by Lynn Hagen
“Why don’t you take a break?” Ben walked toward him. “If this is taking its toll on you, I can get someone else to interrogate him. I know what he did to your parents, but… Rourke, I don’t need to lose you to this.”
Rourke turned, confused. “How would you lose me?”
Ben tapped Rourke’s temple. “In here. I don’t need even more damage than is already in there. You’re too important to me, to this pack, to yourself, and this isn’t worth your mental health.”
“I can handle it.” Though Rourke wasn’t as confident as he sounded. Interrogating anyone that long, using physical and mental tactics, always took its toll. But Rourke refused to step aside. It had been his parents that Jimmy killed, so it was his responsibility to get the information they needed.
“Go take a walk.” Ben opened the door. “Jimmy isn’t going anywhere, and you need the fresh air to reboot.”
Rourke couldn’t argue with that. His stomach growled as he nodded and walked out. He still had that gut feeling that something was off, but maybe it was because he needed a break. Whatever the reason, he would get to the bottom of it. Until then, he needed to get something to eat and center himself before he took another crack at the son of a bitch.
Chapter Five
Trey wasn’t sure he was making the right decision, but he clocked out and joined Ben at Cresting Moon. One, Trey hated going to the restaurant after he’d been fired from there. He felt as if the servers were all staring at him and some of them he knew.
Two, Ben had just shown up at his apartment without Trey ever giving the guy his address. God, he must really be desperate if he was going out with a potential stalker.
But they were meeting for dinner instead of lunch. Nando had needed Trey’s help around lunchtime, so Trey had called Ben and rescheduled.
“So, you said we needed to talk.” Trey fidgeted in his seat, trying not to think about the employees who kept glancing his way. He also didn’t want to run into Clark, his former boss who had talked trash to him right outside the pet store.
Trey still hadn’t figured out why Clark had been so mean to him. It wasn’t as if Trey had done something horribly wrong to the guy. He’d just missed a few days of work without calling in or going to the doctor for an excuse.
“We shouldn’t have come here.” Ben looked around. “You’re very uncomfortable.”
“Buddy, it’s not just the atmosphere that’s making me want to get out of here.”
“Last night.” Ben nodded. “I have no excuse for that.”
At least Ben wasn’t trying to lie his way out of this. Brownie points for him. “So why did you do it? Do you know how uneasy I was when I saw you outside my apartment door? Who does that kind of thing except creeps and serial killers? What was I supposed to think? How was I supposed to react?”
“Like you are,” Ben said. “And the only acceptable person who should have shown up at your door like that is your mate.”
“My what?” If Trey thought he was confused before… “Like a friend?”
Ben chuckled, and damn it, the sound went straight to Trey’s cock every time he heard it. He refused to be charmed until he got to the bottom of things, but Ben seemed to have some kind of spell over him. Trey didn’t understand it, but whenever Ben wasn’t around, he was kind of sad.
Ben’s smile also made him look less threatening, because the guy had the whole killer vibe going on. Trey hadn’t noticed that before, but now that he was wary of the guy, he was starting to notice a few things.
Like how Ben always looked around, as if waiting for something or someone to appear. He also seemed on edge, though Ben was trying hard to hide it with his easy smile.
Now that Trey was paying more attention, his gut told him there was something off about Ben. That should be a sign for Trey to run away, but damn it, he couldn’t make himself leave.
Instead, he shivered to his core at the way Ben looked at him, with soft brown eyes that were pools of reflection, and Trey saw himself in those beauties.
“A mate.” Ben reached across the table and ran the tip of his index finger over Trey’s hand, sending goose bumps up Trey’s arm. “Some call it a soul mate.”
Trey jerked his hand back and settled it on his lap. Whoa. They’d just met and Ben thought they were soul mates? What kind of drug was this guy on? “Pump the brakes, buddy.”
Ben sighed as he slid his hand back to his side of the table and relaxed. “I just want to blurt this out, but I don’t want to put you into some kind of spin. It’s a lot to take in, and from my experience, telling a human about my world is best done in small doses.”
Had Ben just said human? Trey jumped from his seat and ran toward the door, not bothering to look back over his shoulder. Those men who’d turned into Rottweilers. The ones who turned to dust when stabbed.
Was Ben one of those humungous dogs? Oh god. What had Trey gotten himself into? Would Ben turn into a pile of dust if Trey stabbed him? Just the thought of picking up a blade and harming anyone made him feel sick to his stomach. Trey wasn’t the physical type. He could count on one hand how many times he’d gotten into a fight in his life.
And all three times he’d gotten his butt whooped. One had even been a girl, though Trey had been in the second grade when Melissa had socked him in the nose, and why in the hell was he thinking about that right now?
He ran down the block, racing straight for home. He hadn’t made it far when he had to stop to catch his breath. He needed to exercise more. He was out of breath, and his lungs burned.
“Don’t run.”
Trey stiffened when he heard Ben’s voice behind him. He slowly turned then took a step back. “I-I saw one of you a few months ago. Y-You’re one of those dogs.”
Ben cocked his head to the side, his gaze guarded. “What exactly did you see, Trey?”
Trey kept backing away. He wanted to shout to the people on the street that he was in danger but feared Ben would attack him. “I saw men turn into Rottweilers. Then they w-were stabbed and turned to dust.”
“Goddamn it.” Ben scrubbed a hand over his dirty-blond hair. “What you saw was a hellhound. I’m not one of those, Trey. I promise you.”
With his heart in his throat, Trey asked, “Then what are you?”
“I can change into a wolf.” He held his hands up, palms out. “And I swear to you on my life that I would never, ever hurt you, mate.”
“Stop calling me that!” Trey had no choice but to stop when his back hit the brick wall of the post office. “I’m not your friend.”
“Mate means fate handpicked you for me,” Ben said, as if he wasn’t joking around. He tapped his chest with his fist. “I felt it right here the moment I laid eyes on you outside your job.”
Trey would think Ben was a lunatic, but he’d seen with his own eyes that men could change into animals. “Just…just stay away from me.”
“As much as I want to honor your wish, I can’t do that.” Ben slowly shook his head. “You’re my one shot at happiness, and I can’t walk away from that.” Ben tapped his chest again. “Tell me you don’t feel the connection, Treyvon. Tell me you don’t miss me when I’m not around. Tell me you don’t dream of me at night when you close your eyes.”
Trey was shocked Ben knew that. “H-H-How do I know you’re not evil?”
Ben laughed. It wasn’t a mocking sound. It was more like Trey’s question was absurd. “I can be unpleasant when I have to be. I run an entire pack, which I have to keep in line. But I really am a nice guy.”
“Pack?” Trey felt dizzy. “Just how many of you are there in Fever’s Edge?”
“About two dozen that are under my command.”
This time Trey did faint.
* * * *
They were closer to the floral shop than Trey’s apartment so that was where Ben took his unconscious mate. Things hadn’t gone as planned. Ben had wanted to ease Trey into his world, but it seemed he’d witnessed the hellhound takedown, and that had screwed things up for Ben.<
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“Dating dead guys now?” Elijah arched a brow as Ben walked into the shop, Trey passed out in his arms. “Our cooler is for flowers only.”
Ben gave a low growl. “Open my office door.”
Despite his attempt at humor, Elijah hurried around the counter and did as Ben asked. “Is he another guy you’re going to interrogate?”
Ben should have known nothing got past the omega. Elijah might’ve been short and docile, but he had a keen eye.
“No, he’s my mate.”
“Oh my god!” Elijah hurried into the office behind Ben. “And you killed him?”
“He’s not dead.” Ben laid his mate on the couch. “He passed out when I told him what I am. Apparently he saw the hellhounds when they were in town, their true form, and the demon warriors killing them.”
“Oh crap,” Elijah said. “Good luck winning him over. From the looks of him, you just night have broken him.”
Ben laid Trey gently on the couch and grabbed the blanket from the back of it to cover his mate. Trey moaned as he murmured, “Need more cinnamon rolls.”
“Cinnamon rolls?” Elijah arched a brow. “You have one strange human.”
No. Ben had one perfect human. He just had to get past Trey’s defenses. He also didn’t like having Trey there while Jimmy was in the room behind the cooler. Trey already didn’t trust him, and if he knew what was going on back there, his mate would run away and never look back.
“I want you to sit with him until he comes to,” Ben said. Maybe having Elijah’s meek form sitting next to him would calm Trey down. “Do what you do.”
“What exactly do I do?” Elijah asked.
“You have a way with words.” He explained what had taken place in the restaurant, Trey’s reaction, and how his mate had run away. “I want you to help him come to terms with this.”
“Wow, you don’t ask for much, do you? But I’ve never had to do that kind of thing with a human,” Elijah protested. “His first experience with nonhumans was hellhounds. How do you get past that? He’s freaked out, Ben.”
Ben left the office. He wanted Trey calm when he woke, and he also wanted to check on Rourke, but before Ben could make it out, Trey woke, curled onto his side, and moaned as he rubbed his temples.
Shit. Another of his migraines.
“I got this.” He waved Elijah out.
Ben sat and placed Trey’s head on his lap then started to massage his temples. The headaches needed to be checked out. There had to be a reason Trey was having them. Ben knew it was from the car accident his mate had told him about, but Ben wanted to know what was going on inside his mate’s head.
Trey whimpered and curled into a ball as Ben’s fingers moved in circular motions.
“Are you sure you’re not evil?” Trey asked.
“The only thing wicked about me is my sense of humor,” Ben said. “I’m sorry hellhounds were your first introduction into our world. They’re nasty, vicious creatures who suck all the happiness and joy out of you before they kill you.”
“They sound lovely,” Trey moaned. “Must invite them over for dinner.”
Ben grinned. “The next family barbeque?”
“If you want your family eaten.”
Trey had no idea about the massacre five years ago, of how some of the people Ben held dear had died at the hands of evil. The human had no clue that one of the men responsible was in the same building and that Jimmy wasn’t going to make it out alive.
“Better?”
Trey hadn’t gotten up. When Ben looked down, his mate’s eyes were still closed, so he kept massaging.
“Almost there,” Trey said. “I can’t believe your hands have the magic touch. I’m usually down for days when a migraine hits me, but whenever you touch my head, it’s gone in minutes.”
“Which means, if you try to boot my ass to the curb, my magic fingers go with me. You wouldn’t want that, would you?” Ben loved touching his mate, even if it wasn’t sexual. The connection he felt was strong, and he knew Trey felt it too, even if he was fighting against the pull.
The pull was an overpowering magnetism mates felt toward one another, even if one of them had no idea what they were feeling. It was a safeguard to ensure the two—or sometimes three—would bond.
Trey let out a little sigh. He’d yet to open his eyes. Ben liked making his mate feel better, liked having him resting on his lap, liked that the human was talking to him and not running away.
“What did you mean by mate?” Trey asked. “About fate picking me for you.”
Ben wasn’t going to lie to himself. Having Trey interested in them made his heart feel lighter, as if one of his many burdens had been lifted. He wasn’t just making Trey feel better, but Trey was settling something dark inside him—bringing light back to a place that had felt like a void for so many years now.
“There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you,” Ben said. “No measure I wouldn’t take to keep you safe or make you happy. You’re my happiness, Trey, and I’ll do whatever you need me to do so you understand that.”
Trey cracked his eyes open and looked up at Ben. There was hope and doubt in his baby blues, also wariness, as if he wasn’t sure he could trust what Ben was saying.
“I told you to let me show you.” Ben tapped the end of Trey’s nose with the tip of his finger.
“You said you wanted to woo me.”
“Still do.” Ben smiled. “How does your head feel?”
When Trey struggled to sit up, Ben helped him. “It doesn’t hurt as badly as it did when I came to. Um…thanks.”
“You’re quite welcome.” Ben wanted to pull Trey back to him, to kiss those pretty lips, to feel Trey’s slim legs glide over his thighs until his mate was settled on his lap.
“It’s, uh, getting late, and I should get home.” Trey looked around. “Where exactly am I?”
“In my office,” Ben said. “It was closer than your apartment, and I didn’t want the townsfolk calling the cops on me when they spotted me carrying your unconscious body through town.”
Not that Sheriff Greeley would have arrested Ben, but he didn’t want the people of Fever’s Edge to think of him as some psycho carrying his victim home.
Though he did get one or two strange looks when he’d carried Trey to his shop.
“I thought I smelled flowers.” Trey inhaled. “It must be nice working around that smell all day. I have to deal with wood chips and animal poop.”
Ben chuckled. “I would think you’d get used to that smell after being there for a while.”
“Aside from the cute and fluffy animals, the place gives me a headache.” Trey yawned. “I’ve also been up since the crack of dawn, and I’m exhausted.”
“If it’s okay with you, I’d like to walk you home.” Ben wanted to tell Trey of the impending danger, of him watching his back because Manny had something evil in the works, but his mate had dealt with enough already and they were just breaking ground. Ben didn’t want to scare Trey off again.
Trey got off the couch and wobbled a little. “Maybe that’s a good idea. I don’t have my feet under me yet.”
Ben jumped up when Trey looked as if he’d fall over. He slid his arms around his mate and steadied him. “Do I have to carry you?”
“Only if I’m dead.” Trey pulled from Ben’s arms and headed for the door. “I can walk, even if I’m using the wall for support. Besides, I thought chivalry was dead.”
Ben placed his hand on the small of Trey’s back, needing some kind of physical connection to his mate. “Not entirely.”
Trey looked up at him, his lips slightly parted, and fuck if Ben wasn’t tempted to kiss his mate. They stared at each other for a long moment, then Ben gave in, praying Trey didn’t push him away.
His wolf howled as Ben pulled Trey into his arms, needing him there. Trey pressed his hands against Ben’s chest, his cheeks coloring as his eyes widened.
With a wolfish grin, Ben leaned down and ghosted his lips over Trey’s, groaning at the mi
nty smell of Trey’s breath and the warmth of it, at how Trey seemed to melt against him.
“Ben, I…”
“Just a kiss.” He traced his thumb over Trey’s jaw. “But if you want me to stop, I’ll back off.”
“No need to be hasty.” Trey shocked Ben when he yanked him closer and crushed their lips together. He hadn’t expected the bold move.
And Ben liked it.
He slid his arms around Trey and lifted him off his feet, canting his head to the side as he sucked Trey’s tongue into his mouth. Ben walked forward until he had Trey against the wall, and then Trey shocked him again by wrapping his thin legs around Ben’s waist.
“Have I unleashed your inner pup?” Ben teased as he nipped at Trey’s bottom lip.
“Buddy, I haven’t been with anyone since I moved here. Shut up and kiss me.”
A chisel couldn’t have removed the smile from Ben’s face. Then a knock sounded on the door.
Trey wiggled until Ben set him on his feet. A moment later, the door opened and Elijah walked in. He looked between Ben and Trey.
“Crap. I didn’t mean to interrupt anything. I just wanted to let you know I’m closing the shop.”
Trey’s face turned so red that Ben should’ve been able to feel the heat coming off of it. “That’s fine. Thank you, Elijah.”
“I need to get home,” Trey said as he cleared his throat.
“Trey, this is Elijah.”
Elijah bounced forward as he stuck out his hand. “I’m so happy to meet you, Trey.”
Trey shook Elijah’s hand, though he looked hesitant. “Why are you happy to meet me?”
Elijah glanced at Ben.
“Because it’s a big thing when an alpha mates,” Ben replied for Elijah.
“Um, well, okay then.” Trey slid past Elijah. “I really should be going.”
Ben followed Trey from the office. “I’m walking you home.”
It was a nice night, or Ben would have suggested driving Trey home. His mate didn’t give him a backward glance. He just hurried to the front door.
