Chapter 9 Adri
“You two look cosy.”
Adri had shifted to his jaguar form and crouched protectively over Rafe’s legs to snarl at whoever had invaded their space before he’d even processed that he was awake.
He only cut off the growl when he belatedly recognised Marco’s voice, but his fangs remained bared.
Rafe sighed behind him, the covers rustling as he sat up.
“Shut the door and go make yourself a cup of coffee while we get dressed,” Rafe said.
Marco stayed put, leaning against the frame as he stared Adri down. Quickly bored with the game, Adri flicked his tail and twisted to butt his head under Rafe’s chin instead.
“He’s cute when he lets his jaguar take control,” Marco said, sparking a huff of complaint from Adri.
“He’s cute all the time,” Rafe replied.
And that was enough of that. Shifting back into his human form, Adri grabbed the pair of sweatpants Rafe offered him and tugged them on, ignoring both of the irritatingly alpha wolf shifters taking up all the air in the room.
Marco didn’t give an inch as Adri passed, forcing him to turn sideways to barely avoid brushing up against him.
Heading to the kitchen, Adri set about making him and Rafe coffee, sighing as he caved and grabbed a third cup for the Alpha who’d turned up uninvited.
“Thank you, kitten,” Rafe murmured, wrapping his arms around him from behind and kissing the back of his neck.
Adri couldn’t help but tilt his head, asking for more, and Rafe moaned softly in approval. Sharp teeth bit down on the big muscle at the base of his neck, squeezing hard enough to make him hiss as his blood flowed south.
“As hot as the pair of you are, don’t get distracted. I did stop by for a reason.”
Dammit. How had Rafe managed to make him forget the Alpha wolf shifter in the room? It’s like his jaguar became utterly fixated whenever Rafe touched him.
Adri passed Rafe the coffees for him and Marco before grabbing his own and heading back toward the bedroom. He needed to find some clothes and get back to the gym.
“Where do you think you’re going, Carter?” Marco asked.
Adri paused, glancing over at him. “Shower. I figured you two needed to talk.”
“Stay.”
Adri’s eyes narrowed. He wasn’t a damn dog. A firm hand gripped his nape before he could snap back with something he’d regret. “Easy, kitten. It’s his nature to command. Please come sit and have coffee with us.”
“Fine.”
Pulling away from Rafe’s too-tempting touch, Adri grabbed a chair and spun it so he could straddle it and lean his arms on the back. A moment later, a T-shirt landed on his shoulder.
“I think we’ll all be able to concentrate better if you put those muscles away,” Rafe said, staring down a smirking Marco.
Adri leaned back, craning his head to look up at Rafe. He might’ve played the move up a bit, making sure to tense and twist his torso to put his abs on best display.
“Are you jealous, Doc?”
“No. My Alpha isn’t going to make a move on my mate. He might scare you off when he asks to watch, though.”
“You won’t even notice me,” Marco said, a teasing note in his voice Adri had never heard before.
Rafe scoffed and pushed the Alpha’s coffee over to him. “You’d be trying to conduct proceedings before I so much as touched him. No, thank you. Go to a club if you want to play.”
Marco smirked. “You know me too well.”
“Because I’ve known you since you were too young to know those clubs even existed.”
“Shall I start calling you old man like Carter does? And when shall I clear the pack lands for your bonding now that you seem to be admitting what’s between you?”
“F—” Rafe’s hand wrapped firmly around Adri’s mouth, smothering his words before he could tell the Alpha where to shove it.
“Put the shirt on and drink your coffee, kitten.”
Adri glared up at Rafe, eyes flashing. Rafe stared back, unfazed, and cocked an eyebrow.
Fine. Maybe now that he’d taken a breath, he could realise how monumentally stupid it would be to tell Marco to fuck off.
Didn’t mean he had to like it. Tugging Rafe’s hand away from his mouth, Adri pulled the shirt over his head.
Marco watched on with interest, opening his mouth to say something until Rafe gave a tiny shake of his head. Fucking wolves.
“Luca told me about your visitors last night,” Marco said.
“I have it under control. They’re not a threat. They’re just young and scared.”
“I can’t stand by and let a gang attack a member of my pack.”
“They didn’t attack me. Adri didn’t let them even reach the door. And they left as soon as I asked nicely.”
Adri rolled his eyes. That was one way to put it. The fact that Rafe could use an alpha command on a bunch of jackals was nothing short of bizarre.
“I’m glad your mate is protecting you, but I can’t tolerate their disrespect. And you can’t rely on your power to make them submit. They’ll be expecting it next time.”
Adri looked at Rafe with new appreciation and no small amount of frustration. Just how much could he do with his shifter ‘healing’ magic? And how did the man not know how to stop and let himself recover? He didn’t need to be throwing more power around last night when Adri was there to protect him.
“If we find their missing friends, they’ll be loyal to you forever. No violence necessary. We need to get to the bottom of that, anyway. They must’ve been taken by the D-2S for whatever experiments they’re running,” Rafe said.
“Did you find anything on the body from last night?” Marco asked.
“There wasn’t much left of her to examine.
The sulfur smell during her immolation suggests demon blood was involved in some way, but that doesn’t help narrow things down because a determined human can do a lot with demon blood.
It seems likely the blood was used as part of whatever set her alight.
Maybe because they don’t have access to a fire witch, or because the security made sneaking a witch in too difficult.
That’s assuming the immolation was purposeful and not an unintended side effect of something else, of course. ”
“Given how dramatic it was and the trouble it’s got us in with the Council, I’d say it’s a solid theory that it was on purpose. Anything else?” Marco asked.
“Before I got distracted by the jackals, I’d just found a melted ball of plastic and metal in her remains.
It could’ve been from her clothing or the venue, but it appeared to be coated in burnt brain matter, and it had an interesting residue pattern.
I’ll take a closer look when I get the chance, but I’m wondering if they’re using some sort of neural chip located in one of the glands linked to ferality. ”
Adri shuddered at the thought of someone digging into his brain like that. “Seems like a lot of effort to go to just to make someone crazed.”
“It doesn’t take more than one feral shifter on the loose to cause a major problem for us with the Council in the age of social media,” Marco pointed out.
“And again, it’s a question of whether the result was purposeful or not.
We don’t have a good grasp of shifter brain anatomy and function compared to advances in human medical understanding.
If this group has targeted research on a particular gland in the brain, they could’ve discovered any number of other functions and effects of manipulating it that aren’t documented in the council archives.
I need to check in with Katie and see if she knows more, given her speciality. ”
“Bella’s not going to like her being involved,” Marco warned.
“I’ll be careful. We can chat by encrypted video call.”
“Usually, I’d tell you not to risk even that, but we really need to make some headway on this. The council is becoming a major problem. They’re threatening to send in observers.”
Adri didn’t know much about the Supernatural Council as he’d been raised by humans and worked exclusively for criminals for his adult life, but he could see why you might not want them looking over your shoulder while running an enterprise like the Lunettis did.
He also knew that if vulnerable shifters in the city were disappearing, it was only a matter of time before someone at his gym was targeted.
There was no fucking way he was going to let that happen.
“Let me go check out this unsanctioned ring,” Adri said, repeating his offer from earlier in the week.
“Do I need to rub your nose in the dead body downstairs so you understand how dangerous that would be?” Rafe growled.
“I wasn’t asking you, Doc.”
Marco’s cough breaking the silence sounded suspiciously like a laugh.
“Do you have any concern for your own safety?” Rafe asked, turning to glare at him.
“Do you? You’re running a clinic in the poorest part of town, too far away from the pack lands for help to arrive in time if you need it, with no fucking video surveillance or guards. How long would it take someone to realise you were missing if they came for you?” Adri snapped.
“Don’t change the subject. I can take care of myself, and no one else will help the people here if I don’t,” Rafe said.
“Yeah, Doc. I know. It’s the same for me with the kids at the gym.”
“It’s not your job to take care of every fighter at the cost of living a life of your own.”
“And yet we do it anyway, don’t we?” Adri said.
“Carter, I’ll get Luca to hook you up with discreet surveillance and have Angelo put some people on you for backup,” Marco said, interrupting their stand-off.
“We weren’t finished that conversation, Alpha!” Rafe snapped, his eyes turning gold with his wolf.
“Yes, you were. I understand your need to keep your mate safe. That’s why I’ll have people shadowing him. Do you trust me to look after my pack, Rafael?” There was a sharp edge of warning in Marco’s voice as he focussed on the doc that had Adri’s lips peeling back in a warning snarl.
“I’m not part of your pack,” Adri said, leaning forward so he’d be ready to pounce between the men if needed.