Page 58 of Shifter's Homecoming

Troy flipped him off without looking at him.

When he turned back to his mate, she was leaning up against the couch arm, her head propped up against her hand, her eyes closed, the pen on the floor in front of her. She’d fallen asleep.

He moved quickly to her and picked her up in a newlywed’s carry, holding her close to his chest, planning to take her upstairs, thinking her bed had to be up there.

Once he had her in his arms, she snuggled into him.

“I’ve been waiting for you,” she whispered in her sleep.

Trent’s heart stuttered in his chest.Now,he was home.

40 - Heading Out

Grey Deatherage rolled over on the floor in the empty house he’d been holed up in for five days, ever since his fantastic failure out at the bluff. He’d thought they had Troy Burbank, but then the forest had hidden him in some sort of a fucked up tree cage, and it had all gone downhill from there.

He’d cut out shortly after, leaving the rest of them on their own. Thefoxenwere marked by the demon and could go in and out of the Pravus at will. He couldn’t, and he didn’t feel like letting the KSRT get their hands on him.

Grey lay on his back and stared at the ceiling, his thoughts slippery and hard to hold on to. He touched his own unmarked chest, thinking that must have been why he hadn’t been marked. Khain didn’t want him going in and out of the Pravus. Khain didn’t trust him. Khain would never fully trust him, no matter how many evil things he did to protect the demon. He was a wolf, after all.

Grey had run and he had found the perfect hiding spot, and now he was just waiting for the demon to come and get him. He grabbed his only food, a can of Cheez Whiz, and squirted some in his mouth, then he pitched it across the room.

He was in the basement of the house that Ella Carmi, the first One True Mate found, had lived in. It had been empty since she’d gone to live with the wolves. No one would ever think to look for him there, and he had access to the tunnels. His notes were gone though, the ones he’d left there years ago, back before he figured out that the angel had started his impregnation mission right in Grey’s old stomping grounds, visiting a female that Grey went way back with. That still fucked with Grey’s head. He would never understand why the angel did that. Hell, Ella might be his very own granddaughter. Which meant… which meant what? Grey honestly hoped he was dead before he ever had a chance to find out if it meant anything at all. He didn’t know what waited for him after death, but whatever it was, he was ready. He was beyond and past ready to just be…done.

Grey crawled over to the Cheez Whiz and squirted some out. He used it to paint on one concrete wall.The demon or the angel,he wrote in cheezy letters, still not entirely sure which one he had picked. He’d killed the angel with the pendant, but the angel had wanted him to do it. The demon had also wanted him to. Who had he done it for?

He smeared his hand through the letters, nausea bubbling up from inside him. He’d had many days to think in this basement, many days to examine his many fuck ups over his life. He’d tried to contact Rhen and could not, but he did not know if that was because she wasn’t speaking to him, or because of his own mental issues, or because he’d been held in the Pravus, or what.

The demon or the angel. The demon or the angel.

The demon. He had chosen the demon, and his future was forfeit. He knew that. The only thing that was messing him up was the angel’s insistence that he could still choose differently. He couldn’t. He’d done too many awful things in his life—

A fiery, flat, andevilsmell filled the room, cutting off his thoughts. This was it. The demon was coming to kill him for his fuck ups. He was ready—

“Found ya, pig,” Rex said, as he popped into the room.

Soren followed like a surly teenager, popping in within his own flat smell of evil fire, then going to stand in the corner.

Grey groaned. “What do you want?

“Big boss says I get to kill you,” Rex said, his face a grim mask.

“Finally,” Grey said, laying back on the floor and waiting for it.

Rex laughed but there was no humor in it. “Nah, you gotta make up for fucking up so bad, and then I get to kill you. Plus boss wants his pendant.”

“What pendant?”

“The one you killed the angel with.”

Grey was confused. He thought hard, trying to remember what had happened to the pendant. He’d been in the angel’s cell. The angel had been light, only light, and the angel had been encouraging him, saying something about every day being a new day… and then… and then…

Grey got up and paced a little bit, trying to get his tortured mind to work, just for a little bit. He raised his hand and mimed the slashing, trying to remember what exactly had happened at that very last moment, thinking maybe the pendant had just exploded, or imploded—

A blinding flash filled the room and in his hand, he felt the hard metal of the pendant.

And then it was gone.

“Holy shit,” he said shakily, looking at the other two. Soren blinked back at him like an owl, while Rex curled his lip and gave him a shitty look.

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