Sagging in his chair, he turned and saw the receptionist wearing an unusually grim expression. “We’ve got to delete that file I just modified.”
“Don’t worry, Gerardo is already on it.” She touched her wireless headset and nodded. “Come on. Scott wants to see you.”
Mark forced himself up on trembling legs and followed the receptionist through the cubicle maze, back to the executive corridor. Devlin stood next to his office door, nodding as they approached. “Go in and wait for me. I need to talk to IT,” the Alpha shifter said.
“Sir, Del’s in danger,” Mark said quickly. “He’s been knocked out and there’s a gunman at his house. You need to get the cops over there right now—”
Devlin held up a hand. “Don’t worry. Your mate’s safe. Just go into my office, okay?” The CEO gave him an approving smile. “By the way, the Morse code on the line buttons was brilliant. I’m glad you’re on our side.”
Mark nodded stiffly, heartbeat racing as he went into the office. He wouldn’t have been surprised to see police officers or Treasury agents in dark jackets and earpieces waiting for him, ready to cart him off to jail.
Instead, he saw Delaney pacing next to Devlin’s desk. The shifter spun, brown eyes going wide as he saw Mark. “Oh, babe. Thank God.”
Mark lurched across the office into Delaney’s embrace. “You’re okay,” he breathed. “Oh, God, you’re okay.” He wormed his own arms around Delaney’s neck and held tight. “Fuck, I was so scared. She said she was going to shoot you—”
“Shh, I know,” Delaney murmured against his skin, one hand sliding into his curls and carding them softly. “That greasy asshole she sent actually thought he could get the drop on me. I heard him while he was still trying to get the damn front door open. All I had to do was grab him as he came through and put his head into the wall.”
“But the picture—”
“Greasy and I had a little chat when he came to. Once I knew what he was there for, I rigged up his phone on delay and took the pic myself. Then I tried to call you, but it went straight to voicemail.”
Mark shook his head. “She took my phone. Popped out the battery so the GPS stopped working.”
“I figured.” He pulled back, staring into Mark’s eyes. “You okay? She do anything to you?”
Mark heard the subtext: who do I have to kill? “No, I’m fine. Better than fine, now.”
With a groan Delaney kissed him again, tongue licking desperately at his lips. There was a moment of falling, and they both dropped backwards onto an expensive leather couch. Delaney crawled over Mark, caging him in strong arms and legs. “I’m so sorry, babe,” he said, breath ragged and panting. “I should’ve protected you.”
Mark lunged up, capturing a full lip between his teeth and tugging on it before letting it go with a small pop. “Stop it,” he ordered. “I’m not a damsel in distress, and I don’t need protecting. And neither of us knew what that insane bitch was up to, all right? I mean, I should have known something was hinky when she kept pushing me to apply here.”
“Thank God you did,” Delaney said fervently, biting his chin and wriggling against him. “Babe, I need you. Please.”
Mark could feel that need pouring through their link, and his cock hardened sweetly against Delaney’s. “Lube?”
“No time. You have to get back to your desk.”
Delaney rolled into a sitting position, pulling Mark into his lap until he straddled the taller man. The shifter fumbled both their flies open, hard shafts popping out into the cool air. Mark watched, mesmerized, as Delaney spat into his own hand and wrapped it around both their cocks, starting a fast, merciless stroke.
A sweet buzz built fast, and his balls tightened with the need to come. To his surprise Delaney scrabbled at the bottom of his t-shirt, yanking it up and holding it against Mark’s chest. It made sense a moment later when the shifter growled and came, spurting thick spatters of cum over Mark’s belly. The sight triggered Mark’s orgasm and he growled, adding his own cum to the mess on his abs.
Breathing hard, Delaney let go of their shafts and rubbed at the pearlescent splatter, smearing it around. Mark realized his mate was rubbing it into his skin, primally marking him as Delaney’s.
He ducked his head down, kissing Delaney hard. “Better?”
“Yeah.” Delaney gave him a wonderfully shy smile, glancing down at the mess. “Sorry. It’s instinctive.”
Mark chuckled. “That’s okay. I’m just glad Scott has a private john.”
Chapter Eight
Once they were both cleaned up, Delaney walked with Mark back to the open plan space. Aimee adjusted her wireless headset and fell in behind them, a squire following two knights to battle. “Scott said everything’s go with the servers. You two ready?”
Mark nodded. “Let’s do this.”
His mate’s expression was grim, the grumpy faun now a furious predator. Delaney stopped at the entrance to the area, watching as Mark and Aimee returned to the cubicle. Mark sat down and put his glasses back on, staring at the monitor. Aimee stood behind him, hands on his shoulders and silently communicating with him through Morse code. After a moment she nodded and stepped back, ghosting away from the cubicle.
Delaney felt Scott come up behind him. “You okay?” his Alpha asked.
“For now. Although we’re both taking a week off after this.”
“Yeah, no problem,” Scott said absently. Delaney could feel both of them focusing on the deception being played out in the programming cubicles. “Just so you know, Aimee logged Mark into the development server and mirrored the files he checked out. Gerardo got rid of the corrupted file, then cut off Mark’s access to the production server and renamed the dev server so that it looks like production. Anyone watching will think he’s working in the live environment.”
“Good.” Delaney could feel his coyote pacing, hungry for revenge. “I want this bitch, boss.”
“So do I,” Scott said grimly. “Don’t worry, we’ll take her down. You just take care of your mate, all right?”
“Yeah.”
****
Mark leaned back and stretched, feeling the muscles in his neck and upper back twinge and pop. He glanced at the clock bar in the lower right hand of the screen. 4:10 AM.
The new security system for Lone Star had been successfully installed, and the last QA tests passed with flying colors. Of course, he hadn’t actually been involved in any of it—Delaney had taken over for him and was running his tests from the server room—but to anyone watching through the spycam it looked like he’d been backing up the installation team as scheduled.
His desk phone rang, the outside line button glowing. Biting back a growl, he picked it up. “Yes?”
“Ooh, you get grumpy when you’re tired, sweetie,” Caren said, sounding amused. “Nice work, though. Is the site live yet?”
Mark checked the clock on the bottom of the screen. “It will be in about twenty-five minutes.”
“Fabulous. Why don’t you get back over here and we’ll test my code. The sooner I know it works, the sooner you can see your boyfriend.”
“All right. Give me twenty minutes.”
“Twenty minutes and counting.” There was a click, and a dial tone.
He stood, saying goodbye to his teammates, and headed for the exit. As he expected, Aimee wasn’t there, but Delaney stood by the desk. Mark walked into his arms, enjoying the quick squeeze he got. “You okay?”
“Yeah. I just want to get this over with.” Delaney frowned, reaching in his back pocket and pulling out a slim black shape. He handed it to Mark. “I’m sorry. I wish you didn’t have to do this.”
Mark shoved the item in his front pocket for easy access, then leaned up and kissed Delaney. “Don’t worry. As long as we’re together, we’ll be fine.”
Linking hands, they walked out of the Trickster offices together.
****
Mark pulled into the parking garage, climbing until he was back on the third level. Parkin
g across from the SUV, he stared at the little blister on his glasses in the rear view mirror. As soon as this is over with, I’m getting contacts. And I’m burning these fucking glasses.
He got out and went over to the SUV as Caren and Red got out. “Any problems?” Caren asked.
“No,” he said shortly, pulling the flash drive out of his left jeans pocket and handing it back. “The website should be live by now.”
“Great.” She tilted her head at the SUV. “Well, if you want to climb in, I’ll just go in and activate my code.”
Mark folded his arms, keeping his eyes on the ground. “I’ll wait out here, thank you.”
“Suit yourself. Boris, keep an eye on him.”
Red/Boris nodded and moved to Mark’s side as Caren opened the SUV passenger door. A high-end laptop sat on the seat and she flipped up the lid, fingers tapping across the keys. As Mark watched she opened a web browser and surfed to the credit union’s website, entering a userid and password in the login section, then hit Enter.
After a moment, an “Invalid User” screen popped up. Frowning, she re-entered the userid and password. The same invalid user screen appeared.
Livid, she turned on Mark. “You screwed up, sweetie,” she snarled, yanking a smartphone out of her pocket and stabbing at the buttons. “Congratulations —you just killed your boyfriend.”
“Did I?”
She froze, staring at him. Comprehension dawned. “Oh, you little son of a bitch. Boris, kill him.”
Suddenly the garage lights went out, plunging them into darkness. Mark stepped back, yanking out the compact stun gun Delaney had given him and jamming it blindly into Boris’s ribs. The thug screamed, jerking away and dropping to the concrete with a meaty thud.
An enraged scream echoed through the garage, Dopplering up into a furious feline yowl. Under that Mark could hear a loud scrabbling noise interspersed with panting yips, the sound of a coyote pack on the hunt. A mass of low shapes rushed past him, growling and snarling. One stayed against his legs, pressing against him and pushing him back. Delaney.
He dropped to a crouch, throwing his arms around his mate. “Hey, Caren?” he called. “I think my boss wants to have a word with you.”
The lights came back on, dazzling him, and he buried his face in Delaney’s ruff. “Love you, angel,” he whispered.
A pulse of affection through their connection was his response. When his vision cleared, he saw that the rest of the pack had cornered a hissing, spitting bobcat.
The biggest coyote shimmered and shifted upwards, turning back into Scott Devlin. “Ms. Dawes,” he said to the bobcat, “you might want to shift back now. It’ll make it easier for you to talk.”
The bobcat yowled at him, then shifted back to human form. Absently, Mark noted that Caren was just as hot naked as he’d thought she’d be. In his arms, Delaney growled.
Not interested, he thought to his mate. At all.
Across from them, Caren sneered at Scott. “You think you’re so fucking clever,” she said, hands planted on her hips. “So you stopped me. Big fucking deal. What are you going to do now, call the cops? Because I promise you, you and every other coyote shifter out there will regret that big time.”
Scott considered her. “Yeah, I figured you’d have some sort of dead man switch set up. No, we’re not going to call the cops. We’re not going to call any human authority whatsoever.”
The accent on human made Caren frown. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“Exactly what it sounds like.” Scott turned as the elevator dinged. “I’m going over your head, Ms. Dawes.”
Caren whirled, and paled as a man walked out of the elevator. To Mark’s eyes the new arrival was tall, with blond hair and a pleasant if unmemorable face. To his shifter mate senses, however, the man radiated the power of an Alpha. “Thank you for calling me, Devlin,” he said, nodding to Scott as he walked up to Caren, glowering at her like an Old Testament prophet. “I’d been told that this one might show up in my territory. Frankly, I hadn’t thought she’d be that stupid.”
To Mark’s shock, Caren actually cowered away from the tall man, swallowing hard. “Alpha,” she said, “please, let me explain—”
“Hush.” Her speech cut off like a switch had been thrown. “You’ve made enough trouble for yourself tonight, kit. Don’t get yourself in any deeper.”
With another nod to Scott, he turned and headed back to the elevator. Caren rocked in place, trying to resist the invisible pull. She glanced at Mark, eyes wide and pleading. “Please, you’ve got to help me!” she begged. “You don’t know what they’ll do to me!”
Mark stared at her coldly. “You tried to kill my mate. Frankly, sweetie, I don’t give a shit what they do to you.”
The bobcat Alpha turned, snapping his fingers. “Come!”
Even Mark could feel the whiplash pull of an Alpha’s command. Caren lurched forward, still struggling, and followed him into the elevator. The doors shut, and they were gone.
Mark felt an electric tingle over his skin as Delaney shifted back to human form. The shifter stood, glancing at the twitching form of Boris. “What about him, boss?”
“I’ll call 911 as soon as we clear the area.” Scott walked over, toeing the thug’s leg. “Turns out this gentleman has got quite the rap sheet, as does his partner. I’m sure Plano PD is going to be thrilled to get both of them.”
With a nod to Mark, the Alpha turned and shifted back to coyote form. He trotted back down the parking ramp, the pack falling into a loose group around him. Delaney stayed human, however, slinging an arm around Mark’s shoulder.
Mark leaned into his comforting warmth. “Shouldn’t you be going with them?”
“Nah. Scott can take it from here. He doesn’t get paid the big bucks for nothing.” Delaney kissed his forehead. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” He grimaced. “Okay, so I’m not that much of a hardass. What will they do to Caren?”
“She didn’t break shifter law so she can’t be executed or anything like that. Her Alpha will most likely keep her on a tight leash and find something useful for her to do. Knowing bobcats, I suspect a mate and kittens are in her very near future.”
“Barefoot and pregnant?” Mark grimaced. “That sounds really medieval.”
“I know, but it also binds her loyalty. Do you really want her out there on her own and causing more trouble?”
“No. But if she stays local, that could get ugly at some point.”
“Don’t worry. Bobcats and coyotes tend to stay out of each other’s way. I have no idea how Scott talked their Alpha into coming here tonight, but I doubt we’ll ever see that happen again.” Delaney gave him a squeeze. “So, ready to go home?”
“Like you wouldn’t believe.”
****
They drove back to Delaney’s place, the shifter slipping into the jeans and t-shirt he’d left in Mark’s car. Neither of them said anything as they went in, heading straight up to the master bedroom.
There, they stripped each other slowly, safe in the soft darkness that forced even Delaney to rely more on touch that sight. The only sounds in the room were their heated breathing and the soft press of lips and tongue to exposed skin, two greedy hearts thrumming together.
Naked, Delaney urged Mark into the bathroom, adjusting the taps in the huge shower until it was blood warm, then pulling his mate into the streaming water. He grabbed a washcloth and dumped body wash into it, carefully washing every inch of his mate. It was instinctive, a ceremonial cleansing away of Caren’s poisonous touch.
He turned Mark and pushed him gently against the tile wall, then knelt. He kissed and bit his way along the inrolling curve of Mark’s ass, pushing deeper until he could lick soft, musky skin and the tiny iris there. Listening with pleasure to Mark’s soft pleading and whimpers for more, he bit and sucked, pointing his tongue and spearing the tight furled muscle.
He reveled in the forbidden taste of his mate, the ability to give him this frantic, illicit bliss. Ho
lding Mark’s cheeks open, he dove back in and lapped, licked, sucked with abandon. Fucked the tight little hole with his tongue, listening to Mark’s cries growing louder and more desperate.
When he judged the other man was on the verge of coming, he got to his feet, kissing his way up the pale knobs of Mark’s spine. An unmarked bottle on the shower shelf held lube; he grabbed it and dribbled the clear fluid over his fingers. Reaching down, he pressed in with one finger, then two.
“Oh, fuck. Stop teasing me and fuck me already,” Mark said, voice thick.
“Okay, babe.” But Delaney added more lube to his fingers, smoothing it over Mark’s crease and his own cock, before pressing the mushroom head into position. Leaning forward, he pushed into his mate. “God, that’s so hot.”
Mark groaned, dropping his head against the wet tile. “Yeah, just like that. Oh, fuck.”
Delaney pushed forward in increments until he could feel his balls against Mark’s ass. Widening his stance, he pulled out until only the tip was inside, then drove back in. He started a deep, rolling rhythm, wrapping one arm around the other man’s chest and the other around his hips so that he could stroke Mark’s cock in time with his thrusts.
Mark twisted his neck around, pupils blown as he bit at Delaney’s cheekbone and jaw. Desire surged back and forth along their bond, mimicking the action of their bodies. Delaney buried his mouth in the crook of Mark’s neck, tasting salt, clean skin and something that was indefinably his mate. He licked over the now-healed scar of the mating bite, sucking hard on the skin.
A rising note in his balls signaled his oncoming orgasm. He thrust harder, almost lifting the smaller man off the shower floor. “Yes. Oh, fuck, yes! Come with me!”
“Ahh!” Mark clenched his inner muscles, a delicious ripple along the length of Delaney’s cock. He howled as his vision whited out, shooting hard and deep into his mate. Mark screamed, and thick, sticky wetness coated Delaney’s fist.
He managed to stroke his mate through the rest of his orgasm, relishing each contraction squeezing his cock, until Mark finally begged him to stop. Leaning against the other man, he kissed the damp curls at the nape of Mark’s neck. Mine.
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