Chapter 9 Cal
CHAPTER 9: CAL
Cal was momentarily stunned by Luca’s transformation. Scrambling to catch up to the wolf once he’d grabbed the man’s discarded clothes, he wove the moisture in the surrounding air into a glamour that would hide them as he went. He’d seen shifters in their animal form before, but only in the chaos of a fight. Usually one he was carefully extricating himself from before he got drawn into the city’s politics. He’d never been so close to someone shifting or had the space and quiet to really appreciate it.
Luca was as stunning in this form as he was in his human one. While not as huge as some shifters he’d seen, his shoulders were about even with Cal’s waist, making him much larger than a normal wolf. His fur was a dark black that matched his human hair but was scattered with a stormy grey at his ruff and haunches. His paws and tail were a black so solid it was like they’d been dipped in ink. Weirdly, the most disconcerting aspect of the change wasn’t his animal form, but his eyes. Cal loved Luca’s grey eyes that reminded him of rain clouds when he was human, but in this form, they were the telltale colour of all shifters—a deep, shining gold that reflected the wild magic running through their veins.
Cal thought of himself as pretty fit, but his legs were soon aching from the steady pace Luca was setting as they ran north into Cruor Coven vampire territory and onward into the industrial zone, heading towards the port. He was panting softly by the time two black SUVs pulled up onto the pavement just ahead. Given Luca’s only response was to pause near their tyres, he figured they must be pack vehicles. His assumption was proven right a moment later when Angelo and Marco got out, leaving Aria and Vin in the driver’s seats.
Slowing his jog, Cal gratefully stopped beside Luca’s wolf. He didn’t even notice he’d reached down to stroke a hand through his fur until Luca leaned into his leg. A sharp exhale had him looking over to see Angelo watching them with wide eyes. Marco looked less surprised. Luca huffed in annoyance and nudged at Cal’s hand with his head, clearly not having the time or inclination to deal with his pack’s shock at his behaviour.
“He’s tracking the scent of the earth magic that was on the body,” Cal explained, not sure how much Luca had communicated in his text.
This time, it was Marco’s turn to widen his eyes. “Is that right? I think Luca’s been holding back on me. I wasn’t aware he could do that.”
Luca whined and pawed at the ground, anxious to keep moving, and Cal reached down to tangle his fingers in his fur more deeply to keep him calm.
“You coming with us?” he asked.
Both men jerked their heads in assent and started shucking off their clothes.
Cal rolled his eyes. “Yes, of course I can extend my glamour to you. No problem. Thanks so much for asking. Feel free to get naked right in front of me. Why don’t we have an orgy on the street while we’re at it?”
Luca let out a snarl and nipped at his fingers as Marco flashed him a smile that was all teeth before grabbing Luca’s clothes that he’d still been holding to chuck them in the car with his and Angelo’s.
“Don’t tease my cousin with statements like that after he marked you up so well. It’s not nice,” Marco said, his eyes flicking to the huge hickey Luca had sucked into his neck.
Cal sighed in frustration. He wished he knew what was behind Marco’s treatment of him. It made him nervous. The alpha had been so protective, but now he seemed to be almost throwing Luca at him, and he had no idea why. This wasn’t the time to figure it out, though.
“We need to go,” he said.
Marco held up a finger to tell him to wait. Crouching down in front of Luca, he reached out to hold his ruff in much the same way Cal had been earlier, but using it to make the wolf meet his eyes.
“Are you okay like this, Luca?” he asked.
Luca’s response was to lean even harder into Cal’s legs, forcing him to widen his stance or risk being pushed over.
Marco laughed. “It’s like that, is it? Your wolf knows what he wants.”
A strangled, almost human noise of protest came out of Luca’s mouth and the pressure on his leg eased.
“You’re distracting him. Let him focus,” Cal snapped.
Marco glared at him and then nodded sharply. “You understand he’s relying on you?” he asked. His unspoken words hung between them. Luca was relying on Cal instead of Marco —his Alpha, his family. The one who he should’ve turned to in a stressful situation instead of the man he’d only known a few days .
“If he needs me, I’ve got him. He’s doing great, though,” Cal said.
Marco nodded again and in the next blink, he’d shifted into a giant pitch-black wolf that dwarfed even Luca’s large size. Angelo’s russet wolf flanked them protectively as they stood waiting.
“Time to hunt, baby,” Cal said, running his hands down the fur of Luca’s back once more before jogging in the direction they’d been heading before they stopped.
Luca was brushing past him only a second later, nose to the air once more and pure focus in the lines of his body. The SUVs pulled away so as not to draw attention, but Cal knew they’d stay close. No way were Aria or Vin letting them stray far without backup.
The trail led them through the container yards and out to an empty dock on the waterfront. Whoever had been moored there was long gone. Luca snarled in frustration, his body full of tension as his snout pointed out into the open ocean. Aria and Angelo pulled up behind them a few minutes later and Cal turned away as the three wolves shifted back and pulled their clothes back on. Luca was a breath behind the other two, the gold of his eyes meeting Cal’s and holding them before he resumed his human form, his transformation slow enough to make him wince a little. Cal mouthed a silent ‘ Good boy ’ and then turned away before the flush rising in Luca’s now human cheeks could draw him in. Was that anger, embarrassment, or arousal? Maybe all three. It was best not to think about it with their current company.
“Another dead end,” Luca growled. “I’ll check the camera feeds when I get back and see what I can find.”
“This is good progress,” Vin reassured him from where he was leaning against the car nearby, watching Angelo pull his jeans on with a lascivious grin. “We can find the dock records and the shipping manifest for whoever was here. ”
Cal had been avoiding looking at Luca as he dressed, knowing Vin and the shifters would scent his inevitable arousal if he gave into the urge to stare, but he hadn’t managed to move more than an arm’s length away despite his good intentions. A flash of something across his vision had him turning towards where Luca was buttoning up his shirt. He was moving before he’d even processed the red dot of the sniper scope glowing on his chest.
Tackling Luca, he covered the smaller man’s body with his own. Angelo was tearing off in the direction of a nearby rooftop before they’d even hit the ground. Cal’s reaction had prevented the would-be assassin from taking the shot, so the shifter couldn’t be tracking the sound. He must’ve seen whoever was holding the rifle. Cal could go one better. Before the attacker had a chance to turn off the laser scope, Cal flung out his hand and sent a sharp burst of ice-cold pure power down the line of red light.
“What the fuck?” Luca said, shoving at him where his body pinned him to the hard concrete.
“Sniper. Stay still until we know it’s safe,” Cal said, his focus still on the roof where he’d felt his magic hit a solid target.
“Dammit. How did they know I was here? And how did they get here so fast?” Luca asked.
Before Cal had a chance to consider the question, Angelo returned, frustration clear on his face and a dead body flung over one shoulder.
“You killed him,” he growled.
It took everything in him not to flinch. He’d killed a man. For Luca. A criminal. He didn’t even feel bad about it. He would do it again, even though he knew they now couldn’t question him. The shooter had tried to hurt his boy. No one was allowed to hurt Luca.
Fuck. He was so screwed .
“Was it the witch?” Cal asked, moving back off Luca as the shifter pushed him away.
He knew the answer as soon as he asked the question. No witch would’ve been caught out by such a simple spell. The icicle that was fast melting in the guy’s eye socket where he’d embedded it in his brain hadn’t consisted of more than willpower and hastily gathered magic.
“I doubt it, but his scent is blocked, so I can’t be sure. You shouldn’t have killed him. We need answers. If I’d been a little faster getting over there…”
“Hush, Angel. Unless you can jump buildings, you were never going to get there in time and we all know he probably would’ve succumbed to the same death spell as the others before he could talk,” Vin said.
“We need to get Luca back home where it’s safe,” Cal said.
He couldn’t face addressing his overreaction to the shooter with Luca’s pack. They didn’t need to know just how hard his protective instincts were riding him.
“You mean the club? That’s not his home,” Aria corrected.
He’d meant what he said, which was a problem. It shouldn’t feel like Luca belonged in his home. Case in point—Aria, Marco, and Angelo were all holding weapons he was sure weren’t legal in their hands, eyes scanning their surroundings like this was something they did every day because they did . Guns and assassins were nothing new to them. They probably killed someone every week. This was their life. It wasn’t a life he was interested in. He wanted to leave the world a better place than he found it, not get caught up helping assholes kill each other. Let alone kill someone himself. Fuck. He’d killed someone. And he would do it again if it meant protecting Luca. He couldn’t watch as Angelo dropped the body in the trunk and slammed it closed.
A warm hand squeezed his shoulder.
“Take me home, Cal,” Luca said .
Cal swallowed hard and staggered to his feet. He didn’t have time to fall apart while Luca was still exposed. Wrapping an arm around Luca’s shoulders, Cal let Vin steer them into the back seat of the car he was driving. The one without the dead body in it. For once, Luca didn’t protest or try to pull away, probably sensing how close Cal was to breaking. Instead, he settled right next to him, their thighs pressing close as the engine started.
“Thank you,” Luca whispered.
Cal sighed and pressed a kiss to his head. “I told you I’d keep you safe.”
“I should’ve kept you safe, too. You’re not part of this,” Luca said.
It was nothing he hadn’t thought himself before, but everything in him rejected the suggestion that he wasn’t part of this because if he wasn’t part of it, he couldn’t protect the beautiful man sitting next to him. Cal breathed in his reassuring scent and let out another long exhale.
“It’s not your fault someone’s trying to kill you.”
Cal thought he was going to face an afternoon of the Lunetti Pack filling his penthouse again, but there was no sign of the other SUV when they arrived back at the club.
“You’re not coming in?” Cal checked as they exited the vehicle.
“Not today, Sugar. Marco and Aria are dealing with the package in the trunk and you two need to decompress,” Vin said.
“We’ll come by once we have a lead to chase,” Angelo added.
Huh. That was a surprise. Was the pack starting to actually trust him? His heart sank as he realised what had probably sparked that. He’d killed for them. They had all the blackmail material they needed on him now .
“No one’s going to use that against you, Sugar. We’re too grateful to you,” Vin murmured.
Cal scowled at him. “Get out of my head.”
“That’s not one of my powers. You’re just that transparent. Go take Luca to bed and calm the fuck down.”
Luca tugged at his clenched fist and pulled him to the side entrance to the club.
“Vin’s right,” Luca said as he led the way up the stairs to the penthouse and let them inside.
“That I should take you to bed?” he asked, desperately needing to change the subject so he could stop thinking about his magic slicing into that man’s brain. Even if he did deserve it.
Luca growled in annoyance. “That no one is going to use that death against you. We’re loyal to our own.”
“I don’t belong to you!” Cal all but shouted. “I’m not like you! I’m not a damn criminal.”
Luca jerked back, pain flashing across his face before he managed to hide it. “Still a fucking asshole, though,” he said through gritted teeth, his form already blurring as he shifted back into his wolf between one blink and the next and snarled at Cal for real.
Fuck. Was this day over yet? How the hell had they ended up here? Real concern filled him as he met the wolf’s golden eyes. He knew Luca wouldn’t have shifted on purpose, which meant he’d lost control. This was what Luca had been so scared of, why he didn’t trust his wolf.
First things first. He needed to make sure he wasn’t about to have his throat ripped out.
“Baby, come here,” he said, letting every inch of dominance he usually kept hidden show through.
Luca stopped growling and lowered his head to the ground, his tail dropping at the same time.
“Now,” Cal demanded .
The giant black wolf slunk closer, wriggling out of his ripped clothes, until his nose was at Cal’s feet.
“Good boy,” Cal whispered. “I’ve got you.”
Luca let out a whine.
It was still only mid-afternoon, the sun’s light angling through the windows and reflecting off his sculptures on the walls. It was hard to believe so little time had passed since their morning with the young teens when so much between them had changed. Crouching down in front of Luca, Cal reached out and tugged gently at his ear until the wolf met his eyes.
“I’m sorry, Luca. I shouldn’t have said that. You can come back now.”
Luca whined again and pawed at Cal’s leg, a hint of panic in the sound.
“Shhhh, baby. It’s okay,” Cal said.
Settling himself more comfortably on the floor, he patted his leg until Luca rested his chin there. Maybe Cal should’ve been a bit more nervous about those fangs so close to his balls after what he’d said, but despite everything, he trusted Luca. Fuck. He trusted him and he’d called him a damn criminal.
Cal gathered his thoughts as he ran his hand through the coarse outer layer of his dark fur. “I’m going to see if I can use my magic to help you out. Is that okay?” he asked.
Luca looked up at him, misery in his eyes, and gave a very un-wolflike nod of his head.
“Okay. Just relax against me. It might take a while,” Cal said.
Just like the other night with the poison, he let his magic flow through Luca’s form, except this time, he wasn’t hunting silver in Luca’s blood. He was hunting something much less tangible—whatever was broken inside him that triggered his shift against his will. He quickly realised Luca’s wolf was too anxious to wait patiently as he worked, and this was going to take some time.
He needed a distraction, so he began to talk.
“I was seven the first time my parents left me home alone to look after my baby sister. When they got back, they brought half a cherry pie with them. I don’t think it had actually occurred to them to bring food for us, but they hadn’t finished it, so they brought it home and it was the best thing I’d ever tasted. I hadn’t eaten in over two days because I wasn’t strong enough to work the rusted can opener and we’d run out of easily accessible meals…”
As Cal spoke, Luca settled down and became a comforting weight on his legs. The words should have been painful, but with all his attention on the magical search for what was triggering this shift response in Luca, the story was just a distant thing. A radio playing static in the background. But even with all his focus elsewhere, he still felt tears tracking down his cheeks when he reached the point in the sad history of his family where his parents, high as two kites because their dealer didn’t give a shit what effect it had on their kids, crashed their car and took his baby sister with them into death.
This was why he hated the Elemental Mayhem MC and all the crime families here. Sure, the MC and the pack had some ethics, at least. He knew Blaze wouldn’t have supplied his parents because he’d seen what the MC had done to the dealer when they’d found out what happened, but the fact remained that if you were manufacturing drugs, they were going to get into the wrong hands sometimes. Just like if you were selling weapons, they would too. And the consequences of that destroyed lives.
Tears held power for a water witch—saltwater and emotion were a potent mix—and he pulled raw magic from the release of his pain to reinforce his search, redoubling his efforts. He was so close. He could feel it. Luca’s cells recognised him. Spoke to him. If only he could understand the language. Finally, with his voice croaking from speaking so long, he felt the broken link. Such a simple thing—a ‘switch’ of sorts stuck in the on position through a build-up of the magic that powered his shift, his cells constantly begging to be a wolf when they should be in balance.
Silence fell as he let his magic wash through Luca’s body, cleansing away the dangerous excess of shifter magic, cajoling it into letting go. As the wolf shimmered in his vision and transformed back into a man, he slumped back in relief, exhausted.
“Good boy,” he murmured, stroking his hand down the smooth muscles of Luca’s back.
“Did you fix me?” Luca asked, tone carefully neutral. His poor boy was trying so hard not to get his hopes up.
“As long as you shift regularly, you shouldn’t have a problem controlling it again. If you keep avoiding it, it will happen again,” Cal said, voice croaking and strained from how long he’d talked. Shit. What the fuck had he told Luca while he was distracted?
“I’ll get you some water,” Luca said, pushing to his feet and heading to the kitchen, seemingly oblivious to his own nakedness, which wasn’t a surprise. Shifters didn’t tend to be bothered by that kind of thing.
Cal groaned and dragged himself upright as well. He couldn’t keep sitting there on the hard floor. His determination to function lasted only long enough to sink down onto a barstool while Luca filled a glass at the sink and handed it to him.
As he gulped the cool liquid, he could feel his energy recovering. Such was the way with water magic, although he’d need a long sleep and some food as well .
“I get why you don’t like criminals now. Why you find this so hard. But we’re not like that. I’m not like that. Children are precious. We would never do something that would put a child at risk,” Luca said quietly as he watched him drink.
Cal put the glass down and met his earnest gaze. “I know. I told you, I’m sorry.”
Luca nodded. “Good.”
“We should get some rest. Who knows when your family is going to descend on us again?” Cal said.
“I can’t. I need to get onto that camera footage and see what I can find,” Luca said.
Cal heaved himself to his feet and stalked around the bar until he was standing right in front of the infuriating shifter, reaching up to grip behind his neck. Anyone with eyes could see that being stuck in his wolf form, even for such a short time, had retraumatised Luca. He was white-knuckling the benchtop and his heart was still racing. One day, Cal was going to find out what had happened to him. It could wait, though.
“You need to recover from what just happened, and so do I. You can walk, or I can carry you,” he said.
Luca’s jaw dropped, and his eyes narrowed.
“Carry it is,” Cal said, sweeping Luca up into his arms before the shifter had a chance to move and doing his best not to stare down at the miles of naked skin he was holding close.
“You realise I could slash your throat open with my claws from here if I wanted,” Luca growled up at him as he walked toward his bedroom.
“I’m proud of you for wanting to shift to do that. That’s great progress right there,” Cal said, unable to hide his grin at the resulting disgust in Luca’s face because he knew it was more about the way the shifter’s body had shivered in response to his praise than actual annoyance at his words. Luca’s cock, which had already been half hard, was swelling against his abs.
“Fuck, I hate the way you do that,” Luca said, but the bite was gone from his voice.
“No. You hate that you love it so much,” Cal corrected.
“Fuck off.”
“Is that an invitation?” Cal asked as he deposited his armful of six-foot-tall shifter onto his bed and adjusted his own hardening erection.
“No,” Luca grumbled.
“You sure about that?”
“No,” Luca repeated, much more quietly, as he slipped under the covers and turned his back on Cal.
Kicking off his shoes, Cal stripped down to his boxers. He needed to keep some sort of barrier between them, however inadequate the thin fabric may be. It quickly became apparent just how pointless the move had been as he couldn’t help but wrap himself around Luca from head to toe. The kiss he pressed to Luca’s nape had him leaning back into him and when Cal gently bit down on the muscles there, the shifter groaned and started rubbing back against his groin. Cal’s breath came faster as his cock nestled against Luca’s ass, the friction just this side of too much.
His hands were stroking every bit of skin he could reach, and the way Luca’s body rubbed against his pierced nipples was exquisite torture. A torture he needed to repay. Tightening his arm around Luca, he used his other hand to reach up and press his fingers to Luca’s lips.
“Get them nice and wet for me.”
They both groaned as Luca sucked the fingers into his mouth and rolled his tongue around them.
“Mmm… perfect,” Cal said, pulling his hand away.
Luca whined in protest, straining to chase after his hand with his mouth. The whine turned to a shout as Cal slid his hand down his chest and used his slick fingers to pinch Luca’s nipple, rolling and tugging at it until it was swollen and hard before moving to give the other nipple the same treatment.
Luca was a dream of responsiveness. Could he come just from this? His back was arched with need and his breaths came in strangled gasps as Cal teased him. When the shifter tried to reach down and take his cock in hand, Cal growled.
“Wrap your hands behind my head and keep them there,” Cal ordered.
“Fuck off.”
Cal stopped what he was doing, sparking another string of curses from Luca. “Are you asking me to stop?”
“No, you asshole. Don’t you dare,” Luca said, reaching behind him to grip Cal’s long hair tight in both hands and give it a sharp tug.
Shaking with suppressed laughter despite the desire burning through him, Cal pulled against Luca’s grasp to trace a path of sharp bites down his neck. His shifter’s entire body started trembling and the delicious sounds Luca was making became steadily louder.
“Cal—” Luca moaned.
“What do you need, baby?” Cal asked, continuing to squeeze and work his nipple while he let his other hand trace down lower to Luca’s hips, and then lower still until a single fingertip stroked along Luca’s balls that were pulled up high and taut.
He couldn’t resist calling on a touch of his magic, using it to increase the pressure of Luca’s cum building inside him and then to set off the slightest reverberation in it. It was times like this he really loved his affinity for liquids.
Luca shouted and his body tensed as he tried to use Cal’s hair to force him to suck harder on his neck. “Fuck, Cal! Did you just turn my damn balls into a vibrator?”
“Come for me, baby,” he growled, biting down hard on the enticing curve where Luca’s neck met his shoulder as he kept up the relentless sensual torture of his nipple and balls in a rhythm that perfectly matched the surging vibration he’d set off inside his body with his magic.
And Luca did.
Whimpering and untouched but for his magic, his bite, and his embrace.
“You’re so fucking perfect for me. Good boy,” Cal growled, shifting his hand so he could milk Luca’s cock through his orgasm.
His words sparked another spurt of cum across his sheets and he smiled in satisfaction, biting down on Luca’s neck again just firmly enough not to break the skin.
Luca groaned and tilted his head to give him better access, shivers still wracking his body. “What the fuck did you just do to me?” he said, but his voice was fucked out and sated in a way that filled Cal with satisfaction.
“Get some rest, baby,” Cal said, kissing over the red marks from his bites.
“What? No. You haven’t—” Luca slurred, his body already turning lax as the tension of his climax finally abated.
“Shhhh,” Cal said.
He still couldn’t stop touching Luca, but he was brushing long, calming strokes down his arm now, ignoring the throbbing of his own erection. As Luca’s breathing evened out and deepened in sleep, he thought over everything that had happened. Ending up in bed like this had been inevitable, especially after realising how close Luca had come to dying.
He hadn’t had time to process what had happened with the shelter kids earlier in the day. Now he was lying in the quiet, soft light of his room with space to think, he could admit he’d been wrong about Luca. His pack might be criminals, but Luca really was a good boy. Also, a brat. Fuck. He really needed to stop thinking that way if he wasn’t keeping him. And he couldn’t keep him.
No way could their lives mesh. Even if Luca himself was the kind of guy to save homeless teens in his spare time, that didn’t change the fact that being linked to him would mean being linked to the Lunetti Pack, with all the political nightmares with his own kind that would entail.
How long before the pack would be asking to do deals in his back rooms just like the MC was, and would he have the willpower to turn them down if it was Luca who was asking? He’d worked too damn hard to keep this place legit, to make it a sanctuary for the teens to train in and for his staff to escape the shitty situations they’d found themselves in. Yeah, he had a bit of a saviour complex… or maybe a Daddy complex. So what? Someone needed to do it and he couldn’t if people saw his club as an extension of the Lunetti Pack.
Luca shifted in his arms, turning to face him and snuggling into his embrace with his face tilted up to Cal’s like he was searching for approval in a way he never would’ve when he was awake. Cal’s breath was stolen by his beauty and the intoxicating mix of raw strength and vulnerability in him.
Dammit. He was so fucked. There was no way he was going to be able to push Luca away. He didn’t have it in him. Luckily, Luca’s responsibilities and whatever trauma had him so skittish would do the job for him. Luca would leave of his own accord and Cal would just have to pick up the pieces when that happened.
At least he hadn’t lost control and fucked him for real. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to let go once he’d been inside him. Once he’d claimed him. His cock throbbed at the thought and he huffed in frustration. It still didn’t make him put any distance between them, though. Stroking a hand down Luca’s back, Cal’s eyes slide closed and he let Luca’s enticing scent carry him into X-rated dreams he really could’ve done without.
He woke to tight, wet heat wrapped around his cock and a very smug-looking Luca staring up at him from where he’d settled between Cal’s thighs.
“Luca,” Cal warned, before breaking off in a moan as the shifter’s cheeks hollowed and he sucked him right to the back of his throat.
His hand was in Luca’s hair before he could stop himself, gripping tight as the damn shifter swallowed around his length. Pulling gently, he tried to extract himself from the heaven that was Luca’s mouth, but the shifter was having none of it. Too clever fingers toyed with his balls and slid down to massage his taint as Luca’s tongue did something he was sure was as criminal as his family.
Control finally snapping, Cal drove his hips up, fucking into Luca’s mouth with abandon as the shifter groaned in appreciation, the vibration of the noise driving him even crazier as Luca took his own cock in hand and started working himself at the same time.
Cal couldn’t look away. The flex of Luca’s bulging biceps as he worked himself, the flush on his cheeks, the sweat running down his neck, the way his eyes watered as he took what Cal gave him. It was too much. He’d waited too long for this.
Throwing his head back, Cal came with a growl more reminiscent of the shifter who was his undoing than any human. His vision blacked out as wave after wave of pleasure rocked through his body. Even as overwhelmed as he was, he still felt Luca following him over the cliff a mere second behind him because his boy screamed around his cock as he came. Literally screamed. The vibrations were heaven.
It was fucking exquisite.
It was perfect.
Just like Luca.