by Jools Louise
“Oh, god, you’re good at that,” Noah moaned, closing his eyes, his head falling back onto the pillow as he simply felt, every sense centered around the exquisite pleasure around his cock.
“Hmmm, I’m just playing out my fantasies, stud,” Fly murmured, taking Noah to the back of his throat, massaging the head skillfully.
“Fuuuck,” Noah sighed in blissful wonder. “Feel free to act out any sexual fantasies you’ve ever had. I’m all yours.”
Fly began sucking hard, his cheeks hollowed, his lips swollen and red, and Noah couldn’t help but watch himself being pleasured, seeing his dick disappearing over and over between his lover’s perfect lips.
“Fire in the hole,” Noah shouted, his balls drawing up, then shooting out thick loads of cum. Fly swallowed them greedily, humming with pleasure, until Noah was drained and sated. He collapsed onto his back, and nuzzled his mate when Fly came crawling up his body, cuddling close.
“Have a little taste,” Fly offered drowsily, and they shared a cum-filled kiss, since Fly hadn’t quite swallowed everything.
Noah kissed his mate with slow, drugging hunger, loving the warmth and pliancy of Fly draped over him. “Have you noticed something?” Noah asked drowsily, sipping at Fly’s lips, then nibbling his way down his mate’s slender neck.
“Your cock is weeping?” Fly asked, moving his butt impudently, sliding Noah’s moist dick along his crack.
Noah chuckled huskily, nipping at Fly’s chin. “It’s preparing for entry,” he murmured, guiding it into position, then tunneling into Fly’s loosened hole like a guided missile. They’d been making love for a while now, and he’d already dumped a couple of loads into his mate’s needy ass.
“That’s more like it,” Fly praised. “I thought I’d have to do all the work this evening.”
Noah snapped his hips, bouncing his unrepentant mate on his dick, until Fly began to moan in bliss. “Baby, you know I love having you ride me,” he grinned. “What I was trying to say is that nobody’s interrupted us yet this evening. We’ve been making love for three whole hours, and our doorbell hasn’t rung once.”
There was a knock at the door, and both men laughed loudly. “Why would you jinx us like that?” Fly protested, groaning as he clambered off his lover’s hot rod.
“I said doorbell,” Noah replied, winking. “Nothing about the front door caving in,” he shouted loudly, donning his sweat pants as Fly dashed for the bedroom to retrieve his onesie. “Okay, okay,” he said. “Quit all the caterwauling, already.”
He opened the door to see Shark and Oliver, loaded with aromatic armfuls of take-out bags, with Kaden and his mates, Alfie and his mates, plus John, Cameron, Meredith, and a whole bunch of other people from the town and ranch. Luckily, the apartment was spacious, and fit them all easily enough, although it was going to be cozy once everyone settled down.
“We’re having a pow-wow,” John offered, sauntering inside, now devoid of plaster and bandages, one side of his head shaved, with a brand new tattoo inked onto his bald patch. It said Plan B Sucks.
Noah laughed at the man, shaking his hand, glad he was well enough to be let out, with Cameron as his chaperone.
“One night,” Noah sighed with amusement. “Just one night alone with my mate, with no interruptions. Is that too much to ask?”
The posse piled into the apartment, finding themselves seats, or sprawling on the carpet, and dishing out fried chicken meals, courtesy of the newly up-and-running Feeling Clucky, back in business after a week of redecoration and having new cookers installed. They’d had to replace all the chairs and tables, which had been little more than firewood.
“Dude, you can spend the rest of your lives engaged in nookie,” Kaden drawled, grinning. “Sometimes, hard to believe, I know, other things take precedence over sex.”
“Such a bloody shame,” John said, tucking into his meal.
There was a general chorus of agreement. Mick, one of the original Sage crew, eyed John with a smirk. “Sometimes you just have to get creative,” he informed them.
“Are you interrupting my sex life to talk about your own, or can we get down to business?” Fly sniped as he came back into the living room.
Mick grinned unrepentantly, then yelped when his mate, Jamie, smacked him hard on the arm. “Quit being a tease,” Jamie said, feeding Mick a fry. “Or you’ll end up like John, with no nookie for a month.”
Even Fly shouted with laughter at that perfect jibe, with John smiling ruefully. “Darling, please may I go back to hospital?” he asked his husband plaintively. “I’d forgotten how much nicer their bedside manner is. All I get in this town is abuse.”
“Sweetie, that’s because you deserve it,” Cameron shot back, kissing John fondly, then shoving a corn cob into his mouth.
“Is there a particular reason you chose our apartment to have your pow-wow?” Noah asked, eyeing the large group balefully. “There are other venues in town.”
“John said he’s been cockblocked for the last three weeks,” Meredith said, throwing the snow leopard shifter under the bus without regret. “Apparently, he’s decided that you’ve both been having far too much canoodling time, and wanted to give you a taste of what it feels like to be celibate for nearly a month.”
Noah saw the gleam of laughter in John’s eyes. “The reason for your lack of stimulation, sexually speaking, was because of your clusterfuck of a Plan B,” he told the man, scowling.
“Yeah, but without it, you’d be deader than a dodo,” John shot back cheerfully.
Noah rolled his eyes. “It’s so annoying when you remind me of that,” he sighed. Then he grinned at his friend. “I bet you’ve been creative, though, whatever idiot reasoning you used to choose our place for entertaining.”
John tapped his nose, winking. “Don’t ask,” he whispered, sotto voce. “Or I might get in trouble again.”
“When aren’t you in trouble?” Pace asked dryly.
“My dear chap, I must take exception to that,” John replied with a frown. “I seem to recall being trouble free for at least six hours last night. Just ask my adorable husband.”
Cameron nudged his mate with his shoulder, looking embarrassed. “Must you?” he responded wearily, his mocha skin tone darkening as he blushed.
“Six hours, hey?” Mick cut in. “You must be slacking.”
“Hey!” Cameron said, glaring at Mick. “Quit dissing my man. He’s only just out of the hospital.”
“Yeah,” John pouted, waggling his brows. “It’s not fair to insult the recently released invalid.”
“Shall we start the meeting?” Pace interrupted briskly. “Before the kindergarteners need to get home for bedtime stories?”
Noah laughed loudly. “Please begin, cockblocker,” he said, getting a one-fingered salute in response.
“We’re all business owners here,” Joe McKellar spoke up from a corner of the room, propped up against the wall, next to his mate, Aaron. “And our town has been invaded by Flashpoint, who, as we’ve seen, are getting bolder. They’ve killed again, and they won’t stop until they’ve destroyed us. We need to tread more carefully— a lot more. Hence the venue for this meeting, under the pretext of a house warming.”
“Mikhail has just flown to London, to begin his first mission, finding out as much as he can about our aristocratic friend, Sir Aaron Fielding.” Ryder Black continued the thread. “We managed to extract, with Rafe’s able assistance, a great deal from our three vandals of three weeks ago, and they are now incarcerated in a secure facility, privately owned and operated, by the Warriors Brigade.”
“We needed to keep the Flashpoint contingent separate from everyone else,” Rafe said, sipping a cup of coffee. His dark eyes glistened with a hard light. “They are getting a little too clever for their own good, and some appear to have been recruited from inside our state prisons.”
“Each time we capture, alive, one of their number, we’ll be placing them in one of five such facilities,” John added seriously. “It�
��s been apparent that Flashpoint’s network is extensive, which was confirmed by our London sources earlier today. If we can stop them re-recruiting, it will help to break their network.”
“Sounds like a plan,” Noah said, nodding.
“It’s a start,” Ryder replied. “We’re playing catch-up still, but if Mik’s mission goes okay, we can help to unravel their communications, and start nailing some of their key players. So far, they’ve had the upper hand. That needs to stop.”
“Who’s this Aaron Fielding?” Fly asked curiously.
“He’s the son of a British lord, old money. His family are connected to the British royal family, going back centuries at least. He’s always been a wastrel, though, according to my contacts,” Ryder said. “His father is well-connected, and as far as we can tell, is clean. His son is a different story. The man has spent his life drifting from one fiasco to another, until he got involved in a nasty sexual assault case, involving a family friend. His father disowned him publicly, and he’s been without his family’s financial clout for the last few years.”
“A motive?” Noah asked.
“Could be,” Pace surmised. “If money’s the key, then Fielding might well be doing all this to keep up with the lifestyle he’s grown up with, sticking two fingers up to his father at the same time. Perhaps what started out as a small rebellion has turned into a lucrative opportunity for him, and he doesn’t want to let go of his power.”
“Why is he targeting Sage, though?” Fly asked, looking puzzled. “What do we have to do with his businesses?”
“He found a rewarding revenue stream when the shifter world was revealed,” John interjected. “He’s been steadily finding new and exciting ways to make a profit, and his preferred methods involve causing pain to various creatures. The video that we saw a few weeks ago, involving the death of Cullen’s cousins, was the result of Fielding’s fight club. The shifters refused to collaborate, and were tortured in front of their families, as a message to any others who might be tempted to cooperate.”
“We’ve said before that Fortress seem to enjoy indulging in blood sports, and that’s consistent with Fielding’s MO,” Pace said. “He’s a hunter, been brought up shooting pheasants, deer, and anything else he can kill. He’s upped his game, and decided that hunting shifters is much more fun, since we’re part human…and he doesn’t recognize the human part as being particularly relevant.”
“So his motive is just greed-based?” Fly looked horrified.
“We believe so,” Ryder replied. “We think he’s connected to Sage because of Daniel and Morag. Apparently they were the ones who shared information a while ago, and Fielding came onto the scene. He’s eager to expand into the American market, and likes Sage as his base, since we’re the center of the shifter movement.”
“He wants to take over Sage,” Fly suggested slowly. “Someone like that adores power, and this would be an ideal place for him to control. It would be a feather in his cap to take us down, after what we’ve achieved. He’ll like the history, linked to the Will and the Word, who spent years suppressing the residents, and running their drug mules from here.”
“It would be a feather in his cap, for sure,” Pace agreed, repeating the statement for effect. “If enough people get scared, with the hotel explosion, the bomb threats from Ghost, and the recent spate of vandalism at the mall and other outlets, then the town won’t feel as safe, and we’ll lose residents, fast.”
“Divide and conquer,” Noah commented quietly.
“Exactly,” Joe said grimly. “And we have the problem of not knowing exactly who lives in town, since it’s expanded threefold in the last few years.”
“Hence the reason you need people to report any suspicious movements, conversations, or activities,” Fly said intuitively.
“Yes,” Pace said. “We have plenty of resources, and those we trust implicitly. You’re the ones who see newcomers, who interact with people daily. You can help so much, just by going about your normal routine. Then report back anything suspicious.”
“It’ll be a cinch,” Alfie said, grinning at Fly and Kaden. “Between us we can gossip more than anyone else in Sage. Perfect day at work.”
Fly laughed back, nodding. “We’re the queens of Sage,” he said.
“We’re hiring two more stylists, and another beauty therapist,” Kaden cut in. Alfie and Fly squealed with excitement, dancing around.
“Really, who are we getting?” Alfie asked, cupping Kaden’s face as he demanded an answer, once the he and Fly had settled down.
“Hey, quit the dramatics,” Kaden laughed, tapping Alfie’s nose teasingly. “We have several applicants, so I’ll need you two helping to decide on the right ones.”
“We get to choose?” Fly said, clapping his hands. “That’s sooo much fun.”
“We’ll start an hour early in the morning,” Kaden said. “We all need to look through the applications, and make some calls later in the day. Perhaps Sunday afternoon would be a good day to do interviews, and a practical test for each person, to see how they fare.”
“A practical?” Alfie asked.
“Alfie and I never had to do that,” Fly added, frowning.
“You and Alfie are people I trust implicitly,” Kaden retorted, arching one brow meaningfully.
“Ohhhh,” the two men said in unison. “That’s a great idea then, to stop us hiring any psychopaths.”
“Yeah, that was my first thought,” Kaden said dryly.
“Imagine if we hired someone, and they mixed up the wrong batch of chemicals for a perm?” Alfie intoned, biting his fingernail.
Fly clutched his chest dramatically. “Too much, too much,” he cried.
Noah rolled his eyes, and grabbed his mate, kissing him soundly. “That’s what you said three hours ago,” he quipped huskily, drawing a round of laughter from the room at large, as Fly blushed beet red.
“With that in mind, what plans do we have in place, other than reporting to you when we see someone?” Joe interjected once everyone settled down.
“We already have a coded text system,” Pace replied. “Perhaps we can expand on that.”
“And we have the security gates, leading into town.” That was from Cullen, perched on the arm of a chair, beside John.
“We’re happy to patrol the mall,” Axel said, Doyle next to him, sitting on stools at the counter. “Louis, Clifton, and Nate are taking extra classes in computing,” he continued, referring to the other three bear shifters.
“Perhaps that’s what’s needed, as well,” Joe said thoughtfully. “An overt presence, as well as the undercover operation.”
“My old crew are up for it,” Kaden said. “Slade and Brody just came back to town, after a road trip to California. They’re looking for work. They make a good security team. I’m trying to contact the rest of them, too. Tobias, Micah, Moe, Jericho, and Gage headed to Canada, but are on their way back. I’m struggling to touch base with Dale, Pip, Gideon, Hugh, River, and Morris.”
Sherman, over in the far corner with his mate Chaz, frowned over at his stepbrother. “Where’s Baxter? He said he was coming back soon, too. He was in touch with Misty two months ago, and then nothing.”
“Did you say that Slade was in town?” Alfie asked, frowning sulkily. Slade and Alfie had a history together, having been locked up by Pace a few years ago, when Kaden was having issues with his brother, Sherman, and a brawl ensued on the street. Alfie had taken exception to Slade dissing his friends, and they’d ended up fighting each other.
“Yep,” Kaden replied cheerfully. “He misses you, too,” he grinned, then looked at Sherman. “I haven’t heard from Baxter or Finn in a while,” he said seriously. “Last time I spoke to Baxter was to tell me that he had a job over in Chicago. Bouncer at a nightclub there. His phone just goes to voicemail. Finn said he had a job abroad, England I think. He hasn’t been in touch, either.”
“Is that normal?” Pace asked.
“Not for this long,” Kaden said. “My
crew and I are tight, have done a lot of shit over the years. I even sent them a Code 1 call, which in our terminology means someone’s in trouble…Dale, Pip, Gideon, Hugh, Morris, Finn, and Baxter have just disappeared.”
“We need to find them,” Sherman said.
“Did you say Chicago?” Sketch, Kaden’s mate, said. He was stretched out comfortably on the floor, David and Skull, his other mates, sitting on either side. “I have contacts over there. Let me give them a call.” Then he frowned at Kaden. “Why didn’t you say anything before?”
“I wasn’t worried before,” Kaden replied. “They’re grown men, and I knew they were on the road a lot. But after I tried to contact everyone, to get a security team together, I found out that nobody in my crew has heard from them either.”
“Flashpoint?” Ryder asked, his face hard.
“Possibly,” Kaden answered. “I just don’t know.”
The doorbell rang, and Fly got up to peer through the view screen. “I don’t know who that is,” he said.
“That’s Slade,” Kaden said, looking relieved. “He’s brought a few of the others, too.”
Fly buzzed the newcomers in. “This place is getting crowded,” he commented, on standby until the knock came, then he let the bikers in.”
“Hey,” Kaden said laconically, and got up to bro-hug his friends.
“Aw, we missed dinner,” a tall, bald-headed guy said, looking at all the discarded cartons.
“We can always order pizza,” Noah said. “How many?”
“I can eat a large one. I’m starving,” Slade replied, smiling and rubbing his bald head tiredly. “I’m getting too old for all this touring.”
“Here,” Noah said, dialing the local pizzeria. “Order what you want, on me. Least I can do, since you’ve been dragged halfway across the country.”
“Happy to be back,” another of the crew said, heading to the kitchen. “Okay if I grab a glass of water?”
“I’ll get it,” Fly said, scrambling to his feet. “You sit down.”