Wolf's Hunger (Mafia Monsters #5) - Atlas Rose Page 0,8
only ones I could trust. They’d come for me. I inhaled as the words rose. They’d come for me, protected me…cared for me. Vitold lowered his hands to my hips and yanked me against him. “You’re safe now.” He slid his hands along my back. “You’re with us.”
I needed this…their warmth, their touch. I exhaled hard and slow, letting the tension shudder through my body and finally ease. Safe. I hadn’t felt safe in a very long time, certainly not this night.
“Come inside,” Phantom urged. “It’s warmer.”
Vitold’s hand slipped into mine and tugged me forward. He cut Arran a glare before following Phantom and Church. He was pissed off at Arran, making sure the Wolf fell behind us as we strode toward the hollow of a large cavern. I wanted to pull away from Vitold, wanted to glare back at him like he glared at Arran. It wasn’t his fault we’d gotten separated…it was mine.
“Home sweet home.” Phantom strode through the opening and moved deeper into the cave.
I inhaled the dank smell of cold earth and looked around. It was a house alright, sofas, a makeshift kitchen, even thick rugs on the compacted dirt floor. My gaze drifted to further inside the mountain, where I was guessing the bathroom and sleeping arrangements were. Very…outdoorsy.
“We need to figure out what the fuck happened.” Phantom paced back and forth. “That bastard was alive when we left him.”
Silence descended, smothering and heavy, like a weight over all of us.
The image of Murphy’s body filled my mind, blackened skin, singed hair, his stomach ripped open in a savage attack. He was alive when I last saw him, screaming and raging, desperate to hurt me, taunting me with images of my father and my uncle as he lay dying in some kind of warehouse. Images that’d exonerate my father and finally expose Ruth Costello for who she really was. Images I’d been hunting for years. It was the reason I’d joined the FBI, the reason I’d followed my father into a life of truth and justice. Now my only hope for that justice was gone…along with the Wolves’ nightclub in the middle of the city.
“I need a beer,” Arran muttered finally, and headed toward the kitchen. “Anyone else?”
“God, yes.” I swallowed a shudder. “Or something stronger, if you have it.”
“We own a damn bar,” Vitold snarled, turning to the shelves against the wall and yanking down a dust-coated bottle of Scotch. “We have a stockpile of ‘something stronger’.”
“What is this place, anyway?” I asked as I looked around.
“Safe house,” Vitold answered as he cracked the seal and opened the bottle.
“I got that much already.”
“No,” Phantom corrected. “That’s what we call it, Safe House. No one can get here but for two roads you saw coming in, and you know they’re not for the faint of heart. One track in, and another leading out. The open walls let the wind in and up this high, we can smell another Wolf coming for miles.” Phantom turned and pierced me with that formidable stare. “You’re safe here, Carina. We’ll make sure of it.”
I took the bottle from Vitold and raised it to my lips. Safe. Safe and far away from everything I knew, I swallowed, coughed, and choked, taking in gulps of air. Silver eyes shone in my mind as I swallowed. Safe…
“So, since we didn’t kill that piece of shit, then who the hell did?” Church strode toward me and reached out, grasping the bottle and taking a deep swallow.
“The other Wolf.” The words slipped free before I knew. “It has to be.”
Phantom jerked his gaze toward me. “What other Wolf?”
I tried to put myself back at that farmhouse, tried to remember the terror pumping in my veins and the agony roaring through my head. Sparks collided in my eyes. My breaths deepened and that hunger burned as the memory came flooding back. “There was a Wolf at the farmhouse when I ran. At first, I thought it was you…”
“Describe it,” Phantom ordered as he stepped closer.
Anger rippled off him in waves as he directed that focus to me. I fought the tremor in my voice and met his gaze. “Black, big, with yellow eyes that glinted silver. That’s all I remember.”
His lips curled, teeth bared. A spark of something terrifying glinted in his eyes.
I was reminded of how fragile my existence truly was.
“It’s him.” The Alpha ripped his gaze from mine and turned to Church. “It has to be.”