by Marcy Jacks
"Does this really work?" Even as Jason asked the question, he felt as though something was draining him.
That meant it had to be working, right?
Alistair nodded, still holding Jason close. "It's working. I can feel it. I can feel you. The wolf enjoys this, too. I've never felt it at such peace."
Again, Jason didn't understand how this could possibly be helping him. It seemed like it shouldn't be helping anyone, and yet Alistair held on to Jason as though he were getting a full night's sleep worth of rest and relaxation in just one two-minute hug.
Jason pressed his mouth to Alistair's chest, pulling his mouth back quickly before the other man could notice.
Too late.
"That felt nice."
Jason tensed. "Yeah, well, don't expect me to do it again. That was a one-off to see if it would make you feel better."
Alistair smiled, squeezing him a little tighter. "It did. Come. Let's leave this place."
Jason pulled back. Alistair's eyes still looked tired, and he was still bleeding, but there was more color in his skin, he didn't sway on his feet, and he seemed to have full control over himself.
Which was about when Jason realized he was about to step into a hallway full of terrified people, some of whom were probably dead.
Shit. How many of them actually were dead?
"Did you kill anyone?"
"A few. They were coming for me. They would have come for you had they made it through me."
Jason believed him, but that didn't make knowing it any better. There would be people in this building who weren't affiliated with Humanity Now even though it was well past the time when most people should be heading home.
There were always a couple of stragglers.
Alistair put his fingers beneath Jason's chin, forcing him to lift his head. "I harmed no one that wished to stay out of it. I promise you."
Again, even though Jason barely knew this man, everything inside him told him it was all right to believe him.
So he did.
Jason believed Alistair with every fiber of his being.
"We need to go. I need to get to my sister before something happens."
It was still killing him that he'd left his sister with Mrs. Walker. She worked here, which meant she had to know what was going on around here, right? Was she in on this? Was she going to hurt Lisa if things didn't go the way Mr. Forg wanted?
Hell, he might have called her already and told her to do something to Lisa, to hurt her unless Jason went quietly with them.
Alistair nodded, seeming to get the urgency of the situation. "Let’s be gone from here then. I will take you home."
Jason nodded. He didn't have his phone anymore after Mr. Forg took it, so he wasn't sure how Alistair planned on doing that.
Until they got outside, walking past the people who were still standing, still conscious, and went into the parking lot.
Alistair transformed his entire body into that of the wolf. The same oversized creature Jason had seen down in the basement.
He heard a few more screams of disbelief from the door and windows as the people inside Humanity Now watched.
Jason ignored them.
He'd come this far. He stepped up to the wolf and stared at it.
"I guess you want me riding on your back?"
The wolf nodded, and Jason heard Alistair's voice in his head. That would be helpful.
Jason inhaled a long breath. The wolf crouched low, letting Jason climb onto its back.
When he was seated, he couldn't help but feel as though he were either about to do something cool or he was making a massive mistake.
"Are you sure you're in control again? You're not going to lose control when you start running with me up here, and I'm going to get eaten?"
The wolf looked back at him. Its lips seemed to quirk, as though it were smiling at him.
No. Even if I were to lose control, you would be the last person in the world who would need to fear my beast.
That wasn't exactly what Jason wanted to hear. He wanted to hear some confirmation that Alistair wasn't about to lose control.
He didn't get the chance to respond because the wolf suddenly started to move, to run. Jason was nearly thrown from the back of the creature. Instead he held on, his eyes watering as the wind flew in his face.
He was going to have a hard time telling Alistair where to go like this, but Jason did his best.
* * * *
After nearly being hit by three different cars, running through the woods, trying to avoid being smacked in the face by the trees, and crossing a shallow stream, by the time they made it to Jason’s house, he was soaking wet, in pain, cold, and angry.
Mrs. Walker’s car was still there. She was still inside. It looked like Mr. Forg’s vehicle was here, too.
Jason saw red.
Jason felt beat up and exhausted, but he was suddenly strong enough to withstand anything. He jumped off Alistair’s back and marched toward the door, only stopping when he felt Alistair’s hand on his shoulder.
“What are you doing?”
“If he’s in there with my sister, I’ll kill him myself.”
Jason meant it, too. He wasn’t about to sit around with his thumbs up his ass wondering what was going on and where Lisa was when Mr. Forg had come here without Jason’s fucking permission.
“I can feel there are people inside. One of them much smaller than the others.”
“That would be Lisa.” And Jason wanted to get to her even more. He wanted to run in there and lift her up in his arms and apologize for ever having left her alone with people like this when he should have known what they were up to.
“Allow me to take care of this. The child is on the second floor. I feel no one else there.”
That got Jason’s attention. “You don’t? Where do you feel them?”
“Heartbeats are thumping on the first floor. They are leaving the child alone.”
Jason looked around the house itself. It was a small home, but he couldn’t get to the second story window without a ladder. It was way up there with no way for him to reach it.
Unless… “You think you can give me a boost?”
Alistair did, shifting back into his wolf shape and standing up to his full height. Jason climbed up his back and to his head as Alistair stretched himself up on his hind legs.
It couldn’t have been comfortable with Jason sitting on his face like that, tapping on Lisa’s window, trying to get her attention, but he managed it.
She eventually came, rubbing at her eyes. She saw him there and frowned, and then her eyes flew wide.
No. He needed her to keep quiet. He couldn’t let her scream when she could bring Mrs. Walker and Mr. Forg upstairs.
He signaled for her to come closer. At first she didn’t. She looked frozen with terror as she noted the fur and ears and eyes of what Jason was sitting on.
Fuck. This was a mistake. She was going to freak out. He should have seen that coming and planned for something else. Anything other than this.
He put a finger to his mouth, trying to show her that he needed her to be quiet, but Jason didn’t think she was old enough to be able to keep a lid on this.
Which was why he was shocked when she stepped forward, quickly opening the window, reaching for him, grabbing him, and yanking him into the room, shutting the window behind him.
As though terrified the wolf would take him away if she didn’t.
“Lisa, listen to me,”
She gasped for breath, eyes wide as she stared at the wolf.
After everything he’d gone through, the fact that this would be a problem was something that had entirely slipped Jason’s mind.
He was so stupid.
“Lisa, it’s all right. That’s a friend.”
She looked at Jason as though he’d lost his mind, but that look could have been terror.
Then she turned back to the window, and a small noise escaped her throat.
Jason looked. Alist
air was gone.
Shit.
He looked back at his sister. “Everything is going to be all right. He’s our friend. All right? He’s going to get us out of here.”
“Wh-where’s Mrs. Walker?”
She sounded on the verge of tears. He was impressed she’d held them back for this long.
She was definitely something.
“Mrs. Walker is all right, but she’s not allowed to babysit you anymore. All right?”
“Why?”
"Because Mrs. Walker might be working with people and involved in a hunter scheme that lured in Wolf Souls like Jason to experiment on and hand them over to loyal wolf shifters."
Or something like that. He didn’t understand it enough to bother telling her any more than that.
“We’ve got to get out of here. All right? I need you to be a good girl, grab your backpack, and we’re going, okay?”
“Because of the wolf outside?”
“No, sweetie. That was Alistair. He’s going to be…around for a while.”
Jason was mated to Alistair, which meant Alistair would really be around for a while.
Jason hoped he would. He didn’t want Alistair to have to go on the run or something because of what had happened back at the Humanity Now center.
That hadn’t been his fault. Jason couldn’t let him take the fall for something that wasn’t on him.
“Come on, I’ll explain later. We have to go.” He stood, taking Lisa’s hand, grabbing her school bag and quickly shoving some clothes into it. “Get dressed, honey.”
She did as she was told. Jason got the feeling she still thought they were running away from the enormous werewolf outside, but that was something he would deal with later.
Right now, he just needed to get her out of here.
“Jason, you don’t need to do this.”
Jason turned around. Of course Mr. Forg was there.
Chapter Nine
Mrs. Walker was behind him. She looked decidedly more nervous. Mr. Forg looked a touch more confident. As though he were getting ready to try and close an important business deal.
Jason turned his back to the man. He didn’t care. He didn’t care about anything this guy had to say.
So he went back to packing Lisa’s things.
Lisa looked at Mr. Forg and Mrs. Walker, as though she didn’t know what to think. She probably didn’t.
“You don’t need to pack the girl’s clothes, Jason. We’re here to help you.”
“Fuck you, no you’re not. You tricked me.”
He kept packing Lisa’s clothes. He glanced at his sister, noting the way her eyes flew wide at his choice of language.
He sighed, zipped up the bag, and put it around her shoulders.
“Lisa, put some socks and shoes on. We’re going.”
“I’m in my pajamas.”
“That’s all right. We’re going to have a sleepover party at a hotel somewhere.”
Assuming there was still money in his account, he should be good to go.
“You don’t have to run, Jason. We wanted to help you. To make sure your sister would have a place to rest her head at night. I’ve never strayed from that mission.”
“Which is why you threw me into a cage with a werewolf, right?”
“You mated with the werewolf.”
Jason pointed a finger at the guy. “You say one more word about that in front of her and I’ll beat the living piss out of you myself.”
He didn’t want this guy getting into sexual details about what he’d been doing with Alistair. Especially not in front of Lisa. That was the last damned thing he wanted.
Mr. Forg nodded sagely. “Fair enough, but there was a purpose to that. Now we know for certain your blood does work. You can help so many others.”
“Alistair said that only applies to mate. I can’t just do that with any wolf.” He looked back at his sister, trying to carefully choose his words with this. “Otherwise my mother would still be here.”
Lisa shivered, but she didn’t break down. He needed to get her out of here. He went to grab a pair of her shoes. He put her on the bed and started tying them.
“We offered you a payment. It’s still yours if you will take it.”
Jason stopped what he was doing, looking at the other man.
Mr. Forg produced the check from an inside coat pocket. He showed it to Jason. Then he placed it onto Lisa’s desk, which was by the door.
“It’s still yours. You did what we needed you to do.”
A better man would have turned down the money. A better man wouldn’t have wanted money tainted like that.
Jason was not a better man. He had bills to pay, shit to do, and a little sister who needed new clothes to wear and her own school lunches so she wouldn’t be embarrassed to eat what the school provided.
“Leave it right there and I’ll take it, but I still want you to get the fuck out of my house.”
Mr. Forg looked so upset by this. “You could be such a help to us. You and your blood. You know us. You know the spirit of our organization.”
Jason knew that Mr. Forg had thrown him into a cage when he didn’t want to be there, and when they’d tried to escape, some of those guards, shifters who were around humans who had been traumatized by shifters, had attacked and tried to put Alistair back into that cage.
And Jason was no longer sorry for the ones Alistair had hurt. They deserved it as far as he was concerned.
“I’m not helping you anymore. I’m not giving you any of my blood. I want you to get the fuck out of my house and never come back here.”
Mr. Forg sighed. Mrs. Walter stepped forward. “Oh, please reconsider. I love your sister. You know I would never do anything to hurt her.”
Jason was starting to get pissed. He was losing his mind that he even needed to say any of this at all. “I didn’t know anyone would want to throw me into a fucking cage! Now get the hell out of here!”
The two looked at Jason. He tried to think of anything he could use as a weapon should they attack, but this was Lisa’s room. He couldn’t exactly throw the stuffed animals at them.
Mr. Forg eventually nodded. “It would seem we’ve finally come to an understanding.”
He reached for the check.
“Leave it there.”
“I’m sure you don’t need it.”
“I’m fucking sure I do. Leave it there.”
Mr. Forg didn’t listen. He took the check in hand and moved to put it into his side pocket.
Until a very large hand grabbed him by his wrist, stopping him.
“He told you to leave it.”
Mrs. Walker gasped, stepping back, hands on her mouth as she moved into the hall.
Jason could hear her running through the house, running to get away from the naked man who had grabbed Mr. Forg by the wrist and stared murder down into his face.
Right. He was naked. Jason grabbed one of Lisa’s sweaters and threw it over her face.
“Don’t look.”
He couldn’t be sure if he managed to protect her innocence or not. He hoped so, but Lisa did as she was told, stuffing her face into the sweater. She probably didn’t want to see anyone get hurt. Jason hoped she hadn’t noticed Alistair wasn’t wearing anything.
“Put that little bit of paper back onto the table. It doesn’t belong to you.”
Mr. Forg smiled, doing as he was told. Not that he had much of a choice when Alistair held on to him like that.
“You think this accomplishes anything? I’ll go home and cancel the check tonight.”
That was right. He could. Jason didn’t have his phone so he couldn’t deposit it right now either.
He deflated. Fuck.
Then he heard a snapping sound, and Mr. Forg shrieked, falling to his knees.
Alistair didn’t let him go.
“If you do any such thing that would displease my mate, I will find you, and I will do more than that.”
Mr. Forg gasped with pain, and he glared up at Ali
stair. “I saved you!” he hissed. “I brought him to you. I saved you from yourself!”
“Thank you for that.” Alistair must have added more pressure to Mr. Forg’s broken wrist because, as he leaned in, Mr. Forg gasped for breath, his face twisting in pain. “Now you will not do anything to harm my mate. He wants that bit of paper. He will have it. You will not do anything to jeopardize what he wants, or I will come to visit you. Is that understood?”
“You should listen to him,” Jason said. “He tends to mean business when he gets started.”
Mr. Forg looked at Jason then at Alistair. He nodded. “All right. All right. I won’t do anything. The payment as promised is yours.”
Jason sighed, relieved. He was going to make sure to head into the bank first thing in the morning and make sure that check got cashed just to make sure he got what was owed to him. No risks. He wanted to secure Lisa’s future. He wasn’t taking any more risks.
What he appreciated even more was that Alistair didn’t appear to be judging him for it. The way the other man smiled it was as though he really did get it.
He knew exactly why Jason was doing what he was doing.
And Jason loved him for it.
“Thank you, Mr. Forg. Alistair, I think you can let him go now.”
Alistair looked as though that was the last thing he wanted to do, but he did it anyway, releasing Mr. Forg’s wrist.
The man clutched it to his chest, gasping when he was free, though he didn’t stop glaring at Alistair or Jason as he pushed himself, with some effort, to his feet.
He didn’t say anything. He just glared at them all before turning and walking out.
Alistair followed the man, making sure he was leaving the house.
Jason went to the check on the little desk. He took it, looked at it. All written up and perfect. Nowhere on it said it was voided.
Perfect.
Now to keep this safe for the rest of the night.
“Are we still leaving for a sleepover party?”
Fuck.
Jason looked at his sister. She stared at him with those wide, terrified eyes.
Christ, he’d probably traumatized her all over again.
He went to her, hugged her tight, and kissed her hair.