Leopard's Spots 2: Oscar (13 page)

“Is there some rule about who goes first since you’re an alpha? Or did you just want to stand here glaring at each other?”

Jodiah laughed again and started walking towards the kitchen. “There’s all sorts of rules regarding the behaviour of lesser-ranked wolves around their alpha, but I suspect you’ll break every one of them on purpose if I list them.”

“No shit,” Oscar muttered, then added with some heat, “and I am
not
lesser-ranked or anything like that than you are. In answer to your earlier question, yes, things are different with snow leopard shifters, or at least with my family. For one, this whole alpha thing doesn’t exist…”

* * * *

By the time Josiah made it into the kitchen, his dad and his mate were deep in conversation about packs of wolves and families of snow leopards, so Josiah decided to fix breakfast and let them talk. It hadn’t surprised him when his father and Oscar had clashed at first. Both were alphas, even if Oscar’s family didn’t have such things. It wasn’t a wolf trait, but a personality trait. Being a shifter only amplified it by about a thousand.

It turned the type A personality up to a whole new level. Josiah had the same alpha tendencies, but he’d had a lifetime to learn how to control them, to be made completely aware of them. Oscar hadn’t been taught to focus on them or how to behave when meeting another alpha. If he and Josiah hadn’t been mates, they probably would have ended up fighting because of Oscar’s ignorance about the proper showing of mutual respect between alphas.

Or maybe they wouldn’t have. Josiah thought he just might have buried as much of his dominant nature as possible in order to be with Oscar. Did that make him less of an alpha? Well, he decided, not in a bad way, but yes. There were degrees of alphas, just as there were degrees of dominance needed in people. Josiah had even heard there were alphas more powerful than his dad. He didn’t want to meet them, but maybe he already had—Oscar. Only time would tell.

Josiah kind of tuned out of the conversation as he cooked breakfast, listening on the peripheral, as he thought of it. He fixed pancakes, eggs and bacon, and by the time it was served Oscar and Jodiah seemed to have reached an agreement.

Josiah sat down by his mate and winked at him. “Glad to see you two have decided not to kill each other.”

Jodiah laughed and Oscar shrugged. “We both care about you, so we’ll manage. Besides, he’s not too bad once he lets go of the whole, ‘don’t look me in the eye without genuflecting and calling me god’ thing.”

Jodiah snorted and slapped a hand over his mouth and nose, as he’d been drinking milk. “I don’t do that to begin with, but maybe I should. I’ve always wanted to see someone genuflect.”

“You two are going to cause no end of trouble when you get together, aren’t you?” Josiah asked, thinking he might just keep them apart as much as possible.

“It’s all him,” Oscar said drolly. “I’m a sweet
young
thang who doesn’t know any better. He’s the old stodgy alpha, so he gets the responsibility.”

“You little shit,” Jodiah muttered, but he made such a goofy face Josiah and Oscar both laughed. “I really do like him, Josiah—sorry, I really do like you, Oscar,” Jodiah corrected when Oscar grumbled. “And I’m glad you can take a joke, because once you meet the rest of the family…”

Josiah cleared his throat and set down his fork. “About that, Dad. We kind of have to be leaving very soon.”

“How soon?” Jodiah asked, not looking happy at all. “Your mother is still with the Dallas pack helping her sister.”

“I know.” Josiah sighed and held his hands up as he shrugged. “But we have to get to Oscar’s family home in Colorado. There’s something very bad happening there because of Cole Tavares.”

Jodiah leant back in his chair and frowned so hard lines appeared around his mouth. “The oil millionaire guy? Isn’t he a cougar shifter?” He waved a hand before anyone could answer. “Yeah he is. I’ve also heard he’s a first-class asshole. But what has he done to your family?” he asked Oscar.

Josiah could have hugged his dad for his unquestioning faith in Oscar and his family. He didn’t ask what they’d done to provoke Tavares, just jumped on their side instantly.

He looked horrified after hearing about Cole Tavares’ demand. “I don’t understand how he could be such a sick fuck, not that I doubt you, but for us wolves, our children are precious.” He reached across the table and ruffled Josiah’s hair. “Even if they are a pain in the ass at times, we love them and would never want them hurt, much less dead. Jesus, with as much money as the man has, who knows what other sick shit he might do. He could pay someone to kill off his kids.”

“I don’t think so,” Oscar said after a few seconds. “I believe this is more of a survival of the fittest sort of thing for Tavares. I think his massive ego is out of control. He impregnated as many women as he could, probably just so he could do this. Have to make sure only the best gets his money and position.”

“Or not,” Josiah muttered, something horrific niggling at his brain.

Oscar and his dad both looked at him expectantly.

“What if,” he began, trying to piece it all together as he talked. “What if he intends to kill the last survivor himself? Tavares isn’t very old, only in his fifties, I think. He’s got decades to go before dying, short of any accidents. Maybe he regrets fathering so many kids, something he saw as a way to prove his masculinity or fertileness or what the fuck ever when he was younger, but now…” Josiah was getting more excited as he talked, sure he was on the right track. “Now he’s getting older and richer and he’s had years of people trying to get his money, and he’s thinking, well, here’s all these offspring I’ve left all over the damn place, and I’ve not been exactly good to most of them, ignored them or even attacked them if they bothered me. How paranoid do you think he might be now?”

“Very,” Oscar answered, looking startled and impressed at the same time. “That makes a very sick sort of sense. Jeez, what a twisted guy. I’m so glad my dad is my dad, you know?”

“I do.” Josiah smiled at his own dad, who appeared to be fairly impressed himself. “I wouldn’t be the man I am today without the awesome dad I have.”

Jodiah snorted but Josiah could see the pleasure his words had caused lighting his father’s features. “You don’t have to kiss up to me. I’m willing to do whatever I can to help. I’ve got contacts in other packs all over the place, including Mexico, so let’s start on a plan before you two take off.”

“Your dad’s pretty cool.” Oscar looked out the passenger-side window. “Your brother Bobby’s an ass, though.”

Josiah laughed and reached for his hand. “He apologised. Bobby and I have always been competitive and goaded each other. Part of the whole alpha-personality thing.”

Oscar squeezed his hand and turned to look at him. “And he’s still an ass, but I don’t want to hurt him so much anymore. I still don’t get the alpha thing, though. I mean, I don’t for one second think I’m the boss of my family. Grandma Marybeth on the other hand…” He snorted. “She’s the matriarch, and maybe she is like our alpha, except she isn’t quite as alpha-ish as your dad was at first.”

Josiah considered it for a moment. “Sounds possible, about your grandma, I mean. It also makes sense as you told me the shifting gene comes from the maternal side.”

“Yeah, us males can’t even reproduce with humans, so we’re kinda superfluous.”

“I don’t think so.” Josiah brought Oscar’s hand up for a kiss. “I think you are very necessary.”

“Yeah, but you have to like me, since I’m your mate.” Oscar waggled his eyebrows. “And even if I wasn’t, I’m irresistible, I know.”

“You are,” Josiah agreed, trying not to chuckle at the smug look on Oscar’s face. “I’d have been on you like a dog on a rib bone the second I saw you regardless, just like I was at the club once I got the idiots away from you.”

Oscar fluttered his lashes and his free hand, then pressed his palm to his heart. “My hero.”

“Dork,” Josiah said, giving in and laughing for a moment before he sobered. “Stop worrying about the alpha stuff, okay? You’re you, which is pretty fucking awesome, and that’s what matters.”

“It’s just a lot to take in. Sucks that Grandma Marybeth doesn’t know much about our heritage, but we’ve got a cousin, Tim, who’s supposed to be going overseas to study snow leopards. Of course he’s really hoping to find out more about what we are.”

Josiah couldn’t imagine not knowing all the things he did about being a shifter. He’d feel so lost…or maybe not, if he didn’t know he didn’t know the stuff. And he was going to confuse himself thinking like that.

“She wanted me to be a story teller, which is like a family historian, from what she can remember.”

Josiah was lost for a second until it dawned on him Oscar was still talking about his grandma.

“I tried, me and Levi and Tim all did. Levi and Tim liked sitting there, listening to Grandma try to put together what bits and pieces she could remember, or what she felt in her gut, you know.” Oscar sighed and rubbed at his forehead. “I tried, but I hated it. I was so bored, and it reminded me of sitting in school, no matter how different it was. I just… I knew she was wrong and I think she did too. Really, I think Grandma just wanted to keep an eye on me after the mess with Albert.”

“Probably. She sounds like she loves you a lot. I can’t wait to meet her.” He was actually kind of terrified, not that he was going to say so, and he was trying really hard to keep that thought buried so Oscar didn’t find it. He didn’t want to seem like a wuss.

But maybe he didn’t do such a good job of hiding it, because Oscar faced him and grinned. “She’ll love you too, don’t worry. Grandma Marybeth is probably going to threaten to hurt you if you break my heart. And she’ll follow that up by being sweet as honey. When you start telling her some of the things about shifters? You are going to be her favourite in-law. Maybe just her favourite, period.”

“Right.” Josiah barely kept from rolling his eyes. “Although, like you, I am pretty much irresistible.”

“Damn right.” Oscar’s grin morphed into something heated that sent a bolt of desire to Josiah’s groin. “So. We’ve got a long drive, and since we aren’t stopping to get a room, what am I supposed to do when I get really horny and want to see how you taste?”

“Jesus Christ,” Josiah rasped, jerking the wheel harder than he should have when he veered towards the middle of the road. He took a second to calm his racing heart and get the truck back in his lane. Then he glared at Oscar from the corner of his eye. “You can’t just spout something like that with no warning! We’re lucky I didn’t get us killed!”

Oscar peered in the side mirror and the rear-view. “There’s not another vehicle on the road. I did look, by the way. I even noticed the sign for the rest area up ahead.”

Josiah flushed with desire so swiftly he felt light-headed, but he didn’t want to make it too easy for Oscar. “You do realise we’d be the gay cliché if we mess around at a rest area?” He scowled as Oscar chuckled. “Or are we a stereotype? Or both? I’ve never been clear on the difference.”

Oscar tapped his thigh. “We’ll be happy and orgasmic if you take the damn exit, and isn’t that the important thing here?”

Josiah exited a little faster than he should have. “Yeah, keeping you happy is very, very important, and if sucking my dick makes you happy, then I can definitely get down with it.” He shoved their hands over his aching cock. He’d wanted to see Oscar’s lips wrapped around his dick since the first time he’d spotted him in L’Annex. Oscar curled his hand around Josiah’s length and squeezed.

“You’re gonna fuck me when we get to my place.”

Like Josiah was going to argue about that. He wasn’t stupid, just protective, but he knew Oscar was capable of deciding what he wanted.

Oscar pointed at a parking spot. “There.” He started unbuckling them both. “Park there, we can get out and go into that little wooded area. I wonder if whoever designed this rest area was gay?”

Josiah parked and shut the truck off as he laughed. “Probably just horny. Don’t have to be gay to appreciate a blowjob.”

“I guess.” Oscar got out of the truck and bounced on his toes. He stretched his arms out. It felt good, so he raised his arms above his head and arched his back, pushing his groin out.

Josiah ogled him hungrily then got out of the truck himself. “I’m just gonna stretch my legs a bit.”

“You do that.” Oscar arched even more and Josiah heard his spine pop. “Be careful, you don’t know what kind of miscreants might be in those woods.”

“Miscreants?” Josiah wrinkled his nose. “Really, Oz?”

“Just go with it,” Oscar snapped.

He left with an exaggerated flounce, and headed towards the bathrooms. Josiah watched his ass for a moment then he turned and looked around the rest area. It was almost vacant except for a couple of eighteen wheelers parked in the rig area. No one was paying any attention that he could tell, so he rubbed a hand over his still-erect length and made a beeline towards the trees.

Once there, he easily picked up the scent of sex, male and female, which wasn’t unpleasant exactly, just kind of stale. The offensive odour of drugs and other bodily fluids was pretty gross, though. Josiah moved further into the trees, wishing he had time to shift and run, but he didn’t, especially not since Oscar couldn’t shift quickly or painlessly.

After a few minutes, the air in the woods seemed to change, as if it thickened, and Josiah knew he was being stalked. He tried to attune himself to the sounds, but couldn’t pick up even the slightest footfall. The wind was, of course, blowing in the wrong damn direction, so he turned and moved at a different angle.

And felt his heart stutter when the scent of cougar slammed into his nostrils.
Oscar!
Josiah let the warning of danger fill his mind, trusting their link to work. He tried to calculate his position, how far into the trees he’d come and stumbled when it occurred to him that Oscar might already be in danger, may have even been hurt or something when he’d gone into the bathrooms.