“Nice show.”
“What?” Noll looked up from his desk where he was doing absolutely nothing. His mind kept returning to what had happened with Evan. That morning he had awakened with Evan’s arms around him. He’d actually slept through the night instead of pretending to like he had done when he stayed at Evan’s house. From the day his mother and sister disappeared, Noll hadn’t slept more than two hours at a time.
Rico strode in the door and slammed it shut behind him. He dropped into the seat on the other side of Noll’s desk. Noll didn’t need to see the scowl on his beta’s face to know how pissed he was. “If you’re going to keep your toy, at least change him.”
Noll lowered his fist long before Rico realized he’d hit him. Rico’s head snapped back on his neck, and blood spurted from his nose. The awkward bend along the bridge said Noll had broken it.
Rico bared his teeth, snarled, and then blew out the blood into a tissue Noll handed him. Noll stood beside the man and grasped his chin in a palm. With a sudden surge, he sped along the process of healing. Rico jerked away.
“You were saying?” Noll asked.
Rico hesitated to disrespect him the second time and then sighed. “All I’m saying is, you left the blinds open, and half the compound got a nice show of you letting that human fuck you.”
Noll spun away to look out the window of his office. He felt his cheeks burning, and his anger flared. Embarrassment kept him silent for a few minutes. After a while, he collected himself. “What I do with Evan is my business.”
“No one would question you submitting to him if he were bear.”
Noll whirled to face Rico. “I will never submit to anyone!”
Rico spread his arms. “You’re the alpha. We feel your power, and we can tell you haven’t given it up, but...”
“But what?”
“People are talking.”
“I don’t give a damn. Never have, never will. If anyone wants to challenge me, let him step up. I’ll kill him where he stands.”
“Noll, you know it’s not like that.”
“How is it, Rico?” Noll waited for his second in command to answer. “You mouth off to me, and I put you in your place. You’re the only one I’ve ever let step so far. You’re telling me now there’s mutiny coming?”
“No, of course not. If I thought that, I would have killed whoever spoke. They just want—”
The door opened, and Noll swore at seeing Evan standing there. No doubt Rico had known he was coming, but Noll’s head had been clogged with Evan’s scent from the moment their bodies came together. Maybe he had submitted in some way. He still smelled Evan as strong as if his lover stood in front of him rather than across the room, and his cock was solid as a freaking rock with one glimpse.
“I knew it was a trick,” Evan snapped, “and I knew I’d seen him when we arrived yesterday.”
Noll shrugged. “Yeah, so what? My way of picking up men. Sue me.”
“You’re still lying to me.”
“Hey, watch your mouth.” Rico narrowed his eyes at Evan.
“Leave him alone, Rico.” Noll ran fingers through his hair. “I want you to protect him.”
“Protect him!”
“I don’t need anyone to protect me.” Evan bypassed Rico to approach Noll. When he reached him, Noll had the sudden urge to move out of reach. He maintained his ground, and Evan laid a hand at his waist. “Protect me from what exactly? What’s going on around here, Noll? Why do your people hate me so much?”
Noll considered explaining everything, revealing that they were shifters, but he changed his mind. Since he had no intension of changing Evan, what was the point? Would he keep him at the compound as his prisoner, a man for his sexual pleasure? That was a possibility, but he had the feeling he wouldn’t like sex with Evan by force.
“Our secrets are our own to keep,” he said. “You don’t go anywhere while you’re here unless I’m with you or Rico. Got it? Nowhere. Obey me, Evan.”
Evan’s eyebrows rose, but he said nothing. Noll ignored the fact that his beta stood in the room, and he kissed Evan. His lover’s mouth was hard and unforgiving, but when Noll teased his lips with his tongue, Evan opened to him. They curled their tongues together and rubbed cocks. Noll had a hard-on that wouldn’t go down without another session in bed with Evan. Pleasure would have to wait. He had work to do, and he needed to concentrate.
“Go,” he said.
Evan hesitated, and his jaw stiffened. Noll knew he had offended the man, maybe even pissed him off. He watched as Evan stomped from the office, and Noll nodded to Rico.
“Babysitting a human,” Rico muttered, but he went and left Noll alone in the office.
Noll dropped into his chair, thinking about the situation. He had made a mistake leaving the blinds open, but even if he hadn’t, his people would have known. They would have smelled Evan on him.
He laid his head back against the chair and shut his eyes. An image of his lover rose in his mind. He wasn’t ashamed of having slept with Evan. Anyone who had a problem with his sexual choices could answer to him. However, he didn’t want the hassle either. They needed to accept that he would keep Evan for now—as a human.
Noll left his office not long after and headed over to the first building in a line of them where he kept his prisoners. He nodded to the guard, and the man unlocked the door to let Noll in.
The scent of the brown bear arrested him, and he frowned. They were so alike yet so different. Once upon a time, he might have allowed them to live, but not now. Well, he would let them live to suffer, but eventually when the alpha came to him, they would all die.
Noll stood outside the cage where he kept the particular captive that had been Orion’s companion for years. Luis, Noll recalled was his name. “Open it,” Noll ordered.
The second guard did his bidding, and Noll stepped inside the cage. The younger, slender man rolled from the bed, hunched as if ready to attack, his fists balled at his sides. “Where’s Orion?”
“Dead,” Noll lied.
“T-that’s impossible!”
“Why because he was the strongest of you?” Noll chuckled. “He was weak. He pined over an alpha that didn’t give a damn about you. Oh, yes, didn’t I tell you? I found your alpha.”
Luis’s eyes filled with hope, but he managed to keep his mouth shut. Noll had to give the young fool credit for that.
“He was living it up in a new town far from here,” Noll explained. “He even has a mate and is thinking of kids. He has a regular job with responsibilities. One could almost accuse him of living like a human without one thought to the family he left behind.”
Everything Noll said, he made up. He had never come close to the alpha to learn any of this, and he hadn’t shared who he really was with Evan to ask him about Harrison. The single fact he had learned was that Harrison had amnesia and didn’t recall anyone, not even him.
“You’re lying,” Luis shouted. “Harrison would never do that. Never!”
“Are you sure?” Noll teased. He tilted his head to the side and touched a finger to his lips. “Then why hasn’t he come? I can’t understand it. Maybe you can explain it to me.”
Luis launched at him, but Noll caught him around the neck, stopping his attack. The smaller shifter brought out his claws, ready to slash at Noll’s arm.
“Be careful, sir,” the guard shouted. “He’s sneaky.”
“Leave us alone,” Noll ordered.
“But, sir—”
“Go!”
Noll didn’t turn around, but he heard the guard’s steps fade as he walked down the hall. In a few seconds, the sound of the outer door reached him when it opened and shut. Noll focused on Luis in time to catch his wrist, black claws extended. He spun Luis away from him and drew him close. The top of Luis’s head reached his nose, and he drew the smaller man to his chest.
“If you swear your allegiance to me, I’ll let you go. You can walk among us, hunt, and eat as much as you like. Maybe there’s even a woman out there who might like to be your mate.”
The small man bristled with hatred. Noll both felt it and smelled it, and he didn’t blame Luis for how he felt. They were enemies, and they always would be.
“Otherwise,” Noll said, “I will need someone to take Orion’s place.”
Luis stilled. “Then Orion got away?”
Noll laughed. “I told you he’s dead, didn’t I?”
This time he sensed despair, and he leaned down to touch his mouth to Luis’s neck. If he bit him, he might be able to bring Luis under greater control and use him in a way he hadn’t worked out yet.
Noll yanked Luis’s arm across his chest, keeping the claws angled away from his own flesh. He opened his mouth and shifted enough so that the bear’s teeth extended and sharpened. The tips of his canines pierced Luis’s neck. Luis fought hard to get free, but Noll wrapped his other arm around the man’s waist and drew him tighter. Luis’s small, round ass curved into his pelvis.
“Stop struggling, or I will tear your throat apart by accident.”
“Let me go. I’m never going to be your mate.”
Noll paused long enough to laugh. His voice when he spoke was thick and muffled because the bear was so close to the surface. “Make you my mate? Don’t be ridiculous. I’d have to let you bite me, and to do so would mean I wanted you.”
“But you’ve been with a man. I smell a man on you.”
“So?”
“You’re into men.”
“Is that an accusation or an observation, Luis?” Noll licked the dot of blood on the man’s neck. He hadn’t truly bitten him yet, but he was enjoying toying around so much. “Does it get you hard because your ass is against my cock?”
“Hell, no!”
Noll whispered, “If I grabbed your dick, would it be hard?”
Luis lashed out in rage, but his strength didn’t come close to matching Noll’s. Noll simply let him wiggle around like a fool until he tired himself out. When Luis panted and stopped moving, Noll spoke calmly.
“I don’t want you. I happen to like my men big and strong, physically and emotionally. You’re just a tiny weakling. You let Orion take all the punishment while you cowered in your cell and pretended to care that he was hurt.”
“I didn’t pretend!”
“Then what did you do? Hmm? Did you volunteer for the next beating? No. If you thought I was gay, did you even offer your own body to me as a way to stave off even one torture session? No.”
Luis slumped in his arms.
“Of course even if you offered yourself, it would have made no difference. I’m sure you can tell by your position right now, I’m not even hard. Why would I get it up for something like you?”
“Why do you hate us so much?” Luis whispered.
Noll tightened his hold until Luis gasped in pain. “Because you represent them. Not a month of torture or a week or even a year. Years, Luis. And then death.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Noll opened his mouth wide and poised to bite. A deep breath in made him freeze. He turned his head toward the cell door.
Luis made a small noise of protest. “I thought you said you don’t want me.”
Noll released him and gave the small man a shove. Luis stumbled and fell but spun around on his ass to look up at Noll. His gaze locked on to the tent in Noll’s pants. Horror transformed his face, and Noll laughed.
“That’s not for you, fool.” Noll strode to the gate and called to be released. When the man arrived, Noll brushed by him and headed to the exit. Outside, just as he knew he would, he spotted Evan.
His lover stared up at the building and then at the guard keeping the door. He frowned. “What is this place, Noll?”
Noll descended the steps and glanced around for Rico. His beta leaned against a tree nearby, smoking a cigar. Noll gritted his teeth and glared at him. “Why is he here, Rico?”
“You said babysit him not restrict his movements,” Rico quipped, starting toward them.
“Are we having a problem?” Noll faced Rico as he drew up. “Your nuts getting too big? You want to challenge me?”
Rico cursed. He drew on his cigar again and blew the smoke out toward Evan, who waved his hand in the air. “Of course not. I know I’d pick myself up dead.”
Evan stepped between them, facing Noll. “I asked a question.”
Noll didn’t turn his gaze away from Evan’s face, but he heard and scented several of his people moving closer to their position. Without the order, Rico started commanding them to move along and find something to do. Noll spun on his heel and started walking. Evan grabbed his arm.
“Hey, man, don’t do that,” Rico called, but it was too late.
Noll spun around, and in one fluid motion, he wrapped his fingers around Evan’s throat and raised him off his feet. Stalking toward a tree, he kept Evan in the air and slammed him to the bark. Not enough to break bone, as he was aware of the fragility of humans, but enough to knock the wind from Evan’s lungs.
Noll brought his mouth close to Evan’s ear, out of Evan’s vision, because at that point, he couldn’t hold his bear in check. His anger intensified, he was seconds away from ripping Evan to shreds and leaving him on the ground for wild animals to feast on.
“I told you not to disrespect me in front of my people,” he growled.
“Put. Me. Down.”
Noll was surprised he neither heard nor smelled fear from Evan. He was a human beyond any Noll had ever met.
Rico approached, but he didn’t touch Noll. “He’s stupid,” Rico said. “They don’t have senses beyond what’s in front of them. Come on, alpha. He’s blind, and he doesn’t understand our ways.”
“Get him to put me down, Rico,” Evan warned. “I swear I’m pretty good at fighting, and if he wants to take it to that point, we can.”
Rico blinked up at him. “He’s crazy, Noll. Listen, bub, I’m going to tell you this because you haven’t shit your pants already with the mood Noll’s in. I like you, so I’ll give you a warning. If you try anything—I don’t care how good you are with your human fighting skills—Noll will kill you. He has to, to save face in front of his people.”
Noll kept his head down, struggling to suppress the bear.
“Take a second look at him, human,” Rico said. “He. Will. Kill. You.”
The aggressive stance Evan had been giving off eased, and the challenge Noll sensed faded. Evan let go of the arm Noll had been using to hold him against the tree and dropped his by his sides. He waited in silence, and slowly Noll let him down to the ground. Noll took a step back.
“I don’t understand all of you,” Evan said. “The way you speak and act. I never thought I’d be one to discriminate against another or...or...hell, I don’t even know what I’m saying.”
“You’ll go home tomorrow,” Noll told him and spun away.