Chapter Five

CHAPTER FIVE

T he Adirondack great camp was a sprawling, cedar-shingled throwback to the cusp of the twentieth century, when a class of humans with railroad, coal, and banking wealth built wilderness retreats away from the hot lock of Manhattan’s summer swelter. With log post supports on its wraparound porch, chimneys at the peaks of its roof, and diamond-paned windows, the structure was both grand and charming in its blanket of snow, the tendrils of smoke and all the yellow light glowing out of that old-fashioned bubbled glass a halo of homeyness.

The plowed lane passed an outbuilding and circled up to the front entrance, and Apex stopped the SUV in front of the porch steps. He’d barely hit the brakes when Mayhem opened his door and jumped out.

While the male shot around to the other side, Apex glanced over his shoulder. “Your father doesn’t know you’re here, does he.”

Mahrci stared down at her bloody glove. “No, he doesn’t.”

“So you called off the mating.” When she didn’t reply, he shrugged. “Why else would you run up here?”

The door beside the female opened and Mayhem leaned in. His eyes had a focus that Apex had never seen before—not that he was all that close with the guy—and when Mahrci insisted that she could get out herself, the guy looked like she’d volunteered to walk into a volcano carrying a gas can.

But she got out and even managed to stand. For a second or two.

As she listed to the side, Mayhem was ready to be her fetch-and-carry again, scooping her into his arms before she face-planted on the shoveled walkway.

“Ah, the romance,” Apex muttered to himself.

Sure enough, Mayhem carried her up onto the porch as if he were holding a treasure in his arms, and at the door, she did the duty on the latch, opening things for them. They disappeared inside, leaving the entrance wide, just like the rear car door.

“Thanks.” Apex cursed and curled his hands on the steering wheel and squeezed. “And don’t worry about all the Antarctica around here.”

Except he didn’t really feel the cold leaching into the SUV, either.

Nah, all he could think about was heading back out the lane and seeing if that truck was still there. And if it was, he was inclined to just put shit in park and wait it out.

The wolven would return for it, sooner or later.

Pride was what stopped him.

In the last couple of decades, Apex had made no secret where he was in Caldwell—and he’d stayed in touch with Lucan, who was part of that wolven clan on the mountain. If Callum was here, on this estate? He was a matter of mere miles from his home territory, and it was difficult to believe that the subject of the prison, the breakout, and where everybody had ended up hadn’t been broached at least once.

If only because Lucan was a nosy sonofabitch and he’d want to test the waters.

Everyone in the prison had known about Apex sitting by that bed for all those nights. The nursing routine had been the kind of about-face that people couldn’t sync with his reputation—

A set of headlights blared through the blizzard and the hair on the back of his neck stood up.

Turning in his seat, he watched out the side window as the truck with the beat-to-crap plow turned in to one of the outbuildings and stopped.

As the motion-activated security lights flared, Apex’s hand grabbed for the latch before he could think about what he was doing, and the next thing he knew, he was cutting across the distance, marking a fresh-cut trail of boot punches over the pristine snowpack. As those headlights were killed, the truck’s driver’s door opened on the other side of the vehicle.

He picked up his pace—

In the bright light of the exterior lanterns, he caught sight of that white hair . . . just a hint showing above the top of the cab.

Now he slowed down. Then stopped about ten feet away. He opened his mouth to say something, but he had no voice and told himself it was because he was swallowing too many flakes.

Thirty years disappeared like they’d never been.

Shoving his hands into his leathers, he took them out again. Finally, over the din of the wind and the thundering in his chest, he said, “You know I’m here.”

There was the sound of the door shutting . . . and then the wolven walked down the side of the truck. His profile was like a knee in the gut. None of his features had changed, even though his hair was much shorter now, a brush cut standing those platinum waves straight up: His cheeks and jaw were still carved from a good base of bone, the nose straight, the lips full, the eyes deeply set.

The bare shoulders were a surprise.

The pecs were . . . a shock.

And when the male rounded the back bumper, the full-naked was an overwhelm that just shut everything down.

Except come on, all those clothes that Callum had undoubtedly been wearing before he’d shifted had been destroyed on the change. Unless he’d ditched the wardrobe first and decided not . . . to . . .

. . . put it all back on.

“Put what back on?”

Apex blinked a couple of times as that voice went in one ear and hit his brain with a Cuisinart blade. But then he caught up to the conversation.

Shit, he must have said that out loud. “Hell—” He cleared his throat. “—o.”

Callum’s pale blue eyes were steady in the way a wolf’s were, unblinking, fixated—and unbothered by all the nudity. The male showed no embarrassment at the fact that his rather . . . impressive . . . attributes were out in the breeze.

The cold breeze. Which wasn’t diminishing things in the slightest, not that Apex was looking directly.

“This is a surprise,” Callum said.

“Yeah. It is.”

“What are you doing here?”

“I work for Whestmorel.”

Callum nodded over his shoulder at the truck. “I’m the groundskeeper here.”

“I’m doing some logistics for him. A special project, you might call it.”

Well, look at all this compatibility going on. Who needed horoscopes when you could just covet your coworker . . .

In the silence that followed, the storm’s gusts blew around them, the swirling snow completing the embrace that Apex was sure only he wanted.

“You saved her life.” When there was no response, he couldn’t bear the awkwardness. “Mahrci’s.”

Like there was any question who had nearly been Purina Coyote Chow? Fuck.

“Are you okay?” he heard himself say.

“Of course, why wouldn’t I be.” Callum nodded at the main house. “You staying the night?”

His heart skipped a beat. Even though it had no reason to. “I am.”

“We lose power with storms like this. If it goes out, I’ll make sure to start the generator so you don’t have to come get me.”

There was a brisk nod, and then some kind of generic see-ya or something.

Callum walked off, moving with that fluidity that was more lupine than human.

“You’re bleeding,” Apex said loudly. “Your ankle.”

A dismissive hand was raised over the shoulder as the wolven disappeared through a side door. Ten seconds later, the second story of the six-bayed garage lit up, light streaming out of the row of windows.

Apex stayed where he was, his head tilted back, the snow falling in his eyes and stinging, as he watched the male close heavy drapes one by one, down the line.

Until not even a glow showed from that which had blazed with such light.