Nothing to Do With Pride (7 page)

“Stop that, you’re going to make me come.”

“We’re having sex. That’s supposed to be a good thing.”

“I’m going for stamina…you know, past a minute and a half.”

Dennis had to suppress further laughter—KC looked almost to be in pain. As Dennis moved slowly up and down, KC’s cock brushed across something inside him. “Fuck.” Tilting his pelvis slightly, he made it brush across again. “Oh, why did I never do this before?”

“Because you were waiting for me,” KC reminded him.

“Yeah, but I could’ve used a dildo or something… Oh, fuck. We need to do this often.”

With each bounce, his cock returned to its former hardness. “
Yesss
, right there.”

KC wrapped a hand around Dennis’ cock, making Dennis’ eyes fly open.

“Remember me?”

“Sorry.” This was supposed to be an intimate moment between a mating pair and Dennis was treating his mate like the dildo he’d mentioned just a moment before.
4
“We’ll have plenty of chances to do this, but only once to do it first.” KC gave him a sweet smile to take away the sting of his words.

Dennis leant forwards and gave his lover a kiss of apology. It quickly turned into something else when KC flipped him onto his back and proceeded to fuck every thought out of his mind.

“Sneaky fox!”

“Serves you right. I want you focused on me, not just on my dick.”

Then KC hit an angle Dennis had only dreamt of and he emptied his load between them. He opened his mouth to speak but instead screamed when KC bit him hard at the curve of his neck, renewing his mating mark.

Dennis felt KC pump his seed inside his ass, but it was the click as though all the world fell into place that captured his attention.

“We’re now mated!” KC said with a smug smile.

Dennis grinned at the satisfaction in KC’s voice. Possessive little fox.

Closing his eyes, Dennis was content to lie there as his mate pulled out of him and collapsed on his chest. “We’ll have to do that often.”

“You know you only have to do the mate bond once,” KC said.

Dennis shook his head. “No, that’s only a rumour. I’m pretty sure it’s a daily event.”

KC chuckled against him. “Right, sorry. I must have been mistaken.”

“That’s what I think, too.”

“So…your sister’s not psychotic?”

Dennis shrugged, moving KC’s head up and down with the movement. “She says not.

Nicholas says there are some troublemakers on the farm that like to harass the local cattle. I don’t know if it’s true or not, but we’re not here about cattle. We’re here for my sister.”

“Are we taking her back with us?”

“If she wants to go.”

Dennis squeezed KC tight.

“You don’t have to try and break me. I’m on your side, remember?”

“And inside me and taking me in…” Fuck, he was hard again.

“Focus!”

“Sorry.”
4
“We need to get your sister help and make sure she’s not psychotic.”

“And what are you going to do if you find out I’m unbalanced?” a cold voice came from the doorway. Shit, they’d been so wrapped up in each other, they hadn’t noticed the door to the bedroom opening.

Dennis pulled up the sheet to cover his mate. He didn’t care if his ass was hanging out.

No one got to see his baby naked unless it was during a shift.

“Oh, please! I’m not interested in your tiny mate!”

“Hey! I’m not tiny.”

“You’re tiny enough to squash like a bug if you think I’m going to let you do any experiments on my psyche. You can think again.” She bared her teeth at him. Seeing coyote teeth in a delicate girl’s head was all kinds of wrong.

“We’re not going to conduct experiments, but we want to make sure you get the help you need.”

“I’ll decide what I need,” Candice growled.

Dennis looked his sister in the eye. “Come back with us and we’ll try to get you healed so your son can get to know you even better.”

“That’s cheating…pulling the son card.”

* * * *

KC gave a panicked squeal.

“What’s wrong, love?”

“We didn’t check in with Lou, and Talan’s plane is missing. They’ve got to be frantic.”

“Oh shit!”

“Where’s your phone?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t even think of calling you.” Dennis smacked his forehead. “God, I’m an idiot.”

“Well, if it isn’t ringing off the hook, I’m guessing Talan isn’t calling.”

“Not necessarily. I turned it off for the flight.”
4
Candice walked over to Dennis’ pants and pulled out his small cell phone. After turning it on, there was a soft chime as the phone came back online. “You’ve got twenty-two messages.”

“I’m dead! There’s no way Talan and Lou are going to let me go anywhere with KC

ever again. Not to mention we wrecked Talan’s plane.”

“That wasn’t our fault,” KC objected.

“None of it was our fault but that doesn’t mean they still won’t pop a vein.”

“We still need to get back to your town, too,” Candice reminded him.

“Somehow I doubt Talan has a backup plane. Let me retrieve my computer from our bags and get online to look for flights.”

“Candice, go pack a bag. We’ll get dressed and meet you in the living room.”

Candice nodded but she looked reluctant to leave them alone.

“We won’t go without telling you,” KC said gently.

“O-okay.”

Dennis scanned his calls and saw half of them were from Talan and the ones that weren’t were from the sheriff’s office.

“Who should I call first?”

Screams snapped his attention from the phone.

“I think we should’ve called earlier.” The door slammed open and Lou entered with Nicholas dangling from his hand like an afterthought. When he’d thought of the coyote leader as big, he’d been wrong. Compared to Lou, Nicholas looked like a rag doll. Lou tossed the battered coyote to the ground where he lay still.

“Hey Lou,” KC said with a finger wave.

“Do you know how worried I’ve been?” the bear shifter roared.

“I’m pretty sure everyone in the United States knows how worried you were,” James said, walking in beside his lover. He stopped in front of the coyote shifter. “Sorry for the mauling.”

Nicholas groaned and stayed on the floor.

“I’ve been sick for hours worrying about you and you’re in here playing hide the sausage,” Lou growled.
4
“Easy, love.” James looked the pair over and shook his head. “Talan called and told us the plane went down. Lou’s been freaking out ever since. When we got to the site, we met up with some coyotes who brought us here.”

Dennis held up his phone. “I was injured. It just occurred to me to call. I’m really sorry, Lou.” He didn’t mean to make the sheriff worry. KC adored his boss and Dennis worried he’d single-handedly damaged their relationship.

The bear shifter sighed before turning around and walking out. James went into the hall and returned with their bags. “Get dressed and we’ll go home.”

“We’re bringing Candice,” KC said.

“We’ll talk once you’re dressed.” For the first time, James’ eyes frosted over with a look less than friendly. “I know you’re trying to be your own person, KC, but Lou was really worried about you.”

KC dropped his head down as James left the room.

“Hey.” Dennis lifted KC’s head with his hands. “He knows we didn’t do it on purpose, babe. We just need to talk to him. We should’ve called before we made love and that’s my fault. I knew the sheriff was worried about you. We’ll talk to him and he’ll forgive you.”

KC wiped away his tears. “James has never looked at me like that before, like I disappointed him.”

“Well, you haven’t known him long. You have plenty of time to disappoint him further.”

Laughing, he shoved Dennis away. “Thanks for your confidence.”

Dennis smiled, pleased he’d got his mate out of his doldrums. “Let’s go take a shower then we can talk to them and tell them why we need to bring my possibly psychotic sister home.”

“Okay.”

They showered together but barely touched each other in their haste to get clean without becoming distracted. Dennis didn’t want to test fate by putting his hands on KC.

They returned to their room and quickly dressed before grabbing their bags and headed for the living room to face the music.

Candice’s impassioned voice led them to where everyone else was collected. Nicholas lay on the couch with a bag of frozen peas on his eye. “Just take your men and get out.
5
You’ve already been more trouble…” KC’s eyes widened as he saw the newcomer in the group. Bob stood there, looking tall and handsome in his cop uniform.

“Hey, human.”

“Hey, foxy man.”

Dennis let out a low growl.

“Ahh, the man from the phone.” Bob’s eyes widened as he took in Dennis’ narrowed eyes. He lifted his hands, palms up. “I got it, no touching KC.”

KC shook his head and looked back at his human friend. “Hey Bob, how did you know I was here?”

“I didn’t. I was following the sightings of a plane crash and ran into this group of squatters.”

“We’re not fucking squatters,” Nicholas growled. “We’re revitalising the ranch.”

“Did you buy it?” Bob asked.

“There wasn’t anyone to buy it from. I tried calling around but there aren’t any records of anyone who owns this place. According to the county, the last owner died and no one came forward to claim it.”

“I’ll look into it. Someone has to own the property.”

“We do.” Nicholas lifted his bag of peas and glared at the human.

KC could practically feel the sparks striking between them. “Maybe Bob can do a little research and if it is truly not owned, you can arrange for these people to buy it?”

“Maybe.” Bob shrugged. “For you, KC, I’ll try it.

“The limo is out front,” Candice said.

As he passed the cop, KC whispered, “Be nice.”

Bob jerked back. “I’m always nice.”

Nicholas made a snorting sound from the couch.

Lou picked up Candice’s bag as he passed and she had to scurry to catch up. KC didn’t want to go on another plane, but what else could he do? They couldn’t drive all the way home. Well, they could…but it would take forever.

“I brought something to drink,” Lou said, offering him a swallow KC accepted the soda and took a deep drink. It took him a moment to realise something was wrong. He set the can down just as he fell into blackness.
5
Chapter Five

Dennis watched his mate collapsing and caught him before he hit the floor. “What the fuck did you do to my mate?”

The bear shifter looked unperturbed. “I drugged him so he doesn’t freak out when we get on the plane.”

Relief shot through Dennis. He hadn’t realised how worried he’d been about his mate.

He’d felt KC becoming more tense the closer they’d got to the limo.

“I don’t think an airline is going to let us go through with a drugged shifter,” Candice said with a shake of her head.

“We’re going to a small airstrip.”

Dennis swallowed back his own panic.

“Here—have a soda.”

Dennis laughed, his tension easing a bit.

The miles flew by with KC’s head in his lap. Dennis stroked his mate’s hair in a calming motion that soothed him. “Whose plane is it?”

“Kevin’s. He keeps one for business. We flew in it to get down here. Everyone at the pack house was worried.”

Dennis hid his surprise that Kevin, Payce’s mate, had been willing to loan them the plane after Dennis had allowed Payce to be captured in order to try to save Candice. At the time he went with the situation hoping Payce would be able to take care of himself and escape. Payce had been safely rescued, but because of that betrayal, the lion shifter didn’t like Dennis much. It must’ve been KC’s plight that convinced Kevin to help.

Dennis nodded, stroking his mate’s face. “They all love KC.”

“No. The lions were concerned about you. Payce was beside himself, which is why we got Kevin’s plane.”

“Really?” Joy filled him. He missed his friend. Payce might not trust him like he had before, but Dennis hoped they could have a relationship again.
5
“Yes, Dennis. Many of the pride have come to like you and don’t want anything to happen to you. They were all upset about the plane crash.”

Dennis swallowed the lump in his throat. “I’m sorry about the pilot.”

“It was the two of you we were really worried about.” The bear shifter shrugged.

“Talan will, of course, provide for his family.”

“Good.”

Candice’s hand tightened on the phone as if it were a lifetime. He couldn’t connect this anxious, worried woman to the hard, cold-blooded killer she’d been painted as.

“Did you really kill those people?”

Candice looked at where Dennis’ hand stroked KC’s head. “They’d pumped me full of their latest drug cocktail. It drove me insane. I woke up naked in the middle of the forest covered in blood. You don’t know what it was like—the needles, the weird formulas and the constant taunting by the guards. They told me they were going to sell me to the highest bidder.” Candice’s hands shook. “They told me a lot of things.”

“Hey.” Dennis grabbed Candice’s hands. “You come back with me and I’ll find you a place to stay. Maybe the pride will give you my old room when I move in with KC.”

Her expression softened as she looked at the unconscious fox shifter. “You really found your mate, didn’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“Good for you.” Candice smiled but her eyes reflected her sorrow. “I guess our parents were wrong then, weren’t they?”

Their parents had told Dennis he’d be alone his entire life because he went against nature and chose to have sex with men. “Yeah, I guess they were.”

Cuddling his lover tight, he hoped they found his nephew soon. He didn’t think Candice was strong enough to handle any more bad news.

* * * *

Dennis awoke at the shout.

Turning his head, he saw his mate sitting straight up in bed, looking around with bleary eyes.
5
“Where am I?”

“At the pride house. It was too late to head to your place last night and the pride house was closer.”

“How did…oooh, that sneaky bear drugged me, didn’t he?” KC’s eyes flashed his annoyance.

“He wanted to spare you the stress.”

“I hate it that he knows me that well.”