Keaton's Lessons [Brac Village 6] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove)

by Lynn Hagen

  They were in a public place, and he was pretty sure having sex in a book aisle would be frowned upon by the people visiting the bookstore. Instead, he curled into the warm circle of Kade’s arms, drawing from the man’s steady, solid strength.

  He looked up when Kade nudged him. “I think our help has arrived.”

  Keaton turned his head toward the front entrance and inhaled a sharp breath. Two of the roughest-looking men he had ever seen came through the door, their eyes scanning until they landed directly on Keaton. He forced himself not to cringe from the penetrating stare. Why did he have a feeling that tangling with these two would end any man’s life?

  They approached as if they owned the place, their strides sure and confident, paying absolutely no attention to the small audience of customers glancing their way.

  “You spotted one?” a man with caramel-colored skin and long, thick braids asked Kade. He wasn’t heavy with muscles as Keaton would’ve thought a man fighting a hell escapee would be. His body was tight, lean, and his expression made up for any musculature he lacked. “Name’s Dog.”

  What a very strange name.

  Kade nodded toward the entrance. “I wasn’t sure what he was until I called the timber wolves. It was like this black, oily feeling came over me, whispering all kinds of pessimistic things in my head.”

  The other man asked, “How long have you been hearing this?”

  Kade glanced at Keaton. “A few weeks. Ever since I got to town. It was like, as soon as I drove through Brac Village, a heavy blanket settled over me.”

  “I need to know,” Dog said, “what would make a hell hound latch on to you. Because once one of them comes after you, you’re their target, period, until we kill him. Provided he hasn’t called in his buddies, you just might be safe once he is sent back to hell.”

  Kade’s hands tightened on Keaton’s arms. “I served a long term in prison.”

  “That’ll do it,” the other man said. “The hound has zeroed in on your anger and resentment.”

  “But I don’t have any anger or resentment,” Kade argued. “I’ve put my past behind me.”

  “You lying to yourself doesn’t concern me,” Dog said so matter-of-factly that Keaton was offended. “Now that I know why he is fixated on you, I can go after him.”

  “So we can leave?” Keaton asked in hopefulness.

  “Yeah, go enjoy the art festival. Don’t let the sweat drip off your balls about having a hell hound after your mate,” the second man said sarcastically.

  “What the hell is your problem?” Keaton asked furiously. “Kade didn’t ask that thing to fixate on him. Why are you acting as if this is all our fault?”

  “Don’t mind Renato. He has been a sour little puss of late. Go do whatever it is that you two were doing. We’ll follow at a distance and see if we can’t flush out your hound,” Dog said as he and Renato headed toward the door.

  Keaton turned toward Kade. “Our hound?”

  Kade grabbed Keaton’s hand and pulled him toward the exit. “His bedside manner doesn’t concern us. I wouldn’t have cared if those two had sneered every word, just as long as they do their job.”

  Keaton still didn’t like them. They were brisk and curt. But Kade was right. It wasn’t like Keaton was trying to be their pal. Just as long as they got that evil little bastard off of Kade’s back, then he would deal with their sarcasm.

  “Well, you heard the man. Let’s get to the art festival.” Keaton pulled on Kade’s hand as they left the bookstore and headed toward the rec center.

  “You are very bossy,” Kade said, repeating the same thing he had said the night before. Keaton didn’t think so. Maybe he was. No one had ever told him that before. The only thing he knew was that someone was after Kade and he wasn’t going to allow anything to happen to his mate.

  If that was bossy, then so be it.

  Kade seemed amused by Keaton dragging him along. The man didn’t complain. He just wore a sexy grin as they finally made it to the art festival that was being held in the parking lot of the rec center. Keaton wasn’t sure what to expect, but he was surprised to see so many people, so many renderings, and wow, there were food tables, games, and a few people had vendor tables set up to sell small trinkets.

  Keaton went straight to the drawings, getting a kick out of all the pictures and paintings being displayed on the tables. There was even a clothesline hung up, drawings pinned to it with clips.

  “These are refrigerator drawings,” Kade leaned in and whispered into his ear.

  “They are works of art,” Keaton corrected as he touched a picture that had been hand drawn of the forest bordering Brac Village. In the drawing, the rec center was sketched, but what caught Keaton’s interest was the wolf on the side of the building.

  Why would a child draw one of the shifters?

  He had a feeling that more of the residents knew what was going on in their small town than they let on. From the looks of this drawing, Maverick’s little secret wasn’t so secret around here.

  And there sure seemed to be a lot of secrets around this place. Keaton had always acted like the goofy surfer dude around others, but little did everyone know, that was just an act. He was extremely intelligent. Since first arriving here he had thought something odd. Most small towns did not have howling at night or weird, unexplainable things happening.

  But never in his wildest dreams would he have thought the weirdness was shifters and vampires…and creatures from hell. Again—although a mind trip—Keaton had accepted what was going on, even if the thing from hell scared him senseless.

  According to this drawing, he wasn’t the only one who had known something strange was in Brac Village, and Keaton hadn’t been here that long. He wondered how many longtime residents knew what truly walked the streets.

  “You like that one?” Kade asked. “You’ve been staring at it an awful long time.” Kade waved at a youth and then pointed at the picture. “How much for this drawing?”

  “Twenty dollars,” the youth answered. Keaton had been to the rec center a few times but didn’t remember ever seeing this young adult before.

  “Twenty dollars!” was Kade’s reply. “For a refr—” Keaton elbowed his mate, scowling at him.

  “It’s art,” he once again reminded the man.

  “You get a frame with it,” the young teenager said quickly, as if scrambling to explain why the drawings were priced so high. Keaton wanted to knock Kade over the head. It seemed his mate had forgotten how to act around children. Of course, he hadn’t been around them in so long, he probably just saw them as little people.

  Keaton plucked the drawing from the clothesline and handed it to the young man. “I’ll take this one.”

  “I drew that one,” he stated proudly. “You like it?”

  “It’s very interesting,” Keaton said as his finger landed on the wolf. “Very imaginative.”

  The guy gave a halfhearted shrug. “I draw what I see, ya know?”

  It was as if they were speaking in code. Keaton could see the intelligence behind the kid’s bright green eyes.

  “But what do I know,” the youth finished. “I’m just a teenager with a really good imagination. That’s what Thomas says about my drawings.”

  The youth sounded wounded, as if hurt that no one would tell him the truth. It wasn’t Keaton’s place to let the guy know what he saw, or had been seeing was real. Once again he found himself keeping someone else’s secret. Keaton was starting to hate that shit. But there was nothing he could do about it.

  “Do you have any more drawings?”

  The teenager nodded as he walked down to a table filled with art. Keaton followed, his eyes widening slightly when he saw more of the same drawings. They were filled with either wolves or men hiding in the shadows. For such a young man, the teenager had a wealth of talent. Keaton didn’t know the first thing about drawing, but the shading and effects the young man used were masterful.

  “You make me want to buy the whole table,” he
commented as he picked one up and studied the vampire hiding by the side of a building. Wow. This is good.

  “I could give you a discount.”

  Keaton laughed. “You are the little hustler, aren’t you?” He held out his hand. “My name is Keaton.”

  “Kevin,” the teenager answered as he shook Keaton’s hand.

  “I’ll take one more. If I buy them all, I’ll have to sell my business just to stay afloat,” he teased. There were about ten drawings on the table. Although Keaton could afford to buy them all, he wasn’t sure where he would display them.

  “What business you got?” Kevin asked as he began to frame his drawings for Keaton to take with him. The frame was a black casing, making the picture stand out without a border. He liked that. It drew a person’s eye to the art immediately.

  “What business do I have?” Keaton corrected the youth’s bad grammar gently. “I own the Jammin’ Juice Hut.”

  Kevin furrowed his brows as he grabbed the other drawing Keaton wanted. “I never heard of that place. Is it in town?”

  “Yes, it’s in town. If you come by, I’ll give you lunch, on the house.” Keaton took both frames from Kevin. The kid had to be around sixteen, seventeen at the most. He wasn’t even sure why he was thinking of the young man as a kid. Maybe it was because he still held those boyish looks

  “I’ll do that,” Kevin replied. “But until then, why don’t you try some of my dad’s fried chicken.” Kevin pointed over toward the tables filled with various baked goods and lunch meals in a box. “He’s a pretty good cook. The boxed meals are only five bucks,” Kevin said as he glared at Kade.

  Keaton liked the boy. He had spirit.

  “Thanks,” Kade replied sourly. “Are the drinks five bucks as well?”

  “For you, yes,” Kevin replied in a snarky tone. “A boxed meal and a drink will cost you fifty bucks.”

  “Your math sucks,” Kade retorted.

  “So does your attitude,” Kevin snapped. “Maybe you should—”

  Keaton stared at Kevin, wondering why the young man was gazing strangely past him. Keaton turned to see the hell thingy walking toward the art festival, his strides deadly. Oh, fuck! He glanced back at Kevin, wondering how the guy knew who the hell thingy was.

  Kevin’s head rose, his eyes filled with something Keaton couldn’t quite pin down. “I see people for what they truly are,” he said in a tone that was so low that Keaton almost didn’t catch it. “Just like your friend.” He nodded toward Kade. “I see his…you know.”

  Kevin could see Kade’s snow leopard? And he still got smart with Kade? Yeah, Keaton really liked this guy. But they had bigger problems. Keaton grabbed Kade’s arms, but turned back toward Kevin. “Go, hide.”

  Kevin took off toward the rec center as Keaton pulled Kade away from all the residents. There were so many attending the festival that he wasn’t sure how they were going to hide what was going on.

  Keaton’s hand was soon pulled from Kade’s arm. His mate grabbed Keaton and pulled him toward the end of the parking lot. Kade had a look in his teal eyes that said he wasn’t playing around, that he was going to fight to keep them safe. The aggression was clear in his expression.

  Keaton and Kade came up short when the evil creature appeared in front of them, blocking their exit. Where in the hell were Dog and Renato? Weren’t they supposed to be killing this hound?

  “Going somewhere?”

  “There are humans here,” Kade said as he shoved Keaton behind his larger frame.

  The most haunting and diabolical laugh Keaton had ever heard fell from the creature’s lips. His skin actually crawled at the sound. “And why should I care about them? They are nothing but cannon fodder. As soon as I’m done toying with your miserable soul, I’ll go after each and every one of them.” The thing moved closer, gazing directly at Kade. Keaton smelled sulfur on the man’s breath. “Misery feeds me, and you have so much of it that I just might drown in it.”

  Keaton curled his fingers into Kade’s shirt, feeling as if they were truly about to die a slow and painful death. His limbs were shaking as he held back a scream. Keaton began to feel like he was a fraud, a failure. Kade was right. He should have gone to college and made something of—No! Keaton shoved those thoughts away, but they came tumbling back, attacking him in ways he couldn’t stop the emotions from pouring through him.

  He gripped Kade harder, knowing he had found the best thing in his life, even if the man couldn’t see how truly wonderful he was. Kade had so much potential. His smile lit up Keaton’s heart, making him smile every morning he woke up and thought about seeing his mate that day.

  Kade was saving him from a lonely existence, whether the man knew it or not.

  “You are one slippery bastard.”

  Keaton wanted to pump his arm in the air when Dog and Renato came from around a small red Cavalier.

  Help had arrived.

  Chapter Eight

  Maverick cursed when he saw the winged beasts at the art festival. It seemed the hell hounds were getting very bold—or at least the one after Kade. He leaned close to Cecil, pointing down at Xavier. “Get him the hell out of here and keep him safe.”

  Cecil didn’t hesitate. He grabbed their grandson and took off toward the truck they had driven to town in. If anything stopped his mate from reaching their truck, Maverick would burn his town down in order to keep the two safe. He just hoped it didn’t come down to that.

  He began to stride over to where the winged beasts had the hound trapped. As he moved closer, Maverick’s heart plunged when the hound moved quickly, damn near flying across the parking lot as he went after Cecil.

  Maverick felt the fear and anger hit an all-time high inside of him as his wolf ripped from him, bones crunching and transforming as his wolf went after the foul bastard, its instincts to save Cecil and his grandson. Maverick threw his head back and let out a long and threatening howl before rushing toward the hell hound. The hound shifted into an oversized Rottweiler and bared his fangs at Maverick.

  His mind was enveloped in a red haze, all rational thought gone as his large paws hit the pavement, running down the hound. The winged beasts flew up into the air, landing right in front of the hound, blocking his progression as they pulled their swords free of their sheaths.

  The only thing on Maverick’s mind was little Xavier and Cecil. He would die to protect them both.

  But today, he planned on killing the threat.

  The hound growled, howled, and snapped at Maverick. He knew not to let the thing sink its teeth into his flesh. The hell hounds carried venom in their saliva that would kill a human, and a shifter only had a fifty-fifty chance of survival.

  Maverick swung around one of the cars, leaping over top, feeling the roof crushing in under his paws as he leapt, landing on the hound’s back. They collided with the ground, both rolling a few feet apart from one another.

  Dog flew toward the hound, his sword held high over his head, slicing it down through the air. But the hound was fast, moving out of the way before the sword could end the bastard’s life.

  Maverick was driven forward, his immense body plowing into the hound. He was relieved when he saw the black truck pull from the parking lot, driving quickly away from town. Cecil and his grandson were safe, but that only meant he was going to make the hound pay for going after them in the first place.

  He knew he had to shove his claws into the mark behind the hound’s ear. The problem was pinning him down. Swinging his head to the side, Maverick sank his teeth into the beast’s neck, shaking his head furiously from side to side.

  “Release him,” Renato shouted as his sword came down hard. Maverick had seconds to move away before the blade sliced through the creature’s head, hitting the mark with deadly accuracy. The hound slumped toward the ground, lifeless. “We’ll take him away from your humans before we burn his body.”

  Maverick turned to see the crowd of humans standing there, looking terrified and astonished at the same time.

/>   Goddamn it. This was what he had been trying to avoid for over two hundred years. He knew that eventually his town would find out about the paranormal population. It was bound to happen.

  He just wasn’t ready to explain things to them. But he had to. If he wanted Brac Village to remain his peaceful little town, the residents had to be made to see that telling anyone who didn’t already know or the media would ruin not only the shifters’ lives, but the humans’ as well.

  Whether he liked it or not, their secret was out. Now Maverick was going to have to call a meeting with the Ultionem and tell them what just happened.

  Great, just what he wanted to do on a Saturday, meet with his super-secret club.

  * * * *

  “How long?” Mrs. Colbert asked as she approached the alpha. She was the sweet old woman who helped out at the local pharmacy. Her light-blue eyes searched Maverick’s face, but she didn’t back down, even though Maverick was freaking huge. “How long has this been going on right under our noses?”

  “For a very long time,” Kade answered as he stepped forward. “I’ve known you since I was a small kid, Mrs. Colbert. Has any harm ever come to you? Have you ever seen one of the shifters before this time?”

  Keaton could see what his mate was doing. He was trying to convince the town that they were safe, that they didn’t need to fear Maverick or any of the other nonhuman residents.

  “Well, yes,” Mrs. Colbert answered honestly and with conviction. “Do you think us daft?” Her eyes narrowed at Maverick. “We’ve known for some time that this town was special. Why do you think we stayed when work was so hard to come by? Why do you think we have thrown ourselves into the rebuilding and additions to this town?”

  Keaton glanced at Maverick, but he couldn’t read the wolf’s facial expression.

  “We love it here.” Mrs. Colbert turned toward the other residents. “You knew as well, although no one has ever said anything. Tell me you want to turn our town into a media hotspot? Tell me you wouldn’t rather keep the secret that we’ve been keeping all along, letting us enjoy Brac Village?”