by Lynn Hagen
“Shit,” Rick said. “What in the hell is he doing here?”
As tired as Dorian was, he sat up straighter, rubbing at his burning eyes, trying to fully wake. “Who is it?”
“Alpha Sasha Monroe of the wereleopard changeling leap.”
Great, another alpha. Dorian didn’t need this right now. “Just shoot him.” He yawned. “I’m too tired to be snubbed.”
Rick glanced over at Dorian, a puzzled look in his light-grey eyes. “Snubbed?”
“Never mind.” Dorian felt like he was made of sand, weighted down by his weariness as he pushed the car door open. “I’m going inside.”
“Not before I check the place out.”
As irritated as Dorian was by Rick’s dictating tone, he knew the man was right. There was too much going on to walk blindly into any place. He was starting to understand the on-the-run rules. Never before had Dorian thought about checking things out before walking into anywhere. It had never occurred to him and he had never needed to do it before.
Now he found himself looking around, his eyes squinting in the dark for shadows that moved. When he didn’t see any, he got out and hurried over to Rick. Hearing about Mãos da Morte and running from changelings was starting to make him overly cautious.
“No one is going to hurt you while I’m around,” Rick said in a tone that was meant for Dorian’s ears only. “Just don’t leave my sight.”
It shouldn’t have made Dorian feel better knowing that Rick was taking on his welfare, but it did. Dorian was in a world he didn’t understand, and the rules were confusing. He found himself relying on Rick as he approached the porch, knowing the man had meant what he just said.
He was taken aback when Rick slid his arm over Dorian’s shoulder. What in the hell was he doing? Dorian wasn’t sure, but this was Rick’s show, not his.
“Sasha.”
Rick hadn’t addressed the man by the alpha title. That was weird. From what he had learned, titles were very important among changelings and vampires.
“Rick.”
“What brings you here and how in the hell did you know we would be coming this way?” Rick pulled Dorian closer as he spoke. Dorian wasn’t sure what was going on, so he just went with it.
Sasha’s eyes zeroed in on Rick’s arm where it lay over Dorian’s shoulders. “I see this candidate is the front-runner.”
Rick shrugged. “I still have two more to go. It’s too soon to tell.”
Dorian wanted to knock Rick’s arm off of his shoulder, but stood still, although he could feel his anger flaring.
Sasha laughed. “He doesn’t like that idea.”
Whether Rick was aware of it or not, his thumb began to trace small circles over Dorian’s arm. “That’s none of your business. Now, are you going to answer my questions?”
Sasha stood up, his movements fluid and almost sensual. The man leaned against the rail, his kelly-green eyes raking over Dorian.
He didn’t like that look. If it turned to hunger, Dorian was going to the glove box. He was sick of everyone wanting to eat him.
“He is a very nice-looking human. If you don’t keep him, send the man my way.”
“Sorry, Nate asked first.”
Dorian’s head snapped up, narrowing his eyes at Rick. He wasn’t going to argue with Rick’s strange behavior, but hell if he was going to be passed along. “Not in this lifetime. That man can kiss my ass.”
Sasha laughed louder. The sound was so damn playful that it almost made Dorian laugh as well. “Feisty. Oh, Rick, you have a gem here.”
“Sasha,” Rick said in warning.
The playfulness was gone in the blink of an eye. Sasha stood there looking so menacing that Dorian took a step closer to Rick, pushing into his side. Rick didn’t push him away. He pulled Dorian impossibly closer.
“I’ve tracked you down so you can help me find out who killed my leap members. Nothing is being done about it by the police, and I’m tired of sitting idly by while the murderer gets away with what he has done.” The heat in Sasha’s voice singed Dorian. The man was angry as hell, his kelly-green eyes darkening to midnight-green, a yellowish hue appearing.
“Come inside,” Rick said to Sasha as he pulled Dorian along. The physical closeness was disturbing, only because Dorian found himself enjoying Rick’s touch. He shouldn’t be enjoying it at all. Dorian had to find a way out of this, not fall deeper into the rabbit hole.
Once they were inside, Sasha took a seat on a plain brown couch. The house wasn’t decorated as a lived-in home would be. But then again, Rick had said this was a safe house. He didn’t suspect anyone lived here on a full-time basis. The furniture was sparse, the curtains bland.
Rick took a seat in a worn wingback chair. Dorian resisted when Rick tried to pull him down onto the man’s lap. But, unfortunately, Rick was stronger and Dorian ended up dropping down hard.
What in the hell was Rick up to? Why the sudden possessiveness? He thought they were on the same page. Rick couldn’t change the rules halfway through the game. They had screwed around once and were not mates, so Rick had no right to make Dorian sit in his—damn the man’s thighs were impressive. They felt rock hard under his ass.
“Right now my top priority is finding out what evidence the prosecutor has against me and Dorian. I can’t investigate the three murders being on the run, Sasha.” Rick’s hand began to wander over Dorian’s hip. The other was on his side. Dorian’s hip began to heat up with Rick’s touch, something he wasn’t ready to examine.
He shifted around, trying to tell Rick without words to knock it off, but the move only showed him that Rick was hard as steel. Dorian swallowed, feeling his pulse race at the hard length wedged under his ass. His own cock was trying to thicken in response, but Dorian fought the reaction tooth and nail. The overly friendly display had to be for Sasha’s benefit. There was no other explanation for Rick’s bizarre behavior, but it seemed to be backfiring on both of them. Dorian found himself pressing gently back into Rick’s erection and then stopped himself.
What was he doing? Rick was changeling. There wasn’t going to be any sex. Period. One blow job was enough, and even that had been a mistake in Dorian’s book. They were not going to jump into bed together again.
Sasha smiled and the expression got under Dorian’s skin. He knew the leopard wasn’t stupid. If the guy could read Dorian so well, then he knew that Dorian wasn’t unaffected by Rick’s strong presence under and behind him.
It just irritated the shit out of Dorian. He wanted to wipe that knowing smile from the man’s face.
“Even so, Rick.” Sasha’s dark-green eyes finally moved off of Dorian. “I think we should work together.”
“Since when are you so willing to be around werewolves?” Rick asked. “You haven’t hidden the fact that you think dogs are below you.”
“True,” Sasha admitted. “But neither have you hid the fact that you think leopards are mere kittens.”
Dorian could feel the tension building in the room. It started to reach a pinnacle until both men laughed. Dorian was confused. Sasha’s eyes melted back to their natural kelly-green color, the anger leeching away, along with the laughter. Rick sobered as well.
What had he missed?
“But I haven’t asked you for help, cat.”
“Are we going to work together on this?”
“We can, but that doesn’t make us buddies.”
Sasha stood, a smile appearing on his handsome face. “Then I will call you in a few days.” As he moved toward the door, Sasha looked back. “Burn me on this and the corrupt system will be the least of your worries.”
Dorian sat there stunned as Sasha walked out. The man had looked like Satan himself when issuing the threat. And Rick hadn’t done anything but sit there and take it.
That was different. Dorian would have sworn the man didn’t take anyone’s—“Hey!” Dorian batted Rick’s wandering hand away. “I may have gone along with your act when Sasha was here, but back off.” He tried to pus
h himself from Rick’s lap, but strong hands kept him in place.
“What’s wrong, Dorian?” he asked as he pressed his nose into Dorian’s nape. “Don’t you like what I’m doing to you?”
The problem was, Dorian was liking it a little too much. He wasn’t supposed to like what Rick was doing to him. When Dorian didn’t answer him, Rick laughed. It was rich, full of a playfulness Dorian had never seen in the man before.
“Don’t be coy with me, Dorian. You know you want this just as much as I do.” Rick pulled Dorian all the way back to his chest. “If not more.”
Give in and give your body what it wants the most.
“Let. Me. Go.” Dorian gritted out.
Rick’s hands tightened on Dorian’s thighs, moving dangerously close to his semihard cock. “Why? Are you afraid to admit you lust after a changeling? You didn’t have a problem when you were sucking my dick the other night. Does the idea repulse you so much?”
Dorian could hear the hurt in Rick’s voice, but he didn’t care. He wasn’t going to be forced into anything by this man. He wanted Rick. The desire was sweeping through him like a hurricane on a destructive path, but Dorian could control his lust—right now, at least. He wasn’t a teenager with raging hormones, out to sate his lust with whoever offered to give Dorian a wet ass.
“No, it’s just you.”
Rick nipped his shoulder. “I can smell a lie, Dorian. I can also smell the lust you feel for me. It’s so damn strong I’m choking on it.” His hands moved closer, the knuckles grazing Dorian’s now-full erection.
“That doesn’t mean I will give in to it.” Dorian elbowed Rick, being released as he heard a low and menacing growl from behind him.
“Why are you fighting me on this? I don’t understand you humans and your prudish ways. You want it. I want it. What’s wrong with us having sex?”
Because I’m fucking falling for you and I want it to be more than sex.
Dorian shot from Rick’s lap with that thought. Where in the hell had it come from? There was no way he was falling for this asshole. He didn’t want to be in this situation, and he didn’t want to be mated to a changeling. “I’m going to bed.”
“Is that an invitation?” Rick gave Dorian the full weight of his smoldering grey eyes. Dorian felt the need to give Rick what he wanted. The man was laying it on thick, and Dorian wasn’t immune to the man’s charms.
But he needed to be.
He was not letting the man fuck him.
Rick was a very good-looking man, but he needed more than just good looks to sway him.
What disturbed Dorian the most was the fact that Rick being able to turn furry was no longer bothering him…and that bothered him.
“No.” He walked up the steps, unsure of where he was going, but getting away from temptation incarnate sounded like a damn good plan.
Lieutenant Commander Jonathan Freedman was parked on the side of a pet cremation building on Buena Vista Drive. It was dead of night and his team was in the SUV, waiting along with him. He was a stone’s throw away from the Mexican border, and not too happy to be here. His unit’s blood had been tested, along with Freedman’s, and he still wasn’t sure if he was too happy about that. They already had his blood on file. Did they think he contracted lycanthropy since then?
Scientists had confirmed that it was a disease.
A highly contagious disease, and now they were working diligently to see if they could come up with a cure for the infected. Freedman shuddered at the thought of turning furry. But the scientists had also discovered that a human could be converted into a vampire as well. The details of how this happened were still sketchy, though.
The epidemic was sweeping the country, but the government was keeping a tight lid on their findings, trying their best not to induce panic. More and more nonhumans were being discovered. The disease was spreading through their country like a plague.
A black sedan with tinted windows pulled up in front of him.
Freedman got out, walking up to the car, stopping at the back door.
The captain of Naval Special Warfare rolled his window down.
This is it.
Freedman had heard the rumors that the government was looking to put together a special operations group because the religious congeries and corporate America were putting the pressure on the White House, but this seemed more like an assault team was being assembled. They were meeting in the middle of the night, close to Mexico, and everything was hush-hush.
Freedman was hoping this meeting wasn’t for SOG duty. For one, there were only a handful of men with him and a special operations group was usually comprised of eighty to a hundred men. Second, he was not SOG material. His specialties were geared more toward ops that required him to go under for months at a time, in which the body count rose by the time he completed a mission.
Captain O’Hanlon pulled out an envelope, handing it to Freedman. He took it, giving the captain a questioning stare.
“Your assignment is inside. The president wants this done quietly and with full deniability. I’m sure you are aware of what that means.”
Yeah, he and his team were on their own. If caught, the government would deny any part of the mission. “Understood, Captain.”
The car Captain O’Hanlon was in pulled away before Freedman opened the envelope. He glanced around the area before slipping back into the driver’s seat of his rented SUV.
“Well?” Lieutenant Watson asked. “Are we the rumored team?”
Freedman pulled the papers from the large manila envelope, and began to read through them. His breath stuttered in his chest. He flipped through, seeing full-colored photos attached with detailed intel on each one. “No, Watson, we aren’t the rumored SOG team.” His eyes wandered to the first assignment.
Enrique Marcelo.
“We are the government’s new Death Squad.”
Chapter Thirteen
Dorian flashed him an unfriendly look from the kitchen table as Rick poured himself a cup of coffee. The man could look as mean as he wanted to. Rick had smelled desire and lust coming off of Dorian like a coat of fur against his skin, sensual, erotic, and welcome. The man could deny wanting Rick, but his scent had told a different story.
“What are we doing today?” Dorian asked, finishing his breakfast and pushing the bowl aside. There wasn’t much to eat here except a cupboard full of canned goods, but soup was good any time of day in Rick’s opinion.
Rick was trying not to be an ass toward Dorian. But after the rejection early this morning, his mood wasn’t the best. He had one more day until Dorian’s initial seven days were over, and Rick had yet to sleep with the guy.
“Nate is going to meet a contact of ours. Hopefully we find out what evidence the prosecutor has against us. He’ll get in touch with me just as soon as he knows something.”
He knew he wasn’t going to pick Dorian as his mate. The man had not only made it clear that he didn’t want any part in this, but Rick fully agreed. Hell, he didn’t want any part in this forced mating either.
“So we just hang out here all day?” The question was suspicious, as if Rick had ulterior motives. He did. There was nothing he could do but wait, so why not pass the day away trying to get Dorian to agree to a bout of sex?
Damn if he didn’t want to fuck Dorian before they parted ways. It was all he could think about since the human had sat in his lap and brought forth a need so feral, so primal that Rick thought he was finally losing his mind.
Rick took a sip of his coffee. He really didn’t like to talk shop until he had his first cup, but it seemed Dorian wasn’t going to wait. “That’s the plan.”
“I still don’t understand why I was set up. How would they know about me that soon? And how do they know to use me against you? I’m one of three candidates. Why didn’t they accuse the other two?”
Good questions. But Rick had no answers. He had been thinking the same thing. Why wasn’t Omar or Silvia accused of killing the three changelings? Why Dorian?
Rick gave the only answer he could think of. “They want it to seem like I’m controlling you. Make the changeling species seem savage and ruthless.” There couldn’t be any other explanation. He remembered Remus saying the same thing, and the more Rick thought about it, the more sense it made.
Dorian shook his head. “The nonhumans have been in the public eye for three years already. Why now? Why didn’t they do this when you were first discovered?”
Rick had thought about that, too. He didn’t have an answer. “I’m not sure, Dorian,” he stated honestly. “But they are up to something. There should be no way the hyenas are behind this, but I’m starting to wonder if they aren’t working with the police after making some sort of deal.” He knew they were working with the cops, but to what extent and what bargaining chip were they using?
Dorian cocked his head sideways, his cinnamon-brown eyebrows pulling into a deep frown, his expression one of bewilderment. “What deal?”
“Immunity.” Rick had thought very hard about what he knew versus what was happening to them. His gut was telling him that this was bigger than just the Shelton police department and a judge and prosecutor.
This was on a wider scale.
Something was happening. He could just feel it. His hip vibrated. Rick glanced at Dorian, seeing in the man’s eyes that he wanted to finish this conversation. It would have to wait. He grabbed his phone and answered it. “Yeah?”
“Get out of there, now. They are coming for you.” The caller hung up.
Rick glanced at the caller ID, but it was private. He didn’t recognize the voice, either.
The hairs on his neck stood on end as Rick dropped the cup of coffee, the mug shattering on the floor, the contents splashing his pant leg as he raced toward Dorian. “We have to go, now.”
Dorian didn’t argue. He didn’t ask what was going on. The man pushed from the table as Rick grabbed his smaller hand and then they ran toward the front door. Before leaving, he snagged his keys from the table next to the couch, and then they were outside, running for the car.