Drilling Dale [Alpha Wreckers 3] (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove)

by Fel Fern

Oh yeah, Malik did that once. Nash wasn’t just their oldest brother. When Isiah passed away during his first year in college, Cole and Spencer were still in high school. Nash also took over Isiah’s role. Malik understood the strain it put on Nash, who was only three years older than he was himself.

  Nash put a stop to everything, to make sure they all turned out decent men, and had been the one to suggest they start a company together. Back then, forming Alpha Wreckers Inc. had been a last-ditch attempt to keep a family that was fracturing apart together. It worked though. He owed Nash plenty, but he didn’t even know himself what would come out of Dale living with him.

  “We don’t need to talk,” Nash eventually. “We’ll just go for a run, like old times.”

  That, Malik could work with. He jumped down. By that time, Nash had turned back into a wolf. Nash sprinted ahead of him, and he hissed under his breath. How childish, but he could do with a little fun here and then. It had been some time since he’d run with any of his brothers. Heck, it had been a while too since he’d run in his second form.

  Malik had always been too immersed in the company, but he liked being busy and meeting new people. Nash ran down a rough and rocky path, but he didn’t mind the extra challenge. As they traversed deeper through the woods, Malik’s thoughts went back to Dale. Screw the past and work. Maybe it was time he paid a little closer to his suffering personal life, because if Cole and Spencer had made it work, perhaps so could he.

  Chapter Five

  Dale took out his waiter uniform from the washing machine. Before stuffing it in the dryer with his other clothes, he stared at it for a long time.

  “So, you’re going to be my future, huh?”

  Depression threatened to hit him, but he held it back, tried to think of happier thoughts. He was grateful to Mr. Wilkins, the owner of the Rose Cafe, for not only letting him work there, but also allowing him a flexible work schedule for his auditions. Lately, though, he’d been taking more shifts at the cafe because his auditions had been all a mess. His mind drifted to Malik. It had been two weeks since they’d started living together.

  He had a stable job now. Malik insisted he needn’t pay rent, but in the end, they’d compromised. Dale would pay a portion of the rent, but also did some of the household chores. Malik didn’t mind having him as a tenant, and Dale had become familiar to Malik’s routine. Besides, it was a nice change, from living alone to coming home to another person, and by living together, he slowly got to know all of Malik’s likes and dislikes and Malik was the same. Wren once joked it was they were a secret couple or something. Comments like that only served to remind Dale that he wanted Malik and him to be something more.

  They had their tense moments, though, moments where Dale wanted to take back all he’d said about remaining friends. When they were in the living room together, for instance, Dale could feel the other man’s stare on him, the hunger building between them. It turned out the kiss they shared wasn’t something he could easily share.

  He sighed. His life was going nowhere at this rate, not his music, and whatever this thing he had with Malik, it couldn’t go on forever.

  “What are you brooding about in the laundry room, little human?”

  At Malik’s amused voice, he jumped and stuffed the soaking uniform in the dryer.

  “Nothing,” he said quickly, closing the dryer door and slotting a coin in. Malik said nothing for a couple of moments.

  “You’ve been taking a lot of shifts at the cafe lately, I noticed.”

  That comment caught him off guard. Did Malik notice everything? Of course he did; the jaguar shifter was perceptive, never missed a thing. For instance, when he came home after a bad audition, Malik could always tell and would slyly suggest they get ice cream at the parlor in town.

  “It’s nothing. Some extra cash is nice, you know?” He didn’t have the heart to tell Malik he was slowly losing hope, that his parents’ words about his dream being ridiculous were becoming more and more real.

  “Liar.”

  He jerked his head at that. “What I do is none of your business.” A harsh comment. He winced. “Sorry, I’ve been just feeling down lately.”

  “After you finish your laundry, let’s go out for dinner. I’m fucking starving, too. My treat.”

  He blinked, tempted to ask if this was a date, but the last thing he wanted was to drive Malik away. The amazing thing about Malik was he knew how to listen. Besides, Dale really didn’t want to spend the evening alone, and he knew Henry and Wren had their own thing.

  “Sure, sounds great.”

  “What do you feel like eating?”

  “Something dirty and sinful.” He blushed. God. Seriously, that made him sound like an actor from one of those porn movies he used to watch on his phone whenever he was lonely. These days, though, he didn’t need those, because only one particular man starred in his fantasies. Malik having his way with him did it each time.

  “Two adjectives I like,” Malik said with a grin. “How about some greasy cheeseburgers, onion rings, and beer?”

  His stomach growled in agreement. “You talking about the Bull?”

  The Bull was a rough roadside bar on the outskirts of town, a place the paranormal residents of the town frequented. Usually, he wouldn’t venture there alone. There was even a warning outside telling humans they might be eaten, or worse. But Malik had taken him there once, declared they served up the best cheeseburgers in town, and the jaguar was right. With Malik there, no one had bothered them.

  “Where else? Finish up, and we’ll take my ride.”

  Heart thumping, he nodded. He wasn’t sure why he was so excited anyway, but some loud country music, good food, and Malik for company sounded like the right cure for his depression.

  * * * *

  “God, so good,” Dale murmured, biting into his meaty burger with a sigh.

  He took several more bites, tossed some fries into his mouth, and saw Malik wasn’t eating.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked. “Something on my mouth?”

  “I wonder if those are the sounds you make when I’m making love to you.”

  He choked on his burger, grabbing the glass of beer Malik handed him. Dale drank it down, and once he could talk, he muttered, “Damn it, Malik. You know those kind of jokes aren’t funny.”

  “What if they aren’t jokes? What if we take back this stupid friendship rule?”

  “It’s not stupid,” he managed to reply, although his heart hammered at those words. Hope fluttered in his chest, but hope was dangerous because it took a single action or cruel word to destroy. “I mean, I like the moments we spend together.”

  “That’s your final answer?” Malik asked in a quiet voice.

  He swallowed, all too aware of the hungry look in the jaguar shifter’s eyes. Malik had dressed down for tonight, in worn jeans and a plain green shirt which made his unique eyes stand out. Dale had once asked Malik why his eyes never changed to yellow, like most shifters, but Malik replied he’d been born that way. Such intense eyes and it would be so easy to give in, see where this path might take them, but if things went south, would he lose the precious friendship he’d built with Malik?

  “I—I don’t know,” he whispered.

  “I hear you, you know. What you do at night.”

  Dale blushed, realizing the implication of Malik’s words. “I caught you masturbating once, too.”

  A smile curved on the corner of Malik’s lips. “I know. I was hoping you’d join me. We shifters have a great sense of smell, you know.”

  If possible, he blushed even deeper. He’d forgotten about that little detail, despite having made a lot of research on dating a shifter.

  “It’s karaoke night tonight, folks,” said a voice in the background.

  Malik instantly shot his hand up and shouted, “Over here. My friend here’s gloomy and needs to belt his sorrows out.”

  He caught Malik’s hand, pulse racing as Malik shifted his fingers lower, over his wrist, thumbing it as he
set it down on the table. Their moment was interrupted when Bull, the owner of the bar and a bull shifter, shoved the microphone under his face.

  “What do we have here? It’s one our town’s local singers. What do you say, Dale?” Bull winked.

  He’d been scared of the big guy when Malik had introduced them, but most of the supernaturals he’d met here seemed to know of Malik and his brothers, and they all made him feel welcome. Dale wasn’t sure if Malik had engineered this little singing gig, but he wasn’t one to back away from a fight.

  Dale grabbed the mike. “Fine.”

  Dale followed Bull to the stage. “I’m going to sing ‘Honey Bee’ by Blake Shelton, but my own version.”

  He didn’t remember much of that night, whether he sang well or not, but it didn’t matter. The crowd cheered him on, sang with him, but only Malik’s smile mattered. The one he wore wasn’t the same one when Malik was joking, but it seemed genuine. His heart lifted. Malik knew exactly the remedy he needed to cure his blues.

  Dale sang his heart out. Before every audition, he practiced excessively, tirelessly to the point his vocal chords were sore. Dale worried about making the tiniest mistake, but with a karaoke machine and mostly drunk audience who cheered him like he was some famous country singer, he felt truly at home. After the startling applause, he blushed and went back to his seat.

  “You really have a great voice, you know,” Malik said. “You can really hear your passion in it.”

  “Thanks,” he murmured. That compliment made him feel a little lightheaded and incredibly, stupidly happy. “I need that. For a while now, I started being too serious, too focused, double-thought why I made this mistake or that. I forgot what music meant to me in the first place. It’s a way to express my emotions.”

  “I’m glad you enjoyed yourself. What do you want to do next?”

  “I think…” He paused. “I want to head home now. Maybe catch the last few episodes of Westworld?”

  “Exactly my thoughts. Just going to the gents for a bit.”

  Five minutes after Malik left, a vampire took his place. Dale could tell by the pale complexion and red eyes and, yep, he caught the hint of fang, too. There weren’t a lot of them in Snow Valley, mostly loners. Dale was uncomfortable around them for some reason.

  “Um. That seat’s taken,” he said.

  Dale nervously looked around, glanced at his watch, and to his chagrin realized five minutes hadn’t passed yet. Jesus. Malik had left him alone for one second, and he couldn’t handle himself? Dale wanted to tell the vampire off, gently as he could anyway, because humans stood no chance against the supernatural.

  The vampire hadn’t done anything either, so he wasn’t breaking the rules. Dale knew some humans came here for vampires to feed on, not until their blood was drained but enough to sustain them. Rumor had it vampires paid them. Did this vampire think Dale was one of those humans?

  The vampire didn’t take the hint and leaned back against the chair. The vamp wasn’t bad-looking, but Dale couldn’t look past the notion that the vampires were basically walking corpses. “Your cat left you alone, little human. Need some company for the night? I’m looking for a little company and a snack to go along with it.”

  A snack? He gulped. Did that mean blood? A growl filled the tiny space, the sound raising all the hairs on his arm, and Malik was at the table in seconds, shoving the vampire away and showing his teeth. Dale gasped. He knew Malik was a shifter, of course, but Malik always seemed charming, more human than most shifters. His heart beat faster.

  “Fuck off, vamp. Dale’s mine.” Malik’s words were practically a growl, and despite being human, Dale could sense heat, some unnamed energy rolling off Malik in waves. The vampire hissed, considered Malik for a couple of seconds, but didn’t fight back. Maybe the vampire knew he couldn’t win.

  The bar had gone silent. Bull even watched them behind the bar. Oh God. Was this going to escalate into a fight? The last he wanted was for Malik to end up behind bars because of him.

  “Fuck you, cat,” the vampire muttered, before turning his back.

  Everyone resumed what they were doing once it was clear Malik and the vampire weren’t going to fight. However, not everything was right as rain. Dale had never seen Malik lose his temper like that. Ever.

  “Malik?” he asked, slightly shaken by the encounter.

  That single word reverberated in his head. Mine.

  Dale wanted that to be true, even if this little incident had given him a glimpse of how possessive dominant shifter males could be. When Malik looked back at him, the jaguar Alpha’s jaw was clenched.

  “Let’s get out of here.”

  Dale nodded in complete agreement.

  Chapter Six

  During the silent drive home, all Malik could think of had been that vampire, poaching on what rightfully belonged to him. He seethed silently. He ought to bite Dale in a spot where everyone could see, so they’d instantly know his little human was off-limits. His. Malik gnashed his teeth.

  That was the jaguar talking, but the human side of him didn’t like seeing Dale with another man either. Unwarranted jealousy, he knew but didn’t care. Malik prided himself on having the most control among his brothers, but the truth was, he was scared of losing to his animal, too.

  “Malik, does that mean that the ‘just friends’ rule went out the window the moment you fought for my virtue?” Dale, he realized, made a joke.

  Another snarl threatened to slip his lips, but that might only drive Dale into silence.

  “Virtue? Where did that language come from?”

  Dale relaxed at his normal tone, slumping against his seat. “I don’t know, sounded funny in my head. Maybe because I was recently reading a historical, gay werewolf romance during break on my phone.”

  “Such a genre exists?”

  “Of course.” Dale shifted in his seat. “We need to talk about what happened.”

  What happened? Malik had just acted like a dominant shifter male, overprotective of his mate. Mate. That word had sounded like a curse to him once, but not anymore. Still, Dale made an excellent point. He valued their unexpected friendship, too. He knew Dale made enough to rent his own place elsewhere, but Dale insisted on staying, claiming that by being roommates, they were saving some cash.

  Excuses. Malik didn’t argue though, because he liked Dale’s company and coming home, knowing Dale waited for him, or those nights Dale came back from a late shift, bringing some leftovers they’d munch on while watching a marathon on Netflix until morning arrived.

  I saved you from a vampire, end of story, Malik nearly said, except those words would only drive the wedge between them further. As much as they enjoyed being roommates, both of them wanted to be so much more.

  “Fine. I got territorial,” he eventually said. “To my jaguar, you’re mine. Anyone who lays their hands on you answers to me.”

  Dale swallowed. “Okay, that’s kind of hot. Wait, no. That’s not my point. Back at the laundry room, you asked me if I was sure if I wanted to remain friends.”

  “Is that still your answer?”

  “I don’t know. Malik, what’s holding both of us back? For me, it’s because I like hanging around you, but I want you, too.” Dale was blushing so deeply at this point that the little human’s face and neck was bright red. “What’s your excuse?”

  Malik rubbed at his unshaven jaw. Dale asking that question was about to drag a whole lot of ugly demons from his past, but then again, Dale deserved an explanation. “I don’t like losing control, Dale. That’s when I start wrecking everything in my path. I destroy, that’s what my momma told me.”

  “You protected me,” Dale corrected. “You forget. I’ve done gigs in other shifter bars, not as rough as the Bull maybe, but I’ve seen how easily some shifters lose their temper. They resort to violence, but you merely gave that vampire a warning.”

  “What if told you I wanted to do more, that my claws nearly sliced out of my hands?”

  “You s
topped yourself though.” Dale’s voice grew calm. “You never talk about your past, about the time before Isiah adopted you. Can you tell me about your mother?”

  Malik looked at the road ahead of them. “She hated me. I know that sounds childish, but it’s true. I was a product of rape. Some horny shifter asshole took advantage of her during the full moon. I never understood why she kept me. Maybe she did feel some guilt.”

  Malik gave Dale a shortened version of that violent night. “Since then, my control’s always been shaky. Most shifters have a mentor to teach them how to rein in their animal. I got my lessons much later, and as a result, my jaguar’s a little wilder than most.”

  “Is that why you don’t date?”

  “I came close to a serious relationship in college once, but he broke it off one day, saying I was cold and didn’t let anyone in. I have walls for a reason. Some shifters are at peace with their animals, but I’m not one of them.”

  Among his brothers, Nash was in the same boat. Nash always appeared solid, levelheaded on the outside, but inside, Nash constantly fought with his wolf. Malik managed to appease his jaguar with hookups, by running in the woods to work off his excess energy, but that solution might not last.

  “But despite all that, you’re willing to face your fears and see where this could go between you and me?” Dale asked.

  They finally reached their destination. Malik stopped the car. “Let’s cut the bullshit. Both of us have been aware of the growing sexual tension between us. Sooner or later, it’s bound to explode. Might as well we both stop pretending we’re just friends and find out if we’re really compatible.”

  Malik trusted the instincts of his animal, but when it came to Dale, nothing seemed certain. He finally understood what Cole and Spencer had gone through. They looked lost, too, unsure if their mates could accept broken shifters from rough backgrounds who’d somehow managed to turn out into decent men.

  He waited for Dale’s answer, ready for anything. That wasn’t true. Rejection would be a crushing blow, but he could live with that. He hoped anyway.