by Zoe Perdita
Ty was silent for a moment. Inside the room, cloth rustled and a chair slid across the linoleum floor.
Davis stared at the yellowing wall opposite him, with the peeling poster for trumpet lessons that curled on it.
Finally, Ty answered. “Because my brother got back in town, and it messed with my head. He’s been gone for fifteen years. I didn’t want to deal with it, so I went out and had fun.”
Davis frowned at his hands and the little creases on his palms as the conversation drifted in another direction. That’s how Ty felt, and Davis didn’t know if he could fix it.
Before the meeting let out, another wolf walked into the hall. He stood taller than Davis by a few inches, though his build wasn’t as broad. His light brown hair was cut short and neat, and he wore a pair of wire framed glasses on his slightly crooked nose.
Strange, for a wolf.
However, Davis knew from looking at him who this wolf was. Professor Felan Cage, Ty’s sponsor. He wore a pair of brown slacks, a checkered button up shirt with a maroon sweater over the top, which made him look like he taught college. Yet he carried himself like an alpha with his shoulders thrown back and the haughty tilt of his chin. From the slight lines of gray in his hair, Davis guessed the man was older than himself by several years.
Davis nodded in his direction and smiled, though it felt pained. “You here for Ty?”
The man adjusted his glasses. “You must be the brother. Davis. No matter how many times I offered, Ken and Tyler never joined my pack. Ken said they already had an alpha.”
Ouch. That stung. And it made sense (sort of) for Ken, but why the hell wouldn’t Ty join? Pure Harrison family stubbornness, probably.
“Yeah. I don’t suppose I have the best reputation with you. So, uh, you don’t look like a druggie,” Davis said, which sounded more insulting after it came out of his mouth than when the thought formed in his head. There he was—great at first impressions.
At least the fellow alpha didn’t charge and rip his throat out, so that had to mean something. Instead, Felan stood up straighter at the insinuation. “Yes, well, I’ve been clean over ten years. Addicts aren’t always whom you would assume.”
Davis shrugged. “Guess not. I never thought Ty would, you know. But I wasn’t here to help and Ken didn’t notice in time. . .”
Fuck! What was he trying to do? Make excuses for his lack of involvement in his younger brother’s life? Sort of, and that was all kinds of asshole behavior.
However, Felan didn’t call him on it. Admonish Davis for his utter failure. His dark eyes narrowed. “You can’t blame yourself for someone else picking up a needle or a bottle of pills. Tyler has agency in his own life, and he made bad decisions. That’s something we all have to square with, one way or the other. If he blames you, he’s not being honest with himself.”
Davis guessed the words should’ve relieved some of his guilt. They didn’t, even if it was true. He still should’ve been there, but he couldn’t change the past now. “Uh, thanks. You seem like a good guy. I’m glad Ty has someone like you to look out for him. He needs good role models.”
Because Davis himself sure as hell wasn’t one.
Felan raised an eyebrow. “Yes. But I don’t do him much good, I’m afraid. He won’t enroll at the university, and I bore him when I talk of my studies.”
Davis almost smiled. “At least it’s not just me.”
Felan sniffed the air and adjusted his glasses. “You’re hurt. I know a healer who could help.”
Great. Now another alpha thought Davis couldn’t even look after himself. What kind of wolf was he? Well, a pathetic gambler with a cracked rib. Yeah. That kind.
“Uh, thanks, but my friend has it covered,” Davis said, and his rib took that moment to ache enough to make him flinch.
“If the friend is Ken, I know who he’s calling,” Felan said as the meeting let out.
There was something that passed as juice and cheap store bought cookies on a table inside the room. Davis spotted it from the door. Several of the other attendees hung around to talk. A young woman, around Ty’s age, chatted to Ty as he stomped toward the two alphas who waited for him, but he didn’t pay her much attention. It was probably for the best, Davis thought, as he caught her scent—human.
“See you,” Ty muttered and walked right past Davis without stopping.
The girl frowned.
Felan grasped Ty by the arm. His eyes held Ty’s gaze, steady and strong. “Not so fast. We’re taking your brother to Ari, then we’re going to have a long talk about last night.”
Ty pouted exactly like he did when he was a kid and their mom said he couldn’t have the toy he wanted. Davis almost smiled at that, because it reminded him of the good old days. Before shit got so messed up he couldn’t fix it.
Not surprisingly, Ty opted to ride with Felan. Davis followed them back toward the north side of town. After fifteen minutes, they pulled up at a looming Victorian home just shy of a mansion.
The windows were dark, the curtains pulled, but Davis felt as if they watched him limp to the front door and scrutinized every inch of his being. Found him wanting. Even his thoughts judged him.
Ty stayed behind in the car, scowling, but Felan joined Davis on the porch.
He knocked twice, a sharp rap of his knuckles.
After several long seconds, a healer opened the door. Like the last healer Davis saw, this man had bright green eyes, the color of moss on the trees in Forest Park. A pair of silver wire-framed glasses rested on his nose, and he glowered at Felan for a long moment before he spoke.
“You. Are you the one Ken told me about?” the healer asked and held the door open for Davis to limp inside.
“Probably,” Davis said and forced a smile.
“Ari, I’m taking you out for drinks later,” Felan said. “No excuses this time.”
“Go to hell,” Ari mumbled and took Davis by the elbow with surprising gentleness for the words that just came out of his mouth.
Felan chuckled and didn’t follow them inside, so Ari kicked the door shut. Then he led Davis through the main hall, all filled with expensive looking antiques, and into a room stocked with herbs. Unlike the last healer’s room this one didn’t smell as strongly of blood.
“You’re not friends with that guy?” Davis asked as he lifted his shirt. The bruise on his side was darker than it’d been that morning, almost black.
Ari snapped on a pair of gloves. “Pants too. You’ve got a lot of cuts that need treated after a swim in the river. I know a wolf who almost died of an infection from that water.”
Well, Davis didn’t feel sick at the moment, but he stripped nonetheless. He took off everything and sat on the cold metal exam table while the healer smashed some herbs. “So?”
“So what?” Ari asked.
“You live here alone?” Davis ventured to fill the silence. It was worse than hanging out with Ken, because at least if they didn’t talk it felt comfortable. This felt just the opposite.
A thin smile spread over Ari’s lips. “Alone? No. I’m never alone here. And no, I’m not friends with Dr. Cage. Long story. I hear you got into some trouble with the Dragons. That’s pretty dumb in the grand scheme of things. Did you meet Galen?”
Davis blinked, and Ari spread the herbs over his bruised side. “Who?”
“Jin Yue’s healer.”
Davis flinched at the coolness leaking into his bones. “Yeah. He was kind of a dick.”
Ari snorted and finished treating Davis in silence.
Ken dozed on the couch when Davis finally crept back to the condo that evening. He balanced two pizzas on his arms. It wasn’t late, hardly after eight pm, but the weariness dragged at him. A night in the river did that to a wolf.
Ken flinched from his sleep and sat up, eyes bleary and hair tussled. He wore a gray T-shirt and loose black pants, and the shirt rode up to expose the tight expanse of his stomach.
Davis’s fingers twitched to touch it again. Feel the skin shudder bene
ath his hands. Yeah. That wasn’t a straight guy kind of thought.
He smiled and set the pizzas down. “I said I’d make dinner.”
“Picking up pizza doesn’t count as making anything, but I’ll let it slide this once,” Ken said around a yawn.
An afternoon off did Ken good, Davis noticed. The dark hollows under Ken’s eyes cleared somewhat, and he didn’t look as pale. He scratched his chest as he stood and padded into the kitchen. One of his socks was scrunched at his ankle and the other wasn’t. That he hadn’t fixed it yet spoke of how tired he must’ve been.
Davis knew the feeling.
Of course Ken had to get plates and set them on the table, because he wasn’t about to eat right out of the box. Davis followed his lead and set napkins and a glass there as well. He even pulled out the bottle of wine and grinned at Ken, who nodded his approval.
“I’m too tired to care if it goes with pepperoni or not,” Ken said.
Davis brushed past him. Their bodies hardly touched, but the sensation of Ken’s presence filled him nonetheless. “Beer always goes with pizza, but you don’t like beer.”
Ken wrinkled his nose and poured a full glass of red wine right to the rim. He usually didn’t drink that much. Then Ken threw open the first pizza lid and yanked off three greasy slices. He devoured one before Davis had a chance to start.
They finished off a whole pizza before Davis spoke. The one thing that he hadn’t thought about since the night before flashed into his mind. Hell, it was the reason he stayed at the club and got into the damn fight with those bears.
Davis took a swig of his beer. “How was the date?”
Ken’s chewing slowed, and he dabbed his mouth with a napkin before he answered. “Not great. I told him it wouldn’t work and came home.”
Well, that was the last response Davis expected. He thought for damn sure Ty’s arrest interrupted Ken’s date, otherwise Ken would’ve gone home with the guy.
“That’s it?” Davis fought the grin threatening his lips. Besides all the other shit he had to deal with, at least Ken didn’t have a damn boyfriend now.
Ken pursed his lips and grabbed another slice. Probably his sixth, but Davis wasn’t about to judge. He could eat both pizzas by himself, and Ken could as well.
“Well, he’s human, so that put a damper on it. He kept asking me about Christmas. What am I supposed to say? Wolves don’t celebrate human holidays? And he can’t cut a damn steak to save his life. Oh, and you have no idea what he did to his bread. Annoying, to say the least. Also, he’s indecisive and egotistical. Sort of. Or maybe he just wasn’t what I wanted.”
Davis’s heart thudded in his chest. He heard Ken’s beat with it, like two drums trying to match each other’s pace. “What do you want?”
He didn’t know why he asked. Ty told him. Ken told him ten years before, and Davis did the perfectly asshole thing and dismissed it. What could he do about it when the very idea of giving into that kind of desire scared him shitless? No – it wasn’t the desire that frightened him, that was just a front from his real fear. It was the responsibility of keeping Ken happy. Being the upstanding alpha Ken deserved, pretty much the exact opposite of what Davis actually was.
What if he royally fucked it all up and Ken never forgave him? Or Ken left him. Yeah, he couldn’t deal with that.
Ty was probably right. Ken was too good for him.
That just meant Davis had to be better.
“Stop being an ass. You know what I want. I’ve known since I was sixteen how I felt, and I don’t expect you to feel the same. I’m not saying I’m waiting for something that’s never going to happen, but I’m also not forcing myself into a relationship just for the hell of it. Or to make you jealous. It’s not worth it,” Ken said and gulped the last of his wine. His cheeks reddened, and he lapped a drop from his upper lip.
Davis stared at him, mouth twitching into a smile. “You were trying to make me jealous?”
“Shut up,” Ken said and nudged Davis’s calf with his toe. “I know it was stupid and pointless, okay? But you kissed me and—”
“It worked. I was jealous last night. I was jealous the night Jin caught me. I sound like some asshole alpha, and I know it, but I hated the idea of anyone else touching you,” Davis blurted out. His fingers dug into the bottle of beer.
This was his idea of being a better wolf? He wasn’t off to a great start.
To his surprise, Ken didn’t shut the conversation down with a shake of his head. He didn’t gather their dishes and rush away, like he’d done before. This time Ken looked straight into Davis’s eyes. Ken’s own looked like the sea during a storm, fighting toward an impossible shore.
If Ken was drowning out there, he needed Davis’s help.
So Davis threw him a life raft. Hell, he’d have turned an entire ship around if he had to, because admitting this is what that felt like.
“Do you want to be the one touching me?” Ken breathed and bit his bottom lip. His teeth dug into it so hard Davis feared it might break. Bleed. For him. And he wasn’t worthy of that kind of wound.
Davis’s mouth felt like the Arizona desert, but he didn’t pick up his beer. Didn’t move. If he did, this moment might get lost in the grand shuffle, and they’d never find their way back here again.
“Yeah. More than anything.”
Ken inhaled sharply like someone hit him. His eyes pinched, and he nodded. “Then do it.”
Fuck.
Davis didn’t need to be told more than once.
Who the hell cared about a half eaten pizza with an offer like that? But he couldn't shove the pizza on the floor; Ken wasn’t that kind of guy. He’d complain about the grease stains. So Davis rounded the table, swallowed the cactus in his throat and pulled Ken into him.
Ken’s eyes widened, briefly, and then his expression turned sharp with desire. The same desire that singed Davis from the inside. His bones burned with it – a fire that started in his chest and spread across his entire being.
He’d been waiting for this kind of signal all week, and finally he got it.
Ken’s mouth met his first. Lips, teeth and tongue pressed together passionately. He tasted like pizza and wine, not a bad combo, considering.
Davis’s fingers snagged on Ken’s T-shirt. It was too loose. Too baggy. He yanked it over Ken’s head, upsetting his hair even more.
Hell, Ken didn’t even say a word when Davis let it drop to the floor.
Davis’s chest heaved. Every breath he took ached. Pinched at his side, though the salve helped ease some of it. But the pain was worth it.
All of it was worth it for Ken and this singular moment.
Ken’s mouth slipped down Davis’s neck, over the rough stubble. Every kiss scorched his flesh. Woke up the pieces of him that slept far too long.
He groaned, limped forward, and held Ken against the wall.
Ken writhed like a damn serpent, all hands and that hot wet mouth. It nipped at his lips, his cheeks. The rough edge of his jaw. Kissing and sucking and—Fuck! Davis wanted that mouth. Wanted all of Ken sprawled out just for him.
“You’re hurt,” Ken breathed, like he was reminding himself, not Davis, of the alpha’s wounds.
Davis shrugged and pulled the shirt over his head. “So? I’m well enough for this.”
Ken frowned when he saw Davis’s chest. The little cuts and scrapes from the rocks in the river. The black bruise spreading over Davis’s side.
“Bedroom.”
It seemed like a million miles away, but Davis resigned himself to it. This was Ken’s moment too. And, yeah, maybe laying down was a good idea.
Ken pulled him, those long fingers wrapped around his palm. The touch was the gentlest so far.
Davis only got a peek at the bedroom a few times since he’d arrived. It looked like the rest of the apartment. Modern bed with a plain headboard. Dark wooden furniture. Simple and elegant, like Ken himself.
No clothes littered the floor. Not even a book sat on the nightstand, and
the bed was so perfectly made it didn’t look like Ken had slept in it in days. Maybe he hadn’t. That thought sent the same old stab of guilt to Davis’s chest. It didn’t mix well with the growing need in his groin. The tent in Ken’s pants told him the omega felt the same way.
Ken’s chin ducked to his chest as he nudged Davis carefully toward the bed. His brows furrowed, as if he felt the same pain Davis did. The same deep-seated ache.
Ken unbuttoned Davis’s jeans. Slid the zipper down. Nudged the fabric off Davis’s hips. The heat of his palms soaked into Davis’s skin. He didn’t say a word, and his expression swam from lust to uncertainty like a damn pendulum.
Uncertainty shouldn’t be allowed at a moment like this.
“Don’t stop,” Davis said and grasped Ken’s shoulders as Ken drew little circles on the flesh of Davis’s hips with his thumbs.
In the dim light, Davis made out the gentle sprinkling of freckles on Ken’s sternum, pale and faded. Ken had the same barely perceptible freckles around his eyes, and Davis only noticed them when they were this close.
He wanted to taste them—kiss them all—along with each inch of Ken’s body.
Ken nodded, and Davis kicked off his jeans, underwear and shoes in a quick series of movements.
For a moment, Ken did nothing but stare at him. His eyes were hooded, needy. And his tongue—that motherfucking tongue—flicked over his lips and wet them. Then Ken took a step toward him, and his palm pressed into Davis’s chest.
Davis stepped back until his knees hit the bed and he slumped into it. He tried not to flinch at the impact and failed.
“Those pants,” Davis said, but Ken’s thumbs already hooked in the elastic. He shoved them off in one fluid movement, and – fuck it all – he was totally commando underneath. His cock wept.
Davis licked his lips and took a breath, which sent a dull stab of pain to his side.
Ken stood in front of him naked and glorious like some kind of god. How the hell was Davis lucky enough to be the wolf Ken wanted?
Even more so, how had he run away from it until now?
Suddenly, Ken’s brow furrowed, and he glanced at the door. “Should we brush our teeth first?”
