by Kian Rhodes
Chapter Eighteen
Ralph
Thirty-seconds after I pulled Casen’s firm body up against my back, I was regretting the twenty-plus years of search and rescue work that told me to do it.
Of course, it was the safest way to ensure that we weren’t separated once we entered the cave. Yes, it was also the best way to protect him from a frontal assault if I was wrong about the cave being empty. Unfortunately for my suddenly over-active sex drive, it also pressed our bodies together from torso to groin, sending arousal firing through my nervous system as each step rubbed his hardening cock against my butt, bringing back nearly forgotten memories of the handful of times I’d been topped in my life. By the time I’d forced myself to let him go, I was as hard as the stone surrounding us and there was no way I was going to be able to hide it. From that familiar sweet scent, I wasn’t the only one in that condition.
When Casen backed away from me and sat against the far wall, I winced. If he couldn’t get far enough away from me, I knew I only had one choice – I was going to have to quit ignoring the elephant in the room and assure him that he had nothing to fear from me, no matter how awkward that conversation was doomed to be.
Taking a couple of minutes to center my thoughts – and to try, once again, to get my dick to go back down – I finally sucked it up and walked over to sit in front of him. Even in the darkness, my enhanced vision could tell that he was frowning as he stared at the ground.
“Hey, Cass? Can we talk?”
His head jerked up, making me think he hadn’t realized I was there.
“Yeah. What’s up?”
“I, ah, just wanted to apologize for the reaction I keep having every time we’re close,” I said quietly. “I know I’m making you uncomfortable and I’m sorry.” I hesitated, and when he didn’t respond, I stumbled on, “I just want you to know that you don’t need to worry about it. I’d never try anything with you. You’re perfectly safe with me.”
“Great.”
I could have sworn there was sarcasm dripping from Casen’s single word response, but I didn’t know why. Of course, chicken that I am, I didn’t ask, either. Instead, I decided to follow his lead. If he was going to pretend that everything was fine, I was more than happy to dwell in the land of denial with him. To that end, I opened up our bag and felt around until I found the protein bars and reached out with one, gently tapping his hand. “Hungry?”
“Sure, thanks.” Casen’s words were flat as he accepted the bar, laid it on his thigh, and went back to staring at the ground. When I offered him the water bottle, he took a swig and handed it back without a word.
Apparently, we were done talking.
“I’m going to take up a position over by the entrance,” I said. “Not that I think anyone will find us, but better safe than sorry.”
There was still no response.
I sighed and made my way through the darkness to sit beside the small boulder that once again blocked the entrance. “Try to get a little rest, Cass. We’re going to be back on the move in a couple of hours.”
I assumed the murmured response was agreement, but all I could see in the darkness was his chin resting on his raised knees, so I couldn’t be sure. On the plus side, I’d made such a mess out of my attempt at clearing the air, that my stupid dick had finally gone down.
Small victories.
With my back to the rock, I closed my eyes. I wouldn’t sleep with the bad guys assumed to be hunting us, but I would close my eyes and rest a bit. My hearing was more than strong enough to alert me if anyone started snooping around outside and, if I was honest, I was starting to think that maybe there was a reason I rode a desk at the COPSD instead of doing fieldwork; that crap was exhausting!
My inner creature roused me some time later, alerting me that the sun was preparing to rise.
“Cass? You awake?”
“Yeah.”
“Great. We need to hit the trail. Do you need anything before we go? Food? Water? A potty break?”
The Omega snorted. “Did you seriously just say potty?”
Oops.
“Yeah, well, I don’t curse, so sometimes I fall into old habits when I talk about sensitive subjects. Sorry.”
“Seriously? You don’t curse at all?”
“Not if I can help it,” I admitted. “I know, it’s weird, but can you just answer the question and hassle me about it later?”
“I don’t need a potty break,” Casen snapped and I could all but hear the air quotes in his voice as he stood and stretched. “I’m ready whenever you are.”
Okay, then.
“I’m stepping outside. I’ll be right back and then we can take off.” I slid the boulder door open as quietly as possible and then stood and listened to the forest sounds. The crickets were chirping and small animals were rustling in the leaf litter on the forest floor until I stepped out into the predawn air to relieve myself and everything fell silent.
In short, everything was as it should be.
Chapter Nineteen
Rafe
As soon as I hung up the phone with Carol, I dialed the receptionist.
“Can I help you, Mr. Borrero?”
I laughed, giving her the same response I had for all the years we’d worked together. “Yes, you can call me Rafe,” I teased. “But seriously, I need a favor.”
“Of course, Rafe,” Becky said warmly. “What can I do?”
“Can you have fire response dispatched to The Omega Auction House? I’m heading over there on a tip and I have a bad feeling. Let them know I’ll be on scene as soon as possible, but I’m about an hour and a half away.”
“To the auction house?” Becky repeated in surprise. “Of course, Rafe. You’ll be on the radio?”
I laughed. “Am I ever not?”
Becky’s responding laugh rang through the receiver. “Okay. Anything else?”
“Yeah,” I held back a sigh. “If you hear from the boss, tell him where I am and have him hit me up, okay?”
“You got it. Be careful.”
As the phone clicked dead in my ear, I grabbed the keys to my department issue SUV – the bike would be faster, but without lights and sirens, I couldn’t run hot on it – and headed for the parking lot, calling for my team through our pack link.
Bane’s response came back almost immediately. On our way.
The siren on my SUV screamed as I flew down the highway, the red and blue lights strobing off the pavement and bouncing off into the darkness as I raced toward my destination. If I was right about what I was going to find – and fuck was I hoping I wouldn’t be – the only hope was that the fire department had responded as soon as the call went out.
The thought had no sooner bounced through my mind than my call sign blared through the radio speaker, briefly interrupting the siren.
“Spade, come in.”
I tapped the response key. “Spade, go ahead.”
“Fire is on scene at the requested location,” Becky’s voice was calm. “Building is fully engulfed. Three non-shifter DOA and five Omegas rescued. They’re looking for your ETA.”
Fuck.
I looked at the dash clock. “I’m still more than an hour out,” I groaned before slamming on my brakes to avoid a massive creature that suddenly swooped down from the sky, nearly knocking my SUV off the road. I wrestled the car off to the side of the highway, coming to a stop inches from the concrete barrier. “Becky, hold off on sharing that. I might be getting a ride.”
I climbed out of the SUV and walked toward the familiar dragon that had followed me and set down in the middle of the four-lane highway. Even though I knew Alpha Falk’s scales were a reddish-brown, in the night they appeared as black as my wolf’s fur and, for the first time, I noticed that the tips glowed a delicate gold in the moonlight.
“Falk,” I greeted him, a quick glance to the sky telling me that he came alone. If his husband and kids weren’t with him, there was no doubt that this wasn’t a social call. “You looking for me?”
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Falk’s graceful neck bobbed slowly.
“Let me guess,” I laughed. “Trevor told you I needed a lift?”
Another nod and he stretched one wing out, laying it on the ground.
Well, there are definitely more inconvenient things than a friend with empathic powers. I swallowed hard. “You seriously want me to ride you?”
The dragon’s other shoulder lifted and fell in a shrug, as if to ask if I had a better idea.
And, no. No, I did not have a better idea.
I sighed.
“Give me a second to report in.” I returned to the SUV and scrounged around for something to throw my supplies in. Finding a spare diaper bag under the rear seat, I quickly shoved my notebook, first aid kit, and phone inside, followed by the nine-millimeter Beretta pistol that I rarely carried. Throwing the bag over my shoulder, I hit the transmit button on the radio. “Spade to HQ.”
“HQ. Go ahead, Rafe.”
“I, ah, caught a ride through the air,” I said quickly. “Tell Fire that I’ll be there in twenty minutes or less. Can you text these coordinates to my team and ask them to pick up the SUV?”
“Will do, Rafe. Be safe.”
“I always am, Becky. I always am.”
Walking back to the dragon, I drew in a deep breath. “You know where we’re going?”
This time Falk shook his head in the negative. “To the auction house. It’s on fire.” Falk’s piercing black eyes narrowed and his nostrils flared, releasing a puff of steam. “You can get me there?”
Falk twitched his head toward his back and his message was clear. If I’d get my ass on his back, he’d handle the rest. Unable to put it off any longer, I scrambled up the scales of his wing and settled in just behind his head the way I’d seen Spencer ride Harry in dragon form.
Falk rose to his full height and, with a single downward push of his massive wings, launched us into the sky and on our way.
The nearly two hundred miles of meandering highway that would have taken me almost two hours by car was reduced to only minutes as the dragon flys. We’d only been in the air a short time when I could already see the column of smoke rising in the air.
Shit.
To be visible from that distance, it had to be a massive fire. From the tension in Falk’s body and the speed at which he was beating his wings, I was guessing he agreed with me. When we approached the cloud of smoke, Falk circled wide to come in under it and glided to a smooth landing within the ring of crime scene tape that was being used to keep the lookie-loos at bay.
I slid off his outstretched wing, giving a silent prayer that my rubbery knees would hold, and walked over to where he had laid his immense head on the ground.
“I appreciate the assist, Falk,” I told him, meaning every word. We’d had a rough start when we’d met, but he’d turned out to be an Alpha to be reckoned with and friend that you could trust on your six. “Thank you.”
The giant dragon sighed and tilted his head toward the group of firefighters who had stopped what they were doing to gawk at us.
“Yeah, yeah,” I said with a laugh. “I’ll stop the mushy shit and get them back to work.” Turning toward the fire, I fished in my pocket for my badge and pulled it free.
“Rafael Borrero,” I announced, my long legs eating up the distance between our landing zone and the smoking building. “Lead Investigator with the Council of Packs, Security Division. Who’s in charge here?”
An older man, human if the scent I was catching through the wood smoke could be trusted, shook his head at me. “From what we hear, that would be you, Alpha.”
I sighed. Time to get to work.
Chapter Twenty
Casen
The entire time we’d spent in the cave, I’d wrapped myself in my anger at being so directly dismissed by the gentle Alpha watching over me. Who the hell was he to deem me unworthy of his attention? He didn’t know me, didn’t know my story. Didn’t know that I’d only become what I had to be to survive.
Once we were back on the mountain, picking our way through the mountainside in the pale pre-dawn light, it was harder to stay mad as Ralph continued to clear my path and then assist me over obstacles. When I’d caught my foot on a branch jutting out from the base of a bush, he’d caught me in his arms, holding me to his chest while I found my balance, and then brushing his lips over my tangled hair before releasing me to cover our tracks. That was the exact moment that I ceased being angry and instead began to wallow in self-pity.
The longer we fought our way through the brush, the more desperately I wished our circumstances were different, regretted that an Alpha like Ralph would never be interested in a fallen Omega like myself. I wasn’t even sure how long we’d been making our way down a clear, well-marked trail before I realized that we were no longer trying to hide.
I stopped short and Ralph bumped into me.
“Cass? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, I guess,” I said slowly. “I just..should we be out in the open like this? In broad daylight?”
Ralph stared at me for a second and then began to laugh. “Oh, sweetheart, you haven’t heard anything I’ve said in the last hour, have you?”
Hour? Really? I’d been tuned out that long?
I felt the heat rising in my cheeks and blew out a breath, knowing there was no way to hide the blush with the sun washing over us. “I guess not,” I admitted. “Sorry.”
“No problem,” Ralph said with a wave of his hand. “You’re exhausted. We worked our way around the property lines of the rehoming center.” When I gave him a blank look, Ralph smiled. “The building we were being held in. I’ll explain it later, if you want,” he offered before continuing. “We’re well past the point where we need to worry about being grabbed.” He nodded toward a small hill in front of us. “In fact, my place is over that rise, so I thought we’d detour there. You can rest while I check in with the team.”
“You’re taking me to your house?” I blurted out before I could stop myself.
“Well, to one of them,” he clarified. “It’s nothing fancy. Actually, it’s just a small fishing cabin that I keep, but it’s fully stocked and very few people know about it, so we should be safe until we know what’s what.” His smile faltered. “Unless you want me to take you back to COPSD headquarters right away?”
“I don’t want to be a bother,” I started to demur, suddenly desperately eager to return to my crappy motel room and be gloriously alone for a while, but Ralph was shaking his head before I even finished the thought.
“You’re not a bother, Cass. I promise. I’d really rather keep you with me until we find out how those jerks blew my cover.” His golden-brown eyes were earnest. “I don’t want anything to happen to you, if I can help it. Please stay with me?”
I sighed. How in the hell was I supposed to refuse a heartfelt offer like that? “Okay. If you’re sure I won’t be in the way.”
Ralph grinned and gently nudged me, prodding me to start walking again, this time taking his place beside me on the trail. “I couldn’t be surer of anything, Cass.”
Ralph wasn’t kidding when he said his fishing cabin was just over the hill. The part that he had to have been kidding about, though? Calling it a cabin.
“This is your fishing cabin?” I asked as I stopped on the stone steps to gawk at the sweet little house that reminded me of something out of a children’s fairy tale.
Ralph nodded, typing a code into the electronic lock. “Yeah. I just finished it last year.”
“Finished?” I followed him inside, my head swiveling as I tried to take it all in. “As in, you helped build it?”
Ralph’s cheeks colored the tiniest bit and he cleared his throat. “Oh, ah, I actually did all of the work myself. It was just a rocky meadow when I bought it.”
“Holy shit,” I whistled under my breath. “This is amazing!”
“Glad you like it.” Ralph grinned. “I’m sure we’re safe here, but why don’t you have a seat on the couch so I can che
ck the house, just to be sure?”
“Gladly,” I agreed, dropping onto the ridiculously soft sofa with a groan as he walked through an open doorway next to the kitchen. “Oh, fuck, this is heaven.” Ralph returned from the other room with a matte black pistol that he held down along his leg and I watched in silence as he moved from one room to the next, checking every potential hiding place before finally laying the gun on the table in front of the couch.
“Do you know how to use one of these?”
I nodded, eyeing the pistol distastefully. “Yeah, I do.”
“Good.” Ralph sighed. “Now, do you want to eat or to get cleaned up first?”
“Oh, god, a bath.” I shoved my limp hair out of my face and grimaced when my hand came back with a leaf stuck between my fingers. “Please, a bath.”
Ralph chuckled and plucked the leaf from my hand. “Give me a second to get the bathroom ready, okay?”
When he finally returned to usher me down the hall to the bathroom, I found that he had taken my request for a bath literally. Instead of the shower in the corner, he walked me to the old-fashioned clawfoot bathtub under the window. The steam curling up into the air was softly scented, but I couldn’t place the fragrance.
Ralph noticed me sniffing and shrugged, looking a little embarrassed. “It’s a bath soak for sore muscles that has rosemary, thyme, and peppermint in it,” he explained. “I thought you might be hurting after the workout today.”
I didn’t want to go all gooey inside, but, seriously, how was I supposed to manage that when the amazing Alpha had rescued me, looked after me all day, kept me safe, and then, instead of collapsing on the couch, he’d run me a bath to soak in?
“Thank you,” I murmured, suddenly shy. “That’s very considerate.”
“My pleasure,” Ralph’s voice seemed to catch a little as he waved to the stack of fluffy towels that he’d stacked on the floor by the tub. “Help yourself to anything you need. I’ll, ah, be in the other room, if you need anything.”
I waited until he’d left the bathroom, carefully closing the bathroom behind him, to start telling myself not to fall for the hot, sweet, gentle Alpha who had already been abundantly clear that he wasn’t interested in anything a whore like me had to offer. My mind was willing to listen, but my heart just laughed. It was a little too late to worry about that now.