An Alpha's Pride [tribal bonds 2] (10 page)

Carlton growled low in his throat every time Roman walked close to Daniel, or even looked in his direction. Despite the treaty Luca had with the hunter, Carlton planned on having a long conversation with the guy—alone.

Preferably in a dark alley.
Roman had a lot to answer for, the least of which was why he had shot Daniel. He could have proved his point without putting a hole in Daniel’s chest. Carlton couldn’t care less that Daniel could heal quickly. Roman didn’t need to shoot him.
He never again wanted to feel the anguish that had swamped him when he saw Roman pull the trigger. For a moment, Carlton thought his heart had stopped beating as red saturated Daniel’s shirt. He had felt like his life was over.
And then Daniel had reached out for him. One simple touch of Daniel’s hand against his skin had started his heart beating again. Carlton was a little unsettled with how much the vampire had come to mean to him in such a short amount of time. He didn’t know if it was supposed to be that way.
Daniel was Carlton’s world now, his reason for living. He’d do anything for the electus—die for him, kill for him. Carlton would love Daniel until the last breath left his body.
Carlton just couldn’t help but wonder if the feeling was returned. He had told Daniel he loved him several times. He had yet to hear the words in return. Carlton knew it had only been a short time since they had been together, but he was starting to wonder if he would ever hear the words. Maybe Daniel didn’t feel the same as Carlton did. Maybe it was just the pull of mates for him.
Carlton rolled his eyes and pushed his morose thoughts aside when Roman made another move to get close to Daniel. He was beginning to suspect that the hunter was doing it on purpose just to get a reaction out of him.
Oh, he was going to get one, all right
.
Carlton was ready to tear the man’s throat out. His anger at Roman over shooting Daniel was only being held in check by the knowledge that they needed Roman at the moment. Once this nasty business was over, Carlton wasn’t going to hold back anymore.
“You hate me, don’t you?” Roman asked as he walked over to stand next to Carlton.
“With every fiber of my being.”
Roman cocked an eyebrow. “You want to rip out my throat.”
Carlton grinned wickedly. “I plan on it.”
“Because I hunt your kind?”
“Because you shot my mate.”
Roman’s head cocked to one side as he regarded Carlton curiously. “How does that work, anyway? A wolf shifter and a vampire?”
“It works just fine, thank you very much.”
Roman wiggled his eyebrows suggestively. “Who tops?”
“None of your fucking business,” Carlton growled. He was going to make good on his threat and rip Roman’s throat out if he said one more word.
Roman chuckled as he leaned back against the table behind them. “I’m just curious. I mean, come on. You’re both in positions of power. You’re an alpha. Daniel’s an electus. Who submits to whom? Or do you take turns being the bottom?”
Carlton snarled as he unclenched his claws and wrapped them around Roman’s throat. It took him two long steps to shove Roman into the nearest wall. He leaned in close to Roman, curling his lip up to flash a fang at the man.
“Say another word about my mate and I will become the monster you fight so hard to eradicate. I will be your worst nightmare. And I won’t stop with you, Roman. I will go after your family, your friends, even your acquaintances. I will kill everyone you’ve ever spoken to.”
Carlton could hear people shouting from behind him. He also knew he was probably breaking the peace treaty Luca had worked so hard to establish with the hunters. He just didn’t fucking care. He didn’t have a peace treaty with the hunters.
He lifted Roman up and slammed him into the wall. “Do we understand each other, hunter?”
Carlton was shocked when Roman simply grinned and glanced down between their bodies. It was only when he looked down that Carlton realized Roman held a blade to his abdomen.
And it was silver. Carlton could smell it. The acidic scent of the silver burned his nostrils. He glanced back up at Roman in surprise. He hadn’t even felt the man grab the knife. Roman could end his existence in one shove of his hand. So, why didn’t he?
“I think we understand each other perfectly.” Roman grinned and slid the blade away from Carlton’s stomach and back into a hidden sheath at his waist. “Don’t you, Alpha Gregory?”
“We do if you understand that Daniel is off-limits.”
Roman smirked. “Understood.”
Carlton released his grip on Roman’s neck and pushed away from him. His arm was grabbed the moment he stepped back. He swung around, ready to fight off another threat only to breathe a sigh of relief when he saw Daniel standing there.
“What in the hell are you doing, Carlton?” Daniel snapped, his eyes flickering between Carlton and Roman. “We’re trying to rescue our people, not start an international incident.”
Carlton glanced back at Roman as well, making sure he kept himself between the hunter and his mate. “Roman and I were just setting a few ground rules, mate. That’s all.”
“Ground rules?” Daniel snapped. “It looked like you were trying to start World War III.”
Carlton’s eyes narrowed when Roman started to chuckle. What was the hunter going to say? To do?
“It’s all good, Electus Everson,” Roman said. “We just needed to get a few things straightened out between the two of us.” Roman’s eyes strayed to Carlton. “I think we’ve done that, don’t you?”
Carlton nodded. He hoped not to have to say another word about it, but as he looked back at Daniel’s glowering face, he knew it wasn’t going to be that easy. Daniel was pissed.
“He was purposely trying to get me upset, Daniel.”
“Oh?”
Daniel’s eyebrow arched.
“And you let him?”
“He threatened you.”
He crossed his arms over his chest and firmed his jaw. He wasn’t going to argue about this with Daniel. It was a perfectly good reason to attack the hunter in Carlton’s mind.
“He threatened me?” Daniel asked out loud as he turned to look at Roman.
Carlton wanted to wipe the smirk off Roman’s face the moment it appeared. The man was way too arrogant for a human standing in a room full of paranormals, hidden silver knife or not.
“I just questioned your…uh…arrangement,” Roman said.
Carlton growled when Daniel’s face flushed. He could feel the embarrassment flowing off of his mate in waves, and he was enraged by it. Hunter or no hunter, Roman didn’t have a right to question things between Carlton and Daniel. He certainly didn’t have the right to make Daniel feel bad about their mating.
No one did.
Carlton reached over and grabbed Roman around the neck again, yanking the man closer. He saw Roman’s lip curl up as the man glanced down. Carlton didn’t need to look down to know Roman once again held his silver bladed knife against his stomach. He could feel it.
“Go ahead, hunter,” Carlton snapped. “I can rip out your throat just as fast as you can shove that knife into my gut. I may die from the silver, but I can promise you, you’ll die before I do.”
“And leave your mate unprotected?” Roman’s eyes flickered beyond Carlton’s shoulder.
Carlton didn’t want to look. He didn’t want to take his eyes off of Roman, who he considered the biggest threat in the room. But the need to see what other dangers there might be to Daniel overwhelmed him.
Carlton almost laughed when he saw the four hunters that had come with Roman standing by the large double doors leading into the room. Each held a weapon in their hands. Carlton had no idea what type of guns they were, but he knew they were deadly.
He started laughing as he turned back to Roman. “And what makes you think my mate can’t protect himself? He isn’t electus for nothing. Daniel is every bit as vicious and lethal as I am, maybe even more so. He’s been doing this a lot longer than I have. I’m sure he’s learned a few tricks over the years.” Carlton leaned in close and lowered his voice to a mere whisper. “And just so there are no more questions, Daniel tops me, and he does it very well.”
Roman’s eyebrows shot up, and he glanced past Carlton. “Really?”
“I can assure you, I’m a very happy wolf.”
Roman’s eyes snapped back to Carlton. A smile started to spread across his lips and then, to Carlton’s shock, Roman began laughing. He felt the knife pressed against stomach being removed and the tension that had been holding Roman’s body stiff faded away.
Carlton didn’t exactly understand what was going on, but Roman pretty much freaked the shit out of him. The man was off his fucking rocker. It was probably why he made such a good hunter. He was nuts.
Carlton loosened his hold on Roman and moved back until he felt Daniel’s hands land on his waist. He refused to take his eyes off of the hunter, but he did lean back against his mate’s chest.
“You need to stay away from him, mate,”
Carlton said through their bond.
“He’s crazy.”
He could hear the amusement in Daniel’s voice when the man replied to him.
“Duly noted, anamchara.”
“Now that you’ve both measured your dicks,” Luca said, “do you think we could get back to finding our people?”
Carlton emitted a low guttural growl. Despite his status as an electus, Luca was not his leader. Luca just rolled his eyes and went back to the maps on the desk he had been looking at.
“We suspect there is a hunter gathering place here.” Luca pointed to a spot on the map.
Roman looked at the map and shook his head. “No, that’s just a bar for wannabe hunters. They just sit around and drink while they talk about what they would do if they ever saw a real live vampire.”
“Could this guy of yours see the bar as a good recruitment center?”
Roman shrugged. “He’d be stupid to pick any one of those fools, but then again, he already is, so maybe.” Roman’s eyes narrowed for a brief moment. “And he’s not
my guy
. We kicked his ass out of the club, remember?”
“He’s still a hunter,” Carlton stated. He was having a really hard time understanding the difference between the two groups. Hunters were hunters. They killed paranormals. It was as simple as that for him.
“No, he’s not!” Roman snapped as he turned to glare at Carlton. “He’s a killer.”
“Isn’t that what hunters are?”
“Look, even you have to admit that there are paranormals out there that believe humans are beneath them. They hunt us, killing us for their own amusement. They even hunt other paranormals for their own amusement.”
Carlton hated to admit it, but Roman was right. There were others out there that saw any but themselves as lower life-forms. But mostly he hated having to admit anything Roman said was right. “Okay, I’ll give you that.”
“Those are the ones we hunt. I could care less if you suck the blood of some human that has offered himself up in one of your little blood bars. They know what they are getting into. It’s the vampires that hunt unsuspecting victims that I have an issue with.”
“So, you just hunt vampires then?” Why were they so special?
“No, we hunt all paranormals.” Roman grinned wickedly. “Consider us the paranormal police. If one of your kind breaks the law, we bring their actions to their leader’s attention. If the alpha or electus doesn’t deal with them, then we step in and handle it. We do not hunt indiscriminately. A law has to be broken first.”
“But who decided what these laws were?”
“Actually,” Luca said, “I did.”
Carlton’s jaw dropped.
“Roman’s group of hunters was established by his grandfather during a particularly grim period in our history. Paranormals were out of control, killing anything and everything. They needed to be stopped for our sake as much as the humans.”
Carlton’s eyebrows shot up. “You started the hunters?”
“No.” Luca chuckled lightly. “But after several rogue vampires were eliminated by the hunters, I started to put two and two together. I set up a meeting with Roman’s grandfather, and we sat down and worked out an agreement between the two of us, a set of laws that every member of my tribe was bound to follow. Failure to follow these laws was grounds for execution.”
“You agreed to this?” Carlton swung around to stare at his mate. “Did you know about this, too?”
“I knew. Luca brought me in on it when I moved to the area and took over my territory. I met with Luca and went over the laws he and Roman had set up. They seemed pretty straightforward, so I agreed to them. It keeps the hunters from hunting us unless we break these laws, and it gives our people a set of ground rules to follow.”
“And when were you going to tell me about this?” Carlton pushed away from Daniel, his hands landing on his hips as anger filled him. “Or don’t wolf shifters figure into your little set of laws?”
“An agreement was reached with the former alpha of your pack,” Roman said. “It should have been brought to your attention when you took over.”
“Well, it wasn’t,” Carlton snapped. “This is the first time I’ve heard of this.”
“Anamchara, could Ben have kept this from you?”
Carlton frowned. He hadn’t thought of that. Ben had been the beta to the former alpha, so it made sense that he knew about the treaty and laws. It just didn’t explain why the man hadn’t said anything when Carlton took over.
“Why would he keep it from me, though? I’d think having an agreement with the hunters and a set of laws to follow would make things easier for our pack.”
“You didn’t think he’d try and kill you either.”
“Look, Carlton,” Luca said. “I’d be happy to sit down with you and Roman and go over these laws so we can set up a new agreement, but right now we need to figure out where these new hunters are holding our people.”
“Fine.” Carlton folded his arms over his chest and turned to look at the map on the desk. He knew when he was beat. He still wanted to have a long conversation with Daniel about whatever else he might not know, but he understood the hurry in finding their missing people.
“I don’t think it’s likely that our people are being held at this bar,” Luca said as he glanced up at Roman. “Any ideas where they might be?”
“I have a few ideas but nothing concrete,” Roman replied. He looked grim, the corners of his mouth pulling down in a deep frown. “After we kicked this guy out, we tried to keep an eye on him because frankly, he gave me the willies, but he kind of up and disappeared.”
Roman grabbed a pen and leaned over the map. He made a couple of circles on the map. “These are the places we know wannabe hunters hang out.” Roman made a couple of
X
s on the map. “These are places we tracked this guy to.” He glanced up at Luca. “At least, where we tracked him to a few months ago. I can’t promise he’s still there.”
Luca was silent for a moment as he stared down at the marks Roman had made on the map, and then he rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “We need to organize some special units to go in and search these places.”