Page 62 of Wolf Unseen

There had been whispers, of course; persistent rumors that the mages were behind the disease, even though the Shifter Council had issued strongly worded press releases stating that such rumors were false.

I pulled into the parking bay next to our dorm. Everyone else had to leave their vehicles in the main parking area, but not us. It paid to be a mafia heir with a father who was happy to make significant donations to the school in return for the principal turning a blind eye to problematic behavior.

Tank had shifted in the time it took us to arrive back on campus. He lay on his back snoring, still splattered in blood from the carnage he’d caused. I hoped the bastard had a massive headache from being knocked out.

“Wakey, wakey, asshole,” Tobias said, prodding him in the chest. My friend still hadn’t explained where he’d disappeared off to, but for now, my priority was Tank.

“What happened?” Tank groaned while rubbing his temples. “I feel like shit.”

“You wolfed out, dude,” Tobias replied. “Tried to eat a bunch of people.”

“Markus zapped you,” I added.

Tank grimaced. “Fuck.”

“Yeah, fuck.” I scowled at him. “What triggered it?”

I stood back as Tank climbed out of the truck and groaned some more.

“I don’t know,” he replied, but the stench of his lie filled the air between us. Tobias and I exchanged a worried look. Tank obviously knew what had set his wolf off, so why wasn’t he saying? We didn’t hide stuff from each other. At least we never had before.

“Look,” I said, scrubbing my eyes as fatigue set in. “Let’s just get inside.”

Tank nodded while staring at the ground and then headed for the door to our apartment. I was about to follow him, fully expecting Tobias to join me given the late hour, but to my surprise, he mumbled something about needing some air and then dashed off.

I glared up at the moon. Since the last full moon, everything had gone to shit. Or so it felt. Tobias was acting weird. Tank too. And my fucking father was knee-deep in something he refused to talk to me about. Worse, he’d formed an alliance with the mages and croc shifters, which worried me. The mages couldn’t be trusted, and the crocs were stone-cold psychopaths.

Worse still, a certain hybrid wolf was proving to be a distraction I did not need.

Fuck my life.

Once upstairs, I pulled a witch weed joint from the tin Tobias had stashed in the living room and disappeared into my bedroom. A few lungfuls of the potent herb helped calm my anxiety and sent my wolf into a relaxed slumber. The tension slowly eased away. By the time I’d finished the joint, my limbs were nice and loose and the headache throbbing behind my temples had abated.

Then my phone lit up with a call from Dad, and all my anxiety and stress came flooding back with a vengeance.

37

Tank

My head throbbed, each microscopic movement sending shards of glass deeper into my brain. Fucking Markus. I knew he carried a mage stun gun, but the fact he’d had the audacity to use it on me made me want to rip his head from his shoulders.

I didn’t bother waiting for the shower to warm up before I stepped under the spray. Cold water cascaded over my head and shoulders, easing the ache inside my skull. It did nothing to cool my blood, however.

My wolf paced inside his cage, howling and raging at his confinement. He wanted out. He’d smelled the female wolf and was desperate to go to her. Mate, he kept insisting.

Not mate, I told him.

Mate. Mine. Claim mate.

I scoffed under my breath. The small male wolf shifter wasn’t our mate. There had to be some mistake. Siren magic? Perhaps a rival of my father was trying to fuck with me so I’d throw the fight.

If so, he’d failed.

The bear shifter had proved no match for me, despite his arrogant posturing for the females before I joined him in the octagon.

Fortunately for him, I wasn’t in the mood to drag the fight out. It took less than thirty seconds to knock the asshole out cold. Much to the fury of the watching audience, many of whom had bet on the fight lasting the full three minutes.

An enraged bull shifter threw a bottle at my head when the bear shifter dropped to the mat. The bottle didn’t hurt me, but it triggered my wolf, and in the second my control weakened, he burst free.