Darrel growled, and fur rippled across his skin. “I didn’t realize I was making breakfast for anyone besides Scarlet.”
Damn it.
Why did I always have two crises going on at once? Darrel was moments away from losing the reins on his wolf.
“Darrel?” I forced an upbeat note to my tone as well, standing from my chair. I threw a thumb toward the door. “Let’s take a walk.”
Darrel rounded the table in two steps and grabbed Mack, dragging him up from his chair. Darrel’s eyes flashed golden, and black claws extended from his fingertips. “If you have a way to stop your mother, then why the fuck haven’t you already done it?”
Mack wrenched himself free of Darrel’s grip, shredding the front of his shirt. “That’s the last resort only if investigating fails. I’m willing to put everything I have behind proving Zane is innocent, and I hate the guy. I think I’ve made it clear whose side I’m on.”
“Hey,” I barked, jumping up and shoving myself between the two men. I extended my arms, pushing a palm against each of their chests. “Darrel, you need to calm down.” My wolf rose to the surface, giving me a growly, resonant tone. “Mack is just trying to help us. Come on guys, do we really have to deal with this before I’ve eaten my pancakes?”
“Never come between a woman and her food,” Aaron said, snagging my cup and taking a sip of my coffee.
I glared. “Put my cup down and slide it across the table, slowly, Aaron Knight.”
He held up both hands. “Just making sure it hadn’t gone cold. But Mack, buddy, maybe you should go for a couple of hours.” He stood and patted Mack on the shoulder. “It’s a little bit of a bad time. I’ll call you as soon as we’re heading off on our investigation.”
“Yeah,” I said in a measured tone. “I’ll call you in about an hour.”
Hurt flickered across Mack’s face, and I could tell he didn’t realize the extent of the danger he was in. The truth was, I had to deal with this plumbing crisis, and I didn’t want to leave Mack alone in the apartment with Darrel today. Not after Mack told Darrel that his worst nightmares had been realized. Everyone Darrel cared about was about to have a big red target painted on their head. Darrel protected. That was who he was, and the fact that he had reined in his wolf this long was a testament to the level of control he had.
I didn’t take my eyes off Darrel until the door closed behind me and Aaron whispered, “He’s gone.”
“Crisis averted,” I said. Going to my toes, I kissed Darrel’s stubbly chin. “Mack is just a messenger—a messenger I love. He’s here to help us, and I would fight to the death to protect him. I’d fight to protect you, too, so you need to pull yourself together. Lance will need an update, and I have to go fix a leak downstairs.”
Finally, Darrel’s skin stopped rippling with fur, but his eyes still glowed with his wolf. “I’ll go with you.”
“Darrel-man, how about I go with Scarlet, and you go update Lance.” Aaron lifted his hands. “I solemnly swear that I will protect Scarlet with my life as I watch her do all the repairs.”
Darrel nodded stiffly, turned on his heel, and strode out of the room.
“Guess it’s too much to ask for one normal morning around here,” I grumbled as I snatched up my coffee and chugged it like the lifeblood that it was. I grabbed a pancake and took a big bite as I rushed for the door. “You’re going to watch me do repairs, not help me?”
“I will help you by feeding you these.” He lifted the pancake plate.
“Leave a couple for Darrel.”
“He’s not going to eat this... stuff.” Aaron cringed, looking down at our extremely chocolatey breakfast. “There’s nothing in this but sugar.”
I rushed down three stories and let myself into Zeezee and Zane’s apartment.
“Flapjack me,” I said twenty minutes later when I was lying on the ground under my old vanity.
From where he was sitting on a step-ladder beside me, Aaron held a pancake to my lips. I’d finally managed to stop the leak and mop up the two inches of water on the floor. The apartment was a disaster. I had very much on purpose avoided thinking about what Zeezee and Zane’s love nest would have turned into. Zane had always kept the apartment immaculate. Zee had lived in a state of absolute chaos. It seemed that when you added the two together, chaos won.
Between the leak and the mess, the place smelled like shit—literally. Aaron had done his best to comb through the mess while I dealt with the leak but had given up with the excuse of feeding me pancakes.
The leak was in the kitchen where a tap was running, and someone had clearly poured so much drain cleaner down the sink that the pipelining had disintegrated. The slow leak had been going on for hours, and water had made its way into the vents, which in turn flooded their downstairs neighbor.
“If you’re waiting for me to finish this, you might be out there a while,” I said through chewing. Just then, the old piping snapped, causing water and a giant hair clot to spray out of the pipe straight at my face. “Motherf—"
“Hold that thought,” Aaron said as he handed me a towel, laughter in his voice. “I’ll be right back.”
I heard the creak of the door, footsteps, and then a mummer of voices. “Aaron, did you leave?”
He didn’t answer.
Bastard. I shoved the joint back together, spitting water.
“Aaron, if you’re still here, can you grab a dry towel and come dry this so I can tape it,” I said, kicking around to find the pile of towels with my foot.
Lance’s perfectly groomed head appeared under the other side of the sink, smirking down at my soaked face. He lowered himself and began drying the pipes, his elbows bumping mine.
“Jane’s here. We have to wrap this up if we’re going to go investigate,” he said.
“Yeah, huh,” I muttered as my wolf growled in appreciation at his touch. Yet again, I managed to look like a drowned rat while Lance was, as always, clad in a bazillion dollar suit.
“I can probably do that,” I said, feeling guilty that he was getting his expensive suit wet for my sake.
“I’m not afraid to get a little dirty,” he said, arching an eyebrow in a way that made my thighs quiver. “I’m also not afraid to go on dates.”
Ouch.
I cleared my throat. “If you don’t mind getting dirty, hold these pipes,” I said, reaching for the plumber’s tape without meeting his eyes. He could probably tell what his nearness did to me. No, strike that. He could definitely tell.
I sighed and wrapped the tape around the pipe. Nothing I could do about it except comfort myself with the thought that if we really were true mates, he was feeling the exact same way.
“How long is this going to last?” Lance asked, his voice a low rumble that made me wonder if he was actually talking about the tape.
I chose to believe he was.
“Until I can get to the hardware store for more permanent parts.” My fingers bumped his as I wound the tape. Damn it. Why had he come in here? We were so close I could feel the tickle of his breath on my wet cheeks, could see the glimmer of his eyes, his wolf shining through just a bit.
“So, Jane convinced the cops to let us into the crime scene?” I finished wrapping the tape and paused, looking up at Lance’s strong features. God, he looked so damn kissable when he wiped the asshole smirk off his face for two seconds. And his lips were so close to mine I could just…
A loud, obnoxious ringing sound chimed through the tiny cabinet under the sink, and I slid out, grabbing for my phone, my heart pounding.
“Marie,” I said into the phone, relief flooding through me. “I’ve been trying to get ahold of you.”
“I know,” she said, her voice an affected high pitch. “I got your messages, but I’m afraid it’s out of the question. I’m already giving you one unit for free. I’m not giving you a discount on a second one because you don’t want to evict your boyfriend.”
“Ex-boyfriend. And wait a second, this unit should be paying rent. They h
anded me an envelope, which I delivered to you three weeks ago,” I gritted out.
The pack had given that money to Zeezee as a one-time courtesy.
“I did get an empty envelope three weeks ago, but as that unit is in your job contract, I can’t charge them rent. I also can’t give a discount every time the tenant comes to me with a sob story,” Marie said. “Everybody’s got a sob story, Scarlet.”
“This unit can’t go rent-free,” I said. “I’m not living here anymore, and I’m not going to provide for them.” Technically, I’d provided for Zeezee and Zane twice over.
“You’ll need to evict them and take your name off the lease,” Marie said, flatly. “And if you’re asking for the discount on another apartment, it will be in your name, so if anything happens in that one, you’ll be liable.”
Of course, I would.
I looked around at the clot of dark hair that had spewed from the pipes and the wet towels all around me. “Fuck this. I told them I was cutting them off, and somehow, Zeezee and Zane managed to steal double rent from me this month. Then, they went ahead and started a war.”
Chapter Ten
Aaron
The house of the fateful sex party sat at the edge of a cliff on the highest step in Eureka. The lower steps of the city were a shit-show of dilapidated bridges and half-collapsed hovels, but in the upmost steps waited an entirely different city. The three-story sprawling orange and white Victorian looked as mundane as any other mansion on the block. I’d expected police tape or patrol cars outside, but the grass was recently mown, and the front door shone with a layer of fresh vermillion paint.
Lance pulled up to the curb, killed his engine, and turned to Jane in the front passenger seat. “I thought you said you’d arranged with the sheriff for us to have an hour to investigate the scene?”
“I did arrange it.” She trailed off as she lifted her gaze from her phone to peer around the street. “They better be here. I had to pull in a favor from the governor using your name, Alpha. The police don’t even look like they have a presence here. Are you sure we have the right address?”
“Yeah, this is it.” Lance glanced into the backseat. “You three stay in here while we...” His gaze snagged on where Mack’s hand was on my head, scratching behind my long, pointed ears. My older brother shook his head slightly, his nostrils flaring. “Just stay here until we signal.”
Lance and Jane disembarked from the front seats and headed up to the front of the house.
Mack leaned past where I sat wedged between him and Scarlet. It had taken Lance and me an hour to convince Darrel that he should stay behind, but I’d still been surprised when the fae prince had climbed into the back of the van. I’d been even more surprised when he’d reached over and started scratching behind my ears.
“Am I doing something bad?” Mack asked.
“Um...” The slightest smile fought its way onto Scarlet’s otherwise miserable expression. “You know that you’re scratching Aaron behind the ears, not a dog, right?”
“I know.” Mack’s brow furrowed. “Is that rude? I figured he’d have growled or something if he didn’t like it.”
Scarlet puckered her lips as if unsure how to answer that. “I’d say more intimate, but in a friend way. The equivalent of rubbing someone’s shoulders or laying your head in their lap. I don’t suggest you do it to Darrel or Lance. Or really any werewolf other than me, and apparently Aaron.”
Making eye contact with her, I harrumphed and leaned my muzzle along Mack’s leg. When Mack pulled his hand away, I raised my paw and scratched at his leg. The fae prince chuckled and massaged his magical hands through my fur. “Bark twice if you want me to stop?”
A second later, Scarlet’s hand joined Mack’s, massaging down my back. Part of me wanted to stay exactly where I was forever, while another part was tempted to turn into a man and surprise the hell out of them. It was the wrong time, though. Both Mack and Scarlet’s moods had grown heavier as we’d crossed the city. Even if Mack had never met these fae, it had to feel personal. If I were in his place, it would have.
Outside, Lance and Jane knocked on the front door, and a fae opened it as if he’d been waiting just inside. He looked around so nervously, he was either expecting an attack or about to attack us.
“What the hell?” Scarlet growled. “Did they arrange for us to investigate the scene at the exact time as the Queen’s investigators? First in the station, now at the crime scene. It’s like the police want us to go to war.”
“That’s not a fae investigator,” Mack said as he leaned past me to look out Scarlet’s window.
He smelled amazing, distracting me for a moment as he pressed along my side.
“Do you know him?” Scarlet asked.
“That would be Barney,” Mack said the name with a cringe. “He’s one of the biggest idiots at court and eagerly one of my mother’s playthings. And trust me, she doesn’t treat them gently.”
Scarlet cracked the van door just wide enough that we could hear Lance verbally tearing into the fae in a cold, calm voice.
Barney seemed undeterred as he answered. “The queen has every right to close off her property to investigators under the Fae Self-Governing Act, just as you would have a similar right if the crime scene had happened on werewolf property.”
“Shit,” Scarlet said, shock passing over her features. “How did I not see this coming? If she won’t let us or the police investigate, we won’t be able to find proof of Zane’s innocence. They’ll have to release him, and the hunt will be on.”
“It’s exactly the type of move my mother would make,” Mack said. “It’s conveniently extending her policy that all investigations involving fae killing fae are handled internally.”
“We have the same policy, but if we had a situation that involved a troll or something, we would coordinate with their government,” Scarlet said. “Fuck. She’s going to block our investigation until it’s impossible, isn’t she?” Scarlet turned fully and nuzzled her head into my coat.
I nuzzled her back, knowing she needed a moment of comfort.
Lifting her head, Scarlet whispered, “If anyone in my pack is guilty, I will do what I have to do. But I’m not going to hand him over to be hunted and probably tortured. At the same time, I can’t have my wolves protect him. That would mean that they’d be killed. It would just be me against an army of fae. My only hope—” She broke off and inhaled deeply, trying to regain her calm before going on. “My only hope is to prove that he’s innocent. Obviously, the queen knows that.”
I woofed quietly and tossed my head at the house. Both Scarlet and Mack looked at me, their brows furrowing.
It turned out that I’d be surprising them after all. Concentrating hard, I changed. My bones shifted and fur sucked into my skin. Within thirty seconds, I was again in human form. I was also naked, with both Mack and Scarlet leaning into me.
“Sorry for changing,” I whispered through breaths labored from turning human and the very strange position I found myself in. “I was just trying to say that if Mack could distract this Barney guy, Scarlet and I could slip around the house as wolves. I’m sure he’d be...” I trailed off a little, sidetracked by the fact that both Scarlet and Mack were still touching me. Their hands lay on my chest, both of them listening to me as I spoke.
It wasn’t like we hadn’t been naked together fairly often. I’d just never found myself in the middle. It was distracting as hell. I cleared my throat, trying to ignore the tingling sensation of my cock, rather inconveniently, growing harder. My voice was more strained as I continued, “I’m sure this Barney guy would be preoccupied with fae royalty.”
“According to Zane, he broke the glass door in the back, so we’d probably be able to get in,” Scarlet said.
“What if there are fae inside?” Mack leaned past both of us.
“We’d have to be careful.” Scarlet moved in even closer, her intoxicating scent almost unbearable as I tried to convince my body to behave.
I s
ucked in a breath as I lost my battle for control, and my cock swelled. “And… That’s my cue to turn back into a wolf.”
“What?” Scarlet whispered as both she and Mack looked down to my quickly hardening cock. Mack’s aquamarine gaze rose to meet mine, and there was a glint of mischief there that made this situation all the more unbearable. For this first time in the month that Mack and I had become fast friends, the mischief in his gaze was pointed my way, and I liked it way more than was appropriate under the circumstances. His hand crept a little lower on my abdomen, and my cock jerked upward, fully erect.
Scarlet’s honeysuckle arousal filled the car, and I looked over to find her wide green eyes looking between Mack and me.
“Bad time, worse place,” I said, after a beat of silence. “And now I’m going to change back before Lance and Jane find me in this state.”
Scarlet blinked around like she’d actually forgotten what we were doing. “Bad, bad, bad timing,” she said in a breathy voice. “And yeah, we have to pull our shit together.”
They were both silent as I changed, and thankfully my change dampened my arousal.
After a few seconds with me as a wolf, Scarlet cleared her throat. “What do you think, Mack? Can you cause enough of a fuss that we can slip around the side?”
“Uh...” Mack rolled his head back and forth. “Yeah, that I can do. I’ll just channel my mother. I’ve done impressions of her often enough.”
Scarlet’s hand curled into a fist. “I’m sorry for never being there for you when it came to her.”
“Scar...” Mack rubbed the back of his neck. “I see you beating yourself up about this, but up until recently, I didn’t want you to know about her. Remember? I wanted you safely far away. But recently… Shit, we don’t have time to talk about this right now. But we definitely need to talk soon.”
Scarlet visibly swallowed before pulling her shirt off and wiggling out of her jeans. In less than a minute, she was a wolf beside me on the van bench seat.
Mack looked over, making sure we were both ready, and then he slid the door open, leaving it ajar as he headed to the front porch.
Filthy Fae: A Dirty Alphas Novel (Heartland Forest Book 2) Page 8