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Whithowe Forest Pack 2

Another Way to Hide

What can wolf-shifter Jake Taylor do when the man he loves, his
fated mate Daniel Brooks, is not only human but also straight?

Being forced to share a room with his unclaimed mate is painful
enough for Jake, so how will he cope when Daniel starts returning
from nights out in the local clubs with a woman’s scent all over

him?

For Daniel, living with the man he has always longed for, life has

been just as unhappy and he has had to come up with ways to
protect his heart. Though the tactics he used to hide his true

feelings allow him to keep his love for Jake hidden, they also tear
him up inside and he does not know how much longer he can

continue.

With everything else going on, can Jake and Daniel break through
their long-held misunderstandings and really see each other’s

hearts? Will they ever truly learn they belong together? Forever.

Genre: Alternative (M/M or F/F), Paranormal,
Vampires/Werewolves
Length: 41,538 words

ANOTHER WAY TO HIDE

Whithowe Forest Pack 2

Violet Joicey-Cowen

EROTIC ROMANCE

MANLOVE

Siren Publishing, Inc.

www.SirenPublishing.com

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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Erotic Romance ManLove

ANOTHER WAY TO HIDE
Copyright © 2013 by Violet Joicey-Cowen
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62740-308-5

First E-book Publication: August 2013

Cover design by Harris Channing
All cover art and logo copyright © 2013 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be
reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, including
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express written permission.

All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance
to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.

PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com

Letter to Readers

Dear Readers,

If you have purchased this copy of Another Way to Hide by Violet
Joicey-Cowen from BookStrand.com or its official distributors, thank
you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

Regarding E-book Piracy

This book is copyrighted intellectual property. No other individual or
group has resale rights, auction rights, membership rights, sharing
rights, or any kind of rights to sell or to give away a copy of this
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The author and the publisher work very hard to bring our paying
readers high-quality reading entertainment.

This is Violet Joicey-Cowen’s livelihood. It’s fair and simple. Please
respect Ms. Joicey-Cowen’s right to earn a living from her work.

Amanda Hilton, Publisher

www.SirenPublishing.com

www.BookStrand.com

DEDICATION

To everyone who bought the first book, especially those who have

told me how much they enjoyed it. Thank you. I am glad you liked
my boys, and I hope you like this story just as much.

Thank you again to the wonderful editor, Val L. Hughes, who

helped me get this book ready to send off to the publisher.

(P.S. to my neighbour, who just told me she has finished book

one, I am writing as fast as I can!)

ANOTHER WAY TO HIDE

Whithowe Forest Pack 2

VIOLET JOICEY-COWEN

Chapter One

Jake

Whimpers and low growls filled the air around him as he edged

down the dark passageway. The noises and smells, which his shifter
nose had picked up from outside the building but now threatened to
overpower his senses, filtered up from below his feet. One of the
sounds, a curiously quiet wailing howl to contain so much despair,
still managed to make itself distinct from all the others. It tugged at
his wolf’s heart.

Something in him kept expecting to see a bunch of American

teenagers just out of high school come wandering around the corner,
letterman jackets still on and ready to be spattered with the blood of
their comrades. Is that light actually flickering? That just nicely
completes the picture doesn’t it! He felt for a brief moment as though
he was guest starring in a disturbingly real version of one of Daniel’s
god-awful B-movie slasher flicks, the ones where even the supposed
hero ends up dying in some horrific and unlikely way. Probably
because the idiot ignored the danger he was in and lost his virginity
to the chick whose life he just saved. Stop it! Focus! He tried to get his

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brain back on the mission and stop distracting himself from thinking
about what they were about to find.

This was the place that Charlie had broken out of, starved, abused,

and near death. Jake had heard all about it. He had first heard the
basics from his new alpha, Perry. Then he had heard the full grizzly
tale with all its gory details from Charlie himself, who was Perry’s
unclaimed mate. The building belonged to a man called Karl
Michaelson, and it was the man’s own personal house of horrors.
Michaelson also happened to be Charlie’s stepfather, one the young
wolf-shifter would have been far better off without. It was not a
house, though, it was a warehouse, with the large basement
partitioned off into cells where many different supernatural creatures
were being held prisoner. Perry had contacted Jake and his team to
help bust out everyone still in those cells. Jake was not looking
forward to what they would find.

Jake had known after hearing Charlie’s story and questioning him

that Charlie’s stepfather was a monster in human form but being here
in person, seeing, smelling, and hearing the horrors Michaelson was
happily inflicting on others was something else.

He inhaled carefully. Under the overpowering scent of blood,

urine, faeces, and rot he could smell werewolf, several other types of
shifter, fey, and a few others. There were several scents he picked up
that he could not identify, though, not having come across them
before. His wolf was whimpering inside him. The beast was terrified
by the smell of death that clung to the walls. Hasn’t Hollywood got it
backward, he mused, the werewolf is scared of the evil humans and
what they will do to it.

“Guard coming your way,” Daniel’s voice murmured in his ear.
After a beat, during which Jake tucked himself into a small recess

in the wall, Daniel gave the okay to move forward again. He glanced
back to check on his team. If the guard had passed them, Jake and his
men would have taken the guard down, but he had gone another way
in the end. Even through the earbud they were using for

Violet Joicey-Cowen

communications, Daniel’s voice could still raise the hairs on the back
of his neck. He shook it off again and did his best to focus on the
mission. Daniel was guiding him, and the others, using thermal
imaging cameras. The security system in the warehouse was rather
basic, with hard lines only on the few cameras, and the computers had
no wireless connections at all and no internet. Hacking into the
system had therefore been impossible from the outside, so each team
had a gadget that Daniel had given them and instructions on how to
jack it into the computer system for whoever found the surveillance
room.

Jake’s team was the one to find the room first. Luck of the draw.

The security hub of the retrofitted warehouse was not much to talk
about, just a single computer and two screens. There were two guards,
though, so he motioned behind him for Seb. They flanked the door
and moved silently into the room, slipping up behind the men, who
were paying no attention to their jobs or the screens in front of them,
and snapping their necks. All members of all teams knew that anyone
who worked for Michaelson was to be terminated, with extreme
prejudice or otherwise, to paraphrase the old military order. Jake and
Seb took up positions on either side of the door to keep watch on the
corridor. Victor and Rob joined them in the small room, and Victor
plugged the wireless connection into the computer tower via one of
the USB ports and then clicked a few buttons as Daniel had shown
him.

“Okay, Dee, you’re in. Connection made.”
Jake glanced over from the doorway and watched for a few

moments after Victor spoke to Daniel. The computer started doing
funny things, windows flashing up and vanishing again and scrolling
down others. He could picture Daniel’s blond head hunched over his
laptop at the other end of the connection, typing away furiously with
that look of total concentration on his face. Jake clamped down on his
thoughts, shutting them away before his body could react. Now is so
not the time for a stiffy. Aside from the fact that trying to do the job

Another Way to Hide

with a hard-on would make it a whole lot more difficult, there was
also the matter of his team being able to smell his arousal. If he had
gotten truly aroused while they were in here, of all places, he would
have been on the well-deserved receiving end of some rather baffled
looks. No. Here is not the place. Torture and starvation is not my
thing. And just like that, his faint feelings of arousal subsided.

Victor’s hands had been noticeably trembling when he plugged

the device in. While Daniel worked on the other end of the link, Jake
noticed Rob laid a hand on Vic’s shoulder.

“You okay?” Jake heard Rob ask.
“Yeah, it’s the smell. My wolf wants to run but—” Vic swallowed

and shrugged. “I’ll be fine.”

They left the room and listened to Daniel’s instructions for where

the rest of the guards were. The rest of the teams advanced into the
facility, eliminating guards and beginning to free captives without
alarms being set off, thanks to Daniel. Jake kept an eye on Victor, but
though he was on edge, he held it together.

It was ridiculously easy. After Charlie’s escape, you would think

they would have amped up the security in the place. After some of the
rescue missions he and his men had been on, this one felt like a
cakewalk. Though that did not mean they were going to treat it like
one. Either the men in charge of this sick little operation had no clue
about real security measures, or they had grown complacent. Too few
guards and the security system’s a joke. Jake guided those who could
walk out of their now-open cells and out of the building. Should have
had us design it, not that we would have touched this little “project”
with a barge pole. His mental quote marks around the word project
and the tone of his thoughts would have told anyone exactly what he
thought of it all if anyone could have heard him. This was the type of
mission his team had become so good at over the years. They were all
about helping save people, though not usually this many in one go.

On helping one of the women he released outside, a tall, slim, and

pretty brunette, he was nearly mown down by one of the biggest men

Violet Joicey-Cowen

he had ever seen. The man had to be at least six feet ten inches tall,
only a couple of inches taller than either Perry or Ant, but with a
much more massively muscled build. The gigantic man swept the
woman up tenderly in both arms, holding her as if she were the most
precious thing in the world. Jake backed away quickly, not wanting
the mountain to find his presence so close to the woman, who was
obviously his mate, offensive. He need not have worried. After gently
putting the woman down again, the man rushed at Jake, grabbing hold
of him in a bone-crushing hug.

“Thank you! You found her! You found my mate!”
“Easy there, big fella! I need my ribs as they are!”
“Sorry! Sorry!” The big man put Jake down again hurriedly and

seized hold of Jake’s hand in his own giant one, pumping it
vigorously. At six foot four, Jake did not often feel like a small man,
but next to this guy he felt positively dainty. The big guy was kind of
sweet in his enthusiasm and the joy pouring off them both at being
reunited was palpable. He managed to get the couple into one of the
trucks, and he went back into the warehouse again.

He had reached the last door in the corridor that his team was

emptying. When he opened it, he heard a clanking noise from within
the cell. The cell was darker than the others had been, with no weak
bulb hanging in the ceiling, so he clicked on his flashlight and swept
the beam across the small space.

“Christ!” Two almost skeletal figures were chained to the wall

opposite the doorway, a couple of feet apart. He thought that at first
they could not possibly be alive. Lank hair hung in dirty and matted
strings from skulls the skin had shrunk around. Filthy rags drooped
loosely in unidentifiable strips from them both. Heavy manacles
clasped around wrists and ankles of the figures, with thick metal
chains running from them, through multiple rings bolted into the walls
and floor. One of the bodies moved slightly, making the chains that
held them clank again, and Jake swung the beam back up. He heard a
dry, papery, hissing noise and saw a flash of red around eye level

Another Way to Hide

through the matted hair. Shit! The vampires! How the hell are they
still alive? More to the point, how am I supposed to get them out of
there?

“Dee, we got a problem.”
“Go ahead, Jake.”
“I found the vampires. They are in a bad way. Like…bad!”
He could feel the attention of the vampires on him and it made his

skin crawl.

“What do you need?”
“Uh…not sure. They are chained to a wall and we need keys to

get them down. The chains are too thick for the bolt cutters. The
problem is the state they are in. If we cut them down without some
way of protecting ourselves we might as well open a vein and tell
them to help themselves. They are going to be blood-crazed. I don’t
think they have been fed in a long time.”

Vampires needed human food as well as blood, but when they had

not had blood in too long they became frenzied with their desperate
need for it. They would rip apart anyone they got their hands on and
drink them dry. A truly blood-crazed vampire lost all reason and
rational thought until they had satisfied their body’s needs.

“Okay, stay with them, talk to them, and try and reach through to

them, but don’t go near them! I will send someone to you.”

“Can you hear me?” He said to the vampires, once Daniel was off

the com. He heard the dry hiss again. God that’s a creepy sound!

“My name is Jake. We are taking this place down and getting

everyone inside, out of here to safety.” Even though he could feel
their attention on him, it was curiously devoid of any emotion. The
only thing he could sense from them was hunger. He felt as though a
shark, or rather, two sharks were watching him. He talked for a
minute before falling silent again. There is really no point. They are
both too far gone. I just hope they will survive, though with vampires
as long as they are alive, they will probably recover, given enough
blood!

Violet Joicey-Cowen

He was aware of three people approaching the cell. He recognised

the light footfalls, so he did not bother moving out to look.

“Jesus!” a voice gasped from the doorway.
“Cass,” Jake greeted.
Jake turned to look at his second in command at AlphaSec. Cass

stood behind him and was frozen in the doorway. The deceptively
slender man stared in horror at the vampires on the wall. Behind Cass
stood the biggest man in their outfit, a black-haired friendly giant
called Ant who was next to another of AlphaSec’s team, Seb.
Forgotten by the man who carried them, a large set of keys hung
loosely from Cass’s fingers. Two head-sized metal cages were carried
in his other hand by a chain connecting them.

Jake's attention was drawn back to the vampires by a louder,

growling hiss.

“They can smell blood! Who is hurt?” Jake asked quickly,

watching the vampires warily. He knew there was no chance of them
escaping their chains without help but being this close to dangerous
predators, ones who were lost to reason, had his wolf on high alert.

“Cameron cut his hand. We found the lab Michaelson’s doctor

was using.” The stress Cass had put on the word emphasised his
disdain for the man. “Thought it better Cam didn’t come, didn’t think
they would smell his blood as I did not get any on me.”

“Go, get out of here! It’s cruel to them. I will see you outside.”

Jake ordered and Cass left, handing the things he carried to Ant. Jake
looked at the metal hood things and then up at Ant.

“Don’t look at me like that, boss! Cass said they found them in the

doctor’s lab. Apparently they used them when he wanted to examine
the vampires without danger of getting bitten.” He pulled the small
chain out of where it was looped through the top bar of the hoods and
handed one to Jake. “How do you want to do this, boss?”

Jake sighed. A necessary evil I suppose. “You take that one”—he

motioned at the vampire on the right, then at the one on the left—“I
will take that one.” He looked at the hood for a minute. Ugh. We will

Another Way to Hide

get these off them as soon as we can! Then he turned to the vampires
and said as much to them. “I don’t know if you can understand me,
probably not.” He really doubted they could with their minds so badly
affected by the blood-craze, especially after his previous attempt to
talk to them, but continued anyway. “We are going to get you out of
here, but we don’t want to be bitten, and you would not be able to
stop yourselves at the moment. We will get these things off you as
soon as we can get some…uh…the right stuff into you.” He had no
problem with vampires needing blood but did not want to say the
word to them while they were in this state. He moved cautiously
forward, very aware of every move he was making. The vampire he
faced barely moved as he put the hood on, hissing softly and glaring
through his hair with blood-red eyes. Jake latched the hood closed and
clicked the padlock shut. He felt like a monster putting the damn thing
on this poor creature, but he knew what the vampire would do to them
all right now if given the chance.

Once the hoods were on, they carefully undid the locks holding

the vampires to the walls. They bound the chains around the
vampires’ bodies to prevent movement, locking their hands behind
their backs and running the chains down to a similar arrangement at
their feet. When they were finished, the vampires were trussed up so
thoroughly they would not have been able to move had they been
perfectly healthy.

Jake picked one up, glad of his enhanced shifter strength, and

carried him out through the door. Without the chains, Jake thought the
one he carried would have weighed less than a small child, but with
the amount of chains, he was weighty enough. He realised as he
carried the vampire that apart from the vague scent that identified the
vamp as male, and the filth that clung to it, there was hardly any smell
coming from the body he carried. Strange, maybe the lack of blood
and fluids are to blame. I guess we will see as they get better. Ant
brought the other one. Seb followed behind, silent and watchful. They
carried both vampires out to one of the trucks and laid them on the

Violet Joicey-Cowen

ground behind it, and off to one side. They all flinched every time the
low hiss stopped or started.

“I don’t want them in the trucks until the last moment. Some of

the other prisoners have injuries, and they don’t need tormenting with
the smell of blood if we can avoid it.” He knew they could probably
smell it anyway, but closer proximity would make it worse for them.

“Jake.” Perry was approaching the trucks. He had a small figure

wrapped around his large body like cling film. Perry eyed the two
bound figures on the ground. The thought briefly crossed Jake's mind
how nice it was to be joining a pack where the Alpha was so involved
with his people, available to anyone who needed him and willing to
help in any situation, like this one.

“Alpha,” Jake said, acknowledging Perry with his title. They had

only just joined Perry’s pack, but the man’s Alpha Presence was
strong tonight, and even though Jake and his men had been on many
rescue missions, it was comforting to be under his command on a
night like tonight where they were rescuing their own kind from these
conditions.

“I think the place is clear, but could you do a final sweep?”
“Yes, Alpha.” He moved away from the vampires. “Cass, Seb,

Cameron come with me.” They fell in behind him, Cass behind and to
his right, Seb and Cameron behind and to the left. They moved
through the warehouse carefully, checking for anyone who might be
left, but found nothing. Except for the bodies of the guards, the place
was now empty. He would have done the last sweep anyway, even
without the request from Perry, but it was comforting to know his
alpha had thought of it, too, and not just dismissed it as unnecessary.
Perry might be fairly relaxed as alphas went, but every decision Jake
saw Perry make reinforced Jake’s gratitude toward the alpha who had
asked Jake and his men to join the pack.

Jake sat in the back of the truck as it rattled and bumped along.

When they got to Blue Gables, a very large and inappropriately
named house owned by Perry that Jake and his men had moved into

Another Way to Hide

the week before, he helped get the now ex-prisoners out of the truck
one by one. Once everyone else was out, he and Ant picked up the
vampires again and carried them down to the basement room that had
been prepared. Charlie had told them that there might be vampires
being held at the warehouse so they had readied for the possibility.
Washing would have to wait for these two. They needed blood more
than anything else at the moment. Jake walked down the steps and
placed his bundle on the concrete floor. He jumped up and ran from
the room, returning with a couple of sheets of the plastic that the
mattresses had come in and laid them over each bed to protect them.
He wanted the beds to be nice for the vampires for when they were
recovered enough to appreciate it but they were in no shape to be
cleaned up just yet. Once the beds were covered, he nodded at Ant
and picked his vamp back up to resettle him on the bed.

“Christ!” Hannah, the pack doctor, had followed them down the

stairs. She carried two bags, one a traditional black doctor’s bag, the
other a large insulated bag for moving chilled or warmed food around.
“Where the hell did you find those things?”

“What?” Jake did not think she could be referring to the vampires.
“Those things on their heads! That’s horrible!” She looked

disgusted. She quickly put down both her bags and opened the
insulated one, drawing out two smaller bags filled with blood, the
type Jake had seen at hospitals and blood drives.

“They were used by Michaelson’s men when they needed to get

close, but not bitten, apparently. We are going to take them off the
moment they are not blood-crazed.”

One of the vampires, the one Ant was looking after, twitched just

then, rattling his chains. Jake noticed Hannah had just cut a part of
one of the bags’ tubes off. The vampire must be able to smell the
blood. She passed the bag to Jake and did the same to another bag,
passing that one to Ant.

Jake gingerly poked the end of the tube that Hannah had cut,

through the bars encircling the head of his vampire. The vampire

Violet Joicey-Cowen

hissed again, but when Jake squeezed the bag, sending the blood
inside flowing through the tube and into the vampire’s mouth, the
noise stopped. The only sound to be heard for the next couple of
minutes was the swallowing of the thick red liquid, slow at first but
faster once they got to about halfway through the first bag. After the
first bags were empty, they drank a second, then a third, and just kept
going. After the sixth bag each, Hannah said that would have to be
enough for now. She did not want them to get sick. Even with the
incredible amounts of blood vampires could drink, and the quantity
these two would need, they could drink too much too fast in their
present state. She said to leave them for a couple of hours before
coming back to offer more, and to come get her when it was time. The
beds the vampires were on had waterproof coverings underneath the
sheets, but the extra sheet of plastic had definitely been necessary
with how filthy they were. They had suspected they might not be able
to get the vampires clean before they lay down for the first time, and
they had been right. Jake was the last out of the room, and though he
hated to do it, he bolted the door and padlocked it from the outside.
The walls of the vampires’ room were made of reinforced concrete,
very thick, and had been put together by Allan and his men in the last
week. Buried inside the concrete were the original stone walls.

Jake went upstairs to help Betts with the food. Betts owned

several restaurants across England, but here in the pack he was still
the pack cook. Along with Hannah, Betts had organised a colour-
coded system for meals for the people they had just rescued.

While Jake had been dealing with the vampires, everyone else had

been helping with getting the other ex-captives showered, or
otherwise bathed, checked over by Hannah and then fed. Jake spent
the next couple of hours ladling soup and dishing up other bowls or
platefuls of whatever had been ordered by Hannah.

Charlie turned up at one point with a fragile-looking young boy.

The boy, whose name was Kedi, stuck to Charlie’s side as if he was
glued there. Charlie hovered over Kedi like the proverbial mother

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hen. They spoke in little whispers and constantly touched each other,
as if looking for reassurance. It made Jake wonder about their history.

Jake returned to the basement, accompanied by Ant. The vampires

were looking a little better, their extraordinary healing abilities
stimulated by the blood they had consumed. They no longer looked
like living skeletons with skin stretched over bones. There was now a
light padding of flesh, too, though even that was less than a long-term
inmate at a concentration camp. Their hair still hung in lank, matted
strands of indeterminate colour. The rags that barely concealed
anything showed bony joints bigger than the limbs they connected,
and their still fragile looking skin would have been more likely to
appear on the body of a human over one hundred years old, if it had
been cleaner. Jake was growing more curious as to what they both
would look like when they were healed and clean. When they were in
the middle of their third blood bags, the one that Jake was feeding
stopped swallowing. Blood pooled in its mouth and ran out to drip
onto the plastic sheet. It blinked its eyes, and the red in them began to
fade, a sign that reason was returning and the blood-craze leaving.
Jake withdrew the tube from its mouth. He was not deliberately trying
to avoid thinking about the vampires as male, but the word it kept
sneaking into his thoughts.

“Wh—” The croak that issued from its mouth, after it swallowed

the blood that had accumulated, sounded dry and unused, despite the
quantities of blood.

“Hey, don’t try to talk.” Jake jumped in, placing a hand on the

vampire’s chest. “You are out of that place.”

The vampire’s eyes were a pale golden brown, with none of the

orange tones that would make them the amber colour that was more
common. They fixed on Jake's face, questioning him.

“I am sorry about the chains and that thing on your head. We

wanted to help you, but you were blood-crazed. We had to use them
to stop you from biting anyone. We should be able to take them off
now.” Jake studied the vampire. “Are you rational?” The vampire

Violet Joicey-Cowen

gave a wary nod. Jake stood and walked out of the room. He fished
the keys off the hook they hung on and walked back to the vampire’s
bedside. Jake unlocked the padlock on the hood thing and pulled it
open. It hinged on the left side of the vampire’s face, and Jake
carefully supported the vampire’s head so he could ease the half that
went underneath the head away.

The vampire sucked in a breath, as if it had not been able to

breathe with it on. The chains still wrapping its body clanked. It
stilled and its eyes widened with a look of panic, which calmed when
Jake reached for the locks holding the chains together. He undid them
and gingerly unwound them from the vampire’s body.

“Yo, Jay! Toss the keys over. This one is coming around, too,”

Ant said to Jake from the other side of the room.

The vampire’s gaze followed the keys through the air to where

Ant caught them. Jake looked over and watched Ant start to undo the
lock on the other hood. The vampire shifted slightly on the bed,
bringing Jake's attention back to it.

“More blood?” Jake asked. The vamp nodded and went through

another two bags before he grimaced slightly, indicating he’d had
enough for now.

“Where?” The voice was still rusty and grating.
“Where are you?” The vamp nodded again. “You are in a house in

Whithowe, on the edge of the lake district, in Cumbria. Can you tell
me your name?”

“Raff. Others,” his eyes flicked to the other side of the room and

back.

“We found two of you in that cell. I don’t know how much you

remember, or how long you have been blood-crazed. There were a lot
of other supernaturals we got out. They are all upstairs, being cared
for. We thought it best to bring you down here. We did not know how
old either of you are or how sensitive you are to sunlight.” Vampires
under one hundred years of age could not take the sun’s rays at all.
After that, their tolerance varied.

Another Way to Hide

The vamp seemed to have exhausted his nonexistent energy stores

and his eyelids were drooping. “Before you sleep, we will have a
small fridge brought down here and stocked with blood for you both.
Someone will be by to check on you in another couple of hours.” He
thought the vamp heard him. It managed to nod its head slightly
before its eyes were fully closed. Jake realised he was still thinking of
the vampire as “it” to himself. If it had not been for the male scent
that clung to them both, he still would have had no idea if the vamps
were both male or female. He looked over at the other bed. That one
had drifted off, too. The one Ant had been caring for was more
obviously male. Though it was hard to tell when they had seen neither
one standing freely, he thought that one was tall. His own vamp must
have been somewhere under six feet, though, and it would be
impossible to tell if it was a man or woman if not for his scent.

Jake and Ant went back up to the main house. The activity had

calmed somewhat. He ran into Hannah coming down the main stairs
from the bedrooms on the upper floors.

“Hey, Doc, how are we doing?” He stifled a yawn, his eyes

tearing slightly with the effort. The long night was catching up to him.

“Well, I think physically, now everyone has cleaned up,

malnourishment is the main problem. They have all been through so
much, but with some decent food and plenty of rest their bodies
natural healing abilities should take care of everything. They should
all be fine after they put some weight on.”

“Any real problems?” He could feel there was something

bothering her she had not said. She nibbled on her bottom lip,
suddenly appearing to be just the young woman she was and not the
medical professional she had had to be so far. She sighed.

“Three, not counting the vampires. That boy Perry found, Kedi,

he…” she trailed off, sagging slightly. “No, I can’t, I will watch him,”
she said confusingly, and then she stood straighter and continued.
“One of the others Perry found is a wolf-shifter. His name is Neil. He
has a brother and sister here, too. He is not reactive at all. I had to put

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in a drip as he would not eat or even swallow if liquid was dripped
into his mouth, and he is about the most underweight of all the
shifters. Someone will need to check on him regularly. The other one
is one of your men, Cameron. He managed to cut his hand on a glass
beaker in the lab at that place when he took out Michaelson’s doctor.
The cut has not begun to heal yet, and I need to run some tests to find
out why.”

They wound up their conversation quickly, going separate ways.

She had plans to grab a few hours’ sleep on one of the sofas, and he
needed to get upstairs for some rest, too.

Rubbing his hands over his face and through his hair, Jake

struggled not to yawn again, this time failing miserably. He was
flagging rapidly. He felt so fried he could hardly put two words
together and form a coherent thought, let alone speak, as he staggered
upstairs. He had never been good at running low on sleep. After
stumbling down the corridor to his room, skating down a wall and
narrowly avoiding sending a pretty little triangular display table flying
on the way, he leaned against his bedroom door. His knees suddenly
grew weak as Daniel’s scent took what little strength he had left.

Oh god. He wracked his brain for the reason before remembering.

Too many people in the house, he has to share my room.

A whimper of denial escaped him as he wondered desperately

how he was going to cope. He pulled himself together and entered the
room, flinching when the door creaked a little. His gaze was drawn
instantly to the extra bed that had been installed, where he could hear
the soft and even sounds of Daniel breathing in his sleep. Thank fuck!
Too tired to hide it tonight. He quickly stripped to his jersey boxer
briefs and collapsed into bed. While he was grateful that Daniel was
asleep already and he did not have to hide his feelings for him, a
much bigger part of Jake wanted to go over, pull Daniel from his bed,
wrap him up in his arms, and never let any of the nasty things in the
world around them ever touch him. He had been on many rescue

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missions over the years, but there had been something particularly
malevolent about the feel of this one.

Despite how tired he felt, sleep was a long time coming. Jake lay

still and listened to the sounds his unclaimed mate made while
sleeping before finally succumbing himself near dawn.

Waking a couple of hours later, Jake knew before he opened his

eyes that Daniel was already up and gone for the day because his
scent was no longer fresh. Also, once Jake's brain began to function,
he remembered that Daniel had gone to bed the night before
immediately after the rescue itself had been completed because, as the
tech guy, his primary skills were no longer of use after the mission
was over. Daniel was going to have a full day tracking families of the
new inhabitants in the house and other stuff on the computers that
Jake would have no idea how to do.

Jake was aware that his presence would soon be required

downstairs. Despite the nagging ache behind his eyeballs, and the lead
weights he could swear someone had attached to all of his limbs while
he slept, he got up. After showering quickly, he threw on a pair of
sweats and a T-shirt. The scent of coffee called to him like a siren and
drew him to the kitchen. Cameron was in the process of pouring
himself a cup from the pot with his right hand. He held his left cradled
against his chest, and it sported a thick white bandage from his wrist
with only the tips of his fingers showing.

“Boss man!” he greeted cheerily and would have continued but

Jake's hand was held up in the fairly universal sign for stop and it had
Cameron closing his mouth again.

Jake felt like slapping the man. It was just not fair to be that perky

in the morning, especially after no sleep. Jake grabbed his own mug
and grunted, motioning for Cam to fill it. He added some milk and
sugar and drank it as fast as he could, which more or less meant that
he downed it, the scalding liquid making its way down his throat to a
very grateful stomach. He might even have moaned a little in

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appreciation but would deny all knowledge of having done so, if
asked.

He nodded at his cup again for a refill and tweaked its contents as

he had before. He then looked at Cameron. “Okay, caffeine good,
talk. Progress?” His verbal skills may not have woken up yet but the
jolt from the coffee was starting to do its job and he could listen.
Cameron had not had any sleep yet, but his nauseatingly perky
attitude was typical for him in the mornings. How the hell does he
survive on so little sleep? And he looks so wide awake, and still
cheerful with it?

One of his own men, Brian and a couple of others from the pack

who had not been on the mission the night before, had been woken
shortly before Jake had gone to bed. Cameron had been on security
watch with Brian and the others and had caught them up on what they
needed to know. Now it was time for him to tell Jake about anything
he had missed before Cameron went off to get some shut-eye. Their
usual habit was to have one man or more on guard at all times during
missions at their home base and this would be kept up for a while so
that there would be someone on hand at all times should any of the
rescuees need anything. At other times when they felt it was
warranted, there was one man sleeping on a bed in the security room
so as to be able to check out any alerts the system sent out. All the
men of AlphaSec, along with several from Perry’s settlement, rota’d
down for various shifts. Jake was excluded from this, which he felt
bad about, but he was the highest-ranking wolf under their roof, and
they all needed him to be around more during the day. Besides, as the
most senior wolf around, he was on call twenty-four hours a day
anyway.

Every time they moved, and that had happened several times since

they had left their unit and formed AlphaSec, the first thing they did
was install a top-of-the line security system. It always had added
extras, courtesy of Daniel’s singular blend of genius and technical
know-how.

Another Way to Hide

Jake had been granted, on trial, the rank of second Beta in Perry’s

pack. He, along with all who lived in the house, had served in a
particular branch of the military for several years, one which
specialised in the kind of secret ops that were to be declassified on the
twelfth of never. In the years since, they had all, one by one, left their
unit and set up their own private security firm. They dealt with all
kinds of security, from home alarm systems to bodyguarding to
pulling hostages from the clutches of terrorist groups. They were,
despite the relatively small size of the company, fast becoming the
go-to people for those in the know who needed help.

Not all of their unit had been shifters, but those that were had

gravitated together and had stuck. Due to their pack natures, they had
bound the unit even tighter than was common. Their werewolf senses
came in use on just about every mission, raising their success rate
above any other unit’s. The company had been started years before
when Jake, Cass, and Seb’s terms of service were up. Since the last of
them had left the military and joined back up with them, they had
spent the last five years in the south of England before recently being
contacted by Perry. They had found that Perry and his pack, along
with the nearby house, which Perry owned but had stood empty for a
while, in a perfect fit for them. They were now officially a part of the
Whithowe Forest Pack. After a week of intense discussions with the
Alpha and a lot of planning, and also throwing enough money at
Allan and his construction company to ensure the house was liveable,
they had moved in a couple of weeks before. Allan’s company was
still pottering around finishing off some of the work that had not been
rushed through as needing to be done immediately, but most of it was
done now. The house and the men who now lived there were part of
the pack and took precedence over any new jobs that came in.

There were nine of them altogether, eight wolf-shifters and

Daniel, who was human. At times Jake wondered about that though.
Daniel was scarily intelligent, completing his A-levels at fourteen and
university a year and a half later, getting a special dispensation to join

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the military just before his sixteenth birthday though had not gone on
any field missions until after he had turned seventeen. He had a way
with computers that Jake had never even heard about in the wildest
hacker stories, and he had gone through all the required training in
weeks, which had been pretty pointless anyway as he had known far
more than his instructors. Also, the man’s luck was too unbelievably
good not to be boosted by something.

Jake had no idea why Daniel had gone into the military in the first

place. He could have gone anywhere and done anything. But there he
had been a sparky seventeen-year-old with caramel-coloured bangs
hanging over his golden eyes when they had first met, and so sweet.
Jake had known the moment they met that the other man was his
mate, his scent hitting him like a battering ram, almost knocking him
off his feet. Knowing Daniel’s age, he hadn’t said anything to him,
having decided to wait until Daniel turned eighteen. Before that had
happened, he had found out that Daniel was straight, very straight and
uninterested in men, and he had been devastated. Not only was his
mate straight, but he was also human, with a human lifespan. Though
it was less common among those who were straight and would go on
to have children with their mate or mates, they tended to find their
fated mates were the same species of shifter or supernatural as
themselves. It was not all that unusual for a gay shifter or other
supernatural to find their fated mate was human. Humans mated to
one of the supernatural species found that they took on some of the
minor traits of the species they mated into with their strength, hearing,
and other senses tending to improve.

Fate must have a cruel and twisted sense of humour, Jake had

decided, because he knew of nothing he had done to deserve the
torment he would be put through over his very long life. Not only
would he have to work day in and day out with his mate without ever
touching him, but he would have to watch as Daniel gradually grew
older and eventually died. Shifters did sometimes get a human mate
and those humans, once claimed, found their lives extended to match

Another Way to Hide

that of the shifter they mated. Without the mate bond, though, the
human would live and die after their natural life span. Jake would live
for many hundreds of years without the one person meant for him.

Jake had thought he would be able to be Daniel’s friend for, at

most, fifteen years, before retreating to watch his life from afar, as
Daniel would notice that Jake and the others did not age. However,
after two years in their unit there had been an incident with some
supernatural creature Jake hadn’t come across before or since. Daniel
had witnessed three of the men, Jake included, shift to their wolf
forms. He had been surprisingly fine during the conversations that had
followed, growing closer to the werewolf group within the unit, and
had joined the company after his extended term of service was over.

The difficulty of the time Jake spent near Daniel, unable to do

anything about the need for him, which clawed at his guts and
clogged his senses whenever the man was close, was only exceeded
by the desperation of his need to see him whenever they spent any
time apart.

Jake listened to Cameron with most of his attention, part of his

mind running over the history he had with Daniel, tormenting him
with all the memories he had of his mate.

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Chapter Two

Daniel

On waking at six in the morning, Daniel chugged the energy drink

he had ready on his bedside table. He had left it there the day before,
knowing he would need it to get going that day.

He got out of bed, aiming for the bathroom, but paused next to

Jake's bed. He stood over him, taking the opportunity to study the
man who meant the world to him. He rarely got the chance to look his
fill without Jake becoming aware of his scrutiny, and he found the
moment was too tempting to resist. Jake was a well-built man, six feet
four inches tall with broad shoulders, hard, defined muscles, and a
narrow waist. Jake slept on his back, one arm across his lightly haired
chest and the other flung upwards on the pillows with his hand curling
into his hair. Daniel’s gaze slid over the other man’s rich golden-
brown hair, which was ruffled, two or three inches long, and just
enough for Daniel to imagine grabbing onto as he kissed him. He
looked down over the eyelids hiding Jake’s hazel eyes and to the
stubble, which gave him a dangerous air even in sleep. His physical
appearance was something Daniel knew well after so many years, but
he rarely got the chance to just look at him. Jake could not have been
in bed for very long. While he was deeply asleep, the lines exhaustion
had written on his face had not relaxed yet. Daniel’s hand itched with
the urge to reach out and smooth the lines away.

Daniel realised he was standing over Jake, staring at him like a

lovesick fool. Ugh, he thought eloquently and went for a shower.

Another Way to Hide

Once downstairs, he grabbed a piece of toast and got straight on

with some work. Focusing on that gave him something else to think
about rather than the attractively sleep-tousled man he had left
upstairs. Doc had left plenty of notes for him, as had Cameron and
Henry, a wolf from Perry’s pack. Need to stop thinking of them as
Perry’s pack and us as Jake's pack, Daniel told himself yet again, we
are all one pack now! The fact that he was human did not matter. Jake
and the others had told him on many occasions that they considered
him one of them, and even Perry had made a point of welcoming him
to the pack along with everyone else.

The information in all three sets of notes needed to make its way

into the files Daniel kept on his computers. He created a file for each
ex-captive, entering the data for personal facts like height, weight, and
gender. He also added information on which supernatural species they
belonged to, any particular abilities attached to them that were known,
and medical information from Doc’s notes. He also included, where it
was noted down, who had released them, roughly how long they had
been in captivity if it was known, and how they had been found. After
he was finished with creating their files, he moved onto reaching out
and tracking any known family members, something which took far
longer.

As he worked he could hear the level of noise in the house rising.

He had been one of the first to bed, so almost everyone had still been
asleep when he had got up. Every now and then the door to his office
would open and someone would drop a piece of paper or a file onto
the desk by the door. They knew better than to try and talk to him
while his head was deep in his work. Distracting him when he was
concentrating so hard left him moody for days and when he was in a
bad mood it seemed to spread through everyone in the house. It was
weird. So they tried to keep him happy.

Just as he was opening the next brown file, he heard a loud

banging start up on the front door. He jumped to his feet and ducked
out of his office in time to see Jake race past him. He got a brief

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opportunity to admire Jake as the other man ran in front of him. The
man sure can move, he mentally drooled.

In the entrance hall, a slim woman and a boy had arrived. The

woman was shouting at Ant, looking tiny next to the huge man’s solid
frame. The black-haired, blue-eyed boy was hanging back, looking
nervous.

“You have to let us see them!”
“What’s going on?” Jake strode forward. “It’s Megan, right?”
The woman looked at Jake with relief and nodded, moderating her

voice somewhat as she spoke to him. “Yes. We had to come.”

“Why? What is wrong?”
“Our mates are here.”
“Your mates?” Jake looked doubtfully between her and the boy,

who was in his early teens. Daniel was not sure if it was Astley or
Miles.

“Gerry got back last night. I share a house with him and a couple

of others. I woke up and I could smell my mate on him! He has to be
here!” Her eyes were wild.

“What about the boy? Sorry, lad, I don’t know which one you

are.” Jake looked at the kid. “You’re what, thirteen? Fourteen? You’re
not old enough to mate.”

“I could still recognise his scent,” the boy muttered resentfully,

loud enough for even Daniel to hear, while fidgeting under Jake's
sharp gaze.

“It’s Astley,” Megan said, “Perry allowed him to come because he

was worried his mate might leave soon, going god knows where. It
was going to be easier for them to meet now than track down
everyone who left afte—” A thunderous roar sounded upstairs,
rattling the crystal drops in the chandelier and interrupting the flow of
her words. Everyone turned to look up the stairs.

“Whoa!” Cass had been rounding the corner on the half pace. He

flung himself back against the wall as a large, if on the thin side, lion
bounded past him. The lion slipped slightly on the marble floor before

Another Way to Hide

he found his footing and paused to look at the group of people. He
stalked forward. Was this Megan’s mate?

The boy, Astley, Daniel reminded himself, paled and shrank back.

As the lion grew closer, however, the boy straightened, a peculiar
look coming over his face. He squared his slender shoulders and
moved forward, lifting one trembling hand and holding it out toward
the lion that had stopped in front of him. The lion sniffed it carefully
then head-butted the boy’s hip, nearly knocking him off his feet. He
rubbed his large head, like the cat he was, against Astley’s side. A
wide, wondering smile broke out on Astley’s face, and his blue eyes
sparkled.

Daniel had not witnessed the first meeting between true mates

before, and the moment felt magical. The emotions inside him were
so mixed up. He wished with all his heart that he could be with Jake
in the same way that Astley would one day be with this lion shifter.
The clinging, nagging hope of that feeling hurt, constantly, but it
refused to fade. At the same time, he was very happy for the young
wolf and his fated mate. He pondered for a moment why fate would
pair up shifters from different species, knowing it happened a lot
when it came to gay mated couples. A cat and a dog! I wonder who
will be chasing whom in the future? But he decided it did not matter.
Fate always gave true mates the best partner possible for them. Sure,
it might not always work out. Not all pairings ended up blissfully
happy, but they had their chance and this one looked like a good
beginning. They will have years to get to know each other, too, before
they can mate.

“Alright, enough of that!” Jake took charge again. “Megan,

Astley, Ant, and whichever one you are”—he looked pointedly at the
lion—“in there, now!” Daniel remembered there were four lion
brothers from the notes on his desk. Jake strode off into the room he
had pointed at, a small drawing room off the hall they had been
standing in. “Cass, grab a blanket and bring it in here,” he shouted
before he closed the door behind them all.

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Daniel went back to his office and resumed work on the files.
One of the women that had been rescued had said she was very

grateful for the rescue and the overnight stay, but she really must be
going, and after eating a rather large bowl of tomatoes and red
peppers and a double handful of pumpkin seeds she had vanished.
Huh! He snorted in surprise at reading that in Brian’s notes. Not
disappeared out the door, but gone, poof! Actually evaporated into
thin air. There was nothing on what she was, and no one had any clue
as to possibilities either. Teleportation might be a popular theme in
science-fiction books, but until now they had not come across it in
real life. He also wanted to know how they had caught her in the first
place and why she had not just teleported away from the danger.
Can’t ask now though, not with her having vanished! Slightly irritated
by the blank spot in his knowledge of the situation, Daniel shrugged
and added her information into a small file and closed it for now.
Intrigued, he would do further research on her and what she could be
later.

The fey could basically sort themselves out. Now they were free

they could do some psychic thing to contact their tribe or clan or
whatever they called it, and as soon as their people could get here
they would be gone.

It had been in Doc’s notes that three of the wolf shifters were

siblings, two brothers and a sister. One was currently nonresponsive,
but the other two had looked more terrified at the question of
returning to their pack than they had been of their captors. They
would probably end up joining the Whithowe Forest Pack, so after
creating their files and entering Doc’s info, he left them alone for
now, moving onto other things.

He had accumulated a lot of information and contacts since first

finding out the truth about the existence of the real supernaturals that
he lived and worked with on a daily basis, which had been totally
awesome! He grinned to himself, humming along to the music he had
put on to play while he worked. He had search programmes running

Another Way to Hide

constantly for anything with a combination of certain key words
attached. He normally went through the results on a weekly basis,
sorting possible leads from the stuff he had no need of. With the move
and then the mission to plan and execute, he had fallen a few weeks
behind.

There were a couple of emails from locals who were thinking

about getting a security system installed, one of which was from a
business, and two were from homeowners. Daniel emailed them back
with a couple of dates and times he was available to go have a look at
their needs.

Daniel finished for the day and headed for the kitchen. With so

many residents in the house that needed different diets, Betts would
be spending his days there to help with all the food. So when he left
his office, he could instantly smell the delicious aromas of the man’s
cooking. Jake had tried to offer the friendly man the aid of one of his
men for the kitchen, but the chef had growled at him and started to
appear rather less friendly, and very territorial. My kitchen the look on
his slender face had said as he picked up a wooden spoon and waved
it threateningly, brown eyes glaring daggers. Jake had backed off
before he had been smacked across the knuckles with the spoon. Betts
apparently ran the kitchens in his restaurants like very well organised
military units. Everyone knew their jobs and did them to the best of
their abilities or feared his wrath. If he was loud and shouting,
everything was probably okay, but when he got quiet whoever was
working with him should start to worry that they had really messed
up, and maybe go pack their bag before he got really mad.

“Hey,” he said to Betts, just as his stomach growled loudly. The

other man grinned at him and pivoted, his shiny black ponytail
swinging with him, and in short order held a large plate of lasagna
under his nose. Daniel moaned in bliss as he dug in. God, I’m
staaaaarving!

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“Should have stopped for lunch.” Betts smirked again, this time

looking past him. Daniel would have responded, but was too busy
filling his mouth with the tasty lasagna.

Jake cleared his throat as he slid into the seat next to him. After

several minutes of dedicated eating, both men slowed enough to talk.

“So,” Jake started, “where are you on tracking the homes, covens,

and other stuff of everyone?”

Daniel took a moment to swallow his food and take a gulp of the

water from the yellow mug that rested next to his half-empty plate on
the marble countertop.

“I don’t have much so far, can’t contact any covens until after

sundown, so the vamps are on hold for now.” He checked his watch.
“Won’t be long now. I have sent out a lot of messages, but most of
my connections will take at least a day to get back to me. Today has
mostly been about collating information from various sources and
reaching out to contacts.” Daniel had prepared a progress report for
Jake, which he had emailed to both him and Perry, but Jake liked to
receive the information in person as well.

As they talked, Daniel felt very aware of the man next to him. It

was nothing new, but it was bothering him more than usual. Jake's
hair was still as ruffled as it had been when he had been asleep, as if
he had run his hands through it many times. It was something Daniel
knew Jake did when he had a lot on his mind. He could almost feel
Jake breathing, feel the air being pulled into Jake's lungs, making his
chest rise and fall underneath the dark-grey sweater. He tried not to
look over, not wanting to be caught staring, but failed miserably. The
man still had not shaved, and his fingers itched to feel the rasp of the
stubble on Jake's jaw as he moved in for the kiss that he had
fantasized about for ten years.

Daniel suddenly became aware that Jake had stopped talking, and

his gaze flew up. Jake was looking at him oddly.

“You okay?”

Another Way to Hide

“Yeah, sorry. Miles away.” His cheeks heated slightly, and he

prayed Jake did not notice. God, how embarrassing! Please don’t ask
what I was thinking about. Please!

“So.” Jake cleared his throat again. “I have to go check on how

our vamps are doing. You will keep me informed of any progress?”

“Of course.” He watched Jake get up and dump his plate beside

the sink before leaving the room.

“Oh god!” He was alone in the kitchen, and after pushing his plate

aside, he collapsed across the countertop, burying his face in his arms.
He groaned with mortification at being caught staring by Jake. “Shoot
me now,” he told the marble underneath his head, lightly banging his
forehead against it a couple of times.

“You know…” Daniel jumped upright and spun around. Betts was

smirking at him from the pantry doorway. “You might have everyone
here fooled, but not me. Nope. Not for a New York minute.” His
smirk widened until he was grinning lazily at Daniel. His long dark
hair was tied up in a sleek ponytail, the tip of which fell to between
his shoulder blades.

“I…”
“Why don’t you tell him how you feel?”
“Jesus, you can’t say anything!” Daniel panicked.
“Not Jesus, just Betts.”
“Haha. No, please! You can’t say anything to Jake.”
“Oh I wouldn’t dream of it. But why don’t you?”
“Long story, look, I have to go…” Daniel trailed off and fidgeted

for an extremely long moment, before turning and hurriedly leaving
the kitchen.

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Chapter Three

Jake

So different, even after just a couple of days. Jake was standing in

a corner of the dining room, leaning against the edge of the fireplace.
He watched as everyone filed past the sideboard, filling plates and
wandering off to find somewhere to eat.

A small movement at the other end of the room caught his eye.

Kedi was hovering just outside one of the doors in the wall opposite
the one Jake leaned against. The boy looked scared and alone.
Where’s Charlie? Jake pushed off the mantelpiece and made his way
over.

“Hi, Kedi,” he said softly. The boy jumped as if Jake had shouted

through a bullhorn at him. Kedi’s wide silvery-blue eyes looked up
into his for a brief moment before sliding away again nervously. Kedi
reminded Jake of a wild animal, scared and skittish. “Are you alright?
Where’s Charlie?” Kedi did not reply, but his gaze darted over, past
the stairs to the door that led out onto the patio at the back of this bit
of the house. Jake followed his line of sight and saw Charlie talking to
Allan, through the glass panes in the top half of the door. “I’m sure he
won’t be long. Have you had anything to eat yet?” Kedi did not
answer. He just hunched his shoulders more and cowered there in
silence. The boy was still far too skinny and looked as if a strong
breeze would blow him away. Kedi seemed to shrink in on himself
the more Jake tried to talk to him.

Jake was at a bit of a loss as to what to do until he saw Davin and

Butch approaching. Of all the men he lived and worked with, he had

Another Way to Hide

known Butch the longest. Though maybe known was too strong a
word, as he still had no idea what made the small man tick or where
the seemingly inappropriate nickname had come from.

“Boss.” Butch gave him a curt nod, his chin-length floppy brown

hair bouncing. Despite his all too innocent initial appearance, an air of
barely restrained violence clung to him. Jake nodded back.

“Butch, Davin.” Davin still sported a buzz cut and looked every

inch the military man, from the tips of his short dark-blond hair to the
toes of his shiny black boots and across every ripped muscle in
between.

“Boss, isn’t it about time you went to check on Raff and Andre?”

Butch moved over to stand beside Kedi and was glaring at Jake.
Something about Butch must have reached Kedi because the boy
relaxed a fraction, looking less scared. Kedi shifted and leaned
slightly in toward Jake's usually scary colleague. Despite their long
acquaintance and close working relationship, Jake hesitated to call
Butch a friend. He was also reluctant to leave Kedi with him, but Kedi
seemed more at ease with Butch than he did anyone else apart from
Charlie or Perry. So Jake walked away, closely followed by Davin.
He looked back before going through the doorway that led to the
kitchens and from there to the basement. His jaw just about hit the
floor. Kedi was cuddled right up against Butch’s side, with Butch’s
arm around him holding him gently. What the hell?

“Oh please tell me that poor kid is not Butch’s mate!” Jake hissed

at Davin the moment he was sure they were out of earshot.

“I don’t think so, boss,” Davin replied with a frown.
“Thank god for that! What the hell is with them then?” He looked

at Davin, who appeared deep in thought for a moment.

“Butch let something slip once, something about a brother he had

been unable to protect”—Davin shrugged—“maybe Kedi reminds
him of his brother, maybe he just feels protective and Kedi can feel he
is safe with him.”

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“Hmmmm, maybe.” Jake opened the door that led down to the

cellar. The heaters that had been installed in Andre and Raff’s room
did not reach through to the whole basement level, and cold air drifted
up the stone steps. The vampires did not really need the heaters. They
were not overly bothered by temperatures even shifters would find too
hot or too cold, but the warmth from the heaters made their room
homier than the dark and dank cell they had been chained in before.
Jake and Davin descended, their footsteps echoing slightly. Jake could
hear the faint sounds of music emanating from the vampires’ room.
He walked up to the heavy wooden door and rapped on it.

“Come in.”
Jake turned the knob and pushed the door open. “Hi. How are you

doing today?”

Andre was sitting at the table at the other side of the room, head

bent over a large puzzle, and Raff was at the computer desk playing a
game on the laptop. Yup, very scary vampires, live that Hollywood
stereotype boys. They both still looked rather too thin to be up and
around. They turned and smiled at Jake. Oh yeah, there it is! The
overly fangy smile in their thin faces still produced an instinctual
reaction which made his wolf whimper but he ignored it, smiling
back.

“Well, you are both looking a lot better. How are you feeling?”

He was not lying. They might still be scrawny, but it was better than
the mummified corpse look from when Jake had found them. And at
least they had been able to clean up and put on proper clothing.

“Hey, Jake,” Andre said. “Hungry actually. Hannah said last night

we should be able to handle some solid food today, but we have not
seen her since then.”

“Ah, she has been a little busy with everything. I am sure she will

come and see you both soon. Hungry is good though. Dav, can you go
back up and check in with Doc? Ask what they can have and bring
something back down for them.” Davin left, shutting the door behind

Another Way to Hide

him. “So…apart from hungry, how are you both feeling?” Jake
motioned to a bed and raised an eyebrow.

“Yes, sit please! Stiff, still sore, but we are getting there.” Raff’s

deep voice was a surprise, coming from such a pretty and slender,
young-looking man. “We didn’t ask before, but who else made it
out?” Someone must have brought down some scissors or a pair of
clippers and helped with washing their hair for the first time because
Raff’s dark-brown hair now fell in artful waves almost to his
shoulders, rather than past them in matted hanks. Jake glanced at
Andre and saw that his hair was now of a similar length and colour to
his own, lighter brown than Raff’s and only an inch or two long.

“Butch been down?” he asked.
“Huh?” Raff’s face twisted slightly in confusion.
“Your hair.”
“Oh!” He lifted a slender hand and fiddled with the ends of his

hair, smiling self-consciously. “Um, yes. Uh, is…is it..?”

“Don’t worry. I did not mean anything bad by that. You both look

good. Butch wields a pretty mean pair of clippers doesn’t he? He does
all of ours.” Jake hesitated and gave an assessing glance at both men
before he spoke again. “I hope you don’t mind me asking this, and it
may seem blunt, but how did you wind up prisoners of that man?”

Andre growled and his brown eyes flashed red. “We were

travelling. Our Coven had recently had a… change in leadership.
Raff’s dad had been the old leader and Marcus…” Raff seemed to
shrink in on himself, much like Kedi had, with his chin tucked in to
his chest and his hair swinging forward to hide his face.

“Marcus thought that by mating Raff he would stamp out any

opposition.”

“He’s not my mate,” Raff whispered from behind his curtain of

hair.

“The bastard wouldn’t leave him alone! We got him out before a

bond could be forced on him, but it was damn close. Though we can
survive daylight better than some of the youngest members of our

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race, we would prefer not to have to if it can be avoided, so we were
travelling at night and sleeping during the day. We were looking for
another coven to join when we all woke up one day in that man’s
clutches. I can only assume they had known what we were already
and drugged us when we were asleep. They fed us, sometimes, but
they never gave us any blood unless they wanted to study what it did
to us, which wasn’t often. Normally they were beating our own blood
from us and seeing how much we could tolerate being drained away.”
Talking through what had happened seemed to help Andre calm
down. The red was disappearing from his eyes once more, and they
faded back to brown. “That was three years ago.”

“Christ! How the hell have you survived that long without

blood?”

“We didn’t, not all of us.”
“I’m so sorry! I wasn’t thinking.” Jake could have smacked

himself, remembering Raff had asked about “others” in the plural
when he had first regained his sanity. There had obviously been more
than just he and Andre captured from their hotel room.

Andre waved his concern away. “Nothing to be sorry for. You got

us out, not your fault not all of us were alive long enough for the
rescue.”

“Were you all friends? Do either of you, or did any of the others

have mates?”

“Yes, we grew up together, the five of us. There was six of us, but

Freddie vanished a year or so before we got taken. I often wondered
since they took us if they had taken him also, but they said several
times that they were excited to get their hands on some vampires at
last, and I grew fairly sure we were the first. We still wonder what
happened to him. None of us were mated yet thankfully. I have never
been so glad that none of us had found our mates. That would have
been a worse torture than what they put us through. Knowing our
mate but being unable to go to them.” Jake swallowed painfully at
that. He knew just how bad that particular torture was, living with it

Another Way to Hide

on a daily basis. Davin returned just then, bearing plates of chicken,
buttery rice, and peas. They continued to talk a little as the vampires
virtually inhaled the food, using only the forks that had been brought,
knives not being necessary as none of the food needing cutting.

Until they were fully recovered, Andre and Raff needed to stay

completely out of any and all sunlight. If they had been healthy it
would not have been bad, as they were both old enough to have
learned to tolerate the sun’s rays, but they were not up to that yet.

“I will come back and see you later.” Jake stood and held his hand

out toward the empty plate in front of Andre. Andre gave it to him
then twisted to take Raff’s empty plate and hand that to Jake as well.

“Thank you.” André’s dark eyes conveyed thanks going far

beyond gratitude for removing the dirty dishes.

“I will talk to Hannah about what food you can have and make

sure it is sent down regularly even when I am not here, and I will see
if there is anything we can keep stocked down here for you. Charlie’s
appetite is barely starting to slow now, and it has been a few weeks
since he got out.”

Jake said goodbye for now and left, stacking the plates one on top

of the other as he walked, pulling the fork from between the plates
with a clink and placing it on the top one.

Three days later the living situation in the house had eased a very

tiny bit. The fey had all gone that morning. Two of the others had also
left. One of the mystery supernaturals had turned out to be an honest
to god merman who had been stuck in his human body for far too
long and wanted to get back to the sea. The other had been a seal-
shifter, known in mythology as a selkie. They had gone off together,
not as a mated pair, but travelling with each other toward the sea
where they planned to find the selkie’s pod and live with them. One
place Daniel does not have contacts, Jake chuckled to himself, is
underwater! Although I would not put it past him to manage it at some
point. I would not put anything much past him at all.

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That had reduced the quantity of people in the house by eight. But

with the addition of Megan, whose mate had turned out to be the wolf
sibling Hannah had been worried about, and the fact that beds had
been juggled a little so they could share a room, meant there was only
one room actually emptied, and Megan and Neil had moved into it.

Megan’s wolf, Neil, was the oldest of his siblings. He had given

food when he could to his brother and sister, going without so they
would have more. He had recently been put in a separate cell, and the
guards had been using him as one of their special playthings. Jake
shuddered, his mind shying away from what Neil must have gone
through. Neil still had a fair way to go in his recovery. Like Charlie,
he had nearly died, and it was taking longer than it should for him to
heal as his reserves had been so low. But at least he was responding
now. The presence of his mate had brought him out of the almost
catatonic state he had been in when Perry had carried him out of the
warehouse. With the help of his new mate, he would get better,
especially after he claimed her and would be able to feel her
emotional support through their bond.

The bunk beds the fey had used were now stored in the basement,

one being reserved for Sam and Jessica, Astley’s parents, for when
their two-year-old twins were old enough to use it. Neil’s brother and
sister were going to stay with Perry’s pack. The lions were staying,
too, as they had actually been sold by their pack alpha to the group
Charlie’s stepfather had been leader of, and they would not return
there. Besides, there was no way Noah would leave Astley. There was
an innocent wonder in his eyes every time he looked at the boy who
was to be his mate. The games he had begun to play with Astley and
his brothers and sisters were chasing the away shadows and bringing
joy back into his eyes. It was good to see.

So, Jake thought as he fished a pair of boxers out of his draw to

wear to bed, there are no extra rooms. Daniel isn’t going anywhere
yet. He hadn’t decided if it was a bad thing or not. On the one hand,
Daniel is sleeping in my bedroom every night. Bonus! On the other,

Another Way to Hide

Daniel is sleeping in my bedroom every night! And I can’t touch him,
which sucks. I swear if this goes on much longer I am going to start
getting blisters on my right hand from jacking off so damn much. But
I guess it’s a price I am willing to pay so my wolf doesn’t just take
over and jump him.

Daniel’s scent was starting to drive him mad. Sure, there had been

times over the years when they had shared a room or a space by a
campfire or, on one occasion, a cell.

“Though let’s not get into that.”
He hadn’t spent so much time, just him and Daniel, in years and it

was ramping his libido up to unbelievable levels. I don’t think I was
this horny quite this much even when I was a teenager. Jake was
thinking to himself as he changed for bed, or he thought he had said it
all inside his head until the subject of his thoughts spoke from the
bathroom.

“Did you say something?”
Er. Did I? “No.” Shit! Did I say something out loud? What did I

say? What did he hear? “You nearly done?”

“Minty fresh.” Daniel left the bathroom, waving his arm at the

open door behind him and bowing slightly in Jake’s direction.

“Smart-arse.” Jake fake coughed the word as he passed him,

earning a grin from Daniel. The grin sent a tingle of feeling shooting
through him and straight to his groin. It was the first instance they had
both been readying themselves for bed at the same time. “What’s with
the shirt?” Jake couldn’t help staring at the T-shirt Daniel had put on
for bed. It was brown with a picture of a guy wearing a weird hat with
a dangly bit on each side, and the slogan Shiny; Let’s Be Bad Guys on
it. It was a very weird hat. He had seen the shirt, among all the others
Daniel wore, but never commented on it before.

“Browncoats forever!”
Jake was baffled by Daniels response. What the hell is he talking

about? Okaaaayyy then… He decided to let the weirdness pass for
now and did his teeth, changing in the bathroom for bed. He wouldn’t

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normally wear anything to bed. He wouldn’t normally be bothered by
nudity either, as shifters generally weren’t, but then they did not
usually share a room with their mate while not being able to show
how much they wanted them. He had had an interesting time, since
Daniel had been sharing his room, trying to keep the other man
unaware of his almost permanent hard-on or, at the very least, semi,
while around him.

Turning to close the bathroom door as he entered the bedroom,

Jake then took the large pace to his bedside, flipped the cover up, and
slid underneath it in one quick movement. It was a move he was
quickly perfecting to hide the state of a certain part of his anatomy.

Jake had another night without much sleep. This part of spending

a lot of time with Daniel was not so much fun. Lying in bed, tossing
and turning for most of the night, he was haunted by thoughts of
kissing Daniel, going over to him, peeling that odd shirt off him, and
licking his chest. When he did manage to sleep he saw even more
vivid and explicit images of Daniel writhing underneath him in
ecstasy, crying out his name as Jake thrust deep inside him.

The next day was Friday, and Daniel, Seb, and Cameron headed

into town for the night. It had been a while since any of them had any
time off, and they were definitely past due. Jake’s wolf was not
happy. He growled softly as he poured three fingers of whisky into a
glass and downed it. Not thinking about Daniel, he glared at the
empty glass. He left the glass on the sideboard and carried the bottle
through to his study.

Another Way to Hide

Chapter Four

Daniel

After putting on his usual show with a couple of women on the

dance floor for the guys, Daniel sighed in relief when he saw an
unexpected and familiar figure. Sauntering over to one of the tables,
he tapped a woman on one shoulder while leaning down to speak into
the other ear. She had long brown hair and a killer body in a
wraparound cream dress.

“Hey, hot stuff!” He was fully aware of the wolves watching him,

able to hear every word he said despite the loud music so he let his
voice lower into a husky growl.

Trace whirled in her seat, hair swishing. “Daniel!” She jumped to

her feet and threw herself into his arms. “Hey there yourself,
gorgeous! What on earth are you doing in my neck of the woods?”
She coyly bit her bottom lip, lightly slicked with a hint of natural-
coloured lip gloss, while sending him a darkly flirty look through her
eyelashes. “Are you in need?” She stressed the last two words.

“Like you wouldn’t believe! You? Do you want to get out of

here?”

“Haven’t seen you in way too long. I’m soooo ready to go!” She

turned back to the table. “I’m off guys. I will see you all Monday.” It
garnered a few waves in her direction, and a couple of open mouths
from others that she was leaving with someone so abruptly.

Daniel and Trace walked at speed in the direction of the club’s

exit. Daniel turned at the last minute and caught sight of Cameron

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with his jaw nearly on the floor as he watched Daniel and Trace.
Daniel winked at his friend and left.

* * * *

“Ohhhh,” Trace moaned in bliss, “that’s so good.”
“Why do you wear them if they hurt?”
“Really? You never got that?” Trace wiggled her newly bare toes

at the fire. She had kicked her shoes off after igniting the gas fire and
was now enjoying the feel of the warmth on the soles of her feet.
“Gotta look the part, darling! Through there.” She motioned to one of
the doors at the far end of the long sitting room from where she sat on
the floor in front of the huge sofa.

“The part?” Daniel pulled his shirt off as he ducked out of the

room for a moment. He returned from Trace’s bedroom, deliberately
treading a couple of times on the top he had just discarded, carrying
her oversize night shirt which he proceeded to put on and sliding back
into their old routine with ease. He threw himself down on her
enormous, green-suede sofa.

“I’m supposed to be going out to get laid. I have to look like I

want to. Heels are hot, especially those.” She waved at the discarded
pink-and-gold stilettos on the floor.

“Well, whatever you are supposed to be doing”—he put emphasis

on the same word she had—“I’m glad you were there tonight.”

“Couldn’t face finding someone?” Her face held only sympathy.
“No, it’s been a while since I left with anyone, and it was about

time.”

“You look stressed”—she frowned—“things okay?” The

arrangement they had, had been called off when she had moved away.

Daniel snorted. “Not hardly. God, I’m sharing a room with him!”

He groaned and let his head fall onto the backrest.

“Seriously? Why? What happened?” Trace knew how hard that

would be for him. She knew all about his feelings for Jake, and about

Another Way to Hide

what the other man was. She knew Jake was a shifter and as such
would probably one day find his true mate.

Trace knew one of the reasons Daniel had never tried anything

with Jake was the thought of what would happen when Jake met his
mate. It would hurt Daniel too much to have to give Jake up once they
had been together. As it was it would feel as if his insides were being
ripped apart to watch Jake meet whoever his mate turned out to be, if
Daniel was even still alive at that point. He knew it was perfectly
possible that Jake would meet his mate long after Daniel had grown
old and died. He also could not bear the thought of being told outright
by Jake that he did not want him. He was sure Jake would be very
nice about it, but not wanted was not wanted and knowing it for a fact
would be too painful.

Daniel and Trace had fallen a little out of contact since she had

moved away. Their friendship was as strong as ever, as was evidenced
by the easy resumption of their little arrangement this evening, but
there was a fair bit to catch up on.

“Short version is we joined a local pack. The Alpha needed help

with something and we needed somewhere to settle. He needed help
with a rescue mission. A total jackass and the people who worked for
him had discovered the existence of shifters and other supernaturals
and were holding a bunch of them. They were doing experiments on
them, starving them and basically treating them like shit just to see
what they could live through. We got them out and most of them are
now staying with us until, and if, they find somewhere else to go.
With all of them there, we have to share rooms for now. I got Jake,
lucky me!” He had sat forward as he talked but leaned back again
now. “So how long have you been living around here? You told me
you moved again, but you didn’t say where to.”

“About a year. I got my own place.” She looked very pleased with

herself, and rightly so. Trace had been assistant manager at a very
swank hotel in London when he had last seen her. Now, as she told

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him, she was general manager of a hotel in the Lake District. It was
part of a large chain of hotels all over the world.

He started to shuffle forward, meaning to ease his butt off the

edge of the sofa and sit on the floor next to Trace, but she picked
herself up from the floor and got comfortable on the sofa, so he
settled back again. Daniel sat at one end, slouched in the corner of the
armrest and back, and Trace sat at the other end with her feet in
Daniel’s lap. He began to massage the ball of her left foot
automatically.

“God, I forgot how good at that you are.” Trace groaned. Daniel

smirked at her and continued to knead her foot gently.

He had known her for eight years, having met her through his

research and contacts on supes. Only for four years in person, though.
Before that she had just been a name on a computer screen and a
voice on the other end of a phone line. Trace looked about ten years
older than Daniel did now, but he had no idea how old she actually
was. He looked at her. Trace was of fairly medium height for a
woman, about five foot and five or six inches. She was slender but
had curves in all the right places, if he had been interested in them.
Her hair was amazing, he would give her that, hanging nearly to her
waist when it was down in loose, silky curls and waves the colour of
dark chocolate. She had a Mediterranean complexion and very dark
eyes.

By the time they had finally met in person, they were already

good friends. She had known all about his unrequited love for Jake,
and his methods of coping with it and how he hid it from his friends.
She had no arguments with what he did because she did something
similar for her own reasons. Waving aside the disparity in their ages,
they made use of each other on a regular basis whenever they were
around each other, working out a code to use. Their code meaning,
I’m being watched and I need to look like I’m leaving with someone
for a wild night, good times to be had by all. It worked very well for
them both. To others it looked like they were having a wild time. In

Another Way to Hide

each other they found a friend who understood. He wore her oversize
nightwear to get her scent all over him and made his clothes look as if
they had spent the night on the floor of her bedroom. He sometimes
also jacked off in the bathroom, or on the way home as an added
measure to fool the sharp senses of the men he lived with. It would be
pointless to jump through all the hoops he did so they would believe
him, only to be caught out by something so simple. He had to
occasionally smell like he had had actual sex, not just like another
person. With it all put together it had worked well for a long time
now.

When Daniel left Trace’s place at dawn he looked and smelled as

if they had been all over each other all night.

Getting back to the pack house, Daniel braced himself before he

went in.

“And the dirty stop-out returns.” Ant was the first to ambush him

the moment he opened the front door. He knew he would have been
spotted when he came in the front gates. Security was always tight,
and even more so now with what was going on.

“Haha,” Daniel commented dryly.
“Had a good time did we?”
Obviously in a playful mood, he let Ant have his fun. Ant had

nine inches on his own five-foot-ten-inch frame. His hair and build
were a lot like their new Alpha, tall, muscular and darkly handsome,
but Ant had a more olive skin tone and could easily be mistaken for
someone who lived around the med. The large man had been more
sombre than usual for quite a while now, and it was nice to see him
lighten up.

“Yes, we did, thank you very much.” He grinned, playing it up.

“A great time, actually, aaalllll night long.”

They bantered back and forth for a couple of minutes before

Daniel went upstairs to get a shower and a couple more hours sleep.
As grateful as he was for Trace and their arrangement, he still got a
sick feeling twisting in his stomach every time he had to lie about

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being with her or anyone else. Jake was the only one he wanted to be
with and denying his love for him, pretending it did not exist,
pretending that he was going out and fucking someone else had his
guts churning as if he was being unfaithful to Jake. He was glad he
was going up to bed. He did not think he could keep up the lie if he
had to face anyone else.

Jake was asleep when Daniel quietly opened the door to their

room. Once he entered the room and looked at Jake, Daniel’s real
feelings flooded over him. Jake was lying on his stomach, facing
away from the door. He must have had a restless night because the
covers and his pyjama bottoms had slipped down and exposed the top
of his arse. The waistband of the red pyjama bottoms was just visible
above the line of the duvet cover. Daniel felt an intense urge to go
over and pull it down further and lick the small dimples on either side
of the bottom of Jake’s spine, which were already on show. Then he
remembered he must still smell of Trace, and he nearly burst into
tears. There has never been anything between us but friendship. He
has never been anything but a good friend to me. Why can’t I accept
that? Daniel clasped his hand over his mouth to stifle the sob
threatening to break free and walked slowly over to his bed. He is
never going to love me. Why do I feel like I am being unfaithful every
time I do this? I don’t know how much longer I can keep it up. A tear
silently rolled down his face. Just a little longer, without this to keep
everyone from knowing how I feel about him I don’t think I could
stand it. I couldn’t take their looks of pity, or his. Never his. Another
tear followed the first. He took off his shoes then left his trousers and
socks where they fell on the floor beside his bed and got under the
covers, not bothering to change his T-shirt or boxers. Daniel silently
cried himself to sleep, wishing the man he loved would get up from
the other bed, climb into his and hold him close.

Another Way to Hide

Chapter Five

Jake

Over the next few weeks more of the rescued left. From nearly

forty, they were down to seventeen. As well as the lions, the vampires
and the three wolf siblings, there were another two wolves, one tiger,
the two mated bears, one mystery supe’ and two still undiscovered
shifter types still living at the house. Megan and her wolf had gone to
live at Perry’s settlement. They had a very large number of beds now
stored in the basement though they had left a couple out in case any of
the ones who had left needed to return.

Jake had to grit his teeth every Friday night when some of the men

went out, different ones each time, as he watched Daniel go with them
every single Friday. His guts clenched and his wolf howled inside him
at the thought of someone else touching his mate, and someone was
touching him! That damn woman was back. He had known all about
their affair when they had lived near London. It had not just been
because he had heard some of the others talking about her and Daniel
but also because he had smelled her scent all over him whenever
Daniel returned. Now she was back! Why the hell is she up here? Did
she follow him? Every Friday night Daniel went out to fuck this
woman, and every Friday night Jake got blind stinking drunk. God, I
thought sharing a room with him would be hard. Now he comes back
reeking of her it’s so much worse! Every time he smelled her scent on
his mate, Jake, and his wolf, wanted to hunt the bitch down and rip
her apart. It was taking more and more of his will power to hold his

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wolf back from doing just that, or simply pouncing on Daniel and
claiming the man.

Jake was turning into a growly, grumpy bastard the rest of the

week, too. He found himself unable to separate his situation with
Daniel from everything else as he normally did, dreading seeing his
mate head out again.

This was the fourth Friday in a row Daniel had gone out into

town, not that Jake was counting. The little shit had got all dressed up
and bounced out of the door an hour ago. Jake had wanted to grab him
and kiss the smirk off his face then drag him back to the room they
still shared and show Daniel exactly why no one else was right for
him. Most of the other men had moved back to their own rooms
again. Daniel and he were the only ones still sharing and that would
not last much longer. Jake had gone from being tormented by
Daniel’s constant presence and being desperate for it to end, to
clinging onto their shared time as roommates as the closest he was
ever likely to get to his mate. He did not know whether he was
looking forward to getting his own space back again or if he wanted
to go find one of the chains they had used when first bringing Raff
and Andre into the house and use it to chain Daniel up so he could
never leave him.

Suddenly tired of drinking alone in his room or his study, Jake

grabbed his coat and left. He told Cass, who had guard duty that
evening, where he would be and went to the nearest pub. It was a nice
place, one that the rest of the pack favoured, and its profits were going
to be up tonight. It was not that it took a vast amount to get all shifters
drunk, but they did process alcohol rather faster than humans so it did
take more, and Jake had a particularly hard head. He was determined
to blot out his thoughts tonight. The pictures in his head of Daniel’s
lithe body pumping away between some woman’s spread thighs were
all he could see, and he wanted to sandpaper his brain, or at the very
least pickle it in alcohol.

Another Way to Hide

“Hey, what can I get you?” The blonde barmaid, Kasey,

impressed him with how quickly she had served the customers lined
up at the bar and gotten to him. She was on her own, even though it
was still early and the pub was heaving with the pretty, young things
who would head into town after they got a few drinks under their
belts, and the old die-hards who lingered until Kasey kicked them out
later on at closing. Jake did his best not to growl at the thought of
those heading into town, as he did not want to scare the cute blonde.
He could not shake the thoughts of Daniel and what he would be
doing that night in town though and it grated on his nerves.

“Double of Jura, please.” Jake thought a moment after looking at

what they had to offer. “Make that two, one with ice.”

“One of those days?” she threw over her shoulder as she turned

and stood on her tiptoes to reach for the whiskey he had asked for,
which rested on the highest wooden shelf behind the bar. The mirror,
which ran down behind the full height of the shelves, was bright and
free of any dust or spots and looked like someone had cleaned it at
some point earlier in the day. It was probably by this same girl. He
had seen her before though he had not spoken with her at length, and
she seemed to be here a lot, which was hardly a surprise as her father
owned the place. She was not a fool, and she knew when someone
ordered their drinks like that, one drink was to down because it they
felt they needed it badly and the other was to take more time over.

“You might as well leave the bottle down.” He nodded,

confirming her question as she turned back to him, bottle in hand.
There was only a third of the bottle left, and he had mental fingers
crossed that they had another tucked away somewhere. It was the only
truly decent single malt whisky they had, as far as he was concerned
anyway. Yes, it should be savoured, but he was not in the mood for
that tonight. Tonight he wanted a little forgetfulness. Even with that
need burning in his gut, he had no desire to drink any of their other
whiskies.

Violet Joicey-Cowen

Later on, after he was over halfway through the third Isle of Jura

bottle that they had tucked away along with the second, which he had
already run through, most of the customers had gone. The barmaid,
Kasey, had caught up with the backlog of dirty glasses while she
served the few who still wanted drinks and put the glasses away
again, talking to him while she had done so. She kept shooting him
increasingly doubtful looks with her dark-blue eyes whenever he
ordered another drink, not quite seeming to understand how he was
not flat on his back on the floor yet, in a drooling, drunken, and
probably puking mess.

“You going to tell me what’s got you drinking like you’re on a

mission to empty my store cupboard?”

Jake let out a harsh laugh. “What else?”
“A girl?”
“Not exactly.” He slowly swirled the glass in his hand, watching

the amber liquid eddy inside.

“A guy then?” At his look, she shrugged her slender shoulders and

carried on. “Hey, it doesn’t matter to me the contents of the pants you
are interested in.”

“Yeah, it’s a guy,” he admitted.
He did not really care these days who knew he was gay. After he

had left the military, it no longer mattered. His men knew. Hell, most
of them were gay, too. It was a shifter thing. A high proportion of
shifters were gay, and the ones that weren’t had enough pups to make
up for those that were. He had been celibate though, since meeting
Daniel, and that was a hell of a long time. He did not ever talk about
his private life to anyone, not even his men. He couldn’t take working
and living with their pitying looks every day if they knew he had
found his mate but would never have him. He did not have a clue why
Kasey had him spilling his guts.

“I’ve known him for ten years”—he shrugged—“loved him for

ten years. He’s straight.”

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“That’s tough.” Her words could have been taken as sarcastic, but

her expression was sympathetic and her tone understanding. She
spotted someone approaching the bar who had to have been a regular
because before he even got there she got three pint glasses down and
started to fill one with lager and another with bitter, and she had the
third waiting by the lager font. “Does he know how you feel?”

“No, and he’s off tonight, seeing her again.” Jake told Kasey what

he knew of Daniel and Trace. He had never laid eyes on the woman
before, but heard all about her from his men.

“Wait, did you said her name was Trace?” He nodded and

watched as she switched out the glasses under the still-flowing lager
font with smooth, practised ease. “I know her. She runs that hotel in
Abanwyth, on Parkenmere,” she said, naming the nearest lake and one
of the touristy villages on its shores.

The village was filled with little cafes and shops that sold ice-

lollies, rock candy, kids’ fishing nets on sticks, and little gifts.

“Great,” Jake muttered, throwing back the latest drink in front of

him, which had contained the last of the third bottle of Jura. “Bet
she’s really nice, too!”

“I don’t know her personally, only seen her a couple of times, but

I know who she is.”

“Is she as gorgeous as they say?” Everything in him screamed at

him to shut the hell up. He did not need to know more about her, but
he could not help asking.

“Yes.” Kasey still looked at him with that very understanding

sympathy, and what Jake thought was a moment of shared pain before
she cleared her expression. “I’m sorry, it might not be what you want
to hear, but she really is.”

Two hours later Jake slowly climbed the stairs up to his very

empty room. He had stopped off on the way in to pick up a bottle
from the bar in the dining room. The last hour spent walking around
outside after the pub had shut was threatening to sober him up, not

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that he had found much forgetfulness so far tonight, but he was plenty
willing to keep trying until he fell asleep.

Daniel was walking away from him into the mist. His body waved

and shimmered like a mirage in the desert. He followed as quickly as
he could, but it felt like he was wading in tar, which was clinging to
him, trying to suck him down and away from Daniel. Just when he
thought he had lost him, and his heart began to pound and the
darkness inside him started to rise up and take over, the mist cleared.
Daniel was standing there, his arms around a woman with long, dark
hair, whose arms were around Daniel in return, crimson nails
digging into his naked back. As he watched them kiss, he cried out in
protest, but no sound left him and they were too wrapped up in each
other to notice. Blood started to drip, then trickle, then pour down
Daniel’s back. The longer they kissed, the older and thinner Daniel’s
body started to look. He aged faster and faster, the life draining out of
him. “Help me Jake!” Jake twisted and tugged at his feet, desperate
to get to him. “No!” he shouted, managing to force the sound out this
time. “Daniel, no!” “Jake! Help me…Jake!”

“Jake!” He jerked awake, his heart pounding still from his

nightmare. The beloved face from his nightmare hovered over him,
and he lunged at him.

Jake was not fully awake yet, his brain not making the distinction

between his dream and reality. He grabbed Daniel and pulled him
down, crushing their lips together. Daniel stiffened, pushing against
his chest for a moment before moaning into Jake’s mouth and
collapsing against him. Their bodies melded together, and Jake could
feel the hardening erection through Daniel’s jeans pressing into his
own naked cock. He remembered stripping before falling into bed but
not putting on the pyjama bottoms that had become customary since
Daniel had been sharing his room. He had not been naked in his
dream, but he was now. It sent a jolt through him.

“Daniel?” he questioned quietly, suddenly aware he was no longer

dreaming. He peered up into the blue-green eyes, inches from his

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own, and saw all the pent-up want and need he himself felt reflected
back.

“Jake.”
The whispered reply and hooded look in Daniel’s eyes sent a

renewed shiver of desire over him like tongues of fire licking under
his skin. That look and the sound of his name in that breathy whisper
sent all the blood in his body straight to his already semi-hard cock,
hardening him enough to pound nails in seconds. They lay there
staring into each other’s eyes for what felt like an eternity, so many
questions and answers going unsaid. Daniel was the one to close the
distance between them this time and he lowered his head and pressed
an openmouthed kiss to Jake’s collarbone. He traced a wet path along
the collarbone and up his neck.

Jake groaned, and his fingers anchored themselves on Daniel’s

hips. They dug in and were sure to leave bruises in the morning. The
only reaction they got was another moan and a wiggle as Daniel’s
now completely hard cock was rubbing against Jake’s. Forcing his
upper body away from Jake’s, Daniel sat up, straddling him, and
rocked slightly against him, skating his hands over the hard muscles
of Jake’s chest.

The position concentrated more of his weight on Jake’s groin and

they both panted as they stared hungrily at each other. Daniel’s hands
went to his neck and slowly undid the second and third buttons before
pulling his white shirt over his head. Jake rose to meet him, hands
now moving on the naked skin of Daniel’s back. Some part of him
was surprised not to feel the welts he had seen the woman inflict on
that beautiful skin in his nightmare.

With a sudden movement, Jake swung Daniel round and reversed

their positions. He knelt over his mate and leaned down. He growled
and nipped at Daniel’s lower lip, then licked the spot to soothe any
sting Daniel might feel away.

The fire which was burning under Jake’s skin roiled as Daniel

gasped, “Please,” his hips flexing up into the space now between their

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bodies. Jake moved down the bed, undoing the button and lowering
the zip of Daniels jeans. He pulled the jeans and underwear down,
past the point where his golden tan turned to paler creamy-coloured
skin, uncovering the perfect seven-inch cock jutting out from between
Daniel’s thighs. Unable to resist, he licked the head, tasting the salty-
sweet drop of pre-cum beading at the tip. He suckled lightly on the
head, enjoying the whimper he pulled from Daniel and the slightly
musky taste. It was something he had plans to do for longer at another
time.

Daniel’s hips spasmed, thrusting his cock upward. Jake released

him and quickly drew the jeans the rest of the way off, taking
underwear, socks, and shoes with them, and nearly swallowed his
tongue at the sight of Daniel laid out before him, naked, hard, and
wanting.

He had a moment of uncertainty. He had wanted this for so long,

but Daniel was straight, wasn’t he?

His mate reached up toward him with his right hand.
“Why are you so far away? Come here.” Daniel took his hand and

pulled him back down.

This time bare skin met bare skin, and the feel of Daniel’s naked

flesh straining against his own was better than any drug. He no longer
cared why this was happening and he gave himself over to the
sensations swamping his body. He had needed Daniel so badly for so
long. Now that he was here in Jake’s bed, Jake was unable to resist
the pull of his mate.

He rolled them both over onto their sides, pulling one of Daniel’s

legs over his, opening him up to explore. As they kissed, he ghosted a
hand over Daniel’s lower back and ran a finger down his crease to his
hole. Daniel shuddered against him. Jake teased gently for a moment,
licking at Daniel’s bottom lip as lightly as his fingers circled the
sensitive skin of his anus, before reaching for the lube he kept in his
bedside table.

Another Way to Hide

The lube made his fingers slippery as he circled the puckered

entrance to Daniel’s body. Their mouths slid together in a dance,
tongues thrusting against each other. Daniel gasped and whimpered
when Jake breached him with the tip of his finger. Jake froze for a
second, thinking he had hurt him, but Daniel moved restlessly in his
arms, rocking back on the finger as if begging for more. His low cries
grew needier.

Sliding the finger deeper and drawing it back again, he had Daniel

whimpering once more. Adding a second finger, scissoring them, then
adding a third, Jake took his time stretching Daniel thoroughly. They
kissed almost leisurely while Jake’s fingers prepared him.

“I need you.”
Jake honestly did not know which one of them said the words, or

if he had just thought them. He withdrew his fingers and helped
Daniel turn onto his other side, settling Daniel’s back against his
chest. He fitted the head of his cock to Daniel’s opening and pushed
forward.

“God, you’re tight.” He had to rock backward and forward a

couple of times, despite the preparation, before the muscles gave way.

He paused after feeling the head of his cock pop through the ring

of muscle, letting Daniel get used to the feel of him. Daniel was
panting and squirming in his arms trying to thrust backwards and
impale himself more thoroughly.

“More, I need more. Need you, Jay.”
The tone of Daniel’s soft cry touched something Jake thought lost

long ago, and the emotion built inside him, bringing tears to his eyes.
The cool and controlled leader of his men had disappeared, as had the
physical pain he had kept hidden. The purely blissful sensation that
was left behind had his head swimming.

Jake sank slowly into Daniel’s welcoming body. The tight heat

closing around him felt like heaven on his throbbing cock. He started
a slow rocking motion, wanting this first time to last forever. He
would never get enough of this man! Hands stroked and clung,

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holding each other close. His own small groans and Daniel’s
whimpers were all he could hear. He buried his face in Daniel’s neck
and breathed his scent in deeply. Jake could feel his canines
lengthening slightly with his wolf’s anticipation of claiming his mate.

All too soon, their pace increased, and they were both shaking,

sweat trickling off them both as they trembled together. Knowing he
was close, Jake reached down to grasp Daniel’s cock and the man
detonated, crying out as he sent jets of creamy liquid onto Jake’s hand
and the sheets. The smell of his mate’s seed and the feel of the
muscles clenching around him pulled a guttural groan from Jake as he
came deep inside Daniel. He released Daniel’s softening shaft, wiped
his hand on the sheet, and then tucked his arm around him.

They did not move for a long time afterward, content to hold and

be held.

Eventually they had to separate, a small sound of regret escaping

them both as Jake’s cock left Daniel’s body. Jake went to the
bathroom, washed himself, and returned with a wet cloth to clean his
mate. He hadn’t told Daniel yet who he was to him. It had not been
easy, but he had held back from claiming the man while they made
love. He needed Daniel to know what he was getting into, all of it,
before he would claim him. For the first time in over ten years though,
he had hope.

The next morning Jake woke to find himself alone. He brushed a

hand over the empty space, but the bed next to him was cold. Sitting
up and seeing the other bed was also empty, Jake heard the rustle of
paper. Making a quick search through the covers, he found a sheet of
paper.

Jake, I’m sorry. I have to go away for a few days. I’ll be back, we

need to talk. D

Reading the note he found, Jake’s heart stuttered in his chest. He

felt as though it had been ripped out and the hope and joy the events
of the previous night had brought turned abruptly to despair. His mate
did not want him. He had thought Daniel was finally returning his

Another Way to Hide

feelings. Apparently not, though, because he had run from him, from
what had happened between them. Why didn’t I wake up when he left?
Why didn’t he wake me up? God, he didn’t want to face me! He didn’t
want to look at me! I thought he wanted it, too. Christ, did I hurt him?
Oh, Dee, I’m sorry! What am I going to do? Jake’s thoughts tumbled
over each other at a frantic pace. The thought that he might have hurt
the man he had loved for so long was devastating.

Eventually he pulled himself together enough to get up and dress.

He knew what was coming now, and there were things he had to do,
arrangements he had to make. He already felt dead inside but there
were too many people depending on him at the moment for him to let
this happen without some kind of plan.

Taking a deep breath, Jake picked up his phone. “Perry, Jake here.

Something has happened. I need to talk to you.”

Violet Joicey-Cowen

Chapter Six

Daniel

Daniel knew the moment he walked through the door of O’Neil’s

that something was wrong. The music which was playing in the
background was rather quiet for a Friday night, the howl of the
electric guitar on the jukebox sounding muted. The tense atmosphere
rolled over his skin, raising the hairs on the back of his neck as he
made his way to the bar. The food smells from the day still lingered,
along with the faint hint of smoke from the days when smoking in
bars had been legal, and the smell of the beer even a human like him
could detect.

Usually friendly, the pretty barmaid was not in the mood to chat

and quickly served him before getting on with other duties. As she
walked away, he took a quick look around the bar, scouting for what
could be wrong, and spotted the only sizable group in the place.

He groaned. He was anxious to see Jake after the week away but

did not want to seem rude to his friends by ignoring them. This thing
with Jake being so new, especially after wanting it for so long, he felt
nervous and unsure of himself. It had been a damn long week, though
and he couldn’t wait to see him. He had come to the bar first, as it was
on his way to the house, because he felt in need of a little Dutch
courage.

Daniel licked the back of his hand and sprinkled it with salt.

Taking the slice of lime in that hand he licked the salt up, threw back
the shot of tequila, and sucked the juice from the lime in quick
succession. Damn I needed that. It’s been one hell of a long week, he

Another Way to Hide

thought as he slung the used lime into the empty glass. Then he took
his other drink in hand and walked away from the bar.

He had only planned to have one drink before going home, but

after spotting the group in the corner, he could hardly walk out again
without going over. So he had also asked for the beer when getting
the tequila, which was currently burning a nice path down to his
stomach.

His friends had obviously been here a while, and just as obviously

had been drinking steadily. He approached the table. “Hey, guys,
what’s going on?” The one man he wanted to see was not at the table
with the others.

Butch and Seb glanced up but the others continued to stare at their

drinks in silence. The way they were all acting was starting to wig
him out.

“How come you’re all here? Where’s Jake?”
“Hi, Dee.” Seb looked round at the others. “Bobby and Henry are

on duty. Cass is…uh…Jake…isn’t here. He’s home…he...”

“He’s going feral,” Butch growled and glared at Seb.
A jolt of panic shot through Daniel, weakening his knees, and the

bottle slipped from his hand. “What? No!” The bottle bounced on the
carpet and fell over, frothing its contents all over the floor.

“He met his mate. The bastard didn’t want him,” one of the others

spat out.

“I...I don’t understand,” Daniel managed, a sick feeling churning

in his stomach.

“He met his mate, we don’t know who. They apparently slept

together, which started his mating heat, but he didn’t let Jake claim
him. Between that and the knowledge that his mate didn’t want him,
it’s sending him feral. He doesn’t have long. I am surprised he’s
lasted as long as he has.”

Seb must have seen the look of horror, or maybe something else,

cross Daniel’s face as he staggered back a pace because he jumped to
his feet and reached for Daniel with both hands.

Violet Joicey-Cowen

Black spots danced in front of Daniel’s eyes, and the noise of the

bar faded around him and the sound of his pulse roared in his ears.

“Daniel! Daniel!” He was faintly aware of being grabbed and

guided to a seat, which he landed in with a thump.

He looked up as the noises of the pub grew back in around him.

Seb had manoeuvred him over to a seat at another table, away from
the others

“Daniel, what do you know? Do you know who his mate is?”
Seb was crouched in front of the chair he found himself in,

looking up into his face.

“Me,” Daniel whispered as he stared at the other man, whose

shock mirrored his own.

Daniel had known after what had happened between him and Jake

that they must be mates. He had no clue why Jake had held back for
so long and never said anything, but he knew the man. Jake never
would have let it happen if it had been less than a true mating. The
man would not have casual sex with a good friend. Jake was just not
built like that. Despite the stresses and strains of the last week he had
been excited about getting back to Jake again so that they could talk.

“God, what have I done? Why is this happening?”
“Shit! Don’t you know?” Seb stared back, equally horrified.

“Right. I thought you were straight. Okay. God, I thought you knew
all this. Did no one ever say? You have been around us for so long—”

“Seb!”
“Sorry. We only get one mate, and not everyone meets theirs. We

can be happy enough with someone else, but the connection with our
true mate is something way beyond that. Most know the moment they
meet that their mate is theirs. Sometimes their mate is too young when
they first meet and they become aware of it later once their mate has
had their first shift. It’s their scent that tells us, draws us to them like a
drug.”

Daniel nodded. He knew all this and wished Seb would hurry up

and get to the point.

Another Way to Hide

“When we sleep with our mates for the first time, it starts our

mating heat, which then builds over several days. If we claim our
mates when we first have sex then everything is great and we fuck
like bunnies ’til the heat is over. If we don’t claim our mate, then the
need and the mating heat become unbearable, slowly driving us
insane, like a fire burning under our skin and eating us alive. At the
end we turn and stay shifted, becoming our wolves and only our
wolves, our minds burned out and shut down.”

“Can he still claim me? Is there time?” Daniel’s dazed and

desperate eyes met those of his friend, who jumped to his feet at his
words.

“Come on. We have taken shifts. Cass is with him now and he

would have rung if it had happened but we need to hurry.”

The two men raced out of the bar and ran down the path next to it.

Minutes later they burst through the door of the large house set back
from the street. As they ran, Seb hurriedly made sure Daniel knew
what would need to be done and he prepared him for how Jake would
be.

Upstairs, Daniel’s hand shook as it reached for the doorknob of

Jake’s room, and he hesitated. Swallowing his nerves, he opened the
door and went in. I can do this.

Jake was in the bed, tossing and moaning as if caught in another

nightmare. His head thrashed from side to side before stilling as his
body arced up only to crash back to the bed again.

“Out.” Daniel did not look at the man in the chair beside the bed.
“Daniel, you can’t be here, you might get hurt,” Cass started.
“Out. Get out.” Daniel nearly screamed at him, his focus never

leaving Jake as he jerked his shirt off and toed his shoes quickly from
his feet.

Jake stilled on the bed, Daniel’s shout reaching his ears at the

same time as the scent of his mate hit him. He barely heard the door
as it slammed shut when Seb dragged Cass from the room. Daniel
stood at the foot of the bed and ran a hand through his hair, gripping it

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for a moment as he stared wildly at the man he had loved for so long,
who was in so much pain because of him, before stripping the rest of
the clothes from his body and crawling naked onto the bed.

“Fuck! What have I done to you?” he said as Jake’s hazel eyes

opened and stared up at him, glazed and barely human in his flushed
face. The pupils changed shape from human to wolf and back again as
he watched. Almost too late. Got to hurry.

Jake growled and lunged at him, pulling him down to meet his

mouth, and their bodies surged against each other, their only barrier a
thin sheet.

Déjà vu flashed briefly, but Daniel dismissed the sensation. The

movements were so similar to a week before, the emotion behind
them so very different. The previous week Daniel had left Trace’s flat
early, something drawing him home. He had gone to the room he was
sharing with Jake to find the man caught in a nightmare. He had
called his name a few times before leaning over him to give him a
shake, and that was when everything had changed. His world had
turned upside down at the first taste of Jakes lips on his own. Now
here they were again under such changed circumstances. It was as
though whatever nightmare Jake had been lost in the week before had
somehow become real and would not let him go.

Jake drew away for a moment and snarled, jerking the sheet out of

the way and flipping Daniel underneath him, and he crushed his
mouth back on Daniel’s again. The desperation in Jake touched
something inside Daniel and heat pooled in his groin, his cock
hardening instantly and sliding against Jake’s already rock hard shaft.
Throwing his head back, he moaned as Jake licked and sucked his
way down his neck, teeth grazing against skin. The heat pouring off
Jake’s body felt like a furnace to the man now trapped beneath him,
and he started to sweat. Daniel’s hands slid over the hard muscles of
Jake’s shoulders then down to his taut backside to pull him
impossibly closer.

Another Way to Hide

Jake’s lips closed over Daniels left nipple, and he bit a little too

hard, sending a streak of sensation straight to Daniel’s cock, which
jerked and throbbed, a drop of pre-cum leaking from the slit. Daniel
shuddered, and his body arched as he felt Jake’s hand pull one of his
legs aside and up to rest against Jake’s hip as he settled his lower
body closer again.

Daniel reached quickly for the nightstand and the bottle of lube he

knew was there. This was going to be fast, and he did not want to be
taken dry. Squeezing the bottle, he then twisted his body, reaching
down and slathering the lube over Jake’s cock and hand before
tossing the bottle away. Daniel hurriedly wiped his own hand on the
bed sheet.

Fingers probed at his entrance, and two pushed into him quickly.

His hole burned slightly at the hurried entrance, but that faded as the
fingers slid in and out with the lube easing their way. Flickers of
delicious sensation began to dart from his arse to his balls, which
tightened. The muscle of his entrance began to relax, and another
finger was added before being withdrawn completely, and he
suddenly found himself on his front and up on his knees. There was a
moment of pressure, and then he felt the heavy cock pushing forward,
stretching and filling him too full as Jake groaned above him. His arse
stung with the lack of preparation but he wanted this too badly to
stop. He needed Jake to claim him just as desperately as Jake needed
to do it. Whimpering as Jake withdrew and thrust his iron length
forward again and again, all Daniel could do was fist the sheet under
him and press his forehead into the pillow.

He held on, his whole body aflame as Jake set up a fast pace,

pounding into him from behind, every plunge tormenting Daniel’s
prostate. Tingles started to claw at his spine, and he knew he would
not last much longer. Daniel pushed up and tilted his head to one side.

“Claim me, Jake.”
Then Daniel screamed, his cock exploding as Jake dove down and

struck, his sharp teeth sinking into the flesh and muscle between

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shoulder and neck, and he thrust once even harder into Daniel’s hole,
pulling back on Daniel’s hips as he pulsed deep inside him.

Teeth slid out of his flesh, and a tongue licked the wound closed.

Daniel could feel the moment reason started to return to the man who
had just claimed him. Jake stirred on top of him, stiffening and
pulling away slightly, and air cooled the sweat trickling down
Daniel’s back.

“Dee?”
Daniel inhaled, and then a small moan escaped him as Jake’s

softening cock slipped from his body and the weight of Jake
disappeared.

“Dee? Oh god!”
Jake sounded horrified, and Daniel twisted to look at him.
Jake threw himself backward off the bed, crashing into the wall

and sliding down it, his hands knotting in his hair as he stared at
Daniel in what looked like terror, tears abruptly pouring down his
face. “What did I do? No-no-no-no!”

“Stop.” Daniel levered himself up and turned. He moved to the

end of the bed then off it, crouching on the floor in front of Jake, his
thighs trembling after what they had just been through. “Jake, stop.
Don’t do this to yourself.” Daniel reached and held Jake’s head still
between his hands, preventing the other man from flinching away.
“You did nothing I didn’t want you to do! Nothing!” He took the
shaking man in his arms and held on tightly. “I wanted this. I want
you. I’m sorry. I’m so fucking sorry I left, but I was coming back. I
was coming back to you! I didn’t know what this would do to you. I
didn’t know.” He felt like he was babbling, but his words must have
reached Jake because Jake started to calm, the shaking in his body not
stilling completely but quieting some, and his arms crept around
Daniel’s waist.

“Come on.”
A while later, Daniel pulled them both unsteadily to their feet and

urged Jake toward the bathroom. He turned the shower on, and when

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it had warmed enough to be bearable, he got them both under the
spray and simply held the larger man for a while. After some time had
passed, it could have been three minutes or thirty, Daniel was starting
to really feel the coolness of the water. He reached for the shower gel
and lathered up a flannel, using it to wash his mate’s weary body.
Now the adrenaline of the claiming and the turbulent emotions that
had followed on its heels had faded, Jake was crashing quickly. The
temperature of the shower was subduing the heat that still emanated
from Jake, the mating heat appeased. Once they were clean, Daniel
turned the shower off and dried them both with the fluffy towels on
the rail.

His poor mate was nearly unconscious as he swayed next to him,

so Daniel made quick work of putting clean bedding on the bed
before laying him down and cuddling into Jake’s larger body as he
flipped the cover over them. Nothing was going to pull Daniel away
from Jake before they were both awake this time. Tiredness dragged
him towards slumber but he was conscious of a deep gratitude that he
had been given another chance with Jake and the other man had not
gone feral, lost to his wolf.

“Sleep, my mate,” he whispered and kissed Jake’s chest.

Violet Joicey-Cowen

Chapter Seven

Daniel

Waking early, while it was still fairly dark outside, Daniel lay

wrapped in Jake’s warmth. He reached up and touched his fingertips
to his own lips. There was a smile there, and he did not think it was
going away anytime soon. Jake’s arm was heavy on his waist, their
bodies spooned together, and he luxuriated in the closeness between
them before he wriggled slowly over onto his other side to look at
Jake. It was not easy. Jake was deeply asleep, but every time Daniel
moved, so did Jake, seemingly not wanting to let him go even for a
moment. Eventually, bit by bit, he managed to turn. There was just
enough light to see, and he watched Jake sleep for hours, as the sun
rose and started to make its way across the sky, painting patterns on
the ceiling through the gap in the curtains. His mate obviously needed
rest. He had lost weight and there were new shadows under his eyes.
The last week, slowly going feral had taken a hard toll on Jake’s
body, and it tore at Daniel’s heart to know that, unwittingly, he had
been the cause.

Jake stirred, his hand rubbing over his face before it paused, and

his eyes opened and darted around to find Daniel’s. Questions and
worry crowded his eyes, but Daniel leaned forward and kissed him
tenderly, chasing them away.

“Later. I’m here, I’m yours, and I’m not going anywhere. We can

talk later,” he said softly, stroking a hand over Jake’s hip and thigh.

They lost themselves in each other, this time making love with a

gentle and tender passion.

Another Way to Hide

Hours later, they sat at the breakfast bar in the kitchen. It was not

long until lunch, and the only sounds in the room were the bubbling
of the potatoes on the top of the AGA and the faint sizzle of a joint in
the oven. They had arrived downstairs with rumbling stomachs, and
despite having just finished eating bacon and egg sandwiches, they
were both still hungry. They sipped coffee, content to just sit with
each other.

Daniel fidgeted slightly. The hard seat and the delicious ache in

his backside made sitting completely still impossible. He leaned
sideways, resting his head on Jake’s shoulder and sighed, happy to be
able to touch him like this.

“Why did you leave?” Jake’s voice was quiet, the pain behind his

words clear.

Daniel knew the question had been coming, “I got a phone call

from the hospital near my parents’ home. Debs was in an accident.”

“Christ! What happened? Is she okay?”
Jake, and all the others, loved Daniel’s little sister like their own.

She had been a surprise baby for their parents. Their mother had
thought she was starting to go through menopause before discovering
the rather welcome bombshell of her pregnancy. At only fourteen,
Debs had boys falling at her feet already. Her silvery-blond corkscrew
curls, spritelike figure, and pale-grey eyes gave her the appearance of
a delicate fairy princess, totally at odds with her bubbly personality.
She visited them as frequently as possible, staying for weekends
whenever she could.

“She was on the bus to school from her morning swim club when

it was hit by a truck. They say it was nobody’s fault. It was raining
and the damn breaks failed on the truck. Most of the others on the bus
were fine, a few bumps, a broken arm or two. Debs had given her seat
to an old lady at the previous stop and was standing, holding one of
the rail straps when the truck hit. She was flung across the bus and hit
her head, knocking her out, dislocating her shoulder, and breaking her
arm and a couple of ribs. Mum and Dad were a mess when it first

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happened. The hospital had to ring me for them because neither of my
parents were capable of making the call. I had to be strong for them
while Debs was in an induced coma for several days to let the
swelling on her brain subside. After that it took another couple of
days for her to wake up. Mum and dad needed me, and I couldn’t
leave Debs while she was hurt. She’s just a baby still.”

“Is she going to be okay?”
“I’m such an idiot. I should have called to let you all know what

happened!”

“It’s okay. You had enough to worry about.”
“Yes I did, but you all love her, too. I should have rung. Christ, if

I had even put in the note why I was leaving then I wouldn’t have
almost lost you! You would have known where I was.” Daniel let out
a shuddering breath, trying to stop himself from getting worked up. It
all worked out, things are okay now.

“She’s going to be fine. The doctors say it was a miracle she

wasn’t hurt worse. A few hours after she woke up she had the entire
hospital wrapped around her little finger”—Daniel let out a chuckle—
“she even has them sneaking Bo in for visits.”

At that Jake laughed, too. Bo was Debbie’s dog, a truly enormous

Irish wolfhound, who was big enough for her to ride like a pony, not
that she did. Bo had been a rescue dog, several years old when they
got him. His previous owners had loved the fuzzy little puppy they
first bought but had been unable to cope with the enormous beast he
had grown into. Bo ate an awful lot of food, and though he took up a
large amount of space, he was the sweetest dog in the world and
totally devoted to Debbie. Daniel thought his sister’s choice of dog a
few years before rather ironic, as he worked and lived with a bunch of
actual wolves.

“You can’t sneak that dog anywhere,” Jake commented.
Daniel glanced up, grinning at him. Then his grin faded. “I know I

should have rung, but why didn’t you call me? Let me know what was

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happening to you.” He straightened on the stool so he could see Jake
properly.

Jake looked away, setting his mug on the counter, and fiddled

with a loose thread where his jeans were ripping at the knee. The
larger man’s awkwardness was strangely appealing.

“I thought you didn’t want…us. I thought that’s why you left.”
“How could you think that, after that night?” Daniel questioned,

disbelieving.

Jake shrugged and wouldn’t look at him. “I wanted you for so

long, Dee, and then we were suddenly in bed together and it was
everything I wanted so much. You were everything. It was
unbelievable. But you had always been straight, and I woke up and
you were gone. I thought you regretted it, and that’s why you left.
That you didn’t want to be with me. I thought…I thought I must
have…hurt you. I didn’t want you tied to me because you felt you had
to be, because fate did not give you the choice.”

He finally looked up to meet Daniel’s gaze and the pain and loss

in his eyes had Daniel throwing himself at the other man, nearly
knocking Jake off his swivel-top stool and wrapping his arms around
his neck. They held each other tightly, Daniel standing between
Jake’s thighs as he sat.

“I wanted you from the first time I saw you,” Daniel declared

fiercely, his face buried in Jake’s neck, “and every moment of every
day since. It’s been nearly eleven damn years, and it’s never gone
away. I never knew how you felt, so I pushed my feelings away and
did my best to be only your friend. You never showed a flicker of
interest in me. Supposedly being straight was just another way to
hide. But I always wanted you.” He drew away and glared rather
ferociously into Jake’s eyes, framing the other man’s face with his
hands. “I love you.”

Jake curved a trembling hand around the back of Daniel’s head,

and he damn near purred as he spoke. “I love you, too,” he said,
before he pulled him in for the most emotion-filled kiss either man

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had ever experienced. Pouring everything they felt into the kiss, the
two men told each other all they needed to know without words.

Uncounted minutes later, a loud wolf whistle broke them apart.

They turned to see Davin, Seb, Cass and a couple of the others
collectively beaming at them from the doorway. Daniel felt his cheeks
grow hot, but he did not mind for once because he was too happy.

“Good to have you back, Jake.”
“Glad you got here in time, Dee.”
“Hey, Dee, so you were in time.”
Ant, Brian, and Seb spoke together, jostling as they piled through

the door to hug and backslap both men at the breakfast bar.

“Hey, ease up!”
Daniel was feeling protective. He knew his mate was a werewolf

and bounced back quickly from injury, but he had been so scared the
night before to see the state the man he loved had been in and still had
not quite recovered from. Even his werewolf constitution couldn’t put
the weight back on his mate that quickly. The next couple of days and
a lot of food would take care of his recovery.

“Sorry about last night, Dee,” Cass spoke. “I didn’t know when

you came in why you were there. I did not want you to be there if
Jake snapped and went completely feral. You could have gotten hurt.
I didn’t know.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Daniel stepped toward him and gave Cass

a quick hug before Jake pulled him back against him again, growling
possessively.

Another Way to Hide

Chapter Eight

Jake

Jake couldn’t help the warning growl which escaped him as the

men crowded round them. His wolf was snapping and snarling inside
him, but he reined it in. They had all known each other for a lot of
years, but they were touching his mate! The possessive and territorial
feelings he had always had for Daniel were unleashed now he had
finally claimed his mate. He couldn’t help it. The others needed to
know they couldn’t touch. Daniel was his!

The others fell back quickly, bowing their heads slightly forward

and to the side, exposing their necks in a show of submission.

“So where’d you go?” Cass asked Daniel.
“I had to go home. I am sorry I did not call and let any of you

know what was going on, but I got so focused on what was happening
there I just did not think. Debs was in an accident.”

“What?” Ant burst out, going pale. “Is…is she…?”
“It was a little touch and go for a few days, but she is on the mend

now and will be okay. Mum and dad needed me. I’m just glad I came
back when I did.” Jake caught the look Daniel sent him as he finished
speaking and felt the warmth of Daniel’s feelings through the bond
that was beginning to grow now they had claimed each other.

Jake pulled him in closer and hugged him again. He was excited

to feel his mate’s emotions because not every mating developed that.
His wolf was happier with Daniel pressed up against him with the
other men around, and Jake felt less on edge.

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He had been surprised to learn that it was Saturday, meaning three

days had passed since he had been capable of even talking with
anyone, and a couple more than that since he had any clue what had
been going on under his roof. He might still have some way to go
before he was back to normal, but there was a lot to do and catch up
on. His hand found Daniel’s, and the gentle squeeze he got in return
warmed him all over.

Later, when he was thoroughly caught up on the situation with

those still in the house and he had been to see Andre and Raff, he
went back to bed for a couple of hours. He felt drained, realising how
much what had so nearly happened had taken out of him. He
shuddered at the thought of how close he had really been to the end.
He had fought against it with everything inside him, not that there had
been much with as hollow as he had felt at Daniel leaving him. But
thank fuck I did! He mused tiredly as he sank back on the bed. I don’t
know if I could have held on even an hour longer. His wolf had been
howling in despair inside him at the loss of his mate, raging nearly out
of control. His body temperature had gone up, and reason had slowly
left him as he fought the almost uncontrollable urge to hunt his mate
down and claim him.

When he woke a while later, he found himself huddled on the

edge of the bed with Daniel curled around him and a blanket over
them both. He felt unsettled and panicky from dreams he couldn’t
remember. Daniel stirred behind him, murmuring in protest when he
went to move, his arm tightening around Jake’s waist.

“Jake?”
Daniel’s sleepy voice went straight to Jake’s cock, and it jerked to

attention. A hand slid under the T-shirt Jake still wore, the thumb
caressing the skin over the hard muscles of his abdomen. The contact
sent waves of heat crashing through Jake, and he turned in Daniel’s
hold, pushing him further over onto the bed. Daniel had other ideas,
though, and rolled them over until Jake lay flat on his back with
Daniel on top. The drowsy smile Daniel gave him had Jake arching

Another Way to Hide

his back and stripping his T-shirt off, needy for skin-to-skin contact.
Daniel was already naked. Well, he might as well be! The only thing
he wore was a pair of boxers, and his straining erection was
threatening to escape from them, tenting the low-slung fabric with its
tip peeking out the top. The sight made Jake’s mouth water.

Daniel slid down his body, undoing the button and zipper of

Jake’s jeans as he went and peeled the denim from him. Settling
between Jake’s now-spread legs, he leaned in and licked his inner
thigh, high up near his groin. Daniel blew gently on the slick spot he
had made, sending a shiver of intense need through Jake, who
moaned.

“Dee, please.”
Daniel licked again, this time around the side of his balls and the

base of his shaft. Jake could feel his mate’s hands on his thighs, and
they pushed gently, moving them further apart. Daniel ran his tongue
softly down under his balls, then stiffened it and prodded gently at his
taint. He drew away briefly then ran a wide tongue from his hole, up
over his sac and along the underside of his cock. Jake shuddered at
the sensation and at the smell of Daniel’s arousal, lightly musky and
hot.

The wet heat that closed around the head had Jake flexing his

hips, thrusting up in an involuntary movement and a sob escaping
from his lips. Daniel hummed in contentment at the effect he had on
his lover, the vibration sending Jake wild. He looked down at Daniel
and saw his lips stretched wide as he bobbed his head slowly up and
down Jake’s thick cock. The sight alone started a familiar tingle at the
base of his spine. This was not going to take long.

“Dee, stop! I’m gonna…uh…gonna…”
Daniel looked up at him and slid the hand that had been pumping

the lower half of Jake’s cock down to fondle his balls. Daniel’s eyes
did not leave his as he sucked harder and swirled his tongue across the
bundle of nerves just under the spongy head. Daniel lightly scratched
one nail along Jake’s taint. It was the last touch needed to set him off.

Violet Joicey-Cowen

His balls drew up tight. The tingling rushed from his spine

throughout his body and sent jet after jet of fiery liquid down Daniel’s
throat. He went rigid and the bliss of the orgasm exploding within him
went on and on, as Daniel kept up a light rhythmic suction,
swallowing everything, until Jake was seeing stars and nearly passing
out. He collapsed back onto the bed, panting hard from his release.
Daniel released his cock with a small pop and crawled up the bed to
flop down beside him, leaning on one arm. Once Jake’s vision cleared
and he felt as though he could breathe again, he looked up at Daniel.

“Wow.”
“Couldn’t have put it better myself.”
Jake felt boneless, but drew Daniel to him and reached down to

Daniel’s cock. He found Daniel in a similar state to himself,
softening, and also sticky. He raised an eyebrow without saying a
word.

Daniel giggled. “That was so hot I came when you did. Never

came without even touching my cock before. Look ma. No hands!”

They both laughed at Daniel’s silly use of the familiar phrase.
“I’m not a bike. I’ll give you look ma, no hands.” Jake put on a

mock-affronted tone of voice. Their playful banter following on from
the blowjob Daniel had just given him had chased away the remaining
shadows from his forgotten dreams.

“Now there’s a thought. Mmmm, can I ride you later?”
“Oh, most definitely!” The image of Daniel riding him, his cock

lodged deep in Daniel’s arse, sent a renewed surge of lust through
Jake, and his own hole clenched. That would unfortunately have to
wait, Jake knew, as he glanced at the clock on his bedside table.

It was later than he had thought, after five. He must have slept for

hours longer than he had intended. “Come on.”

They both climbed from the bed and cleaned up in the bathroom

before throwing fresh clothes on.

After that morning, Jake had caught up on all of the goings-on in

the house, but he still had to talk to Perry.

Another Way to Hide

“Hang on, did anyone tell Perry? That I’m sane again.”
They had gone downstairs and were talking with Bobby and

Henry.

“Sane? That’s still up for debate.”
“Oh, you think you’re funny.” Jake felt amused by Daniel’s

wisecrack, happy that his mate was comfortable enough with how
their relationship had changed to joke around with him. “So, Perry?
Anyone tell him?”

The two men from Perry’s settlement who had been on guard duty

the night before had stayed at the house that day, crashing in spare
beds. They were also Perry’s brothers. They were all in the library
now. At the shrugs and denials and headshakes that went around the
room, Jake sighed.

“Guess I better had.”
“Got a better idea.” Daniel smirked at him.

Violet Joicey-Cowen

Chapter Nine

Daniel

Daniel pulled on the door handle and climbed out of the car,

looking back at Jake getting out of the other side. He closed the car
door and heard the other two doors shut, Jake’s and Cameron’s from
the other side’s rear door. Cameron had come over to go see Jason
and Charlie and waved at Daniel and Jake before heading off on foot
down the road that led to the other houses.

Knocking on Perry’s front door, Daniel tried to wipe the happy

expression from his face that seemed to be stuck there. He must have
succeeded because when Perry answered a few moments later, the
look he received from the much bigger man was a sad though
enquiring frown.

“Daniel. What’s the news on Jake? Did it happen?”
“Oh it happened alright, several times.”
“Excuse me?” Perry looked baffled at his response, and it had

Daniel giggling. He reached over and yanked on Jake’s arm, who had
been standing out of Perry’s line of sight. Pulled from his spot against
the wall of the house, Jake waved and grinned at Perry.

“What? But who? How? Uh…” Managing to reduce the big bad

Alpha to a stutter was immensely satisfying for some reason. They
were both waved into the house, by a temporarily mute Perry, and
through to the sitting room.

“So, uh…your mate changed his mind? He let you claim him?

Where is he?” Perry asked Jake. Jake hadn’t told Perry just who his
mate was during their conversation a week earlier.

Another Way to Hide

“His mate didn’t change his mind,” Daniel answered for him. “His

mate just didn’t know the consequences of him not claiming him right
away once they had sex. Like the hardheaded fool he is”—he shot
Jake a loving look—“his stubbornness nearly cost him and his mate
everything!” He conveniently ignored the fact that he had not said
anything to Jake over the years about his own feelings either.

“You? You’re his mate?” Perry’s jaw dropped.
“Yup. I had to leave for a few days, long story.” Daniel was not

dismissing what his sister had been through, but it was not something
they needed to get into right now for a third time. “But a few days
turned into a week, and then when I finally got back last night—well,
it was nearly too late. Cass was with him, watching him. I threw Cass
out and pounced on Jake’s rather fine arse. Couldn’t have my mate
going feral because the twit didn’t think to tell me what would
happen, could I?”

Making light of the situation from the night before helped him

keep at a distance the emotions he had felt. He had been truly
terrified, but the memory of breaking down in front of Perry was not
something he would particularly relish later on, so he tried to separate
himself from those feelings and not dwell on them right now.

“But haven’t you known each other for years?” Perry looked

baffled, not understanding.

“Well, that’s what makes us both idiots.” Jake looked adorable

with a slight flush creeping over his cheekbones. He rubbed a hand
over the back of his neck, embarrassed, and gave his Alpha the short
version of why neither of them had said anything for so long. It took
quite a while before the expression of shock faded from Perry’s face.
Well, I wanted to surprise him, and I definitely succeeded! Daniel
grinned to himself.

“You know what?” Perry’s face lit up as he thought of something

when Jake had finished talking. “We’re rather overdue for a pack
BBQ. I have been so caught up with everything, I just haven’t thought
about having one for a while. It’s Sunday tomorrow and we could

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have it then. This pack could do with thinking about some good stuff
for a change, and your mating is the perfect reason. Plus, we have not
had one since you all joined the pack anyway, and between my
original pack, the addition of your men, and everyone who is staying
after the rescue, there are still a few people who have not met each
other yet. It’s about time they all did.”

Perry stood and walked out of the room to stand at the bottom of

the stairs. He called up them.

“Kedi, could you come down for a minute please?” Perry came

back into the room and quietly whispered, “I’m trying to get him to
mix with others as much as I can.” He went silent again when they
heard Kedi’s light footsteps coming down the stairs. He edged into
the room a minute later.

“Would you take Daniel over to Betts’s house and ask him to

draw up a supply list for a pack BBQ on me, please? Make sure he
knows there needs to be enough for everyone, including all the
newcomers. And then go to Jason’s house and ask him and Charlie to
come over here?” Perry looked at Daniel. “If you wouldn’t mind?
There are some things I need to talk over with my Beta.” It was
obvious that Perry was making it an official Alpha request, so though
he wanted to stay with Jake, Daniel did not protest.

“No, that sounds fine. I will see you in a bit.” Daniel leaned in and

kissed Jake on the cheek, but when he went to pull away, Jake tugged
him back and kissed him properly. Daniel drew away, blushing and
fuzzy with the feelings Jake’s kiss had brought. The corners of his
mouth twitched with an embarrassed but happy grin which he tried
and failed to hold back.

Kedi scuttled out of the house ahead of him with obviously

conflicting emotions. The boy kept getting closer then farther away
again as they walked, paying very careful attention to both his
surroundings and where Daniel was in relation to him. He doesn’t
want to get too close, but he doesn’t want to be out here on his own
either. He must be so scared all the time, poor kid. Daniel’s heart

Another Way to Hide

ached with sympathy for what the boy had been through. If he finds
his mate one day, his mate had better be good to him or this entire
pack will descend on them like piranhas. I may not have been around
them long but I can already see the way they defend one of their own.

Kedi moved a few paces ahead of him again. He was wearing red

trainers, loose blue jeans, a plain, nondescript dark-blue tee and a
lightweight zip-up grey hoodie. The hood of the grey top was not
pulled up at the moment, and Daniel could see the unusual red and
brown streaked colouring of the boy’s hair. Apparently, strange as it
was, Kedi’s two-tone hair was completely natural. Kedi was twisting
his hands in the pockets of the grey hoodie, wrapping the unzipped
bottom corners, where his hands were stuffed deep into the pockets
around his thin body. He would slow his pace, his hands would come
out of his pockets, and his shoulders would straighten. Then his hands
would go back in the pockets, he would hunch up, and his pace would
increase again as his nervousness overcame him once more.

When they reached the house, where Daniel assumed Betts must

live, Kedi hung back, as if he was afraid to do something as bold as
knock on the door. Daniel jumped up the couple of steps and
knocked. A moment or two later it was opened by the big and burley
Nathaniel.

“Daniel.”
“Hi Nate, is Betts around?”
“Sure.” He bellowed Betts’s name through the house before

turning back to Daniel with a soft look. “Hey, I heard about Jake,
how…how is he?”

“Oh he’s fine.” Nate looked confused, so Daniel elaborated. “His

mate turned up.”

“Really? Oh man, that’s great!” Relief swept across Nate’s tanned

face. “So who is it? Man? Woman?”

“Get out of the way, you big lug.”
Betts’s voice sounded from behind Nate. Nate moved to let the

only slightly smaller Betts past. Both men had large frames, but while

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Betts had long dark hair and pale skin and was the slimmer of the two,
Nate looked like a big, burly beach bum with a mop of slightly curly
blond hair and a tan complexion.

“Isn’t it obvious who Jake’s mate is?” He grinned at Daniel. “Hey

man, I’m glad things worked out. Congrats.” He held out his fist
expectantly.

Daniel ducked his head, blushed a little, and tapped his own

closed fist against Betts’s knuckles.

“Thanks.”
“You? Wow!” Nate’s mouth opened and closed for a moment

before it settled into a big happy grin. “Congratulations, dude!”

“Yeah, thanks.” Daniel could feel his cheeks grow even warmer.

“Um, so, Perry wants you”—he looked at Betts—“to draw up a list of
supplies needed for a pack BBQ, for everyone here and at Blue
Gables for tomorrow. He says it’s on him.”

Betts glanced at his wrist and then looked again. “Shi—…uh…”

He looked behind Daniel at Kedi. “Blimy, the man doesn’t give much
warning does he? Thank goodness for the wholesalers and the
supermarkets. Okay, uh… right.” He disappeared inside the house for
a minute and returned with his wallet, keys, and a pen and notepad.

“Perry asked Kedi to go over to get Jason and Charlie. I am going

to go with him.” With the way Kedi had been behaving on their walk
to see Betts, Daniel did not think he would want to walk to Jason’s
house on his own.

When they got to Jason’s house, where Charlie was living, the

door opened before they could knock. Daniel was mobbed by Jason
and Charlie. They rushed out of the house and bounced all over him,
hugging and slapping him on the back. Even Cameron, who had
already got there and told them both while Daniel was with Jake at
Perry’s, joined in.

“Hey, ease up, guys. Human, remember?”
Daniel complained when the pounds on his back grew a little too

enthusiastic. They fell back laughing, and Daniel twisted around a

Another Way to Hide

couple of times, tensing and releasing the muscles down one side of
his back then the other, to make sure he could still move properly.

“I knew it!” Charlie exclaimed.
“Huh? Knew what?”
“You remember when you were setting up the computers in your

office? And I was hanging round handing you cables and stuff?”

Daniel nodded, feeling puzzled.
“You remember that’s when Jake came in to tell me Jason was

there to get me, and that the cameras were ready to be hooked up?”

“Yeeees?” Where is this going?
“You were behind the desk when Jake came in. There was

something about the way he was looking at you.” Charlie laughed.
“Or should I say staring at your backside!” He giggled. “That’s all he
could see, and he didn’t seem to mind ’cause he couldn’t take his eyes
off it. At least until he realised I had busted him watching you.”

“How did you spot that? I have known them both for years, and I

didn’t have a clue,” Cameron said to Charlie.

“You knew he liked me? Why didn’t you say anything?”
“Dee! You were straight. Remember?” Jason interrupted.
“Oh yeah.”
“Keds!”
Charlie must have just noticed the boy who was hanging back

from the rest of them. He held out both arms, making “come here”
gestures with both hands. Kedi ran into his arms and snuggled in
against his chest. They whispered to each other for a minute before
Charlie kissed Kedi’s forehead then looked up. The boy’s face had lit
up with happiness now he was with Charlie once more and felt secure.
It changed his face completely. There was a bright inner glow to
Kedi’s smile which no one could resist returning.

Daniel was reluctant to put a dampener on the happy mood for

any of them, but they had been sent here for a reason.

“Charlie, Perry needs you and Jason over at his place.”

Violet Joicey-Cowen

They all walked over to Perry’s, teasing Daniel good-naturedly

the whole way.

When they got there, Jason led the way in without bothering to

knock. Jake met them at the entrance to the sitting room and pulled
Daniel into a quick hug. Hmmmm, nice. Daniel made a happy noise
and cuddled in close before tilting his head up for a kiss, which Jake
delivered unreservedly. Jake’s tongue swept inside his lips and
stroked across his own, sending a shiver of delight down his spine,
and all the thoughts in his head evaporated.

The sound of a throat clearing made Jake pull his mouth away

with obvious reluctance. Daniel was still hazy, though, and it took a
minute for his brain to catch up. Oops… Daniel felt heat creep up his
face when he realised that his legs were around Jake’s waist and Jake
had him pinned up against a wall. Shit, I have got to stop blushing! He
unclamped his legs from around Jake and slid down Jake’s body until
his feet were firmly on the floor. But I think I am allowed to get a
little embarrassed, dry humping my lover in front of our Alpha and
one, two, three... Lovely! Five other people! They were mostly
standing around, pretending they had not been watching.

Perry cleared his throat again, smirking at Daniel and Jake. “Betts,

I know there is not much time left today before the different shops
shut, so I asked Jason and Charlie over so you could divide the
shopping trip between you and not miss a store before they all close.”

“Okay. Charlie and Jase, I drew up a quick list on the way over.”

Betts flipped the top sheet on his small spiral bound notebook over
and scribbled furiously in it for a minute. He ripped the second page
out and handed it to Charlie. “If you could go to the supermarket and
get that stuff, I will go to the wholesalers.” Betts headed for the front
door, picking Perry’s car keys up from the stand by the door. Perry
must have told him to use his car before Daniel had returned to the
house.

“Dee? I still need to talk to Perry some more. Would you mind

going with Charlie? Or Betts?”

Another Way to Hide

Daniel decided to go with Betts. There were enough going in the

other car with Charlie, Jason, Kedi, and Cameron. He leaned up on
tiptoe and pressed a quick kiss to Jake’s cheek and raced after Betts
before he could drive away. Daniel was reluctant to leave Jake as
even a brief separation felt wrong so soon after their mating. The last
time he had left Jake had been such a disaster he knew they both
dreaded something else going wrong.

Thankfully, everything went smoothly on the trip into town. There

were no problems with anything Betts had noted down, and the trip in
and out again was relatively quick. The BBQ was on for the next day.

There was normally an informal pack gathering once a month or

so, Perry said, but with everything that had been going on there just
hadn’t been much of a chance for a while. The usual format had Perry
putting the word out midweek, and everyone got together at Carden,
where most of them lived, a few days later on the Sunday. The typical
informal nature of the get together commonly had everyone bringing
something to put on a communal table for everybody to share. This
time, though, was a bit more of a special occasion, and Perry had
asked Betts to prepare some side dishes and would fire up his large
BBQ grill.

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Chapter Ten

Jake

The BBQ had been running for hours. Jake had been talking to

Sam and Jessica. He has been reassuring them about their concerns
for Noah and Astley’s behaviour. Now the boy was spending so much
time at Blue Gables, so he could be with his mate-to-be, his parents
had become a little worried.

He had stopped listening, though, to the other two talk, and he was

now watching his mate, glad he no longer had to hide the fact that he
could not take his eyes of the man. Mine, his wolf growled happily
inside him.

He saw Daniel wander over to where Charlie sat with the cubs and

start speaking with him. He knew, hell everyone knew, that Charlie
was Perry’s mate. They also all knew Perry had not claimed Charlie
yet. He looked over at Perry, who was flipping burgers and turning
chicken like a pro, obviously very practised at what he was doing, but
today his mind looked to be elsewhere. The big Alpha suddenly
stilled, spatula in the air, almost vibrating with tension. Perry looks
pissed! Jake glanced in the direction of Perry’s glare. Oh hell! What’s
that idiot doing? Jake dumped his bottle of beer and hurried over to
where Cameron and Jason had joined Charlie and Daniel. Cameron
was sitting way too close to Charlie and had his hand on the other
man’s thigh. He leaned in and said something in his ear, which made
Charlie laugh. Perry roared in fury and made a beeline for the little
group. Jake sped up, glad he was closer. He wanted to get there first

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so he could get Cameron away before Perry pulled him limb from
limb.

“Cameron!” Jake barked. “A word? Now.” He arrived about three

seconds before Perry, and he managed to drag Cameron away in time.

“What the hell do you think you are doing?” Jake demanded once

they were far enough away. “Charlie is Perry’s mate, his mate! What
the fuck do you think you are playing at, you dumb shit? Are you
trying to get yourself killed?”

“Chill out, boss. I know that.” Cameron smirked and Jake nearly

hit him but managed to restrain himself.

“Well? Any kind of explanation would be just great! If Perry had

got to you first he would be beating you with your own ripped-off and
still-bloody arms right about now.” Jake’s own all-too-recent claiming
of his own mate had his emotions cranked up a little too high, and he
could very well understand how Perry must have felt on viewing the
little scene he had just witnessed.

“Perry hasn’t gone near Charlie since he woke up. He needed a bit

of a push.” Cameron was looking far too smug and he shrugged. “I
gave him a push!”

“Are you trying to tell me that little display over there was you

actively trying to make Perry jealous so he would do something about
claiming Charlie? Do you have a death wish or something?” Jake did
not know whether he felt flabbergasted or impressed.

“Well, no to the death wish, but, yeah, worked didn’t it?” They

both looked back over at the spot Jake had dragged Cameron from.
Perry and Charlie were nowhere to be seen.

“Oh it did something alright”—Jake nodded—“I guess we will

have to wait and see exactly what later. God, I’m not sure if you have
balls of steel or are the biggest dumbarse I ever met! Cam, that could
have backfired so easily and you would have been the one in the
brown stuff had it truly hit the fan. Go home. The party is over for
you. Get out of here before Perry tracks you down.”

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Cameron left. Jake watched his shoulders hunch up as he walked

away dejectedly with his hands in his pockets. The extent of
Cameron’s reaction puzzled Jake a little, as it seemed a little extreme
for simply not being allowed to stay at a BBQ. Perry, however, did
not show his face again, and neither did Charlie. Huh, so maybe
things are falling into place there, too, Jake thought, trying his hardest
not to be impressed with Cameron’s reading of the situation and how
he just might have fixed it.

“Hey.”
“Hey, you.” Jake smiled at Daniel. He could hardly believe this

man was his at last.

“Where’s Cam?”
“I sent him home. Didn’t want Perry ripping him to pieces. I—”
A car sped past, its wheels spinning as it accelerated away

quickly.

“Who was that?” Daniel looked at him.
“I think it might have been Bobby, but I’m not sure.”
“Where is he going in such a hurry?”
“Why are you asking me?” Jake laughed. “Why on earth would I

know?” He gave Daniel a side-squeeze with one arm. “Mr.
Information, always got to know everything?”

“Yes!” Daniel scowled at him, but the fierce expression melted

with the heated look Jake shot him. “You can’t look at me like that
here! That’s not fair. I can’t rip your clothes off here. Not with
everyone around anyway.”

“Going to have to wait till we get home.” Jake could feel his own

erection threatening to break the zipper of his jeans, but he was not
going to tell his mate that. He was having too much fun watching
Daniel squirm. They could not leave their own party early, even if the
BBQ was only half in their honour and half a meet and greet for
everyone new to the pack, so they had to wait a while yet before they
could leave. At the same time, Daniel’s obvious ease with the change

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in their relationship made him more happy than he could put into
words and he stayed as close as he could for the rest of the day.

As the party wound up and everyone started to go home, Jake

found himself searching the shadows between the trees. The contrast
between the light and shadow was strong at this time of year, when it
was still light until late in the evening and it felt like something was
hiding in the dappled shadows. Jake could not see anything, though,
and he tried to shake the creepy feeling that had snuck up on him, but
he had the nasty sensation of waiting for the other shoe to drop. The
scent of the barbecue still hung in the air, joined by the dampness the
dew brought as it began to settle on everything. Daniel was waiting
for him by the car, but he stood there for a moment, arms crossed on
his chest and a scowl on his face as he watched and listened to the
leaves rustle before he went to join him.

* * * *

The eyes that watched from the forest saw everyone pack up and

go, back to their cars or into the houses that were scattered about.
There had been too many here today. He would get his chance. He
pushed the hunger, which swirled inside, back down. He could wait.

* * * *

Jake drove on the way home. His right hand was on the wheel,

and his left rested on Daniel’s thigh. He loved being able to feel the
warmth of Daniel’s body through the black denim underneath his
palm. Daniel’s fingertips stroked a lazy circle over the back of his
hand. It tickled and sent hot shivers through Jake’s body, flooding his
groin with heat. He shot a quick look at Daniel. Daniel’s head rested
sideways against the headrest and was watching him, his pupils
dilated with desire and a delicate pink staining his cheekbones. Jake
hurriedly swung his eyes back to the road. If he was not careful, he

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would crash the car. It would be all too easy to get lost in the look his
mate was giving him.

They had nearly reached Blue Gables when Jake had a sudden

thought. He drove for another minute then turned off the street onto
another then pulled the car up and parked in a small car park beside a
building that had an old wooden sign swinging from a bar that stuck
out over the entrance.

“Why did you stop here?” Daniel asked, puzzled.
Jake looked over at the door into O’Neil’s before he got out of the

car. He leaned back in, one hand on the top of the car door and the
other on its roof.

“Come on. There’s someone I want you to meet.” He had no idea

where the sudden impulse had come from, but he really wanted Kasey
to meet Daniel. She had been so nice to him at a time when he had
thought Daniel was lost to him forever that he wanted to let her know
what had happened. Well okay, maybe not all that happened! It’s not
like I can tell her I nearly went feral but got better when my destined
mate let me claim him like the werewolf I am. I can tell her I got my
man, though, and I want her to meet him. He felt a strange kinship
with Kasey. There had been something about the way she had looked
at him, an all too personal understanding of his pain when he had
been talking about Daniel and Trace, which made him want to
reassure her that things could still work out, even when someone has
lost all hope.

He walked around to the other side of the car and opened the door

for Daniel. Daniel got out slowly, a delightfully grumpy look on his
face. Jake laughed.

“What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing.” Daniel set off at a fast walk for the front door of the

pub, with his shoulders hunched up and his hands thrust deep into his
pockets.

“Dee?” A cold sensation swept through him, and he grabbed

Daniel’s arm, stopping him and swinging him back around to face

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him. “Dee what’s wrong?” He had enough of the misunderstandings
between them and could not take the thought that Daniel was upset
about something and would not tell him what it was.

Daniel bit his lip, refusing to meet his eyes. “Do you… do you

want me?”

“What?” Jake let out a bark of laughter. “You can’t be serious?”

Then he looked again at Daniel’s face. “You do mean it, don’t you?”
he asked wonderingly. “Of course I want you! What brought this on?”

Daniel’s face went red. “Everyone says…everything I

read…ummm… aren’t we supposed to be at the…ummm…fucking
like bunnies stage? Why are we here?” His flustered embarrassment
was adorable and made Jake want him even more.

“Why did I bring you here instead of taking you home and

fucking you through the mattress?”

Daniel’s face grew even redder. He nodded.
“Oh, I’m gonna do that.” Jake growled at him, incredibly turned

on by Daniel’s rather bashful question. His already hard cock pulsed,
and he had to think about some of the sights he had seen in
Michaelson’s warehouse so the damn thing would go down again.
“Don’t you think I won’t. The only reason I came here first is
because, now we have got the party over with, once I get you in my
bed I won’t be letting you out of it for days, and then only for food!”

“Oh.” Daniel might have been scarlet but he looked a lot happier

as Jake slung an arm over his shoulder and started them walking
toward the pub again.

It was fairly quiet inside, even for a Sunday evening, and Jake

quickly spotted Kasey behind the bar. They threaded their way
through several tables and made their way over.

“Hi, Jake. You look a lot happier than the last time I saw you,”

she said once she had finished serving her current customer, ringing
his order through the till and giving him his change. She looked at
Daniel then back at Jake, who still had his arm around Daniel’s
shoulders. “What can I get you?”

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“Hi, Kasey.” He felt a bit silly now, coming in for the reason he

had. “Nothing to drink, thank you, not tonight anyway. I just wanted
to bring Daniel in.”

“You have been in before. Um, tequila, right? And a beer?”
“How did you remember that? That was days ago.”
She shrugged. “Bartender’s trick. You quickly learn to associate

people with what they drink. A couple of days is not a long time.” She
kept looking between them, trying to puzzle something out, and then
comprehension swept over her face and she broke out in a delighted
grin. “Wait. Is this…?”

“Yeah, this is him.” Jake’s cheeks felt tight with the wideness of

his smile.

“And are you…?”
“Yeah.”
Kasey let out a little squeal of excitement when Jake said that. She

was just about bouncing on the other side of the bar.

“He’s not…?”
“No, not so much!”
“Would you two stop that!” Daniel interrupted with an aggravated

tone. “I am right here. And I need an interpreter for the conversation.”

“Sorry.” Jake brushed a kiss against Daniel’s hair. “That night…

before you came back early from your night out and…woke me from
my nightmare... I was in here and Kasey and I were talking. I told her
about you. She was just asking if you were who I had been talking
about, if we were together, and she was confirming that you were not
straight like I thought you were. You still have not explained that one
to me yet, by the way.”

“Oh.” Daniel looked over at Kasey and held out a hand. “It’s nice

to meet you.” Kasey shook it.

“You, too, honey. I hear so many tales of woe on this side of this

thing.” She motioned at the bar top. “It’s not often I get to hear the
happy ending.”

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A slightly overweight guy with short black hair approached the

bar. “Hey, Kase! I’m waiting here!”

“Oh hold your horses, Mickey, I’m coming.” She glanced

apologetically at Jake and Daniel. “Gotta go. Come back in and see
me soon. I will buy you both a drink.” She moved down the bar to
where the other man stood impatiently. “This is your last one,
Mickey. Sharon will have my head if you are in here all night
drinking.”

Jake and Daniel left her to it. They got back in the car and drove

the rest of the way back to Blue Gables, though it would almost have
been quicker to walk they were that close.

As soon as they stumbled in through the back door, arms around

each other and hands wandering, Jake had every intention of taking
his mate upstairs and fucking him through the mattress as he had
promised. But that plan came to a screeching halt. The unknown scent
of strange vampires hung in the air.

“I can smell more vampires. Stay behind me.” Jake’s wolf was on

alert, and he pushed at Daniel to move him behind him, but Daniel did
not want to cooperate.

“Oh stop it! Even with my human hearing, I can hear Cass

laughing in the kitchen. I don’t think he would be finding it quite that
funny if the place was full of hostiles. Relax, will you?”

“But!”
“No, Jay. Relax. Come on, let’s see what is going on.” He grabbed

Jake’s hand and dragged him reluctantly along the corridor. Jake’s
wolf was grumbling and growling, but Jake himself wanted to whine
like a teenager not getting his way.

“But babe, I’m only looking out for you…”
“Yeah, ’cause I have not had to look after myself at all in the last

ten years.”

And doesn’t that just make me feel great, too. If we had mated

years ago I would have been able to be the one looking after you. Jake
was completely ignoring the fact that they had been in the military

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together. Even if they had been able to have a relationship whilst
serving, they would not have been able to serve in the same unit. They
would have had to leave much earlier than they had.

Daniel tugged him into the kitchen where they found Cass and

Ant talking with Andre, Raff, and two strangers. One of the strangers
was a very well-dressed blonde. Her hair was wound up in a wispy
undone bun, and she wore a grey pencil skirt with a red satin blouse
and red stilettos. Well hello there. Damn glad I am gay and I have
Daniel, because she just screams trouble. The other stranger was a
man with short, spiky, gelled brown hair, and he was slightly more
casual in grey slacks and a black, long-sleeved, thin jersey turtleneck.

Cass looked over. “Hi Jake, Daniel. This is Eddie and Annette.

They are from the coven you contacted, Daniel. The one who said
they were happy for Andre and Raff to go stay with them.”

Daniel had told him that he had made a few phone calls on their

behalf the day before when Jake had gone for his lie down before
joining him. He’d had contact with several vampire covens, called
around, and one said they would be more than happy to take them in,
either permanently or until their own covens were found. The coven
was only a couple of hours away, and if agreeable with all concerned,
they would send a car for them. They had obviously not waited for
Daniel to get back in touch.

The blonde slid off her stool at the kitchen island. She walked

over to where he and Daniel stood, putting an extra swish in her hips,
and stopped right in front of Jake. Too close honey, back off a little.

“Well hello there handsome,” she said, echoing his thought of a

moment ago but with completely different intentions. She was just
about purring at him. Her fingertips danced their way up his chest as
she leaned in even closer. Jake froze.

“Back the hell away from my mate!”
The woman bared her fangs and hissed at Daniel, who was still

glaring at her after his angry words.

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Oh hell no. Jake unfroze and stepped away from her, pulling

Daniel with him. The tension level in the room had risen by about a
thousand points. Daniel was now glaring at her from the protective
circle of Jake’s arms. Well, it would have been protective if he had
not been struggling to get out of it and at Annette.

“Behave, Annie.”
Jake was unwilling to take his eyes off the woman threatening his

mate, but on the edge of his vision he saw the other stranger get to his
feet and move closer.

“Come on, don’t be a bitch. You can smell just the same as I can

that they are mated. Sit down.”

Annette retracted her fangs, smiled sweetly at Jake, glared at

Daniel, and went back to her stool where she pouted at Eddie.

Like I thought, trouble!
“You can let me go now.” Daniel was twisting in his arms to look

up at him.

“Sorry about Annette. The boss thought she needed a change of

scenery and the trip would do her some good. She is his sister. I will
have a word with him when we get back.” Eddie said apologetically.

Jake walked slowly into the room after releasing Daniel, careful to

keep himself between Daniel and the vampire female. “See that you
do. I won’t have my mate threatened.”

“Of course. I apologise to both of you on her behalf.” Eddie gave

Annette a stern look. She was still pouting.

“Don’t look at me like that. You know Ves would not stand for

that sort of behaviour.”

“They were telling us about the Coven, Jake. It sounds great.”

Raff was just about bouncing on his stool.

Jake smiled at his enthusiasm. If he had been a human, Raff

would have been long dead by now. But by vampire standards he was
still fairly young, and it was nice to see him acting that way after all
they had been through. Andre stood with his back to the grey stone
kitchen sink, watching the proceedings with an inscrutable look. Jake

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moved closer to him and lowered his voice. He knew the others would
hear him anyway, but it helped give the impression of a little privacy.

“What do you think? You know you would always be welcome to

come back if things did not work out there.”

“I think they are good people.” The corners of his mouth twitched

as he held back a smile. “Despite certain things.” His gaze swung to
Annette and back to Jake again. “As long as Raff is happy and safe, I
am willing to give them a try.”

Andre and Raff were not mates, but Jake understood Andre’s

protectiveness toward the other vampire. Raff had a far more innocent
character, which was beginning to return now that he was recovering
emotionally from what they had both been through.

“So you are going to go with them?”
“Yes, I think we are.”
It was another hour before they left. Neither of them had anything

much to pack except a few clothes.

Jake went to deal with Cameron while they packed up. He had to

act the official Beta and sent Daniel for him. Their conversation was
shorter than he was expecting, and he wound up sending Cameron off
rather quickly as there was somewhere the other man had to go.

After his brief talk with Cameron, Jake went back and joined

Daniel and the others at the rear of the house.

Andre and Raff promised to keep in touch and visit. Daniel and

Raff had a rather tearful hug, and everyone else shook hands then
waved as the four vampires climbed into a dark-blue Mercedes with
tinted windows neither Jake nor Daniel had noticed outside, hidden as
it was among all the other cars. Everyone waved as Eddie started the
car up and pulled away down the dark drive, setting off the motion-
sensitive lights along the way. Gravel crunched under the tires. And
then they were gone.

Daniel edged behind him into the doorway of the house, tugging

on the back of Jake’s shirt. Jake looked back and caught his smirk.
Daniel jerked his head further into the house and widened his eyes in

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a meaningful look. Jake instantly understood and grinned at him,
turning and starting into the house.

“Where are you two going then?”
Daniel went bright red and Jake’s cock twitched to life. Yum. he

looks so hot like that.

“You know exactly where we are going Ant.” Jake flipped the

other man off. Then he rushed at Daniel, who yelped when he was
picked up and flung over Jake’s shoulder. Jake ran all the way
through the house and up the stairs with Daniel laughing from his
position over Jake’s shoulder. He could feel the hard ridge of Daniel’s
cock against his torso, through the soft fabric of his worn jeans. Jake
was not even slightly winded after carrying his mate all the way, and
he kicked the door shut and tossed Daniel onto the bed. Daniel
grinned up at him as he bounced to a stop on the springy mattress.

“Get naked.” Daniel was more than happy to obey and wriggled

out of his trousers, pushing his electric-green boxer briefs down along
with the faded-blue denim. They caught at his ankles, and he giggled
while he tried to pull his trainers off, which were too tightly laced. He
undid them and tossed them aside before yanking his trousers off over
his feet. They ended up mostly inside out on the floor. A moment
later, Daniel’s T-shirt sailed across the room. Jake watched his mate’s
body as it was revealed bit by bit with his mouth open, feeling all the
blood in his body head toward his cock. He palmed it through his
trousers, adjusting himself, then realised he had been too busy staring
to take his own clothes off. He quickly stripped, uncaring of where his
clothes landed, and crawled onto the bed.

Daniel rose and knee-walked across the bed, meeting him

halfway. He grabbed the sides of Jake’s face and drew them together
in a passionate kiss.

Everything stilled inside Jake. This was where he was meant to

be, here with his mate, with this man. Daniel’s sweet scent
surrounded him, drugging his senses.

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Jake settled his hands on either side of Daniel’s rib cage, holding

him close while they kissed. The desperation Jake had been feeling all
day, to be inside his mate again, faded. Now that Daniel’s warm,
solid, and naked body was pressed up to his and rubbing against him,
Jake’s feelings mellowed, and he kissed him almost lazily.

“Jake, I want you so much.”
“Want you, too.” Jake trailed his fingers across the smooth skin of

Daniel’s back. “Love your skin.” Jake reached his left hand up to cup
the side of Daniel’s face and tilt his head aside. He nibbled and licked
up the exposed skin and over the mating mark he had left when he
had claimed Daniel. Daniel shivered and then moaned. The scent of
his arousal flooded the air, making Jake pant with need.

“Want you inside me, Jay.” His hand reached between them and

began tugging at his own cock, squirming slightly with the strength of
his desire.

Jake pressed the first two fingers of his right hand against Daniel’s

lips. Daniel took them into his mouth and sucked on them eagerly,
coating them with his saliva. When they were nice and wet he reached
behind his mate and circled the damp digits around his mate’s hole.

“Don’t tease,” Daniel whimpered. Jake thrust both fingers into his

mate, earning a throaty cry. Jake drew back from his attentions to
Daniel’s neck and looked at him. Daniel’s head was still canted to one
side and back slightly. His mouth was open, and short panting breaths
issued from him. His eyes were shut, and the expression on his face
was pure ecstasy. Jake stabbed his fingers in and out of Daniel, who
bucked against them and tried to take them deeper.

“Fuck, you’re sexy.”
Daniel opened his eyes, which were heavy with lust, and looked

back at him. “Kiss me.”

Jake was happy to oblige, and their mouths met in a hot, wet kiss.

While their tongues duelled, Jake started scissoring his fingers to
loosen Daniel up for him. After a few minutes, he went to add a third
finger but Daniel clamped a hand down on his arm.

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101

“No, Jay, just fuck me. Please. I need to feel you. Want the burn.”
Fuck. Jake did not think it was possible for his cock to get any

harder, but at his mate’s words he realised he had been wrong as more
blood filled it. He pulled his fingers from Daniel and leaned over to
grab the lube from where it stood on the bedside table. Daniel drew
away and lay down, watching him. He licked his palm and began
slowly stroking his cock. The cap made a snick noise as Jake flicked
it open, and he squirted some onto his fingers.

Jake lubed his cock and moved over Daniel, who lifted his legs

and gripped them behind the knees with both hands, his heated gaze
heavy on Jake's skin. Jake slicked Daniel’s entrance and dick with the
remainder of the lube, lingering for a moment on the hard shaft. He
grabbed a pillow and used it to raise Daniel’s hips then positioned
himself on his knees and lined his prick up to enter Daniel’s body.

Daniel’s needy whimper turned to a gasp, his back arching up off

the bed as Jake thrust forward to the hilt with one push. He froze, the
heat and tightness of his mate’s body around his cock almost more
than he could take. After a few moments, the urge to come faded and
he was able to move.

“Fuck me!”
Jake took hold of Daniel’s hips and pulled out until just the flared

head of his shaft remained inside and looked between them to where
Daniel’s body stretched around his cock. He had to look away before
the urge to come overwhelmed him again. His gaze skated up the hard
ridges and muscled plains of Daniel’s abdomen and chest. He met
Daniel’s eyes as he plunged inside him, watching the bliss on his
mate’s face as their bodies came together.

Starting a hard pace, hammering in and out of Daniel, Jake could

feel his wolf’s satisfaction at his possession of Daniel’s body.

Sweat began to trickle down Jake's back. The red flush along

Daniel’s cheekbones and his upper chest signalled how close he was
to coming. Daniel reached out to him, curling his fingers along his

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side, and pulled, forcing Jake to let go and brace his arms on the bed
so he did not come down too hard onto him.

“Hi,” Daniel huffed. His eyes, inches from Jake's own now, were

sparkling with humour.

“Hi.” Jake grinned back at him and slowed the movements of his

hips, rolling them and grinding deep.

“Unggg.” Daniel slowed the strokes of his hand on his own cock,

trying for a moment to stave off his orgasm, but it was too late. Jake
felt Daniel’s inner muscles tighten just before his cock began to shoot
streams of cum across their stomachs and chests. Jake’s canines
lengthened. The smell of his mate’s cum was the last touch needed to
finish Jake off, and he buried his head in Daniel’s neck, sinking his
teeth into the healed mating mark as he came deep inside his mate.
Daniel’s body convulsed around him, the bite prolonging Daniel’s
orgasm, and they shuddered together.

After withdrawing his fangs and licking the edges of the new

wound to encourage the healing process, Jake gathered Daniel in his
arms and rolled onto his back. Daniel settled on top of him, sprawled
across his chest with his legs straddling Jake's hips. They were still
connected. Daniel made a contented humming sound, wiggling
slightly against him as he got comfortable.

“You know, we haven’t really spoken about that.”
“Huh?”
“Sorry. Uh… You bit me again. I was thinking about how quickly

the first bite you gave me healed. I thought about how that must be
one of the things being your mate will change about me, healing time,
and I was wondering if there was anything else that would change.”

“You thought about all that in the few seconds between me rolling

over and you starting talking?”

“Er…yes.”
“Wow, your brain never stops does it?”

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103

“It took a break from the moment you carried me into the room

until you rolled over just now.” Jake chuckled at that. He could hear
the grin in Daniel’s voice.

“Yes. That is one of the things that will change. We should have

talked about this before I claimed you.” He started gently stroking his
hand sown the length of Daniel’s back, from the nape of his neck to
the top of his arse, and back again. Daniel’s fingers were playing in
the sparse hair on his chest.

Jake felt a twinge of regret that he had not been able to have this

conversation at the right time. Daniel should have known how their
mating would change him and his life before it was too late.

“Hey”—Daniel had moved while Jake was lost in thought, and

now looked down at his face—“I don’t regret it for a moment. There
was no decision to be made. I am yours, and I always have been.”

“Are you picking up my feelings that clearly already?”
“Okay, now it’s my turn. Huh?”
“A lot of mated shifter couples gain the ability to feel each other’s

emotions through their mating bond, and a few can talk to each other
through it. Occasionally it happens with a shifter-human couple, but it
is rarer and usually takes longer.”

Daniel went quiet for a moment then gave a small shrug. “I guess

I must be. I was not looking at you, and you did not move at all. I
could feel regret at the lack of time for talking before we mated, but it
was not me feeling it. Weird. Cool!” He grinned at Jake and leaned in,
giving him a quick kiss before settling back on Jake's chest.

“So…there is that. And the healing. You will heal much faster

than a normal human now. It will be better to avoid human doctors
and hospitals. You don’t want to draw attention to how fast you can
heal now. If I claim you regularly, the healing will be even faster.”

“Like you need that excuse!”
Jake hugged Daniel tight. “You won’t age like a human anymore.

Shifters live for centuries, not decades. I don’t even know how long
we could live. The oldest shifter I ever met was a bear who was over

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twelve hundred years old. But life and scientific knowledge has
improved so much over the last century, and people know how to take
better care of their bodies. More and more shifters are living for
longer and longer. The more time we are bonded, the tighter the bond
will become. If anything were to happen to me soon, you would revert
slowly back to your human life span and begin to age normally once
more. But if that happened in one or two hundred years, then you
would follow me much more quickly. Your immune system will be
much stronger. Shifters do not get or carry any human diseases or
infections, so we don’t need to use condoms, though I guess you
already knew that one. Seb?”—Daniel nodded, confirming Jake’s
suspicions that Seb must have thrown some of the information
needed, for them to mate properly, at him on their race round from the
pub that night.—“It is extremely unlikely that you will catch anything
ever again. Any natural abilities you might have may be enhanced,
along with your senses and reactions.”

“Abilities?”
“Anything from a talent at drawing to the psychic ability some

humans possess. Not everything will heighten, but if it is there, then
there is the chance that it might.” Jake went over everything in his
head. “I think that’s about it.”

“So I am going to live as long as you, which could be a really-

freaking-long time. I won’t get sick, and I will heal faster. And I
might become ‘super-nerd.’”

“You’re already super-nerd.” Jake's stroking hands tickled at his

mate’s rib cage.

“No. No tickling.” Daniel was giggling on top of him now, and

Jake's cock, still buried in Daniel, began to perk up again at the
tremors going through his wriggling body. Daniel’s face flushed with
desire when he felt Jake harden, and Jake could feel Daniel’s
hardening, too. He stopped tickling his mate and flexed his hips,
eliciting a moan from Daniel.

“Jay.”

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Chapter Eleven

Jake

Jake stomped along the corridor on the third floor, growling as he

went. He was horny and working himself into a foul mood. In the
week since Daniel had returned from his trip to see his sister, the pack
demands on their time had been multiplying, and he did not feel like
he was seeing nearly enough of his mate.

Daniel had gone to work in his study as usual that morning. He

had caught up days ago after his week away, but there was always
more work to do.

Daniel had started a hunt for Michaelson. So far there was no sign

of him or what he might be up to now that they had shut his operation
down but Perry was worried.

Though Jake was also concerned, all he wanted to do was go to

Daniel and rip his clothes off. He fantasised about it constantly.

When he had woken that morning, Jake had found Daniel cuddled

into him, with Jake’s morning wood pressed against Daniel’s bottom.
That had set off thoughts of what he now knew it felt like to be inside
his mate’s tight backside. Daniel had moaned in his sleep and pushed
back against him when Jake’s woody had twitched at his thoughts. It
had been a lot of fun waking his mate up, and afterward they had both
needed a shower. Once in the shower, Jake had dropped to his knees
and licked Daniel’s cock like a lollipop, stroking himself to
completion again at the same time.

Jake punched the wall. Now he was hard and his hand hurt,

marvellous. The wall needed fixing, too, and he glared at it. He

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couldn’t seem to stop thinking about Daniel. No matter how many
times they made love, it never seemed like enough to his wolf. He
was well aware of how long he had known the other man was his
mate, and of how long he had been in love with him. He was used to
controlling those feelings, but now he knew Daniel wanted him, too,
and he had finally been able to claim him. Now he could touch him,
his body seemed to want to make up for all that lost time by being
permanently buried deep in Daniel. Daniel is human, though. I know
mating me will make him a little more resilient, but he is still human!
Jake had limited his previous lovers to shifters and other supernaturals
who had the same increased strength and other abilities, and he
thought fully letting his shifter libido loose on his mate would end up
with Daniel getting hurt, which was the last thing he wanted.

He could see images of them fucking everywhere he looked.

Daniel’s scent clawed at him in every corner of the house. “Hell, I can
smell it now!” Jake groaned.

“Smell what?” Daniel’s amused voice made him spin. Daniel was

standing a few paces away. Jake had been so caught up in his
thoughts he had not even heard the other man approach. Daniel
looked edible. He had a little smirk hovering at the corner of his
mouth, which Jake just wanted to lick.

Fuck it. “You,” Jake growled and pounced. The door behind

Daniel gave way as they slammed into it and stumbled a bit before
crashing to the floor in a tangle of limbs.

“Shit, are you—”
Daniel cut Jake’s enquiry short by attacking him. He pushed Jake

over until he straddled him and thrust his tongue deep into his mouth.
Daniel ground down onto Jake as he licked and sucked at him, and
Jake forgot what he had been going to say. Hands ripped at clothing
as they tried to undress without separating. After a minute, Daniel tore
his mouth away, gasping.

“Naked, now!”

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Seconds later, skin met heated skin when the men came back

together after their clothes hit the floor.

“Lube,” Jake said, managing to get out when Daniel bit his nipple.

The sting burned a trail of fire directly to his cock. He was not used to
Daniel being so aggressive, but hell, it turned him on!

“Don’t need it.”
“The hell we don’t!” Pushing Daniel away at this point was

physically painful, but he was not going to hurt his mate no matter
how much he might want him.

Daniel silenced any other protests Jake had when he grabbed his

hand and placed it on the curve of Daniel’s arse.

“Don’t need it,” he repeated.
Hot damn! He’s wearing a butt plug.
Jake was momentarily struck dumb by the thought of Daniel

playing with himself and putting the plug in then coming to find him.
Daniel, walking through the house, wearing it. He stroked the end of
the plug, jostling it slightly, and Daniel whined needily and his cock
started to drip pre-cum onto Jake’s stomach. He rubbed up against
Jake excitedly.

Daniel reached back and removed the plug himself. He rose up,

hovering over Jake’s cock as it strained up toward him, and then sank
down, impaling himself on the rigid length. Jake stared up at his lover
in awe as Daniel froze for a moment, his head thrown back. Lightly
tanned skin stretched over the hard, flat muscles of Daniel’s body.
The brown buds of his nipples were tight with desire, and the ridges
of his stomach rippled slightly when he gasped. His right hand
gripped Jake’s thigh, supporting his weight as he leaned back, and his
cock jutted from his body, hard and weeping. How did I get so lucky?
What did I do to deserve this man in my life? Jake did not know, but
he was determined to do whatever it took to keep him there.

Daniel moved his upper body forward and placed both hands on

Jake’s chest. Jake’s hands found Daniel’s hips as they started to

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move, Daniel lifting up and driving down, with Jake thrusting up into
him. Daniel’s hole pulsed around Jake’s cock with every movement.

His jaw clenched tightly, Jake clung onto his self-control. He did

not want to come until Daniel did. Knowing he was losing it, he
reached for Daniel’s cock, which had been bouncing off Jake’s
stomach with their movements. The pre-cum leaking from the tip was
enough to have his hand sliding easily along the shaft. He pumped it a
few times and Daniel’s whimpers turned to cries, the plunges of his
hips growing erratic. Jake circled his thumb over the head of Daniel’s
cock and skimmed the slit with the edge of his nail.

Daniel let out a long, shuddering wail as he came and his body

clamped down on Jake’s cock, drawing his own orgasm from him in a
blinding rush. Daniel collapsed across Jake’s chest.

“Holy shit!” Daniel got out, panting hard. Jake couldn’t reply just

yet. He was still seeing stars. Little aftershocks tingled in his balls. He
slid his hands up around Daniel’s back and held him close.

“Gonna have to come find you more often.”
“Why did you?” Jake asked, once the power of speech had

returned to him. “Not that I’m complaining…”

Daniel giggled, and Jake could feel his body quiver with it against

his own.

“No one else wanted to come near. Cass asked me to find out

what you were so pissed about. You have them all in hiding, scared to
get anywhere close to you. You have been stalking around with a face
like thunder all day.”

A noise somewhere between a growl and a laugh rumbled in

Jake’s chest. “The only person I was annoyed with was me. I want
you so much, all the time. It was all I could do not to hunt you down
and tear your clothes off!”

“Next time?” Daniel met Jake’s eyes, and Jake felt a twinge of

renewed desire at the heat in his gaze. “Next time hunt away.”

Daniel stood, carefully lifting himself off Jake, and he held out a

hand to Jake. Both men looked at the remains of their shirts, wearing

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identical grins. They used the torn garments to clean up a little.
Daniel’s grin changed to a smirk for a moment when he bent over to
pick up the plug that had been tossed aside. They walked back to their
room wearing only their jeans.

They passed Sol on the way, who was just coming out of his

bedroom along the corridor from the room they had fucked in. Sol
tried to hide his knowing smile but failed miserably. Daniel stuck his
tongue out at him then grinned happily up at Jake, only flushing a
little bit pink and not his usual bright red. It was still cute.

“Can that go now?” Daniel was looking at the single bed he had

been sleeping in, until they had started sharing Jake’s larger bed,
which stood against the wall of Jake’s room.

Jake paused halfway through pulling on a fresh top. His chest

tightened painfully. “You want to go back to your room?”

Enough of the people that had been rescued had now left for

Daniel to move back again to the room that had been his.

“Ow!” He rubbed the back of his head where Daniel smacked it.

“What was that for?”

“You dumbarse! I’m asking to stay.”
“What?”
“To stay! Me, in here…with…you.” His voice slowed, and he

pushed the last couple of words out with difficulty as the colour
drained from his face and he drew away. “Or…is this too fast?
Do…do you want me to go?”

Jake panicked and he grabbed Daniel’s shoulders, pulling him

back.

“No! Stay. I want you to stay. Geez! Ten years, Dee, I don’t want

to spend another night away from you, with you out of my arms. I’m
sorry. I am usually quicker than that and should have known what you
meant right away. You just have me tied up in knots, thinking about
you all the time. My brain is not exactly at its best at the moment.” He
loosened his bruising grip on Daniel, rubbing where he had held too
tightly. They smiled at each other in understanding.

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“I’m sorry, I… Do you smell that?” Suddenly on alert, Jake tried

to track the scent of the smoke he had caught the faintest whiff of.

It could not be inside the house, as they had updated the smoke

alarms with the security installation. If anything had caught fire inside
the house, there would be bells ringing loud enough to wake the dead.
Jake led the way out of the room and along the corridor. By the time
they reached the entrance hall, they had run into a few of the other
shifters. Daniel still could not smell it, but the shifters’ senses were
far stronger, and Jake knew his mate would not doubt them.

The smell was coming from outside. Once out of the house, Jake

saw Daniel tilt his head, sniffing. He must be able to smell it now. Just
then they heard the sirens start up in the distance. Without any
discussion they all set off at a jog, following the path of the smoke.

“Oh no.” Daniel breathed quietly beside him when they stopped

after rounding a corner. “God, I hope everyone got out.” It was
O’Neil’s. There was a small group of the bar’s usual lunchtime crowd
standing about, staring helplessly as flames and clouds of smoke
began to devour the building.

“Daniel!” A woman ran up to his mate, dark hair flying and her

face panic-stricken. “Have you seen her?”

“Trace? Seen who?”
This is Trace? Jake growled in warning and stepped in front of his

mate. The woman was unbelievably gorgeous. Even Jake, who had
never been interested in women, could appreciate her beauty. He
moved closer to Daniel, possessively, and got another smack on the
back of his head for his trouble.

“Hey! Will you stop that.”
“Back off, Jake! This is not the time. You know I’m yours.”

Daniel glared at him and stepped round him to move closer to Trace.

“Kasey. Have you seen Kasey?” Trace’s eyes were wild, and

Daniel reluctantly shook his head. Trace grabbed her hair up in both
hands, twisting and knotting it behind her head. Then she vanished,
leaving the group of men staring incredulously at the empty spot

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where she had been standing. A minute later Trace reappeared,
holding an unconscious Kasey in her arms, blood pouring from a
wound on Kasey’s forehead.

“Uh, Trace? Something you forgot to tell me?” Daniel asked her

once she rematerialized.

She staggered for a moment, coughing, before she let Kasey’s legs

fall to the ground and grabbed Daniel’s arm. The trio disappeared.
Jake stood there in shock. What the hell? My mate! Where did that
bitch take my mate? He looked around frantically, but there was no
sign of them.

“What the fuck?” Ant looked equally baffled. “Where did they

go?”

The electronic beat of Chris Crocker’s song, “Mind in the Gutter,”

rang out from Jake’s jeans. He hastily dug in his pocket and pulled
out his phone. He could feel his face heating at the ringtone. Daniel
must have changed it again. Gonna scalp him when I get my hands on
him! He noted the caller as he touched the answer key.

“Where are you?” Ant, standing next to him, winced away at the

volume of his shout.

“Back at the house. Don’t freak ou—” Jake hung up as he turned

and sprinted back the way they had come only a couple of minutes
before.

Jake burst through the front door and paused as he took in the

sight in front of him. Daniel glanced up from where he knelt on the
floor next to the prone body of Kasey. Trace was on her knees next to
Daniel. She had her hands on Kasey, her left hand beneath her head
and the other on her chest at the open neck of Kasey’s blood-and-
smoke-stained, white button-down blouse. Daniel’s left hand rested
on Trace’s back under the material of her untucked emerald-green
shirt. Daniel is mine! How dare he lay his hands on someone else?
The jealousy he had felt for years over this woman and her history
with his mate boiled over, and he roared in fury and started toward

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them. His wolf was snapping and snarling inside, happy he was about
to do something to show his mate who he belonged to.

“Jake!” Daniel’s head whipped around and fixed him with an

angry glare.

The one word stopped him in his tracks.
“No, Jake. There is a lot you don’t know. Hell, there is a lot I

apparently don’t understand yet. Please, my mate”—Daniel’s voice
and face softened—“Kasey needs this.” He looked past Jake to the
door. “Ant, Seb, Brian, come here. Put your hands on Trace, skin to
skin.”

The three men walked past him and over to the trio already on the

floor and crowded in closely, doing as Daniel had said.

Jake watched, fighting to understand, trying to get past the sound

of his wolf howling inside him at the sight of his mate’s hands on
someone else. His wolf was battering at the inside of his skull, trying
to break out and rip Trace apart. Fur broke out on his skin, rippling as
he battled the change. Jake forced his wolf back and focused on what
was happening on the floor. All the wolf could see was his mate with
his hands on another, and more still crowded too close to him. The
man in Jake knew there was more going on than his wolf could
understand. Both man and wolf could feel the power in the air. His
wolf kept pushing at him to stop this, to do something, anything, but
all Jake could do was watch and pace.

For a long time Jake couldn’t really see what was going on as

there were too many bodies too close together for a clear line of sight.
His men and Daniel drew back from the two women, and Jake could
see Kasey again. Smooth skin now showed through the blood that
covered her forehead. Her eyes opened, and she gazed up at Trace
mutely, seeing only her.

The men on the floor rose, somewhat shakily after so much time

had passed with them crouched and kneeling on the hard wooden
floor, and they moved away. On the other hand, maybe they felt
drained from whatever strength they had lent to Trace.

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“Come on”—Daniel tugged at his arm—“let’s leave them alone.”
Jake did not know what to do or say, so he let his mate lead the

way to his office. Daniel stumbled when they were entering the room,
but Jake caught him before he could fall. His arms clung to his mate
of their own accord after he had steadied him again, but then Daniel
pushed away from him. Jake felt panicky when Daniel released his
arm and his hand fell limply against his thigh. Jake paused just inside
the door feeling lost and unsure of himself. What just happened?
Daniel turned to face him, and the uncertain look on his face made
Jake’s heart drop into his stomach. Sudden nausea rose in his throat.
Is he going to leave me? No. It can’t happen now. Not now, when he
has only just become mine.

“So…I guess there are some things I should tell you about Trace

and I.”

“I guess.” Jake did not have much to say. He really did not want

to hear about that any more than he wanted Daniel to announce that
he did not want to be his mate any longer. He did not want to know all
the sordid details of the man he loved and his relationship with
another person. In all the years he had known Daniel, this woman,
Trace, was the only one who had gotten close to him. As much as he
did not want to think about them either, he knew the other lovers
Daniel had in the past had passed in and out without even disturbing
the surface of his life. Trace, however, had stuck around, threatening
to become something rather more permanent. Jake had thought he
would lose Daniel to her. He desperately wanted to look at Daniel
again, but just could not bring himself to meet the man’s eyes so he
looked around the room instead. His heavy old-fashioned mahogany
desk was solid from this side, but from the other side there was an
arched hole for his knees and several lockable drawers. The desk was
directly in front of him now, between the two windows. Off to the
right there was a feature fireplace with an ornate marble surround, and
the electric-blue sofa he had fantasised about making love on to
Daniel so many times. Even with as far as they had come together

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over the last few weeks, Jake could not help the doubts suddenly
swirling through him. It would kill him if Daniel left him now.
Literally. He would lose control of his wolf very quickly and go feral.
He would have to be put down by his pack mates before he did
something to Daniel or Trace in his wolf’s unthinking and desperate
attempts to get Daniel back. That desperation was already building
inside him. But if she was what Daniel truly wanted, Jake would let
him go.

“Do you know how I met her?” His attention was drawn back to

Daniel.

“Online or something.” Jake muttered. He could see Daniel’s nod

from the corner of his eye.

“It was right after I found out the truth”—he waved a hand at

Jake, motioning at his body from head to toe—“about you, about it
all. I started doing some research, right after the scorpion mission.”
He was talking about the op where they had had to shift in front of
him, revealing the existence of werewolves. “Between that scorpion
thing and what you were all telling me, I needed to know more. I
needed to know what else was out there.”

“You found out all our dirty little secrets.” Jake did not mean to

sound quite so bitter when he said that, he just wanted Daniel to cut to
the chase, and he could not understand what all this had to do with
anything.

Daniel moved closer and framed Jake’s face with both hands.

“And plenty of not-so-little ones.” Daniel had the nerve to grin up at
him then, which just made Jake want to throw something. “Patience,
my love, this does have a point.” Daniel’s expression relaxed into a
smile. He moved away from Jake and sat down on the blue sofa. My
love? Does he still love me? A kernel of hope formed in his chest.

“I started my research into what was out there. There is so much

information on the Internet these days, and in all the libraries and
book collections I have seen over the years. It is hard sometimes to
separate what might be fact from fiction, myth from truth. There are

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still a lot of things I am not quite decided on yet. If I had not seen that
scorpion thing with my own eyes, even with all I have seen since, I
would never have believed it could have been real. I am glad I did,
though, or I might never have found out about you and the others.”

He looked pensive and a shiver went through him, so Jake went

over to the sofa and sat down next to him. Jake’s heart was thudding
in his chest, hoping Daniel would not reject him. He put his arm
tentatively around Daniel’s shoulders and leaned back against the
cushions. Daniel swung his feet up onto the sofa underneath him,
sitting sideways and settling his head on Jake’s chest. He tucked
himself into Jake’s side as if it was the most natural thing in the world
for him to do. He can’t be wanting to leave me if he is so happy to be
with me like this. He can’t. Please.

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Chapter Twelve

Daniel

Daniel could not imagine his life without Jake. God knows if I

would still be with them if they had not been forced into telling me
about them and their world. The thought that the man who was
Daniel’s world might have disappeared from his years ago, sent a
whisper of cold through Daniel, and he shivered. It was a thought he
could not bear. He could feel the emotions running through his mate,
but he had to tell him everything, starting at the beginning, to assuage
Jake's fears. Jake came over and joined him on the sofa, and they
cuddled in and got comfortable. Resting his head on his hand, which
lay on Jake’s chest, Daniel carried on. “I sent out feelers about
something. I can’t remember what exactly, some magical creature that
had come up. Trace was one of the people who responded. After a lot
of emails back and forth about our hypothetical research we got down
to the real facts. Once we both cottoned on to the fact the other
actually knew it was all real, we could talk more honestly. She knew a
lot about what is out there. She has been around for a long time. She
is older than she looks—I don’t know how much but a lot. Trace has
supplied information many times that has saved our collective asses.
When Cameron joined us, and we moved again, we moved near to
where Trace was living. By this point she was a good friend, and she
knew all about you.”

Jake’s arm tightened around his shoulder.
“She knew how I felt about you, and how I was trying to hide it,

and why. She didn’t tell me her reasons for doing so, but she told me

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that she needed to be seen to be with someone, anyone really, on a
regular basis. So we arranged to meet. We knew what each would be
wearing, and on a night out with the guys, I looked like I met up with
this gorgeous woman and left with her for the night. And I did. But
nothing happened between us.”

Daniel could feel the tension in Jake, and he rubbed his chest with

his free hand. “Nothing ever happened between us.”

“Ever?” Jake’s voice was low and a bit wobbly. Daniel lifted his

head to look at him and saw his eyes were filled with tears about to
spill over, and his jaw was clenched tight. Daniel suddenly found
himself squeezed tightly against Jake’s chest, two arms locked around
him. Jake pressed a kiss to the top of his head. “You never slept with
her? You never wanted to?”

“We kissed, in front of the guys, sometimes in front of whomever

she was putting on her show for, but that’s all it ever was, a show. I
thought I had to protect myself, my heart, from the appearance of you
not wanting me. But as I told you before, it was just another way to
hide. No clothes ever came off and we were never intimate. We never
had sex. How could I?” Daniel squirmed in Jake’s arms, which
loosened enough for him to reach up and trace the side of Jake’s face
with his fingertips. “You’re the only person I ever wanted.”

Jake took a moment to process what he had just said. “Are…are

you saying that…that I was…that you never...” He trailed off, as if
uncertain of how to finish his question.

“No Jake, I have never been with anyone else. I may have felt like

a freak to be a twenty-eight-year-old virgin a few weeks ago, but shit,
I was seventeen when we met. Sure, I had experimented a bit, with a
couple of guys before we met, and some toys”—he could feel heat
rise in his cheeks at this admission—“but you are the only person I
have had sex with. Please believe me, Jake. I wouldn’t lie to you, not
about this. The only lies I ever let you believe were that I was straight
and that I was having sex with Trace, and you now know why I did

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that.” Daniel’s eyes shone with tears, pleading with Jake to believe
him.

“I do.” And he did, Daniel could feel he really did, but now he did

not know what to say. Daniel could feel the happy, possessive
feelings running through Jake, aimed at Daniel himself, but he could
also feel something else. There was doubt and regret there. “You
doubt me,” Daniel whispered softly, looking away.

“I’m doubting myself.” He hooked a finger under Daniel’s chin

and made him meet his gaze again. “Never you. You would never lie
to me, not about this, and I would never doubt you. You say you are
telling the truth and I believe you. I haven’t been with anyone else
since we met either.” He let out a low laugh. “Two guys celibate for a
decade because we were both too damn scared of rejection to say
anything. It was your first time, though and it should have been more
special. I wish I had known.” Relief flooded Daniel at where Jake's
feelings were coming from. Even with their bond, there was still room
for misunderstandings it seemed.

“It was special. It was everything I could have wanted because it

was with you.”

Daniel tried to project everything he was feeling at Jake. His total

contentment with Jake and their mating, his happiness at them finally
being together and his love for the man. It must have worked because
the emotions coming at him disappeared, to be replaced with joy and
desire.

Jake shifted on the sofa, sliding his body down until Daniel lay

full length on top of him. “Come here.” The kiss they shared was full
of love and promises for the future.

“Hang on a minute.” Jake pushed Daniel back up a few seconds

later.

“What? Why?” Daniel tried to kiss him again, but Jake obviously

needed to know something because he kept evading him. “Fine.
What?”

“Trace—”

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“You want to talk about her now? I thought we were past that? I

thought you believed me…”

“No, baby, I do, it’s not that… what?” The look on Daniel’s face

must have been what made Jake pause.

“I like that.”
“Like what?”
“You, calling me baby.” Daniel smiled at him sweetly then rolled

his eyes. “God, I sound like such a girl!”

“I think we are perfectly entitled to be a bit sappy after waiting for

so long.” Jake put on a mock-superior air and raised his chin. They
both laughed.

“What about Trace? You were going to say something,” Daniel

reminded him.

“Oh yes. Well, she teleported, or something. Right?”
“Yes. Fuck that was weird! Outside the bar one moment, and then

she grabbed me and the three of us went sprawling on the floor in the
entrance hall. I have no idea what happened!”

“So what exactly is she? That woman from the warehouse, she did

it, too. It’s not something I have ever come across before, I didn’t
think it was possible! Now I have seen two do it in two months. What
are they? Are they the same thing?”

“You got me.” Daniel shrugged, puzzled. “I think I will have to

have a little talk with my friend tomorrow. But for now, kiss me
again?”

Jake kissed him.

* * * *

“Oh my god. Will you put him down?” Jake swung his head round

to glare at Brian, but the other man was grinning at him and had not
meant his jibe nastily.

“Yeah, are you two gonna carry on like that all the time?” Seb

asked.

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“No, and most definitely yes,” Jake told them by turn. He and

Daniel had just walked through to the kitchen where the others were
all gathering for supper, with their arms around each other’s waists,
looking more at each other than where they had been going. He
glanced back at Daniel, who was now, unsurprisingly, red in the face.
Adorable. I want to jump him again though now. No. Supper first.

Ant was shooting funny looks at Daniel. Daniel slid out from

under his arm and went over, where they had a quick whispered
conversation. Jake could only pick out the odd few words. “That
night…she…I… truth…swear.”

A few minutes later he came back over and settled back at Jake's

side as automatically as if they had years of practice.

“Everything okay?”
“Yeah. Ant was around when I got back from Trace’s one time. I

know they all thought what I meant you to believe, that she and I
were, well, you know, but he really believed it. And he was worried
about it. I just wanted to reassure him that I really wanted to be with
you, and tell him you knew the truth about everything. He cares about
us both and hated feeling stuck in between us thinking what he did.”

Jake looked over at Ant. The huge man still had a slight look of

concern, but Jake shot him a reassuring smile and pulled Daniel in
closer with one arm. Ant’s expression of worry faded, and he smiled
at them. The big man might look fierce but he had a gentle heart and
was always thinking of others.

They all carried plates full of chicken casserole and roasted

vegetables and cutlery though to the dining room. With everyone
present and accounted for, there were too many of them to eat in the
kitchen. The tablemats lived in their places around the dining room
table now. No one bothered to put them away with how often they
were being used.

Supper was noisy. There was more talking than there was eating.

A lot of the talking was jokes that everyone aimed in Jake and
Daniel’s direction. Most of them made Daniel blush, which made

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Epilogue

Jake

Trace did not answer the message Daniel sent her the next day.

Jake was not all that surprised. There had obviously been something
between her and Kasey. They were probably mates, and if that was
true then he doubted they would see either Kasey or Trace for a while.

A few days later Trace finally showed. She popped into Daniel’s

office and caught Jake with his trousers around his ankles and Daniel
on his knees in front of him.

“Whoa! Now that I did not need to see.”
“Fuck!” Jake pulled away from Daniel’s mouth, very glad his

cock had not actually been inside it when Trace had appeared and he
had not gotten bitten when her appearance had made them both jump.
He looked down at Daniel in sudden amusement as he quickly pulled
up his jeans, tucked himself away inside the blue denim, and zipped
them up, which was not easy considering how hard he still was.

“I’m the one with everything on show. Why are you so

embarrassed?”

Daniel’s face was the colour of a tomato. He loved how easily the

man blushed.

He kept his eyes on Daniel and helped him to his feet. Daniel

buried his face in Jake’s chest for a minute until his shoulders began
to shake. Wait, is he laughing?

“Dee?”

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When Daniel unburied his face, Jake saw his tear-filled eyes first

then noticed they were twinkling. Daniel let out a snort, then a giggle,
then a full-blown laugh.

“Charming. You think it’s funny that I had my dick out when your

friend came in, appeared, whatever.”

“Oh,” Daniel managed after laughing harder and clutching his

ribs, when he could catch his breath. “I’m sorry, babe, but you should
have seen your face.”

“You decent yet?” Trace asked. Jake and Daniel looked over at

her. She had her back turned and her shoulders shook with silent
laughter.

“Yes, you can turn around now”—Daniel giggled again—“all the

important bits are put away.” Jake shot him an injured look.

“What? The rest of me doesn’t count? You think that is the most

important bit of me?” Daniel was laughing again. God I love that
laugh.

“Oh, honey, you know the rest of you counts. Relax, I’m only

winding you up.”

Jake grumbled a bit, but it was good-natured, and he bumped

shoulders with his mate and winked at him to let him know he was
not really mad.

“So, you wanted to see me?” Trace asked. “I guess you have

questions.” She hung her head a little, looking up at them both.

“Yeah, quite a lot!” Daniel said to her. “Uh, where is Kasey? How

is she?”

A wide smile broke out on Trace’s beautiful face. “Kasey is great.

She is at my place.”

“Don’t take this wrong, but you two are mates, right?” Jake asked.
“Yes, we are. I could never say anything to her before because it

wasn’t the right time.”

“Is she why you needed to be seen to be with someone, the same

way I did?” Daniel reached out and took Jake’s hand, giving it a
squeeze.

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“Yes, um… I am going to get her. I want her with me and I don’t

feel right talking like this without her here.” Trace promptly vanished.

She reappeared a couple of minutes later holding Kasey tightly by

the hand.

After they had all said hello, they went through the house to one

of the sitting rooms where there would be more room to sit down.
Each couple settled on one of a pair of dark-brown leather sofas that
faced each other.

“I guess I owe you an explanation, Daniel, and you, too, Jake. I

might not know you, but I suppose looking back if Daniel and I had
not had our little arrangement, you might have said something to each
other earlier.”

“And it might never have happened.” Jake did not want her to feel

guilty now it was all in the past. “My frustration with the situation,
with how close it seemed the two of you were getting, had a lot to do
with us actually getting together in the end.”

It was true. If he had not been so unable to deal with the thought

of Daniel with Trace, then he would not have gone to the bar that
night and tried to get drunk. He might not have been able to get all
that drunk with his shifter metabolism, but the alcohol and the
emotions running through him had probably caused his horrible
dream, which Daniel had woken him from, causing him to fling
himself at Daniel thinking he was still dreaming. If that had not
happened they would not be together now. He tightened his arm
around Daniel, pulling him in closer to his side.

“Hey,” Daniel whispered to him, “I am here, we are together.”
He rather accurately read Jake’s feelings through their bond and

squeezed his hand on Jake’s thigh. A knot of tension unwound in Jake
before it had the chance to properly form.

“You were saying, Trace?”
Trace glanced at Kasey, next to her. “I have told Kase most of this

over the last few days.”

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“Are you really a werewolf?” Kasey’s eyes were huge as she

stared at Jake.

He laughed. “Your world got a whole lot bigger didn’t it?”
“I’ll say!”
“Yes I am. There are a lot of us around, and other shifters and

other things. Though whatever you are”—he looked at Trace—“I
haven’t the slightest clue.”

“I am a witch. Well, I was. But I pis…er…annoyed the wrong

person. It’s way too long and stupid a story to get into, but to cut it
short, they cursed me, binding many of my powers until I bonded
with my mate.” She leaned forward on the sofa, with her elbows on
her grey linen-clad knees and her hands clasped together. “They were
never far away though and they always kept track of me and did not
want me to get my powers back. The…the fire was a deliberate
attempt to kill… When they found out who my mate was…before we
could bond.”

She was obviously having trouble finding the words to explain

properly, and must have been thinking about how close she had come
to losing Kasey, but her meaning was clear. This other person found
out Kasey was Trace’s mate, and they tried to kill her before they
could bond and then gain Trace’s powers back.

“What about now?” Jake asked.
“Excuse me?”
“If they went after her once, will they not do so again?” he

elaborated.

“Oh it’s too late now. My magic is all mine again now, and it

protects her now we have bonded. Kase is safe.” She picked Kasey’s
hand up, kissed the palm, and smiled at her.

“I have met witches before. I did not know you could teleport,”

Daniel commented.

“Oh, we can’t. That is a little something I acquired when I became

a genie.” At Daniel and Jake’s matching puzzled looks, she explained

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127

further. “That is what cursed witches call ourselves. There are a few
of us around.”

“Handy thing to acquire.” Daniel grinned. He thought about the

mystery woman who had also teleported and wondered if she was one
of these “genies,” too. Hardly the same as the genies from stories, but
then werewolves, vampires, and lots of others were rather different
also.

“I think when my magic was bound it had to find some way to get

out, and one of the ways it escaped was enabling me to teleport. It has
stuck around, though, since I got my powers back. I was never so
grateful for it as when I had to pull Kase out of the fire.”

“And I am so glad you could, too. I still don’t understand why you

waited so long without saying anything to me.”

“You can’t mess with fate.” Trace looked thoughtful,

remembering something. “I knew I had to wait until Daniel and Jake
got together. I get glimpses of things, the future and the past, but they
need to happen in the right order. I have tried to change things ahead
of time before, but it always ends up going very wrong. People die,
people who were not supposed to. I couldn’t let that happen again, not
to anyone, but especially not to you, baby.”

Kasey pulled the worried-looking Trace in for a quick kiss, who

visibly relaxed. After a moment, Trace jumped up abruptly from the
sofa dragging Kasey with her.

“Okay, anything else you want to know can wait. We are off.” She

gave Daniel a naughty wink and wrapped her arms around a giggling
Kasey, and then the pair vanished.

Jake looked at his mate, who appeared deep in thought.
“You okay?” He was dazzled by Daniel’s sudden smile.
“Yeah, I’m great. What?”
Jake realised his jaw had dropped slightly and he was staring at

Daniel. “I love your smile. And I love that I can finally say so.”

Heat flooded his body at his mate’s change in expression. Daniel’s

new smile was just as wicked as Trace’s had been.

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“I think we have unfinished business.”
“I think you are right.”
“Race you upstairs!” Daniel took off running for the door. Jake

heard Daniel laugh as his footsteps sounded, going two at a time up
the stairs.

He still wants me and he is still mine. Jake sat there for a moment

before he raced after him. He caught up with his mate just outside
their bedroom, swept him up into his arms, and carried him in. He
kicked the door closed behind them and tossed Daniel’s warm weight
onto the bed. He pounced and was above Daniel before the man had
finished bouncing.

“Oh no. Oh help. The big bad wolf has caught me and is going to

eat me.”

Daniel spoke in a flat and deliberately badly acted voice while

twinkling up at him.

“Only if you are a very good boy.” Jake smirked back and leaned

in for a kiss.

He got a face full of pillow instead of the lips he was aiming for

because Daniel was slithering down the bed. Jake felt a tug at his
waist, and then the sound of his zipper being lowered filled the room.

“Oh, I can be a good boy, but this is much more fun!”
Jake’s laugh turned to a groan when Daniel freed his cock and

swallowed him to the root. He hardened again in the wet heat of
Daniel’s mouth. He knelt there, only able to gasp, as Daniel’s tongue
circled around and pressed against the bundle of nerves just below the
head.

“Ungh,” he grunted when Daniel’s mouth began to slide up and

down the length of his cock.

Daniel clasped the base with one hand and reached up to fondle

his balls with the other. He slipped from between Daniel’s lips when
Daniel wriggled a little further down the bed. The pleasure when
Daniel sucked one of his balls into his mouth was indescribable.
Daniel was using the saliva that still slicked his cock as lube and was

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129

stroking him in slow, even strokes, lapping at his balls and taking
them alternately into his mouth. His whole groin felt like it was on
fire, and a tingling started. Shit! Gonna…

Jake flipped over onto his back and lay there panting for a

moment, struggling for control. Daniel turned and crawled between
his spread legs, reaching for him again.

“No, baby. Come here.” He hauled his mate up the bed, smiling at

the whine of protest Daniel let out when he was pulled up and away
from Jake’s aching cock. “Want to be inside you.” He framed
Daniel’s face with both hands and devoured his mouth, kissing him as
if he needed him more than air.

As they kissed, Jake pushed Daniel up until he was kneeling up

between Jake’s legs. Jake lifted the hem of Daniel’s brown shirt. He
was wearing the one with the picture of the weird hat again. Jake bent
and licked the firmly muscled abdomen he uncovered. His tongue
traced the ridges of muscle under Daniel’s skin until Daniel
convulsed, giggling when he reached a particularly sensitive spot. He
grinned up at him. The sound of his mate’s laughter was something he
wanted to hear often, for the rest of what would be their very long life
together now that they were bonded. Jake liked that they could have
fun and laugh together in bed the same way they had been doing as
friends for years.

“Take it off.” He tugged at the hem of the shirt.
Daniel quickly pulled it off over his head and then leaned down

and pulled Jake’s shirt off as well. He flung Jake’s top behind him,
obviously not caring where it landed, and his fingers lightly caressed
the skin over Jake’s shoulders. Daniel let his hands roll forward over
Jake’s shoulders then raised them until they were on his neck,
fingertips lightly meeting at the nape of his neck and thumbs stroking
his jaw. He made Jake look at him, tilting his head up.

“I love you, Jake. Mate bond or not, you are it for me. You always

have been.” There was a fierce look in his eyes, and it sent a shiver of
awareness through Jake.

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“I love you, too, Dee, never gonna stop loving you,” he said and

then finished undressing his mate. Once the rest of Daniel’s clothes
had been removed, Jake laid his mate out on the bed on his stomach.
Using his lips and tongue, he proceeded to worship every part of
Daniel’s body until Daniel whimpered and writhed underneath him.
He kissed and licked every inch of his Daniel’s skin, from the tips of
his fingers, along his arms, down his body and legs to his feet. Then
he turned him over and did it all over again.

When Daniel was incoherent with need, Jake reached for the lube

and made quick work of stretching his mate. They had been making
love so often that it did not take very long. As soon as he could easily
slide three fingers in and out of Daniel, he withdrew them. Daniel
whined and grabbed for his hand, not wanting any part of Jake to
leave him.

“Easy, sweetheart. I’m not going anywhere.” Jake slicked up his

cock, pushed Daniel’s legs back, and settled his weight over him. He
reached down with his right hand and guided his shaft so the head
rested against Daniel’s entrance. Jake flexed his hips, pushing forward
until he popped through the guardian muscles. He and Daniel had
made love many times now, since he had claimed his mate, but it still
felt new every time. His world narrowed to the tight pressure of
Daniel’s passage around him and Daniel’s body beneath him.

“Move, please!”
The broken gasp from his mate urged him into motion, and he slid

home until his balls pressed against Daniel’s arse. He gave him a
moment to adjust then pulled back slowly, until he almost popped out,
only to slam in again. Daniel mewled and bowed his back, trying to
get Jake deeper still.

Jake moaned and began to move faster. The sound of skin

slapping on skin and the smell of their combined desire filled the
room. Daniel let out a little groaning cry with every one of Jake’s
thrusts. Jake licked, sucked, and nibbled a path along the taut skin of
Daniel’s shoulder and over his mating bite on Daniel’s neck, making

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131

him shiver where the mark had left him extra sensitive. He ran his
tongue up the underside of Daniel’s jaw where it rasped audibly on
his mate’s stubble.

Daniel reached for the back of Jake’s head with his left hand to

tug Jake in for a kiss, and their tongues duelled passionately, dipping
and stroking into each other’s mouths just as Jake’s cock was doing
inside Daniel. His other hand traced Jake’s spine and on down to his
butt. Daniel gripped Jake’s arse, trying to pull him into plunging
deeper. Then Jake felt one of Daniel’s fingers sliding between his
flexing buttocks. The finger slid back and forth, growing closer to his
hole, which twitched at the sudden clenching Jake felt in his stomach.
He did not know whether to keep thrusting deeply inside Daniel, or
push back so Daniel’s questing finger would have better access. He
did not have to decide, though, because Daniel’s finger pressed
further, circled the hypersensitive skin, and quickly pushed past it.

It was enough to tip Jake toward his peak, and he changed the

angle of his assault on Daniel, aiming for the man’s sweet spot. Three
thrusts later and they were both there. Jake slowed the pace and depth
of his movements, almost grinding against Daniel as the world went
white. His shout mingled with Daniel’s, who convulsed around him.
His internal muscles clenched and pulsed and drew out Jake’s orgasm.
He felt wetness fill the space between them just as his own release
painted Daniel’s inner walls.

Jake collapsed, rolling to one side, and held on to Daniel while

they shuddered in each other’s arms and struggled for air.

“I love you,” Daniel said in a breathy voice right into his ear, once

he had recovered a little.

“Oh, baby, I love you, too.” Jake held on to his mate tightly. It had

taken them far too long to get where they were now, and now that
they had, Jake would hold on to him for the rest of his life. He leaned
back to look his mate in the eyes and brushed the hair away from his
mate’s sweaty forehead then kissed it. He held the kiss for a long
moment, feeling his heart swell in his chest.

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“I love you so much,” he whispered against Daniel’s skin. The salt

in Daniel’s sweat stung his lips slightly where the roughness of
Daniel’s stubble had abraded them when they kissed. “How did it
possibly take us so long?”

Daniel knew what he meant because he began tracing Jake’s

features, and he smiled lovingly back at Jake.

“We don’t have to worry about that now. We never have to worry

about it ever again. I’m yours, Jake, and you’re mine. Forever.”

THE END

WWW.VIOLETJOICEYCOWEN.WORDPRESS.COM/ABOUT

-VIOLET-JOICEY-COWEN

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Violet Joicey-Cowen is the proud owner of one rather chaotic life.

This includes her son, her menagerie (currently – two dogs, one cat,
one guinea-pig, one fish and five stick-insects), her friends and a
rather battered laptop she would be lost without. She lives in North
Yorkshire in England. When she is not writing she plays a lot of pool
and is on a couple of teams.

She has been writing since she was about ten years old and has

always loved escaping into other worlds where the people living there
would tell her their stories and she would just have to write them
down. She always dreamed of having her stories published so her
characters could get out there and meet other people who might begin
to love them as much as she does.

As well as her WordPress account Violet can be found on

Facebook and would love to hear from readers.

For all titles by Violet Joicey-Cowen, please visit