by Lisa Oliver
“Have you ever heard of a supermarket, Rogan? Or a butcher’s shop?” Devyn asked. Rogan shook his head, his confusion written all over his open face.
“No one ever need go hungry in winter, Rogan.” Rex gentled his tone. “Just like there’s more jobs out there than chopping down our beloved forests, there’s lots of ways to make money so you can buy the food you eat – pre-packaged with no mess when you have to cut it up. You can even go out and buy whole meals, in places where all they do is cook food for you.”
Rogan’s eyes looked as though they were going to fall out of his head. “We could get food? We didn’t have to starve?”
Rex nodded. “Your alpha makes a lot of money by sending all the young men in the pack out to work. He takes their paycheck and it sits in his account, so he never goes hungry. Do you think that’s fair?”
Rogan pressed his lips together as he looked at his alpha, but then he slowly shook his head. “The little kids cry when they don’t get enough to eat, and then their mother’s cry too and it’s real sad around here then.”
“I’m sure the alpha thinks that’s for the good of the pack too.” Rex had had enough. His mate was probably hungry, and he needed more clothes than just the sweatpants he had on. “Your scheme failed, father. I will go and visit Mother Adams, but only so I can inform her about my true mated status. As I imagine the curse won’t be lifted from you, until you fulfill your terms of the agreement you made, you’re going to be in for a rough night.”
“If it wasn’t for the Adams, you wouldn’t be alive.” His father’s voice was raspy.
“And if it wasn’t for my good friend, Gregor, my mate wouldn’t be either and that was your doing as well.” Rex refused to feel sorry for the alpha. “It’s funny how Fate works, isn’t it? Seeing as how you didn’t have much luck with the women in your life, maybe you should have taken one of the Adams boys as your own mate to fulfill the bargain. At least then, you’d have a future longer than the few hours you have now. Let’s go guys.”
“Babe?” Devyn whispered as Rex turned to leave once more. “Can we take Rogan? He doesn’t belong here, and he was good to me.”
Rex looked over at the strapping beta. The poor man had just had the whole framework of his life torn apart. Rex knew what that felt like. “Hey, Rogan.” The young man looked at him with so much hope. “Have you ever had a burger?”
“I don’t know what that is.” Rogan stepped forward cautiously as though not truly sure why he was asked.
“Come with us. You’ll find out.”
“Rogan you can’t leave. Your place is with me.” The alpha power his father tried to throw around was nothing more than a whisper.
“He’s an adult father, he can do what he likes.” Rex smiled at the gentle giant who looked between the two alphas. “Come on, Rogan. I need another enforcer in my pack, and I think you’ll be perfect for the job.”
Glad to get the smell of sickness, flowers and herbs from his nose, Rex almost sprinted through the door – well, power walked. As he stepped outside, he could see the pack standing silently. There were only a quarter of the members that used to be around when he was a boy.
“I pity the poor alpha who has to look after this lot,” Devyn murmured as Rex got them into the back of the SUV.
Chapter Twenty Two
“Do we have to visit these Adams people right away?” Devyn asked as the SUV they were in left the pack grounds. “I don’t want to be annoying, but I haven’t eaten at all today, and if I don’t get to a bathroom soon, your pants are going to be messy.”
“They will be anyway if you keep wiggling that cute little ass of yours.” Rex’s grip around him tightened, the man inhaling the scent at his neck. “This whole thing with my dad is so fucked up. I’m so sorry you got caught up in all of this.”
“I’m just glad you came when you did. I don’t know what they’d have done if your dad had died before you got there.” Devyn shivered. Rex’s body was throwing out enough heat to fill a room, but when Devyn thought of what might have been….
“We can pop into town, get the burger for Rogan, clothes for the alpha mate, and maybe a shower? There’s a good motel there from memory,” Tony suggested from the front seat. “I guess you haven’t had a chance to use any facilities either.”
“I didn’t believe you when you said there were no flush toilets,” Devyn shook his head. “I was not about to use a bucket.”
“How does a toilet flush?” Rogan asked. “Is it… does it…? I can’t work it out.”
Rogan’s confusion was enough to pull Devyn out of his self-pity. “Have you never been off pack grounds before?”
The big beta shook his head. “I thought I’d get a chance when I turned eighteen. All the boys go off with the logging crews then. But the Shaman told me I had to stay and be an enforcer. None of them lasted very long. They all kept running off. But the alpha said I was good for staying. I’ve been an enforcer for six years.”
“You are good, Rogan.” Devyn’s wolf knew it to be true. “You’re going to find things a bit confusing for a while, if you’re not used to electricity, shopping, or things like that. But I’ll help you.”
“We’ll all help you.” Gregor spoke up, the first thing he’d said since Devyn was found. “I think it’d be best if you stay with me and Tony for a while, don’t you, Rex? The boy’s going to need some guidance, so he doesn’t go getting into trouble.”
“I’m never in trouble,” Rogan said quickly. “Honest. I won’t be any trouble at all.”
“We’ll stop at a motel,” Rex said. “My mate needs clothes and so does Rogan seeing as we couldn’t stop and get his stuff. Perhaps….”
“Me and Tony will take care of that and food, and we’ll take Rogan with us,” Gregor said more gruffly than usual, making Devyn wonder what was wrong with him. “You two need a chance to reconnect.”
“Gregor,” Devyn didn’t want to ask with everyone else listening in, but his nerves were a jumbled mess as it was, and he couldn’t handle seeing his guardian so grumpy. “Are you upset with me?”
Blowing out a long breath, Gregor turned in his seat next to Tony. “I’m fucking glad we found you in one piece, okay. And I know I’m probably going to get flack from my mate, but I’m pissed off you got taken in the first place. I wanted to level that whole pack to the fucking ground for daring to come near you. I’m just finding this whole thing difficult. I cared for you for so long, but now I have Tony and you have Rex, so I can’t comfort you, or make sure you’re okay, but I’d been doing that your whole life and some habits are hard to break.”
“I’m not pissed off with you for caring, bear. I love you so much,” Tony reached over, patting Gregor on the shoulder, the other hand on the steering wheel. “I get it now, I do. I guess I didn’t realize I needed a place. It’s always just been me and Rex, but now we have a proper pack… I needed that, and you. Those parenting skills of yours are going to come in handy.”
“I’m not seeing any kiddies in the car.” Devyn noticed how Gregor’s hand covered his mate’s.
“We have Rogan and he might be six times bigger than the alpha mate, but someone’s got to teach him the joys of living in human society.”
“You live with humans?” Rogan pressed his nose to the car window. “What are they like? Do they have guns? Will they shoot me?”
“See what I mean?” Tony laughed while Gregor grunted, but Devyn could see the lessening of the tension in the big bear’s shoulders.
Tilting his head slightly, Devyn could see Rex watching him closely. “What about you,” he murmured. “Are you all right?”
“You asked me that, the first time we met. Do you remember?”
Devyn nodded. “It wasn’t that long ago.”
“I feel like I’ve spent a lifetime with you already, and I never want it to end. Those hours without you, burying Bovis. All I wanted was to hold you in my arms.” Rex’s voice was low, but raspy as if he was struggling with his emotions.
&n
bsp; “Oh, babe.” Devyn wrapped his arms around his mate’s thick neck, holding on tight. Rex’s whole body was tense, as if he was barely holding on to his emotions. Guilt flooded Devyn’s body as he remembered thinking how easily Rex might have taken a life, when nothing was further from the truth. Not once had Rex shown any sign of violence in his dealings with his father – nothing beyond a raised voice. Then coping with the knowledge his own father was willing to sacrifice him ‘for the good of the pack’. A lessor man would’ve broken by now.
“Hang on,” he whispered against Rex’s neck. “Just a wee bit longer, hang on.”
/~/~/~/~/
Rex was an emotional wreck, but he was doing his darndest not to let it show. From the time he knew he was an alpha, the thought of taking care of a pack used to make his skin crawl. He’d made a life out of being laid back, letting life roll over him like a warm blanket. His father’s continuous efforts to teach him about doing what was best for a pack, had been for the most part ignored, even scoffed at on occasion. Rex knew when he’d left his home, that “for the good of the pack” was a euphemism for what was best for his dad.
But now it was like everything had come to a head and he was holding onto an emotional outburst by the ends of his claws. Between the killing, the anger at his father, and the loss of Devyn even if it was just for a little while, Rex felt that if just one more thing went wrong, he’d fall into a screaming mess. Being on pack grounds – something he’d vowed over twenty years before never to do again brought back memories he thought long forgotten. Hearing how his father basically sold him out for the chance to increase his bloodline – how sick was that? How could anyone raise children with the idea of using them to pay off a debt?
And Devyn. Fuck, when did he become the center of my universe that I just can’t live without? It was that question that kept Rex hanging onto the man well after the others had gone. Tony and Gregor secured the motel room. Tony and Gregor took Rogan out into a town which was sure to be an eye opening experience for the innocent enforcer. Tony and Gregor said they’d secure clothes, and food, and bring it back… in an hour… during which time he was supposed to let Devyn go to the toilet on his own, and show some fucking consideration for a mate who’d been kidnapped.
But he couldn’t let go, and hopefully, just hopefully, Devyn understood a bit of what he was going through because the man wasn’t in a hurry to leave his lap. Although that might have been because he didn’t have feet. I’ve been such a fucking ass.
“Do you need anything – the bathroom, maybe?”
“I need to pee,” Devyn admitted quietly. His head was still resting against Rex’s neck. “But it’s not desperately urgent. It’s nice, just sitting here like this, isn’t it?”
It was, Rex realized. All that could be heard was the whir of an old refrigerator motor, and the occasional rumble of cars going past. It was close to midday. The motel wouldn’t start filling up until much later. The quiet, combined with the soft scent of his mate helped soothe Rex’s jagged nerves.
“I didn’t want to kill him.” The words fell unbidden, but Rex felt relieved the moment they were said. “I’ve always believed you can talk your way out of a fight if you try hard enough. But he attacked me. He had a knife. He threatened you. He threatened our life together. I couldn’t let him do that.”
“A knife?” Devyn pulled away from his neck. “Did you get hurt?”
“A scratch. Nothing serious. It healed within minutes.” Rex patted Devyn’s head back where it was before. “It’s just, I guess, what I’m trying to say is I’m not much of an alpha, you know? Anyone else would have stormed into my father’s room, ripped his throat out and probably killed a few others in the process. It’s how a mated alpha is supposed to act when his mate is abducted. All I did was stand there and rant a bit, talking the smug man’s damn ear off.”
“I was just glad you were holding me,” Devyn said quietly. “That’s all I wanted from the moment I woke up was to have your arms around me. You keep me safe. I don’t need you to shed blood to do it.”
“I should have done something.”
“Babe, you said it yourself. If you’d killed your father, and I have no doubt you could if you wanted to, then you’d have inherited a pack full of extras from a horror movie. Neither one of us wanted that.”
“You don’t think I’m less of an alpha because I didn’t kill my father or the shaman who took you?”
“Nope. Killing would’ve been too easy for them. Far better they are left to stew in the consequences of their actions if you ask me.”
Rex let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding. “I thought omegas would’ve expected me to defend their honor, holding up bloodied heads as a love tribute,” he teased.
“I told you before, blood is a bastard to get out of wooden floors.” Devyn’s nuzzle of his neck set of a chain of warm feelings in Rex’s insides. “Besides, I hate the smell of it. I much prefer the smell of you.”
“Hmm, you know this place has a spa bath. I saw the sign about it outside.”
“You gonna share it with me?” As his mate leaned back, Rex saw the twinkle in his eyes.
“I’m just trying to be a good mate.” He winked.
“And I can’t get there by myself,” Devyn chuckled. “Come on, oh mighty alpha, show me what you can do in a spa bath.”
Now that was a challenge Rex could accept.
Chapter Twenty Three
Sex was inevitable. Yes, Devyn was tired, he stunk, and his stomach felt as though it was pressing into his spine, but when you combined a spa bath and naked bodies, that was sensual enough. Throw an alpha wolf mate into the mix, and Devyn expected, no he hoped, to be molested in the most pleasurable of ways. There was an ache and need dominating his insides that only Rex could quell. With all the fucked up shit that had gone on, from his doubts about Rex and his ability to kill before Devyn was abducted, right through to Rex’s father’s diabolical plans for his son which were decades in the making, Devyn needed something solid to hang onto. He needed his mate.
Everything that had happened in his mated life so far, was such a far cry from his quietly ordered pre-Rex life, there was a tiny part of Devyn that just wanted to curl under the nearest blanket and hide until the world made sense again. But there was a bigger part, the part that governed his sexual organs, that needed to feel the raw connection that only sex could bring. Devyn needed to feel grounded again, to know that even if the entire world went to hell, Rex still wanted him. He craved it like nothing he’d ever wanted before. Even his wolf wanted in on the action – Devyn’s gums were tingling, and his claws left gouge marks on Rex’s shoulders. Their mating had been threatened. Devyn’s wolf was fighting back.
“I know, precious. I feel the same way. I have you.” Rex never let go. As soon as Devyn finished emptying his bladder, and no, he wasn’t going to be embarrassed about doing that in front of his mate, Rex cupped Devyn’s body against one arm, while dropping his pants with the other. Devyn’s sweatpants were stripped from his legs before he could blink and then Rex lowered them both into the swirling water, his lips sucking up marks on Devyn’s neck.
“You forgot your shirt.” Devyn needed to do some nibbling of his own. His fangs dropped as Rex leaned away long enough to strip off his sodden shirt and drop it over the edge of the bath.
“I know what your little wolf needs.” Devyn’s face was suddenly smushed into his mate’s neck. “Bite me.”
“I did that when you claimed me.” Scraping his fangs over Rex’s neck, so tempting. Devyn moaned as he was lifted, the familiar thickness of his mate’s cock prodding at his loosened opening. Never had he been so thankful to be an omega wolf. Gravity had him sinking down, the stretch a welcome friend. Unfortunately, his wolf saw his relaxation and relief as an invitation. Devyn lurched before he knew what he was going, his teeth bedding firmly in his mate’s neck.
“Fuck, yes!” Strong fingers gripped his hips as Rex growled. “I feel you. I see you. I fucking ne
ed you. Always.”
Devyn knew it. He was swamped with those same feelings. The slosh of the water around them highlighted Rex’s urgency. All he could do was hang on as Rex thrust up, punching his insides, staking his claim. It wasn’t going to take long – they’d both been apart too long. As Rex cupped his head, exposing his neck, Devyn went willingly. His orgasm shuddered through him as his mate’s teeth found their mark, his insides were coated with Rex’s essence.
Resting his head on Rex’s shoulder, Devyn kept his eyes closed, processing a myriad of emotions, not all of them his own. The bite Devyn left on Rex’s arm the day of the claiming hadn’t scarred but he could see through half open eyes, the one he’d made now definitely would. Peace. Pride. Fuck, it’s so damn good to be in my mate’s arms again.
You’re not wrong, precious. Those hours without you were a living hell.
“I can hear you in my head.” Shock made Devyn sit up, and might have been responsible for his squeak.
Rex’s smile was warm, and only slightly smug. “Tony and Gregor have a mind link; Tony was quick to share that little titbit the day after he stumbled out of bed with a claiming scar. I couldn’t work out why we didn’t until my brother mentioned I wasn’t carrying a scar of my own.” His thick fingers traced a line across Devyn’s throat. “I’m not good at saying much in terms of feelings and shit. I’m probably the least alpha alpha I know. But I was kinda hoping, if you could see inside my head….”
“I’d know I was loved?” Devyn was taking a risk, but the feelings inside him didn’t lie. “That you cared for me?”
“More than you could ever know.” Devyn found himself smooshed again. His alpha was such a snuggle bunny.
“I’m not good with words,” Rex hiccupped. Fuck, is my mate crying? He was smiling a second ago. “I’m not sure I’ll ever be the alpha you deserve. I can’t go around killing people, or letting others suffer for my benefit. I grew up watching my father do that. Bovis was such a bastard and yet no one dared complain. The man lived for my father’s orders. He said… he said….”