When No Doesn't Cut It (12 page)

“Thanks, Troy.  I don’t know how true that is, but you’re right.  I need to find a way to deal with this.”  Scott looked up as he heard the door to the café open and the smell of wolf hit his nose.  “Hmmm, looks like the cavalry
has arrived.”

“Damien?”

Snorting into the phone, Scott said, “No, of course not.  I’m not that important.  His second, Malacai.  I’ll talk to you later bro.”

“You get too homesick just text me okay.  I’ll have Shawn zap you back here before I can make the coffee.”

“Will do bro, thanks.” 

Scott hung up the phone and
looked up at Malacai, who did not look happy.  “Hi Malacai, come out for a coffee did you?  Sit down and I will get you a cup.”

Malacai stood there, staunchly for a minute and then he sat down on the other side of the booth.  Scott waved at Brad to bring another cup and then smiled at Malacai.

“So what brings you out on this fine morning?” He said brightly.

Malacai sighed and said quietly, “Do you have any idea how worried Damien is right now?
  He doesn’t have your cell phone number, you apparently blocked him and for all he knows you are back in Cloverleah.”

“
He’s lucky I’m not.  So where is the big man?”

“At the office,” Malacai said, grabbing the fresh cup of coffee Brad had bought over.  Scott waved his cup at Brad as well.  He would need the third cup if he was going to deal with an angry Alpha when he was escorted back to the club.

“Not that worried, then is he, if he sent you instead,” Scott said.

“Not just me,” Malacai huffed
. “Shit Alpha Mate, most of the staff at the club are out looking for you.”

“Call me Scott,” Scott said with a smile.  When Malacai nodded, Scott continued.  “Look it’s simple really.  I woke up.  Damien was busy with work.  I was hungry
, so I came out to explore my new neighborhood and get some food.  I don’t see what the big deal is.”

“There’s food for you in the kitchen of your apartment.  A full breakfast was left there for you this morning.  I know it was because I was there when Damien ordered it.”

“The apartment has a kitchen in it?  I wouldn’t know given as I haven’t had the grand tour yet and I am not the type to go snooping on my own.” 

“He fucked up, didn’t he?”  Malacai said quietly.

“Who, your illustrious Alpha?” Scott said innocently his eyes wide and a smile on his face.  “How could someone like that ever make a mistake?  It’s not as though I’ve got feelings or anything important like that.”

“Oh boy, he really did fuck it up,” Malacai sighed.  “Look
, can I phone him at least and let him know you’re okay?”

“Text the others and call the search off, I’m sure Damien will need the staff back at the club,” Scott suggested, “and then you can tell him when you get back.”

“Na uh,” Malacai shook his head.  “My life wouldn’t be worth living if I went back without you.”

“Well, I wasn’t planning on going back until eleven when the club opens
and I am sure you will be needed before then,” Scott said. “I don’t have keys so I don’t have any way to get back in.  Let the bouncers know I’m coming will you, as there is no way of knowing if they would even recognize me for who I am, and I would hate to be stopped at the door.”

“They will know you,” Malacai assured him, “and I have your keys and passcards back at your office.”

“I have an office?” Scott was surprised.

“Did the big man talk to you at all last night?”  When Scott shook his head, Malacai continued.  “You are sharing Damien’s office because you both own the club now.  And yes your apartment has a kitchen
, as well as two spare bedrooms, three bathrooms, a large living area and a gym.  Your food is prepared in the club kitchen, and there is always someone on staff in the kitchen, so you can order food 24/7.  You have a cleaning service that goes in once a day and your laundry is done daily. Damien wanted to make sure that you had everything you needed to be happy here.”

“Like a pet,” Scott snapped.

“No, no,” Malacai sought to assure him. But then the big man thought for a minute and said, “Yes okay, I can see where you might get that idea.  The man really doesn’t have a clue, does he?”

“I wouldn’t know,” Scott said shortly
. “But let’s just say he hasn’t done himself any favors by sending you to come and get me.  So you run along back to the club and let him know I am still breathing, and in the area, and I will be back to see Phillip at eleven.”

“I can’t do that,” Malacai hissed.  “Damien will have my head.  There is no way you are supposed to be out anywhere by yourself.  Your position,” he said delicately, “means you are an important man and you can’t just go wandering off without an escort.”

“There aren’t any other groups in the area,” Scott said. “I checked before I came here.  So what do I have to worry about?”

“Rogues, loners, unhappy members
.  Basically anyone who recognizes you could be a good bargaining chip if they wanted something that Damien had.”  Malacai kept his voice low but he was deadly serious.

Scott groaned and put his head on the table.  This was just ridiculous.  If what Malacai was saying was true, and he had no reason to doubt the man, then he wouldn’t be able to go anywhere or do anything without at least an enforcer or two in tow.  That meant getting a job, or simply learning more about the place where he lived was going to be virtually impossible.  Scott could see his life fanned out in front of him.  Stuck at the club.  Not being able to build a life of his own and not being able to build one with his mate, because all the man ever seemed to do was work. 
He was going to go out of his mind with boredom.   Maybe he could get a job in the club itself?

“Damien was having problems with the staff rosters this morning,”
Scott said changing the subject as the idea took hold.  “What seems to be the problem?  Is he short staffed?”

“Yes,” said Malacai, “At least in the bar area.  He always has trouble keeping bar staff because they keep finding themselves Masters and then Damien has to replace them.”

“Great,” said Scott.  He finished his cup of coffee and stood up.  “Come on let’s go.”  Malacai stood up looking at Scott warily, but heading to the door.  Scott remembered he hadn’t paid for Malacai’s coffee, so he went over to Brad to settle up.

“Just want to pay for my friend’s coffee,” Scott explained when Brad looked up. “The food was great by the way.”

“Oh, you don’t have to pay for the coffee,” Brad said.  “It’s on the house.  And look anytime you come here you can eat here free of charge.  I wouldn’t have charged you anything if I had known who you were.”

“What are you talking about?”

Brad lowered his voice, looking at Malacai who was still a hulking presence by the door.

“You’re Damien’s partner, aren’t you?” He whispered.  Scott nodded, figuring it was as good a way to describe his mate to humans at least.  “Damien protects this whole town.” Brad continued.  “We heard a rumor you were coming but I never dreamed you would come in here.  Most of your business associates eat at one of the posh places on the main street. If I had known I would never have charged you.”

Fuck, thought Scott, it’s like the pack is some type of Mafia with Damien as the Godfather.  Stifling the urge to giggle at the thought, Scott said quietly, “Your food was excellent and the coffee is wonderful.  I will be eating here again and I will pay for what I order.  I understand what you are saying, but your boss has expenses and costs he has to meet.  It is as simple as that.  Now here’s ten dollars for the coffee.  Put the change in the tip jar.  I will see you again soon.” Smiling at the puzzled young man, Scott wandered over to Malacai and waved his arm at him.  “Well
, shall we go and see the boss?”  He said.

“You’re coming back to the club?” Malacai asked, clearly relieved. 

“Of course, how else am I going to get a job as a barman if I don’t have an interview with the big man himself?” Scott said as he walked out onto the street. 

“You can’t work in the bar,” Malacai said clearly shocked.

“Of course I can,” Scott said easily as they strode back towards the club.  “You said I’m half owner, right?”

“Yes. Damien confirmed that last night at the meeting.”

“Fine, then if he won’t employ me, I will simply employ myself.”

“But what about when Damien needs you?” Malacai tried to reason with Scott but Scott wasn’t listening.

“For what, sex?  We both know the man’s a workaholic and isn’t likely to delegate anything else to me, either with the club or the pack. Damn the man. I even had Madison agreeing to delegate tasks so Damien could spend time with me.  And what does the man do on our first night here?  Fucking leaves me before I wake up.  He didn’t have to be at the office today until eleven and what time did he get there?”

“About seven,” Malacai admitt
ed.  “But,” he added, “the sex thing is important too.  Damien has a big appetite and he will expect you to be available.”

“Ha!” Scott laughed.  “I am not a sub.  I am not a hook-up.  I am the man’s mate
, and if he can’t start treating me like one, then his last week’s drought is going to seem like a fucking flood.  Mating isn’t just about sex. Its about getting to know each other as well and if Damien is going to be working all of the time, then that is going to be fucking impossible.”

“Alpha’s going to be far too jealous to let you work behind the bar,” Malacai stated firmly.

“Tough shit,” Scott said just as firmly.  “Because if that man thinks I am going to spend all day in his office, filing my bloody nails and watching him work himself to death, then he has got a lot to learn about me.”

“Seems we all have,” Malacai said with a laugh.  They had arrived at the club
; Malacai using an electronic pass key to open the main doors.  Taking a deep breath, Scott strode inside like he owned the place with Malacai close behind him.  Because, oh yes, he did own the place.  Heading to the office, Scott squashed his nerves and prepared to deal with what would probably be a very angry mate.   The best defense was a good offense and Scott knew exactly what he had to do.

Chapter Sixteen

Striding into Damien’s office, or their joint office Scott reminded himself, the first thing Scott noticed was that Damien did look really worried.  But Scott had already decided he would deal with that after he had dealt with Madison, who was at this moment standing at the side of Damien’s desk.

“Ah, Madison, just the man I wanted to see,” Scott said with an angry look on his face.  “What did I tell you would happen if you bothered your Alpha before eleven this morning?”

“You said you would disembowel me,” Madison whispered.

“Exactly.  Well I am looking at the clock here and it is not even ten o’clock, and yet my mate wasn’t at my side when I woke up before eight this morning.  So I figure the only way he would have left me was because you needed him for something.  So perhaps you can direct me to a communal bathroom or something so we can do this, because lord knows we don’t want a big mess to clean up before the club opens do we.”

“But I…” Madison tried to say.

“Madison didn’t call me in,” Damien interrupted smoothly, looking relieved that his mate was all right and hadn’t gone back to Cloverleah, “I thought I would get a bit of work done while you were sleeping. I left you breakfast.”

Scott saw red.  He had heard the expression before
but never believed it was possible until this moment.  He was furious.  There was a tiny part inside of him that had hoped that it had been Madison’s fault that his mate had left him in his bed by himself. But no, apparently the little twink had nothing to do with it.  Damien just hadn’t wanted to be with him enough to stay.   Fuck, Scott just wanted to cry.  But he wasn’t going to give Damien the satisfaction of seeing his mate upset.  He wasn’t that bloody pathetic.

“Madison, do you have the staff roster for the bar,”
he snarled.  Madison handed him his clipboard and then shrank back.

“Clear out,” Scott snarled again.

“But,” said Madison.

“I said get out of this office and don’t come back until I tell you.  Malacai, make sure no one enters this office for any reason.”

“Yes Alpha Mate,” Malacai said, shepherding a frightened Madison out of the door in front of him.  When Scott heard the door shut firmly behind them both he turned on his mate.

“Mate,” Damien said with a smile
, obviously clued in enough on Scott’s mood to try a subtle approach.  “I was so worried about you this morning.  You really can’t go wandering off by yourself.  It’s just not safe.”

“You really are a bastard aren’t you Damien?” Scott snarled.  He stalked over to the desk and leaned across it, only momentarily distracted by his mate’s scent.

“What do you mean?” Damien seemed truly puzzled and definitely distracted by Scott’s scent.  He could feel his cock lengthen in his leather pants and wondered how long this little talk was going to go on for.  Maybe he could get in a quick fuck before their eleven o’clock appointment.   His mate was so damn sexy when he was angry.

“I arranged with Madison for you to have time off.  Time off you said last
night that you wanted.  We had what I thought was a great night and then I woke up alone!  What the fuck were you thinking Damien?  Wasn’t I a good enough fuck for you or something?”

“Of course mate of mine, it was the best night of my life,” Damien hardened further just thinking about it.  In his opinion it was the best night of his life.

“Then why did you leave me this morning like I was a common hook-up?”

“I…er…I didn’t
.  Well, I didn’t mean to.  I mean, that wasn’t my intention.  I just thought I would get some work done.”

Damien was struggling to see what he had done wrong.  He knew Scott was really angry with him but he couldn’t work out why.  He had always worked
, and anybody who he had sex with knew that his club and his pack came first. His subs never complained.

“You put staff rosters and fucking bar orders in front of me?  Did you think about what I wanted
, or how I might have felt, waking up in a new place on my own?  Did you stop to think that maybe a tour of the apartment where I am supposed to be living, might have been nice?  You said you arranged for me to have breakfast in the kitchen.  I didn’t even know we had a fucking kitchen.” Scott was yelling now.

“Look Scott, mate,” Damien tried to explain
. “I didn’t mean anything by it.  It’s just the club and the pack takes a lot of work and I thought I could get some stuff done while you were still asleep.”  He hadn’t even thought about how Scott would feel waking up alone.

“I’
m your mate, Damien.  I am supposed to be the one thing in your life that is more important than your precious club or your pack.  I am meant to be your everything.  I know we don’t know each other yet, but the way I see it, if you can’t stay in bed with me and hold me the first morning I wake up in my new home, then you are a piss poor mate.” 

Scott looked down at the clipboard and saw that there was a shift open
, starting at ten o’clock.  Grabbing a pen, he wrote his name in that shift and then in all of the other spare shifts available through the week.  He could work every day if he wanted to, which right now suited him perfectly.

Flinging the clipboard down on Damien’s desk, Scott snarled, “There I
’ve solved one problem for you.  Your bar roster is now full.  I will work the shifts myself.”

“But,
but…” Damien was still reeling from what Scott had said earlier. Surely he wasn’t a piss poor mate? “Do you even know how to work behind a bar?”

“Of course I do,” Scott said with an evil grin as he went to leave the room.  “If you don’t believe me, ring my old lover Claude
. He will be more than happy to give me a reference.  Oh, and he can tell you the benefits of staying in bed with me in the morning, seeing as you couldn’t work that out for yourself.” And with that he left the room.  If he was smirking at the growl he heard Damien let out at his parting words, his mate wouldn’t know about it.  No wolf likes to hear about his mate’s previous lovers.

Scott saw Madison lurking by the stairs.  The twink immediately went into submissive mode the moment he saw him.  “Can you tell me who the bar manager is today?” Scott asked him.

“Yes Alpha Mate, it’s John.  He should be down in the bar if you need him for something.  I can go and get him if you want,” Madison said, eager to please.

“That won’t be necessary,” Scott said as he headed down the stairs.  “I would leave the Alpha alone for another ten minutes and then you can go back to work
, and when my appointment comes in at eleven, please come and get me.  I will be working in the bar.”

It didn’t take Scott long to find John and once the bar manager had got over the whole idea of the Alpha Mate working for him, he agreed to call Scott by his first name and put him to work preparing the bar for the busy lunch shift to come.

/~/~/~/~/

To say Damien was stunned was an understatement.  No one ever talked to him the way Scott did - ever.  But his mate, that little beta wolf
, had not only yelled at him, but he had called him a piss poor mate.  Damien didn’t know what to think.  He knew he had woken up thrilled at the feeling of Scott’s hard body in his arms.  He was sorely tempted to wake the man up, but he figured it was best to be considerate.  Scott had been on deaths’ door only two days before and last night had been intense.

But Damien was never one for lying around and all too soon his mind wandered over the paperwork he knew would still be on his desk.  Madison might try to delegate some of it out, but the little man just didn’t have a clue.  If he went down to the office
, he could be done in a couple of hours and back upstairs to have breakfast with his mate.  Satisfied with his decision, Damien had slipped out of bed, cleaned up and dressed and headed to the office.  As soon as Madison had seen him the little man started going on about petty problems and Damien was quickly absorbed in his work.

About quarter to eight Damien felt a twinge in his heart which really bothered him because he had never felt that before, but when he reached out to Scott in his mind
, he found he couldn’t reach him.  Damien assumed the man was still asleep and forced his mind back to the work he had to do.  By nine o’clock he told Madison that he had done enough and he was going back up to the apartment.  The roar he let out when he realized Scott wasn’t there could be heard through the whole club and his staff came running.

It was Malacai that organized the search for Scott.  Damien just couldn’t think straight.  He didn’t know if Scott had gone back to Cloverleah - but he couldn’t think why his mate would even consider it.  He had only arrived the day before
, and it was not as though he and Damien had spent enough time together for Scott to get upset.  If Scott wasn’t at Cloverleah though, then it meant he had gone out.  But where?  And why?  Everything the man needed was right here in the apartment. Damien had seen to that personally.

With most of his staff out looking for his mate, Damien went back to his office
, purely and simply because he didn’t know what else to do.  He wanted to be out searching for Scott, but he had responsibilities and they were too ingrained for him to stop thinking about now.  So he forced himself to work, even though he couldn’t escape this nagging feeling that something was wrong. 

Damien didn’t get the impression that Scott was in any danger, but something had upset his mate. The man’s mind block was firmly in place and Damien felt a twinge of sadness at that.  He had liked feeling the man in his head and without it Damien felt a bit…lonely.  Yes that was the word. He didn’t like
that feeling one bit and he hoped that someone would report back to him soon that Scott was safe and on his way back to the club.  The man didn’t have a car and Damien didn’t even know if he had cash or a phone with him.  It’s not as though they had ever exchanged phone numbers, something Damien reminded himself to do as soon as his mate came back to the office. If the man was going to keep blocking him in his head then the least Damien could do was get him on the phone.

So worrying and hating the feeling of loneliness and the ache in his heart, Damien tried to focus on his papers.  He snapped at Madison so many times the poor man didn’t know what to do and by the time the door opened and his mate walked in, as angry as all get out, Damien was far too relieved to be angry.  Which was probably just as well, he thought, because his mate was carrying enough anger for the both of them and it seemed to increase when Scott realized that it wasn’t Madison’s fault that Damien was working.

Now Damien was left with a raging hard on.  His Alpha Mate seemed determined to work as a barman, which was unheard of in his pack and not only that, his little mate was still so angry with him, and all the while Damien still couldn’t work out what he had done wrong. Maybe Scott had a mental health problem or something like that?  Thinking it was unlikely, but determined to check up on it, Damien dialed Shawn’s number - still embedded in his cell phone contacts.

“Hi Damien, how goes things with your new mate,” Shawn’
s deep voice came over the line. For the first time since he had met the man, Damien felt totally unaffected.  Wow, this must be what mating does to a man, he thought.

“Not so good actually
, but I’m dammed if I know why,” Damien said truthfully. “Tell me, does Scott have any mental health issues I should know about?”

“Damien I can’t believe you are even asking me that,” Shawn snapped over the phone.  “Scott is one of the most decent, intelligent and honest people I know.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with him in any way.  How dare you talk about him like
that?  What’s going on, and you had better tell me Damien, or I am zapping that man back here right now.”

That’s the problem when you confess an issue with a Shifter Guardian like Shawn.  They have so much damn power that sometimes they just like to flex it.  But Damien didn’t want to lose Scott
, so he explained what had happened since he and Scott had gotten back to Texas.  He said about the pack meeting; he told Shawn with pride how Scott had dealt with Phillip and Madison.  He didn’t go into details, but he did allude to the fact that the two men had spent the rest of the night in bed together, and then how for some reason, his mate had pulled a disappearing act while he was at work.  Damien explained in no uncertain terms about how worried he had been when he couldn’t find Scott, and told Shawn about how he had sent his staff out to find him, and then how Scott had reacted when he had come back to the club.

“So let me get this straight,” Shawn said.  “Your mate put up with being banished by your PA, shit from Drake’s brother, met twenty subs whose only purpose in life was to please you sexually
, and still went to bed with you. Not only did he go to bed with you, but he gave you the most amazing night of your life.  And you repaid him by going to work as soon as you woke up, leaving him to fend for himself, despite Scott clearing time off for you from your office.”

“Well, yes,” said Damien slowly
. “But you know how this place would fall apart if I wasn’t running it.  I have to work and Scott will just have to accept that.”

“I never thought I would say this, my friend, but you are an idiot. Your
club and pack might have to cope without you in the very near future if you don’t get your act together, because Scott will leave you.  He already knows it will kill him, but he will do it if you can’t find it in your heart to be the mate you are supposed to be.  Sex won’t keep your relationship together, no matter how good it is.”