Lewis's Dream [Brac Pack 10] (10 page)

“Not happening.”

Evan grinned. Hell if the detective wasn’t smart. He even knew what he was thinking about.

They spent the rest of the day that way, with Lewis going over notes and Evan ogling him, wishing he could pull Lewis into the
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janitor’s closet. By quitting time, Evan was ready to nail his hard cock into his mate’s soft hole. Fuck, he was horny.

“It’s your own damn fault, shouldn’t be such a dirty old man.” Lewis grabbed his jacket. They were heading over to the diner for dinner. Everything was in walking distance once you got into town.

Evan patted his ass as they walked out of the station, wishing they had just a little more privacy.

They walked down to the diner, Evan trying to grope Lewis as his mate stayed an arm’s length away. They entered the diner with Lewis protecting his butt from being pinched again.

“Hey, Keata.” Lewis took a seat at the counter with Evan sitting right next to him, still horny as hell.

“Hi, Lewis.”

“Find anything out about the man in Melonee’s room?” Cody asked as he straightened.

“Nothing yet.”

Just then a man walked through the door. Lewis jumped up and tackled the stranger.

Evan and Cody ran over, grabbed the downed man, and dragged him into the kitchen. Thank goodness the diner was empty of customers at the moment.

“Mind telling me why we just hauled a stranger in here?” Evan asked as Cody pinned the guy’s arms behind his back.

“He’s the one that was in Melonee’s room. You’re under arrest, pal.” Lewis pulled his cuffs out.

Evan cocked his arm back and decked the intruder, knocking him unconscious. George handed them some twine, binding the guy’s hands and feet.

“Oh, hell no. You are not dumping him in my trunk. I’m not going to jail for kidnapping. I’m too pretty,” Lewis said.

Evan and Cody rolled their eyes, pulling the unconscious man out of Lewis’s trunk and dumping him into the bed of Evan’s truck. Evan turned to his mate. “Either you can go back to the station, acting as
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though you know nothing about this, or you can follow me. Those are the only two choices at the moment.” Lewis looked between the two wolves. “Are you sure Cecil didn’t beat that guy up?”

“No. Now which choice are you taking?” Cody walked through the back door of the diner, leaving the two alone.

Evan opened the driver’s door and waited on his answer.

* * * *

“Damn it, I’m with you.” Lewis cursed his stupidity the whole ride to the Den. Apparently Cody had called ahead. Maverick and a few Sentries were already waiting outside. Maverick had a look about him that screamed demon from hell.

“Follow me,” Maverick ordered the wolves as they pulled the unconscious man from the truck. Lewis’s eyes widened when Maverick pushed something on the bookshelf in his office and a secret passageway was revealed. He followed them down, stopping in a small room with dirt walls. A chair was sitting in the center, and a lantern was on the floor. Lights had lit up the passageway so Lewis assumed the lantern was for special effects only.

“Lewis, stay behind him. I don’t want you losing your job,” Maverick instructed as he had the man dumped unceremoniously into the chair.

Lewis did as instructed. That part of him that was cop was screaming in his head to take the perpetrator in, follow procedure by the book, and not let the wolves have him. Then he thought of little Melonee’s face and how this man would probably walk after screaming for a lawyer. He leaned against the dirt wall, crossing his arms over his chest and just observed.

Maverick smacked the hand of god down on the stranger’s face, the sound of skin on skin echoing throughout the chamber.

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“I don’t think that’s gonna wake him up. Maybe you busted a few teeth and broke his jaw, though,” Hawk stated.

“No, but it felt damn good.” He looked at the stranger. “That’s for scaring my Melonee.” Maverick began to walk away. “Let me know when he wakes up. I doubt if he will be able to open that eye from the looks of it.”

Lewis peeked around to the man’s face. Evan had blackened both eyes and broken his nose with one punch. Damn, his man was hot when he was forceful.

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Chapter Seven

The perpetrator sat there with his jaw stubbornly set. After hours of interrogation, they were no closer to finding out why he had been in Melonee’s room.

From the methods Maverick used, Lewis was grateful down to his core that he wasn’t the one sitting in that chair. The Alpha in full torture mode was a force to be reckoned with.

“I ain’t telling you fucking fleabags shit,” he finally spat out when Maverick used his latest creative way to make him talk. Lewis would have been singing like a canary hours ago. The stranger had some balls. Lewis would give him that.

“Fleabag? So you know we’re wolves. Interesting.” Maverick turned to Commander Hawk. “Go get Jason. Let’s see if a wolf from the Eastern pack can identify this piece of shit.” Twenty minutes later, Lewis looked up as he heard footsteps approaching.

“You!” Jason leapt forward, jumping onto the man and punching him repeatedly. Maverick grabbed the Sentry under his arms, hauling him off of their prisoner. Jason kicked the scumbag in the head before he was out of reach.

“He killed my brother!” Jason shouted at Maverick.

“Who is he?” the Alpha asked calmly.

“One of Jackson’s followers.” Jason leaned forward and spat in the wolf’s face.

Evan had explained to Lewis that Jackson was the former Alpha of the Eastern pack, defeated by Zeus. He had tried to kidnap Maverick and Hawk’s mates, but Oliver brought him down, enabling
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his reign of madness to end, or so they thought. A small number of the pack had broken off, with some following Jackson instead of staying with the new Alpha.

“Why would Jackson’s men want Melonee?” Jason turned to Maverick. “He used to make me do a lot of his dirty work, and when I refused, he had me beaten by three or four of his men. If I know him, he wants to use her as bait. Didn’t Oliver bring him down?”

Maverick nodded.

“He’ll take her. Use her to trade for Oliver.” Jason spat again at the glaring man in the chair. Maverick roared in the man’s face, his canines fully extended as his eyes turned red as blood. He was half changed, and it was the scariest shit Lewis had ever seen in his life.

The Alpha slammed the man across the room, and no one interfered. No one was suicidal enough to try. “Call Zeus and hand him over before I snap his fucking neck,” Maverick commanded as he stormed from the chamber.

“Fuck me, man.” Lewis stayed where he was. If even the tiniest part of his brain ever thought of pissing that man off, the scene that just took place froze that thought permanently.

* * * *

The house was in full lockdown mode, and Maverick himself had called Lewis’s captain, getting him excused for the week. The diner had been closed. A sign hanging out front stated they were on vacation and would return in a week, and Frank was sent on a real vacation to get him away from town.

Maverick was on the phone with Zeus, coordinating a wide search for Jackson, who they had learned escaped. If he was still giving orders, then the wolf had to be in the area somewhere to know about Melonee and which room was hers.

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Maverick had Loco and Tangee change rooms, putting them, and Melonee, on the ground floor close to his bedroom. The Alpha wasn’t playing when it came to her safety.

A few followers were caught in the traps they set, but Jackson was still out there somewhere. Although Melonee was Tangee’s sister, Maverick kept her by his side. The only time she wasn’t with the Alpha was when Tangee bathed her or at her bedtime. They considered telling Olivia, Tangee and Melonee’s mom, what was going on, but with her recovery just starting, they didn’t want to worry her. They did inform Tangee’s uncle, the man taking care of Olivia, of the situation.

They promised to keep him updated.

* * * *

Lewis rubbed his eyes and yawned as he closed the bedroom door quietly, intending to go downstairs for something to drink, when he heard small yowling noises coming in his direction.

Creeping forward in his pajama pants and bare feet, Lewis rounded the corner to find what looked like a baby tiger coming at him.

Throwing his hands in front of him, he said, “Okay, kitty, no need to be alarmed.” The tiger tilted its head sideways, watching him.

He knew wolves lived here, and he also knew for a fact it was wolves after the little tyke, so how did a cat tie into this? Lewis took a step back as the tiger tried to pad toward him. He braced himself when it leapt.

Lewis started to wrap his arms around its neck to protect himself when the cat started licking him in his face then rolled off of him onto its back and started twisting its body around, playfully batting at him.

“What is going on here?” Lewis asked as he reached over and scratched behind its ears. The tiger lapped at his hand, pouncing on him then rolled around.

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He didn’t remember taking a drink. Maybe he was still asleep in Evan’s arms and was dreaming all of this.

The tiger nipped at his pants, batting at his feet.

“There you are.” Cody came around the corner. “Stop scaring Lewis.”

“House pet?”

Cody laughed. “No, my mate.”

“Keata is a tiger?” Boy, he must be drunk. Things just got more and more bizarre around here the longer he stayed. It felt as though he had stumbled into another world. Well, technically, he had, but a tiger?

“He and his brother Keata are tiger-shifters from Japan. We didn’t discover this until after they were mated. Seems the mating triggered it.”

“Wait.” Lewis held his hand up. “I thought they were cousins?” Cody sat down while Keata nuzzled him on his lap, and Cody scratched his belly. “Shifter genes are carried by the male. The theory is that the same tiger-shifter was lying with numerous women, trying to populate his area with his seed. He impregnated both Kyoshi and Keata’s mother’s unbeknownst to them that the same man lay with both. We can’t prove it since Keata’s mom died giving birth to him, and Kyoshi’s mom has passed on as well, so the secret died with both woman.”

Lewis scratched his jaw. “So they really are cousins, but they’re brothers, too. Sounds kinda backwoods to me.” Cody smiled. “They’re so used to referring to each other as cousins that they automatically introduce themselves that way. We know the truth, so that’s all that matters.”

“I guess.” Lewis reached over, tugging on Keata’s tail as it swished back and forth. “It’s funny. I can honestly say now I pulled a tiger by its tail.”

Keata yowled over at Lewis, batting at his own tail. He rolled off of Cody’s lap, wrestling with it.

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Both men laughed as they watched Keata try to best it, but his tail seemed to outwit him. “Anymore magical creatures I should be aware of?”

“Nah, just dogs and cats. Well, there are you humans.” Cody chuckled as Lewis flipped him off.

Keata batted at Lewis’s finger, chewing lightly on it.

“Come on, mate. Let’s leave the human alone.” Cody stood, Keata following close behind him.

“Some strange shit,” Lewis mumbled as he made his way downstairs. Just as he closed the refrigerator door, he noticed movement outside. He hit the light switch to darken the kitchen then grabbed a large knife from the block, grasping the handle, the blade parallel to his arm.

He wished he had his gun, but going back upstairs meant he would lose sight of the intruder. The shadow crept closer. Lewis made out a shape but then the shadow broke apart and became two men creeping closer to the back door. Were they that stupid to try and break into a house full of wolves?

Pressing his back against the wall next to the door, Lewis waited.

When the handle finally turned, he swung the knife at the first to breach the threshold. He made contact and heard a grunt. Apparently, they didn’t want to alert anyone to their presence.

The second man grabbed Lewis’s arm, and the injured man shoved a rag into Lewis’s mouth as he struggled to free himself, but the suckers were strong. Tape secured the rag as they dragged him from the house, hauling him through the back yard. Lewis could hear wolves fighting in the distance. They must have used a diversion tactic so these two men could get past the Sentries.

He found himself shoved into a waiting vehicle and his head shoved down on the seat.

“Keep him down. I don’t want anyone to spot him,” the driver grumbled as he pulled away. Lewis stayed motionless, listening to
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their conversation. He knew at this point that fighting was futile anyway. There was no way he was getting away, not like this at least.

“He won’t be happy. He wanted the little girl,” the passenger riding shotgun said as he twisted around and peered down at Lewis.

“It’s still a mate, good for a bargaining chip,” the thug in the back seat argued. “He’ll be satisfied.”

They must be talking about that dethroned leader, Jackson. Lewis wasn’t going to allow himself to be used as a trade for Oliver. He had to bide his time and think of a way to escape.

The car finally came to a stop after about twenty minutes, which told Lewis they weren’t in the town limits.

“Get him out, take him into the barn.” Lewis was pulled from the backseat. His feet began to hurt as they led him over gravel then into a large barn. After a moment his eyes adjusted, and he saw that more men stood around watching as he was brought in.

“She looks to have grown and sprouted muscles,” a large man said, his voice heavy with sarcasm as Lewis was shoved into a chair.

“We couldn’t get the girl. This mate was in the kitchen. He stabbed Keeves,” the driver informed the ominous figure standing over Lewis.