Chapter Twenty-Nine
Danny dozed on the couch, waking on and off during Chris’ many phone calls. First, he called Mitch back, explaining in no uncertain terms that if Danny needed a mate, he’d be it. To illustrate his point, he told him about Danny’s first heat and their mating.
“In that case, you have a fairly strong claim. That is, if Danny is happy to accept you.”
“We’ve talked, he’s agreeable.”
Danny woke briefly, smiling at his words before drifting back to sleep.
“We’re still not out of the woods yet with regards the police situation,” Mitch was saying. “But I’ll update them on Danny’s status and see if that changes their attitude somewhat.”
“You can also tell them we have a named suspect now. As soon as Will is back, I’m gathering the team and we’re taking this Hart guy down.”
There was a long pause.
“I’m afraid it’s not that simple, Chris. I’ve already spoken to Will, he and Jake are on their way home.”
“What’s not simple about it? It’s him, Mitch. He was the Alpha in the forest that reeked of smoke and gasoline. He was the Alpha that bought Jake and tore strips of skin off his back.”
“Vincent Hart isn’t a nobody, Chris. And now that he knows we know who and what he is, he’ll be using every advantage he has to keep us at arm’s length.”
Jake and Will were there the next time Danny woke, Chris and Will talking in quiet undertones in the kitchen.
“Hey,” Jake said, sitting on the couch beside him. “I’m so sorry, Danny. I had no idea Mitch and Zara were going to do something so stupid. Are you okay? How are you feeling?”
He sat up, waiting to feel the burst of pain from his shoulder and neck, but there was only a faint ache.
“I’m okay, it doesn’t hurt much.”
“Okay, but how about the rest of it? You must have been so scared when that Alpha took you.”
“I wanted to shout or scream but I couldn’t get anything out. I was… I was…”
“That happens, Danny. The body sometimes freezes when you’re scared. You can’t move, you can’t think.” He wrapped a comforting arm around Danny’s shoulders. “But you’re safe now and we’re going to make sure you stay that way.”
“What if he comes back?”
“We know who he is now. He’s not from here but he travels to the city a lot. Given what’s just happened, it’s unlikely he’ll leave the protection of his own Pack right now.”
Danny relaxed a little at that, a yawn escaping him.
“Will told me about you and Chris in the car on the way here. About you going into heat and—”
Danny felt his face flush. “It happened the day I changed. I didn’t know what it was, what it meant. I just knew I wanted Chris. No, not wanted. Needed.”
Jake didn’t seem horrified or shocked. In fact, he was smiling.
“Yeah, heats, especially the first one, can hit you really hard. Having someone to share them with…” His eyes strayed to Will. “…that makes all the difference.”
“Chris thinks it was wrong, that he shouldn’t have had sex with me.”
“Most Alphas wouldn’t blink an eye at that. To them, a heat, a willing Omega, is an open invitation. Chris isn’t like most Alphas. In a lot of ways that’s a good thing. But in this case, not so much.”
A knock on the door had Danny starting, held in place only by Jake’s arm across his shoulders. Will went to answer it while Chris moved over to stand beside the couch.
Danny looked over his shoulder to see who it was. The familiar face of Mitch had him scrambling to his feet and reaching for Chris, putting the Alpha between him and the Alpha of the city.
For a moment, all was silent. To Chris, Danny’s panicking breathing sounded loud, the beat of his heart like an incessant drum.
Mitch stepped inside and all eyes turn to Danny. Mitch looked at Chris, then at Danny, and his shoulders sagged.
“I think we need to talk.”
Chris wrestled Danny into a seat on the couch, sitting right next to him so Danny could still feel shielded by him. Will seemed amused by it but Mitch just looked sad.
“Danny, I owe you an apology. We made a serious mistake today and I’m here to give you my word that it won’t happen again.” He waited for a response, but Danny didn’t seem inclined to give one, so Mitch continued.
“I’m also here to pass on some good news. I’ve been concerned these past few weeks about Dale County and what their next step would be, so I hired a private investigator and asked them to look into the death of your family and what Dale’s investigation was looking at. He uncovered two key pieces of evidence that the police had found but hadn’t disclosed.”
“What is it?” Chris asked, knowing Danny wasn’t ready to speak just yet.
“Video footage, from a somewhat paranoid neighbor who lives at the end of Danny’s street, and from a dashboard camera of a car that passed Danny’s vehicle on Evergreen. Both show the same male. In the first instance, he’s walking toward Danny’s house with a gas can. And in the second, he’s standing beside Danny’s vehicle after the farmer reported seeing it there and before the cops arrived. The footage is clearly not of Daniel as this man is well over six foot and older.”
“They knew we were being truthful about a second suspect and they buried the evidence,” Will said, disgusted.
“They wanted this wrapped up quickly. There’s been a lot of fear-mongering amongst the locals. I guess the police thought if they pinned it on Danny and got him out of the picture, the uproar would die down.”
“The question becomes what are we going to do with that information?”
“It’s already done,” Mitch replied. “The news stations and the papers will have it by tomorrow, with inside sources talking about the quiet young man being stalked by a wolf, who then escalated, murdering his family, and covering up the crime.”
“But they think Danny is a shifter.”
“Danny doesn’t fit the public’s perception of a shifter. He’s too slight, too humdrum. The tall, dark figure walking around with the gasoline can, you can bet they’ll believe that.”
“You took a risk, going to the media.”
“If Dale County can do it, and believe me, they have, then we fight fire with fire.”
“What does that mean for me?” Danny asked. Mitch seemed surprised to hear him speak but Chris nearly applauded his bravery.
“It should hopefully force Dale County to back off,” Mitch replied.
“Most likely the higher-ups will put pressure on them to hand over the investigation fully to us,” Chris added, squeezing Danny’s knee. “And we know you’re not the culprit, and that Hart is.”
“Are you going to kill him?”
“That’s the other half of what I’m here to talk about. Vincent Hart is not a shifter you can afford to just take out, even if you could get that close.”
“Why?”
“Money, power, and influence. A lot of shifter businesses have arrangements with him. He’s on good terms with half a dozen Packs, Packs that would welcome him with open arms and defend him if we tried to get at him. His own Pack has a challenge transfer rule.”
“Damn it,” Chris said.
“What does that mean?” Danny asked.
“It means if someone challenges him to a fight, he can ask another wolf to step in and fight for him,” Chris explained.
“And there are no shortage of shifters who’d be willing to do that for him,” Mitch added.
“But we wouldn’t be issuing a challenge. He’s a criminal, he’s a murderer. We don’t need a challenge for that,” Chris argued.
“I’ve made some discreet inquiries already. His Pack won’t hand him over willingly. Others have said we don’t have enough proof of wrongdoing for them to accept a final judgment against him. So he has shelter wherever he asks for it,” Mitch replied.
“We can’t just let him go, Mitch. He has killed. And he’s gone after two Omega that we know of. He’s no stranger to this, there’ll be more. Hell, he took Danny right under your nose, with your consent,” Chris said.
“I understand that. But if Eden acts against him, it will bring significant trouble our way. And if Shifter Crimes act against him, you’re likely to find many doors closed to you. If bringing down one criminal prevents you bringing down the next dozen and the dozen after that, then at what point do you cut your losses? And what about the knock-on effect that will have with the human police? We could be back to the shoot-to-kill policies of the transition, with whole families dead just for being shifters.”
“We just leave him alone, that’s your suggestion?” Chris asked.
“We play it smart. You’re right, sooner or later he’ll act again. And he’s becoming reckless. What he did to Danny’s family shows that, not to mention waltzing right into my house to take Danny again. So we let things die down, watch, and wait, and when the time is right, we act. No one needs to know Eden or Shifter Crimes had a hand in it.”
“Now you’re talking,” Will said.
“It goes without saying that the details of this discussion never leave this room. We can’t be too careful. The people who ‘recommended’ Hart to take in Danny were people I trusted. Either they don’t know what he is, or they’re under his thumb. Either way, we need to act with an abundance of caution.”
“We’re always cautious,” Chris replied.
“Are we agreed then?” Mitch asked. “We don’t act against Hart now but we keep an eye on him and wait for the opportunity to present itself.”
“Agreed,” Chris said. “We won’t take any action against him. Not now.”
He turned to Danny, resting a hand on his shoulder. “I’m sorry, Danny. I know you’d like an end to this, to see some justice for your family.”
Danny shrugged. “Not if it gets others hurt.”
Mitch departed, leaving the four of them to talk.
“We need more information about Hart. Who his business partners are, where his interests lie, where his residences are,” Chris said.
“We’ll have to go gently. Don’t want anyone getting wind of what we’re doing,” Will said.
Chris waved that off. “We’ve done it before. Plus, if this ties into the Omega trafficking ring, we know at least some of his nearest and dearest predator friends.”
“How about some pizza?” Jake suggested, “I’m starving.”
“Danny, you hungry?” Chris asked.
The Omega shrugged. “I guess I could eat.”
Later, after Will and Jake left for the home, he and Danny got ready for bed. He gave Danny an old T-shirt of his to sleep in.
“You can have the bed,” Chris told him, “I’ll take the couch.”
Danny looked from the bed to him. “It looks big enough for two.”
“I think, after everything today, you might want your own space.”
He turned toward the door.
“I don’t want to sleep alone,” Danny's voice called, and Chris dropped his head before taking a deep breath and turning back around.
“You’re sure?”
“I’m sure.”
Danny climbed into bed and Chris followed him. They lay side by side, staring up at the ceiling.
“Are we just mates in name?”
“Um, Danny…”
“It’s just, my next heat will be along in a few weeks. Jake has told me a bit about managing them but I thought, maybe, if we’re both here and we’re mates then…” Danny turned to him. “I really want to do that again, what we did. I understand you might not feel the same…”
“Danny those two days of your heat, they were amazing.”
“I don’t even know how many times we…” Danny blushed, hiding his face against the blanket.
“About a dozen, give or take,” Chris replied, reaching out to tug on Danny’s chin so they were face-to-face. There was no need for him to be shy or ashamed and Chris hated that it was his own fears, his own insecurities, that had brought that down on him.
“First, I took you on your hands and knees. Then on your side. Hand and knees again, you seemed to like that a lot. Then on your back, then side by side again, then with you on top…”
Far from being ashamed by Chris’ recitation, it seemed to draw Danny’s interest instead.
“Sometimes fast and sometimes slow. Sometimes face-to-face, so I could look into your eyes, just like this.”
He drew Danny closer, the Omega reaching out a hand, his fingers trailing across Chris’ face, touching his cheeks, his nose, his lips. “I remember. All of it.”
“Good,” Chris replied with a smile. “I’d hate to think I wasn’t memorable.”
“Could I… could we, do something now?”
Leaning close, he placed a kiss on Danny’s cheek, then his lips, a little murmur of want escaping the Omega.
“Something low-key,” he agreed in a quiet whisper. “Just to take the edge off.”
He kissed Danny again, longer, and slower, swallowing down the needy sounds Danny was making. Then Chris turned Danny so his back was to Chris' chest. He eased an arm across Danny’s waist, tugging him closer and pulling up the T-shirt Danny wore. Then his hands slipped lower, his fingers wrapping around Danny, pulling another whimper from him that morphed into a moan as Chris’ hand began to stroke him firmly. He could feel Danny’s need, his desperation. For touch, for intimacy, for sex. Something his body had known it wanted for so long but hadn’t been able to get.
“Shh, that’s it, Danny. Let me take care of you.”
He took his time, until Danny was a whimpering, writhing mess in his arms, right on the edge. One more stroke was all it took to carry him over, and he sank into the bed with a heavy sigh. Chris got up only long enough to clean them both off, ignoring Danny’s murmured protest. When he climbed back into bed, Danny latched onto him, his head against Chris’ chest, clinging tightly to him.
“I’m not going anywhere, Danny. I promise.” He wouldn’t walk away again.