Chapter 2

“Hey there, handsome. Got a second…?”

The moment the man stopped behind him and spoke, Yuri pivoted. His arm shot out, and his left hand clamped around the wrist reaching for his shoulder. He locked the joint in one fluid motion and twisted, folding the stranger at the waist with a strangled groan.

“Ow, ow, ow!”

Only after subduing the supposed attacker by reflex did Yuri register how thick the wrist in his grip was, broad and solid enough that his fingers barely encircled it.

“Fuck, shit, God!”

Then he registered a second fact. The man appeared to be an ordinary civilian, which made Yuri’s response seem almost laughably excessive. Appearances proved nothing, however, and an Alpha who approached another Alpha while calling him handsome was rarely a model of good judgment.

Not an enemy, then. Just a lunatic?

“…”

Unable to determine the stranger’s intentions, Yuri raked him with a suspicious stare. The man remained physically imposing even while bent forward with one arm trapped, but his posture was riddled with undefended openings. Yuri tested his balance for an instant and found no sign of formal training.

“Handsome, I’m in a lot of pain here…” The stranger shifted carefully beneath Yuri’s hold. “Are you planning to let go?”

The man kept talking instead of trying to escape, so Yuri judged him probably harmless. His clothes suggested the same: jeans, a white jacket, and a white knit beanie pulled low over his head. Anyone with something to hide would hardly dress so conspicuously.

Yuri glanced down at the wrist in his grasp. If the man truly was deranged, the safest course would be to create some distance before releasing him. He prepared to shove him away, but the stranger spoke again.

“Well, I don’t exactly hate being held like this. I came out dressed too lightly, and it’s freezing.” His voice softened into shameless familiarity. “Maybe it’s because your hand is warm, handsome, but I can already feel the chill fading.”

For a moment, Yuri could not process the nonsense pouring into his ears. His heavy brows, rarely drawn together, furrowed with naked bewilderment.

When their eyes met, Yuri realized the man was taller than he was, though the twisted shoulder forced him to stoop until their gazes rested level. Part of the face hidden beneath the beanie came into view.

The instant Yuri realized they were looking directly at each other, he forgot to step back.

The stranger’s eyes were an astonishing yellow-green. Yuri had seen countless people with green eyes, but never that shade. The irises held the crisp, startling brightness of fresh apple skin, neither dull nor the heavy, garish green he disliked. Their clarity struck him with such force that, for a moment, he nearly forgot this was an uninvited stranger who had tried to touch him.

A flicker of guilt passed through Yuri, as though he had painfully restrained a child.

“Mm.”

The man’s soft sigh dragged him back to himself.

“You’re even prettier up close, handsome.”

Those vivid eyes curved into bright crescents. Yuri released the wrist at once and stepped back. Frowning, he wanted desperately to believe the remark had been meant for someone else, but there was no one else nearby.

“Huh? Why are you backing away now?” The stranger straightened and rubbed his wrist. “You wouldn’t let me go a second ago. Oh, can you not talk? Or did I startle you?”

Yuri looked around. The street was deserted. Every piece of idiocy had indeed been directed at him.

He must be insane.

The world called people who spewed incomprehensible drivel mad, so Yuri reached the obvious conclusion. At once, he became painfully aware of how much time he had wasted. He had scrutinized the stranger for signs of a ghost from his past when he could have bought the chocolate and gone home, sparing Alexei several unnecessary minutes of waiting.

Ignoring a madman was the only rational choice.

Yuri turned toward the shop. Thierry had only two downtown locations and was notoriously popular. The later he arrived, the longer the line would be.

“Hey, honey, where are you going?”

The lunatic refused to let him leave. Calling Yuri by a nauseating endearment, he caught up almost immediately. Yuri loathed drawing attention, and he had no intention of tolerating this.

He stopped and turned sharply. Even when Yuri fixed him with a cold, expressionless blue stare, the stranger kept approaching. Standing straight, he was slightly taller than Yuri, and those vivid green eyes examined him with unabashed curiosity.

“What do you want?”

There was no reason to be courteous to someone who had approached him so rudely. Yuri lowered his voice until the words cut.

“Wow, so you can talk.” The stranger looked delighted. “Your voice is as incredible as your face.”

“I asked what you want.”

Yuri ignored the nonsense through sheer discipline. Had he been free to follow his instincts, he would have driven a fist into the man’s face and walked away. They were downtown, however, and he could not afford a public scene.

“Ah, now that I think about it, I did start talking to you out of nowhere.” The man’s expression softened. “I’m sorry. I surprised you, didn’t I?”

“What do you want?”

Yuri cut the apology short and repeated himself. The stranger’s reddish-brown brows drew together in wounded disbelief.

“You hated me before I even got the chance to ask your name.”

Three chances were more than enough. Yuri shook his head and walked away. The shop stood only ten paces ahead, yet he had already thrown several minutes into the gutter on this lunatic.

“Okay, wait. Just a second, just a second!”

Yuri kept walking. The man caught up in two quick strides and finally reached the point.

“I’m really sorry, but could you lend me twenty dollars?”

Ah. So he was a beggar.

Yuri knew Vancouver contained every kind of person, but this was new. The man looked far too clean and well kept to be homeless. The absurdity almost made Yuri laugh, though relief came with it. At least the stranger’s purpose was finally clear.

“I was too embarrassed to ask outright, so I couldn’t get the words out.” The man pressed his hands together. “But I’ll absolutely pay you back. I’m in danger right now, and I ran out without my wallet. Please. Think of it as saving a life!”

Without a word, Yuri withdrew two ten-dollar bills from inside his jacket. They had reached the storefront, where a line of customers waited for desserts. He held out the money.

“Done?”

“Wow, thank you so much.” The stranger reached for the bills, then hesitated. “Could I get your contact information? That way I can pay you ba—”

“Go.”

Yuri flicked the bills once in warning.

The man’s brows drooped pitifully. “You won’t give me your number?”

What had possibly convinced him Yuri might agree?

No longer willing to indulge the incomprehensible stranger, Yuri slapped the bills onto an outdoor patio table. Leaving the man behind to make startled noises, he entered the shop.

Warmth closed around him, thick with sugar. Yuri grimaced as the cloying scent crowded his senses and threatened the beginnings of a headache. He took out his phone and checked the time.

Ten minutes had passed.

The exchange kept circling through his mind, and before he could stop himself, Yuri glanced through the window. The man in white was gone. So were the twenty dollars.

Yuri knew nothing about his circumstances and had no desire to learn. He merely hoped never to become entangled with anyone like him again. Until today, he had not imagined an Alpha could pour so much shameless drivel over a complete stranger. His stomach, already unsettled by the sugar, turned unpleasantly at the memory.

Twenty minutes later, after buying chocolate, macarons, and a mocha for Alexei, Yuri’s mood improved. By the time he drove home, he could even feel grateful that something so trivial, rather than a matter of life and death, had managed to sour his day.

That gratitude did not last.

“Alyosha?”

Alexei’s car was already parked outside. Yuri hurried through the front door and found a scene he had not expected.

“I’m here, Yuri.”

The answer came from the living room. At the sound of the friend he had not seen in far too long, Yuri’s features softened. Warmth touched skin so pale and cold it often seemed to carry a northern wind.

He headed toward the voice and deliberately raised his own. “What possessed you to arrive before the appointed time?”

His childhood friend almost always appeared after the agreed hour. Alexei was meticulous about important matters and careless with everything else, one of the traits Yuri found endearing. Perhaps that was why Alexei felt like a younger brother despite being the same age. Yuri had looked after him for nearly all their lives.

Careful not to damage the cake, Yuri continued down the corridor at a measured pace. His dress shoes clicked against the floor. His father, Vasily, disliked slippers, so they wore outdoor shoes in the house, unlike most people these days.

“I didn’t come early,” Alexei called back. “You were unusually late.”

His voice drew nearer. Yuri passed through the entrance hall and turned right into the small living room, already picturing his friend’s expression.

Yes, you’re always right.

Swallowing the retort, he stepped inside.

“So our Mr. Campbell has finally arrived,” Alexei drawled from the sofa, where he lounged with his legs crossed.

Alexei wore the same colors as Yuri, yet everything about him felt different. His black hair was swept casually back, and their blue eyes could make them look like brothers at first glance. But Alexei was mischievously handsome, almost boyish when he smiled. He was also good-hearted to a fault, despite his rough tongue.

“Here. What you wanted—”

Alexei had kept him alive through the worst years of their lives, and the sight of him always eased something in Yuri. He had begun to hold out the chocolate when an unfamiliar pheromone reached him.

His head snapped toward the corridor.

Another person’s scent, one that had no place in this house, was drawing closer. Footsteps followed, then a voice.

“Doesn’t this house have slippers?”

Yuri’s eyes narrowed. The pheromone was unfamiliar, but the voice tugged at his memory as though he had heard it earlier that same day. Given his painfully narrow social circle, Yuri did not forget faces or voices. He turned toward the approaching presence.

“Yuri, calm down.” Alexei rose from the sofa. “He’s the client.”

The guest.

Yuri had nearly forgotten. Alexei never acted without reason, so there had to be some explanation for bringing someone here, but Yuri still wondered what could justify revealing the location of his home.

He was about to ask when the stranger stopped at the living-room entrance.

“Huh?”

Yuri looked up.

Their eyes met.

That startling green, so vivid it seemed to brighten his entire field of vision, fixed on him.

The stranger’s mouth curved with delight. “Wow. This is fun.”