Read Online Lone Wolf (The Westervelt Wolves, Book 8) by Rebecca Royce - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Rebecca Royce
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shuddered.
So, his father employed people to upkeep the house and lawn or someone from inside the house came outside to mow it. Either way, it would give him an opportunity to get inside since he had total certainty he’d never make it through the front door by ringing the bell.
His father wouldn’t open the door and say hey, come on inside, kill me .
Of course, if Gabe had been a real man forty years ago he wouldn’t be in this situation. He would have killed the son of a bitch the second he’d had the chance instead of letting him go and watching as he took Gabriel’s love with him.
A window shade moved slightly as someone inside the house brushed past it.
Carrie .
She moved around inside. He’d recognize her anywhere even though he hadn’t seen her in forty years. Gabe had barely allowed himself the pleasure of thinking about her. How could he when the barest passing dream of Carrie made him ache so completely he thought he might fall apart? But there she walked … still in his father’s care-cum-captivity. Alive as Kendrick had promised she’d be, just as long as Gabriel cooperated.
He had done as he’d been told.
Kendrick had kept Carrie alive.
His mate lived when so many others had perished or vanished. The women of his pack. Well, former pack. Lost forever. Everything decimated. But not Carrie, because Gabriel played ball.
But this couldn’t go on any longer.
Are you there?
He reached for his wolf and waited as the silence he never got used to stretched out into minutes.
He threw out his cigarette. Dirty, human habit . He might not be able to get cancer like the humans but he still wished he’d never smoked. Of course, if he thought he would live past the end of the week he’d make an effort to quit. Dying at any moment made stopping a ridiculous notion. Why bother? He’d be done with cigarettes when the reaper came for him.
Any day now .
A van pulled up to the house with a bunch of men in it. His nose told him it contained five men but he counted only four exiting the vehicle. The four who were visible stumbled toward the house. Since he trusted his senses, he knew one of them had remained inside, in the driver’s seat. He sniffed the air again. Humans would think them drunk but Gabe knew better. They were made wolves. His father’s madness was displayed to the world via the abhorrent creatures Kendrick had dared to create. Nothing like playing with the gods.
Gabe walked toward the van. If the creatures were real wolves they’d have smelled him, but Az, Gabriel’s brilliant science-minded brother, had determined the year before that the creatures could only scent a target if they’d been sent after that specific person. Otherwise they were basically dead men walking. Az knew this for sure since his wife had temporarily been a made wolf herself. His brothers had an unusual assortment of mates. Each woman had added to their lives in unforeseen ways that had ultimately kept the pack alive.
Gabriel would never know what his mating Carrie would have brought to the pack. He’d been denied that chance.
The made wolf who remained in the van sat in the driver’s seat staring straight ahead like a mechanical doll someone would have to turn on to work. His father had taken drug addicts, the mentally ill, and the enemies of his friends when he’d created his army of wolf creatures.
The gods had given the shifters the gift of living as both man and wolf, of combining their strength and always being together as one. Well, the gods had bestowed that miracle on him and he’d managed to screw it up. The made wolves, the ones who shouldn’t be, they had no joy in the shift, no inner wolf to take the journey with. Just angst, pain, and … nothingness.
A little nothingness didn’t sound so terrible to him at that very moment. But as, ironically, his father had once told him, he could fill up one of his hands with reality and the other with wishes and dreams that came through. One of them
So, his father employed people to upkeep the house and lawn or someone from inside the house came outside to mow it. Either way, it would give him an opportunity to get inside since he had total certainty he’d never make it through the front door by ringing the bell.
His father wouldn’t open the door and say hey, come on inside, kill me .
Of course, if Gabe had been a real man forty years ago he wouldn’t be in this situation. He would have killed the son of a bitch the second he’d had the chance instead of letting him go and watching as he took Gabriel’s love with him.
A window shade moved slightly as someone inside the house brushed past it.
Carrie .
She moved around inside. He’d recognize her anywhere even though he hadn’t seen her in forty years. Gabe had barely allowed himself the pleasure of thinking about her. How could he when the barest passing dream of Carrie made him ache so completely he thought he might fall apart? But there she walked … still in his father’s care-cum-captivity. Alive as Kendrick had promised she’d be, just as long as Gabriel cooperated.
He had done as he’d been told.
Kendrick had kept Carrie alive.
His mate lived when so many others had perished or vanished. The women of his pack. Well, former pack. Lost forever. Everything decimated. But not Carrie, because Gabriel played ball.
But this couldn’t go on any longer.
Are you there?
He reached for his wolf and waited as the silence he never got used to stretched out into minutes.
He threw out his cigarette. Dirty, human habit . He might not be able to get cancer like the humans but he still wished he’d never smoked. Of course, if he thought he would live past the end of the week he’d make an effort to quit. Dying at any moment made stopping a ridiculous notion. Why bother? He’d be done with cigarettes when the reaper came for him.
Any day now .
A van pulled up to the house with a bunch of men in it. His nose told him it contained five men but he counted only four exiting the vehicle. The four who were visible stumbled toward the house. Since he trusted his senses, he knew one of them had remained inside, in the driver’s seat. He sniffed the air again. Humans would think them drunk but Gabe knew better. They were made wolves. His father’s madness was displayed to the world via the abhorrent creatures Kendrick had dared to create. Nothing like playing with the gods.
Gabe walked toward the van. If the creatures were real wolves they’d have smelled him, but Az, Gabriel’s brilliant science-minded brother, had determined the year before that the creatures could only scent a target if they’d been sent after that specific person. Otherwise they were basically dead men walking. Az knew this for sure since his wife had temporarily been a made wolf herself. His brothers had an unusual assortment of mates. Each woman had added to their lives in unforeseen ways that had ultimately kept the pack alive.
Gabriel would never know what his mating Carrie would have brought to the pack. He’d been denied that chance.
The made wolf who remained in the van sat in the driver’s seat staring straight ahead like a mechanical doll someone would have to turn on to work. His father had taken drug addicts, the mentally ill, and the enemies of his friends when he’d created his army of wolf creatures.
The gods had given the shifters the gift of living as both man and wolf, of combining their strength and always being together as one. Well, the gods had bestowed that miracle on him and he’d managed to screw it up. The made wolves, the ones who shouldn’t be, they had no joy in the shift, no inner wolf to take the journey with. Just angst, pain, and … nothingness.
A little nothingness didn’t sound so terrible to him at that very moment. But as, ironically, his father had once told him, he could fill up one of his hands with reality and the other with wishes and dreams that came through. One of them
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