by Lynn Hagen
“He said he had to use the bathroom.”
Wolf cocked his head, his eyes burning into Theo’s amber ones. “And?”
Theo tossed his hands up, shaking his head back and forth. “And when he took too long, I went searching for him.”
Wolf growled. He did not like the fact that he had to drag the information out of Theo. If the shifter wasn’t the commander’s mate, he would throttle the guy. “Please tell me there is more?”
“And,” Theo said as he glanced from Nazaryth to Wolf, “I couldn’t find him.”
Wolf threw back his head and roared, his beast reemerging as he stormed down the hallway. “Zaterio, where are you?”
Wolf waited, but his mate didn’t reply.
He took the exit in his bedroom and flew out into the night, going on the hunt for his mate.
Chapter Four
Jaycee sat very still in the passenger seat, knowing that hitchhiking was a stupid move. But if he hadn’t taken a ride from the stranger, then he would still be walking back to Pride Pack Valley. He probably would have gotten caught by either a hound or Wolf, too.
Neither was an acceptable option to him.
“Where you coming from?” the stranger asked from beside him.
“Hell,” Jaycee answered, gazing out the window and missing Wolf for some strange reason. The man wasn’t human. Jaycee should not be missing him. So why did his damn chest hurt so much? Just thinking about Wolf’s face made Jaycee feel a pang of remorse for what he had just done. Maybe he should have left a note explaining why he had run. Would Wolf worry about him? The man was at his bedside when Jaycee was unconscious. Maybe the winged vampire really did care.
But how? They didn’t even know each other. Jaycee wrung his hands in his lap, wishing that the feeling of leaving the best part of his life behind would go away. It didn’t make any damn sense to him.
“That bad?” the man asked, pulling Jaycee from his thoughts.
“Yeah.” Jaycee didn’t want to talk right now. He wanted to get as far away from this place as he could. He would get to his house and then figure out what to do from there. It wasn’t like he could drive his own car. It was still parked three blocks from his house and not running.
“Just keep telling yourself that things will get better, son. You left. That’s the important thing.”
Jaycee sighed. If only it were that easy. He may have left, but he had a feeling he wouldn’t be safe until he left town. And maybe not even then. He wished he could talk to someone about what was going on, but the man sitting next to him would probably have Jaycee locked up if he started telling the guy that there were more than just humans on earth. There was no one he could talk to, and that thought depressed him.
“Make a right up here.” Jaycee pointed.
“I run a ranch for people needing help. You can come stay there if you’d like.”
No way was Jaycee going any further than he had to with this guy. Who offered to take a stray in? The man must be psycho or something. “No, thanks. You can just drop me off at home.”
The guy nodded. Jaycee had been skeptical to take a ride in the first place. The man was freaking huge! But he weighed his options and picked the lesser of two evils. Or was that three?
“My name’s Pa Lakeland. If you ever need a place to stay, go talk to Zeus and he’ll guide you to me.”
The mayor? “Uh, okay.”
Pa Lakeland pulled into Jaycee’s driveway and let him out. He waved to the man and hurried inside, but not before checking all around him for the nasty little doggies. He wasn’t going to get caught off guard again.
Jaycee hurried inside and packed a bag, grabbing everything he could carry and then stopped when he saw Rico sitting on the couch, the television going as the man sat there texting.
“Hey, Rico, can I borrow your car?”
“Go ahead,” Rico said, never looking up from his phone. Jaycee was tempted to tell Rico that he was running as far away as he could, but he knew Rico wouldn’t care. Rico was the type that just floated through life, acting as if nothing ever bothered him. Jaycee didn’t get the guy. He collected insurance money once a month for his dad’s death, so Rico assumed that meant he didn’t have to work or do anything with his life.
Jaycee shook his head. It was such a waste of a good person. He grabbed the keys by the door and hurried to the tree lawn where Rico parked by the curb. He tossed the bag into the back and then pulled away.
Hopefully he could get as far away from this place before anyone figured out where he was. Wolf finding out wouldn’t be so bad, Jaycee decided, but the doggies finding out was very bad.
Jaycee drove down the road, continuously checking his rearview mirror. All he saw was the pitch-black countryside behind him. He had been driving for hours, and his eyes were beginning to burn. He had no clue where he was going, but any place other than Pride Pack Valley was good enough for him.
Alaska sounded good right about now.
Jaycee rubbed his sternum as he drove, feeling a deep sense of loss. The feeling of remorse was deepening the further away he drove. He still wasn’t sure why he was feeling this way. He had lived in Pride Pack Valley his entire life and the only person he should be missing was his mom.
And he knew he was denying who he was really missing. But how? He had just met Wolf. How could he miss him so much that his chest actually hurt? He couldn’t understand it, but there was a weight sitting in his chest when he thought about Wolf.
Jaycee was nuts to think that way. Wolf was a vampire with wings who fought doggies from hell, and big, ugly things with horns and really sharp-looking claws. Jaycee would be nuts to stick around.
So why did he want to turn around?
“Zaterio, where are you? Talk to me, please.”
And that was another thing. How in the hell could someone talk inside his head? There was no way Jaycee was answering voices in his head. He brushed a falling tear away from his eye with the palm of his hand as he kept on driving. But the longer he drove, the harder it became not to turn around and run back to the beast.
He needed to get out of that crazy town, find somewhere safe, somewhere that didn’t have things from hell, or vampires, or even men who shifted into animals. He needed someplace to lay low.
Jaycee saw a large white sign ahead that read Welcome to Brac Village. That sounded like a nice place to hide. It was a few hours from Pride Pack Valley. Jaycee was pretty sure they didn’t have any problems with strange creatures and men who could change into weird things.
“Zaterio, you are in danger. You must answer me.”
Yeah, so not happening. Jaycee really did want to let Wolf know he was all right. The man had saved his life, after all. But he was afraid that if he spoke to Wolf, the vampire would have some sort of mental GPS and lock onto Jaycee’s location.
He couldn’t chance it.
The only place Jaycee spotted to sleep was a bed-and-breakfast, and all of the lights were out in the house. He wasn’t sure if he was allowed to wake anyone to rent a room. It wasn’t a motel, so he didn’t know the proper protocol.
He decided to park his borrowed car in front of Tate’s Resource Center and then killed the motor, balling up in the driver’s seat. All he needed was a few hours of sleep. If he could just get a few hours of sleep, he would be able to think more clearly and then figure out what he was going to do from there.
His LED watch said that it was three in the morning. Jaycee had left work at three in the afternoon, and his life had turned to total chaos since then. He may have gotten to sleep a few hours after his attack, but Jaycee felt drained. All the excitement had zapped any energy that Jaycee had.
“Hey, you all right in there?”
Jaycee turned his head to see a very tall and muscular man standing by the driver’s window, staring right down at him. He froze. The guy was pretty damn big. As Jaycee slowly lifted his eyes, he was staring right into the man’s…silver eyes? Were they really silver?
“I’m Remi.
Do you need a place to stay for the night?”
Jaycee wasn’t sure if he should answer the man. The tall blond scared the shit out of him. The guy had an easy smile on his face and squatted down so that they were eye level, but that didn’t help the knot in his stomach.
“I’m not trying to scare you. I help out at the resource center at night just in case anyone parks their car in front of it and needs help.” The man winked at Jaycee and then pointed over to the building behind him. “But if you prefer, I can call Taylor Tate, the guy who runs this place.”
Jaycee nodded. “Please.” Because he was not getting out of the car with this big muscle-bound dude standing right there. So not happening. He didn’t just run from strange creatures to get murdered by some large human.
“It’s fine,” Remi said. “If you feel safer waiting in your car, then do so. I won’t let whoever is after you bother you again.”
Jaycee was quite certain that Remi couldn’t take on Wolf. He appreciated the offer though. The guy had no idea what Jaycee was running from. He bet Remi wouldn’t be offering shelter if he knew.
Jaycee sat up when Remi began to talk into his phone, wondering if the guy was really calling the man who ran the resource center, or calling in his buddies to come have a good time with him.
Please let the guy be on the up-and-up.
“Who, zaterio? Who is bothering you? Please talk to me.”
Damn, he hadn’t meant to talk to Wolf inside his head. It was just a thought, not a conversation he wanted to have. Jaycee bit his lip, glancing at Remi and wondering if he should tell Wolf where he was.
Jaycee decided to wait and see what happened. If the man was setting him up, then he would call for help. It would be a last resort, though. Jaycee nearly jumped out of skin when Remi knocked on the window with his knuckles.
“What?”
“Taylor is on his way. He should be here in a few minutes.”
“Thank you.” Jaycee rolled his eyes as he glanced away. He was probably being polite to a serial killer or something. Gods, he was so tired. He was starting to sound crazy even in his own head.
Jaycee kept a close eye on Remi as he waited for this Taylor guy to show up. His eyes started to droop a couple of times, and he found himself making them as wide as possible to stay awake. He probably looked like a complete goober, but at that point, he just didn’t care. He wanted a safe place where he could sleep for several hours, and then a good meal, and then he was getting the fuck out of wherever he was.
After what seemed like hours but was probably only a few minutes, a truck pulled into the space beside Jaycee and a man climbed out. He walked over and talked to Remi for a moment, both men gesturing toward Jaycee.
Jaycee blew out a sigh of relief when Remi nodded and walked away. That guy was scary big. The man who had gotten out of the truck walked closer and then leaned his hip against the front fender of Jaycee’s car, just waiting. Jaycee glanced around to make sure that Remi was gone and then slowly climbed from the vehicle.
“Hi, I’m Taylor Tate,” the man said as he held out his hand. “I run this place.”
“Jaycee.”
“Why don’t you come inside and we can talk, Jaycee?” Taylor gestured toward the building with his head. “You’ll be safe in there. I promise.”
Yeah, Jaycee wasn’t taking Taylor’s word for it, and he could see that Taylor knew that by the glint in his eyes. Taylor nodded and turned, walking toward the building. Jaycee stayed several steps behind him just in case he needed to run. He felt better when Taylor left the front door open and walked inside, moving to the opposite side of the room from Jaycee and his escape route.
“My job here is to make sure that people are safe,” Taylor began as he sat down on the edge of a desk. “I met someone once who was in a lot of trouble. He had nowhere that he could go and no one to help him get out of the horrible situation he was in. After meeting him, I wanted to make sure that no one else was ever in that same position, not if there was some way that I could help.”
“Did he get out?” Jaycee asked curiously.
“Yes.” Taylor smiled. “He was actually the first man to take up a cot here. The building still pretty much had wet paint on the walls when he arrived.”
“But he’s safe, right?”
“He is. Thank you for asking. He found someone he truly cares about and he’s happy.”
Jaycee wished he knew he had the same outcome coming, but he knew he’d be crazy to think that. Taylor’s first client may have had his happy ending, but Jaycee was pretty sure he was going to end up ripped to shreds by hell dwellers or forever pursued by winged vampires.
He was so screwed.
“I’d like to help you, Jaycee.”
Jaycee snorted. “I’m not sure you can help me.” He was pretty sure no one could help him. There didn’t seem to be any protection against hell dwellers, demons, and whatever else was out there. And Jaycee didn’t even want to think about that.
“I can listen if you want to talk.”
Oh hell no! If he talked, he’d end up in a padded room for sure. Jaycee shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
“That’s fine,” Taylor replied. “You don’t have to talk if you don’t want to. But I am here in case you do, and whatever is said between us stays between us.”
Jaycee nodded but he wasn’t going to spill the beans. Seriously, he just—“There’s this guy, and he thinks I belong to him.” Jaycee inwardly groaned. It seemed his brain was dying to make sense of the situation. He just hoped Taylor didn’t have him committed.
“Did he do that to your arm?” Taylor asked as he pointed to the white gauze wrapped around Jaycee’s arm.
Jaycee glanced down at his arm, surprised that he had forgotten the wound. “No, he didn’t do this, but someone he knows did.”
“Did he or anyone else hurt you in any other way?”
“No, but…” Jaycee shook his head. “They’re scary, man, I mean fucking scary. I had to sneak away just to escape them. He said I could never leave and that I was—” Nope, not going there. Jaycee glanced at Taylor. “I just had to leave.”
“I understand.” Taylor waved his hands around the room. “You’re welcome to stay here as long as you like. We don’t have any other people in the center at the moment, so it’s all yours.”
“Thank you. I just need a place to sleep for a little while. It feels like I haven’t slept in days.”
“Take as long as you like.” Taylor pushed away from the desk and started walking toward a hallway. “Come on, I’ll show you where the dorm is. You can pretty much take any bed you want. There’s also a shower facility if you want to get cleaned up.”
“I just want to sleep for right now, but maybe I’ll take you up on that shower in the morning.”
Gods, he was so tired.
“Zaterio? Please answer me. You’re in so much danger. I just want to make sure that you are safe.”
“Fuck!” Jaycee pressed his hands against his temples as Wolf’s voice floated through his head. Why wouldn’t the guy leave him the hell alone? He couldn’t even think without Wolf butting into his head.
“Jaycee, what’s wrong?”
“He won’t leave me alone,” Jaycee whispered as he pushed the heels of his hands into his head. “He just keeps talking to me over and over again.”
“He…keeps talking to you?”
Jaycee’s head snapped up as he realized what he had done. Oh, perfect. Now Taylor thought he had a screw loose. Maybe he did. He heard voices in his head, after all.
“Is he talking to you in your head, Jaycee?”
Jaycee nodded, knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was probably the dumbest thing he could do. He just couldn’t think of any other answer for his behavior.
Taylor’s eyebrows shot up. “Right now?”
Jaycee felt his face flush at the inquisitive look in Taylor’s eyes. “Sort of?”
“Do you hear other voices?”
“No, ju
st Wolf’s.”
“His name is Wolf?”
Crap. Maybe he should duct-tape his mouth shut. He was digging a deeper and deeper hole for himself. Soon he would be on the other side of the planet if he didn’t stop talking.
“How long have you been hearing him in your head, Jaycee?”
Jaycee glanced down at his watch. “Um, about twelve hours or so, give or take an hour. I was unconscious for a while so I’m not exactly sure of when it started, but it had to be sometime after I got off work.” And got attacked by hell hounds.
Taylor looked thoughtful. He wasn’t staring at Jaycee like he’d lost his mind—which was pretty damn odd considering what Jaycee was confessing to the man. If roles were reversed, Jaycee would be ordering Taylor a straitjacket right about now.
Taylor looked as if he were collecting his thoughts and then paced back and forth, his brows furrowed as he glanced at the floor and then back at Jaycee. “Have you ever heard of mates, Jaycee?” Taylor asked.
Jaycee’s eyes grew wide as he started to backpedal. His heart was slamming in his chest, and his throat went bone-dry. There was no fucking way Taylor knew about mates unless—“You’re one of them!” What in the hell had he gotten himself into? It seemed no matter where he went, he wasn’t safe. Were these kinds of people everywhere? Was no place safe enough for Jaycee to run to and hide?
Had the whole damn country gone mad and Jaycee wasn’t handed the memo?
“Easy, Jaycee,” Taylor said as he turned, holding his hands up. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, but I’m not a bad guy. I’m not one of them, whoever them is.”
The hell he isn’t.
Jaycee wasn’t sure where he could go to get away from the madness. Nothing seemed real to him anymore. He had seen horrors in the past twelve hours that would probably give most people a coronary. And everyone wanted him to calm down? That was not going to happen. Not after seeing hounds from hell. Hell, damn it. That place was supposed to be myth. It wasn’t supposed to be real.
And those demons…
“Get away from me!”