Morgan gripped Terry’s shoulders harder, pressing his back against the end of the tub, and then looked into his eyes. He had no idea if he was doing this right, but from how he understood it, he was supposed to be able to somehow…not control him, but work with his emotions so that he could calm his mate down, preventing him from killing himself.
It worked. Morgan had no idea what he did or how he did it, but Terry stopped struggling against him, and he leaned sleepily back against the tub, his eyes sliding half shut as he stared at Morgan.
Morgan cupped his cheek then felt his forehead. Not feverish. The swelling on his ears and legs from the frostbite was starting to go down, which was good.
Thank you, God, for werewolf healing abilities.
“Now just relax. I promise no one will hurt you while you’re with
me.”
Morgan surprised himself with how much he meant that promise. He would do everything in his power to make sure that Terry stayed safe.
Terry nodded, his eyes sliding all the way shut, and by the way his breathing evened out, he fell asleep.
Morgan finished washing him off, draining the tub again, and was pleased when the water hadn’t turned so muddy.
He dried Terry off with a towel and brought him into one of the bedrooms.
Now Morgan was the one to shiver. There was still no heat in this
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place. He put Terry on the bed and bundled every blanket he could on top of the smaller man and then moved to the thermostat.
It was some electronic thing, and he had no idea how to work it. He’d heard of these things before, but had never seen or used one. Would it alert the owners of the house if he were to find out how to
turn it on and crank the heat? That wouldn’t be good.
From what he could tell from the numbers on the little gray screen, there was heat in the cabin, but only enough to keep the pipes from freezing.
That would have to do.
Morgan had just made the decision to leave the room for a few minutes to go and find Nick when the other man called for him from the hallway.
“Morgan? You up here?”
Morgan quickly stepped out of the bedroom, keeping the door open only a crack as he padded his way down the hall.
Nick was there waiting for him at the top of the stairs. Clearly, the blind werewolf had scented Morgan up here.
“Here,” he said anyway. “What’s going on?”
“James wants us to stay where we are for as long as possible. The storm caught everyone off guard from the looks of it, and he doesn’t want anyone risking travel if they can help it.”
Morgan nodded. Made sense. The Weather Channel had called for snow, and even the wolves had felt the coming cold, but no one expected it to turn out like this.
Morgan looked out on of the windows, clenching his fists at the blank canvas he saw there.
“I know we were having a hard time finding our way and all,” Morgan said, looking into Nick’s sightless black eyes. “But you didn’t happen to catch the scent of anyone else following us, did you?”
Nick cocked his head, frowning as he thought. “No. I’m sure we were alone. Why?”
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Morgan pointed behind him with his thumb to the bedroom where Terry was sleeping. “He flipped out there for a minute. Tried telling me someone was outside.”
Again, Nick frowned, but he wasn’t about to take words like that lightly. “I doubt anyone would be out in that if they could help it, but I’ll check it out.”
Morgan stiffened, and Nick seemed to sense the change in his body language in that strange way he did. “I won’t leave the porch. I’m already blind, so I doubt I can get turned around as easily as you would,” he said. “I’ll stick by the house and be back inside in five minutes. Sooner than that if I can smell anyone else.”
From the tone in his voice, it sounded like Nick didn’t expect to scent anything at all. Whether because of the storm blowing away all the smells of the area around them or because he didn’t think anyone would be out there, Morgan wasn’t sure.
He swallowed hard, thinking he should probably get this next part out of the way.
Again, Nick’s excellent hearing allowed him to hear, instead of see, the way his throat worked as he swallowed nervously. “What’s wrong?”
“Was there a Terry in your old pack? With Phillip?”
Nick frowned. “It was a small pack, but I didn’t know everyone, considering what I did.”
Yeah, that was right. Nick had basically been an assassin for Phillip, always on the move and always hunting down and killing any hunters that he could find because, despite his blindness, he was a first rate-killer himself.
“The name does sound familiar, though I don’t recognize the
scent.”
Well, that was out of the way, and somewhat disappointing. Ultimately it shouldn’t matter where Terry came from at this very moment anyway. What mattered was that they had found him and were going to keep him safe until they could get out of here.
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Morgan put his hand in his hair, wondering how he should say this
next part.
Again, Nick caught onto his hesitation and worry, even without seeing him. “Why? What’s the matter?”
Spitting it out seemed like the best way. “I think that kid in there is my mate.”
Nick’s black brows shot up. “Is he okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, he seems fine, for a wild werewolf. He can still speak, but he seems scared.”
“What was he doing in the water?”
“Fishing,” Morgan said. “He seems like an omega to me. I think he was either abandoned by the other wild wolves, or he ran away when the others did and got lost. He’s been taking care of himself for a while.”
Nick blew out a breath. “Damn. Well, he’s got you to take care of him now, and if he’s a wandering omega, then we’ll just take and make him part of our pack. He’ll be fine now, and if he is part of my old pack, there will be others who will recognize him.”
Morgan hoped so. “I’ll check the cupboards for any food while you’re out.”
Nick nodded, already turning back to the stairs, keeping his hand on the wall as he went down. “Good idea. Don’t think I can catch
anything while out in that.”
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Chapter Four
Morgan hadn’t been expecting Nick to return to the cabin with news that there were other wild werewolves surrounding the property, but he still breathed a deep sigh of relief when the other man came back and told him they were alone.
“Find any food?” Nick asked.
“Well.” Morgan looked over at the small bounty he’d uncovered on the counter. Describing it as small was being generous.
Two cans of alphabet soup and a half a bag of Rice Krispies cereal, which was probably stale at this point.
“I haven’t gone through all the cupboards yet,” Morgan said when Nick made a face at the small amount of food. “There could be other
non-perishable’s lying around that I missed.”
“God, I hope so. I’m starving.”
Morgan was pretty hungry now, too, not to mention he had his mate upstairs, and he wanted to make certain that he got fed first.
Part of him wanted to just claim the food all for himself and make sure that Terry ate as much as he needed to, but that was his inner wolf talking. Even though he could control his transformations and was, for the most part, in perfect harmony with his wolf, there were always those times when he had to stop and think about what he’d done or wanted to do. This was one of those times when his wolf
wanted to growl possessively over the small pile of food, keeping Nick from getting any of it.
He had to tell it to shut the hell up. Morgan wanted to feed his mate, but it wasn’t fair for him to ask Nick, or even demand it of him, that he starve himself so that Terry could eat.
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“Would it be all right if I gave one of the cans to Terry, and you
and I shared the other?”
Nick nodded, and if he at all sensed the internal struggle Morgan had just had, he didn’t mention it. “That should work. And the cereal can be split into three bowls for snacking. Hopefully the storm will pass before we need to eat again.”
Considering the little that there was, that would be very soon.
Morgan wanted to let Terry sleep, but the longer he stayed out of the other man’s room, the more worried he became that he would
wake up alone and try to sneak out the window or something.
They quickly made their bowls, with Nick’s and Morgan’s being the most watered down and Terry’s being the thickest and best looking. Morgan was going to have to remember to thank the other man for being so good about this.
He nudged the door open and stepped inside. Terry was exactly where Morgan had left him, sleeping peacefully under the mountain of covers Morgan had put on him.
He stepped closer to the bed and put the bowls and spoons on the nightstand.
Terry’s nose twitched at the smell, but he didn’t open his eyes.
Morgan reached down and gently shook his shoulder, not knowing what to expect when the younger man shifted and opened his
eyes.
“Brought you some food,” Morgan said.
Terry’s eyes widened, and he sat up slowly, his nostrils flaring as he sniffed, suddenly noticing the scent.
Quick as lightning he reached out and snatched Morgan’s bowl, the one that was so watered down it would be difficult to call it food
at all.
“Wait, not that one.” Morgan reached out to take the bowl, but Terry growled at him.
The sound coming from an omega’s throat was so shocking that Morgan pulled back. Terry lunged out of bed, spilling some of the
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soup on him, and he backed himself into a corner, keeping his eyes on Morgan even as he lifted the bowl to his lips and drank down the contents, ever suspicious.
Christ, what happened to him?
When he finished drinking from the bowl, he used his fingers to pull out the little cut up potatoes and peas that he’d missed and ate those, too. Then he spotted the other bowl, the one that was supposed to be his in the first place, and he lunged for it.
Morgan had to stop him before he could reach it, and Terry released a roar that was part rage and part terror.
Goddamn. It was a good thing he’d asked Nick not to disturb them.
Morgan grabbed onto Terry’s shoulders, but the omega actually
bit him on the hand.
“Ahh!” Morgan yelled, yanking his hand back but then grabbing hold of Terry’s shoulders and all but throwing him down on the floor.
Big mistake. Terry flipped out even more, struggling and worming his body beneath Morgan’s.
Oh no, Morgan wanted to groan in shame when his body reacted. That was only going to make it worse. He had to put a stop to this,
now.
It was hard getting a good grip on the younger wolf, considering he was still partly wet with soup broth, but Morgan eventually managed to grab hold of his chin and force him to look Morgan in the
eyes.
Again, he wasn’t sure how it was done. Maybe it was just because he willed it to happen, needed Terry to be calm, that he did eventually calm down. His muscles went from being tight to going soft, and he no longer looked like he wanted to attack anyone.
Morgan’s breathing was hard as he pushed himself off of Terry’s body to lie next to him.
Fuck. Were all wild omegas like this? Or could this just be a product of being forced to take care of himself for so long? Even wild
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werewolves were known to create packs to protect their smaller and
weaker members.
“I…I want it,” Terry said, sounding like he was having a hard time getting his throat to work.
“I know, but you just drank down that other bowl in less than five seconds. Give it a minute or you’ll make yourself sick,” Morgan said.
Then Terry did something that Morgan hadn’t been expecting. He turned his head to look at him. “What are you?”
Morgan looked back at him. They were both still naked, and Terry needed another hot bath, but his eyes were gentle. Not because Morgan had used their link to calm him, but he seemed genuinely curious.
“I’m a werewolf.”
Terry’s eyes widened, and then he looked back up at the ceiling.
“Oh.”
Morgan watched him carefully after that, watched the way his throat worked as he swallowed, listened to the pumping of his heart as it sped up. Terry lifted his hands, and he stared down at his palms, clenching his fingers.