Mating Games (12 page)

While Dobry was coming back down from his climax, Sebastian licked him clean as Alastar nibbled at the mating mark on Dobry’s neck. Sebastian looked up to see his baby panting, his eyes wide as he met Sebastian’s gaze.

“Wow,” Dobry whispered, “I didn’t think that could get any better.”

“Bed!” Alastar growled as he stood up with Dobry in his arms.

“Bed, right now!”

Sebastian chuckled and followed, grabbing his discarded jeans on the way. He was starting to wonder if Alastar had as large of a sex drive as he did. They sure as shit were going to have fun finding out!

“Hey, Matt,” Dobry said as he walked into the man’s office, “do you have anything I can do around here? I’m kind of going a little stir crazy.”

Matt swung around in his chair, his blond hair flopping across his forehead. “Hey, yeah, sure, what do you do?”

“Do?” Dobry asked.

“Well, yeah, I mean, do you know computers or something like that?”

“Um, well, I can get around one pretty easily, but I can’t, like,”

Dobry shrugged, “build one or anything.”

“What’s your area of expertise then?”

“Expertise?” Dobry repeated.

Matt laughed. “What kind of jobs have you had?”

“Oh, well, I’ve worked a few different jobs,” he said. “I guess I haven’t decided what I want to be yet now that I’m all grown up and all.”

“So, what have you done?”

“I worked in a mechanic’s shop for a while, but it quickly became apparent that I don’t know my way around an engine block.” Dobry snorted. “I can barely change a tire let alone repair something.”

Matt chuckled. “So cars are out. Anything else?”

Dobry shrugged. “I washed dishes for a while.” He grimaced.

“Kind of like to avoid that if I can.”

“Done.”

“I did some cooking but none of that fancy stuff.”

“Cooking?” Matt sat forward. “What kind of cooking?”

“The usual stuff, I guess, eggs, bacon, cinnamon rolls, basic breakfast type stuff.”

“You can cook cinnamon rolls?” Matt licked his lips as if drops of drool threatened to escape. “Real cinnamon rolls, like from scratch?”

Dobry frowned. “Is there any other way to make them?”

“Dude!” Matt exclaimed as he jumped to his feet. Dobry shrank back from the man as he reached for him. Matt just leaned over and grabbed his hand, dragging him to his feet anyway. “You have so got to make cinnamon rolls. I would kill for fresh cinnamon rolls. There isn’t a bakery within fifty miles of here. It’s been weeks since I had one.”

Dobry laughed and let Matt drag him to the kitchen. The man looked so excited that Dobry couldn’t say no. Matt practically bounced on his feet. “What do you need? Can I help? Can you teach me to make cinnamon rolls? I’m a good student.”

“Slow down, Matt,” Dobry said. “You’re going to

hyperventilate.”

“Dude, you just don’t understand,” Matt groaned. “We’re talking about cinnamon rolls, dude. You have no idea how long—”

“I need eggs and flour and sugar and—”

“Whatever you need, man…” Matt said as he started grabbing stuff out of the cupboards. Dobry read off the list of ingredients he would need from memory. He’d made enough cinnamon rolls to know the recipe by heart. He once worked in a bakery for a year.

It didn’t take Dobry any time at all to get the dough mixed together and rising in a bowl. He laid a pastry cover over it and turned to wink at Matt’s eager face. “We have about forty-five minutes until these rise. Want to walk down by the lake?”

“Yeah, sure, we can do that.” Matt’s eyes strayed to the bowl of dough, grimacing. “Forty-five whole minutes?”

“You want them to rise, don’t you?” Dobry asked. He patted Matt on the arm as he walked by. “Don’t worry, we let these rise, roll them out, add the filling and cut them, then put them in a pan. They rise once more and then we bake them and ice them.”

“Ooohhh, icing. I love icing.” Matt started bouncing again as he walked toward the door. Dobry wasn’t sure the man needed any icing.

The stuff was pure sugar. “Can I lick the bowl?”

“Yeah, sure, why not?” Dobry chuckled. Matt would be Zac and Aiden’s problem then. Dobry pushed his hands into the pockets of his jeans as they started down to the lake. This really was a beautiful place, one where Dobry knew he’d be happy to live.

He pointed down the shore a little ways. “I’m hoping to talk Sebastian into putting a little dock right over there. We can get a boat and moor it there, take it out on the lake and swim or fish or just laze about in the sun.”

“That would be cool,” Matt replied. “I love it out here. It’s nothing like where I grew up.”

“Where was that?”

“Back West. Nothing but sagebrush and weeds.” Matt shrugged.

“I guess it wasn’t too bad, but this is much nicer. You can really smell the clean country air here. Back home, if you inhaled you were more likely to get a lung full of dust.”

“Sounds…uh…inviting.”

“Yeah.” Matt chuckled. “I’ve only been here a few weeks, and already I don’t ever want to leave. Zac wasn’t too keen on the idea of the council selling us land that used to belong to another pack, but this place is great. I don’t know why anyone would ever want to leave.”

“Is that what happened?” Dobry asked. “Did the other pack leave?”

Matt shrugged. “We don’t know. It happened about thirty years ago, and the council won’t talk about it. So far, I haven’t been able to find anything online, either, and I’m pretty damn good at finding information when I want to. That’s kind of what I do, you know?”

“Seriously? You’re like a hacker or something?”

Matt nodded. “My job is officially office manager or something like that. I basically help with all communication between Zac and the council. When we’re given a mission, I research it first, then give the information to Zac. It helps him be prepared for the things the council
doesn’t
tell him.”

“And brings him home safe to you and Aiden,” Dobry added.

Matt chuckled. “And brings him home safe to me and Aiden.”

Dobry frowned. “I don’t think any of my meager talents will help with that.”

“So you can’t help bring them home safe, so what?” Matt asked as he bumped shoulders with Dobry. “Dude, if you can make cinnamon rolls then you can give them something to come home to. That’s just as important, you know?”

Dobry shuffled his feet, kicking at the ground beneath them. “I can make paczki, too.”

“Paczki?”

“Jelly-filled donuts with fresh fruit,” Dobry replied, “very yummy. It’s a Polish pastry that my grandmother used to make when I was a child.”

“I’ve died and gone to heaven,” Matt groaned. “Dude, you have no idea how much I’ve missed having desserts. None of us can cook worth shit. We’re lucky we haven’t poisoned each other by now.”

Dobry chuckled. “Well, I can’t cook much, but I do have a few recipes up my sleeve.”

“And that, my dear Dobry, is what you can give to the group.

Believe me when I say it would be greatly appreciated. We’re both mated to big, hungry Alpha males, each and every one of them. They have big appetites.”

“They eat a lot, too.” Dobry realized what he’d said and instantly felt his face heat up. Matt nearly fell over laughing, much to Dobry’s chagrin.

“Dude, you have no idea.”

“Well, I kind of do,” Dobry said. “I’ve had more sex in the last week…”

“It kind of happens that way when you’re mated to a Delta.”

“Naw, I never thought I’d like sex again after what Alpha Rodrick and his Betas did to me. I mean, I fooled around a little before that but nothing major. After that, though,” Dobry shook his head, “I didn’t think I’d ever want to be touched again, and now I can’t seem to get enough. How sick is that?”

“It’s not sick, Dobry,” Matt insisted. “It’s called being mated.”

“I guess,” Dobry replied, but he wasn’t so sure. He craved Sebastian and Alastar’s touch like he did air. He hated being away from either of them and usually became as hard as a rock the minute he scented either of them.

“Answer me this, then,” Matt said. “Do you love them?”

“Of course!” Dobry snapped, turning to glare at Matt. “I wouldn’t be with them if I didn’t love them.” He waved his hand in the air.

“This mating thing may be some sort of biological pheromone shit for Sebastian and Alastar, but it’s not for me. I’m here because I want to be here.”

Matt grinned. “Dude, you just answered your own question.”

Dobry frowned. “What fucking question?”

“You wondered why it was so easy to have sex with Sebastian and Alastar after what that Alpha did to you,” Matt said. “It’s simple. You love them, and they love you. That means anything is possible between the three of you.”

“Shit, I need to sit down.” Dobry pressed his hand against his temple. He suddenly felt overwhelmed, confused, and just a bit anxious.

“Dobry, are you okay?” Matt asked as he helped him over to a fallen log. “Should I get Sebastian or Alastar? Do you need to go back to the house?”

Dobry shook his head, then wished he hadn’t. It twirled so much his eyes watered. The sudden blinding pain behind his eyes didn’t help. Dobry’s stomach rolled. He covered his mouth with his hand and tried to breathe through his nose, afraid he was going to throw up.

“That’s it,” Matt said. “I’m going to go get your mates.”

He started to turn away when Dobry cried out, pain rocketing through his body from head to toe. It was so intense that Dobry started panting. He’d never felt such a level of pain, not even when Alpha Rodrick tortured him.

“Ma–Matt,” he whispered desperately. “I don’t—I don’t know wha—”

He felt Matt cradle him in his arms. “It’s okay,” he said. Dobry could hear the worry in his voice, the panic. “Sebastian and Alastar should be here soon. They’ll take care of you.”

It hurt to breathe, to blink, to even think. Dobry’s heart pounded in his chest. He was going to die. He just knew it. And he’d never get the chance to tell Sebastian or Alastar how he felt. He grabbed blindly at Matt’s shirt.

“Tell Seb–Sebastian and Alastar that I—that I—”

“They know, Dobry, I swear they know.”

As the pain intensified to a point that quickly became unbearable, Dobry opened his mouth to scream. As suddenly as it started, the pain was gone, leaving Dobry stunned. His body ached from exertion, but the intense pain was gone.

Dobry blinked several times. He glanced up at Matt to find the man staring down at him, his mouth hanging open. “What just happened?” he asked.

Matt shook his head. He looked beyond speech. Dobry knew how he felt. He was as confused as Matt. The pain he experienced had been intense, but it had left just as quickly as it came. He didn’t understand it.

“I think we need to get back to the house,” Dobry said weakly.

Matt nodded and held out a hand to help Dobry stand. Dobry climbed to his feet, feeling Matt’s arm wrap around his waist. His legs shook so bad that each step was slow and measured as they started back toward the house.

“Something’s wrong, Matt,” Dobry whispered. “I don’t know what it is, but something is wrong.”

“I thought you were going to die, Dobry.”

“So did I,” Dobry replied, “but the pain’s all gone, all of it. It’s like it never happened.”

“What do you think caused it?”

Dobry shook his head. “I haven’t a fucking clue. Just get me to the house. We can figure it out once we get there. Maybe Zac or one of the other guys has an idea.”

Matt nodded. Dobry could feel him quicken his pace. He knew he’d scared Matt just as much as he had been scared himself. He also knew that he needed to get to Sebastian and Alastar. The feelings of urgency and anxiety wouldn’t leave him even if the pain had.

Just as they came to the edge of the deck, Dobry stopped.

Something wasn’t right. He couldn’t put his finger on exactly what, but he knew something was out of place. He let his eyes slowly roam over the patio, looking for something, anything.

Dobry had no idea what he was looking for or if he’d even recognize it if he saw it. He just knew that something wasn’t right.

There really wasn’t much to see on the patio—a BBQ, a patio table, some potted plants, and lounging chairs. Everything looked as it did when he and Matt left for the lake.

Except for the way the lounge chairs were positioned. They had faced the lake when he and Matt went for their walk. Now, one was facing the patio table, and the other one was right where it should be.

Anything could have disturbed it, so why did it disturb Dobry so much?

“Matt, wasn’t that chair facing the lake when we left?”

Matt frowned as he looked at the lounger. “Yeah, I guess. Why?”

“Something isn’t right.”

“The lounger?” Matt asked. Dobry could hear the confusion in his voice. “Dobry—”

“It’s not just the lounger, Matt,” Dobry insisted. “Something is wrong. Can’t you feel it?”

Matt started to shake his head when they both heard a strangled cry from inside the house. Dobry froze. Matt froze. They both stared at the patio doors as if they might be able to see what was going on inside by sheer will alone.

“What was that?” Matt whispered.

Dobry shook his head, afraid to speak. He grabbed Matt’s hand and pulled him along as he crept up to the side of the patio doors. He pressed his body back against the wall, putting his arm out in front of Matt to get him to do the same.

Taking a deep breath, Dobry peeked around the edge of the patio door. They opened out from the small breakfast nook off the kitchen.

Dobry could only see as far as the kitchen archway.

He motioned to Matt to follow him and slowly opened the door.

The farther Dobry stepped into the house, the more he could see out of place—a cup knocked over on the counter, a fallen piece of mail on the floor. They were small things, but they shouldn’t have been there.

Dobry thought that Matt might be a little neurotic. He always liked things just thus and so, very clean and very organized. He got quite upset if they weren’t. He’d never leave a cup knocked over or a piece of mail on the floor. It would drive him crazy.

To Dobry, that meant things were out of place. Add that to the groan they heard from farther inside the house and he had no doubt that something was wrong. Dobry stepped quietly and slowly over to the kitchen archway.