Pricolici (7 page)

“Stelian’s club? I don’t know. What if Phell has someone watching it?”

“Stelian and I spent all of two minutes together in the club. Who is gonna know who I am, outside of you?”

“The whole haitas,” she said. “You think Stelian didn’t inform everyone? He has the property patrolled with twice as many guards as usual.”

“Are you really that worried about it? Come on. I thought you were a badass bodyguard—better than any male.”

Grecia rolled her eyes and shook her head. “You’re worse than my kid, wheedling to get your way. Fine, I’ll get my keys, and we’ll go get your truck. But if you try to drive off I will follow you, shoot out your tires, then stuff you in my trunk until Stelian gets back.” She gave him a wicked glare, one he’d seen countless moms use on their kids, and put one hand on her hip—the one that supported her gun.

Tucker laughed at the expression on Grecia’s face. “I’m not going to run. Can you blame me for wanting a pair of pants that fit, though?” He shook one leg and the cuff unrolled over his foot.

She laughed. “All right. I already said yes.”

Tucker looked out his window as they went down the circular loop in front of the house and then drove down the long driveway. Stelian’s house was an impressive three story home, painted a deep blue, with a lot of windows. The front of the house was austere, just a few short shrubs in places to break the long expanses of grassy lawn. The gardens behind the house were a sharp contrast to the huge lawns of the front, but it was still beautifully kept.

It could be his home.

Tucker turned to look out the rear window as they passed through a set of big iron gates manned by two males. Grecia waved at them but didn’t stop.

“The club’s downtown. It’ll take us about a half hour to get there.”

Suddenly, pumping her for information on Stelian didn’t seem so important. Now that he was away from the house, he wanted to relax. Tucker didn’t want to think about mating, or his magic. Getting a bit of the history of the oldest haitas in the US could prove interesting, though. “So, what can you tell me about the Pricolici? There are so many rumors in the Daoi about them.”

She pulled up to a stoplight, shrugging as she waited for it to turn to green. “We’re a haitas like any other, I guess. I joined about a hundred years ago, after I met my mate. As the eldest of our kind, Stelian and his inner circle have always been watching out for the newer groups in America. His ship was the first one to land here with lupes aboard.”

Tucker nodded. “I’d heard about that, though Stelian wasn’t mentioned by name. His inner circle…” He fought the urge to lower his voice. “They’re the Hunters, right?” He’d been told stories about their brutality. Even mentioning them made many of the lupes in his old haitas spit, even inside, as if saying the name put a bad taste in their mouths.

Grecia gave him a look. “He doesn’t like policing our kind, you know. Killing is a necessary evil when lupes go feral and risk exposing all the Daoi to the humans. Alphas sometimes get besotted with their power and take advantage of the weaker lupes in their haitas. If the Hunters didn’t prevent those things, atrocities could be committed simply because those males can get away with being tyrants.”

Her voice lowered and a dark look came over her face. “I’ve seen it happen.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound insulting about them. I’ve just heard so many things.” Tucker knew apologizing was the right thing to do. Grecia’s jaw was clenched, and her hands gripped the wheel hard enough to turn her knuckles white.

“Rumors are just that. Don’t judge us based on what others have told you. Judge us based on what you see of our haitas. Keep an open mind.”

“I will. What about you? I won’t ask your age, but you’ve been a part of his haitas for a while, right? Did you come to America with him?”

Grecia shook her head. “Oh no. I was living in Italy. It’s my home, you know? I still keep a house there, but I met my mate here. Stelian and his advisors came to a summit about a hundred years ago. I was a guard at the meeting, and when I caught Marevin ’s scent, I knew I wanted to get to know him.”

“So you moved here to be with him?”

“Yes. A miserable trip it was too. No airplanes back then. The voyage was a two month trip in a leaky boat.” She wrinkled her nose. “It smelled awful. Shifting there was a horrible experience. My wolf doesn’t like being surrounded by water.” She shuddered hard, jerking the wheel. The car rattled as it hit the rumble strip on the side of the freeway before she corrected its path.

Tucker could imagine what that was like. The past was interesting, but thank god he’d never had to deal with some of the inconveniences. “I’m glad I won’t ever have to live through something like that. Modern times and all that.”

Grecia laughed. “Those were modern times then. Lupes live for a very long time. Perhaps in a century we’ll think driving in cars as horribly barbaric as we flit around in a speeding hovercraft.”

Tucker couldn’t help but wonder if he’d live as long as a lupe would. He said as much to Grecia. She gave him a smile. “You’re Stelian’s mate. Once you go through the ceremonies, your life will be joined with his. Of course you’ll live a long time.”

Tucker scowled. “I don’t know how you can sound so sure. He keeps saying we’re meant to be mates, like we have no choice in the matter. That my power has chosen him and that’s that, because I’m a hultan. I’d never heard of one before, much less that I’m this powerful being, blah blah”—he grunted—“it’s annoying. I thought I’d finally have some freedom when my alpha kicked me out of my haitas, but now it seems like I’m supposed to deal with some sort of epic fate. What if I don’t want to be a hultan?”

Grecia shrugged. “I don’t know if you can just shut it off. I’ve never met a hultan.”

That was something else that had been bothering Tucker. “You know, there has to be a reason why all the hultans have died out, why I’m the only one.”

“True,” she said, “but I don’t think it’s something you need to worry much about. You have power you don’t understand, but you also have Stelian. He’ll help you figure it out. Things will be fine.”

That was easy for her to say. She wasn’t the only one of her kind left in existence.

They sat in silence for a while. Tucker watched as they left the freeway and began driving through suburbs. “Why does Stelian live so far away from his club?”

“The land, of course. Didn’t your haitas have property for your members to gather on for shifting?”

Tucker shook his head. “They didn’t have enough money. Runs took place on a forest game preserve.”

She glanced over at him, one eyebrow raised in surprise. “That’s dangerous.”

Tucker shrugged. “That’s always where they went when I lived there. They’ve been doing that for twenty years, at least. No humans have caught them yet.”

At the end of the road, Tucker could see the abstract wolves on the front of Stelian’s bar. “The drive didn’t take as long as I thought it would,” he said. He remembered the pulling feeling the last time he was at the club, and the way he’d met Stelian.

The memory of the large lupe’s body against his, the feeling of his firmness rubbing against him popped into Tucker’s head. Stronger still was the memory of the thick hard bar of Stelian’s cock pressing into his stomach as he ravaged his mouth, reminding him of what happened that morning in the garden. He couldn’t help but wonder if the guard hadn’t interrupted them, would Stelian have stopped there, or would he have bent him over the closest bench and shown him exactly who the alpha was?

Tucker shivered. Damn hormones. It’d been way too long.

Grecia gasped. The car jerked as she stomped on the brakes a few spots over from his truck. He slammed one hand into the dashboard, his seatbelt digging into his neck.

“What’s wrong?” Tucker’s head swiveled, trying to see whatever startled her. “Did you see Stelian? Phell?”

“No. Your power,” she said in a tight voice. Tucker suddenly realized that his aura had expanded, for lack of a better word, as he remembered the way Stelian always seemed to overwhelm him and yet make him hornier than he’d ever been in his life. His lust seemed to give it strength. He’d been lost in the memory of the kiss for longer than it happened.

“I’m sorry.” He tried to pull it back in, but he couldn’t.

“Think of something else. Every time you mention Stelian it spikes, but it’s never been this bad.”

Tucker didn’t realize that had been happening. He struggled, thinking of piles of stinking garbage and old ladies naked, but it wasn’t working. Stelian’s burning yellow eyes kept covering the images, his gaze enough to heat Tucker’s lust even higher.

“Tucker!” Grecia’s yell startled him out of the beginning of another fantasy.

Desperate, he thought of the night before he had to leave his old haitas. The attack by Martin had scared the hell out of him. He’d been helpless, his struggles disregarded by the maddened lupe who’d wanted to mate him. The memory made Tucker shudder and wrap his arms around his chest.

Grecia sighed in relief. “Oh, thank you.” She whipped into the open space in front of his truck. “That’s it, right?” 

Tucker didn’t speak; he nodded instead. “Come on. I need a drink before we head back.” He got out of the car. He needed a dose of normal.

“No. No way, Tucker. You said we were coming to get your truck, not get a drink in the bar! Stelian will kill me and then tan your hide.”

Tucker laughed. “Over a drink? Come on, Grecia, it’s not that big a deal. Besides, I barely heard Daos play the other day, and the marquee says they’ll be playing. I really liked their sound. Besides, other than hitting me over the head or shooting me, which you can’t do in public, how are you going to stop me?”

The boots he wore helped with the extra-long pants, but the giant shirt he was swimming in was definitely not something Tucker wanted to be seen wearing in a club. “Hold on a second.” He jogged back to his truck. Crouching down by the front wheel, he dug around for his hide-a-key and unlocked the door. He fished around in a duffle bag. The T-shirt he pulled out was plain, white, and a little small, but it would have to do. He tugged off Stelian’s shirt and tossed it in the passenger seat and then tugged on the tight T-shirt.

Tucker dug into a crack in the leather seat, pulling out a few bills. His secret stash of cash had funded a few binges. There wasn’t much, but it was enough for a drink. He smirked at the scowl on Grecia’s face when he locked his truck.

“This is a bad idea.”

“Probably,” Tucker agreed. He grinned when her mouth dropped open.

Grecia cursed in another language as she followed him into the bar. Tucker saw the same blonde-and-purple-haired female bartender, serving customers, who’d been working the other night. Tucker scanned the crowd, his head bobbing along to the throbbing beat of the music. Daos was already on stage, their female lead singer’s voice blending with the guitarist’s deep bass in a complex melody. The song wasn’t in English, but even without understanding the lyrics, Tucker knew it was a love ballad.

He turned to the bar, caught the bartender’s eye. “Can I get a cranberry and vodka please?” She nodded, grabbing the juice. “How about you, Grecia?”

“Just a cranberry.”

A minute later Tucker tried to hand over his money, but another hand closed over his. Tucker followed it up to wide shoulders and a pair of yellow eyes. “Your money’s no good here.” The male was bald, which was unusual for a lupe, and he had huge gauges in his ears. He didn’t let go when Tucker tried to pull his hand back.

Tucker yanked his hand away. “What the hell do you mean by that?” he asked belligerently. He stood up, his head barely coming to the other lupe’s chin. “Do you have a problem with me?”

Grecia squeezed between them and pushed him back onto his stool and then shoved the bald lupe back a step. “Knock it off, you two!” She turned to the male. “Do you have a death wish, Corrado? He’s Stelian’s unmarked mate, and you touched him? Do you want to lose your hand? Or worse, your nuts?”

The male’s face paled. “He smells like Stelian, and we got the warning he’d met his mate. I figured he’d already marked him by now. Does he want to kick our asses for some reason? I don’t want to get laid out because I got too close to an unmarked mate.”

“Tucker wanted to get his truck.”

Corrado looked at her incredulously. “He’s letting his mate, his unmarked mate, and a hultan wander around free with Phell’s group making inroads into our territory?”

“Free? What the hell do you think I’m doing here?”

The music stopped and Corrado lowered his voice. “What
are
you doing here, Grecia? Do I need to get Marevin?”

Her loud snort was audible over the music. “It wasn’t my idea, but even if it was, so fucking what!” She glared at the tall male, putting her hands on her hips. “You might want to reconsider that call to Marevin, by the way. Threatening to tell on me to my mate? Are you kidding? Don’t even try it! Marevin and Stelian both trust my judgment. Tucker is not in danger here, more than he is anywhere else, or I wouldn’t have let him come in. No wonder you don’t have a mate, with that sort of caveman attitude.”

Tucker slammed his drink back and then shoved the glass across the bar. “I wanted to get my truck, a drink, and listen to the band.”  He turned to the two lupes arguing next to him. “I’m not Stelian’s property. I’m not a child. I sure as hell don’t have anything to do with this Phell. Clearly I’m not going to get to enjoy the drink and the music in peace, so I guess it’s time to leave. And since my money is no good here,
Corrado
, you can pay for my drink.” He glared at both of them equally. The male looked dismayed. “And Grecia’s juice. I’m out of here.”