Unsettled Interlude

  Unsettled Interlude

  Hidden Wolves 1.15

  Kaje Harper

  Dedication: For my beta readers, on this and other projects, who generously work through my drafts to help find the story lurking underneath. Thank you.

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  Content warning: contains strong language and explicit sexual situations between two men

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Smashwords Edition - Copyright 2013 by Kaje Harper

  http://kajeharper.wordpress.com/

  Cover art by Ren Brennan

  Smashwords License Note: Thank you for downloading this free ebook. Although this is a free book, it remains the copyrighted property of the author. It must remain in its complete and unaltered form, and may not be reproduced, copied or distributed for commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy. Thank you for your support.

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  The Hidden Wolves series:

  Unacceptable Risk – book 1 (MLR Press)

  Unsettled Interlude - short story 1.15 (free on Goodreads & Smashwords)

  Unexpected Demands – book 2 (MLR Press)

  Unwanted Appeal – short story 2.5 (free, releases April 2013)

  book 3 (in progress)

  Other free stories by Kaje Harper:

  Like the Taste of Summer

  Into Deep Waters

  Lies and Consequences

  Show Me Yours

  Within Reach

  Blurb:

  This is a significantly expanded version of the short story "Interlude - 1.1". Note that this story follows after and contains spoilers for the first novel : Unacceptable Risk - Hidden Wolves book 1.

  Paul Hunter just spent two days as a captive to werewolves, his life hanging in the balance, a witness to crimes and craziness. Now he's back in his regular life, and living with Simon, the man he's been falling for. And he's part of a werewolf pack. He needs his brain to somehow catch up with all of that.

  Simon thought saving his human mate from his own pack would be the hardest thing he'd face with Paul, but he's beginning to realize that was just the beginning. He has to figure out how their future will work, and convince his skittish lover that staying with the pack is better than leaving it, while hints of threats to Paul's safety keep him awake at night. Fortunately Simon is up for the challenge.

  Unsettled Interlude

  Paul woke slowly, to the awareness that he was very warm, weighted down, and a bit sore. Behind his slitted eyelids he could see a tiny crescent of hazy morning light. It took only a second to remember that the warm and weighted down part was Simon, draped across him like a living hot water bottle. The sore part was... also Simon.

  Paul moved on the sheets, feeling the pull of his sensitized skin. He thought he was careful, but Simon immediately tensed and pushed away from him. “Are you okay?”

  “I'm fine.” Paul opened his eyes and sure enough, Simon was braced above him, staring down at him with a little frown creasing his brow. “You're hovering over me.”

  “More like landing on you.” Simon wriggled his hips against Paul's thighs.

  Despite the joke, his eyes were wary. Paul tried to recapture some of his righteous anger from the evening before, but it felt distant. In this familiar room, with Simon smiling and the brightness of a winter morning filtering through the curtains, the last two days could have all been a dream. Except for the way he could feel, somewhere inside his head, that Simon was more hungry and worried than horny. Paul gave him a little push. “Get off and we'll get some breakfast.”

  Simon rolled gracefully away and bounced to his feet. “I'll cook if you want a shower.”

  Paul leaned up on his elbow and looked over at his, um, mate. That was never a hardship. Simon wasn't handsome, but he was sculpted and solid, with smooth, brown skin wrapped over curved, hard muscle. His green eyes shone under hair that was nearly black. Across his flat pecs, a dusting of equally dark curls led the eye downward to a clear six-pack. And on down to that... Paul jerked his gaze upward, to meet Simon's grin.

  “It's all yours,” Simon said.

  “I was actually thinking pancakes,” Paul suggested.

  “I'll do my best. Although I remember you were down to marshmallow fluff and stale bread, so it may not be easy.”

  Paul swung his legs out and stood up, hiding the little wince as he moved. Last night had been, well, intense. And repeated. He walked over to Simon, and made himself not hesitate as he closed the last foot of space. Simon's arms came around him in a hug, and he returned it, laying his head on Simon's good shoulder. This was what he'd always craved and never had. Someone he could go to and be welcome, without question. He still couldn't believe it was true, but he couldn't deny the sweet echo of relief and pleasure and affection that filled them both.

  “You don't really have to cook for me.”

  “I offered. I want to. Cooking is a way to show the love.”

  That word again. It was the thing Paul had never thought he'd be worthy of. The thing he still couldn't quite believe he'd found and didn't feel he deserved. Simon loved him. Of all the incredible events of the last two days, of werewolves and captivity, murder and mind-bonds, that was the one that felt most like fiction. Amazing, I-wish-it-was-true fiction. He closed his eyes and opened his mouth against Simon's bare neck, tasting the salt tang of sweat on his lips. So good. Surely this had to be real? “I love you too.”

  “I know.” Simon leaned back, moving so their mouths came together. He kissed Paul with a careful hunger Paul could feel. “Love you more.”

  That was probably another of Simon's jokes, but it might well be true. “I'm sorry.”

  “No. God, I was kidding.”

  Paul burrowed his face back in against the uninjured side of Simon's neck. “I'm not good for you. I'm still not going to be social,” he mumbled. “You have all these people, these friends, and I'm going to be the weird guy in the corner who doesn't talk to them. And I don't handle being told what to do well. That's part of why I leaped at the chance to buy my own clinic. I question everything, and I'll probably get you into trouble again.”

  “Hush. Paul, look at me?” When he refused to lift his head, Simon pressed a kiss against his hair, and chuckled. “If you don't think I can find trouble on my own, you haven't been watching. If you're around to hold me like this when it's over, I'll have no complaints.”

  That Paul could do. They stood pressed together, naked in the cool room. Paul focused on the heat of Simon everywhere they touched, and the chill of the air whispering over his spine, until Simon said, “As much as I love this, Aaron told me to show up at ten, and it's after nine. I don't think our new Alpha has much patience with lateness.”

  “And I should check the clinic.” Paul had to force his arms to let go. “Shower. I was going to shower.”

  “Yeah. Get clean and come have some marshmallow fluff pancakes.”

  He'd thought that was a joke, but apparently melted fluff could substitute adequately for pancake syrup. They were finishing up when Simon's phone rang. They both jumped in alarm, and Paul had to grab for his toppling coffee mug. He sucked the spilled coffee off his finger and listened. After that first surge of mutual alarm, Simon's presence in Paul's head felt calm and alert. Paul told his jangling nerves to stand down.

  “Yes sir... Okay... I was wondering... That would work... I'll tell him.”

  Simon closed the phone and stared down at it.

  “Tell me what?”

  “That was Aaron. He's sending Lucas to watch out for you today, while I'm busy backing him up in the pack negotiations” Simon wrinkled his nose, sounding as irritated as he ever got. “You'd think he could do without me. It's not like Joshua loves me enough to give our pack a bigger share, just because I'm standing behind Aaron. More likely the reverse.”

  Paul would have liked to keep Simon close for a while. Simon was his anchor in this newly-overturned life he seemed to be leading. But Paul was an adult, not a kid who needed his teddy bear, and maybe Aaron was deliberately detaching them for a few hours. “Maybe Aaron hopes seeing you will unsettle Joshua. Or guilt-trip him.” Joshua now led the pack that had been ready to rip Simon to shreds for loving another man. Paul hoped the old werewolf would feel some kind of remorse, but he wasn't holding his breath.

  “Maybe. And then we'll meet as a pack tonight at five. Aaron's house.”

  “Which is where?”

  “Just let me know whether you're here or the clinic around four thirty and I'll come by and pick you up. Then next time you'll know.”

  Paul nodded slowly. “Okay. And I'll be fine with, um, Lucas? I don't even know who he is. Is he playing bodyguard? Or making sure I don't go to the cops or something?” The whole overwhelming avalanche of new shit loomed again, and he took a shallow breath. “I'm not a threat.” Although maybe he should be. He was the one who read mysteries and scoffed at the heroes for not going to the cops when things happened. Like deaths. “I saw this guy turn into a wolf and then he was killed and dropped into a lake...” Maybe not.

  “Bodyguard, absolutely,” Simon said. “The worst should be over, but you and I are bound to be unpopular for a while. Lucas is an older guy, medium height and build, brown hair, easy smile. I'll, uh, text him and ask him to come to the door before I leave, so I can in
troduce you.”

  “He's in our pack?” Pack. Our pack. He repeated it a few more times silently, but it only got more ridiculous with repetition.

  Simon eyed him cautiously, but said, “Yes. He swore to Aaron.”

  Paul nodded. For some reason, Aaron's name was like a bell, ringing through the confusion and clearing his head. Whether because he was Alpha, or just because he was someone Paul had actually met, Aaron felt real. “Okay.”

  “I wish I could stay. I know we should talk and I should probably have woken you earlier. But you looked so cute sleeping.”

  Paul wrapped his fist in the front of the sweatshirt Simon was wearing and pulled him against the table to give him a hard, sticky-sweet kiss. “I am not cute. Now. This meeting. I'll get to see everybody? Learn some of the rules?”

  “Yeah.”

  “So that'll be good. We can talk after. And talk some more tomorrow. And probably the next day. But in between...” He could feel Simon's intense worry, and hated being a big part of that. He repeated the kiss, longer this time. “With everything that I'm confused about and doubting, I don't doubt you. Okay? I know you, um, love me. I trust you. My life feels turned upside down, but at the center of it is you, and that makes it worthwhile.” He would believe that. He had to.

  Simon kissed him back. “Okay. And a lot better than okay.”

  ****

  Work at the vet clinic was a good distraction. Paul checked on the few kenneled animals who were staying the weekend, and paused to give the clinic cats some loving. The younger two were willing to chase their catnip mice across the floor when he jiggled and tossed them. Old Sally gave him a disdainful glare from her slightly-crossed eyes, until he took the hint to rub her cheeks, scratch her arched back and refill her bowl. It was all so normal.

  Lucas seemed nice enough. Could you call a werewolf nice? He looked like a man in his forties, which presumably meant he was a lot older. He'd given Paul a nod and a firm handshake, and then insisted on driving his own car to the clinic and patrolling in his own way. He was out there somewhere. Paul wondered if looking out the clinic window would give him a glimpse of a middle-aged man in a dark parka or an improbably big wolf. He didn't check.

  It took half an hour of mouse-tossing, and a bribe of extra loose catnip, before the younger cats were done playing, and settled in a heap, grooming each other and purring in a slightly drunken slur. Paul picked up Sally and retreated to his office. She deigned to curl up on his lap and sleep, while he did paperwork and read journals. His coffee got cold, but getting more would have meant displacing her and it wasn't worth the effort. He stroked her rounded back gently and she twitched an ear in response. Her fur was warm velvet under his fingers.

  A dog barked, back in the kennel, but it sounded more like boredom than alarm. Paul's heart rate settled back to normal. He set his journal aside and closed his eyes. Had Simon sensed that, the instant of surprise and alarm? Could Paul's freaking mate somehow feel the texture of Sally's coat, taste the stale coffee?

  Paul tried to reach out with his mind toward Simon. He really had no clue what the hell he was doing. Simon. THAT WAY. Like a ribbon of light behind his closed lids, the something that was Simon led off into infinite darkness. Eyes still closed, Paul raised his hand to point towards it. He opened his eyes. His finger pointed just left of the poster of dog dental hygiene on the west wall. Hm.

  He pushed his rolling chair away from the desk and spun it around. Sally yowled in surprise, dug her claws into his leg, and jumped down in high offense. From sanctuary under his desk, she paused to wash her paw and glare at him.

  “Sorry I made you sound like a frightened chicken, your Majesty,” he said.

  She gave her paw another lick, to show her unconcern, before stalking out of the room. Paul closed his eyes and spun the chair until he felt dizzy. Eyes screwed shut, he felt for that shining ribbon of Simon again. THAT WAY. He opened his eyes. Sure enough, he was pointing right at the signs of early gum disease.

  He tried to blank his mind and sense what Simon was feeling. It was hard to tell. A little apprehension? A hint of hunger? But Paul had missed his own lunch. Maybe that was just him. Simon's shoulder had still been scabbed and sore that morning. Could he feel that pain? After a long moment of mental navel-gazing Paul decided he felt nothing that couldn't simply be imagination. But... THAT WAY. Whatever else was or wasn't true, he knew as surely as the beat of his own heart that Simon was there, west and slightly north, at the end of that ribbon of light.

  He made himself go back to the computer and pull up work. The heartworm reminders needed to be adjusted for the new protocol. He rested his chin on one hand and began browsing the files, pecking at the keyboard to change a word here and there.

  The sound of knocking made him jump. He jerked his head up, and smacked the keyboard with his elbow. His dormant screen came back to life, and he realized he'd been drowsing, with his head down on his desk. His fingers tingled with returning circulation.

  The knocking came again, from out front at the main door. As he stood quickly, he realized he knew perfectly well who was summoning him so loudly. Sure enough, Simon stood on the doorstep, hands cupped around his face to see in through the glass. Paul pulled out his key and unlocked the door. “Impatient much?”

  “You didn't answer my text, or the first two times I knocked. I was getting worried.”

  Paul was going to say something about working, but Simon's warm kiss drove the thought from his brain. He swayed forward, relishing the mix of cold clothes and warm skin, of a cool dry hand on the nape of his neck and a hot, wet tongue exploring his mouth. Mmm. Nice.

  When he shivered, though, Simon pushed him back inside and pulled the door shut behind them. “Come on, babe. Pack meeting in thirty. Shut things down and get your coat.”

  “It's that late?”

  Simon chuckled. “You really get caught up in your work, don't you? Yeah, it is. Can I help?”

  “No.” Paul tried to gather his sleep-scattered wits. Or maybe his Simon-scattered wits, because what he really wanted right now was to pull Simon back into a dark corner and try that kiss again. “No, the kennel worker will be in later and she'll take care of things. I just need to shut down the office.”