Chapter 3 Cal
CHAPTER 3: CAL
Cal watched as the Elemental Mayhem MC’s Vice President stalked out of his bar, the harsh lights they used to light the dim club during the day reflecting off the blue metallic threads of the patch on his leather cut. The colours showed Wyatt worked with water magic like Cal did. That was probably why the VP had been the one to come talk to him for the third time about opening his back rooms up to their illegal dealings. They should’ve realised by now that if threats hadn’t worked, a simple shared elemental affinity wouldn’t be enough to make him set his morals aside, either.
Cal’s hand clenched tight on the cloth he was using to polish the already spotless bar top, and his magic flared in response to his anger. He’d known the MC would leverage everything they could for the extra warding he’d been forced to request help with, but he’d worked too hard to get his business clean to let them bully him into turning it into a glorified clubhouse now. He didn’t want drug deals happening under his roof. He’d seen the damage addiction caused first-hand, and he’d be damned if he’d be associated with it in any way. The MC wasn’t taking no for an answer, though. They were refusing to take his money, or anything else, in payment for the debt. Insisting the only currency they would accept was the access he’d always denied them.
His club Hex-Rated was in a prime position in the city, sitting just inside the Halo Road at its centre that marked the neutral territory the Supernatural Council insisted remain unclaimed by any of the three crime families—the Lunetti Pack, the MC, and the Cruor Coven of vampires. The MC had been angling to get a foothold in his club for as long as he’d owned the place. Ten damn years. They’d almost succeeded early on, but he’d managed to hold them off then and he would do it again now. He just needed to figure out what the fuck he could offer as alternative payment that they’d accept.
Taking a deep breath, he focussed on the swirls of glinting silver and blue that ran through the clear resin of the bar, letting the hidden patterns of his magic it contained calm him. The vibration of his phone in his pocket jerked him from his meditation and he scowled as he saw who was calling.
“Vin,” he said in greeting.
The vampire was one of the few of his kind Cal could tolerate because he wasn’t associated with the coven that ruled the north of the city. Vin had earned his loyalty when he helped him out of a tough spot in the past, but he was also the reason Cal was in trouble with both the Lunetti Pack and the Elemental Mayhem MC.
When Vin had broken into his penthouse apartment to ask him to use the club as a safe house, Cal’s first reaction had been to tell him to fuck off despite the very real threat the vampire assassin presented. He’d always been a sucker for someone in need, though. Of the possible favours Vin could’ve asked of him now the vamp was part of a mafia shifter pack, at least this was one Cal’s conscience could agree to .
“We’ll be there with Luca in twenty minutes,” Vin said, but something in his tone had Cal suspicious.
“Okay. What aren’t you telling me?” he asked.
“You said you needed to make sure your crew knew you weren’t associated with the Lunetti Pack in a business sense, right?”
“Yes. That’s not negotiable,” Cal said, ignoring the urge to explain the MC wasn’t his ‘crew’. Nothing in Vin’s tone was reassuring him.
“Great. We needed to make sure no one was suspicious about Luca leaving, so we came up with a cover story that will work for both of you.”
“I’m not agreeing to anything until I meet this guy,” Cal said.
“Too late, Sugar. The story’s in play already. Don’t stress about it. We’re not giving you any choice, remember? You owe us.”
Cal growled into the phone. “I don’t owe you shit. That ambush wasn’t my fault. I’m doing you a favour because I like you, but I’m seriously starting to wonder why.”
“Awww. You always were a sweet one,” Vin purred, and a snarl sounded in the background.
Cal gritted his teeth and waited for Vin’s attention to return to him as he heard the vampire’s mate saying something all alpha and possessive in the background.
“What’s the cover story you’ve come up with?” he asked when it became clear Vin needed a reminder he was still on the phone.
The vampire sounded breathless when he finally replied. “Oh, no biggie. We had Luca storm out of the house while his sister screamed after him that ‘ No one meant for him to shack up with a damn witch when they’d told him to find a man to bone. ’ It was hilarious. ”
Cal blinked in surprise as he tried to process the information. “Wait. What?”
“Your new live-in, fake boyfriend will be there soon. You’ll have to curb your fuckboy ways while he’s staying with you,” Vin said cheerfully, hanging up before Cal could string any sort of reply together.
What. The. Fuck? He was too old and too busy for this shit. He needed to be figuring out how to get out of this mess with the MC, not pretending to be some mafia wolf shifter’s boyfriend . Even the word made him shudder. He didn’t do relationships. Everyone knew this. The one time he’d tried, he’d almost lost his club and every ounce of his self-respect. He was quite happy fucking his way through his patrons in the club’s shadowy recesses. Now, not only would someone be invading his personal space for an unknown length of time, but he was also supposed to keep his dick in his pants?
Not fucking happening.
Vin had gone too far with this scheme and Cal was going to set him straight the second he walked through the door of his club. Cal might not have the resources of the three crime families who ran New Trinity, but he was one of the strongest magic users in the area. He was the boss of the space within the club’s walls.
No one was going to tell him what to do there.
Cal kept himself busy with a stocktake of the top-shelf liquor while he waited for his unwelcome guests to arrive. He must’ve done a better job of distracting himself than he’d meant to because he barely registered the shiver through his power as one of his staff let them in the front door and through his new and improved wards. It wasn’t until he sensed the predators entering the main circular space of the club where he was working that he turned away from the bottles to face the entrance.
His gaze flicked from left to right along the four men crossing the dancefloor toward him. Three he recognised on sight. Vin was leading the way—the vampire slender and deadly like a stiletto between the ribs. A step behind was his mate Angelo looming large, the head of security for the Lunetti pack. The Alpha, Marco, walked next to him, the force of his dominance tangible even from where Cal stood behind the bar. And the last shifter must be Luca, his soon-to-be houseguest, rumoured to be the pack’s hacker and tech genius, but not nearly as public facing as the rest of his family.
Luca kept to the shadows, seldom attending functions and with no social media presence, which meant Cal had never seen him before. As he stalked across the room, Cal couldn’t keep his eyes off him. It was like someone had taken his perfect fantasy of a man and brought him to life. He just about swallowed his own tongue trying to make sure he didn’t drool.
Luca had the familiar Mediterranean looks as the rest of his mafia shifter family, but where Marco and Angelo were all brawn and raw power, Luca was sophisticated elegance. Whoever this guy’s tailor was deserved a fucking medal for the way his black slacks hugged the sleek, toned muscles of his legs. Where most of the Lunetti family wore suits, Luca had kept it more casual with a Henley that left a delicious vee of richly tanned skin visible at his collarbones. And his face. Fucking hell. The stubble on the sharp angles of his jaw was just begging to be kissed and bitten. Cal could almost feel the tingle of that roughness on his lips. His fingers twitched with the need to stroke back the wayward lock of black hair from Luca’s forehead, and those full, sensuous lips immediately sent his mind into the gutter with what they would look like wrapped around his cock.
When his slow inspection finally snapped up to Luca’s eyes, he felt a zap of electricity through every nerve ending. Luca’s irises were the grey of storm clouds about to burst with rain, an image that called to the water magic deep within Cal and made him want to rush toward the man in the same way he ran to the roof of the club to turn his face to the elements in a thunderstorm.
The analogy was particularly apt because Luca looked ready to go full wolf and tear him to shreds. The shifter’s nostrils were flaring, and Cal could swear he saw a hint of fang slipping between his lips. Fuck. He really needed to not think about things slipping between Luca’s lips because his very protective, very alpha cousin was now leaning on the bar in front of him, and he looked like he’d somehow heard every dirty thought that had passed through Cal’s mind as they approached.
Cal opened his mouth to greet them, but Luca got in first.
“No fucking way. This is not happening. Look at him! I can smell his arousal from here. I am not living with this guy,” Luca snapped.
Cal hid a frown of confusion at the level of anger in Luca’s voice. Was that a touch of fear behind it? It was so incongruous with what he knew about shifters. Sure, he hadn’t exactly been subtle with the eye fucking, but shifters were generally a pretty horny and affectionate bunch. He’d been on the receiving end of just that kind of look from more shifters than he could count.
And who was this guy to judge him when he was a fucking criminal? If anyone should be angry about this situation, it was Cal. He had zero desire to be associated with the Lunetti Pack in any way. They traded in weapons. They were basically death merchants. And he’d bet his most prized whiskey that Luca broke a whole lot more laws on top of the illegal arms dealing with his hacking.
“Works for me. I didn’t want you here anyway,” Cal said, folding his arms across his chest and raising an eyebrow as he noticed Luca eyeing up the bulge of his biceps despite his seeming outrage when Cal had given him the same treatment.
“We’ve been over this. You’re staying here,” Marco growled at Luca, before turning back to Cal. “And you’re keeping your hands and eyes to your fucking self. My cousin is off limits.”
“My club, my rules. I’m not gonna push myself where I’m not welcome, but look but don’t touch is basically the whole vibe here,” Cal said, gesturing to the floating pole-dancing platforms resting on the ground nearby that would be raised to varying heights later that night when his dancers started working.
He was quite proud of the setup. He’d used just a touch of his magic to make the platforms move in ways they otherwise couldn’t, so the transparent hollow poles that contained swirling currents of luminescent water could carry the dollar bills pushed into the bottom up to the dancers. The poles would become a glowing whirlpool of money by night’s end.
Three sets of annoyed growls warned him he needed to tread carefully with the predators on the other side of the bar. They didn’t like the way he was challenging their Alpha. He didn’t think they’d attack, but he wasn’t going to take any chances, so he let his magic fill him until the blue glow of his power was clear to see, pooling in his hands where he’d placed them flat on the bar. There was a reason he’d had it made from poured resin and it wasn’t just because of aesthetics, although the play of light was exquisite as his magic reflected off the sparkling swirls within the bar.
His power gave him an affinity for all liquids. There was water throughout the club he could draw on, but the resin of the bar was particularly useful. It was a little slower to respond, but took much less effort to form into a shield or weapon that was solid enough to do damage. No one would get close enough to touch him while he remained behind it.
“Boys, calm down. Cal’s a total sweetheart under that fuckboy exterior, and we are in his territory. It’s so much smaller than yours. You’ve got nothing to feel threatened by,” Vin teased.
Cal flicked up a middle finger at the vampire. Vin had been that way since they’d first met—totally irreverent and everything was an innuendo. Usually, it was cute, but right now, not so much.
Vin ignored his gesture and carried on. “You’re going to let Luca stay here just like we agreed and you’re going to let everyone think he’s sleeping in your bed, but you’re not going to make it weird for him, yeah? Because otherwise I’m going to get grumpy and no one likes that because if they make me grumpy, they’re too dead to like anything.”
Cal shook his head in annoyance, but he’d known how this was going to go the minute Vin had broken into his bedroom while he was sleeping to bully him into this. He couldn’t risk offending the vampire. Vin literally killed people for a living. Cal had once seen him rip a guy’s head off with his bare hands. Sure, the guy had it coming and Vin probably wouldn’t kill Cal just for being disagreeable, but that image was still burned in his memory forever. He also couldn’t afford to have both the Lunetti Pack and the Elemental Mayhem MC breathing down his neck. He needed to pick his battles.
“I’m willing to do you a favour because of our history, Vin. You personally, not the Lunetti Pack. I’m not willing to have some Alpha come into my home and try to tell me what to do. Your boy needs a safe place to crash, I can do that. But don’t be a dick about it,” Cal said.
“I’m not a fucking boy and I sure as fuck don’t need this shit,” Luca snarled, turning to leave. He was stopped by Marco’s tight grip on his arm.
“ I need this, Luca. I need to know you’re safe and I need you focussed on finding the traitor, not where the next sniper round is coming from. No one else can do what you do,” Marco said. He’d pitched his voice lower than human hearing, but Cal could just make out the words thanks to his power letting him use the moisture in the air to eavesdrop.
The frustration was clear on Luca’s face. Cal hadn’t meant boy the way Luca had taken it, although he wasn’t against that kind of play. He’d just been echoing Vin’s earlier use of the word. Luca was very clearly all man, and Cal had definitely noticed. Couldn’t stop noticing if he tried. He’d obviously touched on a sore point with the term and he hadn’t missed the added tension in Luca’s shoulders when Marco had said he’d needed to know Luca was safe. He filed away the information for later—either to avoid further aggravating his guest or to rile him up again. He hadn’t decided which yet.
Meeting Marco’s eyes, Cal saw the grudging respect and need in them and let his magic go as he shifted his weight to jump over the bar. It made him more vulnerable to attack, but someone had to break this stalemate or they’d be here all day. He had places to be.
“For a big guy, you’re pretty acrobatic,” Vin purred.
Cal rolled his eyes as Angelo growled and pulled the vampire into his arms, rubbing his stubble against Vin’s neck to scent-mark him in the way wolf shifters always were.
“Such a fucking flirt,” Angelo murmured, but he didn’t sound all that upset about it.
Now that they were standing with no barrier between them, it took all Cal’s concentration not to step closer to the magnetic draw of the still-fuming Luca. Instead, he focussed on Marco as he spoke .
“The club’s secure. I’ve made sure of it. He can stay, but I’m not interested in keeping anyone here against their will. If he walks out, I’m not gonna stop him,” Cal said.
“That’s good. Because I’d kill you if you tried,” Marco said, baring his canines in a threatening smile.
Cal smirked and leaned back on the bar as he turned to face Luca. “So, roommates?” he asked.
“Give us a second,” Vin said, dragging Luca far enough away that even the shifters wouldn’t be able to hear their whispered words.
“What’s his deal?” Cal asked Marco and Angelo as he watched a sullen Luca dip his head to listen to Vin.
The vampire could use his innate magic to talk people into things like this, but Cal’s senses weren’t tingling in the way they did when a foreign power was being used inside his wards, so he didn’t think that’s what Vin was doing. It wasn’t his way. Vin saved his power for emergencies and those who deserved it. Cal still hadn’t forgiven the vampire for using it on him the other night to check he wasn’t associated with the traitor they were hunting, but he understood the need to be certain Cal wouldn’t betray them. It wasn’t a pleasant experience to have truths pulled from your lips that way, even if they were ones you would’ve spoken, regardless.
“None of your business,” the two shifters growled in tandem, clearly protective.
“If it affects my ability to keep him safe, it’s my business,” Cal said.
“Just don’t flirt with him or make him feel like he needs to be looked after,” Angelo said.
Cal blinked as he processed that. “But he does need to be looked after. That’s the whole reason he’s here. Everyone needs a helping hand sometimes.”
Angelo just glared at him harder. Right. Moving on.
“Why no flirting? If anyone sees us together and I’m not trying to get in his pants, they’re going to know something’s up. He’s—” Cal cut off the rest of that sentence as Marco’s glower turned deadly. Maybe he didn’t need to express just how much he appreciated Luca’s ... assets. He was starting to see why Luca had a complex about people defending him, though. If Cal had any family left, he’d have been pissed as hell if they tried to tell anyone not to flirt with him.
“Touch my cousin and we’re going to have a problem,” Marco said.
“Threaten me again and we’ll have a bigger one,” Cal growled back, keeping his breathing and heart rate even as he met the challenge of Marco’s stare without backing down. Damn shifters could hear everything, so anyone wanting to deal with them learned to control any tells their body might have.
“Leave him alone, Marco. I don’t need you to defend my honour,” Luca said, sounding far too tired.
Cal made a mental note to set the wards in his spare room to optimise the space for rest. The spell would tailor the room to be exactly the right temperature, scent, and noise level for the person sleeping there.
“And Cal’s right. If he’s pretending to be sleeping with Luca, then he’s going to have to touch him and flirt with him. No one is going to buy that he’s suddenly shy on PDA. He runs a strip club that’s the hottest gay hookup spot in the city. Probably half his patrons have watched him fuck someone out on the floor at some point,” Vin said. “I know I have.”
A strangled growl came from Luca that was quickly cut off, and Cal’s lips twitched in a smirk.
“Hey. It’s a respectable nightclub that happens to have dancers, not a strip club, and I’d never fuck someone on the floor. That’s what walls are for,” Cal said, grinning wider as Luca rolled his eyes. He wasn’t a total asshole, though. There was no reason for Luca to be uncomfortable while he was staying. “Look, let’s just abandon the whole fake relationship thing. If Luca avoids stepping foot in the club, no one even has to know he’s here.”
“I’m not hiding in a penthouse for months,” Luca grumbled.
“ Months?! ” Cal shouted, glaring at Vin. No one had said anything about fucking months .
“Calm down, Sugar. I told you it might take some time to figure this out,” Vin said.
“If the rest of your pack thinks I’m in a relationship with Luca, they’re not going to tolerate any suggestion that I’m looking elsewhere for sex. I’m not blue-balling it for months and I doubt Luca wants to, either. You need to come up with a better cover story.”
Luca shrugged. “Keeping it in my pants doesn’t bother me.”
Cal blinked in surprise and even Angelo’s brow furrowed a little. What kind of shifter went months without sex? Not important. He needed to focus. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he took a deep breath. How the fuck had he ended up in this situation?
“Alpha,” Vin prompted, a whole conversation hidden in the one word. If Cal had any doubts about whether Vin had truly integrated with the pack, that term of address put them to rest.
“Fine. I won’t rip your throat out for making it look like you’re sleeping together, but if you make him uncomfortable or hurt him in any way, you’re dead,” Marco said.
Luca snarled again. “Marco!”
“I won’t ever apologise for looking out for you, cousin. Deal with it.”
“If anyone’s making me uncomfortable, it’s you forcing me to act out this ridiculous cover story!”
Cal watched the tension between the cousins with interest. He’d never seen the pack present anything but a united front when strangers were around. Marco wasn’t showing any visible weakness, but he knew the Alpha would be hurting. He cared too deeply for Luca not to.
“If you can’t do it, all you have to do is say so,” Marco said.
Wow. Ruthless. Marco must really be desperate if he was using Luca’s clear reluctance to be seen as weak against him like that. When Luca finally broke eye contact, Marco gripped the nape of his neck and pulled him into an embrace, forehead to forehead.
Cal let out a silent sigh of grudging acceptance at Luca’s obvious capitulation. Looked like he was stuck with the sexiest firecracker he’d ever met in his space and no relief in sight for months. Who knew what the MC was going to make of this? He was going to have to rely on every bit of his reputation for being ravenous for sex to try and convince them it was just a fling and he hadn’t allied with the pack. This was going to be a fucking mess.
“Come on. I’ll show you up to the penthouse and then I have work to get on with,” Cal said.
“I can take him,” Vin offered.
Cal glared at the vampire. “You can damn well stay out of my home unless you’re invited in.”
Vin smirked and leaned back into his mate’s arms. “Awww. You know you love me, Sugar.”
“I mean it, Vin. The next time you break into my home, we’re done. You can knock on the door like everyone else.”
“Nope. I’ll need to check up on Luca,” Vin said. It was the wrong thing to say.
“No, you fucking don’t! Because I’m not a fucking child!” Luca shouted, all that rage finally escaping his control.
For some reason, his companions looked surprised despite how obvious it was that the shifter had been about to lose it. Cal wanted to shake the lot of them until they saw how their behaviour was hurting Luca, but that wasn’t his job because they weren’t actually in a relationship. Now, if only his dick and every other part of him could get the message because all he wanted to do was find a way to support the beautiful broken man in front of him that would make him feel empowered instead of weak and then fuck him against every single surface in the club.
Luca is a criminal , he reminded himself. The Lunettis were part of everything Cal had spent a decade distancing himself from.
Shaking his head, he stepped forward until he was between Luca and his pack, breaking the stare-off going down. Luca’s gaze slammed into him with the force of a tsunami, threatening to wash away all his control.
“This way,” he said, the words calm as he locked away his visceral reaction to the man.
Luca was angry enough that he didn’t even say goodbye to his cousin before stalking around the bar in the direction he’d gestured. Cal couldn’t afford the same rudeness.
“I’d say it’s been a pleasure, but you’d smell the lie. See you round. I assume sooner than I’d like,” Cal said to the three men staring after Luca’s retreating back. Okay, so maybe he hadn’t quite managed to ditch the rudeness.
He was surprised when Marco reached out to clasp his hand. “I’m trusting you with our heart. Keep him safe,” he said, squeezing a little harder than was comfortable.
Cal reached out to clasp Marco’s shoulder and let his magic loose enough to be uncomfortably warm against the Alpha’s skin. “He can keep himself safe, but I will keep the building protected.”
Marco looked surprised for a moment, but the flick of his eyes said he realised Luca was listening and he appreciated Cal’s efforts not to further antagonise his cousin .
“Thank you,” Marco said, stepping away.
Vin stepped in close and kissed his cheek as his mate started pulling him toward the exit. “You’re the best, Sugar.”
Cal snorted softly. “Stop using me to wind up your mate and get out of here.”
Turning back toward the hidden private entrance to his penthouse behind the bar, Cal bit his lip as he was gifted with a view of Luca’s broad shoulders, tapered waist, and round, muscled ass. Groaning silently as he felt his cock swelling against his zipper, he was careful to leave a little space between them as he walked past the shifter to trigger the hidden latch. The back shelving slid away at his touch, revealing the staircase up to his sanctuary.
This was going to be a really, really long few months.