by R Phoenix
“Come here, Caleb.”
Caleb’s ears twitched as he watched Zain from where he sat in the doorway, tilting his head, doglike. He hesitated a moment then crawled deeper inside. There was a ridiculous amount of room considering they were in a doghouse, but then, it probably had been made for pampered human pets.
Caleb curled up next to him, resting his head against Zain’s leg, but he still didn’t seem eager to speak. If anything, he closed his eyes again like he was trying to go back to sleep.
Unsure if he would get anything else out of Caleb, Zane decided to just jump in and see if Caleb would eventually respond. “I don’t know how much you got out of the drama the other night, but that asshole vamp told Liam to kick me out. I’ve gone back to the pack for now, but I don’t know what I’m going to do in the long run. The fact that I spent so much time with Liam puts me in an awkward place with the pack.”
Zain took a deep breath and kept stroking Caleb.
Letting out a little whine, Caleb headbutted Zain’s hand. Humanity was bleeding back into those eyes, but the pup was squirming, his discomfort more than evident as he tried to edge back from it.
“Before I make any decisions, I need to know what you want and what’s going on between Liam and the asshole. Everything happened too quick.”
One minute he’d had a family, and the next it had all exploded.
Again.
It felt like he was just living from moment to moment, and Zain knew that it couldn’t go on that way. Eventually he had to figure things out, and that had to start with Caleb.
Caleb, who didn’t seem to want to come back to a place where he’d have to face any of it, and Zain couldn’t blame him. He didn’t know how long the pup had been locked outside, away from the rest of it all, and that had obviously left some damage.
A surge of anger ran through him, and he wasn’t sure if he blamed Liam or the asshole sire for how Caleb was being treated. There was this puppy pet palace, the collar looked comfortable and loose enough, there was plenty of give on the lead… If Liam was going to leave Caleb outside, Zain had to grudgingly admit that this was the way to go about it.
Not that he liked Caleb being left outside like this, especially when the headspace looked like it was starting to erase some of the things he’d liked so much about Caleb to begin with. Zain had wanted him to commit to being a pup, but he hadn’t intended for…
This.
“No, Alpha,” Caleb whimpered, shaking his head. He was trembling then, and Zain could smell his fear. “Please, please, no, Alpha, please…”
Zain tightened his arms around Caleb and pulled him close, pinning him to his chest. “It’s okay, baby. I promise.” Fuck. “You don’t have to talk. I’m sorry.”
Whatever Caleb wanted, he could have. Zain just couldn’t stand seeing him so frightened. He couldn’t ever remember smelling fear on Caleb, not like that. He’d scented frustration and anger and arousal and belligerence but never truly fear. Even when they’d gone to see the freaky witch, the pup hadn’t been scared like this.
Caleb licked his lips, and for a moment, he was dead silent except for his hitched breathing. He swallowed hard, and there was more of that recognition there — more of that denial, too.
Zain could see all of it, the struggle written clearly across his face.
“Alpha,” Caleb whispered, finally. “You came back.”
Zain wasn’t sure how to explain everything rushing through him. “Of course, Pup. I’ll always come back for you…as long as you want me as your alpha.”
Had Caleb thought Zain would disappear forever? Had he understood what happened?
“I had to go, but you know I didn’t want to leave you. Right?”
Caleb whimpered, a pathetic little sound, more pup-like than human, but the rough words were spoken carefully, “Y-yes. N-no. I don’t… I didn’t…” His eyes welled up with tears, confusion looking as though it blinded him as much as those tears did.
“Liam’s boss showed up earlier than expected, or something like that, and evidently Liam didn’t explain about our living arrangements. Did you know that ass was supposed to live here? I think Liam left that part out when he said he wanted me to move in.”
Asshole.
Zain shook off his growing frustration and focused back on Caleb. “The crazy asshole thinks that I’m going to go off and try to eat him or something, because he demanded that Liam send me away. I didn’t want to leave you, but it felt safer to have you stay here than fight Liam for you when his back was against the wall.”
Zain knew Liam wouldn’t hurt him… not the bad kind of hurt anyway. But the other vamp didn’t have anything to hold him back. Liam might be… a bit unique, but that other guy was insane.
Even he knew vampires’ sanity slowly bled out of them as they aged, and there was no telling how old Isaiah was.
It seemed to take Caleb a while to absorb what he’d said, and those eyes were dull at first. The only cast was a glaze over them from tears, and Caleb blinked repeatedly as he visibly struggled.
Zain ached for him. He’d wanted it, in a way, for Caleb to lose himself in his pup side… but not like this.
Never like this.
“I—” Caleb shifted, going over and drinking out of the water bowl without spilling a drop before returning to how he’d been settled. “Sort of? Didn’t know when, not really…” He shuddered. “I don’t know.”
Zain wasn’t sure Caleb was completely tracking the conversation, but he didn’t have time to wait. It was daytime now, but eventually night would come.
“I don’t see any way for me to live in the same house as the asshole. Even if I promise to be civilized, that asshole is going to do something one day, and I won’t be able to hold back. Fuck, just the way he looked at you…” Zain started slowly caressing Caleb again. The long strokes were soothing in a way he didn’t understand. “I just don’t know what to do, Caleb.”
Caleb shook his head, seemingly every bit as much at a loss as Zain was. He closed his eyes tight, biting his bottom lip. “He won’t… be here long.”
Yeah, but everything might be ruined by the time he left.
“But, um.” Caleb got another drink of water, this time staying right by the bowl. “Liam had said he might…” The words seemed to get easier and harder all at once. “Leave. After his sire got here.”
“Liam’s going to leave? Like move and take you with him?” Fuck. Zain had known he hadn’t asked enough questions, but that was insane. How could Liam have withheld that from him?
Caleb swallowed hard then shook his head. “That was… first night, maybe?” he guessed. “Didn’t even know if he’d take me…” He trailed off, staring down at his reflection in the water bowl. “Don’t know now. He’s not… packing or anything?”
Zain hadn’t even considered the idea that Liam might take Caleb away completely. He wanted to reach out and pull Caleb back to him, but his pup seemed withdrawn and standoffish. Did he need space, or had he changed his mind about wanting Zain as his alpha?
Caleb’s breath was coming raggedly, and he curled up on the hard wood of the floor in what Zain guessed was the… kitchen area? Dining room? He shook his head, burying his face against his arm.
“Do you want to go with him if he moves? Do you want to leave me?” The big bad werewolf sounded like a wuss, but Zain couldn’t help it.
What did Caleb want?
“I don’t knowww,” Caleb wailed, crossing his arms over his head and bringing his head down to rest on his knees. “I don’t know, I don’t know, I don’t know,” he chanted, more and more frantically.
Torn between his Alpha and Master, it was no wonder he’d panic.
Zain’s need to hold Caleb broke through his restraint, and he reached out to pull Caleb against him again. The pup might have thought he needed space, but Zain knew they needed each other more than ever. “It’s okay, baby. I promise. I’ll figure this out. You won’t have to choose.”
Zain knew he w
ould keep his promise… He just didn’t know how.
Chapter Five:
Liam
After the second run-in between his men and the Butcher’s, Liam thought it was time for them to have a proper chat. They’d met on grounds that had not yet been claimed by either man, thankfully, or they’d have dead employees on their hands. That would’ve just been wasteful, and Isaiah had always told him never to be wasteful.
He hadn’t meant to wait so long. He hadn’t particularly wanted his sire to be there, silently judging him as he worked out business, and he was still displeased that it had come so abruptly and after so little time for deliberation.
But here they were, awaiting their guest in Liam’s home. The house looked like a family classic on the outside, but it was as luxurious as any gentleman’s club in the area on the inside.
Under Isaiah’s disapproving eye, Liam let Caleb inside, unnecessarily using the leash to guide him to his dog bed near Liam’s chair. His pet would’ve gone with only a few words, but he had to at least pretend to be… something.
He didn’t much like the pressure he felt, like Isaiah’s foot was on his neck and his sire could grind down at any moment.
“Are you certain you can make this deal?” Isaiah asked him from where he sat across from Liam.
Liam’s eyes narrowed. “Isaiah, you have seen the results from what I have done here. Will you question every decision I make now?”
“You fucked a mutt and created your own… thing,” Isaiah said with a general wave in Caleb’s direction.
Caleb flinched.
Liam couldn’t help but notice he seemed more aware than usual. He wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not, especially when Isaiah would take any chance he could to put his pup down.
Well. Verbally. If he tried to do it physically, Liam would have a problem…
And that in and of itself was another problem.
The doorbell sounded, and Liam rose. He could’ve used the app to unlock the door, but the Butcher and whatever men he’d brought with him were people he needed to meet at his threshold and welcome in. The rules of hospitality would be in full force, and while he trusted the half-witch to abide by them, there was always the chance he wouldn’t.
He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting of the Butcher, but for the half-witch to show up at his house with just two of his men had not been it. He was mortal, a witch — and a half-blooded one at that.
Liam had heard tell of the significant magical prowess, and many other rumors about Abel Boucher. Few claimed he was excessively arrogant though, which made the presence of a mere young vampire and another witch all the more surprising.
The Butcher was dressed casually, in a fashionable fitted T-shirt with dark slacks. Atop the shirt was a pseudo-chic looking dress jacket, left open, with the sleeves pulled up to expose muscular, tanned forearms. His dark hair was slicked back, his eyes hidden behind a pair of sunglasses even though it was dark out.
“Good evening, Mr. Boucher,” Liam said, nodding to the man he recognized from description alone. “I am Liam, childe of Isaiah,” and that irritated him to say in the moment, for all that he wasn’t going to show that. “Welcome to my home.”
“It is a pleasure to be invited, Liam, childe of Isaiah,” the Butcher said, a small smile upon his lips. He took the sunglasses off then, though he made no move to enter, not yet. He used the glasses to gesture first at the other witch, “This is Acadian Conti,” he said, offering the young man an encouraging smile. “And you may know Azrael…” he added, letting his words trail off, as if all vampires knew one another.
Liam glanced at the first man’s inner wrist, noting the mark there. It was a curious combination of individuals to bring with him to an informal business meeting. An unknown vampire the Butcher spoke of as though he should’ve known the name, and a witch from one of the condemned families. If the mark on his inner left wrist was any indication, the witch was enslaved and even legally human.
Very interesting.
“It is good to meet you both as well,” Liam said, inclining his head slightly to his guests. He stepped back with a sweeping gesture, wordlessly inviting them inside before speaking again, “Would you care to enter, or shall we conduct business on my doorstep?”
“Well,” the Butcher drawled. “You invited me to your house, not your doorstep.” The words were full of snark, but the French accent meant it sounded practically pleasant, especially with the smile the man wore.
This time though, the trio did move forward, the Butcher in the lead, the Conti witch second, and the vampire closing their ranks — in the order they had been introduced.
“It’s a pleasure. Thank you,” Azrael said, as he passed Liam into the house. It struck him as odd, but perhaps he was reading too much into the idiocy of the young. This one couldn’t be much more than a fledgling, making it all the more curious why Abel Boucher would imply they might know one another.
Liam’s lips briefly pursed into a line, but he followed them into the sitting room. Isaiah waited, his sire every bit as lithe as Liam was solid, several shades of skin lighter and physically looking younger. But his eyes went to Caleb, who cowered on the bed, curling up tightly and seeming as though he was trying to vanish.
“Isaiah,” Liam said as he made his way toward the liquor cabinet, “Abel Boucher, or perhaps more familiarly known as the Butcher, Acadian Conti, and Azrael. Monsieur Boucher,” he went on, a smile tugging at his lips, “this is my sire, Isaiah.”
“No way,” the Butcher said, and the colloquialism sounded off with that accent. “In the flesh?” the man continued, extending a hand to his sire. “It is a pleasure, Isaiah.” His sire’s name was spoken with a certain reverence that Liam wasn’t sure he cared for.
Isaiah rose fluidly, like some great cat, and took the offered hand. “The pleasure is, of course, mine, Abel.”
As though they were old friends who were on a first name basis.
“Would you care for a drink?” Liam asked, glancing over his shoulder at the Butcher. His eyes flicked to the witch and vampire who had joined them. “Any of you, should Abel approve.”
“Scotch, double.” the Conti witch said plainly. He took a seat without being offered one, but his master hardly seemed to care, too busy shaking hands and being friendly with Liam’s sire.
Liam hummed to himself, but he poured the drink nonetheless. Witch politics were annoying at the best of times. They became even more irritating while it meant the half-witch was pandering to his sire. The rules of hospitality were equally bothersome. He found himself a mere butler, delivering a glass tumbler to a witch who was technically worth no more on the streets than his Caleb.
Potentially even less. He was only another Conti witch, after all, and Caleb was a work of art.
Isaiah’s smile seemed genuine, and Liam knew him well enough to know he approved of the half-witch before him. Why?
Why was it so hard to gain his own sire’s approval, while it was freely given to someone who had carved out an empire no more impressive than Liam’s… and over more time?
“I am glad I could be here to speak to you myself,” Isaiah said, taking his seat again. “I travel so often that it is a treat to be in one place for any length of time.”
That did not bode well for Liam.
“You are staying for a time?” the Butcher asked, his head tilting, not unlike Caleb’s did when something surprising happened to him. “A vampire’s time, or a mortal’s time?” He added cleverly, smirking.
“Don’t suppose there’s a vein available…?” the vampire, Azrael, asked Liam.
It made him realize he was essentially being relegated to the kid’s table while his sire and his would-be business associate spoke.
“Mm, I am not yet certain,” Isaiah said behind him to the Butcher, which was news to Liam.
He’d thought his sire was only going to be there a short period of time. But his attention was forced away from the more interesting conversation by the litt
le vampire, whose request was not unreasonable. He hadn’t prepared for a vampire guest, though. Who would’ve thought a half-witch would bring a vampire to a meeting with another vampire?
Liam didn’t know if he wanted to offer his pup, but hospitality was key if he wished to avoid upsetting the Butcher.
“Caleb,” Liam said, beckoning to his pup. Tail tucked between his all-too-human legs, the fur on the back of his spine lying flat, and ears laid back, Caleb got up to all fours at his master’s side. “I apologize for not having more options, but I did not expect vampire guests. You may feed from my slave, if you wish.”
He expected the vampire to balk as Isaiah had — and did again, Isaiah’s features twitching as soon as Caleb drew the attention in the room. At least they didn’t twist into outright disgust as they usually did, which seemed the only sign he and his sire were even on the same side.
He would play host — barely more than a housewife — while Isaiah took up the mantle of business partner even though Liam had done all the work. The realization sent a hot flash of anger through him, but he bridled his mood, soothing himself by petting Caleb like the good boy he was.
Azrael eyed his pup. While the young vampire’s poker face was excellent, the way his gaze went over Caleb’s altered body told the story of his surprise. “Is it a dog made human, or vice versa…?” the young vampire asked, his voice neutral.
“Azrael,” The Conti witch cut him off warningly, drawing the Butcher’s attention back to them, and Caleb by default.
Caleb lifted his head a little, a brief flicker of anger in his eyes — and Liam was surprisingly relieved to see it. There had been so little humanity there since Zain had gone. He’d thought that was what he’d wanted from the start, but he was no longer certain.
“This is my human pet,” Liam said mildly. “The Lady Desideria has made some alterations at my request.”