Resilience

by Bailey Bradford

  Todd tried not to think why that might be, but even he couldn’t keep his mind out of the gutter all the time. He excused himself from the table and gave Adam a look he knew his lover wouldn’t misinterpret.

  “Gotta go check for messages,” Todd offered as an explanation. “I left my phone in the car on the charger. I don’t know what I was thinking.”

  The story had the benefit of being the truth, too. He walked off and heard Adam make some borderline lewd quip about following Todd out for a grope. Todd heated from the inside out with arousal. Even though he knew Adam was joking, his words still sent a flare of want up from Todd’s groin that seeped out through his pores. It wasn’t just the humid Texas evening that had Todd breaking out in a sweat.

  He heard the front porch screen slap shut seconds after he went through it. Todd stopped walking then and turned around to wait for Adam only to find himself the recipient of a very thorough groping.

  “Didn’t wanna be a liar,” Adam proclaimed, his voice rich with laughter and lust as he palmed Todd’s balls and squeezed his ass. “Think we have time for a quick blow job? I bet I could have you spilling down my throat in under five minutes.”

  “More like under three,” Todd wheezed, his chest tight as need coiled his insides. His dick had gone from nice and content to raging hard so fast he was surprised he hadn’t hurt himself, and the sheer naughtiness of Adam fondling him like this while their friends sat inside, less than twenty feet away… Well, he was both very turned on and very terrified.

  Adam grinned and rubbed him for a second before planting a sloppy, wet kiss on

  Todd’s lips. He stepped back and patted Todd’s ass. “As much as I’d love to suck you dry, I really want to know what the hell is going on!”

  “So it’s not just me,” Todd said before biting back the whole ‘being a jealous dickhead’

  part. “Do you… Do you think maybe Gabe and Mika, you know, with Aidan and Zane?” His cheeks burned uncomfortably but he knew Adam wouldn’t laugh at him for being a perv for wondering.

  Adam cocked his head to the side and peered at some point to Todd’s left. He hummed

  slightly and tapped his thigh. Then he shook his head. “No, I don’t think so. As possessive as Mika is, and as… Come on, can you picture Gabe sharing Mika? No, those two would kill anyone who tried to fuck with the other. Now, I don’t know Aidan and Zane, but I just can’t imagine Mika or Gabe putting up with anything like that.”

  “Whew.” Todd’s relief was probably exaggerated but he didn’t care. Gabe and Mika

  were his proof that a couple could have a happy, monogamous relationship. A stable

  relationship. “Well, then, I’m afraid someone in there might have done something illegal. Or they’re hiding something from us, from me at least. I don’t like it at all.”

  Could that be the reason for the secretive looks? Had Gabe and the others been judging Adam’s frame of mind, and Todd’s, even? But Todd thought about Gabe’s joviality earlier.

  Surely, even though Gabe didn’t know Jameson, he wouldn’t be so happy and Gabe-y if he had such horrible news for them?

  Adam sighed and hooked his arm through Todd’s. “I think you’re right, sort of. They’re hiding something, but I don’t think it’s illegal. I’m afraid…” Adam’s voice cracked and Todd had to hug him, had to hold him for a moment. Adam’s breath was warm against Todd’s

  chest when he spoke. “I’m afraid Jameson is dead, and they don’t want to tell us.”

  “I don’t think that’s it,” Todd said. He cupped Adam’s cheek and tipped his head just so for a kiss. Adam relaxed against him. It was one of those perfect moments Todd knew would remain branded into his memory, the two of them standing under the moonlight,

  kissing, loving as they leaned on each other.

  A sharp outburst, a shout answered by another, snapped him out of his reverie. He and Adam both leapt back, as if they’d had anything to do with what was, obviously, a heated argument coming from inside.

  “What the hell?” Adam muttered. “Grab your phone.”

  Todd ran over to the vehicle and quickly got his phone. He could still hear arguing, although he couldn’t make out the words. And he definitely heard Gabe’s voice. The other low rumbles were hard to place to their owners. In fact, it almost sounded like a bunch of growling to Todd.

  “What the hell are they doing in there?” Adam huffed as he darted up the porch steps.

  “Sounds like a bunch of snippy intact male dogs in there! Men!”

  Todd snorted even as he ran up the steps behind Adam. He almost tripped when he

  caught sight of Adam’s fine ass flexing in front of him. They thundered over the porch and into the house—then stopped right inside.

  “It’s totally quiet now,” Adam whispered, and, even so, he sounded damned loud to

  Todd. “Gabe’s never quiet. Do you think they killed him?”

  Todd knew Adam was joking, but his heart still rolled over in his chest. He cocked his head and concentrated on listening. “No, they’d have had to kill Mika too, and there wasn’t enough noise for all of that to be going on.” He gestured towards the kitchen and held out a hand behind him. Adam gave him an arch look but didn’t argue. He moved in behind Todd and took his hand.

  Together they crept down the hallway, Todd feeling like a total idiot for doing so. This was, after all, his buddies’ home, and one Todd had found refuge in when he’d been younger. And, okay, even as an adult at times. Why was he sneaking around?

  Adam squeezed his hand and Todd stopped worrying about what noise they might make. It was too silent in the kitchen—surely everyone could hear his pulse since it was thudding like a damned gavel in his head?

  Todd entered the kitchen only to stop immediately. There was no blood, no dead bodies, but there was at least one broken dish. If he’d had to bet, he’d have figured Gabe had thrown it at someone…someone other than Mika. None of the other four seemed to notice him or Adam. They were all too busy standing stiff, chests puffed out, glaring at each other in some battle of the wills or testosterone…

  Then he heard it, and so did Adam judging by the way he grunted and edged up against Todd’s back. A low, rumbling growl. Todd looked for Iko, but the dog was nowhere to be seen. Besides, Iko had better manners than to act like that. He darted looks from one man to the other and finally pegged Mika to be the one making the noise. Made sense, he supposed. Mika could be a snarly guy, possessive and rough and perfect for the more boisterous Gabe. But what had set everyone off?

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  “I’m going to tell him,” Gabe announced, and for some reason goose bumps broke out all over Todd’s skin. “No, I’m going to tell them.”

  Aidan puffed up even bigger, and his partner, Zane, laid a hand on his back and whispered rapidly in his ear. Aidan shook his head sharply and Zane bit his bottom lip, as if forcing himself to quit trying to talk some sense into his man.

  “You know why…” Aidan cut his eyes towards Todd, and Todd felt the look like a threat. He automatically reached for the reassurance of the gun at his hip only to remember belatedly he wasn’t on duty and therefore wasn’t carrying. Still, he narrowed his eyes at Aidan and gave what he hoped was his very best intimidating look.

  And Aidan did the most bizarre thing, at least in Todd’s opinion. The big blond snarled, his upper lip curling as he bared his teeth. The sound he made when he did it wasn’t human.

  It couldn’t be, Todd thought, and he maybe should have paid more attention to parts of the Bible that mentioned demons or whatever, because he was suddenly utterly sure there was something dark or supernatural or maybe both in existence. In Aidan, and—Todd couldn’t, wouldn’t look away from Aidan’s challenging glare, but still—maybe Zane as well. Thoughts of demonic possession and The Exorcist were foremost in Todd’s mind. Aidan’s eyes had a creepy glow to them that might have all just been Todd’s imagination, but he wasn’t making up the tension in the room, the grow
ling he heard now coming from Mika or someone else, the almost oppressive power he didn’t know how to describe.

  His world was flipping, or at least his perception of it was.

  “What the fuck?” he heard Adam ask. Todd locked an arm around Adam, holding him behind him. Instincts he’d not been aware of before were pushing at him to protect Adam, to keep him back, out of direct range of threat. “Todd, what’s going on? Why is Aidan doing his best rabid dog imitation? He’d have to actually turn into a dog to be any better at it, and if he did that then I’d neuter him for being a dangerous asshole.”

  Todd was thinking he’d just shoot Aidan in the foot or something when Gabe surged

  forwards and smacked Aidan upside the head. “Cut it out! This is my house, mine and Mika’s! We aren’t in some pack land!”

  “Gabriel!” Aidan yelped, looking for all the world like a chastised child. A really big, muscled chastised child. Aidan had a hand clapped over the spot where Gabe had thumped him. He turned to Zane. “He hit me!”

  Zane, his silver eyes tilting up at the edges, nodded. “He did. I expected him to do it sooner since you dodged the plate and the bowl. I love you dearly, but you had it coming.”

  Aidan harrumphed and crossed his arms over his chest. “You know why things have to

  remain as they are.”

  Gabe elbowed past Mika and poked Aidan in the ribs. “No, they don’t. What kind of

  archaic thinking is that? Todd has been my best friend for years, and I trust only one person as much as I do him. And I would be willing to bet Adam would say the same about his friendship with Jameson.”

  Aidan uncrossed his arms and ran a hand through his short blond hair. “Be that as it may, there’s just things we all keep secret, aren’t there?”

  Zane cocked a hip and gave his partner a contemplative look. “There are?”

  Aidan blanched and Gabe laughed. “Well, hell. I should just let you ramble and get

  yourself in deep shit with Zane. If I didn’t like you, and like Zane even more, I would do just that.”

  Todd was growing weary of the drama, especially since he didn’t understand it. He was pretty sure Adam felt the same, and was sure of it when Adam pushed and pulled until he was in front of Todd.

  Adam’s spine was straight, his shoulders back, and Todd could see the tension curling his muscles, driving them to bulge in a display that went right to Todd’s dick. Adam pointed at Gabe. “You. Out of everyone here, you are supposed to be our friend. Todd’s friend, at the very least. Mika tolerates us, but you love Todd. And Todd loves me. And yes, I loved Jameson, maybe I still do. He was the best, the only, friend I had for a very long time. So, if you know something, you think about how you’d feel if Todd vanished on you.

  Just…vanished. Would you think it’s funny? Some farce with fit-throwing and growling and whatever the fuck it was Aidan was doing? And what the hell was that? Huh? What is going on?”

  Adam’s voice reached a level of shrill Todd had only previously heard Gabe hit.

  As for Gabe, he looked poleaxed, silent in his shocked state, and that was scary in itself.

  A quick check of the others showed expressions of anger, fear, regret, understanding, reluctance—so many emotions, all shared by Mika, Aidan and Zane.

  Yet no one spoke. Adam drew in a breath, tensing again, and Todd knew another

  outburst was coming.

  Except Gabe slumped against the table, propping his ass on the top, uncaring, it

  seemed, that he sat on a plate still scattered with food. “I’m telling, and that’s final,” Gabe muttered. “Adam has a right to know if the guy you told me about is his friend Jameson.”

  “Marcus is going to be pissed,” Aidan grumbled, but he shrugged after he’d said it.

  “He can get over it,” Mika snapped. “If he had come tonight like we asked, he could

  have thrown in his two cents, but he didn’t.”

  “He couldn’t,” Aidan snapped back. “He has a situation on his hands involving

  something very much like what is happening here. Our existence relies on trusting those who aren’t like us—”

  Todd was freaked, he couldn’t help it. “What the f-fuck are you talking about?” He was going to carry his gun from now on. And maybe a water gun filled with holy water if it turned out there really were demons walking the earth.

  Aidan just shook his head and moved over to his chair. He sat and in an instant Zane was in his lap, petting him, murmuring soothing words. At least, Todd assumed they were soothing. Aidan didn’t look any different from any other man enjoying the attention of his lover.

  What was going on with them wasn’t his business. Adam was. Todd eased his arm

  around Adam’s waist and tucked his thumb in Adam’s front pocket. “Do you know what

  happened to Jameson, or where he is?” he asked, both hopeful and terrified of the answer.

  Gabe held out his hand and Mika took it. He pulled Gabe up and gave a half-smile at

  the mess on Gabe’s backside. “We don’t know anything for sure about Jameson, but Marcus, Aidan’s twin, he’s…” Mika huffed and glared up at the ceiling. “It’s complicated.”

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  Everyone was fucking insane, that was all there was to it. Everyone but him and Todd.

  Adam was about ready to throttle Gabe, and as for Aidan… He didn’t know what to make of the big creepy guy. That growling snarling shit hadn’t been right. Adam had felt the intimidation all the way to his toes, just like he’d felt power rolling off of Aidan. He’d wanted to quiver and drop to his knees and bow his head and any other number of shows of submission. Not in a sexual way at all, but simply in response to the very alpha-ness Aidan gave off.

  Gabe was slapping at the food on his ass, then he cursed and started unbuckling his

  belt. “Let’s meet in the living room. Give me two minutes.”

  Two minutes felt like a damned lifetime. Adam fidgeted beside Todd, who was paler

  than normal. Adam felt like a total shit. How hard must this be on Todd, to see this bizarre behaviour from his best friend? Yeah, yeah, Adam was his partner, his soul mate, all those wonderful things, but Gabe had been the one to befriend Todd years ago, and stand by him ever since. Adam didn’t begrudge Gabe the best buds status at all. He understood it. He’d have still been calling Jameson his best buddy had the man not disappeared.

  “That’s much better.” Gabe trotted into the living room with Mika sauntering behind

  him. Mika’s eyes were zeroed in on Gabe’s ass, almost indecently displayed by the tight, thin sweats. Gabe plinked down on the coffee table right in front of Adam and Todd rather than taking the recliner or the love seat like Adam was expecting. He peered at Adam for a second before focusing his bright green gaze on Todd.

  “So, Todd,” Gabe began, his voice so soft and hesitant Adam wouldn’t have recognised it as belonging to Gabe had he not been watching. “The thing is…” Gabe waited as Mika settled behind him, framing Gabe’s legs with his and all but covering Gabe’s back with his bigger body. Gabe sighed and leant back. He swallowed noisily and let his head drop back to rest on Mika’s shoulder.

  “The thing is, if what I’m fixing to tell y’all gets out to anyone else, it could start a war, or a slaughter, something bad.”

  Adam wanted to accuse Gabe of being melodramatic as he tended to be at times, but for some reason he didn’t. Fear gripped his gut and pinched his tongue.

  “There’s some weird shit in this world,” Gabe started, patting Mika’s hand. “Not us, honey, but irrational fears and judgement, and you know how people are when they fear something. All they want to do is destroy it. Hate it.”

  “Gabe,” Todd said as he propped his elbows on his knees. “You’re killing us. Is

  Jameson alive? And what are you going on about?”

  Gabe blinked a couple of times before answering. “We don’t know about Jameson.

  Marcus knew o
f someone who had a mate—er, partner, named Jameson. He’s checking into whether they were ever found after a…a coup, I guess? Or a coup attempt? See, Marcus is the leader of a very secretive, powerful sect—”

  “He’s a cult leader?” Adam asked, confused and scared and even more confused. “Are

  you saying Jameson joined a cult?”

  “No.” Gabe sat up and rubbed his temples. “Man, I suck at this explaining shit. Let me try it like this—”

  “Or let me,” Mika interrupted. Gabe craned his head to glare at Mika, who just dropped a kiss on his parted lips. “I am trusting you, Todd, to make sure nothing bad ever happens to Gabe for his insistence in trusting you.”

  Adam got the message loud and clear. Gabe was doing this for Todd, and maybe Mika

  didn’t like it, but he supported Gabe. And, yeah, in a small way, Gabe was doing it to help him, too, but it really was about the friendship between Gabe and Todd. Adam just wished he knew what the fuck it had to do with Jameson. If someone didn’t explain it soon, he was going to start banging heads together.

  “About a year ago, Gabe experienced a change.” Mika nuzzled Gabe’s neck for a

  moment. “He became like me, and Aidan, and Zane, and Marcus—”

  “So pretty much like everyone but me and Adam?” Todd asked, hurt thickening his

  voice in a way Adam had heard it do before. “I’ve noticed something is different about you, Gabe. I can’t place it, but if you’re trying to say you’ve o-o-out g-g-g-grown t-t-this f-f-friendship—”

  Gabe lurched forwards and knelt against Todd’s legs. “No! No, that isn’t it at all! I wanted to tell you, but, on the one hand, there was no reason. Except there was, and that was that you are my friend, right? We used to share everything, then I found some secrets and…”

  Gabe glanced back at Mika. “And I found Mika. You know how you want to protect those you love?” Todd gave a nod. “Well, I would do anything to keep Mika safe.”

  Adam wasn’t as touched as he should have been, probably. He was tired, emotionally