EVERY BIT of Dylan hurt. Well, his heart was feeling better knowing Rey was going to forgive him. Or had, as long as he didn’t make that same mistake again.
Brock’s house was… wow. Easily a million-dollar beauty. There was so much new construction in the area, but this place had five acres, a ton of wood and stone detail, and a four-car garage.
Really? Mr. Kitty was keeping this from them? Them?
He shook his head, but he was incredibly grateful there was a place for them to regroup.
“Hey, amigos.” Brock swept into the amazing leather-couched den and game room where Locke had taken them and set up triage for Kit and James.
“Hey, Brock. Nice house,” Dylan teased.
“Thanks. There’s room for everyone. I’ll even let you and Rey share.”
“Gee, you’re a prince.” Dylan made a face, which caused Brock to laugh.
“Does someone have a line on Carrie?” Dylan asked.
“We do. One of Locke’s guys is at her mom’s standing guard.”
“Mick, how did it go with the cops?” Dylan asked.
“They asked us to head out and come in individually in a day or so. They wanted to keep the shifter element as quiet as possible, and they already had a couple of dead crocs to explain.”
“We’ll start with the cleanup soon, too. I want to see what we can save.” Dylan hated that Mick’s building was down and out.
“I’ll help,” Rey murmured. “I feel so guilty.”
Dylan opened his mouth to protest, but Mick fixed Rey with a stern glare. “Nonsense. You hired us to do a job and we fucked up. We should have listened to you.”
“I—” Rey stopped protesting, then shrugged. “Thanks, Mick. I swear, I was telling the truth. I’ll never just give warning for no reason.”
“I may be pigheaded, but I’ll trust you from now on.”
Brock snorted, and Dylan glared at him until he flushed. “Okay, I was wrong, okay? I’m sorry. I really am, Rey. No one needed to get hurt like this.”
“No. No, none of us did.” Rey met Brock’s gaze. “Not any of us.”
“No.” Brock looked at James, who was sedated and sleeping a healing sleep. “God.” He turned his back, but they all saw the expression that pulled at his face.
Rey sighed softly, then stood and went to Brock, giving the big bastard a hug.
Mick stared at them, then at him. “He’s a good guy.”
“Yeah, he is.” Dylan was so proud. “What about Patel?”
“Started screaming. Foaming. Monologued about killing Rey’s client because she was going to take the SIM card to the press and make a big thing.”
“He killed her? For that?” Dylan shook his head, but he felt Rey’s dull horror.
“He did. I’m sorry, Rey. Just remember, you didn’t do anything. The guy is a nutburger.” Mick just shook his head in patent amazement.
“Oh my goodness.” Rey shook his head. “She was a nice lady trying to get a job.”
“I’m sorry, Rey. Criminals like that….” Kit made a face too, a huge grimace.
Brock turned and gave Rey a hug back. “Sorry, doce.”
Rey looked panicked, utterly freaked, and Dylan vocalized softly, opening his arms. His mate disengaged from Brock and flew to him, hiding away with a soft noise. Poor love.
Dylan held Rey, rocking him.
“You guys need to go crash. Alone,” Kit said softly.
“Yeah, come on, I’ll show you a room,” Brock agreed.
“Thanks, man.” Dylan scooped Rey up under his arm. “Lead on.”
Brock led them upstairs, down the hall to the second room to the end on the right. The place had a seating area, a mini wet bar, and the bed on a platform at the end of the room.
“Spiffy.” Dylan approved. “Thanks, man. We appreciate it.”
“No problem. Yell if you need anything. There’s a house phone, and Griz will have someone monitoring it. Dial nine.”
“Dial nine. Rock on.” Dylan put Rey on the bed and followed Brock to the door, sparing a moment to wonder what Grizzly Locke and Brock had to do with one another. Probably none of his business. “Thanks, man.”
“Não tem problema.”
Dylan shut the door behind Brock and locked it. He loved the guys, but the rest of today was his and Rey’s to rest up, to be together. “Hey, there’s even a bathroom in here. Wow.”
“With a shower?” Rey sounded so needy.
“Yes. God, yes.” He went to pick Rey back up, plucking him easily off the bed.
“I-I feel so….”
“Shh. Shh, I know. Let’s get warm and clean, okay? That’ll help.”
“I hurt. The croc laid over top of my cage. Stinky.”
“I know. He hit me and I thought he’d broken me in two. The tiger, not the croc.” Dylan shook his head. “When you screamed, the world stopped.”
“I— We can do that. Foxes. It’s actually a mating call.”
“It was perfect.” Dylan got the water running, the steam starting almost immediately. That was a good water heater. “Imagine Brock having this place and none of us knowing. I wonder if he rents it out.”
“I wonder if he hates having all of us here.”
“It didn’t look like it. I mean, he lives at the office. Has an apartment.” Dylan was a little wigged out at how much he didn’t know about one of their team members. “Let’s get these sweats off you.”
“We can ask. Later.” Rey was covered in bruises, just covered.
“Sure. I’ll make a note.” Dylan stripped off the rest of their borrowed clothes.
“Dear Brock, WTF? Love, Us.”
Dylan laughed, delighted at Rey’s snark. “Right? We ask that a lot around Apex.” Dylan pulled Rey under the hot water, the spray almost unbearable it felt so good. He held Rey, cradling his lover, keeping him close.
“The water is so nice.” Rey’s voice was muffled against his chest.
“Yeah. Is it helping?”
“You’re helping, Dylan.”
“Good.” He wanted to help. His mate had been kidnapped by a homicidal tiger. Laid on by crocodiles. He wanted to go kill something, even though he knew Patel was more valuable alive and also contained now.
“I need you to love me, not kill something.”
“I will, then.” Dylan damned the bruises and went full speed ahead, taking the kiss he so desperately needed.
Rey pushed up to kiss him back, the lean body shivering and shaking against him.
He wanted to comfort, but he also needed. He was ragingly hard, his desire for Rey very real and immediate.
Rey’s hand wrapped around his hardness, stroking him from base to tip, nudging the slit.
“Oh fuck.” Dylan swayed, his hips punching forward.
“Uh-huh.” Rey hummed and stroked again, petting him.
“Rey.”
Rey beamed at him, moaning softly as he lifted his face for a kiss.
Dylan took it, and they rocked and rubbed. He hadn’t expected this sudden need, this absolute desire to affirm life. He wanted to fill Rey up, make his mate scream for him.
Oh, that was promising. Anything was always a good thing. Well, when it came to sex with his mate. He lifted Rey up, and Rey climbed him like a challenging tree.
“Ride me? Right here like this?”
“Goddess, yes. Right here, like this.” Rey nodded hard, water flying.
Thank God Brock was a prepared man. This bathroom had more slick stuff in the shower than any pleasure palace. He was going to have to remember to do this. Seriously. Dylan wasn’t a single wolf anymore.
Dylan grabbed a tube that looked new from among the bottles of conditioner and skin cream, then popped it open. He didn’t have time to wait.
He needed to touch Rey, to mark him, deep inside.
Dylan got his fingers slick, Rey holding himself up so Dylan had his hands free. Then he slid two of them around behind Rey, pressing them where he wanted his cock to be soon. Rey’s eyes lit up, his mate’s lips parting.
“Mmm-hmm. Hot. So hot inside.” He pushed his fingers deeper, moving back and forth.
Rey stared at him, eyes wide, tongue flicking out to wet his lips.
“Sweet fox.” He hummed, working his fingers in and out, loving how Rey’s body gripped him.
“Yours. Yours. Harder, Dylan. More.”
“More,” he agreed. He pulled his fingers free, ready to give Rey his cock. “Want you to ride me, Rey. Now.”
“Now.” Rey lifted up a little higher, arching his back.
“Fuck.” He grabbed his cock, guiding it to Rey’s hole, and Rey pushed down, taking him to the root in one steady motion.
Dylan braced himself, and Rey grabbed the showerhead for leverage. They began to move together, slow at first, then faster.
He looked down, watching Rey’s body ripple, watching the hard prick slide on his belly. That was the prettiest thing ever, all that red hair and flushed skin. His beautiful mate.
“Oh….”
Yes. Back and forth, the feelings rebounded between them, growing with every moment. It was a maddening echo, reverberating between them, over and over, the sound getting louder by the second.
Dylan closed his eyes and leaned against the cold tile wall, trying to get his bearings. Rey reached up, cupped Dylan’s face, and the world came into sharp focus.
His eyes flew open and he stared into Rey’s copper gaze. Caught. Right there.
Rey’s ass fluttered around him, milking him, gripping his prick.
“Rey!” Dylan danced, his cock jerking madly. He was going to short right out.
That needy plea had him rocking hard, driving into his lover. Rey was begging him, asking him for release, so Dylan drove toward it, panting, his muscles tight even under the hot water. Soon. Soon.
Rey nodded, answering the warning he didn’t give voice to.
He grunted when Rey squeezed down on him, clamping down like a heated vise. That was all it took for Dylan to growl, his body giving up the goods, his seed filling Rey deep.
Dylan jacked Rey, hand moving hard and fast, even as he buzzed with his own orgasm. He needed Rey with him in all ways. “Come on, sweetheart. Come for me. Come on.” He pushed Rey a little along their bond too.
Rey grunted, his entire body jerking forward. His fox squeezed tight around his prick, jerking around him as Rey shot.
Dylan hummed, the sound proud and satisfied. Yeah. Damn. The water was still hot too. Good water heater.
Rey moaned for him, hanging on him like a limpet.
“Come on, sweetheart. There’s a big bed. Not a cot.”
“What’ll we do with all that space?” Rey teased.
“Stretch out. I’m usually a sprawler.” If there was a window, he was so letting in the sun too. They were safe up here on the second floor with their whole crew downstairs.
“Not me. I always end up curled into a ball.”
“Well, we just have to make sure you have lots of pillows.” He felt better. Less bruised and looser in his skin.
“Or my mate.”
“You can totally curl up on me.” He turned off the water, then got towels. Time to hold each other and rest.
Rey helped, drying him off. Oh, he hadn’t ever enjoyed a simple shower so much.
They walked hand in hand to the bed, then crawled in under the blankets to make a cocoon. He drew Rey in close, petting him carefully.
He wouldn’t let go until he had to.
REY WOKE in the middle of the night, adrenaline rushing through him, driving him up in the mattress, his heart pounding.
“Rey?” Dylan was right there, hand on his arm, voice rough with sleep.
“Bad dream. Been a weird day.”
“Just a little, yeah.” Dylan’s belly rumbled, and he felt as much as heard it.
“Hungry wolf.” He started to laugh, the chuckles bubbling out of him. Dylan was always hungry.
“I am! I swear, action makes me empty. Shifting takes it out of me too. It’s easier with you, though.” Dylan stroked his cheek.
“I’m glad. I want things to be easy, you know? Just normal, easy.” He looked over, waggled his eyebrows, and winked. “Holler if you figure out how to make that happen.”
“I will. I mean, we did meet under kinda extreme circumstances. Usually my job is dull. Really dull.”
“Mine too. I guess.” Except he was going to have to start from scratch now…. Many of his contacts were dead, and the rest would have heard through the grapevine by now and wouldn’t answer when he called.
No one would trust an information broker and courier who’d gone and gotten a client killed.
“Mmm. We’ll see.” Dylan took his hand and kissed it. “I’m keeping you. You know that, right? You’re my mate.”
“I know.” That much he didn’t question anymore, but they still had to really get to know each other. Also, what he was going to do to contribute? Gracious, that worried him.
“Shh. Rey. I have you.”
“Thank you. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to wake you.”
“No, I know. Do you mind if we get a snack?” Dylan stroked his leg.
His belly snarled right back. “Please? Something tasty?”
“Yep. I would bet Kit has a million choices down in the kitchen by now. That bear has an unnatural love for Walmart.” Dylan rose, lifting Rey out of the bed. “In fact, I bet….” He strode to the door and opened it to find three bags outside their door. “Clothes.”
“Wow. You guys take care of each other, don’t you?” The entire dynamic of Apex Investigations fascinated him; he’d been such a loner in his adult life.
“We do. I swear, you’re one of us. Sometimes it takes a while to grease all the wheels.” Dylan tugged on a T-shirt that said “Rub me the right way” with a corgi butt facing out.
Rey stared and started to laugh again. Oh, what had they picked for him?
“Let me see?” Dylan asked.
Rey help up a unicorn shirt that said “Don’t make me stab you with my head.”
“Sheer perfection.” He put it on, along with the soft shorts. He probably looked like a dork, but he was comfortable. Kit was good to him, which was so sweet, since he was the new guy.
Dylan took his hand. “Barefoot okay?”
“Of course.” He felt weirdly comfortable, as if he were welcome here.
They went hand in hand down the stairs and through the great room to the kitchen. Soft lighting was still on throughout, letting anyone unfamiliar with the house wander, Rey guessed.
“This is amazing. How neat that Brock has a hidey-hole.” A hidey-mansion?
“I think so, yeah. I would bet this place was a fallback in case of something just like this.” Dylan shrugged. “Oh, something smells good.”
Rey sniffed, nostrils flaring. “Oh, you’re right.”
When they hit the kitchen, Kit was there, mixing something in a giant stoneware bowl. He glanced up, a sheepish look on his face. “I couldn’t sleep.”
Pans lay all over the granite counters, covered with towels.
“Can I help?” Rey went to Kit and hugged him tight. “Hey, bear.”
“Um, the two loaves on top of the stove need to go in the bottom oven. I already have it at temp.” Kit lifted Rey clean off the floor to hug him back. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
“Me too. So glad to be… whole. I hear you were a stud, man.”
“I don’t remember much. I can lose myself a little when I’m mad. Bear Hulk.” Kit chuckled. “Made me want to make bread, though.”
Dylan put the two loaves in the oven, grinning at them. “Well, it smells amazing.”
“Thanks. There’s a cake, some turkey sandwiches, peanut butter. Cinnamon raisin bread for you, Rey.”
“Oh.” He clapped his hands. “Thank you.”
“Peanut butter?” Dylan asked.
“In cookies and for the bread.”
“Uhn. Cookies.” Rey pounced. He was starving again. Man, he was glad he was shifting and running and scared and stuff. That way he wouldn’t gain weight eating all the food these guys made. Maybe he would start working out with Brock, just to stay trim.
Dylan slathered peanut butter on bread, then poured all three of them glasses of milk.
They all sat together, eating hard before anyone started talking.
The first thing Rey wanted to know was “How’s James?”
“Sleeping. I got him hooked up to some fluids, and he was pissed about that for about two seconds before he passed out.” Kit winked. “He’ll be fine. He took a hard concussive wave when the building dropped.”
“I didn’t run away,” he told them. Rey needed the guys to understand. “James sent me to protect the safe. That’s where I was when things started to go upside down.”
He wasn’t a coward. He wasn’t.
“I know that, dork.” Dylan rubbed his lower back. “He would have wanted to stay with his computers, but they were after the safe.”
Mick wandered in, scratching his bare belly. He wore a pair of sweats, his chest fuzzy and wide. “I thought I smelled bread.”
“I was hungry,” Kit said softly.
Mick reached out and ruffled Kit’s hair. “I love it when you get your baking on, kiddo.”
Kit ducked his head and grinned. “I was itchy. You know how it is.”
“Yeah, Brock and that Locke guy have been sparring for at least an hour.”
“He’s quite the bear,” Rey said. He thought there was something going on between Locke and Brock, the way they looked at one another.
“God, yes.” Kit flushed. They all looked at him. “I mean, he’s a grizzly. That’s impressive.”
“I think Locke is a good friend, hmm?” Rey winked at Kit. “To Brock.”
“Yeah. Apparently Locke and him go back a ways.” Mick grinned. “I might hire him, if he sticks around. Brock says he was doing a lot of jobs out of town.”
“Someone else we have to remember their name,” Dylan grumbled.
“Brock calls him Griz. All of you just call me ‘boss.’” Mick gave them all an impartial glare, including Rey.
Rey stared over. “Do I?”
“Yep.” Mick licked jelly off his lower lip. “We need a guy with your skills.”
Dylan hummed, hand sliding along his hip.
“Not those skills, Dylan.” Kit laughed and laughed.
“No. Those skills belong to me now, little bear.” Dylan sounded altogether pleased by that.
“Ew.” Mick flapped a big hand. “I mean your information gathering and your, uh….”
“We don’t need a psychic fox on the team,” Brock said from the doorway, towel around his neck. When Rey met his gaze, though, his eyes were dancing. Laughing.
“Don’t be stupid, Brock.” Kit rolled his eyes. “Foxes can sense magnetic fields and vibrations in the earth. That’s how they hunt.”
“We do. I swear, I don’t have visions. I hear things coming.”
“Well, that’s better than you being all weird.” Brock gave him a broad wink. “Griz, this is what happens around here when Kit gets all het up. Food.”
Locke peered into the kitchen, waving at them all. “Wow.”
“I know, right?”
“Are y’all hiring? I am so tired of eating McDonald’s.”
“We actually are.” Mick glanced at them all in turn. “Guys, I really would like to add Rey to the team, and I think Locke would be a great addition. We’re going to have to find new offices, and we can get a place with room for all. Someplace harder to knock down than that wreck we have now.”
Locke nodded easily. “There’s some great space at the Stapleton complex still.”
Rey searched Dylan’s eyes, curious to what his mate said.
“I think it’s a good idea, but I also like the idea of bolt holes like this one. We need to diversify, boss. I’m willing to stop renting somewhere else if you’re willing to let me invest.” Dylan rubbed his back, the touch soothing. “And I want my mate with me, of course.”
“I said we were bringing him on.” Mick looked at Rey. “What do you say, foxy?”
“If there’s work for me, I’ll do it. I’m good at what I do.” He was exceptional, even.
“There will be plenty, sweetheart.” Dylan hugged him close to one side of that big body, and Rey melted in. He loved the way Dylan smelled.
“Sweetheart?” Brock began gagging.
Locke whacked him on the shoulder. “Stop it. Twu wuv needs no mockery.”
“Can we poison them, Kit?” Rey hid his grin in Dylan’s arm.
“Yes. Let me get the rat poison for their cheese breads.” Kit’s chortle made everyone laugh.
“You made me pão de queijo?” Brock asked, sounding hopeful.
“I did.” Kit handed over a basket. Brock looked… well, adorably surprised.
“Thanks, bear. You rock. You want one, foxy? They’re full of cheesy goodness.”
Rey snagged one, teeth sinking in. Oh. Goodness, Brock was right. Salty cheese and crispy bread, but soft in the middle, the bite was like magic.
“Brock likes those best,” Locke murmured, watching Brock carefully.
Oh. Oh neat. That relationship was going to be fun to watch. Rey hugged Dylan’s arm, then took another bite of cheese bread. What a weird and wonderful new den he was going to have.
Dylan kissed the top of his head. “Welcome home, Rey.”
Welcome to the pack.