Breaking the Bonds

  Seeing River motioning to him, Josiah smiled and held up a finger signaling he’d be there in a moment. River growled impatiently.

  “Cool it. He doesn’t know what’s going on,” David muttered.

  “It should be enough that I want him to get over here,” River said irritably.

  “Yeah, well, that he-man stuff has never gone over well with Josiah, has it?”

  River’s lips twitched. “That’s an understatement.”

  “Move out of the way.” Oaks’ voice came from behind them, and David glanced back to see the man standing with his partner and two other federal agents.

  “How the fuck did you get here so fast?”

  “Rather than wasting time trying to convince you two to stay like my partner, I got the car,” Kumar said. “That’s Barrens in the suit and tie. We’re going to suggest he come with us without causing a scene.”

  David was glad to see neither Josiah nor Sid were anywhere near Stephen Barrens.

  “While you’re doing that, I’m going to get my mate,” River announced and headed toward Josiah without waiting for the agent’s reply.

  Oaks followed Kumar toward Barrens. David split his attention between River obviously trying to convince Josiah to come with him while Josiah seemed to be arguing that he had other plans, and the four FBI agents speaking to Barrens. David tensed when something flickered in Barrens’ eyes, but the doctor went with the agents without a fuss.

  Thinking the situation had ended surprisingly easily, David watched River escort his frowning mate across the room, Sid and another man following in their wake.

  Josiah looked furious. “I’m glad the night went well, but I swear, this is getting ridiculous. You do not need to check up on me.”

  “Where is Dr. Barrens going? He was about to speak!” Sid looked confused.

  “He’s being taken in for questioning,” David said.

  “About what?” the man with Sid demanded.

  In the hall, the agents had handcuffed Barrens and were leading him out the back door. A buzz building in the banquet room told David word was spreading.

  “You can’t treat him that way!” someone yelled. “He’s trying to help us!” Several people started for the hallway.

  “Stay back!” David tried to hold them in the room. They didn’t need any shifters arrested for obstructing justice. The other two FBI agents lingered at the exit, ready to deter the crowd, although David knew if the young shifters got riled enough, two men wouldn’t be enough to hold them back and then they’d have a mess on their hands.

  “What’s he done?” Josiah asked, looking to River.

  “I’ll explain when we get home,” River put his arm around Josiah’s shoulders. “Let’s go.”

  “I need to make an announcement the event is over and close the place up.” Josiah broke away from his alpha and headed back into the room, but River grabbed the omega by the arm.

  “Oh, no you don’t. Let Sid or someone else handle that.”

  Josiah’s eyes flashed, but he turned to the man with Sid. “Grier? Will you please make the announcement?”

  While Grier headed for the podium, Josiah turned back to River. “I can’t just leave. I have to wait for the place to empty out, so I can lock up the building. I’m in charge.” He looked toward the back door, but the agents were gone. “Barrens is involved?”

  River nodded. “The feds seem to think he is.”

  Josiah turned to David. “Is Jax okay?”

  David nodded. “Yeah. He’s good.”

  The crowd began to leave, rumors flying. Most seemed to think Barrens had been arrested for trying to help the shifters.

  “None of them realize he’s a shifter himself,” Josiah said.

  “He’s what?” River frowned.

  “Barrens told us he’s a turned shifter who was left by his mate. He takes suppressants to keep himself from shifting and running under the moon. He believes these suppressants will help the shifter community integrate more easily. I’m not sure I’m fully convinced he means us harm.”

  “Don’t you think it’s a little weird he’s working on suppressants when they’ve been uncovered as the weapon of the faction?” David asked.

  “It could be a coincidence. Or they could be using him,” Josiah said, well aware he’d been arguing the other side with Sid earlier. He wasn’t sure what to think. Although originally human, Barrens was now a shifter and unlikely to turn against his kind.

  The place cleared out, and after Hanson and Sid had packed up the food, Josiah locked the doors and walked with David and River to the Mustang, the three shifters continuing to argue.

  David dropped River and Josiah off at the pack house and drove back to the hospital. He had to see Jax. Talk to him. Hold him.

  In the emergency room, the second alpha tracked down Dr. Newman and was told the omegas were detoxifying from the drug they’d been given without any problems. The FBI had begun interviewing them one by one as soon as they were clear-headed enough to talk.

  “David!”

  David turned to see Keith rushing toward him.

  “I just heard. Was Trevor among the omegas brought here?”

  “I don’t know. I haven’t seen them.”

  Angela stepped forward. “If you’ll come with me, we can easily find out.” She led Keith to see the omegas before David could ask if she knew where Jax had gone.

  After a little searching, David found Austin at a snack machine. The alpha cursed that it had stolen his money, knocked it with his hip, and grunted in satisfaction when a packet of crackers fell to the opening. He appeared much calmer than he had earlier.

  “How’s Nick?” David asked after turning down a cracker from the other alpha.

  “He seems okay—doesn’t remember much,” Austin said. “I got to sit with him a while. He’s in a room because he’s still got a lot of drugs in his system. He fell asleep. I’m going back in there to sit with him.”

  “Do you know where Jax went?”

  “Home.”

  “Home?”

  Austin shrugged. “I don’t know. I thought I heard him say that’s where he was going.”

  “I should have stayed with him,” David grumbled as he pulled out his phone. When Brooks answered at the pack house and said Jax wasn’t there, David wasn’t sure what to do. Jax might have gone to his parents’, but David doubted it, as Jax wasn’t very close to them.

  Now that he knew Nick was okay, there was nothing for David to do at the hospital. He told Austin to call if he needed anything and left. Instead of heading home, though, he turned the car toward downtown. Perhaps Jax had gone to the house he’d shared with Blake Parker. If he had, David wanted to get him out of there. Jax belonged with his family, and that was David, Brooks, and Jarrod-Grant.

  Chapter 25: Jax

  Jax had to get out of there. All those agents knew what he’d been doing—hell, they’d gotten it on film. He felt dirty and fucking humiliated, even though he’d chosen to offer himself up to Parker. He hadn’t been willing to see what the sadist would do to Nick if given the chance to show off for Jax. Jax was relieved when David had to rush out with River because he didn’t think he could take another minute of the alpha’s worried looks.

  After that first night at the Omega Oasis, he’d always known he couldn’t go back to his lovers. He felt permanently stained and so far from the man he’d been when he’d lived at the pack house, it wasn’t funny.

  And David had seen him in that horrible place. On his knees, with Parker’s cock in his mouth. Humiliation burned in Jax’s gut. To be seen by his lover servicing that evil man…God, it had been difficult to look the alpha in the face after that. In fact, Jax was sure he hadn’t; he’d just hung onto David like a lifeline. The alpha hadn’t stopped touching Jax until the moment he’d left the hospital with River, and Jax had absorbed the comfort for what it was—the last he’d ever receive.

  Jax knew he’d been lucky the feds had come in before Parker had moved on to the
main event, and that Parker had wasted a lot of time giving Jax a detailed description of what he had planned for him, even though the words still echoed in Jax’s mind and probably would for the rest of his life. The man had left no doubt that he’d have his ass plowed in the most submissive way possible.

  Jax reminded himself his ordeal was over. Everything. Senator Parker and Blake were in federal custody, and more arrests were being made. The omega victims were at the hospital being taken care of. Jax wouldn’t have to sleep another night with Blake Parker or pretend for one more moment that he wasn’t sympathetic to the shifters.

  He was free.

  As expected, the house was quiet when he let himself in. Jax immediately undressed and headed for the shower, turning on the water as hot as he could stand it and scrubbing until his skin felt raw. After he’d dried off, he brushed his teeth three times and still couldn’t get the taste of Parker out of his mouth. Jax closed his eyes, grimacing at the memory of the man rubbing his thumb over Jax’s lips when they’d been wrapped around the man’s cock, then reverently touching Jax’s hollowed cheeks, a look of pure lust and domination in his eyes.

  A sudden wave of nausea arose up Jax’s throat, and he vomited in the sink, retching until he thought he’d choke.

  Tears streaking his cheeks, he blew his nose and brushed his teeth a fourth time before wrapping himself in a robe and pouring himself a brandy. Outside, the night was warm and still. Jax stretched out in a lounger by the lit pool and stared up into the star-filled sky, feeling numb.

  Jax wasn’t sure how long he’d sat there nursing the brandy when the unexpected sound of a car motor had him turning to look over his shoulder. When he saw David climb out of the Mustang, he couldn’t help the anticipation that mounted within him.

  When David spotted Jax in the lounge chair, the alpha slowed his steps toward the house. The lights strung around the pool area reflected off the alpha’s light blond hair. He looked like a fucking avenging angel, and that’s what he was—Jax’s avenging angel. Want and need built within Jax.

  “I wondered if you’d come back here. It’s over, Jax.”

  A shiver ran up Jax’s spine at the sound of David’s voice, low, soft, and calm. He loved that voice.

  Jax tore his eyes away from David and took another sip of brandy. “It’s never going to be over for me.”

  David unlatched the gate and came to stand beside Jax’s chair. Just having the alpha so close brought Jax alive.

  It’s been too long.

  David rubbed his finger over Jax’s cheek. “What do you mean? Of course, it’s over. They’ve arrested the men responsible, including that odious prick you married.”

  Jax couldn’t help smiling at David’s words. The alpha had hated Blake even before he’d known what the man was involved in. He’d been jealous—as if anyone could hold a candle to what David meant to Jax.

  David stroked Jax’s hair, gently tugging on the long dreads, still damp from the shower. “Come home with me. You can’t stay here, where you lived with that monster. Brooks wants to see you.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Of course you can. We’ve missed you.” David sat on the edge of Jax’s chair.

  The earnestness on the alpha’s face was like a stab to Jax’s heart.

  “You don’t know what I’ve done.”

  “I know you’ve been married to a man you despise and what that had to entail.”

  “Sleeping with Blake is the least of what I’ve done, David. You don’t know.”

  “Look, I know…”

  “I don’t want to talk about it.”

  “Jax.” The alpha’s voice broke, and fuck, Jax couldn’t have that.

  Setting his glass on the pavement, Jax sat up, moving his legs to the outside of David’s so their thighs pressed together. Placing his hand on each side of the alpha’s face, Jax looked into the dark eyes he loved, thumbs caressing the stern, stubble-covered jaw.

  “Don’t be upset. I screwed us up from the start, David. I’m so sorry.”

  David latched onto Jax’s wrists with his hands, dark eyes troubled. “You talk like it’s over for us.”

  It was all Jax could do not to look away from that frank gaze.

  “I left, remember? Long before I decided to go undercover. It wasn’t working.”

  “It was. You know it was. I couldn’t help how I acted when Brooks was carrying, but that’s over now. He’ll only have the one child. That won’t ever happen again.”

  David’s thumbs caressed the inside of Jax’s wrists, and Jax shuddered. He couldn’t hide how hard he was beneath the robe—how much he wanted David. As though the alpha could read his mind, David let go of Jax and pulled his shirt over his head. Jax’s gaze roamed over David’s broad, muscular chest before dipping down to where the alpha was unbuckling his pants.

  “We can’t,” Jax said hoarsely.

  “I need this. I need you.” David stood pulled his jeans down to his feet, putting the alpha’s erect cock inches from Jax’s face.

  Jax took a deep breath of him, fighting the urge to suck that big cock into his mouth and take it down deep. He shouldn’t start something up again; it would only make it more difficult when he had to leave.

  David held a hand out to Jax. It hovered in the air as Jax hesitated.

  “Please, Jax,” David whispered, and just like that, Jax gave up the fight.

  Taking the alpha’s hand, he stood, the lounger making a scraping noise against the pavement as Jax pushed it away. David opened Jax’s robe and pushed it off his shoulders, letting it drop to the ground.

  Jax stood, arms at his sides, breathing heavily. A light breeze played over his skin, and Jax watched it ruffle David’s hair. Between their bodies, their cocks brushed against each other, and Jax gasped.

  “Fuck,” David said, and a growl vibrated from deep inside the alpha’s chest up the long column of his throat. The sound seemed to vibrate in Jax’s balls.

  As though on cue, the two men crashed together, mouths opening hungrily, hands all over bare skin. Jax grasped at muscle and firm ass as David sucked and licked at his mouth, one hand clenched in Jax’s long hair and the other pressed against the small of his back.

  Pulling away, Jax took David’s hand and led the alpha to the pool. Jax saw David’s small frown of confusion just before he dove into the water. When he came up, he beckoned David to follow.

  With barely a splash, David joined him. They swam to the edge, mouths coming together as soon as they reached it.

  “Turn around,” Jax said, his own voice sounding foreign to his ears. David didn’t hesitate, and God, that made Jax even harder than he already was.

  “Need you. Missed this.” David folded his arms on the side of the pool and spread his long legs beneath the water.

  Jax trailed a finger down David’s spine straight to his waiting hole: the hole nobody took but Jax. When his fingertip breached the small pucker, the alpha’s moan almost made Jax lose control. He took a deep breath and circled his finger, carefully stretching.

  “I don’t need that,” David said gruffly. “Come on.”

  Jax withdrew his finger and replaced it with his cock, steadily pushing inside the tight heat, body draped over David’s and mouth kissing and licking at the alpha’s neck. It had been so long. So, fucking long.

  “Oh, gods, oh, yes…” David leaned his neck to the side, and Jax knew the movement for what it was. David wanted Jax to bite him. Jax didn’t have fangs—he wasn’t a shifter—but the symbolism of the act sent a shudder down his spine. Was David, who had feared the term “alpha bitch” so much the thought of becoming one had almost ruined their relationship, really offering himself in full submission to Jax? When Jax was balls deep inside the alpha, he paused, licking and nibbling at David’s neck as the alpha panted and squirmed on Jax’s cock.

  “David…”

  “Please, Jax,” David moaned. “Please.”

  Withdrawing his cock to the tip, Jax closed his eyes and slammed b
ack inside the alpha. He did it again, and again, trying to ignore the soft expanse of David’s neck still turned to him. Fuck, he wanted to bite it. He was a man—it wouldn’t mean anything; except, Jax knew it would. Between them it would.

  David grunted with Jax’s every thrust, pushing back hard, making Jax see stars.

  “Harder, fuck harder!” David said on a moan. A light came on in the house next door.

  “Shh.” Jax covered David’s mouth with his hand and slowed his strokes until the light turned off again. David licked Jax’s palm, tongue warm and wet. At that moment, there were so many things Jax wanted to do to the alpha, but he was so fucking close…

  Jax breathed heavily into David’s neck and then sunk his teeth into the skin as his climax ripped through him. He felt the alpha stiffen, clenching around him, felt David’s chest expand beneath his forearm. His teeth hadn’t broken the skin, but Jax had made a mark, and before he pulled away, he licked at it, running his tongue over the blunt indentions as light flashed behind Jax’s eyelids, and goosebumps erupted over his skin. Thrusts becoming erratic, Jax let out a sob as intense pleasure consumed him. When it was over, he sagged against David, their bodies still joined.

  “Holy shit,” David whispered, and Jax felt a chuckle roll through the alpha. A moment later, they were both laughing, Jax draped over David’s back.

  David hissed as Jax pulled out of him then turned around and pulled Jax close, pressing their cheeks together.

  “You don’t know how much I needed that,” David murmured into Jax’s ear.

  “Oh, I think I do,” Jax said, trailing his fingers over David’s back.

  “But why the pool? We could have drowned,” David said, and Jax could hear the smile in the alpha’s voice.

  Jax pulled back and kissed David’s mouth, sucking on his lover’s full lips and running his tongue everywhere he could reach. Seconds later, the sound of a motor had him pulling away, and for one brief moment, he forgot Blake was no longer in the picture and thought the man had arrived home.