Little Wolf (45 page)

Tim almost suspected the state agents of luring Nathaniel out of town, but they couldn’t have known where Nathaniel would go afterward unless he told them, so Tim discarded the notion.

He used the bathroom and then stepped as lightly as he could to the kitchen, stopping once or twice to watch Nathaniel breathe because Nathaniel was asleep and couldn’t say anything about it. He left the living room dark while he opened a can of tuna and then debated eating it plain and getting back into bed or making a tuna melt and getting out the chess set to help him run through things in his mind.

There were actual legitimate reasons why Tim should grab his things and go that very night before Nathaniel woke up. Whatever notions Carl or Albert had about it, the up-and-down torrent of emotion inside Tim was a weakness because everyone knew about it. Nathaniel’s urge to protect could be leveraged against him.

But there were also reasons to stay. It was safer for Tim in Wolf’s Paw, even Tim could see that. More dangerous for Nathaniel and anyone else in his uncle’s way, if Silas was that determined to get to Tim, yes, but safer for Tim—if Tim made himself not care about the people who would get hurt.

Nathaniel seemed to believe Tim did care. He had fallen asleep believing Tim cared, as if that fact alone was enough to make him let his guard down. Tim wouldn’t bet that much on his compassion, but Nathaniel had.

They weren’t safe, though, even with the deputies somewhere nearby. Tim left the kitchen to lock the front door again. It would buy them a second’s warning, if Luca stopped being a cowardly ass for long enough to consider a direct challenge. If he did, he’d be facing two weres, even if he didn’t consider Tim much of one. But Tim had teeth, he had claws, he could use them. People needed to remember that.
Tim
needed to remember that.

A whisper of motion from the direction of the hall made him turn quickly.

Nathaniel looked down at the food on the counter and Tim’s rolled-up sleeves. Someday Tim was going to learn to move as quietly as Nathaniel did. For now he blinked to see Nathaniel on his feet and standing straight. “You are supposed to be resting.”

“You left.” The slow, gravelly, sleep-deprived voice made the words a complaint. Or maybe they would have been a complaint anyway, and Nathaniel had gotten up to pout about Tim leaving him alone in bed.

Tim studied him for another moment, trying to process that this did in fact seem to be the case. He was torn between a dopey smile at being missed and the realization that Nathaniel was capable of being the biggest baby in the world. It was probably a side effect of having an entire town throw itself at you. Get denied one thing and you pout about it.

Tim pointedly gestured to his food, as though he weren’t going to leap into Nathaniel’s bed the second Nathaniel stopped blocking the hallway. Which Nathaniel was totally doing. Tim stopped thinking about the tuna and reconsidered him. Nathaniel wasn’t holding himself as though he was in pain, but he was staring at Tim as if something was wrong.

“Was I supposed to stay all night?” A big baby Nathaniel might be, but he had never made an irrational demand before. “I wasn’t tired,” Tim argued. “But I was going to come back. Why would I sleep in my bed when you were in yours and wanted me there?” It didn’t make any sense to do anything else, even if Nathaniel took up so much of the bed that Tim ended up half on top of him.

Nathaniel’s shoulders lowered an inch.

“You really thought I would have rejected you?” Tim asked in disbelief. “Are you still high?”

“I woke up alone,” he was told, in a tone Tim chose to describe as grumpy.

“Right, so you disregarded your healing body and jumped out of bed to find me and—” Tim dropped his sarcasm. “Oh shit, you did do that. You were worried I’d left.” Nathaniel knew Tim better than Tim was completely comfortable with. Tim stared down at his unappealing dinner. “You should be resting. Healing takes strength.”

“I’m stronger with you.” Nathaniel continued to grump at him. Tim rolled his eyes before he realized Nathaniel was being entirely serious.

“What?” Tim licked his mouth, but it remained suddenly, strangely dry. Nathaniel had told him once that weres found a greater strength with a pack, but he hadn’t mentioned anything along these lines. “Is this something else I’m supposed to know? Because we both know I have no real knowledge of anything useful, the way we also know I’m getting sick of people withholding that knowledge from me.”

He was not expecting his miniature tirade to push Nathaniel back a step. Nathaniel’s eyes went wide and took on the golden cast that meant Nathaniel was not entirely in control. “Little Wolf.” Tim glanced around them but couldn’t see any reason for Nathaniel’s braced posture or the slow way he lifted his chin to let Tim see his wild gaze. “Then there is something I need to tell you.”

Tim moved away from the counter and stumbled into the table. “You shouldn’t be up. Resting. Resting is the thing even if your bones are knitted back together where they are supposed to be. There’s”—he winced and straightened a chair—“there’s danger. You nearly died. Whatever has you so freaked out can wait. I don’t need to hear it now.” He should shut up, and yet that seemed impossible with the chill running through him. “You’re making me think about running for real, so stop it.” Tim finally, finally closed his mouth.

Nathaniel had his head down when Tim came around the counter into the living room. He stopped Tim with one fiery look. His voice was ground-up glass. “I was going to tell you. We are m—I need yo—I think it might be safer for you in town.”

“But I stayed,” Tim told him blankly. “I stayed
here
.” He put his foot down, stamped it hard to get Nathaniel’s stoned self to see reason. “What the hell?”

“Or we could have another deputy move in,” Nathaniel added. He set his jaw in a way that screamed he didn’t want another deputy in the house with them.

“Safer for me?” Tim let his voice go up because he was unclear on when exactly Nathaniel had had the time and clarity of thinking to decide Tim wasn’t safe enough in his own damn house. “Why is my safety the issue here? You were the one who—holy shit, you don’t think it was an accident either. Why do you think that?” Tim was going to find out exactly what Nathaniel had told Zoe about the wreck—from Zoe if Nathaniel continued to be a jerk about it. Nathaniel had set up extra security measures for Tim and never mentioned them. He’d told the town to keep an eye out for anything unusual and had someone, either himself or Zoe, there to watch Tim whenever Tim wasn’t in the café. Tim had thought Nathaniel had been trusting Tim’s word about the danger level, but maybe it was more than that.

Tim stepped forward with his hands at his sides and his every sense focused on Nathaniel. “When you went out to investigate that bear that turned out not to be a bear, what was it really?”

“It was exactly what I said it was.” Nathaniel wasn’t so drugged anymore if he was choosing his words carefully. “Weres camping out away from town.”

“City weres who didn’t know they could come into town. Who left traces.” That was what Nathaniel had said. “But you thought it was more than that.” Tim narrowed his eyes. “You thought it was about me.”

“It was as if they didn’t want to be seen by anyone in town,” Nathaniel filled in with obvious reluctance. “But that was only a feeling.”

“Bullshit. Feelings and instinct are the same thing to you.” Tim gasped at a new realization. “You knew something was up this whole time, and you didn’t tell me! How did I not smell the lie?”

Nathaniel paused as if guilty, but his tone was harsh. “There’s a lot you don’t notice. A lot of things right in front of you that you are blind to, things you might even be willfully blind to.”
Hurt
came from him in waves. Nathaniel took a long breath as if he knew that, but there was no softening in his attitude. “I never lied.”

Tim was not having it, no matter how much Nathaniel’s pain made him rub his own chest. “But you knew I sucked at figuring out scent, and I probably wouldn’t notice any worry or deception. You used my weakness against me. You son of a bitch.” Later Tim might find that incredibly hot. Right now it was infuriating.

“I told you to be careful. I watched over you. I had others watch over you. You were protected.” Nathaniel did not seem ready to back down. Of course not—he’d had a plan and his reasons and he was sticking to them. It made him a good leader, but it was also a weakness, and he’d known it. He’d told Tim his flaw the first time Tim had asked, and Tim had thought he was kidding. The bastard had
known
Tim had thought he was kidding. Nathaniel had managed to do the one thing weres weren’t supposed to be able to do; he could lie to other weres by manipulating the truth. It was impressive, actually, like everything else about him.

But he had another weak spot. Zoe had noticed it before Tim had.

Tim jabbed a finger at him. “You just didn’t feel like sharing important information with me. No, I get it. That’s actually really familiar. Someone is worried about poor little Timothy, so they keep the truth from me.”

Nathaniel stepped forward with a snarl. “You said you’d leave. First sign of trouble and you’d run. You told me that repeatedly.” The break in his voice might have been undetectable to someone who didn’t know him.

Tim pounced. “So you lied to me. Withheld facts from me after telling me I could ask you anything.” He ignored the fact that he hadn’t asked Nathaniel about any of his suspicions. He would have if he’d known about them. Or, more likely, Nathaniel was right and Tim would have bolted and never looked back.

“The danger seemed focused on me,” Nathaniel snapped at him, as if that negated Tim’s point at all. “You were safe.”

“Yeah, okay, because that’s better. I didn’t know the danger was this close, and meanwhile you were hit by a fucking car!” Tim became aware that he was struggling to breathe normally. He’d intended to provoke Nathaniel, but he was seeing red and couldn’t stop to think about why. “Explain to me how you need me free and informed when it comes to sex and love, but when it comes to my—” His feet stuck to the floor. He knew what he’d said, and there was no way Nathaniel had missed it, but he hurried on and glared at the tape stuck to Nathaniel’s ribs. “If you want me to defend myself, then I should know.”

“It was as I told you. Anything else was without proof.” Nathaniel’s eyes were no less gold, even if he was making the effort to keep his voice level.

The instincts of a wolf like Nathaniel were not something to sneeze at. If he suspected enough to warn the town, he should have warned Tim too. Tim’s vision, the air on his tongue, all seemed to sharpen. He took a deep breath and lowered his head and wondered distantly how he looked that Nathaniel would reach out for him and then pull himself back.

“I’m an old blood were, same as you,” Tim told him heavily, watching Nathaniel’s eyes flicker over him. He inhaled
fear
and
need
and
desire
enough to make himself dizzy and stayed on his feet only through concentration. “Do you really want me out of your house?”

He already knew the answer. Nathaniel growled at him anyway, low and deadly, like a threatened alpha wolf should sound. “No.”

There was bite in the response, and Nathaniel’s eyes hadn’t changed. Tim’s heart sped up. It wasn’t the only one.

“I could leave, though, if I wanted.” Tim spoke the truth even though he currently had no intention of going anywhere. He stared straight into Nathaniel’s eyes. “I could go into town, or run again.”

Even from a few feet away, Tim could hear Nathaniel’s strong heart was trying to tear out of his chest, pounding against ribs only just healed. But he didn’t move.

“Anything could happen to me out there.” Tim’s shiver was genuine.

“No.” Nathaniel’s voice was getting loud again.

Tim lifted his chin. “I could be killed. Or hurt. I could starve in the woods. Or Luca might find me and decide—”

“No.” Nathaniel denied that with a step in Tim’s direction. Tim almost fell down onto his knees. He’d thought once Nathaniel had smelled of a knightly promise to slay Tim’s enemies, but this was stronger than that. It was violence, animal, blood deeper than any surface bruise. Nathaniel would fight anyone, including Tim, to keep that from happening. There was
sacrifice
on Tim’s tongue. It was rich as he took it in.

“I could leave right now. Then there’d be no danger to you.” Tim would be in danger, but that was nothing new. “You don’t deserve it.”

“I can handle it.” Nathaniel’s nostrils flared.
I will handle it
, he meant, and he meant
alone
. His hands were fists, his jaw was locked tight, and his gaze was that of a wolf on a leash.

Tim’s blood was coursing through him. He lifted his chin until his neck was bared.

Nathaniel made a noise that Tim had no problem interpreting; he wanted to make a new mark on Tim. He wanted it so bad it hurt. Tim hurt too. It ached to know the bruise was gone. He tugged at the collar of his shirt and tried not to inch forward. Not until this was done.

“Timothy.” Nathaniel’s gaze went from Tim’s smooth, unblemished neck to his face. He was the hottest thing Tim had ever seen. Luca had put his mouth on Tim’s neck before, and it had never felt like this. Luca hadn’t earned the honor. Nathaniel would kill for it.

“You claimed me knowing the danger was out there,” Tim realized out loud, exhaling softly. Nathaniel had claimed Tim knowing the danger would become his danger, that he would be targeted too. “You shouldn’t have.”

“I claimed you.” Nathaniel spoke as if he hadn’t heard the last thing Tim had said. The tone of voice, the smell of him, the kick of his heart, were the same as they were in bed, as if Nathaniel was hard and aching for him.

“But you think I’m weak.” Tim was vaguely aware that he should want Nathaniel or the others to deal with Luca for him, and yet he was still arguing. “Would you be doing that if I were like any other wolf? Would you tell any other were to go live away from you?”