Chapter Six

Rolf

Levi looked tired, and I could imagine that he was. Not only had he worked all day, but then he had been viciously attacked at the end of it by the “shifted” Mongrels. I thought this would be a good time to get him talking, now while he was tired and worried about his dog, so I started to question him, hoping I’d get lucky. He told me the whole, sordid story again, and it sounded crazier every time I heard it.

Afterward, he had his own questions for me.

“Where did they take Nugget?” he asked. “You said one of the gang told you. Is it Willie’s house?”

“No, his grandmother wouldn’t let him bring him there, they said. Because your dog is too big and loud.” I glanced over at him. “How big is this dog anyway?”

Levi shrugged. “Oh, you know…pretty big.”

“And you named him Nugget? Was that supposed to be a joke?”

“Not really. He was just a baby when I got him and brought him home, and he loved McDonald’s chicken nuggets. I thought it was cute. I never thought he’d grow so much. And so fast.”

I nodded, and we drove toward the so-called district, the slum neighborhood the Mischling claimed as their territory.

“You know about my neighborhood?” Levi asked as he realized where we were headed.

“It was on a brief I was given to read before I came here to investigate the violent crimes in this area. It’s supposed to be the worst slum in the city, from what I understand.”

He bristled a little. “It’s not that bad. Not really. It’s where I used to live with my mom and dad when they were alive.”

“How long have they been gone?”

“My mother passed away when I was pretty young. My dad about six years ago.” He looked around distractedly. “Which street are you looking for? Maybe I can help.”

“Twelfth Street. A house belonging to some guy named Leroy.”

He leaned forward, straining against the seat belt. “Nugget will be so scared. He’s never been away from me for so long. And then to be taken to a strange place…maybe even not well treated…”

“Don’t borrow trouble. He’s probably fine.”

I pulled up outside the building the GPS said was the right one, and I began hearing a long, undulating howling coming from inside. My first thought was that some shifted wolf must be in the area, making a huge racket, but I didn’t see how that could be possible. Not everyone knew about us, because we were discreet and tried never to shift in front of human witnesses.

The sound went up and down in pitch and was getting louder the farther we went into the neighborhood. I glanced over at Levi, and he smiled excitedly. “I think that’s Nugget! Keep going.”

“That’s Nugget?” I asked incredulously. “What in the world are they doing to him?”

“I think he just wants to go outside. That’s just the sound he makes for that.”

“Good gods.”

We were outside a dilapidated and ugly brick building, where the noise seemed to be coming from. Levi had the door open and was jumping from the truck before I even got fully parked. That’s when the howling really shifted into high gear. Maybe the dog smelled Levi or whatever. He disappeared inside the front door, and I pulled over and bailed out after him, worried that he’d get in trouble or disappear.

Damn it, he had no idea what he might be running into. What if the gang had weapons? I didn’t like this new feeling I was having about Levi. This constant worrying about him—it needlessly complicated things when I needed to concentrate on my job.

I started up the stairs after Levi and could hear someone shouting, “Shut up!” from several flights above us. I guess one of the neighbors must be getting sick of all the noise. Now that we were inside, the decibel level had seriously increased, and I hadn’t thought that to even be possible. Levi was shouting the dog’s name too, which added to the general din.

By the time I got to the last landing before the top, I heard the sound of crashing against a door, along with Levi calling out and knocking.

“Nugget? Nugget, I’m coming, baby. Just hang on.”

Suddenly the door burst open and slammed against the outside wall as a huge, hairy, incredibly ugly creature bounded out of the apartment it had been in and leaped onto Levi, taking him backward and down to the floor. The thing looked a little like a cross between a donkey and one of those Wookie’s like in the Star Wars movies. I thought it was a shifted Mongrel like the others when I first saw it and even pulled my weapon, but I couldn’t shoot for fear of hitting Levi.

“Try to move out of the way, Levi, and I’ll shoot it!”

“No!” he cried. “Are you crazy? Don’t shoot my dog!”

“That thing is no dog!”

“Yes, it is! This is Nugget. Put that gun away, Rolf. Please.”

Against my better judgment, I slowly holstered my weapon as the huge creature continued to lick and maul Levi, who was sitting on the floor, grinning happily but not seeming to be alarmed. That’s okay—I was alarmed enough for both of us.

“That can’t be your dog.”

“I told you he was big.”

“How did they ever get him up here?”

“Probably offered him food. He’d follow anybody anywhere for food.”

“Well…get him if you can, and let’s get him out of here.”

“Come on, Nugget,” he crooned to the huge animal. “Follow me, baby.”

Some baby…we went back downstairs, with me casting long looks over my shoulder at “Nugget.” He was the largest dog—if that was really what he was—that I’d ever seen, and I was glad to see he didn’t look aggressive. And that we didn’t run into any of Willie Watusi’s gang members. No one seemed to care that we were getting Nugget out of there, but then again, who could blame them?

“Get him in the truck and I’ll take you home,” I told Levi.

Looking back on it, it was just really bad luck that on that particular afternoon, the little local grocery store located a few doors down the block was running a special on hot dogs and decided to cook some up for lunch. The grocer had them on a spit in an oven inside the store—they were the big, fat, golden brown hot dogs that people sometimes called “brats,” though they really weren’t. They were served on crusty white rolls with lots of mustard—and most people, including me, thought they were pretty good. The smell of them was wafting down the street and right toward us.

The scent must have hit Nugget around the same time as it did me, because he lifted his huge, shaggy head and gave a huge, powerful, “Woof!” Then he threw back his head and began to howl again.

When Nugget howled, it was like a sound like something out of a nightmare—like Sir Arthur Conan Doyle described in the Hounds of the Baskervilles. It was a long, air-raid-like, terrible sound that was both resonant and sonorous. It reverberated throughout the block and no doubt sent a chill running down the spine of anyone who heard it. He gave a single toss of his massive head, neatly dislodging Levi who’d been holding onto his neck, and then he was off and racing down the street. I made a fruitless dive to catch him, but it was far too late.

Down the crowded street, Nugget ran like his tail was on fire. I hesitated for just a moment, wondering how upset Levi would be if I simply turned and got back inside the truck and drove off, effectively washing my hands of the whole deal. Nugget was as fast as he was large, and he was already in full gallop toward the entrance of the grocery store. I saw Levi sprinting after him and with a muttered oath, I took off after him, too, knowing I couldn’t just abandon the shopping public, not to mention the hot-dog-eating public to their fate. I had to try and stop him.

I had longer legs, so I soon passed Levi, but ahead of me and gaining ground like a heat-seeking missile, Nugget was making his unerring way toward the food. He ran like a maniac through the aisles, sideswiping old ladies and their shopping carts with his massive tail and leaving children lying in the dust behind him. Luckily none of them seemed to be injured, but I couldn’t stop to check, because ahead of me he had just knocked over a baby stroller. If not for the quick thinking of the baby’s mother who snatched her child out of harm’s way, the situation could have been much worse.

I saw him careening down a narrower aisle as he closed in on the lunch counter. In the front, there were people already lining up to buy a hot dog, and I shuddered to think what would happen when Nugget arrived. I yelled out a warning and saw a few people turn in our direction to see what was coming for them. Their faces blanched with terror as they tried to scatter in time.

It was at that pivotal moment, from a side aisle, that a beautiful, dainty white poodle stepped out, along with her owner. I found out later that she was named Duchess, and the name really seemed to fit. She had been groomed in an elaborate and expensive style, her topknot upswept on her head like a jeweled crown. She was fancy, majestic, and elegant—and she was also in heat.

As for Nugget, that ungainly, homely mutt, that Heinz 57 spawn of God only knew what breeds of animals—just happened to be a fully intact male. Nugget took one big sniff of the Duchess and put on the brakes. In all the old Roadrunner cartoons, this kind of thing happened all the time. Wile E. Coyote would spot a roadblock up ahead and simply jam on the brakes, skidding to a stop just in the nick of time. This was not the case, however, with Nugget.

He skidded and careened into Duchess’s owner first. The man was a portly human of just past middle age, who walked with a cane. He didn’t seem to know at first what hit him. He was knocked flat on his back, as Nugget leaped over him and directly into the Duchess’s welcoming arms. In a manner of speaking.

The owner luckily wasn’t hurt, and he scrambled to his feet shouting and swiping at Nugget with his walking stick, fortunately not coming anywhere near him. I finally arrived on the scene, too, but by that time I was totally out of breath and gasping for air. Though I tried to tackle Nugget and grapple with him, it was far too late.

I won’t go into all the gory, graphic details of what happened next. How Duchess’s owner grabbed her from one side, and I hung onto Nugget’s neck on the other, while Nugget tossed us off like we were just annoying mosquitoes. I tried valiantly to save the Duchess’s honor, but like I said, it was far too late. By that time, the two dogs couldn’t be separated, though the Duchess’s owner tried everything he could think of to achieve that goal, even throwing a cup of cold water directly into Nugget’s face. Nugget just stared back at him with confused indignation and shook his big head, scattering water droplets everywhere. Finally, the man gave up and realized there was no recourse but to wait until the dirty deed was done.

That didn’t stop him from screaming and shouting at Nugget as Levi and I stood helplessly by. Levi’s face was an interesting shade of bright red as the guy called Nugget every name he could think of. In the end, they had to shut down the store to stop the mayhem. The manager, along with Duchess’s owner, were both furious. There were shouted, angry threats about lawsuits and destruction of property.

That last part was included because after Nugget was finally finished and everything was done with the Duchess, he ran out on her without even so much as a thanks for the memories. He headed straight for the hot dogs and destroyed the little oven with its spit going around and around with one swipe of a massive paw. Then he proceeded to try and eat the machine along with its contents.

I managed to wrestle him to the floor and the manager brought me a piece of rope that I tied around Nugget’s neck, as Levi tried to calm Duchess’s owner down.

In the end, we all got clean away. Sort of—I wrote the store owner a check as Levi managed to lure Nugget to my truck by throwing hot dogs in his path. He left the Duchess’s owner his name and phone number in case there were any further “developments,” and we took off out of the store. I jumped in the truck with Levi and the dog, and we were finally able to drive back to Levi’s apartment. Nugget fell sound asleep after his adventures. He’d had a big day for himself after all.

I had one more thought as we drove away, and though I hated to add to Levi’s distress, I had to say it. “Can you imagine what those puppies would look like?”

Levi put his head in his hands and groaned.

****

Levi

I made no objection when Rolf Degan followed me and Nugget up to my small apartment. My grandma was at her bridge game by now—she had a group of old friends that she still hung out with every week.

I knew Rolf was still mad at me about Nugget, and he wasn’t even close to being over it yet. I’d told him I’d pay him back for the damage Nugget had done at the store, but he just glared at me. Nugget went straight to his water bowl and after lapping at it for a while, he flopped down on the floor and began snoring loudly. Rolf watched him with a fascinated glare.

“Tell me again how you came by Nugget. Was there by any chance a circus passing through town? One that had some missing animals?”

“Oh stop. He’s a dog—just a strange looking one, I admit. I take him to the vet, you know, and they said he’s probably got some Irish wolfhound in him.”

“Maybe a little moose too.”

I laughed and fell down on the couch next to him. I was exhausted and all I could think of was curling up here next to Rolf’s big, warm body and falling asleep. It sounded so nice that I leaned against him and cuddled into his side, even though he probably didn’t want me to.

He glanced down at me in surprise. “Comfortable?”

“Mm, yes. Thanks.” I yawned so big I almost cracked my jaw. “I need to close my eyes for just a minute.”

I expected to be pushed away, but instead, he settled me a little closer in his arms. I sighed and turned my face into him and that was the last thing I knew for hours. I woke up as light was beginning to come through the windows. He was lying on his back on the couch, and I was sprawled out on top of him. He had pulled a blanket I kept on the back of the couch over both of us. Startled, I glanced at my phone to see that it was almost six o’clock—in the morning.

It was too early to get up, but should I stay and try not to wake him? I could hear Nugget snoring nearby and it felt as if we were all alone in our own little time and space here in my apartment, one that wasn’t even a part of this world.

Rolf groaned in his sleep and pulled me closer to him. I was hypersensitive to his touch, so when he fumbled at my jeans—not asleep after all—and then pulled my dick out and took me in his hand, I gave a slight shiver and moaned way too loud. He smiled, his eyes still closed as he began to kiss and lick and nibble at my mouth, pulling me up higher so he could reach me. My cock was leaking, and I thought that wasn’t the only thing. I was really in heat by now and this wasn’t helping. He trailed his hands down under my clothes and I moaned and bucked my hips against him.

“I want these off,” he whispered softly to me, tugging at the waistband and I nodded and shimmied out of my jeans and underwear in one go, still lying mostly on top of him. Suddenly, my omega scent was chokingly strong in the room, and he opened his eyes fully and gasped as it hit him.

He reached for me blindly to pull me back on top of him, and I didn’t object, the idea of a condom never even occurring to me, because I was way too far gone by that time. I was throbbing with need, and I wanted him inside me. I pulled his hand over to tangle his fingers in my pubic hair so they would graze my dick. I hoped that was a strong enough signal of what I wanted to happen next. Just in case it wasn’t, I told him.

“Make love to me,” I begged, thrusting at him shamelessly. I wanted him so badly I had little control and all I could think about were his hands moving over me as his big fingers pushed inside my ass. I moaned encouragingly and sighed with relief.

“No, we shouldn’t. Settle down until we can find a condom. You’re still in heat.” His voice was rough and strained and growly in my ear, and I was making way too much noise. His fingers weren’t enough, and I was getting desperate.

“No, please! It’ll be okay. I’m not sick—I swear it.” My cock was getting harder—so hard it was painful with the promise of the attention coming toward it. He pulled away and bent over me to put his hot mouth over the tip of my cock, and I cried out a little, unable to hold it back. He took the heavy length of me into his mouth and his throat, swallowing around it. I began swearing softly above him. My hands went into his hair, not forcing him, but tugging gently, holding on against this onslaught of pleasure. But it still wasn’t enough. I don’t know why he thought it would be. I was fully in heat by now, and I had to have that big cock inside me. This night was turning into something much more than I ever expected, but it was everything I wanted.

“I’m not sick either—we have check-ups at work, but you could get pregnant.”

“No, I can’t. I told you, I’m only a quarter wolf and a quarter omega. Please, Rolf.”

Finally, finally, he acted as if he might be convinced, and he began to unfasten his trousers and pushed me away so he could take them off. I tried to help, but I probably just got in his way. I was happy to see how hard he was too, so that any fear I had that he wasn’t into men dissipated as fast as it reared its ugly head. I knew the gods wouldn’t have been so cruel as to create such a delicious Alpha and dangle him in front of me, only to keep him out of my reach.

“I want you inside me,” I told him.

“No,” he protested again, but he sounded halfhearted at best. He tried to straighten up, but I bent quickly to lick his cock.

He grabbed me and pulled my chin up so he could kiss me. “Are you sure you can’t get pregnant?”

“I’m sure. I’m barely even omega. Please,” I groaned, long and loud as his fingers found and massaged my hole, slipping in and out.

I was omega enough that I was fully in heat, but I decided to ignore that fact. I was sure it was a minor detail.

“Please, hurry,” I cried, feeling desperate and he soothed me with another kiss.

“Shh,” he whispered. “Be quiet, baby, and I’ll take care of you.”

I dazedly nodded my head and bent to try and lick him again.

“Just relax. I got you. You want this to happen, right?”

I nodded frantically and kept trying to kiss him. “Let me do this then.”

He picked me up in his arms effortlessly and positioned me in the middle of the couch as he knelt over me. Despite what I said about my omega status, he had to smell the omega scent. It must have been messing with his head, because I knew it was making him crazy for me, like I was for him. He leaned over and began whispering in my ear—soft, crooning sounds meant to relax me. He pushed up one of my knees to expose me and that’s when the smell must have hit him like a brick in the face. He shouted out as the scent perfumed the air around us, so potent it made us both even more dazed and dizzy with lust.

Something else was nagging at me too. This overwhelming passion I was feeling was more than just the normal reaction of an omega to his Alpha. I’d been around plenty of Alphas and had never felt like this before. Could this be the mate scent? Was Rolf my mate?

All the reservations I’d had about mating a pure-bred seemed so trivial and unimportant now, and I pushed them all aside.

What was I thinking?

****

Rolf

I realized as I held him close to me that I’d been fooling myself about the way I felt for him. Mongrel or not—it didn’t matter. He’d said he was only a quarter wolf, so maybe that was it. Whatever he was, I felt like he belonged to me. I wanted to kiss him and make love to him until I was past speaking, past moving or past feeling anything except his touch. I wanted to own him and caress him and hold him in my arms forever. And I wanted to eradicate any idea he might have of any other man. It was frightening how much I seemed to need this boy in my arms. Nothing had ever made me feel so out of control before, and with the still rational part of my mind, I wondered why. Why did I feel like he belonged to me? Was it because he was my mate, whether or not I liked the idea? Could it be true? The instant that thought went through my head again I recognized it as a fact. This boy—this beautiful boy was mine—made for me and for no one else. The idea thrilled me but appalled me a little at the same time.

The realization was making me feel hot and causing fluttery feelings in my chest. I stroked my fingers inside him again and again, and I realized his secretions weren’t going to be enough to lubricate him for my knot. Maybe it was because he wasn’t fully omega. Omegas opened up enough to take an Alpha’s knot. The idea of getting him ready for me swept through me like a wildfire, though, and I kissed him thoroughly as he sighed into my mouth. I increased the pressure and the speed of my hand, and now on each upward sweep, I ran my thumb over the sensitive head of Levi’s cock, dipping gently into his slit before continuing down. He continued to gasp for breath and tried to thrust upward, but I moved my hand to his hip, holding him down with easy strength. He opened his eyes in surprise and looked directly into mine.

“Rolf, please, I need to come,” he said, a little note of panic in his voice. I smiled at him, holding his gaze. “Please let me.”

“No, baby. You won’t come unless I tell you to.”

He widened his eyes in surprise but then he nodded, his green eyes still wide and a little desperate. He put his hands on my shoulders, holding on tightly, clenching and unclenching his hands and staring into my eyes. So trusting. Gods, it thrilled me. Again, I dipped my thumb gently into his slit, and he growled as his hips came up off the sofa. He made a loud sound that was almost a painful moan. I slipped a wet finger up inside him, crooking it, looking for the little bundle of nerves I knew would cause him to have an orgasm and maybe open him up a little more. I found it and swept a finger over it, once and then again.

“Come on, Levi. Come for me.”

He jerked his hips upward, gave a shout and came uncontrollably, spurting out onto my chest.

I gave him a few seconds to recover his breath, before pushing his legs up and pulling his ass up to meet my fingers again.

I reached into a drawer in the side table, looking for lube. I didn’t like to think about why he might have that and who had used it on him, but I thanked the gods when I found it and quickly prepared him. Then I was pushing my cock into that wet, slick hole, thrusting in so deep the hair on my groin brushed against the soft skin of his pretty ass, all the time whispering to him and wooing him with words that I hoped would arouse us both.

“Does that feel good? Do you like it when I’m so deep inside you?”

Levi nodded, beyond words by this point and tilted up his sweet ass for more, harder. He was a true omega in one sense at least. Once didn’t seem to be enough. Overcome by lust and unable to make it last, I thrust harder, hips rocking up against him in a hard, fast rhythm, every stroke sending waves of sensation coursing up through my cock and radiating all through me. The pleasure was so fierce, so sweet that it took very little time for me to feel an orgasm teasing around my balls. Should I try not to come inside him? I didn’t think it mattered now. I’d been making love to him without a condom—and he was an omega in heat. I really hadn’t believed his lies. He may not be able to open for my knot like a full-blooded omega, but his scent didn’t lie. He could be pregnant with my child already, and I liked that idea. I’d wanted to breed him and make him mine from the first moment I saw him.

I was ravenous for him, groaning at the heat and the feel of him. But it was time to give him a mating bite and seal the deal with my knot. I knew it would hurt so I’d tried to get him aroused and stretched out enough that he wouldn’t feel it too intensely. I captured his throat gently in my hand, looking deeply into his eyes as I fucked him, soothing him with one kiss after another. He shuddered in my arms and moaned with pleasure, and his eyes glowed at me.

“I’m going to bite you now and give you my knot.”

His eyes widened and he moaned. “Are you sure? That would make me…”

“My mate. Yes, I’m sure. But… tell me if you don’t want this. If you have any doubts.”

“N-no. I don’t. Except for the fact that I…I’m a Mongrel. A mixed breed. And you can’t want one of those. You’re a pure-bred.”

“You’re my mate, Levi. The gods made you just for me.”

I hated the old prejudices against the Mongrels—the mixed breeds that pure-breds had helped to create. And I hated that I still reacted to them deep inside me where I didn’t like to admit it. I did believe he was mine, but so many omegas had been used and abandoned by pure-breds. I wouldn’t do that with Levi. I’d make sure of it.

“I want this,” I said again, maybe trying to convince myself.

He nodded then, biting his sweet lip. “If you’re sure. But please be sure.”

Shuddering a little and surprised at how moved I was by his sweetness and concern, I clutched him tighter, and I bit down hard on the spot I’d chosen between his neck and his shoulder, sinking my teeth in. He cried out but he endured it. My fingers probed inside him, still carefully stretching him, even though the burn was making him jump a little. I whispered in his ear.

“Move your leg up, baby. Push out. That’s it.”

More lube and I knew he must be feeling impossibly full. I’d seen his face when he first saw my knot and how large it was. I tried to see it through his eyes—the strange bulge of hard flesh around the base of my cock. Secretly, he probably didn’t think it would fit, but his omega brain was dazed, and he wanted to please me so much he’d try. He wanted to be able to do this for me and for himself and it endeared him to me.

I knew that once we started, his body would not only accept my knot but be fully onboard with it. I whispered to him again to concentrate on relaxing and pushing out as hard as he could.

The feel of him around me, rubbing up against me made me feel like I was on fire, and I moved restlessly, wanting to thrust, but not willing to hurt him.

I leaned down closer to him and saw that his breathing was fast and unsteady. Was that because of what I was doing to him? I was having a hard time controlling my wolf, but I knew this needed to be over.

I sank my fangs deep into the side of Levi’s throat, and he screamed and gasped and would have pulled away, but I clutched him more tightly. Then as the venom spread through his veins, he began writhing, not in pain, but in ecstasy. A powerful orgasm racked his body as come shot from his cock, splashing up on his chest. I pulled my teeth away, making growling sounds. Levi moaned and threw back his head. At the same time his orgasm hit, I thrust into him, hard and fast and deep, and my knot filled him.

He screamed again, and I realized that his scream was mingling with my own howl, creating a chilling primal sound in the small room. Before he could even register the pain of being impaled on my cock, I took his flagging cock in my hand and began to stroke him. The spot inside him that I’d touched was now being rubbed up and down by my knot, causing him to arch backward for more, but the pressure on his cock, which had already filled again under my touch, made him want to thrust forward. He didn’t know which way to move—toward it or away from it, and it was causing confusion and making him disoriented.

The venom was racing through his veins by this time, and he broke out in a sweat as another orgasm came on him fast and hard. My hot semen flooded him, spilling out and running down the backs of his thighs and onto the mattress. He cried out and I bent my head over him, filled with tenderness and passion.

“Let go,” I told him. “I’ve got you. I’ll always have you.”

He sighed and turned his head blindly toward me for a kiss. I gladly obliged.

The remaining hours until the sun was high in the sky were a haze of lust and sex. Levi awakened and turned toward me, and I welcomed him each time with kisses. We made love over and over, with Levi falling into an exhausted sleep afterward.

But I loved being deep inside him and only reluctantly pulled away. I felt as if he belonged to me completely now, but it was still far from over. In the way of Alphas and omegas, it never seemed to be enough.