Sullivan (Leopard's Spots 7) (10 page)

“He didn’t take to me being in there, either. Lisa is talking to him, and we’re waiting on the shaman.”

“Maybe we should have a fucking ambulance here already,” Bobby growled, angry at Paava for letting the boy suffer.

“No.”

Bobby stopped and swung towards Paava, ready to belt the man.

“No,” Paava told him again, shaking his head. “Whoever did it is pack. He smells like wolf.”

Which meant the sick fuck would be found and dealt with via pack justice. He would die a slow death. Bobby would make sure of it, if he’d raped anyone, especially a kid.

As soon as they hit the hallway, a faint, familiar scent teased at Bobby’s memory. He couldn’t quite parse it out. For some reason he thought of bleach, which was odd as there was none of that used in the building if he could prevent it, and anyway, it was a memory-odour, not a physical one.

He stopped at his office door, which was partially opened, probably to keep from freaking the kid out. Bobby held a hand out behind him to silently tell Paava to back away.

This wasn’t something Paava could help with, according to his own words. “Watch for the shaman,” he whispered, knowing Paava would follow orders when he needed him to.

Inside the room, he could hear uneven sobs, sniffles, and the low, warm rumble of Lisa’s voice. She wasn’t what anyone would term a feminine woman, but she had a pleasant enough voice, strong and honey smooth when she put her mind to it. Bobby eased the door open a little more, and while he was going to look at Lisa and the boy, he ended up letting a jolt of fury direct his gaze towards where Jerry was behind his desk. Bobby could just see the top of Jerry’s head and his eyes, and Bobby drilled him with a power-filled look that made Jerry whimper and slide out of sight. Only then did Bobby turn his attention back to Lisa—

and as soon as he saw the young man she was trying to soothe, his heart broke and he gasped.

Lisa and Mando looked up at him at the same time, and Bobby wasn’t quick enough with covering his expression, he feared. Lisa glared daggers, but Mando didn’t seem to recognise him. His swollen eyes rounded, fear pulsing off his battered form and ripping Bobby’s insides to shreds. Then Mando screeched, and Bobby skittered backwards, losing the battle not to retch as he spun and fell to his knees.

Whoever had done that, hurt Mando inside and out, filled him with a terror that had killed something inside him—Bobby would hunt the fucker down and skin him alive. If Mando wanted the fur for a rug, Bobby would make a gift of it for him. Anything he could do… Because this was Bobby’s fault. The club was his to manage, the patrons his to protect, and he’d failed because he’d been off being an emo shithead. If he’d not run from his mate in the first place, this wouldn’t have happened. Somehow, he’d have prevented it.

He hoped mates really couldn’t hate each other, because he’d only just concluded that he wanted Sully before this. Now he had to tell his mate he’d let someone Sully cared about get hurt. Mando would likely never be the same.

“Where is the boy?”

Bobby blinked and twisted around to see the shaman standing in the hall. His power was every bit as strong as Bobby’s or any alpha’s Bobby had ever met, but in a subtly different way. It still gave Bobby goose bumps. “Office,” he rasped, getting to his feet. “I need to know who did it.”

“You shall.” The shaman—Bobby always struggled to think of him by his name, Remus—seemed to peer right into his conscience. “Are you willing to bring this boy into the pack? He was wronged by one of ours—it is our duty to make it right for him, as much as we can.”

Bobby knew what he was being asked, and he nodded. “If he wants to be one of us, and we can do it as painlessly as possible. I don’t want him harmed in the manner of the known transformations.” Biting and sucking and pain, those weren’t things he wanted inflicted on Mando. Bobby was being given this responsibility instead of his father handling it because the club was his territory, and he was the alpha-to-be. His father would have already been informed of and agreed to the question.

“There are other ways, of course, that involve going to one with greater power than we have. However, such a way would still involve sex with his mate, so unless this young man has a mate, I might have to search for yet another alternative method.” The shaman—
Remus,
damn it!
—patted Bobby’s shoulder. “Do what you must. Stop hiding from what you want just to punish your wolf. He loves you, and you love him. It is good that you are not wholly human. You would not be at peace with yourself, nor very long for this world.” Bobby shivered at the words as Remus walked past him. He couldn’t disagree.

Honestly, he thought there was something wrong with his human side that the wolf in him helped keep on track. As long as he had his wolf, he wouldn’t splinter and free what he feared was a darkness in his mind that would cause him to go crazy. He could be exaggerating, but Bobby didn’t think so. Something about his human didn’t click right, and that was okay—as long as he had his wolf.

To that end, he had some immediate grovelling to do. He hoped Sully yelled at him, hit him, even. It was a selfish thought, because Sully would probably feel bad later for losing his temper, but damn, it’d make Bobby feel better to get the shit beat out of him.

He walked to the end of the hallway and waved Paava over. “I have to go talk to someone who knows Mando—that’s the young man in there. He’s a friend of someone I know. I just met him a few days ago…”

“Did he come to look for you, d’ya think?” Paava blinked and his eyes rounded. “Oh shit! I didn’t mean that like it’s your fault—”

“But it is.” Bobby raised his chin up a little, looking for a bit of confidence he needed severely. “Everything that happens here is my responsibility, and Mando even more so. I have to go find Sully and tell him. If he breaks my jaw, it will be less than I deserve.” Paava looked like he wanted to argue, but what he said came out far from aggressive.

“Sully? Tall guy, auburn hair, sexy—ah, nice eyes?” Bobby nodded then gulped as Paava went on, not because of what he was saying but because of the gorgeous hunk walking towards them. Bobby couldn’t take his eyes off Sully, the swagger he had that Bobby didn’t remember seeing before, the shoulders that seemed to have got even broader in just the past few days. Sully wasn’t smiling, either.

No, he looked furious, and Bobby was relatively sure Sully didn’t know about Mando.

He quietly said to Paava, “He’s headed this way. Does he know?” Paava wanted to turn and look, Bobby could tell by the way his neck twitched, the tendons standing out. “No, of course not. All he knows is you’re here taking care of something.”

Bobby grunted as Sully came closer, then he physically shook himself. “Yeah, all right.

Look, I’m leading him to the back room. It might be best to crank the music louder and absolutely don’t let anyone else come back.”

“Gotcha.”

Bobby didn’t wait. He sprinted, knowing Sully was coming for him. Somehow he’d never imagined the fear he’d feel in his fantasies of being followed by his mate, but then again, he’d never thought he’d have fucked up so hugely.

The second Sully saw Bobby, his pulse raced and it seemed all the blood rushed right to his groin. Sully had intended to come talk to Bobby, but now all he could think about was how tightly Bobby’s ass had gripped his dick, and those stimulating sounds Bobby made as Sully fucked him. Sully wanted to take him again, and again, and again until Bobby wouldn’t dare run from him.

Bobby spotted him and ran.
Bastard!
Granted, he wasn’t truly running, but he was certainly avoiding Sully. Sully and his leopard were in agreement—Bobby needed to learn that he belonged to Sully. Somewhere in the back of Sully’s brain, an alarm sounded, but his instincts were too great to resist and he set aside worry in favour of catching his prey.

When Bobby darted into a room labeled Storage, Sully grinned. Maybe Bobby wasn’t running after all. Sully hit the door before Bobby could close it, then he grabbed Bobby by the shoulders and spun him around. He pinned Bobby against the door, slamming it shut with their combined weight. Bobby’s ass fit perfectly against him and Sully growled, nosing Bobby’s nape as he ground against those tempting globes.

“I’m not happy with you at all,” Sully rumbled, just so that Bobby wasn’t mistaken.

“I—” Bobby began, but Sully thought giving Bobby the chance to speak was a mistake.

He slid one hand around to cover Bobby’s mouth, and the flare of desire that shot off Bobby, the scent of it, filled the air in a heartbeat.

“No.” Sully didn’t say any more. He continued to rut against Bobby’s delectable ass while at the same time he began licking the sweaty skin of his nape. There was nothing like the taste of this one man, Sully was sure of it, lack of experience or not. No one could taste as good as Bobby Baker.

Sully nipped all over Bobby’s neck. Bobby shivered and began humping back against him, sweet sounds of need bleeding through Sully’s fingers, clamped as they were over Bobby’s mouth. It was all going so, so good, Bobby beginning to come apart for him. Sully reached his other hand around and cupped Bobby’s bulging cock. He wondered what it’d feel like to have that big thing in his butt. Then Bobby rocked back against him again and Sully’s curiosity withered under the arousal that flooded him.

He found the spot he’d marked even through the turtleneck. Sully knew why Bobby was wearing it, and he wasn’t pleased that Bobby would hide the bite. Sully wanted everyone to see it, just like the one he had. He bit hard, canines dropping suddenly and tearing through the thin material. Bobby’s shout was muffled by his fingers, and at first, Sully thought Bobby was going wild underneath him from ecstasy.

Except he wasn’t. Bobby was fighting him, and Sully jerked his hands away only marginally slower than he disengaged his teeth from Bobby’s shoulder. He wouldn’t take anything not freely given, and it sickened him to think he’d overstepped. He’d been sure Bobby was as hot for him—

Sully stumbled back and would have fallen had Bobby not spun around and caught his wrist. How had he misread Bobby so badly? The idea that Bobby had been fighting him all along was unbearable. Bobby really had wanted nothing more to do with him.

“Whatever you’re thinking, unthink it,” Bobby rasped. Sully could smell blood and knew he’d been careless in his panic. His gaze darted to where he’d bitten, and even through the black material of Bobby’s shirt, he could see the spreading stain of blood darkening the turtleneck. Bobby grabbed him at the shoulders and shook him hard enough Sully’s teeth clacked together. Unfortunately his tongue wasn’t smart enough to get out of the way, and he yelped as the metallicky taste of his blood mingled with Bobby’s.

“Sorry. I shouldn’t have come. I—”

Bobby shook him again, and the low, fierce growl that he loosed had Sully’s leopard ready to roll over in submission. It was the first time he’d felt the hint of Bobby’s strength as an alpha, and it was impressive.

“Just be quiet for a minute and quit freaking out. I need you to be calm and listen to me.”

Sully couldn’t disobey the command in Bobby’s voice, and he couldn’t look away from the man’s brilliant eyes. He almost felt like he was being entranced by the sheer strength of Bobby’s will, but Sully found himself calming, his breathing slowing and his panic fading.

Bobby nodded slightly but the intent look didn’t fade from his expression. “I had just decided to quit being a stubborn, blind idiot and come grovel at your feet—” Sully’s heart soared at the confession and he wanted to whoop and grin, but something about the way Bobby kept watching him and the solemnness in his voice kept Sully’s enthusiasm at bay. “But?” he scraped out when Bobby hesitated.

“But.” Bobby frowned and tensed his fingers where he held onto Sully. “But Mando—” Sully shook his head slowly. “I don’t know where he is. He left not long after you did.

He was— I’ll explain it later.” Sully didn’t want to talk about how worried he was for Mando, how hard he’d tried to find him to no avail.

“No. Mando’s here.”

Bobby didn’t look happy about it, but Sully felt a wave of relief. “Oh, oh man! I’ve been so worried. I know he’s a minor and shouldn’t be here, but—” And why the hell was Bobby shaking him again?

“He’s not all right, Sully. He’s not.”

Sully tried to make that make sense in his head, but it just wouldn’t. “What do you mean? How is he not all right? I know he’s been on his own for a few days. Is he hungry, sick, scared?”

Bobby leant in, drilling Sully with his gaze. “Listen to me. He shouldn’t have been let in. The guy working the door was a shifter, he was completely capable of telling the ID

Mando offered was fake, but he let Mando’s pretty face sway him, and someone…” Bobby gulped and turned an unflattering greenish colour. “Someone hurt him, sexually. I don’t know how bad because he freaked out when he saw me.” Sully didn’t know what happened. One minute he was standing up, and the next he was on his butt on the floor, trying to get a breath into lungs that weren’t working right.

Bobby was squatting in front of him, and he was still holding Sully’s shoulders, but now he was kneading them and murmuring comforting words that Sully just couldn’t process.

Bobby moved closer, then his lips brushed against Sully’s. Back and forth, Bobby slowly brought him out of his stupor with tender touches and words.

“What happened?” Sully asked, knowing Bobby had told him, but he couldn’t make sense of it.

Bobby rubbed his cheek against Sully’s and rumbled as if the feel of Sully’s skin pleased him, then he pulled back until he was looking once again in Sully’s eyes. “Jerry, the former employee of mine who was working the door, let Mando in. Someone hurt Mando, I don’t know the extent of it, but it’s…bad.”

Sully gagged and slapped a hand over his mouth. “Where’s he?” he asked between fingers. His eyes burned and tears slipped free. Sully didn’t care.

Bobby brushed at them with his thumbs as he spoke. “Our shaman, Remus, is with him, and so is my friend Paava’s sister, Lisa. Sully, we think it was someone from my pack. If that is the case, rest assured I will find him and kill him. In our pack, that’s the way of justice.