Total pages in book: 40
Estimated words: 37136 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 186(@200wpm)___ 149(@250wpm)___ 124(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 37136 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 186(@200wpm)___ 149(@250wpm)___ 124(@300wpm)
“I’m going my own way,” Will said.
“What does that mean?” Henry asked the question as if he had some right to. In the past, Maddox had given Henry authority over Will, but that was the past, and Mad no longer had the right to give anyone authority over William. He was done serving, done bowing, done scraping, done submitting. He was free, and he intended to live like it.
“What are you going to do?” Henry asked the question again when Will didn’t deign to answer it.
“I’m just going to be me.”
“Alright, and what’s you, now?”
“None of your fucking business,” Will said.
A flash of something like hurt passed through his eyes. He and Will had suffered captivity together, and yeah, sure, they had forged something like a bond or whatever. But Will was done with bonds. He was finished with connections. Maybe he was even tired of being human, of being weak, and having feelings.
“I’m just trying to keep an eye out for you,” Henry said.
“Well, don’t. Lorien is yours to worry about. I don’t belong to anyone anymore.”
“I know someone who would disagree with that.”
“And I don’t give a shit,” Will replied.
Henry snorted and shook his head, as if entirely surprised by Will’s attitude. “You have to know he is going to come for you, right? Is that what this is? You playing hard to get?”
“I am going to be fucking impossible to get,” Will promised with a dark grin.
Will left Ivan, Henry, and Lorien that same afternoon and headed back toward the city. He took his wolf form for ease of travel, not to mention escape from the complicated human thoughts and feelings that insisted on whirling around his head when he was a man.
He found the solitude peaceful. He felt as though he was finally feeling himself, in a way he never had before. From the moment he’d discovered his wolf side, Will had been controlled and moderated one way or another. His wolfness had been subject to the opinions and ideas of many others. First Maddox, then Henry and his pack, then Ivan. They’d all had their say, all tried to steer him one way or another. Now he was alone there was nobody to tell him what was right and what was wrong. There was nobody to force him to do anything he didn’t want to do, and there was nobody to stop him from doing what he wanted to do.
Out in the wild, lurking at the fringes of civilization for days, and then weeks, Will discovered something fascinating about himself. He loved fresh air. He loved crisp, cool nights when his wolf coat kept him warm. And most of all? He loved to kill.
6
Maddox was in trouble. Three weeks had gone by since Gideon demanded he bring him the new creature that had once been Lora Candy, and that had not happened. It was no good explaining to Gideon that she was elusive, that she had no real needs anymore, and therefore no predictable pattern, that she would hunt again when her rage needed to be sated, but that he, Maddox could not predict that. When Gideon wanted something, he did not brook excuses of any kind.
Maddox did not inhabit the mansion anymore, he had been cast out until such time as he could find Candy, a situation which pleased him far more than he let on. Gideon was keeping Carter as a sort of hostage, assuming Maddox would worry about the fate of his fledgling, but the truth was Mad’s thoughts were largely reserved for the other brother.
He had also not found Will. Not because Will would be particularly hard to find, but out of a sadly human desire to avoid the pain of rejection. Will had looked at him with nothing but loathing since his captivity, months of hatred that had not abated one bit.
Maddox was attempting to respect Will’s wishes in a way he had not before, to make things better by being a better person. He was not entirely sure how that would work long term, given he was closer to a monster, but for the moment he felt his solitude was at the very least a deserved punishment. He deserved to be alone, and to feel the pain of separation. It was the wages of his particular sin, and he would pay them.
He had moved back to his old accommodations, the sterile concrete decor and glass panels making for a grim environment, just as he liked. Sometimes he fancied he heard a noise either above or below, the sound of Candy and her team working on a feral vampire case, or the sound of Will demolishing the kitchen for pastries. But they were echoes of a lost time, and having lived for as long as he had, Maddox knew a thing or two about lost times. He had mourned more friends and lovers than most over the course of his existence, but he did not recall the pain having quite this level of sting to it before. Perhaps he had changed. Or perhaps Will had changed him.