Page 31 of Lone Wolf
I nodded, seeing now where Oscar had been coming from. “So, what do you want to do right now? To survive.”
Damian shook his head. “There isn’t anything. I’ve made myself untrustworthy—they’re not going to let me live. It’s almost a relief, in a way.” He raised his eyes to mine, the alpha shining in them. Damn him, trying to fix this, even as he was watching his own death bearing down on him. “I’m trying to make arrangements—there’s a bank account with some human money in it that I want them to give to you, for the pup. And I’m trying to make them promise to pay out a death benefit to you. It would have been easier if we’d been mated, but you can’t mate a dead wolf.” The grin he gave me was a valiant attempt, but the power leaking off him was sickly with anger and despair.
And that made my decision, perhaps not easier, but not as hard as I’d been expecting.
Well, that, and the omega bond, telling me to comfort the sire of my pup.
I got out of the stupid chair and limped my way around the table to lean against it at his side. “I think pups generally do better with both parents in their lives.” I smoothed out the hair at his temple, careful around the now clotted cut that would probably leave him with a scar and a streak of white in his hair once it had healed. The pup woke up right about then and I reached for Damian's hand. "Here. He or she is saying hi."
I had to pull a bit right at the beginning, almost force him to put his hand on me—his reluctance was obvious. I didn't think it was not wanting the pup—since he'd walked in, if he hadn't been staring at me, he was sneaking peeks at my belly.
I thought, maybe, it was not wanting to feel. Or to want things. But if I let him get away with that, I might as well sign his death sentence myself. "Feelthat." I pressed his palm to the place I was getting kicked the most and waited.
The room was dead quiet, not even the sound of his breath, and then he gave a little gasp as our son or daughter thumped him, good and hard.Yeah, I'm annoyed with him too. Don't think I'm going to let you get away with this kind of behavior for the rest of your life, though.
A few more kicks and stretches later, and I reached out to tip Damian’s face up to mine and made him meet my eyes. “I can’t give you Montana Border, but what about Nevada Ashes? Could you lower yourself to becoming one of the whoremongers?”
For the first time, I saw hope in his eyes and caught a glimpse of the man I’d met when he’d still been David to me. Then it died, and he shook his head. “I can’t. The pension stops if I quit."
Damn all alphas and their overdeveloped morals. And damn Oscar for knowing what Damian would say. "Fine." I pushed myself away from the table and limped my sore back over to the door.
"Where are you going?" he demanded, and I heard his chair scrape over the floor behind me.
"Relax, I'm going to go talk to your boss."
"Lysoon," he said in the tone of a man who knew he was screwed.
Yeah, well, you don't mess with Nevada Ashes.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Ifound Oscar and his cronies down the hall, lounging around the main office area of the gatehouse. One of the guard stood up and put his hand on his gun, so I made sure to waddle a little. Just to make the point of how big an ass he was being.
Oscar waved him down. "I would have thought you'd be a lot longer," he told me as he looked me up and down. "Maybe I should have taken advantage of that booking."
"You couldn't handle me," I said briefly and took an empty chair so I could sit. "I haven't been to bed yet, I worked all day yesterday, I'm tired and this pup has discovered the joys of dancing on my bladder. Let's quit the games."
He nodded and, I thought, seemed secretly amused by the horrified expressions on the humans surrounding us.
I still didn't like him. He scared me, though it was something I barely admitted to myself. "So, how do we do this?" I rubbed my belly where the ligaments were stretching and wondered if I was going to regret this.
"You're agreeing?"
My eyes strayed to the humans scattered about the room. His gaze followed mine and he got abruptly to his feet. “Let’s go talk outside.”
I nodded and stood up again. He started to lead me to the door to the outside of the enclave and I froze.
“What?” he asked. “You want to go hang out in the crowd over there?”
I held up my wrist with the blue bracelet once more hanging around it. “I’ll set off every alarm in the place.”
He snapped his fingers and one of the gate guards came over and did something to the bracelet with something that looked like a large calculator. “He’s good,” the human said and went back to his desk.
Oscar jerked his head at one of the men in the room. “Make sure he gets some medical attention.” Without waiting to see if his order would be obeyed, he opened the door. “After you.”
I ignored the false courtesy and stepped outside the door. It wasn’t the first time I’d ever been outside the enclave but for some reason, I felt like I could just run and keep running and they’d never find me. The temptation was almost irresistible, but I knew better and followed Oscar to the left, to a line of cars parked nose-out at the end of the building.
He sat on the end of one, butt on the hood, heels planted in the cracked soil, and patted the hood beside him. “Take a load off,” he told me, as if we were old friends.
