by Grey, Aspen
The John put the sports car in park and looked over at me expectantly. I nodded to the cash.
“Don’t wanna throw me a freebie?” he asked.
“What?” I retorted. I’d heard this a million times before. Cute guys, who think they shouldn’t have to pay for sex, showing up and offering to pay, then pulling out at the last minute.
“Come on,” he protested, squeezing my leg and giving me his best puppy dog eyes. “I’m a good-looking guy, right? Better than the sleaze you normally get around here? Why not toss me a freebie?”
“Listen, asshole,” I snapped. It had been a long day and I didn’t need this shit. “You knew the score when you pulled your fucking douchebag car up beside me, okay? You’re not hurting for cash, so either hand it over or fuck off. I’ve got a job to do.”
“Okay, okay, okay,” he replied, handing me the two hundreds. I stuffed them into my pants pocket and looked at him. “No need to get so pissy about it.”
“Pissy?” I retorted, getting even more angry. “You want me to just take your money and go?”
“Oh, that wouldn’t be a good idea,” he replied.
“What are you gonna do?” I asked, knowing Jace was readying himself if this encounter went south. “Tell the cops I stole the money you paid me to suck your dick? I don’t think so.”
“No,” he smiled dangerously. “I’d just beat you within an inch of your life, fuck your face while you’re lying there passed out and then take my money back. That’s all.”
I stared at him, wondering just how serious he was and whether or not I really had to be worried. Just before I really started to worry, his face broke and he burst out laughing.
“I’m just shittin’ ya!” he cackled, holding a hand over his stomach. “I’m not a psycho Come over here and suck my dick.”
Chapter Two
Jace
My heart began to settle down and my fangs retracted back as I saw the John laugh and the tension from Sasha’s body vanish.
Close one.
I’d stripped down, readying myself for a shift to my panther form if I had to jump in to protect him, not wanting to waste yet another set of clothes on some dickhead in a Lamborghini.
I’d thought he was going to end up being a real American Psycho-type bastard, but it turned out he was just a rich prick with a perverse sense of humor. I guess the car should have told me that.
I felt my usual heart pangs as I watched Sasha go to work, and told myself the same thing I always did when I had to look out for him.
This is his job. It’s yours too.
We weren’t quite boyfriend and boyfriend, but we weren’t just friends either. There was something more there, something unspoken between us that we both understood but were too afraid to act on. We were both wounded and afraid, and I felt as though our relationship was like a weight balanced perfectly on a glass table, and adding just a single atom to it would cause the entire thing to collapse. There was no room for love in the real world. All there was was the street, money, and survival.
I closed my eyes and inhaled the sweet scent of raspberry pie that belonged to Sasha, doing my best to ignore the thick, pungent odor of the dickhead alpha in the sports car with his head tilted back to the sky and his mouth hanging open like an idiot.
We used to work together, but stopped (for the most part) after a really bad night at a motel when a John had gotten violent and ended up almost breaking Sasha’s nose. I’d managed to get us out of there when the bastard picked up a screwdriver and started waving it around, but I was no alpha, and I knew that in a situation like that it could have been easy for both of us to end up in some serious trouble. The only reason I was able to help him now was the surprise factor.
If someone fucked with him, I’d shift and hit them from behind before they knew they were even under attack. Then Sasha would shift and we’d sprint away before the jerk had a chance to scramble to his feet. It didn’t happen often, but it was enough that I’d been praying for something to happen in our lives to give us a way out; a career change or someone to look after us both. But of course, that would never happen.
Who wanted to hire two working boys, one of them an ex-car thief? What exactly would we put on our resume? For now, this was the best we could do, but what could I really expect from a couple of broken individuals like us?
Even though things looked to be going well with this John, I kept my eyes on the other ends of the alley. There had been a crazy guy running around San Diego preying on working boys, beating them up and sometimes killing them, and as a result, everyone who was on the street was on high alert. There was no way we’d actually run into him, what with the size of the city and all, but you could never be too careful.
“Shit, yeah!” the Lamborghini guy growled and I looked over to see Sasha’s head come up from inside the car. He spit on the alley as I slid back into my clothes, and I uncapped the bottle of water I had ready for him.
“Thanks,” I heard him say to the alpha as he got out of the car.
“Thank you,” the alpha replied as he turned on his car and drove away. Once his headlights vanished around the corner, I stepped out of the shadows and over to Sasha.
“Here you go,” I told him. He took the water eagerly and swished it around like it was mouthwash before spitting it out and repeating the process all over again. “That guy seemed like a prick.”
“Small prick,” Sasha replied, holding up a pinky finger. I grinned and wrapped an arm around him. The night was dark but he was like a warm light against it, and I couldn’t wait to get him home, showered, and back in bed with me so we could snuggle and pass out.
“Of course,” I laughed as I took him and led him back towards the street. “What’d you get?”
“Two hundred,” he replied.
“Wow, that’s pretty good,” I told him. I’d made only $120 earlier, but with his takings we were probably good enough for the night. After all, there was a killer on the streets and it wouldn’t hurt to get back to our apartment. “Wanna call it a night?”
“You think that’s wise?” Sasha asked. “I mean—we do owe rent in a week.”
“We can handle that tomorrow,” I replied, pulling out my phone to buy a ride from one of those electric scooters that were scattered around the San Diego streets like someone had airdropped them there.
I saw the rest of the boys standing on the corner, doing their best to look attractive and alluring to the passersby. I saw the cars, the Johns looking for a fix to their nightly lusts, and the junkies looking for a real fix.
Thank God we never got into that was all I could think. That was a sure way to end up dead or in prison. Sure, the cops would come through occasionally and bust boys, but they were never held for long and then it was back out onto the street. Drugs were a big no-no and I’d been glad when Sasha told me he never touched the stuff.
“This thing’s being stupid,” I grumbled as my phone chirped an error message and the scooter flashed a red light.
“Let’s just walk,” Sasha groaned. “Those things suck anyway. I always feel like I’m going to fall off.”
“You want to walk?” I replied. We were up the road at least fifteen minutes from our apartment, but Sasha nodded and leaned against me.
“Yes. Let’s pretend, just for a few minutes, that we’re a normal couple enjoying the summer weather. How’s that sound?”
“Sounds good to me,” I replied, taking his hand as we started to head south. Sasha had his eyes almost completely closed as we walked, but I kept mine open and alert, scanning the shadows for anything that could do either of us harm.
If only I was an alpha, I thought. If only we had one.
Chapter Three
Arnold
You shouldn’t be doing this. You’ll lose your job. You’ll lose everything.
I’d been telling myself that for the last two and a half hours that I’d been watching Jace and Sasha from my car, which was parked across the street in a dark alley that the boy
s never used as a spot to bring the Johns. Probably because the whole place stank like old food thanks to the dumpsters filled with rotten food and leftovers from the Indian and Chinese restaurants on the block. I didn’t care. I wasn’t looking for sex. I had other things on my mind.
I’d come here a week ago as part of my duty as a detective for the San Diego Police Department. We were investigating a killer who was targeting working boys in the Pacific Beach/Mission Beach areas, and that had been all I was interested in—that is, of course, until I smelled them.
Fated mates. It was impossible, right? It was even more impossible that I’d run into them while out on my beat. But there was no denying the sensations that flowed through me when I inhaled their scents. Sweet raspberry pie and fresh cream. Could there be a better combination?
But they were working boys. Criminals. Not gangsters or anyone doing harm to anybody, but criminals nonetheless. They were breaking the law, and even though as far as I was concerned they were perfectly free to do whatever they chose to do with their bodies, it still made me sad to see it. In fact, it was incredibly difficult to watch, but I had no choice. I had to make sure they were safe, and until we caught the killer, they weren’t.
Hell, being a working boy was a dangerous profession anyway, even under normal circumstances. Since I’d been keeping an eye on them, I’d seen them fight off an alpha in a convertible, saw four of the other boys jump an old fat guy trying to scam them out of fifty bucks and a slew of other wild encounters that would be stories enough for one person’s entire life. But these boys experienced that in a single week. I’d almost had to break my cover and intervene a couple of times, but it had never gotten that bad—thankfully. But it broke my heart, and I’d thought countless times of going over and approaching them, but every time I tried, something held me back.
First of all, it was completely unprofessional and probably against some kind of law or code of conduct. Picking up someone while working? Criminals even? If any of the higher-ups found out about that, I’d be in deep shit, no doubt about it.
Second of all, fated mates? I wasn’t even sure I believed in stuff like that, and even if I did, how could an alpha have two fated mates? That wasn’t normal, right? People formed couples and had families that way. How many people lived in a three-way relationship like that and were actually happy and weren’t wild swingers going to sex parties and loaning each other out to strangers every weekend? I’d run into a few of those in my time on the force.
No, that’s not me, I thought as I watched Jace and Sasha walk hand in hand down the street and slowly pulled my car up to the edge of the alley so I could keep a better eye on them. I want real love. A real relationship.
They couldn’t possibly be my fated mates. Even if that was a real thing, there would only be one of them, not two.
But still, I couldn’t shake the feeling I got when I looked at them. They were my angels. My beauties. Rays of sunshine in the darkness brought into my life by working the job I did. From Sasha’s messy brown hair to Jace’s more stylish blond fauxhawk, to the way they moved and the lines of their bodies—all of it was meant for me, as though God himself had created them with me in mind. For the first time, it felt as though I’d have a real chance at something meaningful in my life beyond my career.
Murders, rapes, theft, betrayal—all of these things were daily occurrences in my line of work, and despite the fact that these two boys were working the streets, I could see they weren’t bad guys. They were victims of circumstance, or for some reason, didn’t believe their lives were worth anything and had given up. They were close, but not lovers, I could tell that much. Something was missing in their lives, and I couldn’t keep myself from thinking that was me.
I pulled onto the street as they turned down the corner at the end of the block and followed behind them quietly, going fast enough to avoid attracting the attention of the rest of the boys. My car was pretty nondescript, as it wasn’t department issue, and I was in plain clothes and pretty good at blending in, so the risk of anyone spotting me as a cop was low. I still didn’t want to draw any unwanted attention—not while I was keeping an eye on my angels.
Please get a cab or an Uber, I thought as I watched them walking. There’s a killer out! Don’t you know that?
Of course they knew. Word traveled fast on the street—faster than in the precinct, but I guess they figured they were safe.
I kept following them, keeping my distance as they made their way towards their apartment. I just needed to be sure they were safe and then I’d go back to my beat. But not until I was sure.
We passed the seedy bars as they started to close up and the drunk clientele spilled out into the streets. A big drunk bastard reached out and pinched Sasha on the butt and I had to restrain myself from getting out of the car, knocking him out and dragging him in on assault charges.
Jace handled it well however, spitting on the guy and knocking him back over a cactus that took his legs out from under him and sent him sprawling onto his back. I chuckled.
“Good job.”
They kept moving and I kept a safe distance behind, just to make sure. They’d be gone soon and I knew that, so I rolled all of my windows down the rest of the way so I could get a complete nose full of their scents before they vanished inside for the night.
Fated mates…I thought as I took in their mixture of scents that blended together like a gourmet dessert. Could it really be?
But as I began to lose myself in my own thoughts, I heard a crashing sound and looked up to see the most terrifying thing I could imagine; the killer, eyes crazed and wild, clutching a length of old pipe, racing towards my angels. I don’t know how I knew it was him, but I did.
Instantly, my fangs extended and any doubt I had about whether Jace and Sasha were my fated mates fled from my mind. I slammed the gas pedal and sped towards them.
Here I come, my angels. Here I come!
Chapter Four
Sasha
The killer!
I barely had the time to process what was happening before Jace was throwing me out of the way of the snarling maniac, a pipe held high above his head, obviously aimed for my head. I grunted as I hit the ground hard. The impact knocked the wind out of me, and I choked for air as I scrambled away from the attacker.
I looked up as Jace shifted, tearing out of his clothes and shifting into his panther form, his beautiful coat rippling as his muscles tensed as he squared off with the killer. I saw the bastard’s eyes go wide as he realized he had jumped a couple of shifters. I could smell him—he was an alpha—but obviously had been used to preying on human boys, and in his drugged-up state, he hadn’t even noticed our scents.
Our attacker howled angrily and shifted, shredded his already tattered rags and morphing into the most hideous beast I had ever seen. His coat was pocked and speckled as though he was suffering from some kind of deadly illness, and he was missing several teeth, unfortunately none of them being his fangs.
I gasped as my wind came back and shifted, joining Jace’s side as we faced off against him. For a brief moment I thought we had a chance against him—after all, it was two on one right?—but then he moved and I realized we were completely fucked.
His alpha speed was tremendous, and he darted forward so quickly I almost missed it. Then, my right arm exploded with pain as his claws found my flesh and sent me spinning. I slammed into a dumpster, denting it upon impact, and cried out in agony as blood began to spill out onto the pavement.
Jace growled and hurled himself at our attacker, but the hideous beast was too quick and dashed out of the way. Jace’s teeth closed down on nothing but air. He stumbled and fell forward, and I cried out as the alpha whirled and snatched his leg between his jaws and clamped down hard.
No! We’re going to die! I thought as I struggled towards Jace, not even sure what I could do to save him. The alpha spun around, as though reading my mind, and gnashed his teeth at me, Jace’s blood dripping from his cracked lips.
It was almost like slow motion as he came at me, but just as his jaw was about to find my throat, for what surely would have been a killing blow, a fresh new scent hit my nose like a speeding train. Then another alpha, bigger and stronger than the killer, slammed into his chest and sent him spinning. I think I heard some bones crack.
Jace, limping from the wound on his leg, turned to face us and I looked up to see a ferocious alpha-panther with a gorgeous all-white coat standing between me and my attacker, fury in his eyes. When he glanced back at me, I saw something there that almost made my heart stop, and before I passed out from blood loss, a thought that shouldn’t have been possible entered my mind.
My fated mate!
Chapter Five
Jace
“Stay with me!” our stranger-savior screamed from the front seat of the car as he whipped us around another corner at top speed. “Keep pressure on it!”
My ankle was killing me, but I wasn’t losing blood like Sasha and I was still conscious.
“I am!” I shouted back, my mind a twisted mess of thoughts short-circuiting like frayed wires. We’d been attacked by the killer, that much was sure. But who was this breathtakingly gorgeous alpha that had come out of nowhere to rescue us? And why was his scent so utterly overwhelming? It was almost getting hard to concentrate with it in my nose. It was warm and comforting like a bonfire, and despite having no idea who he was, I felt safe in his presence. In fact, I felt more than that.
