by Lisa Oliver
“Can’t someone else go then?” Raff looked around the room. “V, you go to the Underworld often enough. Can’t you get them out if the demon shows you where they are? Just send them home?”
Vassago shook his head. “The Underworld is a special realm and has its own set of rules. I can go there; I can even take Adair because we’re mated, but I couldn’t take anyone else, and I certainly couldn’t transport a whole pack back to their home base from there. Cathair couldn’t do it either because the risk of coming across evil is too great, and Nereus would need permission from Hades himself to gain access to the place where they are held, but even then he couldn’t transport a whole pack with him back.”
“Couldn’t you ask Hades?” Raff implored Nereus. “Surely, if Hades knew where the pack is, he could set them on earth again. It is his realm.”
“I can ask,” Nereus said, “but it could take some time. Hades has a delightful new mate, and Sei reckons the two spend a lot of time flitting all over the place.”
That should have been it. Wes was already feeling the baleful glares from Teilo and Adair, but it was Marius refusing to look at him at all that cut him the deepest. But even though he felt as though his whole body was ready to fly into a million pieces, he had to warn Raff about the state of the pack.
“Raff, this might not mean much,” he said quickly, before he lost his nerve. “But one of the men I spoke to in the pack, the one who stabbed me actually, he said that the pack spent a lot of the winter months starving. They had no indoor plumbing. Hunting was difficult, especially in winter and anytime any of the pack shifted they were in danger of human hunters. Maybe take the time, while you’re trying to get in touch with Hades, to find somewhere else they could live. Somewhere they’ll be safe from hunters and able to hunt and fend for themselves. Your breed is almost extinct in nature, and among shifters it’s worse. It’s just a suggestion,” he added when Raff stared at him mutely.
“You claimed your demon then?” Adair’s spite was obvious.
Wes ignored him. “Cass, it’s time to go.”
“Not until I get my payment.” Cass widened his stance, his look at Kane confrontational. “You promised me anything and it never pays to welch on a deal with a demon.”
“Anything within our power to give,” Kane said tersely.
“Look demon, if you think you can leverage finding Raff’s pack, into sourcing a place here for you and your mate, you can forget it.” Adair jumped to his feet. “Wes’s place in this pack is determined by pack vote and so far, that vote hasn’t happened yet. Nothing you’ve done will change that.”
Fuck. I didn’t leave, but to them I’ve already been banished. His heart breaking, Wes thought of the house where he’d met the kids. Clicking his fingers, he disappeared.
Chapter Seventeen
“You think you’re such a badass, don’t you Adair?” Cass was so proud his mate managed to translocate the way he did. Now he didn’t have to watch what he said or how he said it. “Masquerading as a skilled assassin, you think I don’t see the hatred in your heart when you look at Wesley? For what? What possible reason could you have for hating him? Come on. Share with the class. I know how you wolves love your honesty.”
“Castor,” Kane said quickly. “It’s true I said I would pay any price to find out the fate of Raff’s pack, but Adair is right. I can’t accept Wes back here until the whole pack agrees on it and at the moment, some of us aren’t so sure.”
“You’re cowards. All of you.” Cass sneered. “Him, Him, Him, and Him.” He picked out Luke, Dean, Ivan and Raff. “You four will be spared…”
“Demon, I can’t allow you to threaten this pack.” Nereus got to his feet.
“Chill, son of Poseidon.” Cass wasn’t worried about a demi-god. “I’m not breaking any rules here and I won’t. No one will come to any physical harm.” He looked around the room, seeing into every heart. He shook his head at the fear he saw. Fortunately, the threads of hate were only found in Marius, Adair, and Teilo.
“You shifters live with the idea that once mated nothing on any realm can threaten that bond because it’s protected by the Fates themselves. You gloat about it, brag about it, making a point to tell any non-shifter you meet, that once the mate carries your bite, they can’t get aroused by any other. You carry it as a badge of honor, when truth be told, without that assurance, you wouldn’t have a clue how to trust your mates totally.”
“That’s not true.” A whole range of voices swelled up to meet him. Cass sliced his hands through the air, cutting them off.
“My payment for finding Raff’s pack is thus.” Cass laughed. “For one night, you will give me your dreams, except for the four already mentioned as they trust their mates implicitly and love them unconditionally. But for the rest of you, you will live through what Marius and Cathair went through, what so many of you saw. You will live it as if it’s happening to you, and none of you will wake until you’ve found your way, in your dream state, to opening your hearts truly to your mates. For some of you, it will be a long sleep.”
“You’ve already told us about it. We’ll know it’s a dream,” Teilo scoffed. “What harm can it do?”
Cass’s laughter held an evil edge. “I seem to recall a fair number of you had the same dream some time ago, about male pregnancy I think it was. Hmm…” He tapped his lip as though thinking, when truly inside he was cackling like a hyena. “I wonder...”
“You claimed one night, Castor, and as such our debt is paid,” Kane said stiffly. “I can’t guarantee how many of us will actually get any sleep after your little speech, but…”
“You’ll sleep.” Waving his arms across his body, Cass smirked as one by one, the pack members all fell asleep, leaving just the four named awake. “The littlies will need tending to,” he said brightly. “That should keep you four busy tonight. There’s nothing you can do to rouse your mates now, but I promise on my mate’s heart, they will be better adjusted when they awake.”
“I didn’t think Thomas doubted me,” Ivan said, stroking his mate’s hair. “I know he’d carried a wealth of guilt about Wesley being captured, but this…”
“I doubt it was intentional and he feared his own reactions, not yours. Fear is like an insidious curse,” Cass told the worried dragon. “It spreads like a virus, feeding on insecurities real and imagined until the host can’t feel anything else. The feelings in all the sleeping men have gotten worse, not better since they knew I’d found Wesley and as they couldn’t face him, they have to face a different foe – the one of their own making. Nothing tangible happens in the dream world, but the effects can be very powerful.”
“Will my mates still love me when they wake up?” Luke said tearfully. “I know Kurt is gruff sometimes, and Tobias snaps at me and the babies if he’s having a bad day, but I can feel their love through our bond almost always. I can barely feel them at all now. I don’t want to be alone again, Mr. Demon, sir. Please.”
Cass crossed to where Luke was sitting and brushed his hair from his face. “My special Luke, you will never be alone again, especially now you have Ollie and baby Em. But your mates won’t turn from you when they wake up. If anything, this sleep is the wake-up call they desperately needed to show their love more often.”
“I agree the pack needs help,” Dean said quietly, and Cass noticed he was cradling his mate’s head on his lap. “I’ve been pumping out calming vibes since the golem infected the pack. My head and heart hurts from having to do it all the time, but it’s only ever a temporary fix. But like Luke, I can barely feel the bond with Matthew, even though I know it’s still there, and that frightens me.”
“This is all my fault,” Raff said glumly. “If I hadn’t asked you to find my home pack then…”
“This still needed to happen.” Cass pulled the coffee table over and sat on it. “Let me ask you this, the four of you. If your mate was in Cathair’s position when the golem got him, would that stop you loving your mate?”
All four men
shook their heads, and Luke burst out, “Nothing would stop me loving Kurt and Tobias. I would hurt for them, cry for them, but I would always love them. I’d hold them close if a horrible golem got them, and let them know how much they are loved and special to me and I’d keep saying it, and keep showing it and keep saying it and keep showing it and…”
“Until they understood and felt it in their heart.” Cass nodded. “That is why you four are still awake, and when you do sleep later you will dream normally of happy things. Your bonds are muted with your mates, only so you don’t feel their distress – a distress they must live through to understand the depths of their negativity. The dream world can’t hurt them, but it can make them feel, and they need to feel something other than anger and fear. Do you understand?”
“The power of love is a wonderful thing,” Dean said, nodding.
“Your mates will see you, in their dreams, as the loving beings you are,” Cass promised. “Then they will understand.”
“Mr. Demon, sir,” Luke said hesitantly.
“Call me Cass, most of my friends do.”
“Cass.” Luke look pleased, but then outside of the pack he had few friends and Cass knew from just looking at him, Luke wanted everyone to be his friend. “Is Wesley going to be all right? He looked heartbroken just before he left. I don’t know if anyone saw it, but I was hoping to catch his eye… he’s always been good to me…”
Cass stood up, stretching out his legs. The table was far too low for someone of his bulk to sit on. “I think there was a part of Wes who believed the separation from his pack was only a temporary thing and in his heart of hearts he hoped the pack would welcome him again. When Adair verbally attacked him and me, and then, with what Kane said…”
“He believes he’s been banished, when he hasn’t. We banished a golem, not Wesley.” Dean put his hand on Cass’s arm, and Cass felt the calm radiating from the sweet omega. “Do you believe all this will help?” His other hand indicated the sleeping pack.
“It will.” Cass nodded. “Some of them,” he glared at the Reef brothers, and Cathair, “will sleep longer than others as they have more to work through. But the bonds forged by the fates are a wondrous thing. They will all wake, once they truly understand what trust and unconditional love means. Fortunately, for some of them, time passes differently in the dream world.”
“Kurt is stubborn,” Luke agreed, nodding his head wildly. “But is it okay to leave them, only the littlies…”
“They will be fine.” Cass had had enough of being reassuring. He clicked his fingers and a rock appeared with a pulsing blue vein running through it. “If you need me, for anything, just say my name into the rock and I will hear. But for now, I have an upset mate to appease. I forced him to come with me…”
“Tell him I do love him,” Dean said. “I think we all do. We just have to…”
“Sleep on it,” Cass smiled as he disappeared from the room.
/~/~/~/~/
The dream world
Darkness, fear, pain, humiliation, mixed sickeningly with the stench of foreign arousal. Cries of “no” and “stop” straining to be heard over the screaming. Pain, a deathly pain in the heart as though someone had stuck a knife in it. Crying, wailing, is that me? My mate? Don’t let my mate see me like this…
Why is that child crying? My gods, it’s me. I’m the child. The face of torment changes rapidly, images from the past morphing into current friends – how did I not know this? The depth of pain from what my father did?
Screams of horror, angry faces. I’m not right. I’m not perfect. Something must be wrong with me.
How to recover. Forever broken? Will my mate hate me? But he does not. Love? It’s true? He really loves me? Oh, my gods I was so afraid…
My mate’s holding me, crooning words of love. Fractured splinters in the heart will heal. Shadows of pain and doubt, fear and uncertainty, washed away under a blanket of true love.
My mate. My pack. My loves.
And as the sun slowly climbed the horizon over Cloverleah, one by one the sleeping men started to stir. Their mates, and newfound children were waiting for them.
Chapter Eighteen
The red and black colored wolf howled, sitting out on the harsh black rocks, under a red sky that never changed. As the last notes of each howl drifted away, his ears flickered, desperate to hear a reply.
There was nothing but silence.
Behind him, every light in the house was on, as if that would stave off the loneliness. The wolf was born into a pack much like the red wolf pack – him and his human mother shunned when his father died. Living hand to mouth, his mother screaming at him, it was all his fault. The wolf tipped his head back and howled again, the notes lingering, almost echoing in the still air.
Cloverleah had been the only light in an otherwise dark world. Prior to that, he’d been forced to hide his true nature, working among the worst of humanity and yet never being “wolf” enough; man and wolf had struggled. Wes the man had spent a lifetime looking for acceptance. Wes the wolf believed he’d found that acceptance at Cloverleah. When Kane rested his hand on the back of Wes’s neck that first day, the wolf had been so proud. He’d been accepted by an alpha at last.
And now it was gone. The acceptance he’d found snatched away all because of the actions of clay and sticks. A muddy lump took his face, and perverted his thoughts and actions causing a rift in a pack that had rallied so solidly against the dark ones. The wolf wished he could have been with them then. He would have gladly died in honor, defending his pack.
But that was not to be. There was no honor, no acceptance, and no pack. Lifting his head again, the wolf howled his loneliness and despair, praying, begging, pleading for a response. When it came, it wasn’t what the wolf expected.
“Wes, babe, I am so damn proud of you.” The demon was back. Mate demon. The wolf slowly wagged his tail as thick arms wrapped around his neck. “The way you just clicked yourself away from all that unpleasantness. Wicked cool skills, babe.”
That deserved a lick. The wolf loved the taste of Cass’s skin on his long tongue. Cass chuckled, and the wolf didn’t feel so cold anymore.
“So, this howling. I guess you feel pretty lonely out here all by yourself.” Cass sat on the rocks, seemingly unworried by the sharp rocks on his butt. “I don’t think I’ve ever howled before. How does it go again?”
My mate wants to howl with me? Tilting his nose up, the wolf gave a small howl.
“Hmm, I think you were doing better than that before, but that’s okay, I am guessing you’re going easy on me.” Cass made a funny noise, a bit like a long fart coming from a tractor. “It’s not as easy as it sounds. You’re very good at it. Can you do it again for me?”
The wolf found he quite liked this game. He howled louder this time, and longer – the notes stretching out in their pure form in the silent air.
“See, I knew you were good at this.” Cass chuckled. “Don’t laugh at my efforts, okay.” A rumble came up from his chest, and then petered out.
The wolf chuffed, shaking his head. He bunted his head under Cass’s chin, stretching out his demon’s throat.
“Ah.” Cass sounded pleased. “I get it. Like this.” He opened his mouth and yelled. It wasn’t a howl, more like an elongated “yahoo,” but the wolf chimed in, adding his own tone to the noise.
“This is incredible,” Cass coughed as he tried to catch his breath. “Tough on the throat, but wow, it’s quite exhilarating. I don’t know how you can keep up that wonderful sound for such long periods, but it sure helps uplift the mood, don’t you think?”
The wolf considered his mate’s words. The demon was clearly clueless about wolf culture. But he made the effort to howl with me, no matter how badly. And as the wolf took stock of his mood, he did feel better, but that had more to do with his mate’s scent than any howling he did. But he nodded, and then licked Cass again because the man had a deliciously long throat and a set of his teeth marks adorning the base of i
t. That is something to feel happy about.
/~/~/~/~/
If Cass had been the crying sort, which he wasn’t, nope, not by any stretch of the imagination. But, if he had of been, Wes’s lovely wolf howling would have brought tears to his eyes. There was something so poignant, so lost about a solitary wolf howl, and Cass’s anger at the Cloverleah pack grew. I should have added itching powder to their shorts, while they were sleeping, he thought angrily, although he did his best to keep those thoughts from his mate.
Who was licking him, on the neck, which was one of Cass’s hotspots, causing all sorts of bodily reactions one wouldn’t normally have with a furry creature. “Er… babe, as much as I like that, do you think maybe you could do it in your human form? The licking I mean. It’s not that I don’t think you totally rock the demon wolf look, and as a rule, demons are pretty much up for anything, but…”
“You have a preference for human flesh instead of fur?” Wesley’s voice was lower and had a husky quality. Arm’s like a vice, tightened around his neck, and Cass found his mouth taken, a clash of teeth and lips as he was devoured by a hot and hungry mate.
“I want to take you like this,” Wes puffed when he finally came up for air. “I want to claim you, while you’re in your demon form. What do you say, mate of mine?”
“Yes?” The point had already been made that Cass wasn’t a stupid demon, and while demons of his stature didn’t bottom as a rule, hence the blow job competitions among pit guards, the night air was still, no one was around, and Cass’s cock was already leaking. “Hold tight.”
Cass translocated them to the room they’d been using; all part of his not being stupid. A shifter who’d just shifted and showing the pushiness of his animal side wasn’t going to go easy on him, and he didn’t want to explain rock grazes on his knees to his siblings.
Think lube, think easy access. Cass presented his ass, resting on his hands and knees hiding his hot facial cheeks and thanking the stars that none of his pit crew buddies would ever see him in such a position. Yes, demons were old school, and with a ranking system that was fought over with claws and teeth, being seen on his hands and knees would mean a dozen more fights with his friends before his status was restored again.