Escaping Death

Ace

Work never seems to end. I close one file only for five more to pile up on my desk. At least I don’t have to worry about Sol today. The risk of harm at a nail salon is next to zero, especially with Eli and Tate alongside her. Which enables me to focus rather well on the work in front of me for the first time in weeks.

Sometime in mid afternoon when I’ve long since missed lunch, I catch Tate’s scent in my office.

“You guys were out for a while. Don’t tell me you got your nails done, too?” I say to what looks like an empty room.

Tate unveils himself and makes himself at home on my couch in his usual spot where the fabric of the sofa is slightly more worn, there’s an indent on the table’s surface where the pads of his computer notch, and a water stain from countless glasses he’s stationed there.

He’s truly a creature of habit — and control. He’s meticulous and precise in all aspects of his life and has been invaluable to our pack. I would trust Tate with my life. But even having said that I find that I can’t say the same for Solana’s life. The only one I trust unquestionably with her is me, quite frankly.

“Eli and Sol?” I ask simply knowing he’ll read deeper into my question.

“He brought her home.” Tate’s lips part as if he wants to continue but thinks better of it and kills the thought before it hatches.

“Any issues while you were out?” I ask before he can disappear behind his screen.

“There were a few notable moments but nothing that impacted her safety.” Tate answers cryptically. He’s playing games with me now. He told me she’s safe, which is all that should matter to me. But now they all know I’ve slept with her, so if I ask him to elaborate then I’m admitting that I’m interested in things pertaining to Solana beyond her safety.

“Notable in what way?” I feign indifference by shuffling through some papers as I ask the question.

“She has a fascinating family tree,” Tate muses. “And she sliced her hand open when she stabbed the bar top. But otherwise it was a fairly mundane outing.”

With a heavy sigh, I press the heels of my hands against my eyes. “Do I even want to know?”

Tate gives off a sly smirk as he considers my question. “Like I said, a fascinating family tree. But in this instance she was upset by news of her grandmother, the former Queen Ianthe, being passed over for Elder.”

This girl. It’s like she has no regard for her own safety. She can’t even go out with her sister without drawing blood. Her knee-jerk reactions to everything are going to get her killed before any bounty hunter can even touch her.

Somehow I’m going to have to teach her to control her fire rather than letting it control her.

Tate and I work in silence for several more hours, or I pretend to at least. The temptation to pack up and go home to her grows heavier and heavier until I slam shut the folder I’ve tried to read sixty times in the last five minutes.

“Let’s take our work home, I’ve had enough of these four walls for one day.” I say to Tate.

“Before we do that, there’s something you should see.”

I walk around my desk and over to Tate who immediately shows my clips of what look like security footage.

“This is Caligo?” I confirm.

Tate nods. “About once a week, sometimes more sometimes less, one of the bartenders will go over to that register on the far end. There’s no pattern to when or who uses it, and the customers they serve immediately before don’t appear to do anything but order a drink, pay, and leave.

“Today when we were over there I downloaded the information stored on its computer while Sol and all them were talking.” Tate sits back with a victorious grin. “The transaction history is filled with nothing but names. Most recently Ray Hartman, Mike Evans, Collin Driscoll, Dana Hayes, Logan Shaw. All died unexpectedly young with purple tongues and failed hearts.

“Three guesses what kind of poison kills a person like that.” He says with a widening grin. “Nightshade.”

“Why Caligo?”

“That I haven’t worked out yet. But every bartender there has used that computer to input a name.”

“Solana?”

“Every one.” Tate reiterates.

Now that is an interesting development. “It seems like we need to go have a conversation with Sol.”

“I don’t know if tonight is the night to do it.” He hesitates, closing his laptop and slipping it into his bag.

“Why?”

“Eli said earlier that she’s been locked in your room since they got home. There was some tension between her and her siblings. Plus, Eli texted a few minutes ago that he’s taking her out.”

I whip around to face him again. “Out where?” I growl.

Tate tries his best to look contrite but his amusement shines through the cracks. “The Den.”

***

I knew before Tate told me where Eli took her that following them was a bad idea. Nothing good could come from walking into The Den behind Eli, especially not when he’s wearing my mate on his arm.

Despite the multitude of scents and abundance of pheromones, her scent is the most prominent one of all and easy for me to separate from the rest.

When I caught sight of her the air in my lungs evacuated. I thought about teleporting up to the balcony and throwing Eli over the railing. I thought about punishing him by making him choke on Dean’s cock which is so conveniently at the ready as he gets off on Eli publicly fucking my mate.

But admitting that I’m enraged, admitting that it bothers me, is admitting that I have any permanent affection for her. Solana should be able to make her own choices — she’s not beholden to me.

Though she should be.

Dean has the decency to be embarrassed when he realizes I’m next to him. But when Solana sees me, she’s anything but embarrassed. She’s radiant. I watch her mouth open and round out on a moan, I watch her eyes pinch shut and her body shudder as she comes undone around him.

I could watch her come all day long, she does it so fucking beautifully. My wolf is clawing at me to get to her, to rip Eli apart and fuck the feeling of his dick right out of her.

They’ve barely corrected their clothes when I teleport up to the balcony behind them.

“Come.” I command Solana with an outstretched hand.

Eli pecks her on the cheek and grins lasciviously, “she just did, boss.”

There’s a loud snap and then Eli cries out, “what the fuck!” He clutches his hand with a newly broken finger to his chest before snapping it back into place.

“Don’t be such a dick.” She mutters to him unapologetically and avoids looking me in the eye for more than a second at a time.

“I’m not going to ask a second time,” I snap, and this time Solana abandons Eli’s side and approaches me. Once she’s within reach I grab a hold of her and teleport us back home.

Solana squeals when the cold spray of water from the shower hits her without warning.

“Ace, what are you doing?” She shrieks as I rip her dress from her body and discard it on the bathroom floor.

“I’m going to wash the cum from your cunt and then I’m going to erase Eli from your memory.”

Solana’s eyes roll back and she moans as I press our mouths together. She licks and bites at me, greedily tasting me and feeding off my tongue.

She tears at my clothes until we’re skin to skin. The heat of the water is nothing compared to the heat coming off of her body.

I lift her up under her thighs and she instinctively wraps her legs around my waist. I notch myself at her entrance and slide her down my length slowly. She moans loudly with abandon and it’s like music to my ears. My cock twitches in response inside of her eliciting more moans.

With her pinned between the shower wall and my cock, I slide in and out of her at a slow and steady pace. While I kiss and suck her neck and breasts she moans and begs for more.

“Did he feel this good, Solana? Can he make you feel as good as I can?”

“Ace, fuck, right there. Don’t stop!” She begs.

“No one will ever be able to please you like I can.” I push into her harder and faster, letting her musical sounds guide me to her release. And when she reaches her crescendo, her euphoria is breathtaking.

Her walls pulse and spasm around my cock triggering my own release. “Do you like being filled like this, Solana?”

“Hmm,” she hums wearily.

I keep her pinned to the wall with my hips, freeing my hands so I can slip her heels off of her feet. As much as I’d love her to wear them all day, everyday, it’s a safety hazard in the shower.

She lets me keep her pinned there, content to sit on my cock all night. So I begin to wash her. Starting with her hair and working my way down slowly and meticulously. Shoulders to hips, hips to feet.

“I need to wash the rest of you now.” I warn her before peeling her off of me and standing her on her own two feet so I can run a washcloth between her silky legs.

“Are you upset?” She asks when I’m finished.

Yes. “No.”

Her skepticism scalds me. “I find that hard to believe.”

I sigh heavily, “even if I was, it doesn’t matter. I’m not your keeper, you’re free to do as you please.”

The words burn my throat like acid. My wolf rages against the more rational side of me that understands that this is the way it has to be, that this is for the best.

She looks like I slapped her across the face but quickly recovers. “So then you wouldn’t mind if I slept in his bed tonight, in his arms?”

Solana certainly knows how to poke the bear but I’m not sure what her motivation is. We agreed last night, she said it herself that she didn’t want to be kept. I don’t understand what she has to gain by making me admit that I want her all to myself.

“Your choices are yours to make. But choose wisely. Tomorrow the four of us are leaving for one last job.”

“The four of you? Who’s not going?”

“You’ll be staying home with Hunter.” Solana scoffs, pulls back the shower curtain, and climbs out promptly wrapping herself in a towel like she could use it as a shield.

“How long?”

“A week, give or take a day.”

“This day just keeps getting better and better,” she mumbles under her breath so lowly I wouldn’t have caught it if not for my Alpha hearing.

I don’t stop her when she walks out of the bathroom. She has a choice to make and I dry myself the old fashioned way while I attempt to convince myself that I don’t care what she chooses.

I also try to convince myself that I won’t crawl into bed beside her and Eli if she chooses him, just so I can feel her warmth and breathe in her scent.

There’s no denying the pure joy and satisfaction I feel when I find her laying in my bed a few minutes later wearing nothing but one of my shirts.

Hopefully I can use this week away to detox from her and knock some sense back into my head.

I can’t claim her. And I need to start acting like it.

— — —

Hunter

The first rays of the new day are kissing the horizon when I decide it’s probably time to cross over into our backyard and out of the woods.

Tate sits unveiled on the rooftop and drops gracefully to the ground in front of me before I can step onto the back porch.

“Human or animal?” He asks my wolf, seeing the blood covering my coat and teeth. Fox snarls at him in annoyance, like Tate could ever be capable of human emotion.

I shift out of my wolf so I can answer him. “Animal, I think.”

Tate nods knowingly, with pity. It was bad enough when Ace came home with her the other night, but then Eli fucked her at The Den followed immediately after by Ace. I don’t know who I should be angry at. Eli and Ace are easy targets for my ire, they fucked Sol knowing who she is to me. But then maybe I should be mad at Sol for so freely giving her body to people she barely knows.

I think what angers me the most is that I really have no right at all to be angry. She doesn’t belong to me. She’s free to do as she pleases, and I have no authority to pass judgment on her decisions.

He follows behind me as I enter the house. Everyone is busy getting packed and ready to go, except Tate — he’s been packed for two days. It’s unnerving how exacting he is sometimes, how much control he has over his life.

“Eli went looking for you last night, you know.” He says after the silence has grown thick between us sitting alone in the living room.

“I’m shocked he had the time,” I bite back bitterly.

Tate exhales a small laugh, “H, that could have been any one of us… including you.” He throws his palms up in defense of his statement when he sees the are-you-fucking-high look I level at him. “Talk to her, H. I didn’t need 100 years to figure out that she’s stubborn and prideful. You’re both hurting. Take advantage of this week alone.”

Tate takes out his phone, effectively dismissing me. I’m covered in blood and dirt and desperately need a shower. I’m at the top of the stairs when Eli’s voice sounds from the living room.

“It’s good to see you. I wasn’t sure you’d be back before we left,” Eli says to me. I don’t know what it is he’s looking for me to say, and I don’t trust myself not to rip his tongue out so I keep quiet.

“If I knew it would upset you, I wouldn’t have…”

“It’s fine, Eli. Tate’s right, it’s my problem. I need to get my shit together.” I sigh back in my seat, dragging my hands down my face.

“Could I get that in writing?” Tate attempts to make a joke and somehow it breaks the tension enough for the three of us to crack a smile.

“I’m going to take a shower. Keep me updated this week. Be safe and try not to completely piss Ace off.” I ruffle Eli’s hair as I walk past him and head for the stairs.

“No promises,” he grins and visibly relaxes into his seat now that he’s sure I’m not going to kill him.

At the top of the stairs I catch Ace standing in the threshold of his room with his hand wrapped around Sol’s throat. “Behave Solana, that’s not a request.”

“Yes, asshole,” she retorts, earning her a warning growl from Ace. The heat coming off both of them makes the entire interaction feel more like foreplay than anything else.

As soon as Ace releases her she slams his door shut in his face. Ace turns on his heel, running his hands through his hair in an exasperated gesture.

“You look like shit,” he says when he catches sight of me.

“You should see the other guy,” I try to joke.

“Don’t kill each other. Text me if you need anything. If everything goes well we’ll be back in a few days.”

“We’ll be fine. Go on, the sooner you leave the sooner this is done.”

Ace nods, slaps a wide palm against the center of my back and takes down the stairs telling the others to get their asses in gear.

I don’t know how this week will play out but I do know it’ll be the longest week of my life.