Out Of The Shadows (5 page)

As hard as he found it to keep his hands off Dane when they were with the guard or when they went for a drink at Howlers after work, Jai was always heartened by the knowledge that, at the end of the night, he had Dane all to himself. 

Dane awoke to the sound of his mobile phone ringing and glanced at the clock—he hadn’t been asleep for long. He and Jai had come home at around nine o’clock from Howlers and the moment he was though the door, Jai pounced. Not that he objected, although he might be sitting down awkwardly later. Now, he had been roused from the warm comfort of Jai’s bed, and his mate’s arms, by his damn mobile phone.
This had better be important
, he thought, following the ringing to the pile of clothes Jai had stripped him out of earlier. It took him a few moments to find the small black phone in his jacket pocket.

“Hello?”

Jai rolled over in bed and stretched out an arm. He frowned when he found the rest of the bed empty and opened his eyes. Dane was pacing the room, his phone pressed to his ear, listening.

“I’ll fucking kill him,” Dane growled into the phone, his face like thunder.

Seconds later, Dane flipped his mobile closed and started to pull on his jeans. He noticed that Jai was awake.

“I have to go,” he said curtly.

Jai climbed out of bed and grabbed Dane’s arm as he went past again, buttoning his shirt.

“Who was that?” he asked.

“My sister. That fuckwit of a boyfriend of hers came home from the pub and started on her. She said he took a swing at her,” Dane told him angrily. 

“Is she alright?”

Dane shook his head. “She says she’s not hurt. She’s locked herself in the bathroom and called me; I’m going to rip his bloody head off if he’s even put a scratch on her.”

Jai was dressed in record time, jamming his feet into his boots without bothering to lace them as he hurried after Dane.

“I’m coming with you.” When Dane began to protest, he added, “How else are you going to get there?”

Dane sighed; his car was still out of action, currently broken down in his driveway. He followed Jai out to the Jeep, in the garage next to Jai’s bike, and climbed in, passing on the address. Suddenly, he had the urge to reach out and touch Jai but he stopped himself, not knowing what to do. He had never been able to—or wanted to, if he thought about it—openly touch any of the men he’d been with and the knowledge that he was allowed to with Jai made him unsure. But Jai took the decision away from him by reaching out to close Dane’s hand in his own. He smiled gratefully. Just being in contact with his mate—
his mate, Jai
was
his mate
—made him feel calmer than he had since picking up the phone ten minutes ago.

He gave out directions to Jai as they sped along the streets until, about twenty minutes later, they came to a stop in front of a mid-terrace house on the outskirts of the neighbouring town. Jai switched the engine off.

“I can handle this on my own,” Dane told him, climbing out.

Jai smiled. “It’s not you that I’m worried about,” he commented, following Dane into the small yard where he began pounding on the house door with one fist.

There was no answer, but their wolf hearing picked up the sound of a man’s voice cursing whoever was hammering on the door. Dane did it again.

“I’m going to kick this down in a minute,” he growled, doubling his efforts, and the volume.

An elderly lady’s head appeared out from the upstairs window next door, her grey hair pinned up with rollers.

“Young man, people are trying to sleep!”

Dane looked up at her. “We’ll be gone as soon as I get my sister away from that bastard.”

The old lady frowned at his language but seemed to consider what he’d said for a moment, chewing on her lower lip thoughtfully as he hammered on, the door again. From the look on her face, she didn’t think much of her neighbour either, even if she didn’t approve of Dane’s terminology.

“They keep a spare key under the flower pot for emergencies,” she said and ducked inside, slamming the window again.

Jai looked under the pots and, on his third try, found a single silver key. He passed it to Dane, who opened the door and marched inside. They were barely through the door when a dishevelled man in his early thirties came out of the kitchen. He stared at them through slightly unfocussed eyes, a beer bottle clutched in one hand.

“Who the fuck’re you and what the fucking hell you doin’ in my house?”

Dane walked over to him, grimacing at the stink of booze on the man’s breath.

“I’m Sasha’s brother, dickhead, don’t you remember? Where is she?”

The man gave him a look of disbelief, backed by alcohol-fuelled bravado. Had he been sober, he might have realised that Dane and Jai had him outweighed, outnumbered, and could easily beat him senseless.

“None of your business—she doesn’t want to see you.”

“Then why did she call me?” Dane asked.

“Stupid bitch—”

He never got to finish the sentence. Dane reached out and closed his hand around the man’s throat. He heard Jai utter a low warning behind him and he eased his grip, squeezing just enough to make the man struggle, but not enough to choke him. The little cretin had no chance of breaking free, but he still tried, lashing out with his feet and fists.

“Kick me one more time and I’ll break your kneecaps,” Dane promised him, and the man froze. “Now, where is my sister?”

Finally, the man’s sense of self-preservation kicked in. “Upstairs. Locked herself in. Second door.”

Dane let him go, dropping him in a heap on the floor. “You better pray she’s alright or you’re going to need an ambulance.”

Jai eased closer to speak to Dane. “Go get her. I’ll keep an eye on him,” he said. “I’ve got a spare room and she’s welcome to it for as long as she needs, since I know you’ve only got one room at your place.”

Dane nodded, relieved that he had Jai with him. He had been ready to strangle Sasha’s boyfriend and probably would have had Jai not been there. Leaving Jai with the man, he took the stairs two at a time and hurried along the upstairs hall.

“Sash? Open the door.”

There was a rustling from behind the door. “Dane?”

“Yes, it’s me, honey.”

The door opened a little and Sasha peered through the crack. When she realised that he was alone, she came out and threw her arms around her brother, burying her face in his jacket.

“It’s alright, hon. Nick is downstairs; I’m not going to let him near you,” Dane told her. He carefully took her chin in his hand and angled her face up toward him. She had the beginnings of a bruise across her left cheekbone, and her eyes were red from crying.

“Dane, I’ll be fine,” she told him, seeing the anger on his face.

Dane shook his head. “I’m going to kill him.”

“No, leave him. Please; I just want to get out of here,” she begged, tightening her grip on his arms.

Looking into his sister’s tear-filled eyes, he relented. “Come on, Sash, let’s get your things.”

Five minutes later, with a couple of carrier bags of clothes and personal effects, Dane and Sasha were back downstairs. Jai came to meet them, causing Sasha to back off when she saw him.

“It’s alright, he’s a friend. This is Jai.”

Jai took the bag from her to carry out to the Jeep as Dane went back to her boyfriend.

“I’ll be back for the rest of her things tomorrow,” he said. “If I were you, I wouldn’t even
think
of doing something stupid like getting rid of them or dumping them out on the lawn.” He smiled pleasantly and patted the man on the head as he would a small child. “See you tomorrow, Nicky.”

* * * *

Once they were all in the Jeep, Dane sitting in the back with Sasha in his arms, Jai set off. He drove them back to his home, relieved when Dane didn’t object. He wanted to have his mate close tonight, even if he couldn’t take him to bed for fear of Sasha finding out her brother’s secret. He showed her to his guest room and let Dane reassure her that she was safe here, going to sit in the lounge. Slouching on the sofa, he turned the TV on low, flicking through the channels.

He looked up as Dane sat down next to him.

“Is she okay?”

Dane nodded. He looked worn out now that the anger had drained from him, and he heaved a sigh of relief.

“I should have done something earlier,” he said. “Nick knows how to act when he’s around others, you know, but he treats Sasha like shit. He was fine until a few months ago, when she moved in, and then he changed. She used to call me and even though she told me everything was fine, I could tell something was wrong. I knew he could get nasty when he’d had a drink, but I never thought he’d take it out on Sash.”

Jai frowned. “Is this the first time he’s hit her?”

“She says it is.”

They sat in silence for a while, staring at the TV without really seeing what was on it until Dane said, “Thanks.”

“For what?”

“For going with me to get her,” Dane told him, “And for stopping me from hurting Nick. You didn’t have to get involved.”

Jai reached out and took his hand, acing their fingers together. “I
am
involved and if I can help you, then I will. That’s what mates do.” He paused, glancing back to the spare room door. “I wouldn’t have left her in that situation, even if she hadn’t been your sister.”

Dane leaned over to brush a kiss over his lips, surprising him. He had expected Dane to revert back to his usual hesitant behaviour since Sasha was in the flat. Reaching out, he drew Dane into his arms, holding him closer as he deepened the kiss. When he traced his tongue along the seam of Dane’s lips, the other man opened up for him.

* * * *

It was still dark when Dane was roused from his sleep by a sound from somewhere nearby. He blinked a couple of times to focus, his eyes shifting to wolf so that he could see better in the faint light. There was someone in the room, but before he had the chance to sit up the light came on.

At that point, he realised that he had been asleep on the sofa, sprawled half on top of Jai. His head rested on Jai’s shoulder, into the crook of his neck, his arm around Jai’s middle. Quickly adjusting his position, he nudged the sleeping body beside him. Jai yawned, blinking awake. He glanced at Sasha, then at the hand he had on Dane’s arse, his palm slipped down the back of his unfastened jeans, quickly removing it.

“Sash, is something wrong?”

For a long moment, she stared at her brother before shaking her head. “I was just going to get a drink of water.” She hesitated, her gaze flicking to Jai. “That’s alright, isn’t it?”

Jai nodded, extricating himself from the tangle of limbs on the sofa and stood up.

“I’ll show you where the glasses are.”

Sasha followed him into the kitchen and got her drink, turning back to eye him curiously. When she went back to bed, she paused to cast the same look over her brother before closing her door behind her.

“Well, that was awkward,” Dane commented as he came to lean against the doorframe. He ran his fingers through his hair uneasily. “I should have been more careful.”

“Maybe you ought to just tell her the truth,” Jai suggested. “She wasn’t angry, just puzzled.”

He had sensed her confusion, scenting it on her, but that was all. There had been no anger or disgust at finding her brother asleep with another man, in a situation that was blatantly more than just the usual wolves’ need for contact. Then again, maybe she hadn’t realised the difference.

“Sasha’s not a werewolf, is she? She smells of wolf but something just feels wrong.”

Dane shook his head. “No, she’s not. My mum and dad are both wolf, but for some reason the gene skipped Sasha, making her one hundred percent human. We think that because Dad was born of one were and one human parent, that human trait passed to Sasha.”

“It must have been hard for her growing up in a were family and being the only human,” Jai said.

“It was. She was treated as one of the pack but she was always different, always the weakest of us, the slowest.” He went back to the lounge, settling himself in one of the armchairs this time. “She used to say I was the only one who never treated her differently; the others looked after her like she was a fragile little doll and she hated it. When she decided that she was moving out Dad tried to stop her, wanting to protect her, but Sash wanted to get away from the pack completely. She wanted to try living in a world where everyone was like her. It didn’t go down too well with Dad.”

“It seems to me that she knows what it’s like to be on the outside, feeling different to everyone else around her,” Jai observed. “You’re going to have to talk to her about tonight, Dane.”

Dane’s shoulders sagged. “I know.”

Jai stood and headed for his bedroom. “I’m going to get some sleep. I’ve already got a crick in my neck from falling asleep on the sofa.” He glanced back to Dane. “You coming?”

He knew the answer before Dane even spoke; one close call was enough.

“I’m going to sleep on the sofa,” he said.

Jai went into the office the following morning, leaving Dane to sleep. He hadn’t seen anything of Sasha yet and he had the feeling that she was lying low until he had gone. He told Ret what had happened—most of it—and that Dane wouldn’t be in today. He knew that Ret wouldn’t mind since it was family.

* * * *

Dane awoke to a quiet house. Sometime after he had gone to sleep, someone had covered him with a blanket and he shrugged it off, getting up off the couch. The smell of toast came from the kitchen, making his stomach rumble hungrily, so he headed that way.

“Morning.” Sasha was just tidying up from her breakfast as he came in. She smiled. “You look rough, didn’t you get much sleep?”

He accepted the mug of tea and plate of toast she offered and sat down at the small table. “Not really. Look, Sash, about last night,” he began. “It wasn’t what it looked like…”

“That’s a shame.”