When No Doesn't Cut It

by Lisa Oliver

  “What the fuck?” Damien growled.

  “Sorry, Alpha, so sorry,” the man managed to get out. “There’s a fire at the compound. It’s real bad Alpha. It’s already taken out two houses and is threatening a couple more. We need…”

  “We need to be there,” Scott said firmly coming up behind Damien, pulling on his shirt. He handed Damien his own shirt and boots, and then waited while Damien hurriedly got dressed. The two men followed Malacai down the stairs, through the club and out to the entrance where a fleet of black SUVs were double parked in the street. Without thinking Damien went to the one in the middle and hopped into the back seat pulling Scott with him. As soon as the two men were seated the convey pulled out and headed out of town.

  Damien could feel the quiet strength of his mate as he sat and worried about what they were walking into. A fire at the compound was almost unheard of and already Damien was starting to wonder how it had started, was anybody hurt, how many people needed to be re-housed, had the fire department been called? If two houses were already burning then this was a big fire, as all of the houses in the compound, which was the main living area for pack families, were at least twenty or more meters apart. Fuck and there would be women and children involved as well. Damien tried to curb his impatience as his driver, Malacai he noticed, wove in and out of traffic with practiced ease. The pack lands and compound were twenty minutes from the club and every minute weighed heavily on Damien as he fretted about what he would find.

  /~/~/~/~/

  Scott didn’t know what to expect from Damien’s pack lands. Damien had only mentioned them briefly, in that apparently he had a house there, but Scott had no idea how many people lived onsite or how many houses there were or even how much land Damien owned. He imagined, given the size of the pack that there would be a fair bit of land involved, but as to who actually lived on pack lands, Scott had no idea. So instead of worrying about what he didn’t know, Scott pulled Damien’s hand into his lap and held it quietly while the bigger man worried enough for both of them.

  Roughly twenty minutes later the convoy pulled into large iron gates that were already open ready for their arrival. The gates had to have been 12 foot tall and were encased in a solid brick wall fence that seemed to stretch for miles on both sides of the gates. It was clear Damien’s pack valued their privacy and Scott wondered if all of the pack lands were fenced or if this was just a way of stopping nosy intruders from coming onto the land from the road. There did not appear to be any neighboring houses on the other side of the road. Instead the road butted against what appeared to be a huge forest area.

  The cars drove for about another five minutes more through thick trees that eventually opened out to a huge grassy area dotted with a number of houses. The convoy pulled up in front of the largest house and Damien jumped out of the SUV, not looking to see if Scott was following him. Scott followed a little more slowly, taking in his surroundings and trying to get his bearings. Looking over to the furthest house away, Scott could see huge plumes of smoke rising from two of the buildings, and dozens of people running around between the two houses with hoses, trying to get the fires under control. Damien had already started running towards the damage and Scott quickly caught up with him and his entourage.

  “What the hell happened here?” Damien roared as he got closer, his tall frame making it possible for him to see everything that was happening. Another huge man, who was supervising the hoses, came running over to report, along with another half a dozen wolves. Scott recognized the faces as being some of the wolves at the pack meeting the day before, but he didn’t know anything else about the men currently gathered around Damien, all trying to tell their own version of events. Scott moved back to let the others have their say and looked around to see if there was any practical way he could help.

  He was just thinking about going over to help with the hoses, when he caught sight of a small figure staggering from a house that was burnt down, but not out. Without thinking he ran towards what was obviously a small boy. Just as he got to him, the soot covered little urchin fell at his feet. Scott knelt down and turned the boy’s face up to the sun.

  “Hey little man, where did you come from?” He asked quietly, worried when he saw the look of fear on the boy’s face.

  “Who…who are you?” the boy managed to rasp out.

  “The Alpha Mate, are you okay?” Scott said just as quietly, scanning the small body, looking for signs of injuries.

  The boy looked back at the house he had come from and then back at Scott.

  “There are others,” he whispered. “They’re in cages. I can’t get them out.”

  Horrified, Scott looked to where the boy was pointing to the house. Most of the upper levels had burnt down, and while most of the flames were under control, timbers were falling and there wasn’t much of the structure left.

  “Where are they?” he said urgently. “Can you show me?”

  “In the basement, round the side. There’s a window.” The boy said, before he slipped into unconsciousness.

  Scott looked around and saw a woman hovering on the edges of the crowd, watching him with the boy. He waved at her urgently, angrily dismissing her signs of submission as she came over. It was like she was terrified of him.

  “Yes, Alpha Mate.”

  “Look after him,” Scott said shortly. “Don’t let anyone harm him. Let anyone know that he is under my protection. Do you understand?”

  The woman looked surprised, but covered it quickly. “Yes, Alpha Mate. Thank you, Alpha Mate. I’ll take him to my home - the yellow house,” she added when Scott looked up.

  Scott nodded and ran towards the burning house. Seconds later he could hear Damien yelling in his head.

  “What the fuck are you doing? That house is empty.”

  “No, it’s not,” Scott answered as he hurried around the side of the house and out of view of the others. There, just as the boy described, was a small, dirty, basement window. Scott couldn’t see anything inside, but he could hear the sounds of someone coughing. Scott levered the window open and was met with a huge cloud of smoke. Pulling off his shirt, he wrapped it around his nose and mouth and climbed inside. The small frame barely allowed his broad shoulders to fit, but Scott persisted, finally landing on his butt on the floor.

  For a moment, all he could see was swirling black and grey smoke. Above him, he could hear the sounds of timbers falling and crashing, and he wondered how long the ceiling to the basement would hold. Standing up, he held his arms out and cautiously moved around the space. Feeling his arm hit a metal object, he peered through the smoke and could see a cage with a small person inside.

  “Fucking hell,” Scott swore, as he felt around the cage bars looking for a door. Finding the catch, he wrenched the door open and pulled on the little figure inside. Another little boy, painfully thin, and dressed in rags. Bright blue eyes shone out of a dirty face as the boy looked up at Scott.

  “I’m the Alpha Mate,” Scott said, trying not to frighten the little guy. “How many others are there?”

  The boy looked startled and then held up one hand, with all five fingers spread.

  “Five?” Scott checked. “There are five more in here?”

  The boy nodded.

  “Okay little one. I am going to put you out of the window and then you are to move away from the house. Can you walk?”

  The boy shook his head as Scott felt his way to the window.

  Damien, I need some help here, he yelled through their mind link.

  “Already here mate,” Damien’s deep voice came from the window. “I can’t get through. What have you got?”

  Scott handed the small boy to the Alpha through the window and pulled his makeshift mouth mask from his face enough to mutter, “Five more,” before heading back into the smoke, tugging his shirt over his mouth and nose again. Damien holding the window open helped move the smoke out a bit, but the draft was also causing the flames to move through the ceiling of the basement. It was
getting hotter than Hades in the small room, and Scott could feel his lungs bursting as he tried to get more air.

  Finding two more cages, he managed to get them open and pulled out two more boys, both unconscious, probably from the smoke. As he pushed them through the window to Damien, he could hear his mate urging him to get out - that the ceiling wouldn’t hold much longer, but Scott ignored him and went back for the others. Flames were roaring across the ceiling now and Scott knew he had only minutes before the whole ceiling collapsed. Working quickly, Scott found the next two cages and got their inhabitants - two more boys, out of the window.

  This time Damien grabbed his arm as he passed up the unconscious boys.

  “You’ve got to get out,” his mate said. “I can’t lose you.”

  “One more,” Scott promised, as he wrenched his arm free and started exploring the corners of the room. The heat was making him sweat something fierce and he could feel the top of his head start to hurt. For a moment he swayed on his feet, worried the combination of heat and smoke would cause him to pass out, but that was when he heard a tiny whimper coming from the far corner of the room.

  Dropping to the ground, even as he heard Damien yell behind him, Scott crawled along the dirt towards the sound he heard. Through the gloom he could see one more cage - a bit bigger than the others but then the occupant was older than his other rescues. But the look of fear on the young man’s face was just the same as the boy who had staggered out onto the grass.

  Without thinking, Scott pulled off his makeshift mask to show his face. “You don’t have anything to fear from me. I’m going to get you out,” he said trying to keep his voice calm as he wrestled with the cage door. This one was locked with a padlock and chain. Damn it. Scott had nothing to break the lock with. Thinking quickly, he turned his attention to the hinges on the other side of the door. Maybe he could pry them open somehow.

  “I am a nothing,” he heard a thin voice say. “I’m not worth saving now the Alpha has a mate.”

  Shocked, Scott looked up to see the young man in the cage staring at him.

  “What the hell are you talking about,” he said as he used all of the strength in his fingers to pry open the first hinge. The door sagged, but it wasn’t open enough to get the young man out.

  “We’re meant to be Alpha subs, so that one of us could be his mate,” the boy explained as though it was the most logical explanation in the world. “Now he has you, we were told we weren’t wanted. He left us here to die.”

  “Who left you?” Scott gasped, as he wrestled with the last bottom hinge. The damn thing was partially rusted making it hard to move and Scott started tugging on it with all of his strength. The door was partially open, but Scott didn’t think it would be enough.

  Above him a large crash sounded, and Scott instinctively ducked as he felt some burning timbers fall to the floor. The room’s heat was almost unbearable and the smoke was getting thicker.

  Although Scott knew the room could go up in a matter of seconds, he wasn’t leaving this last boy here to die alone. Using his feet, Scott stomped on the door to make the opening that bit larger, and reached through to tug the young man out. The boy’s rags caught on the snapped hinge, but Scott didn’t have time to care about that now. More debris was falling and he still had to get them both back to the window. Slinging the young man over his shoulder, Scott hunched down and made his way back to the window; just a huge timber fell on the cage he had been working on.

  Thanking the Fates, Scott pushed his charge through the window and then hauled himself up. He felt two strong arms lift him out from the window frame and take him to where the air was a lot cleaner. Scott was laid out on the grass and he quickly removed the mask from his face, coughing as his lungs sought out the fresh air. He looked up to see the worried face of his mate staring down at him.

  “Are the kids okay?” Scott asked.

  In answer, Damien swept Scott up into his arms and hugged him so tight that Scott thought he would pass out from lack of air. Scott allowed his mate to reassure himself that he was okay and then pulled away a bit so he could look Damien in the face.

  “Are the kids okay?” He asked again.

  “Yes,” Damien said. “They have all been taken to my pack house along with the one who made it out on his own. We’ve got a bit a problem.”

  “A bit of a problem?” Scot could hardly believe his ears. “Those kids were being kept in cages. They’re skinny, dirty and God knows how long they have been kept down there in that dark basement. What’s going on Damien?”

  “The kids aren’t from our pack,” Damien said. “They’re wolf shifters, but they don’t belong to anyone here. Someone, looks like Jacob, has stolen them from other packs.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Scott moaned appreciatively as he ran his head under the fast running water of the shower. He knew he stank - what with the smoke, and the soot, and the BO from the poor boys he had rescued. He just wanted to stay under the water until all he could smell was good, clean air again. Scott felt a huge hulking presence behind him and smiled as the scent of his mate wafted through the steam of the shower. Okay, he would settle for the scent of his mate over clean air any day.

  Damien took the soap from him and started rubbing it over Scott’s back in methodical sweeps. Scott wanted nothing more than to relax under the touch, but he could tell through their mating bond that Damien was a little terse and he braced himself for what was probably going to be quite a bollocking. So when Damien did start to speak, his first words surprised Scott.

  “You know, you did a really brave thing there today. Saving those boys. I am proud of you, Alpha Mate.”

  “Anyone would have done the same thing if they had known the boys were in that basement,” Scott said. Compliments made him feel uneasy - they always had.

  “Yes, you’re right,” Damien replied, as his hands continued down Scott’s back and onto his ass. “But you didn’t tell anybody else did you, mate of mine. No, you had to go running into a burning building and save those boys yourself.”

  “Everyone else seemed a little distracted and busy,” Scott said, trying to defend himself. “I didn’t know who else to call and face it, none of your big enforcers would have gotten through that window.”

  “Maybe not,” Damien said evenly. “But you had to go running in there with no thought to your safety, putting yourself in grave danger. Damn it, Scott, if that ceiling had collapsed then you could’ve been killed.” Damien’s tone of voice didn’t change, but Scott knew his mate was really upset. Scott turned around so he was facing his mate and slipped his arms around Damien’s neck - pleased when Damien buried his head into Scott’s neck. The big guy was shaken and Scott knew his scent, now thankfully uncluttered with smoke and BO, would soothe the wolf.

  “I can’t change who I am Damien,” Scott said carefully as he loved being so close to his naked mate. He didn’t want to make the Damien angry. “If I see people in trouble, or if there is something I can do to make a wrong situation right, then I will do it. It’s just who I am.”

  “I’m not trying to change who you are, mate,” Damien mumbled against his neck. “I’m trying to get you to take better care of yourself. In the short time I have known you, you have run off after killer bear shifters, walked off into a strange town by yourself with no protection, and today you crowned it all, with the burning building episode. If my wolf had its way, you would be tied to my bed and you would stay there, full time, permanently.”

  Scott laughed. “I don’t mind being tied up every now and then, my lover, but there is no way I am going to be under your control 24/7. I told you I am not your sub. I am your mate, and as such I will do things that you might not expect from time to time. You can’t stop me being me.” He rubbed himself against his mate’s deliciously hard body and felt Damien’s erection grow against his stomach. Hmm, he knew how he could distract his mate’s bad mood. He rubbed himself up against Damien again and started nipping at the man’s nipples.


  “You’re doing a good job of distracting me mate,” Damien mumbled, clasping his arms more firmly around Scott’s hips and pulling the man even closer. As Scott dropped his hand and encircled Damien’s cock, the big man moaned.

  “A very good job of distracting me.” Damien reached behind Scott and turned off the water in the shower. As he tugged Scott out of the shower behind him and wrapped him up in a towel, he continued, “but not enough of a distraction that I haven’t thought of your punishment. I think a spanking is long overdue.”

  “You have got to be kidding me,” Scott spluttered. “I told you I am not a sub! You can’t just spank me because you think I have been bad or something.”

  “I know you’re not a sub,” Damien said calmly, as he refused to release Scott from his towel. The way Scott was wrapped up he couldn’t get his arms free and Damien’s grip on him was strong and unrelenting.

  “However,” he said, “you are my mate and just as you can’t stop being who you are, I can’t stop who I am either. I’m a Dom and an Alpha. You have consistently put yourself in danger since we met. As your mate and your Alpha, I need you to think a bit more before you go rushing into unsafe situations. The Dom in me thinks that a good hard spanking might help you remember that fact.”

  “You can’t spank me,” Scott yelled. “I am not an errant child who needs to be reminded of their wrong doing. In case you’ve forgotten, I did do some good today. I did save those boys.”

  Damien dropped his head and licked up Scott’s exposed neck, taking with it the drops of water that still clung to his skin. Scott shivered, and his erection that had drooped slightly at the thought of being spanked like a child, rose up again and took notice.

  “Uh huh, I know you did well today, my mate, but you still put yourself in danger.” Now Damien was nipping at his neck and Scott just wanted to rip off his towel and bend over - for a fucking that is, not a spanking.

  “Damien, honey, come on,” Scott tried wheedling and wriggling. He had a feeling he wasn’t going to get anywhere with either tactic, which meant he should probably stop it, because quite frankly it made him feel like a girl. “You don’t need to spank me. Wouldn’t you rather do something else to my ass instead?”