What's Your Poison? (2 page)

“We feel fine,” they said in unison, nodding quickly, as if that was supposed to reassure him. Somehow it didn’t. Perhaps he should have mixed it with a half bag instead. He’d learned while being part of the coven that the blood of a mate was a powerful stimulant, but had dismissed it, mostly since there was little scientific basis for the statement.

“Thanks, Jake,” the elders called over their shoulders before they disappeared in a blur. Jacko was in for a hell of a ride. Of course, the young wolf shifter seemed to enjoy every minute of being with the two elder vampires, from what Jake could see, and never appeared upset or abused in any way from what Jake had observed. If anything over the last few months, the elders had had to up their game to keep level with the pup.

Snorting, he snapped on a new pair of gloves and set about seeing if he could aerosolise the serum for wider and more efficient dosing. He didn’t see the shifters wanting to guzzle down a pint of blood and he certainly didn’t want to be the one stuck jabbing needles in people like some sort of manic Tim Burton character.

“Let’s see if we can’t fine tune you,” he mumbled to himself as he walked over to the microscope and started playing. This was his forest in here. Hear him howl.

After hours thinking and testing, he figured out the best way to deliver the serum to shifters until he could fix the bugs in the aerosol system would be to inject it directly into the blood stream. In his calculations, this method took longer to be effective, but it still had almost one hundred percent success rate. The only downside was that it would take longer to sink into the shifter’s system and therefore take more time to counter the serum. There was a small risk the extra time would decrease the potency. However, no tests had confirmed that to be the case so he’d been happy to go ahead and give Alpha Remy the shot.

He’d taken the idea from the way Elder Van and Lavi acted after ingesting the blood and added a stimulant to the serum, which should work with the shifter metabolism to speed up the timeframe. In theory.

When he’d tinkered as much as he dared with the serum, he’d called the Blood Moon Pack alpha over to his lab with permission from Elder Dimitri, since Jacko’s elders were most likely otherwise engaged.

“I think you are about done,” he said, removing the needle from Alpha Remy’s arm. He didn’t bother putting a cotton ball over the small wound where blood immediately beaded as Skylar swooped in and sealed his mouth over it, moaning in a way that even turned Jake on a little.

The alpha’s gaze shot up from his mate to Jake, pinning him with a knowing stare.

Instinct demanded that he submit to the much stronger male, and he tipped his head back. His jackal forced him to bare his neck so much that he could no longer see the alpha pair and his heart rate picked up as he waited for alpha’s reaction. In the past, if the pose wasn’t submissive enough, his old alpha had taken a whip to his back and given him fifty lashes with a poison tipped whip. Jake had quickly learned that if he wanted to avoid punishment he had to show the proper respect.

Nothing happened for a long moment and he was too panicked to decipher the scents of the emotions flooding his nose. He trembled as he continued to wait—his training winning out against his fight or flight base instincts. He clenched his eyes shut and tried to think past the pulse pounding in his ears.

“Oh, Jake. It’s okay. Remy wouldn’t hurt you,” Skylar cooed as a hand lightly tapped his arm once, then again, sliding up to his shoulder. He registered the touch of a friend and relaxed the smallest amount. He straightened and stopped trembling, but kept the submissive neck-baring pose.

“I’ve been waiting for you to come to me or show up at a pack run, but you stay away. I see now I should have gone to you instead. Do you want to join my pack, Jake?”

His jackal whimpered inside at the alpha’s voice. He heard the anger in Alpha Remy’s tone, hidden just beneath the surface. Angering an alpha meant pain. For him.

“You’ll still be part of the coven, we talked to Elder Lavi weeks ago about it in case that was what has been holding you back,” Skylar added to Alpha Remy’s generous offer.

“Why would you want a broken jackal in your pack? I’ve heard the vampires talking about the strong shifters you’ve taken in,” he said unable to keep his eyes shut any longer. He needed to see them. Skylar stood next to him, touching his arm, and Remy just in front of him. There wasn’t an ounce of aggression in the alpha’s body language at all. Had he imagined the anger? Risking a deep breath to analyse the emotions on the air, he detected the familiar bitterness of anger.

“We’ve also accepted not so strong or dominant shifters as well, including the group that said they’d been told about a safe place where the alpha wouldn’t abuse them or exploit them. They said a jackal told them,” Remy revealed with a soft voice, looking at him kindly.

“I may have sent out a few feelers and nudged them in this direction,” he hedged.

“Then why on earth did you think we wouldn’t want you?”

Jake shrugged, unwilling to commit to an answer. There were lots of reasons, and he thought many of them were fairly obvious. He knew Skylar must have told his mate what he knew about Jake’s old pack. It would have been illogical of him to think he had a place with a real pack. He had a home with the coven, where people left him alone unless they wanted something, and on the few occasions that the need to run in his jackal skin had become too much to resist, Elder Lavi and Van had stood guard over him and protected him. They understandably hadn’t had time lately, with the Trevor situation and being newly mated.

“Do you want to be part of a pack or are you happy as a lone shifter in a house full of—” Alpha Remy cut off with a laugh as Skylar glared at him. “Just joking, love.”

“You better be, or you know when Jake’s antidote starts working you’ll be left to stroke off alone,” Skylar warned, digging into his pocket and throwing something at Alpha Remy. Despite the fact that Skylar was blind, he had perfect aim, and what looked like a sachet of lube hit the alpha square in the chest.

Jake observed the pair as his heartbeat and breathing returned to normal. It was hard to be scared when the people you were afraid of were teasing and laughing. Now that he could think clearly, he was beyond embarrassed. He hadn’t experienced a complete shut down like that since a few weeks after Elder Lavi and Van had taken him into their coven. The step back frustrated him. It wasn’t rational that he would still be affected by his past when he was far away from it all and years had passed.

Growling, Alpha Remy grabbed Skylar up into his arms, and the vampire went willingly. The couple kissed and Jake’s heart pumped faster for a different reason than fear. They looked like they’d die if they didn’t get enough of each other and he knew it was far too soon for the serum to have worked, so this was the heat created between just them, without the bond being complete on Alpha Remy’s side.

“See, you can’t resist me. Like you could stay away—everyone knows how obsessed you are with my ass.” It would have come across as cocky if not for the fact that Alpha Remy was panting. A quick look downward confirmed his suspicion when he saw the wolf’s obvious erection testing the tensile strength of the jeans the man wore.

He cleared his threat to remind the pair he was still there. He really didn’t want them fucking in his lab. The pheromones alone would prevent him getting any work done today.

Alpha Remy’s head snapped in his direction and Jake froze again. He fought the urge to bare his neck for a second time and managed to get away with only tipping up his chin ever so slightly. It was progress.

It also wasn’t missed by the alpha’s sharp eyes, either. Alpha Remy nodded to him. “Think about it, okay?”

“I will, thank you, Alpha Remy.” He dropped his chin and forced a smile.

“No, thank you. It’s because of you I might be able to fully claim my mate tonight. No one else could have done that.”

That wasn’t true—they’d only need to get another group of jackals or track down the original creator of the poison to be able to manufacture a similar serum. However, he accepted the praise for what it was as gracefully as he could, which involved staying silent and hoping the attention on him would go away. He wanted to get back to his science and take his mind off the memories that had been dragged up.

The alpha couple left, leaving Jake in his blessed quiet lab. A quick check of the clock told him he had exactly twenty-seven minutes to prepare the next serum dose and get his blood taking kit ready before Ashlock and Zeke arrived.

“So this is going to work, right?”

Zeke danced from foot to foot, staring at Ashlock finishing the half bag of blood drawn from Zeke and mixed with the serum.

“Yes, this will work,” Jake repeated. Zeke had asked him the same question half a dozen times. He understood that the wolf was excited, but if Zeke asked that one more time, he was going to put some special substances into Zeke’s water bottle that would give the wolf a nasty case of flea rash for a week.

“I’m sorry. It’s just…when you called to say you’d done it, Ashlock told me about the stories of vampires claiming their mates and I
really
want to see if they’re true,” Zeke explained, rubbing Ashlock’s shoulders as the vampire drained the last of the bag.

“It’s okay.” Jake could forgive excitement and impatience. It wasn’t as if Zeke was the first horny male in his lab today. The others had had that aura about them, too—they’d just kept their incessant questions to themselves.

Organising his files and pilling them neatly, Jake casually asked, “So, has Sage left yet?”

It was all over the rumour mill that the only Lupe brother to not formally join Alpha Remy’s pack was leaving again soon. Some of the more talkative vamps in the coven were saying that he was a mole for the people behind the blood poisoning. Jackals blended into the background very nicely when they wanted to, even his scent and a few times recently he’d crept up on group of vamps to eavesdrop. If anyone made any sounds of treason, he was going straight to the elders and Alpha Remy. He just had to bide his time and be patient as he stayed in the shadows.

“Not yet. Skylar is making him take some of Alex’s toys with him,” Zeke answered distractedly, watching his mate closely, as if he thought Ashlock was going to keel over at any second.

Jake nodded as though he understood what that meant. Alex was the hawk enforcer for the Blood Moon Pack that had a knack for computers. That must mean that Sage was going into a dangerous situation, or that Alpha Remy didn’t trust the wolf to come back when he was done. Even Jake had picked up on the tension between the family members. Secrets would do that.

In his peripheral vision, he saw Ashlock’s eyes return to their normal colour, and Ashlock stood. “Hey, Remy told me to say we’re going to hit up a bar or throw a BBQ or something in a few days to celebrate. You have to be there, okay, guest of honour?”

“Will there be pizza?”

“Of course, we’re not animals.” Zeke smirked as he said it.

“Then I’ll drop in,” he promised, smiling back.

The wolf and vampire left, taking the smell of arousal with them. What was it with the couples around here? Anyone would think he’d accidentally put
Viagra
in the food again.

He finished putting his notes in order and disposed of the syringe and blood bag. The lab seemed cold and empty now that all his visitors were gone, and his jackal didn’t want to be cooped up in there all night running machines and more tests.

Jake stared at the equipment on the table. He supposed it could all wait until morning. He should probably see how the pairs he’d already given the serum to reacted anyway, in case there was a problem.

“A bar? Now that sounds like a good idea,” he said to himself, snapping off the gloves and throwing them in the trash. He flipped the light off as he left the lab and set the automatic lock timer.

Chapter Two

Jake

Jake took one of the empty seats at the bar and waited for an opportunity to get the bartender’s attention. At the moment, the blond man looking to be in his early twenties seemed to have his hands full serving another man, older, who had clearly started his party early.

The bar he’d walked into was nice, clean and didn’t smell like smoke or any kind of bodily fluid. The wall behind the bar was mirrored and shiny, reflecting the bottles of spirits and hard liquors. It made the area seem much lighter and larger. It was…nice. Jake wasn’t a connoisseur of bars, but this was definitely the nicest one he’d ever been in.

The ice in the fully stocked buckets with light glinting off the frozen cubes made him wonder about the properties of perhaps diluting the serum and freezing it as a method of introducing it into the body. That way the coven and pack could ingest it without compromising the structure of the serum. There were a lot of factors to take into consideration, but it could work. It would be easier than having to administer it one on one to all the shifters of Alpha Remy’s pack and the vampires in the coven.

After a few minutes, he was jolted out of his thoughts by a cough.

“What can I get you?”

“Umm…I usually just have a beer, but I fancy something different,” he answered, not really sure what he wanted.

“Okay.” The man on the other side of the bar nodded like that was a common predicament. “You drowning your sorrows or celebrating?”

“Believe it or not, celebrating,” he said with a wry smile.

Smiling, the bartender politely nodded in thanks to a young woman who’d brought her table’s empty glasses before turning back to Jake. “Ahh. So you’ve helped your friends out of a jam and they’re busy playing with whatever you fixed?”

“Yes. How did you know that?” A creep of unease shot down his spine.

“This isn’t my first night on the job. Try this. It’s my own invention, but I’m still working on the title—the one I have is a bit long. I’m thinking something like
Good things come to those who wait.
” The man didn’t wait for him to decide yay or nay, simply placed a martini glass on the bar and started pouring various bottles of juice and alcohol into a silver cocktail shaker with a scoop of ice. The bartender fitted the lid securely, then picked up the shaker and shook it vigorously, lifting it to one side then the other before rolling it in an elaborate flourish down his arm to land on the bar. After popping the top, the man poured the concoction into the glass. It was bright blue and sort of glowed.