Chapter Thirteen
Michael stuck close to Max as they followed Parker inside. He felt the alpha go tense when Parker welcomed him home. Was this really Max’s home?
He was cold, damp, and hungry but he wasn’t ready to be lured into a false sense of safety. If Max said it was safe, he’d believe him, but right then the alpha seemed uncertain.
“This way,” Parker said, heading up a flight of stairs.
Michael could hear other people talking, music playing somewhere, and the sound of a TV or radio.
When they got to the top of the stairs, the alpha paused.
“You know where your room is, Max. I can show Michael to the guest rooms, and we’ll find him some clothes.”
He shrank away from Parker at that, edging toward Max. The alpha took this all in, holding his hands up slowly and speaking with quiet confidence.
“It’s alright, Michael, there’s no need to be scared. You’re safe here, both of you. Max, why don’t you take Michael to the guest rooms and you can both clean up there.”
Max grew tenser.
“He doesn’t remember,” Michael blurted out. “He was hurt, his head… It’s still healing.”
A frown crossed Parker’s face but his words were measured and calm. “Then I’ll show you both to the guest rooms. Let’s get you cleaned up, get some food into you, and then you can tell me what’s happened.”
“We may have been followed,” Max warned. “I don’t know by who but they want Michael.”
“I’ll post guards at our perimeter, lock the place up. That’ll buy us some time at least. Come on.”
Parker left them to wash up, promising to get them some clean clothes. There were two bathrooms but Michael didn’t want to leave Max’s side. They were among strangers and the lesson not to trust had been ingrained deeply within him.
Max started the shower, steam billowing out into the room.
“You go first,” the alpha said. “I’ll stand watch.”
“Are you sure we should stay here?”
He was nervous, struggling to keep still while trying to ignore the throbbing pain in his feet.
“Come on,” Max said, leading him over to the bathroom counter. “Let’s start with your feet.”
He lifted Michael to sit on the counter, grabbing a washcloth and wetting it in the water from the shower. Then he crouched down in front of Michael, taking hold of his ankle as he stripped off his sock.
“Doesn’t look as bad as last time,” the alpha said. “But this will probably hurt a little.”
He ran the cloth along Michael’s foot. It hurt but his sole was also oddly ticklish.
“Sorry,” Max said when he jerked a little in the alpha’s hand.
His second foot got the same treatment, the alpha checking carefully for any splinters or glass.
“There. I think you’ve been lucky. But let’s try to get you some shoes before we take off running again.”
“Parker knows Griffin.”
“Yeah, I caught that,” Max told him, lifting him down to the floor. He grasped the hem of Michael’s T-shirt, drawing it over his head. “The sooner we wash up, the sooner we get some answers.”
Nodding, Michael moved past him toward the shower, pushing his sweatpants down and stepping out of them. He could feel the alpha’s eyes on him. Before, it might have made him uncomfortable but not now. Maybe he was just too tired to care. A wave of fatigue washed over him as he stepped under the spray, and he sagged sideways, catching himself on the door of the shower.
“Damn.”
He heard movement and then Max was there, holding him up.
“A bath might have been a better idea,” the alpha groused. “Here.”
He helped Michael to his knees on the shower floor. “Keep your head down, that’ll help.”
Turning his head to the side, he saw the alpha, shirtless but still wearing pants, and getting soaked by the shower.
“It’s okay,” Max told him, pressing a hand against the back of his head. “You just need rest and some food.”
“I want to get clean, first.” He tried to push back to his feet.
“Stay there,” Max encouraged, pressing down on his shoulder. “Let me do the hard work.”
The alpha returned with a cloth, washing Michael’s back and chest. He hesitated over the omega’s neck.
“Is this okay?”
“Please,” Michael told him, arching into the touch when the alpha ran the cloth across the nape of his neck.
Max handed him the cloth and stepped back out, leaving Michael to briskly clean the rest of his skin. The alpha returned, running his fingers through Michael’s hair, something cold and sweet smelling on his hands.
“Just relax,” Max said.
Michael couldn’t help but obey as the alpha’s fingers ran over his scalp. A moan slipped from between his lips, startling him. A knock on the door a moment later had them both glancing around.
“Parker,” Max reminded him. “He said he’d bring us clothes.”
The alpha stepped out and went to the door. Michael followed him with his eyes, watching anxiously. Max opened the door, blocking the other alpha’s view with his body. A few quiet words were exchanged then the door shut again. Max set the clothes on the counter and turned back to him.
“He wants to talk to us right away.”
Michael got up carefully, rinsing the last of the shampoo from his hair as Max peeled off his jeans. The alpha stepped into the shower as Michael stepped out, their bodies brushing against one another.
“Dry off and get dressed,” Max urged.
Michael did, keeping his back to the alpha, but he was distracted by flashes of bare skin he kept seeing in the mirror.
All too soon, the alpha was out, drying off briskly with a towel. Michael searched through the clothes, leaving aside the too large T-shirt and pants meant for Max and throwing on the smaller jeans and T-shirt. There were socks, too, but no shoes. At least he was dry.
Toweling his hair, he waited while Max dressed, trying not to seem like he was staring as the alpha tugged the jeans up over his hips. They clung to him just the right amount, and once more he found himself distracted in his appreciation.
“Come on,” Max said, turning him with a hand to his shoulder. “We can stare at each other later when we’re not in danger.”
Parker was waiting for them outside. He had a blanket in one hand, which he held out toward Michael. “In case you’re cold.”
Michael took it, clutching it to his chest. “Thanks,” he mumbled.
“Now, how about some food while we get caught up on what’s going on?”
“Sounds good,” Max said, his hand pressing lightly on Michael’s shoulder. “Lead the way.”
A few minutes later, they were sitting at a table and eating bowls of chili. When Michael shivered, Max took the blanket he’d left over the back of the chair and settled it around his shoulders. Parker was watching their interactions with interest, sipping on a cup of coffee.
“Why don’t you start from the beginning?” he asked when they were halfway through their meals. “Or at least, what you remember first?”
It was clear he was asking Max but Michael felt he was probably the best one to start the story.
“A few weeks ago, Max started working as a guard in the house I was in.” He swallowed, waiting to see if Max would take over, but the alpha stayed quiet. “A few days ago, he broke us both out of there.”
“I get the sense that wasn’t the plan.”
Michael looked to Max, who shrugged, so he kept going.
“We think they decided to sell me so Max had to act sooner than he’d planned.”
“That fits with what Griffin said. They’ve been looking for you both too. They said it was like you just disappeared into thin air. You didn’t reach the agreed meeting place or make contact like you were supposed to.” Parker’s eyes strayed to the nearly healed injury on Max’s head. “Which is only now making sense. You didn’t remember.”
“I still don’t,” Max said shortly.
“But you came here,” Parker pointed out. “You remember something.”
Max was staying stubbornly silent, and Michael was starting to feel a little sorry for Parker. The alpha seemed to want to help them.
“We were staying at a cabin while we both healed. But another shifter saw me in the woods, so we knew we couldn’t stay there. Max said he knew somewhere safe to take me.”
“And he brought you here,” Parker finished. He sat back in his chair. “I know the cabin. That’s where I first met you, Max. Years ago now. You’d been alone for a long time, you were almost feral from the isolation. It took a long time to win your trust and bring you here.”
“Why did you?”
Max sounded more hostile than curious but Parker didn’t seem taken aback.
“I saw a lot of potential in you. You deserved more than a life of loneliness or a quick death when you crossed the wrong shifter’s path.”
Parker seemed in earnest but Max’s skepticism was obvious.
“You know my brother,” Michael said, changing the subject.
The alpha blinked at that.
“Griffin is your brother? Ah, this is all starting to make more sense now. Yes, I’ve met Griffin. We’ve worked together before. I know of Andrew, as well, though we’ve never met.”
Michael bit his lip. Had he made a mistake, telling Parker about his relationship to Griffin?
“The others are very relieved to know you’re safe but they agree you’re at risk right now. I’m afraid you can’t stay here. We don’t have the resources to protect you from the powerful people looking for you. Griffin, on the other hand, does. Our plan is to get you to him.”
“Get us a car, point us in the right direction, and we’ll get out of your hair,” Max offered.
“I know going it alone is your style,” Parker replied. “But, in this case, you need to travel under the radar. This place is already being watched. If you drive out of here, they’ll be on you like that.” He snapped his fingers.
“What do you suggest?” Max asked.
“I’ll take you myself. We’ll hide you in the back of a truck and create a diversion outside while we slip away. Griffin and Andrew are already on their way. We’ll meet them on the road.”
Michael looked to Max, excited at the prospect of seeing his brothers but afraid it was blinding him to the danger.
“Why don’t I give you two a few minutes to talk it over? I can get Griffin on the phone if that would help, just let me know.”
He stepped out, leaving them alone.
“I don’t even know if I’d recognize Griffin’s voice,” Michael admitted sadly. “Max, what do we do?”
“I—” The alpha stood, pacing away from the table. “My instincts are telling me we can trust Parker. I have memories of him. Good ones. I think he did what he said, he got me away from that cabin and he brought me here. I’d been alone for so long… just like you.”
“But I wasn’t alone.”
“Trapped in that house with that vindictive beta and no one to talk to? Yeah, Michael, I think you know loneliness.”
“So do we trust him, do we trust Parker?”
“My instincts have been right so far.”
Relief flooded him. He was so close to his brothers, so close to safety. Nothing could stand in their way, not now.