When the Wolves Cry (Twin Flames Duet #1)

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

JAX

“Get me out of here!” I barely glance away from the raven silk in between my legs, to a woman suspended above a saw in the center of a table and two men anchored to either side on the TV.

Her dilated, amber eyes peer over her shoulder at me, the three strands of her hair growing slack in my fingers. “She was fucking them both.”

I grin at her. “Let me guess, she’s the one that loses her guts.”

“You’ll have to watch and see.” She turns back to the TV, reaching over for two singular pieces of popcorn. Most would grab a handful and greedily throw it in their traps. Not Tala.

She plucks out the fully popped, buttery, and slightly brown pieces. But only two at a time. And she cleans her straight teeth in between each grab.

I tighten the strands in my grip and begin weaving and crossing them. I’m honestly not sure if I’m doing it correctly. I don’t dare interrupt the way she’s intently watching a movie she’s seen a dozen times though.

Saws buzzing and screaming fill her candlelit living room, the black walls crawling with the dead flowers I’ve personally replaced. The only reaction is her little hand squeezing my ankle and snores pouring from Sirohi by the fireplace.

I know adrenaline has her heart pumping, running her chest warm and swirling her stomach. And she’s a curious little wolf. I have no doubt that her pussy is begging to be played with right now.

I pry her hair tie from my wrist, tying off the longest braid of silk I’ve ever seen. Running my fingers down the woven texture, I slide it over her shoulder, grab her curvy hips, and pull her back into me.

She reclines back, stretching her legs out on the furry rug, and checks over my work.

Being with her is nothing short of fucking perfection. My hands melt wherever I place them, the arch in her back fits seamlessly against my abdomen, her hips—God, her fucking hips—may be the only thing I can’t fully handle.

But that’s so goddamn perfect.

She twists her waist, giving me a shocked smile. “You did such a good job, Jax.” Laying her head against my chest, she tunes back into the woman’s guts being spilled on the TV.

Call it Mommy issues if you want, but every time this girl praises me, tingles rupture out over my chest and pump desire through my veins.

I didn’t know true desire until I saw her. I’ve never stopped in my tracks, completely dumbfounded over an enthralling creature before. I’ve always ignored women with the assumption they’d all be like my mother.

Once my vision tunneled in on the goddess and I saw flames roaring and stars bursting—I knew she’d be anything but. My soul instantly yearned for her, hard wiring my brain to only think about her and see her.

An obsession at first glimpse. It will never die.

Even when we do.

Our bones will be woven six feet under, meanwhile our spirits will go on to the afterlife together, and our new vessels will meet again in the next life.

“Spliced and ready for invasion,” Leon chimes in our ears.

I stealthily peek around the refurbished stone, eyeing the goddess taking the large staircase up to the awaiting guard.

Long, raven waves bounce and float ethereally with the brisk wind, flurries attaching themselves to the swoop falling over one amber eye.

There’s just something about those waves. It encapsulates hersea-esquebeauty and damn near stops my heart.

“Oh,” the guard says with delight, watching her sway towards him. “Can I help you, miss?”

Let her do it, man. Relax your jaw and let her own her power.

Iunclenchmy teeth, taking deep breaths through my flaring nostrils. It doesn’t matter where we go, her compelling features draw the attention of a pig.

She stops in front of him, intentionally prying open her fur coat to show off the assets he won’t fucking refuse. “I’m so sorry to trouble you with this, but I think I left my favorite bag in the restroom a few weeks ago,” she lies huskily.

A little too easily for my liking.

I told her I could knock his lights out and wrangle the keys from his hip. But she insisted on playing a part.

And that part just happens to be her siren trance.

He eye fucks her tits with a shit eating grin, and wipes over his bald head while connecting with the manipulating pools of Venus. “I’m really not supposed to let anyone in. But I think I could be persuaded with something in return.”

“Fuck no!” I bark possessively, pushing off the corner and flying around it.

She snarls at him in disgust, and he flashes his red cheeks in my direction. He reaches for the gun in his holster, but with my quick strides, I’m on him and sending my knuckles into his snotty face before he can curl his hand around it.

He grunts in pain, crimson sputtering out of his lips as his teeth break upon impact, and he falls backwards like a sack of potatoes.

Crouching down tounclipthe keys from his belt loop, I say, “I’m sorry, little wolf. We can try again another time.” My own lips twist with repulsion, catching the sheen of his fucking snot on my ink.

I rub it off on him, straightening up to the bummed expression on her face. “I’m not sure why I expected that to play out any differently,” she scoffs, then steps over his body, platform bootsthunkingup to the doors.

“Don’t be like that, baby,” I drawl lazily, following right behind her.

I fumble through the keys, choosing the largest one to see if it slides in. I know she’s glaring at me though.

“You didn’t even let me attempt to handle it.”

“I’m not letting someone talk to you like that. Ever.” I look back at the scorn rooting in her thin eyes, swinging open the left door. “It has nothing to do with your capabilities of handling a situation. If I’m present and hear that shit, hell, even if I’m not present, they’ll choke on their fucking teeth, Tala.”

She gestures to the unconscious guard. “Okay, well, he’s going to wake up. I don’t think him reporting back to Mayor Jenkins about Bonnie and Clyde will do us any favors.”

Locking my eyes on hers, I whip out my gun from my waistband, lowering the barrel to where I see his head out of the periphery of my vision, and pull the trigger.

Her shoulders tense up from the shot, and the blurry crimson spreading over the stone tells me I hit my mark.

I tuck it back in my jeans. “No, he won’t.”

“Oh, my God,” she murmurs, then blows the raven wave from her eye.

“I am your God, baby.” I saunter over to the dead prick, grabbing his coat and dragging him back with me. “And I will always protect you. Even if you don’t need or want me to.”

She purses her lips, hiding the satisfaction she gets from what just transpired. I wink at her, smiling at the desire brightening her eyes, and step inside the vacant grand foyer.

If the women were being held here, the place would be infested with testosterone holding guns. It was only that dude out front, and Leon hasn’t caught any more on the cameras.

She closes the door behind her, and I toss the idiot off to the side, eyeing her to make sure she’s covering her bases.

She does. She cracks it back open, reaches around for the keys, closes it again, and locks it.

“Attagirl.”

Unwrapping her fur coat, she strides past me, curves molded with leather and moving fluidly with her graceful steps. Not even the darkness haunting an old castle can deprive my sight of the knuckle biting waves that roll and ripple within her divine femininity.

I bite my lip, taking the grand staircase behind her. The fur encasing her ass and hips is swaying like a damn hammock, rocking with the breeze she glides with.

Dear God. This girl is mine. My partner, my other half—the love of my dark fucking life.

We cut left, entering an eerie hall with little to no light. Vintage frames and Victorian paintings clutter the walls in between wooden doors.

She stops in her tracks, eyes glued to a modern portrait sticking out like a sore thumb. I cock my head, analyzing the familiarity the brunette woman holds.

“That’sLoxley,” she points out, turning her knitted brows towards me. “What the fuck? Why would he blatantly display her?”

I glance around, taking slow steps as I take in the four other portraits of women that are oddly placed in this hallway. “Trophy walls,” I say sedately. “They’re all the missing women… I just don’t know why here and why this hall.”

Latching around the closest handle, I push open the door to a dark bedroom. The bed is neatly made, a white canopy draping eerily over the white bedding. There’s a chest at thefootboard. I lift it up, brows furrowing low over my eyes at the fucking sex toys filling it.

“Are those…”

“Mm-hmm.” I let it slam closed, scanning around the room that’s evidently used.

For what?

No damn clue. Nothing good, that’s for sure.

We go through every room in the hall and Tala takes pictures of the same canopies and the same chests full of shit I’d rather see laid out on our own beds.

No women though.

Closing the last door, she sighsdefeatedlyand shoves her phone in her pocket. “I don’t know why I thought they’d be here. Or at least find something useful other than rooms staged for what I can only assume to be for non-consensual sex.”

I wrap an arm around her fur covered shoulders. “We’ll find them, little wolf.”

“You got a guy inspecting your art outside,” Leon chimes.

I guess the second shift is here. I’ll take care of that.

Rushing back the way we came, her eager eyes wander around. “Do you think they’d be on the third floor?”

I pull my gun out and quickly descend the stairs. “No, if they were here, we’d have more than Tweedledum and Tweedledee to deal with. It’d be a fortress.”

“He’s unlocking the door now,” Leon rushes.

I raise my gun, taking the last step and watching the light slowly spear through the hesitant crack in the door.

A short man steps in, eyes bugging out with alarm. “Hey! You can’t be here!”

I’ll be wherever I damn well please.

I lower my barrel to his knee and send a bullet to bite through his bone. The ring resounds through the grand foyer, his hands darting to the stinging fire in his leg, and he topples over with a scream of distress rupturing out of his mouth.

I stalk up to his curled-up body, ignoring his cries. “What the fuck is Mayor Jenkins doing in this place?” I ask brusquely.

“What?” he shrieks, face transforming into a tomato. I huff in annoyance and roll out my balisong. “I really-I really don’t know,” he strains out, panicking over my pretty blade.

I crouch down, poking the tip of his nose with the sharp point and prompting a bead of blood to rise through his skin. He winces through his seething breaths, and I move it to his eye, glowering at the liar that’s pissing me off.

Out of my peripheral, I see his hand fumbling for the gun attached to his hip, and I shake my head in disappointment. “Shouldn’t have done that,” I snarl, then hammer my knife through his eye.

The odd pressure and suction make my lips twist. Eyes are messy. Blood always geysers and spurts with the foul noises.

His one eye stays open with shock, the light retracting and taking any sense of life away from him.

“Now what the fuck do we do with them?” Tala asks irritably.

I retract my knife from his fucked-up eye, hiding my disgust with the god-awful schloop noise that comes from it. “Leave them. The feed is spliced, and no one will know it was us that left macabre warnings.”