Wolfsbane [Dark Hollow 5]

by Shannon West

  Evan leaned forward and took Brett’s long finger in his mouth, swirling his tongue over the back side and sucking it inside. Brett’s eyebrows rose, he made a funny, choking sound and lifted Evan up in his arms as he strode toward the bed with him, Evan’s legs wrapped around his waist.

  Laughing, Evan said, “I thought you didn’t have enough time.”

  He threw Evan down and began jerking on the fastenings of his jeans. “I don’t, so get those clothes off.” As Evan wiggled out of his jeans, his erection popped free of his tight pants and bounced off his stomach.

  Brett watched in fascination and he swallowed hard a couple of times. “Don’t worry. This isn’t going to take much time at all,” he said, as he dived into the bed after him.

  * * * *

  The meeting was already in full swing as they entered from the back of the room. Evan found a table where he could watch and listen and still not be too conspicuous as he eavesdropped, though he noticed several other Werekin in the room, doing the same thing. Brett slipped in and sat at the end of the table with the other council members, receiving a slight raising of the eyebrow from Marco.

  “Glad you could join us, Brett.” He waited until Brett mumbled an apology and then focused his attention back on Gabe, who was being questioned by the council. He was sitting by his mate, Zack, who had a protective arm around him, and Gabe looked a little nervous.

  “I don’t know what else to tell you, Marco. Tim bit me, that’s about it. He killed my poor mom, and left me for dead there in that rest stop. If it hadn’t been for the state patrolman following the trucker in there, he probably would have killed me too.”

  Zack spoke up beside him. “That’s not exactly true, honey. Before he died, Tim said he wanted you for his mate. Your mother just got in the way.”

  Casey leaned forward. “If that’s what he was trying to do, then why didn’t he mate with you?”

  Gabe bit his lip and looked helplessly at Zack, who immediately pulled him closer and spoke up. “He did. Or at least he tried to. He was in the middle of it when the patrolman arrived and heard Gabe’s screams. Tim never got a chance to finish, and that’s all either of us is going to say on that subject.” He glared around the table at all of them and there was an awkward little silence.

  Marco cleared his throat. “Of course. That does raise some questions though, and I wonder if even the–uh—brief contact was enough to make a difference in his ability to survive. Most of our oral traditions passed down by the family say that if a person is bitten by a wolf and not cared for with the blood, then they die. Period.”

  Ian shook his head. “Maybe not true, Marco. Logan said Winters had been conducting some kind of experiments for a while before he came to us. He could have been making ferals all this time, using rogue wolves and other captive wolves to turn them. When I was in their prison, I overheard them say they were going to use my bite for the next batch of recruits. I had no idea at the time what that meant.”

  Gabe shrugged. “All I know is nothing happened with me. At least, I never got sick or anything. It scared the shit out of me the first time I shifted. I was alone at my house after my mom died, and I woke up in the middle of the night and it—happened. I could feel my body changing and my first thought was to call 911, but my mouth wouldn’t work right. So I ran outside to drive myself to a hospital. I looked up and saw the full moon and just...went. Shifted into this creature you guys call feral. I was so freaked out I just took off running. I had this urge, you know? To just run under the moonlight. I ran till I dropped. Then I guess I passed out or something, because I woke up the next morning and I was myself again.”

  Nicky, sitting next to him, shook his head. “God, you must have been so terrified.”

  Gabe smiled. “I was. I was scared out of my mind the next night, but it didn’t happen. Then I was beginning to think I’d dreamed the whole thing when it happened again at the next full moon. That’s when I packed up my old truck and got the hell out of there. Just left and never went back. I was afraid I’d wake up some time after I changed and find out I’d killed somebody. Maybe even some of my friends or neighbors. I mean, I’d seen the werewolf movies. Scary shit.”

  Zack said, “I found him not quite a year later, camping out in one of the national forests near my land. Actually, just over the line into my land. He smelled a little like a wolf, and I knew he was some kind of Werekin. I just couldn’t figure out exactly what he was. I gave him the mating bite shortly after that, and fed him my blood. He’s never changed since.”

  “How did you feel when you changed into the feral creature, Gabe?” Ian asked.

  “Not bad, really. At least not after the physical change itself, which hurts like hell. Then mostly angry, bitter, kind of mad at the world in general.”

  “That’s the way I felt too,” Nicky said. “I wasn’t in that state long before Marco tackled me,” he glanced up at Marco. “But I do remember feeling so angry. Just furious, really, like I wanted to hurt somebody.”

  Marco nodded. “So these feral creatures would be fierce soldiers, if Winters could find a way to control them. Maybe that’s why he wanted to experiment with the mating bite, thinking that might be a way.”

  Ian spoke again. “One thing I don’t understand. What happened to Tim? What made him go after Gabe that way? Was there an autopsy done on his body?”

  Zack looked uncomfortable. “Yes, but it was inconclusive. No brain tumors or drugs or anything in his system. We really have no idea.”

  Marco shook his head. “Something doesn’t add up. I knew Tim, and remember him well. He left your pack for a while when he turned twenty-one and came to us. He worked for a while in the mines. He was a nice kid, bright and smart. The person I knew would never have done what he did to Gabe and his mother. It’s unthinkable.”

  Nicky looked up at Marco’s words and straight at Zack. “He left for a while? Why did he leave your pack and come to Marco’s, Zack? That’s a little odd, isn’t it?”

  When Zack hesitated, Marco said, “It was because he was an alpha wolf. Isn’t that right, Zack?”

  “What difference does that make?” Nicky asked.

  “There can only be one alpha of a pack, Nicky.” All eyes shifted down to Casey as he spoke up. “That’s why I had to become the battle commander when I joined your pack. It was a good compromise for me, because I love fighting and training soldiers, but it wouldn’t have worked for everybody. That’s why so many rogues are actually alpha males. And why so many strong alpha wolves get captured by Winters and his Hunters.”

  “I wondered about that,” Nicky said thoughtfully. “There are an awful lot of them roaming around, it seems.”

  “It’s true,” Marco said. “Many of them aren’t happy if they can’t lead a pack, so they wind up leaving and trying to find a new place for themselves. Is that what happened to Tim, Zack?”

  “Yes. We were both alphas and when the time came for a new leader, we both wanted to lead the pack. We had to fight for the position in the ancestral ring. I won, and Tim never completely got over it. Finally, he left to go to you. When he came back two years later, he was quieter, more subdued. I gave him a council seat. Did everything I could to keep him satisfied.”

  “Wait a minute,” Marco said. “He wasn’t with us for two years. He left after a year and said he was going back home.”

  “Well, he never made it.” A puzzled silence dropped over the table. Zack looked confused. “He told us he’d been with you the whole time. If he wasn’t with you, then where...?”

  “Elias Winters,” Nicky said quietly. “What if he got him and used Tim in his experiments and tortures?” He turned toward Marco, who had put a warning hand on his arm. “Well, it’s possible, Marco. It would explain the missing time, plus the change in him when he returned. If he did things to his mind, it might even explain why he attacked Gabe and killed his innocent mother.”

  “That could be an explanation, I guess. I never questioned him all that much after he
came back,” Zack said thoughtfully. “I thought it would be best to leave him alone and let him find his own way. God, if that’s true, what the hell did Winters do to him?”

  “Good question,” Ian said. “When they had me, they had just begun injecting things into me. Logan objected, saying it might taint my blood, and they were feeding it to him, so the injections stopped. Who knows what might have happened if it hadn’t been for that?”

  “Is there any way to prove whether or not Winters captured Tim? I wonder if the people we have on the inside would recognize a picture of him? Do you have any recent pictures of him, Zack?”

  “My aunt, his mother, would have some. I don’t know that she’s forgiven me for killing him—if I’ve forgiven myself, for that matter—but if this might be a chance to at least partially clear his name, or explain what happened, I’m sure we could get them from her.”

  “Good.” Marco leaned back in his chair. “As soon as you can get those, I’ll contact our inside sources. I don’t know if we’ve answered all the questions we had about ferals, but we’ve made a start. Does anyone else have any questions they’d like to bring up?”

  Casey spoke up. “I have one, actually. It’s always been rumored that once a pet has gone feral, they’re never exactly the same. They’re wilder, harder to handle. Would you agree with that, Zack?”

  Marco glared down the table at Casey, angry over the implied insult to both Gabe and his own mate, Nicky.

  Zack didn’t seem to take offense though, particularly. He put a fond hand on Gabe’s thigh. “Wild, unpredictable, passionate and beautiful—those are all adjectives I’d use to describe Gabe. It’s true we had a few problems at the start of our relationship, but that’s only to be expected from a human pet. He wears my collar now and my ring on his finger. That’s usually more than enough to remind him who he belongs to. If not, I take whatever steps I need to. Does that answer your question, Casey?”

  Casey nodded with a grin on his face, and from where Evan sat, he could see the remark made both Gabe and Nicky’s faces flush red, and they looked angry. The meeting was breaking up. Marco, Casey, Ian and Brett all came over to speak to Zack and all of them looked pointedly at the wide gold collar Gabe was wearing while, to Evan’s mind, Zack preened like a peacock. While the wolves talked, Gabe and Nicky quietly got up and walked out of the large room, their heads together. Evan got up to meet them.

  Nicky spoke first. “Hi, Evan. Did your master let you out for a few minutes?” At Evan’s look of surprise, he shook his head and smiled at him. “I’m sorry. I’m just so damned mad at Casey’s question and Zack’s answer.”

  Evan shot a look at Gabe, but he smiled and nodded in agreement. “Yeah, that’s my man. Insufferable, conceited, full of himself—pretty typical wolf behavior, I’d say.” All three of them smiled, and Gabe touched his collar self-consciously. “I went into this whole thing kicking and screaming, especially the whole domination thing, but now I kind of like it. The collar’s pretty and kind of makes me feel protected. But I’m probably different from you guys. I like a little kink myself, and I like it when Zack goes all Dom on me. I have a feeling Nicky would hate it.”

  Nicky touched the collar too, and looked thoughtful. “I wouldn’t wear it. I’ve worn them before when I first came and much uglier than this one, but for me, it represents what I’ve been fighting against for a long time. It would please Marco, but it wouldn’t be real for me. It represents real submission, and I don’t have that. What about you, Evan?”

  “No, I wouldn’t wear it either. I really like the rings though.”

  “Oh, hell yes, they’re gorgeous. I noticed Zack was wearing one too, for all his talk about ‘he’s wearing my ring.’”

  Gabe smiled and put a companionable arm around both Nicky and Evan. “I have an idea, boys. A way to get back at Zack for his little remark about the collar and your wolves for how much they admired it. Will you help me?” Nicky looked eager and laughingly nodded his head. Evan pulled back a little.

  “I don’t know about this. What kind of lesson exactly? I don’t want to make Brett mad at me again.”

  “These collars they think control us so much—what if we all wore one and yet acted completely out of their control? Let them know that when the collar goes on, our so-called good behavior goes out the window.”

  Just then Brett called out. “Evan!”

  Evan turned to see him standing near the hallway to their room, his face scowling because he was talking to Nicky and Gabe. He snapped his fingers at him. “Over here! Now!”

  Back to this shit again? Evan turned back to Nicky and Gabe, his face dark with outrage. “Count me in, Gabe, whatever it is. I think my mate could use a little lesson too.”

  Chapter Eight

  Brett could hear the music from the moment they stepped out of the room, loud country music, the raucous kind with a boisterous, urgent beat. Nicky had picked a country-western theme for this party and it sounded like he already had it in full swing. Brett hadn’t wanted to go to the party in honor of Zack and Gabe, but he didn’t exactly know how he could get out of it gracefully either without pissing Marco off. Reluctantly he’d taken a hot shower and tried to get all the paint off his fingers, clean up and look respectable for the evening. He’d been working hard all day, priming and painting over at the new addition, and he wasn’t in much of a party mood.

  Evan looked happy, though, as he stood by the sink shaving, a skimpy towel wrapped around his cute ass. Tempting, very tempting. Brett sighed. He’d like nothing better than to curl up on the sofa with a cold beer in one hand and Evan’s cock in the other tonight. He certainly didn’t feel like dancing, or watching the two alphas’ pets shaking their asses this evening, like he knew they probably would be.

  Really, it was plain embarrassing. Both young men were gorgeous, if a little too flamboyant for his taste. If they got out there tonight dancing around and grinding their hips, what was a red-blooded young wolf supposed to look at? Better not be his alpha’s mate, if he knew what was good for him. Besides, he’d much rather look at his own mate’s shapely hips, and he could do that just as well at home.

  Evan passed him on the way out of the bathroom, tossing him a flirtatious little glance as he went, pulling the towel off at the door so he could get a good look at that shapely little ass. Damn, now he had a raging hard-on to contend with on top of everything else. He turned a blast of cold water on for as long as he could stand it, and then got out of the shower and dried himself off. He peered at himself in the mirror for a moment, decided he didn’t really need a shave, then used the blow dryer for a few minutes on his mane of auburn hair. He walked out to the bedroom and stopped dead in his tracks.

  Evan was wearing perhaps the tightest pair of leather pants he’d ever seen. He must have lain down on the bed to get them zipped. He’d paired it with a black t-shirt, also skin-tight, and a pair of black boots that laced up the front and went all the way to his knees. His blond hair was a little tousled and held in place with a touch of hair gel. He looked hot as hell and he knew it. He turned and gave Brett a little smile, and just as Brett opened his mouth to tell him to take off that fuck-me-please outfit, he whipped out a black leather strip from the dresser and held it out to Brett. “Would you like me to wear this too, babe? I saw how much you admired Gabe’s collar.”

  Brett took the leather strip in his hands and looked up at Evan wonderingly. “Really?” Brett’s mouth had gone instantly dry as his cock raised up again so fast it almost bounced. He had a hard time talking as he took it from his mate, and when he finally managed to speak his voice came out hoarse and ragged. “What...um...what made you decide to do this?”

  “Well, I noticed how much you admired Gabe’s gold collar. What is it you like about them so much, Brett? Are they like a symbol of something for you?” He angled another coquettish look up at him. “You do like the way it looks, don’t you, Brett?”

  Brett nodded and cleared his throat. “Oh hell, yeah. Yeah, I like it
.” He stepped forward and buckled the thin leather strip around Evan’s throat, running a finger under it to make sure it wasn’t too tight. Then he bent down and trailed kisses down his throat, stopping just above his collarbone, where he sucked the tender skin up into his mouth to raise a mark. When he pulled away, he was happy to see a little hickey placed strategically beneath the collar where it couldn’t be missed or mistaken for anything else.

  Evan clapped a hand over his neck and pushed Brett away. “Damn it, Brett!”

  Brett just smiled and slapped him on his ass as he walked to the bed to pick up his own clothes, jeans and white, long-sleeved button-up shirt. He pulled on leather cowboy boots to complete his outfit and stood up, holding out his arms. “How do I look, sweetheart? Do I look l country enough for this party of Nicky’s?”

  “Well you act like a redneck, that’s for sure. Come on, let’s go to the party. I feel like dancing tonight.”

  Brett followed him, but the first hint of unease hit him as he walked along behind his mate, his ass swinging along provocatively in his too-tight leather pants. When they walked into the main room, he was distracted at first by the dim lights, the loud music and the large number of people in the room. Evan slipped into the crowd and Brett lost sight of him right away, but he saw a table where Casey was sitting with Rory and made his way over to it. They were both eating from the buffet tables, so before he sat down, he walked over to fill a plate. He was starving and hadn’t eaten since early that morning, so for a while all his focus was on the food laid out for them on the buffet. He looked around again for Evan, but didn’t see him right away. He filled his plate and sat down with Casey and Rory.

  “Your boy’s looking good, Brett,” Casey nodded across the room. “He and Nicky could almost be twins.”