by Lisa Oliver
It was a close call. Smoothing out his whiskers and stretching to ensure his spines were all in the right place, Cari eyed his predicament from a different angle. Quaid’s arm had curled in on itself. Cari was going to have to climb over his mate’s forearm. His nose twitching wildly, Cari stretched up as far as he could reach. He didn’t want to leave scratches on his mate’s skin, but the man had no body hair.
Gripping lightly, he tried to pull with his front paws, and push up with his back ones. His rounded behind and shorter legs made it almost impossible. Hedgehogs weren’t made for climbing. Cari wriggled and struggled, arching his head and neck forward to give him more leverage. Just when he thought he was going to fall back on his behind, his back claws caught on some skin or a ridge in the covers and Cari vaulted over Quaid’s arm, rolling and tumbling in the covers.
That’s an awful lot of effort to go through just to get to the bathroom, Cari thought as he shifted back into his human form. Ignoring the sexy sight of his sleeping mate, Cari slid off the end of the bed and hurried into the bathroom. Pee. Shower. Dress then breakfast. Cari hoped he could get the last one ready before Quaid woke up.
/~/~/~/~/
Usually Quaid woke up alert, but the scent of sex in the air, and on him, made him feel lazier than normal. He wasn’t home. He knew that without opening his eyes. But for a security consultant, that wasn’t unusual. Stretching out his arms, Quaid felt for his night’s companion and then opened his eyes as he heard the shower running along with the sound of muttered grumbling.
Sitting up, Quaid winced at the sudden ache in his shoulder. Touching it, everything came back to him in a flash. That wasn’t a companion grumbling in the shower, it was his mate and from the sticky, drying mess he had on his thighs and the smears left on the covers, Quaid hadn’t even bothered to clean his mate up after claiming him.
Worst mate ever, Quaid thought glumly, staring at the steam escaping from the partially opened shower door. His morning wood was all for joining the sexy hedgehog, but common sense told him changing the bed linen would give him more brownie points. I couldn’t even get him a wash cloth? Quaid slapped himself on the head. Hopefully, he could find clean things to go on the bed.
A quick search in the closet revealed nothing. There wasn’t a linen cupboard or anything like that anywhere. Bathroom and bedroom led off the living room and kitchen. Three rooms, that was it, and no clean sheets or covers. Hearing the shower shut off, Quaid worked quickly, sorting the covers, sheets and pillowcases in one pile and leaving the duvet inner and actual pillows in another. He was standing with an armful of dirty laundry when Cari came out of the bathroom.
“I was looking for your laundry room,” Quaid said quickly, making sure to smile. Not that smiling was a hardship.
“You might want to put some pants on first. The shared laundry is over by apartment A.” Cari crossed to his dresser and opened the top drawer. The towel draped around his hips fell to the floor and Quaid noticed red marks, as though Cari had been scrubbing his skin, all down the backs of his thighs. Dried spunk was often easier to pick or peel off, than scrub.
“Look, about last night….”
“If you’re having second thoughts, you should have kept your teeth to yourself.” Cari winced slightly as he stepped into a pair of sweatpants that had an ironed crease down the front of them. Shocked that someone would actually iron sweat pants, it took a moment for Quaid to answer.
“I’m thrilled we’re mated,” he said quickly. “I just… er… I fell asleep.”
“I did too.” Pulling his head through a t-shirt that had seen better days, Cari looked at him curiously. “We’d both had a long day.”
“Yes, but….” Damn it, Quaid had never had to explain sexual etiquette before. “I should have made sure you were cleaned up before we went to sleep.”
“Is that something people do after sex?” Cari tilted his head to one side.
“Yes, well, when you masturbate, you must clean up after yourself, don’t you?”
Cari’s face went bright red. “I catch my er… release into a tissue any time I’ve done that. Less mess that way.”
“Well, as the top, it’s a nice thing for me to clean you up when we’re done, so you’re not left sleeping in a wet spot, and there’s no drying spunk on your skin when you wake up.”
“Phew that’s a relief. I’m not sure I’d want to have sex again if I’m going to be left in that state next time. It was baked on,” Cari chuckled. “Must have been all the heat you were putting out. I didn’t even notice we hadn’t got under the covers until I woke up.”
Quaid dropped the dirty laundry and pulled Cari into his arms. “Apart from the mess, do you feel okay? No twinges, or sore bits anywhere?”
“A few aches,” Cari leaned his head on Quaid’s chest and then pulled back again. “Nothing I can’t handle now I’m clean.”
Getting the hint, Quaid dropped a kiss on Cari’s damp hair. “I’ll take a shower and then take you out for breakfast. What do you say?”
“I’m hungry?” Cari smiled.
“Give me five minutes,” Quaid promised.
“I’ll go and put the washing on while you’re in the shower.”
Chapter Twelve
Cari hummed quietly as he made his way around the apartment block, to the front left corner where the laundry was located. He didn’t expect to find anyone in there this time of day. Most of the block’s other residents were either still asleep or had already left for work. Unsurprisingly, the room was empty and so were the machines.
Setting the washing machine running, Cari took a disc with his apartment letter, 1D and set it on a hook by the machine. In theory, that was so no one would throw his laundry away, but Cari guessed he and Quaid would be back from breakfast before the washing machine had finished its cycle. There was only one dryer for communal use, but Cari preferred to hang his laundry on the washing lines out the back.
Making sure he hadn’t dropped anything, Cari turned and was immediately confronted with a chest. Wolf. More specifically, Marcus. “I’m sorry,” he said, quickly, “I didn’t see you standing there. Did you want me for something?” Cari couldn’t think of any reason why Marcus wasn’t at work. It was gone nine o’clock.
Marcus scowled, leaning forward to sniff near Cari’s neck. “You let that lion claim you,” he snarled. “How could you?”
“Er… he’s my fated mate.” Cari backed up but the laundry room wasn’t that big. “That’s what mates do.”
“You barely know him.” Marcus was advancing and Cari was running out of options. He always thought Marcus was one of the nicest wolves Lucy hung around with. He was quickly revising his opinion. That snarl wasn’t Marcus’s way of asking him if he’d had breakfast yet.
Breakfast. Quaid would be looking for him in a matter of minutes. Cari might not know the lion that well, but the man was protective with a capital P. All he had to do was stall. “Marcus, I don’t understand why you’re upset about this. It happens to all of us eventually. You’ll find your own fated mate one day.”
“Do you know what I had to go through to get Alpha Fallow to agree to my mating you, do you?”
Clearly a trick question. Cari had nothing to do with the pack or pack politics. “I didn’t know you were interested in me that way?” Cari tried for a grin, leaving his statement as a question to encourage Marcus to talk.
“You’re short, you’re nerdy, you don’t have the first idea on how to have fun….”
“Sounds like you made a lucky escape then.” Cari’s grin was wavering. Marcus was within arm’s reach. Where’s Quaid?
“But you have a tight little body, a shit ton of money, and anyone who mated with you would control one of the biggest powers the shifter world had ever seen.”
“I don’t….”
“My alpha did some digging on you.” Marcus was so close now, Cari could smell what he had for breakfast. “Did you know, only one in one hundred thousand hedgehogs are born white?”
“Maybe sucks to be you until you’re mated.” Faster than Cari could blink, Marcus had reached out, ripping the seam of his t-shirt. His dripping fangs hung well below his lips making the rest of his sentence garbled. “Let’s see if we can change who you’re mated to.” He lunged forward.
Cari didn’t think, he just reacted instinctively, clapping his hands together as he yelled, “No!” Marcus flew back, as though slammed in the chest, falling to a heap on the concrete floor. Cari stared at his hands in amazement.
He was still staring when Quaid came running in half dressed. His searching gaze took in everything at a glance. “Babe, are you all right?” He dashed across the floor, his arms outstretched, but Cari shook his head.
“Don’t touch me.” His voice quivered. “I don’t… I don’t… I don’t know what happened.”
Quaid froze, looking between him and the slumped Marcus. “At a guess, I’d say you knocked that wolf on his ass. Good going.”
“I didn’t touch him.” Cari started to shake. “He… he was threatening me, but I didn’t touch him. I just clapped my hands and yelled no, and, and, and, that happened.” He flicked his hands at Marcus. The unconscious body jerked on the ground. “Oh, my goodness, I’m still connected to him. Make it stop.” Cari shoved his hands under his armpits.
“It’s all right.” Quaid put his hand on Cari’s shoulder, making him flinch, but the lion was persistent and left his hand where it was. “See, you’re not hurting me. What did Marcus say that upset you?” His voice was calm, but Cari recognized an order when he heard one.
“He seemed angry I was mated.” Cari’s breath started to come out in short pants. He tilted his neck to show the ripped t-shirt. “He was going to bite me. He said….” Cari’s whole body trembled. “He said he was going to change who I was mated to.”
“So, you clapped?” Quaid asked slowly, keeping an eye on Marcus who was finally starting to stir.
“And said no.” Cari nodded. He needed Quaid to know the no was there as well. “He just flew across the room.”
“Okay.” The word came out really slowly, and Cari’s heart sunk. His mate didn’t believe him. “I need you to go back to the apartment, pack everything you need for a week away and wait for me there. Hurry.”
“Pack?” Cari couldn’t do that without at least a dozen lists.
Marcus opened his eyes and snarled as he struggled to get up. “Go,” Quaid urged. “Go now.”
Cari’s fight or flight finally kicked in and as he wasn’t a fighter, he took off, sprinting from the laundry room and back to his little apartment. Slamming the door behind him, he struggled to get his breathing under control. Looking up, Cari saw Ryan sprawled on his couch, just as he had the night before and this time Jo was with him.
“Hello, Cari.” Just as Marcus had done, Ryan sniffed the air. “Well, at least now we won’t have to break you in.”
“What does that even mean?” Cari didn’t wait for the answer. Turning fast, he yanked open the door and went running across the parking lot. He thought he heard Quaid yelling at him, but Cari didn’t stop. He’d had enough crazy for one morning.
Chapter Thirteen
After a quick “chat” with Marcus, that involved breaking the guy’s legs and letting him know in no uncertain terms to stay the fuck away from his mate, Quaid’s sense of urgency about getting Cari to safety increased with every second. The story Marcus babbled as Quaid worked him over was beyond weird, but Quaid had seen the results of Cari’s power for himself. Catching sight of his mate sprinting as though the hell hounds were after him, away from the apartment did nothing to improve his disposition. A split second decision – apartment or mate – and Quaid was running after his mate. He could deal with whoever was in the apartment when Cari was secured.
The little guy could run, that was for sure. No hesitation. Heading straight for the trees, which was the sensible thing to do. Quaid entered the tree-line where he saw his mate disappear, sniffing the air to catch his scent. Male lions weren’t hunters as a rule, but for his mate, Quaid would break every damn rule in existence. A heap of discarded clothes about a hundred yards from where he stood, made his heart sink.
“Why on earth did you shift, little one?” Quaid groaned, running his hand over his head. Cari’s legs in his shifted form were lucky to be three inches long. Sure, hedgehogs could disappear down a rabbit hole or burrow under prickly bushes, but predators like wolves and big cats could dig. Eyes narrowed, he lowered his gaze, sweeping the area, looking for likely hiding places. As he looked back at the pile of clothing Cari left, he could have sworn he saw the pants twitch. Yes!
Moving closer to the clothes, Quaid snarled low as he heard other people coming into the wooded area. Two men, cat shifters. One of whom he remembered as Ryan, the other a new face. “Hey, did you see where Cari went?” Ryan asked with an innocent smile that didn’t meet his eyes. “Me and Jo just wanted to hang out with him and as soon as he saw us, he took off like the devil was after him. Is he okay?”
“He’s had a stressful few days,” Quaid said tersely. “He’s having a run in his shifted form. I’m just grabbing his clothes. I’ll tell him you’re looking for him, when I see him.”
“Sure, no problem.” Ryan looked at Jo. “We were going for a run anyway, right Jo? Been a while since I’ve been in fur.” Pulling off his shirt, he wiggled his ass. “No reason you can’t come too,” he said in what was probably meant to be a seductive tone.
The silly ass thinks I just fucked Cari. He doesn’t realize we’re mated. Shaking his head, Quaid strode over to Cari’s clothes, digging his hands down in the dirt slightly. Yes. He found the lump he was hoping would be there. Taking care to pick everything up, he bundled the clothes up, tucking them in the crook of his arm. “I’m on the clock, I’ve got work to do. Maybe some other time.” Like when hell freezes over.
Ignoring Ryan’s look of disappointment, probably fake too, Quaid walked purposefully over to where he’d left his brother’s car, glad he had the foresight to shove the keys in his pocket. “I need you to stay hidden,” he whispered as he opened the door, placing the clothes on the front passenger seat. “Five minutes and we’ll be out of here.”
He could almost hear Cari’s disgruntled hiss. If the man had packed when he’d told him too… but no, Quaid knew that was unfair. But it seemed every low life person Cari had come in contact with since leaving the prickle was now out to screw him over in every way possible. Quaid needed to get them to a place where they could regroup and think. And fast.
/~/~/~/~/
Cari wasn’t given to dreaming or flights of fancy. He occasionally used to dream, when he was in his prickle, of finding a caring mate and maybe raising a few little hoglets. He knew he’d never sire children of his own – omegas weren’t encouraged to do that sort of thing – and with his white shifted form, he’d never dare pass on those genetics to anyone else.
But his lack of dreaming and his strong sense of practicalities, made coping with his current situation all the more stressful. He didn’t like to worry about things that hadn’t happened yet. Actually, that wasn’t true. But his current issue was, things had happened and somehow Cari had gone from being a friendless guy barely anyone wanted to be around, to people popping up everywhere trying to bite him. That was without the whole Marcus fiasco. Now he was hidden, in his shifted form, under a pile of clothes in a car while Quaid was packing for him.
And his mate hadn’t taken long. Barely five minutes passed, and Quaid was back in the car, having thrown two large bags on the back seat, driving them at what had to be above the legal speed limit out of the carpark. Huddled under a pair of sweat pants and a shirt, Cari tried to work out if there was any way he could use the seatbelt. He wasn’t going to shift and be naked where anyone could see him through the windows. But from the squeal of the tires, and the way the car was be
ing thrown around, Cari was starting to think nakedness wasn’t his biggest concern.
“Call Ernest.” Cari hoped Quaid was talking to his phone, because without opposable thumbs, he couldn’t call anyone. Besides, he was too busy staying curled in a ball, praying they wouldn’t crash.
“Ernest, thank gods. You need to move Cari’s money. No, he can’t do it, there’s people coming out of the woodwork everywhere. Yeah, the safe house, hopefully. I don’t know, use your executive powers and get it out of his account. Put it in a trust or something but stop those wolves from touching it. Yeah, I will. Later.”
Quaid must have Bluetooth head phones. Cari thought that was rather cool, but then as his mind went over what he’d heard, he got a cold chill. Quaid has taken all my winnings. I don’t have a job. How will I live? Distressed, Cari curled further in on himself, barely listening as Quaid made another call.
“Call Purdy.” There was a moment’s silence. “Boss, I’ve got a situation. No, it’s not one of your jobs, it’s personal. Damn it Bossman, it’s my mate. Yes, mate, as in Fated. Long story short, he’s a hedgehog, banished from his prickle, living alone on the fringe of the Fallow pack territory, yeah, that one. He’s just won the billion-dollar lotto prize and every man and his dog wants a piece of him.” The silence that followed told Cari Quaid must have been listening to the mysterious Purdy.
“The Fallow pack have already tried to claim it’s pack business. Some sleaze-ball lawyer from the pack had a signed Power of Attorney trying to take over his shit before he’d even collected the money. Cari knew nothing about it. Ernest has promised to lodge a complaint with the council about that, and call in the auditors for the pack. Last night it was the seduction team’s turn. More freaking wolves. This morning it was two cat shifters and a freaking wolf with a story you’re not going to believe, yeah, yeah, I swear I’m not making this up. It’s not funny.”
Purdy must have said something to calm Quaid down because the next time Cari heard him speak, he was a lot quieter. “I can’t talk about that on the phone, but you’re going to want to hear it. Cari is a white hedgehog. Yes, white. Yeah. Thirty minutes. I’ll see you there. Okay. Later.”