Xavier opened his mouth to protest, but Andy stopped him. Suddenly two hot, smooth lips crashed on his, sucking at his lower lip and pulling it into Andy’s mouth. Xavier was frozen. He knew he should push Andy away, but... he couldn’t. When he finally unfroze, it was to push his hands into Andy’s hair, to use his tongue to stroke Andy’s. Their lips moved against each other’s, their tongues danced and dueled, their teeth nipped, until they were both breathless and had to separate.
Only then did Xavier come back to his senses. Andy’s face was flushed and his lips were reddened. It looked so good on him, making him even more decadent than he usually was. The kiss had just complicated everything, though, and Xavier wanted to run away. Too bad Andy had locked the doors.
“Sweetheart, you’re gorgeous. You have the most amazing blue eyes that shine when you talk about something you’re curious about, and your hair is so soft. I might not know you yet, but even the little I know of you shows me you’re a caring man. Yesterday you put yourself between me and an angry tiger, without thinking twice about it, and you didn’t even know me! How can you say you’re... ?” Andy gestured at Xavier.
“Boring and plain?”
“Yeah. I can see that you don’t have a self-esteem to start with, but you can’t presume you know what I want, okay?”
Xavier still wasn’t sure about this, but Andy was stubborn, and he was not. He’d always tended to follow the lead, and he knew he wasn’t strong enough to go against it now. He might not think he was good enough for Andy, but he also felt the pull toward the man. It made it hard to try to leave him. Xavier nodded stiffly, promising himself that he would talk with Kameron and ask him if there was a way to negate the pull.
“I can see that you’re agreeing just to make me happy. Look... just get to know me, okay? Give us a month. You’ll get to know me and see that I really want you, and then you can decide if you’d rather go away.”
Xavier nodded again. What else could he do?
* * * *
Andy watched as Xavier nodded, but he knew the little man still wasn’t convinced. There wasn’t much else he could do, though, and he was grateful Xavier would at least give him a chance.
He very much wanted to kill whoever had told Xavier that he wasn’t enough—not thin enough, not smart enough, not beautiful enough. He couldn’t do anything more than what he had just done and said, though, and give Xavier the time to understand that he really wanted a relationship with him, that it wasn’t because of the mating pull. Andy would have wanted Xavier even without it. He just had to convince his mate of that.
Andy started the car again and drove the small distance that separated them from Kameron’s house. The pack members didn’t live all together like the Whitedell pride did, thank god. Andy wouldn’t have been able to live with assholes like the ones who had composed the old Alpha’s inner circle. They did live close to each other, though, close enough to walk from one house to another, but since he was going to work after their little chat, he’d taken the car today.
Andy stopped in the small open space around the Alpha’s house and a few other houses. The clearing was often used for the monthly gathering and for cookouts, not that Kameron had become Alpha and given everyone the opportunity to talk their mind about how the pack was led. Xavier’s eyes were wide as he took in the houses and the wolf that was standing on the Alpha’s porch.
Andy smiled when, once out of the car, Xavier stayed behind him, his eyes never leaving the dark wolf. Kameron’s fur was the same color as his hair when he was in his human form. Andy walked up the steps and opened the front door, stepping aside to let the Alpha enter before guiding Xavier toward Kameron’s office.
“That was Kam. He’ll be here soon.”
Xavier nodded, his eyes huge as he looked around the wide office they had walked in.
Andy sat down in one of the chairs in front of the desk and grabbed Xavier’s hand, pulling him close. Xavier blushed when he landed on Andy’s lap and tried to scramble off, but Andy wasn’t letting go. He wanted the opportunity to hold his mate, to take in the man’s scent and sooth his wolf. The poor thing was distraught at the idea that Xavier wanted to leave them, and it could only do it good to feel their mate close.
“Andy, Xavier,” Kameron said entering the room. The man was dressed, but his shoulder length dark hair was still unbound and flying around his face as he sat down behind his desk and arched a brow at Andy, pointedly looking at how Xavier was in his lap. Xavier blushed harder, the heat almost enough for Andy to feel it, and obviously he tried to get up again, but Andy just circled his mate’s waist with his arm and held fast.
“I see the two of you are pretty comfortable with each other already.”
Xavier had given up trying to get away, so now he was nearly burying his face into Andy’s neck in an attempt to hide his blushing cheeks. Andy chuckled and kissed his mate’s blond hair. “Xavier is my mate. We found out yesterday when he got to the garage.”
Kameron’s face broke into a big smile. “Really? Congrats, guys! We have to celebrate, maybe organize a cookout?”
There was nothing more Andy wanted, well, maybe there was, but... “I think we should wait a bit. Xavier hasn’t, umm, he hasn’t agreed on mating with me yet.”
Kameron frowned at Andy but gave Xavier a warm smile. “Well, I guess it’s understandable. You found out about shifters only a few days ago, right?”
Xavier moved his face from Andy’s chest, but his hands still clutched at his T-shirt, making Andy damn pleased. “Yes. It was a shock, and I still have a hard time believing it, even if I saw several shifters change into their animals.”
“Andy told me about yesterday, although he didn’t tell me about you being his mate. Anyway, I’m happy for the two of you and I hope you’ll let me know once you mate. I’d like to formally welcome Xavier into the pack, if that’s what you both want, of course.” Kameron looked from Andy to Xavier, but Andy just shrugged. He had so much to discuss with his mate but first he had to convince Xavier he really wanted him. “Okay, so, Xavier. Dominic told me you work with numbers.”
Xavier nodded with enthusiasm. “I’ve been doing that since I finished college.”
“I don’t know if anyone told you about this, but I haven’t been the Alpha here for long, just about six months or so. I’ve tried to do this on my own, but I’m not good with numbers, and I haven’t been able to do much, especially since the old Alpha didn’t mind going illegal.” Kameron’s gaze hardened. “He sold several members of the pack, and we still haven’t found all of them. He was part of a network that sells shifters and humans to a company that experiment on them.”
Xavier looked scared but he nodded.
“I need your help to go through all the accounts Erskine had and divide the money in three categories—the pack’s money, Erskine’s personal money and the money he got from selling people to the labs.”
“I can do that.”
The two men started talking about accounts and whatnot and Andy zoned out. He drank in the sight of Xavier, the way his cheeks were flushed with excitement now that he was talking about something he really liked, the way he moved his hands around as he talked. He couldn’t help but wonder if the man would be like that once they got over their problems, if he would be as relaxed and happy. He sure hoped so.
“Andy?”
“What?”
“I asked if there was anything else you wanted to talk about,” Kameron asked, a knowing smirk on his lips. Xavier too was looking at Andy, and Andy rather liked the smile on his face.
“No. Oh, I wanted to ask you about Nix, but it can wait.”
Kameron nodded. “It was a surprise, huh? You know you would have known about Nix if you had accepted to be part of my inner circle.”
Andy snorted at the attempt. “You’ll have to come up with something more palatable to convince me, Kam. Besides, I have enough on my hands right now.” Andy looked at Xavier, making it clear he was ta
lking about him, and Xavier blushed again. Andy rather liked the pink color on his mate’s cheeks.
They were saying goodbye to Kameron when someone pounded at the door as if the world was on fire. Kameron and Andy exchanged a glance and Andy turned to Xavier. “Stay here. I’ll be back in a few.” He couldn’t resist placing a small kiss on his mate’s lips before following Kameron to the entrance of the house.
After exchanging one more glance with him, Kameron opened the door. The pounding stopped only then, and Andy gaped at the man standing right outside the door. He hadn’t seen him in more than a year, and even if Kameron had told everyone he was okay, Andy hadn’t thought Jonah would ever come back to the pack’s territory.
* * * *
Xavier stayed in the office. He wasn’t stupid. He knew that whoever was pounding on the front door had to be another shifter, and he didn’t know what said shifter wanted. He was only human, and even if he knew very little about shifters, one thing he did know was that they were a lot stronger and faster than humans, so yeah, he was going to stay right there, out of sight.
He heard voices, but it didn’t seem like they were fighting or anything, even if one of them sounded angry. Okay, he might not have been stupid, but he was damn curious, and since it didn’t seem like it was dangerous...
Xavier cracked the door open and peeked out, trying to see the front door from where he was. It wasn’t easy, and he had to open the door a tiny bit more before Andy’s back came into view. Andy’s strong, powerful back. Andy’s—okay, okay, back to peeking at the front door, because if Xavier didn’t stop thinking about Andy’s fine body, his lower body would react, and it didn’t seem like a good idea at the moment. Or ever, really. Not if he wanted Andy to leave him alone.
Anyway. Xavier leaned a bit closer to the door as he tried to listen to what the men at the door were saying, his gaze never leaving Andy’s back. He was especially grateful for that when Andy turned around and walked back to the office, because it gave him time to sit back down on the chair where he’d been when Andy got up. From the smirk on Andy’s face, however, he could tell the man knew what he had been up to.
Xavier blushed, but he didn’t say anything. If Andy didn’t talk about it, he wasn’t going to, either. It didn’t seem like it had made Andy angry anyway. “So, umm, what’s going on?”
Andy sighed. “Pack troubles. Well, not exactly, but... you remember the labs we talked about?”
“Yeah, that’s pretty scary.”
“Right. Well, as Kameron told you earlier, Erskine sold some pack members to the labs, four of them that we’re sure of. We’ve tried to find them, but we haven’t been able to, not even with the list of names we got from the pride.” Andy looked so damn guilty it hurt Xavier to look at him.
He reached out, grabbing the man’s hand and squeezing it, just to let Andy know that he was there. “I know almost nothing about this, but it’s not your fault.”
Andy sighed again and sat in the chair beside Xavier’s. “I know, I just feel like I could have done more. Why did no one ever notice Erskine had sold them in the first place? And once we found out, did we really do all we could to find them?”
Xavier didn’t know what to do, so he just squeezed Andy’s hand harder, and to his surprise it seemed that the simple contact did ease Andy’s anguish, at least a bit. Whether it was thanks to him or to something else he didn’t know, but he was glad for it all the same.
“Anyway, we helped the pride raid some of the labs we know about, and in one of those we found one of our missing wolves, Jonah. We wanted to bring him home, but he didn’t want to come back here, and I don’t blame him, really. Even if we told him Erskine wasn’t the Alpha anymore, the pack hurt him, and he doesn’t trust us anymore. We left him with the pride, but Dominic called us a while later to tell us Jonah had disappeared one night, and no one knew where he was.”
“I take it that the man who tried to pound a hole in the front door is Jonah?”
Andy nodded. “He says he has to talk with Kameron, so I came back here to get you.”
A knock at the office door interrupted them, and Kameron opened it. “Guys? I really need my office.”
Xavier hurriedly got up from his chair. “Of course. I’m just going to go, uh... ”
Kameron smiled. “You can go anywhere you want in the downstairs part of the house, just like every member of the pack, or you can wander outside. Just try to stay close to the house, because not everyone knows about you, and I wouldn’t want someone to scare you because they think you’re an intruder.”
Andy stood close to Xavier. “I’ll go with him.”
Kameron shook his head. “No. I want you to stay here with me and listen to what Jonah has to say. I know you don’t want to be part of my inner circle, but I think I need you. The pack needs you.”
Xavier saw Andy hesitate. He knew the man didn’t want to become an authoritarian figure for the pack, but maybe it was what the pack needed. He couldn’t push him to accept, but he could show Andy he wasn’t afraid to be on his own.
Xavier stood on his tiptoe and placed a kiss on Andy’s cheek, surprising him. “I’ll go look around. Don’t worry, I won’t be far.”
With one last squeeze on Andy’s hand, Xavier left the other men alone and headed toward the front door. He was so immersed in his thoughts that he didn’t notice the brick wall until he collided with it. Only it wasn’t a wall, but a hard, unforgiving chest.
Xavier looked up, and up, and up, until his eyes met sky-blue ones. “I’m sorry.” Xavier didn’t know if he should run away and hide or if it was best to stay still. How did it work with wild creatures? Okay, so the man in front of him wasn’t a wild creature, not exactly, but he had that look in his eyes, a wildness and fierceness that told him he might be a man, but not completely. Xavier didn’t know that many shifters, but he had never seen the animal so close to the surface in any of the ones he knew.
“It’s fine,” the big, big man grumbled. His dark hair fell in front of his eyes as he leaned down to talk to Xavier, but he didn’t seem to care. He just took a deep whiff of Xavier’s scent before his eyes hardened and he stepped back. Xavier wasn’t sure what had just happened, but he didn’t like the new look on the man’s face.
“Leave him alone, Jonah. He might be human, but he didn’t have anything to do with the labs. Not every human is cruel and uncaring. Besides, he’s Andy’s mate,” Kameron’s voice said from behind Xavier.
Xavier still kept his eyes on Jonah until the man slowly nodded. “Sorry,” he said with his deep voice. “I know you didn’t have anything to do with the labs, but... ”
Xavier smiled at him. He wasn’t sure the smile was full, but he wanted Jonah to know he didn’t have anything against him. “Don’t worry. I get it.”
Jonah nodded and moved away, walking to Kameron’s office and leaving Xavier there. Well, that had gone better than it might have. At least Jonah hadn’t tried to bite Xavier’s head off.
Xavier decided to go outside after that. He loved the forest that wrapped all around the houses, the noises he could hear coming from birds and squirrels. It was the one thing he regretted about living in the city, as small as Whitedell was—he was too far away from nature. But then it seemed like that was about to change, right?
Xavier stepped down off the porch and went to walk between the trees, taking care to stay within hearing distance of the house, since he didn’t want to become shifter’s kibble.
He had taken only a few steps when he saw someone standing there, leaning against a tree. The man was about Xavier’s height, maybe a tad smaller, and he was looking at Kameron’s house, his eyes full of longing and hurt. His blond hair fell on his forehead and in front of his eyes, but Xavier could see the bruise that circled one of them even under it.
He stopped, unsure if he should try talking to the man or just let him be, but the guy decided for him when he turned and their eyes locked. “Are you... are you his?” The m
an’s voice cracked when he talked, pain filling his eyes.
Xavier didn’t know who his was supposed to be, but he guessed that since he had just exited Kameron’s house, they were talking about him. He shook his head, keeping his eyes on the small man. “No. I’m the new accountant. I’m also, uh, Andy’s mate.” He might not let Andy claim him, but it was obvious the man in front of him longed for Kameron, and he wanted to reassure him. He could see there was a story there, and while he was dying to know it, he thought it was more important to reassure the guy.
The pain in the man’s eyes faded a bit as he smiled a sad smile. “Congrats. Finding your mate should be the happiest moment in your life.”
Xavier wanted to ask, but the guy turned around and quickly disappeared between the trees, leaving Xavier perplexed and feeling as if something important had just happened. He just didn’t know what it was.
* * * *
Andy watched as Kameron closed the door and Jonah settled in one of the chairs. Jonah’s stance made it clear he was ready to take them down if they as much as breathed wrong, and Andy had no intentions of doing anything like that.
He himself had been ready to pounce when Jonah had collided with Xavier, but it hadn’t been necessary, and he was relieved. Jonah had been his friend once, and it hurt to see that the man didn’t trust him anymore, although he could understand the reasons behind that.
“He’s cute.”
Andy’s head snapped up at Jonah’s voice. He smiled at him, hoping this might be a new beginning for them. “Yeah. We found each other yesterday. He’s... everything I could hope for.”
Jonah nodded. “I know that feeling.” The smallest smile appeared on his lips, and while Andy knew that they weren’t there to gossip, he also wanted to bond with Jonah again.
“Yeah? You found your mate?”
Xavier Page 5
