RAFE'S LAIR (8 page)

It took everything Rafe had to walk back over to his chair and basically fall into it. Damn he was tired. No sleep will do that to ya. Course going out before the sun was completely set didn't help one bit either. He had to
find his mate... His sanity depended on it.

    "I do not know where Ed is at the moment, no." Before Rafe could start to protest, he held up his hand. "I will however have teams start looking for him now, as well as go to the other packs for their assist
ance tomorrow. I am not wasting anyone's time, especially my own."

Dom looked back at Sloan who had sat back in his chair as well. Sloan raised a brow at him, nodding his head.

    "Rafe, I will personally help you search during the day while you can't." Sloan said to him.

    "Rafe I must admit we're both shocked that if you have found your mate, then why are you are now having to look for her instead of introducing her to us." Dom said to him.

    "And where the hell Ed plays into it." Sloan finished.

  
"No offense Dom, but I sure as hell wouldn't bring her here to meet you."

Dom nodded his understanding. "I wouldn't if I were you as well."

    "The how I found her and then lost her is a long story." Rafe replied to both of them. Looking up to see Dominic's raised brow and lopsided grin, he knew he wasn't getting their help or getting out of here easily without his little story time telling. Fucking dammit! This is why he really didn't want to come into the wolf's den as it were. And this is yet another reason why he hated dealing with werewolves. Looks like it was story time boys and girls. Now everybody grab your blanky and sippy cup and let’s cuddle up and listen to Rafe's biggest regret of the last century.

Rafe got back up and went back to the wet bar,
downed the rest of the drink Dom had given him. He then grabbed the bottle of scotch and poured him a full glass, was about to put the bottle back down and thought the better of it. So he took it and his glass back to his chair, taking a swig from the bottle on his way back. And proceeded to tell the wolves all about his humiliating royal fuck up.

                               CHAPTER 13

      The cold eyes that had watched Rafe almost kill his mate the night before watched him enter the wolves' strip club. The place was as disgusting as were the wolves that owned it. The eyes were lucky to have been able to locate Rafe in the first place, let alone follow him here. When they had been able to get to Lair to follow him out for the evening, they were furious to find he had already left. They did not anticipate that he would be able to venture out before the sun fully set.

They were able to track him down only a short time ago and followed him until he went inside. There was no way to enter without their
presence being noticed. So they waited across the street watching for Rafe to exit. He was quickly running out of time before the sun would start to rise again and he would be forced to end his search. Surely, Rafe wouldn't allow the wolves to keep him from finding the demon tonight. There was no choice to wait until he emerged. As the night grew to an end and Rafe still had not emerged, the eyes knew he would not. So they instead went to find another method of finding the fire eater, and then Rafe's mate.

                                   CHAPTER 14

      Rafe could feel her. His beautiful mate was here in his bed where she belonged. She was crawling up between his legs. Too damn slowly in his opinion. She was kissing him as she went and he sure as hell liked that. So it kinda made up for the fact she was taking her sweet time. His dick went on instant alert before his brain could register the problem with this scenario. And by the time he shot straight up in bed, he had a nymph sucking his dick into her mouth.

    "No! Hell fucking no! Get the fuck off me!" Rafe yelled at her, pushing her by the forehead to dislodge his now limp dick from the nymph's mouth. What the hell was this? He had to admit the whole dick shriveling up like a raisin was a lot embar
rassing, but what the hell was the Barbie look alike doing in the room Dom had allowed him to crash in.

Rafe had been forced to stay at The Meat Locker instead of going back to Lair. It had taken longer than he expected it would to tell them what he had do
ne to lose his mate. And then to answer all of Dom and Sloan's questions afterward. He really didn't want to stay, but he was shit outta luck on that one. No way were they letting him stumble his way home while the sun was starting to rise. He really didn't blame them on that one though.

He'd been drinking Dom's very expensive, very best single malt scotch and was pretty sure he'd finished the bottle Dom had in his office. Then he had sent for another one. Even being as shit faced as he was, he knew for dam
n sure he hadn't taken one of those freakin nymphs to bed with him. They had offered him more times than he could count, but he'd had a piercing pain go through his chest at the mere thought so he had refused every time. He had finally agreed to drink from one even though he had fed more than plenty on his beautiful the night before. The stress of his mate's pain and him going out too early that evening, and his own pain of not having her had weakened him to an almost dangerous level.

He really wasn't sure if the one here in bed with him now was the one he'd fed from or not. He'd been too drunk to remember, and he really didn't care. They all looked the same to him anyway, and they sure as hell weren't his mate. For that reason and the
fact that he refused to pay for sex none of them interested him in the least. Not that Dom would have made him pay had he said he wanted one.

Rafe threw the sheet over the girl's body and jumped out of bed grabbing his jeans off the chair he'd thrown them
on as he stumbled into the bed that morning. Rafe didn't even bother with a shirt or his shoes, he just went in search of Dominic and, or Sloan. He found them of course in Dom's office. As he stormed in all heads turned his way.

    "Rafe I did not expect
you to be up so early." Dom said all chipper with a smile. Rafe sure as hell wasn't chipper or smiling.

Rafe just growled at him. "I would have still been asleep had it not been for the little afternoon wake up blow job you tried to send me." Rafe said to
him letting the wolf know he wasn't pleased with the gift in the least.

    "I'm afraid you'll have to explain further my friend, because I do not know as to what you are referring." Dominic said to him, and Rafe knew he hadn't sent the girl into his room,
someone else had. Fan-fuckin-tastic!

    "I woke up to one of your nymph's mouths wrapped around my dick. And Dom, you and I both know how I feel about that, especially now."

Dom's entire demeanor changed in that instant. "It seems I owe you yet another apology Rafe. I will find out how the girl gained access to your room and I will take care of it. But since you are up I believe you will be interested to hear this news my patrols have brought me." Pointing at the same chair Rafe occupied the night before. "Please do have a seat my friend." When Rafe sat down one of the wolves Rafe didn't know started talking.

    "As I was saying alpha, we found the scent of a vampire across th
e street and around the building and the surrounding blocks."

Rafe looked at the guy and about fell out of his chair. He raised his hand and waved it at the idiot who thought he'd just discovered America by the way he was acting.

    "Ah hello there Columbus, vampire right here. And here's a news flash for ya too, I came from across the street, and I've about been over the whole damn city."

The Columbus flunky spoke back a little too angrily for Rafe
’s liking for the mood he was in.

    "Yes we know that a
nd we can also tell you everywhere you went last night too. The scent we found isn't yours, but whoever it is has been following you for quite some time."

Dom and Sloan looked at Rafe for a second to gauge his reaction. Rafe was still trying to compute wha
t Columbus had just told them.

    "Wait, let me get this straight, you
’re telling me I'm being followed?" Rafe said scrubbing his face with his hands. "I’m being followed by another vampire. Could it have been one of my men?"

    "Our first suspicion was
that it was one of them." Columbus replied.

Sloan then spoke up from his perch on Dom's desk. He was back in normal Sloan attire.

    "So I personally followed the scent. I know all of your scents well, and I can assure you it isn't one of your men. I can tell you the scent is vaguely familiar though, but I can't place it." Sloan looked at Rafe for a minute before he continued. "I can also tell you the scent is of a female vampire. Can you think of anyone that would want to follow you for any reason?"

Rafe
thought for a moment racking his brain. He couldn't think of just one person who would want to do anything to him, good or bad. Hell there was probably a list over a mile long for the people he's pissed off in his ridiculously long life. He sure as hell couldn't think of a female vampire he'd pissed off. At least none that had ever told him anyway. As far as he knew all the females, vampire or otherwise that left his bed had been more than satisfied. He always made sure they were more than satisfied and made it perfectly clear they were only there for the pleasure of that night, not forever for this very reason.

    "I honestly have no clue." He told Sloan. "Males of any species, yeah, but the list is too damn long. Females, I'm stumped. Are you sure this v
ampire was following me?"

    "The scent did overlap yours practically all night and stopped here." Sloan said.

    "Were you able to follow where the vampire went after she left here? She had to have left before sunrise." Rafe asked more than just curious now. Something didn't feel right and that made him nervous. Especially since, he didn't know where the hell his mate was so he couldn't keep her safe. This was not good and there wasn't a damn thing he could do till the sun went down.

    "We tracked her
to a parking lot not far from Lair. She had to have driven to Lair and then left the same way." Columbus told him.

    "Dom please tell me you've tracked down Ed."

    "I have not my friend, but I have enlisted the help of the other packs around the world and have put extra resources of my own into finding him. We will find him soon I promise you. I would recommend you inform your enforcers to look out for him and the vampire as well." Dom told him the less than desirable news.

    "Fuck!" Rafe growled stan
ding up to pace the office. Why did shit always have to be so difficult all the time? Rafe was gonna kill Ed, revive him, then kill him all over again for putting him through this stress.

    "All right I'll go call Marcus; he'll let the others know." Rafe
looked at the big grandfather clock in the corner. It wasn't even two yet; Marcus was not going to like Rafe waking him up this early. He turned back to Dom. "You'll let me know the second you have any new info?"

Dom nodded his head once. Rafe nodded back
at the alpha of the most powerful pack in the world really. Dom still had family running the pack in Russia, so technically they were all one big pack. Yep he was one powerful ally, and Rafe was damn sure glad he had Rafe's back. Rafe left to go make his calls.

Sloan watched Rafe leave the room. He turned to his alpha after the door had shut. "I have a really bad feeling about this."

    "As do I, Sloan." Dom replied not taking his eyes off the door. He then addressed all his pack that were in his office. "I want answers, and I want them now. Gather your teams find me that demon, and find out who the hell that vampire is following Rafe." Even before the last words were out of his mouth, they were on their feet moving for the door. All except his beta. Dom looked at the wolf he considered a son. "I will not allow anything else that is painful to harm him Sloan. We barely kept him sane when he lost Roman, if anything befalls his mate." Dom couldn't even finish the thought.

    "I agree and we won't let that happen. We'll find Ed, and when we do, we'll find the girl." Sloan agreed with Dom, they could not fail in this. "He would do the same
for us." Dom nodded his agreement.

Rafe returned to his room to find the nymph gone thankfully. After the news he'd just heard, he really couldn't deal with her right now. Something was seriously wrong and he had to find his mate before he lost her this t
ime for good. He picked up his phone off the chair and dialed Marcus' number. Marcus picked up on the first ring.

    "Where the hell are you, and are you alright?" Was his greeting.

    "What no hi honey, I missed you? At least you asked how I am as an afterthought."

    "Well when you fail to return home and you don't bother to call. What do you expect from us?"

    "Us?" Rafe asked a little confused.

    "Yeah us asshole." He heard Ethan yell over the line. "You are in big trouble mister. Your grounded f
or a month when you get home for making Marcus worry about you like this young man."

    "Would you shut the hell up you dip shit. I'm trying to have an intelligent conversation over here, and you
’re not helping." Marcus yelled back at Ethan. At least he'd pulled the phone away from his ear before he did so as to not blow out Rafe's ears. Yep those were his boys, always playing, but always got his back Rafe thought shaking his head and grinning.

Marcus came back on the line. "What's going on man? And don't
you fucking lie to me either."

    "I'm at The Meat Locker..." before he could continue, Ethan must have grabbed the phone from Marcus.

    "You’re at The Meat Locker and you couldn't even invite me? That's so freakin wrong on so many levels man. I thought we were friends, and you dis me like this? Tell me what's it like? Are the girls as hot as I hear they are? Ah....Hey I wasn't done, give that back."

    "Ethan I swear I'm gonna knock your teeth out if you don't quit your bullshit." Marcus yelled at him
again. "Why the hell are you there of all places?" Marcus asked Rafe.

    "I went looking for Ed last night, and before you ask me why. That girl I drank from the other night at the club."

    "Yeah I remember her."

    "Well she's my mate, that's why I lo
st it like that, and as if that's not bad enough. I killed her, and thank the Fates Ed was there, cause he saved her. And he took both her and her friend." He heard all their collective "shits, and fucks" before Marcus came back.

    "Okay, so did you find
Ed? Do you have her there with you?"

    "Fuck no she's not here with me!" Rafe exclaimed. "Have you lost your damn mind? This is the last place I would bring her if I'd found her. I came here to get Dom
’s when I couldn't find Ed anywhere." Rafe realized what he'd said was wrong way too late. They'd get pissed he hadn't gone to them instead.

Marcus didn't give anyone time to bitch him out thankfully. "So Dom didn't know where he was either?"

    "No, and they've found another problem for me, and this one scares the shit outta me." He told them about the vampire following him. They asked all the same questions Dom and Sloan had.

Marcus finally said. "There's obviously no way any of us can go lo
oking now. We'll have to let the wolves do that for now. Rafe I know you trust Dom, and so do I, but I don't trust everyone in his pack. Or any of the others for that matter." He added as an afterthought.

    "I agree, especially after someone gave a nymph
access into my room this afternoon. That's actually what woke me up."

Rafe heard Marcus cuss again, and heard pieces of Ethan's griping about not being able to have a nymph wake him up, blah blah blah. Rafe tuned him out; they were all really good at that
, they had to be.

    "As soon as I can, I'm going to see if I can catch the scent to see if I can figure out who it is. It'll lead me back to Lair anyway, so I'll meet you there tonight. Until I get there, when the club opens keep an eye out for either Ed
or my mate. I doubt you will, but see if you see anyone suspicious. We'll go from there when I get there."

They finished the call and Rafe went into the attached bathroom to take a shower. He still had the scent of the nymphs on him, and if on the off cha
nce. No,
when,
when he found his mate tonight, he didn't want anything of them on him. He wouldn't wait; he'd take her straight to his bed where she'll be safe. He went ahead and took a nice long hot shower thinking of her the entire time. There wasn't anything else he could do till the sun set. He sure as hell wasn't getting anymore sleep today. Hell he wouldn't be getting any sleep till his beautiful was in his arms doing the same.