CHAPTER FOURTEEN

The Leader of the Pack

Holy shit, thought Max, taking in Bryan’s pack. The god of genetics is so unfair. They were unilaterally gorgeous, if not cut from quite the same cloth as his personal werewolf hunk. Bryan is definitely the hottest of the bunch. But still I wouldn’t kick any one of them out of bed for eating cookies… or rabbits.

It was a pretty small apartment to house eight dudes, especially when half of them were over six feet. It was also obscenely decorated. Someone had crossed a bordello from a 1940s western movie with a kabuki theater. One whole wall was a thick rainbow waterfall of feather boas and obi belts. The fireplace was filled with a spider web of fairy lights. The shelf that ran along the ceiling was lined with beautiful art-glass sex toys alternating with wigs, most of which looked to have come from the set of a Japanese historical soap opera. Everything that could have fringe did (mostly red), and everything else had tassels (mostly gold). Inside this burlesque madness, a half dozen hairy bikers nested as uncomfortably as a group of Amish playing beer pong. Although Max was pretty certain the visual of bikers in boas met the criteria of some dude’s fantasy. Bikers in Boas is probably already the name of a porno or a Vegas strip show.

“This place is insane,” he said to Bryan.

The werewolf grinned. “Manifest Destiny has very exotic taste.”

“Who?”

“Our absent but gracious drag queen hostess,” explained Marvin, coming forward to usher Max into the gilt glory.

Marvin he knew, of course. The merman was clearly bent on smoothing the waters and making certain Max felt somewhat welcome. Max stomped down on the impulse to snatch a boa and twirl. Next time.

A slight younger man moved toward him, strawberry blond and pouty-lipped, of the kind that would go down really well on a go-go stage. Max’s dirty mind aside, he had the sweet smile and the social awkwardness of a chronic gamer geek.

“You must be Colin.”

“Nice to meet you. Can I get those for you?”

Max handed him the pizzas, suspecting the boy took them as an excuse not to shake his hand. Bryan had said Colin was touch-shy. Homophobic family had messed with his head something fierce. How could anyone be nasty to such a sweet creature? God, the world sucks balls. Or to be more precise, not enough of the world sucks balls. Would be a lot easier on those of us who did, if more people got over their obsession with hating it.

On which cheerful note Max tuned into Marvin’s lilting voice. The man hustled him fully into the living room to meet the rest of the pack.

Judd and Kev were equally large, but that’s where the similarity ended. Kevin had dark auburn hair with pale skin, a big open smile, and a long-limbed smooth way of moving. Max suspected that was the way he himself was supposed to act, if he were more comfortable in his own skin. Judd was a sexy-as-sin black man, packing more muscles then Kev, with a smile less open, and the cross-armed stance of the innately suspicious.

Kevin shook Max’s hand. Judd only nodded at him.

A mercurial lean man with dark hair and blue eyes that crinkled with amusement introduced himself as Lovejoy. “Don’t mind the lugs,” he said to Max, and, turning to Biff, added, “Welp, this one is way out of your league, old man.”

Max frowned at Lovejoy’s too-tight muscle shirt and painted on jeans. “I thought you were one of the ones who wasn’t gay.”

“Doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate beauty, hot stuff.” Lovejoy waggled his eyebrows at Max.

Ah, a trickster.

“Ignore him,” Marvin advised. “Lovejoy is vested in proving his own manliness by flirting with everything that moves.”

“I brought a carnivorous plant home once,” said Kev. “Lovejoy spent two hours trying to talk it up.”

“Better than that vegan chick you dated for three months.”

“Fair point.”

Marvin interrupted what looked to be a long-standing exchange between the two men and continued introductions. “The strong, silent type in the corner is Tank.”

“Of course it is,” Max said, because he had no sense of self-preservation. Tank was exactly what he expected from the name – a good two inches taller than the tallest of the pack, built like some kind of moving fortification with long brown hair. He had a scruffy, chiseled jaw and a militant mouth, offset by unexpectedly kind eyes.

“And that sulky hottie on the couch who’s too rude to stand is my boyfriend, and your boyfriend’s Alpha.” Marvin ended the tour with Max standing in front of a younger, leaner, prettier version of Bryan.

Behind him, Bryan groaned. “Marvin. Must you?”

“What?” The merman blinked his baby blues. “Too soon for boyfriend?”

Max was occupied in a stare-off with a werewolf.

Alec Frederiksen had awfully familiar hazel eyes with equally stupid-long lashes. But they were way colder than Bryan’s ever had been.

Max wondered what etiquette was. Should he show his neck? Should he sit? Should he back away slowly? Should he give in to the inclination to boa and twirl? He felt like a recalcitrant schoolboy in front of a headmaster. Fuck this shit.

Max threw himself down onto the couch right next to Alec, which forced the Alpha to swivel and face him.

“Well, hello, brother of the dude I’m fucking. How d’you do?”

“Max.” Bryan’s tone was a warning.

Continued silence from Alec.

Max addressed the pack at large. “So. Gentlemen. Do I stink to you?”

Colin took pity on him. “Actually, you don’t. I mean there’s a bit of coolant” – the others nodded – “but mostly you smell like Biff and dessert.”

“Cinnamon roll,” said Lovejoy, with conviction.

“Mixed with tiki bar,” added Kevin. “In the best possible way, of course.”

“Nice to know there’s a good kinda tiki bar.” Max nibbled his lip and reached for more sarcasm. For the first time in his life, it failed him.

Bryan sat down opposite, looking with worried eyes back and forth between his lover and his Alpha. Marvin perched on the arm of the couch nearest Bryan. Colin sat next to him. Max could sense that Kevin and Judd were behind him, within easy distance of their Alpha, should they need to protect him from the dangerous sumage. Tank and Lovejoy began putting pizza slices atop plates and passing them out. Plates, not just napkins – very civilized for werewolves.

“So, Max, can I call you Max? Tell us a little about yourself?” Marvin flopped over to lean on Bryan’s shoulder. If Alec minded his mate draping himself over his brother, he didn’t show it.

“This a job interview?” Max shot back before he could stop himself.

Next to him, the Alpha tensed, eyes narrowing slightly. He began eating his pizza in neat, careful bites crust first. Weirdo.

Max nibbled his own slice, although it was too greasy and solid in his mouth, and no matter how much he chewed before swallowing, it sat like a lump in his belly. He didn’t want to put it aside, though – it was something to do with his hands. Gave him time to think between sentences.

“Well, let me see. Born and raised here, failed breeding stock to a Surge line, Placer, sumage.” Max forced himself to continue. “Didn’t abide by the life my family had planned for me, so now I work a dumb government job because I need something to say when a bunch of werewolves start staring at me. And I thrive on a tiny amount of bureaucratic power, because the power I should have, I don’t. I know, I’m such a catch. What about you? I hear you guys are basically homeless and mostly unemployed.”

Bryan slapped his forehead with his palm and groaned.

There was a stunned silence and then Alec chuckled. “Well, we were warned you were mouthy. And defensive. I examine seawater for a living. And, strangely enough, I’m eminently employable.”

Lovejoy jumped in at that and admitted to being a line chef. “Although I really want to get into the food truck business.”

“Life goal,” acknowledged Max seriously.

Colin said he was at school studying computer science, and Marvin talked about his adjunct Coast Guard work. Judd, with a shrug, said he had a gig as a bouncer. “It ain’t a career, but it’ll do for now.”

Kevin said from behind them. “Tank and I are thinking of starting a late-night moving company. We’ll call it Packing with the Pack.”

Colin groaned. “Oh my god, you are such an idiot. Why is my brother such an idiot?”

“You got all the brains in the family,” said Judd helpfully.

Kevin didn’t miss his cue. “And I got all the beauty.”

Awkward silence descended.

Max stopped eating his pizza and looked at Bryan in desperation.

Bryan hadn’t taken any pizza and was currently occupied in some sort of staring contest with his Alpha.

Then, with a snort, Bryan stood. He offered Colin a hand up, which Colin took hesitantly. Then Bryan turned, and before Max could say anything, he’d shifted him bodily and with very little effort into Colin’s vacated spot. Bryan sat back down and threw a possessive arm about Max’s shoulders, hauling him flush against his side. All without stopping his glare at Alec.

Max felt safer, even though this put him facing the Alpha.

Marvin dove for the vacated spot, cuddling up to his mate, and Colin with a sigh took the perch position on the arm of the couch.

“What was that about?” Max didn’t like being confused by rapidly shifting body language. He wasn’t as good with that as he was with regular language.

Bryan didn’t answer.

Alec relaxed enough to smile slightly. Either from the show of alliances or from having his mate next to him.

Oh, thought Max, that’s what it was about. Beta seeing to Alpha’s needs.

Max’s new vantage point showed him Kevin grinning hugely and Judd looking like he was frowning to hide a smile. The enforcers, at least, were finding the whole situation comical.

Bryan nudged Max’s chin with one hand, so Max had to look up into his eyes. I was wrong. Bryan’s hazel is way prettier than his brother’s.

Bryan said, on a soft growl. “He’s being dickish. It’ll pass, I promise.”

“You said it wouldn’t be bad. I don’t mean to complain, Muscles, but this isn’t great.”

“Sorry, sweetheart, I didn’t think he would be this dickish.”

Alec interjected at this point. “I’m not being dickish! I’m being protective and brotherly.”

“Not your job,” objected Bryan without looking up from Max.

Is he petting my hair? Oh my god, he is, in front of his pack! Is that a good thing? Is that a sort of a claiming thing? Is it supposed to comfort me? It’s not comforting. Stop it, please. Hands full of pizza, and lacking any other option, Max turned his face into Bryan’s hand and nipped it.

Bryan’s caresses stilled.

But when Max met his eyes again, there were sparks of yellow in them. Uh-oh, I didn’t mean to start something. Quick, eat pizza! Max hopefully shoved greasy goodness at his lover. Bryan took an obliging bite, but his eyes stayed hot and yellow on Max’s face.

“Actually, Biff old man, it kind of is his job. He’s your brother,” pointed out Lovejoy.

“And your Alpha,” added Kevin, unhelpfully. “Ergo, protective and brotherly.”

“And dickish,” Lovejoy finished.

“Did you just say ergo? In conversation? Who are you and what have you done with my brother?” Colin asked, looking at Kev like he’d decided to shift forms right then and there. “You know that’s, like, Latin or something?”

“Hey. I’m edu-ma-cated.”

Bryan seemed to be trying to telepathically communicate with Max. Max wondered, in a brief moment of hysteria, if that’s what the yellow eyes meant, advanced psychic abilities. Max put his pizza aside half-eaten.

Kevin said, “Biff, that’s creepy – your eyes totally start shifting when you look at him.”

Alec’s tone was resigned. “I was noticing that too.”

Max didn’t know why, but he could feel himself blushing. Thank god his complexion was too dark to show it.

Marvin said, “I think you’ve lost, babe – why keep fighting?”

Alec grunted a reluctant affirmation.

“I think it’s romantic,” said Colin, timidly.

“Sex and romance are not always linked, pup,” growled the Alpha, although not in a mean way.

Oh, good, thought Max, yellow is just a sign of arousal, nothing more sinister.

Colin blushed, and being so pale, he pinked up beautifully.

“Hey!” objected Marvin, knocking Alec’s shoulder with his own.

Well, at least the Alpha was talking, if not to him. Alec had a low voice, not as gravelly as Bryan’s but oddly commanding. Max didn’t consider himself a submissive personality, but he had the frightening feeling that if Alec ordered him to do something, he’d instantly start doing it without thinking. He’d probably stop when his brain caught up, but it was not a comfortable feeling. Fucking Alphas.

He looked with curiosity at Colin, who seemed so very shy for a werewolf. “You’re not an Omega?”

“Nope. Just scrawny.” The boy was clearly self-deprecating out of habit. Max understood protection through words and attitude. Still, he worried he’d said something wrong, as the term Omega seemed to unsettle everyone.

Then Kevin laughed, coming forward from his guard position to join the social circle, leaving only Judd and Tank still outside of it. “Yeah. He’s a wee thing. No one expected him to survive.”

Alec said, in a gentle tone, “No one expected me to, either.”

“If survival is a matter of size, how do Omegas do it?” Max was genuinely curious, and this seemed a topic they were ready to discuss. Please, anything to stop the awkward silences.

“Omegas are born-made,” explained Bryan. As though everyone should know this and it made perfect sense.

Max squinted at him. “You mean they come out of the womb as puppies, because I’m sorry, dudes, but that’s gross.”

Alec actually laughed. “No, but they can shift early and without an Alpha’s bite.”

“Part of what makes them special,” said Tank.

“And rare,” added Colin.

The topic seemed to turn them wistful. As if the fact that they were a pack without an Omega somehow made them lacking or sad. Seemed silly. So far as Max could tell, they were an okay group of guys. Well, except Alec.

Max tried again. “So, you and Kev are brothers. And Alec and Bryan are brothers.” Max eyed Lovejoy and Tank thoughtfully.

“Ha! Bryan.” Kevin barked out a laugh. “I forgot you were a Bryan. You are so not a Bryan.”

Max objected. “Oh, I think he’s the very best sort of Bryan.”

The Bryan in question shifted uncomfortably.

“So, Lovejoy, are you and Tank related?” Max pressed, just to be a punk, because Bryan had already told him otherwise.

“No.”

Max pushed his luck. “And you’re all gay? Because I know a few clubs where…”

Lovejoy and Kev both put up their hands.

“I’m in the pussy camp.” Kevin sounded almost like he was ashamed to be straight.

Lovejoy less so. “Me too. And I do way better than old gingerbread there, I’ll have you know.”

Max evaluated the slightly sleazy-looking Lovejoy with a quirked eyebrow. “Never could understand women’s taste.”

Marvin laughed.

Judd objected from the far wall, his voice a deep rumble. “Hey, now, we don’t know you well enough to allow you to abuse Lovejoy. Not yet anyway.” He should do audiobooks, thought Max. And also, Please don’t attack me.

“Although he’s not wrong.” Now it was Colin who sported a big grin at Lovejoy’s expense.

“I do plenty fine, thank you very much,” added Kevin. “I’m just more discriminating than Lovejoy.”

Max grinned as they bickered, evaluating Tank from under his lashes. The big man seemed uncomfortable. Max raised a questioning eyebrow at Bryan.

Bryan leaned in and whispered, causing Max to shiver. “No one knows. We’re thinking probably bi, but you see how he is.”

Tank glared from his corner. “I can totally hear you, and you know that. We all can. Except maybe Marvin.”

“Hey, I’m part aquatic, not handicapped.”

Alec brought them all back around. “We’re supposed to be getting to know Bryan’s new friend here.”

“Ha! Now you’re calling him Bryan.”

“Shut up, Kevin.”

Max tried to make his eyes big and innocent – he knew their color made strangers uncomfortable.

Suddenly Alec smiled fully at him. Max actually felt his breath catch. The Alpha had the most amazing smile, open and generous, hazel eyes twinkling, his eyeteeth way more canine than human. Max felt stupid under its light, as if he would do anything to keep him smiling. Holy shit.

He blinked but the smile was still there.

Marvin reached over the divide between the two couches, across the narrow coffee table, and patted Max’s knee in a consoling manner. “I know, it’s kinda overwhelming, isn’t it?”

Max forced himself to focus on the merman, feeling Bryan shift against him in a way that might have been understanding, or discomfort, or jealousy. “Do you get used to it?”

“Nope. Alpha.”

“Jesus.”

“I know, right? Imagine dating it. Hard to keep him from getting spoiled. I just want to give him whatever he wants, like, all the time. I mean, just look at that adorable mug.”

“I’m sitting right here,” objected the Alpha in question, sounding only a little guilty and putting away the smile – thank heavens. “And you do fine. From my perspective, you seem to get what you want most of the time.”

Marvin fluttered his lashes at his mate. “That’s because I’m brilliant and you adore me.”

Bryan said, again in Max’s ear, “Now my brother will be charming. Brace yourself.”

And Alec was. Very charming. He asked Max polite, nonintrusive questions about growing up in Sausalito. About the secrets of the Bay Area. About his work with DURPS.

Max tried to be as polite and charming as he could in return. Which was totally exhausting.

Eventually, pizza finished, Bryan stood and began to steer Max toward the door.

“Leaving so soon?” trilled Marvin.

“Hell, yes. I’m surprised he didn’t run the moment he saw you lot.” Bryan handed Max his coat.

Max didn’t object – he was grateful to escape.

“I wonder, brother dear, if I might have a quiet word.” That was the Alpha, sly and oily.

Bryan looked mutinous until Alec smiled and he melted.

“Fine.”

“Oh, not with you. With Max.”

“No.” Bryan didn’t miss a beat. His arm slunk protectively over Max’s shoulders and he practically forced him out of the door.

“STAY.”

Bryan froze against Max, almost like stone. Max lurched at the sudden stillness midstride.

He turned his head, and all the others were frozen too, except Marvin, who was looking big-eyed and wringing his hands.

Alec said, in his normal voice. “I promise, I won’t damage him.”

Bryan shook himself. “Careful, Alpha. You don’t control my forgiveness.”

“Noted. Max, would you walk with me down to the beach and back?”

Max would rather Place a Surge than go for a stroll with this werewolf. He looked helplessly at Bryan.

“You’re casting me to the wolves?”

“I’m so sorry, baby, can’t resist VOICE.”

“Will you mourn me when I’m gone?”

“Forever.”

“Oh, stop it, both of you.” Alec didn’t throw on a jacket, just walked out the door and expected Max to follow. Max followed. Not because he had to. Or because Alec was Alpha. But because he was Bryan’s beloved brother, and Max owed him something for Bryan’s sake.

They strolled for a few blocks in silence.

Finally, Alec cleared his throat and said, tentatively. “I know I don’t look it, but I am Alpha.”

Yes, I heard the VOICE was what Max wanted to snap back. Instead, he evaluated Alec carefully and saw all the grace that really was power and the charm that really was charisma. Command lurked under that pretty, nerdy exterior. Every part of Alec said follow me. A werewolf yellow brick road.

“I know you’re Alpha,” said Max.

“Biff knew from the start. Did he tell you?”

Max nodded.

Alec kept going. “Funny, he knew before I did. When pack, or jocks, or homophobic assholes jumped me, he was there. Always. Pushing back. He fought them all. Fought them while I ran. Until I was old enough to fight alongside. And yet that, that fighting, it’s alien to his nature. You have to know that.”

Max nodded, realizing finally why Alec was so wary of him. Max swallowed the bitterness of self-loathing. “He doesn’t like to hurt people.”

“So, you can understand why I must tell you something.” Alec sounded so casual. “If he comes back to us again wrecked by your insecurities, I will see you ripped apart at the seams like tissue paper. And my mate will take your component parts so far out and so deep into the ocean, your ghost will neither rise nor rest and your bones will never be found – mage or not.”

“That’s fair,” Max said, because it was. “Although I would not be missed. No need to take such elaborate precautions.” I have no pack, no family to vow vengeance over my remains.

What Alec gave him next was not at all what Max expected. “Poor sumage. The world let you get lost, didn’t it?”

Compassion. Worse than threats or accusations. Max comprehended in that moment Bryan’s fierce loyalty to this man.

Max shuddered, feeling forsaken and sad. Not really for himself, but perhaps for the boy he’d once been. Before. Before he failed to be Surge and everything changed.

The Alpha continued, his mellow voice a barbed lure. “You can’t take my brother with you into the enchanted forest. Find Grandma’s house on your own.”

Max quirked a humorless smile. “You calling me Little Red Riding Hood and your brother the Big Bad Wolf? Doesn’t that mean he’s going to eat me?”

“Only if you’re lucky.”

“I don’t believe that’s how the story goes.”

“And that’s the source of your problem, isn’t it, Maximillian Barker?”

“What?”

“You’re not writing your own story, you’re living with the disappointment of failing someone else’s outline.”

Fucking Alphas.

“You want to keep my brother? Grow up.” Alec returned Max to the doorstep of their borrowed home and, like the king he was, walked regally inside.