TheAngryDoveAndTheAssassin (3 page)

No, Grey didn’t. That didn’t mean he had to like the circumstances, though.

“Don’t you ever wonder what would have happened to us if we hadn’t been sold to our master?” he asked “If we had been raised like normal children?”

“I used to,” she admitted.

“And what did you imagine?”

“Dangerous things. Things that I could never have.” She stepped forward and put her hands on his shoulders. “Look, I know we got dealt a shitty hand in life, but it’s what we got, and we have to make do with it. We can’t go around dreaming about what may have been. In our world, it’ll only end up getting us killed. You need to keep your head in the game. You hear me?”

Grey realized she was right. He also realized that she was the only one that he would ever allow to see him weak like this. He would never have admitted to these kinds of feelings with anybody else. Not even Simon or Toby.

“I hear you, Tabitha. Don’t worry about me. My mind is where it’s supposed to be.”

She fingered up his cloak. “Maybe you should listen to that flirty, little Dove and get a new uniform. This one is looking pretty sad. When is the last time you got a new one?”

Grey shrugged. “I don’t even remember.”

She made a face at him. “Then it’s time. Since we’re going to be here for a while, you may want to splurge and order a few sets. Lord knows you have the money. You never spend it on anything but weapons. Treat yourself to something nice for once.”

“Thanks, Tabitha. Maybe I’ll do just that.”

She gave him a kiss on the cheek, then went off to one of the bedrooms. Grey stayed up in the living room for a bit longer, just getting a feel for the place. As he did, his mind kept drifting back to Caley. He wondered if the Dove was that flirtatious with all men or if he had only been that way with Grey. For some strange reason, it made Grey angry to think of Caley batting those blue eyes at anybody but him. Which was crazy since they had only met once, and even then, it had been briefly.

Grey looked down at his uniform. Yes, first thing in the morning he was going to seek out Caley and order some new clothes. It would also be the perfect excuse to see the Dove again.

Chapter Three

The entire morning as Caley worked in his workshop, he was a bundle of nerves, wondering if the giant-ass assassin—and try saying that three times really fast—would be coming in.

What in the hell had he been thinking when he had asked the Wolf to come in? What in the hell had he been thinking when he had flirted with him? What in the hell had he been thinking when he had even talked to him in the first place?

Caley should never have let Alger drag him out of his workshop. His workshop was safe. He didn’t get into trouble there. There were no big, bad Wolves here. Or if there were, they were only there to get clothes, then they left, and Caley didn’t have to deal with them anymore.

Somehow, Caley felt the same couldn’t be said about Grey. He didn’t know why, but he had a nagging suspicion that once he got to know Grey, it wouldn’t be a one-time thing. That the assassin would be a permanent fixture in his life. It was just a gut reaction, and Caley had learned a long time ago to trust his gut.

The door to his shop opened, and he wasn’t shocked to see that it was Grey. Unlike the evening before, he had the hood to his cloak down, and damned if he didn’t look good. Caley forgot to breathe as he took in the Wolf’s handsome features. He reminded Caley a bit of Ranger from
Lord of the Rings
, only Grey had his hair cut shorter and was a bit cleaner looking.

“Hello,” Caley said, pleased that his voice didn’t waver.

Grey smiled and it made him look even better. “Hey, I’m here about the new uniforms we talked about last night.”

Caley tilted his head to the side. “
Uniforms
? As in more than one?”

“Yeah, Tabitha thought that I should get more than one since we’ll be here for a while.”

A jolt a jealousy reared its ugly head. “Is Tabitha your girlfriend or something?”

Grey let out a chuckle and shook his head. “No, she’s like a sister to me. That’s all.”

“Oh,” Caley replied, more pleased than he had the right to be. “Well, come on over and we’ll get you measured.”

It was then that Caley realized with a mixture of horror and excitement that he would have to get up close and personal to Grey in order to get his measurements. Usually, Caley was professional about it and thought nothing of the process, but he knew this time was going to be much different, no matter how much he tried to pretend otherwise.

“If you want to take off your cloak, it will be easier to measure you with just your pants and top on,” Caley advised.

When Grey whipped off his cloak to reveal enough weapons to arm half the pack, Caley gaped at him. He couldn’t even begin to identify half of the weapons that were strapped to Grey, let alone how to use them.

“You’re going to have to take those off, too,” Caley said, as he raised a shaking finger to point at a particularly pointy-looking blade.

Grey looked down at them and gave a shrug. “I guess that makes sense.”

He then began to remove items and set them down on a nearby table. Caley’s eyes grew wider as the pile became larger and larger. Damn, that guy had more hidden pockets than Chris Angel.

“Do you always keep this many weapons on you?” Caley asked.

“Of course not.”

“Oh.” Caley let out a sigh of relief. Grey must be on high alert or something because he was at a new place and didn’t want to let his guard down until he knew his surroundings.

“I usually carry twice as many when I’m on a mission.”

Caley nearly swallowed his tongue. “How in the hell do you manage to walk, let alone fight while weighed down with so much hardware?”

Grey grinned. “You get used to it.”

Caley didn’t think he could get used to ever carrying around even half as much. Grey must lift weights all day long and eat iron for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Whatever the case, it had resulted in a nice set of muscles. Even with the shirt and pants on, Caley could tell that Grey had one fine body, one that Caley wouldn’t mind bouncing off a time or two.

Now that all the weapons were off, Caley picked up his measuring tape and walked over to Grey. As soon as he got closer, he was assaulted by the scent of maple and earth. Caley’s body sang as he inhaled deeper, savoring the smell. It went straight to his cock and made his blood hum with desire.

Oh God, this was going to be the hardest set of measurements that he’d ever had to take. It didn’t help matters that Wolves were great at smelling arousal, too, so Grey was sure to pick up on the fact that Caley was turned on. Talk about embarrassing. The fact that Caley had chosen that day to wear his skinny jeans, so his erection was obvious, only added to the humiliation. If he could have, Caley would have run from the room or dove under one of his worktables to hide from the predicament.

Grey, for his part, didn’t comment on Caley’s obvious situation, showing that he at least had some tact. Either that or he was mortified that some Dove was drooling all over him and making an ass out of himself. Either way, he stayed silent while Caley took measurements of his arms and chest. Which wasn’t an easy thing to do, given the massiveness of Grey’s chest. Caley was tall and he still had to stand on a stool to reach all the areas.

The silence between them grew awkward as Caley continued with his measurements. He knew that Grey knew he was aroused, and Caley just wanted to find some hole to crawl up into and die from embarrassment. Which was funny since Caley was usually the type who didn’t get flustered over such things. He usually went with and used them to his advantage.

Then it came time to measure Grey’s inseam. Caley should have been jumping for joy, but instead, he felt a heat coming to his face.

No! He could do this. He was a professional, damn it! He’d measured a million inseams and had never had an incident before. So there should be no difference now.

Caley hopped down from the stool and began to measure for the inner seam of Grey’s pants. That’s when he noticed it—he wasn’t the only one aroused. Facing him was the unmistakable bulge of Grey’s hard-on.

Shocked, all Caley could say was, “Why, hello there.”

Grey let out a small growl. “What do you expect with all those do-me vibes you’re putting out?”

Caley stood up straight. “I can’t help it. You come in here looking like a modern day warrior from an action flick. How am I supposed to react?”

“So this is my fault?”

Caley was glad to see that Grey was seeing things his way. “Exactly!”

Grey gave him an are-you-crazy stare. “Are you mental, or is it just a Dove thing?”

Okay, so maybe Grey wasn’t seeing things Caley’s way after all. “I’m perfectly sane, thank you very much. At least I take responsibility for my own erections.”

Grey let out another one of his growls—which were pretty damn hot—and walked forward, forcing Caley to backpedal until his spine was flush against the wall.

Moving in until they were mere inches apart, Grey said, “Are you always this mouthy?”

“Pretty much.”

“Then maybe it’s time we put that mouth to better use.”

“That’s one of the worst lines I’ve—”

Caley was cut short when Grey crushed their lips together in a scorching kiss. At first, Caley stiffened, shocked by and a bit offended by the intrusion, but then Grey slipped in his tongue. Caley got a good taste of the Wolf, and he turned to putty. Letting out a happy sigh, he slipped his arms around Grey’s neck and surrendered to the kiss, happy to let Grey lead the way.

Grey picked Caley up and sat him down on a nearby worktable so they could continue the kiss. Caley, ever the slut, wrapped his legs around Grey’s waist and brought him in even closer so their cocks rubbed together, the friction sending sparks of pleasure up Caley’s body.

“More. More,” Caley moaned as he tilted his head back to give Grey access to his throat.

“Yes, you’ll get more, baby,” Gray promised as he began to rain love bites down Caley’s neck.

Caley knew he would have all kinds of interesting marks left behind, and he didn’t give a damn. The fact that he had fair skin, and it would make them show up all the more didn’t even matter to him, either. All he cared about at the moment was Grey and what he was doing to him.

A loud explosion sounded from the back of the dwelling, jarring them both from the moment. Caley jumped a mile, while Grey just let out a curse. “Damn their timing. They couldn’t have waited another half hour for their attack.”

Before Caley could even think of a snarky remark to that comment, Grey moved away from him and began to strap his weapons back on at a speed that was quite frankly amazing.

“What’s going on?” Caley asked.

“We’re under attack! You stay put here and don’t move. You’ll should be safe enough here.”

“Is it Rand’s Wolves?”

“Do you know of anyone else that has a beef with Chris?”

“Well, the human hunters, but they’ve pretty much left us alone since Chris warned them away.” Caley got down from the table on shaky legs.

“Then my guess is it’s Rand.”

Grey grabbed his cloak and put it on, making him look every bit the assassin he was. “I mean it, Caley. Stay here. Don’t go running off anywhere. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Caley put up his hands. “Don’t worry about that. I’m a lover, not a fighter. I leave that up to you guys. I’ll stay in my shop where it’s nice and protected.”

Grey stopped on his way out to give Caley one last kiss. “Stay safe, little Dove.”

“You, too,” Caley said.

Another explosion sounded, this one was followed by sirens. Caley could hear the shouts and screams from the pack members outside the door as they scrambled around to get into position or ran to safety. His heart went out to them. While he might still be a bit afraid of them, a part of him had grown to care for some of them, and it hurt him to see them suffering this way.

Damn Rand! Damn his goons! And damn this war! Why couldn’t he just go away and leave them alone? They’d never done anything to him. If he wanted land so badly, let him go find some somewhere else instead of having to come and steal theirs.

Caley shut the door after Grey left and locked it for good measure. He then wrapped his hands around himself and wondered about his friends. He hoped that Alger and the others had found a safe place to hide out until this blew over. Caley wished, not for the first time, that they had cell phones, so they could call each other. He made a mental note that first thing tomorrow he was going to go out and buy them all some. He had enough saved up from his sales. That way they could always keep tabs on each other in situations like this.

Another explosion sounded, this one much closer. Caley jumped under one of his worktables. He wished he had somebody there with him. It was scary enough going through one of these attacks with his friends, but doing it alone was sheer torture. Caley drew his knees up to his chest and began to tremble. While he didn’t like to think of himself as a coward, just sitting there and hoping that the next bomb didn’t land on top of his workshop was terrifying.

Then the next explosion came, and damned if it didn’t land on his workshop. Glass, wood, fabric and other debris went everywhere, all his hard work flying into the air. The table proved to be little use as cover at all, since Caley went through the air, too. He hit a nearby wall and then slid to the floor in a heap.

Sitting up, all he could hear was a horrible ringing in his ears. He shook his head, trying to clear away the sound, but it wouldn’t stop. He got to his feet and staggered a bit as pain shot through his body. It seemed as if every inch of him hurt. Glancing down, he could see blood covering his torn clothing.

Well, that can’t be good.

Realizing, he needed to get help, Caley staggered out of his workshop. He was met with mass chaos. The bombs had damaged a good part of the pack dwelling. Small fires dotted the area with wounded and dead scattered all about. Caley’s stomach sunk as he wondered if his friends were among them.