Zeus's Pack 9: Rave (13 page)

“Do you think bullets will kill me?”

Logan saw Tony on the front steps, two hands gripping the gun.

He fired again, and then again, the bullets hitting the thing, making him jerk back.

“Kill him,” Logan said, even though his voice was barely a whisper. He’d rather die than let this thing escape. He saw what the creature was capable of, and Logan didn’t want anyone else dying at its hands.

Tony’s face was grave, his eyes trained on the thing. “Let him go.”

A soul-shivering laugh fell from the thing’s lips. “Come make me.”

Logan grabbed the thing’s wrist, holding on for dear life when he was slowly lifted from the ground, his feet leaving the grass as he dangled in midair. The pressure was becoming too much. Logan couldn’t get enough oxygen into his lungs. The lobes burned as a throbbing headache began to form in the back of his skull.

He was dying, being strangled to death, and there wasn’t a thing Logan could do about it. His vision faded as he felt his body going limp in the tight grip of the creature’s claws.

* * * *

Tony tried to stay calm and keep a level head. He wasn’t sure how to kill a man who seemed to eat the bullets and spit them back out.

His heart spiraled up into his throat when he saw Logan go limp, his eyes fluttering closed. He fired repeatedly into the man, thanking god he had spent so much time on the gun range. His aim was accurate as hell, but he didn’t seem to be doing any damage.

Dorm came from around the side of the mansion, firing his gun along with Tony, but fuck if it was doing any damage. It was like using a cap gun.

Rave, or it looked like his mate, came from behind Dorm in his wolf form, racing toward the man who had Logan in his grasp. The man laughed as he ran, his speed so fast that Tony had a hard time keeping his eyes focused on the guy.

“Don’t you fucking lose Logan,” he shouted at Rave as Tony jumped from the steps and gave chase. Dorm ran up beside him as they followed Rave in his wolf form. There was no way Tony could keep an eye on the man with Logan. He was just too damn fast.

Fear threatened to bring Tony to his knees as he watched the man slow to curl Logan into his arms. Tony wasn’t sure if Logan was dead or alive, but the man could not have his mate. Tony was bound and determined to get Logan back.

“No!” Tony shouted when the man disappeared from sight. He couldn’t lose Logan. Tony feared that he would never see his mate again if he couldn’t catch the man. He saw Rave put on a burst of speed, and then Rave was out of sight as well. Tony didn’t stop. He kept running in the direction that Rave had gone, praying that Rave could save Logan.

Tony cursed his recessed genes, he cursed his fucked-up lineage, and he cursed everything that was wrong with his jaguar as he tried to keep up. Once again he felt the beast inside of him, but it was trapped, with no way out. Tony rounded a clump of trees and froze.

The man was in a clearing, Logan lying on the ground. He wasn’t sure what happened, but Rave was racing toward the man.

“Rave!” Tony shouted as he began to run again, racing toward both his mates and praying he didn’t lose either of them.

Tony stumbled when he saw a flying man come from the sky, descending down toward the clearing. He kept running, his only goal Rave and Logan.

The man who had taken Logan shifted into the biggest fucking dog Tony had ever seen. It was a Rottweiler, immense in size and girth as it charged toward the flying man. Rave had said the flying men had wings that he couldn’t see, but Rave hadn’t said anything about fangs. Tony watched in horror as the winged man hissed and then changed color. He was fucking blue, and his size had gotten taller. Black claws came out of the winged thing’s hand, his fangs gleaming in the moonlight as Tony dropped down on the ground next to Logan.

He ignored the two fighting as he rolled Logan over, Rave whining and pushing his muzzle into Logan’s shoulder. Tony began CPR, pressing into Logan’s chest and then breathing into his mouth.

There was a big, ugly purple mark on Logan’s throat, and it was bleeding.

Tony raised his entwined fingers and let his hands slam down into Logan’s chest, forcing air into his mate’s lungs.

Logan coughed and then sputtered. He took in gasps and gulps of air and sucked it into his thirsty lungs. Tony grabbed Logan, pulled his mate into his arms as he ran from the clearing, Rave and Dorm at his side. He had to get help for Logan. Max was a doctor at the mansion. He could help Logan.

Tony held on to Logan as tight as he could as he ran as fast as his legs would carry him. Logan may have breathed in the clearing, but he was lying limp in Tony’s arms. He crashed through the front door, shouting for Max as Rave bounded in after him, Dorm coming in last.

Max ran into the foyer, his eyes wide as Tony laid Logan onto the marble floor. Logan wasn’t moving, and this time, it was Tony who wasn’t breathing.

Rave lay curled around Logan in the bed. His chin was resting on Logan’s head, his body coiled around the other man’s loosely. Logan was in the hospital, a precaution, Max had said. The doctor had rushed Logan into the emergency room when Tony had brought an unconscious Logan back to the mansion.

Logan had begun healing on his way in. Rave didn’t understand it, Max didn’t have a clue, and Tony paced like a maniac as everyone tried to figure out how Logan healed on his own. Logan wasn’t a shifter. He shouldn’t have healed so quickly. But then again, so very little was known about the
styre mente
. Maybe this was normal for Logan.

Logan lay there sleeping, breathing normally. The bruises were still on his mate’s neck, but the cuts from the hound’s claws had healed. Zeus had called the commander of the winged beasts to find out if the hound’s claws could infect Logan with that nasty black ooze. Nazaryth had ensured the alpha that only a bite would be lethal, but to watch for fever.

Logan’s skin was as cool as spring rain. Rave pulled his mate closer to his body, refusing to be an inch away from the man. Zeus told Rave that the winged beast that had come to the clearing to fight the hound was someone named Dog. He had defeated the hound, killing him and setting his body on fire. Apparently fire was the only way to kill the sons of bitches once they were stabbed behind the ear.

Rave just wished it was he who had lit the bastard on fire. He wouldn’t have lost a moment of sleep over killing the man who had put Logan in the hospital. Rave glanced over at Tony who was sitting in a chair by the bed now, gazing off into space. His brown eyes were looking at something Rave only wondered about.

“What are you hiding from me?”

Tony glanced at Rave, his eyes haunted as he slouched a little further into the chair. Tony sat there looking lost, as if he would rather eat glass than say anything at all. That expression alone held Rave’s attention. “I’ll tell if you will.”

Rave thought about it. It seemed only fair. “Deal.” He wasn’t sure how much to tell his mate, but the rift between all three of them was growing, and Rave had to do something to bring them together or none of them would survive this relationship.

Tony crossed his fingers over the flat planes of his stomach as his eyes rose up to meet Rave’s. He chewed on his bottom lip, glanced away, and then sighed. “I’m a jaguar.”

Rave took in those three words, replayed them in his mind, and then cocked his head. “But you don’t smell like a shifter.”

Tony snorted. The sound was bitter as he looked down at his hands lying on his stomach. Rave had a feeling he had just hit a sore chord in Tony, one he hadn’t meant to. “My genes are recessed, Rave.

If Max took blood from me right now, he wouldn’t find any shifter genes.”

Rave’s mind began to turn over Tony’s words, and things started to click, pieces of the puzzle falling into place. Acts that had baffled Rave were starting to make a whole lot of sense, and Rave was beginning to understand the man. “The claiming?”

A resentful look crossed over Tony’s face like a close storm. His jaw knotted tightly, the muscle throbbing as his fingers clenched.

They turned white, except for the light pink around his knuckles.

“You’re going to make me say it, aren’t you?”

Rave held his breath, worried that Tony was going to shut down on him. As pained as Tony’s expression was, Rave had to know the truth in order to close the large chasm growing between them. “Yes.”

Tony didn’t look too happy with Rave’s answer. “When I was with you, when you bit me, my jaguar was fighting to get free, to claim you in return. That had never happened before.”

“Before you met me and Logan.” Rave said what he knew Tony was omitting.

Tony nodded. “The urge was so strong that I thought I would shatter into a thousand pieces. But my canines never lengthened.”

Sorrow and regret fueled Tony’s confession, and a pain like Rave had never seen before washed over Tony’s features.

Rave knew that deep and soul-stirring need to claim one’s mate. If he had been denied the chance to bite Tony, he knew he would have gone mad. No wonder Tony had left him and gone into the bathroom afterward. It had probably torn the man to pieces to be denied that honor.

“When I was with you and Logan, the same urge hit me again, only stronger that time. I wasn’t trying to be a prick to you or Logan, but I couldn’t handle not being able to claim either of you.” It looked like it had cost Tony a lot to confess that out loud. Tony’s features were strained, lines forming at his eyes and mouth.

Rave slipped from the bed, hating to leave Logan’s side, but knowing he couldn’t leave Tony just sitting there by himself. He walked around the bed, kneeling between Tony’s legs. Rave rested his head on his mate’s stomach as he circled his arms around Tony’s waist. “I’m sorry your jaguar is lost to you. Have you tried a doctor, a DNA test, anything that might help?”

“No.” That one word vibrated through Tony’s chest, making Rave hold on tighter. “There is nothing anyone can do.”

Rave knew that, but he felt so helpless doing nothing. To be denied one’s beast had to be the most excruciating experience one had to live with. Rave couldn’t even begin to know what it would be like to call his wolf and have nothing happen. His wolf was such an integrated part of him, like the breath in his lungs “I know what it’s like to fight with something inside of you and lose.” He could offer Tony that much.

“Your turn?” Tony asked, voice a little shaky.

Rave nodded his head in Tony’s stomach, praying he had the courage to tell Tony about his monsters. He’d never spoken about his nightmares out loud and feared reliving them. There was a time in Rave’s life that he wished he could purge them, scrub the vile things clean from his memories. But Rave knew that would never happen, so he just buried them deep inside of him, hoping he could at least forget that his monsters existed.

“Before Zeus fought and won the position of alpha, a wolf named Jackson led our pack. He was as evil as they came. Torturing for pleasure and punishing for the sheer joy of listening to the screams and pleas.” Rave shuddered as he went back into his past, holding on to Tony tighter as he knelt in front of his mate. He ran his cheek over Tony’s shirt, inhaling his mate’s scent for some form of comfort Rave knew he wouldn’t find while telling Tony about his past.

Tony’s hand skimmed through Rave’s hair as he knelt there.

Taking a deep breath for courage, Rave continued. “He would send the soldiers into town, claiming someone had betrayed him. It was never the case, but Jackson was the devil incarnate. If we didn’t bring the accused back, we were punished severely. He had followers, sadistic men who loved the torture and pain just as much as the alpha did. Jackson would hand us over to his followers if we failed him, and sometimes even if we succeeded.”

Rave hated Jackson with his very soul. He was glad the man was dead. Rave just wished his memories of his time under Jackson had died along with the wolf. “I’ve killed, Tony, killed for Jackson to save my own ass.”

* * * *

Tony could hear the torture, the guilt, and the pain in Rave’s voice. He wasn’t sure what Rave had done for this Jackson guy, but Tony wasn’t going to make Rave tell. It seemed to be taking something precious from Rave just to speak of his past. Tony didn’t want that. He had only wanted to know what was going on with Rave.

The picture Rave was painting was enough. He didn’t need to hear any more.

“Taz was there through it all with me,” Rave went on. “I love him, but not how you think, Tony. He’s my best friend, knows my dark secrets, as I know his. Please don’t ever think that I would betray you or Logan.”

Tony slid from the chair, kneeling in front of Rave as the man rose up, resting his head on Tony’s shoulder. They knelt there together, a simple embrace that wasn’t so simple. They had bared their souls to one another in the hospital room and now needed the comfort only mates could give.

He could feel a slight trembling coming from Rave as Tony looked up to see Logan watching them. The blue in Logan’s eyes was almost so clear that Tony wasn’t able to discern the blue from the white any longer. Logan looked as though he was in pain as he watched Rave and Tony.

“This side,” Tony said as he held Rave and locked eyes with Logan. “You will always walk on this side, with me, with us.”

Tony had taken the words Rave had given Logan and placed them at Rave’s feet. “Your past is in the past. It will always be there. But I need you to start walking in the future with Logan and me.”

Rave nodded, nuzzling Tony’s neck. Tony could feel the wetness on his neck, making him hold Rave tighter.

Logan smiled, an approving look dancing in his eyes. He knew words weren’t enough to help the three of them, but Tony wasn’t going to give up. Logan and Rave knew his secret. Logan and Tony knew Rave’s. And lord knew Rave and Tony knew Logan’s. What was left was to work through it and hope like hell that this relationship worked.

Tony had to come to terms with his lost jaguar, and Rave needed to come to peace with his past. He wasn’t sure what the hell to do about Logan’s problem, other than pray Logan never used his ability to hurt anyone.