Page 29 of Crave

I shook my head, happy it didn’t slosh my brains around again. “We failed each other. Be happy, Errol. When shit dies down, we’ll come and visit you. I promise.”

He shook his head. “Don’t worry about it, kid. I’ll be fine.”

Then he was gone, and I knew deep down I’d never see him again.

17

TANNER

As touching as it was, we had bigger problems at the moment. First, there was a wildfire raging toward us at an alarming rate. Second, there were two dead bodies that needed to be dealt with. Third, I’d broken the Dark River covenant, and worse, the vow I’d made under the purview of the Vampire Council. When I’d taken my post among the Manix, I’d promised I’d do everything in my power to ensure the health and wellness of the Manix community. I was pretty sure it didn’t include exsanguination or open-heart surgery with rather permanent results.

All of this would have to be dealt with while the majority of our party was naked, and I was doused in blood. Well, I could solve problem number two quickly and easily. Picking up Wilkie’s heart, as well as his hands—ignoring Susannah gagging a little—I stuffed it all back in his gaping chest cavity. Then I reached down and hefted the other huge Manix under the other arm. “Excuse me for a second. I’m just going to…”

“Clean up after your meal?” Susannah suggested.

“Take out the trash?” Murphy added, and I smiled. I liked this guy.

I cleared my throat. “Something like that.”

I raced off toward the fire. Soon enough, Mother Nature would take care of these wastes of oxygen. A niggling part of my humanity tried to raise its head at the fact I’d rather cavalierly taken two lives. After hearing what they’d done to the Omegas, and then seeing them almost kill a man I knew to be honorable, it had set off the predator inside me that I liked to pretend didn’t exist. But he did. Part of the man I’d been—the one who’d vowed to do no harm—had died the day a shark had taken a munch out of me. In his place was a predator with the morals of a human. It made for an awkward balancing act.

I was so close to the flames now that I could feel the shift in temperature. The heat was blowing toward me like a hairdryer, and I dumped the bodies onto the dry grass.

Two choices. I could dig a hole so deep that they wouldn’t be found, and just hope the fire destroyed any evidence. Or I could leave them to burn, and when someone eventually stumbled across them, they’d assume they’d accidentally been caught in the flames. Tough choice.

In the end, like an ostrich, I went with burying my problems in the sand. Grabbing a rock, I started digging a hole because I didn’t want to tear up my fingers on the rough earth. I dug for as long as I could before the fire felt too close. Six feet down I dug. I threw the bodies into the ditch and roughly covered it back over. Blood and dirt was now coating my body, and I hotfooted it back before I was either discovered or barbecued for my sins.

When I arrived back in the clearing everyone was now dressed. Fair enough; no one wanted their tackle hanging out during a wildfire. Wrong kind of sausage sizzle.

One of the Alphas—Merrick, I think—threw me some clothes. I knew the Manix had small stashes of clothes all over town for inconvenient shifting, but I didn’t think I’d ever need to make use of it. “We’re gonna have to burn yours.” With a shrug, I started to strip out of my duds. Everything was dirty and smelled like smoke, ash, and the blood of that filthy fucker.

As I threw the last of my clothes onto the ground, I looked up to see everyone staring at me. “What? I thought you shifters were good with public nudity?” I looked down, in case I missed something, like a knife in the kidney. “Is it the shark bite scar? She’s ugly, and she itches when it's humid, but no real damage that a little vamp turning couldn’t fix.” The large, jagged scar stood out prominently on my thigh.

Crickets. Well, not literally crickets, they were all fleeing for their tiny little hippy-hoppy lives too.Proverbialcrickets.

Finally, Susannah threw back her head and laughed. “They aren’t looking at your shark bite, Tanner. They’re looking a tad up and to the right. Put some clothes on so we can all get going.”

Oh.They were looking at my dick. I thought there was some kind of supernatural etiquette that said you didn’t look at a man’s junk while he was changing, but hey, if it made them look that awed, then I was here for it. I winked at Susannah, then pulled on the clothes they’d found for me.

Quinn looked between us. “What do we do now?”

Ah, the age-old question. What did you do after you’d just witnessed the murder of your abusive Pack Alpha during a catastrophic fire event?

“You guys should head to that town the Alpha General secured. Safe and out of the way of harm. I have to go and confess my sins to Convocation Member Baxter, and probably the Vampire Council and Titus. Then I’ll probably be punished for a bit, but it’ll be right. I should be back in a year or so, depending on the punishment.”

“What?” Quinn whispered.

Ah, fuck. Me and my big mouth.

Merrick frowned. “You were protecting the lives of two Omegas—that has to count for something.”

I shrugged. “You never know with the vampires. Some of them have been around so long that they’ve reduced everything to black and white. But Raine’s alright. I’m pretty sure she’ll forgive me.”

I think.But I didn’t want to freak these guys out any more.

Susannah folded her arms across her chest. “No.”

Now it was my turn to blink and gape. “Excuse me?”

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