by Lynn Hagen
Rave’s hands left the floor as he grabbed Tony’s hair, pulling it hard as his teeth sank into Tony’s neck. An explosion rocketed through Tony’s neck down his arms and then scattered all through his body, his mind fragmenting as he shoved his cock into Rave’s ass, his seed forcefully being pulled from his body. Tony cried out, his teeth hurting so badly with the need to bite, to claim his mate, that it damn near made him cry.
Rave whimpered around the wound, as if he could feel Tony’s anguish at not being able to claim his mate. Tony’s legs quivered as his back stiffened, giving Rave room by tilting his head farther away.
His mate licked the wound and then touched Tony’s face with his fingers, his eyes questioning. “Did I hurt you?”
Tony gathered his composure, but not by much as he shook his head, a mournful feeling tightening his chest at the lost moment. He hadn’t been able to claim Rave. His recessed genes had prevented what could have been the most perfect moment in his life.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re lying to me,” Rave said as his fingers danced over Tony’s face. “Why?”
“It’s a long story that I’ll share someday, but not now. Not in this perfect bubble we’re lying in.”
Rave looked like he wanted to argue as his fingers left Tony’s face to trace over the bite wound. “I didn’t hurt you?”
Tony shook his head. “No.” It was the truth. The only thing that hurt right now was Tony’s pride.
Rave gave a small nod and then laid his head on the carpet, his eyes back to normal and his canines receded. Tony eased from Rave and then pushed from the floor, walking to the bathroom. He needed a moment, a second to let the disappointment flow through him before he pushed it away.
Tony closed the bathroom door and then rested his hands on the counter, breathing out slowly. He had never felt the need to bite someone before, but it had been like a strong grip around his teeth and heart. It had shattered Tony not to be able to claim Rave the way he should have been able to, but Tony didn’t dwell on disappointments.
He ran the water in the sink, splashing it onto his heated face before he reached behind him and grabbed a towel. Once he was cleaned up, he took the warm cloth to Rave and cleaned his mate.
Rave lay there, watching Tony intently as the towel glided between Rave’s crease. He knew Rave wasn’t fooled. His mate knew something was wrong, but Tony couldn’t bring himself to talk about it, not now at least.
Maybe someday.
Tossing the towel toward the bathroom, Tony curled into Rave’s arms, for once in his life needing to feel strong arms wrapped around him, to feel comfort that he didn’t get too often, if ever.
* * * *
Rave watched as Logan slowly came awake. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, fully dressed. Tony had gone out into the hallway to use his phone, not wanting to disturb their mate.
“How do you feel?”
Logan stared at Rave, his blue eyes unfocused as he just gazed at Rave. It was a bit disconcerting, but Rave stayed still, letting his mate focus those eerie blue eyes on him. They looked haunted, as if Logan wasn’t truly looking at him as much as he was looking into him.
“He abused you.”
Rave stiffened, his fingers curling into fists as he swallowed. His mate was talking about the alpha that used to rule this pack. The pack Rave belonged to. Jackson had been cold and cruel, making the soldiers of this house commit unspeakable acts before Zeus defeated Jackson.
The things Rave had done for Jackson weren’t something for public consumption. He never in his life wanted to speak about them, let alone allow his mate to see the ugly truth of what he had done through his eyes. Rave slid from the bed, crossing the room as he wrapped his arms around his stomach, feeling the pain slowly enter into his chest at the memories.
“I’m sorry,” Logan spoke softly from the bed. “I didn’t mean to offend you.”
Rave shook his head as he walked back over to his mate. “You didn’t. You just made me think of things better left in the dark.” What happened to Rave, happened to the solders of this pack, was something Rave never wanted to think about again.
Logan nodded, as if he knew what Rave was talking about. Rave breathed out his fear, releasing it and letting it go as he sat back down on the bed. “Truce?”
Logan grinned. “Truce. I won’t tell anyone what I just saw.”
Logan’s expression turned serious. “But is he still alive?”
Rave shook his head. “No.”
Logan nodded. “Where’s that pain in the ass of yours?”
“Ours,” Rave corrected as he chuckled. “Tony is out in the hallway making a phone call. Miss him?”
“Like a toothache.” Logan grinned as he sat up, his soft brown hair tumbling into his eyes. Rave reached up and brushed the hairs back.
“Be nice to him. He’s your mate,” Rave chastised gently.
“I am being nice, trust me.”
If that was nice…Rave sighed. “You don’t like him?” He had to know if Logan truly didn’t like Tony. That would present a very big problem.
Logan shrugged, his eyes rising to stare at Rave, the blue light pretty. “I don’t know him enough to not like him. He’s just…intense.”
They both glanced at the door as Tony walked in, shoving the phone in a clip on his waistband. “Aba killed another person.”
Rave stood abruptly, his face tightening. “Who?”
“Jesse said it was someone named Clancy.”
Rave cursed. No one liked Clancy. He was a town bigot and loudmouth, but the man had never hurt anyone. He was just crude.
But that didn’t mean he had to die for it. “You heading over there?”
Tony nodded as he glanced at Logan. “Feeling better?”
Logan opened his mouth and then closed it, staring at Tony. “I was, but if there is another dead body, I’m not so sure.”
“You’re not going, Logan,” Tony said as he turned to leave.
“You can’t keep me sheltered from the world either, Tony.”
Logan pushed out of the bed, his eyes narrowing at Tony. Rave watched as the pupils in Logan’s eyes narrowed, something he had never seen before. He stepped closer to the man, placing his hand on Logan’s shoulder.
“Calm down,” Rave commanded.
“No, let him go, Rave. I want to see what Logan will do to me,” Tony said as he squared his shoulders, meeting Logan’s glare with his own.
Rave knew this wasn’t a great idea. In the idea department, it sucked. He stepped between the two men, sighing. “Knock it off before I put both of you in a fucking corner.”
Logan chuckled behind him, and Tony smirked. Great.
Rave reached behind him and swatted at Logan. The man jumped to the side, laughing. Tony joined in, which made Rave grin. “You two are impossible.”
Logan settled. “I’m going.”
Tony shrugged. “Fine, but if you start mind melding everyone, I’ll kick your ass.”
“Deal, old man.”
“I’ll give you old,” Tony growled. “I may be what, eight years older than you? I bet I could still kick your ass.”
Logan rolled his eyes. “In your dreams, prick.”
“I haven’t fucked you yet,” Tony said and then winked at Rave.
Talk about an awkward moment. Logan stared between them and then blushed.
“I don’t want to know.”
“Yes, you do,” Tony taunted as he swatted Logan’s backside before walking from the room.
“Is it just me or do you want to fuck him and shoot him at the same time?” Logan asked as he trailed after Tony.
“That’s just you,” Rave said as he closed the bedroom door behind him. He wasn’t sure this was a good idea after Logan’s last meltdown, but he was outvoted. The only thing he could do was stay by Logan’s side and hope his mate didn’t lose it this time.
Chapter Eight
Why was he jealous? Logan wasn’t interested in having sex with Tony
or Rave. So why in the hell was the green-eyed monster bullying him around when he thought about Rave and Tony having sex with each other? As Tony pulled behind the clothing store, Lassiter’s, Logan looked really hard at both men. They both had that daring, bad boy look that would make any man drool, but could he have sex with either of them? Was he interested and just denying it to himself?
Tony had a dangerous sex appeal about him. Black hair, light-brown eyes, and a very thin goatee around his mouth that begged someone to nibble at the hairs. Rave had that secretive look, black hair as well, but his brown eyes were a little darker, smoldering almost, making any man want to gaze into them for hours.
Maybe he did want to fool around a bit. They were two hot ass men after all. Could he have sex with both of them at the same time?
Probably not. Logan had never participated in a ménage and wasn’t looking to get involved in one. He’d never had sex with two men at once before, and the thought of being with Rave and Tony—two strong, dominant men—intimidated him.
Logan realized in that second that having a ménage with the two men was the root of his denial that he was attracted to them. Fuck it. It wasn’t going to happen, so why worry about it?
The three of them got out of the car, the car doors slamming in unison as Logan glanced around. He wasn’t looking forward to another dead body, but he wanted to see what his emotions would do.
He wanted to know what would happen when he saw death. Logan was actually here to see if he could control what was happening to him or if his emotions would control him once more.
It wasn’t the best-laid plan, but he wasn’t going to get any practice sitting on his thumb at Rave’s.
“Over here,” Jesse said from the side of the Dumpster.
Logan swallowed as he trailed behind the Rave and Tony. He saw feet sticking out past the blue container and wondered how horrible the rest of the body was going to be once he laid eyes on the victim.
Shit, maybe he shouldn’t have come. He was starting to sweat bullets. The lights from the police car swirled around, deputies standing around waiting for Tony to come closer. Logan wanted to tell the agent that he had changed his mind, but he figured Tony would razz him about it if he did.
Logan spotted Dorm standing next to Jesse, checking out one of the deputies. He wasn’t sure if Dorm was concentrating on something or if he was actually checking the man out. Whatever, it wasn’t his business.
“Are you okay?” Rave asked as he laid his hand on the small of Logan’s back. “You don’t look so hot.” He may not look hot, but damn if Rave’s hand wasn’t. It felt like a piece of hot coal was pressed against his back. The man was playing havoc with Logan’s body.
“Cramps,” Logan said and then moved away from Rave. Rave glanced at him curiously, but didn’t say anything else. Logan swallowed and then walked closer to the body, taking small peeks at a time. You can do this.
“What do you think?” Jesse asked Tony. “Is it our guy’s handiwork?”
Tony knelt in front of the body and Logan got a full view. A frighteningly full view. His head swam a little as he stared at the man slumped against the Dumpster. There was a bloody knife in his left hand and blood streaming down his shirt from his throat. The shirt was still wet, the blood very vibrant in the sun.
Logan swallowed repeatedly, trying his best not to get sick. The victim’s eyes were open, large, frightened, as if he had seen the devil himself. Logan moved closer, and an image began to form in front of his eyes. He saw the deceased man cringing, a larger man looming over him with a belt in his hand. The victim’s father?
And then the image changed. The man was running as fast as he could, Aba forming right in front of the stranger, stopping the man from getting away from…Logan couldn’t make out who was behind the dead man, but someone had chased the deceased, chased him right to Aba. Logan shook his head when he saw that Aba was the one with the knife, but he handed it over to the man and made the guy cut his own damn throat.
Logan stumbled, falling into the front of the Dumpster as tears rolled down his face. He hated Aba more in that second than he did anyone else in his entire life. The man had to be stopped, had to be killed!
“Logan, breathe,” Tony said as he came up beside him and knelt, speaking softly. “You have to breathe, hon. I can feel you pushing into my head.”
Logan’s eyes snapped up as he stared at Tony, the man’s pretty brown eyes filled with concern. Logan nodded as he took a deep breath, letting it out slowly, feeling the buildup simmer down and then disappear. “Aba killed him. I saw it in my mind. But someone helped him. They chased the poor guy right to Aba.”
Tony moved a little closer, his eyes studying Logan. “Can you see where Aba is now?”
Rave came to kneel by them, his hand squeezing Logan’s shoulder gently. Logan tried to concentrate, tried to feel Aba, but there was nothing, a large black hole where Aba’s location might have been.
“No.”
“Do you know who the other man was?”
Logan shook his head. He wished he could see anything that would stop Aba and his accomplice from killing again. Was it another styre mente? God, Logan sure as hell hoped not. Dealing with one was bad enough. Two would increase the body count by tenfold.
“It’s okay.” Tony patted Logan’s hand. “We’ll catch them.”
Logan hoped so, because he wasn’t sure if he could take another dead body.
* * * *
Tony kept an eye on Logan from the rearview mirror as he drove back to Rave’s. Logan was looking a little sick from seeing the dead body, and he really didn’t want the man throwing up in his backseat.
Dorm had been invited by Zeus to stay at the mansion while they were in town trying to catch Aba. The alpha had said it would be safer if both of them resided under his roof until the matter was cleared up.
On the drive back, Tony tried his best to figure out who the second person was. The file hadn’t mentioned an accomplice. Had Logan seen things correctly? Could it have been a shadow maybe?
Tony wasn’t sure, and he hoped like hell he wasn’t dealing with two styre mentes.
Director Simone would have a fucking cow if they were dealing with two. He chalked it up to Logan being under a lot of stress and let the second man go.
If there was a second man.
Tony still wasn’t too sure about that.
Tony jogged up the steps, leaving Rave to bring Logan up to their room. He wasn’t being a prick, but if the man got sick, Tony would be getting sick right alongside Logan. He just couldn’t stomach the smell. Entering the bedroom, Tony tossed his keys onto the dresser and grabbed the file on Aba and his small notepad, making his own notes on the recent killing. He also made a little sidenote on the mention of an accomplice. He may not be sure if Logan was seeing things correctly, but Tony hadn’t gotten this far in his career by discounting things.
Jesse had promised to fill him in on the coroner’s finding, but Dorm was with the sheriff as well, so Tony knew if Jesse didn’t tell him everything, his partner would. Dorm was sore at Tony for not filling him in on the shifter thing, but Dorm was an agent through and through. He would set his personal feelings aside and make sure Tony knew everything that was going on.
“I knew the guy,” Rave said as he entered the room with Logan.
“He was a town jackass, but he never hurt anyone.”
Tony flipped the page on his notepad, pen poised. “Tell me about the victim.”
“He was a bigot. He hated gay men and let every man he suspected as being gay know it. But Clancy had never hurt anyone. He was harmless. Well, as harmless as a bigot can be.”
“Is that all?” Tony asked as he wrote the information down. There had to be a pattern to the killings. Or was Aba picking his victims at random? Most killers had a preference, and Tony was trying to see if Aba had one as well.
“That’s all I really knew about the guy.”
“Did you know the dead couple?” Tony asked, but Rav
e shook his head.
“You’ll have to talk to Jesse about them. He knew the couple, I didn’t.” Tony saw something in Rave’s eyes. It looked like sadness and regret as he stood there. Tony wondered what Rave could have in his life that made him feel that way, but didn’t ask.
“This is my town, the pack’s town, and I really don’t know any of the citizens.”
Well, that explains the emotions in Rave’s eyes. “Why?”
Rave shook his head as he headed toward the bedroom door.
“Maybe some other time.”
Tony really didn’t like his words thrown back at him, but what could he say? He sighed as Rave walked out of the room. Tony glanced at Logan standing at the edge of the bed, looking a little pale.
“You all right?”
Logan twisted his lips, giving Tony a duh look. “No. Seeing a dead boy tends to make me feel a little queasy, if you hadn’t noticed.”
“How did you know the man was forced to kill himself?”
Logan sighed. “I saw it in my mind.”
“How?”
Logan shrugged. “I was staring at the dead body, and then I saw the man, his former life, and then there was an image of someone chasing him toward Aba. But Aba is the one who had a knife in his hand. He gave it to the victim, made him take it, and then he made the poor shmuck slice his own damn throat.” Logan began to look sick all over again.
Tony just prayed Logan didn’t vomit. He had almost vomited outside the home of the couple when he saw Logan upchucking in the bushes, but thankfully Tony hadn’t smelt the foul odor or he would have been right beside his blue-eyed mate.
Tony stood, walking over to Logan, brushing his hand down the man’s back. “Don’t get sick on me. I can’t take the smell of vomit.”
Logan nodded, swallowing a few times. Tony leaned closer, inhaling Logan’s scent. It was wonderful. Logan smelled like chicory wood and a hot summer’s night. He wanted to rub his scent all over Logan as well. It was a very strong urge.