Completely boneless Ace couldn’t resist scowling at Devin as the sexy man crawled up beside him.
“I wanted to fuck you,” Ace said, trying not to sound ungracious. Truth be known he was a little rattled. He had never lost control of his orgasm before, and never had an orgasm without something around his cock.
“And you will very soon,” Devin promised him with a smile. Ace watched that blond hair fall as Devin bent over and started to lap at the spunk that sprawled over Ace’s chest. The tongue that had driven him crazy in and around his ass was now as delicate as a kittens’ as Devin carefully cleaned off every spurt of come. Feeling his cock twitch back to life, Ace figured that Devin was more than capable of keeping his promise. He reached out and cupped Devin’s head, gently guiding his mate up his body. Ace had a few promises of his own he wanted to keep.
Chapter Twelve
Two weeks later
Devin sighed as he read Ace’s text. He and Teric had been following the lead on some missing person for days. He was tired, starting to get decidedly edgy and he needed to feed from his mate. The fact that his phone went off was not good news. Ace only ever texted if his plans had changed.
Dungeon master duty again tonight. Won’t be home till late.
“What’s up?” Teric asked.
Devin looked across at the man he thought of as a friend and debated what to say. Devin had thought when he met Teric that the two men would be friends and he had been right. Now he enjoyed his work, especially after Steel had put him through his paces and teamed him up with the cat shifter. It was that friendship that stopped him from complaining now. After all, it was Teric’s mate that was giving Ace grief.
“Ace has got Dungeon Master duty again tonight,” he said shortly.
“Again?” Teric turned around, facing Devin as they walked back to Steel’s headquarters Teric walking backwards. “But that’s like, five times in the last seven days.”
Devin shrugged. He didn’t know what he could do about it. Ace had taken his punishment, Pearson had introduced Devin to the pack as a member, and everyone in the pack seemed to be happy that things were back to normal. All except for Kyle.
Kyle wasn’t silly. He never said anything untoward to Ace at all, especially in front of Pearson. But if Ace wasn’t on Dungeon Master duty then he was on door duty, working as a bouncer. With Devin working days, and Ace working nights the two men barely had a chance to fall into bed together, let alone play out a scene or do any of the fun stuff. Devin was pleased that Ace’s presence was helping with his blood urge, but it had been two weeks since the last time he had been in a scene, and Devin knew he wouldn’t be able to go much longer without some serious time with his mate.
“Are you all right,” Teric said softly, and Devin realized the man was standing by his side and that he had just stopped dead on the footpath. Starting to walk again, Devin shook his head. “Sorry,” he said. “It’s just, yeah, Ace has been on night duty for two weeks, and with me working days…”
Teric narrowed his eyes. “That fucking mate of mine can sure hold a grudge. Stupid, stubborn sex god,” he said. Devin shrugged. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to say to something like that.
“So Ace hasn’t been able to take care of any of your urges?” Teric said quietly. Devin shook his head. Teric had a thoughtful look on his face.
“We need to talk to Pearson. This has gone on long enough and the stupid idiot won’t listen to me or the Alpha apparently,” Teric said, grabbing Devin by the arm and turning him around, presumably to take him to the club.
“I can’t do that,” Devin hissed. “Ace wouldn’t want me to go over Kyle’s head. Your mate’s not doing anything wrong – it’s his job as head enforcer to assign Ace work.”
“Yeah, all the shitty jobs that are supposed to be rotated around everyone, not just foisted on your mate because Kyle is holding a grudge,” Teric snarled back, tugging at Devin’s arm again. But Devin resisted. As much as he would give anything to have Ace home at nights, doing all of the things Ace would promise him before the exhausted sod dropped off to sleep, going to see the Alpha smacked of sneaking behind a bully’s back and complaining to the teacher. Devin wasn’t like that.
“And what happens when you can’t ignore your urges? When you go all fangy and get out of control? Neither Ace nor Pearson is going to want that, especially at the club.”
“I don’t go to the club,” Devin said simply. “It’s not a problem. I sit at home and wait for Ace to get there.”
The look of surprise on Teric’s face would have been cute if it wasn’t so unexpected. “You don’t go to the club when Ace is working? Why ever not?”
“Kyle told me I wasn’t allowed to talk to Ace while he was working, and Ace said if he couldn’t talk to me, then I would be too much of a distraction. It’s easier for both of us if I stay at home.”
“That fucking, no good, flea-ridden, poxy dog. He’s got no right to do that,” Teric muttered as he tugged Devin hard and got them walking back to the club. But Devin was surprised when instead of going into the club, Teric pulled him into the alley beside the club and pulled out his phone.
“Hello Alpha,” Teric said, grinning at Devin. “Yes, we have a bit of a situation in the alley beside the club. Two mates about to go loco and cause some serious problems in the pack. Could be dicey with humans around. You might want to come out here and have a chat with us.”
Devin looked around. There weren’t any humans around this part of town at night. It’s one of the things that made the club locale so perfect. Set in an industrial area, the Bound and Bonded club was discretely hidden behind large black windows, a high concrete wall covering the whole outside of the first floor, and huge dark doors that were only opened by key code. Bouncers stood just inside, preventing anyone who happened to slip in, who shouldn’t have, from seeing any thing they weren’t meant to.
Teric shrugged. “Yes, Alpha,” he said into the phone. “I do think you need to be here. Just you and Dante though, no enforcers. Could look a bit much, you know?”
Pearson must have agreed, because seconds later Teric hung up. “I am not going to go crying to the Alpha,” Devin whispered fiercely. “Ace would hate that.”
“It’s a matter of pack security,” Teric whispered back, “Pearson has every right to know you would throw a wobbly if you don’t get time with your mate. Kyle doesn’t have the authority to do this to you and Ace.”
“What’s a threat to pack security?” Dante’s voice broke into the heated conversation and Devin looked up to see Dante and Pearson walking towards them. Fortunately neither Kyle nor any of the other enforcers were around.
“Kyle,” Teric said crossly. “His actions are indirectly causing a potential problem with pack security.”
“You’re complaining about your mate? That’s serious stuff,” Pearson said as both men came up and stood beside Devin and Teric. “Hi Devin. Haven’t seen you at the club. Are you and Ace having problems too?”
“You could say that,” said Teric as he then proceeded to tell Pearson and Dante what Kyle was doing to Ace.
“Why hasn’t Ace come to me with this?” Pearson asked Devin. Devin couldn’t hold back his snort of laughter. Yeah, like a big bad Dominant would go crying to his Alpha because he wasn’t allowed to spend time with his mate. That would make the situation worse. Devin might not know a lot about wolves, but even he could see that and he was surprised that Pearson couldn’t.
“Okay, I get it,” Pearson said after thinking for a moment. “Well, Kyle won’t change anything if I just tell him too, that much is obvious because I have already spoken to him about it, more than once. And he’s not paying attention to his mate’s comments either, so something a bit more drastic is called for.” He turned to his mate, Dante. “Up for a bit of role playing, love? Fancy trying to keep me safe from a rabid vampire or something similar?”
Dante grinned, and so did Teric. Devin looked between all three men for a moment, not sure what was going on.
“We’re gonna have to call in Steel and Levi too. Just try and keep the blood to a minimum,” Pearson said to Devin. “Now here’s what we are going to do…”
/~/~/~/~/
Leaning against the wall, watching the dungeon monitors, Ace didn’t even bother to hide his scowl from anyone who might be paying attention to him. Not that anyone was. No. They were all playing their games, getting their sex on while he was stuck with nothing to do but watch them, while his mate was sitting at home, on his lonesome, just like every night for the past two weeks.
None of the enforcers liked Dungeon duty. It was really hard to be pleasant and stay focused on security when the games, sounds and smells coming from a bunch of horny wolves gave you a perpetual hard-on. But it was a necessary part of running a BDSM club. Pearson was a stickler for ensuring that safe words were adhered to and that all subs were respected and cared for.
What Ace didn’t understand is that some months previously the Alpha had instigated a rule that all enforcers had to be rotated as Dungeon Master. A now ex-Dom had taken advantage of his friendship with the permanent Dungeon Master at the time, and a sub had got badly hurt before anyone else thought to intervene. Since then Pearson had been adamant that all enforcers were rotated about. But Ace had been on DM duty the last five nights in a row.
Muttering a few unkind thoughts about wolves with grudges, Ae turned his attention back to the monitors. He was a loyal wolf and Pearson had given him a second chance. He wasn’t going to blow that by being pissy. Kyle ranked above him and it was as simple as that. Ace had to do as he was told, even when what he was being told was blatantly unfair.
The number of nights he had watched Kyle and Teric together when Kyle was supposedly on duty…well, the thought just made his skin itch. Kyle had no right to prevent Devin from talking to Ace while he was working, but when Kyle had spoken to Devin about it, Ace was again, helpless to say anything. It was both harder and easier to tell Devin not to come to the club. He wanted to see Devin like he wanted his next breath, but with Devin in the club and Ace not being able to talk to him, or protect him from unwanted advances – no, Ace couldn’t have handled that at all.
“Nope,” Ace said to himself, “Just got to suck it up until the boss man gets bored.” But even as he said it, Ace was worried the situation couldn’t continue much longer. Devin had been showing signs of tension, Ace knew the man wasn’t sleeping well. He couldn’t remember the last time he fed his mate and just lately Devin had spent a lot of time with his mind blocked as though he didn’t want to share his thoughts with his mate. If things didn’t improve quickly he may have to go back to being a lone wolf, just so he could give his mate the care the man deserved. Devin had to be due for a blood urge soon, and he sorely needed to be fed. It’s just his mate had this cute idea that he liked Ace awake for when that happened, and just lately all Ace had been able to do was go home to sleep.
Lost in his thoughts, it took Ace a moment to notice that something was going on down in the public area. A group of wolves were standing around, Kyle in the middle gesticulating wildly. Then wolves were running around, basically securing the club. Seconds later a cute blond twink came running into the monitor room. Ace just scowled at him. He had no time for pretty boys at the best of times, and now was not the best time.
“I am sorry to bother you, Master Ace,” the little wolf said in a breathless voice. “But Master Kyle said you are to come immediately. Something about your mate holding the Alpha and the Alpha Mate hostage.”
Holy fuck, Devin has cracked
, was Ace’s only horrified thought as he ran towards Pearson’s office. Kyle met him at the office door, both men trying to get through at the same time. Ace growled at Kyle. He had to get to Devin before any further damage was done. As it was it would seem that his lone wolf status was looking a definite possibility and that was if he could get him and Devin out of this mess without either one of them being killed.
Stopping short, just inside the door, Ace took in the scene. Pearson, Dante, Steel, Levi and Teric were all bound together in a group. Devin had used thick chains to bind the men although Ace could see that none of the men had been injured. There was no smell of blood in the air, and given the situation, the whole scene seemed surprisingly calm.
Standing in front of them all was Devin. But it wasn’t the Devin that Ace knew. His gorgeous mate had morphed into a creature from hell. Standing eight feet tall and just as wide, Devin’s normally violet eyes were a bright red and his fangs were fully dropped, hanging like sinister crystals below the man’s snarled lips. Devin’s hands sported long sharp claws that were currently playing with another length of chain.
“Holy shit,” Ace whispered wondering if his mate was too far gone to ever be the man Ace loved again. He was torn. One side longing to go to his mate’s side. But he also wanted to be cautious. He had no idea how cognizant Devin would be in this form.
Kyle had no such worries of course. He was head enforcer. Devin was threatening not only the Alpha and Alpha Mate, but his own mate as well. Without thought he flung himself at Devin, half shifted, teeth and claws bared. In the time it took for Ace’s heart to lurch into his throat, Devin had Kyle caught up and bound in the same chains that were holding the others. Kyle struggled for a few moments, tried to shift, clearly couldn’t and then subsided into growls.
“Good little puppy,” the caricature that was Devin said with a sneer, patting Kyle on the head. “You did this. You caused this. Now you are going to sit and watch me kill your Alpha and his mate, making me the new Alpha of the pack. You can just sit and watch like a good little thing.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Kyle snarled. “I demand you let me and the others go.”
“You are in no position to make any demands, little puppy,” Devin said with a laugh that sent a chill down Ace’s spine. It was like there wasn’t a shred of the decency Ace knew Devin had existed anymore.
“You took my mate from me,” Devin said wandering around Kyle like he was nothing. “You gave him the shit jobs. Forced him to work long hours. Hours that you knew kept him from his mate. Forbade me to talk to him at the club.”
Devin leaned over Kyle and snarled in his face. “Do you see what happens when a vampire is kept from his mate? Do you? You gave me no choice. I need my
amatus
. You kept him from me and now you will watch your Alpha and Alpha Mate die!”
Straightening up, Devin towered over Kyle, who had a look of shock and horror on his face. “This is on your head, wolf,” Devin said and he turned and headed towards Pearson.
Ace finally found his tongue, and his feet. He dashed forward and grabbed Devin by the arm. It was oddly disconcerting to be grabbing hold of someone who now towered over him, but Ace had to trust in the mating bond – in the fact that he knew Devin cared for him.
“Don’t do this, Devin please,” Ace begged tugging on Devin’s arm. “We’ll go away. I’ll be a lone wolf. Don’t hurt anyone, I am begging you. Please, I couldn’t live with myself if you killed anyone here. I know I failed you and I’m sorry, but I promise you it won’t happen again.”