Chapter 4

FOUR

Home.

I considered the word as we shopped, Nero insisting I buy way too much when we didn't know how much of my actual stuff could be salvaged.

A shudder raced down my spine. Would I even want it knowing whatever criminals were after me had touched it?

I doubted it.

Nero's hand on my leg brought me out of my thoughts, and I realized we'd stopped. Dappled light danced across the dashboard, and I looked out the window to see we were surrounded by trees. The edges of a house were visible beyond the small forest, and from where we'd parked, I could see the ocean and, in the distance, the Olympic Mountains.

"This is where you live?"

Nero shrugged. "How much do you know about orca shifters?"

"Not much."

He sighed, then got out of the car, grabbing the bags from Target and coming around to open my door once again.

"I can get it."

"I know, but I like to do it." It was honestly kind of nice having someone take care of me in such a small way.

He led the way toward the house, which stole my breath when it came into view. The house was, in a word, massive. The warm red brick was accented with lighter stonework, and the house stretched at least three stories. A huge oak front door was flanked by stained glass windows. It was the largest house I'd ever seen in person, and I stood gawking until Nero doubled back and took my hand.

"It's just a house."

I scoffed. "This is not just a house. This is a mansion. No. An estate."

He tapped in a code on the front door and pushed it open, tossing his car keys into a bowl on an elaborate twisted metal and dark wood side table just inside the door and dropping the bags. I reluctantly set Otto, my stuffed otter that had survived the carnage at my apartment, on the table too, trying not to wince at how out of place it looked.

Stepping into the foyer was like traveling back in time, the wide wood trim and black-and-white marble checkerboard tiles reminding me of a time long gone. A grand staircase with wrought iron balusters wound up to the second floor. I felt too small and too dirty after a day spent sitting on the shitty carpet in the hallway of my apartment building to be in such an opulent space.

Nero crossed the room, moving farther into the house, and I followed, even as I kept my eyes on the huge crystal chandelier overhead.

The foyer opened into a gigantic kitchen that was more warm wood and expensive marble.

"Are you thirsty?" he asked, his hand already on the door of an industrial-sized and no doubt top-of-the-line refrigerator. "It was Cal's week to shop, so I'm guessing we have water, some sort of cheap beer, orange juice, and maybe a soda."

I shook my head. "I'm good." My fingers traced along the decorative edge of the huge island in the center of the room, and Nero circled it, standing across from me and leaning back against the cabinets behind him. Nero had taken off his leather jacket and hung it on a hook by the door, and when he crossed his arms in the tight black T-shirt he had on underneath, the move did amazing things for his biceps. I caught a glimpse of the edge of a tattoo. And despite the long day, my mouth watered. Now that we were alone, I was almost desperate to get my hands on my mate. But something tugged at the back of my mind, pulling my head out of the gutter. "What were you saying before? About orca shifters?"

He smiled, and it made my heart melt. "Oh, right. This is my grandmother's house, though my brothers and I live here. Orca shifters live in matrilineal groups, usually with their oldest living female relative."

"So your parents live here too?"

Nero shook his head, a flash of sadness flickering through his eyes. "They died when I was young."

"How young?"

"Julius was a baby, and I was six."

"I'm sorry." The platitude was automatic, but having lost both my parents too, I understood how it felt, even though I'd been an adult and we'd been kind of estranged when my parents died.

He shrugged a single shoulder. "I don't really remember them. They were gone a lot when my mom wasn't pregnant. They were… uh, archeologists, died on a dig. No one knows exactly what happened. They were always heading out to the next site, looking for the next big find, the next big sc—" He cut himself off, and I got the sense I was missing something important, but Nero didn't continue.

"Well, look at us, just two lonely orphans."

Nero scoffed. "Ha. I wish I was lonely. But no. Three brothers, remember? All of them a pain in the ass in a different way."

"Still, no parents." I wasn't sure why I was clinging to that as a thing we had in common. Maybe that was why we were fated to each other. Maybe we needed one another because we both knew what it was like to lose.

Another shrug. "Do you want to take a shower or change?"

I shook my head. "I do, but first, will you show me whatever it was you were talking about in the parking lot?"

Nero thought for a second, his thick brows furrowing over his dark eyes before he remembered the conversation. "Yeah. Definitely. Bring the stuff you took from the safe."

He walked through the kitchen, down a single step into a wide great room with a stone fireplace, and then down a wide hallway, stopping in front of a door on the left.

A set of stairs led to a lower level. "Where are you taking me? Your secret lair?" And yeah, in that moment, I could admit I'd maybe read one or two more comic books than I should have and fantasized about being whisked away to some misunderstood supervillain's lair where he'd seduce me to the dark side.

"Not my secret lair."

"But someone's?"

"You'll see." He flipped a switch, and the lower floor and stairway lit up.

I expected a dark, windowless basement, but we were actually on a floor that walked out to a pristine expanse of lawn that butted up to a private beach and the Sound. The sun was starting to set, making the surface of the water glow orange and the mountains in the distance look dark. The view was breathtaking.

"It's beautiful."

Nero stopped walking. "What? Oh, yeah. I guess." He took my hand again, but this time, he wound our fingers together, and I took a moment to appreciate how his larger hand enveloped mine. "Come on. This isn't what I wanted you to see."

He pulled me along, and I only caught glimpses of the other rooms on the floor—a wide glass wall showed off an indoor pool and hot tub, open double doors led to a movie room, and we blew past a wine cellar and full bar before Nero stopped in front of a set of dark gray pocket doors.

"Ready?" I had no clue what to expect on the other side of those doors, but anticipation thrummed in my chest.

"As I'll ever be."

He dropped my hand and used both of his to push open the doors like Beast showing Belle the library in his castle. And like Belle seeing all those books, I almost wept with joy when I saw what was on the other side.

A computer command center the likes of which I'd only imagined in my dizziest daydreams filled the room. Four interconnected monitors fit the curve of a corner desk, and two laptops sat in front of them. There was another four-monitor display on the wall, and across from those was an interactive whiteboard. A large black leather sofa with a chaise divided the room and faced a huge television on the wall, every game console currently on the market and some that were closer to antiques lined up in built-in, glass-fronted wall cabinets underneath.

And I couldn't have said what it was about the room or the gesture Nero was so clearly trying to make, but in one massive wave, the day caught up with me, and the floodgates opened.

My knees went weak, but before I could so much as stumble, I was pulled into Nero's arms, against his strong chest, his scent all around me as I lost it, huge gulping sobs shaking my body until I thought Nero was the only thing holding me together, the only thing holding me up.

He stroked my back and my hair and murmured words in a language I didn't know as I cried over the day, my tears refusing to stop until I'd let it all out. It felt good to grieve the loss of my freedom and almost everything I owned, the catharsis essential if I was going to focus on what I knew would need to be done next.

And even though I was sure I was a tearstained, disgusting mess, Nero let me press my lips to his when the tears stopped and I needed an outlet of a different kind.

Being so close to him, surrounded by his scent and knowing he was my fated mate, made me want him, but more than that, I'd learned over the course of the day that Nero was a genuinely good man. Maybe he hadn't wanted to take on the job of keeping me safe when McMahon offered it, but he'd done a damn fine job so far. He made me feel safe, and that was maybe the hottest thing of all.

Nero growled, and the innocent kiss turned feral. In a second, Nero had lifted me into his arms and wrapped my legs around his hips as his lips, teeth, and tongue devoured mine. I put my arms around his neck and scratched along the dark patch of skin, smiling against his lips when I felt his cock jump.

I was hard and hornier than I could remember being when Nero shoved some equipment aside on the desk and set me down, his hands moving quickly to unfasten my pants.

"Yes, God yes. Please." My words were a whispered, desperate moan, and Nero swallowed down every syllable, breaking away from me for only a second when he gasped as my hands traveled up the warm skin of his stomach and chest and my fingers skimmed over his nipples, pushing his shirt out of the way.

His skin was beautiful, miles of lightly tanned flesh studded with a handful of black and gray tattoos all done in the Haida style like the sticker on the back of his car. I traced my fingers over one of the designs before he cupped the back of my head and brought our lips together again. I had to drop my hands to get closer to him. From where I was sitting on the desk, it was hard to get the friction I wanted, but I tried, twining my arms around his neck and lifting myself up until our cocks met.

Breaking our kiss, I threw my head back in pleasure as I rutted against him. Nero took the move as an invitation to attack my neck with licks and soft bites he soothed with his wicked tongue.

"You taste so damn good, Lucky. I could do this all day."

"Mmm. More. Please." I was already on the edge, my emotions too raw to try to hold back.

He obliged, tugging my earlobe into his mouth while his hand slipped into my pants. The feel of his warm, callused palm on my sensitive dick had me seeing stars, and when he nuzzled into my scent gland, then gently bit it—not enough to leave a claiming bite but enough that I'd probably have a bruise—I came so hard I blacked out for a second.

Maybe it was the shitty day or the fact that I hadn't gotten off with anyone but my hand in a while, or maybe it was that I knew Nero was mine, but the fast and furious hand job felt life-changing, like something in my universe had shifted, and now, instead of the sun, my world revolved around Nero.

His mouth was still working at my neck, his tongue teasing over my scent gland and making me shudder in his arms. His hand was still around my cock, stroking gently, my cum now slicking the way, and I could have stayed like that forever.

"You're fucking beautiful when you come." Nero's breath brushed against my ear, and my cock twitched, making a valiant effort to get hard again. Then I realized I hadn't gotten a chance to see if the same was true for Nero.

My hands found his waistband and tugged. "Can I return the favor?"

He shook his head. "Not right now. This was about you and making sure you had what you needed."

If I hadn't been sitting, my knees would have turned to Jell-O again. Before I could say anything else, Nero's lips found mine, and we lost ourselves to more kisses.

Neither of us knew we had an audience until insistent throat clearing pulled us away from each other.

"The only person allowed to get jizz on that keyboard is me."

Nero froze, blocking my body from whoever was at the door and quickly but carefully pulling his hand away from my dick and out of my pants and wiping it on his own. I shuffled, trying to rebutton my jeans without letting on that that's what I was doing. When I was as close to put to rights as I was going to get, Nero turned, and I caught my first glimpse of the intruder.

He was obviously one of Nero's brothers. The man in the doorway was almost as tall as my mate but not quite as wide. He was dressed in a suit, the dark patch of skin at his neck sticking out just above his collar. He held a pair of glasses in his hand by one of the arms.

Nero shook his head. "Felix, this asshole with horrible timing is my brother Julius. Julius, this is Felix."

Julius held out his hand, then thought better of it, unsure where my hands had been, and nodded instead. "Who is Felix, and why are you in my office?"

I looked at Nero, and he shrugged. "It's complicated."

"That's not really an answer to either question." Julius pulled a leather bag over his head and set it down, extracting a slim silver laptop and plugging it in before turning to face us, arms crossed.

"I've had a pretty terrible day, and your brother was just showing me your setup. It's pretty sweet."

Julius raised an eyebrow. "You know computers?"

"I do." Remembering why we'd come down there in the first place, I pulled the external hard drive and three jump drives from my pockets. "You have somewhere I can plug these in?"

Another raised eyebrow. "Uh, maybe, but you aren't touching my shit until I understand what's going on here. And you wash your hands."

"Julius," Nero started, but I held up a hand.

"No, he's right. There's no way I'd let some rando plug a hard drive into my system without vetting him and the possible info on the drive first."

"Fine." Nero gestured for me to continue, then crossed his arms, mirroring his brother's posture.

I gave Julius the bare minimum, keeping all the details about the case I'd been working close to the chest but giving him enough to understand how I'd ended up in his office.

For his part, Julius swore in all the right places, and when I was done, he looked sympathetic. "I have questions. The first being after all that shit, why were you making out with my brother?"

Nero and I looked at each other, and then he shrugged. "Might as well tell him. They're going to find out anyway."

I sighed. "Nero is my fated mate."

For the first time since I started my story, Julius looked skeptical, and he glared at his brother. "Prove it."

Nero pulled the collar of his shirt aside and leaned forward so his brother could see his saddle patch.

"Well, fuck me running." Julius's eyes flicked from the patch to me and back, and I wondered what he was seeing. Nero let go of his shirt and stood up to his full height while Julius studied me and sniffed the air. "But he's not an orca shifter." Another sniff. "Seal? Sea lion?"

I shook my head. "Sea otter."

He snapped his fingers. "Sea otter. That's it. I didn't know we could be fated to other kinds of shifters."

Nero shrugged again. "Me either. Until today."

Both Nero and his brother had taken the fated mates news in stride like it was no big deal. Which meant they had to be a shifter species that had a powerful belief in fated bonds. Julius's reaction made me feel even better about this whole thing. It was nice to know Nero's family was prepared to accept me as his mate, very few questions asked.

"Interesting." Julius looked at me and nodded. "So what's on the drives?"

"My entire system backup. My hardware is destroyed, but they didn't get anything. I wipe it all every night." I tapped the external hard drive.

Julius smiled. "Smart."

I nodded.

Julius's eyes narrowed again. "If you're good enough to know to wipe your drives and store everything externally, how did these guys track you down?"

Nero growled. "Julius…"

Putting my hand on his chest to calm him, I addressed his brother, whose eyes were fixed on where my hand rested, a confused look on his face. "That's a good question. I think I got too close to something someone didn't want me to see."

"What?" Julius met my eyes, his own curious and a little feral like he was excited for a potential hunt.

"I don't know."

Julius's answering smile was full of glee. "Then it seems like we'd better get to work figuring it out. You"—he pointed to me—"go wash your hands. I haven't forgotten what I walked in on. And you"—he pointed at Nero—"have dinner duty tonight, and I'm starving."

"But—" Nero started to protest.

"Ah, ah. The rotating dinner schedule was your idea. And nothing is going to happen to Felix while he's here. We're just going to get his system up and running. No risk in that, is there, big brother?"

Nero's face was stony, and I could tell he wasn't sure that was actually true. From his perspective, I understood. My computer was exactly what had gotten me into this mess.

Julius gestured toward a door across the room I could see led to a small bathroom and shooed his brother away. "Quin will be home soon. You know how cranky he gets when dinner isn't on the table when he walks in. Better get cracking. I'll keep your mate safe."

"I hate you." Nero glared at his brother before dropping a kiss on my cheek and reluctantly heading toward the door.

And then Julius and I were alone. He picked up my external hard drive and plugged it in. Having access to his setup was better than I could have imagined when I saw the wreckage that was my gear, but now I had hope and was ready to pick up the trail where I'd left off. Hopefully, this time, Nero's nickname for me would hold true, and we'd get lucky.