A Wolf's Life

by Marcy Jacks

  Clothes with tags still on them.

  Were these new? How could Maxwell have gotten new clothes that fast? Did he send someone for them while Noah had been sleeping?

  It was a weird thought to think about, but what else could it be?

  There was a note. The clothes were definitely for him, and he was invited downstairs for a midnight breakfast.

  Noah did as he was told, dressing and going downstairs. He was already a little familiar with the house thanks to having spent a couple of hours here when he'd helped Maxwell to heal.

  He went downstairs and could already smell the food cooking. He could also make out the sounds of voices.

  "Are you sure? I mean…real?" That was Maxwell. He didn't sound so convinced of something. "What are the odds of that?"

  "I think it's the case." That was Collin's voice. "Max, I'm getting that same strong scent off him, and this isn't the spicy-sweet smell that I'm used to these guys giving off. This is stronger somehow. It's getting to me."

  "Have you done anything yet?"

  Noah came to stand in the doorway of the kitchen.

  "Not yet. He's getting sicker by the minute. I need to wait until he recovers. That's going to be a bitch and a half. And what if he wants to go and stay with his dad or something? What the hell am I going to do then?"

  "Do about what?"

  Both men turned and looked at him. Maxwell immediately smiled. Collin turned away, as though he were ashamed of something.

  "Hey there. You want something to eat? I was waiting for you."

  Noah's stomach growled while, at the same time, doing a pleased flipping thing at knowing Maxwell had been waiting for him.

  Weird feeling, but kind of nice. He stepped into the kitchen. "I could eat. Thanks."

  He sat at the table. Collin still didn't seem to want to look at him.

  "Are you talking about Sam?"

  Sam and Gus had been brought here with him. Sam because he refused to leave Noah's side and Gus because no one knew what to do with him. He was recovering in another house.

  Collin cleared his throat. "My intentions aren't bad."

  "I know," Noah said. He didn't think for one minute that his intentions would be anything but good. Not after what they'd done to save him and the others from the hunters.

  "But are you talking about Sam?"

  If he was, if something was going on, then Noah wanted to make sure his friend had a heads-up about it.

  It didn't seem right to hide things from him when they'd worked so hard to get out of that factory.

  He hadn’t known the man for long, but he felt almost a brotherly protection for him.

  So it shocked him when Maxwell looked at him and answered honestly. "Collin thinks Sam might be his mate."

  Noah blinked, wondering if he’d heard that right, and he looked at the other man, really looked at him. "Are you serious?"

  Collin briefly glared at Maxwell, as though angry the other man had ratted him out. Then he sighed. "Yeah, it's looking like that."

  "Natural matings aren't uncommon," Maxwell said, as though trying to hold off a fight of some kind.

  "I know, but it's just…two in one day? From the same group? I mean, how do you know you're not just thinking wishfully here?"

  Collin looked hurt to be accused of something like that, which was interesting considering the man had five inches on Noah and he didn't look as though anything could hurt him. He and Maxwell were huge, powerful. It was a shock that bullet hadn't bounced right off of Maxwell's chest.

  But yeah, apparently huge and powerful wolf shifters could still get their feelings hurt. So odd.

  Maxwell stepped away from the stove and the frying pan filled with bacon on top of it. He put both of his hands on Noah's shoulders, and Noah felt no threat in this. He stared up at the other man, waiting for him to stop looking at Noah as though trying to figure out how to break the news to him.

  "Baby, I've known Collin since we were both kids. I promise you, if he thinks this is real, then he's probably telling the truth. He wouldn't do that, not to your friend, not to anyone."

  Noah opened his mouth, but he couldn't figure out what he wanted to say, so he closed it again.

  "Will you give him a chance? I don't think he's trying to hurt your friend, but he needs a chance to prove it."

  "Are you asking me not to tell Sam?"

  Collin crossed his arms. "I want to wait until he's well enough for me to move in on him. If the smell changes, and if my lust goes away, then I'll have my answer."

  Noah thought about that, about how much it hurt to not be around Maxwell for those first couple of hours. He seemed to be running almost entirely on instinct, and it wasn't something Noah thought he could control.

  Not in the way Collin was talking about controlling it.

  "I thought you couldn't control this. I thought this was something you had to act on."

  "Collin is going to let Sam stay with him in his house. The close proximity will help to keep things from being too painful."

  Noah looked at Collin. "And what will you do if Sam still wants you? Even if he's falling-over sick?"

  Collin sighed. "Then I'll put him to bed, take a cold shower, and then shoot myself for the bad luck I've been stuck with."

  Maxwell growled at the man. "Nice, idiot. Don't say something like that."

  Collin shrugged. "Well, it still sucks to be saddled with this right when you're in the middle of your heat and I'm getting weird vibes from the both of you. Just do your own thing. I promise I'm not going to take advantage of a guy who's sick and scared. I just wanted to clear that up."

  Collin went to the kitchen door, letting himself out. He didn't quite slam the door behind himself, but Noah flinched regardless.

  "I'm sorry. I wasn't trying to make problems."

  "You weren't making any problems." Maxwell flipped some of the bacon onto a plate with paper towels on it, and then he cracked some eggs and popped the bread into the toaster. He worked quickly. A guy like him didn't look as though he should know how to boil water, and yet here he was, sprinkling shredded cheese into the pan.

  It took less than two minutes for everything else to be ready, and then he brought Noah a plate.

  "You want a fork? I tend to eat bacon and eggs with just my hands."

  Noah smiled. "Yeah, I do that, too."

  Because so long as he had some toast to scrape up the yolk, who needed cutlery?

  And he was glad to have something in common with this man other than they were hot and horny for each other.

  The food was good. Of course an alpha who saved his life also had to be a good cook. The bacon was the good, thick kind that Noah could really sink his teeth into. The eggs were done perfectly without even a hint of burning. Noah wolfed it all down. He didn't think he was that hungry.

  Maybe it was the hours and hours of sex that made him hungry like a wolf.

  Maxwell ate, too, which was good because then Noah wasn't completely embarrassing himself, but the way the man watched him made the heat in his belly increase ten-fold.

  He reached for the orange juice glass, downing it all in one go before he was able to speak again.

  "You and I aren't going to be finished here for a while, are we?"

  Maxwell smiled, shaking his head. "No. This has got its hooks in me. I don't think I'm going to be done with you for a while."

  The promise in those words made Noah's dick twitch and his general body heat increase.

  Seriously?

  All that sex he'd just had and he couldn't relax himself for a few minutes?

  "Is it funny?"

  Noah shook his head. "No, sorry. I just…it's so weird. Last night I was scared to death you might actually die, and I didn't know you. Now you're here, I'm here, and I can't get enough of you. Are we even safe? Can we fuck like this all the time and not have anything happen?"

  Maxwell tilted his head to the side a little. "How do you mean?"

  "I mean, well, you and your
wolves went after a hunter compound, and you're still recovering. Are they going to follow us here?"

  With the way Maxwell looked at him, his answer wouldn’t bode well. It made Noah nervous.

  "You think about a lot of these things, don't you?"

  "Well, someone has to."

  Maxwell nodded. "I was hoping you wouldn't ask me something like that. I was hoping to keep it from you for a little while longer, but you're smart. You knew Collin and I were full of shit when we tried to say what we were talking about had nothing to do with your friend."

  Noah still wasn't sure how he felt about that. He didn't like knowing that Maxwell had considered hiding something so important from him. It seemed wrong. It wasn't right. Noah was a grown man, and he wanted to be able to make decisions like these for himself.

  "I don't want you to keep things from me just because you think it will spare my feelings. I'm not a little kid. Don't treat me like one."

  Noah made sure he sounded as certain as possible about that. If this really was a mating, then he wanted to get that part out of the way right now.

  Maxwell smiled at him, as though he was pleased with this response.

  "All right, fair enough. I suppose this is better in the long run."

  Noah sighed. "All right, well, good. So what's going on?"

  Maxwell leaned back in his chair. He crossed his arms. "After you conked out, I got out of bed and had a chat with Collin."

  "Before getting back into bed with me?"

  Maxwell's grin showed off the points of his teeth. Noah supposed he should have known better than to ask something so obvious. "Right."

  "Anyway, when I was down for the count, the mission became getting me out of there first and freeing you and the other wolf souls second. I wasn't happy when Collin told me that, but not all the hunters were killed. Aside from the ones who ran like bitches the second they realized there were more wolves coming in from the back, there was another group who retreated when Collin went into savage mode. They might try to follow us back here. I don't know how good their tracking is, though. Some of those guys looked a bit round around the middle. I think a lot of them had these grand ideas of erasing wolf shifters off the face of the earth, but that was about it. They didn't necessarily have the skill to get something like that done. They just wanted to be heroes. So of course they ran."

  "But isn't that good? Doesn't that mean they probably won't come back?"

  Maxwell shrugged. "Yes and no. It depends on where they ran to, and whether or not they were going to get reinforcements."

  The food Noah ate suddenly wanted to come back up again.

  "You feeling all right?"

  Noah cleared his throat. Nodding. "Yeah, I'm good."

  Maxwell wasn't buying it. He reached out, grabbing Noah's hand. Noah tried to pull away, shocked that the other man wanted to hold his hand like this. "What are you doing?"

  "Shh."

  Noah didn't have much of a choice, so he held on. Reluctantly.

  "Don't pout. I like holding your hand."

  Noah didn't say anything. He felt so juvenile, but what could he do when the other man insisted like this?

  But then something happened, something strange and invigorating.

  Noah sighed, a refreshing sensation climbing up his arm.

  It soothed him, easing his aching muscles, loosening the tension within them. As if someone was pouring cool water over a light burn. As though he was being given water after trekking it out for a thousand miles in the desert.

  Noah groaned.

  "Feel better?"

  He nodded. "That's so strange."

  "We affect each other. It just isn't going one way."

  "Good to know," Noah said, pulling his hand away before he jumped into Maxwell's lap.

  Just touching the other man like that was enough to get his dick hard all over again, and he didn't want to lose control of himself like that. He wanted to sit here like someone who wasn't thinking about sex non-stop. He wanted to show that this mating didn't entirely have him in its grip.

  He didn't want to be relying entirely on this mating heat.

  And Maxwell was still looking at him as if he thought Noah was adorable for fighting it.

  "I just don't want you to think that I can't control myself," Noah said. He might as well explain himself since Maxwell already knew what was wrong with him.

  "I didn't say anything."

  "You didn't need to," Noah muttered. "Please stop smiling at me like that."

  "I'm willing to give you just about everything you could ever want, sweetheart, but right now that's not one of them.”

  "Great."

  Noah wanted to be annoyed, but he wasn't. He was kind of charmed by the other man, by his confidence, by his everything.

  The bastard.

  "You tired at all?"

  Noah shook his head. "No. I think I could stay up until noon tomorrow. Or, well, noon today," he said, stealing a glance at the clock.

  Maxwell nodded. "Right, well, it's a little late to go introducing you to the rest of the pack, but until then…"

  Maxwell trailed off before he could finish with whatever sexy promise he'd been getting ready to give. His eyes suddenly seemed incredibly far away, and his ears flicked before he lurched forward, grabbed Noah around the middle, and pushed him to the floor.

  Noah didn't understand why until he heard the familiar popping noise of gunfire and felt the angry whizzing of something flying by his ear.

  Like a hornet moving a thousand miles an hour.

  And all of a sudden, just like that, he was back in the factory. He was in that filthy storage room trying to keep himself together and barely succeeding.

  They were here. The hunters had come back for him.

  Chapter Eight

  They were here. What the hell was going on? Maxwell had been assured there were wolves stalking the outskirts of the property to make sure this exact thing wouldn't happen!

  The gunfire stopped, but he and Noah were still in the middle of the floor, still totally exposed, and he needed to get them the hell out of there.

  "Noah? Come on, baby, we've got to move. Stay low."

  He couldn't even check to make sure his mate wasn't injured. He just had to grab the man by his arms and start dragging him away before it could get worse.

  Noah's gaze seemed very far away, as though he couldn't understand what was happening.

  Or as though he were having a panic attack.

  Fuck. He needed to get them out of here. Fuck!

  The front door to his home was kicked in. A blinding light was flashed in Maxwell's eyes from the distance. He growled, rolling out of the way with Noah in his arms before the gunfire could start up again.

  How many had these motherfuckers killed to get here? These weren't the chubby bastards who had been guarding the factory. These people were their own kind of dangerous.

  They wore all black. That was the only thing he could make out about them for sure as he opened the door to his basement and dragged Noah inside.

  Noah pulled against him, as though trying to stop Maxwell from taking him down there.

  "N-no."

  "We don't have time for this, baby. We've got to go."

  Maxwell picked him up and flew down the stairs. He had a safe room down here, and that was where he planned on keeping Noah until everything was safe.

  Noah struggled to get out of his arms, still in the throes of his panic attack as Maxwell pushed him into the safe room. He grabbed Noah by his shoulders after setting him down on his feet, shaking him hard enough that his teeth clacked.

  "Listen to me! This is a safe room. You're fine in here. The steel is two feet thick. Lock the door behind you and you'll be all right. Understand?"

  Noah blinked, as though finally seeing him. "Wh-where are you going?"

  Maxwell gently pushed him into the room. "To take care of some trash."

  Corny as all hell, but it was the truth. He shut the door, waiting to h
ear the sound of the lock being slid into place from the inside.

  Maxwell sighed when he heard it.

  At least now he could take care of some business without worrying about Noah.

  Someone was bound to hear this. Maxwell's ears could pick out the sound of screaming as these motherfuckers terrorized the rest of his pack in the middle of the night.

  The alphas would be waking up very soon, if they weren't awake already. Maxwell shifted into his wolf shape and ran up the stairs just as the door opened for him, allowing him to lunge perfectly at the bastard’s throat before he could point his weapon.

  Not exactly a superhero, this guy.

  He went down easily. He wasn't a round man like the ones Maxwell had been dealing with back at the factory when he'd found Noah, but he wasn't exactly an athlete either. Maxwell could feel it in his body, taste it in his blood. This guy wasn't taking his protein shakes.

  Maxwell was fast. He hadn't survived multiple hunter attacks over the years because he took his time. He let his mouth chomp down around the guy's throat. Even with protection there, his teeth cut through the neck guard with only some effort on his part.

  Then there was the gurgling, and then he was still.

  It happened fast enough that Maxwell was able to jump off his body and make a run for it just as more flashlights pointed his way.

  Someone shouted, at him or at the rest of the men to go and chase after him. Maxwell couldn't be sure. All that mattered was none of those bastards tried to get downstairs.

  That's right. Come and get me. Come and get the better prize.

  He just had to lead them away. That was all he needed. They could burn the house down around the safehouse downstairs and Noah would still be safe. Maxwell just had to keep these fuckers away from his mate.

  * * * *

  Noah paced around in the tiny room. There was a single cot there, multiple shelves filled with food, some of it canned and the rest freeze dried. He looked at some of the packages just to keep his mind off of what was going on upstairs.

  Was Maxwell a survivalist? There were thermal blankets down here, chemicals designed to clean dirty water, and even more bags designed to collect water.

  There were also knives. A lot of them.