Alec knew something was wrong before he opened the door. The smell of his mother scent was thick in the air, and Alec knew whose it was. He shakily worked on unlatching the door while forcing out prayers to a deity he was only half certain listened to him any longer. Of all the times for his mother to actually lock the place, but she had been meeting with someone and hadn't wanted Sebestian or Alec to forget and accidentally barge in during the middle of any works.Finally, he burst into the apartment. Amelia was on the floor unconscious, blood pouring from her wounds. Above her, a beta-were hovered: a beta hyena-were which meant a leader of her pack and far more of a threat than any of the males would have been. She had half transformed. Her fangs and claws were out, and she was about to summon her pack. Alec jumped into action. He took advantage of her having not noticed him to lunge at her from behind her and bash her hard enough in the head to knock her out.He was about to do mor
Sebestian's day had gone from boring to frustrating ever since he had had to kiss his wife goodbye and actually go to work. There had been no activity lately that needed following up on. Everything had been remarkably peaceful in their area thanks to Sebestian's working with the different heads of factions around town. The downside was that that meant Sebestian actually had time to do all the paperwork that found its way onto his desk. Most of which seemed to have arrived from main branch itself. He had been staring at the same paragraph in utter disbelief for nearly half an hour. The demands were so unreasonable that the only reply he could think of was to rip the entire thing up and send the shreds straight back. Unfortunately, that was not an acceptable way to act, so he went back to staring. He was actually relieved when the bang of a door followed by shouting occurred not too far from his office."You can't just barge in there! You don't have an appointment!" That was definitely
They steered far from club, not wanting to implicate Amelia in anything and instead went to May's club, who had been more than happy to prepare for a Alpha brawl."I'll move the breakables and let the pack know to just stand aside and cheer," she had said when Keven called ahead to clear things with her after Alec finally pitched the idea. "You're sure you don't need any extra hands?""Letting us possibly trash your club is enough. There's needed to risk getting your pack in any trouble with the Will's if this doesn't go right. Thanks for the offer though."Despite Keven's assurances, May was still there when they arrived. Though she was tucked away in a VIP section doing an assignment for one of her MBA classes. She stuck her head out of the room long enough to greet them and to tell the bartender to give them whatever they wanted on the house as payment. "Think of it as payment for getting the trash to stop visiting my club."Keven and Alec decided to go along with it if only becaus
Alec tossed aside his phone in resignation. Fantastic. He willed the time to pass faster and the kettle to take longer, hoping his mother would be home before he even had to return with the tea, but luck was not on his side. The kettle sounded, and he reluctantly gathered everything else he needed trying not to prolong further. He hadn't been raised to be rude after all.When he returned to the living room with the tea, Jenny was browsing the shelves, looking over the new pictures they had added. His father had insisted, and there were pictures of the four of them as well as their friends and family covering the living room. There were pictures of them at coffee shops during Ethan's gigs, pictures they had taken at the dinner parties they had held, and pictures of them at birthday celebrations. Everyone was accounted for. Well, almost everyone anyway.Jen didn't turn around when he entered the room. Instead, she kept her eyes glued on the picture that had been taken a few days earlier
Despite their better judgment, Amelia and Sebestian had reluctantly agreed to let Keven and Alec go out together again without any supervision. It was a Saturday morning because apparently there were fewer dangers in the morning, and while Alec was enjoying the sunlight, it was way too early for him to be awake yet. It seemed the same was true for Keven. Both men stood in the middle of the park, blinking tiredly and staring around at the few early morning joggers."Can we just go and this thing and go back to sleep?" Keven moaned."We're not playing. We are helping to locate and escort to safety a lost child," Alec replied, adjusting the sunglasses he had borrowed from his mum. He had been out in the sun more often, but his eyes still hadn't adjusted to the bright morning sun reflecting off the statues in the park.Keven heaved another sigh. "I'm going to get coffee then."Alec shrugged and took a sip from his travel mug. "Feel free to go stand in the line at that cart for two hours.
The punch had Alec swallowing his own blood, his lip was sliced open by his fang during the impact. He swore and scrubbed at the rest of the blood dripping down his chin. He didn't want to look like some fledgling who spilled more blood than they ate. "I'm not going to fight you," he growled and turned to leave. A hand on his elbow had him spinning around and coming face to face with the man once more."I wasn't finished.""I was, so release me now.""I let you live the last time. I don't think I'll make that mistake again."Alec jerked out of his hold and took a step back. "You can't kill me. You're not that strong, and this time you don't have your little torture chair on you." No need to point out that the sunlight would no longer work on him. The less the man knew, the better."You're right. I might not have the gun with me, but I did bring along some good friends of mine."Alec found himself face to face with a dozen more Alpha's, who seemed to appear from every direction.He sli
"It's been a long time since he's cried like that," Sebestian commented, once both of them were certain that Alec was completely asleep and not waking soon."It has." Amelia was sorting things around the room, closing the curtain so that sunrise would not wake Alec before he had gotten enough rest, smoothing down the blankets again, tidying up the few books not on the shelves."It's not been too long. I could track them down.""I could as well.""We can't let them get away with doing this. If we allow them to escape punishment, then others will do the same."Amelia's eyes glinted. "We will handle this.""Tonight?""Yes. Tonight."Sebestian chewed on his bottom lip as he thought. "We can't just run off and leave him here alone right now. You saw how upset he was.""He probably wouldn't wake before we returned, but I don't want to risk that," Amelia agreed."We could call someone and ask them to come stay-"Amelia smirked, finding just the slightest amusement in the situation despite he
Sebestian paid the cabbie, tipping a little too generously, then he and Amelia supported each other on the walk up to the apartment. Liam was cooking when they arrived. The smells of a homemade breakfast made by someone who could actually cook flooded through the apartment, and both of them were tempted to go straight to the kitchen."He's asleep right now. He woke up briefly. Jen got him to eat a little and then convinced him to go back to sleep," Liam said before they could even ask. It was nice having another dad figure around who understood their concerns. "It's a slow day for both Liam and me, so why don't you two slips in and see for yourselves that he's fine. Then you two can shower and change and come eat something before you both rest for a few hours. We can discuss the next steps at breakfast.""We couldn't put you out like that," Amelia started to say."It's not putting us out. Two weeks later, they were all in court. Alec was seated carefully between his parents with every
Ady was the one that actually tried to cheer him up with something else than kind words and chocolate."So. Heard you tried to dispatch Ci with fish knife?" he asked conversationally. "Want another go at it? Somewhere more... private shall we say?"Ethan would have been lying if he said he didn't consider it. But it wouldn't do shit for the real problem. Him."I'll let you the pleasure. Didn't you and Simon were keeping her around for a special occasion anyway?""Ah yes... Well Jen said, "only crazy, homicidal maniac keep people around to kill them later". He's such a buzzkill sometimes." Ad corrected, a fond expression on his pale face. Ethan had speculated about Ad and Jen for a while, until Alec had announced that he and the young Omega were dating more seriously now, around a year ago."Well, he's not wrong," Ethan mused, "though if you did kill her, your position would be finally secured.""Appealing to me through politics Wil? So, you do want her dead!""Everyone wants her dead.
"Ethan? Are you okay?" Matthew asked, tearing Ethan from his thoughts.Damn you burgundy Gucci shirt."Yup, just admiring you," he spoke, trying to smother the deep want that was growing in his belly. Ethan wasn't the best orator, but confronted to that shirt, he was usually back to his old incoherent self, stammering half sentences around (that was why he elected to let his body do the talking for him).Matthew batted his eyelashes, accepting the compliment easily."You're wearing a new suit, darling," he commented when Ethan had sat down, eyes riveted to Ethan's chest, "without me having to cajole you in it. Recall me to send something nice to whoever dressed you. Even if truth be told, I'm a bit jealous.""I never got your obsession with dressing rooms Matt," Ethan joked. Opening his menu, he saw that Luigi had put a small note in it Everything is going right on schedule it said. He smiled."Well you're usually half naked in those, I don't see what's not to like. At that point the
All told, Ethan had tried to propose to Matthew in six different occasions since his lunch with Cammy. It was not that Ethan was bad at it, per say. It was just that Matthew was just too good at distracting him. That, and the rest of the world didn't stop trying to kill him.The first time he gathered enough courage to propose, Matthew had mistaken Ethan going down to his knee for something else entirely and made a dirty, dirty remark and Ethan's proposal metaphorically went out the window. Cammy didn't see any of that, thank God, but the flush Cammy had sported when he reported to her his failure was enough. Sammy cackled (when did Ethan lost his ability to glare at her and mean it damn it) and justified himself for going with Matthew assumption by saying:"What, you want me to ask him after a blow job? I actually want him to give me an answer when he's capable of thoughts, Cammy."She had stared at him then, probably because she never had heard Ethan talk so easily about sex before,
After all, the man had already lived hard life. Alpha, beta, and omega tended to gain marks over the years, for each person they loved or trusted enough to share their soul with. Someone like Matthew, with his warmth and smiles and beauty, should have had dozens of lines littering his skin. A bond would have explained it all.But then, of course, Ethan's gaze flicked towards Matthew other wrist, and his eyes widened at the two lines that adorned it. Two only; one black, the sign of a broken bond, and one golden, shining as brightly as Ethan's. A single active bond."I'm surprised you accepted my offer," Matthew said a few minutes later, swirling his glass and staring at Ethan coyly. "You've been particularly hard to catch, Ethan.""Ah, yes," Ethan grimaced. "I've been... busy. You know how it is, being a Alpha. Or maybe not, but well, you know...""Yes darling, I understand," Matthew chuckled. "I'm just happy to have you here.""Happy- happy to be here," Ethan stuttered, his right fin
The change was instantaneous; Sam pursed his lips thoughtfully and looked away from Matthew. His pencil stopped moving, and his grip tightened so much that his knuckles turned white."It would make Ethan happy," he finally said. The answer was a lot more diplomatic than what Matthew had expected, especially since this was clearly something that troubled Sam. "He's a lot happier with you than he's ever been before, even with us, and I think he'd be even happier if he got to live with you.""I hope so," Matthew smiled. "But that's not what I asked, Sam. Look, I can tell that you don't really hate me, regardless of the little show you put on earlier, so why don't you talk to me about what's really bothering you? Is this about me spending too much time with Ethan?""No," Sam mumbled. "Not really. It's just... His last boyfriend used to spend a lot of time here as well, and he even told me that he was going to move in once, even though it didn't happen, and he didn't like it when I was aro
"Matthew, what is it?""Cammy!" Matthew exclaimed a tad too enthusiastically. "I've got a bit of a problem, and I think that you're the perfect person to help!""Flattery will get you nowhere, Matthew," his friend in all but blood snorted. "But go ahead, tell me about this problem. I'll see what I can do.""Right, so you know Ethan?" he started. "My delightful boyfriend whom I love very much and for whom I would do just about anything. Well, he needed someone to look after his little brother today, and I jumped in to help. But now I'm faced with an eight-year-old who doesn't want anything to do with me and seems to think that I'm worse than the devil. He doesn't believe I'm good enough for Ethan, refuses to be 'used as a way to get to him' and also slammed the door to his bedroom in a clear 'i-don't-want-to-talk-to-you' way. Any ideas?""Well, first of all, you shouldn't have accepted a job that you're too inexperienced to handle," Cammy pointed out uselessly. "But have you tried sugg
Ethan was already in their bedroom when Matthew got back to the hotel. The younger vampire grinned at him happily and Matthew felt another pang of regret at his earlier behaviors. He could have been with his boyfriend hours ago, but instead he had acted like a jealous fool and wasted time on stupid insecurities that he should have gotten over weeks before."I missed you today," Ethan sighed, leaning over to peck him on the lips. "Alec said that you stopped by the wok and went looking for me after the council meeting, but I didn't see you. Did something come up?""Yeah," Matthew lied, wincing at how wrong the word sounded. Ethan was right, he couldn't just ignore his issues and keep Ethan in the dark. It wasn't fair to either of them. "Actually no, not really. I went to the training room to find you, but you were with Ady and I... I don't know, Ethan, I guess I overreacted a little bit. I went to Cammy for a while instead.""What do you mean, you overreacted?" Ethan frowned."I just...
"Sorry I'm late!"Matthew looked up at his boyfriend dryly, refusing to show how affected he had been by Ethan's absence. The two of them had been planning this date for weeks, but the younger man hadn't even managed to show up on time. Of course, Matthew understood that Ethan had a lot on his mind, but he had hoped that for once he could be his boyfriend's priority."Advin kept me late again," Ethan continued with a sheepish grin. Matthew steadfastly ignored the wave of jealousy that hit him at those words. "You know how he gets when we train. I tried to remind him that we had something planned for the night, but he refused to let me go until I beat him, which only happens like... One out of twenty times. Are we still going to that star-gazing thing at the observatory?""Of course we are," Matthew rolled his eyes. The younger Alpha had been talking about the event for over a month, which was why they had chosen this night for their date in the first place. "We should get going if we
(How Ethan and Matthew got together)"You have a choice to make. I will not ask again."The words hurt to say, but Matthew couldn't let this Alpha take over his heart, no matter how pretty he was. If Ethan refused to put an end to this sham of a promise he was planning, Matthew wouldn't chase him any longer.He breathed in deeply and ignored the pain that flooded his chest as Ethan remained silent. He lifted a hand, ready to go away at a second's notice, but then the gorgeous Alpha in front of him turned around and all thoughts of disappearing faded away.He should have left, should have given Ethan space and time to think about his offer, but one look at those sorrowful eyes was enough to stop him in his tracks. He was falling too fast for this Alpha, was putting himself through things he had refused to deal with for year's, and he didn't know how to put an end to it.(Didn't know if he wanted to put an end to it.)Matthew stayed silent, waiting for Ethan to speak up, to deny his fee