6
Ricky was losing his mind. That was nothing new to him or any of the Howlers for that matter. No sane man wanted to be a Howler, but it fit him and seemed to give them all a measure of belonging they’d never had. The Howlers Mc offered men with no roots a pack and the stability that gave their animals. Ricky needed his pack, his brothers, but he hungered for more.
He wanted a mate.
He looked up when Clothesline pulled out a chair and straddled it.
“Go home.” He said in his ruined voice.
“Fuck off.” He said right back.
Clothesline frowned and the effect was downright scary. “That woman is hurting. She needs someone with her and here you are nursing a beer.” Line shook his head in disgust.
“I need some space right now. I can’t give her what she fucking needs, ok? I can’t watch her suffer when I’m the reason for it.”
The words tasted sour in his mouth causing his stomach to turn.
“Get your asses in here.” River called from the door that lead to the Howlers clubhouse. The Full Moon Saloon was the front, the business, but the bones of the Howlers were housed in the back rooms.
Ricky fell into his chair around the big oaken table and watched his alpha. He was pissed, but there was more to it, there was a scent in the air… one he couldn’t place.
River paced like a mad thing.
Dice sank into his chair and Ricky saw the instant he caught the scent on the air. His eyes met Ricky’s and there fear there.
“You gonna tell us what the hell is going on here boss man?” Clothesline asked. His eyes were steady, watchful.
“We have a fucking situation here.” River gripped the sides of his head.
When he turned his eyes back to the room, they glowed with madness.
Ricky felt his stomach pitch. He knew that look and it might mean the end of all of them.
Pie cursed. Books fisted his hands trying to keep control. Dice stared in disbelief as he watched his alpha fight to stay in control as sweat popped out all over his body.
River’s eyes landed on Ricky. “You know what needs doing.”
Ricky stood and didn’t even notice when his heavy chair hit the floor behind him.
“Don’t ask me to do that.” He shook his head in denial.
“There may not be another way. You know it as well as I do. You know what this is.” River’s voice shook with rage.
“How?” Books demanded. “How the fuck is this happening now?”
“At the camp. When we were cleaning up. I picked up some shit and got stuck with a needle. It was empty and I didn’t think about it. Lucian thinks that’s what happened. He’s seen it before.”
River’s eyes landed on Ricky.
“The fucking hyenas are shooting this shit into kids, research. You know what this is don’t you Ricky?”
His words punched Ricky in the stomach. He didn’t know that River knew, didn’t want to see the accusations in his alpha’s eyes, but he forced himself to look up.
“I know.” He affirmed.
“You mean to tell me those fuckers can infect us with this shit with just a drop of whatever they have?” Pie’s voice was strong and if Ricky hadn’t known him so well, he’d have missed the slight quiver there.
“I don’t know.” River continued to pace. “I don’t know.”
He was falling apart.
“What the fuck do we do?” Dice whispered.
This would hit him hardest. Dice needed a strong alpha.
Ricky’s eyes met River’s and he shook his head. There had to be another way.
“We lock his ass up until we have a way to save him.” Ricky said, his voice strong and sure. “We find a way to fix it. Let the damned tiger find a fucking cure. That. Is what we fucking do.”
River snarled out a horrible sound as the brothers lunged at him and dragged him out of the room and into the dankness of the basement and into one of the cells that were housed there.
Ricky tasted tears as he watched his alpha spit and curse as he threw himself against the bars of his cell.
“I can’t do it boss. I can’t.”
River’s eyes blazed with hatred. “When I get out of here, I won’t suffer the same weakness.”
It was a promise, Ricky knew it and he accepted it. “When you do, I’ll accept my fate.”
He backed away into the shadows of that hell where they had locked the man who kept them all sane. They needed to work fast, damn fast, or the rest of them would lose their minds.
Ricky closed his eyes as he felt the stability of the pack link rock and waver.
They needed to move damned fast.