Sometime you just have to trust that someone else knows what’s best for you.
Xavier’s life has gone to hell. Not only has his ex-boyfriend’s stalker attacked him, but in order to keep him safe he’s being sent to the Gillham pack. It wouldn’t be too bad, if not for the small detail that he hadn’t known shifters existed before that! He’s not sure what he can expect from them, but he doesn’t have a choice. When he meets Andy, he’s weirdly attracted to the man, but Xavier knows he’s not good enough for him.
Andy doesn’t want to play babysitter for Xavier, at least not until he meets him and realizes the man is his mate. He knows he’s going to have a hard time convincing Xavier to at least give their bond a chance, and that’s not counting the other problems their relationship will have to face.
The two mates will have to navigate angry families and the ever-present lab problem, and still Andy isn’t sure he’ll be able to help his mate get over his low self-esteem long enough to give him a chance.
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Xavier
Copyright © 2015 Catherine Lievens
ISBN: 978-1-4874-0301-0
Cover art by Latrisha Waters
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
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Xavier
Gillham Pack Series 1
By
Catherine Lievens
Dedication
To Jay and Tina, for not batting an eyelash when I came up with a second series so soon after publishing my first book. Thank you for having faith in me.
Chapter One
Xavier looked at his boyfriend—ex-boyfriend, since Andrew had broken up with him only hours earlier. Not that it had surprised Xavier, of course. He’d always known Andrew was too good for him. Too nice, too sexy, too sophisticated.
Another thing that didn’t surprise him was the fact that Andrew had already hooked up with his bodyguard.
Xavier had known from the start that he was just a way for Andrew not to be alone, not that he blamed the man for that. Xavier had jumped on the opportunity to do just the same thing. He’d been lonely, and Andrew looked too good to be true. The fact that he’d started to fall in love with Andrew even though the man had told him more than once that they were really just friends with benefits... it wasn’t Andrew’s fault.
Then the mess with Andrew’s stalker had started, and Soren the bodyguard had entered the scene. Soren the hunk. The man was hot and blond, with dark blue eyes, and Xavier had known just by looking at him that he wouldn’t stand a chance, and he hadn’t. It had only taken Andrew a day to break up with him once he’d met his bodyguard, but yeah, Xavier had been expecting it. It wasn’t like he could compete, not with his five foot seven height and his hundred and ninety pounds.
Xavier was fat. There was no other word for it, no way around it. He knew it, had always been like that, and had tried to change for so many years that he had lost count. He hadn’t been able to. He knew he had to lose at least twenty pounds just to be considered normal weight, but as hard as he tried, he always regained every pound he lost—with interest. He had stopped trying a few years ago and had resigned himself to the fact that he would always be fat. Some people stayed skinny no matter what they ate. He was the exact contrary.
With that, he had also resigned himself to remaining alone all his life. Who wanted a chubby nearly thirty-year-old accountant? Andrew had, for a while, but now he’d found something better.
Xavier looked at his ex again, then at Soren, who was waiting near the door. The two made an amazing contrast. Andrew’s skin was dark against Soren’s snow-white color, his nearly black hair striking next to Soren’s white-blond.
Xavier reached up and tugged on his own dirty-blond hair and thought of his plain blue eyes. Yeah, no need to compare, really, unless he wanted to hide in a corner and cry himself into next week.
“Are you sure you’re fine?”
Andrew startled Xavier from his thoughts. He was still trying to pull Xavier’s shirt up to examine his chest after the stalker had attacked him. It seemed the stalker hadn’t received the newsfeed that Andrew had broken up with Xavier, and had decided to take matters into his own hands. The man had threatened Xavier and had beaten him up a bit, and while it did hurt like a bitch, there was no way Xavier was taking his shirt off or even only raising it. He had no intention of flashing his fat around, thank you very much, especially not with two hot, sexy men looking at him and examining him. Not that it would be new for Andrew, but Xavier wanted to retain at least a tiny bit of his dignity.
Xavier pushed Andrew’s hands away and looked at Soren when the man asked, “Did you see his face?”
He clutched at his shirt even tighter, because Andrew wasn’t giving up. “No. He grabbed me from behind, and then I was too worried about keeping my head as far away as I could from his fists to look at him. I know I should have. I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be stupid,” Andrew said. “You did what you had to do to protect yourself. I don’t care who the man is.”
“But he might hurt you.”
Andrew patted Xavier’s knee. “Don’t worry about me. I have Soren, and he’s more than able to protect me and himself.” Andrew’s cell rang, and Xavier heard him telling someone which floor they were on.
“Xavier, I want you to go and stay with Dominic for now. He’s the guy you met at my house yesterday.”
“I remember him, but—”
“Please. A lot of people live there, and you’ll be safe. I would never forgive myself if something happened to you.”
Xavier didn’t like it. He was sure the stalker wasn’t going to bother with him anymore since he’d found out Andrew broke up with him.
Soren looked through the peephole before opening it, and Xavier’s eyes widened when Dominic stepping in with Jeremy and Denver. Xavier had worked with Jeremy only a brief time before the man had left the firm, and he liked him, but he was definitely surprised to see the man entering his apartment with his partner.
“Hey, Xavier. I didn’t know you and Andrew knew each other.”
“Yeah. We, uh, used to date.” Xavier briefly looked at Soren before looking down at his hand. There was no sense in dwelling on what had happened.
“Oh, okay.” Jeremy was looking from Andrew to Xavier then to Soren, and it made Xavier feel damn uncomfortable. He felt as if he was being compared, and there was no way he could win that.
“Did Dominic tell you what happened?” Andrew asked.
“Yes, I told them. Glad to see everyone is okay.” The big, big man looked at Xavier, making him want to disappear. Xavier knew who Dominic was—Andrew had talked about him more than once, and he had actually been surprised to see the man was so youn
g when he’d met him the day before. He hadn’t been expecting him to be in his thirties, not with the way Andrew had told him Dominic had seen him grow up. It had sounded as if the man acted like a big brother or an uncle, but he couldn’t be more than a few years older than Andrew.
“Look, there’s no need for all of you to be here. I’m fine, and I told the guy I wasn’t with Andrew anymore. He’ll leave me alone.” Xavier looked at Soren again and wondered if he was going to become the stalker’s target now. He really hoped not, but Soren was better equipped than him to beat the stalker up and retaliate if he needed to.
“I don’t care. You’ll go with them.”
Andrew’s words sounded final, and Xavier didn’t like it. He narrowed his eyes at his ex-boyfriend. “And just who do you think you are to tell me what I’m going to do?”
Andrew sighed, his expression a tiny bit repentant. “Look, I’m sorry. Everyone is on edge right now, especially me, and I shouldn’t have talked to you like that, but I’m scared for you, okay?” Xavier’s anger vanished, just like that. He knew Andrew just wanted to keep him safe, but...
“I just can’t hide, you know. As much as I hate my job, I need it. I can’t just throw everything away because a nut case is bent on having you. I can’t just stop going to work for that.”
“If the only problem about you disappearing for a while is your job, I’m sure Dominic can help with that,” Jeremy said, looking at the big blond man. “I love working with him, and there’s something to say for working at home.” Jeremy blushed a bit and looked at his husband, the love between them nearly visible. It made Xavier long for a connection like that.
“Well, not everyone is as lucky as you and finds a job in a freaking mansion full of hot men,” he told his ex-colleague, smiling at him.
“If that’s what you want, I have a friend who is looking for someone to help him with his... group’s money. He lives a little like us, with a lot of people partially depending on him, although they don’t all live together. He’s in Gillham, though. Still, lots of woods, nature, and hot men.” Dominic said. “Although don’t let Ani find out I said that.”
Xavier had seen the way Dominic and Ani looked at each other the night before, and he knew Dominic was joking.
If he really had to hide, he could do it in a place full of hot guys, right?
* * * *
Andy avoided the punch coming at him and ducked, swinging his own hand at Nick. His best friend knew him too well, though, and his hand shot down, grabbing Andy’s wrist and twisting it while Nick hooked his leg onto Andy’s leg and pulled. Andy lost his balance, falling on his ass.
“Come on, pretty boy. This all you have?”
Andy scowled at Nick. “Sometimes I wonder why I’m still your friend, you know? You’re so damn annoying.” Andy hated being called pretty boy, beautiful, and any of those names that referred to his physical aspect. He was so much more than that, damn it! It wasn’t his fault if he was pretty, even with the tattoos and piercings he’d had done in hopes of covering up. His cinnamon colored hair was still thick and his eyes still forest green, and he couldn’t change that, not any more than he could change his six foot four height and his sculpted physique, or his classic beauty’s face. Okay, now he sounded way vainer than he really was, but it was the truth.
Nick splayed his hand on his heart and snickered. “Aww, sugar. You’re hurting me.”
Andy scowled, but both of them knew he wasn’t seriously angry. Nick had been his best friend since they were kids, closer to him even than Andy’s brother was. He had been the only one to know that Andy was gay for years, until Kameron had challenged Alpha Erskine a little over six months ago, and had won. The old Alpha had been a homophobic asshole, but Kameron was different, and several members of the pack had since stepped out of the closet, Andy being one of those. Nick was another one, and it would have been great if they could have felt something for each other, but unfortunately there was no spark.
Andy had had a crush on his friend for a while, when they were teens, but he had long since gotten over it. They worked better as friends than as lovers, and as they grew up, Andy had realized Nick wasn’t his type. They both liked to have command in the bedroom, at least most of the time, so they just couldn’t sleep together, not in the sense of having a real relationship anyway, and Andy sure didn’t want to ruin their friendship just to get off. So Nick was non-touchable, and had been for years.
Andy grabbed the hand Nick offered, but instead of letting the man pull him up, he pulled, making Nick lose his balance and fall. Andy had been expecting it, so he waited for the man to fall on top of him before rolling them both and pinning his friend under him. Andy straddled Nick’s hips and pinned his wrists over his head. “Sorry, honey-bun. Did I hurt you?”
Nick started laughing. “Nothing more than my ego, don’t worry.” He looked over Andy’s head at the clock that was on the wall of the pack’s gym and scrunched his face. “I guess you won, mister. It’s too late for me to try and take my revenge.”
Andy let his friend go and jumped up. “You can have a rain check.”
Nick nodded. They both patrolled the pack’s territory, and they trained with each other to keep in shape. He was the only one Andy was comfortable doing it with.
“Are you two fairies done here?” a voice sneered behind them, and Andy clenched his fists. Alpha Erskine might have been history, just like his two Betas, but the rest of his former inner circle was still part of the pack, and until they did something to hurt a member, Kameron couldn’t just boot them out. The fact that all of them were homophobic and hated Kameron was just the icing on the cake of a fucked up situation.
“Sure, Tom. We were just going to fly away. You can have the mats, although you might want to wipe them down before using them. You wouldn’t want to catch our gayness by touching our sweat,” Nick said, a big smile on his face.
Andy didn’t know how he did it, but he admired the man. The only thing he wanted right now was to punch the sneer off Tom’s face, and he had to stop himself from snarling at the man, but his best friend just seemed to find the whole thing funny and got off on provoking Tom and the other guys like him.
He had to admit it was kind of funny, though. The way Tom’s eyes widened as he peered at the mats, probably wondering if he really could catch the gayness from them, was hilarious, especially when he started to slowly back away in the door’s direction. “Changed your mind, Tom?”
The man’s eyes snapped up and he snarled, stopping right away when Kameron entered the gym. “Everything all right here, boys?”
The Alpha was looking at Andy and Nick, silently asking if Tom had been giving them a hard time, so Andy nodded. “Tom was just leaving.”
Tom nodded without looking at any of them and moved toward the door so fast he was nearly running. Kameron watched him go, sighing when the door closed. “God, I hate that asshole.”
Nick snickered. “Don’t we all, Alpha, don’t we all.”
Kameron narrowed his eyes. “I already told you to call me Kameron. Damn it, I was your friend before I became Alpha, Nicky!”
“I know, but it’s so funny to tease you and see how you react, Kam.”
The Alpha growled a bit, but it was playful. The three of them had been friends for years, and Andy and Nick had supported Kameron’s decision of challenging Erskine. They respected and supported him as the Alpha, but they were still friends.
“How are things going? News about the labs?” Andy asked.
Kameron groaned. “You guys don’t know how lucky you are. I hate being responsible for all you people, but above all I hate being part of the damn council.”
“Yeah, well, you were the one who decided to challenge Erskine. You knew this was going to happen.”
Kameron sighed. “Yeah, but I thought Zach... ” He didn’t finish the sentence, but the three of them knew what he was thinking. He had thought Zach would stay by his side, would help him bear the h
eavy weight of being the Alpha for their pack. Andy had honestly thought the two men were mates at one point, but in the last few months Zach had withdrawn—first from Kameron, then from the rest of the pack—and he had moved in with his sister and her mate, even though her mate had been part of Erskine’s inner circle. Andy thought it was weird, because no one would willingly move in and live with one of those assholes, but Zach had refused to talk with anyone, even Derick, the wolf shifter who lived with the Whitedell pride.
Derick was distraught and called Kameron about once a week, but Kameron never had good news for him. None of them saw Zach all that often since he’d moved, and while the house he lived in was one of the most isolated, the man still should have come around the pack’s shared gym, or the communal areas, but they only saw him at the monthly gatherings Kameron had started since he had become Alpha. Zach always looked sad and tired, but he avoided Kameron and the rest of them, and while Andy wanted to dig and find out what was happening, he couldn’t. It wasn’t his battle to fight, although he was starting to rethink that. He could see Kameron was hurting, and he didn’t like it. Maybe he would talk with Nick and see what they could do.
Andy clapped Kameron’s shoulder and tried to cheer him up. “You’ll be fine once you stop whining, boss.”
The Alpha narrowed his eyes at him. “Boss is also forbidden. Call me Kameron, damn it!”
Nick tsked. “Your mama wouldn’t like to hear you swear so much... boss.”
The three of them exited the gym, Kameron glaring at them while they snickered away. Life might not be perfect in their pack, but it was damn better than it had been when Erskine was Alpha, that was for sure.
* * * *
“So, about that job?” Xavier asked hesitantly once Dominic was back in the room. The man had stepped out to make a phone call, and Xavier hoped he would have good news. Now that they’d hinted about changing jobs, he couldn’t wait to do just that. It would still have to do with numbers, but he liked those. He just didn’t like the firm he was working with at the moment.
Xavier Page 1
