by Lisa Oliver
His credit card still had two months to go before it expired, although Wesley knew he was going to have to get in touch with his bank. There were bound to be bank fees, minimum payments, and goodness knows what else owing on the account. His debit card was still functional – gods I hope I can remember the pin number – and there was even two hundred and forty-seven dollars in cash.
My pension will still be going into my account. That would be a tidy sum by now. Wes had cashed out twenty years’ service when Diablo first told him about Cloverleah, and provided he could access it, he should have plenty of time before he had to worry about money. It wasn’t as though anyone would have reported me missing to the authorities, he thought glumly, but then that was a positive too. All Wes had to do was call into a branch of his bank, show his ID. They had it on record his last work was as a law enforcement officer, so he could easily say he’d been called in on assignment, undercover and all very hush-hush, which was why his accounts hadn’t been used.
Somehow, touching the basics of everyday life like his cash cards and license, gave Wesley a feeling of hope. He’d carved himself a life before Cloverleah, and he could do it again. For now, though, he was going to order another cup of coffee and something to eat. If he wondered why it was taking his no-good demon so long to track him down, because Wes knew Cass would eventually, it didn’t show on his face.
/~/~/~/~/
“I do have a mate,” Cass said for the tenth time. He pointed to his scar. “I have a shifter mate, just like you do, my lord, and I need to go after him.”
Hades, God of the Underworld, and all round badass, sighed. He had a sweet little guy with him, who’d been introduced as Consort Ali. Cass could tell he was a shifter, but that was all he could see. It seemed Hades’ mating with Ali gave the little guy powers as well – such as blocking the sight from Cass’s third eye. They were in Hades’ mansion, after Cass had kicked up such a stink with Folsom, Hades’ office person, because the damn demon kept telling him that passes to earth took three months to process.
Now, Cass was getting sighed at by a God, and that didn’t bode well for his chances of reaching Wes. “How did you lose your mate, Cass?” Ali asked cheerily. “Perhaps we can get him back for you.”
“He has my stone. He wears my collar.” Cass was choosing his words carefully. He’d already gotten a quelling look from Hades when he’d been escorted into the house. Apparently, Hades and Ali were taking a siesta and did not want to be disturbed. Ali seemed cheerful enough, but Hades did nothing but glower. Clearly, he hadn’t got the rest a siesta was supposed to provide.
“That allows Wesley to use my powers. When he had that unfortunate incident with Bron, I might not have been as supportive of my mate as I should have been, and he got angry with me and disappeared. I’m sure he’s on earth. I have to find him.”
“Which you can do, through your talisman.” Hades waved a hand. “The thing is, I don’t understand what a wolf shifter was doing down here in the first place. And you mentioned children, and a whole pack of red wolves. Your story has a lot of holes in it, Castor.”
“Can’t you speak to your nephew Nereus about all that, my lord,” Cass pleaded. “The children Wes found are at Cloverleah. The red wolves are still here. You know I can’t transport the unwilling. But I’m worried about Wesley. He’s been gone hours. He’s going to think I don’t want him, or that I don’t care about him enough to go to him. He’s gone through so many problems already what with Cloverleah shunning him and all that, I can’t let him down now.”
“So, you do care for this Wesley then?” Ali asked.
“Of course, I do.” Cass looked between the god and his mate. “My lord, consort, I’m just a simple demon and I made a mistake with my Wes, but I can fix it if I get to earth.”
“I’ve never considered a level twelve demon simple,” Hades said drily. “Perhaps I need to reconsider the ranking system.”
Shit. Cass turned to Ali. “Consort, sir, perhaps you could explain what I did wrong with my Wesley so I can make it right? I’m worried about him all alone on earth. He has no one he can turn to. After all he’s been through down here, there’s no saying what his state of mind might be.”
Now Ali looked worried on Wes’s behalf and that was enough to make Hades listen. “I can’t believe you collared your Wesley for a start,” Ali said. “Wolves don’t like that sort of thing. It reminds them of pet dogs, and they are far too proud to be considered anything like them.”
Cass winced as he remembered brushing off Wes’s complaint about being called a pet. But Ali hadn’t finished. “Then there was a matter of you not protecting the house that you and your mate were in. Surely, demons can create wards, can’t they?” He was looking up at Hades when he asked.
“They can.”
Strike two. Cass swallowed the lump in his throat. “Is there anything else I could have done differently?”
“You should have smacked your friend around for a start.” Ali’s eyes started to flash, and Cass got the impression he was about to slide down a slippery shute into a shit ton of manure. If he was lucky. “Shifters are extremely protective of their mates in all ways – not just the brute strength stuff. How could you accept your friend ordering your mate around and then saying he was going to fuck him? Didn’t that make you angry?”
Cass scratched his head and looked at Hades. No help there. “I was really angry, but demons say stuff like that all the time. If I’d got in Bron’s face about it, then he’d have known how much Wes means to me and…” He trailed off as Ali jumped to his feet.
“What’s wrong with your friends knowing you care about your mate?” The little guy even had his hands on his hips. “Do you know how revered mates are? Do you have a clue how special you are, to get a wonderful shifter as your true mate? Someone who will love you, care about you and stay loyal to you until the end of time? Do you?”
“Well, I don’t know about love,” Cass said feeling as though he was neck deep in quicksand. “Demons…”
“Are just as capable of feeling love as any other being,” Hades interrupted sharply. “The only time I’ve ever felt truly blessed in my life was when I realized Ali was my mate. All I had ever wanted was a shifter mate for exactly the reasons Ali described. Does that make me weak? An object of ridicule? Do the demons tease me and run me down behind my back because I make no secret about how much I love my consort?”
“Never, my lord.” Cass crumpled to his knees. It seemed like the safest place to be. Besides, his knees wouldn’t hold up under the pressure of Hades’ displeasure. “All the demons I speak to, say about how happy they are you have found your consort. He makes you happy, that makes this place happy, and we’re all happy Ali is your consort,” he finished lamely.
“I would wipe out this world and everyone in it, if a single being of any kind upset my precious mate in anyway,” Hades said fiercely. “I’m ashamed any demon of mine would feel any less for his own shifter mate.”
Great – I’ve pissed off my mate, a god, and his consort. Mama is going to smack me hard enough to make my ears ring when she finds out. “It wasn’t intentional. I do care about Wes, deeply, strongly, more than you could know. It’s just all new, my mating I mean, and we’ve had so many upsets already, and Bron was…”
“Trying to find a sneaky back road out of the Underworld.” Hades pulled his mate onto his lap. “Your so-called best friend deflected you, with the talk of fucking your mate, so you wouldn’t know what he was truly looking for and be in a position of having to report him. He’s already been taken into custody.”
Holy shit balls. All demons were raised to understand their place in the Underworld. They could only visit the earth realm if they were summoned, given a short-term pass, or sent on a task. But a demon’s sole purpose was to serve Hades and to protect the earth realm from the evil spirits of the dead. If Bron was trying to find a way out… The future didn’t look good for Cass’s friend.
“You need to find your W
es and apologize, on your knees if necessary,” Ali said sternly. “You have to stop worrying about what your demon buddies will say if they learn you have a shifter mate and stop seeing being mated as a sign of weakness. If just one of your friends, family, or anyone else down here calls Wesley a pet again, you have my full permission to throw that being into the fire pit, no matter who he is. Shifters are not pets.”
“Yes, consort.” Cass bowed his head. “Does this mean I can have a pass to go to earth? Only Folsom said it could take me three months to get one.”
“You never needed a pass to go to earth in the first place, Cass.” For the first time since he’d entered the room, Hades smiled. “You’re true mated and wear the scar to prove it. You can come and go between realms as often as you like, as can your mate. Besides which, despite Ali’s aversion to them, the fact Wes willingly put your collar on, means you’re soul bonded too. That is an exceptionally rare gift for a demon to receive. Your days of being confined to the Underworld are over, demon, but don’t abuse that trust. I can still pull you back if you cause trouble on earth and I would.”
“I won’t. I won’t. You have my word. Thank you, thank you both.” Cass clambered to his feet. “I’ll go and find him, apologize, and I won’t let anyone slander him again in name or deed.”
“That’s how I expect a level twelve demon to behave.” Hades nodded approvingly. “You can go.”
“I want to meet this Wesley of yours,” Ali called out as Cass hurried for the door. “Bring him to dinner on Sunday. Eight o’clock sharp.”
“Yes, consort, thank you consort.” Cass could barely manage to open the door; he was all fingers and thumbs. But as soon as he was on the other side of it, he felt for his stone through the ether. Found you, my precious, he thought as he allowed his molecules to break down and he disappeared from the Underworld.
Chapter Twenty-One
Wesley was enjoying a quiet drink in a tavern he found not far from the beach, when the hairs on the back of his neck bristled and his wolf perked up. He’d enjoyed his meal, assuring the lovely woman in the café as best he could once again that he was fine, just recovering from an illness. She’d been the one who’d pointed him in the direction of the tavern, after he’d explained, using hand gestures, he was looking for somewhere to stay.
Having secured a room with its own bath, from a sexy barman who’d winked at him, Wes had come back downstairs, just wanting to soak up the laid-back atmosphere. He’d forgotten how long it had been since he’d slept, but there was something in him that wasn’t ready for him to be in a room on his own just yet.
And now I might not have to be. Wes purposefully didn’t look at his mate as he crossed the room, even though he could feel Cass getting closer. A chair was pulled out beside him, and Cass dropped down, resting his arm over the back of Wes’s chair. “I’m sorry,” Cass murmured, picking up the bottle on the table and studying the label. “I behaved like a crass fool, more keen on keeping the peace with schoolyard bullies, than behaving like a mate should. Can you forgive me?”
“The schoolyard bullies’ analogy is remarkably apt.” Wes leaned back in his chair so he could feel the heat of Cass’s arm against his shoulders. A tension he didn’t know he was carrying immediately seeped away. “Was that what you were doing? Trying to keep your friend from knowing what we shared together? Or was my claiming of you so unsettling to your manhood, you felt the need to side with Bron instead of me?”
“You can claim me again, as many times as you please,” Cass kept his voice low, but Wes could hear him clearly. “As for Bron, I made a mistake. Hades and Consort Ali gave me hell for it, and it won’t happen again.”
“Because they ordered you to treat me better?” Wes wasn’t sure if he should feel insulted or proud.
“Because they reminded me being in love isn’t a sign of weakness, and I should never try and hide it.”
Wes was shocked enough to turn and face his mate. Cass’s brilliant green eyes were watching him intently. “Love?” He whispered. “But you don’t even know me.”
“Human talk,” Cass chuckled. Clicking his fingers, he attracted the attention of the sexy barman, chattering to him in flawless Italian. The barman nodded, smiling, and then scurried away. “I’ve ordered us more drinks. Now, my lovely shifter, do you want to tell me something?”
For a moment Wes was confused, and then he remembered what they were talking about. His face felt as though it was on fire, and he glanced down at the table. “Shifters always fall in love quickly with their fated mates,” he muttered.
Cass’s finger tilted his head up and sideways. “I wasn’t talking about shifters. I was asking how you feel about me, specifically.”
Mesmerized by Cass’s eyes, Wes couldn’t deny it. “I loved you from the start,” he whispered. “But I do wish we could have had this declaration somewhere more private. I want to kiss you so badly, but I’m not sure if we’re in a receptive crowd.”
“You’d better get used to PDA, precious,” Cass said as his delicious lips came closer. “I’m a huge fan myself.”
Wes closed his eyes, even as he leaned into Cass’s mouth. Years of hiding his sexuality from his work colleagues had taught Wes to keep all touching confined to private spaces. But he was also a wolf shifter who’d spent hours without his mate, and besides Cass was a demon. If anyone did have a problem with two men sharing a kiss, they’d soon learn to take their problem elsewhere.
Cass was fire and brimstone, musk, and something sweet. Wes’s hands came up of their own volition, clutching at Cass’s shoulders and pulling him closer. It wasn’t until the whistles, and cheering got too loud to ignore, did he pull back. Cass’s smirk didn’t help the heated state of his face.
“Your drinks, sir.” The barman arrived putting a large bottle on the table and two glasses. “On the house. That was pretty hot.”
“I thought you didn’t speak English,” Wes protested, even as he pulled the bottle closer.
“Ah,” the barman grinned. “It was so cute watching you try to make yourself understood. Have a sexy night, gentlemen.” He sauntered off, sexy ass swaying, even as some of the locals called out to him.
Wes poured out two drinks and handed one to Cass. “What should we drink to?” He asked, raising his glass.
“To us, of course,” Cass laughed, and clinked the edge of their glasses together. “Nothing else is more important than us.”
As Wes took a cautious sip of his drink, he only hoped his demon truly meant those words.
/~/~/~/~/
Cass was free, and yet it wasn’t anything Hades said that gave him the lightness in his spirit, or the warmth in his smile. Demons loved being on earth – it was so different to the Underworld with its changeable weather, hot and cold seasons, snow and an abundance of shopping options. Unwary humans were such fun to play with and the rare brush with another paranormal could often end in sexy fun.
But the moment Cass arrived in Positano, all he was conscious of was his mate. Pale faced among a sea of tanned holiday makers and locals; Wes stood out. Cass hadn’t truly appreciated any of Wes’s attributes in the Underworld but seeing him among other humans – Cass knew in that instant he’d always be able to pick his mate out of a crowd, for all the right reasons. There were other people appreciatively watching Wesley and Cass’s protective instincts flared. Wes sat alone – Cass wanted to be the one who comforted him. And when Wes accepted his lame apology without fuss, Cass had to kiss him because he couldn’t think of any other public way to stake his claim on the man who not only held his soul, but his heart as well.
And now they were in the room Wesley had booked and Cass’s baser instincts were flooding his body. But he held back, noting the tired droop of Wes’s shoulders, and his sloppy smile. “I’m not sure I’ll be up to much.” Wes shrugged and then almost fell as he kicked off a shoe. “Might have had a wee too much to drink.”
“That, and you haven’t slept in over twenty-four hours.” Cass caught his mate,
swinging him up into his arms, and depositing him gently on the bed. “Here, let me.” He pulled off Wes’s other shoe and then reached up and tugged on Wes’s baggy shorts, sliding them down legs still far too pale and slim. His mate was left wearing cute boxers with little red horned demons on, and Cass grinned. He’d have fun taking them off… much later.
But first he wanted to make Wes’s top half more comfortable too. As Cass rounded the bed, sitting on the edge, Wes reached for him. “You’re so hot,” Wes mumbled, his face already smushed into a pillow. “Want you.”
Far more tempting than the incubi. Cass shook his head, evading Wes’s hands as he gripped his mate’s shirt, trying to pull it over his head. Yes, he could have used magic, but Cass found he liked doing this – undressing his mate with his own hands as Wesley’s limbs flailed all over the place. Such a cute drunk.
“You’re still dressed,” Wes moaned, his fingers ensnared in the bottom of Cass’s shirt. “Think. Wave your magic wand.” Wes hiccupped and chuckled. “Your magic wand. Get it? Bring your magic wand over here so I can suck it.” Wes pushed out his lips.
“You are tired, babe, so tired.” Cass wrestled Wes’s shirt over his head and tossed it aside. “Come and cuddle with me, come on.”
“A cuddle demon.” Wes flopped into his arms, almost slapping Cass in the face. “A sexy hot cuddle demon who’s all mine. Yum.” His facial features slackened and then he snored.
“Oh, Wes.” Cass stroked Wes’s unruly hair off his face, stroking gently down his cheeks. “You’ve carried so much shit for far too long. Such a strong babe.”
Wes mumbled; some nonsense Cass couldn’t hear. Clicking himself naked, Cass wiggled them both around so they could lie flat, holding his mate close. He was still stunned by the depth of his feelings for the far-too slim shifter. He was sure that wasn’t normal in demons – or was it?
