9. Leif

Chapter 9

Leif

A few times that day Leif thought he was dreaming, that Alec was a figment of his imagination and not real, not really there with him, and not his mate.

Time might chip away at the disbelief, but he hoped it never touched the gratitude he felt for finally having his mate. And not just any mate—Alec.

The man who turned away to give him privacy when he Changed. Rode wolf-back with an exuberant smile and a sassy attitude. And wanted to live in an old cabin in the mountains. Leif was less sure about the cabin situation but Alec seemed keen, so he was going with it.

Living for hundreds of years meant Leif had a comfy nest egg set aside, enough money to support his wanderings every few centuries. He usually stayed in one place until it got too difficult to remain—he fled Europe during the early waves of the Great Migration, when humans drove supernatural beings by the thousands out of Europe, the Middle East, and Northern Africa. During that time, werewolves specifically were hunted by human governments for pack lands and territory, most of it fueled by the insidious influences of the High Council of Sorcery. He was old enough to recall the mass murders of entire packs for the land they lived upon, either directly perpetrated by the Council or funded by them.

Leif finished Changing, the process as smooth as ever, and he approached Alec and took the backpack from him, his mate blushing hot at Leif’s naked proximity. He sensed arousal and desire from Alec, and that cheered him considerably.

Leif took out his clothes and got dressed. “You can turn around now.”

Alec promptly turned around with a smile on his face, and Leif found himself smiling back, enchanted. Alec was quite pretty when he smiled.

“You’ve got a lot in here for someone who lives in the mountains, hours away,” Alec said, gesturing to the items lining the walls and the rolling storage bins and cabinets. Not to mention the truck taking up most of the space.

“Every few years I toy with the idea of buying a house somewhere quiet, but then I remember people exist and I lose interest pretty quickly,” Leif shared, fishing out the truck keys and unlocking the doors.

“I too dislike people,” Alec shared with a grin, and he got in the passenger side without a word from Leif. He followed suit and got behind the wheel, starting the truck.

He made sure to run the truck every time he came down from the mountain, so it started without a hiccup and rumbled, ready to go. Leif pulled out and stopped just past the door, then got out to close and lock the storage unit before getting back in and heading out of the storage facility.

Alec

The drive to Hemlock went quickly, the highway a breeze with little traffic. Leif took the only exit for Hemlock, blinker on and without needing direction from Alec, the tiny town visible through the trees off the highway.

“Turn right at the road, then it’s about a quarter-mile down on the right. Stu’s place is a tiny blue house with a bunch of broken-down cars out front,” Alec directed, and Leif made a small hum in acknowledgment as he made the turn into Hemlock off the exit.

Main Street in Hemlock was an ode to the previous century, when the town thrived off coal mining and timber mills, but both enterprises dried up in the 1970s and the population of Hemlock dried up with them but for a few intrepid humans and a small but significant fae population.

Including Alec’s late mother, Aleria. A human and younger fae hybrid, her powers were much like her son’s, able to manipulate and alter the molecular structure of the physical world, but she was deeply vulnerable to synthetic chemicals and her health was poor due to the work Stu made her do—she faded, and in her weakened state, died from long-term poisoning by the very drugs Stu forced her to make.

Leif followed Alec’s directions, driving them past the nearly abandoned main drag of town, only the corner gas station and the tiny post office open. Alec frowned, eyeing the 24/7 diner that was usually open, its windows shuttered, the sign flipped to Closed as they passed .

“What day is it?” Alec asked, realizing he had no idea. He wasn’t even sure of the month.

“I think it’s Tuesday,” Leif answered, pointing to the dash of the truck that showed the time and date. “I haven’t flipped the clock on this since I bought it, so I’m not sure if the time is right or not, but the calendar should be good.”

“Huh,” Alec murmured.

“What?”

“Hemlock just seems…emptier than usual?” Alec said, frowning as he gazed at the passing houses, nearly to Stu’s place. He saw no one, not even a passing car. “Where is everyone?”

Leif rolled the truck to a slow stop in front of Stu’s house, the tiny blue cabin appearing even more run down and decrepit since Alec had last been there.

“I hope he didn’t trash my stuff,” Alec sighed. “I guess we’re about to find out.”

Alec got out of the truck, Leif turning it off and following, the big alpha shadowing his steps as Alec headed through the mini junkyard on the front lawn and to the door. Everyone in town knew the house was Stu’s and what Stu did for a living, and Alec never saw him or his mom lock the doors, so when he tested the knob, the door opened easily.

“He was the trusting sort,” Leif commented as he followed Alec into the tiny house.

“Not really. No one wanted Stu on their ass if they stole from him,” Alec said. “He had friends in high places, and he wasn’t shy about threatening people.”

“He sounds like a stellar guy,” Leif said with a heavy dose of sarcasm that made Alec snort out a laugh as he looked around the small living room, the single armchair littered with fast-food wrappers and cigarette butts, beer cans set on the floor around the chair like mini offerings to the god of lazy excess.

“Too bad I killed him,” Alec replied with a grin. “Lemme see if he left my room alone. I doubt it though; he never wasted a chance to steal from me.”

Alec went to the short hall and then his room. The door was open—and he was right, the room was trashed. Clothes were torn apart, the seams and hems ripped or stretched, and jeans were cut to shreds with a knife. Even his underwear was ruined, tossed on the floor and stomped on by dirty boots. “Fuck, I guess I won’t be grabbing anything, Stu went through it all.”

Leif came up behind him in the hall, his big body a reassuring presence at Alec’s back. Leif took a look over Alec’s head and a soft growl escaped. “Asshole.”

“Yeah, that he was,” Alec confirmed. “I wonder if he sold my license and birth certificate, or if he kept them?”

“That his room?” Leif gestured with his thumb to the door at the end of the small hallway.

“Yeah,” Alec said, Leif already headed in that direction. His alpha opened the door to Stu’s room and shook his head in disgust.

“Guess I didn’t need the keys off of Stu after all,” Alec said, shaking his head.

“Stinks to high hell in here,” Leif grumbled, taking a couple steps into the room that was full of unwashed laundry and even more trash than the living room.

“I don’t know where to look,” Alec said, skin crawling in distaste at being in the room Stu once shared with Aleria. Any hint of his mother’s presence was long gone.

Leif took a long breath in, and then another, and Alec realized he was scenting when Leif suddenly went to the dresser buried under laundry, knocking aside dirty clothes and opening the second drawer down.

“Here,” Leif said, and Alec jumped across the junk and clothing to join Leif at the dresser. There was a pile of what had to be stolen IDs, and Alec’s driver license and birth certificate lay on top, carelessly tossed into the pile of contraband.

“Guess he never got around to selling them,” Alec said in relief. He reached in and, carefully, only touched his items, leaving no prints behind on the other stuff. “Wipe your prints off the dresser drawer and shut it.”

Leif grabbed a shirt from atop the dresser and wiped the handle before shutting the drawer firmly. “Worried about the cops?”

“Always worried about the cops out here,” Alec shared. “They’re on more than the state’s payroll.”

“You need anything else from here?” Leif asked, looking around the room.

“Stu has a stash of cash around here somewhere, but I don’t want to be here any longer than necessary.”

“I’ve got plenty of cash and a new mate to spoil—let’s get out of here,” Leif gestured back the way they came, and Alec jumped back across the room to the door; he laughed when Leif did the same, clearing the mess.

“You don’t need to spend your money on me if you don’t want to,” Alec said, trying to convey his sincerity without getting too emotional. No one spent money on him, not since his mom passed.

“You’re my mate and I want to,” Leif promised him, guiding him back out the hall to the living room. He used the shirt to wipe the door handle then tossed it aside. He paused, turning to the front of the house, frowning. “There’s a car slowing out front. ”

Alec went to the nearest window overlooking the front. “Shit.”

“What is it?”

“The cops.”

Leif

Alec led the way out of the house, stopping in the middle of the yard and waiting on the two deputies who took their time getting out of the older-model cruiser. The driver was a tall, scrawny man, Leif’s nose telling him this one was a regular smoker and nervous for some reason, eyeballing Leif’s truck like he wanted to hock it at the nearest chop shop.

The passenger was a bigger man, not taller, but broader, and Leif smelled salt, gunpowder, and blood. This one was a hunter. He smelled only deer, but that was enough—it was the off-season, and no one, not even the police, were allowed to hunt in the off-season. Poaching was an option for poorer folks, one Leif understood, but this man was hardly starving and drew a steady state check, judging by his flashy watch and healthy muscle mass.

“Alec, haven’t seen you around in a while,” the bigger man said, placing himself as the one in charge, passing the remains of the sidewalk and coming to a stop not far from Alec on the brown grass. “Where’ve you been?”

Leif did not like the way the deputy was staring at his mate, but he held back the instinctive growl .

“Hey, John. Been living with my boyfriend,” Alec replied without hesitation. “Came by to get the last of my stuff.”

“This the boyfriend?” the bigger deputy, presumably John, asked, jerking his chin at Leif.

“Yup,” Alec replied, not volunteering a name, and Leif said nothing, merely stared at the humans with distaste.

“Stu never mentioned you got a boyfriend,” Deputy John said, sounding like he didn’t believe a word Alec told him.

“The boyfriend clearly exists,” Alec retorted with a wave to Leif from head to toe, making Leif smirk in amusement. “What’s it to you?”

Leif was suspicious of the human deputies—they showed up so quickly after Alec and Leif arrived at the house. Too quickly. Someone must have been watching the house, probably a neighbor, and called it in. Though Stu had hardly been gone more than a day, judging by the scents in the tiny house, and no one knew the bodies were in the woods up the mountain.

At least, not yet.

“Ain’t nothing but curiosity,” Deputy John defended. “Got a call that strangers were in Stu’s place. Had to check it out.”

“Oh, sure. Thanks for checking, I’m sure Stu will appreciate it.” Alec sounded appreciative and gave the deputies a shallow smile, there and gone again. “We were just headed out.”

“You don’t have anything, though? Thought you came for the last of your stuff?” Deputy John asked, eyeing Alec.

Alec sighed, loudly, and rolled his eyes, gesturing back over his shoulder. “Stu trashed my room. Nothing worth keeping in there. You can go check if you want. But you know Stu—man never picked up a thing in his life. ”

The deputy grimaced in distaste. “That’s alright, I believe you. We’ll see you around then, yeah?”

“Sure.”

“Never got your name, Mr. Boyfriend,” Deputy John said to Leif directly.

“Leif,” he replied, short and simple. His surname was the modern equivalent of ‘son of the wolf’ and he didn’t feel like spelling it aloud for the deputies.

“Leaf?” the deputy repeated with an exaggerated, deep Appalachian accent, making it obvious he was pronouncing it wrong on purpose.

Leif said nothing, merely stood there, watching intently, though he did let his wilder side come to the fore—he knew his eyes were glowing when the deputy startled a bit, swallowing hard.

“Right, let’s get back to our patrol; see ya around Alec,” Deputy John said, hustling back to the cruiser, the other deputy hurrying to catch up.

“Why we running?” the other deputy hissed out, looking back at Alec with a frown.

“The damn boyfriend is a wolf you idiot; I ain’t messing with that,” Deputy John hissed right back as they got in the cruiser, doors slamming.

Leif relaxed, eyes no longer glowing. The cruiser started up with a roar and the deputies peeled out a bit before driving off well past the speed limit for the tiny town. Neither of them said anything until the cruiser was out of sight.

Alec chuckled, smiling wide, eyes curious as he turned to Leif. “What did you do?”

“Made my eyes glow a bit,” Leif said. “Ready to go shopping? ”

Alec jumped into his arms, held tilted back for a kiss, and Leif obliged, bending down for a slow, sweet kiss.