by Marcy Jacks
"Oh shit. I'm sorry." He tried to back away, but it was for nothing as the shifter chased after him.
Jason narrowly managed to duck out of the way of the shock rod in his hand before he felt himself grabbed by the back of his neck.
"Your blood makes us stronger, eh?"
He didn't have the chance to respond to that as teeth bit down hard on the side of his neck.
He screamed long and loud, tried to scream anyway because then it soon felt as though nothing could escape his throat.
The pain, the heat, it was too much. His body didn't know what to do with any of it, and he was stuck like that, screaming silently and unable to move as a werewolf drank his blood like a damned vampire.
It was getting dark. He couldn't see, and he couldn't think, but the next thing Jason knew he was dropped.
He might have fallen several flights of stairs. He didn't think it mattered, but it was cold when he finally stopped. In the distance, he heard the roaring of the wolf.
No, not a wolf. It sounded like a wolf, but this was something so much more monstrous and savage.
Not quite a dying animal, but something just as desperate and horrible.
"Jason? Open your eyes."
Jason didn't want to open his eyes. He wanted to stay exactly how he was and not move for a long time.
But the shaking on his shoulders and then the way he felt pinned up against something strong and warm…
It felt almost as though he was starting to come back to life. Not that he'd been dead, but a minute ago, Jason had felt tired and weak. So much so that he'd been willing to lie down and ignore the whole of the world just to get the sleep he was desperate for.
Now…not so much. A dozen energy drinks were suddenly injected into his blood stream. Jason pushed himself away from Alistair's perfect, comfortable chest, and he was up on his feet, bouncing around, eyes wide, shaking himself out with all the excess energy suddenly rushing through him.
"Holy God, holy shit, what was that? Oh my God, I feel alive and wide awake. What did you do?"
Alistair stood, in his human form again and naked, again. He looked calm as Jason ran circles around him in the basement.
"The exchange of strength goes both ways with a mate. The shit stain of a wolf tried drinking your blood. So I gave you some of mine."
"You what?" Jason ran another lap around the other man before he was finally able to stop himself. Only to wipe the back of his hand over his mouth and see the blood there.
"Ugh! Are you serious? Don't you know about diseases and everything? Are you insane?"
But even as he said it, Jason found he wasn't all that insulted or disgusted.
In fact, the blood called to him to the point that no sooner was Jason finished chewing Alistair out for giving him his blood than he licked the last of it off the back of his hand, moaning at the taste.
"Christ, am I going to turn into a werewolf now?"
"No."
"How can you be sure?"
Alistair came to stand beside him. He put his hand to Jason's shoulder. "I am sure."
There was something kind and soft in his eyes, something Jason hadn't been aware he'd needed until the other man touched him like that.
He pushed himself into Alistair's arms, holding him tightly, desperate for more of his touch.
Desperate to heal him.
Because Alistair was injured. There were marks on his body where the electric rods had touched his skin. It felt as though he were swaying on his feet.
Jason didn't like that. He didn't want that for such a powerful male like this. He was too proud and strong to be put off his feet like that.
"Are you all right?" Jason asked.
"I should be asking that of you." Alistair's arms tightened around Jason's shoulders. "I am sorry I did not have more faith in you."
Jason smiled against the man's chest, feeling the thumping of his heart.
“I was wondering if you knew or not.”
Jason clenched his eyes shut.
“It fucking hurts to think you didn’t believe in me. I don’t even know you. It hurts to think they hurt you, and it hurts knowing I couldn’t defend you. I hate that!”
“I know, sweet. I know.”
Alistair spoke so gently to him. Part of Jason wasn’t entirely comfortable with being spoken to as though he couldn’t handle himself, as though he were the weaker one between them.
The other part of him had to admit that it was pretty much how that worked. He was smaller, he was weaker, and he didn’t have any powers to speak of.
“I want to help you.”
“You do help me. Just being here with me, knowing you’re mine gives me strength and certainty I have not felt in years.”
Alistair pulled back from him, looking Jason in the eyes before kissing him hard on the mouth.
A claiming sort of kiss. The kind of kiss that Jason was happy to have because it meant he belonged to this man.
And he was happy to belong to him. He would belong to Alistair for the rest of his life if that was what the shifter wanted from him.
And holy hell, he’d become the stereotype he’d despised. Someone who mated with a shifter and was willing to let that shifter do whatever the hell he wanted to him.
Yeah. This was his life now, and fuck it. So long as Alistair kissed him like this, made him feel alive like this, then Jason didn’t care.
“I need you,” the alpha groaned, pulling Jason’s hips close.
And he could feel the heat of Alistair’s cock, hard, heavy, and the heat of it was enough to make Jason moan.
“I want…I want you, too.”
Which was a nice way of saying he desperately wanted to be fucked again.
Jason was so embarrassed by that. He’d never seen himself as the kind of guy who wanted to submit to someone else. Who would want something like that so desperately it made his skin itch, but there it was.
He was in the basement dwelling of a charity organization that he’d trusted, and they’d thrown him into a cage with a wild werewolf, and he just so happened to be that werewolf’s mate. There was blood everywhere from the fight and what looked like a giant set of claw marks down the wall.
Right. That was almost too much to deal with. He felt as though he were in a simulation.
Or one of the cheesy black and white movies he used to watch so often.
Jason breathed in deep.
“Are you well?”
“I need a minute.”
He didn't know whether or not to be grateful there were no dead bodies around him. On the one hand, no one was dead, on the other hand, they were still outnumbered.
To be fair, Alistair did give him that minute. One full minute before the other man grabbed him around the shoulders and threw Jason over his shoulders.
“What are you doing?” Jason held on tight. God, this guy was tall. He couldn’t so much as touch the floor with his toes as he held on to Alistair’s neck.
“I will give you more than one minute, but not right now. We need to leave this place before more come.”
Alistair immediately went to the elevator. He touched the buttons but didn’t wait for them to light up before he tried to pry the doors apart.
Jason didn’t get the chance to tell him that it was pointless, that the doors were most likely locked. He heard the crack somewhere in the metal, as though something holding the doors together had been pried apart.
Alistair left actual indents in the metal as he pulled the doors open.
They stayed open. Probably because Alistair had broken whatever kept them working, and Jason stared, impressed and kind of scared.
“Holy shit, you’re strong.”
Alistair smiled back at him. “Like that, do you?”
Jason tensed, and then the heat came back into his cheeks. “I…might. It’s impressive, all right?”
Alistair laughed at that. He stepped into the elevator shaft and looked up.
It was more than one floor up. Jason
sighed.
“I thought it felt like a slow elevator ride.”
Why hadn’t he stopped to think there should be stairs if it was only one floor down? Maybe he’d thought the elevator was for people with walkers and wheelchairs or something?
Now, he could really see how stupid he was. They were at least four floors down. This place was a pit. Probably designed to make sure that the people who came down here didn’t get back up.
Not unless they were allowed to.
“I should get off you.”
“No.” Alistair grabbed Jason’s arms, holding him in place before he could slide off.
Jason looked at him. “You don’t want me weighing you down. You need to climb out of here so you can get out.”
“I won’t leave you.”
Jason’s heart warmed. So did everything else on his body.
This guy barely knew him, and yet he wanted to make sure Jason got out of here, too?
That was so…nice.
“You can come back for me later. I hope. I mean I don’t want to be stuck down here for too long either.”
Alistair looked at him, and he seemed to note something.
“You blush a lot for a man.”
The heat in Jason’s face got so much worse that he didn’t know what to do with it all.
“Just so you know, I actually don’t blush. Ever. This is just a fluke. This isn’t normal for me.”
“I am positive that it is not.”
“It really isn’t!”
“I believe you.”
Why did this asshole sound like he was mocking him? Jason glared at the back of his perfect head of hair as Alistair moved to the wall. There were metal tubes and rails along the concrete walls. Jason thought Alistair would try climbing them, so he was shocked when the other man let his claws loose and slammed them into the concrete.
Jason gasped, and then he was being pulled up the wall on the back of his mate as Alistair climbed, slamming his fingers again and again into the concrete, making finger holes for him to grab onto.
Jason looked down, realized the distance that was being put between him and floor, and he wanted to laugh.
“Jesus, are you a gargoyle, too?”
“Do the shifters you know not do this?” Alistair asked, though it sounded as though he was getting a little winded, so Jason decided not to poke and prod at him too much when he was focusing.
“Not that I know of, no.”
More and more, Alistair was showing Jason that he was nothing like the other shifters Jason knew of.
Alistair was important. Special.
Alistair made his way up and around the elevator shaft, eventually making it to the bottom of the elevator itself.
He climbed across to the side where the doors would be. “You are smaller. Climb up without me.”
“What? Are you kidding?”
“You can do it, sweet. Climb up, and I will follow. I cannot do it with you on my back.”
Jason looked at the tiny amount of space that would be available to him between the elevator itself and the wall. He didn’t know how Alistair planned on getting up there, but he did as he was told.
“All right.”
Didn’t mean he had to be happy about it.
Part of him had always wanted to do something like this when he was a kid. To climb up the outside of an elevator and get to the top where he could drop in and open the doors. It was a childhood fantasy of heroics that he really wished he wasn’t about to fulfill.
He wanted out of this place, so that was how he did it. Jason inched his way up, little by little, pressing his knees and hands against the side of the elevator box while his back kept pressure on the concrete wall behind him.
He was never going to do this again. He swore that to himself. If he fell, would Alistair be able to help him? Or would he be completely fucked like this?
It didn’t seem to matter because then, finally, Jason was able to grab onto the top of the elevator, kick his feet over the rim, and pull himself over the edge.
He panted for breath, heart slamming.
He’d done it. He’d actually done it. Now he could get into the elevator and get the door open.
“Alistair, I’m up.”
He still didn’t know how the other man was going to get up here, but Jason heard a lot of punching noises. Sounded like fists against metal.
As though Alistair were denting the metal to give himself an easier time to get up.
Made sense. A guy like that who had this kind of power…why wouldn’t he just dent the whole elevator to make room for himself?
Eventually, and much faster than Jason had managed it, Alistair pulled himself up to the top of the elevator with him.
His large hands immediately reached for Jason, his mouth coming closer and capturing Jason’s lips.
That same spark from before, the one Jason felt whenever Alistair touched him, returned.
This was a spark to start up a dying engine. Jason had strength again, energy to keep going.
So he yanked his mouth away from Alistair’s, much as he didn’t want to.
“Stop that.” God, that kiss felt so good. “You need strength for yourself. Don’t kiss me if you’re just doing it to make me feel better.”
He wanted to be kissed again. He wanted to fell Alistair’s mouth all over his body and on his cock.
He knew Alistair wanted the same, not just because of the look in his eyes but because of the very distinct and hard length Jason felt down below.
Alistair smiled and touched his cheek. “You are right, but I need you to be strong if you are to escape this place, too.”
Jason gritted his teeth, trying desperately not to look too deeply into that when he wanted the other man so badly it hurt.
Jason swallowed hard. He clenched his fists and forced himself to not feel so damned sappy about this whole thing when Alistair insisted on being as sappy as possible.
Why was it that everything he said had to make Jason’s stomach flutter?
“Stay here until I tell you to come out. Do you understand?”
Alistair put his hand to Jason’s cheek, once again making him feel as though he were melting into a puddle.
Then he opened the little gate that separated them from the elevator itself, dropped down, and he was out of Jason’s sight.
Leaving him to lie there, wondering how in the hell he’d managed to get to this point.
He could hear the doors being pried open and then the shouts of the guards as they commanded him to stop.
Of course he didn’t, and Alistair proceeded to make them scream and shout as he fought them off.
Even though Jason couldn’t see what was going on, he could still hear the sounds of flesh hitting flesh, of the metal rods as their electric ends sizzled, and the screams of men and women as Alistair mowed through the guards.
Jason felt kind of sorry for them and then thrilled that his mate was powerful enough to do this to his enemies.
Damn. At least it meant Jason knew how to pick them.
Being mated to someone like this probably wouldn’t be so bad.
It might even be fun.
Chapter Eight
Jason thought he might be getting desensitized to the violence because, very soon, the sounds of screaming and fighting he heard in the halls didn't bother him anymore.
They'd barely bothered him to begin with. They were just there.
Part of Jason thought he should be horrified by this whole thing.
Those were the people out there who had taken care of him and his sister when he'd badly needed them.
They'd offered Jason money, they'd helped him find work, helped him take care of his sister, and helped him find babysitters and therapists he could afford when he didn't even know how to look.
Now they were out there. Hunters. People who searched for shifters, not to help them but so they could use them.
They wanted to use people like Jason. They wanted Alistair for God only
knew what, but Jason wasn't going to risk it.
He wasn't going to risk his safety with Mr. Forg anymore when that asshole had thrown him into a cage with Alistair hoping for…what had he been hoping for? Everything was messed up, and he still had so many more questions than answers.
He would find those answers later. Right after he got his sister, confirmed she was safe, and found a place to hide with Alistair.
Soon the shouting stopped. The popping of…whatever that had been also came to a stop.
Hopefully those weren't gunshots.
Please don't let those be gunshots.
Soon, Alistair returned. He panted for breath, and a thin layer of sweat shone over his flesh. Blood oozed from various spots on his body, but there didn't appear to be any holes in him.
"Jason…you can come down now. I have taken care of them."
Jason swallowed, but he could hardly take his eyes away from Alistair.
How could he when Alistair looked as though he was about to fall over?
Alistair looked up at him with suddenly focused eyes. "Are you hurt?"
"What? No." Jason jumped down into the elevator. He went to Alistair, putting his hands on his chest.
The man still felt warm, alive and solid, but he looked as though he were exhausted and about to fall over.
Jason wanted to help him. He wanted to give him strength, but he didn't know how to do it.
"You look…"
"I look weak," Alistair said when Jason didn't finish the sentence.
Jason nodded. "I would have picked a different way to say that, but yeah. How do I…how do I help you? I want to help you, but I don't know how."
And Alistair was starting to feel heavier and heavier in Jason's arms. It felt almost as though Jason were keeping him on his feet, keeping the other man from leaning over too damned much.
"Just keep holding me like this. It helps."
Jason wasn't sure how it could possibly help, but he did as he was told, keeping his hands on Alistair's chest before he decided to move in closer, pressing his face and body against Alistair's.
If this was what Alistair needed to feel good, to get strength, then Jason would lean his whole body against the other man's.
He would let Alistair suck him dry of all the strength and energy he could muster.
Alistair curled his arms around Jason's waist, sighing as he held Jason closer.