Wolfsbane [Dark Hollow 5]

by Shannon West

  “But, Nicky, that was because you two were in the ancestral ring. Ian told me about it,” Logan said. “Much too public a challenge, and Marco was right. If he’d been defeated by his own pet, he would have lost the respect of all the wolves.”

  “Then how?”

  “Keep it more private. Ian has already agreed to let me fight beside him if the time comes. He said he wants me by his side so he can protect me. What about Marco? Will he let you fight alongside him?”

  “Ha!” Nicky scoffed. “He has a plan to put me in one of the safe rooms downstairs, along with all the other pets—Brett will put you there too, Evan—and then we’ll wait there till they defeat the Hunters and come for us. If they were to lose, then the guards they’ll put in there with us have orders for no one to be taken alive.”

  “My God,” Evan said quietly. “We’d be sitting ducks—helpless.”

  “Right,” Nicky said bitterly. “I’d rather go out fighting any day. How can I get Marco to change his mind and let me stay near him?”

  “Make a wager with him—he won’t be able to resist, especially if you make it worth his while,” Logan suggested.

  “A wager? Like what?”

  “Like if he wins, you’ll do something for him—something submissive that he’d love. But if he loses, he’ll have to let you stay near him if the fight ever comes to us. Then make damn sure you win.”

  Nicky looked skeptical. “Marco outweighs me by forty pounds of pure muscle. What the heck can I bet with him?”

  “Bet him you can beat him in a wrestling match in your bedroom.”

  Nicky looked at Logan as if he’d lost his mind. “What part of ‘forty pounds of muscle’ do you not understand?”

  “Remember what I told the pets the first day—if you already think he’s going to win, then you’re already defeated.”

  “I’m not going to try to gouge Marco’s eyes or knee him in the balls. I don’t want to try to hurt him.”

  Evan nodded. “Yeah, I’m not willing to try that on Brett either.”

  “So don’t—just put them on the floor. That’s all you have to do. A little martial arts move. I can show you how it’s done,“ Logan said with a little smirk.

  “Wait a minute,” Nicky said. “You said Ian had agreed to let you fight alongside him. Did you do that to Ian?” A slow grin spread over his face. “You did, didn’t you?”

  Logan shrugged. “Maybe. We may have had a private little wager going on. Maybe with an extra little something to sweeten the pot.”

  “Like what?” Nicky asked, fascinated.

  “You remember when they found us at the cave? When I woke up, Ian was so furious and crazy he told me I was going to spend thirty days naked in bed. Of course, he backed off that later, but it never quite sat right with me. So I wagered that if I put him on the ground, he’d spend an entire weekend naked in bed, and I could have my wicked way with him as often as I wanted to. If he won, I’d do it.”

  “Oh, my God,” Nicky said. “You fucked him? You did, didn’t you? Wait a minute—didn’t Ian have a stomach virus a couple of weekends ago—we didn’t see him for two days.”

  Logan just smiled wickedly while Nicky’s mouth dropped. “Was that it?” Nicky laughed so hard he had to lean against Evan for support. “Oh my God, I’d like to do that to Marco. Especially the topping thing. You really think I could?”

  “I think you can, Nicky, and I think you should. Just be sure you’re ready when you do.”

  Nicky got a wicked little smile on his face. “Oh yeah. I can definitely handle this. Logan, I think you need to show me some moves.”

  Chapter Five

  “Nicky, I really don’t want to discuss this anymore,” Marco said irritably. It was just after dinner and Nicky had been relentless the whole time he was eating. Nicky could exasperate Marco more than anyone he’d ever met. He loved the young man so much it frightened him sometimes, but he could also get under Marco’s skin like nobody he’d ever met.

  “You don’t want to discuss it because you know I’m right, and you don’t have a good answer.”

  “You’re not fighting the Hunters, either by my side or not. It’s ridiculous and out of the question.”

  “Ridiculous?” Nicky narrowed his eyes and cocked his head. “How do you mean that, Marco? Do you mean that it’s ridiculous to suppose that I could defend my home and my family? Do you think so little of me?”

  “Of course not, Nicky, you know what I mean. I’m not about to let you get yourself hurt or worse fighting trained soldiers. With guns! You can get mad all you want and call me all the names you want, but I’m not going to allow it.”

  “I’m not really asking your permission, Marco.”

  “Damn it, Nicky!” Marco stood up, trying to be as large and intimidating as possible, but Nicky had seen it all before and was not overly impressed.

  He jumped to his feet and stared right back at him. “Damn it, Marco! Don’t cuss at me, and don’t try to throw your weight around. You can’t stop me.”

  He bent over at the waist to put his face right up to Nicky’s. “You wait and see if I can’t. I’ll take a lot from you, Nicky, but one thing I won’t compromise on is your safety. If I have to tie you up and throw you in that safe room I’ll do it.”

  At a standoff, Nicky crossed his arms over his chest. “What if I could prove to you that I can take care of myself? That I don’t need you to protect me?”

  Marco rolled his eyes. “How are you going to do that, Nicky?”

  “By challenging you to a fight.” Nicky smiled archly at him, as Marco waved his hand and turned away.

  “Again? That didn’t work out so great the last time, did it?” He smiled but got only a stony stare in response. “Look, Nicky, I’m not going to fight you, baby. It wouldn’t exactly be a fair fight.”

  “Oh, really? And why is that? Because you think you’re so much better a fighter than I am?”

  Marco sat down on the sofa and put his hands behind his head. “Well, yeah. That and the fact that I wouldn’t want to hurt you, so I would pull my punches. I wouldn’t think you’d want to hurt me either. Or would you like to kick me and gouge out my eyes like Logan is teaching you guys?”

  “I don’t, baby,” Nicky said, standing in front of him. “I’d never want to really hurt you. That’s why I’ll just put you down on the floor and keep you there until I let you get up.”

  “And just how do you plan to do that?”

  Nicky shrugged. “I can’t give away my secrets, but l’ll bet you I can, and I’m so confident I can do it, I’ll make it worth your while.”

  It was Marco’s turn to narrow his eyes. “How would you do that?”

  “If I can’t do as I say, then I’ll-I’ll get up every morning and cook breakfast for you, and I’ll never bring up the subject of fighting alongside you again.”

  Marco looked skeptical.

  “I promise!” Nicky held up a hand to swear.

  “You’re going to get up every morning at six o’clock? To cook?” Marco’s highly dubious tone instantly made Nicky furious.

  “Well, if I lost the bet I would, but I won’t have to because I’ll win.” Nicky snapped back at him.

  “Okay.” Marco stood up and walked lazily toward Nicky. “Go ahead.”

  “First, you have to promise to let me keep training and fight at your side if it comes to an all-out war. No safe room! I’d rather die—you know I can’t stand closed places, and not knowing if you were alive or dead—it would kill me.”

  “Nicky, I appreciate all that, sweetheart, but...”

  Nicky held up his hand. “Wait. I’m not through. If I do this, I also get to have sex with you any way I want to tonight.”

  Marco smiled and reached for him. “Not a problem, sweetheart. We don’t have to do all this silly fighting for that.”

  Nicky allowed Marco to kiss him for a few minutes and then pulled back. “Any way I want to. Promise, Marco.”

  Marco sighed. “Okay, any way
you want to. Now can we get on with this? I have some things I need to do before bed tonight.”

  “Okay, sure. I have some things I need to do before bed tonight too. So stand up, and come at me. Just like you’re going to hit me.”

  Smiling a little, Marco stepped forward with an arm upraised. Nicky stepped forward, just as he’d seen Logan do, and with his left hand struck Marco a light blow to his Adam’s apple. Marco stopped dead in his tracks, got a surprised, choking look on his face and grabbed his throat. Nicky moved his left hand down to his shirtfront and pushed on Marco’s chest as hard as he could. At the same time, he bent over and stuck his right hand between Marco’s legs, grabbed his belt from the back and yanked hard.

  Nothing happened.

  Marco stared down at him. “Why did you hit me in the throat?”

  Desperately, Nicky repositioned himself, pushed again on Marco’s chest as hard as he could while sticking his hand between his legs and grabbing his belt. Marco stood solidly still, staring down at him curiously.

  “Is something supposed to be happening?” Marco asked.

  Nicky straightened back up and glared at Marco. “You’re supposed to fall down on your back, damn it!”

  “Oh,” he said, smiling. “Should I do that for you now, baby? Will you come with me?”

  He pulled Nicky in his arms and sat down on the floor, then lay on his back with him still tightly wrapped in his arms. Nicky tried to pull away and finally sagged against his chest. “No, damn it. I was supposed to be on my feet with you on your back.” He pouted a little. “I was going to fuck you tonight.”

  Marco raised his eyebrows with interest. “Oh? Okay.”

  “You mean you’d let me?”

  “Sure. Sounds good to me, sweetheart.”

  “But-but Logan says Ian hates it and Logan makes him do it anyway.”

  Marco put back his head and laughed. “Well, that’s fine for Ian, but I like you any way I can get you. Sounds pretty sexy to me.” He leaned up and kissed Nicky. “Hey, did you want me to dislike it? I can resist and everything, if you want me to.”

  Nicky laughed. “Idiot! Okay, yes, I want to fuck you very much. Pull those pants off, buddy, and I’ll go get the lube.”

  He jumped up and ran to the bedroom and just when he found it and was on his way back, Marco called out, “Oh and Nicky? I think I’ll have bacon and eggs tomorrow, baby. Eggs over easy, please.”

  Nicky stalked back into the room and glared down at him.

  Marco smiled back up at him, unable to resist teasing him. “Did you think I forgot our bet, baby? No way. I’m going to enjoy every minute of this.”

  * * * *

  “So it didn’t work at all?” Evan asked.

  “Hell no!” Nicky looked up sullenly at Logan and Evan, who was having a hard time trying to look totally supportive and not smile at all. “The big gorilla. I did exactly like you told me, Logan. It was like trying to push over a damn tree.”

  “Well, did he at least let you top him?”

  “Oh, sure. If you can call it that. He was just full of helpful little hints and directions. Talk about a backseat driver.”

  Evan put a companionable arm around Nicky’s shoulders. “I’m sorry you didn’t have any fun, Nicky.”

  “Now I didn’t say all that. Sex with Marco is always fun. Hell, it’s fantastic. It wasn’t so great, though, when I had to get up this morning at five-thirty to fix his breakfast. Oh, and he rubbed it in too. ‘Can you bring me some juice, Nicky? Next time don’t cook my eggs quite so long, Nicky. Can you make pancakes, Nicky? I think I’d like some sausage tomorrow too, Nicky,’” Nicky said in a mocking, sing-song voice. “He’s such an asshole!”

  Evan smiled. “Well, he did win the bet...”

  “Not helpful, Evan,” Nicky said.

  Nicky looked down at his watch and frowned. ”It’s almost nine o’clock. You guys please come help me. Marco decided to get cute and invite over his council for a breakfast meeting at nine. He wants me to cook.”

  “Seriously?” Evan looked shocked. “He wants you to cook?”

  “Yeah, and I kind of volunteered you two as waiters. C’mon, Logan, don’t look at me like that. You got me into this mess with your ‘Ah, go ahead Nicky, you can do it. If you think you’re defeated, you already are,’ bullshit.”

  Logan laughed. “Okay, I’ll help. You coming, Evan?”

  “Oh, yeah, I want to make sure Nicky doesn’t poison all of them. I’m still kind of partial to my wolf.”

  An hour later, Nicky was still making pancakes, pushing his curly hair off his hot face and shooting dark glances at Marco every chance he got. Evan and Logan were doing all they could to help by serving and washing up, but if looks could kill, Marco and the entire council would already be laid out dead on the floor, Evan thought with amusement. Around the table sat Marco, Ian, Casey, Rory and Brett. Evan had just finished pouring coffee in everyone’s cups, and was now leaning against Brett, who was there in his new role as Lead Gamma. Rory had recently given up the post to help Casey in his job as Battle Commander. Logan had already started on the mountain of dishes while Nicky was at the stove, finishing up another batch of pancakes for Marco. Somehow, Evan didn’t think this new job of Nicky’s would last much longer after today, no matter what the bet had been.

  Ian pushed back his chair and took a big sip of his coffee. “Thank you, Nicky, that was delicious.” The distinct growling sound that came from Nicky’s direction seemed to surprise even Marco.

  “Uh, Nicky...honey, you don’t have to keep cooking. I think everyone is full now.”

  Nicky slammed his spatula down and whirled around to face Marco. “Well, if they’re not, they ought to be. It’s like trying to feed a herd of horses. As far as I’m concerned, the kitchen is closed. If anybody else wants anything, they can damn well fix it themselves.” He turned off the stove and perched himself on one of the stools at the bar, lips stuck out in a full-on pout. Evan watched in fascination.

  A bit red-faced, Marco turned back to his guests and cleared his throat. “Okay...well...now where were we? Oh yes, Ian, you were about to give us the latest report from Dr. Cornsilk.”

  Marco was interrupted by the loud banging of pots as Nicky, who had now moved over to help Logan, began to slam pots and pans around in the sink.

  “Nicky!”

  “What? I’m not doing anything...” Nicky’s voice was unrepentant, but he did stop banging things around.

  “Where was I?” Ian asked. “Oh yes, he sent this over yesterday, I believe. Apparently there was real uproar after Brett escaped with Evan. Elias Winters was furious. Dr. Cornsilk has only been working with this Operation Wolfsbane for about five months now, and he still doesn’t have full access to all the records from before he was assigned to the project. After all the leaks and escapes recently, Winters is really tightening up. Dr. Cornsilk may not be able to bring us many more reports for a while or it will jeopardize his position.”

  Marco nodded. “Understandable. We should let him lie very low for a long while. He was too close to Evan’s situation not to be under suspicion.”

  “Right,” Ian said. “Anyway, he said there have been rumors that some of the soldiers in this Operation Wolfsbane of his are already at a secret camp somewhere in the mountains, but nobody knows exactly where. We thought Evan might be the first of them, but apparently they’ve been training there for months—much longer than we’ve known about before now. And one more thing—some of the rumors say the men are already feral.”

  “Damn!” Casey said, speaking up for the first time. “It can’t be true. How would he manage to keep them alive? If it were, we could really be in some trouble. If Winters set them loose on innocent humans, people will be sure to blame us. We could be in serious danger here.”

  “Let’s not jump to conclusions,” Marco said. “Brett, while you were being held captive, did they ever bring in any more soldiers other than Evan?”

  “No, but I wasn’t there long. They to
ok a lot of my blood, but that’s about it. That and the whippings,” Brett said bitterly.

  “So we have no reason to think this is true, necessarily. They took a lot of Brett’s blood, but surely not enough to feed a whole group of feral soldiers. Like Casey said, they would have died soon without blood.”

  “Well, not necessarily,” Nicky said, looking over his shoulder as he helped Logan wash dishes. “I mean, Gabe certainly didn’t die, and he said he’d been bitten for over a year before Zack found him.”

  “Who?” Marco’s tone was sharp in the suddenly quiet kitchen.

  Nicky turned. “Uh...nothing. I didn’t say anything.” He turned back around and started busily swiping at a dish.

  “Nicky? Are you talking about the Georgia Alpha’s pet? Gabe? What do you mean he was feral?”

  “You must have misunderstood me. I said he went sterile. A real shame...so young too.”

  “Nicky, look at me.”

  “No, Marco.” Nicky turned and Evan saw tears standing his eyes. He threw down the dish towel he’d been using, and squared off to face his mate. “I’m tired and I’ve been working since I got up this morning at five thirty! My back hurts and my feet hurt and my fingers are all pruney. And now you’re yelling at me!”

  Evan had to smother a smile. No one, including Marco, had raised his voice to Nicky, but Nicky was playing this like an Academy Award winning actor. He even let his lower lip tremble just a bit.

  Evan could see every wolf at the table flinch. This was the kind of behavior that raised their hackles but also brought out every protective bone in their bodies. Evan knew each and every one of them was dying to go over and comfort Nicky and tell him it was going to be fine. They probably also wanted very badly to put him across their knee.

  Marco recovered first. Probably, Evan figured, because he’d had so much experience with Nicky’s wiles. He stood up and advanced on Nicky, stopping only inches away. Apparently unable to resist, he pulled him into his arms to comfort him but still held his gaze with a stern look.

  “Settle down, sweetheart. Tell me what you know about Gabe, and stop trying to distract me. I know you’re tired, and you can go lie down in a few minutes, but now you’re going to explain what you were talking about.”