Rick's Reluctant Mate (6 page)

Chapter Seven

Jordan didn't smile very often, but he
couldn't help but grin now. Every
packmate
that he'd
expected to react badly to his growing relationship with Ricky had given him
their blessing—including Ricky's father, Cody.

The man, or course, had been concerned for
his son, but he'd known for a long time that Ricky was attracted to Jordan.
Even as a human Ricky seemed to somehow sense the mate bond, and Cody had been
pleased that he and Jordan might have a chance to be happy together.

The ex-human's blessing had been so
unexpected that Jordan had sat frozen for nearly a full minute trying to
comprehend what that meant. Even Trent and Aiden—who'd both been there the day
Jordan had attacked Noah—had assured him that they believed Jordan had made up
for the mistakes of his past.

He wasn't certain he was convinced of that
himself, but learning that the people around him had faith in his ability to
make Ricky happy went a long way to convincing him that he deserved this chance
himself.

Even with the clouds closing in and the rain
starting to splatter on the windscreen, Jordan knew this was a beautiful day.
He was on his way back to his mate, and if Ricky let him, he'd spend the rest
of his life living with and loving his man.

He was so distracted by the happiness
flowing through him that he nearly hit a truck that pulled onto the highway in
front of him and then immediately slowed down. Thankfully there weren't any
other cars on the road, so he was able to change lanes and swerve around what
could have been a rather serious accident.

But a quick glance in the rearview mirror
showed a rather disturbing scenario. A young woman, apparently naked and
handcuffed fought against a man holding her down as she kicked out at the
driver. Jordan slowed his own vehicle, unwilling to leave anyone—human or
otherwise—is such a terrifying situation. Thankfully, the female's struggles
made it impossible for the man to continue driving, so when the man eased the truck
off the highway and parked on the side of the road, Jordan quickly did the same.

Presented with the perfect opportunity he
slid from his car, quickly dragged his clothes off, and then changed into his
wolf form.

As he got closer he realized the scents were
all wrong. Instead of the acrid stench of fear and aggression he'd been
expecting, he caught the smell of something not quite human. It was confirmed a
moment later when the driver climbed out of the vehicle and changed into what
Jordan thought was a hyena. He wasn't really sure since as a werewolf he'd
never been to the zoo and he didn't watch much TV, but the man being of an
unknown shifter species wasn't going to stop Jordan from trying to protect an
innocent young woman.

He took the hyena down without much effort,
tearing the tendons in its back leg as it tried to escape. The second man
stayed in human form, reaching for a weapon even as he let the young woman go.
Jordan didn't give him a chance to use the gun. He simply launched himself at
the man's wrist and bit down until the bones snapped and the firearm dropped
uselessly to the ground.

Jordan had no idea if hyenas could shift and
heal as efficiently as werewolves, but he had no intention of waiting around to
find out. The road was still empty, so he quickly changed into his human shape
and approached the young woman who was currently lying on the ground, holding a
protective arm over her stomach.

"We need to get out of here. Are you
hurt?"

The woman moved slightly, nodding and
sobbing at the same time. She mumbled something that even Jordan's werewolf
hearing couldn't discern so he moved closer.

"It's okay. I'm going to get you out of
here," he said, dropping to his knees in front of the injured, naked
woman. "Can you tell me where you're hurt?"

"I told them it wouldn't work,"
the woman mumbled as she again moved slightly. "I guess I was wrong."

The
Taser
fucking
hurt—like
seriously
fucking hurt—but
it was the bullet to the back that dropped him to the ground. Jordan managed to
change back into his wolf form, but before he could turn and bite any of his
attackers a sharp sting at his throat and a sudden heat through his veins made
everything blur. He fought it, biting viciously at the hand holding the syringe
even as a heavy, booted foot slammed into his ribs over and over.

Damn, he should have called Ricky and let
him know he'd been on his way back to him. He didn't want to die without at
least once having the chance to tell his mate how much he loved him.

Chapter Eight

"Hey, Ricky," his dad said in a
jovial tone, his voice a little bit tinny despite the high quality audio of
Rick's voicemail. "I guess you're busy with your mate, so I won't interrupt.
I just wanted to check in and say 'hi.'"

Rick barely heard the rest of his dad's
message as endless questions ran through his mind. Why would his dad think he
was busy with Jordan? The man had left two days ago and showed no signs of ever
coming back. Hell, the guy wouldn't even answer his cell phone.

If that didn't mean he'd changed his mind
about a relationship, Rick wasn't sure what did.

"Bad news?" Lilly asked as she
stepped into his office.

"I don't know," Rick said,
mentally replaying his dad's words and tone in his mind. Perhaps his dad had
simply assumed that because Jordan wasn't in Lupinville that he was here with
Rick. "I missed a call from my dad. It doesn't sound like it was important
though."

"So why does it have you so
upset?"

"That's really annoying, you
know," Rick said, but in a tone that showed he wasn't really mad. Either
Lilly understood him way better than anyone else he'd ever met, or the woman
could read minds. Too often he'd been left feeling transparent under her
watchful gaze.

Lilly laughed. "You're not the first to
call me annoying, and you won't be the last, but if you want to talk about it,
I'm also a pretty good listener."

Rick smiled and nodded his thanks. All of
the Alateeka siblings had made similar offers over the past month. It was a
rather stressful job, but so far he was coping pretty well. "I'm just
missing Jordan. Dad apparently thinks he's here with me, but maybe that's just
another sign that he took off and doesn't plan to come back."

"Why would your dad make that
assumption? I get the impression he's pretty protective of you."

"Story of my life," Rick said with
another laugh, glancing out the window at the security guard's station just
outside the front gate. Lilly apparently followed his gaze.

"You know you're not a prisoner,
right?" she asked in a very serious tone.

"Oh, I know that," he said
quickly, worried that he'd offended one of the people who'd shown him nothing
but kindness. "Believe me, after my dad got abducted when he was mistaken
for me a few years ago, I'm very happy to be surrounded by people who can
protect me while I get lost in cyberspace."

It felt a little bit claustrophobic
sometimes to have his own security detail like he was some kind of rock star,
but he'd never felt like he couldn't go where he wanted. It just required a
little bit of forward planning, and since he'd never been the type to actually
want to go out to buy groceries or shop for clothes and stuff, he had no
problem getting everything delivered and working most of the time.

He was so lost in his own thoughts, mentally
circling back to the message he'd just received from his dad, that he almost
forgot Lilly was in the room with him.

"Sorry," he said, trying not to
acknowledge the heat of a blush he could feel creeping up his neck.
"I…um…I get lost inside my head sometimes. It's a…um…personality problem a
lot of computer geeks have…I think. I've never spent that much time with
someone as into computers and stuff as I am."

Lilly gave him a look that suggested she
understood exactly what he was trying to say. "It's possibly part of the
reason why you and Jordan are destined mates. When he's protecting you, Jordan
has a type of quiet steadiness that few in this industry can truly
achieve."

"Opposites attract? I guess he believes
differently," Rick said, trying to swallow the lump of emotion caught in
his throat. "I'm kind of glad I'm not a werewolf. I can't imagine how much
more this would hurt if it was a biological pull as well as an emotional
one."

Lilly nodded and gave him a sympathetic
smile. "You wouldn't need quite as much security if you were a Lupinville
werewolf with the ability to self-heal, but yeah, the 'destined mates' thing
would truly suck." She gave him a speculative look. "I have some
contacts if you decide you would like to be a different kind of shifter, but
maybe give Jordan a little while to change his mind before doing something
rather permanent."

"He's been resisting the idea of us
being mates for nearly four years now. I don't suppose that's an easy attitude
to overcome, but I'll keep the 'other shifter' idea in mind. It would be nice
to not be such a drain on security precautions."

"Nonsense," Lilly said with a wide
smile. "We like protecting you. Too often we find ourselves working for
people who aren't as innocent as they claim. It's nice to have the genuine
article for a change."

Rick wasn't certain how to interpret that,
but since he'd recently overheard a conversation that included eyewitness
accounts of the French Revolution he supposed he was perceived as quite young
by comparison. He shrugged a not-quite-reply. Lilly grinned again, and then
stood up and walked toward the doorway.

"Maybe give your dad a call and ask why
he thought Jordan was here. If they spoke while he was in Lupinville, it might
be worth knowing what was said."

"Thanks,
Lil
,"
he said as she walked down the hallway toward the kitchen area. If there was
one thing Rick had truly found unusual about the Alateeka siblings it was the
amount of food they managed to put away each day. That alone suggested none of
them were purely human.

He grabbed his phone, dialed his father's
number, and waited impatiently for the man to answer.

"Hi, son," Cody said happily.
"You didn't need to call me back. It wasn't anything important. You should
go back to your mate."

"Dad, Jordan didn't come back."

"Are you sure?" Cody asked
sounding confused.

"Dad, I think I would have
noticed." Although, if Jordan had gone back to protecting him from a
distance like last time, chances were he wouldn't have let Rick see him anyway.

His dad was quiet for a worrying amount of
time. "He…" Cody left the word hanging as if he was trying to replay
in his head what had happened. "Rick, he seemed so happy. Jordan came by
the auto shop two days ago. He even asked my permission to claim you as his
mate."

"What did you say?" Rick asked
,
worried that his dad had said something Jordan had
misunderstood. His dad—and most of the werewolves in Lupinville—knew how much
Rick wanted Jordan in his life, and how much Jordan cared for him.

"Ricky, I told him I love you, and that
I want you to be happy." Rick's chest ached at the realization that Jordan
would likely have interpreted that as "stay away from my son." Rick
was pretty sure he could hear Trent in the background. His dad's mate very
likely had his arms around him, holding him close as they spoke. Just the
thought made him a little jealous, even though he knew his dad deserved to be
deliriously happy.

"Jordan would have taken that the wrong
way," Rick said, trying to hold himself together as Lilly came back into
the office with a huge tray of food.

"No, Rick, he couldn't have. We were
talking about how happy he made you. How I believed that you two are mates for
a reason." Trent said something in the background that Rick didn't quite
catch.

"What was that?"

"Trent said Jordan phoned the alpha on
his way out of town to discuss plans for you to become a werewolf. Honestly,
son, there's no explanation for him to not be there. Everything he said and did
suggested
he was planning a life with you."

"Would he have changed his mind on the
way here?" Rick asked, trying to hold
himself
together as the idea that something
else
might have happened to his mate finally began to sink in. Lupinville werewolves
could heal most injuries, but they weren't invulnerable. They could still die
if their wounds were severe enough to interfere with the change of forms.

"Rick, Trent is talking to the alpha
right now. We'll figure out what happened. We'll find him for you."

The tears that blurred his vision and the
emotion closing his throat made it hard to reply, but his dad heard him anyway.
"Thanks, Dad."

"I'll call you back, Rick. As soon as
we know anything, I'll call you back."

It was lucky Rick didn't need to see the
screen on his phone to be able to hang up, because he couldn't seem to stop the
tears blurring his vision. He'd forgotten Lilly was in the room until he heard
her on the phone talking to one of her brothers.

"Brody, we need some eyes in the
sky."

Rick didn't hear what the man replied, but
Lilly quickly filled him in on the details, exchanged a couple of playful
insults with her twin brother, and then hung up.

"Okay, it's likely to be a few hours
before we hear anything from anyone. Is there anywhere you can think that
Jordan might have stopped on his way here?"

Rick closed his eyes, replaying nearly every
conversation he'd had with Jordan over and over in his head. Despair was
threatening to overwhelm him when he finally remembered the necklace.

He jolted guiltily. It had been a horrible
thing to do—and an awful invasion of his mate's privacy—and he'd promised
himself he'd never use it.

"What aren't you telling me?"
Lilly asked with an excited grin as if she already knew he'd implanted Jordan's
gift with a GPS tracking device.

"I…um…tagged him."

Lilly laughed, sounding absolutely
delighted.

"Drop the guilt and get on the
computer," Lilly said in a rather bossy tone. "If your man doesn't
want to be found then he can tell us that himself when we find him."

Rick nodded and did exactly as ordered.