by Lisa Oliver
Liam shook his head. “Not with this guy apparently. He’s really reclusive and barely ever makes an appearance in public. I couldn’t even find a picture of him online.”
“Sounds like he’s trying to add to the mystique of his works by adopting an eccentric lifestyle,” Sean said dismissively. He could imagine the guy now – some thin, wiry eccentric type, with a wispy goatee, a beret plastered on top of untidy hair and paint-splattered clothing. Probably smoked tiny cigars and looked down on everyone, because he was oh so superior with his community college art degree that he didn’t bother to finish because it stifled his natural talent.
“Don’t be rude to him, Sean,” Liam said, and Sean flinched as Liam’s elbow connected to his ribs. “I have never seen anyone paint wolves like he does – it’s as though he knows, you know? The eyes are almost human and every picture speaks to me on some level.”
“Wolves? Where?” Sean eyes darkened as they scanned the canvases. If this artist was some dandy who had somehow gotten hold of the knowledge about shifters, and was painting them, then there was going to be hell to pay. Sean might not have a pack of his own, but he was still an Alpha and keeping the shifter secret was one of his solemn vows.
“They’re through there,” Liam said, pointing to a small alcove that was off the main room. “It was one of them that caught my eye initially, but when I came in to buy it, Marla told me none of the wolf paintings were for sale. There are six of them, and the artist has allowed them to be shown for the duration of the exhibit, but he won’t part with them. I want him to paint something similar on the wall of the club.”
“You’ve checked them out, there’s nothing in any of them that might be open to an unusual interpretation?” Sean let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding when his brother shook his head.
“They’re just so life-like, and yeah, some of them are quite…sad, I suppose. But rugged as well and beautifully done.” Liam broke off as there was a small commotion by the door and both men turned to look. It seemed the artist had arrived.
“Oh wow, if that’s the artist, I’m definitely in,” Liam said. Sean saw a tall, dark-haired man, maybe mid-thirties, dressed in an expensive suit shaking hands with a woman he’d been introduced to as the agent, Marla. “Damn, he’s got a twink with him.” Liam scowled. “Just my luck the beefy ones always want little bottom boys.”
Sean took another quick look. There was a smaller man with the one who’d attracted Liam’s attention, but all Sean could see was a mop of untidy blond hair, and a long black expensive-looking coat. “If he’s got a mouth on him, I’ll distract the twink, while you make a play for the artist. Might help you get your artwork.”
“What do you get out of it?” Liam asked, but Sean knew his brother was interested. The two brothers often played wingman for each other. Fortunately, they didn’t have the same tastes in men.
“A bit of spit on my dick, or a decent fuck. It doesn’t really matter. I’ll find a use for him somehow and it’ll give you a chance for some action of your own.”
Sean couldn’t see the little blond’s face or body, but he consoled himself that if the guy did look like the back-end of a donkey, he could always close his eyes. It wasn’t as though he’d have any trouble getting a hard dick – getting it to go down was usually his problem. If his brother wanted the artist, then Sean was sure he could entice some little human twink to take a walk to the bathroom with him. No one had ever said no to him before.
“They’re coming this way, follow my lead,” Liam said with another jab to Sean’s ribs. Damn, I wish he’d stop doing that, but Sean didn’t say anything. He was too busy trying to get a good look at the young blond that was now trailing along behind the taller dark haired man and Marla. The way the smaller man walked, it was as though the gallery was the last place he wanted to be. Maybe the artist didn’t trust him enough to leave him on his own, which boded doubly well for Sean’s success. Any little flirt with an ounce of gay would be on the end of his cock within minutes. Sean was that sure of himself, he allowed an uncharacteristic grin to form on his face.
As soon as the three people got close enough, Liam stepped forward, holding his hand out eagerly, offering it to the taller, darker man. “Caden Wolfe? I’m Liam Black, and this is my brother Sean. We own the Rising Moon nightclub and bar, and I was hoping to talk to you about commissioning a painting for one of our walls.”
The dark-haired man laughed easily enough, and took Liam’s hand even as he shook his head. “I’m beyond flattered that you would think I am responsible for this talent, but I am simply a friend of the artist. I’m Felix Collins.” He stepped back, although Sean noticed that he didn’t let go of Liam’s hand. Instead he waved with the other one. “This is Caden Wolfe.”
The slim blond stepped forward, his blue eyes a furious storm in an absolutely angelic face. Sean was literally gob-smacked by the gorgeous eyes, the unlined face, a cute little nose and the fullest, most perfectly designed lips Sean had ever seen. It was his turn to step forward quickly, holding out his hand, which Caden took, although reluctantly.
“Mr. Wolfe,” Sean said, as a bolt of electricity shot up his arm. And that was from just a handshake? “My brother meant no disrespect. He just has a hankering for tall, dark and handsome and consequently put his foot in his mouth, big time.”
“It happens all the time,” Caden said with a shrug of his elegant shoulder, but Sean could tell the man was uncomfortable. “As much as it’s a pleasure to meet you both, I am sure Marla has told you, I don’t do commissioned work. I prefer to paint whatever the muse has for me, and client restrictions can be so limiting it makes it difficult to finish a piece.”
“Caden,” Marla stepped closer to murmur in the artist’s ear, although Sean could hear every word. “The Black brothers have offered a lot of money for a painting of a wolf for their club. It would make good business sense to at least consider the space and hear the outline of the type of thing they are looking for. From what Liam told me earlier, they are quite prepared to be flexible in terms of subject matter, and it would be good exposure for you.”
Sean noticed that as Caden had been listening to his agent, the man had, apparently unthinkingly, raised the hand they’d shaken to his nose. To Sean’s surprise, Caden did the tiniest of discreet sniffs before dropping his hand again. A sniff! It was intentional. Was Caden a shifter of some kind, and if he was, how come he was so small? Sean raised his own hand and did a quick sniff of his own. Immediately the scent of roasted hazelnuts and apples filled his nose, sending blood to his cock and a rush of hormones through his brain. Holy Mother Flapper – Caden was a wolf shifter – better than that, he was an Omega wolf shifter, and his freaking fated mate!
For a long moment the two men stared at each other, even as Marla seemed hell bent on convincing Caden to give the commission idea a chance, continuing to whisper urgently in Caden’s ear. Now that Sean knew what to look for, he could sense the wolf in the man and see the timid creature in those blue eyes. Unfortunately, he could also sense the undertones of fear that emanated from his mate in waves. Caden’s skin had gone a deathly pale, and he swayed slightly. Sean’s first instinct was to help him, hold him, and yeah, a lot of other things, but Marla got there first.
“Caden, sweetie, are you okay? Do you need to sit down?”
“I need to go,” Caden said quickly. “I’m sorry, but I really don’t feel well. It must have been something I ate. I apologize for rushing off, but I need to go now.”
“I can take you home,” Sean said, trying to get closer to the stricken man, but this time he was thwarted by Felix who had apparently finished talking to Liam, and was putting his arm around Caden’s shoulder, turning him away. In a room full of humans there wasn’t anything Sean could do to stop him.
“Come on, buddy,” Felix said, looking friendly, but not overly concerned with Caden’s sudden illness. “Let’s get you back to your place. Gentlemen, it was nice meeting you. Liam, I look forward to hearing fro
m you again shortly.”
Felix led the still pale Caden from the gallery, shielding him from others who wanted to stop and talk to the artist, and at one point, physically putting a hand out when someone looked as if he wanted to take a picture of the smaller man. Sean could do nothing but stare after them. He was still staring at the door well after the two men were gone. Another jolt to his ribs brought him out of his reverie and without thinking, he snarled at his brother.
“What’s got into you?” Liam looked surprised, and Sean realized that despite the fact that his life had suddenly turned upside down, for all intents and purposes they were still in a gallery and it looked like Liam had lost out on getting his commissioned art work. Although if the smile around his eyes was any indication, Liam had scored a date with Felix.
“The biggest mismatch in the history of the Fates,” Sean muttered, knowing his brother would hear him.
“You mean you and the blond?” Liam kept his voice low, but the laughter was evident. “What’s the matter – too human for you? Worried he won’t keep up with your sexual appetite? So much for being a quick hook up; you’re going to have to get used to being gentle if he’s yours.”
“He’s an Omega wolf,” Sean whispered into his brother’s ear.
Liam reared back, his mouth dropping open in shock, his eyes wide. Sean nodded. He knew Liam would scent his honesty. Liam shook his head and then groaned under his breath, “Geez, you’re a lucky bastard. Talent, looks and an Omega to boot. Dad is going to be thrilled.”
But as Sean let himself into his spotless house a lot later that night, he had to wonder whether or not Lady Luck was smiling on him. For one thing, he never expected to meet his mate. Sure, he’d been raised believing in them, but when you looked at the situation logically, the chances of meeting the one person destined for you, in a world full of people, was slim. Sean believed in the concept and all it entailed, he just never expected it to happen to him.
And now it had, and that led to Sean’s other problem. He wasn’t sure he wanted a mate. Something like that could seriously change his life. Sean was under no illusions about himself. He looked like a Greek God and he acted like an asshole. So what? He was an Alpha wolf – perpetually horny, and happy to play the field, although a surly bastard to anyone who thought a dick-dipping meant something more.
Sean had no patience for caring, or showing affection, remembering anniversaries or any of the other dating niceties. He had sex with humans. Lots of humans, and every single one of them knew the score – it was always a one-time deal. Sean had a harsh, but well-earned reputation, and if he came across anyone who hadn’t been informed about his rules, he was more than happy to educate his potential fuck before he opened his zipper. He was brutally honest, but it saved him a lot of hassle in the long run.
Or at least, that had been his M.O. But after they’d left the gallery, and he and Liam went to their club, Sean realized that the little sniff and touch thing he and Caden shared was enough to shut his cock down, at least around other people. Oh, it got hard enough every time Sean thought about the gorgeous Omega with the pouty full lips. Raging hard, dripping wet and damned uncomfortable. Unfortunately, anytime he tried to get close to someone to relieve the tension Sean was under, his cock flopped faster than an ice block in a volcano. After coming close to embarrassing himself twice in front of patrons, Sean decided on an early night.
He should take a shower. Sean was almost obsessive about his need for cleanliness and orderly surroundings. But he hated the idea of washing off the tiny bit of Caden’s scent he had on his hand, so he undressed, threw his clothes into the hamper, and climbed into his pristine sheets. Instead of comforting him with their coolness and lack of scent, for the first time in his life, Sean felt lonely in his giant bed. A bed he’d never shared with anyone before, so his new feelings didn’t make any sense at all. It was quite disconcerting.
Idly letting his mind wander over his vision of his mate again, Sean felt his cock harden automatically although he purposefully ignored it. He was too busy trying to work out how the hell an Omega wolf, one of the most cherished of all shifters, could be alone in somewhere like downtown Los Angeles. There were no packs in the area – he and Liam had made sure of that before they started buying real estate. No lone wolf wanted to establish businesses, homes and things like that and then find they had to move on because as Alphas, they would be seen as a threat to an existing pack.
But the situation was totally different for Omegas. Sean’s home pack in Williams, AZ, had had two Omegas the last time he’d visited his parents – one male and one female. Both were protected and looked after by the whole pack. His father, the Alpha, had told him that Omegas were essential to packs to ensure that no one forgot the need for compassion and caring in everyday life. An Alpha and Omega mating was something to be celebrated as a perfectly natural yin and yang. Sean remembered his father being quite disappointed that neither Omega in the Williams pack proved to be true mates of either of his sons.
“So why did I meet one now, and more to the point what am I going to do about it?” Sean whispered in the darkness. He didn’t get any reply, and after the longest while he drifted off to sleep. Unlike the usual peaceful rest Sean always enjoyed, he spent the night dreaming of huge blue eyes, pouty full lips and the stench of fear. By morning, Sean knew that even if he wasn’t sure about taking Caden as a mate, he was honor bound both as a mate and an Alpha, to address the cause of Caden’s fear. That meant finding out how to get in touch with the little wolf, and quickly.
Chapter Three
Caden heard his phone ring for the twentieth time, and just like every other time, he ignored it. It would be Felix, and if his smug friend thought that finding his phone, and then charging it, would encourage him to actually take a call, then his soon-to-be-ex friend had another thing coming. Caden did not want to talk to Felix. He wasn’t sure when he might want to talk to Felix, now the man had Liam in his life.
It had been bad enough on the trip home from the gallery. Felix had been besotted with Liam, claiming an instant connection to the hunky man, to the point of forgetting about his dinner date with his aunt. Caden knew exactly what that instant connection was all about, the scent of arousal coming from both men made him wish he had a sinus condition. He huffed as he applied more paint to his brush. His friend would find out what that connection meant soon enough, and then Felix’s life would get a whole lot more interesting. Caden hoped that Felix’s aunt approved of club owners.
The only positive thing that came out of Felix’s attraction was that he was so focused on how wonderful Liam was, he didn’t even bother to ask Caden what had upset him. Not that Caden could have told him. How did he explain to a man who probably didn’t even know wolf shifters existed yet, that Caden had lived in fear for his life ever since he’d escaped his pack? And now with one freaking meeting at an exhibit, his life was in danger again – from two local Alpha wolves; Alphas, who could assume all rights to him, his work, his money and his home. Nothing stood in the way of a determined Alpha and now there were two of them.
Unsure about what he could do, or how long he could hold out against two strong shifters, Caden battened down the hatches. As soon as Felix left him at his apartment, Caden locked and then bolted his door from the inside, so that absolutely no one could get in. And he stopped taking calls. He didn’t want to talk to anybody. Marla got in touch via email the night after the exhibition. Apparently he’d won an award and some paper wanted to interview him, claiming it was a mandatory part of the award. Tough. Caden had sent Marla an email back and told her to turn down the award. He refused to do any publicity for anything or anybody – it was just too risky.
Felix was likely to be more persistent than Marla, but Caden was hoping that now the man had a mate of his own, even if he didn’t know it yet, then his friend would be far too busy to bother him for a while. Caden was well aware of how possessive Alpha wolves could be, and hopefully the Felix and Liam claiming would giv
e Caden enough time to work out what to do.
As for his own mate, well Caden definitely didn’t want to talk to him. Being an Alpha’s sex slave for the rest of his life was not on his to-do list. Caden had never met another Omega wolf, but if his own life experience was anything to go by, an Omega was never respected, never allowed to own anything, and never allowed to have an opinion. Caden shuddered at the thought of going back to that life.
He was well aware that he was basically caging himself in. But as his brush flew across the canvas, Caden reminded himself with every savage stroke, that it was a cage of his choosing - his space, his home, and he had every right to be in it. He owned the building he was in. He spent far more than he should have, but he refused to have a mortgage, unwilling to leave a paper trail anywhere. He owned every single thing in his apartment – it might not look like he had much, but his simple bed, his goodwill couch, they all meant something to him. Caden wasn’t about to let any Alpha, especially a lone wolf, take away the one slice of security he had known his entire life. He would rather die first.
The only time the door had been opened in the past five days was when the courier arrived with a month’s worth of groceries. The guy was persistent and wouldn’t go away until he’d been tipped. A call to Felix, to thank him for placing the order would have been the nice thing to do, but Caden was second guessing everything. He had trusted Felix from the day he’d met him – his wolf assuring him that Felix was a good and honest man. But now Caden was caught in a quandary. If Felix was mated to Liam, then Liam or Sean could use Felix to get to him. Sean was his mate, and it stood to reason the Alpha would be angry that he’d left the gallery, and was probably trying to hunt him down. Felix was the only one who could possibly divulge Caden’s whereabouts to his mate. Marla was far too staunch to give anything away.