Chapter 2 Rafe
If only begging would get Rafe what he wanted.
Having his younger mate in his home—in his bed—without bonding him was an exercise in torture.
When Adri had stepped into his waiting room wearing nothing at all, Rafe had almost choked on his own tongue as he took in the miles of sculpted fighter’s muscles and resisted the urge to lick every inch of Adri’s smooth, dark skin that was on display.
The towel now barely covering him hadn’t helped much.
“I’ll find you some sweats,” Rafe said as they made it upstairs.
Adri’s smirk in response just about undid him. “You’ll have to help me put them on.”
Rafe huffed a breath. “Brat. Get in the bedroom.”
Rafe tracked Adri’s movement ahead of him as they walked down the hallway.
It might’ve looked normal for a human, but he could tell the injury was affecting his mate.
Cat shifters were usually all sinuous grace, barely making a sound as they walked.
Adri was still graceful, but his cautious, padding steps betrayed the care he was taking not to jolt his shoulder as he moved.
“Do you need a painkiller?” Rafe asked.
He’d been maintaining a pain-block on Adri with his power, but it was possible some was still seeping through, given how tired he was.
Adri glanced over his shoulder, head quirked in question. “Did you forget I’m a shifter? They won’t do me any good.”
Adri’s knowledge gap was another reminder that the jaguar shifter hadn’t grown up in the shifter world.
Rafe had caved and done a background check on his mate when they first met, outraged that Adri’s family hadn’t come looking for him when he’d ended up forced into the illegal fighting ring.
That’s how he knew Adri had been raised by humans who’d paid the price for fighting back when the coven stole him from his home.
He hadn’t been able to find any other living relatives.
If Rafe hadn’t already been determined to be Adri’s family, that would’ve done it.
Jaguars might be loners in the wild, but that didn’t mean Adri had to be alone in the world.
“I keep witch-magicked drugs on hand for injured shifters. They’re in a warded case, so they weren’t touched when the clinic was vandalised.”
“And who exactly vandalised the clinic? You forgot to mention,” Adri said, turning to face him as he reached the drawers in Rafe’s bedroom.
“It doesn’t matter,” Rafe said, reaching past him to find the promised clothes.
Adri caught him by surprise, reaching out to grip his jaw hard and drag his face round to look down at him.
“Yes, it fucking does.”
Rafe pulled away, dropping to his knees with the sweatpants in hand and tilting his head up to look at his mate.
“Rest your good hand on my shoulder so you don’t overbalance,” he said, reaching out to help him into the pants.
Adri swore, his eyes flashing a bright green as his jaguar showed through.
Instead of bracing himself on Rafe’s shoulder like he’d asked, Adri tugged at the towel around his waist, letting it drop to the floor.
His mate’s cock—ridged, hard and dripping with pre-cum—now swung in front of Rafe’s face, taunting him.
Close enough that all he’d have to do was let his long tongue flick out of his mouth, and he’d be able to lick the liquid off its tip.
He wasn’t about to give Marco a show, though.
No matter how much his Alpha would enjoy it.
Tapping Adri’s foot, he forced himself to look down and focus on only the task before him—getting his mate dressed. As he pulled the soft fabric up Adri’s muscled legs, it took every inch of willpower he possessed to resist the siren’s call waving in front of his face.
“Not going to lick me clean so I don’t make a wet patch on them?” Adri teased.
Rafe rolled his eyes, smiling despite himself. Was that bratting or catting? Was there any difference? His jaguar was going to be more than a handful.
Marco was waiting for them in the kitchen when they emerged, leaning back on the counter as he sipped a cup of coffee.
“I figured you’d want to feed him yourself, so I didn’t start dinner,” Marco said.
Rafe tipped his head in thanks and headed to the fridge to grab the soup he’d prepared earlier, chucking some hastily assembled garlic bread in the oven as it heated.
“So, what did you actually stop by for?” Rafe asked Marco as he worked, keeping an eye on Adri as he went.
Adri must’ve tired himself out because he sank onto a chair to watch their exchange.
“I wanted to ask if you’re aware of any medical intervention that could’ve caused Adrien’s opponent to turn feral last night.”
Rafe froze before turning to face Marco fully. He’d never heard of such a thing. No one with any sense wanted to mess around with a feral shifter.
“You think someone did that to him on purpose?”
“We’ve had intel that the D-2S has been running some kind of medical experimentation. It’s too much of a coincidence to think that such a public, unexpected episode followed immediately by a police raid isn’t related.”
A low rumbling growl filled the room from where Adri sat. “They’re targeting my people?” he asked.
Rafe sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. The last thing he needed was Adri having another reason to run off on him. His mate was far too protective of his fellow fighters.
“I’ll look into it and see if the Council’s medical archives mention anything useful. It would help if I had a body to examine,” Rafe said.
“I can’t help you there. Silas took him straight to the crematorium. We couldn’t risk it spreading if he healed,” Marco said.
“Next time, contain them so I can figure out if there’s a cause.”
Marco frowned. “I’m really hoping there’s not a next time.”
“Do you have anything else to go on?” Adri asked as Rafe and Marco joined him at the table with their food.
Marco shook his head. “Things have been a mess with the police raid and everything else. We’ve been too busy diverting attention so that the Council doesn’t get involved.
Luca hasn’t had a chance to dig into the fighter’s digital footprint to see if there’s anything suspicious there. Did you know him well?”
Rafe did his best to focus on his food when every instinct in him was screaming to go pull his stressed mate into his lap and nuzzle into his throat.
“No, we hadn’t trained together yet. He was pretty new to the circuit.
There were whispers he’d come from an unsanctioned fighting ring.
He was having conversations with some of the younger guys that I didn’t like.
Ones that only took place in quiet corners of the locker room and stopped when I got close enough to hear,” Adri said.
Marco scowled. “There’s another fighting ring operating in the city, and you didn’t tell me?” he snapped.
Rafe’s fangs lengthened despite himself, and he placed his cutlery down before his whitening knuckles could give him away. He’d sat between his mate and his Alpha by instinct. He was glad he had now, because it meant he didn’t have to give himself away by lunging between them.
“Chill, Doc. I can handle myself,” Adri muttered.
A flush spread up Rafe’s cheeks as he realised he’d been subvocalising a growl. “Sorry, Alpha,” he said to Marco, baring his throat.
Marco stared at him, assessing. “Do Carter and I need to continue this conversation elsewhere?”
“No. I’m fine.”
“See that you stay that way,” Marco warned.
Rafe swallowed hard and forced himself to pick up his spoon and keep eating.
He didn’t think Adri had realised there was a potential mating bond between them yet.
Cats could be pretty slow on the uptake that way.
It wouldn’t take long for him to notice if Rafe carried on the way he was, though, and he didn’t want to scare the younger man off.
“All I had was rumour. No proof. And I figured your manager would tell you anything you need to know. I’m not there for the pack. I’m there for my fighters,” Adri said, his green eyes flicking between them.
“Does Viviana know?” Marco asked.
Viviana was the wolf shifter Marco had put in charge when the Lunettis took over the ring at Rafe’s request after the last time he’d had to patch Adri up over a decade earlier. She was as loyal as they came, but she was also an alpha, so her first instinct would be to handle things herself.
Adri shrugged. “No clue. It’s not the kind of thing the fighters would bring up with her. It would put a target on their back. Make it seem like they were angling to leave.”
“If you hear anything more, you text me. Immediately,” Marco ordered.
Adri stared at Marco, holding his gaze longer than any wolf would have. Damn cats and their independent streaks. If his mate pissed his Alpha off, things were going to get super awkward.
“Sure. Why not?” Adri said finally, before focussing on his food.
Marco exchanged a look with Rafe, one eyebrow raised and a smirk on his face.
Rafe just shook his head. His Alpha had been telling him to lock Adri down for years, but it wasn’t that simple.
The jaguar had an independent streak a mile wide.
When he’d ignored Adri’s wishes and arranged for Marco to take over the fighting ring he’d been indentured to, it had soured Adri to whatever was between them.
Adri thought Rafe had a saviour complex.
That he wanted to fix everything in his life. He wasn’t wrong.
This time together was Rafe’s chance to try to show the jaguar shifter that this need he had to care for his mate didn’t mean he respected Adri any less or that he wanted to control him.
Especially now his mate was in his thirties—not a young man anymore, but still some forty-five years Rafe’s junior.
Their hook-up when Adri was only twenty had been hot as hell, but even if Adri had wanted something more at the time, Rafe wouldn’t have bonded with him so young.
Had he left it too long now and missed his chance?
Adri’s voice interrupted his spiralling thoughts. “I could go check out the unsanctioned ring if you want. I’m sure I can get one of the guys to give me the details.”
“No! Absolutely not!” Rafe snapped before Marco could answer.
What was Adri thinking? He might be too out of it to realise, but Rafe was still channelling healing magic into him in a constant stream to manage the pain of his healing limb.
Rafe had cancelled all his nonessential appointments, his energy levels running on empty as he poured everything into keeping his mate comfortable.
And now Adri wanted to go undercover in an unsanctioned ring that might be run by anti-supernatural terrorists who were experimenting on their fighters?
If he thought he’d seen Adri angry before, it was nothing compared to the snarl his mate turned on him now.
The draw on Rafe’s pain-blocker grew as Adri twisted in his seat to bare sharpened fangs at him, his eyes flashing a brighter green and his pupils turning to vertical slits as his jaguar came forward.
“Fuck you, Doc. I’m out,” he hissed, pushing to his feet and stalking for the stairs.
“Wait. You can’t go. I can’t hold the healing on you if you leave the building.”
Rafe’s heart raced in panic as he watched Adri walk away.
“I can do whatever the fuck I want,” Adri snapped.
Wincing to himself, Rafe stopped all the power he’d been channelling into his mate, feeling like a total asshole.
It would’ve cut off when Adri left the clinic and outside his range anyway, though, and it was far better that happened here in the safety of his home than outside, where Adri would be vulnerable.
Adri yelped as pain seared through him, and Rafe crossed the room in a blur of motion to catch him as his legs gave out, reinstating the pain-blocker as he sank to the floor, cradling Adri in his arms. The effort it took to restart feeding Adri his healing energy meant he couldn’t keep his feet, either.
Marco huffed, and his legs appeared in Rafe’s peripheral vision. “You’re both a mess,” he said, lifting Adri into his arms and carrying him to the bedroom.
Rafe rolled onto his hands and knees with a groan before staggering to his feet and shuffling after them. His Alpha was gentle as he deposited Adri on the sheets.
“Give the doc a break and rest,” Marco told the jaguar. “And you,” he added, turning to Rafe. “Stop draining yourself dry. He’s a fighter. He can handle a little pain.”
Rafe ignored him and moved to pull the blankets up over his mate.
Adri reached out to grip his wrist with his good hand, his words slurring with fatigue from the shock to his system. “Stop treating me like I’m fragile.”
“Then keep your ass in bed until you’re not,” Rafe grumbled, using his healing power to nudge the jaguar into sleep before shepherding Marco from the room so he could turn off the lights.
“He’s going to run again if you keep that up,” Marco warned as Rafe walked him out.
“He’s going to run regardless. Wolves run faster and longer. I’ll catch him.”