Chapter Three

“Harley, Bronson, pull up a chair.” Clive waved a beer bottle at his friends with a cheery grin a few hours later. “I thought Ronan and Asaph were coming along too.”

“There was an issue at their club. Some kids broke in, looking for booze by the looks of things,” Harley said, dragging a chair across the porch. “We can’t stay long, but Bronson wanted to watch the fireworks.”

“Oh yes,” Bronson added with a wide smile as he rested a hand on Harley’s chair. “It was definitely me that wanted to watch the display. My partner humors me in so many things. Hi Trent, Marly, how’s things hanging with you two?”

Clive watched as his friends interacted. He hadn’t known Harley was a shifter until the tattooist met Bronson although the man was responsible for some of his best pieces. Ronan and Asaph were shifters too – both wolves. Now he knew what to look for, he could see how the alphas all stood a little straighter when they met even though they were friends. He imagined in their animal forms, they’d all be sniffing each other’s butts and that made him laugh, although, he quickly stopped when Trent looked at him strangely. For some reason, Clive imagined Roy gave off the same sort of vibe. The big officer definitely had animal magnetism, but whether it was shifter induced or simply because Clive hadn’t been laid for a while, he wasn’t sure. It wasn’t something he really wanted to think about. As the clock edged closer to eight, he’d almost convinced himself the whole encounter was the product of the beers he’d drank that afternoon.

Which was why, when the rumble of another Harley pulled up by the front gates, Clive jumped and of course Trent noticed. “Are we expecting anyone else?” Trent asked, his eyes narrowing as the figure on the bike rode right up to the porch. “I’ve not seen him around before.”

“He’s a big one,” Marly whispered, peering around his mate. “Oh, I’ve seen him around town. That’s one of the new police officers. He came in and introduced himself to Cody a few weeks back.”

“Is he like you guys?” Clive asked casually. He longed to jump up and greet his new friend, but he didn’t want to appear too eager. Yep, there was definite chemistry. He could feel it as Roy stepped onto the porch.

“He’s bigger,” Marly squeaked as Trent stood and put himself between Marly and Clive, and Roy, who had an amused smile on his face. Bronson stepped over to stand shoulder to shoulder with Trent, trying to get Harley behind him who had jumped up too, which resulted in a bit of a tussle. Attracted by the sudden moves, Levi and Saul, two of the club enforcers, ran up the porch steps.

“Guys, guys. Settle down. Anyone would think you hadn’t seen a new face before.” Clive tried to push Trent out of the way, but it was like moving a slab of concrete. “I specifically invited Roy to our little gathering. Let him through.”

“You don’t know what he is,” Trent hissed urgently as he stood chest to chest with the bigger man. Bigger being a relative term. Roy was an inch taller and slightly broader across the shoulders, but they were evenly matched in other ways including the matching snarls.

“And this is not the place to discuss it.” Clive was still the president of the club and Trent would get out of his way or he’d thump him. “All of you, in my office, now. Saul, Levi, keep an eye on things out here.”

Saul quirked an eyebrow but he and Levi both nodded, pushing back Bobby who was also lurking around the porch. Without looking at anyone else, Clive strode inside, heading straight to his private office. The beer in his stomach was churning in a most unpleasant fashion and his heart rate increased. It seemed like every molecule in his body was attuned to the man he could feel behind him and for the second time that day, his cock thickened.

Sitting in his chair, and resting his feet on the desk, Clive waited until Trent closed the door and then asked bluntly, “is this a shifter issue? I can understand why Trent’s suspicious. He’s my sergeant at arms. But Bronson, you’re going to be in hot water for trying to protect your mate. I’m human and I can smell Harley’s anger. So, are we talking about an alpha wolf thing here, or are you all just going to get your dicks out and see who’s biggest?”

“Boss.” Trent’s shoulders shook as though his animal wanted to break free. “Do you know who this is?”

“Officer Roy Carmichael,” Clive said calmly as Roy’s mouth dropped open. “We met this afternoon – he pulled me over actually. He seems like a friendly enough guy and it’s not as though we’ve got anything to hide here, is it?” He pinned Trent with a firm gaze. “It’s the holiday season. I’m being friendly.”

“He’s also a bear shifter,” Harley said. He was slouched on the wall by the door, his arms crossed. “That’s what’s got the wolves in a tizzy. His shifted form is bigger than theirs and mine too for that matter, although I’m always happy to test that theory.”

“Well, no one is shifting in a human bike club, are they?” Clive let a hint of steel show through his tone. “All of you, for fucks sake stand down. If this is what it’s like when there’re just five freaking shifters in a room what the hell is a pack meeting like?”

“You know about mates and shifters?” Roy finally found his voice. “Thank the holy mother, I am so glad. That saves me a whole stack of tedious explanations.”

“Clive, that bear wants you over the desk with your ass in the air.” Trent could also be blunt. “The lust is so thick in here you could cut it with a knife.”

“Half of that is probably coming from Marly getting turned on by your macho man antics. My sex life is my business,” Clive told Trent firmly, before turning his attention to Roy. “But knowing you’re a shifter means casual sex is off the table.” He wasn’t going to dream he could have anything more with the handsome hunk. “I had my heart ripped out by a shifter twenty years ago, well before I met these guys. I know how important fated mates are, and how the urge to be with them is stronger than anything else in your life. I won’t go through that sort of grief again. Our chemistry is off the charts – I’m not immune to that. But once around a shifter’s bed is enough for me, thank you very much. I’m too old to just go shagging around and then get dumped when the one the fates picked for you comes along.”

“Thank fuck for that,” Roy said as his eyes got more intense. “I really don’t like the thought of my mate off shagging someone else.”

This time it was Clive’s mouth that dropped open while Marly squealed in excitement. “Clive’s got himself a fated mate! That’s freaking awesome.”

/~/~/~/~/

The last thing Roy expected to find when he rode through the huge corrugated iron gates guarding the Epitaph’s compound was three wolf shifters and a tiger standing around his mate like old friends. The loud music, flash of breasts, and drunken men sitting around laughing and joking – they were expected parts of the scenery in an MC. But the smell of cooked meat in the air couldn’t hide his mate’s delicious scent and when the one called Trent stepped in front of him with another smartly dressed wolf standing beside him, the smile fell off his face and his bear rumbled deep in his chest. No one, not even an alpha wolf shifter, was going to stop him from greeting his mate.

Now, as Trent, Bronson and the others filed out of the office, Trent unable to resist giving him a last warning glare, all Roy felt was relief. And lust, but that was something he’d have to get used to around his silver fox. Earlier, as he’d showered and pulled his bike out from under its coverings and given it a shine, he’d rehearsed a dozen ways of saying, “hi there, I’m your mate. I want to shove my dick in your ass, and my teeth in your neck and then we’ll be together for the rest of a very long life. Oh, and by the way, I turn into a bear when riled, and not the fuzzy, cuddly kind. Don’t freak out, it’s just part of my DNA.”

Imagined responses ranged from Clive fainting, laughing at him, or pulling out a gun and threatening him. The problem was, while Roy was hugely relieved none of those scenarios would play out, he wasn’t sure what to say next. But he had to say something.

“So, you know about shifters and mates then?” He knew the words were lame as soon as he spoke them, but then Clive seemed to be going through some sort of brain reset as well. The man hadn’t said a word since he’d made his mating announcement.

Dropping his feet from the desk to the floor, Clive leaned on the scratched and battered wood and let out a long sigh. “You’re going to need to hear this before we talk about anything else. I met Jules when I was a young kid of seventeen, living on the streets right here in Orlando. He saved my ass from being beat up and shared a stolen burger with me. I knew he was older, I didn’t realize how much older until a lot later, but we stuck together, shared everything with each other. He kept me safe on the streets well before we found work and a stable place to live.”

“When did you find out Jules wasn’t strictly human?” As much as Roy wanted to hug his mate close, he appreciated Clive needed to share his story and would probably prefer to have some space to do it without mating hormones getting in the way.

“That first winter,” Clive chuckled as he looked up and Roy’s eyes widened. He could see the hints of Clive’s younger self when the man’s face relaxed. “It was the middle of January and you wouldn’t think it would be that cold, even in the middle of the night. But me and Jules, we were holed up in this abandoned warehouse in the old industrial area. We’d barely eaten that day and I was coming down with a fever or something. I just knew I felt like shit. I was shaking and shivering, and I couldn’t get warm, no matter how much Jules hugged me. I remember him saying ‘just don’t freak out, okay. I won’t eat you,’ right before he turned into this gorgeous huge wolf. I didn’t feel the cold again until Jules told me about his mate five years later.”

“Shit.” Roy hung his head for a moment. It was as though he could feel Clive’s pain.

“Jules was such a stupid bastard,” Clive said fondly. “He tried to keep it from me, but I knew something was wrong. We were sharing an apartment by the time he’d met his mate. I’d never even looked at another person in all that time, you know, and I know Jules didn’t either. We were at some fucking fourth of July thing in town – he’d been quiet for days. I’d probably had too many beers and couldn’t take it anymore. I remember yelling at him to tell me what was wrong, and he just broke down and cried. That wasn’t like Jules.”

“Is that when he told you the truth?” Roy could hear the party going hard outside, but for now it was as though he and Clive were the only two people in the world.

Clive nodded. “He explained about true mates and how important they were and how he never meant to fall for me, but he couldn’t help himself. Meeting his mate was just one of those random things, you know. He was getting lunch from a coffee shop. His mate was a long-haul trucker who just happened to want lunch at the same coffee shop, at that same time. Jules told him about me, and how he couldn’t just leave. He must have gone through hell the silly bastard.”

“Did they leave town after he told you?” As a bear, Roy considered him a laid back sort of a person, but he wasn’t sure he could handle seeing Clive’s ex, another shifter, on a regular basis.

“That very night.” Clive’s jaw tightened. “The guy must have been hanging around town waiting for him. I stayed at the party and got horribly drunk. When I finally staggered home, his clothes and stuff were gone and there was three month’s rent on the kitchen table. I never heard from him again.”

“Shit,” Roy said again because he really didn’t know what else he could say. Jules did the right thing. His new mate was clearly a shifter too, and all shifters were possessive of their fated ones. But after five years of being together, building a life together, Clive must have been gutted when Jules left.

“I can tell what you’re thinking, and you’re right,” Clive said with a dark chuckle. “I didn’t handle it well at all. I became the biggest piece of shit homophobic asshole on the planet. Every time I saw two men physically closer together than socially acceptable it brought up all the feelings of pain I went through when Jules left. This club was already full of homophobes and even when I was made president, I didn’t stop the bullying or bashing until six months ago when Marly was targeted by one of the guys here. Jules would have been fucking disgusted with me. I was fucking disgusted with me, but for so long, all I felt was pain and I just couldn’t stop it.”

“You must have really loved him.” Damn. Roy was doing a good job of wrecking what had the prospects of being a sexy evening. But then, Clive was right. It was better to get these things out in the open from the start if he and Clive had a chance to move forward. He wasn’t going to let his mate go, but he could give him time if he needed it.

“I know I did at the time.” Clive reached down into his desk drawer and pulled out a half full bottle of whiskey and two glasses. He held one up to Roy who nodded. Pouring out two healthy shots, Clive took one and indicated for Roy to take the other. But instead of slugging it back, Clive sipped on it.

“When Jules first left, I joined the Marines. I was there ten years and the pain dulled somewhat. I convinced myself I was better off without him. But when I came back here and joined the club, it was like it all came back again. It wasn’t that I missed Jules, I think I was just so damn jealous. Jules met someone, and they knew in an instant they were going to be together for centuries. I felt like this dumb schmuck human who was just warming Jules’s bed until the real deal came along. I was pissed off. Angry. Oh, I know he cared about me but when his mate showed up I was last week’s news. He walked away from everything we’d built together to be with this perfect stranger and they had this connection and….”

Clive shook his head and bit his bottom lip. When he looked up Roy could see a real sincerity in his eyes. “After all these years, I think I finally understand why he did it.”

Roy put down his glass, his whiskey untouched. “As your mate, I’d never stray, I’d never leave you. We’ll probably argue once in a while because we’re individuals and being mates takes work just the same as any other relationship. But, my mom always said never go to bed angry and I respect my mom. The claiming bond between mates means if I die, so will you, because our souls are meant to be together, and before you start thinking you’ll be shortening my life span, don’t. Fates willing, I will live another three to five hundred years more and once I’ve bitten you, you’ll stop aging. We’ll be together all that time.”

Clive ran his fingers through his short gray hair. “You didn’t think to try and find me before I got gray and wrinkled?” He smiled to show he was teasing.

“Maybe your heart wasn’t ready for me then.” Roy found it easy to return the smile.

“I’m always going to look like your daddy.” Clive stood, and Roy’s pulse quickened as he stepped around the desk, stopping within touching distance. This close Clive’s scent was intense, and Roy muffled a groan.

“In my eyes, you’ll never look anything but perfect.” Roy forced his eyes upward. Clive’s crotch was dangerously close to his face and the rugged man’s crotch smelled of aroused male and leather. “If you can handle a bit of teasing about you being a cradle snatcher, I know I can.”

“Are you absolutely sure this is real?” Clive stepped closer and Roy widened his knees, so his mate could stand between them. “Don’t get me wrong. I want you bad, but I’m human. I can’t scent a lie. Jules never pretended we were mates. I didn’t learn about that facet of shifter life until he met his.” He swallowed hard. “My heart’s been closed off for over half my life. If I let you in, for something more than sex, and this isn’t….”

“It is real.” Roy took a chance and tugged his mate close enough he could rest his head on Clive’s stomach. Clive’s fingers in his hair sent shivers down his spine. “Your friends who were in here earlier, they would have told you if they scented me lying. They only left me alone with you because they know we’re mates and mates are incapable of physically hurting each other.”

“I’ve never felt this way about anyone,” Clive whispered. “It’s like I can’t stop touching you now I’ve started. Does it feel the same for you?”

“You have no idea,” Roy growled. “Your wolf friend was right. I’d have you over that desk in an instant.” He inhaled sharply, which did nothing to quell his lust, but protecting his mate was the ultimate creed for any shifter. “But, is it safe? Here I mean.” He waved at the door.

“Not here, not for all the things I see in your eyes, or the things I hope we’ll do together,” Clive admitted with a snarl. “But, I’ll have this much before those fucking fireworks start.” Stepping back, Clive held out his hand and Roy stood, pulling his mate back into his arms. They were both of the same mind and lips met, softly at first. Roy wanted to learn all those things his mate enjoyed. But when Clive bit his bottom lip, his bear surged, and four hours’ worth of pent up frustration came tumbling out in a rush. Pushing Clive back against the desk, Roy took over their kiss, shoving his tongue through parted lips, letting his tongue learn everything from what his mate had for breakfast through to the chipped canine tooth he had on the left hand side of his mouth.

His body quickly over-heated. Clothes became an unnecessary hindrance. Clive’s chest was still only covered by the vest he’d worn on his bike and Roy pushed his hand up under it, mapping out the hot skin and hard muscles underneath. Clive groaned against his mouth, and Roy felt his muscle shirt tugged out of his jeans. Clive’s leg hooked around his and although their difference in height meant their cocks weren’t lined up, Roy pushed his knee forward so Clive could rub himself on his thigh.

The ends of Roy’s fingers tingled – his claws itching to spring out and make short work of Clive’s leathers. But something was buzzing in his ears and it wasn’t just the thump of his pounding blood. Dragging his lips from Clive’s was an effort, but he growled as he heard the signs of an argument just outside Clive’s door.

“What is it?” Roy assumed it was Clive’s military training that shook the lust from his eyes. Putting his finger to his lips, Roy left the warmth of his mate’s body and moved closer to the door.