by Lisa Oliver
“You are a good kind-hearted omega,” Shadow’s hand landed like a branding weight on Rowan’s shoulder. “I promise you things will get better for everyone who embraces a positive change. I can’t promise that you won’t see violence anymore. If people resist or want to continue trading drugs and sex in my territory, I will stop them by any means possible. But those who want a chance, will have one.”
Looking up, Rowan could see the sincerity in Shadow’s eyes and taking a chance, he reached up and rested his hand on top of the bigger one on his shoulder. “The people here deserve something positive for a change, but for some, old habits die hard.”
“Which is why I’ve brought friends with me.” Shadow nodded through the windscreen and Rowan noticed three burly men standing on the porch watching them. “When your grandmother sent word of how bad things had become, I offered the men I served with a chance to form my inner circle. There are two more coming in the next week. I wasn’t sure there was anyone here I could trust anymore.”
“You did the right thing. Most of the bigger wolves in the pack were either conscripted by Percy or driven out.” Rowan worried his bottom lip with his teeth. “Do they know about me?”
“Oh yeah,” Shadow laughed. “Be prepared for a bit of teasing about that. They’ll try and tell you I’ve done nothing but talk about you for ten years.”
“And did you?” Rowan turned back to the man who claimed to be his mate. “Talk about me, I mean?”
“Once or twice.” Shadow showed his teeth. “Come on. Let’s go inside. I’ll introduce you to the guys and then we can have some privacy to get to know each other. What do you say?”
“Are you sure?” Rowan tugged at the jeans covering his bad leg. “I’m not the perfect little omega anymore. I don’t want to disappoint your friends.”
“You are perfect in my eyes,” Shadow said with a confidence only an alpha could muster. “That’s all that’s important.”
Oh boy, have you got a lot to learn about the changes in this pack, Rowan thought as he squeezed Shadow’s hand and stepped out of the car.
/~/~/~/~/
Shadow took Rowan’s keys and made sure the vehicle was locked before grabbing his hand and leading him up to the porch. He kept his pace slow, unsure how well Rowan could keep up with his usual stride. Even so, he could tell when his friends noticed Rowan’s limp. The anger in the air was palpable and Rowan shivered.
“Rowan, my mate, these are three of the men I served with. On the left with the bushy beard is Marco. Next to him is our resident vampire look-alike, Dominic. Craven is next to him with the shaven head. Guys, this is Rowan. Be nice or I’ll crack some heads open.”
“Did you have a bit of trouble tonight, Shadow,” Marco asked, eyeing Rowan’s leg.
“Old injury,” Rowan said quickly.
“Yeah, seems that buddy system I set up to keep Rowan protected didn’t last six months.” Shadow still couldn’t believe people he trusted, who were friends of his mate, had changed their loyalty so quickly. “But the asshole’s taken care of, along with four of his friends. Have you had any trouble around here while I’ve been out?”
“Nothing so far,” Dominic said. “But people know we’re here. I imagine they’re waiting to see what happened with your brother. The house is in a hell of a state, but we’ve managed to clean out rooms for all of us, plus the living room and kitchen.”
“There’re plenty of people in the pack who’d be willing to work in the house for a reduction in the weekly tithe they have to pay the alpha,” Rowan offered quietly. “If that was something you were thinking about, of course.”
“I welcome the advice.” Shadow was serious. “I’ve been away too long and too much has changed. Let’s get inside. The pack’s had enough gossip fodder for the night. I’m sure there will be more to come after the pack meeting.”
“You mentioned dealing with the asshole and his friends,” Marco said as they all headed inside. “Did you need for me and Craven to go and pick them up?”
“It’s tempting to leave them where they fell.” Shadow eased Rowan’s jacket from his slim shoulders and hung it on the hook inside the door. “But yes, it’s probably a good idea. Don’t want kids coming across them in the morning. They are over at the entrance to Rogue Alley. Follow your nose. They stink, so you can’t miss them.”
“Oh wonderful,” Craven groused. “Nothing like the smell of dead bodies to enhance an evening. I’d rather have latrine duty.”
“You can do that tomorrow. Now git.” Shadow laughed as his two friends left, muttering and grumbling all the way.
“We would have set up the master suite for you and your young mate,” Dominic said, leading the way to the kitchen. “But frankly, it’s a mess in there. We pulled out bags of drugs, more booze bottles than you can count, and the sheets were ready to walk out on their own. You’re going to want to bin everything in there and start again. The set of rooms next to it were smaller, but they didn’t look like anyone had been in there for a while and we’ve cleaned and set the place up with fresh linens and towels.”
“Those would have been my mother’s rooms. I take it the pack hasn’t had an alpha female for a while?”
“Every unmated female over the age of sixteen has fancied herself as alpha female at one time or another,” Rowan said. “They only lasted a week at most before Percy tossed them out on their ear. He didn’t like the idea of anyone ruling the pack with him.”
“What the hell happened to the morals in this place?” Shadow roared. “Drugs, booze, revolving bedroom doors. It never used to be like this.”
“Ten years is a long time.” To Shadow’s shock, Rowan yelled back. “You’ve been away and have no idea what it’s been like. You can’t blame any of those women taking the scraps of attention they were offered. Being with Percy meant they got food, gifts they could sell and a remote chance at increasing their rank in the pack. They all knew it was a long shot. Percy’s reputation is a standing joke in this place, but no one dared to mention it. But if you were hungry and couldn’t afford shoes in winter, wouldn’t you want to do whatever you could to get out of the poverty trap for five minutes?”
“I’m sorry. I’m just frustrated.” Shadow pulled out a kitchen chair for his young mate and took the coffee Dominic offered, making sure Rowan had one too. “Everywhere I look there’s something that needs fixing. I hadn’t realized things had gotten so bad.”
Rowan laid a hand on his arm and Shadow’s skin tingled. “Once the pack sees you’re genuinely trying to help them, they will pitch in and help too. Many of them are just as frustrated as you are.”
“Why didn’t people leave if things are so bad?” Dominic was leaning his lanky frame on the kitchen counter.
“They couldn’t afford to.” Rowan played with the handle on his cup. “Mr. Bell, two blocks over is a classic example. He works two jobs; his wife works as well while their five kids are at school. Instead of paying the standard twenty percent tithe to the pack, Percy decided every family had to pay in accordance with the drain they were on pack resources.”
“I’m still trying to find any resources the pack is offering.”
“You’re sitting in it.” Rowan scowled. “Percy claimed the alpha family standards needed to be maintained so every cent went into this house.”
“Where?” Shadow looked around the kitchen. Most of the appliances he remembered from when he was a child. “Doesn’t matter, go on. You were explaining about Mr. Bell’s tithe.”
“Right. Percy decided that instead of a twenty percent tithe per family, every person had to pay twenty percent of the household income.”
“Er, math wasn’t my strong point, but to my reckoning that means a family like Mr. Bell’s would have to pay a hundred and forty percent of their income. That’s impossible.” Dominic scowled.
“Which is why Mr. Bell works two jobs and his wife works as well,” Rowan explained. “Mrs. Bell pays sixty percent of the income she makes from her job towards the
pack, which is the twenty percent for her and two of their children. Mr. Bell pays eighty percent of the income on his first job to pay for himself and the other three kids. They effectively live on the money from Mr. Bell’s second job – something Percy wasn’t aware he was doing otherwise he would have found a way to take a tithe on that too. A lot of the families here are living like that, and with kids, they don’t have a chance to save the money to leave.”
“He was robbing the pack blind.” Shadow shook his head. “Why didn’t anyone do anything?”
“What could they do? You’re assuming there was anyone here not half dead from over work and half starved. And face it, it wasn’t as though Percy ever played fair. If anyone complained or tried to see the alpha, Percy’s heavies paid the family a visit and believe me, they weren’t there for tea and cake. The police have been in Percy’s back pocket from the start. No one has any money to get out. The best you can hope for in this pack is to not be noticed.”
“How did you get on, young Rowan?” Dominic asked. “You have your own car, and your clothes are decent enough. I take it you have a job.”
“I work for myself.” Shadow found himself fascinated by Rowan’s blush. “My grandmother used my grandfather’s insurance money to send me to college. I got a degree and started creating computer games. I’ve recently sold one, but I haven’t been paid for it yet. I imagine that’s why Percy cornered me this evening. He’d be wanting a hefty chunk of the money when it came in. So far, I’ve been able to prove I’ve been living on royalty payments from other games I’ve helped with and as I live alone, I pay twenty percent of that.”
“Pretty and smart,” Dominic nodded his approval.
“And he has a deadly aim with a bag of flour and a half a dozen eggs,” Shadow laughed. “My brother and his friends looked like extras in a zombie flick when I got hold of them.”
“Shit, those things were for my grandmother.” Rowan smacked his forehead. “How could I have forgotten? She’ll need them for her baking tomorrow. She’ll be so upset if she can’t put something out for the kids.”
Putting his cup on the counter, Dominic stretched to his full height. “I’ve got your gran’s address. I’ll go and place some orders. She’ll have all she needs sitting on her doorstep in the morning.” Shadow noticed his yawn was decidedly fake. “I don’t know about you guys, but I’m bushed. We’ve worked our asses off today and I can’t see things getting any easier for a while. Nice to meet you Rowan. Have a good night.” With a wink and a wave, Dominic left.
Chapter Five
For a long moment, all Shadow could hear was the rumbling hum of the old refrigerator and Rowan’s breathing. His mate seemed fascinated by the scratches and marks on the huge wooden table, so Shadow was surprised when he spoke.
“When I was fourteen, I had the biggest crush on you.” The red on Rowan’s cheeks deepened. “When you left, with nothing more than a hand in my hair, I honestly thought my heart was broken. I spent six months hoping and praying you’d realize you missed me and would come back. Of course, I was still a kid. I still believed in a happy ever after back then.”
“I didn’t want to get on the bus that day,” Shadow admitted quietly, rubbing his chest as he remembered the pain he’d felt in it back then, increasing with every step he’d taken as he walked away from the boy he knew was destined to be his mate. “There hasn’t been a day in ten years when I haven’t thought of you.”
“Why didn’t you write, visit, something? You knew we were mates all this time. My parents were killed six months after you left. It would have meant the world to me to know I had someone on my side apart from my grandmother, especially once the pack realized I was nothing more than an omega wolf.” There wasn’t one ounce of condemnation on Rowan’s face. He genuinely wanted to know.
Reaching over, Shadow took Rowan’s hand and held it between his. “I was scared you’d ask me to come back,” he said softly. “I wouldn’t have been able to refuse you anything. But I couldn’t come back then. I didn’t trust my control. Even when you were fourteen, I used to lust after you and that just makes me a king sized perv. I remember me and the guys celebrated your eighteenth birthday in the middle of a desert. All I could think was, I could come back and claim you as mine. But when I wrote to your grandmother to ask about it, she said you were at college and asked me to wait just a bit longer. She knew, if I came back then, you’d never be able to focus on your degree.”
“She was probably right.”
“We’ll never know.” Shadow sighed. “I signed up for another four years, which became six, all the while, waiting for the okay from your grandmother. She didn’t get in touch very often, but she sent me a picture of your graduation. By then I was overseas and couldn’t just leave, and well, I’m here now.”
“Yep. You’re here now.”
Shadow waited, hoping Rowan would say more, but when he didn’t, he realized his mate was waiting for him to make a move. Clearing his throat, which suddenly seemed to have a frog in it, he said softly, “I guess the question of the hour, is will you come upstairs with me now, so I can claim the mate I’ve waited so long for, or do you need more time to come to terms with me and what being my mate will mean?”
Peering up at him from his mass of red curls, Rowan grinned. “If I’m not claimed within the hour, you’ll find your boots filled with butter, milk and anything else I can lay my hands on. I’m pretty good at using bakery goods as weapons you know.”
Relief. Shadow felt incredible relief as the band around his heart finally loosened. His arousal roared like an out of control fire, unlike anything he’d experienced before. Unable to wait any longer, Shadow plucked Rowan out of his chair and into his arms. “I’ve waited so freaking long for this,” he whispered as he leaned in for his first taste of Rowan’s lips.
/~/~/~/~/
The sum total of Rowan’s sexual experience was one fumbling mutual masturbation session with a fellow geek, Clarence who’d got drunk and shoved his hand down Rowan’s pants while studying for their final exams. It’d been fumbling, messy and fortunately, Clarence claimed he didn’t remember any of it the next day.
Shadow’s kiss alone was enough to set his cock erupting with nary a touch. His mate had experience; that much was evident from the confident way Shadow’s hand threaded through his curls, tilting his head just enough so their noses didn’t clash. Shadow’s lips were hard, just like the man himself, but he knew how to move them – sucking Rowan’s bottom lip, nibbling his top lip. Feasting on his mouth like a starving man.
As Shadow stood, Rowan wrapped his legs as best he could around the man’s hips, refusing to let go. Not that Shadow was showing signs of dropping him anytime soon. Already Shadow’s free hand had worked its way under Rowan’s shirt and Rowan shivered at the sensation of being touched. Apart from hugs from his grandmother, the only other time someone touched him in years was to hit him. This was nothing like that.
Tingles; all over tingles. When Rowan imagined his first sexual experience, he expected his cock to get hard and maybe his balls might be sensitive, but he never dreamed the term being aroused could apply to his whole body. Shadow was stroking his back as though he couldn’t get enough of the feel of his skin and Rowan was fully on board. He couldn’t get enough of Shadow touching him.
The slam of a door was the only clue Rowan got that they’d arrived at their destination. All of a sudden, everything felt so real and rather than be scared, Rowan realized he’d been waiting for this moment his whole life, or at least since he was fourteen.
Shadow pulled his mouth away. “I hope you’re not too attached to your clothes.”
“Are you?” Rowan would question where his bravado came from later. For now, he wanted to know - he was desperate to know if Shadow’s body lived up to the advertising. The mattress was soft under his butt as Shadow carefully set him down, and although there was a lingering hint of dust in the air, the bed linen was clean.
But it was Shadow’s scent that
filled Rowan’s nostrils and sent his body into overdrive. His whole life, all Rowan knew about being an omega was that it meant he could be picked on by anyone bigger than him – which was everybody. But here, in the silence of the room with his alpha looming over him as Shadow hurriedly got out of his clothes, Rowan finally appreciated his heritage.
Shadow’s heaving chest was his doing. The giant bulge tenting the alpha’s pants, was because of him. The flared nostrils, the rip in Shadow’s shirt, was all because his alpha wanted him. By the time Shadow was naked, Rowan was transfixed by the wealth of muscles he’d never known possible on a human frame. He was so out of it, he didn’t realize what Shadow was doing until he heard another rip of cloth. His shirt. And before Rowan could react, his pants were torn down the crotch and pulled gently down his legs.
“I promise I’ll do my best to be gentle,” Shadow said, but it was as though he was growling his words. Still lost in thinking about how long it would take to lick a mountain of muscles, Rowan didn’t notice he was being flipped until his face hit the mattress.
“Ouch.”
“Sorry. Hold yourself up.”
Up? Up where? How? But it didn’t seem Shadow was going to give him any answers. Rowan’s butt was hoisted into the air and before he could say anything his butt cheeks were pulled apart. A warm, wet sensation moved over his hole and Rowan cried out. When a rumbling growl came from behind him, Rowan realized, to his shock, the licking over his most private place was intentional.
Is this what people mean by foreplay? While he spent most of his waking hours online, Rowan didn’t watch porn. He knew the basics of omega anatomy, and he understood that sex for him meant he was going to get a cock in his ass, but he didn’t have a clue how couples got to that point. It wasn’t something he’d thought about much, and when he had, he was sure no tongue was involved.
Not that it didn’t feel good. In fact, it felt really good. And the way Shadow was moaning and slurping suggested, to Rowan’s innocent brain at least, that the man was enjoying himself. He kinda wished, when his brain could string a coherent thought together, that maybe he’d have had more of Shadow’s kisses; maybe a chance to do some exploring of his own. But his thoughts scattered completely when he felt a blunt object pressing on his hole. Although he’d never been in his current situation before, Rowan was pretty sure that blunt object was Shadow’s cock. It was far too big for a finger.
