by Lynn Hagen
Here it comes.
“Do you know where Nazaryth went?”
Again Ruthless cursed the commander. “I’m not sure,” he answered honestly.
Theo bit his lip. “Would you have any idea at all?”
“Nazaryth doesn’t answer to anyone,” Ruthless snapped and then felt guilty when he saw the tears gathering in Theo’s eyes. Dammit, he wasn’t good with this emotional shit. What did he know about comforting someone? He had been alone for so many years now that Ruthless was damn near numb when it came to emotions. The solitude had robbed him of his compassion, but he was trying for his commander’s zaterio.
It just sucked like hell.
Why was he the one that Theo had come to? He should have gone to Dog or Silo, but instead he had picked Ruthless.
Wrong choice.
“Okay,” Theo said as he turned, heading toward the door.
“Wait.” Are you fucking nuts? The guy is leaving. Let him go.
Ruthless sighed as he sat down on the side of his bed, pressing the cold, wet cloth harder into his leg. “He probably went to go see Boromyr.”
Theo turned, confusion pulling his brows down. “Who’s Boromyr?”
“He’s the man who gave Nazaryth the warding spell. Nazaryth probably went to go see him about another, stronger defense. The hounds found a counterspell to our defenses, so Nazaryth is more than likely going to ask for a stronger protection spell.”
“Oh,” Theo said as he stood there, glancing around once more.
Ruthless waited, but Theo hadn’t added anything else. He shrugged, ignoring the man as he walked toward the bathroom. This wasn’t his mess, and he surely wasn’t going to thank Nazaryth for leaving him with it.
“Does Nazaryth always run off like this?” Dammit, dammit, dammit! He’d almost gotten away. Ruthless exhaled deeply as he waved a hand toward his bedroom door, not turning around. “It’s who he is. You’ll have to talk to him about it.” Ruthless walked into the bathroom, cursing Nazaryth the whole way.
Theo felt the bed dip and knew Nazaryth had returned. He kept his back to Nazaryth, not wanting his mate to know that he was awake.
Theo was too angry and hurt right now to deal with the man.
“I know you’re awake,” Nazaryth said as he slid under the covers.
“Let me explain.”
Theo turned over, mad that his mate had taken off and not told Theo where he was going after the battle the beasts had fought with the hounds. Didn’t Nazaryth know how worried Theo had been?
Didn’t he know how scared he was?
“What?” he snapped.
Nazaryth cocked his head back, his eyes searching Theo’s face.
Theo wanted to throw himself into Nazaryth’s arms at seeing that his mate was okay. But he hesitated. If he gave in now, Nazaryth would think he could disappear anytime he wanted. And Theo wasn’t standing for that.
He had already lost one man who he cared deeply about. Theo wasn’t going to lose another. And the fear that had gripped him today drove home the fact that he could easily lose Nazaryth. Something he never wanted to experience.
“Why are you mad at me, zaterio?” Nazaryth asked as he slid closer to Theo.
“Because,” Theo said as he sat up, the blankets pooling in his lap.
“You took off without a word. I didn’t know where you were going, if you were injured, or if you were even coming back,” he said as he suppressed a sob as his shoulders slumped. How could he convey what he had felt to his mate? Nazaryth had never experienced such a loss as Theo had.
Not that he knew of anyway.
Theo needed Nazaryth to see how what he had done affected Theo. “You can’t do that to me,” he said as his voice broke. He was losing the battle to keep his tears at bay. The thought of losing Nazaryth scared the hell out of him.
“Oh, zaterio,” Nazaryth said as he pulled Theo down into his arms. “I didn’t think.”
“And that’s the problem,” Theo said as he pushed at Nazaryth’s chest, trying to pull from the man’s arms. “You didn’t think about how I felt before you took off. You didn’t think to let me know you were okay, or to tell me you were leaving, or even to tell me you would return, if you would be back. I can’t live like that,” Theo choked out as one lone tear slipped from his eye. “I already lost one person I care about. I refuse to lose another. Don’t you know how important you are to me?”
Nazaryth looked shocked as he leaned his head back, staring down into Theo’s eyes. “I didn’t know. I swear. All I was thinking about was keeping you safe.”
“I’m safest in your arms,” Theo confessed as he buried his face in Nazaryth’s chest.
Nazaryth smoothed a hand down Theo’s back, shushing him and rocking him, as Theo silently wept. Images of Nazaryth lying dead somewhere had haunted him all evening until he had restlessly fallen asleep.
He refused to go through that again. To feel that loss, that pain, that deep, dark depression that had clung to him for many years. He had already survived through that pain once, and Theo refused to go through it again.
“I promise,” Nazaryth said as he tilted Theo’s head back, wiping away his tears with the pads of his thumbs, “to always tell you where I’m going and to always let you know I’m okay.” Theo nodded, unable to speak from the constriction in his throat.
Nazaryth leaned forward, placing a soft kiss on his lips. “Don’t cry, zaterio. It breaks my heart to see you cry.” Theo couldn’t help it. The thought of losing Nazaryth was too much. “Then don’t ever leave me like that again.” Nazaryth rolled, placing Theo on top of him as his strong fingers skimmed up and down Theo’s back. He shivered at the contact, especially when Nazaryth reached up and grazed his sensitive nipples with the rough knuckles.
“You like that?”
Theo nodded. “I love it.”
Nazaryth pulled Theo down enough to pull one of his nipples into his moist mouth. Theo curled his fingers into Nazaryth’s chest as his mate dined on him. When Nazaryth finally released him, Theo scooted down his mate’s body until he was staring his Nazaryth’s straining cock. He flicked his tongue out, sampling what Nazaryth had to offer.
Theo groaned at the salty taste and then wrapped his lips around Nazaryth’s cock. He suckled the head, drawing the clear liquid out as he ran his tongue under the spongy head. Nazaryth hissed, his hips bucking as Theo reached down and massaged Nazaryth’s balls.
“You do that so well,” Nazaryth complimented with a groan.
Theo teased the head with his tongue as he ground his own aching cock into the bed. He needed release, and he wanted it while Nazaryth was buried balls deep inside of him. He wanted to feel the bond between them. Theo wanted to feel his mate wrapped around him, letting him know that their world was safe even for just that moment.
Running his tongue up and down Nazaryth’s thick shaft, Theo circled the head one last time before he climbed back on top of his mate. He grabbed Nazaryth’s cock, holding it still as he sank down on his mate’s girth.
“Theo,” Nazaryth cried out. “I haven’t readied you.”
“I already did that”—he grinned sheepishly down at the gorgeous man—“earlier.”
Nazaryth’s eyes hooded as he thrust hard into Theo. He was at the edge already, crying out as Nazaryth made love to him. He dug his knees into Nazaryth’s side as Theo slammed down hard onto his mate’s cock, his own erupting with ribbons of his pearly-white seed.
Theo shouted as Nazaryth jackknifed, biting into Theo’s neck as his mate’s cock throbbed its release in his ass.
Theo collapsed against Nazaryth as his mate licked the pinpricks closed. “I promise,” Nazaryth whispered into Theo’s ear as he lay back, wrapping his arms around Theo and holding him close.
Nazaryth tapped an impatient rhythm out on his thigh with his thumb as he sat across the desk from Zeus, alpha of Pride Pack Valley. Dog sat next Nazaryth, sighing out dramatically and looking bored. His zaterio was just down the hall, visiting with the
other wolf shifters.
“My soldiers have reported to me that they’ve seen those hell dwellers you told us about lurking around town,” Zeus said as he sat forward, a grave look on his face. “I thought you were going to take care of the problem?”
Dog snorted but didn’t say a word as he ran his fingers over the bridge of his nose, his look of boredom morphing into irritation at the alpha’s words. Nazaryth knew how he felt. A simple phone call would have sufficed. He didn’t have to bring his second-in-command and his zaterio down here for this meeting.
He crossed his ankles as he splayed his hand. “They’ve become a problem for us as well.” More than you know.
“So what do you plan on doing about it?” Zeus asked. “I not only have a house full of mates and soldiers, I have a town to look out for, protect. I can’t have these things running around loose in my town.” Nazaryth stopped the rolling of his eyes. If he could figure out how to gather all the hounds together and get rid of the bastards, his problem would be solved as well. He understood where Zeus was coming from, but the hounds were like a reoccurring infection, hard to get rid of and nasty as fuck.
It was the winged beasts’ job to guard mankind against these dwellers, but they were starting to pop up like a disease. He wasn’t used to handling so many at once. Maybe he had become rusty from sitting on his ass and doing nothing for so many years.
“So what do you suggest?” Nazaryth asked, open for ideas at this point. He didn’t like to admit that he was at his wits’ end, but he figured the alpha should know about the problem since it involved his town. King Zephyr had sent the hounds in, and only King Zephyr could call them back.
The dwellers could be killed, but it was tricky as hell, and one had to get close enough to do the job. It was something he doubted the shifters could handle.
“What do you mean what do I plan on doing about it?” Zeus looked at Nazaryth as if he had two heads popping out of his shoulders. “You brought them here, and I want to know how you plan on getting rid of them.”
“It’s not like I sent them an engraved invitation,” Nazaryth shot back. “They’re just as much a problem for the winged beasts as they are for your town.”
“I guess it’s hunting time,” Dog interjected, coming out of his comatose boredom finally.
“What do you mean?” Zeus asked as he turned toward Dog. “How do you hunt them? Or more to the point, how do you kill them?”
“The hell dwellers have a mark behind their left ear,” Nazaryth said. “If you stab them in it, they die. No other way can they be killed.” The problem was getting close to those bastards. They were quick and agile, knowing that they had to protect their only weak spot. And if the person fighting the hounds wasn’t a winged beast, the whole biting thing became a problem.
“That doesn’t seem so hard,” Zeus said as he sat back.
Nazaryth rested his arms on his legs as he dropped the bomb on the wolf alpha. “One more thing. Their bite is poisonous. There’s a fifty-fifty chance the victim may not survive if bitten.” He knew he had to warn Zeus, something he should have done for his mate—a mistake that nearly cost him his zaterio.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Zeus asked as he slammed his fist down on the desk. “You’re telling me that I have creatures running around my town that can bite a person and kill them?” Nazaryth nodded as he steepled his fingers, resting his elbows on the arms of the chair. “That’s exactly what I’m telling you. Now you can sit there complaining about it all you want, but that’s not going to solve the problem.”
He knew he wasn’t making friends with the alpha, and he honestly didn’t care. His main concern was keeping the people in this town safe. He also cared about making the hounds die painfully. They were the vilest of creatures, thriving on the pain and misery of others.
He had seen what the hounds could do to other creatures many times over his long years, and it wasn’t a pretty sight. Nazaryth wanted them eradicated just as much as the alpha did, if not more.
“So now what?” Zeus asked.
Nazaryth stood, Dog following suit. “It’s our problem. We’ll take care of it.”
“But you just said—”
“I lost my mind for a minute there. No worries, my sanity is back.
Let the beasts take care of this. I don’t need any of your men getting bitten.”
Zeus nodded, looking at Nazaryth with worry. “Fine, but if you don’t deal with them, then we will.”
Right. Like that was going to happen. And Nazaryth didn’t want it to. He didn’t want to risk anyone’s life for those hounds. The beasts may be a bit rusty, but they were the ones who had sworn to guard the world against the hounds.
“We’ll take shifts patrolling your town, watching out for the hounds, killing them on sight. I have a stake in this myself,” Nazaryth admitted. “One of them attacked my zaterio, my mate. He damned near killed him.”
“Theo?” Zeus asked in shock. “He looks fine.”
“That’s because he survived the bite, barely.” Zeus’s face was grim as his large hand extended. Nazaryth shook the proffered hand. “I’ll let my men know what’s going on and put the town on alert. Every shifter around here will know what to look out for,” Zeus said as Nazaryth released the alpha and headed for the door. He needed to feel his zaterio in his arms. He spotted him down the hall, chatting with a few men.
As soon as Theo saw Nazaryth, he immediately came to his side.
“How’d it go?”
Nazaryth opened the front door, pulling Theo outside, Dog close behind.
“Looks like we’ve come out of retirement,” Dog said as he headed toward the Hummer. Nazaryth hated driving the damn thing. Flying was so much easier. But his mate’s fear of heights kept him grounded.
For now.
“What job is that?” Theo asked as he looked from Dog to Nazaryth.
“It seems the hounds are not only coming after you,” Nazaryth said as he opened the passenger door, lifting Theo into his seat.
“They’ve been spotted in town as well.”
“No,” Theo said as his hands gripped Nazaryth’s. “I have friends here, people I care about. You can’t let them be harmed.” Nazaryth squeezed Theo’s hands and then released them, seat-belting his zaterio in. “We’re not,” Nazaryth said before kissing Theo on the lips and closing the door. He climbed into the driver’s side as Dog jumped into the seat behind Nazaryth. “My men are going to take turns hunting them down.”
“Even though the bite doesn’t do a damn thing to you,” Theo said as he turned in his seat to face Nazaryth, “that doesn’t make me feel any better about this.”
Nazaryth pulled from the drive, heading home. “I know, love. But it’s a job given to us a long time ago, and since the hounds are back, so are we.”
Chapter Ten
“What are you doing?” Nazaryth asked as he walked into the kitchen, looking as though he just rolled out of bed. Theo smiled at the sexy way his mate was standing there with sleep still pulling at his face.
Damn, the man was hot.
He could stare at the man for the rest of his life and never tire of looking at him. Nazaryth had come to mean so much to Theo.
He slipped a tray of biscuits into the oven and then turned to smile at his mate. He gave Nazaryth a quick peck on the cheek, knowing any more, and he’d be grunting out his release in the kitchen. The man looked that good.
“Making you guys a decent breakfast,” Theo finally answered his mate as he flipped the bacon in the pan. He pointed the spatula toward the refrigerator. “You men cannot live on frozen entrees and takeout alone. You need some home-cooked meals because your diets suck.” He grabbed the mug of hot coffee sitting on the counter and took a sip and then pointed to the one still sitting there. “I made you a cup as well.”
Nazaryth picked the mug up, leaning into the counter as he took a sip. “Smells good. What are you cooking?”
“Just something simple,” Theo said as he pulled the baco
n from the pan and then added more. “I sent Vydeck into town with a grocery list. Dinner is at six.”
“Dinner?” Nazaryth perked up.
“Yes, dinner. If I see one more fast-food container around here, I’m going to scream.”
Nazaryth chuckled. “Bachelor’s life.”
“Was,” Theo corrected him. “It was a bachelor’s life, at least for you. You’re mated now, remember that.”
“Yes, sir.”
“You know,” Theo said as he began to crack eggs over a bowl,
“I’ve been wondering something. If Prince Christian is the original vampire, where do you guys fit in?” He grabbed the whisk, beating the eggs as he waited for his mate to answer him.
“Totally separate situation,” Nazaryth answered. “Prince Christian is the original vampire, born of his race. We were created by the gods to protect Zanthar. We were never meant to be here in the human realm.”
That news disturbed Theo. How were they never meant to be here, yet the gods gave Nazaryth a shifter for a mate? Theo had a feeling the guys were meant to be here. They just didn’t know it. How else would that explain Nazaryth as his mate?
“Oh,” Theo said as he poured the eggs into the hot cast-iron skillet. He left the subject alone. It was too early for a heated debate.
“I think I understand,” he said as he sat the bowl in the sink. “Now tell those guys out there to wash their hands and get ready for breakfast.” Theo shooed Nazaryth out of the kitchen as he began to grab plates from the cupboard.
It felt good taking care of people again. He was used to it, being a bartender and all. Theo felt useful again, and that alone went a long way with Theo.
“Hot damn,” Silo shouted as he wandered into the kitchen. “Are you cooking real food?” He inhaled deeply, his eyes closing as a blissful look crossed his face.
“Yes, and you can help out by grabbing those plates and setting the table for me.”
“Yes, sir,” Silo said as he grabbed the stack of plates. “Does this mean I get more since I’m helping out?”
“No, it means you get to eat.”