Craig [Gilham Pack: 3]

by Catherine Lievens

  Sometimes you have to let go of a comfortable life to really start living.

  Craig has rescued his last shifters from the Glass Research Company. He knew he wouldn’t be able to do it for long, but now he’s at a loss about what to do with his life. Then Kameron offers him a job—but can he really live with a pack of shifters?

  Thomas had a comfortable life, at least until Kameron ruined it for him. Still, that doesn’t mean it has to change, and Thomas is ready to do his best to keep everything as it is. When he meets his mate, he knows he won’t be able to do so for much longer, and he has to make a decision that could turn his life upside-down.

  Can Thomas get over the situation his old alpha created so many years ago and find a way to be happy with Craig? And will Craig be able to see past the shell Thomas has built around himself and give the man a chance?

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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Craig

  Copyright © 2015 Catherine Lievens

  ISBN: 978-1-4874-0404-8

  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.

  Published by eXtasy Books Inc or

  Devine Destinies, an imprint of eXtasy Books Inc

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  www.eXtasybooks.com or www.devinedestinies.com

  Craig

  Gillham Pack 3

  By

  Catherine Lievens

  Chapter One

  “Five minutes, boys and girls!”

  Craig looked at the man he’d saved from the Glass Research Company’s clutches only the night before. He would never have thought Zach would turn out to be not only Dominic’s friend, but also his pack’s alpha mate. He just looked too fragile to have a position of power, but then Craig didn’t know him. Zach probably had a spine of steel, and he was clearly in love with the alpha.

  “Hey, man, haven’t you heard? Five minutes,” Duncan said, poking at Craig’s arm.

  “What does that mean?”

  “Means our guests will be here in five minutes and we have to haul ass to the front of the house.”

  Craig wasn’t sure why they wanted him there, but he followed Duncan without protesting. He actually wanted to talk with Dominic just to find out what the hell the pride had done. They had to be the ones behind Glass’s disappearance, and Craig couldn’t wait to hear what had happened, and most of all, where the man was. About half of the company’s hired thugs were looking for him, but no one had even a clue as to where to start, and it was driving them crazy.

  The shifters he’d brought to the pack along with Zach were a bit more hesitant than Craig to follow except for Jago, but as far as Craig could see, the little man was like bottled dynamite. He was never still, either in his human form or in his Elephant shrew one.

  The clearing in front of the porch wasn’t empty anymore. Someone had gathered chairs and pillows on the grass close to the house, and Zach was already there with a tray full of glasses and a few pitchers.

  “What’s that for?”

  “We’ll have the meeting outside. Kam wants all the shifters you brought here to be there, as well as his inner circle, you, and the people Dominic’s bringing. I don’t think there’s a room big enough for everyone inside the alpha’s house, and it’s way too hot to stay inside anyway,” Duncan answered happily before making a beeline for the tray Zach had put down on a small table. Duncan reached for one of the glasses, and Zach slapped his hand, scolding him.

  Craig smiled. It felt good to be away from the tensed atmosphere in the lab for good, finally, and he felt relaxed for what had to be the first time in months. He still didn’t trust the people around him completely, but more so than his old colleagues, not that it was a hard thing to do. He wouldn’t have trusted most of the men he’d worked with over the years as far as he could have thrown them.

  “What do you think will happen?”

  Craig looked down at Jago. The shifter’s fiery red hair was gleaming in the sunlight and looked like flames. “Not much, I guess. We’ll sit down, I’ll tell everyone how I got you guys out of the lab. Dominic and Kam will talk to all of you and help you go home.”

  Jago’s smile fell a bit. “What if we don’t want to go home?”

  “Then you won’t. No one will make you do something you don’t want to do. If you tell them you’d rather stay here, I’m sure they’ll work something out.”

  “What about you? Are you going to stay?”

  Craig frowned. He hadn’t really thought about that. Sure, he’d made plans for after—after he stopped working for the company, after he stopped rescuing shifters—but he wasn’t sure he wanted to put them to work just yet. “I don’t know yet. I’ll decide with time, once you guys are all set.”

  Jago gave him a big smile and grabbed his hand. Craig jerked, not sure what to think about the other man. As cute and nice Jago was, he wasn’t really Craig’s type, but he also didn’t want to hurt the man, not after what he’d been through. He just had to be sure Jago understood that without hurting him. Easier said than done. “Jago...”

  The small hand in Craig’s squeezed with surprising force. “I know, and I’m not propositioning you or anything. I just want a friend, and you’re the closest thing to that I have at the moment. I have no intentions whatsoever of doing anything more than this,” he raised their linked hands, “with you, ever.”

  “Well, that’s sure to boost my self-esteem,” Craig said, smirking down at the shifter.

  Jago raked his gaze up and down Craig’s body, which was nearly enough to make Craig blush. “Oh, I don’t think you need a boost of anything, big guy. Believe me, you’re fine just as you are, just not my type. I tend to prefer less... bulky men. You’re way too tall and big for me.”

  “Too tall and big, huh? I can see that, I guess.” Craig was more than relieved at Jago’s words, and he didn’t mind the shifter holding his hand, now that he knew Jago wouldn’t expect more from him. It wasn’t like Craig was looking for a boyfriend or even just a lay at the moment. However, he could do with a friend, so he squeezed the small hand that was nestled in his and smiled.

  More people were starting to walk into the clearing and Craig watched them. It was engrained in him to always be aware of his surroundings and who was gravitating around him, and he didn’t think that would ever stop. That was why he immediately noticed the blond man who came in from the woods and made a beeline for Kameron.

  While the guy wasn’t exactly Craig’s type either, he wouldn’t have said no to a romp in the hay with him. The shifter had to be a little taller than Craig, probably around six foot two, but where Craig had brown hair, the shifter’s was dark blond. Craig couldn’t see his eyes at that distance, but he stifled a laugh at the mustache that was perched above the man’s lip. It didn’t suit the guy, at all.

  “Aaah, I see. I’m not exactly your type ei
ther, huh?”

  Craig looked down at Jago. “No offense, but you’re pint-sized. I’d be afraid to break you.”

  Jago stuck his tongue out at Craig. “You shouldn’t underestimate shifters, you know. I could break you in two if I wanted to, but I rather like you.”

  “Thank god for that.”

  Jago giggled. “Anyway, you could do worse, I guess. I’m just not sure about the mustache.”

  “Yeah, me either, but it’s not like I’m going to hit on the guy anyway. I’m not exactly looking for a relationship at the moment. I don’t even know where I’ll be tomorrow. For all I know, the shifters could decide I have to be punished for working for the company for all these years.”

  Jago raised a brow. “All these years? You can’t be more than—what, twenty-eight?”

  Craig chuckled. “Why, thank you. It’s nice to know I look younger than I am.”

  “How old?”

  “Thirty-four.”

  Jago examined Craig’s face with critical eyes. “Uh. I guess you’re aging well, then.”

  Craig opened his mouth to answer but he ended up gaping instead. Two guys had appeared out of nowhere right in front of him, and while he recognized Dominic, he wasn’t sure what to think of it. He closed his mouth with a snap and narrowed his eyes at the small man that was holding Dominic’s hand.

  The man was small and thin, and Craig could see the pointed tips of his ears even under the fall of blond hair.

  It clicked. Craig had known there was something more than shifters out there, but while he had read about the other species, he had never been stationed in a lab that contained them.

  Other people started popping out of thin air, always in small groups, and Zach gestured at Craig to come closer to the gathering of chairs. Craig didn’t even try to free his hand from Jago before heading that way, because he could see the shifter was nervous, so he just chose a pillow that was big enough for the two of them and pulled Jago down to sit beside him. Craig smiled what he hoped was a reassuring smile at the shifter before turning to face the others.

  All eyes were on him and on the hand Jago was still holding, and Craig cocked a brow at his audience, silently asking if anyone had a problem.

  * * * *

  Thomas didn’t like it and he didn’t even know why. Okay, if he was honest with himself, he did know why, but he also knew he had no right feeling jealous of the small redhead who was holding the hot guy’s hand.

  Thomas wasn’t blind, and he had noticed the man as soon as he had entered the clearing in front of the alpha’s house. How could he not have? He was tall, albeit just a bit shorter than Thomas was, and exactly the type of man Thomas liked—not that anyone knew Thomas liked men, of course.

  Still, even if the guy was sexy as sin, it didn’t make sense for Thomas to be jealous at the sight of the small shifter holding the guy’s hand, so he settled in one of the chairs to Zach’s left, crossed his arms on his chest and arranged his face into a scowl.

  “I’m happy to see you’re fine,” Dominic, the Whitedell pride’s alpha, said to the man Thomas had noticed. “We didn’t hear from you for too long.”

  “Yeah, well, it’s not like I could just grab my phone and call you. They were already wary of me, what with shifters regularly disappearing on my shifts. I had to lay low for a while, and I was moved to another facility.”

  “People, let’s introduce Craig to everyone before diving in, okay?” Kameron said, and Thomas huffed in agreement. The only thing he’d been told was to haul ass to the alpha’s house, but he didn’t even know why, although he had a pretty good idea, what with the group of shifters gathered there.

  “Sure. This is Craig. He’s a guard, or he used to be a guard, for the Glass Research Company. He’s helped several of the shifters who now live with the pride escape the company’s facilities, and we’ve been working with him since Christmas.”

  Most of the people around the loose circle they were arranged in nodded or waved. Thomas just kept his scowl firmly on his face, narrowing his eyes when Craig looked at him and smirked.

  An elbow hit Thomas in the ribs. “What the heck is your problem?” his brother asked from the chair next to his.

  “Nothing. Are we going to hold hands and hug trees, or are we here for a specific reason?”

  Kevin chuckled, not disturbed in the least by Thomas’s sour mood. “No idea.”

  “No hand holding Thomas, unless you really want to,” Kameron said with a chuckle. “Of course, I see that some of us are holding hands, so it might not be a problem.”

  Oh, yeah, Craig was still holding the redhead’s hand. Not that Thomas cared. Really.

  “Well, excuse me for being nervous about being in a group of unknown shifters bigger than me right after passing some quality time in a lab,” the small guy said, making most of the people gathered there laugh. Thomas didn’t, because it wasn’t funny.

  “And you’re?” Dominic asked.

  “I’m Jago. I was in a lab dedicated to exotic shifters, just like the rest of the shifters Craig saved.”

  “What are you?” Andy asked curiously, and Thomas scowled at him too. Who cared what the guy was?

  “An Elephant shrew.”

  “Oh, a rat. How nice,” Thomas muttered under his breath, earning himself another elbow to the ribs.

  “Whatever problems you have with Laura, you should keep them out of this,” Kevin whispered. Even with the low volume of his voice, several members of the pack turned to look at Thomas, and he did his best to ignore them.

  “—and of course we’ll help all of you to go back home,” Kameron was saying, but the narrowing of his eyes made it clear that he had heard what Kevin and Thomas had said. Which meant Thomas was in for a lecture when the meeting was over. Just great.

  “What about those who don’t want to go home?” Jago asked, and Thomas already knew where this was headed.

  “We’ll help you go wherever you want to go. This meeting is not just between pack and pride. Dominic and I are part of the council, and while the other members couldn’t be here today, we know they agree with us on this.”

  “Can we stay here?” Craig asked, and Thomas just knew he was blushing, damn his fair complexion. The man had a voice that was getting to Thomas, or at least to his crotch. It was smooth and smoky, like good whiskey, and Thomas loved good whiskey. His wolf stirred in his mind and got interested in what was happening around them, taking immediate interest in Craig. Thomas scowled and tried to pull his wolf away, but the damn beast wasn’t even listening to him.

  “You can. You can stay in the alpha’s house until you decide what you want to do, and if it’s what you want, you can become part of the pack.”

  “Or the pride,” Dominic added.

  Craig looked at the pride’s alpha. “No offense, but that house is a little too crowded for my taste.”

  “And you should see it now that the enforcers live with us,” a smallish dark-haired guy added with a smile. Craig seemed to know him, because he smiled back.

  “You still live there?”

  “Of course. I told you I met my mate after you got me out of the lab.”

  Oh, so he was another of Craig’s shifters. The guy was shaping up to be a savior, and Thomas wasn’t sure he liked it. Craig was going to be buried under shifters ready to thank him in any way they could, if the way Jago hung from his hand was any indication. Not that it made Thomas jealous, but what the hell was it with the human?

  “Okay, then,” Zach said with a bright smile. “Kameron’s office will be open for all of you, and you can come and talk to me, too. Let me know when you decide what you want to do.”

  People around the circle nodded and Thomas’s eyes widened just a bit when he saw a deer with what looked like wicked fangs nod too.

  People started to get up, and Thomas did too. He didn’t understand why on earth Kameron had insisted on having all the members of his inner circle there, since they hadn’t
said anything Thomas needed to know, but who was he to disobey orders?

  “Thomas, I need to talk to you.”

  Thomas grimaced. Yup, there was the ass whipping he’d known was coming his way. At least Kameron didn’t seem to want to do it in front of everyone since he was already heading inside.

  Thomas followed the alpha, ignoring his brother’s worried glance and the other eyes that were on him. He knew Craig was looking at him without even looking back, though—he could feel it, almost like a touch, sliding on his skin and making him shiver.

  He was more than happy to step into the house and escape those eyes. The cool air-conditioned air on Thomas’s skin pushed away the memory of what Craig’s eyes had done to him and Thomas firmly pushed it as far away from his mind as he could.

  Kameron was already sitting behind his desk when Thomas entered the office, so he took a seat on the other side of it and crossed his arms on his chest. Thomas had no intention of explaining himself and making the situation easier for Kameron, not even if the man was his alpha, so he kept his mouth shut.

  A few minutes passed in silence as they faced each other, neither of them wanting to be the one to give in. Finally, Kameron sighed and leaned forward, putting his elbows on his desk and crossing his forearms. “Look, I’m not going to demand that you explain what’s happening to you. I’m not Erskine, and I don’t want to pry into your private life. As the alpha I don’t even care about it, but I’m your friend too, Thomas. What’s wrong?”

  “Nothing.”

  “Puh-lease. You’ve never been exactly a bundle of joy, but lately you’ve been downright nasty. Don’t think I didn’t hear what you said about Jago.”

  “Elephant shrews are rats.”

  Kameron’s eyes hardened and Thomas knew he had pushed too hard. “You don’t want to talk to me? Fine, but I won’t have you insulting people, be they pack members or guests. Those people have been through hell and back, and they deserve a peaceful life. I don’t care what’s happening with you—you don’t have the right to make their lives difficult in any way. If you don’t pull your head out of your ass soon, I’ll have to remove you from my circle and from patrols, and it’s the last thing I want to do.”