Chapter Two

Rolf Degan

When we got to my truck, I decided I couldn’t wait any longer, and pushed him up against the side of it. I took the face of the delicious little omega in my hands to thoroughly kiss his lips, which were plump and lush. I ground into them and enjoyed every moment of it, and that didn’t surprise me in the least. I had wanted to do that since the moment I’d seen him. It was an aggressive and dominant kiss, surprising me a little at how intensely I felt about him, but he sighed into it and even opened his mouth and touched his tongue to mine gently, sweetly, like this was his first time to kiss someone like this. Maybe it was, and that thought thrilled me.

I was already feeling a bit possessive over him, in the way of all Alphas when they were with a new omega. I was sure that was all this feeling was, though it was pretty strong, now that I mention it. Stronger than it should have been, and that should have tipped me off that this boy was something out of the ordinary. And he was a boy—or at least way too young for me. I thought he might be around twenty, and I was eleven years older than that.

I had stared at him in disbelief for a few moments earlier that day when I’d first seen him, wondering how anybody could be so ridiculously beautiful. Of course, this was Valleywood, full of beautiful people. And he was a Mongrel, who were always enticing. Everything about him was perfect in my opinion, from his dusky skin to his sweetly chiseled jawline and those luminous green eyes.

Fuck. He was even wearing a little red jacket with a hood—everything that a big, bad wolf could want.

I’d gone right over to him in that little café, drawn there by his desirable scent and the way he looked. It was highly unusual for me to react that strongly to an omega—even to one who was a little in heat, like this one was. The omega scent wasn’t strong on him yet—but then he wasn’t fully in heat. More like he was just coming into it, but it still gave him away. I was drawn to him like a honeybee to a flower.

Unable to stop touching him, I brushed my hand over his jaw, and it made my palm tingle. A possessive feeling washed over me. I leaned in closer to sniff at him and licked up the side of his succulent little throat.

“Tell me…what’s Willie Watusi to you?” I asked him, my voice a little rough around the edges. “Tell me.”

“I-I barely know him.”

“No, you’re not telling me the truth, sweetheart. I need to know. Is he your Alpha?”

He blushed. “No, he can’t be—he’s only a Mongrel.”

“Oh, so not really an Alpha. Some Mongrels style themselves that way, though. Are you sure? I’ll find out if you’re lying to me. Tell me if he’s important to you.” I got closer to him, unreasonably angry about it, crowding him and bringing me well within his probable invasion-of-personal-space zone. Jealousy, hot as liquid flame raced through me.

“No, he’s not my mate,” he said.

The word hit me like a cattle prod. Mate? Could that be what this was? Surely not, though I was around omegas all the time. I had never lost control before badly enough that I went after them right in the streets like this. I had practically dragged him into this dark alley beside the bar. So, what was different about this one? We were far too exposed here to anyone who might take it in their heads to get some air and overhear our conversation. I needed to get him alone, but I couldn’t seem to stop touching him long enough.

“We shouldn’t keep doing this,” Levi said, his voice sounding hoarse and strained. “Please…”

“Why not?” I replied, kissing his neck, even though I totally agreed with him. I knew he was right, so I tipped up his chin to kiss his sweet mouth one more time. He sighed into the kiss, and it thrilled me to know he was as moved as I was. He wound his arms around my neck and ran his hands through my hair. I felt my cock harden even more at the feel of him so close and in such an intimate embrace.

As if he were feeling a bit bolder, he flicked his tongue at my lips, tasting me too. I couldn’t hold back my groan and pulled one of his legs up around my hips, slid my hands down to his ass and gripped it with both hands, pulling him up so he had to lift his other leg and wrap them both around my waist. His luminous green eyes got huge, and then round and surprised as he stared into mine. When he opened his mouth to suck in some air, I slipped my tongue inside, sending a shock wave through him that I felt in little shudders that wracked his body. I touched his sweet, hot tongue with mine and there was so much heat between us by that time that he couldn’t seem to draw in a good breath, and he began gasping for air. Our tongues tangled together in the messy kiss. I eased him back to his feet while I still could and let him go, taking a step back before I took him right there in the alley.

I had no idea what was wrong with me, but it couldn’t go any further until I knew what Watusi was to Levi. And I had to remember that this boy was a Mongrel. There was no way I could take him home with me. My family would never accept him.

I had come to Valleywood only three days earlier on special assignment for the FBI, though the truth was that I would have come on my own anyway if they hadn’t sent me. The Special Agent in Charge had asked me if I would be able to handle it, and knowing that Willie Watusi was involved, I’d said I definitely could. Maybe more violently than he would have liked, but as far as I was concerned that was beside the point. The point was to stop Watusi, and I would make my plans accordingly.

I had assessed Willie Watusi weeks ago and had concluded that he was an irredeemable, unrepentant animal who needed to be put away or even just put down. And nothing and no one would get in the way of me making one of those things happen.

****

Levi

Rolf had left me trying to recover from that kiss and still not believing what I’d allowed him to do to me. He still had me hemmed in, with his arms blocking me in, but at least he’d stopped touching me. He leaned toward me again, reaching up to toy with a piece of my hair, as if he didn’t want to stop, and my heart started slamming against my rib cage.

“Tell me something, sweetheart,” he said in a low, sexy voice. “Why did you choose a BDSM bar as a place to meet?”

“Why?” I hated the squeak right there at the end and cleared my throat to hide it as I looked up at him. “I don’t know. I didn’t know it was as bad as that. And it seemed like a good idea at the time. It was close by, or close to the place I live anyway. I chose it randomly.”

Rolf smiled and lifted one perfectly shaped eyebrow, so slow and hot that I lost my breath for a moment. “Randomly, huh? Really?”

I frowned. I thought I detected a tone. I looked up at him to see if he was teasing and got lost for a few seconds in that deep brown gaze.

“What are you thinking?” I asked him. “That I like that stuff? If that’s it, then get it right out of your head. I’m not into any of that. The only thing this place has going for it as far as I’m concerned is that it’s a gay bar,” I said. “And I do like gay bars. If that’s a problem for you, I would completely understand if you just wanted to forget the whole thing and go our separate ways.”

“Now why would that be a problem for me? I’ve just spent the last few seconds kissing you.”

“Well, I-I’m not sure. But if it is…”

He smirked at me. “You’re a touchy little thing, aren’t you? Your sexual orientation doesn’t bother me in the least. But it’s nice of you to volunteer the information. Is, uh, Willie Watusi your boyfriend? Your Dom?”

“What? Gods no! I already told you no.”

“Because if he is, you’ll have to send him on his way. Or better yet, I can do it for you. Tell me where he is so I can go talk to him.”

“What? No, he’s not anything to me! And I can’t give out any information on Willie.”

“But you do know, don’t you? Isn’t it true that you’ve been out with him? You were seen together at the pizza place he frequents three nights ago in your neighborhood, and by all reports, the two of you looked pretty chummy.”

I gave him the dirtiest look I could muster. “I said he’s not my boyfriend. I barely know him. He happened to be eating pizza at the same time I was. That’s it.”

The big Alpha leaned closer to me and just stared into my eyes, as a woman and her kids came down the sidewalk only about ten feet away from us. So much for this alley providing us any privacy at all.

“You’re crowding me,” I complained, as he leaned over to hide me from their view. I pushed ineffectually at his chest. “Do you mind?”

“Sorry,” he said, and moved back about a quarter of an inch. “Let’s get in my truck and drive then. Less chance of anyone overhearing us, right? You know, if you’re afraid someone might see you with me. Come on.”

I made one more abortive effort to pull my arm away and then gave up. I wasn’t going anywhere until he said I could, apparently. Normally, that would have made me mad, because I prided myself on my strength, but with Rolf, I just decided to go along with him peacefully and see what was going to happen. And hope like hell that none of Willie’s friends saw me in his truck.

He helped me get in and went around to the driver’s side to start the truck and pull away from the curb.

“Tell me about Willie and his gang.”

“Where to start?”

“You tell me.”

“His ‘gang’—your word, not mine—is made up of Mongrels, like both Willie and me. Willie likes to pretend he’s an Alpha, but mostly, in the genetics game, Willie is not a winner. He’s not bad-looking, like all the Mongrels tend to be, but his hair is thinning on top already, and he’s almost the same age as I am. He had a few strands that he combs over the top, so he just wears a ball cap. And he has bad skin, because he had a problem with acne as a teenager. That, coupled with his meth use, left him kind of a mess. He was more or less raised by his human great-grandma, who dealt meth out of her kitchen, where she also cooked it up. Somehow, she never blew the place up, and she’s still kicking, though retired now at the unlikely age of ninety-six. She must not have sampled her own drugs, like Willie did.”

He looked at me with surprise. Maybe he didn’t expect me to be so honest, but that was the Willie I knew. No use in hiding it. He’d had a bad life so far. That was no excuse, but maybe it was a partial reason for why he was so bad now.

“It’s sad really, because he never had much of a chance, and I would have more sympathy for him, if he didn’t have a real mean streak in him a mile wide. I caught him torturing a little puppy once—or about to anyway. I stopped him as soon as I saw him with the stick, bragging about how he was going to beat the dog with it. I took the stick away from him and used it on him instead, and I wasn’t sorry one bit either. That was a few years ago, back when we were close to the same size, and before he hit a big growth spurt.”

My body had stubbornly refused to do any such thing, and Willie was much bigger than I was now. Willie had hated me for a long time after that dog incident anyway, because I made him look bad in front of his buddies. Plus, I kept the dog and took him home with me. That dog hated him now and would try to bite him on sight if he got the chance.

“Anyway, he never asked me to join any so-called gang of his. Not that I would have anyway.”

“I think you definitely made the right choice, if that means anything.”

“Yeah, I know. And fortunately for me, he didn’t kill me that day like he’d be able to do now. I liked to mix it up back then, and I was pretty good at it, while he was still as clumsy as ever. So, when he came at me, I fought him, and while I didn’t win, he’d at least known he’d been in a fight. After picking that one fight with me, he’d never tried it after that. After a while, he even started being friendly again. But I never trusted him after the puppy thing. My mom used to say, when somebody shows you who they are, you should believe them.”

Rolf nodded. “What did you and Willie talk about when you went to the pizza place with him the other night?”

“How do you know about that anyway? And I didn’t go with him. I told you. I just saw him there. I don’t remember much happening, really. I might have stopped to speak to him, but that’s it.”

“You don’t remember?” Rolf said, in a suspicious tone that made it plain he didn’t believe me.

“No. Look, I don’t know anything about what Willie is up to. Really. And even if I did, I couldn’t say. People don’t mess with Willie, and that includes me. I try to maintain a live and let live policy with Willie and his friends.”

Rolf said, sarcastically, “Oh, is that right?” A feeling like an electric charge jolted through my body as a breeze from the open window suddenly brought his scent wafting over toward me. Rolf turned to look at me. “Well, you can give him a message from me when you see him. I intend to ‘mess’ with him. A lot.”

I shook my head and turned away, wringing my hands. I didn’t need this complication in my life. “I won’t be seeing him. I told you that I don’t want to get involved. You’ll have to tell him yourself.”

“Why are you getting so stressed and nervous, Levi?” Rolf said, looking over at me. “Has he threatened you in some way? Are you frightened of him?” His eyes narrowed. “Were you lying about Willie being your Dom?”

“What? No. I told you I’m not into that shit. Look, this was a mistake. I-I have to go. Please. I just need to go home.”

“Relax. Let me take you for a nice, quiet drive so we can finish talking.”

“I said, no!” Realizing I had shouted and might be attracting undue attention on these busy streets, yelling and getting upset like I was, I clamped my lips together and took a deep breath to calm myself. “Please,” I said, hating the wheedling tone in my voice. “I’ve told you I don’t know anything. I-I would like to go home, now, if that’s okay.”

“I didn’t mean to frighten you, but Willie Watusi has been mixed up in some really bad things. He was suspected of working with a group that did sex trafficking in New York.”

“What? I-I never heard about anything like that.”

“It’s the reason I came here to Valleywood. To investigate his involvement.”

“I-I see.” I sat there for a minute, taking it in. Willie, a sex trafficker? It didn’t seem possible. Well, it did, but I didn’t like to think about it.

“You know what? I can just walk home from here. And for the record, Willie doesn’t frighten me. And neither do you.”

“Okay, good. But I still insist on driving you to your place.”

“I live literally two blocks away.”

“Then we don’t have far to go.”

I whimpered and Rolf smiled at me, putting a hand on my thigh. I balled up my fist without thinking and hit him on his arm. He’d really pissed me off with that condescending Alpha attitude of his.

His eyes flashed at me, and I got a shiver down my spine. “Don’t start something you can’t finish, sweetheart.”

“Oh yeah? What are you gonna do about it if I do?”

He swerved suddenly over to the curb, turned in the seat and pulled me toward him—none too gently either—and he put me in his lap. The steering wheel was digging into my side, his big, hard dick was digging into my thighs, my heart was beating way too fast, and I couldn’t catch my breath. It was glorious.

He bent toward my lips ever so slowly, giving me plenty of time to change my mind if I chose to, but though my mind was saying, “Abort, abort,” my body was giving me high fives. I wouldn’t have missed this kiss from him for the world. I closed my eyes and let him press his full, lush lips against mine, gently at first and then harder. And even harder. His kiss was aggressive and dominant, like before. There was so much heat between us that I couldn’t draw in a breath, and I was afraid we might just burst into flames any minute. He slipped his tongue inside my mouth and finally my brain kicked in, so I gave him a weak push.

He looked down at me and saw I was trembling, and then he nodded and lifted me up to sit me back closer to the door. But he leaned over and spoke against my ear, causing me to shudder. “You won’t get rid of me easily, you know. I’ll keep coming until you tell me what I need to know. I’m not through with you yet.”

What I wanted to say was—what part of this is not clear? I have nothing to say to you. I don’t know anything about Willie Watusi or any of his business, so leave me the hell alone.

But what I actually said was, “Okay.” Because every little omega cell in my body was celebrating the idea that he “wasn’t through with me yet.”

He put a finger under my chin and raised my face to within an inch of his mouth.

“You see…” he brushed the tip of his tongue over my lips, and I moaned into his mouth. “I think you know more than you’re saying.”

I shivered hard. “I-I really don’t. I promise I don’t know much of anything.”

“Tell me why you’re so scared of this guy then. Does he beat you?”

I finally came back to my senses then and pushed him away.

“What? No! And I’m not scared of him, damn it. Maybe I should be scared of you.”

Rolf looked shocked. “Me? Why? I told you I’m not going to hurt you.”

“You sure could have fooled me.”

Rolf frowned again. “Why do you say that?”

“You’re a pure-bred and an Alpha wolf. I know what you think of me. I know what you people think about all the Mongrels.”

The one thing that all the pure-bred wolves could agree on was their attraction to omegas like me, even though they felt we were far beneath them, and their antipathy toward Mongrels. We were a guilty pleasure to mate with though, and they loved to fuck us, but hated the idea that they couldn’t resist us. Since wolves didn’t limit themselves in any way, that created even more little Mongrel babies. And of course, the problem with Mongrels was that after we were born, there we were—a constant reminder of how the pure-breds hadn’t been strong enough to resist temptation. They reviled us for our very existence.

Rolf stared down at me for a long moment. He hadn’t said a word since I told him I knew what he thought of us.

“You don’t know anything,” he said, his voice low and rough. Without any warning, he leaned in closer again and those moist, lush lips came down over mine, hot and possessive. My hands moved up to his shirt front, and I curled my fingers into the material and clung to him, helpless to do anything else. He nudged my mouth open and slipped in his tongue to thoroughly taste me. Then as quickly as it all started, he released me again. He gently pried my fingers off his shirt, and I sank back in my seat, breathing hard. He could have had me right there if he’d wanted me.

He started up the truck and drove me the short distance home instead.

“Go up to your apartment now and don’t contact Watusi. I’ll talk to you soon.”

I scrambled out, but he reached over and caught my hand and made me turn around to look at him.

“I mean it. Do as I say. Don’t talk to him any more than you have to, and don’t say a word to him about me tomorrow if he comes by to see you. You got that?”

“I got it,” I said, my voice tight and irritated. “But he won’t come.”

I jumped out and waited until he’d pulled away from the curb before walking slowly upstairs to my little apartment. I’d never even told him where I lived, yet he’d still driven me straight to my place, and I’d barely even noticed until I was on the sidewalk. How did he know so much about me? I thought he probably had way too much power over me already. What would happen if he kept coming around all the time for information about Willie?

He was going to want to fuck me, that’s what. And I was going to let him.