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Revolution
ISBN # 978-1-78184-204-1
©Copyright Bailey Bradford 2012
Cover Art by Posh Gosh ©Copyright December 2012
Edited by Eleanor Boyall
Total-E-Bound Publishing
This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination
and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or
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Published in 2012 by Total-E-Bound Publishing, Think Tank, Ruston Way, Lincoln, LN6 7FL,
United Kingdom.
Warning:
This book contains sexually explicit content which is only suitable for mature readers. This
story has a heat rating of Total-e-melting and a sexometer of 2.
This story contains 152 pages, additionally there is also a free excerpt at the end of the book
containing 10 pages.
Book seven in the Southwestern Shifters Series
Jameson and Luuk have been on the run for their lives, but they’ve been running from more than their
enemies.
Three years running for their lives has brought Luuk and Jameson to the point of
desperation. A close call that almost ends in their deaths makes it clear to Luuk that he must
stop running and find a way to take back his position as the European Alpha Anax, leader of
all wolf shifters in Europe. To do so, he must defeat the man who ambushed him and has
been trying to kill him and Jameson.
Jameson didn’t know when he fell for Luuk that he was Luuk’s mate. He didn’t know
shifters existed, but he learned fast and hard. Three years on the run in the wild have left him
too close to an edge that, if he falls over, he fears he’ll be lost. The darkness in his mind is
threatening his life as much as those who hunt him.
As Luuk and Jameson take their stand, they find they have allies in places they never
suspected, and Jameson hasn’t been forgotten by everyone he left behind, not at all.
Dedication
In memory of those we’ve lost.
Trademarks Acknowledgement
The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following
wordmark mentioned in this work of fiction:
Monopoly: Hasbro, Inc
Regency Hotel: Hyatt Corporation
Spokeo: Spokeo
Bat Cave: DC Comics
Spider-Man: Marvel Comics
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Chapter One
Sometimes, when he could bear it, Jameson allowed himself to look back, to remember
what life was like before. Back to the days when he and his best friend Adam spent most of
their spare time together, when they laughed and enjoyed every moment. They were tight as
twins, thick as thieves—all the clichéd sayings in the world, but it had been true. Of all that
had happened in his life, all the mistakes and screw-ups, Jameson regretted losing Adam the
most.
Even though it’d been necessary, for Adam’s safety as well as his and Luuk’s. They’d
had to hide, and exposing Adam to the hell Jameson had been flung into the moment he
stepped off the plane in Amsterdam… That was just unthinkable.
So on the days when he could handle it, Jameson thought about those years past with
Adam, and he wondered about his friend now. He hoped Adam had found someone to love
him, to get past his shell and treasure the man underneath. He tried to envision Adam in the
little town of Shasta, Texas, but couldn’t for the life of him manage it. He and Adam had
always lived in the big city, had tromped all over the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Jameson
couldn’t even fathom what a small town was like.
Although he should have been able to. No, no, not really. He and Luuk had spent the
past three years hiding out in the mountains, mostly. It was rare Jameson got to feel a real
bed under his backside.
It was rare he was even human.
But he wouldn’t trade his life now for anything, because he had Luuk, and they were
mates. His life had become some bizarre sci-fi fantasy brought to life, but Jameson loved
Luuk with every fibre of his being, and Luuk’s love was every bit as strong, every bit as
fierce.
“Stronger, fiercer, every day.”
The rasp of Luuk’s voice sent a shiver down Jameson’s spine. It was one of the rare days
they were in human form, Luuk having found a cave he thought safe for them to hole up in a
few days. Jameson didn’t even know where they were, and he didn’t ask. It didn’t matter, as
long as they were together.
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“You think of him often,” Luuk said as he crawled over—the cave was wide and not
very tall. Moving around in it kind of sucked. Jameson shimmied closer as Luuk cuddled
him, wrapping around Jameson’s smaller form. Jameson loved how much bigger Luuk was
than him. It made him feel protected, safe. Horny.
Luuk snorted in his ear, his warm breath causing Jameson’s skin to pebble with goose
bumps. “It has been a while since we’ve been together like this.”
Jameson nodded in Luuk’s embrace. Fucking as wolves was good—anything with Luuk
was exceptional, really—but there was something to be said for having hands, for being
human and being able to do so much more.
“In a while, I will lay you down and worship every inch of your body,” Luuk purred
against his cheek. “I will make you tremble and shake for me, make you cry out…”
Jameson whimpered and closed his eyes, his cock going hard so quickly it made his
belly ache low down. “Yes, please.”
He loved Luuk, wanted to be touched by him, always, but he also wanted the respite
from reality, from fear. The latter was his constant companion, and it was wearing Jameson
down despite his attempts to keep it from doing so.
Luuk cupped his chin and guided his head around for a sloppy kiss that was tender
nonetheless. “I’m sorry, Jamie. I never suspected, or I wouldn’t have brought you back with
me.”
“You had a pack to lead,” Jameson murmured. This conversation happened on
occasion, but they both always needed it. Jameson carried his fear and Luuk carried regret,
among other things. “You had to come back.”
Luuk growled then, a low rumbling that vibrated against Jameson’s back. “I would
have abdicated rather than bring you to this kind of life. Hiding, always hiding. I cannot…”
He sighed and nuzzled down against Jameson’s neck.
Jameson knew. Every time Luuk tried to reach an ally, they were cut off. Three times,
he and Luuk had barely escaped with their lives. Some of their allies hadn’t been so lucky.
Luuk had been isolated, and Jameson feared the trap was slowly closing in around them. Or
not so slowly. They couldn’t even find a way out of the mountains now.
“We will. I will get you to safety, and leave this land behind.” Luuk hugged him tighter.
“What you’ve been through, what I had to do to you—”
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“We had to do to each other,” Jameson interrupted, his entire groin throbbing at the
memory of how he’d been changed. He’d screamed and cried—screw that whole being
manly crap. If Luuk’s life hadn’t depended on it, Jameson would have refused and just let
himself be taken. Except, he couldn’t have done that. He couldn’t have left his mate any more
than Luuk could leave him, and so they’d done what they’d had to. And it had sucked ass.
“What an understatement,” Luuk said, huffing in mild indignation. “I envied you your
ability to scream and cry. I truly believe it takes a stronger man to let his emotions out than it
does for one to hold them in.”
“Sure.” Jameson snorted and craned his neck a bit more so he could nip at Luuk’s
plump bottom lip. Even chapped from the wind and sun, the flesh was still succulent to
Jameson.
Luuk moaned softly, bending down more and opening for Jameson. The position was
awful, but they were comforting each other, nothing more. Fucking would come later, once
they’d both had time to touch and savour the feel of one another’s skin.
Jameson loved Luuk, he did, so much, but he ached inside for a different life for the two
of them. And so his eyes welled, and tears spilled, and Jameson thought sniffling while
kissing his lover was kind of gross, but Luuk held him, a big hand on the back of Jameson’s
head.
Luuk took control of the kiss, plunging his tongue in deep. His mind caressed
Jameson’s, soothing it just as his hand stroking down Jameson’s back soothed his body.
Jameson gave it all, knowing Luuk wanted his pain, his fear and disappointment as
well as his love and commitment. Despite all the trials, the constant hardships, Jameson
wouldn’t go back and change anything, at least not to the point of not ever having Luuk.
He’d just have them never leave the United States, and… Oh, every time he thought of that,
he hurt inside.
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Chapter Two
The cold woke Jameson, shaking him from his sleep, setting a deep shivering in place
that seemed to come from his very bones.
“Come here,” a gruff voice ordered, not unlovingly. Luuk reached for him, caught
Jameson around the waist, and together the two of them snuggled. “We should shift.”
Jameson groaned, knowing Luuk was right. But the opportunity to be human was so
rare, and even freezing his balls off was preferable to being a wolf again, at least for now.
Besides, they’d fallen asleep before they had done more than hold each other, too exhausted
to exert the energy for sex. But now—
Luuk growled in his ear, and Jameson warmed up from the inside out, his ass clenching
in anticipation. How long had it been since they’d been able to do this? How long since
they’d been men instead of wolves?
“Too long,” Jameson whispered, his mind clouding with a misery he had more and
more trouble battling. He pushed it back, not wanting Luuk to notice it. Jameson didn’t want
to keep anything from his mate, but even more, he didn’t want to add to Luuk’s stress, and
Jameson was very much afraid the dark moods brewing in him would be the distraction that
would lead to their deaths.
“Fuck me,” he demanded, reaching behind him to cup the back of Luuk’s head. He
tugged and Luuk leaned over, kissing Jameson forcefully, sloppily—perfectly. “Make me
forget everything but the way you make me feel.”
Jameson knew Luuk would understand the request. Luuk growled again, biting at his
lips. Jameson moaned and arched his back even as he tried to roll over. The steely heat of
Luuk’s dick prodding at his ass made Jameson want to weep with the depth of his need.
Luuk held him in place, not letting him roll. He nipped Jameson’s mouth, his jaw, his
neck, sometimes biting hard enough to hurt when Jameson started feeling the weight of
reality slipping in. Luuk chased it away with pleasure and pain, finding one of Jameson’s
nipples and pinching it hard as he sucked on Jameson’s neck.
“Wish I could take all night, but I can’t, Jamie. I can’t, not this time.”
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Jameson understood Luuk’s need—it was running through his veins, too, and the
mental bond between them was especially strong when they were intimate. Jameson didn’t
feel the depression now. All he felt was like he’d die if he didn’t have Luuk inside him soon.
He wiggled until Luuk’s cock bumped against his asshole. “Luuk!” Jameson arched again,
desperation clawing at him.
Luuk snarled and twisted Jameson’s nipple at the same time he thrust, the threat of a
dry fuck stimulating Jameson even more. He’d found the blacker his moods had been, the
more he needed the pain, but Luuk had rules he wouldn’t break.
Jameson grunted as he was rolled roughly onto his belly. The cold, hard ground
scraped his cock and his prominent hip bones but both hurts only fed his desire. Luuk
straddled the backs of his thighs and parted Jameson’s cheeks. Jameson wished he was clean,
wished he could feel Luuk’s mouth on him there. He quashed the threat of reality intruding
as Luuk spat and rubbed saliva over his opening. More moisture, then Luuk dropped down
over his back.
“Get your hand under yourself,” he ordered, sliding one arm beneath Jameson’s
shoulder. He gripped him there and guided his cock to Jameson’s hole with his other hand.
Jameson had no sooner fisted his own length than Luuk rumbled and began pushing in, the
slow, fierce burn almost too much. But Jameson needed to be pushed, to not be able to think,
and so he tried to push back, to force more of Luuk inside his ass.
“No.” Just the one word, so sternly spoken, and Jameson’s cock throbbed, ready to
spurt his release on the ground. He ringed the base tight with his finger and thumb.
Luuk moved Jameson’s leg, hitching it out to the side, then he added more saliva to his
cock. The slow, steady thrust continued, spreading Jameson open, gentler than he wanted,
but Luuk knew. Luuk always knew what he needed.
Jameson refused to think about why he wanted to be hurt, why he thought he needed to
be punished. It wasn’t a game for him, but something he knew was warped, damaged in his
core.
“You are not damaged,” Luuk rasped. “You are mine!” He surged forward, sinking his
cock in until his balls slapped Jameson’s.
The bright bolt of pain was nothing compared to the pleasure of feeling Luuk taking
him like this. Jameson cried out, tears leaking from his eyes at the exquisite rightness of them
being together.
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Luuk undulated against him and Jameson cried out again, squeezing his dick hard and
clawing at the ground with his other hand. Then Luuk licked his neck, and Jameson knew
what was coming, knew his mind and body were going to be shattered in a flood of pleasure-
pain that would drive out everything else.
When Luuk withdrew his cock, stretching Jameson’s tender opening with the broad
flared head, he suckled the join of neck and shoulder, driving needy sounds from Jameson.
Then he thrust in, all strength on desire, at the same time he bit, and Jameson screamed.
Luuk caught the scream with his hand, covering Jameson’s mouth to muffle the noise
that could well give them away. How he could think was beyond Jameson, because he was
taken over by Luuk, by what they had between them, but Luuk’s thick cock splitting his ass
open and his teeth sinking into Jameson’s flesh.
And yet Jameson held his climax back, knowing when he came he’d pull Luuk right
under with him. He didn’t want this to end, wanted Luuk inside him forever—the two of
them safe, Luuk on him, over him, fucking him with the long, hard strokes like he was doing
now.
Jameson found himself jerked up onto his knees. He got his hands under him, ready to
be ridden to oblivion, but Luuk used the arm under him to pull Jameson back, until he was
kneeling and Luuk was hammering into him with short thrusts that bordered on brutal.
Luuk kept his mouth sealed over the bite mark, but he dislodged his teeth, his breath
coming in rough pants as his hips stuttered, his rhythm shot. Jameson leaned his head back,
bowing his body, seeking every bit of pleasure he could get. Luuk slid his hand down
Jameson’s chest, scratching over his sore tit then going lower to find Jameson’s hand on his
cock.
When Luuk’s hand went further down, past his balls and between his legs to where
their bodies were joined, Jameson was lost. He stroked his cock once, ecstasy shooting up
from his balls to spurt from his slit. He clenched every muscle in his body, couldn’t even
make a sound as he came. There was a roaring in his ears, which he thought was his own
heartbeat, but his head felt light and he finally gasped, his lungs on fire.
Luuk then pulled Jameson’s hips back, holding them together as he spilled his cum into
Jameson. He whispered words of love and devotion, and words of hope, in Jameson’s ear, in
his head, and Jameson let himself believe it could and would be okay, sometime soon.
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It was one of those perfect moments, one they’d had all too rarely since leaving
America, and Jameson was thrilled when the power of it pulled him down into a sated sleep
almost instantly.
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Chapter Three
The small cave served as a respite from the dreaded snow and constant moving. Luuk
hated to leave it, but they’d been there too long—three days now, and even that had been
two days more than they should have stayed.
The opportunity to spend a few peaceful hours with his mate, in human form, had been
too great to pass up. Even though they had to shift into their wolf forms to survive the cold,
there’d still be those precious hours together where he had held Jamie in his arms.
Jamie had needed that, needed more, but there simply wasn’t time. Luuk could feel the
hunters approaching, even if he couldn’t scent or see them. His instincts had kept them
alive—albeit sometimes just barely—since they’d had to run. Luuk wouldn’t discount them
now.
He turned to look at Jamie, noting the new lines fanning out from the corners of his
eyes, the pinched look to his chapped lips. Shifters shouldn’t age so fast. It hurt Luuk, a
physical ache, to see what he was doing to Jamie.
“It isn’t your fault,” Jamie said as he rolled onto his knees from where he’d been laying.
“You didn’t start the coup.”
Luuk shrugged. The guilt was his. Anyone would carry it if they’d endangered their
mate and brought them into such harsh circumstances. “We have to leave here.” He saw the
sadness flit through Jamie’s eyes. More and more, he saw it, felt it. Jamie tried to hide it from
him, and that hurt, but Luuk respected Jamie’s need for privacy.
If it worried him—which it often did, as he felt the blackness swell and ebb in Jamie—
he was guilty of his own secrets by not letting Jamie know his secret wasn’t a secret.
Jamie shifted into a beautiful brown wolf without another word and trotted over to rub
against Luuk’s legs. Sometimes his mate acted more like a cat than a wolf, and Luuk found it
endearing. He reached down and scratched behind Jamie’s ears before bending more to
receive a faceful of licks.
“I love you, too, Jamie. So much.” So much his eyes burned and he had to squeeze his
eyes shut tight to keep the tears back. Although why he bothered… It wasn’t like he couldn’t
be himself with his mate, but Luuk was the Alpha Anax.
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Or had been. He still considered himself the rightful AA, anyways. And years of being
the alpha, of being all strength and power and leadership—well, Luuk rarely let himself cry,
although sometimes in the darkness he had to give in.
Luuk shifted, immediately feeling a hundred times warmer. His own coat was thick
and pale grey with flecks of cream and black in it. He tended to blend in better than Jamie’s
lovely brown, which worried him to no end.
Together they cautiously began to descend the snow-covered slope. A third of the way
down, Luuk stopped and turned to his right, leading them over rough and sharply angled
terrain. The rocks beneath the snow were dangerous. One slip and Jamie could be seriously
hurt.
By the time they reached the other side of the mountain, having stayed off all paths, it
was almost dark and the sensation of being followed had only grown stronger. Luuk had
hoped to put some miles between them and that feeling.
He and Jamie hadn’t even bothered trying to find food, and now he was worn out, and
Jamie was moving sluggishly. Luuk was afraid Jamie’s black mood was more responsible for
that than the lack of food.
“We can’t stop yet.” Luuk shared the thought with his mate, adding a mental caress as
well as nuzzling Jamie’s nape.
Jamie gave him a dull look before shaking out his coat and apparently shaking off his
mood. It was just appearances, perhaps, but it did make Luuk feel a little better. How long
could Jamie keep living like this? How long could he?
They trekked on, Luuk keeping a conversation going with Jamie telepathically,
knowing they both needed it. The moon had risen high and bright by the time Luuk caught a
whiff of civilisation. It was hard to describe it except as an end of the pure, clean air.
“Where do you think we are?” Jamie asked.
Luuk racked his brain. “We were in Austria months ago. Slovakia, maybe?” Luuk snorted
delicately. “We could even be in Poland, or further even. It feels like we’ve run the whole globe.”
“No kidding. Do you think…?” Jamie looked away, towards the direction the not-so-clean
air had come from.
Luuk wished he knew. Jamie was afraid to hope that they could actually make it to
civilisation, and Luuk couldn’t blame him. Even if they did make it, what then? It was a sure
bet every hidden stash Luuk had in banks around the world had been compromised. If not,
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they were almost certainly monitored. All his accounts, all the information for them, had
been at his residence, which had been taken from him.
Every bit of personal information that could have helped him—names of people he
trusted, escape routes and plans, money—all of it had been lost to him. It didn’t matter right
now, though. What did matter was getting his mate somewhere safe and warm, and making
sure he was provided for.
“I’m not helpless. I can provide too.”
Jamie’s calm statement was true enough, but Luuk tried to explain his reasoning. “Yes,
but I want to take care of you. I need to. One day, we can be as we are meant to be.”
“I still feel like we’re being watched,” Jamie shared.
Luuk lowered his head and listened so hard the silence made his ears burn. He sniffed,
raising his nose into the air. Nothing unusual caught his attention. Still, had he been human,
his skin would have prickled with goose bumps. As it was, his fur was nearly standing on
end.
His instincts were screaming at him that something was wrong. Luuk nudged Jamie
hard on the shoulder right before a bullet whizzed through the silence. He didn’t have to tell
Jamie to run.
Luuk stayed behind Jamie, hoping to shield him as they ran full-out towards whatever
city or town lay ahead. More bullets were fired, one singeing Luuk’s fur and making his skin
burn along his left hip. Luuk stumbled. Jamie slowed and Luuk nipped his heel, too scared
for his mate to be gentle. He forced himself to run, knowing if he fell, Jamie would stop, and
they’d both be dead.
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Chapter Four
I am not helpless! I don’t need to be rescued like some pathetic princess in a fairy tale!
Jameson was scared, though, because Luuk was hurt and yeah, this might be it for
them. All his dreams of having a normal—whatever that meant, considering they were
shifters—life with his mate, or at least a life where they weren’t constantly trying not to be
killed, began to evaporate with each whiff of his mate’s blood.
Then anger came, blowing through Jameson with the force of a volcanic eruption. He
was so fucking tied of running!
“Jamie…”
Even Luuk’s mental voice sounded weak, drained, too close to hopeless, and Jameson
had just outright had it. He spun on his back paws, pivoting around Luuk in a blur of
movement. Jameson clipped Luuk’s hip with his head, knocking him behind a jagged
boulder partially covered with snow.
“Stay safe. I love you.” Jameson put every bit of the love he had for Luuk in the thought.
He clamped his mind shut to his mate, and doing so brought out what he’d tried to keep
back.
The darkness inside him, the insidious black mood he knew was depression,
suffocating all the light, was now pouring through him. It didn’t blanket his anger, instead
twining with it in a way to strip Jameson of concern for himself. All he wanted was for Luuk
to survive and for this to end. He was so tired. So very tired.
Jameson remembered his grandma telling him God watched over fools and babies,
which had seemed contradictory to the Bible—at least the fools part did. He wondered if
anything out there in the universe would watch out for him.
Bullets hit the ground beside his front paws, sending up chunks of snow and rock.
Pieces of the latter pelted his coat but Jameson didn’t give a shit. Every leaping stride he took
fuelled his anger, his determination to protect his mate. Jameson had never killed before, but
he knew he was going to this time.
Something inside him was breaking. Luuk had been hurt before, they both had, and
Jameson just couldn’t. Deal with it. Accept it. Let it go unpunished. Fail my mate.
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Whether it was his will or luck or skill, he didn’t know or care, but Jameson avoided
getting shot as he ran, swerving and jumping, pushing his wolf as far as he could. An
outcropping of rocks up on a slippery ledge was where the shots were coming from. Jameson
was almost there. He put his nose to the ground and tried to keep his body compact now.
The temptation to check on Luuk was strong, but Jameson was afraid of becoming
distracted. That couldn’t happen when he was trying to save Luuk.
Rocks and snow skittered down the slope and it took Jameson a few seconds to realise
no more bullets were being fired. He lifted his head and dared to look. Fury spiked his chest
when he saw his prey jumping up and taking off. The dark-haired man shifted in mid-stride,
turning into a lean black wolf.
Jameson howled his promise of retribution for Luuk’s injury, for years of having to run
and hide and barely get by. He dug his nails into the ground with each step, propelling him
forward with more force than he’d known he had.
Inside him was the staccato beat of kill him kill him kill him, Jameson’s wolf tromping
over the man and devouring his morals and qualms. Jameson didn’t fight it. The man in him
was too soft, too fucked up to do what needed to be done. He closed his spiritual eyes and let
his wolf observe.
The black wolf snarled and came to a skidding halt. He turned and put his ears back.
His lips pulled up, exposing long canines and saliva dripping from his muzzle. His dark eyes
flashed fear and hatred at Jameson.
Jameson was surprised by the stop, but he quickly saw the reason why. Whether by
error and panic or deliberate cunning, the black wolf had brought them to a ledge. Jameson
thought it was the former. The black wolf could either go down the mountainside or through
Jameson, since he blocked the only path to freedom that wouldn’t kill them.
The black wolf reacted as cornered wild beasts do, anger and fear pouring from him as
he howled and charged Jameson. There was no skill, no honour—this was a match of death
and neither wolf wanted to lose.
Jameson surged up, locking his front legs around the black wolf’s shoulders. They bit
and tore at each other, catching lips and cheeks and ears. Jameson managed to get a mouthful
of the other’s shoulder but quickly let go when he felt teeth scrape the side of his neck.
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They separated and moved back, eyeing each other. Jameson could smell the fear and
the blood on his opponent. His own blood had been spilled, but not like the black wolf’s,
whose fur was soaked at the shoulder and glistening in the moonlight.
Jameson saw the flicker of the wolf’s next move before it happened. His instincts
seemed to be at their prime, perhaps because he had stepped back as a man and given over
to his primeval nature. The black wolf came at him fast, but Jameson was already moving,
angling his body, baring his teeth.
By the time the other wolf realised what was happening, Jameson had hopped aside
just enough to be able to turn his head and bite deep. Pain shot through his side as his
opponent retaliated, tearing at him. But Jameson only growled, his heartbeat calm as blood
flowed into his mouth.
The man in him completely shut down as his wolf clamped his jaws tighter and shook
his head. The resulting damage to the black wolf was fatal and messy. His wolf didn’t care.
The threat was gone, at least the threat to his mate was. For now.
But what price would his human half pay? His wolf howled again, scared and aching,
calling out to his mate.
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Chapter Five
Heart sputtering in his chest, Luuk stumbled as Jamie’s howl rent the air. He hadn’t
been quick enough, good enough, alpha enough to protect his mate. The failure tore at him,
more painful than the bullet had been.
Luuk forced his legs to move. He didn’t think the shot had been fatal, and he should
heal quickly. But not as fast as he used to. Luuk had noticed that the last time he’d been
injured, but now wasn’t the time to worry about it.
Jamie had done something Luuk very much feared would scar him in a way no amount
of shifter healing could fix. There was nothing wrong with killing for defence—hell, in the
shifter realm, they often killed for reasons that made Luuk fear for all shifter-kind. But Jamie
was a gentle soul, or he had been, before Luuk had dragged him down.
Another howl, this one tinged with more desperation, less hope. Luuk willed his body
to mend and he found a burst of energy and strength only Jamie could have inspired in him.
Luuk wasn’t particularly steady on all fours when he ascended to where Jamie was sitting,
nose up to welcome the night sky as he cried out in misery.
The stench of blood and death was strong, and while Luuk could handle it, he wanted
Jamie away from it immediately. He reached for Jamie, first with their mental link, relieved
to find Jamie’s resistance there easily bypassed. Jamie lowered his head and refused to meet
Luuk’s eyes, whining piteously when Luuk rubbed against him.
Luuk lapped at Jamie’s muzzle, then at his wounds as he tried to coax the man out from
the beast. Jamie’s wolf was at the forefront, protecting the more fragile human psyche. Luuk
reached inside to his mate, finding Jamie and encouraging him to come into awareness. The
pain he felt rush into him told him, as surely as the tears that spilled from Jamie’s eyes, that
the man was now back in control of the beast.
Instead of words, Luuk sent every bit of the love and comfort he had in him to Jamie.
There were times when no words were the right ones, and only actions and emotions could
help. Luuk gave Jamie everything, shifting even in the freezing temperatures so he could
embrace Jamie with his arms, cuddle his body close.
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Luuk’s own pain was forgotten as he held Jamie, letting him howl and cry through
some of his agony. Jamie’s physical wounds were minor compared to what was going on
inside him. In fact, Jamie was already healing, much quicker than Luuk. It was one less thing
for Luuk to worry over right then.
When Jamie had calmed somewhat, and his tears and sobs had ceased, Luuk shifted
back into wolf form. The cold hit him then, oddly enough, and he shivered so hard his teeth
ached.
“Luuk, I’m sorry…” Jamie began, but Luuk stopped him.
“No, Jamie. I should have handled this. It never should have been your burden to bear.”
Especially not when Luuk wouldn’t have felt any guilt over protecting his mate, or himself.
Sadness that a life was lost, anger at the one who’d sent the would-be assassin, but nothing
more. It should have been him who’d torn the wolf’s throat out.
Jamie didn’t argue, which was worrisome. Mentally, Jamie was putting out what Luuk
called ‘static’, a cacophony of thoughts shooting about like debris in a tornado. Jamie was
trying desperately not to think about what he’d just done. Luuk wasn’t normally the evasive
type, but he knew Jamie was straddling a fine line and might topple over it if nudged at all.
Added to that was the fear that the shooter might not have been alone, not completely. There
could be more shifters coming or waiting further up near the town ahead.
“We’ll need to go in a different direction,” Luuk thought, and Jamie’s panicked mind
quieted for a moment before he nodded. Luuk wanted to keep him thinking in a calmer
manner. He needed Jamie to be alert, and that wouldn’t be the case if Jamie was battling
mental demons.
Jamie took a deep stuttering breath before blowing it out slowly. “I’ll get it together. I
can’t promise I won’t break down when we make it to safety.”
The honesty of Jamie’s words made Luuk’s eyes burn and he wished again that Fate
had given Jamie a mate who wouldn’t have put him through this hell. Luuk would give
anything to have a better life for Jamie, even though thinking about them not being mates
hurt as if someone had poured datura down Luuk’s throat.
Luuk reminded himself he was an alpha, and he wasn’t going to let the circumstances
take that from him any more than he’d let them take Jamie from him. Fuck those who would
see him dead. Luuk would get him and his mate through this, then he’d tear the head off
every traitor who’d had a hand in Jamie’s suffering. Luuk had spent the past years trying to
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survive, trying to sneak by and living on the defensive. One look at Jamie, one touch of his
emotions, and Luuk saw clearly how stupid he’d been. In trying to keep Jamie safe, he’d put
him even more at risk. How many shifters now thought he was a coward, unworthy of the
Alpha Anax title? Luuk had truly fucked up, but no more.
It was time he remembered who and what he was.
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Chapter Six
As if his determination had brought about the unexpected, Luuk and Jameson
encountered no other would-be assassins on the way into town. It was a good thing, as,
despite his spirit’s willingness to kill anything and anyone who got in their way, Luuk’s
body was not up to the task. And Jamie… Jamie was there, but part of his mind was a
thousand miles away—or more likely, thousands of miles away, back where he’d once been
safe.
Even though he felt on the edge of collapse, Luuk did keep his senses alert to the best of
his ability. Jamie’s life depended on it. Trudging through the dark, cold night, Luuk was
inspired to keep on by thoughts of finding a warm place to rest up with his mate. He didn’t
know where they were going, but somehow he’d find them a place to recover, mentally and
physically.
He was going to come out swinging, as the saying went, even if he did it quietly. He’d
still be deadly and effective, and get his position back so he could take care of his people. In
order to do that, he needed to recuperate, and so did Jamie. Maybe, if he could find a way to
get a message to Jamie’s friend, Adam, that would help his mate. Adam had been a nice guy,
loyal to Jamie and guarded around Luuk—as it turned out, rightfully so. Look at the mess
he’d got Jamie into.
Wallowing in guilt wasn’t going to help them right now. Luuk buried it along with the
pain from his injury. He moved closer to Jamie, rubbing against his side with every step. A
warm blast of affection from Jamie filled Luuk with more hope than he’d had in a long time.
Perhaps Jamie had worked through his black mood for now. Luuk knew they’d have to
deal with that particular issue when they could, which meant stability and complete removal
of fear and struggling for survival daily.
“Almost there.” Luuk stopped at the edge of a lightly wooded area. The snow was not
quite as deep as it had been and for that he was grateful. He sniffed, caught the pungent
scent of civilisation and all the poisons man made in the name of progress. He also caught
something else, the faint whiff of shifters, some unfamiliar in a way he couldn’t name.
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Jamie scented it, too, growling low and looking at him. “It’s a few days old, and I smell
blood. Not yours or mine.”
Or the other’s, the one Jamie killed. Luuk wouldn’t add that, and was glad Jamie didn’t
think it either. But it was the truth. “We need to check it out before we seek shelter.”
He wanted safety, warmth, a meal and time to love on his mate, but the unfamiliar
shifter scent was bothering him. It wasn’t as if he knew the individual smell of every shifter;
that was ridiculous. But something about the odours he was picking up was just…different,
and he didn’t know why.
Luuk turned them back and into the wind, following the scents. The path he picked was
narrow enough that Jamie had to stay behind him, which was safer, Luuk hoped. After about
ten minutes, he stopped at a small clearing. Very small, which was likely why the signs of a
fight were very obvious. Broken limbs and torn plants, gouges in the ground—and wolf
bodies, with very little flesh left on them despite the cold. Even here there were predators
that ate the dead.
“Shifters, right, Luuk?”
“Yes, Jamie, but not the ones whose scents seem…off.” Luuk walked over to the closest
body, ignoring the grossness of what he was seeing. He couldn’t tell much other than the
obvious—this shifter had fought another one or more shifters, and lost. As had the other two
who lay dead.
He returned to Jamie and was relieved to find him calm. “I counted five tracks, which
means two shifters took out these three.”
“They must have been big, because the dead ones aren’t exactly tiny.”
Jamie’s observation was true, but Luuk knew a lot depended on how the fight went
down. Had it been a cowardly ambush at first, as had happened to him and Jameson so
many times? Or an honourable fight?
“Come on, there’s nothing else to learn here and we need to find a place to stay.” Luuk had
thought about trying to track the two wolves who’d survived, but if he found them, what
then? He was in no shape for a fight.
Jameson turned and began leading the way back. He stopped halfway there and cocked
his head to the side, sniffing delicately. Luuk did the same just as Jamie darted off in the
direction he’d been sniffing.
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“Jamie!” Luuk’s heart ached, like a physical cramp as fear flooded his bloodstream. He
sprang after Jamie only to nearly smack into his backside a couple dozen feet ahead. Jamie
was pawing at the ground, whimpering and snarling.
Luuk got the message and began helping his mate dig. The ground had been disturbed
not too long before, and he smelt it now as well, the scent of the deceased shifters.
It wasn’t long before Jamie stuck his muzzle in the hole and pulled out a pack, swinging
it triumphantly around. Luuk’s spirits lifted at Jamie’s delight. Jamie shifted and before Luuk
could chide him about the cold temperatures on a human, Jamie had the pack opened and
was pulling out a wad of euros and zlotys.
“We can stay somewhere decent with this, right?” Jamie asked, fear and hope making
his eyes shine as he waved the stack at Luuk.
And Luuk decided it didn’t matter if that stack was legit or not, he would make sure
Jamie had at least one luxurious, decadent night as soon as possible.
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Chapter Seven
Luuk’s planned night of spoiling Jamie would have to wait, however, since he was
barely able to stand. He hoped he kept it from Jamie, hoped Jamie hadn’t seen the wobble
when he went to turn. He should have known better.
“Stop.”
Jamie’s tone was rare, the command all the more effective for it. Luuk not only stopped,
he went ahead and sat, knowing his mate was aware of how weak he truly was.
“Why aren’t you healing like I do?” Jamie set the money down and began running his
hands over Luuk’s fur. “Was there something on the bullet, maybe?”
Well, there was a question Luuk hadn’t thought to worry about, but it made sense. He
hadn’t thought he’d been shot-shot, just a crease, and yet he felt weak as a newborn and what
the fuck was wrong with him?
“Stay here, I’m going to see if I can find clothes. Those shifters left money, surely there’s
clothes somewhere…” Jamie gave him a worried look and didn’t bother tamping down the
fear he felt for Luuk. It broke Luuk’s heart, what he was doing to Jamie, but he couldn’t undo
it, and he’d never leave Jamie. Neither of them would survive that, or he’d have found a way
to free Jamie of him. No one wanted to be the cause of their loved one’s suffering, and that
was what Luuk was.
“You are not!” Jamie snapped in his head, having already shifted back to his wolf. “The
ones responsible are the fuckers who are hunting us, and if I find any of them, I’ll kill them and find a
way to live with it!”
Those words stirred more worry than anything else. Luuk knew the toll on Jamie’s soul
would be too great if he had to kill again. The best thing he could do was to ensure it didn’t
come to that. He began formulating a plan, bits and pieces of one, anyway, but he found it
hard to think and exceptionally hard to keep his thoughts buried, so Luuk finally gave up
and closed his eyes—only to yelp when his hip was nudged by his mate.
“Shift.”
Since Jamie had a pack in his mouth, Luuk was betting he’d found the clothes he was
searching for. Luuk shifted, biting his cheek until he bled to keep from whimpering. But God,
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his whole side ached, a fiery sensation that seemed to sink into his bones and didn’t do one
damned thing to keep him warm.
Luuk shifted, and nearly blacked out from it. It took a great deal of help from Jamie to
get him dressed, and the trip into the town, whatever town it was, was more of a blur than
anything else.
Jamie’s arm around his waist helped keep Luuk upright, but it was the knowledge that
if he fell he’d take Jamie down with him that steadied his legs and kept him trudging on.
“Can you read the signs? Any idea where we are?” Jamie asked as they finally reached
civilisation. Luuk wished he wasn’t so out of it. He’d have liked to enjoy Jamie’s excitement,
something he couldn’t do since Jamie was too worried about him.
“Polish,” Luuk said, squinting hard. He thought that was right, but his vision was for
shit right now. “Wroclaw, I think.” It didn’t really matter, because Luuk was beginning to
fear this would be where he died.
“No you won’t, don’t even think that!” Jamie shouted, or it seemed so to Luuk. Then
the world went dark and the pain stopped, and his last thought was he’d failed his mate once
again.
“No no no no no!” Jameson yelled, reaching for Luuk with his other hand to keep him
from toppling over. Luuk wasn’t dead, Jameson could feel him, inside. Luuk was the reason
his heart still beat.
Jameson hefted Luuk onto his shoulder, terrified for his mate. Luuk, always so strong,
so determined, wasn’t dead yet—no—but he wasn’t long for this world. Jameson had no
desire to exist without him, and anyway, he didn’t think his wolf would make it without its
mate. Both of them would die of a broken heart, unless he figured out how to save Luuk.
As it turned out, Wroclaw, if that was where they were, wasn’t a small town. It seemed
huge to Jameson, who hadn’t really been out of the wilderness in three years or so.
Everything about the place set his teeth on edge. He didn’t know the language, or where the
local pack was—he would bet there was one, though—or how to find one goddamned thing
they needed.
The only thing familiar to him was a church, and Jameson, never a religious man, was
loath to go inside it. However, Luuk was shaking so hard Jameson was scared he was going
to drop him, and he was freezing his balls off. He was worried about frostbite for Luuk,
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along with everything else, so Jameson stumbled towards the large structure and hoped the
doors weren’t locked. Even if they could just go inside and get warm, maybe it would help.
Jameson made it to the top step, having no recall of climbing the stairs.
“We’re almost there, Luuk. Just hang on for me. Hang on for me,” Jameson muttered,
aching for some reassurance from his mate. “Luuk, hang on,” he repeated louder, fear
sharpening his voice and words.
The doors loomed large and Jameson wondered if he’d have the strength to pull one
open. He edged closer and gripped the handle, the metal bitingly cold against his palm and
fingers. A gentle tug and the door opened, warm air wafting past it to slap at him, stinging
his skin.
“May I help you?” a rich baritone voice asked.
Jameson blinked, unable to figure out how he understood Polish all of a sudden, when
it dawned on him he was hearing heavily accented English and there was an old, stooped
priest standing inside, looking all…priestly. Jameson supposed he was a priest, but what did
he know? He might not be in a Catholic church, although he thought Poland was largely
Catholic. With his luck he had stumbled into some Druidic temple where they sacrificed
strangers.
“I can see that you need help,” the old man said slowly, as if the words were unfamiliar,
although it was probably just the language. “Bring him in—come, come.”
Jameson was too tired to question it so he stepped inside as the old man called out a
name or…hell, he could be calling the police or the pack, Jameson wouldn’t have a clue.
A younger man, probably in his fifties, came out from a room at the back of the church.
He took one look at them then rushed over, talking in a language Jameson didn’t understand
for a few moments before turning to them.
“Father Piotr says you are in need of help.” He looked Jameson over then held out a
hand. “I am Father Norbert, and we shall help you, but if you or the man you are carrying is
in trouble with the law, we must know.”
Jameson shook his head. “Not the law, no. We’re travellers who are lost. We were
hiking…” He trailed off, thinking if there was a hell he was surely going there for lying, but
what else could he say?
“Very well then. Let us help you carry him. What is your name?” Father Norbert asked.
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Jameson gave the abbreviated version of his name, James, and left it at that. They could
think he was just an idiot but he wasn’t willing to risk using his last name or Luuk’s. “This is
Lowell, and he’s been hurt, on his side, and I think he ate something poisonous when we
were lost and starving…”
Such a ludicrous story, to Jameson, who knew there wasn’t a fucking thing to eat in
those mountains. There was snow and the occasional animal if they could catch it, but not
berries and such. Not anything poisonous that he knew of, at least.
But the priests didn’t question him, and later, he helped them clean Luuk’s wound,
which was already festering and infected—and it shouldn’t have been, not with their healing
abilities.
“Is the poison from here”—Father Piotr touched one small patch of inflamed tissue—
“or did he ingest something?” He pinned Jameson with a non-judgemental look, and
Jameson wanted to trust the man so bad, wanted to be able to share the concerns and fears
for just a while. Could he take such a risk?
Father Norbert grunted and scratched his neck as he averted his gaze. “We have
promised to help you. You have told us you are not criminals. Have you lied?”
“No,” Jameson croaked, “I haven’t, we aren’t. But there are those who want us dead,
and I can’t tell you why. I’m sorry but I can’t.”
Father Piotr nodded. “We accept that, and so, can you now tell us, did he truly eat
anything—?”
“No,” Jameson interrupted, “he hasn’t. Neither of us have had a decent meal in…”
Longer than he cared to remember. Jameson ditched the thought. This wasn’t about him. “He
was shot, and it should have just been a scrape, really”—healed already—“not…not this. And
he should be awake!”
Jameson hadn’t meant to shout that last part, but Luuk’s pulse was growing weaker,
and damn it, he was so afraid…
“So poison, maybe on the bullet.” Father Piotr gestured to Father Norbert. They didn’t
speak but something passed between them, because Father Norbert stood and left the room.
“He shall return with the medicines we hope will work. We have modern medicines, and
more…traditional ones. I am believing it is the older ones that might help Lowell. There are
things that work better on otherly types.”
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Jameson’s stomach crystallised into a ball of ice. Father Piotr knew…and so did Father
Norbert, who could even now be calling someone! Jameson leapt up, prepared to do
whatever he had to do to keep Luuk safe.
Father Piotr didn’t move, just looked at him all calm and soothing and what the hell
was up with that? What is he, some shifter whisperer? Because Jameson was beginning to trust
the man, and his instincts were telling him he could.
“How?” was all he asked.
Father Piotr shrugged. “Both Father Norbert and I grew up in a very small town at the
base of the mountains you must have come through. We saw things, and perhaps, because of
it, we are more open-minded than many other priests. In fact, my sister became a wolf, and I
do not think her lacking a soul for it. Her and her husband are not demons by any means,
although I would not share any of this with anyone besides Father Norbert, since it was his
half-brother she is mated to.”
How did that even happen? Jameson supposed Father Norbert’s mother or father had
found a shifter mate or been found, whatever, after his birth. Probably way after, because
otherwise he doubted the priest would be here instead of with a pack.
“We will not hurt you, and will not question you anymore.”
Jameson nodded, then looked at Father Piotr. “And please, don’t mention us to anyone,
not your shifter family members, no one. Please.”
Father Piotr agreed easily, then asked the same of Father Norbert when he returned.
Jameson had expected questions about what he was but didn’t get any. Maybe he shouldn’t
have thought he’d be grilled. So far the priests were cool and they already probably knew
everything they’d ever wanted to about shifters.
Jameson just hoped he wasn’t wrong to trust them.
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Chapter Eight
Amidst the bustling of the two priests, something occurred to Jameson. As exhausted as
he was, worn down inside and out, he couldn’t relax while Luuk’s care was in others’ hands,
and certainly not when he was so afraid Luuk was edging out of this life.
Jameson could still feel him, his presence warm inside his mind, a comforting sensation,
so familiar and beloved. But that was all he had right now, just that feeling. There were no
reassuring words or thoughts, and that terrified him. He didn’t know if Luuk’s body was
trying to conserve strength to fight this battle of survival, or—no, he couldn’t think anything
else.
Jameson narrowed his eyes as he watched Father Norbert hand a steaming cup of
whatever concoction they’d made. Father Norbert had told him what was being mixed
together, and while most of the ingredients weren’t ones Jameson was familiar with, he sure
as hell recognised the strong scent of garlic. It burned his nose and he rubbed at it as the cup
was brought to Luuk’s lips.
“Wait!” he snapped out, his mind finally throwing out the piece of the puzzle that had
him on edge despite the priests’ claims of good intent. Jameson slapped the cup out of Father
Piotr’s hand, stunning the old man as well as Father Norbert, who squeaked before flinging
his hands up and bellowing, “Do you know how hard it was to get that mixed properly?”
“Get away from him,” Jameson snarled. The priests were between them and the
doorway, but Jameson didn’t care. He’d do what he needed to in order to get Luuk out of
here. “Touch him again and I’ll rip you in half.” He had no qualms about threatening the
other men. If they’d intended Luuk harm… Jameson had already figured out they were liars.
“What has happened?” Father Piotr asked. His wrinkled brow became more so as he
looked from Jameson to Luuk then to Father Norbert. “What has changed? We have
promised to help.”
“English,” Jameson bit out, wedging an arm under Luuk’s shoulders and propping him
up so it’d be easier to put him in a fireman’s carry. The priests had spoken English to him
before ever having heard him speak. How had they known to do that? He could tell the
priests were befuddled by his one-word explanation and didn’t care. Jameson grunted as he
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lifted Luuk. He was so tired and weak himself, but the adrenaline surge was giving him the
boost he needed to rescue his mate.
He knew exactly when they figured it out though, because Father Piotr closed his eyes
and muttered “Palant,” while Father Norbert gave an emphatic “Gówno!” What the words
meant he couldn’t be sure, but he’d bet they were curses.
“Get out of my way,” Jameson ordered, knowing his strength might ebb quickly. “Or
else.”
Father Norbert scrambled back and Jameson thought it was going to be an easier escape
for a moment—until the priest slammed his back against the door and spread his limbs out.
As if that would stop me. Jameson called on his wolf, bringing it as close to the surface as
he could without shifting. Damn it, Father Norbert look terrified and soft in the middle, and
Jameson wasn’t so sure he could carry through on his threat after all.
“I can,” he told himself, and maybe the Fathers, too.
Father Norbert however, didn’t move, but the scent of his fear was stronger than the
noxious mixture he’d carried in moments earlier. Jameson took a step forward, lowering his
head. Inside his wolf was wild, prepared to protect his mate.
“Stop this!” Father Piotr shouted with a surprising amount of command in his voice.
And for an old guy, he proved he could move rather quickly, darting to put himself between
Jameson and the other priest. “You stop this right now! Use your senses!”
“It’s my senses that tell me you are both liars, and therefore untrustworthy,” Jameson
spat out, so tired and angry he felt dangerously close to just losing it.
“We’ve lied about nothing,” Father Piotr said, “nothing. I spoke English because I was
foolish, yes, but having you come here, knowing the both of you are still alive—”
Jameson swayed, frigid inside. He had to exert every bit of control not to attack right
then. “What do you mean? Who do you think we are?”
Father Norbert said something Jameson didn’t understand, but he had the thought to
use his intellect, his and his wolf’s, rather than just pouncing. Had he seen or heard, or even
scented any signs of deceit from the priests? Granted, his instincts might be rough, but then
again, perhaps not. Years of depending on them for survival had honed them to a point
where even being ready to keel over from exhaustion likely wouldn’t dim them.
Right now the older men seemed to be bickering, with hands gesturing and frustration
clear in their expressions. But did he sense anything else? Jameson lowered Luuk to the floor
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and stepped in front of him. The priests stopped talking and squawking. “Don’t move,”
Jameson said. He shoved his clothes off, his audience gasping then averting their gaze, but
standing still.
In seconds he’d shifted. Jameson approached them, everything sharper in his mind and
senses in this form. If he’d have been expecting the priests to shy away or cower in fear, he’d
have been wrong. Very wrong.
“What a beautiful coat you have,” Father Norbert murmured, and he proved his
nativity or stupidity—Jameson wasn’t sure which—by stepping around Father Piotr and
reaching out to stroke Jameson’s fur. Even a soft growl from Jameson got him a cluck of
tongue from the priest. And a scratch behind his ear.
Father Piotr squatted, his knees popping so that it made Jameson’s hurt in sympathy.
“We have told you of our family. They have in turn told of their lost leader and his mate.
Many have begun to lose faith that their true Alpha Anax will return, and many who fought
for him have been killed or imprisoned. There have been rumours of sightings, and when I
saw you outside on the steps, I remembered the rumours, and the drawings and sketches
passed in secret of you two. There are many shifters, and yes, even some people, looking for
you and Luuk. I have even heard tell of the Alpha Anaxes of other countries sending over
guards to find you recently.”
Jameson’s head was spinning with the influx of news, and the part about guards from
other countries and Alpha Anaxes—what was he supposed to make of that? He remembered
the unfamiliar scent of the other shifters in the forest hours ago. Would shifters from far
away have a different smell to them?
“Please, we truly only mean to help.” The older priest sighed and plopped onto his
butt. “Too hard on my knees.” He turned watery blue eyes on him. “Jameson.”
Hearing his name in someone other than Luuk’s voice just sounded weird, and…and
wonderful. Even in wolf form, his eyes burned, and Jameson had to struggle not to shift. He
wanted to trust these men so badly, it scared him. Could he?
“Jameson,” Father Piotr said again. “It’s a strong name. We have not contacted anyone,
not even our family shifters, to tell them you and Luuk have been found. We would not,
without first gaining your permission. We also understand that trust isn’t given but earned.
Unfortunately, I do not think your mate has the time for you to dither over this.” He nodded
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just as Jameson heard Luuk’s breath hitch, felt his presence flicker, and it terrified him as
nothing else could.
Jameson shifted, scrambling to Luuk. “No, no no no,” he muttered, scooping Luuk into
his arms. “You can’t, Luuk, no. You can’t…” Jameson rocked and exerted every bit of power
he could through their link, clamping mental tendrils around Luuk, coaxing and binding, no
longer paying attention to the priests. There was no reason to. If he lost Luuk, he lost
everything. The priests could kill him or turn him in if they were so inclined.
Or they could save Luuk, he realised, fear jabbing his gut and heart as hands appeared,
the stink of the mixture strong and coming from the fumes rolling off the cup one of the
priests put to Luuk’s lips. Jameson didn’t take his eyes off Luuk to see which man gave it to
him. He was afraid if he looked away, if he let that bond loosen at all, Luuk would leave him.
“You have to fight, Luuk. You have to. Don’t leave me here, you don’t want to leave me here. I
know you’re tired, so tired, and I am, too, but don’t be a coward and take the easy way out. Stay here
with me and fight!”
Jameson’s desperate thoughts and words flowed as rapidly as his tears. He held Luuk
as more of the stuff was poured into his mouth, bathed his face in kisses and licked away the
tears he’d spilled on Luuk’s skin. All the while, the priests remained beside him, chanting or
praying, he didn’t know which.
Eventually one of them got up. Jameson heard him but wouldn’t look away from
Luuk’s pale, drawn face. A few minutes later the priest returned with another cup, and so it
went. Jameson lost track of everything but his mate and the fight to keep him alive.
And so, when Luuk finally took a deep, shuddering breath, Jameson’s heart stopped.
Then Luuk’s lids fluttered, as if it was a great weight on them, before he opened his eyes in
narrow slits.
“Oh God,” Jameson gasped, thinking he’d never seen a more beautiful sight than
Luuk’s golden-brown eyes just then. It only lasted for a moment, then Luuk sighed softly,
and closed his eyes. But his presence in Jameson’s mind, in his heart, was stronger, and Luuk
curled onto his uninjured side and snuggled to Jameson.
The priests whooped, startling Jameson into twitching, then he smiled, and wondered if
things truly were as the priests had said, and what Luuk would think of other Alpha Anaxes
coming to his aid. It made Jameson’s smile broader imagining the look on Luuk’s face when
he was told this information.
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Uncaring of his nudity, Jameson lay down on the floor and kept Luuk against him. He
didn’t think he’d ever let him go after this scare. He was so tired, and hungry, but none of
that mattered. He had Luuk, and they seemed to have an odd set of friends in the two priests.
One of them handed him a large pillow while the other flapped a blanket over them.
Jameson settled in, but he was unable to sleep despite being so worn out. Didn’t mean
he wasn’t grateful, or content for now, but he’d come so close to losing Luuk the fear was still
a living thing prodding at his nerves. He would guard his mate while he slept, and when
Luuk woke up, if he was stronger, then Jameson would rest.
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Chapter Nine
Searing pain brought Luuk to wakefulness, his lips parting on a gasp as he sat up.
“Luuk!” Jamie was right there, his thin hands framing Luuk’s face.
Luuk cupped Jamie’s hands in his and started to close his eyes for a moment, relieved
to be alive and to see Jamie alive, unharmed, when a flicker of movement behind Jamie
caught his eye. Luuk grabbed Jamie and had him behind him, agony and his shaky legs be
damned. He glared at the old man before him.
“Who are you?”
The old man held out a hand and sat in a rickety chair. “I am Father Piotr. We mean
only to help. Jameson can tell you.”
Luuk picked up on the accent and figured they had come down the mountain into
Poland. But priests? What the hell had happened?
“Luuk, sit, please,” Jamie urged, tugging on his arm.
Luuk glared at the priest while at the same time opening himself to his mate. Jamie
assured him of Father Piotr’s sincerity and of the other priest’s, too. Luuk trusted his mate
implicitly, but he hoped the priests weren’t going to turn out to be their end. Luuk trusted no
one but Jamie and himself. Or maybe, only Jamie.
“Luuk,” Jamie murmured, and Luuk allowed himself to be pulled down onto the bed.
“You need to rest still, and to eat. Maybe once you gain a little weight, you’ll recover”—
Jamie stopped and finished the sentence mentally—“your ability to heal better. Unless it was the
poison, but you haven’t been healing as quickly as you did at first.”
And if he didn’t? Then he was more of a failure, wasn’t he? Which wasn’t acceptable.
Jamie needed him strong, and he would give his mate everything he could. Luuk sat with his
back against the headboard.
“I will go and prepare a meal,” the old priest said. Luuk waited until he was out of the
room before he pulled Jamie down beside him.
“Do you truly trust them?” he asked, and Jamie nodded.
“As much as I can,” Jamie amended. “Maybe it’s just that I want to believe not everyone
in Europe wants us dead.”
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Luuk snorted and took a moment to nuzzle Jamie’s hair. His mate was clean, smelling
of lightly scented soap and shampoo. How long had it been since they’d had a safe place
such as this?
“Don’t,” Jamie begged. “Please don’t start thinking like that. We’re here now, and
Father Piotr said there’s other Alpha Anaxes wanting to find you and help you regain your
position—”
“What?” Luuk asked, jerking his head back in confusion. Had he heard right?
Jamie sat up, excitement and hope bringing colour to his cheeks. “Yes! Apparently some
have sent members of their guard to assist in finding you and helping you take back your
rightful place. I was wondering, do you remember the wolves we found, the dead ones?”
Luuk nodded.
Jamie brushed at some hair that fell into Luuk’s eyes. “Okay, well, they smelt like dead
wolves, nothing unusual. But there were other scents in the forest, unfamiliar,
almost…almost foreign smells?”
The fact that Jamie questioned what he thought he had sensed made Luuk feel like shit,
but they both had to be extra certain of everything, as they had for the past years. “I’m sorry,
I don’t remember much of anything past us trying to make our way down before that.” He
wasn’t going to say, ‘after you killed to protect us’. He wanted Jamie to let that go as much as
possible and reminding him sure wouldn’t help.
Jamie gnawed on his lip and glanced at his hands as he folded his fingers together.
“Well, I think that’s how it seemed to me. Maybe it wasn’t. But, what if there’s someone
looking for us, to help?”
Luuk supposed it was possible, although why other Alpha Anaxes would get involved
was beyond him. Generally they all stayed out of each other’s business and left one another
to run their packs according to their own beliefs and laws.
“I just don’t understand why they would bother,” Luuk muttered, hating to see the
hope dim in Jamie’s eyes. “I’m not saying they aren’t, but why, and why now? Has
something happened to the European packs I don’t know about?” Fear trumped up his
heartbeat.
“No, not…” Jamie shook his head then forged on. “Not anything more than the usual
murdering of those who have fought for you.”
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Luuk cringed inside, but Jamie spoke of what they both already knew. Luuk had seen
entire packs who’d been fiercely loyal to him lying dead, men, women, children—all
slaughtered. He didn’t even know how many supporters he had left, or if they’d take a stand
with him. Or if he’d want them to, considering the cost if they failed.
Jamie settled back at his side and with two fingers, tipped his head around to kiss him
softly on the lips. Luuk’s worries didn’t exactly go away, but they gave way for the feel of his
mate beside him, the taste of his lips, his sweet velvet tongue tangling with Luuk’s.
Luuk whimpered, an un-alpha-like sound, but he didn’t care. This was his Jamie, his
love, and he had no shame for anything they did together. His cock began to stiffen, and he
reached down, tracing the stark outline of Jamie’s spine through his shirt, down to the centre
of his body. Luuk could feel the heat there, the need pulsing between his cheeks.
But Jamie jerked back and almost went off the bed. He would have had Luuk not
grabbed his ass and pulled. “Where are you going?”
Jamie, with his mouth parted and a slightly dazed expression on his face, looked almost
the same way he did when he was aroused. He was so beautiful Luuk ached with want just
from looking at him.
“W-we’re in a church,” Jamie whispered. “And Father Piotr is coming back. Listen.” He
did, and Luuk heard the shuffle of footsteps, two different sets. “The other is Father Norbert,
I recognise the sounds of them both. Luuk…” Jamie kissed his lips, his nose, his cheek. “I
don’t want to leave here, not until we’re stronger. I don’t want to get thrown out for having
sex.”
Luuk sighed. He didn’t want to stress Jamie out, but he wasn’t going to be able to keep
his hands off Jamie for long. Jamie was just too tempting, but for now… “All right. My side is
not quite better yet anyway.” And he needed to look at it, needed to see what had been done
to him and find out what poison was used, how the priests had saved him. In fact, Luuk had
several questions for the priests, and he’d begin asking them once he’d made sure dinner was
safe to eat.
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Chapter Ten
“They seem honest,” Luuk said later, once the priests had retired for the night, or at
least had finally left them alone. Jameson had been about ready to chase them out. Two more
people in the room was two too many. It’d been so long since they’d been around anyone
else.
“I couldn’t detect anything to make me think they aren’t, once we got past the whole
English-speaking thing.” Jameson had explained his earlier confrontation with the priests. It
was good to know that Luuk didn’t sense anything deceitful about their hosts—Jameson
truly did want them to just…be for a while. And the regular meals were pretty damn
awesome too.
“And the whole not having someone trying to kill us at any moment, hopefully,” Luuk
added. He glanced at the door. There were numerous locks on it, courtesy of the Fathers.
Another reason Jameson felt safer than he had in a while.
“Would shifters attack…?” Jameson stopped and snorted. “Stupid question, I know.”
Luuk caught Jameson’s hand and pulled him towards the bed, where he lay. “Not a
stupid question at all. There are religious shifters just as there are religious humans, although
very few of them practise Christian religions. For the most part, they tend to worship nature,
and would still respect the boundaries of another’s religion.” Luuk drilled him with an
intense look that made his hazel eyes gleam. “And you, Jamie? I never thought you
particularly religious.”
Jamie wasn’t stupid. He smelt the arousal coming from Luuk, felt it searing him from
their shared link. “I’m not, but—”
Luuk’s grin was downright sinful. “But there’s these wonderful locks on the door, and I
promise you, I’ll be quiet so as not to disturb anyone.”
“I’m already disturbed,” Jamie muttered, because his cock was hard and the whole idea
of having to be quiet was a turn-on in a totally surprising way. Always before, it had been
risking death if they dared mate and weren’t truly hidden, so they’d had to be as silent as
they could be. To know they could shout and moan and have someone hear without fear of
being attacked was, well, perversely arousing, Jamie figured. However, it would still be
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disrespectful to the priests, so struggling to keep it down this time wasn’t a matter of life and
death, which made the challenge of it a turn-on.
“We’ve been on our own too long,” he said in a low voice. He also waved a finger back
and forth at Luuk. “And, you said not many hours ago at all that your side was still hurting
you. Have you healed yet?” He asked it with hope, not sarcasm, and Luuk’s averted gaze
and the ruddy colour of his cheeks told him the answer.
Jameson sighed and pushed down the worry trying to eat at him. Luuk didn’t need to
feel it, and Jameson wasn’t up to hiding anything from his mate. He, too, was tired, and not
used to being able to be so unguarded, even if he was still listening for any sounds that
shouldn’t occur. He couldn’t explain it, but he felt strangely safe, although he did
acknowledge it might well just be relief at Luuk’s not dying.
“I might die if you keep refusing me,” Luuk tried and Jameson rolled his eyes.
“I might die if you keep making lame come-ons like that,” he retorted, but he was
smiling and thinking. He could see Luuk’s erection tenting the sheet in his peripheral and
that was a temptation he didn’t think he could keep resisting. To feel the weight of Luuk’s
cock on his tongue, in his throat…
“Tell you what, if you promise to just lay there and let me do the moving, I’ll suck
this”—Jameson’s voice was husky when he traced the fold at the top of the sheet. He ran his
hand down and felt the heat of Luuk’s cock through the material—“until you give me
everything you have. Until my jaws ache and my throat is raw, until you and I can’t possibly
stand another minute of the pleasure.” Jameson’s inhibitions couldn’t hold out against that
thick, leaking shaft. “Until you break your promise of silence because you can’t do anything
other—”
“Jesus,” Luuk rasped, reaching for him. Jameson left off touching his dick and instead
pressed Luuk back down on the bed.
He gave his mate a stern look. “No. If you sit up, or try to again, I’ll stop. You will not
hurt yourself.”
“I’m hurting now,” Luuk said in what was very close to a whine. Jameson knew he
must truly be in pain to let such a tone slip.
“I’ll take care of you,” Jameson promised. “Lay back, trust me with you.”
Luuk exhaled steadily, softly. “I do.” The truth of it showed in his eyes, in the loosening
of his taut muscles. “I’m yours.”
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Jameson bent and found Luuk’s lips, warm and welcoming, so eager. He let his eyes
drift almost completely shut as he sank into Luuk, tasting the myriad flavours of the man he
loved so much. Jameson’s cock grew harder and harder still as he plundered Luuk’s mouth.
Every bare sound, the slight, breathy hitches and moans that were a feeling rather than
an actual noise, inflamed Jameson more. The last of his guilt fled in a rush as Luuk’s
desperation seeped into him. The priests knew what they were, who they were—as
individuals and to each other. Their texts might not have covered creatures such as them, but
Father Piotr and Father Norbert knew Luuk and Jameson had also been created by whatever
hand or fate made them.
And perhaps, they knew the mate bond between him and Luuk was as sacred as any
vows ever taken.
“Yessss.” Luuk’s eyes rolled up as Jameson licked his cheek, his breath warming Luuk’s
ear. His hands were curled around Jameson’s biceps, clenching, releasing, holding tight once
again.
Jameson’s need was an ever-increasing buzz in his veins, making him itch and ache for
Luuk. He wanted—well, even as gone as he was, he knew he couldn’t have what he wanted,
not just then, but he still wanted what he could have, very much.
Jameson gave in to the insistent hands now pushing at him. He moved down, taking
the sheet with him. Luuk’s pyjamas weren’t an issue, the elastic waistband gaping on him
and exposing his flushed cockhead.
Luuk’s scent was a spur to Jameson’s flank. Despite his words, his claim of drawing this
out for a long time were all for naught. There was no way he could tease for much longer.
Jameson made sure to lick and nibble the too-thin belly carefully, not wanting to put any
pressure on the painful-looking wound marring Luuk’s side.
His hands trembled as he touched the soft skin and dusting of hair on Luuk’s chest, the
hard peaks of his nipples. Jameson traced the denser line of fuzz leading him to the very
thing that was making his mouth water with anticipation.
All of Luuk tasted so good to him, but his cock was exquisite. And the one time
Jameson had got—he pulled himself back. If he thought of that, he’d spunk his pants, and
where was the fun in that, when he had this handsome man needing him so?
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Luuk’s prominent hipbones caused a pang of regret in Jameson that he buried well and
quickly. It wasn’t that he thought Luuk unattractive, but the knowledge that he was so thin
because too often there’d been little or no food—that made Jameson hurt deep inside.
Jameson sucked one sharp blade, marking the pale skin there. Luuk choked on a moan,
almost sobbing and fisting the sheets as he moved his legs with an urgency Jameson couldn’t
miss.
He lapped around Luuk’s cock to the other hip and marked it as well, and Luuk’s
panting became louder, until he shoved his hand in his mouth to muffle himself. Jameson
wished… He blanked that thought. There’d be time for being noisy, there would.
He hooked his fingers under the elastic and pulled Luuk’s pyjamas down, just past his
balls. Jameson didn’t want him moving much, and his legs were somewhat restrained.
Luuk’s balls were already drawn tight, the sac wrinkled and pushed up. Jameson wasn’t at
the best angle, being at Luuk’s side, but he’d work with what he had.
The seam of Luuk’s ballsac drew him and Jameson licked from below his balls to the
sweet spot right below Luuk’s glans.
“Please, please, please,” Luuk breathed out, over and over, goose bumps running over
his skin and his belly rippling.
Jameson was afraid he’d hurt himself regardless of not thrusting, as tightly wound as
he was becoming. He couldn’t have that. Jameson ringed the base of Luuk’s cock with finger
and thumb, then sucked the fat crown in, his tongue delving right into the leaking slit.
“Ja—” Luuk began before shoving his fist back in his mouth. Jameson grinned around
the tasty cock and bobbed down, and down, eager and needy and aching himself.
Luuk’s taste was drawing pre-cum from Jameson’s dick, pulling his balls tight and God,
but he wanted Luuk to fuck him until he couldn’t walk for a week. Luuk grunted and
grabbed Jameson’s head with his other hand.
“Yes,” Jamie thought, “take me.” He wanted Luuk’s cock buried deep and pumping cum
into him.
“Jamie,” Luuk whispered, and Jameson’s heart fluttered and his soul soared as Luuk
pulled him down, filling Jameson’s mouth, breaching his throat. The second Jameson
swallowed, he felt Luuk’s cock swell, the first squirt of spunk flooding his throat before he
backed off and caught the next on his tongue.
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Luuk rested his hands on Jameson’s hair as he came. Jameson shoved frantically at his
pants, got his hand on his own cock and had only to pump the wet crown once.
His release slammed into him and stole his breath, making him sputter on the last jet of
cum shot from Luuk’s slit. He didn’t care—there was no room for embarrassment or shame
between them anymore. They’d learned their pleasure was too rare and precious to worry
about such things.
Jameson shook and would have whined had he not had his mouth stuffed with cock.
He rubbed his cockhead until he couldn’t stand to touch it, too sensitive and afraid he’d end
up hard all over again.
Luuk’s cock had softened some and Jameson released it, placing a kiss on the tip before
gently tucking Luuk back into his pyjamas.
“Come here,” Luuk said, or maybe he thought it, Jameson was so out of it he couldn’t
say. He stumbled and only his fear of hurting Luuk stiffened his knees. Jameson blinked
away haze and saw Luuk’s arms open, waiting, and he crawled carefully to Luuk’s side,
worry and fear a distant thing in the arms of the man he loved.
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Chapter Eleven
“Do you really believe someone, another AA, is trying to help us?”
Jameson looked up from the pile of clothes Father Norbert had brought in for them to
go through. “I’m not sure.” He held up a hand and glared at the clothes. He hated taking the
charity, but they had little choice right now. If he ever got back to some semblance of a
regular life, Jameson would be able to make a nice donation to this church. He would find a
way to repay them one way or another regardless.
“I’d like to think so. I told you about the odd scent in the woods.” Actually Luuk had
asked him the same question before, and Jameson knew it was because Luuk wanted to
believe but was afraid to. Jameson could understand that. “I want to think…” He huffed,
blowing at a hank of hair on his brow. “Who wouldn’t want to believe there was someone
who had enough power and compassion to help us? Not that you aren’t powerful yourself—
”
“I know what you meant,” Luuk said, giving him a small smile. “But even my power
isn’t enough to overcome a hundred traitors ambushing us. I know we are lucky just to be
alive. When I think of what could have happened…” Luuk shuddered and a wave of sorrow
rolled from him. “I could have lost you—more times than just then, when we were jumped.”
Jameson came and sat beside Luuk. His side was still not healed up enough in
Jameson’s opinion. “We’re together, so let’s not dwell on that.” If Jameson thought about it
too much, that black mood inside him might well creep into his head and he didn’t want
that. Strangely enough to him, as he wasn’t the least religious, these few days with the priests
had been some of the best days he’d had. Maybe it shouldn’t have been a surprise, but
Jameson would never have believed he’d find a measure of peace in a church.
“It’s comforting here because of Piotr and Norbert,” Luuk murmured. “They make me
want to believe in the basic goodness of humanity, and shifter-kind.”
But he was afraid to, and Jameson got that, since he felt the same way. There was only
one person he would trust besides Luuk, and Adam would probably want to kick his ass first
for not contacting him for all these years. Of course, how could he explain the absence? He
wasn’t supposed to tell Adam anything about shifters.
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“You could tell him.”
Jameson frowned at Luuk. “I thought—”
Luuk shook his head and touched Jameson’s lips. “No, I know I told you, you had to
keep shifters and our world a secret, but I truly didn’t understand that you and Adam were
like brothers. If you believe he would keep our secret, I would have no issue with you telling
him. It might keep him from being so angry.”
Jameson snorted out a laugh even as tears burned his eyes. “Oh, he’ll be mad anyway.
That’s kind of how love works, right? You get hurt when the person who you love doesn’t
trust you. But he’ll be glad, too, once he’s done being mad. I’d feel the same way, really. I’d
have wanted him to come to me for help regardless of everything else.”
“Lay by me?” Luuk asked, and Jameson settled beside him, calming the inner turmoil
that had started to build. Luuk could soothe him with an embrace, most of the time. “I miss
my brother.” Luuk sighed, his breath gusting over Jameson’s hair. “He could be annoying,
and makes the worst jokes, but I love him and know he will always be loyal to me. I hope…I
hope he’s still alive.”
“He is.” Jameson snuggled closer carefully. “You’d know if he wasn’t. And the last we
heard, he was holding his own. He was very angry when you told him not to fight for you.”
“I didn’t want him dead.”
“I think Luther just wants him, period. I don’t understand why he’s left Maarten alive.”
Jameson had wondered. “I don’t mean it bad.”
“No, I know. I think you’re right about Luther, but also, what great pain he causes
Maarten and I both by keeping us apart and fearing for one another’s life.”
Jameson tipped his head back and looked in Luuk’s dark eyes. “I think Luther is scared
to hurt Maarten.”
Luuk huffed, his chest rising and dropping, jostling Jameson. “Right. Scared of what?
Pissing Maarten off?”
“No,” Jameson said softly, “because he knows, if he killed Maarten, nothing, nothing
would stop you from tearing him to pieces.”
Luuk shook his head. “No, I don’t think Luther fears me at all. Otherwise—”
“Of course he does,” Jameson interrupted, exasperation making him borderline shrill.
He took a breath and got himself under control. Sometimes his emotions read like the
seismograph from hell. “I mean, if he didn’t fear you, he wouldn’t be so intent on killing you.
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He’d have fought you the right way, with the whole Alpha Anax challenge thing, but he was
too much of a coward. A man who didn’t fear you wouldn’t have tried to ambush you.”
Luuk grunted. “I knew Luther hated me. He had since we were boys and he realised I
would be the AA, as my father was. When I won every challenge brought before me, his
hatred only grew, but I never thought…”
“I know.” Jameson rubbed Luuk’s stomach, his chest. He couldn’t imagine the pain of
having someone you’d grown up with, shared blood with, wanting you dead. Maarten and
Luuk had always been close, but their older half-brother had resented them from the time
they were born, according to Luuk. Or at least, resented Luuk. It seemed Luther had other
feelings for Maarten.
“I never understood it. His father left them, then my father met Stelina. He treated
Luther just as he did us. Just because Luther had a different father didn’t mean he wasn’t
loved by mine and Maarten’s. I’m just glad he didn’t live to see Luther’s duplicity. The same
for our mother, it would have killed her to know her sons were battling one another. Perhaps
it was a blessing for them to have passed together.”
A chill ran through Jameson. He had his doubts about that. He didn’t think their deaths
had been an accident at all.
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Chapter Twelve
Luuk heard the priests before they made it more than a couple of steps up the stairs. It
was the middle of the night, and he could hear their low whispers, hear the urgency in their
tones, and the fine hairs on the back of his neck prickled.
“Jamie, sweetheart, wake up,” Luuk breathed into Jamie’s ear. He suspected their time
of rest was coming to an end.
“No, I felt safe here—”
Jamie’s sleepy thought was a painful spike to Luuk’s heart. He should be the reason
Jamie felt safe, not scared. The familiar guilt rose in him as he ran a hand over Jamie’s chest.
“They’re coming, the priests. They sound worried.”
Jamie’s eyes popped open and he was instantly alert. He sat up and whipped the
blanket off them. “Let me see your side. I need to see if you’re up to running, or if we need to use
subterfuge more than speed.”
“We can be fast and invisible. I feel better.” Luuk was surprised to find it was true. When
they’d gone to sleep earlier, he’d still been hurting, and upset by that fact. He should have
healed in hours from that wound.
He glanced at his side when Jamie did and nodded to himself. The open, raw spot was
now almost healed over. The skin was pink, shiny, but it wasn’t open anymore.
“Amazing,” Jamie whispered before rolling his lips in between his teeth. He cocked his
head to the side, listening as was Luuk as the priests came closer.
“Listen.” Luuk held up a hand when Jamie scowled at him. “There are more voices, down
stairs, perhaps in the…nave?” He wasn’t sure if he had the right term, but it sound to him like
there were people down in the centre of the church where the pews were.
“I don’t know, either. And maybe they have nothing to do with us…”
Luuk gave Jamie an incredulous look before catching himself and turning away. He
didn’t want to hurt Jamie, at all, but sometimes his naïvety still surprised Luuk. He loved
Jamie’s ability to just…have faith, he supposed, even while it caught him off guard. And in
this instance, it could have deadly consequences.
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“Jamie, it’s after three in the morning, and the priests’ worry smells like acrid fumes, does it
not?”
Jamie sniffed and jumped up, grabbing at the few clothes they had, along with the
money found in the woods. Jamie wanted to leave some of it, Luuk could tell. They really
needed to be careful, but Luuk wouldn’t stop Jamie from doing what he had to. In the end,
Jamie sighed and stuffed the money in their bag. “We will make a big donation to them.”
“Yes.” Luuk saw no reason to argue about it. He was too busy getting dressed and
holding out Jamie’s clothes. In less than two minutes, they were ready. Luuk pressed an ear
to the door. It didn’t sound like the priests were coming to their room, but he got the distinct
impression they wanted Luuk and Jamie to hear them. They were sure making more than
enough racket for two normally quiet priests.
Then Jamie joined him. He placed his palms on the door, much like Luuk. Father Piotr
coughed and mentioned his family, and Father Norbert brought his up as well as it sounded
like the two men fumbled around with something.
“It’s a warning. I don’t know if they know the ones downstairs are shifters, or if they aren’t sure.
But them mentioning their families—we need to leave.”
Jamie raised his head and looked around the small room. It was rather barren, but it
had been a safe haven for them, Luuk knew. Jamie nodded and swiped at one eye, then he
took the bag and followed Luuk to the window. They had checked this before, and the
priests had actually suggested it as an escape route. Now it looked like they would be using
it.
The window didn’t make a sound as it was raised. Luuk took the bag and tipped his
chin at Jamie. He would not go until his mate was out. Luuk was still the same man he’d
always been, had the same alpha nature even if Jamie tempered it perfectly.
Jamie didn’t argue. He put a foot on the battered dresser and levered himself up and
out of the window. Outside was a thin ledge that Father Piotr swore would hold them. Luuk
hoped he was right. While a fall wouldn’t kill them, short of one of them landing absolutely
freakily, it’d still hurt like a mother.
Luuk climbed up and leaned out of the window. He handed the bag to Jamie then
joined him on the ledge before turning back and pulling the window shut. He wondered if
the priests would be able to cover their scent in time. Bleach had removed their traces from
the interior of the church and the steps, but how would they sterilise the room?
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“Don’t worry about it now. We have to go.” Jamie wasn’t an alpha, but he wasn’t a
wallflower, either. Luuk couldn’t keep a small grin from tipping his mouth as he scooted
along the ledge beside Jamie, who balanced himself and the bag with an ease that should
only belong on a feline shifter.
They reached the corner and Luuk’s brow broke with sweat despite the chill night air.
By the time they made it to the opposite side of the church where it was possible to climb
down rather than jump, Luuk’s nerves were jangling. He wanted to go first but Jamie was
already moving so he had no choice but to follow.
From inside the church, he heard a shout, and Luuk’s gut twisted. It didn’t sound like a
pained shout, but angry, yes. Father Norbert was laying into someone. Luuk wanted to go
back inside, but the priests might have claimed not to know they were there, or what they
were. Returning could lead to their deaths as well as Jamie’s and his. If there were shifters in
there, and they were looking for Luuk and Jamie, they’d come hunting them instead of
spending time on the priests.
And so Luuk took Jamie’s hand, and they ran.
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Chapter Thirteen
It felt wrong, leaving the church, specifically the priests, but Jameson told himself even
the evil bastards who’d been after him and Luuk wouldn’t hurt the old men. And if they did,
there’d be hell to pay.
The night sky was clear of clouds and lit with stars, the moon bright and exposing them
more often than not. It was cold, but Jameson was used to that. He kept his mind firmly
linked with Luuk’s, monitoring his pain and strength.
For whatever reason, Luuk had suddenly recovered like he used to. Jameson was
grateful and whether it was the priests’ prayers or their medicines or a combination of both,
he didn’t care. Although it might have been handy to know for future purposes.
“I don’t think we should go too far. I want to check on the Fathers, even if it’s just a phone call,
once morning comes.”
“Me too, Luuk. I wish we could call now, but that would probably seem suspicious.”
“Possibly.” Luuk tugged on his hand and Jameson stopped trying to sneak to another
building. They were further into the city now, but could still see the church.
“We could circle back,” Jameson began.
Luuk nodded. “The church across from it looked like it had roof access. If nothing else,
we could watch and see who comes out. Unless they’ve already left.”
Jameson frowned and leaned out, peering back from the direction they’d just come.
“Shit. I don’t know what to do. If they were searching for us and didn’t find us, then they
wouldn’t hang around.”
“Which would mean they’ve probably already left.” Luuk nodded. “And if they weren’t
hunting us, then a phone call shouldn’t rouse suspicion.”
“Unless they are waiting for us to come back.” Jameson’s head throbbed with the what-
ifs. “I don’t know what to do. If there’s shifters at the church and we do call, and Piotr or
Norbert even smell suspicious…”
Luuk tipped his head up, eyes towards the stars even though he wasn’t seeing them.
Jameson knew that look, and he left Luuk to it, taking a moment to enjoy the finely chiselled
profile. Everything about Luuk screamed strength, from the broad, square jaw to the firm
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chin with the divot in it. A long, slightly bumped nose suited Luuk’s face just perfectly, and
the thick brows arched over his eyes could be more expressive than most people’s faces.
Luuk knew how to use every one of his features, including the wide mouth Jameson was still
infatuated with.
“You’re distracting me by making all the blood rush down here,” Luuk tapped his
zipper even as he kept looking up, a grin tugging his lips. “But I think you helped me reach a
decision—if you agree with me.”
“You know I’d just about agree to anything when you touch yourself like that.” Because
Luuk was trailing his fingers over the growing bulge in his pants, and Jameson couldn’t look
away.
Luuk huffed and moved, tangling his hand with Jameson’s and nuzzling his neck.
Luuk’s nose was cold on his skin but his breath was hot, and the contrast made Jameson
whimper.
“We need to move, one way or the other. Standing here—smelling like we’re in heat, no
doubt—is not a brilliant idea,” Luuk pointed out.
“What was your suggestion?” Jameson asked.
Luuk rubbed his face against Jameson’s neck, then he straightened up and glanced back
towards the church. “The priests took a very big risk for us. I don’t want to repay them by
having them outed as our hosts, if they haven’t been discovered at it yet. But leaving them is
wrong, too. We can double back and keep alert, see if we catch wind or sight of any shifters.
If not, let’s aim for the roof across from the church and see if a few hours of monitoring it
gives us any clues. We can decide between now and that time whether or not to return to the
church, or call and check on Piotr and Norbert.”
It was the best they could do, short of going in and attacking, which would likely get
them killed and the priests in trouble, if not injured or worse. “Okay.”
Luuk stopped Jameson when he would have started moving, and cupped his cheek. His
dark eyes burned into Jameson as he leaned closer. “If I could have my way, we would go to
the Regency. It was the most luxurious hotel here at one time. I would wrap you in warm
blankets, and bathe your soft skin, and make love to you until neither of us could move. That
is what I would wish to do if we knew the Fathers were in no danger.”
Jameson’s knee joints, the traitorous things, turned rather gelatinous and he clutched at
Luuk’s hips. “I—” was as far as he got before Luuk’s mouth was crushed to his. Jameson
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mewled and curled closer to Luuk, everything in him going tight and hot. Luuk’s tongue
speared into him, finding every one of his favourite spots. Luuk jerked him closer with an
arm around his back, and he pushed a hard thigh between Jameson’s. Jameson rutted and
whimpered when he couldn’t hold it in, then he tore his mouth away and panted as he tried
to keep from coming in his pants.
“Sorry,” Luuk murmured, kissing Jameson’s temple. “I didn’t mean to get carried
away.”
Jameson nodded, not trusting his voice yet. He’d open his mouth and squeak like a
mouse, he just knew it.
Luuk held him steady until Jameson trusted his legs wouldn’t give out on him. Another
few minutes and he was ready, able to run without pinching off a part of himself.
They began making their way back, cutting across several blocks before turning down a
street parallel to the one the church was on. It hit Jameson then, and he knew Luuk, too,
when they were across from the church. The alley was dark and grungy, but the scent of
garbage couldn’t quite obliterate the hint of shifter carried on the wind.
“Goddamnit.” Luuk’s fear wrapped around Jameson like an arm, squeezing his chest
and adding to his own concern. “Goddamnit, Jamie. I can’t leave the priests with them. But if we
go in—”
“We could get them killed. That is true. Like it or not, we’re going to have to observe, and I do
think that’d be better done from the rooftop. As close as these buildings are on this side of the street, we
could probably make the jump from one to another if it became necessary.” Jameson could picture it,
like a scene from an action movie. Probably, though, it’d be a heck of a lot scarier in real life,
but he’d already faced some pretty terrifying things.
“Right. Okay. Up you go.” Luuk brought them to a fire escape and hooked his hands
together for Jameson’s heel. Rather than argue that he didn’t want Luuk straining himself,
Jameson accepted the leg up and quickly scaled the ladder to the rooftop.
Luuk was right behind him, and they settled between two large exhaust fans encased in
brick on three of four sides. They could just make out the steps and door to the church. The
night was mostly silent, a few vehicles rattling past but overall, Jameson thought they would
have heard any sounds of abuse with their acute hearing. Unless the priests were gagged—
“Stop!” Luuk scolded, hooking a hand behind his neck. “Don’t think the worst, Jamie.
Let’s try and have some faith. If nothing else, Piotr and Norbert would want that of us.”
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And so they sat, and waited, and tried to believe a good outcome was possible for not
only themselves, but Father Piotr and Father Norbert. Jameson had managed to calm the
worst of his fears when a siren screamed and startled him and Luuk both. They pressed their
hands to their ears, the high-pitched whining and clanging painful for them.
But it was more painful to see the emergency vehicle pull to a skidding stop in front of
the church.
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Chapter Fourteen
Luuk grabbed Jamie’s hand when Jamie would have headed for the ladder. “Wait. Let
us see what’s going on here.”
“You know, Luuk. You know it’s one of the priests!” Jamie’s anger brought a sooty scent to
the air as he glared from Luuk to the emergency workers hustling into the church.
“I’m afraid it is, yes, but let us see for sure first, and see who comes out besides our priests.”
Luuk didn’t believe there was an injured shifter, at least not for the emergency crew. He
frowned then movement on further down the street caught his eye. “Jamie, look.”
“What—” Jamie turned his head to see what Luuk had first noticed in his peripheral
vision.
“I would lay diamonds to dust those aren’t humans.” Not with the way they were moving,
stealth and speed and noses tipped up to sniff the air. And they were heading the way he
and Jamie had come from. “Damn it!”
“They’re going to come right back to us, aren’t they?” Jamie scowled and tugged his hand in
Luuk’s grip. “We did nothing to cover our scent, and moving against the wind then with it won’t
make a difference with our footprints and—”
“It will be okay, love. We haven’t come this far to fall to them now. Look.” Luuk sucked in a
breath as Jamie cursed softly as they took in Father Piotr’s pale form on the stretcher. “I will
kill them.”
Without another word, mental or otherwise, Luuk and Jamie headed to the ladder. The
shifters on their trail would find them, and now he saw two of them drop back. Those
shifters turned and began running back to the church.
It would be better to take on two then the others rather than have a half-dozen men
trying to kill him and Jamie at the same time. Luuk’s heart pounded once, then he forced
himself to calm. Somehow he would make this up to Jamie. They would survive the coming
battle. Luuk would accept no other possible outcome. He would take Jamie somewhere so
they could gather their strength, see if there truly was anyone helping them after all these
years.
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Jamie’s faith in him, in them, was as unwavering as Luuk’s. They didn’t even try to hide
as they hit the ground running. The two shifters on their way back would go to the other side
of the church, and they wouldn’t see Jamie and him running. Luuk was hoping for the
advantage of surprise.
Within seconds they were darting up the steps. Luuk jerked the door open and almost
collided with Father Norbert. “What happened?” he gritted out, noting the priest’s red-
rimmed eyes.
Father Norbert was shaking, wiping at his cheeks. “Father Piotr and I did not tell them
anything. When they—the shifters looking for you and Jameson—would not leave, Piotr
became upset. His heart is not strong like it once was. He was angry at their disrespect for the
house of God, for their hatred. It was too much. I—I do not know if…”
Luuk blinked against the tears stinging his eyes. He couldn’t give in to them right now.
Jamie sniffled softly and hugged Father Norbert, and the priest began to sob quietly.
“They are coming back,” Luuk had to say, not because he wanted to, but if they didn’t
get Father Norbert to some safe place soon they would lose their advantage.
“The bedroom we used,” Jamie said, patting Norbert’s shoulder. “Please, go. We will
try to respect the church, but—”
“But you cannot let them kill you, either of you.” Father Norbert’s eyes flashed and he
raised his head. “And right now, I am not so concerned with the church. If you try to follow
such rules…”
Luuk was well aware of the consequences. He nodded and Father Norbert, proving
himself more spry than he appeared, dashed up the stairs. As soon as Luuk heard the lock
slip into place, he and Jamie went to wait. They shouldn’t have but mere minutes.
He and Jamie each took a spot behind a broad counter. He didn’t like having to squat,
but there was no other way to remain fully hidden. When the back door creaked open, Luuk
looked at Jamie. “One, two, three!”
If Luuk had thought for even a second that these shifters weren’t their enemies he and
Jamie would have been dead. They’d barely stood to leap when the other two yelled and
came at them. The knives in their hands were proof they had no intentions of being friendly.
Luuk roared with a fury he’d carried for years, and he slapped at the first shifter’s hand.
Alpha Anax that he was, despite the fucking coup, Luuk brought his claws forth and tore
through skin and tissue, ripped away tendons and fractured bones.
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His would be assailant screamed and started to shift. Luuk wasn’t letting that happen.
He lunged and threw his entire weight at the other shifter, taking him down. “Shift and I’ll
tear your throat out,” he growled as he held the man by his neck. The tips of his claws cut
into the skin and freed trickles of blood. “You!” he snapped at the one Jamie was fighting.
Jamie was beating the life out of him, almost. Luuk’s heart swelled with pride and concern.
“Jamie, stop.”
Huffing, Jamie did, thought he stayed straddling the unconscious shifter. “He almost
stabbed you, Luuk, when you dove onto that jerk. He’s lucky I stopped when you said to
because I wanted to tear him in half.”
“I know exactly how you feel, but more bloodshed…” Luuk shook his head. “Not in the
church, if we can help it.”
“So what do we do?” Jamie asked. “The other ones will be back soon, right?”
Luuk nodded. “But we won’t be here, and neither will Father Norbert. Make sure your man is
unconscious.” Luuk grinned down at his captive. “Say goodnight.”
“Good—” A fist to the temple ended the idiot’s parroting.
“Let’s get them up to the room. We’ll bind them with an entire roll of that sticky tape.
Sticky side to skin, of course. Should make shifting very difficult, if not impossible.” He
wasn’t sure about that, but it would have to hurt more.
Jamie lifted his burden and Luuk did the same. They made it up the stairs and Luuk
scowled when Father Norbert opened the bedroom door before they got there. “That wasn’t
very”—he bit back ‘smart’—“safe.”
Father Norbert shrugged. “I knew it was you.”
Luuk didn’t have time to argue. “Can you grab the tape?”
They didn’t totally bind the unconscious shifters, but it was a near thing. Luuk grunted
and hooked his arm through Father Norbert’s. “Now, we all leave this time.”
Father Norbert tried to dig his heels in but Luuk and Jamie both manoeuvred him to the
window. “Think, Father Norbert, please. We need to leave, at least for a little while. Jamie
and I can’t leave you here. The other shifters are returning and they know we were here.
What do you think they will do to you? And what is the point of letting them do it?” He
leaned in until he was almost nose to nose with the priest. “Pride?”
“Revenge,” Norbert muttered with a huff. “Not that I can have that. I haven’t the
strength. Even though it is a sin…”
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“You don’t mean that,” Jamie said earnestly. “You don’t. You’re hurting and angry, and
scared. We have been exactly where you are, for years now. You can’t let those feelings win,
you can’t. Now let’s go so we can find somewhere to rest and check up on Father Piotr.”
Father Norbert had turned a fine shade of red as Jamie spoke, and now he murmured
an apology before stepping to the window. “I am sorry.”
“You have nothing to apologise for,” Luuk told him. “We brought trouble here, and if
we don’t hurry, there’s going to be a whole lot more of it.”
He and Jamie helped Father Norbert to the ledge then quickly joined him. “Try going to
the other side. Perhaps the shifters will only think to check the way we came down the first
time.” Luuk scouted the area for vehicles. He hoped the Father wouldn’t freak out on him,
but they needed a way to escape other than on foot. That meant stealing a car, temporarily.
He spotted a likely car and smiled as he imagined what he’d have to do to get Father Norbert
to get in the damn thing. At least he could some amusement in this horrid day.
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Chapter Fifteen
Jameson was a little awed at Luuk’s ability to break into and hotwire a car. Just another
skill he hadn’t known his mate had. Even their mental link didn’t automatically fill them in
on every little thing about each other, which was why they still got to discover interesting
titbits sometimes.
Luuk and Jameson had both been surprised when Father Norbert didn’t protest. The
priest had dove right into the backseat and hollered “Go!” the second he’d been able to. “I
just want to keep everyone alive,” he explained when Jameson had gaped at him. “So please,
hurry up!”
Jameson had seen the church doors opening at the same time Luuk did. Almost an hour
later, after Luuk was sure they hadn’t been followed, he turned in at an expensive-looking
hotel. It looked expensive to Jameson, at least, but he was long since unused to luxuries.
“Father, if you will go get two rooms?” Luuk tipped his chin at Jameson.
Jameson dug out a stack of money. “This is all Monopoly money to me.”
Luuk snorted and plucked out several bills that he then handed to Father Norbert.
“This should be enough. Perhaps they won’t give you grief about not having any ID—”
“I have my ID with me, but it would perhaps be best if it wasn’t necessary to use.”
Father Norbert tugged at his cassock—Jameson still wasn’t sure that was what the thing was
called. He’d been raised up Baptist and Catholicism had been the root of all evil when it
came to religions, at least to the Baptists he knew. Jameson believed people were evil, some
of them, at least. He wasn’t wont to condemn an entire religion.
“I’m going to ditch the car, then Jamie and I will catch a cab here. Less chance of leaving
a scent trail.” Luuk waited until the priest was inside the hotel before he pulled away.
“Let’s hope they have rooms,” Jameson muttered. “We need some cell phones, maybe.
One of those prepaid kinds if they have them here. You could call Maarten, let him know
we’re alive—”
“Maybe,” Luuk said, turning into what looked like an alley. “If it can’t be traced. I
won’t put him or us in more danger than we’re already in. The Fathers, either. Come on, we
need to get out of this car before the police track it down.”
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“Okay.” Jameson opened the glovebox and found a few napkins. “Fingerprints?”
“Shit.” Luuk took one and began rubbing at the surfaces he’d touched. “Not that my
prints are on record or anything, but I don’t want them to be, either. Is there anything in
there with the owner’s name and address on it? I would like to reimburse them for the
inconvenience I’ve surely caused.”
Jameson found a pen in the glovebox and the registration as well. He wrote down the
owner’s name and address then wiped his side of the car down. Once done, he then went to
the back seat and cleaned it as well. They tucked their napkins in their duffle then headed
out of the other end of the alley where they scaled a fence. “This way.” Jameson jogged out of
the stuffy little area and skidded to a halt before he could slam into a man walking down the
sidewalk. “Sorry.”
The man waved a hand and kept going. Jameson looked at Luuk. “Now what? Cab?”
“Yes.” Luuk took his elbow in hand and began steering them away from the direction
of the hotel. “There’s a store right ahead. We could check there quickly, then get a cab. I don’t
want to leave Father Norbert alone for long in case there are problems.”
“You think we were followed somehow after all? Why did we even leave him then?”
Jameson scowled at the ground, angry and tired and scared.
“No one followed us,” Luuk said with more patience than Jameson figured he
deserved. Luuk wouldn’t have put the priest at risk. “But if there are no rooms or he got a
room and called the hospital, and…”
“No.” Jameson almost stopped and stomped his foot, he was so frustrated. “Father Piotr
can’t die, Luuk. Not now. I don’t think I can handle one more loss.” The sob startled him. He
hadn’t felt the buildup, the burn in his chest or nose or eyes. He’d simply opened his mouth
to breathe, and now he was falling apart on the damned sidewalk.
“Jamie, love.”
Jameson didn’t know where they were, if Luuk had moved them off the sidewalk or
what, because his eyes were blurred with tears and he couldn’t think. Luuk’s arms around
him were the anchor he needed, though, the warmth and love flowing from his mate into
Jameson the reassurance that helped him to calm down before he truly lost it and howled
and screamed and cursed Fate.
“Sorry,” Jameson sniffled, rubbing his face on Luuk’s chest. “I don’t know what’s
wrong with me.”
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Luuk’s arms tightened and he growled, “There’s nothing wrong with you, Jamie.
Nothing. Look at what you have been through. You’ve earned the right to shed more than a
few tears.”
Luuk wasn’t crying, though. Jameson wished he was as strong as Luuk, but he
supposed they wouldn’t have worked so well then, probably. And maybe he was stronger in
ways that Luuk wasn’t. Jameson liked to believe he and Luuk balanced each other out, but
many times, when a dark mood hit him, Jameson knew he wasn’t Luuk’s equal in any way.
“You are,” Luuk snarled, his temper flowing into Jameson along with the love and
adoration. “Don’t think less of yourself for this. You are every bit my equal, and a better man
than I am. Fate wouldn’t have matched us together were we not perfectly suited for each
other. I never cared for a weak-willed or weak-minded man before we found each other,
don’t believe I was handed either of those types as a mate, Jamie.”
Jameson sniffled again and scrubbed at his nose with his forearm. “Okay. But I’m still
sorry I fell apart.”
“You did so because you have a loving heart and worry for Piotr.” Luuk tipped his chin
up and Jameson had a split second to marvel at the warmth in his eyes before he closed his
own as Luuk kissed him. It was a chaste kiss, but Jameson needed it. When Luuk raised his
head Jameson opened his eyes and blinked.
“Where are we?” Jameson twisted around and stared at a shelf of dusty and mostly
battered…junk, as far as he could tell.
“Antique shop,” Luuk said, amusement making his voice almost musical. “It was
empty of customers, and the lady behind the counter has been chatting nonstop on her cell
phone. She didn’t even notice us coming in.”
“Uhm… Okay.” Jameson shot a look to the counter where a woman with brightly dyed
orange-red hair was examining long, curved nails as she hummed an agreement to whoever
she was on the phone with. “Well.”
“She won’t notice us leaving any more than she noticed us coming in.” Luuk took his
elbow again and proved his theory right. Jameson looked over his shoulder as they went out
of the door, and the woman was still examining her nails as she chatted on the phone.
“The store is right here.” Luuk hefted the duffle on his shoulder and gestured to a sign.
“It’s a large store, and they used to carry some of everything. I’m assuming they still do.”
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It was overwhelming, walking into what was, Jameson thought, Poland’s version of a
Wal-Mart. He found himself huddling closer to Luuk than was probably wise and forced
himself to put a few inches of space between them.
“Here,” Luuk turned down an aisle and stopped. “Oh. There are so many different ones
now. Three years ago…”
Yeah, three years ago, lots of things had been different. Jameson looked at all the
different phones. He’d once been a kind of techno-geek, and proud of it, but he was pretty
sure he would be lucky to figure some of those phones out.
“Pick one,” Luuk said, giving him a desperate look. “I will stand here forever trying to
decide.”
Jameson was likely to do the same thing if he gave it much thought. He did a quick
perusal then grabbed what he thought was a mid-priced phone. “I guess?” He handed it to
Luuk, who grabbed a card off a hook then headed to the registers. He stopped and veered
down another aisle with laptops on display. “At least these don’t look too different.” Then he
frowned at a tiny one before shaking his head and pointing at a silver one. “That should
work. We’ve been out of touch too long. Perhaps we can learn more about—everything.”
Jameson almost laughed at that, but he knew Luuk was trying to bury his own upset
over their situation. Then Jameson’s heart kicked and he touched the laptop. “I could—could
I try to contact Adam?”
Luuk nodded. “I don’t see why not. Create a new e-mail account, and send the message
right before we leave the hotel, in case his e-mail is being tracked.”
“Okay.” Jameson was a little breathless, hope stringing him tight inside. Adam might
be so angry, hurt, that he wouldn’t even read an e-mail from Jameson. Or it might go into his
junk mail or—
“Jamie, stop worrying. He will be glad to hear from you, and if he is angry, he will read
your message and respond. We will decide what to tell him before you send it, and try to be
as honest as we can.”
“I wish I could tell him everything.” Jamie saw a salesperson, easy to pick out since she
was wearing a shirt the same style and colour as the other employees he’d seen.
Luuk spoke to her since Jameson didn’t know the language, and in short enough order,
they were outside again, waiting for the cab he’d asked their kind sales clerk to call for them.
They didn’t have to stand there long, and the ride to the hotel was relatively quick. They
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stepped into the lobby, and Jameson had a few seconds to gape at the marble floors and
gorgeous statues there before he spotted Father Norbert waving at them. The priest was
smiling, a big, sappy grin, and Jameson wanted to whoop because he knew then Father Piotr
was alive, and going to be okay.
“How is he?” Luuk asked when they reached Norbert.
Father Norbert beamed at them and folded his hands as if in prayer. “He is doing very
well. I feared his heart had given out, but the nurse I spoke to informed me his heart, while
weakened some with age, was not in danger of stopping any time soon. He will have to have
a stent placed in one artery, but he will be fine. He will be fine.”
Jameson grinned and hugged Norbert. “I am so glad!”
“I will have to contact his family,” Father Norbert said. “They will ask questions. I
cannot lie.”
“I wouldn’t want you to.” Luuk gestured and Father Norbert nodded before turning
and heading for the elevator, Jameson following them both. He hoped telling Father Piotr’s
family didn’t backfire on them.
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Chapter Sixteen
Luuk prowled as Father Norbert used the new cell phone to make his call. “I should
have thought to get another cell phone. If the one he’s using is traced…”
“Yeah.” Jamie sighed and typed something in on the keyboard of the laptop he was
getting set up. “We should ditch it when he’s done. At least Father Norbert won’t tell anyone
where we are…other than giving us away through a hone trace.”
Luuk paused and looked at Jamie. “Do you think Luther has that much power? That he
would have tapped the priests’ families’ phones?” He shook his head. “I don’t, either. It
could be so, of course, but I’m betting on Luther having neither the manpower nor the
forethought to tap those phones. I don’t believe he is that paranoid.”
“Or that smart,” Jamie said as he tapped the keyboard harder. “Guh, there’s like
seventy-two updates before I can get this thing online!”
Luuk glared at the screen. “Surely you’re exaggerating.”
“Not by much. Damn thing was apparently made ten years ago, no matter what the box
says.” Jamie huffed and narrowed his eyes. “If I knew what it was asking…might help, ya
know?”
Luuk walked over and put a hand on Jamie’s shoulder as he leaned to read the current
round of boxes popping up on the screen. “Just click there,” he almost touched the screen
before he caught himself. Jamie would likely smack his hand if he left smudges. Luuk
grinned. “Every time it pops up, unless you’d rather I do it.”
“I’d rather let all this crap download and you and me”—Jamie waggled his eyebrows—
“check out that big tub in the bathroom.”
Luuk’s cock twitched, his stomach warming as desire began to pool in his groin.
“Perhaps Father Norbert will be off the phone soon. And these downloads will take a while.
We could both use a bath.” He ran his hand down from Jamie’s shoulder, over his chest,
catching one nipple and pinching it before moving further along to dance his fingers over
Jamie’s denim-covered cock. “I certainly want to make sure you’re clean, every bit of you.”
Luuk gently squeezed Jamie’s bulge and Jamie whimpered.
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Luuk moved his hand lower, found Jamie’s nuts and rubbed. Jamie shuddered for him,
clasping his hands on the desktop. “I’d lick you clean first. You know how I love the way you
taste.”
“Oh God,” Jamie panted. “Please!”
A wave of tenderness mixed with lust and Luuk brushed his lips over the side of
Jamie’s neck. He inhaled, taking in the sweat and cedar scent of his mate. Luuk exhaled, his
lips barely touching skin, his breath setting off goose bumps on Jamie’s neck.
Jamie whimpered and squirmed, putting the heel of one hand against his crotch.
“Luuk…”
“Yes,” Luuk said. He licked and sucked his way to the tempting little spot beneath
Jamie’s ear. Then he suckled and scraped his teeth over that spot until Jamie was panting,
shaking with need. “Go start the water. Be naked, hands on the side of the tub, legs spread,
waiting for me.”
“F-Father Norbert—”
“I will handle the good Father.” Luuk pulled Jamie’s chair back and helped him to his
feet, pleased to see that his man was already melting for him. “I believe Norbert will require
a nap. He told me he was very tired, and his suite is far enough from our bathroom, he
shouldn’t hear anything.” Luuk grinned and stepped up to Jamie, reaching around to grab a
handful of firm ass. “Unless you scream for me, love.”
Jamie’s eyes rounded as did his mouth, and Luuk dipped his head to take advantage of
those soft lips. When he had Jamie quivering and loosing wordless sounds, Luuk raised his
head and made sure Jamie wasn’t in danger of falling over. Luuk’s legs were shaky—he
figured Jamie’s were, too. “Bath,” he said once he knew Jamie was steady. “And the rest of
it,” Luuk added just as he heard Father Norbert end the call. Luuk swatted Jamie’s butt and
felt the burst of pleasure his mate experienced.
Jamie all but ran to the bathroom as Father Norbert came into their room. The priest
was definitely tired, bags dark under his eyes and his mouth pulled down in worry. Luuk
met him a few feet from the door and put a hand to Norbert’s shoulder before he could
question the propriety of touching a priest so. Luuk wasn’t any more religious than Jamie,
but he figured Norbert was a man who cared about people, and he shouldn’t be denied
comfort if he needed it. A hand on his shoulder was a small gesture, but Father Norbert
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sagged beneath his hand and leaned a little, and the next thing Luuk knew, he was hugging a
priest.
“Our shifter family members want to meet with you. They can be trusted,” Father
Norbert said. “I am afraid there will be a war in your world.”
“There’s been a war in my world for years, Father, years before I even knew of it.” Luuk
was still angry with himself over his blatant stupidity regarding Luther. “But perhaps we can
find a way to bring it to an end.”
“Not peacefully.”
Luuk couldn’t lie to the man. He sighed and patted Norbert’s back before they ended
the hug. “No, not peacefully. Our world is different from yours, from the human one. Our
laws are different. I won’t kill in cold blood, but I will—have—killed.” He’d done what he’d
had to, and didn’t regret it. He did regret the stupidity and greed that was the cause of it all.
“It is, and I am aware of that. Now.” Father Norbert arched his back, placing his hands
low on his hips and grunting. “I think a nap is in order. I would like to check on Father Piotr
again. His family will be at the hospital in hours, I am sure.”
“Rest well.” Luuk shut the door behind Norbert but didn’t lock it. He stripped as he
headed for the bathroom, tossing his clothes whichever direction he happened to tug them
off in. He heard the water shut off, the shuffle of Jamie’s feet and the quickening of his breath
as Luuk let his footsteps fall heavier.
When he stepped to the bathroom door, Luuk’s breath rushed from his lungs. Jamie
was exquisite, arms stretched, palms down on the wide lip of the tub, shoulders lower than
his hips so that his ass was tipped up. With his legs spread, Luuk had a gorgeous view—hole
and balls and cock, all waiting for his and Jamie’s pleasure. Jamie mewled and arched his
lower back, parting his cheeks even more.
What the fuck was he standing in the doorway for? Luuk had the presence of mind to
close the door then he prowled towards his mate.
“Beautiful,” Luuk murmured, gaze flitting from pucker to nuts to cock and back up
again. “So fucking beautiful.”
“Luuk,” Jamie sighed, and even though his need was great, flowing through Luuk and
ramping up his own, Jamie was also at peace, happy and content to be offering himself to
Luuk.
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“You,” Luuke swallowed, his throat clogging with emotion as he finally got close
enough to touch. He ran a hand from Jamie’s hip to his crack, further down to his hole. “You
are everything to me.” Then before Jamie could say a word, Luuk dropped to his knees and
licked him from top of his crease to his taint.
Jamie whimpered and Luuk clutched at his cheeks, spreading him open. He licked the
slightly furred trail of Jamie’s crack, making sure to apply pressure over his pucker with the
flat of his tongue. Jamie began to shake, his arousal wetting the tip of his cock as Luuk let go
of one butt cheek to touch him there instead.
“Luuk, God, please, I need you,” Jamie rasped, his voice pitching high and breaking.
Luuk fisted Jamie’s cockhead and lapped at his nuts. “Luuk, fuck…”
Luuk sucked one ball into his mouth and tongued it. Jamie’s breath hitched and Luuk
stretched his jaw, a dull ache starting at the hinges, and he sucked Jamie’s nutsac into his
mouth. Jamie jerked and keened, and Luuk held his balls there, flicking his tongue over
them, until he had to release them before his jaw locked. He turned sideways and wedged
himself between Jamie’s thighs, licking from the base of his cock to the leaking slit.
“Ungh!” Jamie shuddered, jutting his hips. Luuk slurped and sucked, driving more and
more sounds from Jamie, more salty sweet proof of his desire. Luuk’s dick was so hard he
couldn’t risk touching himself. He felt the pre-cum that had spilt from his cock on his belly.
He needed inside Jamie, now.
“Yes! Luuk!” Jamie bucked, trying to move, need making him edgy. Luuk gripped his
legs, trying to make sure he didn’t end up getting kicked.
“In the water,” he ordered once he untangled himself from Jamie’s legs. “You’re going
to ride me.”
They’d make a hell of a mess, but there were towels, thick, fluffy towels. Jamie all but
dove into the tub, and Luuk shook his head, love welling in his chest. Jamie’s enthusiasm
was amazing, a gift Luuk would always treasure.
Jamie knelt, looking up at him, the water rippling around Jamie and making his cock
bob. Luuk got in and leant back, sighing as the hot water stung his skin. The bathtub really
was huge, and he pushed a button on the wall that set off jets. They could definitely have
some fun with those.
“Later,” Jamie whispered. He reached behind himself, pushed a finger or two in and
moaned, his eyelids fluttering.
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“We should—” Luuk started, thinking perhaps he should get out, that way he could use
the conditioner or something for lube, but Jamie growled, eyes flashing through those
narrowly slitted lids.
“No. How many times have we done without it?”
More times than Luuk wanted to remember. Jamie deserved more tenderness than
Luuk had been able to give him.
“No,” Jamie said again, anger pinching his voice. “Don’t start that, don’t ruin this with
a bunch of guilt you shouldn’t feel. Just take me, give yourself to me, let me—” Jamie
straddled his hips and planted a hand on his chest, the other fisting Luuk’s length. “Stop
thinking of what you think I should have, and feel what I want,” Jamie said as he lined
Luuk’s cock up to his hole. “Feel me.” Jamie sank down on him, a hard drop that sent water
sloshing over the side of the tub and Luuk’s reservations out of the window.
Jamie’s need permeated his mind, his body, and Luuk grabbed Jamie’s hips, thrusting
up into the tight, velvet heat of his mate’s body. “Yes. I feel you. All of you.” Luuk held on
even tighter as he pushed up, wanting every bit of Jamie’s ass holding him. “Yours,” he
rasped. “Mine.” Luuk stopped trying to talk and instead raised Jamie up a few inches before
jerking him back down.
Jamie’s mewl, his hands as he clawed at Luuk’s forearms, fired Luuk up as nothing else
could have. He roared as he began to fuck Jamie with all the force he could manage in the
bathtub, in the position he was in. It was good, Jamie’s inner muscles constricting around his
cock as he tried to withdraw, the keening sound Jamie made each time he drove back in,
slamming his hips against Jamie’s ass.
The slap of the water, the pounding of their flesh, drowned out the worries and fears
Luuk normally lived with. Nothing mattered at this moment but Jamie, their love, their need
and desire, and Luuk’s complete devotion to his mate. He lost himself in those things as he
took Jamie, gave himself in return, and when Jamie shouted, throwing his head back, his
inner walls clamping so hard around Luuk he couldn’t move, Luuk’s vision hazed, a rough
sound leaving his lips. Ecstasy crashed into him, stealing everything else away but the feel of
his mate, their releases soaring and melding into one.
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Chapter Seventeen
“I guess he has a new number.” Jameson felt like an utter jerk. He had no idea what had
happened in Adam’s life over the past few years, but apparently he still was going to get
butt-hurt because Adam had changed his number instead of keeping the same old one in the
hopes that someday, Jameson would call it. Yeah, he was a total assmunch.
“Didn’t you say he’d bought a veterinary clinic in Shasta?” Luuk asked, giving him one
of those looks, the kind that said ‘duh’ as loudly as if it was spoken. “You could look that
up?”
“Yeah, go ahead and be all smart,” he retorted, but he leaned over and kissed Luuk,
who was sending a carefully worded e-mail to his brother. Honestly, Jameson knew if Adam
had changed numbers, he’d probably tried to contact him, likely through e-mail, but it’d
been so long since Jameson had logged into his mail accounts that all of them were gone.
Luuk was setting him up a new one after he finished the letter to Maarten.
Jameson used the phone to search, but it wasn’t very effective. “Can you—”
“On it.” Luuk stuck his tongue out, biting it as he stared at the laptop screen and tapped
away with two fingers on the keyboard. “Uhm. There’s only one clinic listed in Shasta, Texas,
but get this—when I do a search of Spokeo for Adam Soames, it comes up with him and this
address…and this man, too. Todd Benson.”
Jameson all but pounced on Luuk, trying to see what he was talking about. Sure
enough, he saw that name, and he wondered what it meant. Luuk closed the screen, started
another search, then clicked the first link and whistled. “Sheriff Todd Benson. Look, he’s a
ginger, but he’s kind of…”
Jameson stared hard at the picture of the redhead wearing the cowboy hat and sheriff’s
uniform. Todd Benson looked… “Sweet. Too sweet to be a sheriff, I would have thought, but
I guess that whole appearances being deceiving thing is true. Are there any more pictures?”
Luuk grunted and soon they were looking at something neither of them were familiar
with—a Facebook page for Todd Benson. “Photos,” he muttered, and Luuk clicked. “Fuck.
Only certain people can see his pictures? What the hell does that even mean? What—”
Jameson hissed in exasperation. “Try Adam. Maybe—oh my God,” he said, because a small
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pic popped up on the top of a list, and there, looking as gorgeous as always and happier than
he’d ever seen him, was Adam with his arms around the redhead, and both were obviously
head over heels in love.
“They look happy,” Luuk murmured. He clicked the link and Adam’s page popped up.
Unlike Todd’s, several things appeared, numerous postings that said what Adam and Todd
had done, how happy they were.
“Click there,” Jameson said as he tapped the screen where one post said new pictures
had been added. Luuk clicked, and Jameson stared at the photo, Adam’s eyes lit with a joy
that was unmistakable. He was gazing at whoever was taking the picture, and Jameson
would bet that was Todd. Luuk clicked the white arrow and another picture appeared, this
one of the two men embracing, then a third was of them kissing, and Jameson was shocked
to find himself crying, tears of joy and regret. He was happy for Adam, but he wished he’d
been there in person to see the evolution of this blissful Adam. Picture after picture provided
some of the details Jameson had missed in his friend’s life, but it wasn’t the same as being
there.
“Looks like he’s done fine without me.” Jameson blinked and swiped at his cheeks.
Luuk swivelled in the chair and grabbed him by the hips. In seconds he was on Luuk’s lap
being kissed until he had to pull away to take a breath.
“He’s done fine, sure, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t missed you.” Luuk turned his
head and nodded at the screen. Jameson looked and yeah, he could see a hint of sadness in
Adam’s eyes, but maybe he was imagining it. “No, read the words under it.”
Jameson leaned closer, his vision blurred from tears, then more began to fall as he read
the words written by Langston Hughes decades ago.
“‘I loved my friend. He went away from me. There’s nothing more to say. The poem ends, soft as
it begins—I loved my friend. Langston Hughes.’”
Luuk pointed to the date. “I wouldn’t say he has forgotten you at all. This was posted
seven months ago.”
“Loved,” Jameson sighed. He was being a moody jerk, but he couldn’t help it. The
blackness was creeping in, making him want to curl up and cry for days. “That’s past tense.”
Luuk cupped his chin and made him look at the picture. “Does he look as if he’s over
you? Like he doesn’t give a shit what has happened?”
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Jameson tried to turn away. His eyes and his hateful brain were telling him two
different things. “I don’t know. I don’t—” Jameson shoved up and ran for the bathroom. He
needed a few minutes to fight the bad part of himself, to bury it.
“No, you’re not hiding it from me anymore,” Luuk said, and it was only then Jameson
realised Luuk was right on his heels. “Jamie, love, you don’t have to hide it from me. Why
didn’t you tell me you were this depressed—?”
“I’m not!” Jameson burned with shame even as he shouted the lie. It burned his tongue,
his gut, and he shook his head, unable to keep lying to his mate. “I’m so weak. How can you
look at me and not see how fucked up I am?”
Luuk stopped mid-reach, and instead touched the back of his hand, his cheek, then
rested his hand over Jameson’s heart. “You are neither of those things,” he growled, his gaze
tangling with Jameson’s and holding it steady. “You are not!” Luuk’s certainty rushed into
Jameson, pushing in and chasing back the dark. Eyes open, he saw nothing as Luuk’s love,
his faith, his admiration flooded Jameson in swell after swell. “You are everything to me,
Jamie. Everything.”
Whether Luuk spoke the words or thought them, Jameson couldn’t say. He wanted to
lose himself in his mate’s love, but the shame was hard to shake off.
“You have nothing to be ashamed of. I have made your life so difficult, hurt you so
much that you couldn’t trust me with what you were feeling. What kind of mate have I been
that the one who should know he means more to me than anything else in this world didn’t
know? Didn’t think he could trust me to support him and love him?”
Jameson jerked at the words, his head snapping back as he starting shaking it. “No, no,
that’s not it, Luuk. Please. Please, I…” He sniffled and slapped a hand over his mouth,
wishing he wasn’t such a wuss.
“Stop it, Jamie. You’re not. Please, tell me,” Luuk begged, his eyes pained, and Jamie
dropped his hand away and sniffled again.
“This isn’t the first time I’ve had to deal with…depression.” Jameson stiffened his spine
and forced out the other words that he hated so. “Mental illness. It’s something I can’t help,
but where I come from, it’s shameful, and I can’t get past that. I thought I had conquered it
when we met, just had some bad days, but…” Jameson looked at Luuk and opened himself
fully. “I can’t beat this, Luuk. I’m terrified it will get a hold of me and do me like before. I
couldn’t get out of bed, I couldn’t function. What kind of man, what kind of mate, does that
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make me?” Jesus, Luuk deserved so much better than someone fucked up with periods of
major depressive disorder. He’d really thought after the hospitalisation over a decade ago
that he was past it.
Luuk was holding him. When had that happened? Jameson closed his eyes and listened
to his own panicked mind for a moment before Luuk’s words penetrated. Promises of love
unending and apologies, Luuk kept talking, kept talking, and Jameson’s tears kept falling,
mingling with Luuk’s to drop onto their shirts. Jameson wished the shifter ability to heal
rapidly also applied to his mind, but for now, he was comforted by the knowledge that he
didn’t have to hide that part of himself from his mate anymore.
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Chapter Eighteen
“The next turn, there.” Father Norbert pointed over Luuk’s shoulder.
Luuk looked at the barely discernible dirt…road. “That’s a road? It looks more like a
rocky path.”
Father Norbert snorted and patted his shoulder. “I am certain this, er, fine vehicle you
procured will withstand the drive.”
“I’m not,” Luuk muttered. “And I told you, I bought this piece of…junk, I didn’t steal
it.”
“Of course you did.”
Jamie snickered and Luuk was fairly certain Father Norbert was just messing with him,
possibly to try and distract him from his justified fear that they might be driving right into a
trap.
“We have to trust someone sometime,” Jamie had told him when he’d voiced his
concerns over meeting with the Fathers’ shifter family members. He knew Jamie was right,
but trusting someone—other than Jamie—had led to their current situation.
No, being deliberately blind to Luther’s duplicity, that’s what led to this. Luuk sighed and
slowed the car as he took the turn.
“Piotr will be arriving tonight, his sister said. It will be good for him to be with his
family.” Father Norbert sounded pretty damned happy, and Luuk tried to borrow some of
that.
“It’ll be good to see him, for us, too,” Jamie said, taking the thought right out of Luuk’s
head. “I’m glad he’s being allowed to leave the hospital and stay with family instead of
staying there and being cared for.”
Father Norbert huffed with enough force that his breath made the back of Luuk’s hair
flutter. Of course, the close proximity in the tiny vehicle probably contributed to that. “The
poor staff at the hospital would no doubt quit if they had to deal with him much longer. Piotr
does not make a good patient, at all.”
“I can imagine.” As kind as the old priest was, Luuk would bet he didn’t like being
hovered over, and treated as if he were feeble.
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Any further conversation was stilted by the violent bumps along the road. Jamie and
Norbert both had hands pressed to the roof of the car in attempts to protect their heads. Luuk
wasn’t so lucky, and the seat belts were useless, stretched out as they were. Luuk couldn’t do
anything but creep along at a snail’s pace, and even then, he’d give himself a knot or two.
“It is a deterrent,” Father Norbert explained. “Not many will drive this road, and it is
the only access to where we are going.”
“It wouldn’t have to be driven to be accessible,” Luuk pointed out. “This is nothing for
us in our wolf form.”
“Mmm. But a wolf, or wolves, would not need to follow a man-made road, so the point
is moot. This is as safe as it can be, considering what you and Jameson are, what the others
are.”
The priest had a point, and Luuk knew there were only so many precautions anyone
could take.
“We’ll be okay, Luuk. I feel it. Things are going to change. We aren’t going to have to run
anymore.”
“I shouldn’t have run in the first place.” He should have fought, but Jamie would have
stayed and fought with him, and while Luuk would sacrifice himself, he wouldn’t sacrifice
Jamie.
“Stop. We did what was right for us,” Jamie scolded him out loud, and Luuk nodded.
One tight turn after another, the switchbacks up the mountain were scary enough to
make the hair stand up on the back of Luuk’s neck. The road smoothed out some, but he
couldn’t go any faster or else he’d risk running off the side of the mountain. They hadn’t
come this far to die such a stupid death.
“I’d prefer us not to die at all, not for a long time, love.” Jamie squeezed Luuk’s thigh, and
Luuk smiled slightly at the comfort. After another particularly sharp turn, Jamie sucked in a
breath and pointed. “Look! I see a roof!”
Luuk saw it too. Norbert leant forward, putting his head right between them. “Yes, that
is cousin Mem’s home, where the remaining shifters reside. There used to be more in this
area, but the fighting has depleted their numbers. Many are battling Luther’s followers. Some
have been trying to find you, Luuk, and Jamie. Mem and the others will want to let them
know that both of you are safe.”
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“After we leave here,” Luuk told him. “Perhaps we will have some plan in place then.”
He wanted to find out if there were truly others sent by Alpha Anaxes abroad, and if so, who
they were, whether he could trust them. “Is there any Internet connection up here?”
Father Norbert chuckled and patted his shoulder again. “Oh yes, yes there is. Few
places cannot be connected via satellite or with ever-changing technology. Mem would go
crazy without her Internet.”
“Good.” He’d been careless before, and it had cost him dearly, but Luuk wasn’t being
careless by contacting his brother, nor was Jamie putting them at risk by attempting to reach
his friend. They both needed support, either physically, as in bodies to help them fight, or
morally, emotionally. Luuk thought that contacting Adam might help Jamie through some of
the depression he’d been trying to keep at bay. Luuk wasn’t educated about mental illness,
but he would be. He’d not let Jamie deal with it alone, and if, through their bond, he could
carry some of that dark weight of depression, he would, gladly.
The closer they got to the large home, the more tense Luuk became. Jamie stroked his
leg, his side, but Luuk couldn’t help it. Trusting others was difficult even if it was necessary.
“My ancestors built this themselves, from native rock,” Father Norbert said, and
somehow, between his voice and Jamie’s soothing touch and thoughts, Luuk felt slightly less
close to cracking. “It took my great-grandfather more than ten years to complete. He kept
adding on, and so it is now a hodge-podge of rooms and, in many places, unlevel. Watch
your heads at the doorways once we are into the interior. That is where the problems lie—a
step up or down into a room does not always coincide with the appropriate height of the
entrance.”
Luuk frowned, trying to picture that. He couldn’t. “I guess we’ll just have to see it.”
“I’m sure it’s very interesting inside.” Jamie leant forward, peering out of the window.
“It’s, um, interesting on the outside.”
“Interesting, indeed,” Norbert chuckled. “I am not certain my great-grandfather, nor
that his sight wasn’t quite awful, when he was working on the house, but it is unique.”
Luuk made the last turn and almost snickered. ‘Unique’ was certainly one way to
describe the house, which seemed to meander in the oddest directions. Looking at the
mismatched rocks, unsmoothed and protruding at odd places and angles, Luuk thought it
appeared to be something vomited out from the mountainside. But—“I’m thinking there
might be more to his design plan than meets the eye. With the native stone used as it has
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been, this wouldn’t look much different from the mountainside even through a scope. The
windows are barely discernible with the turn of the walls. I suspect your great-grandfather
was quite brilliant in his planning and execution of the design.”
“Hm, I think you’re right,” Jamie said. “If the stones were smooth and the walls all
straight, that would look unnatural, and would stand out. And the uneven exterior would
mean the interior would also be varied in height and such.”
“Ah, and I always thought of him as an unskilled builder. I have misjudged my
relative,” Father Norbert murmured. “You have given me new eyes with which to view this
now.”
Luuk hitched a shoulder up and slowed the car even more. “Where do I—oh.” He
blinked in surprise as a portion of the rock began sliding open.
“Oh my God, it’s like, like the Batcave or something!” Jamie’s excitement was
unmistakable as he bounced in his seat. “This is so cool!”
“Yeah,” Luuk muttered, trying not to feel trapped as he pulled into the garage and the
doors began closing behind the vehicle. Lights kept the cavernous space from being too dark,
but there were shadows and places for attackers to hide. He was trying to spot any potential
threats when a large woman, in both height and weight, stepped out of an opening he’d not
seen before. Another mysterious sliding wall, no doubt. The man who’d designed this place was
a genius, Luuk was certain of it.
“Mem!” Father Norbert was out of the vehicle before Luuk could even shut it off. Luuk
watched as the older man ran, dignity tossed aside for welcoming family, and embraced the
woman.
“It’s going to be okay here,” Jamie told him, and Luuk turned to him. The certainty in
Jamie’s eyes was reassuring, but Luuk couldn’t just relax. “I’m not asking you to forget
everything that’s happening, but I do want you to try to consider trusting these shifters.
Norbert and Piotr—you trust them, and I don’t believe they’d ever put us in danger.”
“No, I don’t either, but sometimes the people you trust are the ones who turn on you.”
Luuk sighed and shook his head. “That’s not always true, though, and I didn’t trust Luther,
exactly, I just didn’t think he was a true threat. That was my foolishness, not his. He was
smart enough to almost take me out.”
“He isn’t smart, he’s a conniving bastard,” Jamie snapped, “and that is a totally
different thing than being intelligent. Of course you wouldn’t have thought he’d do what
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he’s done, because you aren’t an evil fuckhead. Now.” Jamie huffed and ran a hand through
his hair. “Let’s get out and meet this nice woman who is going to hug the stuffing out of
Norbert.”
Luuk glanced at the two still hugging, saw Norbert’s slight grimace as he was hefted off
his feet, and nodded. “Yes, he does seem to need rescuing.”
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Chapter Nineteen
Jameson tried not to stare at Mem’s eyebrow, but it was…disconcerting, as the thing
seemed to have a life of its own, squirming there on her brow. Stop it, he scolded himself, but
as if it—she—whatever—read his mind, Mem’s eyebrow did something damn close to the
‘Wave’.
“I think she’s doing it on purpose,” Luuk thought as they stopped in front of the large
woman. Mem released Father Norbert, who gasped and stumbled. Likely he’d have fallen
had Mem not caught a hold of his shoulder with one big hand.
“Steady,” she said in a thickly accented voice that was, surprisingly melodic. “I would
not have you hurt yourself.”
Father Norbert snorted and rubbed at his ribs. “Saving that part for yourself, Mem?”
“Humans.” Mem huffed and crossed her arms over her ample chest. Then she looked,
really looked at Luuk, and she paled even as twin spots of red popped to her cheeks. “Oh.
Oh, it is you! Alpha Anax…” Mem canted her head and dropped to her knees. “I was afraid
to believe.”
Jameson fought with the awkward feeling someone kneeling at his man’s feet caused
him. It was just, well, weird. But, he could feel the low hum of power coming from Luuk,
saw the way Mem’s skin prickled.
“Mem, please stand. My mate isn’t familiar with many of our ways.” Luuk touched
Mem’s nape and she whimpered, but rose to her feet. “This is my mate, Jameson.”
Jameson was terrified the woman would kneel or squat or some other sign of respect he
wouldn’t know how to handle, so he thrust his hand out briskly. “Pleased to meet you.”
Mem’s expression showed some nervousness, but more hope and joy than anything else
as she looked at Jameson and shook his hand. “It is my pleasure to meet you, Jameson. The
Alpha Anax has been blessed with a very handsome mate, yes, Norbert?”
“Er…” Father Norbert cleared his throat as Jameson’s cheeks burned. “Yes?”
Mem grinned. “I live to make my cousin squirm.”
That startled a snicker out of Jameson and he could feel Luuk’s amusement as well.
Mem glowed, obviously aware of pleasing her Alpha Anax. Luuk’s ability to pour out the
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power he had in his core was something Jameson had witnessed only rarely, but he
suspected it’d be much more of a common occurrence when he had his rightful packs and
position back. Although, to Jameson and those who loved Luuk, he had never stopped being
the AA.
“Come, come inside. I have been cooking in case”—Mem glanced at Luuk and blushed
again—“in case it truly was the Alpha Anax and his mate. I am not the finest chef, but I hope
you will be pleased.”
She opened a door and the scents rolling out of the house made Jameson’s mouth water.
“Oh, Mem, you made your bread and the roast!” Father Norbert bounced, actually
bounced, in place. “You have always been my favourite cousin!” The priest winked at her
and bustled past Mem.
Mem started to reach for him but Luuk stopped her. “No, Mem. He isn’t one of us, and
he has been a good friend to Jamie and I. I take no offence in Father Norbert entering your
home before me or my mate.”
“I did something wrong?” Father Norbert asked, concern pinching the corners of his
eyes. “I did not mean to offend.”
“You did nothing wrong nor did you offend,” Luuk assured him. “I would have
insisted on you going first.”
Jameson nodded when Norbert checked with him. “Really, it’s fine. Please don’t treat
us any differently than you have been—like friends.” That meant so much to him, because
the whole shifters dropping to kneel at Luuk’s feet was weird, and made Jameson fear he’d
never have any friends other than Luuk. Be hard to, if everyone was all but sitting on the
ground.
“It’s not like that, and I’m not like that, and the shifters, our people, aren’t like that,” Luuk told
him, amusement in his mental voice. “That would drive me insane in no time. Mem did the
appropriate thing, though, as it is our first meeting, and she wanted to show her loyalty. She won’t be
doing it every time she sees us again.”
“God, I hope not,” Jamie thought back. At least he’d got distracted from Mem’s eyebrow.
Inside the house, the walls were smooth stone, polished almost to a gleam. The thick
rocks used on the outside also made the interior walls, and warm golden wood had been laid
for the floors. Large, colourful rugs covered most of the flooring, and paintings of all sorts
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hung on the walls. The place was cavernous, but had a homey feel, which Jameson couldn’t
quite make sense of in his mind.
Then he saw the food on the table and quit worrying about it.
“Please, sit and help yourselves. The others are not to bother us, not until you have
rested. Patrik has gone to bring Piotr to us.”
They sat and Mem put glasses full of dark, rich beer in front of them.
“I thought Piotr was your cousin,” Jameson said as he tried to decide what to get first.
The roast was beyond succulent-looking, and there were vegetables in something that might
have been a brown gravy, he wasn’t sure. Loaves of fresh bread were still steaming in their
loaf pans, and there were desserts and other side dishes… Jameson just wanted to eat it all.
“Norbert is family whether we share blood or not.” Mem set a small dish with butter on
it between him and Luuk.
“Yes, I would not trade Mem for another,” Father Norbert said. “Once I tried her bread,
at least.”
Mem barked out a laugh and took her seat. “True. If Patrik had not been my mate, I
would have won him over with my cooking.”
Forty-five minutes later, Jameson was convinced she was right. He wasn’t the only one
to groan and every one of the men rubbed their stomach. Mem looked well-pleased with
herself as she watched them and spoke.
“Now, I will have Jaq show you to your rooms while I clean up. Jaq!”
A teenage boy ran into the kitchen only to skid to a stop as if he’d hit a glass wall when
Mem glared at him. “Sorry, Mama.”
Mem shook a finger at him. “You will take their bags and show them to your
grandfather’s room. Norbert knows where he will be sleeping.”
“Yes, I do, and thank you for the lovely meal, Mem.” Father Norbert waved at Jaq.
“When you have time, come and tell me how you are doing, Jaq.”
“Yes sir, Uncle Norbert.” Jaq beamed until he looked at Luuk, then his eyes almost
bugged right out of his head. “Eep.”
Luuk’s lips twitched and Jameson was torn between laughing and feeling sorry for the
teenager as he clearly felt mortified for squeaking.
“It’s fine,” Jameson blurted out, moving towards Jaq. “He’s intimidating, isn’t he?”
Jameson thumbed at Luuk. “But he’s also a good man, Jaq. And I am Jameson, Luuk’s mate.”
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Jaq wavered, and Jameson thought he might be on the verge of passing out, then he
realised Jaq was fixing to kneel, and started to protest.
“Let him, Jamie. Not for me, or you, but for himself. He needs to feel that he hasn’t embarrassed
himself to the point of hopelessness.”
“It’s not—he’s not—” Jameson started just as Jaq knelt, head down, tipped aside. Seeing
the pride that Mem felt as she watched her son, Jameson looked at Jaq. The boy was kneeling,
showing respect for Luuk, yes, but also for himself and his family.
“Stand,” Luuk said, touching Jaq’s nape as he had Mem’s. As soon as Jaq was on his
feet, Luuk held out his hand. Jaq gulped but shook it.
“It’s good to meet you, Sir…Sirs—both of you.” Jaq bobbed his head as the handshake
ended.
“The pleasure is mine,” Jameson returned, because it was the truth. Jaq had taught him
a little more about shifters in the few seconds he’d knelt. “We need to get our bags then you
can show us to our room.”
“I can carry them for you,” Jaq offered, and after a quick check with Luuk, Jameson
agreed.
The returned to the car and took out their duffle bags and Norbert’s as well. Jameson
carried the laptop bag. “There is Internet, Father Norbert said?”
“Yes sir. I can show you how to access it, if you want.” Jaq darted a nervous glance at
Luuk. “Um, if that is okay with the Alpha Anax.”
“I do think young Jaq here has a budding crush on you, Jamie, and who could blame him?”
Luuk thought while telling Jaq, “Yes, that would be very nice of you to show us how it’s
accessed.”
Jameson wanted to tell Luuk the little territorial ‘us’ was unnecessary, but all things
considered, with the way some shifters only respected a show of force, Jameson let it go. It
wasn’t like Luuk had hiked up his leg and marked him.
“And don’t even think about doing that, Luuk. You can’t hide your amusement from me.”
“I wouldn’t even try, on either count. But you should know, water sports are not anything I care
to indulge in.”
Jameson wrinkled his nose. “I wouldn’t call it an indulgence—”
“This will be your room, Sirs,” Jaq said, stopping before a wooden door carved with
numerous wolves. “It was my grandfather’s before he passed.” Jaq looked up at Luuk for a
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second before averting his gaze. “He fought for you. It would be an honour for you to stay
here.”
Luuk put a hand on Jaq’s shoulder and urged the young man to return his gaze, which
Jaq did. “The honour is certainly mine, and Jameson’s. Your grandfather’s sacrifice will not
be wasted. I am sorry you lost him, you and your family, and sorry I can’t thank him.”
“Or maybe you can, in a manner. When you have reclaimed your packs, and once Jaq is old
enough, he would be a very fine guard, don’t you think?” Jameson asked.
Luuk squeezed Jaq’s shoulder gently. “Perhaps, while I am here, we could discuss your
goals for the future, once you are an adult.”
“Oh,” Jaq sighed more than said. “Oh, I-I—yes, yes sir!”
Luuk had clearly made the young man’s day, possibly even his week and month. Jaq
was all boundless energy and enthusiasm after that, and it wasn’t long before Jameson
sighed, exhausted on every level. He sat on the bed, moaned at the firm mattress, thinking
it’d feel damned awesome beneath him while Luuk fucked him like a beast. He closed his
eyes and began rubbing his chest, want pooling in his groin.
“Jamie, come here, please.”
Jameson opened one eye and lifted his head up so he could see Luuk. He sat at an aged
wooden desk, the laptop open in front of him. “Did you hear from your brother?” Jameson
asked, excitement and hope springing him up off the bed. “What did he—”
“It opened to your e-mail. I guess you didn’t log out.”
Jameson’s excitement and hope turned to something else entirely, something shrouded
in fear and darkness. “W-why are you telling me?”
Luuk stood and came to him, putting an arm around Jameson’s shoulder, the other
around his waist. “Because, Jamie, love, there’s a reply from your friend Adam, and I think
you should read it.”
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Chapter Twenty
Jameson seriously thought he was having a heart attack, his chest squeezed so painfully
tight. His kneecaps seemed to have melted and he swayed.
“Shit!” Luuk jumped up and grabbed him, catching him around the waist and
shoulders. “Shit, honey, you scared the piss out of me!” Luuk rubbed at his chest, the touch
calming Jameson’s pounding heart somewhat.
“I’m sorry. I’m such a wuss,” Jameson muttered, embarrassed by his almost panicked
state.
Luuk kept up that soothing caress as he kissed Jameson’s brow. “Why are you afraid,
Jamie?”
Why was he afraid? Afraid? More like terrified. Jameson sniffed, unaware until then that
tears had begun to stream down his cheeks. “Luuk, I—I haven’t contacted Adam in over
three years! He’s going to be angry, and hurt, and what can I tell him? What? ‘Sorry, didn’t
mean to have to run for our lives and not stay in touch. There are these evil shifters out to get
us…’” Jameson hiccupped and scowled. “Yeah, I can’t say any of that in an email, and even
so—”
“And even so, as close as you and Adam were…” Luuk stopped and hissed.
“‘Were’. You said it.”
Luuk stopped stroking his chest and clamped his hand firmly around Jameson’s chin,
making him look into Luuk’s eyes. “You two aren’t as close now, that is a truth I wish I could
undo, but I will not lie to you. The friendship you shared—I saw it, Jamie. I felt the bond
between you. Had I not been assured of our mate-bond, I would have been very jealous, and
very unkind to Adam. I knew he loved you, and you, him. That kind of love doesn’t just
stop. Adam, I can promise you, has known something went wrong those three years ago. He
knows, even if he has to get past anger to realise it, that you would never have just blown
him off. So stop letting fear keep you from finally, finally, rebuilding the friendship you’ve
ached for.”
Jameson couldn’t stop crying, although he did so silently. He hurt inside, almost more
than he ever had. Sometimes, when the depression tore into him, he felt lower, less, worse,
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than should be possible. But it wasn’t that dark evil tearing at him now. Now it was his own
fear and shortcomings clawing him inside.
“Jamie, read it. I will be with you, always.”
Jameson nodded slightly and let Luuk lead him over to the laptop. Luuk sat and pulled
him down onto his lap. The screensaver had popped up and Jameson’s finger shook as he
reached for the keyboard. He tapped the spacebar and the picture of two howling wolves
dissipated, leaving the stark inbox with only one email in it—and it was unopened. Jameson
looked at Luuk. “You didn’t read it? You said I needed to read it!”
Luuk nodded. “You do. One, I would never read your email without you asking me to.
Two, you need to read it. You need to see what Adam has to say. I will be right here with
you, loving you.”
Jameson turned back to the laptop and opened the email before he could make any
more of a scene about it. He was damned glad Luuk loved him so much that Jameson could
let go and not worry about whether he had to be strong or not. Sometimes, he didn’t, and
couldn’t, and Luuk never berated him for it. Jameson generally did a good job of that
himself.
Tears sprang up anew and Jameson blinked then swiped at his eyes. A few seconds of
that, and he was able to make out the reply from Adam—
Jameson, my friend, my brother—
You can’t know what a shock it was, to find your email waiting for me when I got home. The
best, best kind of shock, but, I cried for ten minutes before Todd, my best half, calmed me down enough
so that I could actually read what you wrote. All that mattered was that you did it, that you were able
to contact me. Jameson, I have missed you, every day.
Every. Day.
And we missed you when we were in Amsterdam looking for you. Some things happened that
made it necessary for Todd and I to return to the States earlier than we had planned. Maarten was an
entertaining host, although I could gladly have strangled him more than once. Sorry, Luuk, but your
brother can be quite a pest.
I have not given up on finding you. I know, we know, and there are others in positions of much
higher authority who are also aware of what has happened. A new and very good friend of ours,
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Marcus C., has sent several of his men to assist you when they find you. Know that there are many of
us who are intent on seeing you and Luuk safe and happy and back where you both belong.
I have never given up on you, Jameson. Don’t give up on yourself. You and I, and our men, our
mates, will meet, soon. There’s so much I want to tell you, share with you, ask you, but the time will
come soon enough for us to chase the moon and chat.
Love,
Adam & Todd
PS Pics attached.
Luuk began muttering, reading the message aloud, his voice low and tight. Jameson
read the message again too, his pulse skittering at parts of it. “Adam—they came to
Amsterdam. Marcus C—”
“Criswell,” Luuk said, holding Jameson tightly. “Has to be. He was the original reason I
came to the US. I had intended to meet with him, but there was some kind of trouble, and he
was inaccessible. Then I met you…”
“Who is Marcus?” Because Luuk hadn’t explained that.
“The North American Alpha Anax. Possible the most powerful of all of the AAs,” Luuk
murmured, leaning towards the laptop. Jameson peered over his shoulder at him, and saw a
flare of hope in Luuk’s eyes. “Jamie, love, I—” Luuk frowned and Jameson turned to the
laptop again. He moved the cursor to the attachment symbol and clicked just as Luuk said,
“It sounds like Adam is one of us, or mated to one of us. Todd—”
“What?” Jameson almost shouted. “I don’t want Adam to be a part of this world! No!”
Oh God, his Adam, so happy and trusting, would be torn to shreds by the shifters!
“Jamie, not all shifters are monsters like Luther and his followers.” Luuk’s hurt bled
into Jameson as he spoke. “Not even most of them, or many. But evil uses tactics the good
ones won’t. We don’t go and slaughter entire shifter packs that disagree with my rule. I
would never. You should know that.”
The chastisement made Jameson feel about an inch tall, but it wasn’t unjustified and he
knew it. Sometimes his head just…just didn’t seem to work right. Luuk was a good, good
man, and Jameson tried to be. He knew, too, that not all shifters were evil beasts, or more
animal than human. It just didn’t feel like that was the case, when they were running for
their lives.
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“My fault. I should have fought,” Luuk told him. “Not right at first, because we had not
a chance of surviving if we didn’t run, but…” Luuk sighed. “I should not have waited three
years, Jamie. That doesn’t make me a good man, or a good AA.”
“Yes it does,” Jameson argued, although he didn’t have anything more than that to use
as proof, and just then the attachments finished downloading. “Luuk, I love you. I know you
have always done what was best for me. Always, Luuk. You have taken care of your mate,
first. How does that make you anything other than a good man?” Jameson clicked on the
attachments then, done arguing as he blasted Luuk with as much love and respect as he had
in him.
Luuk’s attempt to refute it crumbled—Jameson felt his walls give, then Jameson gasped
as he stared at a pic of Adam, looking just a bit older, but no less handsome than always, in
the arms of the attractive redheaded sheriff. The caption read, ‘Me and Todd, 8/3/12. I just
finished writing to you.’ Adam’s dark eyes were a little red-rimmed, a little wet looking, and
Todd was watching him, a tender expression on Todd’s face.
But Adam’s smile, that brought more tears to Jameson’s eyes, because the last time he’d
seen Adam, it had been a farewell, and neither of them had been happy about that. But
Adam was beaming, his joy shining right through the laptop screen at Jameson, and it
warmed him to his soul.
“He looks happy, very much so,” Luuk said, the words barely given sound. “And his
mate, Jamie, I don’t think I’m wrong.”
Jameson wasn’t sure how he felt about that, even with shifters being basically good. He
just hadn’t seen much of that so far, but they had been running, hiding, so what did he
know? Mem, Jaq, the Fathers, they were all pretty damned amazing, shifters or not. He
clicked on the next picture, and any doubt he or Luuk might have had about whether or not
Adam and Todd were shifters was laid to rest.
“Look at them,” was all Jameson could say as he took in every detail of the two
beautiful wolves frolicking together.
“They are lovely. Happy, too.” Luuk stroked Jameson’s cheek, then touched the screen.
“How odd that circumstances—no, Fate—has seen to bring us all to this point.”
Jameson nodded, unable to look away. Adam and Todd—they looked healthy, their
coats shiny and thick. Then Jameson saw the tag. ‘Soon, we will be with you and Luuk, and we
will run and hunt and play.’
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“Oh,” Jameson sighed, no longer angry over his friend’s changing. He was curious as to
how it came about, but the idea of running together, all four of them, filled Jameson with
anticipation—and happiness. He was smiling fit to be tied as he minimised the pictures. His
inbox showed another email, also from Adam. “He’s on now!” Maybe they could chat or…or
something?
Jameson clicked the message, and read it eagerly, only to have fear slam up his spine
again. “No! Luuk, no!”
Luuk held him and shook his head. “Jamie, I can’t stop them. Adam and Todd are
coming, and there’s nothing we can do to stop that. He says as much in the message. We
must decide where to meet them, how to do so safely, because I am thinking your friend, and
his friends, aren’t going to worry about stealth this time. I think they might just tear this
continent apart looking for you.” He tipped Jameson’s head up again, stared into his eyes
until Jameson’s fear eased under Luuk’s calm, sure nature. “We haven’t got much time to
come up with a plan before that jet lands. Let’s figure out what we can do to keep all of us
safe.”
Jameson hoped that was possible. He didn’t know what Adam’s intentions were,
honestly. It’d be just like the man to come all this way only to make sure Jameson was really
okay. But surely Adam didn’t understand the risks, not truly. Jameson hoped that innocence
didn’t cost any of them their lives.
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Chapter Twenty-One
The loyalty, and love, Jamie’s friend Adam had for Jamie was humbling. Luuk had met
Adam years ago and thought the man nice enough, but he hadn’t known him. Over three
years after telling Adam goodbye and wishing him well, Luuk felt he knew Adam almost as
well as Jamie did. Jamie loved his friend, and had talked about him often at first.
Once the hardship of surviving had drained Jamie of most of his energy, he’d stopped
talking about Adam—but he’d dreamed of him, and many times memories of things Jamie
and Adam had done would slip through the mental link Luuk shared with his mate.
Jamie was afraid for Adam and Luuk got that, but one thing he’d picked up on about
Adam through Jamie was this—Adam was a tough man. He wasn’t going to break any more
than he’d given up searching for Jamie.
Then Luuk was pole-axed with the sudden question—would Adam hate him for the
danger he’d brought to Jamie? Maybe he didn’t know Adam after all, because he couldn’t
answer that with any certainty. He thought Adam was a good man, as well as a potential
badass, but he also loved Jamie, and look at the situation Luuk had put Jamie in.
And, what made him worry even more, though he wouldn’t let Jamie know—was he
somehow responsible for Adam and Todd being shifters? There was almost no possible way
that wasn’t tied to him in some manner. Luuk wasn’t a believer in coincidences. He needed
to see how happy—or not—Adam and Todd were with being something other than human,
then deal with the guilt he felt.
He wanted Jamie to have his friendship with Adam. That was important. Luuk would
do whatever he had to in order to ensure Jamie and Adam didn’t lose each other again.
“You’re thinking awful hard.”
Luuk lifted his head. He’d been staring blankly at the floor as he ran things over in his
mind. He hadn’t even heard Jamie come out of the bathroom, a rare lapse of attentiveness on
his part. Jamie stood nude and beautiful, his lean form a little healthier-looking than it had
been, thanks to a few days of regular meals and rest. Luuk tracked his gaze from the top of
Jamie’s dark head to the elegant arch of his feet and the thin, almost too-long toes, before
returning to Jamie’s heavy-lidded eyes.
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What had he been thinking about? Luuk blinked, unable not to see the thickening cock
pointing almost right at him. He tried to maintain eye contact but his gaze was inexorably
drawn down to that hard length.
“I happen to know a very good way to quit worrying, which is what you were sitting
here doing.”
Luuk might have nodded, he wasn’t sure. Jamie ran his thumb over a fat vein on his
cock and Luuk gulped.
“In fact, I’d say what I have in mind will blow yours.” Jamie closed his hand around his
cock and slowly began to stroke. “You take too much on your shoulders,” he murmured, and
some little voice told Luuk he hadn’t shielded Jamie from any of his worries.
“You aren’t responsible for everything that’s happened to us, or to Adam and Todd,”
Jamie continued, dancing the fingers of his other hand over his balls. “We all make decisions,
and unless you’re God and have predestined us on what to choose, then you can’t really
accept the blame for anything anyone else does, can you?”
“Uh.” Luuk blinked again. His cock ached from the awkward angle it’d reached as he
grew hard and Luuk squirmed a bit as he tried to rectify the situation. “Yeah?” he guessed,
since Jamie was looking at him expectantly. And snickering at him. Luuk shook his head.
“You can’t expect me to have a serious, philosophical discussion when you’re naked and
playing with yourself!”
“Sure I can.” Jamie grinned and pushed the fingers that had been on his balls further
back behind them. “Ah, that feels so good. Not as good when you do it, but…” A bead of
moisture glistened in his slit.
Luuk’s mouth watered and he gave up being comfortable, at least clothed. He
unfastened his pants and was rewarded with a hitch in Jamie’s breath as he watched Luuk.
Luuk shoved his pants down far enough to free his cock and Jamie’s strokes faltered,
his pupils dilating. Oh yeah, Luuk could do a bit of distracting himself.
“Do it,” Jamie uttered, the words almost indecipherable as he grunted.
As if Luuk needed to be told—though he did like it when Jamie went all bossy on him.
His cock felt huge and hard in his hand, hot, and the veins seemed to stand out as if backed
up with pressure. Considering how turned on he was, he’d likely shoot a twelve-foot stream
of cum once he climaxed. Luuk smirked at the idea and Jamie snorted.
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“Dunno about twelve feet, Luuk, but you can put on quite an impressive show when
you’re inspired.” Jamie thumbed the bead of pre-cum on his tip and smeared it around.
Luuk had been as…inspired, as he could tolerate being. He stood and pushed his pants
the rest of the way off then tipped his head down, growled, and watched the way that made
Jamie’s cock twitch.
Luuk pulled his shirt off then, and dragged his hands down his bare chest, stopping to
scrape his nipples with his fingernails. Jamie sucked in a sharp breath, and Luuk shot him a
wicked look as he played with his tits for a few more seconds, enjoying the way every twist
of them sent heat hurtling down to his groin.
“Luuk,” Jamie rasped as Luuk slowly caressed his abs, still hard and lean even if he’d
lost a bit of bulk. He moaned and let his eyelids drift almost completely shut, knowing he
had a smouldering expression going on that Jamie was getting off seeing.
“Want to touch me like this, Jamie? Make me shiver and need?” Luuk stopped with his
fingertips just touching the first of his curls. “Or do you want to watch me touch myself, like
I was doing while you were stroking that cock of yours?”
Jamie squeezed his dick as he stared at Luuk’s. “I…I want…” And that was all he said,
closing his eyes and gasping as he began stroking himself again.
Luuk knew Jamie was too close to last long. He took the three strides necessary to reach
Jamie then grabbed him at the hips, and with a pivot, pinned him to the wall. Jamie just
moaned and gave himself up to Luuk’s command.
Which turned Luuk on unbearably. He sank to his knees and pulled at Jamie’s wrist.
Jamie let go of his thick cock and Luuk took over. He ringed the base of it with his thumb
and finger and brought it down enough the he could suck that fat wet tip right into his
mouth.
Jamie bucked and grabbed at his head.
“Do it, Jamie. Fuck me until you come.” Luuk inhaled through his nose, basking in the
scent of his mate that was so much better-smelling than the flowery soap he’d used. He
tapped Jamie’s thighs and when Jamie spread, was able to cup his balls. Jamie tightened his
hold and pushed in slowly at first, but as soon as Luuk flicked his tongue, and used his hand
to push Jamie’s balls up closer to his body, Jamie lost it.
“Fuck!” he spat out just before he thrust deep, breaching Luuk’s throat.
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Luuk’s dick liked it as much as the rest of him did. There’d be a puddle under it at the
rate he was leaking pre-cum. He groaned happily at the way Jamie’s cock filled his mouth,
his throat, and Jamie made a sound that was almost like a screech. Luuk rolled Jamie’s balls
and swallowed, and Jamie shook so hard Luuk expected him to fall over.
But he didn’t. Jamie pulled back and pushed in again, and again—no steady rhythm,
just the frantic chase for release as Luuk pleasured him. Luuk wedged his hand back further
and scraped the tender skin of Jamie’s hole, and Jamie almost pulled his hair out, he fisted
Luuk’s hair so forcefully.
And he came, in a beautiful blend of sound, scent, taste, feeling—Luuk could have wept
with the perfection of it as he greedily swallowed Jamie’s spunk. He wished he could have
seen Jamie, too, but Luuk’s eyelids seemed too heavy to open. He moaned and sucked, and
wanted to stay right where he was forever, with Jamie coming apart for him over and over
again, but Jamie was moving, and Luuk was too, Jamie’s cock slipping from his mouth as he
was nudged back.
Luuk plopped gracelessly on his ass and opened his eyes just in time to see Jamie
dropping to his knees. Luuk started to speak but Jamie put a hand to his chest and pushed.
Catching himself on his elbows, Luuk moaned as Jamie dragged his nails down his
chest to his belly, marking him with light red lines but doing no true damage. Jamie tugged
on his pubes enough to send sparks of need to his balls, then Jamie licked him from his balls
to his leaking slit.
“Fuuuuck,” Luuk sighed shakily just before Jamie’s mouth enveloped his tip. Luuk
jerked like he’d stepped on a livewire. Jamie bobbed down and, without warning, pushed a
finger into Luuk’s ass.
Luuk howled, the intrusion burning his hole even as Jamie’s talented mouth
surrounded his cock. Jamie took him deeper at the same time he set that finger as far in
Luuk’s ass as it’d go. Silky wet throat muscles rippled around his cock, and Luuk struggled
to hold back. But Jamie crooked that digit and massaged his gland and Luuk lost it, shouting
as his ass contracted and his cock spewed.
His climax felt endless and yet all too brief, and when it ebbed, he collapsed on the
floor, the impact to his head muted by a thick rug. He couldn’t seem to catch his breath—
Jamie had sucked it right out of him.
All in all, it was the best distraction he’d ever had.
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Chapter Twenty-Two
“Father Piotr will be arriving in five minutes,” Jaq said through the bedroom door.
Jameson sat up, surprised he’d dozed off considering… He looked over at Luuk, stretching
and arching that sexy body, and no, it was no wonder he’d slept. Luuk had blown his damn
mind.
“Five minutes. We need to shower,” Luuk grumbled, scratching at a dried patch
of…something. “Gotta figure out how and when and where we’re supposed to meet up with
Adam, too.”
Jameson smacked himself on the forehead and winced. “I didn’t even think that far
ahead, just, you know, that he was going to be here and I’d see him, meet this Todd guy.”
“Which will indeed happen.” Luuk stood and Jameson almost drooled. His mate was
just too fucking built, that was all there was to it. Luuk snorted and took his softened cock in
hand, jiggling it a bit. “If you keep looking at me like that, this is going to need more
attention.”
Jameson was willing, but it seemed in bad form to have sex while the kind priest was
being wheeled in. Or carried in. He really didn’t even know if Father Piotr was up to walking
or what.
“Jamie,” Luuk said, exasperation and humour tinging his voice. “Come on, love, let’s
get a quick rinse in then go see Piotr.”
“Okay.” Jameson stood and grimaced. Hadn’t he been clean not that long ago?
“Getting dirty is the fun part about having to get clean.”
Jameson cocked an eyebrow at Luuk. “You realise that doesn’t exactly make sense.”
“Sure it does.” Luuk walked to the bathroom and there was enough sway in his hips,
sending that firm ass rocking, that Jameson knew the exaggerated strides were intentional.
“Showoff. Like shaking your ass is supposed to make me not think about fucking it.”
Jameson snorted and dashed after a laughing Luuk.
The shower was a quick one, with them both keeping their hands to themselves, for the
most part. Towelling off would have been smoother had Luuk not turned and shook that
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bountiful ass again. Jameson couldn’t help but put a nice welt on it courtesy of a wicked
towel flick. Luuk’s yelp probably woke the dead.
By the time they were dressed, almost fifteen minutes had passed since Jaq’s
announcement. Jameson didn’t think they’d done too badly, all things considered.
“We didn’t end up fucking like crazy, you mean,” Luuk said. “If you don’t get out the
door very quickly, that will change, though.”
Jameson headed to the door then opened it slightly before looking over his shoulder to
rake Luuk with a lusty gaze.
“Jamie…” Luuk growled and Jameson pulled the door open fully and walked out,
making sure he had enough swing in his hips to pay Luuk back for teasing him earlier. Well,
he really hoped Luuk would rip his clothes off and fuck him into oblivion later, after they’d
done the visiting and discussed the plan for where to try to meet up with Adam. It was a
sure bet Jameson wouldn’t be able to sleep again until that meeting, or reunion, unless
perhaps Luuk wore him out.
“That, I can do.” Luuk was right on his heels, Jameson could feel him, and if he had
been unaware, the palm landing on his ass to lightly tap him would have let him know how
close Luuk was to him. Jameson slowed and Luuk stepped up beside him. They twined their
fingers together immediately and warmth filled Jameson.
They entered the large living room together, stopping not far in, as there were quite a
few more people in the house now than there had been. And all of them, with the exception
of the priests, were shifters. Almost as one, they turned and saw Jameson, and—more
importantly, he knew—Luuk.
The sound of multiple pairs of knees hitting the floor was incredible, as was the show of
loyalty as every shifter lowered themselves to a prostrated position. Jameson felt like doing
the same as pride in his mate surged strong and fierce in him.
“Rise,” Luuk said, his voice deeper than usual, and Jameson knew how touched he was,
how hard he fought the burning in his eyes at the sight of so many loyal pack members.
“Thank you, everyone. I would love to meet each of you, after my mate and I say hello to
Father Piotr.”
The shifters rose and every one of them was damn near beaming, happy to see their
Alpha Anax, and to be promised an opportunity to meet him. Jameson didn’t feel slighted.
He was Luuk’s mate, not an Alpha Anax, loved by many. Hell, he completely understood
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being thrilled at the idea of getting some of Luuk’s time. He was certainly thrilled at the
knowledge he’d be getting some private attention later.
“You’re going to have me walking amongst our people with an erection I can’t hide, love.”
Jameson reined in his raunchier thoughts before they could get out of hand. He nudged
Luuk as Father Norbert plopped a hand on his hip and gave them an arch look.
“I do hope you are not expecting me to so much as genuflect,” Norbert said, then
ruined the snooty tone by giggling. “Come, come see Piotr. Does he not look wonderful?”
Jameson and Luuk came closer, and Jameson personally thought Piotr looked like he’d
aged a decade, but the priest was alive and for that he was grateful. “Yes, you look
wonderful, as Father Norbert says,” Jameson told him as he leant down to kiss the old
priest’s cheek.
The chair Father Piotr was in sat low to the ground, and Jameson felt like he was almost
prostrating himself by the time he bussed the leathery cheek. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
Father Piotr huffed, more like a wheeze, really, and he patted Jameson’s cheek in return.
“Now, my boy, I could not leave this world without knowing some things were settled, and
some wrongs righted.”
Jameson’s stomach burned with an odd sense of cold at that, because it sounded to him
like Father Piotr was only hoping to hang around long enough to see Luuk reinstated as
Alpha Anax.
But before he could ask, Father Piotr was reaching past him for Luuk.
“I doubt he meant it like it sounded,” Luuk thought. “I think he is just…just glad he didn’t die,
period.”
“I hope so, Luuk, but he looks so old, and frail…”
“He just got out of the hospital, and had to be brought along the road from hell. Likely he’s been
bounced all over the place.” Luuk bussed the old priest’s cheek and stood. “No more scaring us
like that, Father Piotr. You are loved by too many people to be taken from us so soon.”
“Soon?” Father Piotr scowled. “Boy, I am eighty-two years old.”
Luuk nodded. “Mmhm, and that simply hasn’t been long enough for those who love
you, as I pointed out.”
Father Piotr grumbled, but his pale cheeks tinted with pink and he looked healthier
already. Jameson and Luuk visited with Piotr and Norbert for a few minutes, then promised
to come to his room for a more private conversation later, once Piotr had slept. Jameson
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wanted to tell him about Adam, and how nervous he was to be meeting him and Todd. Well,
more Todd than Adam, but still.
Then there was the promised meeting with the other shifters. Jameson remained at
Luuk’s side, but let Luuk handle all the conversation. Luuk introduced him to every shifter,
and every one of them was unfailingly polite, almost fawning, but it was their Alpha Anax
who truly held their attention. Jameson was fine with that. It soothed him, actually, seeing
the love these people had for Luuk, when for so long it had felt like everyone in the world
hated them.
Luuk was generous with his time, his words, and Jameson didn’t think that was a new
thing for him with his pack members. Luuk had always been kind and firm, as far as he
knew.
Mem finally clapped her hands together and herded everyone out. “They are thrilled to
have you alive and whole, and the promise of you taking back your position will boost many
spirits.”
Luuk nodded. “As they have, including you, boosted mine, and my Jamie’s. We needed
this every bit as much as they did.”
Mem nodded. “You are a good Alpha Anax. I am sorry you will have to kill your own
brother but he has caused many to suffer, and many deaths of good, good men and women.”
Jameson’s stomach turned right back into that ball of icy fire. He didn’t want Luuk to
have to kill Luther, no matter how they were related, but shifter rules would have to be
followed. Even if Luther ceded authority, he would die for what he’d done, both turning
traitor and murdering so many shifters.
“Don’t.”
Just the one word from Luuk, but it conveyed the pain he felt over what he knew he’d
have to do. Luuk wouldn’t make an allowance for Luther, nor should he.
Jameson wasn’t going to let either of them dwell on it. He took Luuk’s hand and
stepped up against him so he could get a good rub on that firm body. “Let’s go figure out
where to meet up with Adam. Perhaps he’s emailed again or something. Then…” Jameson
stood on his toes and nipped Luuk’s neck, hard, earning him a moan and a shudder.
Jameson liked it, a lot, and so he let himself go further, talking dirtier than he’d done
before. “Then I want you to fuck me, fill me up with your cum, and I’m gonna roll you over
and take you while your seed leaks from my body.”
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Then he led his stunned, horny mate back to their room, and thought they might need
to rearrange the order of their evening plans.
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Chapter Twenty-Three
The logistics were a bitch, mainly because Adam had simply hopped on a plane—okay,
maybe that wasn’t simple, but Luuk was generalising—as soon as he’d heard from Jamie.
There’d been no back and forth about where to meet or the dangers in doing so, when and
where Adam would be arriving… Luuk was all for spontaneity at times, but there were times
it was a real pain in the ass.
Patience, waiting for hours, wasn’t Jamie’s strong suit, at least not in this matter. Luuk
had done his best and fucked, and been fucked, until they were both too sore and too tired
for another round. It took a lot to wear a shifter out sexually, but he and Jamie had damn
sure managed it.
The ding of the laptop let him know there was a new e-mail. Luuk poked Jamie’s hip.
“D’you hear that? You got mail.”
Jamie grunted but he was up in a flash, although he did stumble and grab at his lower
back. He shot Luuk a look like he’d done something wrong, but Luuk knew better and
winked. Jamie’s lips twitched and he turned back to making his way to the laptop. “Haven’t
been pounded like that in ages,” he muttered.
Well. Luuk would just have to make sure such a…pounding happened with enough
regularity that it didn’t put Jamie out of commission, as it seemed to have. Although, a part
of his unsteadiness could be nerves. They’d composed an e-mail in between rounds of
fucking, making bare mention of the need to have a good, safe plan for meeting up. Luuk got
up, winced and grimaced a few times himself, but joined Jamie at the desk where the laptop
set.
“They landed in Amsterdam and are already on the move. This Marcus, he’s got over a
dozen guards with him, and hundreds more on the ground.” Jamie looked away from the
email to frown at Luuk. “How powerful is this guy?”
“Very,” Luuk guessed. “North America is much larger than the territory I was leader of.
There are also more shifters there than here. Hundreds of years ago, entire packs fled to
North America to escape the persecution of the superstitious. That, and it was a new country,
and so many were full of hope…”
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Jamie grunted and went back to reading the e-mail. Luuk read over his shoulder. “He’s
going to check in in approximately four hours.” Luuk sighed and rubbed his brow for a
moment. “We need to talk to Mem. I am beginning to think this might be the safest place for
them to come. There are loyal pack members here, and they will watch for anyone who
would harm us.”
“Okay. I think that’s the best idea, but…” Jamie’s scent was full of nerves, and sweat
beaded his brow even in the coolness of their room. “I just…I’m scared, Luuk. I don’t know
what to say, how to act—”
Luuk tugged Jamie up and into his arms. He held Jamie’s chin and kissed him, pressing
hard on those swollen red lips. “You say what’s in your heart, and you don’t act any way,
you just be yourself, love. That’s all Adam wants—his friend, whom he loves.” Who could
blame Adam for loving Jamie? Luuk settled his lips over Jamie’s again and took another
slower, deeper kiss that had Jamie shivering and pressing closer. Luuk delighted in having
his mate naked and plastered to him. He smoothed a hand down to cup Jamie’s ass, but
resisted the temptation to knead that flesh. He knew how tender Jamie’ bottom was, because
his was about as well-used.
Luuk ended the kiss by lapping at Jamie’s lips. He loved how dark and plump they
were after hard loving. He dropped another kiss on the tip of Jamie’s nose. “Let’s get cleaned
up. I think we both have cum on places no one should. Then we can find Mem.”
Jamie smirked at him and raised an arm. “I don’t know, maybe everyone should have
spunk in their arm pit hair at least once.”
Luuk wasn’t even going to try to figure out how that had got there. They’d both
been…messy. “As long as it washes out easy. If it’s knotted…”
“Then you can shave my pits, because there will be no combing out of knots there.”
Jamie huffed and Luuk wondered if Jamie would let him shave him, cheeks to chin to chest
and yeah, all the way down to his toes, which had a light smattering of hair on the first
couple on each foot. Perhaps when they had a little more time, because if Jamie said yes,
Luuk wanted to take a long, long time stripping that hair off his sexy body. And he wanted
to be able to fuck Jamie, hard and raw and fast, which neither of them were up to right now.
“Yes, you can, and oh God,” Jamie groaned from the bathroom, “please, stop thinking
about fucking me. It’s making my dick try to get hard all over again and I swear I can’t go
another round. It’ll kill me.”
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At the ‘yes’, Luuk’s cock tried to give a happy dance, or at least a twitch, but he really
was worn out. He’d have been embarrassed had he and Jamie not come so many times
already. “Start the water,” he said huskily, because his brain was still stuck on the whole
shaving thing, but Luuk managed to get them both cleaned off, and he even got the spunk
out of Jamie’s hair without making Jamie yelp, which earned him brownie points.
Luuk’s belly growled, and so did Jamie’s as they were getting dressed. Luuk arched a
brow at his mate. “You want to head to the kitchen and fix us a couple of sandwiches while I
go knock on Mem’s bedroom door? Shouldn’t take me but a minute or two then I’ll join
you.”
“Sure.” Jamie pulled a T-shirt on and the love bites Luuk had left on his neck showed
up beautifully. He wished he could see the other bite, the deeper one he’d left on Jamie, just
as Jamie had left a matching bite on him.
Luuk had to force himself to leave Jamie. He wondered if he was being extra clingy, if
there was some part of him that felt threatened by the arrival of Adam. Luuk stopped in the
middle of the hallway and scowled. Was that it? Was that why he’d been all over Jamie, had
fucked him and marked him so much?
No, because he’d given himself to Jamie, just as fiercely, and while Luuk bottomed
sometimes, he didn’t do it too often. And he’d done it more during last night than he had in a
long while, combined.
And, he realised, it wasn’t insecurity over anything making him let go and give himself
so willingly, so eagerly. No, it was happiness, a feeling of safety and hope for the future. It
was learning there really were powerful people on their side, and that this entire horrible
coup might soon be over. It was relief, and love so deep it was a part of his soul he couldn’t
live without.
* * * *
Jameson wished they were the ones out waiting, watching. He was pacing and had
been for a solid hour now. Luuk kept watching him but hadn’t told him to sit or relax, which
Jameson appreciated. He stopped and glared at the laptop. “How do we know they
understood the directions? Maybe Adam didn’t catch onto the code we used. He didn’t reply
except for ‘Okay.’ Jeez, he could have said something else…”
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Luuk shrugged. “I think he didn’t reply with more because they are on the move. And,
I am sure, they do not want to risk their movements being discovered. This Marcus, bringing
in so many of his guards—he will be seen as a challenger to Luther. One Alpha Anax
invading another’s territory.”
“Yeah, well, fuck Luther,” Jameson sneered. There were times when he was so angry at
that asshole, he thought he’d kill him without any more provocation. Of course, there’d
already been plenty of that… “He’s a coward, and he has no right to get indignant over any
goddamned thing!” Jameson closed his eyes and hung his head. “I’m sorry. I know he hurt
you, Luuk. I don’t mean to be throwing a fit.”
Luuk stood. Jameson could hear his footsteps on the floor as he approached. “You have
every right, love. Get mad, rant, curse, hit something—it’s all fine with me. Luther hurt me,
yes, but not as much as he has angered me by killing so many innocents, by trying to kill you.
For those things, I will not spare him, not at all. He will die, Jamie, and by my hands, as is my
duty as Alpha Anax.”
Jameson shivered at the quiet, sure note in Luuk’s voice. He snuggled closer and
sighed. It’d been six hours since the last e-mail from Adam. Jameson didn’t know how they
were approaching, if they were approaching. Luuk had had him use coordinates and an odd
pattern of words he sure as shit didn’t understand. Luuk had promised him that if Adam
didn’t get it, the Alpha Anax with him would.
“I wonder if they’re coming by car or plane or…” Jameson swallowed. Surely there
wasn’t a massive pack of wolves running their way?
“That would be most impressive, and possible, even, considering where we are,” Luuk
said. “I think perhaps they have used the jet again. I would, if I had one at my disposal.
Criswell would have to find a private airport or landing strip, which could be difficult,
though, so perhaps they drove, which would take fourteen hours or more.”
“A caravan heading this way wouldn’t be noticeable at all,” Jameson snarked, irritated
and stressed and excited all at once. But he shouldn’t be taking anything out on Luuk.
“Sorry, I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine, Jamie.” Luuk tipped his head back and looked at Jamie with such patience
and love, Jameson wanted to grovel out another apology. “Don’t. Part of being together is
dealing with the bad parts of one another. You’ve certainly had me snap at you on more than
one occasion. And if we actually fight, we get to have make-up sex.”
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Jameson groaned and clenched his butt just thinking about that. “No fighting, then,
because I’m still not recovered enough for sex.”
Luuk snickered and kissed his forehead. “Me either, but a few more hours, oh yes, I
might be trying to piss you off just so I can bend you over the bed and take your sweet ass
again.”
Jameson bit his bottom lip and looked through his lashes at Luuk. Maybe he wasn’t as
sore as he thought he was. A different kind of ache began inside him, and Jameson purred as
he rubbed up against Luuk.
“Oh, love, you really are asking for it,” Luuk murmured. He squeezed Jamie’s butt and
pleasure-pain spread out from his centre to warm the backs of his thighs.
Jaq came barrelling in the room, eyes bright with excitement, shouting out “Hey! Hey!”
Jameson started to jerk away but Luuk tightened his hold and turned a look on Jaq that had
the younger man settling down quickly.
“Yes?” Luuk said calmly. He did release Jameson’s ass, but kept his hands right on the
small of his back.
Jaq’s cheeks flamed bright red and he shuffled his feet. “I, uh, I’m sorry. I should have
not…um—”
“Come running through the house like a herd of horses?” Mem snapped from behind
him. “You should comport yourself in a manner appropriate around your Alpha Anax.
Really, Jaq, how often you’ve whined to be treated like a man instead of a child—”
“It’s fine,” Luuk said, much to Jamie’s relief—he didn’t think Jaq had done anything
wrong, although yeah, Jameson had been scolded as a kid for running in the house. He
manoeuvred Jameson to his side so that an arm rested on his shoulders and he was no longer
embracing Jamie. “Jaq, what is it you came to tell us?”
Jaq cast a quick look at Mem, then at Luuk, then Jameson. Jameson smiled
encouragingly and nodded, and Jaq’s excitement returned so that he bounced up on his toes.
“There’s dozens, maybe hundred, I don’t know, but—wolves, shifters, they’re coming, and
the white one, he’s huge and you can feel the power—”
“How do we know these aren’t Luther’s men?” Mem snapped.
Jameson was trying to fucking breathe. He knew. It wasn’t Luther’s, not when joy and
fear were winging through him like living things invading his veins.
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Jaq shook his head. “No, ma’am, because the man Jameson showed us the picture of,
he’s walking with the white wolf and a couple of others, and he’s…” Jaq blushed again, and
the tinge of arousal hit the air.
“Jaq, he’s mated,” Mem said, sounding kinder than Jameson would have expected.
“I know, but he’s still hot,” Jaq mumbled.
“How far away are they?” Luuk asked. He tightened his hold on Jameson. Jameson was
trying not to vibrate, literally vibrate. He wanted…so much. And he was scared, but damn it,
he wanted to see Adam, to talk and laugh with him and hug him and—
“Since the man is not shifting, a few hours walking, I’d guess. If he shifted and ran—”
“We’d not have known who was coming, for sure. Thank you, Jaq.” Luuk started to
turn away then stopped. “Wait. Do they know they’ve been sighted?”
Jaq shook his head. “No, sir. We’ve done nothing since we are waiting on your
command.”
Luuk smiled and tipped his head at the young shifter. “Good. Tell everyone to hold off
on doing anything other than observing. I think my mate and I shall go for a run, and you, as
well as the others, should accompany us.”
Jameson’s heart pounded so hard his chest hurt. His eyes burned, his vision blurred,
but it was happiness that made him so close to tears.
“Come on, love, let’s shift.” Luuk stroked his cheek tenderly, then kissed him. Jamie
sniffled and held onto Luuk for a moment before letting Luuk take his hand and lead him to
the garage. Silently, Luuk undressed him as Mem joined them. Luuk’s smile never wavered,
and the look in his eyes was one Jameson would never forget. He knew Luuk loved him, but
to see it so clearly was a gift he’d always treasure.
“Who is staying with the priests?” Jameson asked.
Mem sighed. “I will. I was going to go, but I should stay here, in case.”
In case it was a trap, somehow. In case Adam was now a traitor like Luther.
“He isn’t,” Luuk said as Mem went back inside.
Jameson nodded. “I know. I understand why she would be cautious, but it still irks me
on his behalf.”
Luuk’s smile tipped brighter and he chuckled. Then in a heartbeat he shifted and
Jameson took a steadying breath before doing the same. Luuk rubbed against his side and
nuzzled his face, and Jameson rumbled with pleasure.
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Then Luuk yipped, a playful sound Jameson didn’t think many people got to hear, and
they took off, loping steadily down the mountain. In minutes, they had a pack behind them,
and damned if it wasn’t one of the best things Jameson had ever experienced—besides being
with Luuk.
The trek was less bumpy and quicker on paw than it had been in a vehicle, and they
also stayed away from any type of path or road. After almost a half an hour of traipsing,
working their way down, the first scent of the others reached them. Luuk stopped, his
hackles up. He growled and shook himself, giving Jameson a rueful look.
“Hard not to give in to the instinct, scenting another powerful wolf on my packlands. It’s a
damn good thing I have the human ability to reason with this beast.” Luuk shook himself again,
from nose to the top of his tail, then he took off, howling a welcome that Jameson echoed
along with the other shifters behind them.
Trees, shrubs, rocks and snow, Jameson didn’t really pay attention to any of it, letting
his body take care of avoiding obstacles as he sucked more and more of the scent into his
lungs. He couldn’t pick out Adam’s, perhaps because there were so many coming their way,
or maybe because he didn’t know what Adam smelt like.
Luuk skidded to a halt after shooting out of a dense patch of brush. He sat on his
haunches and howled, and Jamie joined him. He could hear the approach of the others, and
leapt up, Luuk at his side.
“It’s safe, Luuk, it’s safe,” he was thinking, then he was saying it because he’d shifted, his
eyes locking with Adam’s as he and several wolves edged past a copse of trees.
“Adam,” Jameson whispered, the cold negligible when Adam was standing, tears
spilling over his lower lashes, streaking his cheeks. Adam seemed stunned, and Jameson
wasn’t sure, suddenly, of what to do.
“Go to him,” Luuk whispered, touching his hip. “He’s waiting.”
Jameson took one step, and Adam matched it as a tall redheaded man appeared at his
side, then Jameson sobbed, and he forgot about feeling awkward, about anything but seeing
the one true friend he’d had up until Luuk. He ran, bare feet stinging and he didn’t give a
shit. He could hardly see, not when he was crying, but he thought Adam was moving, too.
Then strong arms were around him, and a familiar, loved voice sobbed his name, and
Jameson clung to Adam, possibly too hard, but Adam didn’t complain. He just held Jameson,
too, and whispered his name over and over.
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“I’ve missed you, so much,” Adam rasped, and Jameson tried to say something,
anything, but his throat was so clogged with emotions and a jumble of words all he could do
was wheeze.
“Adam, honey, he’s probably freezing.”
Jameson sniffed and blinked and couldn’t see for shit, but he figured that had to be
Todd.
“I don’t want to let him go, Todd,” Adam said. “I just want to hold onto him for a little
while. You’ve gotten so thin, Jameson. I don’t care, I’m so glad, so glad to see you, to find
you…”
Jameson finally cleared his throat enough to speak. And his teeth began chattering as
the cold hit him. “I l-love you Adam, b-but it’s c-cold.”
Adam cursed softly and took his heavy coat off. The rest of his clothes soon followed
then he grinned at Jameson, and shifted.
There were many things to work out, and an odd tension between Luuk and, he
thought, Marcus Criswell. That was probably due to the nature of their beasts, but it would
be dealt with. For now, Jameson laughed, happy in different way than what he was with
Luuk, then he shifted and, with a yip and a pounce, nearly tackling Adam, he took off with
his friend chasing his tail.
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Chapter Twenty-Four
Inside the odd stone house, Luuk ran a hand over Jamie’s back, rubbing briskly. Even
clothed, Jamie still felt cold. Not that he seemed to be aware of it, Jamie was all smiles and it
thrilled Luuk to see his mate so happy. He nodded at Adam and his handsome, silent
redheaded mate. “Adam, we met years ago. It’s good to see you. And you must be Todd.”
Adam beamed at Todd even as he answered Luuk. “Yes, this is Todd Benson, my
husband, best friend, mate—well, he’s everything to me.”
Todd blushed but met Luuk’s gaze with a solid strength in his pretty eyes and in his
handshake. Luuk thought Adam had done well finding a man like Todd. Not as well as he’d
done with Jamie, but nonetheless, Todd and Adam seemed a perfect fit.
Jamie peeked at him through thick black lashes, and a simmering heat in his expression
let Luuk know just how pleased Jamie was with Luuk. Then the one person Luuk was almost
itching to talk to entered the room, having headed right to the shower when he first walked
in with his redhaired mate. Luuk wondered if there was an abundance of redheaded men in
America. There certainly seemed to be in Marcus Criswell’s pack.
“Jamie, I’d like to speak with Criswell. You’re welcome to come, too, or stay and visit with
Adam.”
“You’re tense. You’re not going to end up in some dumb alpha wolf squabble, are you? He
wouldn’t start a fight, would he?” Jamie cast a doubtful glance towards the hulking blond with
the startling angelic curls. A man as tough as Alpha Anax Criswell most assuredly was, with
curls like that—it just boggled the mind.
“I don’t know him, Jamie, but I intend to. I need to ask what his intentions here are. If he came to
conquer, we’re sorely outnumbered.”
“He didn’t…did he?” Jamie nibbled his bottom lip and glanced at Criswell as the man
approached. “Maybe I should go with you—”
“You’re Adam, right? And Luuk,” said the red-haired man with the braid tapping at his
ass. “I’m Nathan, Marcus’ mate. It’s a pleasure to meet you both and”—Nathan arched his
eyebrows—“to know you’re alive, that’s pretty awesome. Marcus and I know what it’s like,
having a psycho trying to take you out.”
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“Nathan,” Marcus said, just that, and Nathan glared at him. Marcus held up one hand.
“I was simply going to say, I’d like to speak with Luuk.” Marcus offered the hand he’d held
up to Nathan. “Marcus Criswell.”
Luuk could feel the man’s power even though he was certain Marcus wasn’t
deliberately putting it out there. Luuk had an ego, of course he did, but he’d never thought of
himself as the biggest and the baddest Alpha Anax in existence—which was a damned good
thing considering the man currently shaking his hand. Luther, however, would want to kill
Marcus…right after he shit himself upon seeing the North American Alpha Anax.
“Normally, I’d go listen in on the conversation, but I’m thinking there might be chest-
thumping, and if there’s chest-thumping—”
“Of course there’s going to be chest-thumping, he’s the Grand Poobah!” Nathan was
cut off by a handsome man with bright green eyes.
“What?” Luuk knew he had to be scrunching up every one of his facial features because
that…confused the fuck out of him. “The Grand what?”
“Pooh?” Jamie asked doubtfully. “Like…uh—”
“Gabe,” Nathan said as he turned to the man, “Now you’ve terrified the very people
we’ve come to help!”
Gabe and his quiet, stone-faced mate stopped beside Luuk and nudged him with an
alarmingly inappropriate sense of familiarity even as, at the same time, Gabe bumped his hip
to Marcus’.
Marcus scowled and Luuk just moved away because apparently this Gabe guy was
unhinged.
“Stop looking at me like I’m nuts,” Gabe told him. Luuk tried, but Jesus Christ, Gabe
was nuts. “I am not nuts, I’m just not intimidated by posturing and I’ve seen Marcus and you
both naked—you had to shift, dude,” he said when Luuk opened up his mouth to protest.
“Whatever, I’ve seen both of yours…both of your…? Ugh. Anyway. I’ve seen your dicks, and
Mika’s is bigger, so stop the macho crap.”
“I didn’t think we were doing the macho crap,” Luuk said before he could reconsider.
He wasn’t used to people being so forward.
“Don’t encourage him,” Marcus muttered, only to scowl and jerk as he pointed a finger
at Gabe. “Stop elbowing me, or so help me, I’ll ask Mika to turn you over his knee.”
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“And you told the other guy not to encourage him?” said Mika, finally speaking up.
“Now he’s going to run around jabbing everyone in the ribs just so I’ll spank his ass.”
Gabe huffed but his eyes sparkled and he crossed his arms over his chest. “Right. Like
you’re not counting down the minutes until you can drag me into a room and do just that
before—”
“Hooo-kay,” Nathan interrupted. “That’s enough of this, er, fascinating look into y’all’s
kink. Now, can we let the Alpha Anaxes have a conversation—alone, perhaps?”
Luuk wasn’t sure he could hold a coherent conversation with his head still spinning
from the encounter with Gabe. The man was something else, and Luuk thought he’d
probably be a great deal of fun, if Luuk could even remember how to have fun that didn’t
include making love to Jamie. He wasn’t sure that was possible.
“Jamie?” he asked, letting his mate know he was welcome to come with him and
Marcus. Jamie looked at Adam then back at him and Luuk reached out to stroke his mate’s
cheek. “It’s fine if you don’t want to let Adam out of your sight for a while. You can always
join us if you change your mind.”
Jamie gave him a sweet smile that made Luuk want to kiss him—so he did, and he even
flipped Gabe off when the man rated it an eight point five.
That kiss had been a solid ten.
“Gabe is really a great man,” Marcus said as they walked down the hall. Nathan had
stayed back as well. “He loves to laugh, and that is part of what makes him such a treasure.
He can tease anyone out of a bad mood—or into one, I swear. Mika’s perfect for him, all stoic
silence and strength. They balance each other well.”
Luuk nodded. “And he calls you…”
Marcus groaned. “The Grand Poobah. I swear to God, I hate that name, but if I bitch,
he’ll come up with something worse.”
“Ah.” Luuk stopped by the room they’d be using. “And you don’t order him to stop it
because…?”
Marcus stopped as well and gave him a contemplative look. “Would you order him to
stop it?”
“No. He’s a friend, isn’t he?”
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“Not when he first slapped that moniker on me, he wasn’t. He was angry, and ready to
defend his mate against the big, bad Alpha Anax.” Marcus snorted and gestured at the door.
“Shall we?”
“Of course.” Luuk opened the door. “I was never the sort of leader who sought to lead
by fear. I would like to have had some people comfortable enough with me to joke as Gabe
does with you, but things are, perhaps, different here. A long line of Alpha Anaxes who were
quick to kill anyone for even a perceived insult or disrespect. I loved my father, but he was
also a very hard-hearted man at times.” Luuk sat in one of the thickly padded chairs in the
study. He watched Marcus closely as the man sat across from him. “And you, you are the
most powerful shifter I’ve ever met. Which means I have to ask, why are you doing this?
Sending guards out to help, or so I’d heard, and coming here yourself.” Luuk stared into
those dark brown eyes and couldn’t read a thing in their depths. “I don’t know you, nor you
me.”
Marcus grunted and tipped his head back, staring at the ceiling as he steepled his
fingers in front of his chest. “See, here’s the thing. Gabe and Mika are very dear to Nathan
and me, and Adam and Todd, in turn are dear to them. And to be honest, Adam and Todd—
neither of them should be shifters.” Marcus sighed and lowered his head until he was
looking at Luuk again. “They came here, searching for Jameson and you, and your brother
Maarten’s medicine man accidentally turned Adam into a shifter. It was painful, and should
never have happened, and it almost cost Todd his life.”
Luuk wondered what the hell Maarten had done, but he merely nodded as Marcus
went on.
“And, I assure you, I am not here with nefarious plans to take Luther’s place, or yours.
I’m here because, I’ve learned, sometimes doing nothing and claiming that is the path to take
because something is none of one’s business is the coward’s way of shirking responsibility.
Adam and Todd were forced, really, to become what we are. That is a responsibility I bear.
Me, and Luther. I’d blame Maarten but he’s not really at fault. His medicine man should
have known better, but again, he had no ill intentions. And, let’s just say I’ve also come to
believe compassion is a trait we need to explore. As shifters, we do tend to let the wolf decide
more than we should.”
Luuk leant forward a little. “Okay, that sounds all well and good. There is nothing in
this for you, that’s hard to believe.”
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Marcus canted his head to the side and blinked. “I never said there’s nothing in this for
me. It will make Adam and Todd happy, and Gabe and Mika, and those two things, those
four people, make me happy. And Nathan happy. That means a lot. I also would hope for
better relations between you and I, as Alpha Anaxes. I’d like to see shifters as a whole led by
AAs who use brains over brawn when possible, and who aren’t just the biggest sociopath in
the pack.”
“I have seen that happen,” Luuk murmured. “Besides Luther, I mean. The AA of South
America…”
Marcus nodded. “I’ve heard he is brutal. He’s not the only one, though.”
Luuk leant back again and contemplated Marcus Criswell again. “You truly just want to
help me, and my people?”
Marcus didn’t answer right away, instead seeming to think about his answer. “I
wouldn’t say just. I want a working relationship with you, in a manner of speaking. I mean, I
never met you or your father or any of the other AAs around the world. That’s not a good
thing for us or our people. We need to talk, to see if we can help each other. And we need to
quit persecuting our own for being different. Even Gabe, were he straight, would have been
killed by the former AA in North America, just for being so forward.”
“Yes, my father would have torn his throat out the first time Gabe nudged him like he
did me.” Or the first time he called the AA by some silly name. “I will not be that type of
leader, but if you are sincere, and truly will lend some of your strength to help me, I would
gladly accept it.” Luuk’s heart beat faster even though he tried to remain calm. Hope was
swelling in him, making his pulse race. Marcus Criswell would be too formidable an enemy
for Luther.
Marcus stood and held out his hand. “I promise I mean no harm to you or those who
will follow you. I can’t promise that Luther will survive this retaking of your position.”
Luuk stood as well and shook Marcus’ hand. “I understand, and he can’t live, Marcus.
Even if he does make it through the coming battle, he will be killed for all the lives he’s taken
and the pain he’s caused. Hundreds of good people were slaughtered under his orders. That
must be avenged.”
Marcus nodded as he released Luuk’s hand. “Yes, it must. While we hope to lead more
with compassion than strength, that, too, has its place.”
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It did, and Luuk knew he’d take no pleasure in killing Luther, but he’d do what he had
to.
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Chapter Twenty-Five
Jameson was half-afraid he’d blink and Adam would be gone. He kept finding himself
touching Adam, little brushes against his arm or shoulder. It didn’t escape his notice that
Adam was doing the same thing even though he was leaning back against Todd.
“Why don’t we find someplace less crowded so y’all can visit?” Todd’s voice was soft
and deep, had that Texas twang to it that Jameson hadn’t heard in too long. He found himself
picking it up, when he’d thought he’d lost most of his accent.
“There are a lot of rooms here,” Jameson said as he touched Adam’s wrist. When Adam
took his hand, it surprised him, but only for a second. They were being much more touchy-
feely than that had been years ago, but considering what had happened to them both, it was
understandable. “Just down this way is our room. We can go there if you want.”
Todd patted his shoulder. “Y’all go on and I’ll be there in a bit. I’m gonna find us
something to drink. Beer’d be great…” He dropped a kiss to Adam’s cheek then tapped his
butt. “See y’all in a few.”
“He seems like a good guy,” Jameson murmured as they watched Todd walk away.
“Nice butt, too.”
Adam snorted then laughed. “Oh yeah, nice everything, trust me.” He watched a
moment longer then turned to Jameson. “Come on, show me where we can have some
privacy.”
Jameson led Adam out of the living room and down the hall to the room he shared with
Luuk. “It’s right here.” He opened the door then let go of Adam’s hand and stepped back,
allowing his friend entrance first.
“Thanks.” Adam entered the room and Jameson followed, shutting the door behind
them. Adam looked around the place and whistled. “This is nicer than our room. Todd and I
are gonna have to push the twin beds together.”
“Yeah, well, with Luuk being who he is and all…” Jameson didn’t figure he needed to
explain.
“Yeah, and I’d bet Marcus and Nathan are going to have a big ol’ bed, too.” Adam
chuckled. “Well, they’d have to, since Marcus is a big guy.”
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“He is at that.” Jameson gestured to the small table. “We can sit, or—”
“Or this,” Adam said as he spun around and caught Jameson in a hug that threatened
to crack a rib or two. “Damn, I’m just so glad we found you. I was worried—”
“Me too,” Jameson squeaked out. He thumped Adam’s back with one hand and held on
tight with the other. “Been afraid for a long time.” The admission caught him off guard.
Jameson hadn’t meant to say anything more than the agreement he’d first uttered.
Adam held him tighter and Jameson thought he was going to have to cry uncle, but
Adam gentled his hold after a few seconds. He ran his hands in small circles on Jameson’s
back and pressed his forehead to Jameson’s, staring at him with dark eyes Jameson knew so
well.
“Don’t ever disappear on me like that again.” Jameson opened his mouth to protest but
Adam talked right over him. “I know you didn’t have a choice. I understand that Luuk
didn’t tell you about shifters right off the bat, and this isn’t about me, it’s not. But I still get
this stupid fucking hurt feeling because you didn’t think you could tell me about shifters. It’s
dumb, I know it’s dumb. Todd was hurt that Gabe kept it from him for so long, too.”
Jameson would carry that guilt with him for a while. “I didn’t know until right before I
left with Luuk. I could have told you, yeah, but I couldn’t grasp it. I didn’t know what to do,
but talking to you would have helped. Instead I was distracted and we walked right into an
ambush.”
Adam raised his head and scowled. “You couldn’t have helped that.”
Jameson hitched one shoulder. “What’s done is done, and I am sorry I didn’t tell you. I
really didn’t know whether to even believe it myself, and worried I’d fallen hopelessly in
love with a man who was delusional. Then we landed and there were men turning into
wolves and blood and…well…” He didn’t want to go into detail about that. “It was bad, and
after we got away, Luuk had to change me.”
Adam flinched and darted a glance down, as if looking at Jameson’s groin. “I had to
change Todd like that.”
Jameson’s eyes bugged and he leant back. “What? Why? Aren’t there other ways?”
“I’ve been told, but Todd insisted it be me who changed him.” Adam’s wicked little
grin made Jameson chuckle before the man continued. “We cheated, though. Used topical
anaesthetic and made small cuts with a very sharp scalpel. At least we know it doesn’t have
to be pain and biting—oh.” He blushed. “Er, I didn’t mean—”
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“It’s fine,” Jameson said with a wave of his hand. Adam cocked a brow at him. “Okay,
it wasn’t fine at first. I didn’t want to do it, and sure as hell didn’t want it done to me, but
once I understood the alternative would be Luuk’s death—because no way could I survive
the mountains and wilderness in human form—then it wasn’t so hard to do.” It’d hurt like a
damned bitch, though.
Adam nodded and stepped away but kept his hand on Jameson’s elbow. He led them to
the chairs and they sat. “We came looking for you a while back,” Adam began, then he filled
Jameson in on what had happened and how Adam and Todd had become shifters.
“You ingested a pill made from a dead guy?” Jameson asked when Adam paused.
“And that turned you into a shifter?”
Adam sighed and pushed the sleeves of his shirt up. “Yeah, but it was a really old,
powerful shifter in that capsule, and I thought I was going to die because I have never
experienced such agony in my life. And then, lashing out and hurting Todd… Jesus. I wanted
to die then. Some part of me knew it’d kill Todd for sure if I did.”
“Y’all are mates. Hurting each other goes against everything in you.”
“It does,” Adam agreed. “Todd is an amazing man, Jameson. He’s been through so
much, experienced so much hatred and abuse at the hands of people who should have loved
him, and yet he’s the kindest man I’ve ever met.”
Jameson flashed back to the moment when Todd had shifted, to the scars on his body
that were impossible not to notice. He’d wondered but would never have asked. “He’s okay
with you talking about whatever gave him those scars?”
“He’d rather I explain it than have to go through it again even just verbally,” Adam told
him. “That’s part of why he’s giving us time, because he figured you’d want to know about
him, and there are things that he just doesn’t ever want to talk about again.”
Jameson shook his head. “Then don’t tell me. I don’t want him uncomfortable around
me. All I need to know is what you’ve told me, that he’s good, kind…and has a great ass,
along with other parts.” Jameson winked, and Adam laughed but he could tell by Adam’s
expression that he was going to keep talking. Jameson was fine with that, too, if it was what
Adam needed to do.
“His parents were monsters, Jameson. You saw the scars, well, those were from his
childhood. Then his father almost killed him right when we were beginning our
relationship.” Adam paled and tears filled his eyes. “It’s the worst thing, ever, to find the
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man you love lying bleeding and helpless on the ground. Then to know it was his own father
who did it—”
“I can’t imagine,” Jameson murmured. His own parents had been distant, as if they’d
adopted him only so they could show him off in their social circle. When they’d died months
apart from each other, Jameson had been sad but not devastated. At that point, they were
strangers to him, embarrassed by his lack of a brilliant career. Him being gay they could have
dealt with, but him not having the drive to succeed at all costs was unforgivable.
“His mother’s a total bitch, too,” Adam said, sniffling and wiping at his cheeks. “His
father died in prison, and his mother…just, ugh. She’s horrible.”
“Is Todd happy?” Jameson asked.
Adam looked at him for a moment, as if surprised by the question, then he beamed.
“You always did pare it down to the essential truth. Yes, he’s happy. He didn’t let what was
done to him warp him, and he’s the best man. I’m very lucky.”
“I bet he says the same.” Jameson nodded towards the door. “Is he coming in here
soon?”
“In a few minutes. I want time to make sure I don’t look like I was crying.” Adam
dabbed at his eyes with the hem of his shirt. “Not like he won’t know, but still.”
“Do you regret being turned?” Jameson asked then held up a hand to forestall Adam’s
answer. “Wait. Let me rephrase that since I imagine you do as you weren’t turned willingly.
Now that you’re a shifter, you and Todd both, would you go back to being just a human
being if you could?”
Adam raised one eyebrow. “Just a human?”
“You know what I mean,” Jameson grumbled, cheeks going hot with embarrassment.
“Oh, I don’t know. I think those three words sum up a lot of it, don’t you? I mean, I
didn’t want to be a shifter in the first place, or maybe I never thought about it because how
was it ever going to happen?” Adam shrugged. “But now, being able to shift and run with
Todd, to experience things as a shifter does, with the enhanced senses… To share a mental
bond with Todd, like I’d never imagine possible? No, I wouldn’t go back to being just a
human.” He leant forward and drilled Jameson with an intense look. “Would you, if you
could? I don’t just mean yourself, but if you could make it so that you and Luuk were
human, and didn’t have to deal with any of this…this betrayal and death and shit? Would
you rather be just a human?”
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Well, there was a question Jameson wished he’d never asked, and he wouldn’t have if
he’d known it’d be turned back on him.
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Chapter Twenty-Six
Jameson shook his head. “No, because Luuk would need me to be stronger for him,
he’d need me to be a shifter even if this coup hadn’t occurred. What might his packs say if
he’d had a mate who refused to be turned? That’d be an insult to them.” He picked at a
thread on the seam of his pants leg. “And if he wasn’t the Alpha Anax? If we were just two
men who had met and fallen in love?” Jameson sighed and looked up at Adam. “I can’t even
imagine it, you know? Part of what makes Luuk the man he is, is his wolf. I don’t think he’d
be the same person without it. It’s not like us”—he gestured between them—“people who
were turned later in life. Luuk grew up in the pack, and it shaped him in every way. To try to
picture him without that is just impossible.” Then Jameson snorted. “So I guess the short
answer is no, I wouldn’t have us both be humans, even despite the threats to our lives.”
Adam canted his head just as the door opened. Jameson was surprised he hadn’t heard
Luuk approaching, but he’d been pretty involved in their conversation, and he’d not felt a
flare of alarm from Luuk so he knew his meeting was going okay. Adam’s entire face lit up
and Jameson saw Todd hovering in the doorway.
“Come in,” Luuk said, stopping a couple of feet in and turning to Todd. “I’m not sure
they’re all talked out yet. They’ve got years to make up for.”
Todd came in and blushed as he glanced around the room. “S’a lot bigger than ours, but
we appreciate being put up. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful.”
Luuk frowned as he looked around. “I’m sure Mem will be happy to put you two in a
larger room, if there’s one available—”
“No, no,” Todd said as he waved his hands in front of him. “No. I don’t want to be a
diva or whatever. We’re fine where we’re at. And anyway”—he shot a quick grin at Adam—
“I was thinking maybe we shouldn’t push the twin beds together after all. We can get real
close on just one.”
“Yeah, we can,” Adam agreed. “So, Luuk, I imagine Marcus told you he’s had several
dozens of his guard here not only looking for you, but fighting against Luther’s regime.”
Jameson looked at Luuk, who came over and put a hand on his shoulder. Todd struck
up much the same pose with Adam. “Yes,” Luuk rumbled, “he did, and I am humbled by his
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assistance. There was no reason for Marcus to have to get involved. That he did astounds
me.”
Adam leant forward and whispered, “Well, Marcus is a pretty amazing guy, and a
leader that anyone would be lucky to follow—but don’t tell him I said so. He’d keel over if
he thought I paid him a compliment or two.”
“I need to meet this guy for more than a minute,” Jameson muttered. The North
American Alpha Anax was impressive-looking, and obviously strong—in numbers as well as
other ways. To be able to spare guards like he was doing, to have the courage to step into a
war that wasn’t his own, all for…for what? “Why’d he do it? Marcus, I mean,” he added
when everyone looked at him with confusion.
“Because he didn’t like what was going on, and he thought it was wrong.” Adam
shrugged. “Or because he wanted to keep our mutual friends, Gabe and Mika, happy. Gabe
and Todd are totally BFFs for life,” Adam said with a flutter of lashes that brought that blush
to Todd’s skin again. Adam winked at him. “Well, it’s true.”
Todd coughed and turned redder before he managed to speak. “Ah, yeah, he’s right
behind you on that best friend thing, Adam. As for Marcus, he’s just…” Todd turned his eyes
up at the ceiling like he’d find the answers there. “Well, he’s just trying to do the right thing.
There’s that saying about how all it takes for evil to win is for good people to do nothing, or
something like that. I think that’s Marcus’ philosophy, especially since he’s been held captive
and tortured and could have lost his position as Alpha Anax if his brother hadn’t held it for
him.”
Jameson opened his mouth to ask about that when another knock sounded at the door
and they turned to see Marcus himself standing there, along with his mate.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Marcus said, looking right at Todd, who was surely going to erupt
in flames if he blushed any hotter. “And Todd is right. I couldn’t let step back and not help,
not once I found out that Luuk is a good man, and Luther…not so much. Unfortunately,
Luuk’s brother isn’t quite as, er—”
“Capable,” Luuk supplied. “He has good intentions.”
Marcus nodded. “That he does, but he lacks the strength and leadership to take on
Luther. And, from what my guards have learned, there’d be many unwilling to follow
Maarten.” Marcus grunted and looked at his mate. “What? I was being tactful.”
“Not really,” Nathan told him, glaring at Marcus.
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“He’s right, Nathan,” Luuk said, chuckling a little. “Maarten is a good guy, but he’s not
up to leading our continent’s packs. He wouldn’t want to, either.”
“See? Luuk understands and isn’t all—ouch!” Marcus yelped and narrowed his eyes at
Nathan. “Oh really?”
“Yeah. Really.” Nathan stood straighter and turned his attention to Jameson. “I’d like
the chance to talk with you about the whole being the mate of an AA thing. The stories we
can swap…” He ruined his stern look by snickering. “But seriously, we came because Mem
wants us to eat, and she is insisting that the AAs and us—that includes you, Adam and
Todd, as well as Gabe and Mika—eat first, and at the large table she has decked out to the
nines. The longer we stand here chatting, the hungrier everyone else is gonna get.”
“You could have said so sooner,” Jameson said, practically jumping up from his seat.
Adam moved as an almost mirror image of him.
Nathan flapped a hand and turned for the door. “Dinner wasn’t ready yet,” he said
over his shoulder. “Mem said ten minutes, and that’s about now, isn’t it?”
How the hell would he know when Mem had talked to Nathan? Luuk huffed, sounding
entirely too amused for Jameson’s liking. Then Luuk had to go and leer at him in just the way
that made Jameson’s dick go from soft to hard in about two heartbeats as he stepped into the
hallway.
“Someone’s horny.”
“Someone’s tactful,” Adam snarked, laughing right after as he turned. “Hey, Gabe—
Mika having trouble keeping you under control?”
Mika grunted and grabbed Gabe’s arm as he glared at Adam. “Are you trying to make
sure he breaks my damn ribs?”
Jameson looked from Adam to Mika to Gabe then back again, and realised none of
them were truly upset. This seemed to be some familiar joke between them, and it made
Jameson’s arousal dwindle as he tried not to feel jealous of the other close friends Adam now
had. It wasn’t like he was in junior high or whatever. He wasn’t a kid or unable to reason out
that duh, of course a great guy like Adam would have new or more friends. Jesus, he was a
dick.
“No, you aren’t, you’ve just missed him and that’s understandable. I’m sure you’ll like Gabe and
Mika if you give them a chance, love.”
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“Of course I’m going to give them a chance,” Jameson scolded Luuk, trying not to outright
scowl at him as they all headed towards the dining room. “And I’m going to have Nathan and
Gabe both teach me whatever it is they do that makes their mate snap in line.” Jameson gave Luuk
his best wide-eyed look then sauntered in front of him, adding enough swing to his hips to
make Luuk draw a sharp breath.
“Dude, didn’t mean to scare you with the whole horny bit,” Gabe said, bounding to his
side. “I tend to just blurt stuff out, not ’cause I have no filters, but because it’s fun.” He
grinned so endearingly Jameson couldn’t help but laugh. Some of that jealous feeling began
to fade, and as Gabe babbled at his side, Jameson realised he had a new friend, too.
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Chapter Twenty-Seven
It had been a long time since Luuk had been around so many people, and at first,
relaxing was impossible. Slowly, his muscles gave up their tenseness, possibly in response to
each cackling laugh or teasing joke, or perhaps the loving glances being exchanged between
mates. By the time the meal was done, he felt the first bonds of trust tethering him and
Jameson to the other three couples.
Marcus slid down in his chair a little and slouched as he rubbed his stomach. “Damn, I
don’t think I can get up.” He flinched as soon as he finished the last word. “Shit.”
Gabe arched a brow. “They make medicine for that kind of problem. You’d probably
have to take a lot of it—”
“He has no problems getting up,” Nathan interrupted, looking rather sultry as he
turned towards Marcus. “Or keeping it up, or making me come so hard I pass out.”
Well. Marcus looked smug, and Luuk knew he wasn’t the only guy at the table with a
semi or full-on erection.
Gabe opened his mouth, a devilish glint in his eyes, but Mika grabbed him at the nape
and pulled him over for a rough kiss. Todd blushed and Adam watched Gabe and Mika
unabashedly as he scooted closer to Todd. Jamie sighed and leaned closer to Luuk, the scent
of Jamie’s arousal saturating Luuk as he drew a breath.
“I think that’s enough,” Marcus said, pushing his chair back. He stood and groaned
slightly as he held a hand out to Nathan. “I’d like to discuss possible means of returning
Luuk to his position, if everyone could get their hormones under control rather than going at
each other like over-sexed teens.”
“Under-sexed teens,” Gabe snarked. “They’re worse ’cause they don’t get any and are
desperately horny. And don’t even think that means I don’t get any, ’cause I do. Often. Jerk.”
“You’re just desperately horny regardless, and I love you for it,” Mika murmured so
quietly Luuk almost didn’t hear him. But Gabe beamed at Mika, and Mika stood, keeping his
hand on Gabe’s nape. “I’m sure y’all don’t need us for the planning. Not like I’ll be able to
concentrate on anything else right now.” And with that, he bent and hefted Gabe over one
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shoulder. Gabe squealed and Mika landed a loud slap to his ass. Gabe’s delighted purr was
just as loud.
Luuk dragged his gaze away from the pair and a part of him wished he could do the
same with Jamie, but he knew the wait would only make their coming together more intense.
“Shall we?” he asked, standing as well and gesturing towards the study.
“I was afraid we were going to be given another show,” Adam said behind them as
they made their way to the room. “Although I didn’t see it, you did.”
Luuk knew he was talking to Todd, but Adam wasn’t being particularly quiet or using
his mate-link with Todd, so he must not have cared who heard. Nathan, however, proved he
was done with the sex talking.
“Guys, please,” Nathan groused, “can we get off that topic? I’m going to need every
functioning brain cell I’ve got, and so will everyone else.”
“Part of being a shifter is the ramped up sex-drive,” Marcus said as he opened the door.
“It’s definitely a bonus, but it can distract us sometimes when we need to deal with other
things.”
Nathan nodded. “Yeah, I’ve known mates who have fucked even when one of them
was seriously injured. Just had to be with each other.”
Luuk realised the explanation was more for Todd and Adam than anything else. He’d
forgotten they were new shifters. It had to be a big shock, being turned. It had been a huge
change for Jamie, of course, but Jamie had adapted quickly, probably more from necessity
than not. No, that wasn’t fair—Jamie was incredibly strong even though he didn’t seem to
realise it. He’d done what needed to be done and never once questioned it.
Inside the study, everyone took a seat, Jamie sitting on the arm of Luuk’s chair. Luuk
looked at Marcus. “What is your suggestion?” He didn’t know Marcus really, but he’d bet
the man had come up with something before he’d ever set foot on the plane.
Marcus’ wry smile was acknowledgement of Luuk’s perceptiveness. “Well, I’ve had a
few talks with Nathan, Adam and Todd, and yes, Gabe and Mika. For all that Gabe might act
like a”—Marcus snorted—“under-sexed teenager, he’s very smart and wickedly mean if he
wants to be. He suggested some torture techniques that will give me nightmares…” He
shuddered and so did Nathan, who mumbled, “Gabe and his damned spatulas…”
“I don’t think I want to know,” Jamie said.
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Todd grinned shyly and looked at Adam. “Well, Gabe has an imagination that’s out of
this world. He used to scare the tar out of me when I’d sleep over when we were kids, telling
spooky stories.”
“Jameson could spin a good tale too.” Adam tipped his chin towards Luuk and Jamie.
“Camping with him was an adventure. I don’t know if he ever told you about some of those
trips.”
“Some.” But not many, because Jamie had been afraid to talk too much about Adam at
first, worried Luuk would get the wrong idea. Then later, because it hurt Jamie to think back
on those times.
“Yes, well, I don’t have a creative bone in my body.” Marcus glanced around. “There a
map in here somewhere?”
“I can get the laptop.” Jamie hopped up and hurried from the room.
“We’ve encountered Luther’s men in Amsterdam, of course, as well as Germany,
Poland, Lithuania… Well, in just about every country my guards have been to. However”—
Marcus leant forward, elbows on his legs right above his knees—“his troops aren’t exactly
loyal. Many are scared of dying, and that’s the only reason they serve him. We’ve brought
more than a few of his men to our side.”
Jamie came back in and shut the door. He was walking and looking at the laptop screen,
his expression so serious and focused, Luuk longed to muss him up. Jamie sucked in a sharp
breath and turned hose big eyes on him, and the promise there caused a growl to rumble
from Luuk’s lips. Jamie’s mouth curved in a smile that made Luuk’s cock so hard it ached,
then Jamie turned to Marcus. “Was it your men who killed the shifters in the forest outside of
Wroclaw?”
“It was,” Nathan answered, clearly not the type of mate to sit back and let the other
lead, even if his ‘other’ was an Alpha Anax. “If they had just waited a couple days longer,
they’d have been there when y’all came through. But things worked out.”
“So far,” Marcus amended. “They will continue to do so, if we work together. Can I see
that map?”
Jamie handed the laptop over and Marcus stood, backing up so that when he turned the
laptop around everyone else could see it. “We still have guards here, here and here,” he said,
tapping at the screen. “But I’ve sent the majority to Haarlem, Leiden, Utrecht and a few of
the other nearest towns. Plus, there are the guards with us. I really think the direct approach
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is the best method here. We go in and force a battle for the Alpha Anax position. Luther can’t
refuse, and there will be enough of us to discourage any bullshit. I hope.”
Adam frowned at the laptop, then at Marcus. “Luther is in Amsterdam. You don’t think
several hundred of us, in human or wolf form, marching down the streets will be
noticeable?” Adam asked, voicing the very question on Luuk’s tongue. “I asked that before, I
know, and you don’t seem to think it would be problematic.”
“I would have the other guards in the surrounding towns begin approaching now, in
smaller groups, with us coming in last. We’ve rented buses that have tourist insignia on
them, so I would hope no one would catch on. No humans, at least. I suppose we might not
stay hidden from shifters.” Marcus twisted around and set the laptop down before facing
them again and continuing. “However, Nathan suggested something else.”
Nathan stood and joined Marcus. “Yes, I think Marcus and I should request a meeting
with Luther, a kind of ‘we’re visiting royalty’-type crap, even though we aren’t. Or more
likely, stoke his ego with a request to meet with the big, bad asshole since we are on his
territory.” Nathan rolled his eyes. “And you and Jameson would, of course, come with us.”
Nathan studied him intently. Luuk studied him right back, knowing what Nathan must be
seeing.
Despite the rest, Luuk had three years of struggling to survive showing on him. He was
thin and not as impressive as he used to be.
“But I’m angry, and determined, and I won’t let my people down,” he said, his voice
low and raw. “I may not look like much anymore, but there’s more power in this body of
mine than ever.” Maybe not actual strength, but Luuk’s wolf was surging under the surface,
ready to show Nathan and Marcus just how up to the challenge he was. Luuk barely kept the
beast restrained.
“Okay.” Nathan nodded curtly, “I believe you. It’s not always bulk and brawn that gets
the job done anyway.” He glanced at Marcus. “And another option is to ambush him, like—”
“No.” Luuk wouldn’t have that. “I won’t wait in some dark corner and come at him
from behind. I want an honest fight, as it should be.”
“But it wasn’t, not in the first place,” Nathan pointed out. “He didn’t challenge you, he
took the coward’s way—” He bit his lip for a second then said, “Probably I should shut up. I
keep forgetting the guy is your brother.”
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“I’d like to think about this for a while.” Luuk didn’t believe he would come up with
any better ideas. Drawing Luther out was a must, but he didn’t want to be dishonest about it,
although if push came to shove, he’d force a confrontation somehow or another, even if it
was in the middle of a crowded street in Amsterdam.
“All right. Let’s talk it over at breakfast.” Marcus offered his hand to Luuk and Jamie
both, and Nathan did the same. Adam and even Todd were even friendlier, both of them
hugging Luuk as well as Jamie. They said their goodnights then Luuk took Jamie’s hand.
“Grab the laptop, would you, love?” Jamie stretched for it and Luuk used his other
hand to trace the curve of Jamie’s spine all the way to his ass. “So sweet,” he murmured
when Jamie gasped. With everyone else gone, Luuk didn’t see any reason to make either of
them wait any longer.
Jamie looked over his shoulder, eyes dark with lust. “Luuk—here?”
Luuk let go of Jamie’s hand. “Yes. Here.”
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Chapter Twenty-Eight
Jamie left off messing with the laptop and Luuk caught his arm, spinning him back
around. Jamie’s lips parted and Luuk’s wolf responded, howling with need. It wasn’t just his
beast that needed Jamie, but Luuk himself. He needed to make Jamie come apart for him, feel
him shiver and hear him cry out.
“Yes,” Jamie scraped out, trembling and pressing close. Luuk brought his hand up from
Jamie’s butt to his nape. He held tight and guided Jamie’s head back.
Luuk slanted his mouth over Jamie’s and moaned as he tasted Jamie. He slid his other
hand down and around, palming Jamie’s cock through his jeans, and Jamie whimpered.
Luuk growled, aggression welling up, not to hurt, but to mark his mate, to claim him again.
Jamie’s hands were on his ass, kneading, pressing him closer so that Luuk had to tug
his hand out from between them. He wrapped it around the back of Jamie’s thigh, then
dragged his palm up until his fingers were rubbing Jamie’s balls. Jamie bit at his lips, his
tongue, and Luuk growled again, plundering Jamie’s mouth as he spun them.
The couch was the closest surface and he stopped beside it to pull Jamie off him. Jamie
struggled, not fighting him, but making him work to turn Jamie around. “You’re wanting
something, Jamie?”
Jamie grunted and narrowed his eyes. “I don’t know what I want, other than that it’s
you. I need…” He stopped and squeezed his cock. “More.”
“I’ll give you everything you need, love, always,” Luuk promised. He saw the image
that flashed through Jamie’s mind, Mika’s big hand landing on Gabe’s ass. Luuk was going
to make sure Jamie melted for him, but he’d leave Mika and Gabe to play with the spanking
for now. Later, perhaps, when it was only he and Jamie…
Luuk pulled Jamie to him again and the kiss he gave Jamie wasn’t gentle by any means.
Jamie clung to him hard enough to leave bruises, his nails biting into Luuk’s skin. Luuk
pushed his hands under Jamie’s shirt at the same time Jamie reached under his. Jamie scored
his back, fiery trails fuelled by the same want driving Luuk. Luuk tore at Jamie’s pants,
uncaring of how they came off, as long as Jamie wasn’t hurt and he was nude.
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He bit and sucked Jamie’s lips, the coppery tang of blood hitting his tongue. It made
Luuk fierce, his need pulsing. Jamie went wild for him, ripping Luuk’s shirt and battling him
at his waistband. By the time they were naked, Luuk knew they both had some wounds, and
every one of them would be throbbing as they fucked.
He left off sucking Jamie’s mouth to bite at his neck, leaving a trail of purple marks
down the length of it while Jamie rutted against him. Jamie’s cock was hard and scalding
Luuk’s thigh. He wedged it between Jamie’s legs, giving Jamie something more to hump.
“Fuck,” Jamie rasped, drawing the word out over several thrusts. Luuk didn’t warn
him; Jamie’s climax was near. The scent of his pre-cum grew stronger and his hips stuttered.
Luuk bit, marking Jamie in the elemental way his wolf needed, he needed. Jamie keened and
jolted, and cum spurted onto Luuk’s thigh and hip.
His own cock was hard, wet-tipped with proof of his desire, but Luuk wasn’t going to
come until he had Jamie’s tight ass wrapped around his shaft. He suckled the bite until Jamie
stopped undulating against him, then Luuk carefully extracted his teeth from the wound and
lapped at the blood seeping from it.
Jamie’s dick wasn’t exactly hard, but it wasn’t far from it. Luuk spun him around and
pushed, and in seconds he had Jamie down, one leg hiked up on the couch, the other on the
floor. Jamie began panting, moaning softly as he rolled his head against the couch cushion.
“Please, please…”
Luuk spread Jamie’s cheeks and licked over his opening. Jamie’s musky scent and
flavour fired his need higher. He pushed his ass hard, making his hole gape as Luuk tongued
it.
“Fuck me,” Jamie started with, then said it repeatedly as Luuk pressed his tongue into
his ass. Luuk sucked the furled skin and dug his thumbs into the fleshy globes he was
holding apart.
Jamie shrieked and clawed at the couch, the floor, Luuk didn’t know what all. He kept
eating Jamie’s ass until Jamie sobbed, then he surged up and held his cock. Jamie’s need was
driving into him, stronger even than his own. Luuk put his tip to Jamie’s hole. He rubbed
over that spit-slick skin, Jamie’s warmth and the clenching of his ring almost making Luuk
spurt all over his ass.
“Now,” Luuk gritted out. He kept one hand on Jamie’s ass and thrust hard, sinking into
his welcoming heat.
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“Luuk!” Jamie shouted, arching beautifully for him. “Fuck me!”
Luuk was going to do just that. He let go of his cock and grabbed Jamie’s shoulder, then
shoved the rest of the way in. Jamie’s muscles contracted around him, pulling on his cock.
Luuk bit his cheek, needing the pain to distract him before he brought this lovemaking to an
early end. He bottomed out, his balls slapping against Jamie’s, only to pull out fully and
drive in again.
Jamie cursed and whined as Luuk kept at it, completely withdrawing and sinking all
the way back in. He loved the way Jamie’s inner walls massaged his cock, the way Jamie’s
back was sheened with sweat, the way he quivered, his flanks shaking almost constantly.
Luuk pounded into Jamie faster, not pulling out more than halfway. He closed his eyes
and tipped his head back as he tightened his hold on his mate. Jamie kept making sounds,
amazing, wordless sounds, as if every drive in shoved them out of him. Luuk’s brain was
melting, his body on fire, his wolf ravenous for his mate.
But Luuk wanted more, he always wanted more of Jamie. He thrust in and ground
against Jamie’s ass, opening his eyes to watch the way Jamie’s butt bounced for him.
“C’mere,” Luuk grunted, locking his arms around Jamie. He rocked back onto his heels
then sat, bringing Jamie down on him. “Ride me.”
Jamie mewled and reached back with one hand, fisting Luuk’s hair. His other was on
his cock, stripping it as he started fucking himself onto Luuk’s dick.
“Yeah, love, just like that,” Luuk got out just before his balls began tingling, drawing up
to his body. Luuk wasn’t ready, not yet. He pushed back the rising climax, wanting to feel
Jamie as long as possible.
Jamie rose up and slammed back down, his movements jarring in a way that only made
Luuk hornier. He pulled Jamie down on again and again, then snarled as need clouded his
mind, took over his body. Holding back wasn’t in the forecast anymore.
Luuk tipped them both forward, keeping an arm around Jamie so he didn’t faceplant
the floor. He had to pull out, which made them both whimper, but he needed to see Jamie, to
look in his eyes. Luuk rolled Jamie to his back, Jamie as eager as he was. Jamie’s cock was
swollen, the tip fat and deep red from Jamie’s fist. Luuk bent and licked the tip and Jamie
yelled, eyes going wide.
“S-stop or I’ll come,” Jamie got out.
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Luuk grinned and rose up on his knees. He pushed Jamie’s legs apart then brought
Jamie’s heels onto his shoulders. He lined up his cock and leant forward, down, letting
Jamie’s body suck him right in.
Jamie moaned and his eyelids fluttered, but he didn’t close them or look away from
Luuk. Luuk got a hold of Jamie’s dick, prying Jamie’s hand off it so he could take over. He
wanted all of Jamie’s pleasure to come from him, the primal need too strong to ignore. Luuk
pulled until Jamie’s hips were up. The silky heat of Jamie’s inner walls was too much. Luuk
didn’t even get to a steady thrust—he fucked Jamie without restraint, keeping his fist
pumping Jamie’s shaft.
Luuk didn’t know which of them were making what sounds, and he didn’t care. There
were shouts, curses, keens and howls, other sounds he couldn’t describe. Jamie’s flesh was
throbbing in his hand, and Luuk wanted everything from his mate.
He leant forward slightly and his cock rubbed over Jamie’s gland. Jamie screeched,
there was no other word for that sound, and his eyes grew wide before snapping shut as cum
shot from his slit.
His ass clamped tight around Luuk’s cock, and Luuk bellowed as well, his vision going
bright then grey as he shoved in so deep he felt like he’d never be separated from Jamie. The
first jet of cum fired up from his nuts and it was almost painful, perfect, making Luuk’s head
spin. He jerked and thrust again, then a third time, before holding still and just letting Jamie
milk the spunk right from him.
It took him several minutes to get to where he wasn’t lightheaded and could breathe
without shuddering. Luuk opened his eyes and saw that Jamie was all but asleep. Jamie’s
eyes were closed, his chest rising and falling in gentle waves, his lips parted. Luuk hated to
do it, but there was no other choice. He carefully pulled out, dragging a grumbled curse or
two from Jamie.
Jamie didn’t open his eyes, though, and Luuk smiled tenderly as his mate. He touched
the bite mark on his shoulder, the high arch of Jamie’s cheekbone, the soft skin beneath his
earlobe. Once Luuk thought he could stand, he did so. A glance told him their clothes were
pretty much useless. He shrugged and squatted, and in short order had Jamie in his arms. It
was time for him to get his mate to bed.
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Chapter Twenty-Nine
Mem’s insistence that they, along with the North American AA and their friends, have
breakfast in the dining room away from the other shifters made Jameson feel almost
snobbish. In light of the discussion they were about to have, privacy was important.
“Maybe we should have a bedroom breakfast,” Jameson said to Luuk while they were
waiting for the others to join them. “Just in case anyone here isn’t on our side, and with our
sharp hearing…”
Luuk grunted and got up from his chair. “I’ll let Mem know.”
In short order, Jameson and Luuk were walking back to their room. Jaq and several
other young women and men were bringing a table and chairs behind them.
“What is this, a convoy?” someone hollered from the entrance to the hallway. Jameson
grinned and looked back over his shoulder at the same time Luuk did. They waved at Gabe
and Mika.
“Yeah, kinda,” Jameson told him, “So don’t hold it up by lagging behind.”
“Lagging behind?” There was enough ire in Gabe’s voice to make Jameson laugh as he
and Luuk opened the bedroom door. After some rearranging, there was a decent breakfast
area for them and their guests. Gabe cocked on hip and leaned against Mika. “Well, la-ti-da,
baby, you may need to bump up your status if it’d get us a herd of cute young things waiting
on us hand and foot. But I’d want ’em to be legal.”
“You don’t want any cute young things at all,” Mika growled, narrowing his eyes at
Gabe as Gabe smirked. “You like grumpy and rough.”
“Well, duh.” Gabe rolled his eyes just as a knock sounded on the door. “I’ll get it!”
Marcus, Nathan, Todd and Adam were followed in by Jaq and the other younger
shifters carrying platters of food. Jameson’s stomach growled, and his wasn’t the only one.
He’d bet everyone in the room—well, the mated pairs—had been up to some very vigorous
activities last night.
“And this morning,” Luuk thought. “Or have you forgotten?” He cupped Jameson’s ass
and squeezed.
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Jameson had to clench his teeth against a whine, because his ass was sore, there was no
two ways about it. It’d been a long time since he and Luuk had been able to love on each
other so much. Since before Jameson had been turned.
Luuk flinched as if he’d been pinched and Jameson immediately sought to reassure
him, opening his mind up to share the joy he was feeling. There were no recriminations for
his mate. Luuk didn’t look wholly relieved, but he did kiss Jameson and pull out his chair.
Jameson sat as did the others.
Adam took the seat beside Jameson’s and promptly elbowed him. “Well, don’t you look
smug this morning? And you’re moving kind of gingerly, aren’t you?”
“Fuck you,” Jameson said, snorting out a laugh as Adam flipped him off. “You’ve got
the hickey on your neck, not me.”
Adam’s eyes went wide and he slapped a hand over the little purple mark. “What? No,
it’s—”
“He burnt himself with the curling iron,” Gabe tossed from across the table. “And that
had to be a hell of a curling iron, considering how fast he heals.”
Todd made a choking sound and turned reddish purple, so Jameson laid off on the
teasing for now. Gabe did too, showing Jameson that he wasn’t just a smartass willing to run
roughshod over someone for a joke.
“Have you thought about your options?” Marcus asked once the shifters serving the
food had left.
Luuk glanced at Jameson then nodded. “Yes, we have. Jameson and I both think I’ve
done enough hiding. Instead of taking in a whole troop of shifters, if we could just have
perhaps a dozen accompany us, I’d prefer to go directly to Luther’s pack.” Marcus started to
speak but Luuk held up a finger. “Please, let me finish. If you’d care to have your other
guards surrounding the city or staged at places nearby where they could get to Jameson and
keep him safe, should it not go well, that would be appreciated.”
That was the part of the plan Jameson had argued with Luuk over. He’d finally quit,
because it was stressing Luuk out, but Jameson knew that if Luuk fell—if he died—he’d stay
there and fight to the death too. There was no way he wanted to go on without the one
person he loved more than anything else.
Marcus looked at Jameson as did everyone else. Adam was the one Jameson couldn’t
look away from, and Adam, despite the years apart, knew him well. He gave the slightest
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twitch of the lips. Adam wasn’t happy with his decision, but he’d make sure Jameson got
what he needed, even if that meant death. Not that Adam would hurt him, but he wouldn’t
drag Jameson out of a fight he was going to lose, if Luuk were gone. Jameson suspected
Adam wouldn’t want to hang around if Todd died, either.
“We’ll take care of Jameson should your death occur, but I think we’d all rather you
simply live, and kill Luther.” Marcus held his fork above a pile of scrambled eggs. “Are you
going to be able to do what needs to be done, Luuk? I’m not saying you’re weak, but Luther
is your brother. I don’t think I could…”
Nathan patted Marcus’ shoulder. “But Aidan isn’t like Luther, honey. Totally different
situation.”
Luuk nodded as he took a bite of food. He chewed and swallowed, took a drink of juice
before answering. The look in his eyes made Jameson ache for him. There wasn’t regret there,
but anger, and the promise of death. “Luther isn’t my brother. He’s a traitor who has killed
scores of innocent shifters, and who has tried, for three years now, to kill me and Jameson.
He’s a twisted fuck who wants Maarten so bad he can’t see straight. That’s the only reason
Maarten is still alive. Luther can’t bear to kill him, and he’s not strong enough to force
Maarten to submit to him. He’s holding out some ridiculous hope that Maarten will look at
him and fall head over heels.”
“They aren’t mates, are they?” Mika asked when no one else spoke up. “Could that
even happen between brothers?”
“Half-brothers,” Luuk pointed out, “and, God, who knows? Maybe if Fate was feeling
particularly bastardish the day she was picking out mates. As far as I know, in the records we
have that go back centuries, no such thing has occurred.”
“So it really is a twisted fascination Luther has with Maarten, not an uncontrollable
urge as mates have,” Nathan said. “Well…ick.”
Gabe gulped down his mouthful of food and nodded. “Although when Marcus and
Aidan hugged and were naked, it was pretty hot.”
Marcus scowled and Gabe snickered. “What? It’s the truth. It’s like…instant boner,
seeing y’all hug. Even Mika—ooph.” Gabe turned and gave Mika an incredulous look. “You
just…you just elbowed me! You ass!”
Mika actually looked a little frightened, as if he’d acted on instinct…a flawed instinct.
“I, uh. Um. Was…moving. I was just trying to—”
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“Shut me up before I told Marcus you sprung wood watching him and Aidan hug,”
Gabe finished. Mika turned the same shade of purple Todd had been and closed his eyes as
he tipped his head down.
Marcus looked rather like he was preening, Jameson thought, as the North American
AA winked at Mika. “Can’t blame you for enjoying the show. We are pretty hot, although I
am the sexier one of the two.”
Gabe rolled his eyes so hard Jameson could almost hear the tendons and whatever held
his eyeballs in groaning under the strain. “Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Anyway. Leave my mate alone—
I’ve humiliated him enough for elbowing me. Accidentally. My. Ass.”
“Anyway.” Nathan pushed his plate back and looked at Luuk and Jameson. “When do
y’all want to do this? Luuk, are you ready, and please don’t get all macho-butt-hurt. I have to
ask, and you’ve got eyes. You know you’re very thin and I’m only concerned about your
health. Jameson, too, really.”
“I would never put my mate at risk.” “Again,” he added silently to Jameson. “I am so
sorry I didn’t realise the depth of Luther’s hatred.” To Nathan, he said, “I am stronger than I have
been in the ways that matter. Three years of survival skills Luther lacks, anger, the need to
protect my mate, my people—I am more prepared than Luther. I want to leave as soon as
possible. Jamie deserves more than this life on the run, and my people deserve a life lived
without constant fear and threat of death.”
Jameson tried not to tense up or let his fear show in any way, internally or emotionally,
or on the outside. Luuk needed his complete faith, and that was exactly what Jameson was
going to give him. “Yes,” Jameson agreed, “we’d like to head out tomorrow.”
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Chapter Thirty
Their lovemaking that night was tender—not the fierce scramble and need that so often
overtook them, but a slow, sensual buildup that Luuk almost couldn’t bear. His chest ached
with the strength of his emotions, his love for Jamie as he laid kisses over every inch of bare
skin on Jamie’s chest. Jamie shivered for him and made throaty sounds that tightened the
coiled desire in his groin.
Luuk felt hot with need, as if his blood were on the verge of boiling, sweat breaking out
over his skin despite the cool temperature in the room. He dug his toes into the mattress,
resisting the strident urge clamouring in him to roll Jamie over and take him.
Luuk suckled one nipple, already swollen and red from his attentions. He closed his
eyes and sank into everything Jamie was, to everything they were together. Luuk’s eyes
stung behind his lids, and he kept touching Jamie, stroking his arms, his sides, his hips—
anywhere he could reach. When Jamie caught his hand and pulled it up before placing soft,
wet kisses on his palm, Luuk’s exhalation was more of a sob of gratitude than the raspy
breath he’d expected.
Jamie rolled them then and slid down until his chest was pressed to Luuk’s. He cupped
Luuk’s cheek and Luuk slitted his eyes open just in time to see Jamie lowering his sweet lips
to Luuk’s. Luuk closed his eyes again and moaned as Jamie’s tongue slicked over his.
Now it was Luuk who shivered, his core pulsing as Jamie fitted himself between Luuk’s
thighs. The hot prod of his cock to Luuk’s hole delivered the perfect amount of pressure,
bringing a burn and stretch along with pleasure.
“Yes,” Luuk tried to say into Jamie’s demanding mouth. He hadn’t intended to bottom,
but suddenly he needed it more than his next breath. He needed to feel Jamie move in him,
and knew Jamie needed it as well, to show his own strength and ability to lead should Luuk
need it of him. What they were doing was so much more than just having sex, and so much
deeper than anything Luuk had experienced before.
Jamie didn’t let up on the kiss as Luuk wrapped his legs around Jamie’s hips, nor did
Jamie cease the pressure to his hole. Luuk gasped and arched as Jamie’s cock pushed into his
clenching inner walls. Jolts of pleasure raced alongside Jamie’s shaft as it sank into Luuk.
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When the crown brushed over his gland, Luuk’s cock pulsed, the tip growing wet. Jamie
lowered himself until Luuk’s dick was pinned between their bellies. He began a slow,
grinding thrust as he held Luuk’s head still for an even more voracious kiss.
Luuk couldn’t seem to get his hands to work then, or most of his muscles, only
clenching his fists on Jamie’s biceps. It seemed he was more sensation than man, more
sensitive nerves than flesh. Every stroke Jamie drove into him, every push of cock and
tongue, melted Luuk, shorted out his ability to think.
But there was no need for thinking anyway, not when Jamie was loving him so
perfectly. Luuk let it take him. He gave himself in a way he never had before, on a level he
never had before. Tomorrow might bring his death, but tonight Jamie was every reason he
had for living.
Arousal rose and fell in waves, intensifying with each new swell until Luuk as
constantly shaking, unable to hold still. Each thrust from Jamie brought hot spears of ecstasy
from Luuk’s ass throughout his groin. It spread from there until his entire body was singing
with it, and only then did Jamie begin to take him harder, faster, grunts and the slap of their
bodies together ringing out in the room.
Luuk unfisted his hands and held Jamie at the shoulders, curling his fingers into the
muscled flesh there. Jamie bit his lips, his cheek and jaw, then found the spot he marked on
the occasions he topped. As soon as Jamie scraped his teeth over the skin there, Luuk’s brain
set off a multitude of fireworks in his skull and his body drew tight.
Jamie bit, and Luuk arched his neck as hard as he could, shouting as cum spurted from
his cock. Jamie marked him, teeth, nails, cock, coating Luuk’s inner walls with his semen.
Luuk held on to Jamie, held him until Jamie stopped trembling and lay down on him.
Words were unnecessary, spoken or thought. Jamie’s weight on him provided a feeling
of security that soon lulled Luuk into a contented sleep.
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Chapter Thirty-One
“Alex has been monitoring Luther’s movements—what there are of them, anyway,”
Marcus said, sneering as he looked down at a paper in his hands. “Either he’s dumber than I
thought, or incredibly vain to the point of being…as dumb as I thought.” He snorted and
looked at Luuk from the front seat. “Most of his guards are out looking for you. He’s got
seven that Alex has spotted in the past week, and often Luther goes out without anyone.
Does he truly just assume everyone is going to keep tolerating his murderous regime?”
Luuk almost wrinkled his nose at that description. It made Luther sound like more than
he was. Then again, the man had unseated Luuk and caused the deaths of hundreds of good
shifters. “We shouldn’t underestimate him. Obviously he was able to persuade others to
follow him.”
“By lying,” Nathan scoffed. “Shifters are no different from humans. They can be misled
and buy into pretty lies. You were in the States a while, er, courting Jamie. Luther took
advantage of your absence and manipulated enough people that he was able to pull his
cowardly bullshit. Then those who had supported him saw what a douche he was, and that
he’d have those adamantly opposed to him killed, and hey, no one likes to admit they made
the wrong choice, you know. Better to stand by the huge mistake they’d made…
Dumbasses.”
Luuk arched a brow at Marcus since Nathan had hunkered down in his seat to glare out
of the window. Marcus shrugged, obviously agreeing with his mate’s assessment of things.
Luuk wasn’t so quick to condemn everyone who had turned on him, though he should be.
He had been gone for over two months, and so entranced with his mate, he’d not been the
attentive AA he should have been. Sometimes he thought he deserved what had
happened…but Jamie didn’t.
“Alex is still watching Luther?” Jamie asked.
“Yeah,” Marcus grunted. “He’s strolling through downtown Amsterdam like he owns
the place. Alex will let me know where Luther is every half hour. Alex is damned good at his
job.”
Jamie canted his head at Luuk. “Who will be the captain of your guard?”
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“Mem,” Luuk answered, not joking at all. “If I can talk her into it. She knows how to
make everyone do as she says, and she’s loyal.”
“What about Maarten?” That, from Adam in the back seat.
Luuk twisted around to look at him. “Would he make a suitable captain, do you think?”
Adam sucked on his bottom lip for a few seconds then released it. “I don’t know. He’s
not as dumb as everyone makes him out to be. He’s loyal to you.” Then Adam beamed at
him and leant forward. “Oh! You should let Mem and Maarten fight for it! I’d bet on Mem,
though.”
“Me too,” Todd added. “And not ’cause Maarten wouldn’t want to hit a woman. That
Mem is one tough person, period, regardless of what parts she has.”
“We’re approaching Zuidoost,” Nathan said, pointing to a sign. “We’ll be in
Amsterdam soon.”
Marcus fired off a series of texts and soon there were other vehicles following them.
Luuk figured they had to be standing out like a vile blight on a porn star’s ass, but there was
nothing for it. Marcus would have his guards disperse to various spots in and around the
town.
“This will be over soon.” Jamie’s thought was clear, strong, his faith unwavering. “Today,
the European pack gets its true Alpha Anax back.”
“I won’t take that for granted, not my packs nor my position.” Luuk squeezed Jamie’s hand
gently and smiled slightly. “I did and I know it. I wasn’t cruel, but I wasn’t the leader our people
need. They’d not have turned to someone and mistaken cruelty for strength if I had been.”
“Keegan, if you will pull over, please. I want you to join the other guards in the car
behind us.” Marcus waited until Keegan parked the SUV then they got out and exchanged
seats, with Marcus in the driver’s spot. “That man has to learn not to argue with me.” He
glared in the rearview.
“He just wants to keep his AA safe,” Nathan pointed out. “Of course, he can’t do that if
you rip his head off.”
“I won’t rip his head off.” Marcus put the vehicle in gear. “Much.”
Nathan snorted again and craned around until he was all but hanging over the seat.
“Alex just texted again. Luther is acting as if he’s unaware of anything we’re doing, sticking
to his routine. He’s having lunch at the same place, and afterwards should return to his
headquarters.”
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Luuk merely nodded, steeling himself when his nerves began to flutter. He wasn’t
scared—he was anticipating the coming confrontation, if not Luther’s death. There would be
no sparing him. Such a thing couldn’t be allowed. Too many would see it as weakness on
Luuk’s part, including Luther himself. Luuk spotted the park and he leant forward to cup
Marcus’ shoulder. “Let us out here. You and Nathan can park and join us. It’s only a couple
of blocks to Luther’s.”
Marcus pulled into the parking area and squinted as he looked directly ahead of them.
“Luther will be coming from that way, but since his place is also that way, he shouldn’t catch
sight nor scent of you, even with a strong wind.”
“He shouldn’t.” Luuk got out and waited for Jamie, Adam and Todd to join him. He
held up a hand to wave at Marcus, signifying they’d be waiting there. Then he studied Adam
and Todd. “You realise this will end in someone’s death. Hopefully not mine.”
“It won’t be yours,” Jamie said immediately.
“Yeah, I get that,” Adam said at the same time, while Todd blanched but nodded. “We
might be new to this, but we kind of got the whole trial by fire introduction to y’all’s world
here.”
“For what it’s worth, I’m with Jameson. You’ll pull through this just fine.”
Todd’s quiet assurance was both a blessing and a curse. Luuk was grateful for it, but it
added more weight to his shoulders.
But he could bear it. Luuk stood straighter and felt his wolf rise in him, strong, fierce,
and determined. He closed his eyes and inhaled the scents of the city, scents once familiar to
him but now odd after years on the run.
“It’s beautiful here,” Jamie murmured. He and Adam had a quiet conversation as Luuk
soaked in what would soon be his home area again. When he heard the approach of Marcus
and Nathan, caught their scents, he opened his eyes and a peace settled over him.
“Is Luther home?” he asked, knowing the answer. It was time.
“He is.”
Marcus gave the answer Luuk needed. He tipped his head in thanks and took Jamie’s
hand before turning to head towards Luther’s—his—home.
“Should we alert Maarten to us being here?” Jamie asked.
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“Not yet. If the phones are being monitored…” Luuk didn’t finish that statement. Jamie
knew what he meant. “Once we are in the same room with Luther, if you can, let him know.
If not, then perhaps we will surprise him with a visit.” Luuk rather liked that idea.
They were silent for the rest of the walk. Luuk had lived in a large, sprawling home, set
in town but on a large parcel of land. It had been in his family for generations, and he’d
loved that about it. He hoped Luther hadn’t destroyed anything there, not the portraits of
each AA dating back centuries, and not any of the family heirlooms or the records kept so
meticulously by every medicine man they’d ever had.
The closer they came to the house, the more of Marcus’ power he could feel coming
from the North American AA. It was stirring Luuk’s wolf up, almost as if Marcus was
feeding him some of that power somehow.
Or maybe that was just what it felt like to have so many people have faith in him.
They stopped at the start of the fence at the canal mansion. Luuk’s heart pounded and
he checked the security cameras that he’d had installed. “Stay behind me. The cameras are
still up and running. Luther isn’t a complete fool.”
No, Luther was benefitting from Luuk’s thorough security company. There wasn’t a
place on the property that couldn’t be seen. The fence was monitored in all places.
“You could put on Todd’s hat,” Adam suggested. “Wear my hoodie. Might give you
some cover, and it isn’t like he knows the rest of us. I think.”
“No.” Luuk ran a hand down his chest and stood straighter. “No hiding. Let him see
me coming.”
“Excellent choice,” Marcus said quietly.
The praise from a man as powerful as Marcus only served to reinforce Luuk’s
confidence. He looked at Jamie. “It will give him more time to prepare.” It would make the
whole encounter riskier for everyone involved.
Jamie looked at Adam, who shrugged, and Todd, who did the same, though he moved
closer to Adam. Nathan grinned and gave Jamie a thumbs-up. “I’m all for the direct
approach. Let him see he hasn’t cowed us. Let him see that we’re strong.”
They were, individually, perhaps, and as a group, for a certainty. Luuk moved towards
the one camera he knew would be spinning in the security command room. And he smiled.
His wolf was ready to take his alpha position back.
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Chapter Thirty-Two
Would the guards meet them at the gates? Or would they try another ambush from the
many dense clumps of foliage lining the drive?
“Maybe they’ll all hide in the house,” Jamie said. “Circling the wagons and all that.”
“What?” Luuk almost stopped as he frowned, but Jamie supplied him an image of
horse-drawn wagons pulling around in a circle to form a barrier against attackers. “Maybe.
That’d be easier for us.”
“Are the gates locked?” Adam asked. “That’s a dumb question. Of course you’d have
had locks and probably one of those—”
“Guards,” Luuk said as he pointed at the brick structure that had—when he was AA, at
least—a pair of armed guards in it around the clock. “But it’s empty now.” He sniffed as did
everyone else. “Although I’m thinking they were here until a few minutes ago.” Then
something occurred to him and he turned to Jamie. “Call Maarten. I wouldn’t put it past
Luther to send someone for him, to use him as a bargaining chip.” His previous reason for
not notifying his brother was no longer valid.
“I’ll call him,” Nathan chirped, sounding excited. “Go on with the gate-opening bit.”
Luuk looked at the gates. Like the fence it was high, but a shifter could scale it. Well, so
could a human. Alarms would go off all over the residence, but since he was certain they’d
been spotted, what difference did it make?
“The gate-opening bit would be scaling them,” Luuk said, winking at Jamie as they
both suited action to words.
“Ugh. I told Maarten to get to a safe spot with people he trusted. Didn’t explain more,
but he probably will figure it out.” Nathan was up beside them in a flash, grinning wickedly.
“Gymnastics. Almost makes me like Spider-Man. Minus the outfit, yuck.”
Marcus chuckled and the whole of the front fence rattled as he added his considerable
mass to the scaling. Luuk felt surprisingly happy when he worried that he should be worried
more. But being on his beloved home soil—he landed on his feet and had to fight the instinct
to throw his head back and howl—was an incredible experience.
Even if Luther was here somewhere.
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Jamie landed beside him, dropping down the side of the gate. Todd, Adam, Marcus and
Nathan stretched out to his and Jamie’s sides.
“Too much opportunity for ambushing you,” Marcus said, scowling at the foliage. “You
might want to dig all of this up when you move back in.”
“No, it’s been this way for a very long time.” Luuk loved the grounds.
Jamie hummed and they began walking. “I bet it gives coverage for when you want to
run as a wolf, too.”
“It does.” Some of Luuk’s joy at being on home turf began to fade as they walked.
While they didn’t rush, unwilling to appear afraid, they didn’t exactly stroll either. “I don’t
sense anyone out here.”
Marcus sent out a swell of power, setting every hair on Luuk’s body on end. “Me either.
Reckon they’re holed up inside.”
“That would be the smart thing to do.” Todd leaned to the side and sniffed. “I hope
they don’t have guns.”
“They do, but perhaps we can hope for some honour among his guards, if nothing
else.” Luuk wouldn’t keep his fingers crossed, and he tried to manoeuvre in front of Jamie,
but Jamie grabbed him by the belt loop and pulled him back.
“I don’t think so, buster.”
Luuk stopped then and turned to Jamie. He smiled and kissed him, lingering over the
soft lips when Jamie parted for him. It wasn’t a goodbye kiss, Luuk told himself. He was
feeling more confident each minute.
It was a welcome home kiss.
He lifted his head and took the hem of Jamie’s shirt in his hands. “Time to shift, I
think.”
“Yeah.” Jamie wasn’t the only one agreeing, but his was the only voice that Luuk really
registered.
He pulled Jamie’s shirt up, baring his pale skin to the sun. Luuk touched the spot he’d
marked so often, then he dropped Jamie’s shirt and tugged his own off. Around him, he was
aware of the others stripping, but he only had eyes for his mate. They unfastened their pants
in unison, and shortly thereafter were nude. Luuk took one moment to hold Jamie to him, to
kiss him again and feel his body pressed to his from chest to knees.
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Then he stepped back and squatted, Jamie mirroring his move. He watched as long as
he could, but his vision blurred as his facial bones shifted. He tipped his head back as he’d
wanted to do, and he howled. It was the last warning Luther would get.
Five other howls joined his, and again the wave of power from Marcus set Luuk’s teeth
on edge. His wolf knew when it was out-alpha’d, but he also knew who was a friend and
who wasn’t.
Luuk rubbed his furry cheek against Jamie’s and took off, loping towards the front
door. Somehow he knew it’d be opened for him, whether to spew out guards or Luther
himself.
Sure enough, the door was cracked open by someone and the sounds of fighting,
wolves snarling and attacking, slipped from the crack along with the smell of blood and fear.
Fear hit Luuk then, not of failure, but of someone else doing what he must do. He
bounded up the steps in one leap and nosed the door open. Wolves were fighting one
another, with Luther, his coat thick and grey with white tips, backed into a corner by three of
his guards.
Luuk howled again, then growled and snarled. This was his battle, no one else’s. The
other wolves that were fighting one another turned and ran, except for one. Luuk was
guessing he’d be the one wanting Luuk back in power.
Luther was still being held in place by other wolves, though, and Luuk wasn’t going to
have that. He ran and nipped the heel of one, a warning of worse to come. The wolf yelped
and gave him a wounded look to which Luuk only snarled. He wanted the guards out of his
way, whether they were on his side—now—or not.
Marcus knocked the other two aside with a bone-jarring tackle that sent howls of pain
ringing through the air. Luuk lowered his head and kept his gaze locked with Luther’s hate-
filled one.
Had he expected any different? Luuk guessed in some hidden part of himself, he’d
hoped for something different. He didn’t believe it would be, though.
He lowered his head more and laid his ears back. Luther growled and feinted but Luuk
held his ground. He bared his teeth and felt the saliva stringing from his muzzle. Let Luther
see that there was no mercy in him, not anymore. Luuk only had to think of Jamie, or of the
many dead, and fury pounded in his veins. He wouldn’t kill Luther in a fit, however. He
wouldn’t lose himself like that.
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Luther feinted again, and Luuk surged at him, wanting this over quickly. He wouldn’t
toy with Luther, or torment him. Luuk wasn’t cruel.
But Luther skittered back until he hit the wall, then he shifted, the rotten bastard. He
glared at Luuk through eyes such a pure blue only an angel should have such a colour.
“Shift, you stupid fucking asshole!”
Luuk considered killing Luther then and there. Luther knew what Luuk had to do, and
turning back into his human form wouldn’t spare him.
Yet Luuk shifted, because he wanted to know. “Why?” he asked as soon as he could
form the word. He hated that the question came out in the first place.
Luther sneered then quaked as Marcus moved in behind Luuk. “Who the fuck is that?
You think you can’t take me without some—”
“He’s a friend,” Luuk answered, and it felt so good to be able to say that. “These are
some of my friends, but you mean Marcus Criswell.”
No other explanation was necessary, because Luther turned white instead of his normal
tan, and his eyes bugged.
Power rolled off Marcus in menacing ripples, but he stayed back and didn’t speak. “His
mate, Nathan, and our other friends, Todd and Adam. I’m sure you remember my mate,
Jamie.” Luuk held his hand to his side and Jamie took it.
“He looks a lot worse than he did when you landed three years ago,” Luther said,
raking his gaze over Jamie first then Luuk. “And you look like shit, too.”
Luuk grinned as he tipped his chin down, his wolf demanding the pose. “And yet,
you’ve done your best to kill us. You’ve been cowardly and brutal, you’ve abused the pack
and murdered indiscriminately—and here I am, back in my home, retaking my position that
was stolen from me in the most pathetic of coups. You couldn’t even face me properly for a
challenge.”
Luther’s lip curled up on one edge and he curled his hands into fists. “I’ve always hated
you. That’s why, and you know it. You were the favourite, never could do anything wrong.”
“I never wanted to do wrong, Luther. That is the difference between you and me.”
“What do you call killing your own brother?” Luther asked, sneering as if Luuk were
the lowest life form on the planet. “A good thing?”
“No, it’s not a good thing to kill, ever, but…” Luuk let go of Jamie’s hand and nudged
him gently. “It’s a necessary thing after all the lives you took, and you know it.”
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“If Maarten had given himself to me, I’d have stepped down. I bet he didn’t tell you
that.”
If Luther thought that was something to feel triumphant about, he was more deluded
than Luuk had thought. “I’m glad he didn’t make such a wretched sacrifice for me.”
“Fuck you!” Luther shifted and leapt at him. Luuk leapt aside and Luther came up
against a huge, snarling white wolf. Marcus was almost like something from a horror movie,
as huge as he was. Luther skidded.
Luuk pointed to the door. “Outside. There’ll be no more blood spilled in my home.”
Luther tried to dig in his heels, but between them, he was shepherded outside. Luuk
remained in his human form until Luther was surrounded. “Shift back, Jamie, friends. This
will be a fair fight, now that Luther has no way to cheat.”
Luther pawed the ground and came at him as Luuk began shifting. He rolled and came
up on four paws with a wolf slamming into him. Luther caught his forearm and Luuk bit
back a yelp. He wouldn’t cry out for this wolf. He snapped and got a mouthful of fur, which
he did his best to pull out, but he didn’t come into this for a hair-pulling fest.
Luuk wasn’t as thickly muscled as he had been, as Luther was, but he was not going to
fail. He swung his head around and smacked Luther’s shoulder. Luther stumbled and came
at him again, spit and blood dripping from his maw. Luuk’s forearm throbbed but he didn’t
let it show, charging at Luther and taking him down. He tried to get at Luther’s neck,
wanting this over with quickly.
Luther raked Luuk’s underside with his back claws and Luuk howled before he could
stop himself. Pain and anger fired him as he went after Luther, driving the other wolf back
several feet until he butted against Todd’s legs. Todd shot him a questioning look but didn’t
move.
Luther turned his head and tried to bite Todd, and Adam reached out and rapped his
knuckles on the top of Luther’s skull. “Cut that shit out!”
Luther snapped at him, too, and Luuk jumped the distance and bit Luther’s flank. He
could have killed him, possibly, but it wouldn’t have been an honest kill.
Luuk quickly scampered to his left as Luther turned on him. Luther’s eyes flashed a
warning and Luuk met it with one of his own. He wasn’t drawing this out. He reared up and
met Luther again, their front claws tearing at each other.
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Luuk threw his weight against Luther and had him on the ground again, his belly up.
Now was his chance to bring this to a close, if he’d just open his muzzle. Luuk told himself to
do it, to put an end to Luther’s reign, but the second of hesitation cost him. Luther rolled and
sank his teeth into Luuk’s shoulder, barely missing his neck.
Rapid hot streaks of agony tore through him as Luther tried to shake his head. Luuk
knew he wouldn’t be able to take much more of it. He whipped his head around and caught
the back of Luther’s neck, clamping down hard and tasting the warmth of his half-brother’s
blood. He wanted to gag, his stomach heaving, but Luuk hung on.
Luther let go of him and howled as he fought to free himself. Luuk was weak already
from the latest wound. His fur felt drenched in blood, and his vision was blurring, but Luther
wasn’t close to being dead.
Until he turned and leapt at Jamie. Luuk’s heart like to burst from his chest. He sprang
with a power he’d not thought he’d had, knowing Luther’s intent was to hurt Luuk as much
as possible. It wasn’t even about Jamie, just about Luther’s hatred of Luuk.
Luuk caught Luther’s left heel. He bit hard, bones crunching and jabbing at his gums.
Luuk flung his head, jerking Luther back and tossing him aside. Jamie’s frightened
expression would be seared into Luuk’s brain forever, and any hesitation Luuk had felt
before was now decimated as he attacked, fury and the need to protect his mate spurring his
wolf on just as it did the man inside.
Luther turned and tried to launch a counterattack, but Luuk was on him, shoving
Luther down and finding the vulnerable flesh of his neck through his thick coat.
Luuk wished… It didn’t matter what he wished, and he knew it. He growled low, a
warning of what was to come, perhaps thinking that now in the face of death, Luther would
be repentant.
But Luther’s answering snarl was filled with hate, and he bit at Luuk, clawed at him,
tearing at his wound. Luuk wasn’t going to be able to hold his position and there was no
reason to try. He bit, his mouth flooding with blood. It wasn’t the first time he’d killed, but it
was possibly the hardest, clenching his teeth and shaking his head to finish it—to finish
Luther.
When the blood stopped pumping into his mouth, and Luther’s snarls ceased, his body
stilling, Luuk released the torn throat and stepped back, stumbling, whimpering as his
wounds ached with a fiery pain.
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“Luuk, shift, shift.” Jamie was on his knees beside him, pulling at his fur to drag Luuk’s
head up. “Damn it, shift!”
What could Luuk do, with Jamie streaming tears as he grabbed at him? Luuk shifted,
and agony slammed into him harder than Luther had when he’d attacked. He prayed for
unconsciousness to take him, but what he got instead was his brother Maarten kneeling
beside Jamie, grinning from ear to ear.
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Chapter Thirty-Three
“He doesn’t look so happy to see me,” Maarten said, sounding entirely too upbeat to be
offended.
Jameson rolled his eyes at him and elbowed Maarten aside. He bent closer and peered
into Luuk’s eyes and had to bite back a sob of relief. “It’s finally over,” he rasped, then
embarrassed himself by loosing the sob he’d tried to keep in. “God, I’m sorry.” Jameson
helped Luuk sit up, noting the pained expression that accompanied a slight hiss by Luuk.
Jameson forgot about his own ego and whether or not crying made him a total wuss as he
began checking Luuk’s wounds.
“I’ll be okay,” Luuk said in a voice Jameson thought was entirely too soothing, all
things considered. He touched the jagged edge of one deep gash and Luuk hissed again.
Jameson left off the prodding and instead put an arm around Luuk’s shoulders. He
hugged Luuk as tight as he dared. “I’m sorry you’re hurt. I wish I could have fought him for
you, just to spare you the pain.”
“Then you’d have become the Alpha Anax,” Maarten chimed in, and Jameson cut him
an annoyed look.
“Don’t you have something else to do, Maarten, like go talk to Marcus or Gabe—?”
Jameson began before Maarten cut him off with a frantic shake of his head.
“Gabe’s here?” Maarten craned his neck then made a strangled sound that, Jameson
thought, was mainly one of sheer terror. “Oh fuck, he’s going to give me hell!” Maarten
turned his attention back to Jameson and Luuk. The smile he gave Luuk was so tender it
made Jameson’s heart ache. “I am truly glad you are back, Luuk, and that you survived, of
course. If you would like something to help speed your healing…”
“I doubt he wants to ingest a dead guy,” said Gabe, coming up quietly behind Maarten,
who squeaked and fell from his squatting position onto his ass. Gabe smirked at him and
flapped a hand in the air. “Darling, I do seem to make men drop with my hotness.”
Jameson groaned, and he wasn’t the only one. Mika joined them and slapped Gabe hard
enough on the ass that Gabe rose up on his toes as he cursed.
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“What?” Mika said when Gabe turned on him. How Mika kept such an innocent look
on his face was beyond Jameson. “It was a sweet little love pat, and you know it.” Then that
innocent look turned into something molten hot and Gabe whimpered. Mike arched a brow
and put an arm around Gabe’s waist, pulling him close. “We’ll meet up with y’all in a bit.”
Jameson watched them wander off. Adam and Todd were talking with Marcus and
Nathan. Jameson’s head spun with the sudden fullness of his life. He had friends, and his
best friend, Adam. They were both shifters, happily mated, and they’d never lose touch
again. Added to that, Luuk had defeated Luther, and the need to run for their lives had been
demolished along with Luther’s reign.
And he had Luuk, who was watching him with so much love Jameson could feel it like
a warm, soft touch cradling his heart.
“You’ll be okay,” Jameson murmured, knowing Luuk wasn’t badly injured but needing
the reassurance.
Luuk darted a glance at Maarten then pointed at him. “Quiet, Maarten. Not a word.”
Whatever Maarten did in reply must have satisfied Luuk because he seemed to tune
Maarten out immediately. Luuk cupped Jameson’s chin and tugged, bringing their lips
together for a sweet, chaste kiss. “Yes, love, I will be okay, but if it’s all the same to you, I’d
prefer to heal the natural way.”
Jameson remembered what Gabe had said and shuddered. “Yes, as long as you let me
take care of you.”
Luuk grinned and winked at him. “Wouldn’t have it any other way.”
“Ugh, talk about whipped,” Maarten snarked.
Jameson came out of his nice, warm cocoon of love and need long enough to swing an
elbow into Maarten’s chest. It hurt his elbow like a mother—Maarten’s chest had to have
been made of steel, the asshole, but Maarten’s shriek and the fact that he went over onto his
back, landing with a thud, did Jameson’s heart good.
Luuk’s grin faltered but he laughed then cursed as he pressed a hand to his side. “Ow.
Nothing more than a chuckle for a couple of days.”
Jameson nodded. “Yeah, that’d be best, but if I’d known me knocking Maarten over
was going to make you that happy, I’d have done it right off the bat.”
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Luuk snickered—cautiously—then touched Jameson’s elbow. “Well, it’s funny when
it’s Maarten on the receiving end of this weapon, but I’m thinking maybe you’ve paid too
much attention to Gabe’s…methods.”
Jameson snorted and began to rise, helping Luuk to his feet. “No, that was just instinct.
I’ll think of my own personal way to nail you.” He beamed at Luuk as his mate frowned.
Jameson leaned until his lips were right against Luuk’s ear. “Don’t worry, you’ll love it.”
Luuk’s arousal flowed over him and Jameson stepped back just enough to shake his
head. “Uh uh, you need to have these wounds taken care of.”
Luuk groaned and Jameson couldn’t hide a smile. As if he’d deny Luuk anything. He
looped one arm around Luuk’s hips. “So, I get to doctor you first, then I’ll see to your other
needs.”
Luuk stumbled slightly and growled, but it was a needy sound that rolled from his
tongue. “I’m going to hold you to that.”
“I’d hope so,” Jameson countered, desire coiling in his groin. “As long as you’re up for
it.”
Luuk’s growl this time was sexier, rougher. “I’ll always be up for it where you’re
concerned. Don’t ever doubt it.”
Jameson tingled from his ass to the tip of his cock and everywhere in between.
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Epilogue
“But I don’t know if I want to go back with Marcus.” Maarten crossed his thick arms
over his chest and pouted.
Luuk barely kept from rolling his eyes at his brother. “Don’t you think you are perhaps
a bit old—and entirely too muscular—to pull off the pouty look?” Frankly, if Maarten didn’t
get out of his hair and stop hovering, Luuk was afraid he’d have to take some drastic steps—
more drastic than shipping Maarten off with Marcus.
Maarten opened his mouth on a hiss but Jamie, sweet man that he was, cut him off.
“Now, Maarten,” Jamie began, standing and walking over to Maarten. “We know you
only want to protect Luuk. You feel guilty for what happened to him before, but you couldn’t
have stopped it. We’ve told you that, but guilt does like to feed on the love we have for
others, doesn’t it?”
God, Jamie sounded so reasonable…
“Yes,” Maarten said, obviously sulking although he did uncross his arms and let them
drop to his sides. “I can’t protect him if I’m not here.”
Jamie nodded sagely. “Right, but see, I’m here now, and I would never let harm come
to my mate while you, his loving brother, are off learning how to defend your Alpha Anax
from the very best guards in the shifter world. Then you, and the others who go to the States
as well, can all return and serve and protect with an effectiveness no European Alpha Anax
has ever seen.”
Maarten scrunched up his nose, his thoughtful pose, Luuk knew. After a moment,
Maarten spoke. “Okay, so it is kind of like going away to college to learn to be a doctor, then
returning to help the people you care about.”
“Exactly!” Jamie squealed, clapping his hands together once before Luuk sent him the
thought to stop overdoing it. Jamie shot look a scathing look that promised retribution for
the criticism. A shiver went down Luuk’s spine at that. “You are a smart guy after all!” Jamie
continued, patting Maarten on the arm.
Maarten snorted and poked Jamie in the chest. “You are hamming it up. I hope you
never wanted a career as an actor.”
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Luuk very wisely kept silent, mentally and verbally, as Jamie glared at him.
“Yes, well,” Jamie said as he turned back to Maarten. “Whatever. I am glad you finally
got the concept, because if you keep hovering over Luuk and me like you’ve been doing, we
are going to be forced to send you to Mem for reprogramming. Or maybe we could send you
to stay with Gabe and Mika for a while—”
Maarten groaned and rubbed his ribs. “No, I would not survive that. Gabe would get
angry and puncture my lungs with his razor-blade elbow. That man is a freak. I think he has
had surgery to insert blades into his elbows.”
Luuk barely kept back a laugh, but Jamie didn’t bother to try, snickering as he shook his
head. “Paranoid much?”
Maarten’s bottom lip poked out again. “Rightfully so! Look!” He pulled up his shirt and
showed off a colourful row of bruises.
Luuk arched a brow and leant forward in his seat. “Maybe if you didn’t annoy him, he
wouldn’t retaliate.”
Maarten’s grin reminded Luuk of the playful younger brother who used to slip lizards
under his sheets—the shit. “Ah, but what would the fun in that be? He gets irritated so
easily, it’s worth a few bruises.”
“Maybe Marcus has someone there who can teach him diplomacy?” Jamie asked,
craning his neck to look at Luuk. “I mean, Mika might think Maarten is flirting instead of just
being an ass, and think of the fight that would cause. One of them would be dead, and if it
was Mika, then Gabe would kill Maarten.”
Maarten made a strangled sound and shook his head. “I don’t flirt with that man! He’s
too… I wouldn’t—not—”
“Go pack,” Luuk suggested. “And maybe think about how your actions appear to
others, hm?”
“Yeah, yeah.” Maarten went, though, all but stomping out of the room. Jamie was right
on his heels, and that shiver that had washed over Luuk was nothing compared to the way
he felt when Jamie locked the door then turned and gave him a searing look.
“Strip for me,” Jamie said in a voice so laden with want it made Luuk’s heart stutter.
Luuk stood slowly, one hand at his waistband. “Slowly?” Jamie nodded and Luuk’s
cock firmed. He’d give his mate a show. He almost asked for music but the tension between
the two of them was too intriguing for teasing. Instead he lowered his lids until he almost
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couldn’t see, then he eased the button at his waistband free while trailing his other hand up
his stomach to his chest.
Jamie gulped and leaned against the door, his dick bulging beneath his jeans. Luuk
moaned as he saw a wet spot appear on the denim. He pinched at his nipple as he pulled the
zipper tab down. The cool air in the room felt good even through the cotton of his briefs. He
was hot, lust warming him in a way that had nothing to do with actual temperature.
Jamie cupped his own length, squeezing and moaning softly as he stared right at
Luuk’s cock. Luuk used both hands to shove his pants down. He cursed when he stumbled—
so much for being sexy. He’d forgotten to take off his boots. Before he could wind up in an
undignified sprawl on the floor, Jamie was there, bracing him until Luuk was steady.
Luuk rarely blushed but he was almost mortified over his clumsiness. Jamie looked at
him with enough adoration that he found himself grinning, able to laugh at himself. “I was
too eager for you,” he said, and Jamie shook his head.
“No such thing,” Jamie assured him right before dropping to his knees. He pressed on
Luuk’s hips and Luuk found himself propped against the wall as Jamie carefully removed
his shoes and shocks. The very care Jamie took was another way he showed his love, and
Luuk wanted to lay him out and worship every inch of him—but he knew Jamie had other
plans, other needs, and since he didn’t take the lead very often, Luuk would never do
anything to deny him it now.
Jamie skimmed his hands up Luuk’s legs, then over his hips and to his waist. He looked
up at Luuk and reached further, pushing his hands under Luuk’s shirt to find the pointed
tips that seemed to throb with each heartbeat. Jamie’s eyes narrowed as he rubbed over
Luuk’s nipples, then without warning, he twisted each nub.
Luuk couldn’t quite hold back a yelp. He’d expected tender, but instead, Jamie had
given him just what he’d needed. After a week of being treated like glass, hovered over and
catered to in all ways, Luuk was at his wit’s end, and not being treated like he would break
was a marvellous gift.
Jamie twisted again, this time bringing his head forward until he could nip at Luuk’s
hip. Luuk closed his eyes and shivered, afraid he was going to just melt and run down the
wall. Jamie was taking him apart with each touch.
Luuk reached for Jamie’s thick, dark hair, fisting his hands in it. Jamie pressed him
against the wall and bit the spot again before scraping his teeth against Luuk’s skin.
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“Jamie,” Luuk rasped, goose bumps pebbling his skin. “Love, please…”
Jamie tugged lightly on Luuk’s pubes at the same time he pinched Luuk’s tits again,
and Luuk almost lost it. Then Jamie was licking a stripe up from the base of his dick, flicking
his tongue against a vein running up his length, and Luuk thumped the back of his head
against the wall as he shouted, trembling. As soon as Jamie sucked in the head, Luuk came,
unable to find any restraint as pleasure flooded him.
Jamie slurped noisily on his cock until Luuk had to pull away, too sensitive just then for
any more touch. Jamie smiled up at him, cum smeared on his chin, and Luuk tugged, using
his grip on Jamie’s hair to bring him up.
Luuk spun them the second his lips touched Jamie’s. He wasn’t trying to take control,
but he needed to taste himself on Jamie’s skin. Luuk lapped at his chin, then plunged his
tongue deep to seek out the spots that made Jamie whimper when they kissed.
Jamie shoved a hand between them and cupped Luuk’s balls, while with the other hand
he grabbed Luuk’s ass and squeezed hard, making it clear he still wanted to fuck Luuk.
As if he’d disagree, Luuk thought, raising his head enough that he could brush his lips
down Jamie’s jaw. He bit and suckled up a dark spot there below Jamie’s ear while Jamie
fondled his balls, bringing him back to full erectness in minutes. It didn’t hurt that Jamie also
kept teasing at his crack, barely running his fingers over Luuk’s hole.
A few times of that, and Luuk was damned desperate for more. Luuk spun them again,
intent on putting his own chest to the wall, but Jamie stopped him. A hard slap on his ass
that startled Luuk enough to push a grunt out of him, then Jamie was guiding him to the
desk.
“Here,” Jamie instructed, pressing a hand between Luuk’s shoulder blades. Luuk barely
got bent over before Jamie grabbed his right leg at the knee and pulled until Luuk hitched it
up on the desk too. The position left his ass open, his hole exposed. The cooler air on his
heated skin in that hidden place made him whimper as his need ratcheted up several
degrees.
He squinched his eyes shut tight, then jerked them open when Jamie spread his cheeks
apart and licked his opening. Luuk couldn’t even make a sound as coils of arousal heated
and shot from his ass to his tits, electrifying all points in between. And Jamie kept on, licking
him, nibbling his furled skin and pushing against his ring with a slick tongue.
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A sob rent the air and with a shock Luuk realised the sound had come from him. Before
he could be mortified about it, his mind was shattered with pleasure as Jamie began to
tongue him, spearing into him and opening his hole.
Luuk scrabbled for a handhold, knocking papers and God only knew what else off the
desk. He grabbed the edges of the desk and arched as he pushed back, demanding more.
Jamie gave it to him, pushing a finger into him alongside Jamie’s tongue. Luuk
bellowed and saw stars behind his closed lids. His cock was pinned in an almost painful
manner, and he couldn’t thrust—which was probably a good thing—but damn, did he want
to.
Then Jamie reached under him and freed Luuk’s cock. He ringed the base of it with a
firm grip as he pushed another finger into Luuk’s ass, and Luuk gasped, his need doubling,
threatening to take him over. If Jamie didn’t get inside him soon, he might just have to—
“No,” Jamie growled at him, and before Luuk could do more than wiggle, Jamie was
rising, sliding up and over Luuk’s body. The hard press of his cock against Luuk’s hole
wouldn’t be denied, and with a sharp thrust, he penetrated Luuk.
The rough taking drove a shout from Luuk. His ass ached but he would die if Jamie
stopped, or slowed down, even. He needed Jamie, and Jamie didn’t let him down. Had never
let him down.
Jamie roared as he surged into Luuk, taking him by the hip and the shoulder, filling
him until Luuk didn’t think he could take it. Then he withdrew halfway and plunged into
him again, at the same time bringing his mouth to the join of shoulder and neck.
“Yes,” Luuk hissed, unable to see anything other than a blur of colours as Jamie began
fucking him with hard, short strokes. The feel of teeth, the slick of tongue, then Jamie bit and
Luuk couldn’t scream, couldn’t make a sound, his lungs pushing out every bit of air as pain
and pleasure twined inside him.
It was so huge a combination when it crashed into the love he felt for his mate, that
Luuk almost couldn’t handle it. Only Jamie, holding him down, loving him, marking him,
kept Luuk from losing consciousness.
Jamie grunted, Luuk feeling it in his body as Jamie was still biting him. Jamie shoved in
harder. He slid his hand under Luuk again and palmed his dick. Luuk’s balls drew tight and
he tried to thrust, tried to push back into Jamie’s thrust as well, but Jamie had him well and
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truly pinned—and Luuk loved it. All he could do was take what Jamie gave him, and Jamie
wasn’t treating him with kid gloves by any means.
Jamie pumped Luuk’s cock with the same rough skill he fucked him, and Luuk didn’t
last more than a half dozen strokes. His throat burned from the scream he loosed as he came,
then Jamie bit deeper at the same time he thrust impossibly further into Luuk’s ass. Wet heat
splattered his inner walls as Jamie came and came. Jamie whimpered and shook atop him for
several seconds, then he slowly withdrew his teeth from Luuk’s shoulder.
He didn’t, however, free Luuk in any other way.
“You don’t want to be free in any other way, you need what I’m giving you, and I will always
give you what you need, as well as what you want.” Jamie licked over the bite mark as he shared
the thought with Luuk.
Luuk couldn’t even get his mind to form an answer. Jamie had fucked him to the brink
of consciousness, and he was a puddle of sated man.
“Which is just the way I plan to keep you, at least for a while.”
Well. As if Luuk would argue about that.
Coming Soon from this author at Total-E-Bound Publishing:
Leopard’s Spots: Wesley
Bailey Bradford
Released 18
th
February 2013
Excerpt
Chapter One
Wes Ward glared at his older brother Sully. “This is stupid. I screwed up one time—”
“You got busted by Mom one time, that doesn’t mean it was the only time you did it,
just that it was the only time you got caught,” Sully said calmly. Wes wanted to punch him
or poke him, do something to break through that utter freaking calm that seemed
impenetrable. Sully talked on, either unaware, or, more likely, uncaring that Wes was
steaming mad. “You can pout and throw a fit, but Mom and Dad sent you down here to me
and Bobby because they aren’t stupid either, Wes. They know that you’ve probably been
using more than just the one time.” Sully arched a brow in an imperious look that made Wes
growl.
“Calm down, kitty boy. Otherwise I might have to put you over my knee.”
Wes jerked his head around, surprised to find Sully’s mate, Bobby, not more than a
yard behind him. He hadn’t even heard the wolf shifter approach, which was screwed up.
Wes, like his brother, was a snow leopard shifter. They had enhanced senses just like the
damned wolf shifters did. Wes had been too busy listening to his own blood boil to hear
Bobby coming up behind him.
“I’m not teasin’ ya, Wes,” Bobby uttered in a soft, low voice that was all the more
intimidating for its laid-back tone. “I won’t have you talkin’ to my mate like that.”
“He’s my brother,” Wes said petulantly. He cringed inwardly at how childish he
sounded, but his pride wouldn’t let him back down. “You need to stay out of this.”
Wes hadn’t ever seen Bobby anything other than what could only be termed mellow, or
all googly-eyed and pawing at Sully, which was to be expected as they were mates. But now
he was seeing a darker, scarier side to the man who would someday lead the San Antonio
wolf pack.
Bobby’s entire countenance hardened. There was no other way for Wes to describe it or
process it. The relaxed slump disappeared from Bobby’s stance and his eyes, normally
glinting with mischief, went sharp with the promise of that very spanking he’d just
mentioned.
And muscles? Wes hadn’t really paid much attention to Bobby other than to admit to
himself that yeah, the guy was hot. How he’d missed the bulge of defined muscles was
beyond him.
Then he felt it, the wave of power rolling off Bobby. It was like an electrical current in
the air, surrounding Wes. Every hair on his body stood up, even those on his nape. If he
hadn’t been wearing a ball cap, he’d have bet the hair under it would have been standing on
end. Inside, his snow leopard yowled unhappily. Wes wasn’t a dominant person, and neither
was his leopard. They weren’t made to stand up against the power of an alpha like Bobby.
Yet Wes tried, forcing his gaze to remain locked with Bobby’s. Everything else around
them faded, the comfortable furnishings, the knick-knacks that made the place a home Wes
was envious over. He’d never admit it, but he wanted a home with a mate who loved him.
Being jealous just made him feel petty, and Wes didn’t like himself for it. If he weren’t feeling
so…challenged and ganged up on, he’d probably have admitted that his coping skills
sucked. However, he’d effectively dug himself into a corner surrounded by his own
belligerence. He was, in his own mind, stuck.
“Bobby, maybe you should let us work this out.”
Wes didn’t look away from Bobby when Sully spoke. He felt like prey, and glancing
away would mean he’d be taken down like a rabbit under the weight of a leopard.
Bobby snarled, his top lip curling up on one side, baring a hint of teeth. “I don’t take
shit in my own house, Sully. Not from anyone, and especially not from your punk-ass little
brother.”
“He’s not always a punk-ass,” Sully muttered. “We used to be friends. What happened
to us, Wes?”
What happened to us? What happened to us! Wes took the out Sully had given him. He
spun his head back around so quick he was dizzy as he looked at his brother. “What
happened? You left! You went away and forgot about me, Sully. That’s what happened!”
Bobby growled and Wes’ kneecaps tried to turn to gelatin. His legs quivered but he
refused to glance behind him. He knew what he’d said wasn’t fair, and wasn’t accurate—
exactly—but it was how he felt, and Sully had asked, after all.
Sully’s confusion morphed into hurt, then something too damned close to pity for Wes’
sake. He averted his gaze to glare at a spot over Sully’s shoulder. The kitchen walls were
painted a soft peach colour. Wes wondered who had picked it out.
“I never forgot about you, Wes. Jesus.”
From his peripheral vision, Wes could see Sully raking his fingers through his hair. That
god-awful feeling of power faded from the air, and Wes released a little of the tension that
had been knotted in his chest.
“I had to go to college,” Sully began. Wes nodded just enough to show he got that, but
he still didn’t look at Sully. “Shit. Shit, Wes, I’m sorry. Okay? I…I know I didn’t stay in touch
like I could have.”
Wes hitched a shoulder in a shrug. Sully sighed and before Wes could stop him, he
pulled Wes into a tight hug that Wes didn’t return.
“I’m sorry. I know you called and texted, but it seemed like it was always when I was in
class or doing something where I couldn’t reply or answer, and by the time I could—” Sully
held him tighter, and Wes stiffened, his anger growing with Sully admission. “It wasn’t that I
forgot about you, Wes. I’m just an ass. I got so involved in my own life…”
“Let go of me,” Wes gritted out, barely having the breath to do so. Sully went rigid but
released him, except for a hand to his wrist. “This is stupid anyway. I’m not a kid. I don’t
need you or anyone else to give a damn about me.” But his heart ached like a mother when
he said so.
Sully frowned and held his wrist so tight it started to go numb. “You don’t mean that.
You’re angry, and I get that. I wish you’d have talked to me sooner—”
Wes almost blew up with the force of his anger. He jerked his arm free. “How the fuck
was I supposed to do that? Huh? How many times did I e-mail or call or text, like you said?
You know you answered on average one in five times. One in five, Sul. Think about that.”
Wes had, and he’d become angrier and angrier, even as his loneliness had increased.
He’d never been exactly outgoing, and had preferred to stay in his room playing games
when he didn’t have to work at the gas station. But he’d missed Sully, missed his teasing and
practical jokes and his companionship when Sully would make him come out and be
sociable.
“Fuck this.” Wes was done. This was all too much to handle. He turned to head for the
door. His family couldn’t force him to stay here. If they thought shipping him to Sully—
sending him to San Antonio from Colorado—against his will meant he was going to just be a
good boy and keep his head down like he was ashamed, they were wrong.
Even though he was ashamed. And Sully was right. The night he was busted with
drugs wasn’t the first night he’d bought them. The ironic thing was, if his parents or even his
little sister Sheila had been paying any attention to him at all, they’d have noticed the change
in his scent. Wes had. He’d had an acrid, almost too bitter aroma to him by the time he’d
been caught by their mom. A month later and he almost smelt like himself again.
Eau de Slacker. Wes snorted at his silly joke. He veered around the couch table and was
three feet from the door when he felt it again. That ominous wave of power prickled over his
skin, stronger than before. Wes’ leopard mewled in fear and he shook all the way to his toes
as his knees buckled. Goddamn Bobby.
“You ain’t runnin’ away from here, or from what you’ve done.”
“What’ve I done?” Wes rasped, fear ramping up his pulse so that his heart raced to the
point he was seeing spots dancing in front of him.
“You don’t cut your brother like that and haul ass like a coward. You don’t dump all
the blame on him like a toddler throwin’ a tantrum. You don’t act like a child when you’re
claiming you’re a man.”
With each word Bobby spoke, Wes slumped down further until by the time Bobby
stopped, Wes was curled up in a foetal position on the floor.
“Bobby—”
“Sully, chill. I ain’t gonna break him.”
Wes wished he could see Sully’s face, see if he was angry at being told that or if he was
okay with it. If he was on Wes’ side or on Bobby’s.
“I know you won’t, but this is between me and Wes,” Sully said, still calm as freakin’
Yoda. There was Wes’ answer, too. He’d been an idiot to think Sully would stand up for him.
Wes tuned out the conversation as he curled into a tighter ball. His gut ached and he
craved the ease a handful of phennies or sleeping pills would give him. He hadn’t got
around to trying meth or heroin, nothing like that. He was afraid he would have, though.
Drugs had smothered so many of his emotions, the lonely feelings and the anger, but they’d
also left him dirty and empty inside. That had never been what Wes wanted in the first place,
when he’d put the first few pills in his mouth.
No, Wes had discovered prescription barbiturates purely by accident, when a dealer
had come into the gas station late one night. Wes had complained about having problems
sleeping when he went from working nights to days, and the guy had offered him a solution.
It was embarrassing how easily he’d let himself be convinced, and he was damned lucky
he’d never been arrested for buying the drugs.
Shifters were immune to a lot of things, but Wes had discovered that if he took enough
of some drugs, just like if he drank enough alcohol, he could get stoned, or high, whatever.
What he hadn’t expected was to become addicted, not after four or five uses. He hadn’t had
the horrific withdrawals his parents had worried about, but sometimes the need for the drug
slammed into him so hard he ached from it.
He didn’t realise he was shaking almost to the point of it being a convulsion until
Sully’s strident voice penetrated his misery. Wes had wanted to shatter that calm, and he
had. Sully sounded terrified. Wes didn’t know what the problem was. He hadn’t used since
he’d been busted. Despite his gnawing craving, he wouldn’t use again.
Because Wes knew something he hadn’t shared. He’d come too close to losing his soul
to drugs. His leopard spirit wouldn’t have remained in him for much longer had he not been
caught and forced to see the wisdom to quitting. It was that knowledge that would
overwhelm him, sneak up from nowhere and shred him inside, much like it was doing now.
And Wes could bitch and throw accusations wherever he wanted to, but he knew the
truth. There was only one person responsible for his stupidity, and that was him.
“Jesus, Bobby, what’s happening?” Sully yelled, groping all over Wes. “He’s pale and
covered in sweat and shaking—”
“Did he get a hold of something?” Bobby asked.
Wes tried to snarl, but his teeth kept chattering. Sully did it for him. “No, you ass, he
didn’t. You were right there, watching him. He just dropped when you sprung your mighty
alpha powers on him.”
Some part of Wes’ brain registered that Sully sounded furious, but he figured that
might be a hallucination. Those happened on occasion, although usually they occurred at
night when he couldn’t sleep.
“I don’t have super powers,” Bobby drawled. “I didn’t zap him with a laser beam or
whatever.”
“Bobby, if you’re not going to help, go…chase your tail,” Sully snapped. “And thanks
for not letting him run off,” he added with a bit less ire.
“How ‘bout I go get Remus? ‘Cause I don’t think this is a reaction to my mighty alpha
powers.” Bobby didn’t sound worried at all. He sounded just as he always did, except for
those moments when he’d been ready to rip Wes’ head off.
Wes shivered again and bit his tongue.
Sully’s face was suddenly right in his, almost nose to nose with Wes. “Wes, Bobby’s
going to call and have Remus get ready to be brought over. I don’t know if you’ve ever met
him, but Remus is the shaman of the pack here. He’s brilliant but very simple about it.” Sully
stroked Wes’ hair, and it was only then that Wes realised Sully had to be lying on the floor
too. For some reason, that made Wes’ eyes water with tears.
“I am sorry, so sorry,” Sully murmured, his voice cracking.
Wes had carried around his pain and anger, justified or not, for almost two years. He
knew he shouldn’t have let it control him, but had been unable to stop it. “You were the only
friend I had, Sul, and you left me.” Oh God, he really was pathetic. Wes sobbed then,
ashamed of so many things, and sure they’d never be righted again.
How much time passed as he lay on the floor trying to keep himself from falling into a
million pieces, Wes didn’t know. Sully had stopped talking, though, and was sniffling
irregularly when suddenly someone else touched Wes’ shoulder.
The firm hand seemed to radiate out warmth and peace, two things Wes was in dire
need of. His hearing clouded with a loud buzzing as the feelings of comfort increased.
Wes blinked saw that Sully had got up at some point, and still that touch remained on
his shoulder, soothing him inside. Eventually he rolled his head and found himself looking
into a withered brown face, deeply lined with wrinkles, and the kindest almost-black eyes
he’d ever seen.
“You will be okay, boy.”
Wes couldn’t even be offended by the boy part, not when the man looking at him had to
be close to a hundred, if not in actual years, then in his soul at least. A kind smile spread on
the man’s lips and Wes soon found himself returning it.
“I am Remus, shaman of the San Antonio wolf shifter pack. Would you like to come
stay with me for a few days? I can help you find peace.”
Normally, Wes didn’t think of himself as the trusting or naïve kind—although some
people would argue that last one with him. Or maybe they’d just call him stupid, and he’d
have to agree.
But he knew he could trust Remus. He felt inside, and his leopard was purring happily
under the man’s touch.
“There are no easy instant fixes, but peace is possible. You have to look first in here.”
Remus moved his hand, trailing warmth and tingles all the way down to where he then
pressed on Wes’ chest, over his heart. “Be honest with yourself, and find out what has
poisoned you, and why you allowed it. Then begin healing.”
“I—” Wes’ throat was too dry, as if he’d cried all the moisture out of his body. He
swallowed and Remus eased his hand up to cup Wes’ neck. Wes didn’t know whether to be
creeped out or grateful when the parched sensation ceased, but he went with the latter. “It’s
not just me here,” Wes touched his chest. “I used drugs and sometimes I want them again, so
bad.”
Remus didn’t appear to be surprised or disgusted. He canted his head and hummed as
he stroked Wes from throat to chest. There was nothing sexual in the touch, only reassurance
and that tingling warmth.
“You aren’t a lost cause, Wes. I do know some of what has happened to you. Your
grandmother is a good friend of mine.” Remus held up a finger when Wes started to talk.
“But I am no one to judge another. That is not my place, and besides, I know a good person—
which you are, despite your fears otherwise—is harder on themselves than anyone else could
be.” He leant down and whispered, “Who are you truly angry with?”
And despite his earlier claims, Wes knew the truth, and it scared him to his core. “Me.”
Because if he hated himself, then what was the point to his existence?
“And many people love you,” Remus said quietly. “You have little faith in yourself. We
will start there, perhaps.” He stood and Wes found himself pulled to his feet by the
surprisingly strong old man. “Come. Let us get you to neutral ground.”
“Neutral ground?” Sully sputtered. “What does that mean? I’m not the enemy!”
Remus nodded. “Indeed you aren’t, but nor are you his friend.”
Neither Sully nor Bobby argued, although Bobby glowered. But Wes knew Remus was
right. Sully wasn’t his friend just then. The two years since he’d moved away and hooked up
with Bobby had eradicated most of the bond he and Wes had shared when they’d been
younger.
“In time, you two can repair the damage done. For now, give me and Wes a few days,
then perhaps, rather than having him stay in the house, you should trust him with the garage
apartment and some privacy.” Remus didn’t wait for an answer, he simply turned and
steered Wes outside. “Family means well, but they do not always know how to help. Indeed,
they can make things so much worse.”
Did it make him a traitor to agree? Wes slanted the old shaman a look and saw only
kindness in his eyes. “Yeah, I guess. I didn’t make it easy to help me, either.”
Remus made that humming sound again before he spoke. “Yes, but there is too much
anger and hurt between you and your brother.”
“It’s just me,” Wes clarified. He felt so tired, and his muscles, what there were of them,
were weak as if he’d worked out for hours. “It’s just me.”
“No.”
Wes almost stumbled at the forcefulness and certainty that one little word conveyed.
Remus stopped and Wes looked everywhere but at him. His brother and Bobby lived
right on the outskirts of the pack property. There were mesquites and drought-dead grass,
cactus and grass burrs all over. It was kind of pretty in a desolate way.
“You do not want to hear me, or believe what I say. You love your brother and want to
keep idolising him, except you cannot. He failed you and it broke your heart.”
“It did not.” Wes had meant it to come out adamant, angry, even but his protest
sounded feeble.
Remus peered at him with those eyes and Wes would have sworn the man could see
right into his thoughts. Remus seemed to know him better than Wes knew himself. “It isn’t
uncommon to idolise our older brothers. We measure ourselves by their standards, and want
their approval and love. We want to be everything they are to us, but what we fail to realise
is that they too are only human.” Remus’ lips quirked. “Or shifter, as the case may be. Still,
they make mistakes, and they hurt people, and often it is the people who worship them that
get hurt.”
Wes could deny it, but he’d be lying again. He wondered, though. “You have an older
brother?”
Remus nodded. “Two. Both alive, in case you are wondering. I’m not as old as you
might think.” He grinned and it was rather disconcerting to realise the old man was
attractive with that long white hair and distinguished features. “Surprised you, no?”
Wes nodded dumbly, snapping shut his mouth. He’d not realised he was gawping until
the breeze dried his mouth out.
Remus laughed, a rich, warm sound that encouraged anyone around to join in. “I get
that often, as do my brothers. We are from a generation that spent most of our lives outside,
and sunscreen was unheard of.”
“Would shifters really need it?” Wes asked, curious even though it was probably s
dumb question, considering everything they’d discussed.
Remus nodded. “Oh yes. We cannot get many diseases, it’s true, but cancer is one that
can kill us as surely as it can a human. While I’ve only known of one shifter to die from
melanoma, it can happen. We have more protection against the sun’s damage, but too much
can still damage us. I am probably sun-proofed, like a piece of worn leather.”
“Huh.” Wes hadn’t ever been accused of being a chatter box, or a brilliant
conversationalist, and he obviously wasn’t going to start being one now.
“I can only keep you with me for a few days, then there will be someone coming who
must be assured of his safety. But I think, in those few days, you and I can make some grand
progress.” Remus tilted his head and gestured for Wes to walk. “If you will be honest with
yourself and me. You do want to get better, don’t you, Wesley?”
Did he? Or would he rather run away and lose himself, and his leopard, and,
eventually, his life?
Wes had decisions to make, the first one being whether or not he was going to grow up
instead of being a churlish brat. Yes, Sully had hurt him, but would he let that be the focus of
everything in his world? Or would he make himself into a better man, one he liked and
others might, someday, admire?
About the Author
A native Texan, Bailey spends her days spinning stories around in her head, which
has contributed to more than one incident of tripping over her own feet. Evenings are
reserved for pounding away at the keyboard, as are early morning hours. Sleep?
Doesn’t happen much. Writing is too much fun, and there are too many characters
bouncing about, tapping on Bailey’s brain demanding to be let out.
Caffeine and chocolate are permanent fixtures in Bailey’s office and are never far from
hand at any given time. Removing either of those necessities from Bailey’s presence
can result in what is know as A Very, Very Scary Bailey and is not advised under any
circumstances.
Bailey loves to hear from readers. You can find her contact information, website and
author biography at http://www.total-e-bound.com
Also by Bailey Bradford
Southwestern Shifters: Rescued
Southwestern Shifters: Relentless
Southwestern Shifters: Reckless
Southwestern Shifters: Rendered
Southwestern Shifters: Resilience
Southwestern Shifters: Reverence
Southern Spirits: A Subtle Breeze
Southern Spirits: When the Dead Speak
Southern Spirits: All of the Voices
Southern Spirits: Wait Until Dawn
Love in Xxchange: Rory’s Last Chance
Love in Xxchange: What Matters Most
Love in Xxchange: Ex’s and O’s
Love in Xxchange: A Bit of You
Love in Xxchange: In My Arms Tonight
Total-E-Bound Publishing
www.total-e-bound.com
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