Taming the Wild Beast of Alamina

Duncan discovered that standing was considerably more difficult than offering lifelong loyalty.

He took Nero’s hand and let himself be pulled upright, managed perhaps half the movement under his own strength, then stopped with a rough sound as pain caught beneath his ribs.

Nero steadied him before he could fold back toward the ground.

”That sounded unhealthy.”

Duncan breathed slowly through his nose, one hand pressed against his left side beneath the torn edge of his dark coat. Blood from the wound in his shoulder had soaked through several layers, although that appeared to bother him considerably less than whatever Nero had done to his ribs against the limestone.

”At least one is broken.”

Hale glanced over from his position nearer the residence. ”Probably more.”

Duncan looked at him.

Hale had watched most of the fight with enough professional detachment that the assessment carried rather more credibility than Duncan seemed to appreciate.

Nero kept a hand beneath Duncan’s arm until the dominant alpha found his balance. The forest around them had returned completely to its proper dimensions now that Duncan was no longer manipulating perception. Wet pines climbed the slope normally, the stone outcrop sat precisely where Nero remembered hitting it, and Hale was once again the fifteen meters away that his body had insisted upon throughout the fight.

Much less entertaining.

Duncan tested his breathing and immediately regretted it.

”You hit unnecessarily hard.”

”You were trying to stab me.”

”I was doing my job.”

”So was I.”

”You enjoyed yours.”

Nero smiled.

Duncan apparently considered that sufficient confirmation.

A vibration sounded against Hale’s chest.

His entire attention shifted.

He touched the secured receiver beneath his coat. ”Hale.”

Arion’s voice came through immediately.

”Status?”

Hale looked toward Nero.

Nero was standing beside a wounded dominant alpha who had been trying to kill him less than two minutes earlier.

”Contained.”

There was a brief silence.

Then Dean’s voice came across the channel. ”Contained how?”

Nero’s smile widened.

Before Hale could answer, the channel expanded automatically as Hunter connected from the northern side of the property.

”I’m at the primary entrance,” Hunter said. Wind moved faintly through his microphone. ”No alarm from the house, but I cannot get through the door without creating one.”

Hale turned toward the residence.

Through the trees, the southern wall was just visible beyond a descending stretch of forest. Grey stone, dark roof, nothing moving near the windows.

”What kind of entrance?” Arion asked.

”Biometric.”

Hunter’s reply came with the faint sound of movement as he inspected it.

”Palm and retinal recognition. Camera directly above the panel, secondary lens built into the frame. I can disable the exterior feed, but if the lock itself reports tampering, we lose the advantage.”

Beside Nero, Duncan lifted his head.

”I can open it.”

Everyone on the channel went silent.

Nero looked at him.

Duncan’s face had gone paler beneath the drying blood at his temple, but his expression was perfectly serious.

Hale slowly closed his eyes.

Arion spoke first.

”Who was that?”

Nero answered pleasantly.

”Duncan.”

Another pause.

Dean sounded suspicious. ”Who is Duncan?”

”The younger alpha.”

This silence lasted longer.

Arion’s voice became very controlled.

”Why is one of the alphas alive?”

Nero looked at Duncan.

Duncan looked back at him.

”He asked me not to kill him.”

Dean made a quiet sound over the channel that could have meant several things.

Arion ignored it. ”And?”

”He offered me his loyalty.”

Hale stared into the forest.

Hunter said nothing.

Dean eventually asked, ”You accepted?”

”Yes.”

”During the operation?”

”He was persuasive.”

Duncan raised an eyebrow.

Nero amended, ”Briefly persuasive.”

Nobody actually argued.

That was perhaps the most insulting part.

Arion knew Nero.

Dean knew Nero.

Hale certainly knew Nero.

Apparently Hunter had spent enough time around him to recognize that once Nero had decided to acquire the dominant alpha who had tried to murder him, discussing whether it had been a sensible decision would accomplish absolutely nothing.

Arion exhaled through the connection.

”Is he under control?”

”Yes.”

Duncan glanced at Nero’s hand still lightly supporting his arm.

Technically.

Hale answered more usefully. ”Disarmed, wounded, no attempt to signal the residence. His ability is inactive.”

”And his loyalty?” Hunter asked.

Nero looked at Duncan.

”That is apparently active.”

Duncan gave him a tired, almost disbelieving look.

Dean muttered something that did not transmit clearly.

Arion abandoned the subject.

”Can he open the entrance?”

Duncan straightened as much as his ribs permitted and spoke toward Hale’s receiver.

”Yes. Both external gates, the main entrance and the secure interior corridor, recognize me.”

Hunter responded immediately. ”Retina?”

”And palm.”

”Any duress detection?”

”Yes.”

That answer changed the atmosphere.

Hunter’s voice sharpened. ”Explain.”

”The system reads pulse irregularity and pressure distribution during palm identification. If I authenticate while someone visibly restrains me, it triggers a silent alarm.”

Nero glanced at Duncan’s bloody shoulder.

”You currently look as though someone restrained you with a mountain.”

”That does complicate it.”

Hale came closer and examined the wound through the torn coat.

”Can you control your heart rate?”

Duncan gave him an incredulous look.

”I am a dominant alpha.”

Hale looked at Nero.

Nero understood the unspoken response.

So was the dead one.

Duncan apparently understood it too.

”I can manage it.”

Hunter spoke from the entrance. ”The camera will record his injuries.”

”No,” Duncan said. ”The system masks registered personnel approaching from internal patrol routes.”

Hunter paused.

”You have internal patrol status?”

”Yes.”

That was useful. Very useful.

Nero’s interest in keeping him alive improved considerably.

”We move to Hunter,” Arion decided. ”No one enters the residence until we regroup.”

Nero looked toward Hale.

Hale nodded once.

Duncan tried to take a step without assistance and immediately stopped when his ribs protested.

Nero caught his arm again.

”You are becoming inconvenient.”

”You broke me.”

”Partially.”

Duncan stared at him.

Nero smiled and started guiding him toward the house.

They had gone only several steps when Dean’s voice came through again.

”Wait.”

Something in his tone stopped everyone.

Not humor.

Not irritation over Nero collecting another person in the middle of an operation.

The question they had crossed half the island to answer.

Dean spoke directly to Duncan.

”Is Amaru inside that residence?”

Duncan became still.

For the first time since Nero had spared him, the younger alpha’s expression changed in a way Nero could not easily read.

”Yes.”

Dean did not hesitate.

”Is he sane?”

Duncan looked toward the grey stone visible through the trees.

Dean corrected himself before anyone else could.

”Forget sane. Is he functional? Can he think clearly, make decisions, and understand what is happening around him?”

Duncan’s gaze shifted back to Nero.

Whatever he saw there apparently settled something.

”Yes.”

The forest went silent around them.

Duncan drew a careful breath around his broken ribs.

”Amaru is functional.”