by N. J. Lysk
Ray gave her a smile and extended his hand. “Welcome to our pack.”
&
“Marisa, I just want to be sure you offered for the right reasons—”
“Look, I probably can’t have kids,” she cut him off.
“What?” Ray said. “How...?”
“Do you really want the gory details?” his sister asked bitterly. “I’m pretty sure, and mum... she agrees. So, yeah, just... I want to help you, but I want it for my own reasons, too.”
“But maybe it doesn’t have to be like that,” Ray objected, “Maybe it can be, I don’t know, fixed. Maybe if you talked to Alec—”
“Alec?” she repeated. “Ray, do you really think I haven’t talked to every doctor in every pack in the county? No offense to your mate, but he’s barely graduated; and all the doctors say the same thing: we don’t know shit about our own biology because it’s too hard to study it in secret.”
It was the same thing Alec had said. It was the reason he and his alphas had been guessing about how to keep Ray from getting pregnant. Marisa must have misunderstood his defeated expression because she added, “I’m fine with it. Some betas can’t have kids, it’s not... it’s not the end of the world. Doesn’t mean I can’t look after them and love them just the same.”
Ray snorted. “How fucking unfair does the world have to be that I get to have exactly what you want when is the last thing I want?”
“Very,” Marisa answered, eyes dark and much older than her age, “but I’m not taking it lying down. I’ll carve my own life out of everything it’s thrown at me. And so should you. Take my help, take mum’s, take what you need, the world isn’t going to hand you anything on a silver plate.”
Ray swallowed, then nodded. “Okay,” he told her. “Come, please come.”
“I will,” his sister said. Ray thought it was the first time he truly understood her. “You’ll be sorry when I ban take-away, but I’m great at making them burp, so all in all you are better off.”
Ray laughed, reminded of passing Glen to her when he couldn’t get him to burp himself. She had a gift with babies he could never hope to equal, no matter the two extra years of practice he had on her—much less the fact that they were his own children.
“I think I will be."
Chapter 9
"Nicholas," Ray said, staring a little.
He’d felt strangers in his territory, but he’d assumed it was the new betas or someone from his former pack. The betas wouldn’t be officially part of the pack until the full moon, when Ray would symbolically welcome them in a ceremony that he was grateful was completely lacking in anything remotely sexy. And since the betas’ arrival, they’d got a lot more visits, as if the old pack people had realised they hadn’t really lost them simply because they were across the lake. Iesu’s family had been over just the day before, curious to see where their wayward son had gone and where Irina would be settling. Because they’d been invited by a pack member, nobody had felt the need to announce themselves to Ray in any way before reaching the front door. That had been fine by him. Until now.
"Hello, Raymond," Nicholas smiled. There was no trace of resentment or anger on his face, and Ray couldn’t smell anything either. "We are on our way back home; thought I’d stop by."
Ray blinked at him. It was true he had invited Nicholas into pack territory in the first place, but it had been obvious to him the offer was rescinded once he had withdrawn his invitation to join the pack. He was sure that anybody else would understand how awkward the situation was, but Nicholas seemed to be genuinely unaware. "It’s not—"
A pup bumped into his leg and clung there, forcing Ray to turn to pick them up. Clara, of course, their runaway. By the time he straightened, Nicholas’ friends were waiting behind him. They had probably stayed out of sight to avoid startling him.
"Just... come in for a cuppa," Ray offered, already distracted. He did not have time for social visits, but he still felt bad about rejecting Nicholas; he could spare them half an hour. He could probably find some biscuits from the big shopping trip Iesu and Alec had gone on not that long ago, assuming nobody had found the ones Ray had stashed behind the kitchen rolls. Marisa had threatened him with forbidding them from eating fast food, but Ray was actually looking forward to someone organizing the practical stuff he and his alphas never quite seemed to have the time for.
She had come over early. The other betas weren’t quite done settling their affairs and organizing rides to work, so they just stopped by some afternoons a week. Irina’s mother had driven her over the day before with a truly impressive number of boxes that, to go by the labels, contained mostly football memorabilia. Ray had no idea where she thought she’d put it, but since the boxes hadn’t been left on sight, he supposed it was none of his businesses.
She was gone again today and she wouldn’t be coming back until Friday. To be fair, they only had bunk beds in Iesu’s old room for them to sleep in. The alphas were using every spare moment to work on the new wing where the betas would live. They had walls already up, but that was all that could be said for the new bedrooms, and the toilet wouldn’t get done until they could get a specialist to come in and install the sewage. Ray'd had the foresight of insisting on two full bathrooms in the main house, but that was the bare minimum they needed for the people already living there.
"Oh, well, this looks much nicer already," Nicholas commented as they walked into the living area. Marisa had gone through it that morning so it was tidier than usual, but Ray just shot his guest a smile. His sister looked tense, so he shook his head at her and smiled in reassurance. Anybody would be startled to have six alphas walk into their territory, of course.
"Just take a seat, I’m going to make tea."
He’d barely put the kettle on the stand when he felt a presence behind him. He turned to find Nicholas in the doorway. He must have followed Ray. The kitchen was a good corridor away from the living room, facing the back of the house. They’d decided to do it that way so both of the family rooms could get a lot of sunlight, a scarce commodity even in southern England.
"Hey," Ray said, "Did I forget to—?"
"Yes," Nicholas interrupted, there was no trace of his easy smile. "You forgot your promise to me."
Ray took a cautious step back. "I did not forget. I withdrew it."
"And you can just do that?" Nicholas demanded. "Take it back like it meant nothing? Like your word means nothing?"
"Nicholas," Ray tried again, "I made a mistake, and I’m really sorry that I hurt you, but—"
"Are you sorry enough to make up for it?" Nicholas interrupted, eyes bright. Ray’s mind raced. Was there something he could have done? Some way in which the rejection could have stung less?
"I..." He swallowed. "Sure, if I can do anything..."
"Go through with it," the alpha said immediately. "Go through with it and we’ll call it a holiday me and the guys took."
Ray stared, then made himself speak, "I can’t do that, you know I can’t..."
Nicholas face darkened in fury and he took another step towards Ray. They were in Ray’s territory, in his own home; but Nicholas was angry enough to make his alpha will overwhelming, and he’d caught Ray unprepared. His back bumped against the kitchen counter as the alpha caged him in.
His wolf was torn: it recognized Nicholas as a strange alpha, someone who had no right to touch Ray at all, but it remembered that Ray had let Nicholas kiss him. And when an alpha tried to dominate, an omega’s first instinct was to submit. He was still standing in his own kitchen, paralysed with uncertainty and guilt, when Nicholas leaned in and roughly took hold of his face, forcing him to stay in place as his tongue invaded Ray’s mouth with possessive delight.
Ray struggled weakly and then harder, but Nicholas was stronger than him. Even when Ray’s wolf got with the program, it wasn’t enough. He thought about biting him, but attacking an alpha was hard and attacking someone stronger than you who was already angry didn’t seem wise. Nicholas only pulled b
ack when he decided to, leaving Ray a panting mess and not stepping back from his body, heavy erection pressing against Ray’s belly as he leaned into him.
"Let me—" Ray started.
"Shush now," Nicholas ordered low and heavy. "We’re going for a walk, need to talk this over."
"I’m not—" Ray tried again, but Nicholas simply tightened his hands on Ray’s hips and leaned closer still.
"You are going to be very quiet as we leave so my guys don’t think anything’s wrong," Nicholas warned as his hands patted down Ray’s body. "We left them holding your little ones, remember? Anybody can have an accident and drop a kid that age wrong. Werewolves or not, a broken neck is a broken neck."
Ray jerked so hard in his hold that Nicholas had to struggle to keep him in place. "You bastard, if you fucking touch them—"
"I’ve got you by the bollocks, Raymond," Nicholas replied, silky and pleased and, as if he couldn’t resist, squeezed Ray’s arse. "And I know you like it. I know you don’t have a real alpha, just these poor sods who follow you around and feel sorry for you."
Ray stomach twisted in revulsion, but he kept his mouth shut. He’d thought he could reason with Nicholas, up to a point. But an alpha who would threaten pups... Ray had to do something, there had to be something... He concentrated on listening to the pups, and he could hear enough to identify laughter and giggling. Marisa hadn’t left, of course, but none of his alphas had come over, like he’d almost hoped. They must have been busy with the work and if they were drilling, they probably wouldn’t hear anything short of a commotion. And Ray had let these strangers into their house. He hadn’t even warned his alphas that they’d come into their territory.
How could he have been so stupid? Not that it mattered. It was his mistake, and he’d pay for it. He’d pay for it again and again if it was necessary. He’d put his body between his pack and danger, even if it meant he didn’t make it back alive.
"Okay,” he told Nicholas, "we can talk."
Not that he thought Nicholas wanted to kill him. His intentions were far more sinister than death; Ray would be alive to suffer the consequences.
Nicholas snorted. "Very generous of you. Now move, no sudden moves because I promise you; they are all sitting with a pup in their laps by now."
He let Ray step away from the counter and towards the back door. Ray’s eyes darted around for some kind of weapon, or at least his mobile. But it was probably still plugged in on his bedside table, where he’d taken to keeping it while he fed the babies. Even if his mother or siblings wanted him, they called him on the landline, secure on the knowledge that Ray felt too uncomfortable leaving his territory to even go to the cinema in town.
Not that having his mobile would have helped, Ray could swear Nicholas didn’t blink once until the door was closed behind them. The kitchen was far enough away that nobody would hear the door closing unless they were listening. And even if Marisa got suspicious about the absence of tea, she wouldn’t leave the pups with strangers to check on Ray. Ray wouldn’t have done it either, not for the world, except... Except he’d been stupid enough to think that a couple weeks of sharing meals and conversation meant he knew these men. Knew Nicholas, at least.
Nicholas took hold of his forearm, his grip like a vice, and started leading Ray towards the tree line. He wanted them out of sight as soon as possible, Ray realised. Not that it helped him much. If he tried to run, Nicholas could easily return to the house and even if Ray was faster, he’d have no backup once he got there.
No, he had to give his alphas time to notice his absence. Hopefully, after a while, Nicholas’ friends would figure out they had to get out of the house before Ray’s alphas decided to ask them where Ray was. And then... Well, he hoped he’d know what to do.
He looked up and stopped on his tracks, jostling Nicholas, who turned around to glare at him. "Where are you taking me?” he asked, not caring that he was being defiant. They were at least a mile from the house by now.
"Away," Nicholas replied firmly. "Come."
Ray pushed down his terror. He hadn’t needed to ask: Nicholas was taking him out of his territory, to a place where he’d not only be easy to subjugate physically but would lose his ability to locate others in the land as well. If he had little hope in his own land, outside it...
"Wait,” he begged, resisting Nicholas renewed pull. "Let’s just talk. I know—"
Nicholas shoved him, hard enough to send Ray went sprawling onto the ground, hands coming down hard to keep his face from smashing into a tree trunk.
"Talk?" the alpha asked him, voice dripping with disdain. "What good is to talk to a lying bitch like you? You’d just say whatever you thought I wanted to hear, then stab me in the back."
Ray looked up at him, shocked to the core. He didn’t know why but he couldn’t quite believe Nicholas would really be capable of this.
"I didn’t lie,” he insisted. He knew it was useless, but he hoped Nicholas could hear the truth anyway. "I changed my mind."
"You went back on your word," Nicholas gritted out. Ray remembered he'd praised Ray for being honest once, but apparently honesty only worked when the truth never changed. "Now shut the fuck up before I fuck you right here."
Ray stared, not standing and not saying anything else. He’d known, of course, but... His hearing focused on the distance, trying to catch anything that would give him an advantage. But it was useless, they were far from everything, definitely too far from the house, and it’d been a quarter of an hour at most. He had to keep going. He had to risk it because he couldn’t risk letting this madman close to his children. No matter what. He pushed to his knees, then his feet, and Nicholas stepped forward and took hold of his shirt by the neck to drag him along as he increased his pace.
He was hurting Ray’s neck by forcing him to stoop, but Ray kept his mouth shut about it. His neck didn’t matter, only that he let enough time pass before he tried to get away.
By the time they reached the border of Ray’s land, Nicholas had been on the phone with his men twice. They hadn’t said much of anything, although Ray heard Nicholas’s guy passing instructions on to Marisa that supposedly came from Ray. Her voice had sounded calm, relaxed and friendly.
They were okay, but the implication was clear: they would only be okay as long as Nicholas didn’t call to say otherwise.
Ray couldn’t leave.
&
It was not physically painful to cross over, but it itched and it pulled. There was no first omega in this wild territory to feel watching over him, but everything in him, wolf and human, demanded that he return to his family. He knew they were still okay; he’d been able to feel them just before the connection stretched beyond his power.
He stumbled, and only Nicholas’s grip kept him upright. “There, now you’re free,” the alpha told him.
Ray didn’t answer. He kept walking, letting Nicholas’s loose hold on him guide his steps.
He did not mean to get so lost in his thoughts that Nicholas could push him to the ground with barely any effort. And he fought him when it happened, twisting, and clawing, and spitting every word his mum had taught him not to repeat. But Nicholas was both heavier and in better shape than him, not having spent the last months sleeping less and worrying more than he should. Not to mention rarely leaving the house. He was like a boulder on top of Ray, his knees bracketing Ray’s hips and keeping him down easily. Ray gritted his teeth and tried yanking his wrists out of the alpha’s hold, but all Nicholas had to do was lean forward to keep him pinned. He was grinning, and he was hard.
He thought it was a game, Ray realised. He was going to rape him and he wouldn’t hesitate even for a moment because he didn’t believe Ray meant it.
“Stop,” he pleaded, “Please stop, it’s not you... I can’t have any more alphas—”
Nicholas leaned down and kissed him, shoving his tongue into Ray’s mouth while Ray struggled to breathe through it. It distracted Ray enough that he wasn’t prepared at all for the hand goin
g for his zipper. It was down in a flash, then back up slamming Ray’s forearm down again as he tried to claw at the alpha. He managed to scratch him, but the alpha didn’t give any sign that he’d noticed.
“Stay,” he ordered Ray, eyes glowing in the falling light of the sun. The wolf cowered inside him, too confused by the situation, too lost out of his territory, to really understand the alpha was a threat. Nicholas ground against him without looking away and, to Ray’s horror, the omega wolf reacted and showed his neck.
Eyes open to the rapidly darkening sky, Ray saw the moon directly above. It was almost full. The wolf would be gaining power over Ray the highest the full moon climbed in the sky, and the wolf seemed to have accepted a strange alpha was still an alpha…
He must have lost himself for a moment, spellbound by the call of the goddess, because the next thing he knew, Nicholas was ripping his jeans, neatly slashing through the crotch and legs with his sharp claws. Ray’s underwear didn’t fare any better and it was only when Nicholas got between his legs that Ray’s brain caught on again.
The wolf was ready to submit, but the human would keep fighting. Ray twisted to the side and got to his knees, taking advantage of the fact that Nicholas had been forced to let go of his hands to pull his clothes off. Still from the ground, he aimed a kick at the advancing alpha. His bare foot connected with Nicholas side and he got a grunt of pain for his trouble, but that was all. He was too close to have enough leverage. Nicholas hand, still half claws, closed painfully around the bone of his ankle and gave a sharp tug, sending Ray tumbling onto his back once more. He was fast enough to claw at the alpha’s arm before Nicholas pushed his whole weight on top of him, flattening him to the ground and forcing all the air from his lungs. He could smell blood next to his nose as Nicholas used the hand to push Ray down, but it was just a shallow wound.
Nicholas was still hard as a rod against Ray’s now bare stomach. The remains of his trousers were half tangled on his legs and his shirt had ridden up during the struggle.