Blood Rule (Book 4, Dirty Blood series) (2 page)

For once, I was glad to be in the
center of the chaos the hybrids called home. It gave me a great
view for searching out drama and mischief—of which there was
plenty.

“
Where is it coming from?”
Wes asked, joining me.

“
There.”

In the far left corner, beside a
wounded-looking tent, an aging Werewolf-hybrid cowered underneath
the menace of Nick. He was a hybrid as well, turned from Hunter to
Werewolf in his prime. He was stronger and faster than a lot of the
others. But not me. Not the alpha.

“
Be right back,” I
said.

“
I’m going with
you.”

Wes and I picked our way around tents
and other obstacles. Torn shoes. Clothes—some shredded, some coated
in mud from being left outside during last night’s rainstorm. Any
other personal effects were out of sight. Possessions were limited
and therefore closely guarded.

I approached Nick warily. More and
more lately, he attempted to exert authority over the others. That
wasn’t going to fly. I had the authority here.

“
Nick,” I called. My voice
was at normal volume but the severity of it was enough to get the
attention of everyone in sight. “What the hell is going
on?”

“
Rafe decided to sneak into
my tent and go through my stuff,” Nick said.

I looked at the older hybrid. I
couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen him as a human. His yellow
eyes, normally gentle and clear, were wide in contained pain. He
was missing fur in several places on his shoulders and face. What
was left smoked faintly. The smell was worse standing this
close.

“
Is this true?” I
asked.

Rafe stared up at me where he lay flat
on the dirt before Nick. Behind the pain in his eyes was defiance.
“He took my watch. It’s the one thing I have from before. I want it
back.”

“
You went into his tent
because he went into yours?” I asked. Rafe nodded.
“Nick?”

He scowled and averted his eyes. I
followed their track to the ground and found a pile of shredded
fabric underneath Nick’s paws. And half buried in a pile of pine
needles, a lighter.

I bent down and picked up the lighter,
making sure Nick watched me pocket it. Then I marched over and got
in his face. “Apologize to him.”

He blew a short breath out of his
nostrils. It hit my face and I almost gagged. Werewolf Nick was in
desperate need of some mouthwash. “For what?” he spat. “I didn’t do
anyth—”

“
Give him back the watch
and apologize,” I said, cutting him off.

“
Is everything …?” Cambria
walked up behind me but stopped short when she saw Rafe. “Holy cow.
Are you all right? What happened?” Before anyone could answer, she
clapped a hand over her nose. “You really stink.”

I shot her a look. She shrugged.
“Well, he does.”

“
Should’ve stayed out of my
tent,” Nick muttered.

My hands tightened into fists at
Nick’s nasty attitude. I had to will my shape to stay solidly
human. I badly wanted to shift, but I’d already ruined two outfits
this week.

Rafe made some noise of protest and
Nick growled.

“
Nick, calm your ass,”
Cambria snapped.

“
He went through my tent,”
Nick said.

“
Stop stealing from people
and they’ll stay out of your tent,” I said, my voice rising as my
patience thinned.

“
This is bullshit. He had
it coming.” The way Nick spat out the words, his lips pulled back
from his teeth, made it hard not to bite him—without even shifting
first.

My wolf rose to the surface. Nick was
pushing me. My wolf wanted to push back. “Bullshit, huh?” I said.
“He came for his property and you burned him.”

“
Punishment.”

“
Who are you to give
punishment? Or pass judgment?”

He didn’t answer.

“
Come here,” I said. I held
up the lighter.

“
No way. You’re not using
that thing on me,” Nick said, backing away.

He didn’t get more than two steps
before he bumped into something and lurched forward. He turned to
see what he’d hit and came face to face with another
wolf.

This one didn’t have the yellow eyes
of the hybrids but brown orbs that shimmered with caramel flecks in
the light. He had russet fur and broad shoulders. Even on four
paws, he stood almost a foot taller than Nick, and he glared at
Nick with a ferocity I hadn’t seen in weeks. “Do what she says,”
Wes growled.

Nick hesitated, which surprised me
more than anything. Did he really think he could beat Wes? But then
he seemed to come to his senses and hung his head as he shuffled
forward.

“
Do it,” Nick said,
obviously assuming I was going to hurt him somehow, which was
ridiculous. I wasn’t a masochist.

I waited, drawing out the
suspense as long as possible while Wes moved in behind Nick.
Cambria scooted left and nodded at me.
Ready
, she mouthed.

I bent down so Nick and I were eye to
eye and wiggled the lighter in my hand. “See this?” I dropped it on
the ground in front of me and brought my heel down on it, drawing
on my wolf for strength until it finally cracked and
broke.

Nick winced.

“
This is over,” I said,
straightening. “I am alpha. Not you. Stop trying to force your own
authority or you’ll regret it.”

Nick raised his head. The fiery temper
was gone but there was something else. A thirst for something I
couldn’t understand. Revenge?

“
And give back his watch,”
I added.

Nick went to his tent, stuck his nose
inside, and came away with something silver in his mouth. He
dropped it in front of Rafe and looked back at me. “Are we done
here?”

“
Yes.”

“
Good. I’m taking a walk.
Watch my tent.”

“
We’ll do that,” Wes said
before I could respond. Probably a good thing. I’d only come back
with something sarcastic and I knew Nick wasn’t far from wanting to
stay and make this into something bigger. Something he
shouldn’t.

I let him go.

When he was gone, I knelt beside Rafe.
“May I?” I asked, gesturing to the singed spots on his
fur.

“
Go ahead.”

The burnt hair was coarse underneath
my fingertips, interrupted by the strangely smooth patches of
exposed flesh. “Cambria, can you take him to the house so Fee can
look at these?” I asked.

“
Sure,” she
said.

“
I don’t need all that,”
Rafe protested. “I’ll heal fine in my own time.”

“
I know that, but Fee’s
special tea will help the process along.”

Rafe made a face, his snout lifting
until his front teeth showed. “That tea of hers is an atrocity. I’m
sure I’ll heal without it.”

I caught the laughter before it
escaped. “It is an … acquired taste,” I agreed. “But I need you
feeling better. I need us feeling better,” I added with a pointed
look.

He sighed. “Fine. I’ll drink the
tea.”

“
Thank you.” I patted his
head before I could help myself but he didn’t seem to mind. “I’ll
check on you later,” I called as he followed Cambria back through
the maze of camp.

“
Check on me too,” Cambria
called.

I cast a long look into the trees in
the direction Nick had gone. If I expanded my senses, I could hear
his footsteps as he moved farther away from camp. His voice in my
head wasn’t as pronounced as I was used to. It felt muted. I
strained to listen.

His mood was … gray. I wasn’t sure
what it meant, but it wasn’t the first time I’d sensed it from
him.

“
You all right?” Wes
asked.

“
Hmm?” I turned my
attention away and found Wes studying me. “I’m fine.”

I began making my way back toward my
tent before he could argue. I didn’t want to have this conversation
here. Or anywhere, really.

“
I’ll meet you there in
five,” Wes said, bounding into the trees. Probably in search of
shorts so he could reappear on two legs.

“
Hey, Tara, is Rafe going
to be okay?” Emma, a blond hybrid around my age who preferred her
human form when her body would cooperate, stood before me with
watery eyes and a trembling lip.

“
He’s going to be fine,” I
assured her. “He went up to the house to have some of Fee’s tea so
he’ll get better even faster.” Emma grimaced.

I began walking again but she stopped
me. “Is there anything I can do for you—or George, or anybody?” she
asked. “I want to help.”

“
Um, well. You could try to
make some of these tents more stable,” I suggested. “Some look
ready to keel over in the next big wind.” I suspected those were
the ones whose owners couldn’t shift to their human form. Something
that happened more and more often as the animal in them took over.
No fingers and thumbs made bolting a tent down pretty
hard.

“
No problem. Janie and I
will get right on it.”

“
Thanks,” I said as she
hurried off in search of her sister.

I picked my way back through camp,
fielding questions and containing squabbles. Nothing like what’d
happened with Nick. More like what came from living in close
quarters with the same people day in and day out.

Wes was waiting for me when I finally
made it back. He pulled me in for a hug and I pretended not to have
a pounding headache as I listened telepathically to the rest of the
pack try to figure out what’d happened. Or whether Nick had lost
his mind.

Please don’t ask me to
explain any of that because I have no idea.

“
He’s getting worse,” Wes
said when I pulled away.

“
Yeah.”

“
What’s his problem? Can
you read him?”

I shook my head. “Not with this. It’s
… I don’t know what it is. But it’s not him.”

Wes frowned but said nothing. I needed
to change the subject. To move on—back to normal …ish.

“
So what are your plans for
the day?” I asked, making a special effort to lighten my tone. “Are
you and Jack still heading out?”

“
That’s the plan. Jack’s in
the weapons room doing a reorganize. Figured I had some
time.”

“
He must be stressed if
he’s doing that.”

Wes nodded. “The packs are getting
nervous about this thing with CHAS. It’s rubbing off on
him.”

“
You know we won’t be able
to find anything in there for days once he’s done.”

“
I know. Fee started baking
when she saw what he was up to.”

“
Great. So I’ll stay away
until at least tomorrow.”

“
Probably best. What are
you going to do this afternoon?” he asked.

I rubbed absently at my temples. “Get
cleaned up and head over to the hospital.”

He didn’t answer right away. His arms
tightened around me. “Well … be careful,” he said
finally.

Obviously, we still weren’t going to
talk about it.

“
I will,” I promised. I
kissed his nose before stepping away. “You too. I’ll see you when
you get back.”

“
I’ll call you
tonight.”

The strain between us, though
unspoken, tugged at me. At my tent’s entrance, I turned back. “Wes,
the bond …” I paused, searching for the right words.

“
What about it?”

“
It wasn’t something I
chose. You are.” 

I’d taken to wearing earphones when my
mom threatened to remove every stereo and music-playing device from
the house if I didn’t turn it down. By now, everyone knew if they
wanted my attention, they better tap my shoulder because I wasn’t
going to notice them otherwise.

I removed my earphones and tucked them
into my sweatshirt as I passed through the automatic doors that led
inside the hospital.

The mental hum of voices, thoughts,
and feelings rushed back in. I gritted my teeth and focused on my
other senses to distract myself: the bright white of the walls as
sunlight streamed in through the floor-to-ceiling lobby windows
behind me, the smell of disinfectant and rubbing alcohol that was
inherent to medical facilities, the comforting feel of fabric where
my fingers clutched the inside of my hoodie pockets while I walked.
After almost a week of steady rain, the late afternoon was
unseasonably cool for August in Washington, DC. That, and I was
running low on decent-looking shirts from too many unplanned
shifts. Hence, the hood. I was lucky enough to find it buried
underneath some unreturned textbooks from the public school I’d
been expelled from last year.

Wow. My life had become a supernatural
soap opera.

As I passed, the pale-faced nurse at
the desk looked up and nodded before going back to her computer
screen. It’d been two weeks—sixteen days, actually—since Alex had
been admitted. I’d been here often enough during that time the
staff didn’t bother with me anymore. I almost wished they would
since it would mean some sort of update on his condition. Most of
all, I wished someone could tell if I’d helped him or made things
worse.