The Lonely Wolf Read Online Free Page B

casolare had been filled to the brim, and now it was just him and his loyal employees.
    A family man through and through, life had dealt one of those cruel blows to Quintilius that would seem ironic if it weren’t so painful to ponder upon. Even though his greatest wish was to have a big patriarchal family with cubs running around everywhere, he had never married.
    When the melancholia struck, Quintilius consoled himself with the notion he had his whole pack and Camelia by his side. He could have ended up without her.
    Paolo had just brought him his first espresso of the day, when his cell phone went off. He looked at the caller ID and worried. “Ludwig?”
    If it wasn’t for some trouble, the angel would have never called back so soon after what had happened the night before. His angel had come to his party after all. Even though the notion was bitter-sweet, it still made him happy. Quintilius’s skin tingled where Ludwig had almost touched him. Longing for his capricious lover’s touch, he wished Ludwig had taken him in his arms and spirited him away. They had gone too long without savoring each other, and Quintilius’s body ached for the yearning.
    “I found one of your clan’s pins on an attempted murder scene,” Ludwig said.
    Quintilius placed the empty coffee cup onto the saucer. “Where?”
    “Claudius’s premises, of all places. Can you be in Santa Severa in, let’s say, less than an hour?”
    Although he knew Ludwig hadn’t meant anything more than what he had said, the idea of meeting him at the apartment he owned inside the medieval castle overlooking the Mediterranean Sea made his heart beat faster. “Give me forty-five minutes.”
    After telling Camelia he would be out of reach the whole morning, he left in his black Jaguar. Eager to see the angel and uncaring for the scenic drive along the marine coast, it took him half an hour of fast driving on the Aurelia speedway to reach the castle, but once there he didn’t have to wait. Ludwig had already arrived and was standing beside the castle’s portcullis.
    Leaning against a column, wearing a dark suit, white shirt, and a charcoal-gray tie, Ludwig was breathtaking. Even with his stately white wings hidden, he couldn’t be confused with anything else but an angel. He wasn’t a cherub though. No blond curls and sky-blue eyes for Ludwig. No, he was the embodiment of manhood, all hard angles, stormy-gray eyes, and dark-red hair cropped close to the scalp.
    “Hi,” Quintilius said, wishing they were there for pleasure and not for work.
    But in the last decade or so, while Ludwig pretended to be an immortal, their relationship had greatly suffered because of the angel’s devotion to the cause of overthrowing Arariel.
    Then Ludwig would do something like the night before, and Quintilius’s heart would break all over again.
    Ludwig passed one hand over the reddish stubble on his unshaven jaw, his eyes stormier than usual. “I’ll be brief—”
    “At least have coffee with me.” Quintilius didn’t give the angel an option. He strolled past him and entered the castle, passing under the large arched entry. “So, what’s happened exactly?” he asked when Ludwig fell in step with him.
    “I was flying over Castel Gandolfo, when I noticed a scuffle on the grounds of Claudius’s nest. Two werewolves were trying to kill a vampire—”
    “Two werewolves?”
    “Yes, and I saved the vampire. But after, when I went looking for the two wolves, I found this—” he opened his palm, revealing a metal disk “—pin.”
    Reaching for the pin, Quintilius brushed Ludwig’s palm and heard the angel’s hissed intake of breath. “This is mine.”
    “That’s why I removed it from the scene.” Ludwig stopped at one of the openings in the medieval walls. The big, rectangular, glassless window with its iron railings framed a portion of the beach below, and salty sprays were driven into the castle by the ever-present gust from the ocean.
    “You did that for