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If you want out of this house, you need my hands.
The wolf relented, and his human form flowed back to him. He hadn’t honestly expected to be back so soon and reveled in standing upright.
He almost burst through the window but thought better of it. He dashed for the back bedroom and the emergency clothes stashed there. He pulled on a pair of jeans and ran back to the front door. He fumbled to get the chains he’d wrapped around the handle free as his wolf vibrated within him.
By the time he got the door half open, Nathan was walking away, leaving his son alone. Buck flung himself away, landing in the grass on his back, milk white.
“I’m not gonna eat you,” Aiden said, unable to keep his exasperation out of his voice.
Buck scrambled away, and Aiden wedged his way out of the door.
He braced for the wolf’s shift, but the kid was so abject and sad that the beast perceived no threat.
The wiggle room was delicious and needed. Everything in him wanted to go after his mother, but he needed to be smart, and he needed to stay human. She was right. She could take care of herself. If he went running after her now, the wolf would win, and he’d end up dead. Nathan wouldn’t hesitate again. The wolf howled at his betrayal but didn’t seek to shift. Even it was reluctant to fight the older shifter again.
He looked down at the boy in the fetal position on his lawn.
“It’s cold as hell, and you’re beat to shit. Get in here.”
He would have gone down to help the kid, but that probably would have finished him off.
After a solid minute, Buck slowly climbed to his feet.
“Why would you help me?”
Aiden could see an angry, puffy welt along the kid’s forearm. He winced.
In the fight, he’d done everything he could to keep the poison away from Buck, but it was almost impossible to come out of a fight clean. He should have brought some green goo back. When they negotiated with the witches, that would have to be a part of it. He’d make just about any concession on earth for an ounce of green goo.
“Come on in,” he said to the kid.
Buck kicked the dirt. “I won’t fight you. I’m never gonna shift again.”
Aiden gaped at him. “What are you talking about?”
“What that witch could do… What we did to you… What my father wants to do to this pack…”
He’d lost the ability to finish a sentence. Aiden sighed. “Some boys grow up all at once.”
Buck hadn’t had to do a lick of growing up until the fight. A part of Aiden bled for him, even though he knew this was better. “I’m not gonna hurt you.”
“But your wolf.”
“It’s a wolf, not a monster. It’s not gonna attack a pack mate that poses no threat to it.”
“We are all monsters,” Buck said dully.
“Fair enough. But can we be monsters inside the house?”
Buck took a step forward, and Aiden braced. He talked a big game about his wolf, but he was still not sure what the beast would do.
It didn’t even twitch. It was even feeling weirdly paternal toward the punk.
Aiden took a deep breath and retreated inside the house. Buck followed, examining the chain-link fence in confusion. “Thinking of putting a horse in here?”
“No. The fences are to keep me in. The wards are down.”
The kid got even paler, which Aiden didn’t think was possible. “There’s nothing to keep you in?”
