Hungry Like a Wolf (Claws Clause 1)

Maddox blinked, thinking long and hard about Colt’s question. “It should,” he said at last.

“But it doesn’t.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Maddox admitted readily. He sighed, tilted his head back and brought the bottle to his lips. In three oversized gulps, he downed the last of the booze before hiccuping once and groaning softly. “That’s why I got the shiws-key… the whiskey. Because I want it to matter. I want Evangeline to be happy and, fuck it, Colton. Maybe she is.” He shuddered. The bottle dropped, landing with a thunk against the wooden frame of the chair as Maddox kept a tight grip on it. “Kissy noises, brother. Fuck.”

Colt wasn’t sure he heard that right. “What?”

“I said kissy noises.” Maddox smacked his lips together, spraying his spit all over the place. “She gave those to her precious Adam. I never got them.” He slumped in the chair, the empty bottle swaying and clanking. “So she’s gotta be happy.”

“She’s not,” Colt stated flatly.

“How do you know?”

“Because she’s not with you. Kissy noises? Come on. You don’t need to make noises when her tongue was halfway down your throat most of the time. So you might have given up, Maddox, but I sure the fuck haven’t. She’s your mate—no one can make her happy but you. You know that. If you weren’t too busy getting shit-faced in my house, you’d realize that and make your move. Evangeline fell for a wolf, not a pussy.”

When he saw the warning flash in Maddox’s golden eyes, Colt realized he might have pushed him too far. It was hard to gauge how firm he needed to be, the alcohol throwing them both off. When his brother started to snarl, showing a hint of his fangs, Colt decided to retreat a little. Just a little, though. The more wolf Maddox revealed, the faster his shifter metabolism would burn the whiskey off.

That’s exactly what Colt wanted. He needed Maddox sober.

A beating from a ferocious older brother he could handle. If a drunk Maddox started sniffling and singing power ballads from the ‘80’s again, Colt was summoning Dodge and letting him take over. Sure, he was loyal, but he wasn’t suicidal. A plastered wolf shifter howling along to Def Leppard’s “Love Bites”? Pass the silver bullets, please.

Maddox leaned forward. His grip tightened on the neck of the empty bottle, as if he’d like to bean Colt over the head with it. “I haven’t given up on nothing, you dick. But what do you want me to do? She doesn’t feel the bond—”

“There’s something wrong with your bond, we both know that. A normal bond, it would never have broken without a reason, and broken bonds mend pretty fucking quick between mated pairs. You keep acting like it’s something you’ve got to do but, well...” Colt took a deep breath. “Here’s the thing. There’s something I’ve been meaning to tell you. I’ve been thinking—”

“Nothing good ever comes after ‘I’ve been thinking’,” Maddox observed, scowling. His eyes were still flashing, like a pair of high beams cutting through the darkness.

“Fuck you,” Colt snapped back automatically, his voice lacking heat. He almost couldn’t believe how nervous he felt since he didn’t know how Maddox was going to react. Always unpredictable, this might set him off. “Your bond. After the accident, they offered to let witches remove your bond. How do you know… maybe they removed Evangeline’s instead.”

“She would never have wanted them—”

“She was hurt, Maddox. Bad. When they brought her to the hospital, no one knew if she would survive. But she was still one hundred percent human then, and… they wouldn’t have needed her permission to remove her bond. Her parents could have given the okay. And if they did… well, you felt it when she ‘died’. Maybe… maybe that was the bond being severed on her end.”

“You’re telling me…” Maddox blinked, trying to understand. Confusion gave way to fury as what Colt just said seemed to hit home. He tensed, leaning forward, his free hand reaching up to pull at the front strands of his hair. “I… I hear you, but all this whiskey in me, I’m not sure I know what you’re telling me. Damn it!”

With a sudden angry roar, Maddox reared back and threw the empty bottle. It screamed by like a bullet, whizzing past Colt until it hit the opposite wall, shattering on impact.

Raising his eyebrows, Colt said, “You better clean that up.”

13

“Later,” snapped Maddox. His eyes glowed with deadly focus. Still glazed, still drunk, but he was trying his hardest to pay attention. “Now explain to me exactly what you’re trying to say.”

Colt tried. He spoke softly, surely, explaining his suspicions. How, without a bonding license, Ordinance 7304 didn’t apply to Maddox and Evangeline’s mating. Nobody would’ve invoked the stipulations in the Claws Clause that said that bonds were sacred. With Evangeline on the edge of death, her parents could have chosen to sever the bond and no one would’ve stopped them.

Especially since they had no idea that their daughter had eloped with Maddox that morning. Only Maddox’s family knew. Maddox would’ve told them all—the cops, the paramedics, her parents—except the crash knocked him out upon impact. He didn’t stay out long, but enough time had passed that Evangeline had already been whisked away to a human-only hospital before he came to again.

They told Maddox she was dead on arrival. Someone had obviously lied. But why? And, the more Colt thought about it, the more sense it made. A mate bond was so powerful, Maddox should’ve been able to follow the bond inside of him and know that she still was alive.

Unless a witch was involved.

Colt had to work to bite back his snarl.

He fucking hated witches.

Maddox listened to everything Colt laid out. When Colt was done, Maddox climbed out of the chair, scattering the empty whiskey bottles from his path.

“It’s just something to think about.”