Broods Of Fenrir - By Coral Moore Page 0,76

dress shirt.

His eyes were sharp as they focused on Brand. “Are you the big, bad wolf-in-charge, then?”

“You might say that.” Brand pulled another chair in front of Rivera and sat down.

Rivera drew a labored breath. Apparently, they"d been at work on his chest as well. “You can have them beat me up all you want. I"m not saying anything.”

“What makes you believe I have any interest in what you have to say?” Brand fixed him with a searing glare. “You took one of ours and flayed him alive. I"m inclined to let them do the same to you.” He made a vague gesture encompassing the others in the room.

Fear tumbled out of Rivera in waves, but to his credit, he kept it from showing on his face. His eyes darted to 209

something across the room. “I would do it again.” Erik launched himself at Rivera, unable to hold his temper in check any longer.

Brand intercepted Erik before he got in range to tear the man apart with his hands. “Easy. We aren"t done here, yet.” Erik struggled in his grip and snapped his teeth, but eventually backed off. He settled for stalking back and forth across the room and glaring at Rivera with every third or fourth stride.

Anger rolled in Brand"s chest and he took several seconds to calm himself. He wanted nothing more than to help Erik rip the man open. The image of Lucas, tied up and helpless as they experimented on him, was difficult to push away. He sat across from Rivera once he"d calmed. “We"ve never done anything to you. Why would you attack us?” Rivera met his eyes with a strength Brand admired, considering the situation. “I did not attack you, or your…

people, with malicious intent.”

Erik started for Rivera again, but Brand stopped him with a raised hand. The man honestly believed what he said, and Brand needed to know why before he could let them kill him. “Explain yourself.”

Face clouded in thought, Rivera hesitated for several seconds before he inclined his head toward a table near the window.

Brand rose and crossed the room. A dozen pictures covered the table, and the subject of every one of them was the same young boy at different ages. Brand picked up the photo nearest him. The boy had a playful grin and his father"s earnest face. Rivera spoke from behind him. “Albert was ten when he was diagnosed with leukemia. A few months ago, the doctors told me to take him home and make him comfortable.” His voice halted abruptly. The anguish twisted Brand"s stomach as Rivera relived the horror of those memories.

Rivera struggled to regain his composure. “I needed to 210

find a way to help him. One of my labs noticed something strange in a sample of blood that had been mislabeled. The researcher thought what he found there could eventually be used to treat some cancers, but he needed more to work with.

We tracked down the source of the sample and tried to buy the lab.” He turned to look at Erik. “He wouldn"t sell. That intrigued me and made me angry. I hired someone to steal the lab"s files. I think you can figure out what happened from there.”

Brand put down the photo and walked back to Rivera.

“Did it work?”

His eyes glassy, Rivera stared up at him with an expression of confusion. “What?”

“Did you figure out a way to save your son?” Tears ran down Rivera"s face as he shook his head. “He died a week ago.”

Rivera"s sorrow wrenched Brand"s heart. The pain tore at him like a dull knife sawing at his chest. He staggered, and only Erik moving fast to catch him stopped him from hitting the ground.

Erik helped him into the chair and rounded on Rivera.

“Do you think hardship excuses what you did? Lucas was like a son to me.” His pain was every bit as vivid as Rivera"s. Brand had difficulty thinking with so much agony around him.

Rivera lifted his head, his gaunt face fixed in a stricken expression. “It never occurred to me that you would feel the same way about each other that we do.” Erik growled. A hungry beast lurked behind his swiftly lightening eyes. “Yes, we"re no better than animals. Primitive.

Barbaric.” His anger was a caustic, dangerous weapon.

The other males grew more restless with each passing second. Brand recognized the situation was spiraling out of control. Any moment, the tightly held temper of any one of them might snap.

Dagny knelt next to Brand and took hold