Chapter Twenty – Good Value for the Money
"So, you're telling me that he should be dead, but he isn't?" Danny asked, only to understand what sort of new predicament fate was preparing for them. Ever since the news told them that Theodore Pembroke was still breathing, he'd been in a state that felt powerful enough to make him lose his mind.
"Vince did his best. But it's not easy to take down an alpha. You need more than just the right weapon."
"Okay." Danny ran his hands through his hair. He was still half-expecting to wake up from this strange dream in which wolfshifters were real and clairvoyants were a thing, and people survived falling from the twentieth floor of buildings. But no, it couldn't be a dream, because Ryder was here, real in his pain and in the way he stared at Danny, filling his heart with so much fondness he couldn't bear it.
And now, there was this thing with Theodore Pembroke, who supposedly was also the giant white wolf that could have treated them as snacks not that very long ago. Danny sat down on the bed again, and Ryder put his head in his lap. His breathing was steady as Danny caressed him; as strange as it was, it did seem that his proximity alone helped alleviate Ryder's suffering.
What was happening with Vince and Jack? Danny wanted to tell them about Theodore's being alive and to be cautious. The scent store could very well have a connection to the man controlling half the city, if not more, which meant that the employees there could alert their evil boss about people coming around, asking uncomfortable questions.
Neither was answering his phone, which added to Danny's worries. He hadn't shared that bit with Ryder yet, because he didn't want to disturb him with more unwanted complications. The feeling of uselessness that had pushed him into a mental corner was hard to bear. There had to be something he could do.
Ryder's soft grunt interrupted his train of thought.
"Is it getting worse?" Danny asked. He had dressed Ryder's shoulder wound, despite knowing that human medicine wasn't helpful, so he took it upon himself to lift the bandage and take a look. It didn't look any better, but it didn't seem that there were any other complications, either.
"I feel something." Ryder pushed himself into a sitting position. His nostrils were flaring, and his eyes were alert, shining with apprehension.
"What exactly?" Danny asked.
Ryder turned his head abruptly toward the door, and then toward the window. Danny followed his gaze with a growing sense of dread.
A shadow passed by the window. Danny jolted involuntarily. "What was that?" he asked in a trembling voice.
Ryder pushed himself to his feet. He no longer had a shirt on, and he looked bigger than life in Danny's eyes as he moved to stand in front of Danny, as if he wished to protect him.
***
Ryder knew what, or better said, who was out there. Alphas could sense each other from great distances when there wasn't any other interference. Hours ago, Theodore had been taken to a hospital, but that didn't mean he had remained there.
"Danny," he said in a measured voice meant to project assurance, "leave the house, now."
"What? Why?"
"I cannot stand even the mere idea that you will get hurt," he replied.
"Why would I--"
Danny's question died mid-sentence.
The window glass shattered into myriad pieces as the white wolf with bloodied fur came through.
"Danny, leave, now!" Ryder ordered. Even though his shoulder was killing him, he denied his own pain to position himself between Theodore and Danny.
Theodore kept his muzzle low, growling like a wounded animal, which he had to be. Too bad that ancient weapon was no longer in their possession. Unlike before, when he had told Theodore that he wouldn't use such dishonorable means to gain the upper hand, he wished he had it now. Danny's life was at stake. Without his wolf, he would surely lose against a powerful alpha like Theodore. Even wounded, Theodore was more powerful, because he had his wolf to help him.
"I'm not leaving you," Danny spoke up from behind him.
Ryder turned his head briefly to give him a hard stare. The beautiful human who had helped him through the worst time of his life stood his ground, with his eyes ablaze, his hands clenched into fists by his sides. Ryder could feel his heart growing at that sight; Danny was courageous, even if he was a weak human. He was noble and loving. There was no time he had wished more than now that Jack's cards spoke the truth.
"You have to. I won't forgive you if you don't."
Bitter tears coursed down Danny's cheeks. He stole a look at Theodore and then dashed for the door.
Ryder felt relief washing through him and turned to face the ugly mutt he had believed to be his fate.
"Are you here to finish me? I'm yours. But I will not go down without a fight."
A wheezing sound came out of Theodore. "I'll make you die slowly, alpha. And then, I'll go after your human and tear him limb from limb. Too bad you'll be dead then and won't be able to watch. But I can't postpone your demise any longer. Die!"
Ryder blocked Theodore's attack with his forearms, but he could feel the wolf's fangs piercing deep into his flesh. He hoped Danny had managed to escape. Humans were weak compared to wolves, but if Danny went to their police and asked to be protected, Theodore would have to hide his nature so he could keep on doing the same thing he'd been doing for years. Danny's immediate survival was all that mattered.
Despite the pain, he freed one arm and wrapped it around Theodore's heavy neck. With a loud cry, he pushed against the powerful alpha and forced him back until he slammed him against the wall. His saving grace was that Theodore was wounded too. A red gash remained open on the side of Theodore's head where Vince had managed to hit him with that weapon. That wouldn't heal easily, as Ryder knew full well. And there was no human capable of alleviating Theodore's pain, like there had been for Ryder.
Even without his wolf, he was still strong. If he believed himself capable of overpowering Theodore, he might have a chance to cause some serious damage before the other alpha would inevitably destroy him. Until he drew his last breath, he would continue to fight.
His surprise attack was shaken off, and now Theodore was pushing back. Ryder growled as pain shot through his forearm where the wolf's fangs remained buried. He fell on his back with Theodore on top of him. They were rolling around on the floor, knocking against what little furniture Danny had in his apartment.
Something crashed to the floor, breaking in pieces. Ryder used all the power he still had left to punch Theodore hard, right in the jaw. That gave him some reprieve, but it didn't last long. It was enough for him to land a few more blows. A wounded alpha wouldn't be as strong as he usually would be, and Ryder intended to use that to his advantage. If he managed to hurt Theodore, even if only a little bit, it would still be a win.
When Theodore got on top of him again, he knew, however, that his luck had run out.
"Your death is near, alpha," Theodore growled from above, his muzzle opened and displayed all his sharp fangs. "I want to hear you beg."
"I won't," Ryder said.
"It wouldn't help you if you did," Theodore snarled.
Ryder watched at the fangs glinting closer now. He would die with dignity.
"You're all bark and no bite, mutt," he insulted Theodore to make him hurry. This postponing the inevitable wasn't doing either of them any honor.
Theodore let out a dark laugh. "Are you looking forward to dying, alpha? Die like a dog then."
Ryder stared his fate in the eye. Theodore's large muzzle opened, ready to bite his head off. But although he was looking straight into the other alpha's maw, the pain of having his fangs sink into his head didn't come. Instead, the maw shut abruptly and Theodore's head jolted to one side.
Ryder gawked in disbelief. Theodore's body was limp on top of him, weighing him down.
And behind him, holding what looked like a kitchen appliance above his head, ready to strike again, stood Danny with a wild look on his face.
***
The smartest idea was to run, of course. But Danny couldn't stand the thought of running. After four or five instinctive steps down to the landing, he had returned to the scene of the battle and watched with growing horror as Theodore was ripping Ryder apart.
What he needed was a weapon. Too bad no one had gone to check on Theodore at the construction site and taken possession of the only thing that was said to have an effect on alphas.
He needed to think fast, so he did. While Theodore opened his maw to devour Ryder, Danny acted as instinct dictated.
He grabbed his precious stainless-steel toaster and smacked Theodore over the head with it without too much hope that it would do any good.
But the white wolf had folded like a noodle and now seemed completely unresponsive.
"Did I get him? Did I really get him?" he whispered, getting ready to smack Theodore in the head again. Weird to call a giant wolf that, but Theodore he had to be.
Ryder was staring at him with dark eyes. "Danny, why didn't you run as I told you?"
"Hey," he protested, "you should be grateful I didn't. Should I hit him again? It feels weird to kick someone who's unconscious, but he's bad, and also not dead, right?"
He had never excelled at sports, but maybe he had gotten lucky and hit Theodore in a soft spot, like an Achilles's heel but somewhere on his head.
A hard knock on the door stopped whatever he and Ryder had been going to say.
"Young man, young man," someone yelled from the other side of the door.
Ah, damn. It was Mrs. Machi from next door.
"It's after ten, I will report you," she threatened him, although he hadn't said anything yet. "What in the devil's name are you doing to make so much ruckus after ten?"
Danny was pretty sure she was banging on his door with her cane.
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Machi," he yelled at the top of his lungs. "I was only watching an action movie and fell asleep. So sorry to bother you. Don't report me, please."
He and Ryder both waited with bated breath for a reaction from Danny's troublesome neighbor.
"Don't let it happen again," Mrs. Machi warned. "And lay off the booze, you're still too young to go the way of the bottle."
"Yes, Mrs. Machi," Danny yelled. "Thank you for your concern."
She must have murmured something else about young people today, but it was too low for him to hear it. Her shuffling steps moved away.
Danny breathed a sigh of relief. Then, his eyes fell on Theodore's unmoving body. Another sort of horror coursed through him.
"Did I kill him? No, tell me I didn't. They'll put me in jail forever. And I won't be able to live with myself."
Ryder pushed the giant wolf on top of him away and then stood to his feet. He staggered for a moment, and his forearms were bloody. His shoulder wound had reopened, too. Danny dropped the toaster he'd been holding and hurried to support him, but it looked like Ryder didn't need as much help as he had thought he would.
***
He couldn't believe it. He was moving freely. Theodore lay at his feet, defeated, and Ryder felt his strength returning. He stared at his bloodied forearms, but he could tell the pain was receding. By his side, Danny was babbling feverishly.
Ryder crouched and checked Theodore. "He's breathing," he announced to Danny. "But we will need to tie him up."
"Hey, shouldn't we care for your wounds, first?" Danny asked.
"I'm all right," he promised.
"For fuck's sake, is this some sort of machismo talking for you?"
Ryder stared at Danny, surprised, and then recalled that he was still mad at his beautiful human for disobeying the order to save himself.
"I had no idea you could be all bristly like this," he said.
Danny crossed his arms and jutted out his chin. "You're bleeding, mister. We need to take care of you."
"No, we need to tie Theodore up before he wakes up. And figure out what to do with him."
Danny stared at him for a moment longer. "Okay, fine, you have a point. I have some rope. Do you think it's going to be strong enough to hold him? He's a huge-ass dog, after all. Wolf, I meant wolf. I heard you calling him a mutt, so—whatever, let's do it."
Ryder grinned as he watched Danny rummaging through the drawers in his kitchen for the promised rope. With just a swing of a toaster, Danny had shaken loose some of the curse placed on him by Theodore's terrible bites.
Could it be? Ryder licked his lips and felt his power surging as his fangs began growing.
***
"What the heck?" Once he looked up, Danny dropped the rope he had found in the back of one of the drawers.
It wasn't enough that there was a huge white wolf on the floor of his studio apartment. Now, there was a second, one with dark fur and eyes like liquid gold, and this one was standing on his hind legs.
"Ryder?" he asked tentatively. "Tell me it's you or I might have to hit you with the toaster, too."
"It's me, Danny," the wolf said in a voice just like Ryder's, but lower, with a soft, alluring growl to it. It tickled his ears pleasantly.
"Have you ever considered performing ASMR?" he asked, feeling pretty stupid for saying the first thing that crossed his mind.
"Is that a medical technique?" Ryder asked. He let his muzzle drop for a moment, but his amazing eyes never left Danny's face. "What do you think?"
Danny shook his head to keep from making a fool of himself. Somehow, seeing Ryder in wolf shape made his breaths come in quick pants. He doubted he had ever seen—
"What do you think of my wolf?"
"You're the most beautiful wolf I've ever seen," Danny replied promptly and handed Ryder the rope.
He wanted to touch that gorgeous thick fur and convince himself that Ryder was real. But he needed to keep himself in check, not act like an idiot who had never seen a wolfshifter in his life.
Ryder turned to his human form before Danny's very eyes. He took the rope and crouched by Theodore's side.
"Wait, didn't you say that Theodore took your wolf away?" Danny asked.
"Yes. But you hitting him seems to have undone that curse. I am grateful to you, Danny."
Ryder's eyes were still glinting gold, making Danny want to dissolve into them and find a home there forever.
"It's not a problem. I mean, anything I can do to help. What are we going to do when he wakes up?"
Ryder put a hand on the white wolf's neck, and Danny let out a short squeak that he had to swallow quickly for fear of provoking a second visit from Mrs. Machi. The unconscious wolf slowly turned into a human. It was Theodore Pembroke, without a doubt. Seeing that man sprawled on the floor of his room, Danny couldn't help feeling strange. He was handsome, even wounded and lying there. Of course, Ryder would consider a man like that fit to be his fated mate.
No. That handsome asshole had hurt Ryder. And he was a freaking wolf, too! Danny had no idea how he would continue to live a normal life after the dust had settled over the current events; he'd probably begin to believe in magic, too. Or maybe Ryder could put a spell on him so he didn't remember anything of this.
Now that was a saddening thought. And Ryder, for all he had his wolf back and everything, could still be in danger because of Theodore Pembroke. What were they going to do?
"What are we going to do?" he asked out loud.
Ryder had steady hands as he tied Theodore up. Danny winced as he watched his guest's handiwork. That would hurt in time.
"Wait," he added, "didn't Theodore hurt you? Your arms… they're as good as new!"
Ryder gave him a gorgeous smile. "My wolf healed me. But it couldn't have happened without you."
"Yeah," Danny snorted. "Wait, are you for real? All I did was to smack him over the head with my stainless-steel toaster. I guess that's what they meant when they described it on those review sites as the best value for the money."
"I don't think it was the toaster, Danny," Ryder said, his smile growing broader. "I think it was you."
"But how? I'm just a normal guy, an Average Joe."
Ryder's eyes were kind and full of affection. "An Average Joe who somehow keeps on appearing in a clairvoyant's cards, creating chaos along the path that was supposedly established for me by fate."
"You can't mean--" Danny guffawed and then looked at Ryder to see if he was joking. "But I'm human, and you're, well, you're a mythical creature."
Ryder shook his head. "We need Jack to tell us more. And I believe that I have a clairvoyant to hunt down."
Danny stared at Ryder without hiding his puzzlement. "Why would you hunt Jack down?"
"Not him." Ryder's face hardened. "Theodore Pembroke was never my mate. Someone is trying to destroy my pack as they did with Theodore's."
Danny looked at the man tied up on the floor with different eyes. "Do you mean… Theodore doesn't have a family? I mean, I shouldn't feel sorry for him, but I do."
"That's because your heart is too big."
"Right." He blushed and looked away, flustered. Ryder was looking at him a certain way that made him feel all sorts of funny things. "Okay, how are we going to find Jack? He and Vince aren't answering their phones."
Ryder seemed ready to make a suggestion when the door blasted open, admitting in Jack, followed closely by Vince who was dragging a guy in a suit with his mouth covered with duct tape.
"What the hell happened here?" Jack exclaimed, pointing at Theodore, who still hadn't come to his senses.
The stranger Vince was holding began making muffled noises and tried to kick his captor in the shin.
Danny hurried to close the door. "Quiet, people," he whispered. "It's after ten, and I don't want to end up homeless tomorrow."
TBC