Kelan's Pursuit (10 page)

“Cary! Wait up!”

Jake cursed, zipping up his jacket against the cold as he quickened his pace, his footsteps echoing along the quiet street. When he reached the entrance to the side alley, Jake squinted into the darkness while he waited for his eyes to adjust to the change in light.

“Cary?
You down there?”

Jake had never been afraid of the dark before, but the whole business with the notes and the break-in at his apartment had him spooked. And he was certain someone had followed him home the night before.

“Cary!”

Jake sighed and started down the alley. It was dark, damp and smelt of urine. Why the hell had the kid come down here? Trash cans were lined up along one side, and on the other, rusty old fire escapes climbed the walls of the old warehouse buildings.

Jake moved farther into the bowels of the alley, listening carefully for any sign of his young friend. Where the hell had he got to? He was about to turn around and go back to the bar when he heard a noise farther ahead.

“Cary!
That you?”

Jake’s question was met with silence. He stilled his body and cocked his head to the side to listen more closely. The quietness in the alley was eerie. There was a wrongness about it that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end.

It was only then that Jake realised his stupidity. There was a psycho stalker roaming the streets with a clear dislike of him. A man that had actually gone to the trouble of breaking into his
apartment,
and instead of being
more
cautious, Jake was wandering down a deserted back alley, essentially offering himself up on a plate.
Way to go, Jake.

The longer Jake stood in the dark alley, the more uneasy he became. He had exactly the same feeling he’d had the previous night when he’d been walking home from the gym. It wasn’t his imagination. Someone in the alley was watching him, he was certain of it.

Jake had to get out of the alley and back to the safety of the bar, but when he turned around he came face to face with a very large, black cat.

“Oh, shit,” he breathed.

The cat was huge. Some sort of panther, maybe? Its black coat almost blended in with its surroundings but there was no mistaking the fierce glint in its yellow eyes or the sharpness of its teeth when it opened its mouth and snarled.

Jake was under no illusions. Panthers didn’t just wander freely around the streets of New York. From everything
Kelan
had told him, he knew the cat was a shifter, but
who
? Surely it couldn’t be quiet, mild-tempered Cary?

Jake edged backwards very, very slowly, afraid to take his eyes off the large cat for a single second. The panther hissed another warning and took a step forward. Jake brought to mind everything he knew about big cats. He knew the one thing he should not do was run. It would only give chase. And Jake had no doubt the panther would catch him. But then, the panther was also a man. Maybe he could talk to him, reason with him, even?

“Cary, is that you?” Jake asked.

The cat hissed again and prowled closer. The irony wasn’t lost on Jake. He’d thought he was being harassed by some random stalker, and now he was quite literally being stalked.

Jake raised his hands in front of him and took another step back.

“Cary, it’s Jake, can you understand me?”

The cat made a gurgling noise in its throat. The sound was inhuman and sounded almost like the cat was laughing at him.

Jake chanced a look at the fire escape beside him. He wasn’t sure he could make it to the ladder before the panther reached him, but he had to try something. He couldn’t just stand there, waiting for it to attack.

The panther took another step forward. A second later, a noise from outside the alley caught the cat’s attention and Jake saw his chance. He leapt for the ladder and began to climb. He had only made it a couple of rungs when the cat turned, realised what he was doing, and pounced.

Its long talons clawed at Jake’s calf, cutting deep. White-hot pain shot through his leg and he cried out while still trying to keep his grip on the ladder. Hot wetness from the wound seeped through his jeans and trickled down his leg. Jake grabbed hold of the next rung of the ladder and heaved himself upwards. His leg throbbed from the cut, but he ignored the pain and kept on climbing.

The panther hissed. When Jake looked down, the cat was starting to climb up behind him. It swiped at him again, but this time Jake was able to move his leg in time, narrowly missing a blow from the sharp claws.

Jake kicked out and his foot caught the top of the panther’s head, but it wasn’t enough to stop its pursuit. All it did was infuriate the panther further, and after another series of snarls and hisses, it swiped out again, its claws once more finding their target.

The second blow was too much for Jake. The pain tore up his leg, stealing his breath, causing lights to dance in front of his eyes. Blood from the wound ran down his leg onto the rung of the ladder beneath him. His foot slipped on the wet surface and he fell.

Jake hit the ground with a loud thud, the back of his head slamming down onto the hard concrete surface. As the dizziness passed, Jake looked up into the gleaming yellow eyes of the panther as it loomed over him, lips curled back around sharp, pointy teeth.

The last thing he remembered before the darkness took him was the cat’s huge paw raised, its claws inches away from his throat.

Jake gagged. He tried to move his head away from the stream of hot, thick liquid that was pouring into his throat, choking him. A large hand held the top of his head, pinning him in place. He fought to open his eyes but they were too heavy.

“That’s
it
, Jake, drink.”
Kelan’s
soothing voice invaded his senses and Jake relaxed, opening his throat to drink whatever
Kelan
was offering him.

Jake’s head was thumping and his leg throbbed like a son of a bitch. But the more liquid that poured into his throat, the better he began to feel. A moment or two later, the flow stopped and Jake was able to crack open his eyes.

Kelan
was looking down at him with an anxious expression on his face. His forearm was raised to Jake’s face and a deep cut on his wrist was closing up before Jake’s eyes.

“
Kelan
?”

“I’m here, baby. Try not to move for a while, okay? You’re still healing.”

“Blood?”
Jake croaked.

“Yes. Your leg is in a bad way, so I gave you some of my blood to help you heal.”

“What happened?”

Kelan
frowned. He reached down and stroked the side of Jake’s face. “You don’t remember?”

Jake tried to recall what had happened to him but his mind was foggy. He fought off the dizziness and, slowly, pictures began to form in his mind.

“There was a cat,” he said at last.
“A big, black cat.”

Kelan
nodded.
“A shifter.
I came to the bar to make sure you were okay, but I caught your scent outside before I went in, and I followed it to this alley.

“When I got here, you were unconscious and a panther shifter was standing over you. Do you remember any of that?”

Jake nodded. “Yes, I fell from the fire escape and hit my head. What happened to him?”

“I chased him, but he was fast. I couldn’t catch him. In truth, I was too worried about you. I had to come back to make sure you were all right.”

“You saved my life,” Jake said, “If you hadn’t got here in time, I might be dead by now.”

“
Shh
, don’t say shit like that, Jake. Don’t
ever
say that. If anything happened to you, I…”
Kelan
hung his head and Jake noticed a tear fall from his eye and slide down his cheek.

“Hey, I’m okay,” Jake soothed, reaching up a shaky hand to wipe it away. “You
did
get to me in time. I’m going to be fine, right?”

Kelan
nodded. “You’ll heal, but the cuts on your leg are deep. You’ll probably be left with scars.”

Jake shrugged. “Scars, I can deal with, so long as the sight of them doesn’t turn you off me.”

Kelan
growled. He leant down and captured Jake’s mouth in a fierce kiss, shoving his tongue inside forcefully. Jake opened right up and surrendered to the kiss.

“Never,”
Kelan
said, against his lips.

Jake threaded his fingers through
Kelan’s
hair and held on tight. He could feel
Kelan’s
hardness pressing against him. It made him shiver with desire and ache with the need to come.

Kelan
reached for the zipper on Jake’s jeans, pulled it open roughly and slid his hand inside. He took hold of Jake’s cock and released it from the confines of his pants. Jake gasped when
Kelan
squeezed him firmly then began to stroke, his thumb brushing over the sensitive nerve endings on the head of his cock.

Kelan
trembled as he tugged Jake’s cock, grinding his hips insistently against Jake’s leg. Jake wasn’t surprised to see
Kelan’s
eyes shift to their wolf form and his incisors break free from his gums.

Kelan
was afraid, Jake was certain of that. The man was practically desperate in his movements and he looked barely able to contain his wolf. Jake couldn’t blame him.
Kelan
must have been as worried as all hell about him. Jake knew he would feel exactly the same way if the situation was reversed.

“Feels good,” Jake said, his hands moving to
Kelan’s
jeans and fighting with the button to get his lover’s cock out, too. He was in urgent need of the contact.

Kelan
growled when Jake took him in his hand and started stroking. The sound was loud to Jake’s ears, especially in the stillness of the deserted alley. It sent a shiver of anticipation along his spine. That, and the feel of
Kelan’s
firm hand working his own cock, was enough to send Jake close to the finish he was now so desperate for.

Even in the darkness, Jake could see a flicker of emotion in
Kelan’s
eyes, but he was afraid to put a name to it. When
Kelan
growled again, more loudly than the first time, and gripped his cock harder, Jake could not hold back his orgasm any longer. He cried out when the force of it rocketed through him, his eyes never leaving
Kelan’s
.

Jake’s orgasm set off
Kelan’s
own. He threw back his head and shouted out Jake’s name as he came, coating Jake’s stomach with his seed.

It took
Kelan
a couple of minutes to stop juddering from his release. When he did, he looked down to meet Jake’s eyes.

“Don’t ever do that to me again, understand? If I lost you, I…”

Jake couldn’t contain the sob that tore from his throat as he looked up into
Kelan’s
eyes and saw the
worry,
relief and affection all shining back at him.

“I promise.”

* * * *

“Here, drink this,” Cody said, placing a large scotch in Jake’s hands.

Jake still felt like shit, but at least his head wasn’t hurting anymore and the acute pain in his leg had lessened to a dull throb. He still hadn’t plucked up the courage to take a look at it. Even though he’d told
Kelan
the scars wouldn’t bother him, he was afraid they’d be worse than he imagined.

Sure,
Kelan
had said they wouldn’t put him off him but what if they did? His looks were the best thing he had going for him, weren’t they?

“Thanks,” Jake said, taking a sip of the scotch. He moaned as he felt the familiar burn in the back of his throat. “I needed that.”

Kelan
took a seat on the sofa next to Jake and studied him, a frown playing on his lips.

“What the hell were you doing in the back alley of a bar, Jake?”

Cody shuffled from foot to foot. “Uh, I’m just going to see how Stefan is getting on in the kitchen,” he said, practically tripping over his feet in his rush to leave the room.

Great, so now even
Kelan’s
brother thought that Jake was screwing around. Jake waited until Cody had left before meeting
Kelan’s
eye.

“It’s not what you think.”

“Really.
And what am I thinking exactly?”

Jake shrugged. “That I went out there to hook up with some guy.”

“Did you?”

“No, I didn’t.” Jake put his glass down on the coffee table in front of him and took hold of
Kelan’s
hand. “I don’t want anyone else, I promise you that.”

Kelan
looked torn. Like he wanted to believe Jake, but he wasn’t sure if he did. After a moment,
Kelan
sighed, his thumb rubbing over the back of Jake’s hand.

“I believe you. But that doesn’t answer my question. What the hell were you doing out there alone? How could you be so careless after everything that’s happened in the last few days? You need to take better care of yourself.”

Jake tried not to be offended. He
could
take care of himself…well, usually. But now that there was a pissed off panther shifter out to get him, maybe he needed
Kelan’s
protection more than he’d first realised.

He settled back on the sofa and proceeded to tell
Kelan
the whole story about Cary, omitting nothing. He was terrified his tale would make
Kelan
realise what a horrible person he was mated to. What would
Kelan
think when he found out how much of a slut Jake had been? How he’d used people for his own ends? Maybe this would be the breaking point for
Kelan
. Jake didn’t know what he’d do if the big, handsome wolf realised he could do better than him.

It had hurt Jake when Matt had left him all those years ago. However, he now knew that his feelings for Matt were nothing compared to what he felt for
Kelan
. It would quite literally break him to lose
Kelan
now, his feelings were so strong.