Topping the Dom

by Lisa Oliver

  “You might as well finish your story, Phillip,” Dante said from his position beside Pearson. “You’ve got nothing left to lose anymore.”

  Pearson knew that what Dante said was true. Phillip’s crimes against the pack were worthy of death or banishment. Everyone in the room knew it, Phillip included.

  Hanging his head, Phillip said, “I just had to do this one little favor. I just had to have Colin as my pretend mate for six months. My sister, Clara, she told me that if I did that then afterwards I could go home and visit my home pack. Clara, she said so many things. How my mom was missing me. How my dad still wanted to see me. She told me about my brothers growing up without knowing who I was. I just wanted to see them again, and I honestly didn’t think it would do any harm at the time.”

  “So what changed?” Pearson asked, because it was clearly obvious that Phillip knew more about this situation with Grier than he had let on.

  “A couple of months into this, Grier turned up at my home. I didn’t even know Colin had a brother. I never really talked to him about his family life or anything. I was more interested in my old family’s life. But Colin had obviously been expecting him and that’s when…” Phillip trailed off, not at all keen to continue the conversation.

  Leaning forward across his desk, Pearson growled, low and mean. The menacing sound bought Phillip’s head up and he stared at Pearson in shock.

  “Phillip,” Pearson said roughly. “This pack has been your home for three years. I thought you were happy here. If you want any chance of redeeming yourself, and not losing everything you’ve worked for, then you’d better speak now. Because if Colin gets here, and you still haven’t talked, then the same punishment for him will apply to you. I can’t be any fairer than that.”

  This is hard for him, lover, Dante’s words wafted through Pearson’s head. He’s struggling between loyalty to you and this pack, and the desire to see his old family and pack again. Darn near every man, who has lost his family because of his orientation, holds onto the dream that they might be accepted for who they are one day. Even if that dream will never come true.

  I know that feeling myself, Dante, but his actions have put this pack in danger. I have to know everything that Phillip knows about this plot against the pack - without that information the threat against us could be huge.

  I understand, babe, but give him a chance.

  Wondering at how Dante had gotten so compassionate given the treatment he had gone through with his old pack, Pearson applied himself to Phillip again. Phillip, who was now sitting upright in his chair and facing Pearson although he looked as though he had aged ten years in the past five minutes. The sorrow in his betrayal was etched on his face, but the resolve to do the right thing was evident in his eyes.

  “Colin had never said anything about my being gay, before Grier came along. Grier turned up at my house one day and Colin introduced him as his brother. Colin had hoped that I could help Grier get into this pack. I told him that wasn’t possible and that Grier had to go through the same application process everyone else did, unless he found his mate. It seemed like Grier wasn’t happy about that - I got the impression that both men thought that Grier would be accepted on my say so.”

  “Why didn’t Grier say he was related to you when he applied to the club?”

  “I told him not to,” Phillip said shortly. “By the time Grier had started the application process, I knew enough to know that he wasn’t a good fit for this club. But if I had told you or Roger about him, then he threatened to blow Colin’s cover as my mate. So we agreed to just see if Grier could get in on his own merits. When he flunked the interview, for the want of a better term, Colin went ballistic. Ranting and raving about how things weren’t going to plan. But when I asked him what plan he was talking about, he just clammed up.”

  “So you didn’t know anything about this Favo, or their plans to take over the pack and our territory?” Dante asked.

  “I knew something was going on,” Phillip admitted. “But not the specifics.” He cast his eyes down on the floor once more and then mumbled, “But I did know about the plan to kidnap the Alpha Mate.”

  Pearson stood up, his chair falling back on the floor. “You knew my mate was in danger when he was in that cell with Grier, and you didn’t tell me!” He roared.

  All Pearson could think was that Phillip should be dead. Dead, dead, dead. Phillip, Colin and anyone else that threatened the life of his mate. His heart, his reason for living. It was bad enough that Phillip had endangered the pack, but to be in league with someone who wanted to harm his mate was a sin that Pearson could not forgive. His wolf wanted blood, wanted Phillips innards smeared across the office walls and Pearson struggled to keep control. He couldn’t shift just yet. Phillip had to know more than he was saying.

  “Talk, Phillip. Talk fast,” he managed to growl out. Phillip had collapsed onto his knees on the floor, his whole body shaking; the fear rolling off his body in waves. It did nothing to appease Pearson’s wolf.

  “I didn’t tell Colin that Grier was being held. I don’t know how he knew, but he did. Before I got home that night. He said I had to come up with a plan to get Grier released. He kept going on about how if Grier didn’t get out, then all hell was going to be unleashed on the pack. I didn’t want to get involved and I told him Grier would have to fend for himself. Then after I went home early yesterday, Colin was talking to another man - another wolf. Not from our pack. He wasn’t expecting me home that time of day. I told him I was on guard duty that night and had to get some sleep before my shift. I could hear some of what they were saying through the walls. They knew about the Alpha Mate’s plan to try and get Grier to talk. They said that Grier was going to hold the Alpha Mate hostage, and secure his release like that. I guessed that they were going to wait until my shift on guard duty, but they didn’t ask me. They didn’t say anything to me about it.”

  Beside him, still sitting in his chair, Dante laughed. A huge, long, belly tickling, chest thumping, laugh. Both Pearson and Phillip looked at Dante in shock.

  “Oh this is too hilarious,” Dante spluttered, before he laughed again. “That little weasel Grier, thought he could take me, Alpha Mate, as a hostage, on his own. The man had the ego of an idiot. It’s not as though he hadn’t seen me before. We met at the Alpha interview.”

  “I don’t think he clicked that it was you, Alpha Mate,” Phillip said quietly. “From what I could gather, whoever had told Colin and Grier about the Alpha being mated, just told him that it was one of the new guys that had been admitted into the pack the day of the interview. I think they got the impression that the Alpha Mate was one of the smaller subs, maybe.”

  “Nope,” said Pearson, “that doesn’t sound right. Someone told Grier and Colin about the plan for my mate to be in the cell with Grier. Damn near everyone in the club met Dante three days before at the pack meeting. No one has any doubt about who the Alpha Mate is, and the fact that he’s not a twink.”

  “That would suggest that whoever is passing on the information to Colin, is perhaps not as much of a traitor as we might think,” Dante said. “There are very few wolves in this pack that would have a chance against me, and most of them know it. But it seems that Colin didn’t.”

  “I didn’t say anything, Alpha Mate,” Phillip piped up quietly.

  “No, I know you didn’t,” Dante looked the man over as he knelt on the floor. “I do understand how hard this has been for you.”

  “What’s worrying me is how Colin and Grier knew about the plan for the Alpha Mate to talk to Grier, when the only ones that knew were in this office when it was discussed,” Pearson said.

  Pearson shot a look at Dante - both of them coming to the same conclusion. The office was not secure. Silence hit the room and then Phillip got up off his knees and went to the small air vent behind Pearson’s desk. Stretching up on his toes, he rooted around and came back with a small disk shaped object. Putting his finger up to his mouth, he then went to the top of the old
wooden filing cabinet, fishing behind it until he came back with another small disc.

  Pearson opened his mouth to say something, and Phillip shook his head. Systematically, Phillip went around the office, searching in and around every single item in the room - coming back to the desk every time a device was found. When he was satisfied there were none left, he indicated to Pearson with his boot - smash them.

  Picking one up, Pearson looked at it thoroughly. He’d never seen anything like it before. Maybe Steel would know more about where they came from. Opening his desk drawer, Pearson looked at the contents before pulling out a small card case. Tipping out the cards, he put the disk in it and closed up the case, then shutting it in the drawer again. Sweeping the other devices off of the desk he put them on the floor and vigorously ground them under the steel heel of his boots. When there was nothing left but dust and tiny chips, Pearson looked up at Phillip.

  “Did you put them there?”

  “No, Alpha,” Phillip said. “But I had noticed the one in the vent and the one behind the file cabinet before, when I’ve been in the office. I thought you had put them there to record conversations or to make sure that no one was accessing your office when you weren’t here. After you said about the plans no one else knew about - well, I knew Roger, Kyle, Steel and Levi wouldn’t have said anything to anyone, and I know I didn’t, so I guessed you didn’t know your office was bugged.”

  “But you knew these were bugs - listening devices?”

  “Yes, Alpha. I saw something similar in the military. Nothing quite this small, but I have seen them. If they are like others on the market then they don’t have a huge range on them - there’s no sim card in them that I could see, so I presume they are transmitting wirelessly. There are bugs on the market that do have an almost infinite range, but to do that they need a sim card or something similar to transmit to. I’d say these are more close range, although it would depend on the receiver.”

  “Hmm, okay. Well I don’t know anything about them,” Pearson said, “so I’ll get Steel to look into it. They might give us a clue as to who else in the pack is turning traitor on me. In the meantime, I’m a bit worried about where Steel and the others have got to. They should have picked up Colin and been back at the club by now.”

  Pearson looked over to his enforcer by the door. “Roger can you call Kyle and get an update.” Looking back at Phillip, he said, “What the hell am I going to do with you?”

  Chapter Thirteen

  An hour later and Pearson knew in his gut that something had gone horribly wrong. There had been no word from Steel or the others who had gone to apprehend Colin, and Pearson still didn’t know what to do about Phillip. While under pack law, Phillip should have been killed, or at least banished for his deceit, Pearson was loathe to do either of those things. Aside from this one colossal fuck up, Phillip had been a very good enforcer.

  Pearson knew first hand how the lure of being with family again could be so strong for so many of the members of his pack. While gay men were finding some acceptance in society, among many of the wolf packs, gay wolves were still considered an aberration. Even the fact that so many gay wolves had found male mates, did not seem to be enough to sway some wolf elders that gay wolves were no less worthwhile than straight ones. It was this lure of family that made Pearson worry about how many other wolves in his pack might have been tempted by the same situation Phillip had.

  Stressed and worrying himself to the point of exhaustion, Pearson actually jumped when his private cell phone rang. Flicking a glance at the screen he saw it was Steel and opened the call quickly.

  “Steel, what’s your status?” He barked down the phone.

  “We hit a bit of a snag, Pearson,” Steel’s deep, steady voice came back. “Colin had friends visiting and wasn’t keen to have a chat with you.”

  “Outcome?”

  “Levi’s got a few bruises and Kyle’s nuts are going to be sore for a bit. Three dead on their side, including Colin, and another two got away during the fight. None of the wolves present were pack except Colin.”

  “Fuck it,” Pearson swore under his breath. No Colin meant no more information about Favo, and with two rogue wolves on the run, it would only be a matter of time before this Favo idiot would know that his links to the pack were dead. If they were. There was still the matter of who had been informing Colin about what was going on in the pack. Pearson believed Phillip when he said it wasn’t him. But pulling his mind back to the matter at hand, Pearson took a deep breath to calm himself. He was sure that Steel and the others would not have fought to the death unless it was absolutely necessary.

  “Okay Steel,” he said with a sigh. “head on home and drop Kyle off on the way. We’ll regroup and work out what we can do tomorrow… And Steel, thanks.”

  “No problem,” Steel’s voice rumbled down the phone. “See you tomorrow.”

  Clicking off his phone, Pearson looked at Phillip. “Your brother-in-law’s dead,” he said flatly. “Seems he had four other wolves, non-pack, with him when the boys got there. It didn’t go well.”

  “Oh, Alpha, I’m so…” Phillip started to say, but then his cell phone went off. Pulling it out of his pocket, Phillip gave it a quick look and then glancing up at Pearson he said, “It’s my sister.”

  “Answer it.”

  Swallowing a gulp, Phillip flicked the speaker button on his phone.

  “You fucking killed my mate,” a shrill voice yelled from the phone. “You fucked up everything. You are nothing but a dirtbag, faggot piece of shit, and I will never, ever have anything to do with you again. You hear me, Phillip? You’ll never see your family ever again - you are dead to us, am I clear? You are fucking dead to us, you gay, cocksucking, worthless asshole.”

  “Sis,” Phillip started to say.

  “Don’t you sis me. I’m not your sister. You don’t have a sister, or brothers, or parents - You have nothing and nobody, do you hear me? You are dead. Your pack is dead. Favo’s going to take your worthless, shit eating Alpha down, and exterminate the whole pack. Do you hear me? He’s going to put you all down like the degenerate pieces of crap that you are. Watch your back faggot, because you won’t see us coming.” The phone beeped and then all that could be heard was the dial tone.

  Phillip crumpled into the nearest chair, his face in his hands, tears running down his face. To see a man, so strong, so capable, reduced to a blubbering mess made Pearson’s heart ache. No matter how many times he’d heard of wolves being abused by their families, it never failed to hit him how just unfair life was for wolves that preferred having sex with members of their own gender. Phillip’s sister’s voice was full of the fanatical hatred so many people had for things they didn’t understand, and for Phillip to be told that he was now dead to his family, forever, had broken the strong enforcer more than anything Pearson could have done to him.

  “Phillip,” Pearson said gently. When Phillip looked up, Pearson said, “You will stay at the club tonight. I’ll send in a clean-up crew to your house and get that sorted, but I want you to stay here. Understood?”

  “Yes, Alpha,” Phillip said quietly. “Do you want me in the holding cells?”

  “No,” Pearson shook his head. He didn’t know what to do about Favo and the threat to the pack. He didn’t know even what he was going to do tomorrow. But more than anything else, Pearson was an Alpha, and Phillip was pack. Phillip had just lost the one small hope he had of getting to see his family again. He needed to be cared for in his time of need.

  “You won’t lose your position, or status in the pack. Your punishment for your part in this will be twenty lashes with the bull whip, which I will administer. It will be a public beating and after that I will consider this matter between us settled. Do you agree, or would you rather be banished?”

  “I want to stay, Alpha,” Phillip said, hope blooming in his eyes. “I’ll take the punishment. I will do anything you say. I’m just so sorry for my part in all of this.”

  Walking over to
Phillip, Pearson put his hand on the nape of Phillip’s neck. His touch a form of acceptance for Phillip’s wolf and a means of comforting the man. “I know you’re hurting right now, and I know why you did what you did. But if I ever find out you have deceived me again, you will be killed immediately. There will be no more chances.”

  “I understand,” Phillip whispered leaning back into Pearson’s touch. Pearson kept his hold for another long moment and then stepped back.

  “Right, take a room out the back. Get some food, a shower and some sleep and be back in this office at ten o’clock tomorrow morning. Your punishment will take place tomorrow night in front of the pack, so you might want to take a sub with you to bed tonight,” Pearson grinned wickedly. “You won’t feel like it tomorrow night, I can promise you.”

  Giving him a small smile, Phillip said “Yes Alpha. Thank you, Alpha.” He nodded to Dante and slipped past Roger and went out of the door.

  Looking up at Roger, Pearson said, “You can head off for the night shortly, as well. I want the guards around the club doubled, except for Alpha duty. I’m sure my mate here will keep me protected until the meeting tomorrow. Notify the pack that there will be a mandatory meeting here tomorrow night. Anyone not in attendance will be considered an enemy of the pack and treated accordingly. I don’t care who they are or what excuses they might try and give you.”

  Roger nodded and headed out of the office as well, leaving Pearson and Dante to themselves.

  Dante stood up and went around the desk to stand in front of Pearson, engulfing him in a strong embrace. Pearson allowed his head to roll onto Dante’s neck and he inhaled deeply - his mate’s scent never failing to make him feel calm and at peace. In that moment Pearson appreciated the quiet strength that Dante projected. The solid muscles, hot body and long legs were a bonus, but the inner strength of his mate, was something that Pearson could not get enough of.