Page 77 of Hungry Like the Wolf

That had been the hardest part, being so surrounded by people who loved him, who he loved as well, and yet being so completely alone at the same time. Even though Rose tried to chase him out, Robbie always insisted on helping wash dishes and close up the kitchen at night because it delayed the inevitable. Each night, he walked back to the cabin he’d shared with Nadja. The first month, he’d paused at the threshold every night, hoping she’d be waiting for him on the couch. The second month, he’d known she wouldn’t be but had allowed himself to imagine it anyway. But after the third, he told himself that he couldn’t keep torturing himself.

He didn’t pause at the threshold anymore. He opened the door and slipped inside the silent, empty cabin as quickly as he could. Rose had tried to insist that he move to a different one, but he’d refused. He didn’t want to leave the home they’d shared, even if they’d only lived there together for two weeks.

Occasionally, he would still catch a whiff of her scent. Those were the worst nights.

Sometimes, when he’d smell her, he’d immediately burst into tears, that hollow ache becoming so loud that it stole his breath. Other times, he felt almost animal as he gripped his cock and groaned, his body reacting to the smell without his brain having time to stop him. He’d change the sheets with a heavy heart or, if he was too tired for that, spend the rest of the night on the couch.

Last night had been the worst yet. He’d been looking for something under the bed and found a pair of her underwear that had fallen or been kicked under the dust ruffle. He’d been almost rabid, an animal fully beyond control, as he’d dragged them to his nose and inhaled so deeply that his lungs hurt. He’d come all over the panties wrapped around his hand but had still been painfully erect. He’d come three more times before his body had finally called it quits, and he’d lain there on the hard wooden floor and howled his grief to the blackness of the moonless sky through the window.

Robbie paused in rolling the pastry to reach for his coffee with a heavy hand. It was his third cup of the day, and it wouldn’t be his last. He planned to get these pot pies finished and then skip the family meal. He needed to run. He needed to run so far and so hard that he was too exhausted to do anything but fall into his bed and sleep.

He had just taken a sip when JJ appeared in the doorway that led from the kitchen to the hallway where his office was.

“Phone call for you, bud,” JJ said, and Robbie froze, the mug still pressed to his lips.

Nobody would have known how to reach him. Nadja had told him that she’d told Magda where she was taking him, but that didn’t mean Magda knew the number to reach JJ’s satellite phone. Magda had a way of finding things, however. Maybe she’d figured out how to reach him.

Or maybe it was the IRS.

“Hang on,” he said, going to the utility sink to wash the flour off his hands.

“Take it in my office,” JJ said. Robbie nodded, following him to the new pack office, a full-sized room that was very official-looking, a far cry from the tiny office closet that JJ had insisted on using before.

JJ handed him the satellite phone and left, closing the door softly behind him. Robbie’s hand shook as he raised the phone to his ear.

“Hello?” he said, his voice cracking.

“Robbie? Fecking hell, Robbie is that you?”

Callum.

Robbie sat down heavily on the rolling desk chair and dropped his forehead to his other hand, his elbow braced on his knee. A sob escaped his lips before he could choke it back.

“Robbie, are you okay? Are you safe?”

He sucked in a quivering breath. “I’m safe. I’m okay, Callum.”

“I’ve been out of my mind worried about you. Nadja is impossible to nail down, and Magda wouldn’t give me her phone number. I finally had to make an appointment with her to get her to talk to me and tell me how to find you.”

As quickly as he’d sat down, Robbie found himself on his feet.

“Nadja,” he said, feeling his whole body practically vibrate.

“Hank’s therapist. The one who drove you north to that pack she told Magda about.”

“Nadja Stonebreaker,” Robbie repeated, unable to wrap his brain around what Callum was saying, feeling very much like he had the last time he’d taken a really hard punch to the face.

“Aye, Nadja Stonebreaker,” Callum said, exasperated. “I had to threaten her to give me this number.”

A snarl erupted from his mouth, loud and terrifying, even to him. He’d never made that sound before. His voice was a growl when he said through his teeth, “You threatened her?”

He’d met Callum when Callum had hired him to located Esther so that he could “deal” with her. Callum hadn’t hurt a hair on Esther’s head, but he was a nine-hundred-year-old vampire. He was ancient and powerful and, Robbie knew, far more loyal to his best friend than he was to the woman who had kept him from finding that friend.

Callum was quiet on the other end of the call. Robbie growled again. “Callum, you threatened to hurt her?”

“Jesus, Robbie, you know me better than that. I’m not a monster. I dinnae hurt innocent people. I threatened to write a bad review on her website profile.”

Even that was enough to have Robbie’s fists clenched.