Chapter 8 Adri #2
Dipping his head to the still stunned leader of their little group groaning beneath him, he unhinged his jaw and stretched his fangs wide around the guy’s arrogant little skull, sparking a screech of fear as the man realised just how much trouble he was in.
Damn jackals and their high-pitched noises.
Give him a sexy, growly, silver-haired wolf any day.
A flick of his long tail had the man’s gun skittering across the road, away from his twitching fingers.
“Adri, I know you want to show off that very impressive bite of yours, but that’s enough. Let the boy go.”
Adri bit down a little harder, breaking through the skin of the attacker’s scalp to touch his fangs to the bone beneath, sparking another even higher-pitched scream. The other four jackals were circling, wary, but not willing to risk him following through on his threat to crush the guy’s skull.
“You did so good warning me, keeping me safe. Look at me, kitten. I’m fine. These pups can’t hurt me,” Rafe said, voice soft as he stepped closer.
Adri snarled and released the guy, snapping his teeth right in front of his face in warning as the young man scrambled back to his feet.
Movement flashed to his right—one of the jackals attempting a lunge.
“Stop!” Rafe snapped, pure alpha dominance rolling over all of them.
Adri snarled, tail lashing as he ignored Rafe’s command to focus on the threat.
The four jackals and their leader, who was still in human form, all dropped to their bellies, too young to resist. Pacing right up to his doctor, Adri butted his head into Rafe’s stomach, shoving him further away from the young men who’d been trying to hurt him.
“Oh, kitten. You’re so beautiful like this,” Rafe whispered, reaching down to run his hand down Adri’s neck and grip his scruff.
Adri’s chest rumbled in a purr, and he leaned into Rafe’s leg, twisting to lick a stripe up the doc’s wrist with his rough tongue. Rafe chuckled before turning back to the jackal leader who’d managed to sit up and was clutching his head.
“Explain yourselves,” Rafe ordered, that sexy alpha command still clear in his voice.
“The last two of our crew to visit you were never seen again. We want them back,” the guy said.
“Why didn’t you come to me and ask for help?” Rafe asked.
The guy looked uncomfortable. “We know you had something to do with it, and we’re not the only ones coming for you. It’s not a coincidence that they both went missing here.”
Adri turned his glowing green eyes on the man, lowering his head and growling low as he let his fangs flash in the streetlights. How dare they suggest Rafe would do such a thing? His doc worked tirelessly to look after them and everyone else who couldn’t afford proper care.
“I’m sure it’s not a coincidence they were taken from here, but that doesn’t mean I took them.
I had nothing to do with their disappearance, as you would know if you thought past your fear for one second.
I’ve known most of you since you were pups.
I swear to you, the pack will look into this.
Now get your asses out of here before my mate takes a bite out of them. ”
Adri twisted back to face Rafe, barely noticing as the jackals booked it.
Mate?
Rearing back onto his hind legs, he placed both front paws on Rafe’s chest, his surprise emerging in the saw-like call rumbling from his lungs.
The noise turned to a purr, and his eyes slipped closed as Rafe reached out to grasp his ruff again, his other hand scratching behind one of his ears. That shouldn’t feel so good.
“Caught that little slip, did you? Come inside, kitten,” Rafe said, laughing when his attempt to back up just had Adri walking on his hind legs to stay pressed in close. “I’m tired, and you’re heavy, sweetheart.”
Reluctantly, Adri dropped back down to all fours, twining his way around Rafe’s legs as he moved them back into the clinic and locked the door behind them. The move was somewhat hampered by his head being level with Rafe’s waist when he was standing, but he made it work.
His nose wrinkled in distaste as he passed the threshold of the building.
The smell of death permeated the space—charcoaled cougar.
Rafe must’ve been staying up late to examine the body.
The sickly scent was enough to send Adri shifting back to his human form, where his nose wasn’t quite so sensitive.
Rising from a crouch, reality crashed into him like a brick thrown through a window as human sensitivities took over from jaguar instinct.
Rafe passed him a pair of clean sweats from the wicker basket in the corner without comment, sensing his change in mood.
“I need to call Luca about the missing shifters,” Rafe said.
“He’s been looking into things for me, and I’m sure this has something to do with the experimentation we think the D-2S has been undertaking.
My patients here at the clinic tend to be vulnerable, with no pack or family to look out for them. They’re the perfect targets.”
Adri could hear the rage and pain hidden in those words. It was enough to distract him from that word echoing on repeat in his brain—mate. “If not here, they would have found them somewhere else. You didn’t fail them.”
“I didn’t save them either. But I will.”
Adri huffed a breath in annoyance. Rafe already had dark circles under his eyes and was moving more slowly than usual.
He needed to stop trying to save everyone else and look after himself for a moment.
His doc needed a fucking minder. He didn’t like that Rafe hadn’t noticed the threat from the jackals until Adri jumped them, either.
Or that they’d suggested others would be coming. Where was Rafe’s security?
“Call Luca and then you’re going to bed, where you should’ve been already,” Adri growled.
Rafe looked up from his phone, mouth twitching up in a smile. “Is that right, kitten? How are you going to enforce that?”
“I’ll drag you there myself.” And then he’d keep watch over his doc as bodyguard, because the guy clearly wasn’t capable of doing it.
It didn’t mean they were in a relationship or anything. Adri just owed him. And he couldn’t stand the thought of anything happening to the doc. No one else would take care of Rafe as well as he could.
Rafe’s smile stretched even wider. “You know, the best way to make sure I stay in bed is to stay there with me.”
Adri rolled his eyes. “Call the damn hacker,” he said, moving to the clinic’s kitchenette so he could grab one of the energy bars and a bottle of iced coffee that Rafe kept on hand for when he was busy.
“And eat something,” he added, pushing Rafe gently into a seat and placing the food in front of him.
“Why are you so reckless with your safety? You should’ve had Marco on those jackals the first time they broke in,” Adri said once Rafe had finished updating Luca on what he was looking for.
Rafe stood and stretched his back, twisting and reaching in a way that distracted Adri enough that he had to take a moment to calm himself before following him when he headed upstairs to the apartment.
“They’re just vulnerable kids doing their best to survive in a dangerous city. You, of all people, should understand.”
“They’re adults, and I’m more than a fucking trauma backstory.”
Rafe spun to face him as they entered the apartment, backing him up against the nearest wall and cupping his jaw in a firm grip.
“I meant you understand what it’s like to be the one standing between a young person and a life they shouldn’t have to live, kitten.
You do the same thing every day with those fighters coming through your gym. ”
“Oh,” Adri said, eyes flicking down.
“And they’re not adults by shifter standards. They’re only in their twenties. Still too young to know better.”
Adri pulled away from Rafe’s touch, glaring at him. “Is that why you wouldn’t go further when we first met? I wasn’t a child. I’d dealt with more than most in twenty years. I was plenty old enough to know better.”
“I didn’t go further because I wasn’t going to settle for anything less than everything. Old enough to blow me in a gym isn’t the same as old enough to commit to forever. Forever is a really long time.”
“Oh, are we admitting that now? The thing you didn’t mention for the last thirteen years?”
“You asked me to stay away from you, so I did. I’ll always do what you ask. Just like I’ll always come when you call.”
“Because of this … potential … between us?”
“Because you’re my mate.”
“Not without a bond, I’m not. I might not know as much about shifters as someone raised with them, but I know that.”
“You have always been my mate, and you always will be. Whether you ever let us bond or not, I’m yours.”
Adri looked away, unable to maintain the intensity brought by the eye contact between them. “You need to rest.”
If Rafe was disappointed by the change of subject, he didn’t show it. “Okay, kitten. Take me to bed.”
Adri paused awkwardly when they entered the bedroom; his need to care for Rafe only taking him so far.
The doc turned to face him, reaching up to undo first one cufflink, then the other.
Adri was enthralled. Why was that so sexy?
Placing the cufflinks aside, Rafe started on his buttons, the movements a slow tease as he revealed the dusting of black-and-silver hair across his toned chest and stomach.
“Are you just going to stand there and watch, kitten?”
Adri swallowed hard, tearing his gaze away from Rafe to eye his escape route. The soft jingle of a buckle snapped his attention back to the doc as he undid his belt.
“I’m not going to let you bite me,” Adri said. He’d meant to growl, but it was more of a whisper.
“Didn’t ask you to, sweetheart. Not yet.”
Unable to resist the temptation a second longer, Adri slunk closer to his obsession, kneeling to undo the laces of Rafe’s shoes and slip them from his feet.
“You going to let me touch you this time?” Adri asked, staring up Rafe’s body to find the doc’s eyes flashing gold with his wolf above him. He kept his eyes trained on Rafe’s face as he tugged the rest of his clothes off.
Rafe traced a soft touch down the curve of his ear, sparking a shiver that left him purring. Again. How did Rafe draw that noise from him so easily?
“If you stay the night with me.”
Adri narrowed his eyes at the older man. He always had to push that little bit further. Not that Adri could bring himself to leave at this point.
“Lie down on the bed.”
Rafe tilted his head, considering the request, before sitting down on the mattress and shuffling back until he was reclined on his elbows in the middle. Letting one knee fall sideways, Rafe wrapped a hand around his cock, stroking it as his eyes stayed focussed on Adri.
“Strip,” Rafe growled.
“You’re not in charge tonight, Doc.”
Adri didn’t know why he was fighting him on the order. One little shove of fabric and he’d be naked.
“Whatever you need, kitten. But right now, I need that ridged cock of yours that’s leaking into my sweatpants over here.”
Growling, Adri let his fingertips shift to claws and tore the clothing from his body.
His mind cleared of anything but need as he put one knee up on the bed to crawl up Rafe’s body until they were pressed close and his lips were hovering over the enticing dip of his collarbone.
When Rafe reached out to touch them, Adri knocked his hand away.
“Mine,” he said, wrapping his fist around both their shafts and groaning as Rafe’s hips thrust up at the pressure, making the head of his cock drag along each of the ridges swelling on Adri’s length.
The image they made pressed together as he stroked was obscene. Adri couldn’t drag his eyes away as even his large fist struggled to stretch around their combined girth. Every time he let his thumb brush over their tips, Rafe let out a gasp that he was already addicted to.
“So good, kitten,” Rafe groaned, touching a knuckle to his chin to tip his head up and taking his lips in a brutal kiss, their tongues battling for dominance.
The world spun as Rafe flipped them over, pinning Adri to the bed as his hard thrusts into Adri’s grip grew desperate.
Adri’s other hand dropped to grip his ass tight, fingers digging in hard enough to bruise.
Fuck. By the soft-blooming scent of blood, it had been hard enough to break the skin when he partially shifted and lost control.
He couldn’t help but knead Rafe’s muscled ass cheek with his claws, sparking a choked howl of pleasure from the wolf shifter.
“Fuck, yes. Just like that. Come for me, kitten. Now.”
Adri’s eyes rolled back in his head as his orgasm sent him soaring. Rafe hadn’t even used his magic to prompt it. All he’d had to do was use that sexy, commanding tone, and Adri had been a goner. He would’ve felt self-conscious if Rafe wasn’t coming just as hard.
As Adri lay panting on the bed after, he felt his claws withdrawing from Rafe’s skin as they shifted back, sparking a low hiss from the man.
“Sorry.”
“Don’t ever be sorry for losing control like that, kitten. It was so fucking hot. It’s not like it will take longer than a few seconds to heal.”
Adri grumbled in annoyance, sparking a laugh from Rafe.
“Awww, you want the marks to stick around longer, kitten?”
“Shut—” Adri remembered just in time to cut off the rude words before he could finish.
“So good for me,” Rafe praised, pressing a kiss to the corner of his mouth and then biting down gently on his lip.
Adri flopped back on the bed as Rafe got up, heading toward the bathroom. This was such a huge mistake, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. The doc returned moments later with a warm cloth, cleaning their combined cum off Adri’s chest.
“Mmmm, we smell delicious together,” Rafe said as he chucked the cloth in the direction of the laundry basket.
“Don’t get any ideas,” Adri warned.
Rafe just smiled and rejoined him in bed, tugging him into his arms until Adri’s head was resting on his chest, his heartbeat slow and reassuring beneath his ear. It didn’t take any time at all for it to lull him right off to sleep.