by Tl Reeve
Royce stared at her. She looked different, and the on and off scent he couldn’t place was strong. His wolf snarled and snapped in his mind like it wanted the man to see what it saw.
All Royce saw was his Oasis, dressed in black yoga pants and a bulky sweatshirt, on her side.
“Charisma,” he said softly, not wanting to startle her awake.
She didn’t wake, she just cuddled deeper into her pillow, clutching something to her cheek.
Royce cocked his head and couldn’t help but smirk when he realized what she was holding. One of his old t-shirts, his favorite as a matter of fact. He hadn’t been able to find it in a while. Now he knew where it had gone.
Sucked to admit he was jealous as hell of the damn shirt.
Royce moved closer to the bed, sitting down before gently running the back of his hand down her cheek.
“Oasis.” She stirred under his touch, moving closer to him. His dick hardened, pushing against the tight confines of his jeans. “Baby, you don’t wake up, you’re going to have a hell of a time getting to sleep tonight.”
“Royce,” she mumbled huskily, and his dick throbbed in response. Fuck, she kept this up and he’d be coming in his jeans like an untried teenage boy.
“Charisma,” he bit out, fighting the urge to roll her on her back, pull her pants down, and bury his tongue in her little pussy.
“Rexx,” she moaned.
Christ, he sure as hell didn’t have any issues with her calling him by his alias. Who was he kidding? If she let him back into her bed, Charisma could call him whatever the hell she wanted.
“Baby,” he said a bit louder.
This time her lashes fluttered, and her eyes finally opened. It was a rare moment with her being unguarded. Royce savored it, knowing the hell he put her through, he didn’t deserve her forgiveness. Even though he wanted it…craved it like an addict craves their drug of choice.
“What time is it?” she asked before rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
“’Bout five thirty.” Royce tucked a piece of wayward hair behind her ear and for the first time in a long time, she didn’t flinch at his touch. She was also still half asleep. “Riley and Liam are setting the table for dinner. You okay, Oasis?”
“Yes. I umm didn’t sleep well last night and was at the school all day helping them get ready for their fall festival.”
Royce chuckled. “Don’t have to explain why you took a nap, Oasis. When you’re tired, you sleep.”
He could hear Mackenzie come into the house, greeting the kids and asking about dinner.
“You good?” He waited for her expression to turn guarded and demand him to leave the sanctum of her bedroom.
“Yeah, just groggy. I just need a minute or two. You know how it is after a late afternoon nap.”
Truthfully, he didn’t. Royce wasn’t one to nap. When he got out of bed in the morning, he never returned to it until he was ready to. Unless, of course, he planned to use the bed for more erotic pursuits. If he suspected, even for a second, she would go for it, he’d suggest it in a heartbeat.
“Take all the time you need, Oasis. I’ll go get the kids settled.”
“Thank you,” she said, her voice low.
“Rexx,” Liam called out. “Nico is on the phone. Says he needs to talk to you.”
Royce sighed in disgust as the sweet look on his mate’s face was replaced with the worried, guarded look he had become so used to seeing. Fuck, he was over and done with this stupid ass mission.
He wanted to go home and work on their relationship in peace.
Next time he spoke to Kalkin, he’d suggest sending Jenna to put a bullet between Holly’s eyes. It’d be a whole helluva lot quicker as far as he was concerned.
Chapter Five
Rinse.
Lather.
Repeat.
Groundhog Day would be better than this. For the last few days, Charisma and the kids were gone by the time he got up. He vaguely remembered Riley saying something about it being the final day to get everything prepared for the festival.
Shit.
The fall festival. She’d been talking about it non-stop with Riley. They were both enjoying themselves and he... He was stuck on the outside looking in. Is that how she’s felt this whole time? A stranger?
He grabbed a quick shower then dressed. The house was eerily quiet, and he hadn’t expected anything less. After his little showdown with his father, Mackenzie had made himself scarce. He didn’t know what caused him to say the things he had. Jealousy? Rejection? Rage? All of it?
Whatever it was, he couldn’t dwell, he had a job to do. Later when they were home, he’d figure it out and when he did, he’d move on. He headed down the steps and came to an abrupt halt. His father sat in the chair near the front door, waiting. Not creepy at all.
Royce grabbed his jacket off the hook and put it on then grabbed his bag. When he grabbed his keys out of the dish near the door, Mackenzie stood. He joined Royce as he exited the house. The hairs on the back of his neck stood on end. What the hell was his father up to?
“You figure out what your mate is hiding yet?”
Royce cringed. “Nope. Not pushing either.”
“You know, keeping secrets can hurt a relationship more than help it.”
He snorted. “I think it’s permanently engrained in my memory.” After the botched ride with his father the other night, Royce decided to take the subway into the college. At least it would give him time to think about how to fix things between him and Charisma and not have to be around the man who said shit like “keeping secrets can hurt a relationship.”
“I’ll give you a ride to work.”
Royce shook his head. It might be colder than a witch’s tit in a brass bra outside, but he didn’t want his father’s charity anymore. “I’m good.”
“Bullshit.”
“I know the subway schedule. I can get to and from places on my own. I’ve been doing it all my life.” Rough, but still... His father needed to give him room.
“Suit yourself. But, if your dick falls off due to frost bite, don’t come crying to me.” Mackenzie slammed the truck door shut. Flakes of something white flew from the roof, and Royce paused.
No fucking way. He looked up and growled in irritation. The one time he chose to walk to work, it fucking snowed. This had to be some fucking record for the shittiest things to happen to Royce Raferty in thirty plus years. He whistled and flagged his father down.
“I am not doing this because I want to,” he snarled, getting into the passenger seat of the truck.
“Of course not.” Mackenzie smirked. “Let’s get you to work. I bet they call off the build today. Hadn’t seen any snow in the forecast last night but that don’t mean shit for these parts. We’re on the Atlantic as it is.”
“Yeah.” He glanced out the passenger window.
“She’ll be fine. I’ll go check on the kids later, and they’ll call if they close school. You should know I won’t let anything happen to your mate.”
No, his father cared about Charisma. He welcomed her with open arms when Royce told him they’d mated. The old man didn’t do the same for him when he came home though. He swallowed down a growl building in the back of his throat. He had so much shit he still wanted to say to his father, but in the end, it didn’t matter anymore. None of it did.
“You know, I did it all for us,” Mackenzie whispered. “The whole family thing. I wanted you to see I could do it.”
“How’d that work out for you?” Royce cut his gaze at his father.
“Pretty fucked up.” Mackenzie chuckled. “I knew, you see.”
“Did you know with Marjorie too?”
“I deserved that,” he replied. “I did stupid shit back then thinking I could be the man of our family.”
“I don’t understand your logic. I don’t think I ever will. I still can’t grasp after all these years why her.”
“No, s’pose you can’t. It’ll be something I take to my grave, I guess
. I have no guilt though. I got you out of it. Your uncle has Sage. You have siblings...” Mackenzie shrugged.
“So, that makes up for all the shit?” Royce sighed. “This is why I can’t talk to you. You make the same mistakes over and over again.”
“You’re right, I do. I also had to look at a fourteen-year-old little girl and remember what it was like to leave you behind.”
Bullseye.
Royce didn’t say anything else. When Mackenzie pulled into the faculty parking lot, Royce got out of the truck. The flurries had stopped, but the clouds were still heavy and purple. Again, he thought about Charisma out on the road in weather like this, and it made his stomach knot.
“Don’t worry about it,” Mackenzie said. “I’ll check on them.”
He nodded, closing the door behind him. “Thanks.” He hurried across the parking lot to the administration building where his office was located. The heat had been cranked up, and he pulled the heavy coat off. Even though they were wolves, they were used to the dry heat of the desert and the mild winters. Yes, it could get cold in Arizona, but nothing like this.
He grabbed a cup of coffee inside the breakroom then continued on to his office. He had a few administrative hours for the day, then one class at three. He didn’t have to be there so early, but he received a few complaints from students for not having longer office hours.
Once he was in his office, he sat behind his desk and booted up his computer. As he waited for it to boot up, he placed his bag next to his desk. Next week, he had a project due. Already, three of the finished products sat in his basket for him to go over. He liked the students who were quiet and did the work. They got the concepts quicker than the others who wanted to debate the right and wrong reasons for using certain terms.
After logging into his computer, he checked his email. He had several questions from his students, but one in particular stood out. It had a dead email in the sender bar. The subject surprised him even more. Priority—Help—Boston Zoo. He clicked it and sat back. The air left him in a rush.
He didn’t know how anyone got his email. He hadn’t told anyone he would be there. He hadn’t seen anyone, and he was sure no one recognized him. Yet, as he opened up the email, someone knew he was there. Six photographs were attached to the email along with a small note.
I need your help. There is a sick human, psychic. I don’t know what is wrong with him. He’s a young boy. He won’t eat. He won’t drink anything. He has a raging fever, and Holly is going to auction him off.
Help.
Royce opened the accompanying photographs. A growl built in the back of his throat. All of the children, shifter or human, were kept in cages no bigger than the one Asher had been in. Some were gaunt from lack of food. Others were almost catatonic. A few of the babies, still in their shifter form, barely breathed. Their fur was a mess. There were bald spots, and Royce wasn’t sure if they were due to poor hygiene or due to some kind of fungus or sickness.
The adults were chained naked to poles across from the children. One captured the moment a couple were caught in a sexually compromised position. He didn’t recognize the people standing near them, but they had clipboards in their hands and were talking among themselves. One knelt beside them, touching them intimately. Royce’s stomach twisted. The bitter taste of bile bit at the back of his throat. It took everything inside of him to keep from puking.
Sick motherfuckers. Who the fuck does this? Who the fuck... He shivered and closed his eyes, sucking air between his clenched teeth. He had to get a grip on himself. If he didn’t, he’d shift into a wolf right there and then. He’d be fucked before he could explain himself. He’d blow everything they’d worked so hard for.
You can do this. Get ahold of yourself.
Royce took a deep breath before letting it out slowly. He opened the last photograph of the boy and curled his lip. A small voice at the back of his mind whispered, mine. The hairs on his arm stood on end as his wolf brushed against the surface. The beast who’d been quiet for so long came back with a sense of righteousness. He didn’t have the right words for what it felt like, other than he needed to protect this child. Make sure he had a home and a family. He belonged to Royce, and he’d do whatever he could to save him.
The boy, no more than five or six, lay on the floor. His face was ghostly pale. His lips were chapped, and perspiration dotted his forehead and upper lip. The shirt he wore had been soaked through with sweat. The yellowed stain bespoke of how long he’d been wearing it. Royce glanced into the boy’s glassy brown eyes and frowned. Something was wrong with him. However, if he pulled anything stupid right then, he’d jeopardize the mission. They needed to get Holly. Get her in the middle of her sick little games so they could catch the rest of her nefarious friends. He snarled out a curse and smacked his hand against the desk, rattling the contents.
Shit. He snatched up his cup of coffee before it could turn over and spill. Taking a sip, he hit reply on the email. It didn’t do anything. He hit it again and frowned. Damn it. Fucking no-reply emails. He grabbed his phone out of his bag. He might not be able to reach the person in the email, but he could still call his uncle. As much as they might want everyone Holly knew they were running out of time and Royce feared someone would die.
The phone rang twice before Kalkin answered it. “Son of a bitch, boy. You better have a good reason for waking my ass at six in the morning.”
Like his uncle had been sleeping. “We’ve got a situation here.”
“Lay it on me.” The off-put tone in his uncle’s voice disappeared, replaced with one filled with dead seriousness. “What happened?”
“I received an email this morning from a dead, no-reply address. It said they needed help at the zoo. There are photographs.” Royce swallowed hard, unable to take his gaze off the little boy.
“Shit,” Kalkin sighed. “What’s in them?”
“The shifters are sick. There is a human psychic kid very ill. Also, there are adults,” he said, unable to pull the photos of the others back up. He couldn’t look at them. He didn’t want to see the look of shame or fear.
“Royce, what aren’t you telling me?”
He let out a shuddered breath. “Kalkin, they’re forcing sex on the adults.”
“Shit.” For a long moment, his uncle didn’t say anything. He heard the rustle of clothes before the sound of heavy footfalls and a door closing. “Okay send them.”
Royce forwarded the email to his uncle. “On its way.”
“Got it,” Kalkin answered. “Motherfucker.”
Yeah, his sentiments exactly. “I don’t know who the others are in that photograph.”
“I’ll see if I can figure it out. Jerome can put it through facial recognition. I don’t want your aunt touching this shit at all.”
“Can you have Danielle look at the photo of the boy, see if she can figure it out? If we can get in there, fast treatment might be our best bet.” He didn’t know if it was possible for his aunt to treat a child so far away, but if she could, any little bit might help the kid—his kid.
Just another thing you’ll have to tell Charisma. Yeah, he figured as much.
“Yeah. I’ll see what she can do.”
“Thanks. This is some fucked up shit,” Royce muttered.
“Sure is,” Kalkin said. “How are things going there?”
His uncle was not known for his smoothness. “If you mean between Charisma and me? Cold. Deathly cold.”
“You need to smack her ass and fuck her good and hard. Reminder her who you are and what her place is.”
“Yeah, somehow, I think she’d take my balls off,” he chuckled.
“Boy, I’m being honest,” Kalkin snarled. “You can’t keep allowing her to dictate this and she will continue to push you away because you’re letting her do it. You’ve given her the truth and you’ve given her space, now take the bull by the horns and claim your damn mate.”
He did have a point. Royce had acquiesced to Charisma. He followed her lead.
Gave her the space she demanded. He hadn’t pushed for anything more than a pleasant word. He settled for those moments when she woke and didn’t realize it was him. He slept in a totally different room because he didn’t want to upset her. He let her command everything.
“Maybe you’re right,” he said.
“No maybes about it. If you’re going to salvage this, you have to make her see she’s always been the one for you.”
A knock came at the door and drew his attention from his computer. “Shit, gotta go. Students are here.”
Kalkin snickered. “Give them hell, Professor Rough.”
Royce cringed. “I hate that fucking name.”
“Ah, come on. It fits you.”
“Whatever, asshole. Get answers,” Royce grumbled.
“On it. I’ll call when I know something.”
Royce ended the call then motioned for the student to enter. As he closed the door behind him, Royce shut down his email. He couldn’t allow anyone to see those photographs. They’d flipped their shit and tell the Dean. Not that the school didn’t know it was all a cover while they investigated Holly and PBH, but it wouldn’t look good if the students saw it. Plus, someone might talk.
“Sorry to bother you,” the boy said. “I’m a new transfer.”
“Kind of late in the semester, isn’t it?” Royce took the paper in the kid’s hand. Adrian Kirkpatrick. He glanced up at the boy, and an eerie sense of recognition filled Royce. Dark-brown eyes stared back at him. His lips were full. His nose crooked. He had gunmetal grey eyes. His sandy-blond hair sat in a disheveled mess on the top of his head. He wore a sweater vest over a long sleeve Oxford shirt. The kid was familiar to him, but he couldn’t quite figure out why.
“Kind of last-minute major change. Sorry. I’ll catch up,” Adrian said.
“What do you want to be?”
“Lawyer,” he answered.
Royce nodded. “Give me your email and I will send you all the information you’ll need for the class and all the work given thus far. If you can turn in the last three major assignments before the end of next week, I will allow you to take my class.”