Bailey Bradford - Southwestern Shifters 08 - Revenge (4 page)

Ryder tried not to let his amusement show as Nathan and Marcus teased each other. Shania stopped beside him and held her hand in front of his face.
“What?” he asked, heart thudding as it dawned on him that Marcus trusted him enough to share this with him.
“This is what I gave him,” Shania said as she opened her hand. In her palm rested a small capsule. For some reason, it set Ryder’s wolf on alert.
“What is it?”
Shania rolled the pill until she held it between her thumb and forefinger. “What do you think it is?”
Ryder was in no mood for guessing games, but rather than let his temper get the best of him, he tried to think. This was some kind of test, he was certain. The pill itself was yellowish, unless the capsule wasn’t clear but tinted—then he didn’t know what colour the stuff inside was. He sniffed and cringed at the rank odour he detected.
“God, what the hell is that?” His eyes watered. Something about that scent made him think of death.
“That’s the remains of the first shifter, supposedly,” Nathan answered. “That’s what we’ve been told, and there’s obviously a limited supply.”
“That’s disgusting,” Ryder blurted out before he thought better of it. He pushed at Shania’s wrist, wanting the pill away from him. “Seriously, gross.” Nathan and Marcus both laughed, but he didn’t care. “That’s…that’s cannibalism!”
That stopped the laughter. Nathan cut his eyes at Ryder. “No, it isn’t. It’s medicine that saved my mate’s life. It isn’t devouring the flesh of our brethren, and we don’t want anyone to think it is. Can you imagine if word got out? How many shifters would think it was worth trying, worth killing and eating another, or making capsules out of their remains, if it meant giving them more power or healing them when they were hurt? Or”—Nathan gestured towards Ryder—“if they knew it would turn a human into a shifter, no biting or blood involved?”
“It does that?” Ryder felt ill. There were people who would certainly abuse it, if they got hold of the capsules, and yes, ones who would think it might work with anyone’s body as long as they were shifters. “And if humans learnt of it…”
“We’d be slaughtered,” Marcus finished. “All of my power, all the powers of shifters worldwide, wouldn’t be enough to face the paranoia and greed of humans. We are vastly outnumbered.”
Ryder shivered and glanced at the pill again. For something so small, it held such great power. “You could have not told me. It might have been worth sleepless nights.”
Marcus shook his head slowly. “No. You want the power, you want to prove yourself. There is great responsibility with both.”
“I feel like the fate of all shifters is on my shoulders now,” Ryder muttered, knowing it was melodramatic but unable to keep the words to himself.
Marcus smiled. “Welcome to my world.”
Ryder ran a hand through his hair and winced.
What a huge responsibility
. “Man, you really think I can do it, lead a whole continent of shifters who’ve been born into their society when I hardly know anything about it?”

Shania quietly left the office as Marcus tried not to let his exasperation show. He hated to give in to his frustration, but Ryder needed to have some faith in himself, needed to see what Marcus saw in him. “Yes, I do, and I’m not a fool, am I?”

Ryder paled and had the decency to look ashamed. “Uh, no, and I didn’t mean to imply that you were.”
Marcus decided to let the matter drop before Ryder’s confidence sank any lower. “Tell me what you can about the shifter who got away. At this point, I can’t figure whether he would be a friend or enemy. It bothers me, not knowing. It’s difficult to prepare for something I’ve no knowledge of.”
“I wish I could help you out, I really do,” Ryder said earnestly.
While Marcus appreciated Ryder’s need to earn his favour, it wasn’t an uncommon reaction from shifters less powerful than he was. It was the nature of their beasts, to submit to the stronger wolf. The fact was, any loyal shifter would do almost anything to please him. Sexual favours were obviously never a possibility. Marcus and Nathan were all each other needed.
“Remember the feeling you have right now,” Marcus told Ryder. “I can see it in your eyes, your entire manner, really. You want so badly to please me.”
“I do.” Ryder glanced down as if he were embarrassed. “Does that mean I’m weak?”
Hadn’t they covered that very same question before? Marcus remembered Ryder fretting over appearing weak when he’d first been brought to the compound.
Patience
, Marcus warned himself. “No, it means your wolf understands the order of the pack, and with time, when you are comfortable in the position you will achieve, he will see us as equals, as will you.”
“If I’m ever in the position to have such authority, I swear I’ll never abuse it. I want to be honourable, loyal.” Ryder bobbed his head in emphasis.
“You already are,” Marcus said, pleased at the way Ryder was accepting the changes in his life now that he had somewhere to learn and relax in. “Now, is there anything else you can remember about the missing shifter? Anything at all, even if it’s gossip you overheard.”
“I didn’t hang around Drake or the others once I came to and realised I was different. I hated him.” Ryder took a deep breath and exhaled. “I hated him so much. I’m glad he’s dead.”
Marcus understood that. There’d been more than one shifter he’d had to kill that he couldn’t regret causing the death of. “Well, I suppose I’ll have to leave the details to the guards. I’d love to get out and do some hunting, but after the attack on our other compound, the pack needs to have me here.”
“That’s what I keep telling you,” Nathan piped in with. “I’m so glad it’s sinking in. It’s perfectly fine to delegate.” Nathan tipped his head towards Ryder. “Don’t forget that. Otherwise you will be ruling with an iron fist before you know it.”
“Right. Delegate, got it.” Ryder beamed as if he’d had an epiphany. “We aren’t quite a democracy, but not a dictatorship either.”
“The packs would, for the most part, be fine with a dictatorship, as long as their leader wasn’t a murderous bastard,” Nathan pointed out. “I kind of think that’s the direction we lean, although Marcus tries to take into account other shifters’ requests in regards to certain things. If he can’t work them in, then it’s his way.”
“Or your way,” Marcus said, teasing his mate.
Nathan scowled then blew him a kiss. “Well, yeah.”
Ryder chortled and Marcus decided it was time to wrap the chat up. “Ryder, loyalty— it’s a very important trait as an Alpha Anax. You’ve only been a shifter a little over a year, and you were turned into one without your consent. You have a wolf in you that wants to live a certain way, and a more developed human nature that possibly fights the wolf’s intuitions. It’s a battle inside of you that is bound to cause conflicts.”
“Especially since I was such a shitty human,” Ryder added. “Being stoned all the time, I didn’t have morals, not any more than the ones that kept me from hanging around Harley and getting him all fucked up like I was. But I’m learning,” he said earnestly, raising his gaze to Marcus’. “I even think I could stay here and just be a part of your pack.”
Ryder’s answer assured Marcus more than anything else could have that he had been right about Ryder all along. “You’ll be a great Alpha Anax—in South America. I’m not giving up my position any time soon.”
Ryder waved a hand. “I wouldn’t, not ever—”
“I was teasing,” Marcus said, chuckling a little. “But the South American packs are really suffering under the AA there. Dirk is a dictator to the extreme. He doesn’t hesitate to slaughter entire families of those who’ve offended him.”
“Dirk?” Ryder repeated, looking confused. “Seriously?”
Marcus knew how he felt. “Yes, seriously. Whether that’s the name he was given at birth or chose later on, I don’t know. He has flowing blond hair and a stocky build. Keeps a harem, I’ve heard. Young women, although I haven’t heard of any of the women being underage. Rumour is he forces abortions on them when he impregnates them as he doesn’t want any competition from his offspring, especially once he’s older.”
Ryder’s lip was curled up in a sneer as he listened. Marcus continued talking. “He’s in his mid-thirties now, so close to your age. He’s been leading the South American packs for some time—fourteen years, I believe. It seems the shifters there first bought into his beauty and welcomed him after he killed the prior Alpha Anax. Then they learnt what a bastard he truly is.”
“Does he have family?” Ryder asked. “Anyone we can get to who might be able to give us some more information, like if he has a routine or favourite hangouts?”
Marcus was impressed. “He has a sister and a brother. Neither live with him, though. Supposedly he had more siblings, but they all died under mysterious circumstances.”
“So where are they?” Ryder’s enthusiasm had him rising up, rolling to his toes in a jaunty bounce. Marcus hated to knock him back to reality.
“Do you honestly think you’re ready to take Dirk on?”
Ryder scowled and planted a hand on his hip. “It sounds less like me needing to be ready, and more like those people in South America needing help. What can we do to get me down there?”
“We can train you first,” Marcus said, making a split-second decision. “In combat, and in the most important of our ways.”
“What about the brother and sister?” Ryder asked.
Marcus took his cell phone and typed out a text. “I’ll have Keegan get on finding them. If he can do it, he can also take some guards and retrieve them, bring them here to safety.”
“Awesome. So when do we start training?”
Marcus couldn’t hide his amusement. “As soon as we finish breakfast in the morning.” Who knew that trying to unite the Alpha Anaxes world-wide would be so entertaining? Complicated, he’d expected, but Ryder was so gung-ho it was almost cute. “It’ll be fun, and you’ll be pushed to your limits. You’ll thank me for it later, trust me.”
“I’ll have to take your word on it,” Ryder said. “Er, speaking of, it’s been a while since I’ve gotten laid. Not to sound totally desperate, but any advice? I was going to see if I could find someone tonight, and on the off chance that I might not be able to move after whatever workout you put me through tomorrow, I had better get to it.”
Now it was Marcus’ turn to snort. “Good gods, Ryder, shifters are horny things, all of us are. It’s as simple as walking in the dining hall, crooking your finger, then selecting from which guys come to you. You have strength, power, and you’re all…”
Marcus couldn’t think of another way to say it, so he didn’t bother. “Hairy. Got that bear-look down pat. Just don’t fuck anyone in the dining hall. We have kids in the pack.”
“Got it. Thanks.” Ryder grinned and waved his thanks before leaving. Marcus figured a few guys would be getting to know Ryder better tonight since yes, Ryder would be lucky to be able to walk after the physical challenges Marcus had planned for him tomorrow.
It’d be good for him, Marcus thought, hiding an evil grin. Ryder would surely be worn out after wrestling each one of the guards. After that would be several hours of a more specific sort of fight training, showing ways to kill and protect himself rather than the use of force just to pin an opponent. There were also the etiquette lessons he’d arranged for Ryder to have. Training the big shifter was going to be fun.
Marcus heard footsteps coming towards the office. Nathan glanced at him. “Sounds like Keegan.” There was a knock on the door, and Nathan called out, “Come in, Keegan.”
Their head guard entered and shut the door. He walked to the desk and stopped but didn’t sit. Keegan was too wound up most of the time to be still. “Alpha Anax, Nathan, did Little Joe happen to say anything to either of you about leaving the compound?”
Marcus frowned, thinking of the little shifter. Joe was a good five years older than him, but slight of form and height. He was also known to wander off when it suited him. “No, he didn’t.”
“I wish he’d do as you asked and let someone know when he got the urge to go for a run,” Nathan said. “It irks me to no end that he does this.”
Keegan nodded. “It is disrespectful for him to flout his Alpha Anax’s wishes. Perhaps he needs a more firm order, rather than a request.”
“No. I won’t force anyone to stay here, Keegan.”
“He may be putting us all at risk, sir, should he allow someone else in when he comes back.” Keegan tipped his chin up. “Or if someone were to use him as a means to get in and cause trouble.”
“Watch the cameras closely,” Marcus advised. “I won’t restrict Little Joe’s activities, that will lead to resentment—unless I have a substantiated cause to do so.”
“I wonder if he’s the one who took Criss’ clothes,” Nathan mused. “Sounds like a prank Little Joe would pull.”
“It does,” Keegan agreed. “And that would explain why there were no unfamiliar scents where Criss claims to have left his clothing.”
“Exactly.” Marcus felt a frisson of unease, but put it down as irritation that Little Joe had taken off again. “Let me know when he comes back, please. I will talk to him again.”
“Yes, sir.” Keegan bowed slightly then left the office.

“You never mentioned having etiquette lessons,” Nathan said once Keegan was gone. Marcus pulled Nathan onto his lap, ignoring the slight pain to his healing wounds when he did so.

“I have to keep some secrets or you might find me boring.” Marcus nuzzled the warm strip of skin beneath Nathan’s braid. “Plus, I hadn’t really thought about it until I started watching Ryder. He reminds me so much of myself in some ways.”

“Hmph.” Nathan ran his hands down Marcus’ sides. “He isn’t nearly as handsome as you are, or as powerful.”
“He might be, some day,” Marcus murmured, distracted by Nathan’s touch, his scent, the feel of Nathan’s buttocks against his groin. “Although yeah, not as handsome,” he joked.
Nathan purred and rocked against him. Marcus wondered for a moment if Nathan wanted him to top. They’d done that, switched around once, and Nathan had griped about his sore ass for days. Marcus had enjoyed it enough, but he preferred to bottom and lose himself in the sensations Nathan fucked into him.
“No, I don’t want you to top, unless you really,
really
want to. Then we can. I just like feeling you, knowing I’m making that big dick of yours hard as stone.”
“You are,” Marcus said as he rocked his hips up, keeping his hands on Nathan’s thighs. “And no, I don’t want to top. Don’t know that I could right now anyway, even with as much healing as I’ve done. I’m still…tender.”
Nathan framed Marcus’ face with his slender hands, and peered up at him with the prettiest eyes Marcus had ever seen. “You need me to make love to you.”
Since it wasn’t a question, Marcus didn’t answer. He merely parted his lips and Nathan kissed him, stealing his breath with the slickness of his tongue and perfection of his taste.
Nathan smoothed a hand around to bury it in Marcus’ hair. The other hand he trailed down to cup Marcus’ neck. Marcus shivered with anticipation and need. They hadn’t made love in three days, and that was the longest they’d ever gone without since becoming mates.
Without breaking the kiss, Nathan scooted off his lap. Nathan was quite a bit shorter than Marcus, which had led to some inventive positioning for sex, but right now, Marcus just wanted to lie down and have Nathan take him.
Nathan moaned softly, and his grip on Marcus tightened. Marcus wasn’t interested in topping, but he couldn’t resist kneading the firm swells of Nathan’s ass in his hands. He loved touching Nathan there, touching his hole and rimming him, too. There were many ways for him and Nathan to enjoy Nathan’s ass without Marcus having to fuck him.
Love and lust were so perfectly twined inside him that Marcus could have come just from Nathan’s kisses. And Nathan was definitely a master when it came to them. The way he used his tongue and teeth, the sucking and nibbling and plunging—he could leave Marcus a babbling mass of melted lover in no time.
But not this time. Nathan left off kissing him to tug at his wrist. “Come on. Let’s get to our bed so you can lie down and spread yourself out for me. I want you to give yourself to me.”
Marcus’ body temperature went up at that. Nathan didn’t want him to just open for him, he wanted Marcus to give over his control, let Nathan lead in every way. “Yes,” he rasped, not having to think about it.
Their room was too far from the office, he decided as they walked down the hall, both of them sporting erections no one could miss. Even if they did, the scent of their arousal was strong in the air.
Nathan shoved their door open. “Inside.”
As if Marcus needed to be told, but he got that it was part of Nathan leading the way. He went in and walked to the bed. Before he could pull his shirt off, Nathan was there, unbuttoning it.
“I’ll handle this.” Nathan kissed every bit of his bared skin as the buttons were undone. Marcus closed his eyes, trembling when Nathan licked over his nipple. Nathan rubbed the other with his fingers, and Marcus gasped, had to reach out and grab onto Nathan for support as his legs felt weak under the weight of his desire.
“Nice,” Nathan murmured, then he proceeded to work Marcus’ nipples over with his fingers and mouth. His tits ached and burnt by the time Nathan got his shirt off, and Marcus was so close to coming that he could hardly breathe.
Somehow, Nathan got him on the bed. Marcus didn’t know when his shoes and pants got taken off exactly, only that they did while Nathan sucked up marks all over his torso. Marcus curled his hands into the bedding, clutching at the blanket while pleasure suffused his body. Thinking had ceased being possible moments after Nathan had gone after his nipples.
His legs were spread and Nathan licked him where his thigh and groin met. Marcus wanted his cock in Nathan’s mouth, or at least his hand, but Nathan didn’t touch that part of him, or his balls, which ached with the need for release.
Nathan nibbled along the bend of his leg, then he sucked hard on the tender skin of his inner thigh. Marcus groaned and hissed, trying not to kick as pain and ecstasy spread out from the spot Nathan was biting. Sharp, pointy teeth were scraping his skin, and Marcus half-hoped and feared that Nathan was going to truly mark him there by sinking those elongated canines into Marcus’ flesh. The idea of it was enough to make him whimper, make his cock spurt pre-cum and his hole clench tight.
“You want me to bite you here?”
Nathan thought, catching that tender, tender skin between his front teeth.
“To hurt you in a good way?”
Marcus tossed his head and tore at the blanket.
“Yes. No. I don’t know, I don’t—Fuck me, Nathan. Please, stop teasing me and fuck me, mark me, make me yours again.”
Nathan struck so fast Marcus barely felt it at first. The instinct to bite and mark one’s mate was an almost overpowering drive that they both understood. It still shocked Marcus once he felt the burn of Nathan’s canines penetrating his flesh.
At the same time, Nathan thumbed his hole. He used his fingers to nudge Marcus’ balls, and Marcus came with a shout, his orgasm surprising him with its force and occurrence. He writhed and tried to get that thumb inside him, but Nathan didn’t give it to him.
Not then, as Marcus’ load spilled onto his stomach.
“Good,” Nathan muttered. “So beautiful.”
Marcus realised Nathan wasn’t biting him anymore, but he couldn’t do anything, he was so wrung out. He watched blearily as Nathan came up between his thighs and lapped at the spunk on Marcus’ belly. Nathan didn’t avoid the new scars that were still pink and tender. When he licked over them, Marcus couldn’t help but moan, his dick twitching.
Nathan kept making his way up, and up, then he kissed Marcus again, sharing the taste of Marcus’ cum and blood with him. Marcus shivered and held onto Nathan, gripping his narrow waist.
“Not done with you,” Nathan warned him, right before he scooted down again.
Marcus hissed when his cock was sucked inside the warm cavern of Nathan’s mouth. He was still a little sensitive, but his eyes nearly crossed when Nathan tongue-fucked his slit.
“Gods, honey, please,” Marcus panted, reaching for Nathan.
Nathan hummed and flicked his braid up onto Marcus’ chest. It was that easy to have Marcus ready to go again. He loved Nathan’s long, red hair, and when Nathan let him free it from the braid he wore daily, Marcus’ dick always shot to full erectness. A flick of his wrist, and he had all that silky hair freed. Marcus scooped up a handful of it, delighting in the way it felt so cool and soft against his skin.
Nathan let Marcus’ cock slip from his lips. “Do it,” he ordered right before moving lower and lapping at Marcus’ balls.
Marcus didn’t hesitate, wrapping the long strands around his cock. They didn’t slide so well with his shaft being wet, but it was the way that red hair looked twined around his length, the idea that Nathan let him do this, that turned him on so much.
Then Nathan licked at his hole and Marcus was turned on to a whole new level. He spread his legs eagerly as Nathan pried his cheeks apart.
“Be easier if you were on your stomach,” Nathan informed him just before shoving his slick tongue into Marcus’ pucker.
Marcus would have rolled over, would have begged—anything to keep Nathan down there rimming him. But it would have hurt like a bitch to twist and roll, and he was glad Nathan was a considerate lover. Generous, even, he thought as his eyelids closed against his will. He wanted to watch, but Nathan was doing such wonderful, wicked things to his ass.