With the snow came a fresh twisting of emotions from the wolves. Panic. Cold. Hunger. Doubt. Desperation. And fear. So much fear that Bel couldn’t think of anything else but the damn wolves.
Why the hell were they so afraid?
The fear was coming from both of them in sickening waves.
He should call his brothers. They were good at dealing with messy things like this. Bel preferred the neat and organized comfort of his laboratory and his books. This…this…thing with these confusing wolves was too messy.
But he didn’t want to call Marcus or Rafe. Both brothers were currently wrapped up in their new mates. Marcus’s lover, Ethan, was still figuring out what it meant to be a vampire, though the young man seemed to be taking to it far easier than any of them had. Of course, it didn’t hurt that Ethan had grown up with all the vampire mythology available in books and movies. All the same, Marcus and Ethan deserved to have time together uninterrupted.
And then his twin, Rafe, had only recently discovered his mate in Philippe Arsenault.
No, Philippe was a Varik now.
Bel rolled his eyes at himself. He really shouldn’t have trouble keeping this straight. He did like Philippe, and he adored how happy Philippe made his twin. They were still recovering from their fight with the MacPhersons, enjoying those early days as a couple. Bel did not need to drag them into a mess he should be able to easily handle on his own.
Aiden and Winter were busy handling clan business, attempting to determine not only who was threatening the Ministry but also the Varik clan. Not that Bel had any love for the Ministry since the ruling vampires seemed determined to end his life for one silly reason or another. But still, no one wanted chaos.
No sane person, at least.
He didn’t have time for this. He needed to return to his experiments. He’d failed to find a cure for their mother’s illness before she was killed. Over the years, he’d hoped to simply reverse her vampirism, allow her to finally find a natural end to her life and end her pain, but that wasn’t to be.
But Bel’s search for a cure to vampirism wasn’t over. After talking to Philippe, he’d learned there were many vampires in the world who had never wanted to be turned and would very much like to be human again. A cure could help those people.
A cure was only going to be found if he stuck with his research.
No, he wasn’t able to save Julianna Varik, but he very much wanted to save someone with his work.
With a sigh of irritation for himself and the wolves, Bel turned away from the window to find an appropriate pair of shoes for trekking through the woods. He had to have a pair of old boots somewhere. Not that they’d go with the dress slacks and button-down shirt he was wearing, but he didn’t want to change. He’d been in a good mood when he woke at sunset with plans of starting a new line of experiments. He’d even put on his favorite navy-blue bow tie with the gold swirls.
All of that would have to wait until he finally took care of the wolves.
Grabbing his long wool coat from the closet, Bel stepped outside and into the falling snow. He loved his new house in Connecticut. Yes, it was more than a little out of the way and tucked back into a deep swath of woods, but he liked his privacy. He liked being near the animals that chatted with him. It made leaving to hunt a bit of a hassle, but he needed to hunt only once every two or three weeks. Otherwise, he was only drawn from his home and research when he needed to see his family.
A loud throaty caw echoed through the silence of the woods, and Bel smiled. A couple of seconds later there was a flapping of wings, and two taloned feet landed on his shoulder. Bel looked over at Ozzie, the large black raven perched on him.
Finally.
Okay, so maybe Ozzie didn’t communicate in actual words. Like all animals, he communicated in images and emotions, but Ozzie’s emotions were very complex. He had a lot of personality, far more than any other animal Bel had spoken with over the long years.
“I know. I know. I’ve been putting this off,” Bel muttered to the bird. He reached up and stroked the front of Ozzie’s chest with the side of one bent finger. “I just don’t know what to do about them. How am I supposed to convince them to move on?”
Don’t. That feeling was immediately followed up by a vision of both wolves stretched across Bel’s living room floor as rugs.
“You’re not funny,” Bel said. Ozzie cawed loudly and to Bel, it sounded like a laugh. Yes, he was sure Ozzie thought he was quite amusing. “Behave, or I’ll send you to check on Rafe.”
Ozzie cawed again and Bel was hit with a slightly distorted image of Rafe wildly waving a sword in Ozzie’s direction while shouting nonsense sounds. The meaning was clear—Ozzie took great joy in driving Rafe crazy. Sending him back to Bel’s twin was not a threat.
“Behave all the same. I want them gone. Not hurt,” Bel grumbled.
Ozzie shared nothing more than wry amusement, as if he were humoring Bel. That was just lovely. Bel sighed and continued to slowly pick his way through the undergrowth. Dead and frozen leaves crunched under his feet and a bitter, cold wind swept between the trees. The woods were silent except for him, but he could feel the other animals watching him, questioning what he was doing out there in the darkness. Crazy human.
Bel couldn’t disagree with them.
But he wasn’t stupid. Halfway to where he could sense the wolves pacing, he reached out with his powers and called over a couple of bobcats on the prowl for their dinner. Cats were complicated for an entirely different reason, and he wasn’t a fan of using them if he had other choices. Cats were too independent.
Most of his commands were actually requests, and many animals were content to follow them. Cats, on the other hand, too often decided they didn’t care what he wanted. He had to bear down with his stronger will to make them follow, and Bel never felt good about that.
However, tonight he was willing to try it with these wolves. He needed something that could hold the large creatures at bay if he happened to be misreading them. If he were lucky, the bobcats wouldn’t be needed, and he’d be able to convince the wolves to move on peacefully.
Ozzie cried out suddenly and launched himself off Bel’s shoulder. There was a feeling of disgust around the image of a bobcat. The pair of cats had moved in closer to Bel, and Ozzie had finally noticed them. The raven flew ahead and selected a high perch from where he could safely watch the action.
Always nice to have an audience.
With his hands tucked into the deep pockets of his coat, Bel stepped cautiously into a small clearing. The wolves were there, hidden among the trees and deeper shadows. They were watching him. He was sure they were also aware of the cats, but Bel was keeping them back, away from the clearing. They were not meant as a threat. Just a warning that Bel was not an easy target.
“We need to talk,” Bel said firmly, trying very hard not to feel utterly ridiculous. It wasn’t like the wolves were going to be able to clearly articulate why they were sticking close to him. And he wasn’t going to be able to explain why he wanted them to leave. He just hoped they could reach some kind of understanding so they could move on.
Since stepping into the clearing, he’d gotten feelings of cautious hope and relief, but the fear had not left or eased. In fact, Bel was fairly certain that the fear they were feeling had nothing to do with him.
There was a soft rustling, and the larger of the two wolves stepped beyond the trees and into the clearing. His fur was completely black except for the fat flakes that were spotting him and slowly melting. He was enormous. Possibly even bigger than when Bel had seen him a couple of months ago. Maybe his winter coat had come in.