“The—the Council sanctioned this?” Drake gasps.
Chase gives him a sympathetic look. He pulls up the email on his phone and forwards it to Drake. “Check with them if you don’t believe me, but I was never going to leave my Pack open to retaliation from other witches. This was a clean, sanctioned kill.”
“Are—my daughter, my wife...?”
“Neither have harmed the Reid Pack, and neither are threats to us.”
Relief makes his shoulders sag and he nods, taking a step back.
“Drake,” Chase says, “Ben is my best friend and he knows. It’s only a matter of time before Brielle does as well.”
Fear or rage make his face tighten, but the witch doesn’t respond before he leaves the bookstore.
Chase watches pensively, then texts Lucas and Tyler.
>>What do you think about expanding our Pack?
Chapter 25
Harper is grinding mistletoe when Chase slips in. The druid doesn’t react, doesn’t bother to greet him, and Chase hides his smirk as he settles on a stool, running his finger in a circle and letting the shavings of rowan chase it.
“Mr. DeWitt,” Harper says, a touch of exasperation leaking into his tone.
The Shaman laughs. “You called? What’s up?”
“The Drake killings. I assume they were your doing.”
Chase tilts his head, studying the druid. He doesn’t dislike Harper, but he doesn’t trust anyone who failed their Pack as much as Harper failed the Reids.
“Our kills were recompense for the deaths of our Pack at the hands of Mia Drake, Matthew Drake, and their coven,” Chase says, straightening, “They were sanctioned by the Witch’s Council and clean kills.”
Harper’s frown is disapproving and disappointed. “You killed, Chase.”
“I did,” Chase says readily. “And I’d do it again to protect them. Mia trapped the Reids in that car and crushed it with them inside, then set it on fire, Harper. Matthew? Do you know how many deaths he has on his hands, how many Packs his coven tore through? I’m not going to feel guilty for ridding the world of those animals.”
“They weren’t,” Harper says, and Chase stills. “They were humans and you let the werewolves kill them.”
“Because they’re more important, right? Than werewolves. Humans are more important than animals.”
“I didn’t say that,” Harper snaps, defensive.
Chase laughs. “You didn’t have to.”
Harper carefully sets the mortar and pestle down and wipes his hands. “What you’re doing—it’s dangerous. You aren’t meant to be involved, Chase. You’re meant to observe and advise, but never to change things. You—we—are not part of their world.”
Chase shakes his head as he stands. “No. You weren’t. And your Pack was slaughtered. So excuse me if I don’t follow your shitty example.”
“Do you think the Council would be interested in a half-trained mage tied to a magical Stone?” Harper asks.
Chase stares at the druid for a long time. “I don’t fucking care what the Council would be interested in.” He brushes dust from his hand and it sparks hot flicks of electricity as it falls to the table. “But I do know that if you threaten my Pack’s safety, it won’t be Lucas who comes for you. I’ll rip your magic from you and kill you myself.”
Harper is quiet and still. Chase gives him a sharp smile and saunters out.
~*~
“Do you live with the Pack?” Chase says as soon as Liss answers the phone.
“Why hello, Chase, it is good to hear from you. I’m great, how are you?”
Chase snarls softly.
She sighs. “Fine. Yes, I have a small suite of rooms in the Pack house. Why?”
“A druid here—he says I’m too involved.”
“Well, you are. Most of us, even the ones living with their Packs, aren’t as integral to the Pack as you are. We keep them human. We don’t forge Pack bonds. But you’re the Reid Pack—and you’re strange as fuck. So ignore him. You’re doing fine.”
Chase huffs. “We’d like you and your Alpha to meet with us. We can come to you. I know you wanted me to check your wards?”
She hums consideringly. “Yeah. That would be good. Let me talk to my Alpha and set it up.”
~*~
Things with Ben are strained.
He doesn’t know that Chase has something to do with the deaths of his girlfriend’s family, but he isn’t stupid either. He put together Lucas’s seizures and Brielle around the first time Mia wandered into town with her veiled threats and bad-touch.
Ben is oblivious and harmlessly self-centered, but he isn’t stupid, and he’s been friends with Chase for long enough that he knows Chase had a hand in Mia’s disappearance and Matthew's death.
Chase doesn’t press him—he knows his brother will talk only when he’s ready, and he knows he won’t lie. Not about this.
Not when he wants to bring Ben into their Pack.
It’s late March, when Ben returns for spring break and Brielle flies with Aurora to France, when he finally does. “Did you do it on purpose? Suggest I propose to get Mia and Matthew invited to Harrisburg?”
They’re playing Mario Kart, and Chase pauses the game to sit up and look at Ben.
“Yes,” he says simply, “But if I hadn’t wanted to kill Mia and Matthew, I still would have encouraged you to propose. Brielle is right for you in every way, man. Of course I want you to marry her.”
Ben licks his lips, then says quietly, “Harper says you’re dangerous.”
Bastard.
“Not to you. Or her. Not ever.”
“Can you promise the same for the Reids?” Ben demands fiercely.
Chase nods. “You could—You could bring her. To the house. She’d be welcome there.”
Ben lets out a slow breath. “No,” he says, and something in Chase’s chest cracks open. “I love you, man, and I’m glad you’re happy. I really am. But I like my ordinary life. It’s safe and good for me, and she’s safe. I don’t—” He shakes his head.
“You could be Pack,” Chase says dully.
Ben smiles gently. “Dude. I don’t want to be Pack.”
~*~
It hurts. He smiles, and they play video games for another hour or so before Chase gets a call from Tyler and Ben takes the distraction to duck away, and—
It’s not new.
They were inseparable once, and sometimes Chase aches with it, misses that closeness, but if he’s honest, most of the time he’s relieved that Ben is so far away at UCLA.
He loves Ben, of course he does—he wants Ben in their Pack, for fuck’s sake—but Ben has never understood the relationship he has with the Reids, has never tried to.
Still, hearing that Ben and Brielle are getting an apartment in LA, that he doesn’t want to be Pack—it hurts.
Ben has been part of his life for so long, he thought he always would be.
~*~
They meet the Lewis Pack at their borders, and Chase grins as he feels the quiet pulse of Liss’s wards brushing against him. Tyler and Lucas flank him, and Stephen watches with a curious smile.
“Welcome to our territory,” he says, “Liss says you have something you want to discuss.”
Chase feels that familiar burst of grief, the same feeling he’s had every time expanding the Pack has come up since Ben went back to UCLA, and Stephen’s gaze narrows on him.
“I thought,” he says brightly, “I’d help Liss with her wards, before we get to that.”
“That’s...very kind,” Stephen says slowly, and Chase nods, a bobblehead agreement. Liss snorts but leads Chase along.
~*~
Chase reeks of anxiety and nerves when they sit in a cafe that one of the Lewis betas owns. She pours coffee and drops a plate of scones and cookies in front of them before she tilts her head respectfully for her Alpha and skirts away.
“What can we do for you?” Stephen says, after he selects a scone and leans back. Liss curls one foot under her and fidd
les with the bandage around her hand, where she cut her palm to strengthen the wards around their territory. Chase’s whole body aches from dripping magic into hers, strengthening her spells with his own power, but he straightens and watches Stephen.
“You knew, when you approached us for an alliance, that our Pack is unconventional,” Chase says and James, the beta they have never seen before, stirs and makes a dismissive noise in his throat.
“Is there a problem with your beta?” Lucas asks silkily.
“There’s a problem with your Pack,” James snaps, “if you’re allowing a human to speak for you.”
Tyler snarls and Lucas’s smile grows sharper and chillier, but Chase just laughs. “Fair enough. We’re all kinds of problems, Jamie, but your Alpha came to us.”
Stephen studies them, a faint sheen of red on the edges of his eyes, and finally, without looking away, he says, “James. Shut the hell up, or you will leave.” The wolf growls but subsides, sitting back quietly, and Stephen says, “You were saying?”
“We want to expand our Pack,” Chase says abruptly. “But obviously, we can’t turn our own.”
Stephen’s eyes narrow and he says, “You want me to give someone the Bite? They would be my betas.”
“Not if I forged a Pack bond with them,” Chase says easily, like it is easy, like it’s something any mage could or would offer.
“And Chelsea?” Stephen’s eyes slip to Tyler, briefly apologetic.
“Chelsea is not part of this discussion, same as she has never been part of our alliance,” Tyler says evenly.
“It becomes a part of the discussion when your Alpha takes issue with my Pack for growing her Pack.”
“Chelsea would be our problem, if it came to that,” Lucas says, “The alliance says nothing about protecting us from or involving you in inner-pack disputes.”
Stephen nods and says, “I would like three days to consider. You are, of course, welcome in our territory and Pack house while I decide.”
Chase nods, and some of the tension finally drains out of him.
~*~
“She’s quiet,” Tyler says, watching the shy blonde girl, Jessica, behind the bakery’s counter. She’s talking to a little girl sitting on her father’s hip, a smile on her lips, but her hands shake as she does.
“And sick,” Lucas murmurs.
“Cystic fibrosis. She was diagnosed when she was a child,” Chase says, “It's why she works here and lives at home instead of going away to college.”
Lucas huffs. Chase says, “Ezra—the curly one in the corner. His dad was beating him, kept him locked up for days on end. Jessica talked her folks into letting him rent the apartment above their garage for some light manual labor. Joseph—the pastry chef—she met when they were both in therapy. They helped each other. Joseph’s little sister was kidnapped while he was watching her and Jessica accepting her disease. And then they helped Ezra.”
Lucas frowns, watching them.
“They're loyal and they're family. And we’re finally safe enough that we can think about it.”
“They might not want the Bite,” Tyler says and Chase looks away, feeling the pang of losing Ben again.
“Bring them to the house,” Lucas says abruptly, “We should at least get to know them before we invite them into our damn Pack.”
~*~
He whines, and Tyler’s hand on his neck tightens, claws pricking deliciously as he holds Chase still and fucks him with these slow, deep thrusts.
The little house is empty and they’ve been fucking for what feels like hours—Tyler had jerked him off at the front door and rimmed him torturously slow until Chase spilled untouched across Tyler’s bed. Then worked him open while Chase panted and whimpered, before he fucked him, Chase torn between begging for more and scrambling away, his limbs tingling and clumsy, his mouth dry and bruised, his cock hard again.
“Tyler, please,” he whines.
Tyler licks over the back of his neck, digs his teeth in, gentle. “You can come anytime, sweetheart,” he murmurs and rolls his hips, that slow maddening rhythm that brushes against his prostate and drives Chase into the sheets, a delicious friction that makes him breathless.
“Love you like this,” Tyler growls, and Chase groans, tries again to thrust back onto his cock at the sound of the wolf in Tyler’s voice. “When you’re all flushed and spread out and begging, gods, Chase.” His rhythm stutters, and Chase wails. “Want you like this, always. Just... Don’t fucking leave, don’t ever leave me,” Tyler whispers.
Chase twists his head, his eyes dazed and shining. “Never. Not ever gonna leave you,” he vows.
Tyler moans, fucking him hard as he comes, and Chase shrieks when he wraps a large hot hand around his cock and strokes him off quick and rough, until Chase is shaking through his orgasm, sobbing into the messy sheets.
After, when Tyler has tossed the condom aside and is curled around Chase, the younger man studies him. “You know I won’t, right? That I’m in this forever. I’m not ever leaving you or Lucas.”
“You could.”
Chase nods and drags Tyler’s head down so he can stare in the wolf’s eyes. “But I won’t.”
~*~
Chase invites Jessica and the boys over to Aurora’s one weekend, says they’re going to grill and to bring beer. None of them were especially anxious to share the den with them before the offer had been made and accepted, and this—it takes the pressure off.
He knew that Tyler was nervous, that Lucas had been in a foul mood all week, but he wasn’t. It was soothing, following Aurora’s directions as they set up the outdoor lounge area and pool. He’d been friends with Jessica for long enough that it feels almost natural.
But Jessica and the boys she brings with her are part of his life at the community college, and close as it was to the Pack, it was still removed. He understands Tyler and Lucas’s hesitance.
Still, they feel right, and he smiles at Tyler, kissing him gently on the cheek. “It’s gonna be great, babe.”
Jessica walks in as Tyler kisses him back, a little possessive, and she whistles, high and cheeky. “Damn, DeWitt. You never do that when you bring him into the shop.”
Tyler is blushing and from his chair in the shade, he can hear Lucas’s low laugh. Chase grins, pointing at the blonde hanging on Joseph’s arm and wearing a Batman shirt over her shorts. “You behave, or you’ll scare him off.”
Her grin goes sly. “He looks hard to scare, but it might be fun.”
Tyler eyes her and bares his teeth, and Jessica giggles, pleased with his reaction. It makes the ‘wolf blink and Chase waves them in as he hides his smile.
It’s going to be great.
~*~
He’s surprised, but he likes them.
He likes shy quiet Ezra who sasses Jessica and then ducks away behind Joseph with a mischievous smile. He likes Joseph who quietly sips his beer and watches Jessica and Ezra, his gaze fond, protective, and wanting in turns.
He wonders which one Joseph wants, or if it’s both.
He adores Jessica, who’s snarky and loud one minute, then shaking and quiet the next, sitting nestled between Ezra and Joseph as she sips her water and watches Chase and Tyler. Her sharp eyes are bright, and she reminds him, almost painfully, of his sisters—of Chelsea, before the accident took everything and changed her, and Leslie, wild, fierce, and needy for affection.
He adores them, and wants, with a startling desperation, to make them his, to bind them to the Pack and never let them leave, to coax Ezra out of his shell and put Jessica on a pedestal next to Aurora so she can shine, to watch Joseph play chess with Lucas and quietly defeat him.
He wants them, and it’s terrifying.
~*~
“I like them,” Aurora murmurs. Lucas’s grip on her waist tightens. They’re in the kitchen, and she’s squeezing lemon into his drink while he watches and inhales the delightful scent of her.
“Do you like them enough to invite them into our Pack?”
Aur
ora twists, pressing the drink into his hand. “Chase does. So does Tyler.”
Lucas doesn’t look away. “Do you?”
She takes a breath. “I don’t want to scream around them. I... I want to sing.” She blinks, her voice soft. “I want to sing the kind of wailing song I only hear in our dreams.”
Lucas kisses her forehead and says, “Then let’s tell them, shall we?”
~*~
Jessica sits across from Chase in an adorable little house in the woods, and she eyes him. He’s been acting a little squirrely, but he’s been undeniably excited since they had that cookout at Aurora’s.
She isn’t here, now. It’s just Chase and Tyler, busy in the kitchen.
“I need to tell you something,” Chase says, and he sounds serious, more serious than he’s ever sounded. It makes her anxious, seeing the way he glances over at Tyler.
The older man is already watching, moving toward Chase like he can predict the boy’s needs and desires, and it makes her ache.
She knows that Tyler and Chase are special, that they’ve been together longer than she can fathom, that they’re a forever kind of love, and she adores it. She flirts and teases, but it’s only because it doesn’t mean anything, because Chase is so far off the market he’s never really been on it.
She wants that, the love and awareness and completeness she sees in them when they’re together, the quiet devotion in Tyler’s gaze and the wild adoration in Chase’s.
“I need you to listen,” Chase says, and Tyler moves closer to her. “And really pay attention to what we can offer you.”
So she does. She listens, and she doesn’t believe it, because no one can offer her what they are, no one can cure epilepsy, but that’s what they’re saying, and she wants that even more fiercely than she wants a love story as perfect and epic as theirs.
“How,” she asks.
Chase looks at Tyler. He nods once, as he slips around the table to catch her hands.
“Ok, don’t hit him,” Chase says, and Tyler—
Tyler transforms. Jessica screams.
Slow Shift Page 24