8
BRODERICK
It was like stepping off a cliff.
I watched Serena’s reaction go through the full gamut of emotions. First confusion, like she hadn’t heard me correctly, then disdain, as she inwardly declared me crazy. The laughter came last. Some of it was meant to mock me, but it was mostly a defense mechanism against us mocking her.
“Wolves,” she spat, as if the word tasted terrible. “Yeah. Riiight.”
“I’m being serious,” I told her.
She looked to Damien for help. The asshole actually pointed at his ear and made slow circles, raising his eyebrows and making the ‘he’s crazy’ face. My hands balled into fists. I was ready to jump him, right then and there.
“Damien, what the actual fuck—”
“Okay,” he said, putting his hands up. “Okay, alright.” He stopped grinning. For once in his life he actually looked serious.
“Broderick’s telling it straight. They are wolves,” he said simply. Then, after a moment: “And we’re wolves too.”
The words hung out there heavily in the silence of our little kitchen. We waited for her to process them before going on.
“Wolves…” she said again, this time a little differently. “Like in a gang? Is that the name of your—”
“No,” I said, stopping her. “Actual wolves. Damien and I are… I mean, we were part of a pack. A pack that included Boone and Christophe and Lionel.”
And Karessa…
Serena was wholly confused. We were obviously sent there for her, but now we were acting crazy. Even so, there was no clearer way to put it. We didn’t need her to digest it right now, but she did have to swallow it.
“Wolves,” she said again.
“That’s how they found you,” I went on. “They sniffed you out. Followed your scent.”
She actually put her head in her hands.
“It’s how Damien found you too. When you left your hotel.”
“Sniffed me out,” she sighed. “Of course. That explains everything. I mean shit, now it all makes perfect sense.”
Ah, the asshole phase. She was being an asshole now.
“Don’t be an asshole,” I told her.
“No no, I get it now,” she said mockingly. “Wolves. Totally.”
Damien stepped forward and held his hands out apologetically. “Listen… we don’t expect you to believe everything right now but—”
“WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?”
We were losing her again. I decided on a different approach.
“Are you hot right now?”
Serena blinked. She stared back at me like I had three heads.
“I said, are you hot right now?”
“Yes,” she admitted. “Of course I’m hot. It’s a million fucking degrees in here.”
“No it’s not,” I replied. “Check the thermostat if you want to. You’re hot for a very specific reason. And you’re tingly too. All over your skin.”
I could tell by her reaction that I’d hit a nail on the head. Her eyes flashed dangerously. She took two steps away from us.
“You drugged me?”
Shit. It wasn’t supposed to go this way either.
“No, not at all.”
“You DRUGGED me?”
“Serena STOP!” My voice was louder than I’d intended, but maybe that was a good thing. I must’ve startled her because she actually stopped.
“Look at me for moment,” I said, as calmly as possible. “Do you feel something for me? Anything at all?”
I could tell she wanted to snarl at me again. She didn’t. Something stopped her.
“A connection maybe?” I continued. “A strange… familiarity?”
I could see her wanting to deny it. She couldn’t though. She was experiencing all the same things I was.
“An intimacy that can’t be explained?”
“It’s nothing,” she said. “And… I actually can explain it.”
“It’s not nothing, Serena.”
“No,” she countered. “It is nothing. You just… well, you look like someone I know.” She paused awkwardly before continuing. “Or rather, someone I used to know. Someone I was very close to.”
I sensed my first radiant emotions: Pain. Loss. Mourning. All of them, very deep. All of them at once.
“Serena, I—”
“You look like Alex,” she said, more to herself than to either of us. “You look like Alex, that’s all it is.”
“But I’m not Alex,” I said gently. “And yet you have these feelings anyway. And if you look at me now — look right into my eyes — you’ll be able to understand what I mean.”
She glanced up. Whether it was out of an actual need to do it, or she did it just to humor me, it didn’t matter. We locked eyes, and for one very long moment everything stopped.
“You and I are connected,” I told her, “in the same way I am with Damien. We’re bonded, he and I. We have been for years.”
She squinted back at me with unbelieving eyes. Outwardly she was still rejecting it.
Inwardly however…
“I can feel your pain,” I said. “Your sense of loss. Even your fear. The fear that I might be right. That something might actually be happening here that you can’t explain.”
Her breathing grew rapid. I could sense her heart beating in her chest now, feel the heat of her blood. Everything was faster. More frenzied.
“You should never have done this,” I said, turning to Damien. “This was wrong.”
He looked hurt by the assertion. “I… I didn’t know.”
“You knew. Or even if you didn’t know, you at least suspected.”
I wasn’t wrong there and he knew it. If I had been, he would’ve argued. I loved him like a brother, but arguing with me was Damien’s thing.
“I— It just sort of happened,” he offered.
Serena was rubbing her temples again. Nothing she could do would clear her head though.
“We had sex,” she said finally, looking from Damien to me. “That’s all it was. We didn’t cut our hands or become blood brothers or—”
“You should’ve told me first,” I said to Damien. “You should’ve asked.”
My eyes crawled her body now. I couldn’t help it. I could smell her, every last bit of her. Her scent, her sex — every pheromone and chemical change that was happening across the wonderful surface of her hot, tingly skin.
And that body… I longed for it, badly. I wanted to hold it in my arms. To crush her against me, to spread her open and take her hard, the way I knew Damien had done himself. And I could smell him on her too. All over her. On her skin. In her hair…
“Why does he need to ask you to have sex with me?” Serena cried, clearly exasperated.
I gave Damien a long, stern look. He conceded fully this time, lowering his head.
“Because it’s our way.”