“Okay, now, why don’t you start from the beginning and tell me what was that all about?” Jason said. Their friends surrounded them, standing in various places around the room. The young invaders fidgeted, but no one spoke. Finally, the girl shot at them.
“We know you kidnapped Elina. We came to rescue her and take her back!”
“Lisa!” their leader snapped, but the girl just shot him a mutinous look. Toby felt Jason’s tiredness and wasn’t surprised when his mate pinched the bridge of his nose.
“Okay, once again: Who is Elina, why do you think we kidnapped her, and who the hell are you all?” The last part ended up as a shout. Toby heard a distant rumble of thunder rolling in the distance.
“Calm yourself, son!” Eric snapped and surprised Jason enough to make him look up. Toby gasped. Those strange little lightning bolts were playing in his mate’s eyes! Jason calmed down and the strange phenomenon disappeared.
“Right.” Jason cleared his throat and Toby rubbed his partner’s hand to further calm him down. “Now,” Jason continued in a much more sedated tone. “You will tell me what I want to know or I’ll let my friends force you to.” Their captives sent furtive glances around the room. Tyler sat up and started cleaning his claws. The fey brothers pulled out their daggers and started playing with them, swirling them on one finger, juggling and such. Morton muttered something under his breath and a dark mist formed before him that flowed slowly toward the young cuberows. The shifters were swallowing loudly and some of them were trembling.
Their leader finally spat out, “You know very well who we are, you bastard. Don’t pretend otherwise!”
“Actually, I haven’t the slightest idea who you all are,” Jason answered him calmly. Jack came closer from where he stood in the corner of the room and stood behind Jason and Toby’s backs.
“They’re young members of my old pack, Alpha. I believe the mouthy werewolf is Brent Atkinson, one of the beta’s sons.”
“Huh,” Jason said.
Toby felt the need to point out, “That still doesn’t explain what they’re doing here, attacking us and endangering some innocent kids!” Some of the young cuberows looked ashamed, but the leader only scowled.
“Who the hell are you?” he asked, and it was obvious he was speaking about Jack. The alpha’s advisor took off the rest of the toilet paper covering his face and answered.
“Jack Robinson.” He didn’t offer anything else and the kid in werewolf suit scowled even more.
“Robinson? Didn’t you leave the pack a while ago? What the hell are you doing with these kidnappers?”
Eric’s melodious laugh startled everyone. The sneaky god could blend in really well with his surroundings when he wanted. Toby nearly forgot he was there.
“Wow, son, you went from a bastard to a kidnapper. While I can vouch for your legitimate origins, I’m not sure about the other accusation. Did you take to kidnapping young shifters when I wasn’t around?”
Jason rolled his eyes and huffed in annoyance.
“You’re not helping, father. Could you please shut the fuck up and let us deal with this?”
“Sure thing, son.” Eric nodded and pulled out one of the remaining sweets from his pants’ pocket. He stuffed it in his mouth and waved. “Please, do proceed.”
“Are you people all insane? He just accused you of kidnapping someone and you keep joking about it as if it was nothing!” the girl shouted, her hands balled into fists and her chest heaving.
“Lisa, I told you to stay quiet!” the leader snapped at her, but she held her ground.
“Fuck you!” she spat back. “You’re not my father or Alpha to give me orders. I won’t let them make light of my best friend’s suffering.” The girl’s eyes shined with unshed tears and Toby felt for her. It was evident she was in real distress.
“I’m sorry if it seemed like we didn’t treat you seriously,” he said to her. “Please ignore Eric. He’s not the most tactful person. Now, why don’t you tell us all about your missing friend and we’ll see if we can help you.” The offer slipped out before he could stop it. He wouldn’t back out, though. It looked like a kid was missing and these young shifters thought Jason and his pack had something to do with it.
“Like you don’t know already!” the cuberow leader said. “We are aware you’re the ones who took her!” Toby looked at Jason to see if his annoyance was rising again. It didn’t seem so. Jason wasn’t going into his “serial killer mode,” either. That was promising.
“And just how do you know that? I’m very curious as to how you came to this conclusion since we had nothing to do with it. Did someone tell you this?” Jason asked in a neutral voice. It did seem mightily fishy to Toby, too. How did the kids decide Jason’s pack was responsible for some girl’s disappearance? The leader was stubbornly silent but Toby hoped they could count on the spunky girl’s forthcoming.
“Nobody had to tell us. Nobody believed us when we said she was missing. They all behaved as if she had just gone for holiday somewhere. But I knew it wasn’t right. Elina would never leave not telling me where she’d gone. We always talk at least every other day on the phone when she goes away somewhere. I knew something happened to her!”
The young leader of the cuberows sighed with resignation. It was obvious to everyone that he had no way to control the girl.
“I believed her. Elina isn’t one to just leave without a word. My parents said she sent them a text that she was leaving for a few months to visit our grandmother’s pack. They live in a really remote place and there is no easy way to contact them. But I knew she wouldn’t have gone there. She hated it there when we were kids, she wouldn’t have gone there of her own volition,” he explained grudgingly.
“And then I sneaked into the Alpha’s house and heard him discussing it with one of the betas. He said something about Elina, kidnapping, and then he said your name!” the girl exclaimed triumphantly.
“We knew we had to come and save Elina!” the leader confirmed and then went quiet. Silence fell over the room. Finally, Jack spoke.
“And you thought it was a good idea to get a bunch of kids with you and attack another pack? To attack an Alpha’s house? Did you really believe that you had a chance?” Jack sounded disappointed. “I thought you were smarter than this, that you could make a good Alpha one day. Now I’m not so sure.”
“And what choice did I have?!” the boy shouted at Jack, trembling with anger. “My parents wouldn’t believe me, the Alpha wasn’t going to do anything about it, and no one in the pack would listen to me. I had to do something!”
“Still…” This time it was Tim who spoke from a corner. “You should have done your research. If you did, you’d know there was no chance for you to succeed. It is now common knowledge that one of Alpha Jason’s mates is a tiger shifter. He could have eaten half of you without a problem.”
“Yes,” Jack added, “and you should have felt how far Alpha Jason’s territory reaches. You should have gotten a clue how powerful he is!”
“I still had to save my sister,” the boy said stubbornly.
“And risk your pack-mates in the process? What are they, twelve?” Eric asked his mouth full of sweets. The young cuberow bristled but before he could answer Jason spoke.
“That’s all a futile discussion now anyway.” He turned to the girl who was watching him with hatred in her eyes. “You, Lisa, right? What exactly did you overhear your Alpha say?” She scowled but seemed to think over Jason’s question.
“He said something about Elina. I didn’t hear what exactly. Then about someone sending her somewhere, and then that you interfered.”
“Is that it?” Toby was disappointed that it wasn’t much to go on.
“Yeah, then they changed a subject and spoke about that ‘fucking shiny fairy messing up the business.’” The girl spoke in a thick voice, imitating the Alpha’s. She then realized what she’d done and blushed.
“That isn’t much, is it?” Jason said to nobody in particular. “
I hoped for something more.”
“Alpha?” Tim spoke coming out of the corner of his mouth. “Is it possible he was talking about Leanar?”
“Actually, you might be right.” Jason wrinkled his forehead thinking over it. Toby had a sudden urge to kiss him and smooth those wrinkles.
“We can discuss it with the fey at a different time.” Toby decided to interrupt. “I think right now we should decide what to do with these kids.”
“You’re absolutely right, Toby,” Jason admitted, giving him a small smile. He turned to the bunch of young shifters. “Now, I’ll tell you this once and once only, we had nothing to do with your sister and friend’s disappearance. I’ll discuss this matter with you,” he tipped his chin at Brent, “in a moment, but the rest of you need to get back into whatever you drove here in, get dressed, and go home. You saw you were outmatched. There is nothing else you can do. Your leader and I,” Jason gave the young man more respect than the cuberow in Toby’s opinion deserved, “will take care of this matter.” Jason finished and sat back. The bunch of kids stood there like statues and Toby sighed. He sent a pleading look to Dominic. The alpha wolf smiled at him and then growled.
“Go, now!” The command in his voice was enough to make the kids scatter. They ran out the door followed by Tim and his brother with Jiminy shouting after them.
“And don’t you go talking about this to anyone, do you understand?” The pixie clearly didn’t expect an answer, and he didn’t get one. When all eleven boys ran away and disappeared from sight, the fey twins came back to the living room. Jason shot Lisa a meaningful look, but she didn’t budge. The alpha sighed and shook his head.
“Okay, what I’m going to tell you must stay a secret. It could put you both in danger if the wrong people learned you knew about it.” The two young cuberow shifters nodded and went silent as Jason explained the whole story to them. He told them about being kidnapped and finding Toby and Tyler in captivity. He described their search for Timiny and finding Jack and other paranormals. Finally, he revealed the cuberow Alpha possible involvement in the slavery ring. They were silent for a couple of minutes after he finished.
“And how do I know you’re telling the truth?”
“You don’t,” Jason said. “But you saw we’re more than powerful enough to deal with a threat. What reason would I have to lie to you?”
“But…” the girl, Lisa, said slowly, “but for our Alpha to sell his own people…”
“I know it is disturbing,” Jack interjected. “But you wanted to know the truth. This is the truth.”
“Yes, and now you must go back to your pack. We’ll deal with this and find your friend,” Jason added.
The discussion lasted much longer with the two cuberows not wanting to go back and insisting on helping. Finally, Toby saw Jason give up.
“Fine!” the Alpha said, “I’ll let one of you stay and help. The other, however, must go and keep an eye on your friends. They mustn’t breathe a word about it to anyone, is that clear? Someone must be there to keep them in check.” Brent and Lisa looked at one another, then Lisa huffed.
“Fine, okay, I’ll go! But you better keep me updated on what’s happening!” she waved her finger at Brent. The young man nodded and they all followed Lisa out the door. As soon as she was in the middle of the garden, there was a sudden sound of an owl hooting. Lisa squeaked and jumped in surprise as a large, winged shadow swooped down over her and landed as it turned into a cat.
“Alpha, we’ve got a problem!” Ross’s breathless voice was full of alarm. Toby heard his mate’s tired sigh.
“Yeah, what else is new?” Jason’s voice was tired. “Do come in, Ross. We’ve just managed to deal with the last danger you had announced,” the Alpha explained as he led the procession of paranormals back to his living room. Toby followed his mate and felt his face twisting in a scowl. He was usually an easy-going person, but lately, his bright personality was failing him. What was the new problem Ross came to tell them about? What had happened to Elina Atkinson? And what was that strange woman’s voice doing in his head speaking strange, incomprehensible words? Toby shook his head. His life was getting very complicated. Very complicated indeed.
Chapter Eight
Jason fell back on his king size bed and exhaled loudly. The latest trouble Ross came to tell them about wasn’t nearly as dramatic as it first seemed. Or rather it was a serious but easily fixed problem. The owlcat came swooping into their garden because his brother had collapsed in their apartment and wouldn’t wake up. With no way to contact their family or alert any of the neighbors that anything was wrong, the only people Ross could think to go for help were Jason and his mates. They had gone to the Axelbroms’ place and managed to rouse the collapsed shifter. It proved that the man was suffering far worse side effects of the territory clause than he had led his brother to believe. Once they managed to wake him and Jack drove the man outside of the territory, Ronald finally came clean with his brother. Ross was livid. Right then and there he ordered his brother to swear his allegiance to Jason. Ronald could do nothing but obey. They just finished the ceremony, as plain as it was, when Ross and his brother were swept away by all the pack members who came to witness it. Jason very politely declined the invitation to join them in an impromptu celebration in the form of a pub crawl. Ty had decided to go with them but Toby wanted to stay with Jason and relax.
“So what do you think about what Jack said?” Toby asked, and Jason grimaced. In the process of driving Ron out of Jason’s pack territory, Jack had learned that its area kept expanding. When he had first claimed it, Jason’s territory spanned his town, as well as part of the next one over. Right now it was bigger by several miles. Jack said that if he were to theorize the reason for that, then the more powerful his pack grew, the more significant their territory. It was just a theory, but Jack had yet to be wrong when it came to all this paranormal stuff. Jason was grateful he had Jack. He was sure that without the unassuming cuberow he would have made an even bigger mess of things.
“The territory?” Jason asked finally looking at his young mate. “Truly, I don’t know what to think.” He paused, sighed, then said offhandedly, “Sometimes I wish we were just regular people with regular lives. No magical villains trying to kill us, no annoying god for a father, no magical powers, no mystical prophecies.”
Toby climbed on the bed next to him and gently cupped his face. Jason turned to his mate and smiled at him tiredly.
“I’m sorry, Jay-Jay. It’s not fair this keeps happening to you.” His partner’s eyes were solemn, his face full of regret. Jason smiled wider and pulled the smaller man on top of him. Toby oomphed in surprise and sprawled atop Jason.
“Don’t be sorry, love. Every time such a thought invades my head I think of the very ordinary life I used to lead. Even before I lost my emotions, my life was unremarkable in every way. I attended university and got my degree. I had a few friends, but nobody close enough that they would stick to me when my change came. I had no real goal, no purpose.” Jason closed his eyes briefly, feeling emotions threaten to overwhelm him. “Right now I’ve got you and Tyler. I’ve got our friends. As unconventional as they all are, they are also loyal, and I know I can count on them in any situation. And the most important part is having you and that annoying tiger. You are the two men I love more than anything. As challenging and aggravating as Tyler can be, I wouldn’t change either of you for anything in the world.” Jason finished his impromptu speech and looked up at his mate. Toby’s eyes shined with tears.
“I love you, too, Jay-Jay. And I know it’s selfish, but I’m happy you’re not just an ordinary guy. If you were, we would have never met. I’d probably still be chained to a vampire’s chair and Tyler would be dead. Timiny and Jack would still suffer at the hands of their captors and who knows what would become of Jimmy, Dominic, and Joel, of all our pack members.”
“It’s not selfish, love. You’re the least selfish person I know,” Jason assured him. “But enough of this depre
ssing chit-chat. What do you say we get ourselves hot and ready for our sexy tiger?”
“I’d say it’s a marvelous idea.” Toby grinned mischievously. “However should we do that?”
“Well, I’d start with a kiss…” anything he might have said got cut off as Toby captured his mouth in a searing kiss. Jason moaned and tangled his fingers in Toby’s hair. By the time they parted they were both breathing heavily, Toby’s eyes shining with lust. Jason’s fingers crept to the edge of his mate’s T-shirt and pulled it off. Toby didn’t hesitate in relieving Jason of his in turn. Their jeans were next, and soon they were blissfully naked.
Toby straddled Jason, their half-hard cocks rubbing together as they kissed. Words were unnecessary as Toby lifted up and reached to the bedside table for lube. Jason grinned and snatched the bottle from his mate’s hand. He opened the cap with a quiet sound and poured some of the gel on his fingers. Looking into Toby’s eyes, pupils overblown with desire, he reached behind his mate to find that tight, hot entrance. Toby hissed when Jason’s finger dipped into his channel, then sunk down on it. Reaching up with his free hand Jason grabbed the back of Toby’s neck and pulled him into a kiss. It was almost too much, to kiss the man and finger-fuck him at the same time. Jason felt uncoordinated, his fingers stopping their movement of their own volition so that he had to consciously make them move again.
It was like this with his mates every time. Their passion was all-consuming, the kisses turning Jason into a bumbling, awkward mess. Toby helped, raising and lowering himself on Jason’s hand whenever its movement faltered. Jason barely noticed when one finger turned into two, then three, so used he was to preparing his mate, the motions nearly instinctive.
(Not) Really Scary Halloween Page 7
