*This is an update to the previous chapter 5, though the only change is toward the end*
"You're bringing a kid and a corpse." I sat at the kitchen table with Adam and Samuel, who had come over for dinner and to discuss our latest situation.
Warren chuckled. "I know I'm early, but I wanted to get you something special for your birthday."
"Gee, thanks. Which kid is it?"
"The one who saved Braydon. Michael, right? He's injured, broken ankle if I'm any judge."
"We have Sam here. He can look at it."
Muffled voices carried through the phone. Ben started cursing a blue streak, and someone was arguing with him.
"What the heck is going on?" Adam asked, though he looked more amused than worried.
Warren grunted. "Tell you when we get there. See you in a few." The call clicked off.
Samuel took a sip from his tea, grinning. "Never a dull moment around here. Starting to wish I'd stayed in Africa." He and Ariana had gotten back from their three month honeymoon about a week earlier. While Ariana was getting better at dealing with werewolves, she hadn't been up for dinner at a pack alpha's house.
Adam leaned back in his chair, and contemplated the ceiling.
I tapped my phone against the surface of the table, thinking back to the day at the river. "How do we play this? How do we handle this kid?"
"My instincts were telling me the same as yours; this was a kid trying to do a good thing. We'll approach him that way, until he gives us a reason not to." He made a face. "Sounds like he was giving Warren and Ben some trouble."
"We're very in the dark." Sam frowned. "We don't even know what this kid can do. Other than hold his breath for a long time, and put some sort of freeze spell on a crowd of people?"
"Doing that took a lot out of his friend." Adam shrugged. "Let's make sure we stay alert."
Gravel crunched, and the familiar purr of Warren's Toyota crawled up the driveway. Adam led the way out of the kitchen, and we reached the living room in time to see the door open. Warren stood aside to let Ben through. He carried Michael in a cradle hold, which the young man looked none too pleased about.
Ben glanced between Adam and me. "Where to?"
"Rec room." Adam went ahead, descending the basement steps in front of Ben. I followed, with Warren behind me and Sam bringing up the rear.
Ben deposited Michael in one of the armchairs, propping his foot on an ottoman. Michael sat rigid, smelling of fear and pain. He stiffened when Adam sat down on another ottoman a few feet away. And tried to meet Adam's eyes.
It's hard to meet a dominant werewolf's eyes, especially an alpha. After less than a second, Michael shifted his gaze away, covering the submission by scanning the rec-room. His gaze fell on Ben. "Any chance I can get my phone back."
Ben snorted. He took a phone from his pocket and held it out to Adam. "Caught him trying to send a text. A lot of names in his contact list."
Adam took the phone, glancing at the screen. "Your name's Michael, right?" At the careful nod, he went on. "Samuel is a doctor. You want him to take a look at your ankle?"
Michael's wary gaze flicked to Samuel, then he gave a small nod.
Sam knelt beside the ottoman, setting the first aid kit on the floor. He pulled off Michael's shoe, revealing an ankle swollen to the size of a tennis ball. The kid flinched, but otherwise didn't move, watching Sam like a deer watching an approaching predator. Sam probed the swelling and muttered a few choice phrases. "How did it break?"
Before Michael could answer, Warren spoke up. "That thing we were fighting grabbed him and threw him against a brick wall." A flash of respect brightened Warren's eyes. "That was after he tried to lure it away from us."
Sam turned to Michael. "The bones are probably shattered, which means there's not much I can do. An x-ray would tell me more, but my guess is you'll need surgery."
The color had drained from Michael's face with every word, and he shook his head violently. "No hospital."
"Then I'll do what I can." Sam proceeded to pull out an ice pack, the squeeze-to-activate kind, and laid it over the ankle. "I can get you something for the pain."
Michael dropped his head back on the chair, closing his eyes. "Won't help much."
Adam looked at me, and a world of meaning passed between us, through his eyes, and our mate bond. It didn't look like we were done taking in strays. But this kid wasn't a stray, not really. I shifted my gaze to the phone in Adam's hand, and raised my eyebrows.
Adam nodded and turned back to Michael. "Whatever you are, I assume your family and friends know. Or they're like you."
Throat tightening, Michael raised his head. "It's just me," he lied.
Adam almost smiled, possibly thinking the same as me; we had a fondness for bad liars. "Don't lie to werewolves, son."
Michael cursed fluidly, though I wasn't sure if it was getting caught in a lie or from Sam adjusting the ice pack.
I walked closer to stand behind Adam and get a look at the phone. He held it up for me to read the interrupted text message.
Found Skin. Pack up and
I raised my eyebrows. "Pack up and … run, I'm guessing. Is it us you're afraid of, or that thing you were fighting?"
Michael gave me a mulish look. A small tremor ran through his jaw.
I slid past Adam to crouch in front of the armchair. "You tried to lead that thing away from Warren and Ben ...you wanted to protect them. You saved a kid from drowning. I think we're on the same side. As long as you and your family don't intend to harm us or our people, we have no intention of harming any of you. I think we can help each other."
He wasn't looking at me, and I couldn't tell if anything I said got through to him. I gave Adam a helpless look, but he only shrugged. Something about this kid was hitting the same triggers Aiden had. Scared but not helpless. But I had a strong feeling Michael was trying to protect his family more than anything else.
Best to be direct. "You want to protect your family. We want to protect everyone in the Tri-cities. I don't see those goals as being mutually exclusive, especially since it sounds like your family is in the Tri-cities. Right?"
A muscle twitched in his cheek.
"You're afraid we'll hurt your family only because of what you are?"
Another nerve.
I smiled. "I'll forgive you for making the wrong assumption about us. That could not be further from the truth."
He turned to look at me, and something flashed in his eyes. "You sure about that?"
Adam tensed beside me, but my smile widened. "I've fought vampires, a giant river monster and the physical embodiment of a volcano, among other things. You have to do more than that to scare me."
Some of the heat drained out of him, making him seem somehow smaller. His face was white from pain, the veins in stark contrast to his skin. But he still shook his head. "I'm not giving them to you."
"Speaking of fighting monsters," Adam said. "I think we also have a shared goal of stopping whatever that thing was Warren and Ben killed. Can you give us some insight into that?"
"They're called Skins. They're … there could be a half dozen of them left. Last time they found us, we tried to kill them, but …" He looked at Ben. "It takes a lot of strength to hit that trigger." He was quiet for a moment, clearly thinking. He shifted his leg and hissed. "I can't do much to help you like this." Emotions warred across his face and he took a deep breath. "One of my friends can heal me. I can call him and tell him to come here."
Adam still held the phone, and he gave Michael a stern look. "Make sure he understands that neither of you is leaving until we have answers."
After a second's thought, Michael sighed and nodded. Emotions warred across his face, but mostly he just looked exhausted. He took the phone and hit one of the numbers.
Someone answered before the first ring ended. "Michael, where …?"
"Max shut up." What followed was a stream of words in a guttural language, spoken with a tinge of desperation. Then Michael pulled the phone away from his ear. A single pulse of light shone from his hand, along with the hot smell of ozone. Something cracked, and as the light faded the remains of the phone crumbled to the floor. "My family stays out of this," he whispered.
