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ChapterFive
Dominic Dane
My knuckles became whiterthe tighter I held onto the railing. The metal groaned under my strength, giving me a little satisfaction. It reminded me of what I always knew—everything breaks with the right pressure.
“Look, look!” Derek said, pointing his finger at the sky, at the pigeons flying in the air. Then, he threw a rock at them, as if he was really hoping to catch them. He didn’t.
I sighed, lowering my head. I’d brought him to the rooftop deck of the ODP Headquarters, hoping the open air, the open sky over me, and the view of the City around would help clear my head. So far, it wasn’t working.
“Stop it,” I said, when he picked up another small rock from the concrete rooftop and swung back his arm to throw it at the pigeons.
With a flinch, he thought about listening to me for a second—he always did. And then he went and did what he wanted.
I turned my head the other way. It wasn’t his fault that I was pissed. It wasn’t his fault for anything. I had never allowed myself to lose it with him, no matter what, and I wasn’t going to start now. He was my brother, anyway. The only family I had.
“So, what’s it gonna be?” Derek asked, playing with the bat that had never left his hands for the past two years. It wasn’t long but it was thick, and he’d added some accessories to it, too—spikes and chains to make the hits really count.
“Randall won’t budge,” I said, and the wave of anger rolling in my chest gave strength to my other half, the beast that resided in my bones, with whom I shared my very soul. Taking in a deep breath, I pushed it back with all my strength. Now was not the time. “They’re going to send her in.”
Teddy De Ver, all of five feet of perfection, the smallest agent to work in the ODP, so pink she shone like a beacon in a sea of ordinary people. And they were going to send her on a mission of this magnitude?
No, my beast growled inside my head. He could speak, too, just as well as I could. And he constantly tormented me with his unwanted opinions, especially when I was on the brink of losing control of my feelings, like today.
Sticking my hand in my pocket, I began to play with the tiny piece of plastic in hopes it would calm me down.
“So what?” Derek said, raising himself on his tiptoes, then back again every few seconds. As long as I could remember, he couldn’t stand without moving for one second. He had more energy than anyone I’d ever met.
“What do you mean, so what? She’s gonna get killed,” I said through gritted teeth. “They’re teaming her with Aaron Mathews.”
“Werewolf?” Derek asked.
I shook my head. “Selkie, with all of two functioning braincells in his head.”
My brother shrugged. “Then stop him.”
That’s what I was afraid he’d say, too. Because the idea was already taking root in my mind.
Did I even have a choice? That pixie had never been on a mission before in her life. And they expected her to deal with high fae and survive?
Of course not—they didn’t. That was the whole point.
“Something’s wrong, I just can’t figure out what.” And it drove my beast nuts.
My whole life, I’d had to learn to control the other side of me all by myself. Werewolves weren’t supposed to do that. That’s why they always stayed in packs. Having an animal living inside you was no joke. People needed guidance to learn how to control themselves.
But our pack hadn’t given a rat’s ass about us when our parents ended up dead. They let me, Derek, and my baby sister Nora go, just like that. Put us in the foster care system with humans. Rid themselves of the responsibility of raising three orphans.
Why wouldn’t they? Who was going to stand up for us when we were too young to stand up for ourselves? Nobody had cared about us then—or since.
Doesn’t matter, my beast insisted. Of course, he did—he’d gotten the best of me until I was almost twenty years old. Now, at twenty-seven, he couldn’t best me as easily, but he had yet to accept it. He had yet to stop trying, and until he did, I couldn’t let down my guard for a single second.
“You will,” Derek said, slamming his hand on my shoulder. “Take it easy, Dom. Go do what you gotta do. Don’t leave your pixie with them.”
My pixie. I flinched. “She’s not mine.” But I straightened my back and breathed a little easier now that the decision was made.
“Sure, sure,” Derek mumbled. “What you got in there? What you playing with?” He was eyeing my hand in my pocket, spinning the piece of plastic around my fingers. He always asked me that, and I always told him the same thing.
“Nothing.” I took my hand out of my pocket right away.
