What's Your Poison? (3 page)

Jake blinked—he hadn’t been expecting that. “You’re right, it is too long a title but I’ll gladly play guinea pig.” If for no other reason than he had enjoyed the way the bartender’s arms had bulged while he’d made the drink.

He handed over his money, including a healthy tip, and the bartender left him to his drink in peace, heeding the irate call of an older woman who seemed to be more interested in trying to coerce the much younger bartender into giving her his number.

“To me, I guess.” He held his glass up.

He brought it to his lips and took a sip. His eyebrows rose as the surprisingly sharp taste slipped over his tongue. It was fruity with a kick and just the hint of a fresh mint aftertaste.

While swallowing his third mouthful, he felt a presence next to him as someone sat down on the previously unoccupied stool next to him. “Hello, Jake.”

His hand froze, keeping the glass suspended in the air.

“Sage,” he whispered, knowing the owner of the voice even before the wolf’s scent drifted over to him. It seemed like every time he was close to the man, his insides turned to jelly and his brain refused to spit words out in any comprehensible order.

His jackal shivered with excitement inside him and he forced himself to keep sucking in air and releasing it like normal even though his body felt like he was under water. “What are you doing here?”

There, that sounded normal. He could hold a regular conversation as long as he kept his words short and clipped. The last time he’d been alone with the wolf, he’d all but thrown himself at Sage. Dropping the bomb that he thought Sage might be his mate had gone down like a lead balloon. Thinking back on how he’d blurted it out, along with his past in his old pack, it was little wonder the man had run for the hills. That had been months ago.

“Are you going to look at me?”

“I am,” he responded in the same flat tone, opening his eyes to look straight ahead at the mirror behind the bar. Sage, as usual was stunning, wearing a black leather jacket with dark wash jeans and a grey T-shirt. He’d never seen the man when he didn’t look as if he’d walked off a billboard. It wasn’t fair. Jake was wearing his best smart casual outfit with the designer sports jacket Skylar had gotten him for his birthday, and he still hardly got any attention from either gender. Yet now he could scent the interest coming from at least three separate tables and saw them staring this way.

“No, you’re avoiding looking at me by glaring at my clothes in my reflection.”

Staying quiet, Jake was torn as to whether he wanted Sage to go away or stay with him. His jackal certainly knew which side of the debate he came down on, but that was just the primal and base centres of his brain urging him to claim what some strange and unexplainable twist of fate had decided to chain together. Maybe he could do a brain biopsy on himself to figure out why he wanted Sage so much.

“Jake?” This time Sage’s voice was soft, barely above a whisper, and Jake couldn’t help turning to the side so he could see the man in the flesh. As soon as he did, he wished he hadn’t, because now he wanted to touch and roll in Sage’s scent. “Why are you here?”

“Remy told me what you did. I wanted to say thank you. I’ve never seen him so happy.” Sage stood from the stool. “Come with me?”

He should say no, he knew he should.

“Ok.”

Sage’s hand came over his and gently lowered the glass to the bar. Jake let go and allowed Sage to pull him from the stool and lead him though the bar to a roped off section. He was going to protest, but the bouncer guarding it just lifted the rope to let them through without saying anything.

“How?”

“He’s an old friend,” Sage answered with the hint of a smirk.

As they passed, the human smelled interested, and Jake’s animal growled at the level of familiarity and knowledge in the bouncer’s eyes when he stared at Sage. Friends—right. If there hadn’t been anything sexual between the two before Jake would eat his lab coat.

When he tried to assess how Sage felt, he only picked up the smell of alcohol from the bar, the leather of the couches in this VIP area, and the faint smell of disinfectant and lemon that spoke of someone cleaning in there recently. He couldn’t detect Sage’s scent at all, but he knew he had back at the bar—it had driven him to distraction, the richness that had smelled like cinnamon bark and rushing river water. But now...nothing.

“How are you hiding your scent?”

“Practice,” Sage said vaguely, still pulling him deeper into the VIP area until Jake couldn’t hear the noise from the bar anymore.

“That is not possible without scientific alteration and manipulation of your shifter genes.”

Being on the run from his old pack had given him a lot of time to look into scent markers, and he knew for certain it wasn’t a naturally occurring action to cut off the pheromones. A good mix of certain herbs could distort a scent, but not make it cease to be entirely. It was too deep in their makeup as shifters. Even jackals could only blend in with their surroundings like a chameleon—their scent didn’t disappear completely.

Dragging Sage to a stop, he removed his hand from the wolf’s grip and stepped back out of grabbing range. Sage was lying to him.

“Are you afraid?”

“You’re lying, and you’ve brought me to a place where the people in the bar won’t be able to hear us. For all I know, you could be pulling me back here to murder me.” It was unlikely, but Jake had known stranger things to happen—a wolf pack creating an alliance with a vampire coven being one of them.

“You think I’d do something like that?” The hurt tone in Sage’s voice did nothing to persuade him to trust the wolf.

“As you pointed out at our last meeting, I know nothing about you.” Throwing Sage’s words back in his face was perhaps a low blow, but Jake wasn’t feeling particularly charitable with the stab of possessive jealously raging in his amygdala and hypothalamus.

Despite Sage having no scent, the wolf was clearly able to pick up on
his,
from the way Sage took a deep breath and his confused expression smoothed out into understanding. It was the undertone of sadness in his Sage’s hazel eyes that bothered him most, though. Why was he sad?

“You’re jealous of the bouncer.”

Jake refused to comment.

“Me and him, we fuck when I’m in town,” Sage explained, waving a hand in the direction of whence they had come.

As a low level dominant with active submissive tendencies, Jake had never put stock in violence solving problems. He had a brain to do that. Right now, however, he could see the appeal. His jackal wanted to go back to the bouncer and bite that knowing smile off his face.

“You shouldn’t feel jealous, Jake. We’re nothing to each other. I know you think I’m your mate, but you’re wrong.”

The words landed like knives in his back and he locked his knees to keep from falling to the ground. The sheer pain that seared through him from Sage’s rejection crushed a small part of him that had fantasised that Sage would come to him when he realised Jake had told the truth when said they were mates. But no. It had only been a dream. A silly fantasy better suited to a juvenile than an adult. Jake didn’t know what he had been thinking.

Wetting his lips, Jake forced himself to meet Sage’s eyes. “Is this what you came to say to me?”

Sage’s shoulders dropped and the wolf shifter growled with obvious frustration, hands fisting at his sides. “No, I wanted to…”

“To what?” Jake needed to get out of here fast, but there was no way he was giving Sage the satisfaction of seeing him tuck tail and run. He’d die before that.

“To thank you for what you’ve done for my brothers,” Sage said, closing his eyes as he must have heard how that sounded in conjunction with the harsh way he’d just ripped Jake’s heart out and spat on it.

“Then you have. Anything else?” Jake stared at Sage and tried to imagine the man was simply a stranger asking for the time. That he was of no consequence.

“No. But Jake, you have to—”

“I am the only one that gets to decide what I do.” With as much dignity as he could muster with his dreams laying in shattered pieces at his feet, Jake turned and walked away. He’d come out to celebrate, and he was not going to let Sage ruin that for him. Maybe Sage was right and he was imagining the connection between them. Perhaps all he needed was some sexual relief and he’d be able to think clearly.

Just because one mangy wolf didn’t want him didn’t mean he couldn’t find somebody that did. If he got a few more of those blue drinks inside him, he wouldn’t be able to care who took him to bed or in an alley. He wouldn’t feel anything, and that was, he was beginning to see, the safest way to be. No one could hurt him if he didn’t let them. Not caring seemed as good a plan as any to ensure that.

Keeping his pace even and calm, he walked back out of the VIP area, jumping the rope because waiting for the human to lift it up and being forced to bear witness any more aromas of attraction would likely result in him being arrested for assault. When he was back in the bar, he spotted the blond human behind the bar again. There was enough attraction there between them for him to get off.

Bolstered by the pain of Sage’s rejection still fresh and bleeding in his heart, Jake strode right up to the bar and motioned the hot male bartender over. “Do you want to fuck me?”

The bartender stopped pouring the drink order he was on and stared at him in shock. “Didn’t you just leave with that other guy?”

That wasn’t a no. “He’s no one,” Jake answered truthfully. Because Sage had made that perfectly clear.

The human gazed at him for what must have been a full minute before coming to a decision. The hit of arousal and excitement told him the answer before the man even opened his mouth. “My name’s Lars, and I have a break right now. Do you want go to the office or outside?”

“Outside.” As far away from Sage as possible.

“Let’s go,” Lars said, loosening the tie around his neck and calling for one of the servers to take his place. Jake stepped back to allow Lars to come out from behind the bar and felt someone at his back. He didn’t even turn around—he simply put his hand in the Lars’s and let himself be guided to the back exit of the club that he could see led to a small parking area when the door opened and the cool air surrounded him.

Lars continued to pull him further outside, then pushed him so his back was against the wall. The human was hot and fit, any other time Jake could probably have gotten excited about what they were going to do, but right now, he’d had his fill of emotions and was numb.

“Do you still want to do this, cutie or do you just want to make blond and broody in there think you are?”

“I—” Jake didn’t know what he would have said because Lars tensed, winked at him, then drew him forward into a nice gentle kiss. He froze. This wasn’t right. He couldn’t do this after all. He was about to pull away when Lars started rubbing against him and moaning, acting like the kiss was much more intense than it was.

The reason why became clear a split second later when his jackal gave a high-pitch bark of warning.

“Don’t do this.” There was an animalistic whine at the end of the request. The kiss ended and they both turned to face Sage. The wolf must have followed them out here.

“Why?” Lars’s hand squeezed his waist and he got the distinct impression that Lars was wishing him luck. He felt the man sneak something into his pocket before stepping away. His mind blanked as whatever Sage was using to hide his scent wore off at that moment and Jake staggered under the weight of realisation. “I am your mate…and you know it.”

Bartender forgotten, he crowded Sage back against the wall opposite. “Admit it!”

Throwing caution to the wind, Jake slammed their mouths together. He tasted blood and he didn’t care if it was Sage’s or his own. All he wanted was for the kiss to continue. Sage’s lips moved under his, taking control of the kiss and deepening it. Jake moaned as Sage’s tongue slipped past his defenses and brushed up against his own, teasing and enticing.

He hooked his fingers into the belt loop of Sage’s jeans and tugged their bodies together until the line of Sage’s obvious erection pressed against his through layers of clothing.

Sage suddenly ripped away from him with a fierce growl, out of breath and eyes wide with feral desire. “We are mates. But I will never claim you,” Sage said, delivering the words like the final nails in a coffin. It left no doubt that Sage meant them. They were finite.

“Sage…”

The wolf stared at him and Jake saw in the wolf’s eyes that there was no way this was going to end well for either of them. Without another word or look back, Sage stalked away, leaving him alone in the alley.

Chapter Three

Jacko

Jacko yelped in surprise when his mates came at him in a rush as he was walking down to the kitchen to make a snack. Rose was on a sleepover with Alpha Remy’s nieces and nephews at the alpha’s mother’s home. They were probably onto the cookies and games portion of the evening’s schedule. Dimitri had volunteered for guard duty for the party, pretending to be forced into it.

He didn’t care what the elder said, Dimitri clearly liked kids and enjoyed babysitting. And the kids seemed to like him back just as much.

“Hey! What’s gotten into you two?”

“You have,” Lavi said, pressing against him and kissing up his neck.

Van licked a line up the other side of his throat, hands griping his hips firmly. “Or rather your blood has. Jake found the answer and we’ve got the first batch of antidote.”

“You mean…?” Jacko’s heart began thumping like a big bass drum.

“That we can finally claim you fully, in all ways? Yes.”

“Is it working now?” If it was, he was going to drag them back to their rooms and not let them leave until all three of them were exhausted wrecks with pulled muscles in awkward places and totally sexed out.

“No, Jake said it could take up to a day to work, but we’re a little drunk from drinking so much of you so quickly,” Van told him, giving him another lick that made him shiver with the promise of being bitten.