The Human's Complicated Wolf [Nehalem Pack 5] (Siren Publishing Classic ManLove) (10 page)

“I think you should go.” Jensen stood up and turned his back on Ethan. He could hear the screech of the chair as it slid over the hardwood floor. As he turned around to tell Ethan that he should find another architect to take on his project a sharp pain stuck him in the back of the neck. He clasped a hand over the spot and stumbled forward then fell to the floor. His head slumped to the side and he stared out in front of him. When he tried to move his arm, nothing happened. It was as if the sensors in his body had been severed. He could feel the cool, hard floor at his back but couldn’t do anything to get up off it.

“Don’t bother trying to move.” Ethan squatted down next to his head and combed his fingers through Jensen’s hair. He desperately wished he could jerk out of the man’s reach. “I gave you a shot of muscle relaxer. Quite a high dose, I might add.”

Jensen tried to scream but his jaw wouldn’t respond to his brain’s request to open wide and shout to the heavens.

“See, Jensen, I’ve been researching werewolves for the last year and a half.” He chuckled. The sound made Jensen’s skin crawl. “I might write fiction novels about the subject, but I always knew they existed, and now I’ve found one.”

Jensen tried to open his mouth to tell Ethan he was insane, but he didn’t have the ability to move his tongue.

“I bet you’re asking yourself what my plan is.” He hadn’t, but now that Ethan mentioned it he was damn curious. “I’d like to tell you but then I’d have to kill you.” Ethan started to laugh as if that were the funniest thing he had ever said.

Jensen could feel tears begin to gather in his eyes. He couldn’t tell if Ethan were serious or not, but if the man were willing to do this, what wasn’t he capable of?

“Don’t look so frightened.” Ethan ran his fingertips down alongside Jensen’s face. “I still need you alive to get your werewolf boyfriend to come rescue you. If I have you he can’t kill me.”

What?
Jensen shouted inside his head.

“Hey, Jensen.” Ethan had started to stand up but stopped. “Sorry about this.”

Before Jensen could wonder what the man meant, a fist came down and the blow landed to his left temple. His last thought before his world fell into darkness was about Josh.

“Honey, I’m home,” Josh called out as he came through the door leading from the garage into the kitchen. He set the bags down on the counter but didn’t see Jensen. “Babe?”

Josh pushed the chair Jensen had been sitting in underneath the table as he passed by. Everything on the table looked just as it had when he left. He tapped his fingers on the back of the chair and looked around the room.

“Jensen?” He called out for his mate again but no response. He headed toward the bedroom then checked the bathroom. Still no sign of Jensen. On the way back to the kitchen he glanced in the living room. “Huh.” He chewed on the inside of his check as he tried to think where his mate had gone to. Josh had the car, and when he left Jensen had been working.

The only other option would be to check the backyard. As he reached the door, the phone on the wall began to ring. Josh turned around and hustled to answer it. “Hello.”

“Josh, it’s so nice to hear your voice.”

Josh rolled his eyes and felt like gagging at the sound of Ethan’s voice on the other end of the line. “Hey, Ethan.” He had to force himself to be nice because like it or not, Jensen had to work with this man, and he didn’t want to be the reason his mate lost an account.

“You remembered my name. How sweet.”

The more the guy talked the more Josh hated him. It wasn’t out of attraction he remembered the jerk’s name. It was the fact he had the hots for his mate that he couldn’t forget him. He really wished he could, though. “Yeah, sweet.” He growled into the phone. “I hate to be rude, but what do you need? Jensen’s not available.” Josh walked with the phone in his hand and opened the back door, peering around the yard for Jensen.

“I know he’s not, because he’s with me,” Ethan said sweetly.

Josh stopped in his tracks and gripped the phone tighter. There was no way Jensen would have left with the man without leaving a note. Something didn’t feel right. “What do you mean?”

“What do you think I mean?” Ethan’s harsh laughter stung Josh’s ears.

“Ethan, stop playing games and tell me where Jensen is. If you do, then we won’t press charges.” It was a lie. Josh had full intentions of beating the shit out of the guy then calling the cops.

“You won’t press charges? That’s hysterical.” Ethan chuckled. “I’ll tell you what, meet me in an hour and we can talk. I have a proposition for you, and if things go my way, you can have Jensen back.” Ethan quickly rambled off directions. “Don’t be late.”

“Wait!” Josh shouted, but the line had already disconnected. “Fuck!” Josh threw the phone against the side of the house and it broke into pieces at his feet.

Josh rushed back into the house, snatched up the car keys, and got into the car. He only had an hour to get to Ethan, and he didn’t want to upset the man by being late. There was no telling what he would do to Jensen.

As he sped down the country road, he ignored everything around him. All he could think about was Jensen and if he was okay. He swore if Ethan had hurt one hair on Jensen’s head, he’d kill the man. Fuck calling the police. He’d deal with it the way his wolf demanded, with blood and death.

* * * *

“Ugh.” Jensen winced as he came to. His head ached, and something cold and hard dug into his back. Jensen opened his eyes and saw clear blue skies above him, but steel bars lined his view. “What the hell?” He tried to sit up but bumped his head on the metal bars above his head and fell back to lie on his side.

“Oh, good, you’re awake.” Ethan stood beside the cage Jensen lay confined in.

The small cage rendered Jensen unable to stretch out or sit up properly. He lay at a weird angle, and his body began to cramp. “What the fuck?” he shouted at Ethan as he banged a hand against the bars.

“Oh, relax.” Ethan stood up and kicked the side of the cage. “Your boyfriend will be here soon enough, and if he gives me what I want everything will be okay.”

Jensen folded his legs underneath him and leaned forward to sit on his ass. The position caused his back to hurt, but he felt a little more in control if he weren’t lying down like a dog. “I’m sorry, but I beg to differ with you on that one. Nothing will ever be okay about this.” He wrapped his fingers around the steel bars holding him prisoner.

“It’s a minor technicality.” Ethan paced back in forth in front of him. The man twisted his fingers together as if agitated.

The sun shone bright above him, and as Ethan turned to walk back toward him, a silver glint caught his eye.
A gun!
His fingers squeezed tight around the metal, and even in the summer heat a chill ran down his back. “Ethan.” Jensen lightened his tone. “What is all this about? What do you want from me?”

“Not you.” Ethan wagged a finger at him. “Your boyfriend.”

“And what’s that?” Ethan new Josh’s secret, but what could the man possibly want from him?

“To be like him.” A wide smile spread across Ethan’s face. Even in his lunacy, the man could wield a captivating smile.

Ethan’s beauty masked that he was crazy as fucking shit, and it disturbed Jensen that he had ever been attracted to the nut job. “Ethan, how do you expect Josh to do that?”

“By biting me.” Ethan narrowed his eyes at him like Jensen was the crazy one. “You’re dating one and you don’t know how all this works?”

Jensen rested his forehead on the bars in front of him, and a small part of him felt sorry for Ethan because he just committed a crime for nothing. “It doesn’t work that way, you psycho,” Jensen said as he stared at the ground. He jumped when Ethan kicked the cage once again.

“Yes it does!” he shouted then repeatedly kicked the cage, jostling Jensen to the side. After a few more kicks Ethan took a step back, breathing deeply through his nose. “You’re just saying that so I’ll let you go,” he said in a much calmer voice.

“Ethan, I swear I’m not lying to you.” He pleaded. “I know because Josh told me. I was afraid if he bit me I’d turn into a dog and get all hairy three days out of the month.”

Ethan fisted his hands in his hair, and Jensen could see a crimson flush crawl up the man’s neck to inflame his cheeks. “Just shut up, Jensen.”

The sound of a car coming down the deserted road that ran in front of Ethan’s property had Ethan turning away from him. Jensen arched up as far as the cage allowed to see who was coming. He instantly recognized the black Jetta. Of course Josh would come to save the day, and Jensen was appreciative, but it was all for nothing. Once Ethan realized that Josh couldn’t turn him into a wolf they were dead men.

Josh climbed out of the car and Jensen leaned to the side and waved at his boyfriend.

“Jensen!” Josh shouted then started to run toward them. Ethan pulled the gun out of the back of his jeans and pointed it at him. Josh looked from Jensen to the gun then back to Ethan. “What the hell is wrong with you? You put him in a cage?”

“I had to put him somewhere safe.”

“Hey, honey.” Jensen smiled up at Josh.

“Jensen, stop smiling. This isn’t funny.” Josh spoke down at him then looked back to Ethan. “You said you had a proposition for me. What is it?”

“Oh, babe, you are so going to laugh,” Jensen said before Ethan had a chance to speak. If he didn’t laugh at their predicament he’d start to cry.

“I said for you to shut up.” Ethan kicked the cage again with the side of his foot.

“Hey, hey, hey, take it easy there, Ethan.” Josh raised his hands in the air. “What is Jensen talking about? What is it that you want exactly?”

“I want to be like you,” Ethan simply said.

Jensen closed his eyes and shook his head. The man sounded so desperate for something that Josh couldn’t possibly give him. It made it hard to hate someone he pitied.

“Like me? What do you mean?” Josh asked.

“He wants to be a werewolf, Josh.” Jensen gestured toward Ethan, who looked at Josh as if he was the second coming of Christ.

“Are you kidding me?” Josh’s eyes darted from Jensen to Ethan. “I swear you humans believe everything you see on TV.” He shook his head and put his hands on his hips. “Ethan.” Josh raised a hand pointing at the man. “I’m sorry to say this, but I can’t give you that. It’s just not possible.”

“You’re lying.” Jensen could see Ethan’s hand start to tremble, and the gun shook in his grip. “I’ve done my research. It is possible.”

“Who are you going to believe? An actual wolf shifter or some quack who wrote a book on it who probably has never even seen a werewolf before?” Josh raised his eyebrows waiting for Ethan to say something.

“Ethan, he’s not lying,” Jensen said in a soft voice. “I wouldn’t let him do that to you. We’re friends and I don’t lie to my friends.” He narrowed his eyes at Josh when the man mouthed
at him, “Are you serious?”

“All the research I read said if I got bit by one of the chosen that I could become like them.” He turned sad desperate eyes at him. “It has to be true.”

Before Jensen could say anything to comfort the confused man, Josh attacked. He ran at Ethan, who turned the gun on Josh. The force of Josh barreling into Ethan’s chest sent the gun falling to the ground. It landed a few feet from Jensen’s cage. He watched as the two men wrestled around on the ground. They rolled and rolled on the grass, and every now and again a few punches landed hard. Jensen winced as the sound of crunching bone and the tearing of skin met his ears.

Jensen leaned forward, stretching out his arm as far as he could, reaching for the discarded gun. His fingertips scraped at the sides of it, but he couldn’t get a grip. Jensen positioned his feet at the other end of the cage and pushed as hard as he could and reached out. The pressure on his shoulder shot pain all the way down to his toes but he didn’t stop. He opened his hand wide and curled his fingers. He breathed a sigh of relief when he caught hold of the butt of the small gun.

Jensen pulled it in and straightened the best he could in the small confines of the cage. He looked over and saw that Josh sat straddling Ethan’s hips. It looked like he wouldn’t need to use the gun after all. Not that he was opposed to shooting a person to protect the man he loved and himself, but he would really rather not. Jensen didn’t like violence.

Just then Ethan brought his hand up and before Jensen could call out a warning the man smashed a rock against Josh’s head. Josh fell to the side and Ethan pushed him over and sat on his chest pounding his fist down on Josh’s face. Jensen could hear the incoherent rants as the man punched out his frustrations on Josh.

Jensen’s hands trembled as he raised the gun. If he didn’t stop Ethan, he would kill Josh.

“God, please forgive me,” Jensen whispered as he leveled the gun and pulled the trigger. One shot rang followed by silence. Jensen dropped the gun as he watched a patch of red blossom on Ethan’s back. Then the man fell to the ground.

Josh pushed himself up off the ground and ran toward him. “Jensen, are you okay?” He pulled at the cage door, but the padlock kept it from opening. Josh ran back to where Ethan lay and searched his pockets. He came back with a key and opened the door for Jensen.