by Lynn Hagen
And that kind of sucked now that he needed that knowledge the most.
Especially since Sterling kept shooting him little looks under the fall of his hair as if waiting for something. As the minutes passed, Riley could see Sterling’s shoulders start to slump as if he realized that Riley wasn’t going to cuddle with him. Sterling drew in a deep breath and straightened his shoulders, hugging Bacon closer to his chest like a lifeline.
And then he smiled as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred.
Riley glanced across the fire to where Eagle sat with Chey cradled between his legs. Chey was talking to Sterling, and Sterling was even replying. Eagle and Max just kept looking at Riley strangely.
Riley couldn’t stand it anymore. The inch or two between him and Sterling seemed a mile wide. He scooted over just a little and nudged Sterling’s shoulder with his thigh. Sterling glanced at him, his face flushing furiously before he looked away.
Riley grinned and scooted closer until their bodies were pressed together. Riley could feel every breath that Sterling took and they were increasing in speed. He even felt the hitch in Sterling’s breathing when he looped his arm around Sterling’s shoulder.
And then he tugged.
The air rushed out of Sterling’s lungs in a loud whoosh, and he almost dropped Bacon as he lost his balance. Riley quickly reached down and put his hand under Bacon’s rump and pushed him back up against Sterling’s chest.
“Careful, baby,” he murmured into Sterling’s ear. “Bacon could get hurt if you drop her.”
Sterling’s light-grey eyes were huge on his face as he tilted his head back and looked up at Riley. He seemed to have lost the ability to speak, which was stranger than shit. He just nodded. Riley liked that he could make his mate speechless. It felt kind of like winning the lottery.
He wanted to experience it again.
Riley scooped Sterling and Bacon up in his arms and placed them between his legs. He wrapped an arm around both of them and then slid down the log to sit on the ground, leaning back against the log. Sterling’s body was stiff when Riley pulled the man back against his body, but after a few moments, he slowly began to relax.
When Riley looked up, Eagle, Max, and Chey were all grinning at him. Riley kind of felt like the world’s biggest goober, but he wasn’t doing anything that they weren’t doing. And Sterling was smiling.
Did anything else matter?
Riley let his right arm dangle over Sterling’s shoulder, as he bent his right leg up, sitting back casually, letting his mate get as comfortable as needed. It felt good no longer being “the guy without a mate” when everyone else had theirs right next to them.
Although Riley wasn’t sure about all the kissy-face things he had seen his brothers do with their mates when they were out in the public eye. He wasn’t sure he was up for that yet.
One step at a time.
“Zeus tells me you’re the oldest of seven boys,” Max said conversationally. “That’s a lot of siblings. I would have gone nuts with so many brothers.”
“He’s an only child.” Chey supplied the information about his mate.
Riley waved the dangling hand slightly. “It has its moments.”
Sterling snorted and waved a hand up at Riley. “His brothers drive him nuts. They are comical as hell and like to play practical jokes pretty much all of the time. Riley is the serious one. His face goes seven shades of red when the twins mess with him. I only have one brother, but from the way the Lakeland men act, I would love to have them as brothers as well.”
Riley’s heart skipped a sudden beat. Didn’t Sterling know that he was family now? They may not be his brothers, but he did have fifteen brothers-in-law to keep him happy. In the Lakeland household, that was pretty much the same thing.
Max and Eagle must have been thinking along the same lines because they stared at Sterling strangely, and then their eyes flickered over to Riley. He realized in that moment how piss-poor of a job he had been doing with his mate. The guy didn’t know the first thing about what it meant to be mated.
“Sterling,” Riley began and then cleared his throat, feeling uncomfortable as hell saying anything in front of their company. “You have fifteen brothers-in-law and two fathers-in-law.” He made sure to include Oscar and Cole.
Sterling’s head snapped up at Riley, his eyes wide, as if he hadn’t thought about that fact. Riley saw the sheer joy bounce in his mate’s light-grey eyes as he laughed. “I do, don’t I?”
Riley licked his dry lips, staring down Sterling’s smile and feeling a need rise in him to taste that bit of sunshine. Oh, gods, he was actually going to kiss his mate in public.
The skinny little chatty human had become Riley’s downfall.
And he couldn’t find it in him to care at the moment.
The hairs on the back of Riley’s neck stood on end when a loud scream suddenly tore through the darkness. Riley stiffened as anxiety filled him. He tightened his hold around Sterling and then lifted his head into the air, waiting for another one—something, anything, that would tell him which direction the scream had come from.
When the gut-wrenching sound came again, Riley jumped to his feet, dragging Sterling up with him. “Max, can you and Chey go with Sterling back to our hut? I’m going to feel a lot better if you all stay together.”
“On it,” Max said as he jumped to his feet and reached back for Chey.
“Riley—”
Riley grabbed Sterling’s face between his hands, leaning down to claim a small kiss before staring into his mate’s terror-filled eyes. “I need you to stay here, Sterling. I need you to be safe. Can you do that for me?”
Sterling swallowed, but nodded, clutching Bacon to his chest. Riley smiled and reached down to ruffle Bacon’s head. “Take good care of Bacon. We’ll be back soon.”
Riley had a very hard time concentrating on anything as he watched Max and Chey walk away with his mate. He knew Sterling needed to be somewhere safe. The man was not a fighter. But not having Sterling under his watchful eyes was agonizing.
“Come.”
Riley tore his eyes away from the doorway Sterling had disappeared through and turned to face Eagle. The man was already hurrying away into the darkness, his moves stealthy and quiet. Riley hurried to catch up. They were headed to the south end of the village, the direction the screams came from.
But, now, it was eerily quiet, almost too quiet. Granted, it was dark out, but there had been people out and about just moments before. Now, the path that wove between dwellings was totally vacant. Riley found it rather strange that no one ran in the direction of the screams or even peeked out of the doorways in curiosity.
Everyone was curious, weren’t they?
Who didn’t look when chaos could be heard?
He thought it was a normal reaction, but apparently these elves didn’t think so.
Unless the fey here knew more about what was going on than they were telling, which Riley was strongly beginning to think was the case. He had been met only with resistance since the moment he arrived. Maybe there was just a bit more going on here than anyone really knew.
Riley stepped everywhere that Eagle stepped, ensuring his moves were just as quiet. He wasn’t sure who or what was out there, but he wasn’t going to announce their arrival by snapping any twigs or rustling any leaves.
The darkness felt like a black veil of evil had settled over them, and the only thing lighting their way was the sliver of a moon that illuminated parts of the forest around them. It was so quiet that Riley couldn’t even hear the crickets. There was something out there. He could feel the chill deep in his bones. A twinge, a twang, a niggle, whatever it was, settled in the back of Riley’s neck, making him ultra-aware that he and Eagle were not the only ones in the woods.
Riley had roamed around in his bear form at night, but he had never been a soldier and wasn’t used to creeping up on the bad guy. The Lakelands had their fair share of fighting, but he had never gone covert like this before.
Riley stilled, holding his breath as he looked past Eagle’s shoulder and felt ice fill his veins. There were two men standing by an oak tree, and they had a fey pinned to it. The fey’s eyes were rolled to the back of his head as one of the men leaned forward and bit into the fey’s shoulder.
Riley’s lip pulled back into a growl. He was not going to stand by and watch the fey be drained by two vampires. Not while he still held air in his lungs. He rushed forward, taking the men by surprise and knocking the one drinking from the fey on his ass.
And then things went south.
“Riley, no!” Eagle shouted from behind him. “They’re not vampires!”
Riley glanced over his shoulder and thought better of taking his eyes off of the men a little too late. He was backhanded so hard that he flew off of his feet and landed a good five feet away. His head hit the ground and his saw a burst of stars before his eyes.
Riley rolled to his hands and knees, shaking it off, and then he was kicked in the gut. His breath whooshed from his body as he rolled through the forest, his hands scraping against rocks and twigs.
Just what in the fuck were these things?
“Stay down, bear!” the intruder warned in a lecherous tone that made Riley want to obey. But, he was Riley. That wasn’t going to happen. He was stubborn if nothing else.
Riley chuckled and it was dry and cynical as he pushed to his feet. He could see Eagle fighting the other man, and the grey wolf wasn’t winning. He was pinned to the tree, fighting to get the other man off of him.
“Behind their ear!” Eagle shouted as he head-butted the guy. “Stab them in the mark behind their ear, Riley.”
“Yeah, Riley,” the creature said mockingly as his fingers waved toward the palm of his hand in a challenge. “Come stab me behind my ear…if you can.”
“They’re hellhounds. Don’t let them bite you,” Eagle shouted before shoving his elbow into the creature’s face. Riley could hear the crack from where he was standing. Eagle had broken the man’s nose.
Riley thought quickly as the man in front of him started to circle around Riley. He didn’t have anything on him to stab the man with. As he crouched and circled, a feeling of total misery washed over him. He felt like he would never be happy again.
Why was Sterling even wasting his time on someone like Riley? He was boring, aloof, and a moody bastard. If he was Sterling, Riley would have left his ass from the beginning. Sterling deserved better. He deserved a mate like Bryce or Chauncey, someone fun loving, not grouchy and moody like Riley. Sterling was too young for him, too innocent. Riley should just walk away from the slim human and let him find real happiness.
Wait, that wasn’t right. Riley knew that it wasn’t him who was making all of his insecurities and doubts surface. Someone else was pushing his worst fears to the light. Everyone had worries when it came to the most important person in their life. But there was no way in hell Riley was giving Sterling up.
He pushed the thoughts deep down inside, crushing them under the weight of how he truly felt about Sterling. He wasn’t going to second-guess his feelings. He wasn’t going to allow any negative thoughts to ruin what he was just discovering.
It had to be the hound making him feel this way.
Riley fell to his back and rolled when the man lunged forward. He saw the lethal claws the man had swiped at him scratch the air his head only moments before had occupied. He quickly rose to his feet and took a boxing stance. Hell, he didn’t have any other choice. Even if he shifted, he wasn’t sure he could win.
The man threw his head back and laughed. “Are you fucking serious?”
Riley shrugged and then feigned left, catching the man on the jaw with a right hook. He shuffled his feet around, taunting the man. “Stick and move, asshole, stick and move.”
The guy growled and shifted, turning into the biggest fucking rottweiler Riley had ever seen. Taking a step back, Riley shifted as well. He had no choice. Either shift or get mauled. Besides his father, Riley was the biggest of his brothers in bear form, but he wasn’t too sure even with his added weight that he could take this dog down.
Riley roared when he saw Eagle fall on his ass, and then the wolf kicked his foot into the man’s gut, effectively flipping the guy over Eagle’s head. Damn, the man was good. He would be an excellent trainer for the elves.
“Don’t worry about me,” Eagle snapped. “Watch your hellhound.”
Riley snapped his head back around just in time to see the hound lunge at him. He couldn’t let the thing bite him. He didn’t know why, but if Eagle said biting was bad, then Riley was going to listen.
Riley reared up on his hind legs and slapped the dog in his face with one big bear claw as soon as the hound was close enough. The dog fell back to the ground, shook its head, and then circled back around.
Now that the guy was in dog form, Riley wasn’t sure where the mark that he needed to stab was. He dodged the dog’s snapping mouth and ran around to the other side of the tree where he had more room to fight when he stumbled backward, watching two men come flying down from the sky toward him.
The one with long braids trailing down his back snarled and then grabbed the dog Riley had been fighting, grabbing a sword from his back and fighting the hellhound, luring him away from Riley.
Riley shifted back into human form and took off toward the fighting pair.
“Stay back!” the man with the braids warned.
Riley skidded to a stop, glancing back to where Eagle was. The second man who had flown in was fighting the other hellhound, Eagle growling as he landed a few punches to the hound’s gut.
Riley felt stupid standing there with no one to fight. Everyone was engaged in battle but him. When the hound he had just been fighting stumbled back, Riley leapt on the dog and held on for dear life, locking his arms around the dog’s neck in a choke hold as the man with the sword charged toward them.
He prayed like hell the man didn’t miss.
The sword looked damn sharp as the moonlight gleamed off the polished metal.
“Now!” the man shouted, and Riley released the struggling mutt, rolling to his back and tossing his arm up to cover his face when the blood sprayed out from the dog’s body. That was so fucking gross.
“You dumb-ass fuck!” the man shouted in Riley’s direction as he sheathed his sword. “If that hound had bitten you, you would be fighting for your life right now.”
Like he hadn’t been doing just that.
“Don’t fucking yell at me!” Riley roared as he lowered his arm and stood. He had had enough bullshit for one day. He wasn’t about to let some stranger stand in the middle of the clearing and hand him his ass. He had fought with everything in him and didn’t deserve to be chastised for it.
The man growled as he tossed something on the beheaded dog and then the body burst into flames. Riley stood there numbly as he watched the flames lick higher and higher, wondering what realm of insanity he had just walked into.
Never in his life had he seen anyone set a body on fire. The smell was enough to make him gag. It was noxious and made the hairs in Riley’s nose curl from the pure stench that filled the air around him.
“Nice, dick,” the man said as he brushed past Riley and headed toward Eagle.
Riley growled low as he spun on his heel and followed. This asshole was asking for it. He wasn’t sure who he was, but Riley wasn’t going to let anyone walk all over him like he was a mere whelp. He could feel his claws itching to extend and teach this bastard a lesson.
The other hound was down, and his body was burning to a nice crispy fried Cajun meal as Eagle walked toward Riley.
“Pretty gross, huh?”
Gross was an extreme understatement.
“What in the hell is going on, Eagle?” Riley snapped, glancing between the two dead bodies.
“In short,” he said as the two men who had flown in flew out, leaving Riley and Eagle with the mess, “those gu
ys were Dog and Ruthless. They are winged beasts. You just had the pleasure of working with Dog.”
Riley wasn’t sure he wanted to hear any more, but he knew he needed to know what was going on around here. He watched Eagle walk over to the fey who was on the ground, lying as still as death.
“Those hounds we were fighting are from hell. Their bite is not only poisonous,” Eagle said as he lifted the man into his arms, “but smelly as all fuck. I know shifters have a fifty-fifty chance of surviving the bite. Humans have zero. I’m not real sure about fey.”
Riley studied the man in Eagle’s arms and cursed. The male couldn’t be any more than sixteen or seventeen. Why on earth was the kid out here in the middle of the woods in the dead of night? Where were his parents and why had he snuck out?
Nothing was making any sense to Riley.
He felt as though he were the last man to be informed. He was struggling to put all of the pieces together. Why would hellhounds victimize feys? What had the elven people done to warrant such an attack, or was it random? Riley hated all of the unanswered questions spinning around in his head. He wanted answers, and the village was about to wake the fuck up and give them to him.
He was asked to come here and help out. But how could he help when no one was willing to give him a fucking clue as to what was really going on around here? Riley wasn’t stupid. He knew there was more to this than met the eye. He would get the answers he needed or pound the shit out of every resident in this backwoods place.
Eagle carried the man down the dirt path, his steps speedy, but measured. “We have to watch for fever. If he makes it through the next few hours and doesn’t develop a fever, he should be in the clear.”
Riley walked back toward the village, anxious to get to his mate. Sterling was human, vulnerable against the hellhounds. Fuck, he was vulnerable against any of the preternatural creatures that existed in Riley’s world. It hit home just how dangerous his life was for his mate.