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Gut gnawing anxiety left her sweating. Exactly what she needed when she was already soaked through and disgusting.
The male’s callously rattled growl warned, “I don’t have all day.”
Before she could stop herself, she threw him a glare saying, “Then why the fuck didn’t you send someone else to barter on your behalf?”
“I’ve killed men with my bare hands for daring to look at me that way.”
The beast thought this was funny? Of course he did. Sadist.
Picking up the pace, the stitch in her side warped from a minor annoyance to tried and true pain. Mikael squirmed as he coughed, and she felt his weight slip off her shoulder. Head first he went, right down to the planks.
And then the body stopped, forehead inches away from impact.
Wren’s ass met splintered wood when her balance failed. Biting back a groan, she gulped down stink-riddled atmosphere and saw just why Mikael seemed to float in midair. The Alpha had him by the ankle, and the brute looked disturbed by the fact.
Clambering to her aching feet, Wren reached out, signaling she was ready for Caspian to pass the boy forward.
The Alpha curled a lip, openly hostile as he snarled, “Your attempt to impress me with your stubbornness has been noted. Move!”
Sorely tempted to make a grab for her boy, Wren fisted her hands. Fear infected her expression, she was even foolish enough to feel her eyes well.
“It’s the cough that will kill him. Not me.” The Alpha turned the child right side up, flinging him over his shoulder carelessly. “March.”
Fast as she could manage in squashing shoes and with a petulant teen at her side, Wren hobbled over the planks, bringing the wolf right to her door.
A hand-hewn sign above read: Goods For Sale. It creaked in the drafts, reminding her to hurry with the locks before even more Warrens dwellers saw just who’d followed her home.
No one would frequent her shop if the head of The Syndicate was seen here.
One lock, two. Five. Seven, and the door gave, Wren falling inward after it in her haste to get inside. Alec rushed past her, Caspian ducking his head to fit past her door.
Like clockwork she slammed the door shut and locked it tight, letting out a breath when the last tumbler clicked. Flipping the switch on the nearest dehumidifier, Wren hastily stole Mikael away from a man she was certain would drop him out of spite.
Zippers were yanked, buttons popped, sodden clothes pulled from a rail-thin body. All done on the entry floor until a naked boy curled in on himself, shivering.
And he wasn’t the only naked child. Alec had stripped to his skivvies, arms out to help his friend to the bathing room. But as he helped his brother, he shot Wren an angry glare.
She was not forgiven.
Wren had much to say on the subject, but kept her lips sealed, so to speak, so she might deal with her guest.
“Your home is”—making no attempt to hide his disgust, the Alpha surveyed what her hard work had achieved—“very clean.”
Well, it had been before the four of them had dragged in an ocean of mud. Considering it was full of dry air and that there was even some decent salvaged furniture, Wren wasn’t sure what he had to complain about. Lost wonders she’d personally fished out of the muck were everywhere. Working view monitors, music receptacles, she even had a rickety cleaning bot.
Of course, the boys all had their favorite device, a working game console that might fetch her a pretty penny if she found the right buyer. Unfortunately, kids’ entertainment devices didn’t sell much in the Warrens.
Kids rarely survived here. Not on their own… and that’s how they arrived.
Rubbing heat into her hands, Wren breathed into cupped palms and eyeballed the man who seemed to be stealing the little ones before she could get to them.
Bastard.
“What did I tell you about looking at me that way?”
Throwing back her hood, she signed, aware he would have no clue as to her meaning. “That you’d kill me you vile, disgusting, piece of half-rotted dog.”
The man instead narrowed his eyes. His attention went to the knot of white hair pinned atop her head, his massive hand taking a grip of her shoulder. “I have a feeling you deserve punishment for whatever it was you just said.”
Wren smiled, all warmth and hospitality for the brute as she signed, “Let’s get this over with.”
“Take off your coat.” Meaty fingers started yanking at her zipper, careless for tearing the only slicker she had. “What else are you hiding under the world’s ugliest garments?”
Just because the boys knew to strip and wash as soon as they entered, didn’t mean Wren was going to do the same. But the beast had her out of her covering, spinning and twisting her about until she slipped on the busted tile floor and fell.
