Strays

Chapter 9 *Edited*

It was starting to grow light outside when I reached my apartment building. I staggered up the stairs, heavily winded, and breathed an audible sigh of relief when I finally reached my floor. Theo's scent was fresh in the air, like invisible shackles dragging me home — but even if I hadn't smelled him on the way up, I recognised the sound of his heart thudding through the walls.

He's safe.

I slid my key into the door but before I had a chance to twist it, the door was flung inwards, rattling on the hinges.

Theo stood in the doorway, his face pale. "I thought you were dead!"

He said it accusingly — like my late return had been intentional — and I could see him gearing himself up for a fight, but I wasn't in the mood for one of his tantrums right now. All I wanted to do was crawl into the shower, wash away the remnants of tonight and forget it ever happened.

I slipped past him, dropping down onto the couch. Theo slammed the door shut with accidental force, following me over to the sofa where he stood over me, his body trembling. When I pulled the gun out of the waistband of my jeans, his eyes widened.

"Where did you get that?" he demanded.

"How did you get back?" I asked, ignoring his question. "Did you take a long way around like I told you? Did anyone follow you?"

I felt a jolt of panic at the image of Michael showing up on our doorstep looking for his gun — with an army of wolves behind him.

"Yeah, I did all that," Theo said, annoyed. "As soon as I crossed the river, they backed off."

I exhaled slowly. Stupid, stupid!

I scraped a hand over my face, slowing unconsciously as I reached my lip. The cuts his teeth had made were already healing, but they stung a little as I ran the tips of my fingers over them. I could still taste the blood — mine and his — coating my gums and I felt my anger flaring back to life again.

"Good," I said finally, pushing the anger from my mind. "That's good. We need to be more careful."

Theo's eyes raked over me anxiously, before he let out a quiet growl and started to pace around the apartment again. His jacket lay strewn on the floor and he kicked it out of the way, his arms trembling visibly as his pace slowed.

Right, I realised, he's not used to this.

I slid the gun onto the coffee table, unsure of how to approach him when he was like this. Danger felt like second nature to me now; the come-down was fast, as easy as flicking a switch. We were safe now and that was it. But scary for Theo was watching his credit card get rejected at a high-end restaurant; until Sebastien's army came knocking on his door, Theo hadn't known was danger was.

"Where did you get that?" Theo jerked his head at the gun. He eyed it warily, like he thought it might explode at any second.

"One of them caught up to me," I said evasively.