Jacks, Marcy - Eli's Reluctant Mate [DeWitt's Pack 5] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) (8 page)

see.”

Shit. Chris turned tail and immediately ran. A hyena-like laugh followed behind him before he ran smack into the hard chest of one of

his pursuers. He fell backward, landing hard on his back, and the wind

was knocked clear out of him.

They were fast. He hadn’t even seen that one get in front of him.

He didn’t even have the chance to suck in a breath before one of

them was sitting on his chest, and now he really couldn’t breathe. He  tried to push the man off of him, but his arms were grabbed and  pushed down into the dead leaves and dirt by one of the other men.

“Let’s see those pretty little eyes of yours,” said the man on top of  him, and Chris got an up close look at the filthy, blunt fingertips as they came down on him and pried his eyelids apart. For a hair of a  second, Chris was able to forget about the fact that he couldn’t  breathe, as he was too focused on being grossed out by the man’s  brown fingernails.

“He doesn’t look so good,” one of them  said. “He looks like he’s  turning blue.”

“He’s fine,” said the man squishing down on Chris’s chest. “Look  at those eyes. That’s a pretty shade of blue right there if you want to  see some real blue.”

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“No, really, look at him. I don’t think he can breathe.”

“He’s right,” said the first man, the one with the buzz cut and

authoritative voice. “Get off of him.”

Thankfully, the command was obeyed, and Chris was able to roll onto his side and cough a couple of times. It took a minute for his lungs to start expanding and contracting again, but when they did, he screamed as loud as he could.

It wasn’t that loud at all, unfortunately.
 
“Help!”

“Christ, someone shut him up. We’re not that far away from the other pack,” Buzz Cut said, and that dirty hand was suddenly pressing down on his mouth, squeezing his jaw.

Chris bucked and kicked, trying to get the other man off of him.

The guy only moaned a little. “Keep doing that, precious. Feels nice.”

Chris abruptly stopped.

“So he’s good luck, eh?”

“Supposed to be for whoever takes him.”

“I’ve got him first, so I get to fuck him first.”

“Correction,” said Buzz Cut, “I do. You will wash your filthy body before you even think about putting your cock into any of his orifices.”

Chris fought against the urge to cry like some helpless girl. What the hell was wrong with him? He and Dean were never that close to begin with, so why did he have to go looking for him? Why did Chris have to come to the one town in the whole world where everyone wanted to gang-rape him?

The blade of a knife was suddenly pressed under his right eye, and  Chris went blind with panic.

“Get that away from his eyes!” Buzz Cut snapped.

“But the eyes are what’s lucky,” said the other man, the one not holding his filthy hands over Chris’s mouth. “I know how we can pickle them. We can keep them with us all the time.”

The man on top of him made a disgusted sound. “I don’t think

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he’ll look as pretty with no eyes.”

“Indeed,” said Buzz Cut. “Leave them where they are. You might

destroy any luck they have if you remove them from the host.”

Thank God the blade of the knife was pulled away from Chris’s

eyes.

Not so great was when the man on top of him started fumbling

with Chris’s belt.

He squeezed his eyes shut. Not again…

Something hard whacked into the back of the guy’s head, and he squawked indignantly at Buzz Cut. The stronger man only glared down at him. “I said I was going first.”

“But I caught him!” the other man complained.

Buzz Cut glared down at him, and Chris could’ve sworn he’d heard the other man whine like a kicked dog.

Corey and Tristan had explained this to him. They said that even though there was always more than one alpha in a pack, there was always one alpha to lead the others, and he was the one who had to frequently put the others in their place, otherwise risk losing control.

James DeWitt was the leading alpha of Eli’s pack, and it looked like Buzz Cut here was the one in charge of these two.

“You can carry him back to our camp,” Buzz said. “That’s as much as you will handle him until I say so. You don’t even like men anyway.”

“No,” the man agreed. “But this is different. He’s different.”

Chris squirmed as the guy’s meaty hands began caressing him again. Buzz punched the guy upside the head again, making him cry out and stop.

“Keep your filthy―”

A gray blur smashed into Buzz’s side, cutting off whatever it was he was about to say. As one, the two other men ran after him, trying to help him.

Chris got up and saw the way the huge wolf was tearing into  Buzz’s neck and shoulders until blood spurted like water from a

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broken pipe.

It was the same wolf from before, when Chris had been attacked

the first time. It was Eli.

“Look out!” he yelled as the two other men transformed. The one  changed so quickly that his clothes were shredded in the process. The  other actually took the time to remove his shirt and pants before  getting down on his hands and knees. For some reason, the change  seemed to come onto him much slower, and Chris could practically  watch the tough hair growing from out of his pores as his muscles

grew.

Buzz was done for. Chris didn’t think he was getting up again,  and Eli turned just as the other wolf leaped onto him, and a new fight  began.

One-on-one was one thing, but Chris didn’t know how Eli would  fare with two wolves jumping all over him, biting and  clawing at him  until he was dead like Buzz down there.

Chris found a heavy rock in the earth, picked it up, and ran up

behind the other half-transformed man.

He didn’t notice Chris coming until it was too late, and Chris smashed the rock down on the wolf-man’s hairy forehead.

There was a sickening crunch, and the moss growing on the rock made it difficult to grip, and he dropped it right after making impact.

The guy was definitely dead, his limp body in some strange in-between of man and wolf, a huge indent in the head.

Another dog whine sounded, and the body of the wolf that Eli had been fighting with dropped limply to the ground.

Chris stayed on his knees in front of his own kill, staring at the wolf in front of him.

Eli had blood all over his face, and he was panting heavily. He

didn’t pass out like the last time, though.

Maybe he spoke too soon. Eli stumbled and fell over, his body  shifting back into a naked man. It was strange how used to seeing his  body Chris was becoming.

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Though his legs were shaking like crazy, his entire body still pumping adrenaline, he managed to make it over to Eli’s side. He was careful not to touch him.

He was definitely awake this time. Probably just exhausted. His breathing said as much. “You all right?”

No
. “Fine.”

Eli nodded  then bit his lower lip. His jaw trembled like he was about to start crying. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it.”

“It wasn’t your fault. You were right. I shouldn’t be out here by myself.”

“Not for that.” He managed to laugh a little while fighting back tears. “James is gonna want to talk to you about that. I meant before.”

Chris inhaled deeply. “You didn't do anything wrong. It was…It was me. Let’s get you back home.”

“I would never hurt you,” Eli said.

“I believe you. Come on, try and get on your feet now. I don’t want to drag you all the way again like the last time.”

* * * *

They made it back safely enough, and the first thing Eli did was pull himself away from Chris and hobble back to his own house before anyone could come up to him and start asking questions.

Mostly he just wanted to be alone with his shame. Chris had said that Eli was forgiven, and for some reason had said he was the one to blame. He’d probably only said that it was okay because he felt grateful that Eli had come for him and fought off those weres.

Meanwhile, Eli had been the reason Chris was attacked again to begin with, and Eli doubted he would have been so lucky as to defeat all of them if Chris hadn’t snuck up on that other were with a rock in midtransformation.

Let Chris tell James what had happened. Eli wanted to be alone.

He slammed the door to his cabin and went straight for the kitchen

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cupboard under the sink. He grabbed the first bottle he saw. It was a

little more than half full. It would have to do.

Just as he lifted the bottle to his mouth, he caught sight of one of the framed photos of himself and Eric, still propped up on the counter from when Eli had put it there the last time he’d been home.

His hand shook around the bottle as he looked into the smiling eyes of his brother. Eli smiled, too, and he and Eric were proudly showing off their fishing catches to the camera.

He reached out and flipped the photo down, not wanting Eric to watch him drink himself stupid. Even though it was only a picture.

He took a long swallow of the whiskey, letting it burn all the way down his throat and into his stomach.

You should have been his mate. Not me
, he thought, putting his

head back and taking another long swallow.

He sat down in one of his kitchen chairs. Both the table and the

two chairs had seen better days.

Eric was always the most sensitive of the two of them. On the few  times when they went out, sometimes sharing the men, or women,  they picked up, Eli had always seen the gentlemanly way Eric had  treated his partners, even when he’d had his dick in their mouths.

He never would have misread the signs Chris was sending him as  badly as Eli had done. He never would have been that rough.

Don’t think about it. It’ll be okay soon. Don’t think about it.

“God, I wish I had some ice for this shit.”

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Chapter Seven

“Well, it’s not like you’re officially part of this pack yet, so I can’t  exactly punish you for running off like that when it was explained to  you the dangers that would be lurking out there,” James DeWitt, the  pack leader in charge of  this camp of werewolves, said. Words like  that were supposed to be comforting, but it was the way he said it, and  the tone he used, that made Chris feel a whole lot of shame for his

actions.

He was a grown man. He should have known better than to just

run  off like that, and he felt the need to apologize. “I’m sorry that one  of your friends was put in danger because of what I did.”

James looked at him, and that scarred face of his made it difficult  for Chris to tell whether or not he was being glared at. “Why did you  run off? No one here has threatened to hurt you, as far as I know, nor  would they. Intentionally,” he added, hastily.

Chris pressed his lips together, forcing himself to keep his eyes  locked onto the man in front of him. He was not weak or small  or

helpless, and he wouldn’t act like he was either.

“Corey tells me that he left you with Eli. What happened out

there?”

Chris almost took a step back in his shock. This guy didn’t politely beat around the bush. He wanted an answer, so he asked for it straight out. “That’s not your business.”

“No?” James folded his arms, but Chris got the feeling that he wasn’t being challenged. Measured up, most likely. “By your reaction, I’m going to assume that he attempted to mate with you and finish your bonding process. You got scared and ran. Am I right?”

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“No!” Chris snapped. “We are not mated, and there’s no bonding  going on between us.”

James’s brows, what little of them there were, shot up. “Did no  one explain this to you?”

“Eli might’ve mentioned something about  it,” Chris muttered.  “But I’m not a werewolf. I don’t mate.”
 
Not with other men
.

James rubbed his face with the palm of his hand. “I can see this wasn’t explained to you properly.”

“You can’t force me to marry anyone, or to stay here,” Chris said.  It wasn’t a good idea to get defensive in front of this man, and he knew it, but he just couldn’t help the way his fists clenched up.

“No one is saying that. And being mated isn’t the same thing as being married.”