Authors: Kim Dare
“Don’t worry about them,” Axel said. “They’re leaving.”
Now, when all Bayden’s thoughts were human, but his lupine instincts were right there in the forefront of his brain, it was harder than ever to see Axel as anything other than an alpha wolf who deserved every other wolf’s complete respect. In their own way, even humans seemed to understand that. Whether or not they’d intended to leave, the other Dragons filed out at Axel’s command.
“You okay?”
Bayden nodded.
“Words,” Axel corrected.
Bayden cleared his throat. “I’m fine.” There was just a touch of wolf left in his voice.
Axel didn’t strike out at the reminder of what Bayden was. He didn’t pull away, either. “Do you always get dizzy when you shift back?”
“It happens sometimes.” Especially when he hadn’t eaten much for a few days. He straightened up, knowing it was stupid to let himself appear so vulnerable in front of a human. “I’m fine now.”
Axel moved his hand from Bayden’s shoulder, but only to push Bayden’s hair back off his face. His other hand moved to Bayden’s cheek. “How long does it take for your mind to switch from one to the other?”
Bayden frowned. “I don’t know what you’re asking.”
Axel stroked his hair.
Bayden looked down. He glanced at what he was sitting on. A spanking bench. “Are you asking if I’m human enough to do what you want?”
Axel seemed to think about that very carefully. “I’m asking if there’s a delay between you shifting back to looking human, and to you being able to make decisions the way a human can.”
“You want to know if you’d be screwing a man or an animal.” Bayden tried to turn away.
Axel tightened his grip on his hair and held him still. “I’m not insulting you.”
Bayden froze. It was exactly what he’d said to Axel before. He’d meant it. It was possible that Axel meant it, too. Maybe Bayden was seeing insults just as easily as Axel, and where they didn’t really exist.
Bayden nodded, willing to believe that was possible.
Axel stroked Bayden’s hair back from his face again. Bayden managed not to lean into his touch too overtly.
“Are you mad at me again?” he blurted out.
Axel raised an eyebrow at him.
“About the bet,” Bayden hinted.
Axel chuckled. “I object to seeing you get hurt, not gambling in general, pup.” He stepped back. The world seemed far colder. “Steady?”
Bayden nodded. He glanced at his clothes.
“Go ahead,” Axel allowed.
As Bayden got dressed, Axel got the money he’d held during the bet out of the pocket of his jeans.
Bayden barely glanced at the notes when Axel handed them over. It would all be there. Axel wasn’t like other humans.
About to push the notes into his pocket, Bayden hesitated. The folded money actually felt thicker than he’d expected. He studied it more carefully. It wasn’t one hundred and fifty pounds, it was two hundred.
Bayden peered down at the notes, his brain taking too long to kick into gear.
“Bayden?”
“The money’s wrong. Three fifties is one hundred and fifty,” he said, making sure to keep his tone extra respectful in case Axel thought he was criticising him.
“Four fifties,” Axel corrected. “Four men watched you shift.”
Bayden took fifty and held it out to him. “No.”
“No?” Axel asked.
“No. You don’t pay,” Bayden clarified, his horror at the prospect making his word clipped.
“Why not?” Axel made no attempt to take the notes from him. “They did.”
Bayden’s pulse sped up. “It’s different.”
“Different how?” Axel tilted his head to the side. He was curious again.
Bayden bit back a growl. Wasn’t it obvious? He looked down.
Axel tucked a knuckle under his chin, making him lift his gaze. “Different how?”
“Because if you’d said you wanted to see me shift, I’d have done it for free.”
* * * * *
Those weren’t words Bayden took lightly. It was no throw away phrase. As Axel stared down into his eyes, he had no doubt that they meant more to Bayden than an offer to shape shift upon request.
“It was a challenge,” Bayden said, with obvious care. “They knew I could shift. They knew they’d lose. But it’s like the whipping. They thought that getting me to shift in front of them would put me off balance. That it would make me see them as more dominant than me.”
It was one way to define the other Dragons’ own particular brand of hazing the new guy, Axel supposed. “Did it work?”
“If it had worked, I wouldn’t have taken the money off them.” Bayden looked down at the money he still held out to Axel.
“Because the money’s all about making sure that humans know who lost a challenge, right?”
“Yes, but you didn’t lose,” Bayden pointed out, with what sounded like increasingly strained patience. “There was no challenge. I’ve never doubted that you’re more dominant than me. And I don’t want your money.”
“It’s that important to you?”
“Yes.” Bayden proffered the money again.
His suspicions confirmed, Axel took the notes from him and pushed them into his back pocket without ever breaking eye contact. “Feel better?”
Bayden nodded. “Yes. Thank you.”
So polite. Axel stroked his fingers down Bayden’s check. There wasn’t even a hint of stubble there, even though he’d had a full wolf’s pelt a few moments ago. Looking at Bayden now, it was hard to imagine he could appear any other way. When he’d stared down at a wolf standing in the middle of the playroom, it had been impossible to imagine he’d ever looked human.
Axel pushed Bayden’s hair back from his face again. Bayden accepted every touch without comment, but he didn’t reach out to him in return. Because he was still half-sure his hands were paws? Because he wasn’t that tactile a person? Because he wouldn’t touch someone he saw as more dominant than him without permission?
That was the problem with Bayden, there were so many different possible answers to every single question. And some questions were more important than where Bayden might choose to put his hands.
“You said they were challenging you—do you know why?”
“Because they’re arseholes?”
“That’s one reason,” Axel said with a chuckle. “But do you know what a hazing is?”
Bayden shrugged.
“It’s a way of testing a new guy to see what he’s made of, to check how he’ll react and where he’ll fit into the group.”
Bayden glanced up. “Humans don’t just know?”
“Wolves do?”
Bayden frowned. “It’s usually pretty obvious.”
“Well, humans like to check. They’ve done the same to everyone who they think might ride with us.”
Bayden blinked at him.
“Have you ever ridden with a club?”
Bayden shook his head. He looked toward the door the other Dragons had just left through. “They won’t like it. They won’t want me riding with them.”
Axel raised an eyebrow. They might not like it, but they’d bloody well learn to accept it quickly, if they had any sense. “I want you riding with us.”
Bayden glanced up at him. He nodded. There was still that slight frown, as if he couldn’t understand why anyone would want him around. Axel pushed his fingers through Bayden’s hair again, tugging lightly at the strands. Bayden made no comment.
“Does it bother you when they challenge you?”
Shrug. If Bayden understood that some subs might find being challenged by a group of men who were all a damn sight bigger, older and more experienced than him, intimidating, he certainly didn’t seem to share the sentiment.
“What if you lose?” Axel asked.
“I don’t lose.” He tilted his chin up. Complete confidence.
Axel smiled. “I’ll give you a choice,” he offered. “I can tell them to back off and leave you be. They’ll accept that.” Just like he’d accept it if one of them told him to stop teasing their sub—but that part of the explanation could wait for another time.
Bayden’s frown didn’t ease.
“Or, you can tell me that it doesn’t bother you when they throw challenges at you—that you prefer to deal with them yourself.”
Bayden peered up at him as if he was speaking a different language. “They’re not a problem.” They were apparently all filed firmly under harmless in his mind.
Axel knew damn well that they posed no actual threat to a novice sub, but that didn’t mean they weren’t capable of making a guy as uncomfortable as hell until they accepted him as part of the group. “They won’t hurt you. They’re not interested in breaking you, but they’ll do their damnedest to push your buttons and try to get a rise out of you.”
“I can look after myself.
“Fair enough,” Axel allowed. “If you change your mind, let me know.”
Bayden nodded. Axel’s fingers still lingered in his hair. The gesture meant Bayden effectively tugged at the strands. From the way his lips twitched into a smile, that wasn’t a problem for him.
Axel forced himself to step back. Bayden accepted that decision just as calmly as he’d accepted every touch.
If he was going to be fighting his own battles, there were a few things to clear up. “What you said before, about tearing someone’s throat out?” Axel said.
Bayden suddenly looked wary. “Yes?”
“I don’t care if you lose a bet,” Axel said. “But if you win, stick to cash and sarcasm? Fighting dirty during a hazing is okay; fighting to the death isn’t.”
“Okay.” His expression cleared a little.
“Ready?”
Bayden looked at the door. When he nodded again, he seemed to have realised that he’d probably need to deal with them again that night.
Back in the main room, Axel went behind the bar while Bayden returned to his stool. He barely had time to sit down.
“Is it all wolves who can’t hold their drink, or just you?” Hale asked, from further down the bar.
Bayden looked up. He met Axel’s eyes. Axel managed to keep a straight face, but he couldn’t have hoped for a better test.
“Is that why wolves have a reputation for being drunks, because it only takes one pint to get them steaming?” Drac asked.
Bayden’s fist tightened around his bottle of Coke. The plastic crunched. The light in his eyes changed as he didn’t so much check his anger as much as let it cool into something far harsher. “Wolves can drink.”
“We all know that wolves can drink—the question is whether you can handle it when you do?” Hale asked.
Bayden met Axel’s gaze. It took Axel a moment to realise that Bayden wasn’t waiting for him to step in and tell them to stop picking on him, he fully expected Axel to pass on what Bayden had told him about wolves and alcohol—to cut any advantage he had out from under him.
Axel raised an eyebrow at the idea. Bayden tilted his head to one side. He looked confused, but he gradually seemed to realise that he didn’t need to worry about his secrets being revealed.
“You buy it, I’ll drink it,” he told the other guys.
Laughter flowed down from the other end of the bar. “What do you say, Axel?” Griz asked.
“If you drink, you don’t ride,” Axel warned Bayden. “You can put your bike in the lock-up and stay here tonight.” He thought for a moment. “Best put it there now.” He handed Bayden the key to the lock-up—for some reason, he hadn’t bothered to clip it back onto his key chain since the last time Bayden borrowed it.
As Bayden went to stow his bike away, Axel turned his attention to his friends. “Sometimes I’m not sure if I’m running a motorcycle club or babysitting toddlers.”
Hale laughed. “Going to step in and warn us to play nicely with your puppy?”
It was a bloody stupid choice of words. Axel raised an eyebrow at anyone but him
playing
with Bayden.
“Ha. Like we’re suicidal enough to try to get your boy into a scene,” Drac said.
Hale raised an eyebrow at Axel in return. “Puppy play’s never been my thing.”
“Does this mean you don’t have a problem with us ragging on the boy?” Griz asked.
“Bayden can stand up for himself.” Especially when he had no chance of losing this particular challenge.
Everyone turned as Bayden resumed his seat. “Second thoughts, wolf-boy?”
Bayden ignored him.
“You’re seriously going to go deaf every time I call you that?” Drac asked.
Bayden took a sip of his Coke.
“Bayden,” Griz said, with overt politeness and very obvious amusement. “What do you drink when you are drinking?”
“I tried vodka once,” Bayden offered.
Griz looked across at Axel. “A double vodka then.”
Axel poured the drink, marked it down on Griz’s tab and handed the glass to Bayden.
“Are you supposed to down it in one?”
“Go for it,” Griz suggested.
Bayden took a deep breath and tossed it back. He didn’t choke on it, but from the way he wrinkled his nose when he swallowed it down, he hadn’t been lying when he’d claimed to hate the taste.
Axel laughed along with everyone else.
Bayden glanced up at him.
“Almost tastes medicinal, doesn’t it?” Axel said.
Bayden ducked his head at the reminder of the first time they’d met. For the first time since they returned to the bar room, he let a smile creep through.
“Ever tried anything else?” Hale asked.
Bayden shook his head.
Hale ran his gaze over the top shelf behind the bar. “Whisky, double.”
“You know you’re paying for this, right?” Axel asked.
From the amusement dancing in their eyes, they all seemed to think it would be worth the investment.
He poured a whisky and set it in front of Bayden.
Bayden sniffed at it. He took a cautious sip.
“Well?” Axel asked.
“It’s not as bad as the last one.” He took another sip.
“I wonder how far along the top row he could get?” Hale mused.
“I wonder how far along the top row a cop’s wallet can get,” Axel said.
“You’re a cop?” Bayden said, turning to Hale.
“What’s the problem, you got a guilty conscience?” Hale asked.
Before anyone else could say anything, another guy came up to the bar to order a drink. Hale smiled and turned to him. “You want to buy Bayden one at the same time. He reckons he can out drink any human.”
Axel shook his head, but the gambit worked. Everyone who came up to the bar seemed more than happy to buy Bayden a drink. The fact that Bayden had turned down all their drinks whenever they hit on him probably didn’t make them disinclined to ante up.