by Jane Perky
For a second, he thought Ryan looked right at him. His wolf rose inside him, excited. It wouldn’t be hard to step out of his vehicle, walk right up to Ryan’s window, and introduce himself. What would happen to the job then?
Fuck. Axel needed to get this human out of his head. He should hit up one of the gay bars in the city, pick up some willing and cute guy eager to suck his cock. That would do the trick, except thinking of being with a stranger other than Ryan didn’t appeal to him, not anymore.
Ryan shut the curtains. Axel thought about Zane’s suggestion. It would be easy for a military trained former special ops werewolf to slip in, knock Ryan out for a few minutes, and take the painting their client wanted so badly.
He could have easily grabbed the damn thing, except Ryan’s security system was the main problem. It came equipped with a heat signature detector, and all shifters burned hotter than humans.
The cops would definitely come calling but by then, Axel would be long gone. The thought of meting out violence of any sort to Ryan sickened him. Worse, it made his wolf angry. This human was theirs to protect, not harm.
Where did that thought come from?
Axel needed to do some serious thinking. He watched Ryan some more. Time passed. He forgot about lunch until his stomach growled. Ryan made himself a ham and cheese sandwich before going back to work. Did the human ever take any real breaks?
Ryan seemed to follow the same routine over the past three days. The human was clearly a workaholic, but he had a feeling Ryan buried himself in work so he didn’t need to think about anything else. Axel had been the same. Axel had been a soldier all his life that he didn’t know it was like being a civilian again after he and the others faked their deaths.
Axel had been with the paranormal ops for over a decade, and the same went for Zane, Roman, and Ivan. The four of them had formed an elite unit and been deployed all over the world, but only the mission mattered. He thought he didn’t need anything else, even a mate, which was essential for any shifter, but he was wrong.
Sooner or later, the deaths began to add up. Axel fought and killed for his country, but he began to wonder what it would be like, living a normal life. Sure, he and his crew still did odd jobs, but now, he had the luxury to take a stroll around the city whenever he wanted, to drive out with the others to the nearby woods. To shift and run wild instead of living a life of discipline and control.
Axel could be the one to show Ryan what it was like to be free, except did he even have that right?
He blew out a breath and decided to call it a day. Axel needed a couple of cold beers. Shifters didn’t get drunk easily, but it was possible. Then he’d think about his little problem.
* * * *
Ryan turned off his laptop and rubbed at his eyes. Exhaustion sunk in, made him drag his sorry ass off the living room chair. He stretched his arms. How could he be tired, when he’d done nothing but sit in a chair all day? Ryan loosened his tie then checked his watch.
His last meal had been that ham and cheese sandwich hours ago and it was now close to midnight. All he wanted to do was collapse in his bed and call it a day, except what was he looking forward to tomorrow? More or less the same thing.
Dread threatened to swallow him whole. He looked at his laptop, tempted to fling it against the wall. Ryan had done that once out of frustration but getting a replacement would take three days at the most, and what would he tell his clients? Besides, mindless work kept his mind busy, working.
He went back upstairs, showered, and changed into a comfy pair of jogging pants and sweatshirt when he heard the sound. All the hairs on his arms rose as a wolf’s howl pierced the night. Ryan let out a nervous giggle.
“A wolf’s howl, really?” He shook his head. Ryan was tired, that was all. He was probably imagining things. He should take a couple of sleeping pills. That way, he’d be knocked out completely. Only a dreamless night for him, except he promised himself he’d take fewer pills.
God. He was really a mess. The sound came again, startlingly close. Swallowing, Ryan padded to his bedroom window and pried the curtains open. It felt stifling, so he opened his windows. Moonlight showed him a view of his untidy back yard. He winced.
He considered the yard part of his home, his safe haven, and about once a month, he made an effort to cut the grass, trim a couple of the overgrown bushes. Even though a fence stood between him and the next house, the real world, he still dreaded the task. It looked like he had to strap on a pair of balls and do some gardening.
Ryan froze as a pair of golden eyes looked at him from between two trees. Even with the poor illumination, he could make out the massive outline of the creature. A wolf. No, it was too big. A werewolf?
What the hell? Did that monster make that howl?
A hundred questions spun in his head and he blinked, trying to make the vision go away. Ryan was simply imagining things, but the wolf didn’t disappear. It continued looking right at him, uncanny intelligence in its eyes. Opening its jaws, Ryan made out a row of frighteningly sharp teeth.
One snap of those canines across his neck and he was a goner.
Jesus. Ryan started to hyperventilate as he grabbed the nearest wall for support. His heart raced dangerously fast. Trembles went up and down his arms, and he began to profusely sweat. This wasn’t good. Ryan couldn’t have a panic attack now of all times. He couldn’t bear the thought of strangers entering his home. Hell, they might spirit him out of his safe space and take him to the hospital.
“No,” he whispered. He was hallucinating, that was all. Maybe he overworked himself again. No reason why a werewolf would be in his yard. Ryan knew no one, had no family or friends, couldn’t possibly make enemies, save one.
Jeremy Raines could have hired someone to take him out, could have tired of the waiting game.
No. Ryan was doing it again, overthinking things. He needed logic, not wild guesses.
He needed some water, to relax. Ryan stumbled out of his room and down the stairs, his head slightly spinning. By some miracle, he managed to get his ass to the kitchen. He opened his fridge, but he kept thinking of Raines laughing in his prison cell, glorying in the fact he managed to eliminate Ryan by sending some werewolf assassin after him.
“Stop it.”
His trembles had ceased at least, and his heart didn’t feel like it was about to burst from his chest. That was right. Ryan was overreacting. How could Raines hire some killer from prison, and a werewolf nonetheless?
Still, he couldn’t completely calm down. He hadn’t been aware of losing his balance until he was leaning heavily against his counter, almost falling to the floor. Something huge banged against his door and he jerked up, eyes wide as wood splintered. Ryan let out a little scream and edged backward from the back door until his back hit the fridge door. He could go no further. The door rattled and claws punched through the wood, black and sharp claws better than any knife.
This was real. This was happening.
Getting to his senses, he desperately looked around. No way he’d let himself go down without a fight, except he lost all nerve as the monster made mincemeat of his door and burst through. The wolf was massive, larger than he’d ever seen, with pure black fur and blazing amber eyes. Those eyes locked on his.
Ryan silently willed the werewolf to go away. He let out a laugh. What was he doing? Was this even all real? Maybe this was all a new nightmare he’d wake up from. The werewolf padded closer, nails clicking on the floor. He swallowed as the creature opened its massive jaws and let out a low growl.
This thing only needed a second to end him. Ryan had spent the last ten years of his life making sure he was safe, had convinced himself that the dangers of the outside world could never touch him. He turned his home into a fortress, after all.
What a goddamn fool he’d been.
“Don’t eat me,” he whispered, before fainting.
Chapter Three
The moment Ryan lost consciousness, Axel grew alarmed. Running up to Ryan, he
changed forms. Kneeling, he checked Ryan for vital signs, relieved to hear Ryan’s slow but recovering heartbeat. He had only fainted.
An insistent beeping sound came from somewhere, annoying the hell out of him. Snarling under his breath, he momentarily left Ryan’s side to find its source. It was the security system, probably detecting an intruder. Axel ripped out the touch panel box on the kitchen wall with a single jerk.
Sweet silence.
Axel didn’t know what he was thinking, showing himself to Ryan, in wolf form nonetheless. Several drinks and a couple of attractive guys coming onto him hadn’t been the solution he thought he needed. All it did was make him pump up, his mind constantly straying to Ryan. Eventually, he drove back to Ryan’s place. Wanting a closer look than before, he stripped down and shifted.
Axel had never been careless, and yet he made sure Ryan spotted him. Seeing Ryan beginning to undergo some kind of panic attack made him rush over. Axel easily hefted Ryan in his arms and carried him back to his living room.
On hindsight, maybe Ryan had gone into a panic attack because of him. Feeling guilty, Axel laid Ryan on the couch. Fuck. He’d done the unthinkable, screwing up a simple job. What would Zane and the others think?
It wasn’t too late to amend his mistakes. While Ryan looked fine to his wolf, he could still ring up a doctor to check on Ryan. By then, he’d be gone before the doc or the cops who were alerted by the security system arrived.
No one would believe the mumblings of a recluse who hadn’t stepped out of his home in ten years, and yet, did he really want that? For Ryan to forget he existed?
Axel already crossed the boundary. He knew he shouldn’t be hanging around Ryan’s yard, and his wolf thought there was nothing wrong with checking on their human. Ryan wasn’t their human, he reminded his animal, no matter how much both wolf and man wanted Ryan.
He found a spare blanket from the closet and placed it over Ryan’s still unconscious form. Maybe Axel could linger just a little longer, just to make sure Ryan wouldn’t go into an attack again. According to his data, the police had a fifteen minute response time.
First though, Axel looked at himself. Seeing a naked man would probably shock Ryan as much as a seeing a werewolf. He jogged upstairs, memorizing scents along the way.
Axel found a pair of jogging pants and a big shirt that could fit on him in one of the drawers in Ryan’s bedroom. He put those on and looked around Ryan’s room. Everything here smelled of his little human, and Axel found himself touching surfaces, a gay romance book Ryan had been reading, a tablet, some socks. It was as if Axel wanted to memorize Ryan’s scent.
That way, he could easily track his human and—shit. Axel was doing it again, presuming Ryan was a conquest he planned on winning over. No, conquest was a wrong word, because Ryan was so much more.
Mate, his wolf finally identified. Axel froze. That couldn’t be. For all his jokes to Zane and the others about not needing a mate, there was a truth he’d hid, even from his best friends. That men like him who racked up plenty of sins didn’t deserve a mate. Axel had a feeling his friends harbored the same sentiments.
“He’s too good for us,” he told his wolf.
The beast inside him growled in disagreement. In the eyes of most of the world, Ryan might be considered an oddity, a freak, but not to him. Ryan hadn’t known it, but the past three days, he’d revealed so much of himself to Axel.
Hearing a crash sent Axel running back downstairs, only to find Ryan, clearly fine, wide awake, and holding onto a baseball bat.
“Don’t you dare come close,” Ryan warned, eyes flicking over him. The human swallowed, as if he wondered if he could take on Axel.
Axel extended a hand, a peace offering. “Hurting you is the last thing on my mind, little human. Put the bat down before you hurt yourself.”
“Hurt myself?” Ryan spat, fire in his eyes. “I’m the one with the weapon, buster.”
Oh, this was new. Axel hadn’t expected to see defiance in Ryan, and damn, but it only made him want his little human even more. Screw it. His wolf already knew in his bones what Ryan was. Mate.
Just to see what his little human would show him next, he shifted his offered hand to claws and gave Ryan a toothy smile. “Untrue.”
* * * *
Seeing the human hand of the intruder sporting long, wicked claws, Ryan knew he was done for. Savage but eerily beautiful yellow eyes peered back from a face made of hard but handsome angles. God, he knew it was inappropriate, but Ryan couldn’t help but admire how gorgeous this intruder was. Well-built and made of muscle, the stranger must have been six-foot-three at least, and every inch of skin that peeked from his clothes showed ink.
His clothes, Ryan told himself. Something was definitely wrong with him, because the first thing that popped in his mind was how attractive his attacker was. Damn it.
It wasn’t like Ryan never spoke to anyone else. He communicated to his boss and other team members on the phone and the delivery men and women who brought him his groceries and other shopping. Sure, it was hard, and he dreaded those days, but he managed.
None of those interactions ever stirred him up completely the way this man did. Then again, this man broke into his home and—
A vital piece of information clicked into place. This man had short black hair and those unique, inhuman eyes, just like the wolf he spotted.
“You’re a werewolf,” he whispered, feeling foolish for only piecing the picture together now. He hadn’t been aware of taking a few steps backward until his back hit the wall of his living room.
The werewolf sheathed his claws and actually had the nerve to grin at him. The alarms in his head no longer rang, but he was still wary of this stranger who could easily end his life.
“Guilty as charged,” the werewolf said, tone clearly amused.
“What do you want? Look, the cops are coming. You set off my alarm,” he quickly said, hoping the man would heed his warning.
Ryan didn’t know if his thinking was naïve, but he woke up on his couch with a blanket over him. If the intruder wanted to harm him, the guy would have done so already. Ryan thought that no matter how dangerous the werewolf looked, he wasn’t an assassin sent by Raines.
“By my estimation, they would only be here in eight minutes. Plenty of time for you and me to have a little chat, get to know each other better.”
Fear clogged his throat. He felt like an idiot for thinking this man didn’t mean him any harm. The werewolf growled under his breath, making him jump. Ryan didn’t miss the slightly sharpened edges of the intruder’s teeth.
“I smell fear on you, little human.”
He clutched at his bat, unsure if it would be of any help to him. To his surprise, he managed to come out with a witty retort. “Well, yeah. There’s a dangerous, handsome, big ass werewolf in my home.”
“Handsome?” the shifter asked with a lift of his eyebrows.
“I meant—forget it. Why did you attack me?”
“I didn’t. I saw you upstairs, looking like you were having some kind of attack. I was worried, so I busted your kitchen door open.” The guy flashed him a sheepish look, and God forbid, he found that attractive.
“What were you doing in my yard in the first place?” Brownie points for him for not fainting again. Ryan was getting the situation under control. Good. He couldn’t let his dick do the thinking the whole time.
“Surveillance.”
“Excuse me?” Ryan blushed, aware his face would be entirely red in seconds. What did the guy mean? That he was stalking Ryan?
The shifter blew out a breath. “I’m a thief. I was hired to take the painting in your father’s old study.”
Ryan had the sudden urge to dig a hole and hide from sight. Of course this bastard was a thief. What was he thinking, that this stranger had a crush on him? For crying out loud, Ryan was mediocre in the looks department, and he wasn’t the most stable person in the world. Who would be attracted to a guy like him?
“What kind
of thief would admit all that?” he finally asked. “And you’re talking about that weird horse painting with the obscure artist’s name? My dad bought that from a garage sale.”
He hated that painting as a kid, too.
“I thought I’d be honest with you. Oh, and I’m Axel by the way. Finally good to meet you face-to-face, Ryan.”
His head spun. Nothing this guy said made any logical sense. “Are you pulling my leg?” he finally asked. Fear was replaced by another equally potent emotion. Anger. “You’re making fun of me, aren’t you? Which asshole put you up to this? You think it’s funny picking on the neighborhood’s freak recluse?”
Axel frowned at him, making him lose his nerve. “What the fuck are you talking about? I’m here for a painting because a client wants it really bad. I never expected to encounter you.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“I’ll explain it to you gladly, but another time. The cops will be here soon,” Axel said. Then the werewolf began to strip.
If possible, he grew redder. “W-what are you doing?”
Axel peeled off his shirt, revealing six-pack abs, a hard body, and impressive muscled arms wrapped in ink. His mouth went dry as Axel pushed down the borrowed jogging pants but the werewolf turned, flashing one of those audacious grins at him, as if they shared some kind of private joke.
“Gotta save some for next time,” Axel said with a wink.
“What next time?” he blustered, shocked when Axel began to shift. Bones popped. Fur covered Axel’s chest and shoulders. It was something to watch, like some of the movies he’d seen, except the process seemed painful. Finally, a large black wolf replaced the man.
This time, he didn’t move as the giant monster wolf padded to him and licked at his hand. Ryan found himself reaching out, rubbing at Axel’s left ear. Soft fur, he realized, feeling a lot braver. He let out a laugh. Tonight was so unreal that he still had trouble believing this was happening.
