel better too, even though throwing Remy off the balcony had tweaked his ribs, and he had to take more painkillers.

After breakfast, things got a little more serious.

Brock went into the office with Brandon, Kitty, the twins, Damien and Jaeda—the people who did the most work with Brandon’s PI company.

They went through all the information he’d gathered on Jered and DiSantos. Remy immediately got online, looking for any references to—or rumors about—black wolves and sorcerers.

Since he was one of the best hackers in the business, he had access to all kinds of secret databases he wasn’t supposed to have access to. If this was a Council black op—or if it was a criminal organization that was on their radar—he’d find out.

Hopefully without jeopardizing Desi.

At least she was now in contact with her wolf, and it seemed—like last night during the battle—she could sometimes persuade the wolf not to take over her body if it was in their best interests. That was an excellent sign.

“I don’t like the fact that those wolves keep their clothes when they Change,” Brandon said after they’d put all the information together.

“I do,” Colt said. “Means we don’t have to look at their hairy dicks.”

Brandon ignored that. “It means magic—possibly dragon magic. Or altered DNA.”

“Maybe,” Brock said. “I wonder, though, if it’s the clothes and not the wolves. Because Desi doesn’t have that ability. Her wolf is normal, and her eyes don’t glow. If it were inherent to the wolves, it seems like they’d pass it on to whoever they Turned.”

“Maybe it’s done to them later,” Kitty said. “Especially if they’re originally natural shifters, not Turned ones. That could be one of the things they were trying to learn by taking mates. Whether it would transfer to someone they Turned.”

Brock thought about Desi being Turned into one of those hell wolves, and shivered. She hadn’t been included in this meeting. He didn’t like leaving her out, but he also didn’t like the idea of talking about her and speculating about what might be wrong with her, with her right there. So he’d asked Mari to show her around the house and the territory.

Now, though, there was something niggling at his mind. “They remind me of hellhounds,” he said suddenly. “You know, the ones that sorcerer Ragnor made—the guy who held Emon and Mayah captive all those years.”

Emon and Mayah Al-Maddeiri were dragons—brother and sister of Kira, Flynn’s mate, from the Bad Blood Crew. The Bad Bloods, along with the Silverlake pack and their other allies, had fought an army of hellhounds years ago, to help Flynn and Kira defeat Ragnor and set her siblings free.

Brandon said, “I’d forgotten about that. I was so little when it happened, though I’ve heard the story.”

Brock said, “I wasn’t there for that battle, but I was there when those fuckers from Gen-X broke into Emon’s castle a couple of years later to get Ragnor’s research. And to get Mayah.”

And him, though he didn’t say that part out loud.

“I thought Tristan and Mayah and the other dragons wiped out Gen-X,” Remy said. “When Colt and I were babies.”

“They did,” Brock said. “But that doesn’t mean that someone hasn’t started it up again. Or an organization like it. You know people can’t resist fucking with shifters and their abilities. There’s too much potential power to be gained.”

“Not to mention money,” Jaeda said.

“I’ll keep looking,” Remy said. “We can do it both ways—look for chatter on the web about the dark wolves, and from tracking Jered and DiSantos, their phones and vehicles. We’ll find something.”

Brock sure as hell hoped so.