He jerked his head away from my touch, lip curling. “Of course it’s my fault. I brought Ulrich in. I convinced Eldrick to give him a spot. I trained him. I thought… I thought he was my friend, and all this time he was plotting to overthrow Eldrick.”
“Larson was plotting. Ulrich was probably just a tool he used, and with Larson gone he saw a chance to take the throne. None of this is your fault. You saved Eldrick’s life. If you hadn’t gotten him out of there…”
“Too late,” Hunter said.
I clenched my jaw and shook my head. “Don’t. We don’t know that.”
This time he met my gaze with a glare. “Did you see the state of him?”
“If you thought he was a lost cause you would have left him to die.”
“No. I’d never do that. Eldrick is…He’s like a father to me.”
My heart squeezed painfully in my chest. Here I was, a woman who’d barely known Eldrick for a few weeks, and I was acting like I had the monopoly on concern for his welfare. Hunter had lived by his side for years. Worked with him, been mentored by him, loved by him…
Eldrick was more his father than mine and Hunter was hurting. He was hurting bad and the need to soothe him, to comfort him washed over me in a powerful wave, drawing me toward him. I wrapped my arms around his waist. He stiffened but didn’t push me away, so I laid my cheek against his chest and hugged him. Really hugged him, not giving a shit about the blood that smeared my cheek.
“I’m so sorry you had to go through that, Hunter. So, fucking sorry.”
His chest heaved, once, twice and then settled into a series of erratic bursts, and it hit me that he was crying. I didn’t move. I didn’t look up at him, and slowly, increment by increment his arms came up to hug me back.
We remained like that for long seconds until his sobs ceased and he took a shuddering breath and gently pushed me away.
“Ulrich is going to pay for what he did.” Hunter strode out of the kitchen and it took a second for me to realize where he was headed.
I passed a stunned Grayson and grabbed Hunter around the waist from behind. “No.”
“Let go of me, Fee.” He didn’t shove me, but I could tell it was taking everything he had not to push me off.
“I won’t let you run in to danger like this.”
He rounded on me, eyes blazing, forcing me to stagger away.
“What the fuck do you care?” he demanded.
My stomach twisted and my heart throbbed. “I care, Hunter, okay. I care if you live or die.”
The rage bled out of his expression and it smoothed out to cool and aloof. The signature Hunter look. “You care about the Tribus.”
The Tribus? “Is that what you think? That I want you because we’re a Tribus?”
His gaze was calculating. “You lose the power if I’m dead.”
“I don’t give a fuck about the power, you idiot. I don’t want you dead, okay. I care about you.”
And it was true. I did. I cared. Not love. Not yet, but something… Enough to want to hold on to him.
A flicker of some emotion I couldn’t properly define flitted across his face.
I rubbed my temples. “We are going after Ulrich. That bastard will pay, but we’re going to do it smart.” I lifted my chin. “Put away your Loup and stick on your strategist’s hat.”
He tipped his head to the side, dark eyes lighting up. “You have a plan?
“Yeah, I fucking do.”
Petra had pulled the single seater sofa up to the one housing Eldrick and made herself comfortable. She was on Eldrick watch. He was still pale, but he was no longer ashen, and the bleeding had stopped.
He was healing.
“It will take days,” Petra said. “I’ll need more herbs.”
“I’ll get them,” Dean said.
He grabbed the keys off the table and was headed out when a thought occurred to me.
“Wait.”
He stopped in the doorway. “Fee?”
But instead of responding to him, I looked to Hunter. “There’s a ceremony to crown a new alpha right?”
“Yes, to make it official.”
“How long does it take to prepare it?”
“They’ll need to summon the magistrate, a class of Loup responsible for officiating and swearing in new alphas. It’ll take a day for him to get here. So probably tomorrow night. Ulrich will want that crown on his head. Fast.”
My mind whirred. “Grayson, you need to go back to the House.”
“What?” He looked less than impressed.
“Ulrich may reach out. He may send spies to scope out our pack. He knows I’m Eldrick’s daughter. He’ll expect Hunter to bring Eldrick to me. You need to act normal. Tell him I’m in the Underealm. We can’t let him know we’re aware of what’s going on.”
Grayson looked over at Hunter then down to me. “You want to stay here?”
“I’ll be safe here. Get Uri to deliver the herbs. He won’t be tracked.”
I could see Grayson turning over the plan in his mind, and I knew he wouldn’t find a fault with it.
This was the best way. It would buy us time. Lull the Rising pack into a false sense of security while we planned our next move.
“You’ll call me with the plan?” Grayson said.
“Yes. Be ready to move at short notice. We’ll need our best fighters.”
Grayson bared his teeth. “Oh, we’ll have them.”
He left with Dean, and then it was just me, Hunter, and Petra.
I looked over at Eldrick. His lips had some color now. “How is he?”
“He’s holding up,” Petra said. “I’ll keep watch over him and let you know if anything changes.”
She didn’t get involved in pack politics, but this was her giving us permission to do what we needed to do.
“You said you had a plan,” Hunter reminded me.
“I do. We can discuss it in the kitchen.”
“You have blood on your cheek,” he said. “Get cleaned up first.”
I looked him over. “You have blood everywhere. You should take your own advice.”
He glanced down at himself, and then plucked at his shirt. “Fuck.”
“Come on, there has to be a change of clothes somewhere in this safe house.”
I headed out into the hallway and up the first flight of stairs. The corridors were narrow and poky, and the brown carpet gave the place a dingy air, but I guessed the décor didn’t really matter if you were using the place as a hideout.
I peered into the first room, which looked like a study. The second one was a bedroom with a large dresser. Hunter entered the room as I pulled open the top drawer. T-shirts were neatly folded in rows, black and navy colored. Bingo. I tugged one out and checked the size. Large. Hunter was definitely a large.
“Take off your shirt.” I turned to face him.
His gaze dropped to the shirt in my hand and then flicked up to my face. Okay, so I could totally just hand him the shirt and leave him to get changed, so why wasn’t I?
For a moment I thought he was going to tell me to leave but then he hooked an arm over his shoulder and tugged his shirt over his head. His bronze skin was smeared with streaks of dried blood that had seeped through the material of the T. I ran my gaze over his chest and down his defined abs.