by Stormy Glenn
“How do you prevent that?”
“We’re not animals, Rue. We have rules and laws we have to follow just like you do, even when dealing with other shifters. Mikhail will have to make a full report to our governing council. In fact, you’ll be asked to make a witness account. It’s no different than if you had witnessed an incident in the human world.”
Rue wasn’t so sure he agreed with that. This seems a lot different. People had died, Stefan was injured and missing, and yet they were merely wrapping the body in a tarp and leaving him beside the garage. It felt wrong, and yet Rue couldn’t dispute Zus’s handling of the situation because it was all so new to him.
“What now?” Rue asked as they reached the back door of the house.
“We need to make sure everything is ready for when Mikhail comes back with Stefan, and I need to secure the house in case there are any more of Ezra’s boys hanging around.”
“Why would someone do this, Zus?” Rue just didn’t understand this level of violence. Sure, he had experienced his fair share of gay bashings and a few pummeling from wannabe Doms. But this…the body Zus had wrapped up had been torn to shreds. This was serious violence.
“Some people are assholes, baby.” Zus shot Rue a worried look.
“Is this…” Rue gulped, his eyes landing everywhere except on Zus. “Is this normal for your life?”
“It can be at times.”
Rue’s eyes locked with Zus’s for a moment before darting away again. “You’re not going to send me away, are you?”
“No, mate, I am not sending you away.”
Rue sighed heavily with relief. He had been worried there for a moment. “Okay, good.”
“But I wouldn’t blame you if you wanted to leave. You didn’t sign on for a threat like this.”
Rue stopped walking to frown up at Zus. “But you said it can be a normal part of your life sometimes.”
“Yes.”
“Then I signed on for it.” Rue narrowed his eyes before looking Zus square in the face. He wanted the man to understand how serious he was. “I signed on for anything that concerns my mate.”
Zus hooked a hand around the nape of Rue’s neck, drawing him closer until their bodies pressed together. Rue felt the man’s lips press against the side of his head.
“Good boy.”
Rue melted. There was nothing he loved more in the world than to know he had pleased his master…mate…whatever. He was just glad he had pleased Zus.
“Such a perfect mate.”
Yep.
Melting.
“I need to secure the rest of the house, Rue. Can you—”
As much as Rue didn’t want to leave Zus’s side, he understood that they were in a precarious situation. His smile wobbled a bit when he leaned back, but at least he wasn’t crying. “I’ll go help Jace get things ready for Stefan.”
“Thank you, mate.”
Rue nodded then watched Zus take off around the side of the house toward the front yard. When the man disappeared around corner, Rue drew a deep breath and opened the door, stepping inside the kitchen and then into the dining room where he hoped everyone else was.
He grimaced as he looked around at the blood pooled on the floor and splatters on the china hutch and dining set. Apparently, this part of the house hadn’t been dealt with yet. Rue could clean the room. It would give him something to do until the others got back.
Rue went back into the kitchen and searched around until he found a bucket in a closet by the back door. He filled it with hot water and cleaner then carried it back into the dining room. After soaking a rag in the hot sudsy water, he began scrubbing away all of the blood.
At some point, Jace came in and joined him.
“How are you holding up?” Rue asked because Jace looked so pale Rue worried the man was about to pass out.
“I’ll be okay.”
Rue doubted that. As brave as he thought he was, Jace really wasn’t used to this level of violence. Rue wasn’t either, but at least he had more exposure to it. He had hung out in some pretty interesting places in his time.
“I’m worried about Stefan,” Rue admitted. “If anything happens to him, Zus just won’t handle it well.” He might not have known his lover for more than a day or so, but he knew enough to know Zus would be devastated if anything happened to his brother.
Jace turned and plopped down on his butt. “I don’t think Mikhail will either. He’s going to take full responsibility for all of this.”
Rue frowned. “He didn’t do this.”
“No, but he’s the alpha of this pride along with his brothers, and as such he feels it’s his responsibility to keep everyone safe.”
Rue blinked. “He’s the what?”
Jace chuckled. “He shares the position with his brothers but he’s essentially the alpha, the head honcho, the man in charge, the—”
Rue held up a hand to stop Jace before he really got going. “I get it. Mikhail is top dog.”
“Top cat actually.”
Rue spun around so fast at the roughly spoke words that he slid onto his butt. “Mate.”
Zus’s lips curled up. “Hey, babe.”
Rue quickly canned Zus from head to toe looking for any sign of injury. When he didn’t find anything out of place, he met Zus’s eyes. But just for a moment before the intensity in their green depths was too much for him and he dropped his gaze.
“I was worried about you,” Rue admitted.
“Yeah?” Rue shuddered when he felt Zus’s fingers slide through his hair, bunching then tugging Rue closer. “Why was that, love?”
“You were gone an awfully long time.”
“I told you what I was doing.”
Rue shrugged. “I still worried.”
“Thank you, mate.” Rue’s eyes slid closed in pure delight when he felt Zus’s lips brush his forehead. “It means a lot to me that you care.”
Rue frowned as he leaned back and stared up at Zus. He knew he wasn’t in love with Zus, but he was quickly falling in that direction. The man was everything he had ever dreamed of and then some. Falling in love with him was going to be pretty damn easy. Knowing that Zus considered them forever mates only added to the feelings he was quickly developing for the dominant man.
Rue just wished Zus understood that. He didn’t have a single clue how to convince him. “You said you were my mate.”
Zus’s eyebrows drew together in a confused frown as he nodded. “I am.”
“My definition, not yours.”
Zus’s lips thinned, a glint of anger darkening his green eyes. “I am still your mate no matter what the definition you use.”
“He means that you agreed to be his master.”
Rue cringed at Jace’s use of the word master. Zus really hated that word. He needed to defuse this situation before Zus really got angry. “I know what I mean.”
Zus stood straight, crossing his arms over his broad chest. It was a posture that both intimidated Rue and inflamed him. His breath stuttered as he inhales slowly, trying to find his center.
“The last day or so has been more eventful than the last two months. I feel like we’ve lived a lifetime since we met,” Rue said. “I know things are moving along fairly quickly, but please don’t assume my feelings are minimal because of that. I know how I feel.”
Zus’s expression softened but just a little. “And just how do you feel, Rueben?”
“You are my master, my—” Rue held up a hand when Zus opened his mouth. He knew the man was going to argue with him. “You are my master, my sir, my mate. You are all of those things to me, and more. I have never wanted to be with someone the way I want to be with you.”
Rue dropped his gaze down to his hands as he tried to figure exactly how to say what he was feeling. He didn’t want to come off as too needy, and yet he knew he was.
“I need you,” he admitted simply when he couldn’t think of anything else to say. Rue shuddered when Zus’s hand fisted in his hair, yanking his head so
far back it hurt to swallow.
“Not nearly as much as I need you, mate.”
“And on that note,” Jace said in a very high voice, “I’m going to go check on Bay.”
Rue didn’t even turn to watch as Jace hurried out of the room. His entire attention was on the man standing over him. The look in Zus’s eyes was intent, searching. But more than that, they were filled with a curious longing.
“We spend our entire lives looking for our mates.” Zus’s teeth clenched for a moment, a small tic pulsing in his jaw. “Once we find our mate, there is no going back for us. It’s forever.”
“But what if you don’t get along?”
The tension in Zus’s face faded. “That’s the thing about fate, Rue. She pairs us with the perfect mate, whether we immediately know that or not. If we just accept that fate knows best, our lives go a lot easier.”
Rue’s stomach unfurled slowly, releasing the tension that had started to take a hold of him. “Do you really think fate gave you the perfect mate?”
Zus’s lips curved up. “Perfect for me.”
That was good enough for Rue.
Zus’s hand tightened in Rue’s hair, pulling Rue close until his cheek rubbed against the growing bulge in Zus’s pants. “Suck me, love.”
God, yes!
Rue’s fingers shook as he unzipped Zus’s pants and pushed the edges down and out of the way. He inhaled the intoxicating scent trapped by the wiry hair at the base of Zus’s hard cock.
A heady, clear drop of pre-cum pearled at the tip of Zus’s cock then slowly slid down the hard length. The shaft had a thick pulsing vein on the underside that went all the way up the column.
Rue caught it with his tongue. The heady scent of the essence was nothing next to the potent taste that filled his mouth. Salty and just slightly bitter, the flavor burst across his tongue, flooding his senses.
Rue kept his eyes locked with Zus’s as he opened his mouth and swallowed the man’s hard cock until it pushed against the back of his throat. He might have sucked Zus off before, but it was just as explosive this time as it had been the last time.
Careful of his teeth, he slowly slid up and down the silky hard column, easing all the way to the root where the wiry hair tickled his nose. Coming back up, he fisted the thick rod and pumped the shaft as he lavished attention on the head.
Zus didn’t move, not a muscle. He let Rue do all of the work, all of the movements. His eyes, on the other hand, spoke volumes. Every aching need and desire shined in Zus’s green eyes.
With every stroke of his tongue, every suck of his mouth, Rue could see the pleasure he was providing his mate, and it made him harder than he could ever remember being.
Rue groaned, wishing that he could grab his own cock, stroke himself. He could feel the blood pounding through his body, settling in his groin, and he ached. But an order from his mate was to be obeyed, and he wasn’t allowed to touch until Zus gave his permission.
Instead, Rue gripped his hands tighter together and renewed his attack on Zus’s cock, sucking and licking for all he was worth. He needed to prove to Zus that he was the perfect mate for the man.
His lips pressed again the head of Zus’s dick, following the slope down over the rim. He stopped and suckled, tongue swirling around and around.
Zus’s eyes started to grow dazed, his eyelids falling down more and more until they showed just a hint of green. Zus’s lips curled back, his jaw clenched. Rue noticed a vein throbbing in the man’s temple. Small beads of sweat dripped down the sides of his face.
But still, the man didn’t move. If his chest hadn’t been rising and falling so rapidly, Rue would have wondered if the man was even breathing. Except for his eyes, and the quickness of his breathing, he looked as still as a statue.
“Make me come, pet,” Zus ordered harshly. “Make your mate come.”
Suddenly, without warning, Zus’s head fell back on his shoulders and a loud groan echoed around the room as hot cream filled Rue’s mouth. Rue swallowed it down and licked around Zus’s cock until he cleaned every last drop up.
He moaned in protest when Zus suddenly pulled away from him, put himself back in his pants, and zipped himself up. Rue frowned when Zus’s head snapped up and he glanced toward the back door. “What is it?”
Chapter Nine
Zus lifted his nose into the air and sniffed. “They’re back.” He took off toward the kitchen. The amount of blood he could smell concerned him greatly. The air was saturated with the thick coppery scent.
“With Stefan?” Rue asked as he hurried along behind him. “Did they find Stefan?”
“Yes.” Zus hit the back door running. He was desperate to get a look at his brother. He didn’t realize how worried he was until he saw Yuri walking toward the house. Zus skidded to a halt his breath catching at what he saw.
Yuri was walking through the yard with a huge tiger in his arms. The tiger should have been white. He wasn’t. His fur was splattered with red splotches.
“Is that Stefan?” Rue whispered.
Zus imagined it was a little daunting to see Yuri carrying a full-grown live tiger. They had reached the dining room only after Stefan had taken off, so Rue hadn’t had a chance to see him in tiger form then. He had only seen Zus in his tiger form.
“Yes,” Zus replied.
He felt helpless as he watched Yuri carry Stefan into the house and lay him down on the sheet-covered dining table.
“I sterilized everything I could find in the kit,” Jace said as he grabbed a cookie sheet covered in first aid tools and carried it over to the table.
“Thanks, babe,” Mikhail said as he turned and pressed a kiss to the side of Jace’s head. “Why don’t you go heat some water?”
“Why?” Jace asked.
Mikhail’s mouth opened and closed like a drowning fish. “I don’t know. Because that’s what people do in situations like this?”
There was a reason that Mikhail was one of the alphas of their pride. He was the smartest, the fastest, and—despite Yuri’s size—Mikhail was the strongest of them all. Even though they all ruled the pride together, they all looked to Mikhail as the head alpha.
But sometimes he could be dumb as a box of rocks.
“That’s what people do when women go into labor,” Jace insisted in a “duh” kind of voice. “Not when someone needs a bullet dug out.”
“Oh, well…”
Jace waved his hand toward the table where the tiger lay panting heavily. “Do you even know what you’re doing here?”
“Jace,” Zus said, “we don’t get injured like this very often.” It wasn’t like they were experts at treating battle wounds. Usually, life inside of their pride was pretty mellow. Ezra and his boys had never launched an attack like this.
“In fact,” Mikhail continued, “this is the first time one of us has been shot. We’re kind of winging it here.”
Jace’s jaw dropped. “You’ve never done this before?”
Mikhail shook his head.
“Bay!” Jace shouted.
“Stop shouting,” Bay snapped from his position by Stefan’s head. “They can hear you in the next county.”
“You’re going to have to dig that bullet out.”
Bay stared, slack jawed. Zus did as well. He wasn’t a medical doctor by any means, but he knew more about tiger physiology than Bay did.
Didn’t he?
“No one here has the medical training that you do,” Jace said.
Zus leaned over to whisper in Rue’s ear. “Is that true?”
Rue nodded. “Bay had medical training,” he whispered back. “He went to school to be a registered nurse but never took the exam. We convinced him to go into business with us instead. He’s the most qualified out of all of us to get the bullet out.”
Okay then.
Zus quickly assessed the situation. The dining room was the best place for any type of surgery. It had the most room for Bay to move around and the only table that would hold Stefan’s tiger form.
It didn’t have enough light, and Zus was pretty sure Bay would need some sort of stand for the medical tray Jace had. He gestured for Yuri to follow him and then hurried to the hallway and took everything off of the small sideboard his mother had placed by the front door years ago. He grabbed a small wooden box on top of it and grabbed a lamp on his way back into the dining room, reaching it just as Jace spoke up.
“Uh, Mikhail, do you have—” Jace stood there with the cookie sheet in his hand, glancing around as if looking for something.
“Here.” Zus set the small table down next to the dining table.
“Perfect.” Jace set the cookie sheet down.
Yuri walked in a moment later with several lamps and began setting them around the room. It lightened the room considerably but not enough. Even Zus could tell that they needed more light.
“Rue, can you help me?” Zus asked.
Rue nodded.
They hurried up stairs to grab more lights. Zus was pretty sure this was a situation where the more light the better. He went from bedroom to bedroom, grabbing every lamp he could find that wasn’t attached to a ceiling. By the time he was done, he and Rue had made several trips up and down the stairs.
“I think that’s all of them, baby,” he said when Rue stopped at the bottom of the stairs. Zus hurried back into the dining room, placing the last two lamps on the hutch with the others. “Do you need anything else, Bay?”
“Someone else to do this would be nice.”
Zus smiled weakly. “Sorry.”
“Yeah.” Bay grimaced as he grabbed some tools and bent over the tiger laid out before him. “Me, too.”
The next hour crawled by. No one spoke for fear of distracting Bay. Jace worked with Bay, handing him the tools he pointed at. Liam wiped a damp rag across Bay’s forehead every once in awhile. Mikhail stood next to Stefan’s head, close to Bay, watching. The rest of them stood back by the walls, not wanting to get in the way.
What Bay was doing seemed like back-breaking work. When Bay stood up straight at one point, he groaned as his back crackled. When he swayed just a bit, Mikhail was there to catch him. Bay just smiled and went back to work.
“I got it!” Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when Bay straightened and held up a small silver bullet with a set of tweezers.
