Stevens-Journey [Brac Pack 20] (13 page)

Roman tugged on Steven’s hand, pulling closer to whisper in his ear. “I wanted to take you to dinner. I don’t like you cooking for everyone each night.”

Steven liked it. It gave him a sense of purpose, and he thoroughly enjoyed using his skills in the kitchen. He gave a hesitant nod as he followed Roman.

“We’re hungry, too.” The twins complained as they tagged along.

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They entered the diner and took a seat at one of the booths. Steven scooted into the booth as Roman sat on his side. Roman didn’t argue with his brothers. He seemed happy that they were with him.

They ordered their food as Chauncey and Chance began chatting away.

Steven sat there and listened to them talk about how Bella gave birth this morning and that the new foal was named Mimbsy. “Why didn’t you tell me?” Steven asked as the waiter brought their food. He bit into his fried chicken and then licked his fingers. Man, this was some really good food.

Steven sat there and listened to the twins tell tales of growing up and the pranks they used to play on Roman.

“Used to?” Roman snorted. “When did it become past tense?” Steven laughed as he excused himself to go the bathroom. Before he had a chance to get a foot near the urinal, he was shoved hard into the wall. “Someone wants you back.”

The foul breath wisped across his face, stinging his nostrils.

Steven tried to turn his head, to see who it was. The voice was unfamiliar to him. The attacker pinned his hands behind his back, making his face smash into the bathroom wall as the attacker pressed his face into the side of Steven’s.

“Tell David to go to hell.” Steven struggled, but the sweaty hands had him firmly in their grasp. Steven kept his head down, fighting to breathe normally. The rancid breath was making him gag.

“It’s not David,” the man sang in a taunting and maniacal voice. If it wasn’t David who wanted him back, then who would be doing this?

The thumping in his heart got louder as pain shot through his arm, the attacker twisting it higher. “You’re going to walk out of here quietly and come with me.”

Steven tried once again to regain his freedom. He twisted his arms, only to bring more pain to his already strained limbs. “If you hadn’t noticed, I came here with three very large men.”
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The man snarled and snapped at Steven’s face, his decaying breath making bile rise in the back of Steven’s throat. He panted heavily as he planted his feet onto the wall and tried to use his body weight to shove but the man seemed to be one step ahead. He slammed Steven back into the wall.

Steven heard the bathroom door open, a loud intake of breath, and then the door opened again. Whoever it was wasn’t getting involved.

He just hoped they alerted someone, anyone, of what was taking place in the men’s room.

“Who are you?” Steven was going for stall tactics. If he kept the guy talking, Roman would notice he was taking too long and come in here. Then again, if the guy tried to take him out of the diner, the Lakeland brothers would stop them.

“Shut up.” The man yanked Steven’s arm up higher, making him cry out in pain. “I ask the questions, give the orders.”

“Like hell.”

Steven let out a relieved breath when he heard the deep timbre of Roman’s voice. He tried to yank his arms free, but instead, got a knife pressed to his throat. So this was how the man was going to get him out of here.

“Back off, bear.” Steven could hear the uncertainty in the stranger’s voice. The realization that he had three angry bears blocking the doorway. Roman looked angry enough to tear the man to pieces without a second thought. Chauncey and Chance looked just as pissed.

“Let him go,” Roman demanded as he took a step closer.

“We’re walking out of here, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”

Steven gulped when he felt the blade tightened at his throat. He felt something warm trickle down his neck at the same time Roman’s eyes widened with fear. “It’s a pity you’re making me waste even a drop.”

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“What the hell are you rattling about?” Chauncey asked with a clenched jaw. Steven had never seen the playful bear this angry. As a matter of fact, he’d never seen him angry before this. It was a sobering sight to see not only his mate, but all three men looking at his attacker like he was about to meet death.

“I just want out of here.” The stranger yanked Steven’s hair, his grubby fingers digging into Steven’s scalp. “I only want the mated human. I have no beef with you guys.”

“Are you fucking serious, dumbass?” Chauncey bellowed. “You have my brother-in-law at knifepoint. Do you really think we’re going to just let you walk out of here with him?” Steven watched Roman. His mate wasn’t saying anything. His look was calculating, though. As if he were working the scenario out in his mind and trying to come up with the best possible way to get Steven out of this situation.

The opportunity came when the man took the knife from Steven’s throat and pointed it at Chauncey. “You better.”

“Down,” Roman shouted, and Steven dropped to the floor. He screamed when he hit the floor, his hair still tangled in the man’s tight grip. His whole body jerked back when Roman attacked and knocked the man back into the wall.

“My hair!” Steven grabbed the strands that were being pulled from his scalp. He held onto the base, trying to stop the searing pain.

Chauncey was at his side in seconds, biting the man’s hand as the pressure was released. The stranger had let his hair go. Chance pulled him from the floor as Chauncey stood and helped Roman take the bastard down.

Steven stood there shaking as he got his first look at the man who had threatened him at knifepoint. He was shocked when he saw it was the man from Maverick’s, the worker who kept watching him from afar.

“Why?” Steven shouted as he rubbed his scalp with one hand and laid the other over the stinging in his neck.

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“Why else?” the man spat from the floor.

“What’s he talking about, Steven?” Roman asked as he hauled the guy to his feet, Chauncey laying a large hand on the attacker’s shoulder.

“He’s talking about David.” Steven felt his inside shaking apart.

He had held the secret for so long that it felt like a weight was being lifted from his shoulder as the words poured from him.

“Shut the hell up!” the man growled. “You better not or you’re dead.”

Steven watched as Roman swung around and slammed the man into the wall. “Talk to him again and you’ll go through the wall next time.”

“I’m dead anyway.” Steven let the angry words out. “If you know David, then you know I’m speaking the truth. Whether I tell or not, I’m a walking dead man.”

“Lies. He lies,” the man shouted, only to be shoved into the wall harder.

“Shut the fuck up, asshole,” Chauncey grunted. “The only one lying around here is your sorry ass.”

“Talk to me, babe,” Roman coaxed him with a gentle voice.

“What’s going on?”

Steven rubbed his arms as he looked at the man being pinned to the wall and then at each man in the room, his eyes settling on his mate. “I’m not only running from David because he hit me.”

“Tell me.”

“He’s a dealer of Liquid Wrath, and apparently I’m at the top of his hit list now.”

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Maverick gathered his Sentries and Detective Lewis Keating into the library as the Lakeland brothers and Roman’s mate, Steven, joined them. Roman had called him asking for a meeting over something very important.

The Alpha had agreed. All of his warriors were sitting there waiting to find out what this was about. And so was Maverick.

He could see how nervous Steven was. The human stayed close to his mate’s side as he sat forward onto the edge of the couch. He took a deep breath and then began.

“My name is Steven Barlett.” He introduced himself to the room.

“I’m Roman Lakeland’s mate.”

Maverick had filled his Sentries in on the Lakelands, only Kota and Hawk knowing about the bears. Most were shocked. The rest just shrugged. With all the mythical creatures living under one roof, it didn’t faze them.

“I used to live with this man named David. About a year ago I caught him selling drugs. Of course I was furious, demanding he stop.

Then one night I overheard a conversation he was having with a man name Dommy.”

Maverick noticed how Steven looked hesitantly at Roman for a second and then continued. “What it all boils down to is this.” Steven stood and began to pace the library as he spoke. “It’s what it says, a liquid. You inject it. The only thing is, it’s made for paranormal creatures. From my understanding, it masks your scent and gets you high. The only problem with the drug is that it makes the user become
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aggressive. My ex must have started using because he’d never hit me before. Granted, he was an asshole, but he was never hands-on.” The Alpha noticed that Steven was starting to ramble. He didn’t like what he was hearing, but Steven needed to finish. “Calm down, take a deep breath.”

Steven glanced up at Maverick and nodded, doing what he suggested. After a moment, he continued. “From what I’ve heard, the main component is human blood, and a mated human is an even bigger catch. There’s something in a mated human’s blood that enhances the drug better than an unmated human, but they don’t care which one they get.”

“Holy shit,” Gunnar cursed.

“Is that why humans have been coming up missing?” Hawk asked Maverick.

“It would explain it.”

“The downside to the drug is that it’s lethal to humans.” Steven quickly crossed the room and sat down next to his mate. “I watched a man die while injecting it,” he whispered.

Roman wrapped his arms around his mate, pulling him close as he began to talk softly to him. Although Timber wolves had superior hearing, Maverick ignored their private conversation.

“Wait, wait, wait.” Lewis stood as he walked to the center of the room. “Do you remember a while back when the mates had taken off and discovered those three bodies in the barn?” The room nodded. Maverick’s mind was starting to put the pieces together as Lewis spoke. “Bear with me here. What if those humans had been drained for this Liquid Wrath? What if they were the first victims for this drug?”

“That makes more sense than a homicidal shifter doing it for pleasure,” Maverick said. “How long has this drug been out? Do you know?”

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“A very long time,” Steven answered. “I heard David on the phone saying that it went through an experimental stage for about a year before the first success.”

“That would match the time those three humans were killed.” Lewis scratched his jaw as he mumbled to no one in particular. “They were the first donors.”

“David is after him now,” Roman told the room. “He hid someone on my crew to take him.”

“No.” Steven shook his head. “He said it wasn’t David.” Maverick growled at the same time the Lakeland family did.

“Dommy,” they all said at once.

“That would make sense.” Steven nodded. “No one touched me when I was with David, and Dommy has always had a crush on my ex. He would be killing two birds with one stone. If I’m out of the picture, then he can have David all to himself. And if he drains me…” Steven shuddered, burying his face in Roman’s neck. His mate rubbed his back as he looked over at Maverick.

“He’s not going to get near you to do that,” the Alpha reassured his guests. He turned to his men. “I want everyone on alert. There are humans under our roof, in town, and living in the surrounding farms.

We need to get our hands on this drug and find some time type of antidote or something to counteract the masking.”

“There’s one more thing.” Steven spoke up. “The man who attacked me had a smell of decay on his breath. I’ve noticed that before when people have come to the house looking for David to score.”

“Do you know what it is?” Maverick asked.

“No, but it seems to correlate with withdrawal. The people don’t think rationally and start sweating like crazy.”

“And I can’t report any of this.” Lewis looked pissed. “How do I explain to my captain that there’s a drug out that’s killing humans and making shifters high?”

“Is David a shifter?” Maverick asked Steven.

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“He says he’s hiding from someone called Jackson and that he can’t be found.”

Remi snorted. “More like he’s hiding from the Alpha Zeus’s soldiers because he was one of Jackson’s followers.”

“Is that the reason you knew about shifters?” Roman asked Steven, his face growing dark with anger.

“No. I was honest when I said I knew that guy in school. I was just too scared to say anything for fear of David finding out it was me that snitched. I’m sorry,” Steven said to Roman and then to Maverick.

“Take your mate home. Keep him safe. We’re going to find Dommy and then pay David a visit.”

* * * *

Steven crawled into bed after a long, hot shower. Roman cleaned the bathroom up as he watched his mate’s head hit the pillow. It had been one long, exhausting day for his baby. He wished he had his cousin in front of him now. First the proposition to the vampires, and then hiring someone to drain his mate. None of them knew just how screwed up their cousin really was.

If he got his hands on Dommy right now, he’d kill him with his bare hands.

Roman tossed the towels in the hamper as he walked naked from the bathroom and snuggled in behind the man that owned his heart. “I love you.”

Steven turned until he faced Roman. “I love you, too.” Roman scooted down the mattress until he was eye level with Steven’s cock. He pressed his hands on Steven’s thighs, spreading them apart as he rolled over between his mate’s legs. “When I saw that knife at your throat.” Roman lapped at Steven’s balls as his mate moaned and pulled his legs back.

“Please don’t ever scare me like that again.”

“Wasn’t planning on it,” Steven groaned.