by Zoe Perdita
It stiffened under the touch, and Cage’s heart beat beneath that plaid button up like he was running a marathon. To get that shirt off and—no! Not going that far.
“That sounds like a lot of rules. I hate rules,” Cage growled, and his palms trailed down Ari’s chest, toward the buttons of his slacks.
Ari didn’t stop him.
His hips rocked forward.
His body sang with every touch, and that devious part of his brain that he wished he could squash most of the time—the part that missed Cage’s presence—took over.
Let this happen.
Wanted this to happen.
At least, that’s what Ari told himself as his fingers snagged on Cage’s pants and undid the button, slid down the zipper. His mouth wandered over the alpha’s neck, kissing and sucking on the day old stubble and damn near licking him raw.
Had he always tasted like this or was he really that pent up?
Maybe it was just the booze.
Yeah.
Best to blame it on that.
Though it didn’t really account for his hardening cock or the throbbing need in Cage’s boxers. The boxers Ari gingerly shoved aside to get a better feel of Cage’s cock. Just as thick as he remembered.
The moan of approval that came out of Cage’s mouth sounded the same as it had back then. It was too much like all those other nights they’d spent together. The moments that Ari forced himself to forget because if he didn’t he’d have driven himself insane.
Ari closed those thoughts from his mind and focused on the touch. The sensation of Cage’s cock in his fist and the slick pre-come on the blunt head. He added his own saliva to the mix, because no way in hell was he moving down the hall to get some lotion, and gave it a gentle squeeze.
Cage growled again and snagged Ari’s mouth with his own as he freed Ari’s cock. A dangerous jolt of lust shot up his spine at that touch.
“For someone who doesn’t like rules, you sure are good at following them,” Ari moaned, his lips felt raw and abused from rubbing against the stubble.
Cage’s only response was to kiss him again. Tug on Ari’s cock until he let out a strangled groan and gave in to what was happening.
What he allowed to happen because he was a huge fucking idiot. But being an idiot felt akin to heaven at the moment, so he could live with that.
That treacherous part of his brain reminded him they could be naked and doing so much more, but he shut it down with a grunt of pleasure. All he needed now was release, nothing more. Then Cage would get the fuck out and leave him alone.
That was it.
His fingers slipped up and down Cage’s cock blindly. He didn’t want to think about how familiar it was. How he knew what it’d taste like and how that wasn’t going to happen—and no, he didn’t regret it at all.
Cage’s hand moved with more care, the thumb brushed Ari’s oversensitive head and squeezed just enough that he thought he was going to lose his goddamn mind if he didn’t just come and get it the fuck over with.
“Faster, you asshole,” Ari ground out and bit Cage’s lip.
The alpha smiled against him and did the exact opposite. “I like it when you ask for things. Ask me again.”
“Want me to stop?” Ari snarled.
“Hmm. Point taken. Next time.”
“Not going to be a next time,” Ari managed as Cage’s hand did as it was told.
Pumped him faster.
Enough that his brain lost its train of thought, and the only thing he could focus on were the sensations crawling up his spine. The thickness on his palm and the sounds they made as the shadows wrapped around them.
Held them close.
The finale rushed over him much too soon. Ari gasped at the sudden buildup and the release that leaked after it. Settled over his bones and trickled down his nerves like honey.
Cage came next, groaning into Ari’s cheek, his chest heaving.
Finally!
Now all he had to do was step back and—
Cage messed that all up by kissing him again and wiping up their messes with a cloth handkerchief. Ari almost forgot he carried one.
“That’s unsanitary,” he said, keeping his voice as emotionless as possible.
“Want to clean me up properly?” Cage asked, tone lighter than it’d been in years.
He obviously hadn’t listened very well.
“No. Now get the hell out. I said this didn’t mean—”
Cage caught Ari’s chin in his hand and kissed his temple lightly. “I don’t give a shit what it means. I love you. Someday, I hope you’ll realize that. See you tomorrow.”
Ari wished his stupid heart didn’t bang in his chest. He shook his head. “No. Not tomorrow. I don’t care if you love me or not. I—Don’t come back unless I call you, got it? Out. Now.”
In the darkness, Ari couldn’t make out Cage’s expression, but he caught the bright glint of the alpha’s shining eyes and sucked in a sharp breath. Either Cage would listen to him or else he’d—
Cage sighed and turned. Stepped down the hall. When he got to the entryway, he finally spoke. “Kian wouldn’t want you to live like this. He wouldn’t want you to be trapped by this. By what I did and how he—”
Well, that was one way for the alpha to break whatever weird spell he had over Ari.
Trapped? This alpha had no fucking right to talk like that.
None.
Ari cut him off. “Because you’re an expert on what Kian wanted? The guy who got him killed? Couldn’t let him take charge and drive the car because of some misplaced alpha pride or whatever kind of bullshit that was.”
Cage’s eyes widened, his mouth twisting into that stricken frown he always got when Ari brought this up. “I know what I did. I’ve worked my ass off to make up for it, but I can’t bring him back. I can hate myself for the rest of my life, but that doesn’t do anyone any good. Not my pack, not me and not you. Do you think Kian would want to see you like this?”
Fire burned across Ari’s flesh. “I think Kian would like to be alive and playing the piano in New York or some other big city. But he’s not. He’s dead. And you don’t get to tell me what he would’ve wanted. Ever. Not when you killed him. And I like my life without you in it just fine. I’m actually free without an alpha breathing down my neck all the time. Get. Out!”
Cage stared at him, sucked in a breath, then turned and left.
The door echoed hollowly behind him, and Ari snarled at it. Gave it a good kick (that hurt his toes more than the door) and turned the lock with so much force his fingers stung.
Then he spun around and stared up the dark staircase at the shadow that loomed at the top. “What? You have something to say? Say it! Tell me I’m wrong!”
The shadow stayed silent.
Ari.
Wake.
Up.
The whisper came from a long way off, and Ari scrunched his face into his pillow. Kian wanted to talk right when Ari finally got to sleep a couple hours before. And it was a fitful sleep that made him toss in his oversized bed and kick off all the covers.
The night was warmer than most, and classic Victorian homes didn’t come with air conditioning, unfortunately. A window unit ruined the whole decor, so he went without. As it was, the old ventilation system in the house made sounds travel farther than they would in a modern home.
Beyond the whisper, Ari heard a different sound: something scurrying around downstairs.
His blurry half asleep mind told him to grumble and ignore it.
However, it didn’t stop.
“Kian,” he said into the dark room and squinted at the light around the thick shades.
They rustled with the wind.
Downstairs, a door rattled.
Ari rubbed his eyes and sat up. The only doors inside the house that were locked were the ones in the back rooms, the herb room and the storeroom.
What the hell was Kian doing down there?
Unless it wasn’t actually Kian, in which case .
. . .
Shit!
He could go check it out by himself, but he wasn’t that stupid. He was a damn healer who didn’t know anything about defending himself. He’d never had to. Having an alpha wolf on call kept most people away.
Heart pounding, he reached for his phone and dialed the only number he could at this time of night. Hopefully, Seth wasn’t at work yet. And he might not be a wolf, but he was a cop with a wolf partner. Good compromise, in Ari’s book.
“Ari? What the hell?” Seth grumbled and sounded as groggy as Ari had a few minutes before.
“I think someone’s in my house. Not sure but it sounds like they’re downstairs trying to get into one of the back rooms,” he whispered as quietly as he could.
“Hide. We’ll be over ASAP. Don’t confront them,” Seth said, and Ari snorted.
“Why do you think I called you? Get over quickly. Please.” Then he hung up and climbed out of bed just as the piano in the sitting room started to play.
Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata.
It only took a few notes for him to recognize it.
It didn’t seem like something a burglar would do unless they were downright stupid or trying to get his attention. The latter wasn’t likely, not when whoever was playing did so with such precision. The former, however. . . .
Ari sighed.
Kian had loved the piano. Gone to university for it. Won competitions throughout the US. Which meant it wasn’t a burglar, and he just called over the cops for nothing.
Dammit.
And he thought his slip up with Cage was stupid.
He was at his bedroom door when he heard a crash and bolted down the stairs. There was a back staircase as well, but it was narrow and steep, harder to traverse than the large winding one that ran right through the center of the house. It opened onto the entryway, which was empty of everything but shadows and the dim outline of the moonlight that shone in the window on the front door. The playing had stopped, and someone cursed at the end of the hallway, the one that led to the back rooms.
“Not here!” a voice said.
Ari froze in his spot on the stairway, five steps from the bottom.
He was wrong again!
Kian didn’t sound like that.
Which meant someone else was here.
And they were about to come around the corner and see him.
Hide.
The voice felt like it was whispered from far away, but it was unmistakable. Ari always remembered the timbre of Kian’s voice, the slight hint of humor that colored almost everything he said, no matter how serious. The sound shot a chill up his spine.
Where the hell was he supposed to hide?
Upstairs would be safer, but the footsteps were closer, and he knew for a fact they’d see him before he made it upstairs. The tall stained glass windows above the door let in too much moonlight for him to be able to hide on the stairs themselves.
Ari crept downstairs instead, silently cursing himself for leaving his cell phone in his room. And also for not thinking to bring a baseball bat or a sword. He had both tucked next to his bed. Not that he knew how to use them, but ‘swing or stab’ couldn’t be that hard to figure out.
The floorboards creaked under his weight, and a voice down the hall took a breath.
“Come on! If we can’t find it we’ll—”
“Shut up!”
Two voices.
Two intruders.
And hadn’t they heard the piano playing or was Kian able to localize the sounds of his haunting now?
Ari wasn’t sure he wanted to consider what that meant.
He slipped under the stairway for cover and moved closer to the sitting room. If he could make it through the formal dining room on the other side, he could get into the kitchen and out the back. Which, now that he thought of it, was probably how these assholes broke in.
The front door was unharmed. Unless they’d smashed a window (the fury rose in his chest at that thought. Replacement windows for a Victorian were not cheap), he didn’t see any other way inside.
Ari was about to slide into the sitting room when the piano started again, picking up right where it left off.
“What the fuck?” one of the intruders, who were growing less frightening and more stupid by the second, in Ari’s esteem, said.
“Let’s go.”
These idiots broke into his house. Got him out of bed. And now they’d riled up Kian enough to play the piano which could take days to calm down. Not that Ari minded a good sonata, but he did enjoy sleeping. Kian wasn’t always mindful of things like that. Probably hard to be since he was dead.
Ari’s hands balled into fists, and he would’ve stepped out and said something to them if not for the sudden pressure that lighted on his head. He squeezed his eyes shut and heard the piano come to an abrupt halt for the second time. Then the whisper-light touch of a hand, cold as snow, wrapped around his mouth and held him still.
It had to be Kian.
Not a live person.
Not someone who would hurt him.
“If someone is here, you know what we have to do,” one of the voices said. They sounded oddly hollow. Too loud in the silence of the house.
Like they weren’t trying to hide their presence any longer.
Or that they knew right where he was.
The hand on his mouth loosened.
Kian sighed.
Why didn’t you hide?
His voice sounded so much weaker, and Ari pinched his eyes shut, willing them to stop stinging at the sound. He hadn’t realized how much he missed it until he got to hear it again.
Not to mention, he had to get away from the goddamn burglars so Seth didn’t have to discover his dead body once they arrived.
What would Cage do then?
Ari’s chest constricted when he thought of that.
No.
Not going to happen.
Kian wouldn’t let anything—
“Found you,” someone said, and Ari tried to spin around, but something hard came down on the back of his head.
He fell, sprawled across the smooth hardwood floor and felt his eyes slip shut.
The last thing he heard was Kian whispering his name.
4
The last call Felan ever wanted to get was from that other alpha, Detective Conner Sharp. They hadn’t gotten off on the right foot initially, and while Felan knew that the detective was mates with the seer, Seth Alwen (who was also a detective and an old friend of Ari’s) that didn’t mean they had to see each other much. Or get along.
Not that Felan could help it. Rogues were suspicious right off the bat. If a pack kicked a wolf out, it was usually for a good reason. Even Tyler and Davis hadn’t let their pack fall apart, and they’d been through their own kind of hell.
Not to mention Sharp was so overprotective of the seer it was almost funny, if Felan hadn’t known exactly how he felt. And that he couldn’t be that protective of Ari without the healer pissing off at him stung more than he’d ever admit.
The call itself was made even worse because it happened before six a.m. and included the words ‘Ari Gold’ and ‘injured’ and ‘better get over here.’
Felan wasn’t going to bother with Ari’s new rule about not coming around until Ari called him. Not if he was hurt or de—
No.
He didn’t let his mind wander in that direction.
He dressed in the dark, picking up whatever shirt and pant-like objects he could find and left, hardly bothering to lock up as he did. His knuckles blanched on the steering wheel, and he snapped at every damn traffic light he ran into. He’d seen Ari alive and well and so responsive less than six hours before. So willing to give and take, and the memory brought a bright ache to the center of his chest.
If those were the last words he ever got to say to Ari. . . .
Several police cars and one ambulance buzzed around the Victorian when Felan arrived. He swallowed the sharp lump in his throat and moved toward the ambulance firs
t. If Ari was injured, that’s where he’d be.
Detective Alwen met him before he got there. The man looked as weary as Felan felt, the dark circles beneath his eyes and the pinched frown on his mouth gave it away. His long blond hair was tied back into a low ponytail, and he wore a T-shirt and jeans instead of a typical suit. That he was talking to Felan instead of Detective Sharp probably meant something.
Alwen sighed. “Ari’s awake, and he’s fine, but I’m not sure he wants to see you. Con called you because he thought you should know, and Ari was still out at that point, but—”
Felan shook his head. For once, that other alpha had more sense than Felan had given him credit for. “Do you think I care if he wants to see me or not? Where is he?”
Alwen sighed and rubbed his hand over his rough cheeks. “What kind of friend would I be if I told you? You might be an alpha, but that doesn’t mean you can barge in and do whatever the hell you want in every situation. Ari gets to have a say.”
Felan bit back the growl working its way up his throat. Magic users never really understood the urges of a shifter mate. Still. Of all people to put him off. “What would you do if you were me and Sharp was injured? Turn away because his friend told you to?”
“I don’t really like Sharp’s friends since they’re all—uh, point taken. Shit. Look. We’re still trying to find out what happened, so take it easy on him. If he tells you to leave, do it without a scene. He’s been through a lot tonight, okay?”
Felan balled his hands into fists. He was about two seconds from grabbing Alwen by the shoulders and shaking the man until he pointed the way toward Ari. He sniffed the air, but the scent of his mate, the one he should’ve been able to pick out of anything in the world was overpowered by car fumes and blood. Only the faintest hint of Ari’s distinct musk touched his nose, and it was crowded by antiseptics and humans.
“Fine. Where is he?” Felan growled as Conner Sharp approached.
“Seth,” Sharp said, his voice a low grumble. He was an inch or so taller than Felan, but height was never a determining factor in strength. Not when wolves did most of their fighting in their shifted forms. Not that it happened much in the city. It’d draw too much unwanted attention.
