Page 93 of Not All Himbos Wear Capes
Wolfgang shrugged again, although his nonchalance seemed forced. “I saw a long-game opportunity, but only if I played it right. That your powers only came out when threatened caused me to suspect your abilities weren’t exactly the same as mine—but even deadlier. It was only a matter of time before mother or father got around to killing you, so I bet on you being able to defeat them when that happened.” His expression turned hard. “No one gets away with threatening my family.”
Says the villain who just killed his father.
I shifted closer to myinventus,drawing Wolfgang’s attention back to me. “So you've been planning your parents’ deaths since you were a kid?”
His amber gaze snapped to mine, unnervingly similar to Xander’s. “When Apocalypto Man and Glacial Girl brought me to the USN for the original hearing on supes registering their offspring, it wasn’t because they wanted to cooperate. I was paraded through that building as a warning—to show the world what they had at their disposal if need be. I’ve only ever been treated as a weapon. What our parents didn’t know was that I was harboring a weapon of my own.”
Xander moved closer to his brother, making every instinct of mine howl in protest. “What sort of weapon am I, Wolfy?” His whisper seemed to echo in the cavernous space, and I held my breath for the answer along with him.
Wolfgang genuinely smiled. “You have the ability to return whatever energy is thrown your way, and to pull power from any supe nearby—regardless of whether they’re attacking you. This makes you nearly undefeatable on your own, but now your power is shared and amplified between you and Butch. In fact, I believe it was finding yourinventusthat coaxed your powers out of wherever they’ve been hiding all this time.”
He knows about having an inventus?
As Xander looked understandably stunned, I cut in, “Why give us this valuable intel? Why help us at all when we’re such a threat to other supes—includingyou?”
Wolfgang stood and languidly stretched. “Because I know my limits, but I still want to be on top. You two are clearly fully bonded, and I want the most powerful supes in my corner. Think of it as repayment.”
Xander looked dazed. “You saved my life when we were young—”
“So I could ensure mine would be protected later on,” Wolfgang softly replied before glancing at me again. “It’s how the game is played.”
Opportunist.
“And what about me?” I hissed. Although I was grateful that Wolfgang saved Xander, and watched my back during their family dinner, I didn’t appreciate his strong-arm approach to securing our loyalty. “Besides my villain kill stats—all sanctioned by Big City—what could you possibly have on me?”
Wolfgang started walking for the door. For a moment, I thought he wouldn’t bother answering, but then he paused with his Hand of Death on the doorknob.
He swung the door wide, tossing a smirk over his shoulder that reminded me so much of Xander, I startled. “It’s not what Ihaveon you, but rather, what I candofor you. I hear you have a little problem, Butch. A pesky contract that could put a damper on obtaining legal rights to protect yourinventusbond. It’s been all over the news.”
Wolfgang paused for dramatic effect. “Apparently, the entire city is on the hunt for a golden boy runaway groom.”
CHAPTER42
XANDER
“Ah, sugar,” Butch muttered as Wolfgang shut the door behind him—turning to me with an apologetic look on his face. “I didn’t get the chance to tell you… my parents made a deal with the Lincoln clan…”
I shut my eyes and blew out a shaky breath, willing myself not to murder everyone at this exact moment. Butch belonged tome,and no shady backroom deal could change that. Besides that, the only daughter the Lincolns had was Gemstonia, a supe whose abilities involved extracting gems from the earth to create energy-infused vapors.
Totally lame.
“Xan…” Butch pulled me down to sit on the couch with him, wrapping his enormous arms around my midsection as if he thought I might run away. “I swear, I didn’t sign anything.”
“I know, sweetheart,” I sighed, suddenly exhausted. “I’m mostly frustrated that I don’t fully understand any of this bureaucratic supe bullshit, since I’ve always been so far removed from it.”
“And I’ve been purposefully left in the dark,” Butch muttered sourly before switching to a hopeful expression. “Do you think your brother actually intends to help us?”
I hummed thoughtfully. Wolfgang may be a creepy fucker, but I’d never known him to lie. If everything he said today was true—and it definitely tracked—he had more reason to side with us than against us.
And he wouldn’t have come here without an ace already in his pocket.
“My family has its own archive on supe history—one of the largest private collections in the world,” I explained. “I’ve poked around a bit, especially when I was researching my lack of powers, but Wolfgang has mapped it, inside and out. So, yeah, if anyone knows how to get out of a supe-signed contract, it’s him.”
“Your archives must be how he knew what aninventuswas,” Butch mused, absently tracing my triceps with his fingertips.
I shifted on the couch to better look at him. “You used that word yesterday, when we were escaping my father’s workshop. It means ‘found’ in Latin.” I gestured vaguely. “Something that’s been found—”
Butch tackled me to the cushions, successfully shutting down my lecture with his pillowy lips. I groaned as our tongues stroked each other—the movement echoed in how he rubbed his hard cock against mine, creating delicious friction through our suits.
