Luca was going nuts in his cell.

He supposed his situation could have been worse. At least he wasn’t dead.

He stared at the ceiling from his bed. The bedroom he was in had become his cell, and he wasn’t quite sure how to get out of it. No matter how many times he told the wolves that he was on their side and that he had no plans of returning to the dragons’ side, they wouldn’t listen to him.

He didn’t blame them. He wouldn’t listen to himself, either, if their roles were reversed. How could they trust Luca after everything the dragons had done?

Luca scowled at the white ceiling. The wolves trusted Arlen and Merrick. They were dragons, too, but the wolves didn’t seem to mind. They understood that being dragons didn’t make them bad people.

Luca was being unkind. There was a reason the wolves trusted Arlen and Merrick but didn’t trust him. Arlen and Merrick had left the dragon clan a long time ago and had built lives away from them. The clan had gotten their revenge by burning down the club they’d opened, so it was a miracle that one of them hadn’t killed Luca on sight. From the way Merrick glared at him every time they were in the same room, Luca wouldn’t be surprised if he tried to eventually.

Luca, on the other hand, had only left the clan when they’d attacked the mall. He hadn’t known about it until an hour or so before it happened. There had been nothing he could have done and no time to warn anyone. He’d helped where he could, and he’d defended the wolves and their allies, and the result was that he’d been locked up and had been staring at the ceiling for weeks.

His stomach churned with worry. He was safe here. The wolves hadn’t done anything to hurt him, and neither had the vampires who were guarding him. Luca was safe.

The same couldn’t be said for the people he’d left behind.

He sat up, not wanting to obsess over what was happening back home. Hopefully, the clan leader would think that Luca had acted on his own. After all, he had. He hadn’t talked to anyone about what he’d planned to do. He hadn’t told anyone that he desperately wanted out of the clan and had been trying to find a way out since their old leader had been killed.

He’d been trying to do the right thing, and now he was stuck in a cell, worried sick about what was happening at the clan house.

The sound of someone stopping in front of his door made him turn. He never knew who it was unless they said something, and not all of them did. Most of the vampires seemed to understand that Luca could have run away—or rather, flown away—whenever he wished. The only reason he was still here was that he wanted to be.

He’d hoped the wolves would welcome him and his son, but instead, they’d locked him up. The only reason he hadn’t left already was that he was still hoping they could offer him and Thomas a home. He truly wanted to help them, and he wanted the clan to be stopped.

Things weren’t going as expected.

“Parker?” he called out because he needed to know who was there.

A man on the other side snickered. “Not Parker.”

Luca huffed and leaned back against the mattress. He wasn’t sure who the man on the other side of the door was, and he wouldn’t find out unless the guy wanted him to know.

“Stop being an asshole,” another man said, causing Luca to sit up again.

That voice, he recognized. “Meyer?” 

“It’s me and Umberto,” Meyer said. “Sorry about that. My brother thinks he’s funny.”

“I’m very funny,” Umberto said.

Luca would beg to disagree, but he knew better than to say it out loud. “Do you know when Parker will visit?” he asked instead.

There was a moment of silence, and he wondered if it was the wrong question. Technically, he was a prisoner, and no one was supposed to visit him. He certainly wasn’t supposed to get close to any of the people watching him, making sure he didn’t escape, but it was a bit too late for that. He and Parker had gotten to know each other over the past few weeks, and Luca really liked him. He was pretty sure that the same went for Parker, but things were complicated, and Luca was afraid that trying anything with Parker would make the situation even worse.

“What’s going on between you and my brother?” Umberto asked.

His tone wasn’t harsh or scornful. He sounded curious rather than angry at the thought that there might be something happening between Luca and Parker. 

Luca wasn’t quite sure how to answer his question. “Nothing.”

Umberto snorted. “That’s a lie.”

“It’s none of your business,” Meyer told him. “If Parker wanted you or anyone else to know what’s going on between him and Luca, he’d tell you.”

“Maybe, maybe not. He’s my little brother, and I’m supposed to protect him.”

For a moment, Luca wondered if Umberto was about to give him the if you hurt my brother, I’ll kill you speech. It was ridiculous, considering he was locked up in this bedroom and had been since he’d arrived in pack territory. It would be much easier for Parker to hurt him than for him to hurt Parker, or at least, that was what he told himself.

“I can’t really hurt him from where I am,” he pointed out.

“You can hurt him much more than you expect. I don’t know what he sees in you, but he’s been trying to convince anyone who will listen that you need to be let out of this room.”