Nyve has dropped into his own zone, soft groans and growls winding through his chest as he increases tempo. Thrusts grow shorter until he finally shouts my name and his heat is filling me up inside.
Finally, he stills, sagging down until I am bearing his full weight on top of me. He’s big and he’s heavy. But he’s not uncomfortable to hold in my arms. His heart crashes against his chest and I can feel it as it pounds against mine.
Here, in the circle of my arms now, a man rests with the same trust that I extend to him. The very thought fills me with a thrill. With pride. With appreciation for what he gives to me freely.
Once he’s soft and slips from my body, I feel strangely empty. I want him back inside me and I want him to stay there.
We get comfortable again, him on his back and me splayed out on top of him. Our hearts beat in unison for a time as we come back down from our high. Affection floods me until I feel the prick of tears behind my eyes.
This isn’t what I expected, feeling like this with him. He encourages me to be stronger, more stable. I could grow as a person, knowing he has my back. With him, I’m an equal, not a dependent.
It’s a good feeling to experience. “I think I was promised waffles,” I finally manage to say, now that I’m not so breathless.
“I promise a lot more than that, Austin.”
“I know.” I turn my face to kiss his chest. “But waffles first.”
8
Nyve
I just finish up my morning appointment when Taran’s hand slaps my shoulder. “Come take a walk with me,” he says.
In a normal corporate environment, any employee whose boss invites them for a walk and talk doesn’t expect things to go well.
Treasured Ink isn’t a normal corporate environment and Taran is less the boss and more the controlling member of a five-man business. We all give Taran the business deference as he has the most level head for handling that side of it. I’m glad for it because it allows me to focus on my work. I’ve wanted to tattoo since I was a young man and pursued it with passion.
The shop isn’t just a culmination of a dream for Taran. It’s one for me too. So, I’m not worried about being fired but something’s definitely on his mind.
I step outside and shove my hands in my pockets. “What’s up?”
“Varos gave me an update. He’s been keeping in touch with Austin’s friend on what’s going on out there. I figured I’d step across the street,” Taran motions across the road to Annika’s shop—our rival tattoo shop, Immortal Ink, “and loop Annika in.”
Annika had been targeted by the muggers on Taran’s wedding day. It upset Nosko a little since the two had grown to be friends. Because of Nosko’s association, Taran also has made an effort to know her better.
The result is that we’ve developed a friendly rivalry and a thriving referral exchange as well. Before Annika disappeared, she had the reputation of being an upright person. That reputation has held with her return as well.
We push into her shop and are met with a surprise. Someone new is standing behind the counter. We can see beyond her that Annika is cleaning her machine. Taran raises his hand in greeting.
“Taran! Nyve! Come on back. They’re good, Goldie,” she says from her stool. “They’re the guys from the shop across the street.”
“Oh, hi!” the young woman says. She sticks her hand out, and the intricate tattooed sleeves that extend up both arms are the signature work of Annika. “I’m Goldie. I just started as Annika’s apprentice.”
If there’s ever a type that Annika can be cast as, which is hard enough with the woman’s enigmatic personality, Goldie appears to be the exact opposite, with her long, curly blonde hair and toothpaste commercial white teeth. In fact, I can see Taran’s assessment matches mine when I say she looks like the exact opposite of someone I’d expect to see in a tattoo shop.
We shake hands with her and already I’m taken in by her effervescent personality. She appears to be quite young, around Austin’s age. “Well, you’ll be learning from the best,” I say to her.
She beams at me and nods in agreement. “I’m thrilled I got the opportunity.”
“Come on back, guys, I’m just cleaning up,” Annika yells from the back.
“I just wanted to stop by and let you know what’s up with the whole mugging issue. We have some new information.”
“Oh, Goldie, you’ll want to sit in on this.” Annika gestures to the nearby stools for us to take a seat. “Come tell them what you told me this morning.”
Goldie comes in and leans against one of the tattoo chairs. “About the mugging?”
Okay, that has our attention. “You were mugged?”
“Me, no. I’d totally freak out if it happened to me. But a really good friend of mine was mugged yesterday. She went to the police but all they could do was take her information. Had to cancel her blue card and get a new one before they drained her account. In fact,” Goldie checks her phone, “she’s supposed to text shortly to let me know she got home from getting her new picture ID.”
“So they didn’t hurt her?” Taran leans forward to rest his elbows on his knees.
Goldie shakes her head. “No. Just said… a slur at her and took her purse.”
Her hesitancy isn’t very subtle, and she glances at Annika, who reaches out to take her hand. “It’s okay, Goldie.”
The concern is apparent on the woman’s face. It’s not hard to piece together that Goldie and her friend are shifters if the friend was targeted by the mugger.
Taran rolls up one of the spare stools. “Then you’ll definitely want to hear this.”
He takes his time in laying out for Annika everything we’ve discovered so far. The concern etches in both of their faces as they nod along. “That’s crazy. We’ll keep our ears open. If we hear anything, one of us will let you know.”
Goldie nods in vigorous agreement.
Annika nudges me with her boot. “How’s your friend, Nyve? Is he ready to go beat the information out of his father?”
“Don’t say that too loud. It took a bit to get him to back off that the first time. I don’t think he’ll listen to me a second time.”
“Oooh,” Annika says with a coy look. “Do I sense some romance in the air?”
I roll my eyes at her but I don’t deny it, which just makes her laugh.
“He even did Austin’s tattoo,” Taran shares with her.
I shoot him a look.
“That’s how Taran met Nosko.” Annika jumps up from her stool and disappears into the front of the store. She reappears almost immediately with a book. “Here, take a look at this.”
It’s a book filled with tattoo work. Clearly it’s not Annika’s. Her work is unique and wholly identified as Annika originals. Taran flips through the book, looking at it with a critical eye. “This is yours, Goldie?”
She grins widely and nods. “It is. I still have a lot to learn. I have some amazing shoes to learn in.”
I’m watching over Taran’s shoulder. Her work is good. The lines are clean, proportions are good, and she’s got solid shading skills. “You can’t go wrong learning from her.”
Taran closes the book and hands it to her. Goldie takes it and hugs it to her chest. “If you need the practice, step across the street and grab one of us. I’m pretty sure no one would mind you working on us.”
He glances up at me and I nod in agreement. “Absolutely. You have a good eye.”
“Oh my gods, that would be amazing. Annika says you guys are some of the best in the business.”
Taran gives Annika an arched eyebrow. “Does she, now?”
Annika tosses her hair over her shoulder. “Not as good as me but there’s more of you. You’re bound to eventually turn out something good.”
“Oh, is that how it is? Well, then we’ll just head back over to start stealing business from you. We’ll be sure to toss you the cast offs.” Taran rises to his feet.
Annika joins him and they hug. “And if someone is des
perate for a pedestrian, phoned-in tattoo, I’ll send them your way.”
Everyone laughs as we leave the shop.
Taran pauses outside Annika’s shop. “Let’s grab some donuts for the guys.”
Taran-speak for he’s not ready to head back to the shop. I fall into step with him and we walk in silence. I can see the wheels turning in his head. He’s mulling something over and when he’s ready, he’ll say something.
I’m not disappointed. Half a block down, he pauses. “I’m having trouble wrapping my head around this.”
I turn to stand facing him. “Which part? I think problems are all over the place.”
“For all the shit we know,” he says, “we don’t know anything at all. It’s just noise. We have guesses and possibilities. We have nothing solid. We know nothing about this organization even though we have a company name with ties.”
“Not true.” I slap a hand on his shoulder and direct us to keep walking. “We have the video footage. It’s not much and we don’t know what the mugger looks like. No one sees the face of the attacker so that means they know what they’re doing. That tells me that this is being done deliberately. We have that logo. We have the tie to Austin’s father.”
“But nothing to take to the police, or the greater shifter community. And if we did take it to the cops, we’d have to leave out the one link that would tie all this together in a case.” Taran throws his hands up in resignation. “What the hell are we going to do with all this information? And shit, Nyve, do we wait until someone’s actually hurt before we do anything?”
“You’re just winding yourself up, my friend.” I give him a friendly shake before dropping my hand. “You have good instincts. You wanted to keep watching this and we have. We’re starting to see some other things come to the fore. We’ll get a break soon and I think our reaction to it will be the natural flow from it.”
“Are you willing to take that chance? What would have happened if your confrontation had taken a bad turn?”
Taran cut right to the one thing I didn’t want to consider. If Austin is hurt through this in any way, I’ll be hell to deal with to not burn that damn building to the ground. A low growl winds out of me as my dragon gets agitated considering the possibility.
“I agree,” Taran says with a grim nod. “And we can’t overlook the fact that Austin is involved and by his confronting his father and finding out that he may be involved in some way, we may have inadvertently put him in danger.”
“No.” I’m firm about that. I will not see Austin hurt in any way over this. “I’ll keep him safe. That’s my job as his mate.”
“I can appreciate that sentiment.” Taran smiles and punches me playfully in the chest. “It’s also your turn to buy the donuts.”
9
Austin
Pulling weeds isn’t exactly my favorite activity but I don’t find it all that horrible either. It gives me time to sink into my own thoughts. With busy hands, my mind is able to run free along all the issues that have been present lately in my life.
My father’s possible complicity with an organization that is looking to frighten, if not eventually do harm, to the mythical shifter community. Meeting a man who is old enough to be my father and yet treats me like his treasured mate and not some kid. And all the sneaking around I feel like I have to do just so I don’t have to deal with my aunt and her stupid drone following me around.
Maybe that’s not a lot to many people, but it’s a lot for me to deal with. I’m thankful Nyve is so patient with me. He makes me feel as if I have all the time in the world to get my act together. I need to actually do that now.
The problem is, I’m not sure what I want my act to entail. There are so many factors to consider and, well, let’s be real, I’m a bit of a chickenshit when it comes to pulling the plug with my aunt. I owe her so much and I do love her. Leaving her alone isn’t a thought that gives me any comfort, regardless of my own restlessness to start living my own life.
“I think if we get some mulch to cover all the beds, the yard will look a lot more manicured with very little effort.” My aunt sinks to her knees next to me as I work on the patch of the flowerbed that runs along the west side of the front of the house. She removes her gloves and resettles her ridiculous flowered straw hat on her head. That’s got to be an old lady thing.
I lean into her with a smile. “It’s not that hard to keep up with it now. Ever since you got the riding lawn mower, cutting grass takes one quarter the time.”
“Now if I can just get you to run the weed-eater,” she teases back.
“Hey now, let’s not go crazy.”
She chuckles, rising to her feet slowly. Arching her back, she tilts her head, shading her eyes as she looks up at the sun. “Let’s head inside for lunch. It’s getting warm out here and I don’t want to overdo things.”
“You go on in.” I gesture to the rest of the flower bed. “I don’t have much to finish up.”
She dips to kiss the top of my head. “You’re a good young man, Austin. Just like your father.”
I try not to blanch at the comparison. I know she still has good will towards her brother, even though he quite literally dumped me on her doorstep. She gave up her life to care for me after my mother’s death since my father couldn’t be bothered. At the moment, I’m not feeling all that positive toward him.
It’s been two weeks since we had lunch and I haven’t heard from him since. Typical. There was no reason to believe things would really be any different.
A car horn beeping twice has my attention, and I look up to see Ronnie pulling up to the curb. He kills the engine and waves at me as he pulls his backpack out of the passenger’s side seat. “Hey, man. She got you out working?”
I wave back with a handful of weeds. “What gave it away?”
“Looking at how red your pasty butt is turning from being in the sun.” He collapses on the ground beside me. A finger pressed to my arm leaves a white impression before fading back to red again. “You’re gonna regret that.”
“A little sunshine never killed anyone. Besides, we have aloe inside. What are you doing here?”
“Day off. Thought I’d come by and talk with you about the stuff I’ve collated since your excursion to have lunch with your dad.”
“Let me finish up here and we’ll head inside. My aunt is fixing lunch. She’ll want you to eat with us.”
Ronnie rises to his feet when I do. “I’m all about eating your aunt’s cooking. She makes PB&J a gourmet meal. My mom can screw up grilled cheese. I’ll meet you inside.”
Ronnie is right. My aunt takes home cooking to new levels. I keep teasing her that she needs to teach me how to fend for myself but she resists. She tries to be playful about it, asking why she’d want to do that if her real aim is to keep me coming around. But I know there’s an element of truth in it, driven by fear. I’ve been her life for so long, the prospect of an empty nest when I move out has to have her feeling reluctant to let me go.
It’s not a conversation we have often. I hate to be a source of emotional pain to her so it’s a subject we don’t talk about.
Even an impromptu lunch, thrown together last minute, has Ronnie and I rolling away from the table stuffed to head back to my room.
I flop back on my bed and let out a loud burp.
“I agree.” Ronnie sinks to the floor to the side of my bed and pulls out his laptop. “It’s a wonder you’re still a beanpole. She has good eats.”
“She works it off me.” I roll to my side so I can peer off the side of the bed over Ronnie’s shoulder. “So what do you know?”
“Well, after comparing notes with Varos, who’s a way cool dude, by the way. Have you seen his tats? Some are just sick, man. I don’t know who did them but they have some serious skills.”
I push at the back of his head. “I haven’t noticed. It’s not like he wanders around the shop with his shirt off or anything.”
“That’s right, you’re all huddled up with Nyve. Worked ou
t your daddy issues yet?”
“I don’t have daddy issues.”
Ronnie glances over his shoulder at me with a skeptical look. “Uh huh.”
That is a conversation I do not want to have with Ronnie. “Whatever. So did you find anything new or are you just here to worship Varos’ ink?”
“It’s what I haven’t found, actually.” Ronnie pulls up a whole bunch of windows and scripts start to run. “Since about six months ago, muggings have been a regular weekly occurrence. We still haven’t found any pattern to where they happen. It looks random so far. However, since your little trip to talk to your dad, there hasn’t been a mugging.”
What? I swivel to slide onto the floor next to him. “At all?”
“Nada.” Ronnie pulls up a timeline of all the names he’s been able to find of victims. “It’s been a two-week hiatus. I think they know someone’s looking for them.”
“That’s weird.” I scratch at my arm and it stings. I’ll need to get the aloe after Ronnie leaves otherwise I’ll be a lobster.
“Maybe not. They’re lying low until the heat’s off?” Ronnie sets his laptop to the side and slumps back. “It’d be nice if we could find a pattern or figure out where they’ll try next. It’s all over the map right now. But I don’t have the proper algos to run to figure it out. Maybe I’ll ask Varos if he has something.”
“You seem to spend a lot of time with him,” I observe with a smile.
Ronnie rolls his eyes. “Not that much. Dude has a job, so do I. I’m not even his type.”
“And what is his type?”
“Not me. Oh, before I forget, I have a lead on a job for you.” Ronnie stretches forward to drag his bag over and he digs through it.
“Smooth transition.”
“You don’t want to talk about your love life, I’m not going to talk about the lack of mine. Here.” He holds out a card to me. “Invetal is looking for coding contractors. It’s part time work and you can work from home. Give them a call.”
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