by Odessa Lynne
He had just enough time to catch Marcus when he fell.
Unfortunately, his own balance wasn’t exactly steady and he staggered under his brother’s weight.
The female turned and made a grab for both of them, her inhuman strength giving her the power to keep them both on their feet long enough for Mason to walk Marcus to the table in the center of the room.
He kicked one of the chairs free, then let Marcus drop into the seat. He crouched down in front of Marcus, patting the side of his face. “Come on. Come on. You’re okay. You’re going to be okay.”
Marcus nodded. “I will. They’re not that deep. I’d feel it if more if they were, right?” He let his head drop back, taking a couple of deep breaths. “Just caught me off guard, that’s all. Wasn’t ready for it.”
Mason clenched his teeth, sparing one ugly glance for the wolf still standing back, holding his own hands fisted at his sides, as if he were fighting to stay away.
“Get the fuck out of here,” Mason said. “Go on! I don’t know why the fuck you people can’t just stay away from us when you’re like—”
A tight hand gripped the back of his neck, almost pulling him off his feet and he ended up on his knees. He expected to feel claws but didn’t, only the hard press of strong fingers.
“This was an accident. He apologized. He’s already lost one mate and her children to the human renegades. He doesn’t wish to lose me and ours. Be grateful he has as much control over his instincts as he does.”
Her words hit him like a hard left hook. She was pregnant. No wonder she hadn’t reacted to their human scent. Pregnancy ended the heat for female wolves.
Her fingers flexed at the back of Mason’s neck just before she released him. “He’s a strong mate. Don’t blame him for fighting to protect what’s his. Even humans fight to protect their mates and children from harm.”
Mason couldn’t help it. He glanced up and caught the male’s gaze and what he saw in those eyes made his chest so tight he couldn’t even breathe. His throat worked, but he couldn’t swallow and he knew—knew with a certainty he wished didn’t exist—that it was entirely possible he carried some of the blame for the events that had led to this moment.
He wasn’t a good man, and no one knew that better than him.
Chapter 8
The wolf standing before Mason spoke quietly. “We’ll care for your kin. We won’t let his injuries become infected. You have my word.”
Mason jerked his gaze down to focus on Marcus’s chest, the heat of shame burning his face. He reached for Marcus’s t-shirt, and said, voice low, “Let me look, okay? I just need to…”
Marcus pushed Mason’s hands away. “I’ve got it. I’m okay. This was my own goddamned fault. I fucked up.”
Mason sat back on his heels and watched Marcus take several deep breaths before carefully pulling his torn and bloody shirt away from his skin.
The slashes were deep. Much deeper than Mason expected. His eyes flickered up and met Marcus’s.
“They barely hurt,” Marcus said. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
Mason hesitated, then finally overcame his resistance and pressed his fingertips to the edges of one particularly deep gouge where the wolf’s claw must have dug in. A small circle of blood welled up and then just sat there, as if the blood beneath had clotted as soon as Mason reopened the wound.
“Goddamn,” Marcus breathed. “This isn’t normal. What the fuck has happened to me?” His gaze flickered toward Mason’s arm, then up again to meet Mason’s eyes. “Us,” he said. “What the fuck has happened to us?”
Mason looked up just in time to see the female sharing a covert look with her mate. Mason pushed to his feet, suspicion swirling through him.
“What the fuck’s going on here? Do you know something?”
Marcus grabbed his arm. “Shut up, goddammit. Don’t antagonize them.”
“Your kin is right.” The wolf took that moment to wipe his bloody claws across the dark denim at his thigh, leaving behind a bloody smear. “You have other concerns right now. Alpha Weketekari is coming. You’ll need to be ready for him. His heat will be on him.”
The reminder of his current situation did nothing to take away from Mason’s anger. But he still couldn’t stop himself from glancing at the door he and Marcus had entered through. “You hear him coming?”
The wolf’s eyebrows rose dramatically. “He’s my alpha. I feel him.”
The female turned to her mate. “Take him to Alpha’s room while I deal with his kin’s injuries. Quickly. Alpha isn’t far.” Her hand settled on her chest and she switched to the wolves’ language. “He’s angry. Agitated. Something is wrong.”
Then she said something else, something Mason didn’t have the ability to translate. He glanced at Marcus but all Marcus did was give him a weak headshake. He didn’t know what she’d said either.
When Mason looked up, it was to catch her staring at him. Her gaze broke away and darted to the door.
“Ishikeille—” But before she could say anything more, Five appeared in the doorway, his fiery gaze zeroing in on Mason without a second’s hesitation.
Five gripped the doorframe with one hand, the other fisted so tightly that Mason could see blood dripping to the floor. His eyes followed that trail before he jerked his attention up.
A cold fire burned in Five’s blue eyes and the lines of his face were pulled tight, making him look hard and dangerous. Mason’s nerves stretched taut. Something was definitely wrong. He’d only known Five for a few hours, but in all that time, he hadn’t once felt like he was on the brink of having his throat torn out.
Until now.
Five growled, and his claws dug into the wood doorframe. “Take him away before I kill him.”
What the hell?
Mason took a step backward.
“Alpha—” the male wolf said.
“Submit!” Five roared.
The tall wolf cringed, then turned quickly and grabbed Mason by the back of the neck, fingers bruising flesh.
He heard Marcus’s voice behind him as he was dragged toward the dark hallway. “Don’t hurt him!”
The female wolf said something too low for Mason to hear, but Marcus didn’t speak up again.
Mason could have fought against the wolf leading him away but to what point? There was no real escape other than death, and he didn’t want to die.
He stumbled along with the wolf, taking a quick, searching glance behind him.
What he saw, he didn’t understand.
Five had turned his head, pressing his cheek to the back of his hand on the doorframe, eyes closed, every breath heavy, and he looked…
Lost.
Then the wolf holding Mason by the neck pushed him deeper into the hallway and Mason refused to let himself look back again.
* * *
He was locked in a room he couldn’t escape. The bolt on the door was on the outside and the single window had screws in the frame holding it in place. The screws were shiny and new, and the glass clear and clean. If he stretched his neck just so, he could see the moon high over the trees, half-hidden by scudding clouds, and when he was quiet, he could hear the faint creak of wood and an occasional grunt or growl.
He tried not to be quiet.
When he couldn’t cover the noises coming through the walls, he buried his head under one of the many pillows on the bed, squeezed his eyes shut, and tried to remember that nothing except death lasted forever.
His wrist throbbed in time to the beat of his heart and the pillow smelled like sweat and body odor.
He didn’t like the room. He especially didn’t like the constant reminders that at any time one of them could decide he was fair game and come claim him for the same thing he heard going on through the goddamn walls.
Then the night turned to day in an instant and Mason rolled over and realized he’d been dreaming again, of the room he’d been trapped in three years ago while some wolf fucked Marcus right next door.
Considering how similar his current circumstances were to those of three years ago, he wasn’t surprised. He was on a bed in a room with a locked door and windows he hadn’t even tried to open. He didn’t know what they’d done with Marcus, and he didn’t know what might happen when Five finally came for him.
Would Five still want to kill him? Or would he be back to wanting to mate?
Mason knew which one he was hoping for.
Not that he was looking forward to mating, either. He wasn’t conflicted about his feelings. He wasn’t gay. He’d never been attracted to another man, and he sure as hell wasn’t repressing sexual fantasies about men either. Why would he? If the thought of touching another man’s penis had ever made him hot, he’d have done it without a second thought. Who the fuck cared what turned a man on? Sex was good when it was good and bad when it wasn’t and that was all there really was to it.
But worry was still eating a hole in his gut and all of it stemmed from what had happened three years ago.
He couldn’t figure it out. Why had Marcus come out of that experience changed, and not in the way Mason would have expected? How had that wolf gotten inside Marcus’s head?
Even after three years, Mason didn’t know. And that was what scared him. Not the idea of being fucked in the ass, although he sure wasn’t comfortable with the idea, but being fucked in the head.
If he submitted, if he let Five fuck him and mate him, if he didn’t fight any of it, would the same thing happen to him?
He rolled over onto his back and scrubbed his hands down his face, yawning with so much force that his jaw popped. His shirt had ridden up and his jeans were twisted tight at his groin, but he could feel the soft cotton sheets against his feet and he shifted until he could stretch his back and both arms, while he forced his eyes open against the streak of late afternoon sun spilling through the windows next to the bed.
He covered another yawn, then brushed his hair off his forehead as he squinted out the window. The sun was going down, and a breeze shook the limbs of a red- and gold-leafed maple tree that grew right up against the house. A squirrel ran down the trunk and disappeared below the window.
He was surprised to realize he’d slept away the entire day. Not that he’d fallen asleep right away. But he’d finally given in to the fact that he needed sleep more than he needed to spend another two goddamned hours worrying about why the hell Five was so angry with him.
“Do you ever think about the things you’ve done and wish you could undo them?”
Mason jumped, his heart going right into his throat. He rolled quickly to the edge of the bed and onto his feet. He stood just in time to see Five push away from the wall and start across the room, a predator in motion.
At that moment, Mason was grateful as fuck that he’d gone to bed fully clothed, doing no more than taking off his boots and socks and dropping them to the floor at the foot of the bed.
“What’s going on?” Mason asked warily as Five stalked toward him.
“The familiarity of your scent has teased at my senses for two days. I knew from the moment I caught your scent that I had to have you. I would mate you, and I would keep you. I tracked your scent through the woods for more hours than I can recall until I finally found you inside that laboratory. I used up the last of my drugs trying to make sure I didn’t lose control or succumb to someone else’s scent before I found you.”
Five was getting too close, but the bed’s frame pressed against the back of Mason’s knees and he had nowhere to go to escape. Five stopped in front of him and he swallowed back the knot trying to choke him.
Raising his hand, Five drew a line with the tip of his finger down Mason’s throat.
A small shiver raced through Mason.
Five’s blue eyes glimmered in the light. “I wish I could undo that decision.”
“You wish you hadn’t taken the drugs?” Mason was sure he sounded as confused as he felt.
“If I hadn’t, I might have given up my search, and I might have continued the chase and chosen another mate. But what I did can’t be undone, and only the universe knows why this is my fate.”
“So you don’t want me anymore? I can live with that. Just send me on my—”
Five caught the bottom of Mason’s chin in his hand, bringing Mason’s words to an abrupt end. He stared boldly into Mason’s eyes. “That isn’t what I said. I still want to mate you, knowing everything I know now, but I wish I didn’t. Because I do not want this gift that the universe has given me.”
Then Five pushed Mason’s face away, as if he couldn’t even stand to touch Mason.
The edge of the mattress jostled into the back of Mason’s knees and he just managed to stay upright.
He blinked a few times, not sure what the hell he was supposed to say to the idea that Five wanted to reject him but for some reason couldn’t. “So…”
“I was there, when the men you brought with you to your meeting with the human Ian Tucker killed two of my heat mate’s pack. I remember how difficult it was to resist the lure of a human scent so enthralling I could barely think while I fought alongside the others to stop your companions from killing more.”
That goddamned knot was back in Mason’s throat and he couldn’t breathe.
Five watched him with ocean-deep eyes that somehow made everything worse.
Mason had to work too damn hard to speak. “You’re telling me you remember me—my scent—from an attack that happened more than three years ago.”
“I also remember the smell of blood and death and bullets from your weapons, and I remember the sound Iaehekielle made when one of your men shot him so many times he couldn’t heal. He was my heat mate.”
Oh God.
Mason sat back on the bed, his legs too weak to hold him up. “I never shot anybody who wasn’t trying to kill me. I wasn’t even conscious when that attack happened.” He rested his arm in his lap, staring down. He dragged his thumb over the thin line that was all that was left of the four inch long gash he’d had there less than twenty-four hours earlier. “It was Jay’s influence that made everybody so goddamn blood-thirsty, Jay and Brendan.”
He was just offering excuses and he knew it, but he couldn’t stop himself.
“He said all of you were getting ready to make a big push outside the protectorate, to demand more territory from the government so you’d have more mates to choose from—that we were just good for sex and submission and that you’d turn us all into nothing but slaves if we didn’t do everything we could to stop you—if we didn’t make a deal that would keep you in the protectorate for good. Some of us knew he was exaggerating, but some of the guys, some of the women, it scared them.”
He clenched his fist and looked up again. “It scared me, and I didn’t even believe half of it.”
“Fear doesn’t excuse murder.”
Mason dug his fingers into the disheveled bed and pushed himself to his feet again. “Might doesn’t make right but I don’t see that stopping you from taking what you want from us.”
“We offered fair trade for a place to live on your world. We gave you technologies and knowledge you didn’t have before, and we always tried to give more than we were given. But we couldn’t know human scent was going to be such a problem for us during our heat. And now we fight to defend ourselves from you who forget the things we’ve done to make your lives better.”
“Better,” Mason said with flat precision. “You cracked the goddamned world. I don’t know how that’s better. And we have to follow your rules on land that shouldn’t be yours and accept the fact that you’re going to hunt us down during your heat and take us for mates whether we want it or not.”
The curve of Five’s jaw seemed carved from stone. “We don’t seek out humans to mate.”
“Except when we smell like a good fuck, right?”
The moment the words left his mouth, he knew he’d made a mistake.
Chapter 9
The sudden flare of fire in Five’s gaze warned Mason he was pu
shing too hard. But it was too late, because the goading words had already left Mason’s mouth and he couldn’t take them back even if he wanted to—and by God, he didn’t want to.
He meant every one of them.
But that didn’t negate the fact that he’d forgotten just how touchy the wolves became during their heat season.
Five’s harsh growl and sudden lunge toward Mason sent him reeling backward, and since he didn’t have anywhere to go, he fell, his back hitting the mattress with enough unexpected force to startle a yelp out of him.
Five straddled Mason and wrestled Mason’s arms over his head and to the bed.
It did Mason no good at all to try to jerk free, but he tried anyway, so hard he nearly wrenched his left shoulder. “Goddammit!”
Five’s fingers tightened relentlessly around Mason’s wrists. “Submit!”
Mason flinched, then pressed his lips together.
Five’s lip curled away from his teeth, showing off those sharp, shiny eyeteeth that looked twice as dangerous as they had any right to, jolting Mason’s sense of self-preservation back from wherever the hell it had disappeared to.
“I submit! I submit! Please—” He snapped his mouth closed before he said more. He wasn’t going to beg.
He was breathing too fast and his hands were shaking, and he could feel the tremble in every muscle in his body. Relaxing those muscles was almost impossible, but he did it.
He stared up at Five, hoping, praying, that it was enough.
Five stopped growling. His blue eyes glittered, his expression unreadable.
But no, that wasn’t true. There was something there in Five’s gaze, something Mason thought he understood.
For the first time since he’d found himself flattened to the bed, he noticed the pressure and heat where Five sat over him. The struggle had brought Five’s groin much too close to Mason’s and now he could feel the thick bulge of a hard alien cock through Five’s dark trousers.
And then Five shifted over him and Mason inhaled sharply. His first instinct was to shy away from the contact but he held his position. He’d already riled Five’s temper. Being a goddamn sissy about cocks bumping wasn’t going to make his current situation any better.