Pricolici (3 page)

“Answer me.”

The demand was impossible to ignore.

“I didn't know it was your territory; I thought Carrow City was free territory. I’m just passing through. I was looking for… for….” Tucker blushed as his voice trailed off. He didn't really know himself, other than somewhere he could be safe. Another growl made him almost squeak in fear.

“I'm sorry! I'll leave. Right… right now.” Tucker tried to duck under the arm to his left. The lupe grabbed him, pinning Tucker’s arm to his side.

“Oh no. No one strolls into a den of the Pricolici and simply walks away. You're coming with me.”

Tucker was too scared to even think of objecting. The Pricolici were known throughout Daoi society as the most ancient of all the haitas. Full of Old Country warriors, some of its members had lived for over a thousand years. They were also the men who made up the Hunters. The lupes on the stage weren’t an unsanctioned haitas at all.

Shane had told him to go south on purpose.

Chapter Three

His old alpha had set him up. Tucker felt the pain of losing his haitas and the betrayal of the man he still thought of as his alpha swamp him all over again. Shane hadn't just sent him away; he'd sent him to be killed by the most brutal lupes of their kind for violating their territory. It would not be a kind end.

He would’ve fallen to his knees if the strong lupe hadn’t held Tucker pinned against his body.

It wasn't until the Pricolici lupe dragged Tucker into a back room behind the bar that he even thought to try to pull away. He shoved his arms back, pushing on the man’s sides as he tried to break out of the hold. He couldn’t stop, even when the lupe growled. He felt a whine building in his throat.

“Let me go!” he tried to shout, but his words came out in a strangled whisper.

Sharp teeth found his skin, biting into the nape of his neck, and Tucker yelped. He brought one leg forward, intending to kick his captor.

“I wouldn't do that.” Out of sight of the humans now, the large lupe simply picked Tucker up off his feet and slung him into a chair. Tucker jerked his arms into his lap as the chair was shoved forward. Pinned between the arms of the chair and the table, he wouldn’t be able to move quickly. Being trapped added to Tucker’s fear as he watched the other lupe stalk around to the front of the table. He planted large fists on the tabletop and leaned forward until he was only inches from Tucker’s face. “Stay there,” he growled.

Tucker bristled, more in fear than anger, but one warning look from those gleaming yellow eyes made him sink back in the chair. The angry lupe’s wolf was very close to the surface if his eyes had changed, and Tucker couldn’t risk the large male changing if he pushed him too far. A man might hurt him, but a wolf would tear him apart.

His wolf told him to stay put, but that wouldn’t have stopped Tucker from fleeing. Something else held him in place. He clenched his hands on the wood arms of the chair, his knuckles turning white. He watched as the lupe moved to a phone. His voice was harsh when he spoke. “Put Shane on the phone. Now. Tell him it’s Stelian.”

Son of a bitch!

No matter how hard he strained, Tucker couldn’t make out the other side of the conversation. He damned his weak senses. If only his wolf was stronger! He would never have been in this mess to begin with. At first he thought no one picked up the phone on the other end, but then Stelian growled.

Tucker sucked in a breath when Stelian spoke again. “I have him.”

There was a pause where the rapid pounding of his heart was all Tucker could hear. “You should have done better than that. What if something had happened? Do you think you’re allowed to pick and choose which of my orders you want to follow?” the lupe snapped, barely glancing at Tucker who quickly looked back down. He tried hard to look like he was minding his own business, simply staying put as ordered.

The lupe’s voice rose. “Hell yes, I would’ve blamed you! He was alone,” he growled. Tucker turned his head to try and hear the other side of the conversation, but the lupe suddenly went rigid and interrupted the person on the other end of the line. “I know him now. Do you need a reminder of who I am?”

Silence dominated the room for almost a full minute. The lupe’s white-knuckled grip on the phone slowly relaxed. 

“You're safe as long as no harm came from your poor judgment.”

The lupe slammed the receiver without even the courtesy of a goodbye. Before the Pricolici could turn around, Tucker made sure he stared at his hands, clenched together in his lap, and not at the angry lupe studying him. Tucker could feel the alpha staring at him intently; he cautiously raised his eyes for a brief second. Seeing his eyes were still glowing yellow, Tucker flicked his gaze back down to avoid irritating the enraged lupe further.

“My name is Stelian, and you are Tucker. You entered my territory.” Stelian's nostrils flared. “And you smell like—”

“I'm in heat. I know,” Tucker said in embarrassment, interrupting the lupe before he could say something crude. They always did, the dominant types. He wrapped his arms around his slender chest, knowing his pale skin would only make his blush show more. “I didn't know there were any wolves here, or I wouldn't have come. Shane told me to come here because I make everyone go crazy.” He swallowed hard, and shoved the pain of his alpha’s betrayal away. He had to pay attention to the other male.

If Stelian controlled the Pricolici, he was the strongest lupe in the country. It was his pure bad fucking luck that Tucker was stuck in a small room with him—with his damn pheromones going crazy and calling for every male with an ounce of dominance to claim him no matter what Tucker wanted. 

He was screwed, maybe even literally, unless he could figure a way out of this room.

“Is that what he told you?” Stelian stayed across the room from Tucker. He still seemed very volatile, and Tucker was glad for the distance between them. He didn't have anyone here who would protect him if the lupe got too close and attacked him like Martin had. Tucker had to get out of the club and get to his truck. He’d go east.

Far east.

“Well, is it?”

The question didn’t make any sense. Tucker knew exactly what happened to other lupes who got a good whiff of him. Look at how Stelian had acted in the bar with the human who’d been hitting on him. He snorted. Maybe if he explained Stelian would let him go. After all, what Alpha would welcome someone who invited chaos into their haitas?

“What else could it be? I attract males like a female calls to males when she’s ripe for claiming. Even females respond to it. I can feel this force inside of me, a strange heat welling up and spilling out into the air, but I can't do anything about it. Fights were breaking out in my haitas because of it. I know you were talking to Shane.” Tucker spat out his alpha’s name.

“That bastard sent me here on purpose. I am the weakest of the haitas, a nobody, and no one was strong enough to control themselves around me. Every time I’m around another lupe, they try to… try too….” He couldn’t say it.

“Mount you, whether you liked it or not?”

Tucker blushed, his face heating up until he had to be crimson, at the mental picture produced by the crude assessment. It was true, though. Tucker rubbed his hand over his neck.

“Did someone try to hurt you on your way here? Were you attacked by a human?” Stelian’s voice was a low snarl.

“No!” Tucker clenched his hands into fists.

“Shane got lucky then.”

Tucker tried to stay calm and ignore his resentment at the lupe’s obvious belief that he was too weak to protect himself at all. “I can handle the humans, and if you’ll just let me go, then my freaky pheromone problem won’t affect anyone in your haitas either. I’ll leave the city right now.”

Stelian’s nostrils flared as his hands slid over his lower stomach toward the waistband of his pants. “What makes you think your pheromones haven’t affected me already? That I’m not thinking about bending you over that table and mounting you right now?” Stelian smirked at him.

Tucker shuddered at the heat in Stelian's voice, and the look in those fierce eyes.

Shit!
He hadn't really noticed before, but Stelian had moved closer, edging around the table as they talked, inch by slow inch. Amazingly, Stelian was only several feet away, and Tucker could feel the alpha’s aura flowing toward him. He hadn't realized the true extent of the lupe’s power until that moment. Stelian dominated the room even without trying to exert the power that reinforced his status in his haitas.

“There will be no more talk of leaving. You're in my territory now.” There was satisfaction in Stelian's voice. “If your haitas didn't know what they had, then it’s not my place to enlighten them.”

‘What they—” Tucker froze when Stelian stalked the last few feet around the table. He grabbed the chair and slung it sideways. Stelian’s huge hands slammed down on either side of Tucker. His arms made a cage, penning Tucker when he tried to bolt out of the chair.

“You don’t want me here,” Tucker said in a shaky voice.

“Oh yes I do. You're very special,” Stelian said as he bent down to drag his nose up Tucker's neck. A stinging bite at Tucker's ear and a low growl stopped him when he tried to jerk his head back.
“Don't.”

Tucker froze at the order from a voice laced with an alpha lupe's growl. The ache he’d felt earlier from the bartender had nothing on the way he felt from the suddenly overwhelming surge of lust that emanated from Stelian.

Something welled up inside him, and Tucker’s eyes shifted. Everything became sharper and clearer when he saw through the eyes of his wolf. He knew his normally murky blue eyes now shone as golden as Stelian’s.

Entranced by the angles and shadows he'd missed with his human eyes, Tucker stared at Stelian's dusky skin where it stretched tight over his sharp cheekbones. The Pricolici were mostly ancient lupes who had emigrated from Romania. They’d passed that coloring on to their pups. Stelian’s Romanian blood gave him a deep skin tone. The yellow eyes of an excited lupe looked natural on him, as if he was never fully human.

Tucker couldn't help but lick his lips as he stared at Stelian’s strong and handsome face that matched the hard, muscular body he’d been pinned against earlier. All lupes were stronger than they looked, but Stelian was taller and more heavily muscled than the biggest male in his old haitas. Unbidden, the power inside Tucker poured forth and met Stelian's aura.

There was a sensation of blending, a mingling of two different yet similar forces. Stelian’s hand was hot against Tucker's chest as he tugged at the chain around his neck, pulling Tucker’s face closer to his. The lupe's breath puffed against his lips, only inches away from Tucker’s. It startled Tucker. He jerked away, his power snapping back inside him like a rubber band as his chair tipped over. Tucker fell with it, landing on his back. He tucked his body and rolled into a crouch, facing the larger lupe with his teeth bared.

His body was vibrating from growls deep in his chest as he glared at Stelian. “What did you do?” It startled him when his voice became lower and deeper. His inner wolf wanted out, but he didn’t know if it was to fight or play. Tucker had never felt so confused.

He edged toward the door.

Stelian jammed his thumb at his chest. “Me? I did nothing but answer your call, little lupe.” He smirked. “You’ve been calling me for months. I’ve been able to feel you for days now, getting closer. You've been in my territory before, in this very room in fact. As soon as you entered the club, I knew what you were.”

Tucker stopped and pulled himself erect, his hands clenched in frustration at his sides. “That's impossible! I've never been here before. I'd remember.”

“Not in person, but your spectral aspect has been here.”

Tucker scoffed. Was he insane? “Spectral aspect? What in the hell are you talking about?” No wonder everyone feared the Pricolici, if they were controlled by an insane lupe with what felt like an unlimited power.

“I told you. I know what you are. Don't try to deny it.” Stelian glared at him, and Tucker glared back with equal intensity. He knew he shouldn't antagonize Stelian. He was the strongest lupe he’d ever felt, but Tucker needed answers.

“What do you think I am then?”

“A hultan.”

“A hultan,” Tucker repeated flatly. He shook his head and crossed his arms over his chest. “What in the hell is that exactly? Some pathetic lupe rank only the colossally unlucky are born to become?”

"A priest. A hultan is a priest."

Tucker burst out laughing. He closed his eyes and laughed until tears leaked out of the corners. Stelian growled. Tucker could smell his anger. Normally he’d be running out of the club as fast as he could, but he couldn’t seem to leave. Now this crazy lupe thought he was some holy man. “I don't think so. I'm not even religious, much less Catholic. Nor do I wish to take vows of celibacy.” Tucker shivered at the thought and rolled his eyes. A priest?
Yeah right!

Stelian made a dismissive sound and looked at him in disgust. “You’re impossibly young. You know nothing.” He muttered something about lupes under a century that Tucker couldn’t quite hear.

“True.” Tucker shrugged. He couldn't argue with that. Of course he knew crazy when he saw it, and Stelian was bat shit bonkers. He’d play along for a little bit, maybe then Stelian would let him go. “I've only been a lupe for six months. Of course, that’s all it took for my haitas to kick me out, so obviously I’m a piss poor lupe.”

Stelian's eyes widened and then squeezed shut. He pinched the bridge of his nose. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “You transformed on your twentieth birthday?”

“Yes.”

Stelian's eyes were still shut but his hand fell to his side. “You are only twenty years old?” he asked again, as if the answer would change.

Tucker frowned at Stelian and then folded his arms across his chest. “Yeah, so what? You're all of what, twenty-seven?” Stelian was powerful, but that didn’t make him wise. He kept saying twenty years old like that made Tucker some sort of wet behind the ears baby.

Stelian opened his eyes.  His gaze was tired in a way Tucker couldn’t fathom. “I am two thousand three hundred and sixteen years old.”

Tucker looked at him in disbelief. “You… you're….” He slumped against the wall and stared at Stelian in shock. The man took advantage of Tucker's silence to continue.