BRETT
Sunlight warmed my cheek, and I groaned as I rolled over, tucking my head against Bayne's shoulder. I didn't want to move. His bed was the most comfortable bed I'd ever slept in. I could die a happy man in a bed like this.
He claimed it wasn't anything special, but I had to disagree.
"Morning," Bayne whispered to me.
"Hush, I'm not awake. If I wake up that means I might have to leave the bed."
"Honey, you never have to leave my bed. I'm happy to keep you here forever. Nothing would make me happier than holding you here for the rest of my life." He kissed the top of my head.
"How do you sleep anywhere else after sleeping here?" I caressed my fingers through his chest hair, enjoying his warmth against me.
"I guess I'm just used to it. I've had the bed for so long I take it for granted. I mean, I know the beds at the pack house aren't as nice, but hell, I'm sleeping. It doesn't matter if I'm tired enough."
"I'm never leaving." I stretched out my legs.
"You never need to." Bayne laughed. "I'll get up and get your breakfast and bring it to you."
I gripped him tighter. "No, I've got to get up. I thought we'd get breakfast in town. One of Bridger's buddies works as the manager in the mornings at McDonald's. I figured it was a good place to start sniffing around."
"Sniffing around?" Bayne snorted. "Cute, babe."
I shrugged and grinned. "Well, I can't look around, so sniffing is what I'll be doing."
"I guess it's breakfast sandwiches for us then." Bayne lifted my chin so he could kiss my lips. "I really hate the idea of getting out of bed. You're the first person I've ever shared this bed with. I kind of like it."
"You've never had anyone in this bed?" I was surprised.
"I've never had anyone other than Kurt and my neighbor in my house. I never brought hook-ups back here. If they were wolf, we stayed at the pack house, humans, we got a motel room. You're the only man I want invading my space." He brushed his fingers through my hair.
"I like being the only other man in your bed."
"Good thing, because it's a life-long commitment." Bayne kissed me softly again, then rolled away. "Come on, sexy, let's get up and get going. It's after nine already. We want to beat the lunch rush into McDonald's, so the scents aren't as mixed."
I groaned as I sat up and yawned. "Isn't this supposed to be our honeymoon time?"
"That's for humans. Wolves go right back to work and fuck like crazy the rest of our lives. Humans fuck like crazy for a week after the wedding, then let life get in the way of their happiness." Bayne set something on the bed. "Clothes there for you. You can shower first if you want."
"Nah, I haven't done anything to get dirty." I pouted.
"I'll let you get dirty as soon as we get back home tonight. I'm making coffee. I can't drive without at least a cup in my system. You want some?"
"Please." I forced myself to get up, trying to remember how the room was set up so I didn't hit my knee on anything. Moving around a strange home was hard. I was lucky Bayne didn't seem to have a lot of clutter, but I still got turned around easily. I had to find the heat from the sun coming through the window to make sure I was moving the direction I wanted to be. It was only time before I would end up walking into a wall thinking it was the doorway.
I made my way to the bathroom that was attached to Bayne's bedroom. It was small, but that made it easy to find my way around. Once dressed, I felt my way along the wall until I found the bedroom door and made my way out into the living room. From there, I counted my steps, trying to judge where the entrance to the kitchen was.
"Want help?" Bayne called from the kitchen.
"No, but keep talking to me. I'll follow your voice." I bit my lip as I held my hands out in front of me and tried to find the doorway or a solid wall.
"What do you want me to say? How about how much I'd love to be on my knees sucking your cock right now instead of drinking coffee."
I frowned. "It's hard enough to manage this without you making my cock stiff while I do it." I pressed my hand against a wall. "Keep talking."
"You act like we aren't hard any time we're near each other. It seems to be an ongoing dilemma that I have to deal with. How do I hide my erection in public when my mate is near?" Bayne laughed. "I see you have the same issue."
I pressed my hand against my growing hardness. "Stop teasing me. If I trip and fall it's your fault." I slid my hands along the wall until I found the edge of the doorway. Once I had that, I was able to walk into the kitchen, directly to the table. "Come here." I stood by my chair.
"Do you want me or the coffee?" Bayne slid his arm around my waist.
"You first, then coffee." I cupped his face to make sure I knew right where he was as I bent in for a long kiss. My body hardened even more at his closeness, and his scent grew stronger, making it nearly impossible to release him.
"I'll make it up to you tonight, love, but we need to get going. If I get you naked, you're going to stay that way the rest of the day." Bayne stepped away. "Sit down and drink your coffee. I'm going to go get dressed and we can go." He brushed another kiss over my cheek before leaving me alone.
I sat down, tempted to forget everything and strip for him, but I couldn't. We needed to search for the person attacking the wolves. I might not have joined Kurt's pack yet, but they were still mine in every way that mattered. And there was a brotherhood among shifters. We fought and supported each other. It was my duty to keep any more attacks from happening.
The coffee did wonders to wake me up and motivate me, but little to stop thoughts of walking back into the bedroom and forcing Bayne to his knees so I could find the release I needed. No matter how the day went, it would be thoughts of coming home and being able to have him that got me through the day.
"Ready?" Bayne asked from behind me.
"Yeah. Let's hope it's not for nothing." I stood.
Bayne came to my side. "We get breakfast if nothing else." He kissed my cheek before leading me out to the car.
As we drove into town, I mentally tried to make a list of places I'd gone with Bridger. I'd only been in town a day before the attack happened, but we'd visited a few friends, hit the store, and even gotten a few beers at the bar. I'd met several of his friends and had contact with a hell of a lot more people as we went from one place to the other. "We really can't go door to door at Bridger's friends' houses. I'm wondering, do you think that memorial his family is planning is public or just for the wolves?"
"I'm thinking it would be public since he had so many friends. I wouldn't be surprised," Bayne said. "What are you thinking?"
"That the memorial might be the place to check out the people who knew him. If it was someone he knew that did this, then they would probably make an appearance at the memorial. If we can't find them today, then that might be our next best hope."
"I'll call Kurt and talk to him. I was going to invite him and Josh to meet us at the bar later today anyway. Take him up on that double date offer. Besides, if we have Kurt with us, we drink for free. The owner of the bar is a pack member who refuses to charge Kurt for drinks. That includes anyone drinking with Kurt."
"Nice. That's good to know. I'll remember that if I ever want to go drinking." The car turned, then came to a stop. "Are we here?"
"Yep. We'll go in and order, then sit around while we eat. If it's not his friend, maybe we'll get lucky and whoever it is will come inside while we're there." Bayne got out of the car.
I opened my door and stepped out right as Bayne got to my side. "Thanks."
"Of course." Bayne shut the car door before taking my arm in his. "One good thing about you not knowing your way around yet is I get to keep my arm around you all the time."
"Even if I could see and lived here for years, I'd want your arm around me." I let him lead me inside. I inhaled the smell of sausage and bacon, my mouth watering. It sounded like the place was nearly empty as I tried to focus on the scent of the humans around. Somewhere near was a bear shifter, but I quickly ignored that scent and focused on the others. I smelled Bridger's friend almost instantly. He wasn't too far from where we were. I tried to remember his name, but couldn't. There were four other scents, all females, but none of them matched the scent from the attack. "Nothing." I sighed.
"We won't give up." Bayne stepped forward so we could order.
"Hey, you're Bridger's friend, aren't you?" The scent of his friend got closer. "I don't know if you remember meeting at his house, but I'm Jared."
I turned toward the voice and smiled. "I remember. Nice to see you again." I bit my lip, thinking how odd it sounded when I had two patches over my eyes.
"I heard about Bridger getting killed in an accident. I'm so sorry about that. Were you with him? Is that what happened to your face?" Jared asked.
I nodded, wondering what story Bridger's family was telling people. "Thanks, I'm going to miss him. He was a good friend." I didn't answer the other question, unsure how to lie. I didn't want to say something wrong and mess things up.
"Mary is devastated. She won't leave her house since she found out." Jared sighed. "I've been over there a couple of times and she won't even see me."
"Do you have her number? I'd like to at least call and leave a message for her. Maybe let her know some of the stuff Bridger said about her. It might help to hear how much he loved her." I was lying my ass off. Bridger didn't love her, but he liked her a hell of a lot. I just wanted to be able to get her scent too, even though I was pretty confident the scents at the attack site were male.
"Sure, let me write it down for you. I'm sure she'd like that. Maybe you can talk her into giving me a call too? I'm dating her best friend, and even she can't get her to talk." Jared sighed.
"Sure, I'll do what I can." I was pretty sure if her friends couldn't get through to her, I wouldn't be able to either.
"I got the number." Bayne rubbed his palm over the back of my shirt. "What did you want to eat?"
"Whatever you get, it's on me," Jared offered.
"Wow, thanks, you didn't have to do that. I'll just have a number two with a coffee." I tried to direct my face toward where I thought Jared was. "I'll do what I can for Mary, but grief can be hard. She hardly knows me. We only met once. I'm not sure she'll talk to me, but I'll try," I promised.
"Thanks, and again, I'm sorry. I know you two were tight. He talked about you all the time," Jared told me.
"Thanks." I didn't know what else to say. "I'll be around. I decided to move here, so I'll keep in touch."
"That's great. Glad you're staying. If you need a job, we're always hiring." Jared laughed.
"Thanks, but I'm not sure how my eyes will heal. Until then, I'm just laying low." I reached for Bayne's hand.
"You sure we can't pay for this?" Bayne asked.
"Nope, you're good. It's a thank you for trying to get Mary to open up," Jared said. "Enjoy your breakfast."
"Thanks." I was relieved when Bayne turned us away from the counter and led us to a booth to sit down.
"Anything?" Bayne asked as he seemed to be moving the food around in front of me.
"No, nothing at all." I sighed. "I was hoping it would be this easy, but I should have known better."
"Where else did you two go around town?"
"He took us to a bakery where Mary worked. It was on the main road, I think. Then had to stop by the store for his mom, but I think we went there last night. Um, we stopped by some gaming store to pick up a new game he wanted to try. I don't remember where that was. Then we went to the bar and a few of his friends' houses over the next few hours."
"Okay, I know the bakery and the gaming store. We can go pick up a new game or something for the pack house. Those guys are always playing something or other. Then later we can hit the bakery. I'll give Kurt a call and we can hit the bar later tonight."
"That's a lot of time for us to stay dressed." I lowered my voice as I grinned.
"Damn right it is, but think how good it will be when we finally get back home." Bayne's hand covered mine. "Sandwich is in front of you, hash brown to the left, and coffee to the right."
"Thanks." I gave his hand a squeeze before reaching for my food.
"So, was the relationship with Mary that serious?" Bayne asked.
"I didn't think so, but I only got Bridger's side of things. He didn't do serious very often. It was all about the sex to him. I mean he treated his partners good enough. Was loyal and never cheated, but he wasn't someone to let his heart get involved. He liked the company, and he loved the pleasure."
"Well, it sounds like it was more for Mary. Maybe that was the problem."
I took a sip of my coffee before answering. "It could be, but that wouldn't explain how she would know about wolves. I just can't see Bridger telling anyone. I don't see him losing control. I saw him work. He was in complete control."
A wave of jealousy shot through the link I shared with Bayne.
I smiled. "We shared submissives, we had sex in the same room, but the two of us were never together." I reached over, offering my hand to Bayne. When he took it, I gave it a squeeze. "Even if we had been, everything in my past failed to matter the moment I caught your scent and found my mate. You are the only one for me. Now and forever. There's no need for jealousy. My past is forgotten. It's only you now. Use our link and see for yourself. I belong to you completely."
Bayne sighed. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't feel that way. It's just hard to think about you with others. I'm sure it's the same for you to think of me with anyone. I don't doubt us. I don't worry I'll ever lose you to someone, but I hate that any other person has ever touched what is mine."
"I love you." I sent a wave of love through our link.
"I love you, too." Bayne released my hand. "Okay, enough of that. I will learn to control this somehow. It's just so new, so raw."
"For both of us." I finished off my hash brown. "We'll get through it together. We're not the first to go through this."
"All of it together," Bayne told me.
"You ready?" I asked, hating I couldn't see if he was done.
"Yeah, we can take the coffee with us." Bayne stood.
I stood beside him, holding my coffee in one hand as I linked my arm through his. We had a busy day ahead, but hopefully, we'd figure out who was attacking wolves, or at least be one step closer to finding out. I looked forward to having this over with so Bayne and I could get on with our lives and put this all behind us.