Dusk Rising

Four.

Roane

When Tristan ran into his suite, we were all left standing there in the hallway looking like lost little puppies. Micah and Blane went in, but instead of following Tristan, they headed right for the bright red sofa that took up one side of his widow wall.

I decided to stay outside. Something felt off from the moment the elevator doors opened and I felt a bit unsettled or bothered. When we were downstairs, they had told us that Dylan had come with two other people. Curious to see who they were, I decided to go and find out.

Turning back around, I poked my head into the suite and asked, “do either of you know what floor the other guests are on, I’d like to pay them a visit?” Micah wasn’t paying any attention to me, his gaze was fixed on the door. I knew Tristan had gone into, but my uncle gave me a weird look before responding.

“They are one floor away nephew, but be careful, they suffered a grave loss.” I stood there staring at him for a moment, but he broke off his eye contact with me, but I felt him in my head a second later.

We had to leave behind the others who were supposed to be coming with them. One was their brother and one was the mate, but I am not sure as to which is dead yet and I’m not sure if they are either.”

Damn, this is turning out to be harder than we had expected. Rubbing my temples, I stepped out of the room and had to brace myself against the wall. There was something still bothering me, but I couldn’t tell what it was. My uncle invading my mind wasn’t helping any either.

Taking a few deep breaths, I closed my eyes and tried to focus so I could push through the unwelcome sensations building there. But as soon as the pressure started to ease, the elevator door slid open and a dirty blonde with dark green eyes stood there looking so lost that I had no idea what to say.

But she seemed to collect herself almost as quickly as the door slid to a close. When she finally saw me as she glanced around the little corridor, I saw the shock and confusion as she took me in. I knew that my hair always made people do a double take, but this girl seemed different.

There was something in the way she watched me. It was almost like she was taking my full measure, searching my heart, and peering through my soul. Well damn, I didn’t know witches looked so human. The smirk that rolled across her face reminded me of Tristan and I knew instantly that she was a wolf.

“Well, if I had known I might run into such a handsome man, I might have taken the time to check my attire. But since I’m in a hurry, can you please tell me where the hell you have my friend?”

She smiled the entire time she spoke, but there was only humor in the first part of her words, but I swear I felt the ice dripping from the last of them. For a moment, I was taken aback. No one talked to me like that other than Tristan and my uncles, so I wasn’t prepared for it.

Again, she was quicker on the draw than I was. “I’m sorry, did you not understand the question, or are you refusing to answer me?” It was then that I finally regained the ability to speak.

“My apologies,” I said as I gave her a mock bow. “I was taken aback by your sudden appearance and our lack of introduction. And I would never try to keep anyone from you. I assume you are looking for Dylan, and if that is the case, you will find her right inside these doors.”

Gesturing towards the door, I waited as she continued to watch me, as if she was judging not only my words, but my thoughts. Finally, she took a step forward and began walking towards Tristan’s suite. As she passed, I noticed that her eyes were rimmed with red and she gave off the slight musky scent mixed with apples.

There was no thank you, or parting words shared between the two of us, but I watched her walk in and head straight towards the room Tristan and Dylan were in. Figuring that she was probably one of the two others that had been brought here today, my interests were peaked.

The elevator door opened, and I walked in as the doctor from the lobby, walked out and went straight into the suite. I debated for a moment about turning back around and seeing if something was going on, but I decided to go do some investigating on my own for a bit.

I only had to go one floor away, but when I got off the elevator, I immediately knew that the other person from their group was a wolf. While I couldn’t scent him as well as any other wolf, I could pick up the pine, apple, and the same musty scent as the female from a moment ago.

Even though this was my building, I haven’t explored every single floor. Honestly, this felt more like Tristan’s building since he had done most of the security set-ups and planning for the whole thing, so it made sense that I was a bit hesitant to just walk into the suite on this floor.

The door was left open, so I decided to take a look around. It was immediately apparent that this suite was not one of the three of ours. While it was spacious and clean, there was no real decoration or ornamentation to be seen on any of the walls or counter tops.

Even the furniture seemed too plain in comparison.

A soft murmuring was coming from the one bedroom door I knew was in this suite, but I didn’t head straight towards it. Looking around the room, I found a small backpack and decided to check out its contents first.

Besides the fact that it was a simple black bag, there were no embellishments or designs that would signify who it might belong to. There were only two zippers on the bag, one on the top that opened the biggest part and a small one on the front for a small compartment.

Choosing to look through the smaller compartment first, I slowly slid the zipper open and waited to see if anyone would come out of the room. After a few seconds of waiting, I pulled the pocket open and there were small toiletries. A toothbrush, a razor, deodorant, lotion, and a small velvet bag, but I assumed it had something in it along the same lines, so I just moved it aside.

Closing that compartment, I decided to look inside the bigger portion of the bag. More grumbling and moans were coming from the room, and I realized that the person in there must be sleeping.

Opening the zipper fully, a pile of neatly folded clothes fell out and as they did, I was hit with a familiar sweet scent. Shirts, leggings, and shorts were among the pile, but as I moved the clothes around, I came to some sleeping clothes and then some bras and panties. Deciding that I had a good idea whose these were, I quickly put everything in the bag and zipped it back up.

Movement was now coming from the room and I was interested in seeing who else would be sharing our living space for a while. As I got to the doorway of the room, I was surprised to see a young man in the room. He looked as if he had just jumped up off the bed the way he stumbled across the floor towards the wall cursing.

I thought that maybe he was having a nightmare or something, until I watched him punch the wall so hard, that he left behind a fist-shaped dent in the wall. He stood there for a moment looking as if he hadn’t even realized what he had just done, but I couldn’t keep the “tsk” from slipping out.

Annoyed that this kid had the f*cking balls to destroy my sh*t within hours of getting here and it didn’t ebb when, as he turned to look at me, he sneered and demanded to know who and what I was. Well, isn’t that the question of my whole f*cking life, I thought, but kept to myself.

The boy, who actually stood close to my height once he pulled himself up off the wall, began to demand to know where his sister and Dylan were. He also seemed to be looking at me as if I had done something nefarious to them, or was it something else? I couldn’t tell, but I knew that he did not like me.

It’s not like I wasn’t used to being disliked, but it was really pissing me off more than it usually did, so I decided to lay it on thick while picking a bit at him. While I was in the middle of introducing myself and calling him on his lack of communication skills, a severe thunderstorm began raging as if called down by the gods themselves.

But it was the moment that the building began to shake that an ear-piercing scream rang out through the building. As if the sounds alone weren’t enough though, there was something else, something inside of that cry that seemed to pull at my insides.

My breathing seemed labored and I had to take a step back, but the boy, who looked as if he was about to shift any moment, practically flew out of the room and raced toward the elevator. By the time I had gotten a hold of myself enough to follow, he was gone. But I was sure I knew exactly where he had gone.

When I entered Tristan’s suite, it was like chaos had erupted. Apparently, that awful nose had been coming from Dylan and everyone had somehow been affected. The moment the elevator doors had opened, a good section of Tristan’s security team was both huddled outside around the door and inside not only the suite, but the room Tristan was in with Dylan.

Making my way inside was easy, but I had not expected to see and hear the things that were going on in there. The doctor was on the ground holding his neck, the blonde girl from earlier was on the bed weeping, Micah was speaking to the wolf boy, Tristan was rocking back and forth with an unconscious Dylan in his arms and Blane was standing next to me just watching it all.

Being back in the room made my head ache again and I wasn’t sure if it was because of the screaming, the chaos, or something else, but my uncle decided to help yet again. “I’m curious to know if you felt that just as I and every other wolf had?”

Shocked at his words, and still a bit unsure about what he was trying to ask, Micah spoke to the entire suite. Threatened. He threatened everyone in this room and reinforced his request with a display of his magic.

Well hell, I consider him one of my closest friends and even I was a bit intimidated. I was about to turn back to Blane and ask him what he had been speaking about, but he had taken the seconds when I was distracted by Micah to sneak out of the room with the others.

Now that almost everyone was gone, I stayed where I was leaning against the wall and observed from the sidelines. Scents were starting to fill the air that were more distinguishable now that there were fewer of us here. Pine, citrus, peppermint, apples, must, and something that I couldn’t quite find the words to describe, but smelled sweet and spicy like the glaze you put on meat.

As I stood back and observed the others in the room, I noticed how they were all connected to each other and how they all seemed to move around each other. The two blondes who were obviously siblings touched each other so freely. Then there was Micah and

Tristan who touched each other as well, but in a different way that I didn’t want to look at too long.

But it was the unconscious girl that I couldn’t look away from the moment my eyes landed on her. Dylan had worked for Aspen for quite some time and I even met with her prior to all of this happening, but there was something different about her. Not just her situation, but her appearance, her scent, it all seemed, well, more.

Tristan was laying her on the bed and that doctor was now going to look over her unconscious body, and I watched with way too much interest. I had no idea if it was sheer curiosity or something else, but I fought the urge to move closer to them.

Lost in my thoughts, I was pulled out of my head as I heard the doctor excusing himself, but I couldn’t miss the look that he gave me as he walked past me to the door. Unsure of why he was suddenly concerned about me, I let it slide, but as I looked back at the bed, I caught Tristan’s stare.

When our eyes locked, there was something there that I had never seen from him before, but I recognized it easily. With his next words he warned us in the exact same way that my uncles and grandfather do when it comes to their females. He made his claim to what was his and it didn’t matter who we were, he would act upon any threat he perceived, regardless of who we were.

But I couldn’t focus on his threat because a thought, or soft voice, no, a whisper went through my mind like the way it did when my uncles linked with me and I was so shocked that I wasn’t sure if I had imagined it. I repeated it over in my head almost like I was asking, no begging to hear it again.

Finally!