Shifters of Grrr 1 (31 page)

“Tight,” Boone said roughly. “Tight, and mine. Say it!”

“I’m yours,” Jelal repeated the words torn from a deep place in his chest, hoarse and desperate for release. “Your mine. Fuck! Just fuck me, Boone.”

Boone laughed again, wild and savage, he sound trailing into a howl. “What do you think I’m doing? Fucking you hard. Taking this tight ass so you never forget me again.”

Boone’s cock seemed to swell inside Jelal as if going for one final push before the wolf thrust into him, ramming to the hilt, his hot cum seeding Jelal’s ass. It was then that Jelal allowed his own orgasm to crest, the pleaser in his ass mingling and igniting a release of the cock in his hand, his own cum spilling onto the ground. Their mingled scents filling the air along with their shouts of pleasure and triumph.

Leaning against Jelal, Boone’s arms wrapped around the human’s waist, his chest rising and falling against Jelal's back as he struggled for breath.

After a moment Jelal spoke. “When we were… together… I felt something. I felt-“

“I know.” Boone hesitated. “I… was hoping you could feel our bond. It’s dicey, with humans sometimes. Sometimes they can, sometimes they never do.”

“What happens when they never do?”

Jelal felt Boone’s grimace. “You don’t want to-“

Boone’s entire body stiffened, head snapping up in the direction of Grandma’s house. Jelal surged to his feet even as Boone leapt from him in a powerful flex of his thighs.

“What do you hear?” Jelal asked.
 

Boone looked at him for one brief second. “Keep up.”

Jelal cursed as he streaked off through the forest, human form morphing to wolf. The ex-football player wasn’t any stranger to running or mad dashes through the forest so he took off after the wolf at full speed- after a hurried moment to redress- focused on one thing. Getting home. Because there was only one reason why he would have suddenly abandoned Jal. Danger.

Jelal burst from the tree line into the clearing surrounding his grandmother’s home, breath harsh, blood boiling. He didn’t feel the strain, fueled by the shared energy of his new lover and fear for his grandmother. What Jelal saw momentarily stopped his heart. Boone and three other wolves he didn’t recognize circled two men, lips drawn over fangs. Grandmother half knelt, half sprawled on the porch, shotgun in steady arms. Jelal saw a trail of blood from her shoulder to her wrist and for one dark moment wished he were a wolf- knew that if Boone had offered the rare, risky transformation to him, he would take it, and tear flesh from bones of the enemies who dared harm the woman who’d raised him.

The two men in the circle couldn’t lift a hand to shoot. Every time they twitched, Grandma shot off her gun- warning shots, which he heartedly disagreed with. Shoot to kill, or not at all, damnit. The wolves growled and leaped, swiping at wrists as they moved. He didn’t quite understand the stalemate until Boone’s head turned. And then he understood. They were
his
prey; Boone had been saving them for Jelal.

He walked into the clearing, one enemy finally noticing Jelal’s presence, while the other continued to monitor the wolves. The sun was hot, dry earth and the stink of fear filling his nostrils; but he wanted the tang of enemy blood. A savagery he hadn’t experienced before rose in him, new feelings and instincts overtaking his blood and fueling every organ with the instinct to hunt.

“Boone,” he said. “I don’t need them alive.”

“Wait one minute,” Grandma snapped. “Whatever you’re going to do, you make sure you clean up the mess, you hear me? I don’t need no law lookin’ my way.”

He tried to go to her but she swatted him away, insisting it was a graze she could patch up herself. She wouldn’t get away with that shit, but he had a more urgent problem. Turning back to the caged assailants, he faced a dilemma. This wasn’t the movies- he couldn’t just put a bullet in their heads and walk away, instincts or no. But he couldn’t be a punk and ask the wolves to take care of it for him- that would be a galling hypocrisy. However, the stupidity of leaving an enemy alive behind him would be the worst sin of all.

Jelal approached. Was there a factory somewhere producing
 
replicas of semi-professional thugs of a middling nature? Not their bosses’ elite warriors, but the kind you sent out on jobs of average importance. He guessed he didn’t warrant more than a bored nod. It was comforting, really.

“I’m not a killer,” he said conversationally, stopping just outside the edge of the invisible circle of containment created by four aggressive and obviously supernatural wolves. Boone sidled next to him, coming to his waist and nearly as wide as a small pony. Definitely not your NatGeo variety wolves. “But it would be stupid for me to keep you alive when I have a vested interested in my own survival- and my Grandmother’s, who has nothing to do with this shit.”

The one closest to them eyed Boone and Jelal. Sweat shone through his pale blue polo, dust marks on the khakis. Jelal supposed the blazer jacket in hot weather was to cover his firearm. 

“This isn’t personal, kid. Your Grandma getting grazed was a mistake- someone shoots at us we shoot back.” he said. “Unsic the wolves and we’ll walk away and report back to boss. He’ll send more- but we can refuse the assignment.”

Jelal wondered how he was classified as a kid, but considered the offer.

“Here, look,” the man continued. “I’m gonna drop the gun and kick it away. I won’t make any sudden moves. Don’t bite me, okay? I’ve got another one on my ankle.”

Interesting, mob dude assumed the wolves understood him- the public usually got real life mixed up with lore when it came to werewolves despite all the PSA’s over the years. The man dropped his gun and kicked it away, his silent partner following suit. Boone’s form twisted, and the human emerged, naked and angry. “Get the one on your ankle, him too.”

They complied, disarming themselves.

“Your call, Jal. I’d be
happy
to leave them in a dark hole somewhere.”

Jelal grimaced. “Yeah, that’s probably the smart thing, but it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.”

“I didn’t raise no killer,” Grandma said, porch door banging shut. He noticed right away she’d changed her blouse and there seemed to be padding underneath the thin cotton. “You let these men go, you hear? But if they come back won’t be no more warning shots.”

“Yeah,” the guy said. “Real sorry about the misunderstanding, ma’am.”

She snorted. Jelal sighed, nodding at Boone. His wolves backed away, though there were no absence of fangs. The men kept their hands in the air, walking at a brisk but unhurried pace away from the house.

“Stay on them until they’re gone,” Boone said. His scouts immediately followed behind the enemy and son they disappeared into the tree line.

“Well,” Grandma said. “I guess that’s that. Need to get supper on the stove.” She paused, gave Boone an appraising look. “I can see why my boy takes to you.” And winked.

Boone blushed.

CHAPTER

4

Jelal didn’t like this feeling of reacting to events happening around him. And the bond settling into his blood, into his mind made him… itchy. Increased aggression, an almost insatiable desire.

“It will settle after a while,” Boone said, glancing away.

Jelal’s eyes narrowed. He was much better at reading body language these days.

“What aren’t you telling me?”

Boone grimaced. “It’s not that I’m not telling you something- the matings just affect different humans different ways.”

“Why are you worried?”

Boone turned to look at Jelal fully, exasperated. “This is going to be a pain in the ass. I think I liked you better when you weren’t wolf sharp. I just don’t want you to have second thoughts, or be frightened.”

“Uh… I think I can deal with it, Boone.”

He and Boone argued for a day over the next course of action. The wolf wanted Jelal to sit tight for a few more days, Jelal wanted to hop in his car and take the fight back to Austin. He was sick of waiting on someone to come and finally take him out. A phone call settled the argument.

The ring tone shut him up in the middle of another heated exchange; Jelal knew who it was, connecting the call and putting it on speakerphone.

“You’ve got some fucking nerve,” he snarled.

Kurt paused. “You’re a hard man to... track down, Jelal,” he said. “So I’m going to make you an offer. Let’s sit down and talk this situation out. I may have over reacted, but my associates prefer definitive action over none. You understand?”

“Do I have any choice but to be understanding?” he asked. “I left Austin, and you followed me here. I’m not trying to go to law enforcement with what I know.”

“I appreciate that,” he replied pleasantly. “And once that occurred to me, I realized we can probably come to an agreement. But I’d like to do it face to face.”

“You know where I am.”

“I do. I’ll be in contact with you shortly.”

He disconnected. Jelal stared at the phone, looked at Boone. “Do you think I can trust him?” he asked.

“Of course not. But this is our turf. If he brings more guns in, we’ll know.”

***

They waited a tense two days. He had to try to get on with his life- oversee his finances, begin to brainstorm plans for the future. If he was going to stick around- and it looked like he was- then he needed to find a job.

Cruising listings on the internet as a way to kill time, he looked up at the light knock on the front door. Knowing the wolves were on patrol, he wasn’t too worried. Setting aside his laptop Jelal rose from the couch and opened the door. A woman stood there, curly hair tied back in a dense ponytail, arms crossed.
 

He blinked. ”Lora?”

Her lip curled. “Points.”

Yeah. He remembered her. A surly teenager and probably even surlier adult. But she’d been the only other person to stand up for Boone- and she hadn’t minded using claws and teeth, despite orders at the time.

He opened the door. “What’s up? Come in.”

She shook her head, gaze scanning the surrounding tree line, shifting from one foot to the other.

“No, come with me. Boone spotted a guy in town- wants you to come take a look.”

He frowned. “Why didn’t he call?”

“He’s in wolf form, genius.”

He couldn’t let her get away with that shitty tone. “Why would Boone send a girl to tell me?”

Her eyes widened, then narrowed. “I’m his
second
, the strongest beta in the pack. So you can-”

He raised a hand. “Yeah, I get it. I’m coming.”

Jelal shut down his laptop and grabbed keys and wallet, texting grandmother a brief message letting her know where he’d gone before leaving the house. Lora was waiting outside, back to the house, when he emerged.

“Damn, you’re slow,” she said. “Let’s go.”

***

She rode a motorcycle. He climbed on the back, wrapping arms around her tense body. If she hadn’t wanted him touching her, she damn well should have driven a car. 

“I’m taking a shortcut through the woods,” she said. “I want to keep you out of sight as much as possible. So don’t freak out if it looks like I’m lost. I’m not.”

They roared off down the highway. Jelal wondered why she thought he would freak out- or assume they were lost. He maybe wrapped his arms a little tighter around her than necessary, expressing irritation in the only way he could. It wasn’t like his nerves were delicate, or something.

She drove off the highway onto a side road, narrow enough it wasn’t paved, and she had to slow down over the bumps in the terrain. She made several more twisty turns, weaving in and out of trees, heading to a destination he was no longer sure of. His sense of direction was decent- he didn’t think they were headed the right way. And then it hit him, right as she slowed to a stop and the cabin came into view. Jelal knew where they were.

“Why are we here?” he asked when she shut the bike off. He looked around, swinging off the bike and scanning the area. She jerked her head towards the cabin, face impassive.

“Sorry about that, Jelal,” the Program Director said, stepping out of the door. “But I wanted to have a private meeting.”

Jelal didn’t assume the worst until he glanced at Lora and she wouldn’t meet his eyes. Son of a bitch.

“I thought we were going to have a nice little chat in town over tea and cookies,” Jelal said.

Kurt smiled pleasantly, a middle-aged man in a sunny yellow polo and grey slacks, looking like a real estate broker on a casual Friday.

“This suits me just fine.” He gestured to the porch. “Why don’t you take a seat?”

Lora’s bike revved. Jelal glanced over again to watch as she took off, saying nothing.

“That girl doesn’t like you very much,” he said. “She came to me with information on you. Kind of made it easy for me.”

“Did she happen to say why?”

Kurt shrugged, sitting down on a rickety step. “She isn’t really the chatty type. Come on, Jelal, stop stalling.”

Pretty sure the Director hadn’t come alone- that would have been stupid, and he wasn’t stupid- Jelal walked towards him and sat down. Fuck. If he was going to be shot today, no use being a punk about it.