“Jesus, Paladin!” said Clementine.
I pushed Noah toward the stairs. There, waiting, on the steps, were several of the wolves who lived in this compound.
“Might want to reconsider your loyalties is all I’m saying,” I said to them.
“Is it wise to taunt them like that?” said Red in a low voice. “After all, if they stop obeying me, then I don’t think Noah’s of much use to you.”
Well, I mean, he wasn’t wrong. Red wasn’t dumb. I pushed Noah to the steps.
Noah struggled again, but then he started to go down the stairs with me holding him. Clementine was right behind me.
I spoke to one of the wolves conversationally. “You know how many wolves I killed before, with just me and two other guys, right? You’ve heard the stories?”
The guy’s face went white.
I smiled. We continued down the steps. I took Noah along. “So, anyway, it’s not just me and my pack. I have Liam and all his guns, and all the men whose mates you raped, and they are not pleased.”
Two of the other guys flinched.
“So,” I continued, as we got to the bottom of the steps, “might want to think about whether this is worth it or not. I swear to you, though, you surrender, you come over to my side, it’s a one-time offer, but I’ll keep them off you. You don’t show up by nightfall tonight, I’m going to let those women’s mates eat your faces off.”
It was dead silent.
I pushed the front door open. I could feel Noah’s pulse jumping in his neck. He was terrified.
“Is it true?” called one of the men. “Did you really figure out how to shift when there’s no full moon?”
I gave them all a wide grin. “What do you think?”
They shrank, all at once, together.
I pulled Noah through the door.
“Let Noah go!” called Red from inside.
“Clementine, shut the door,” I said to her.
She hesitated, and then she did it.
I was really planning on letting Noah go, at that point, I was.
Except, well, there were a bunch of men out front who all looked at us, and some of them had guns. So, I had to pull Noah in close and yell out that Red would not like it if this one was hurt.
And then Red burst through the door and started screaming that we’d had a deal, and I was a liar, and I had to double down.
“Keep it up if you would like to watch me snap Noah’s fucking neck right in front of you, Red,” I shouted.
Red went stiff and still, clenching his hands into fists. “Please,” he said again. He looked like he might start crying, which sort of freaked me out.
“Give us a fucking car,” I said. “And I’ll let him out whenwe’re clear.”
“You’re a fucking liar,” he said to me.
“And you are in no place to do anything but to give me what I want,” I said, digging my fingers into Noah’s neck.
Noah did start crying. “Don’t kill me,” he breathed. “Shit, come on, there has to be something you want from me—”
“Paladin.” Clementine was against me, pressed into my back. “Paladin, you can’t do this.”