Peace and Quiet - 7. Chapter 7

One thing about flying is it allows you time to think. Too much time for me, really, but by the look on Colton's face, he was trying to do anything but think about what was to come. After five minutes in the air he sighed and looked over at me. “Stop wondering so loud.” I blinked in confusion. “You're worse than my mom when it comes to the silent question.”

I smiled slightly. “Talk,” was all I said and he nodded. We were relatively alone, as alone as one could be in a transport chopper full of people with super hearing. Still, they gave us privacy. Perhaps they had heard it before. “I told you about my one big mistake. His name was Ashton.”

Bad for me to think at that moment, but all that went through my head was He's gay. That settles that.

“I was in high school. I told you I played sports. I was heftier back then and they loved the fact that I could take a hit. Yet I wasn't much of a social person. Kept to myself mostly.” I knew that part well. “One guy had his eye on me. I didn't know. I was oblivious.” Colton stared out the window, trying to hide the feelings that these memories brought...

* * *

I never knew Ashton ever looked at me as anything more than a blocker during practice. He was a senior, me a Sophomore. He was the Varsity QB, and I was a lineman on JV. How was I to know he even knew my name? I had the smallest of crushes on him; nothing really, just a bit star struck. I knew I never stood a chance since it was well known that he had a girlfriend and had a posse of friends who would kick anyone's ass if they said the wrong thing about him.

I would never let on that I liked him. I barely showed that I liked guys at all. Small town Midwest boys did not like other boys. It was the day after a really good practice that I got the shock of my life. I was in the lunch room when Ashton and his boys came and sat next to me. “Colt, right?” Ashton asked.

I looked up from my food and stared blankly for a moment before nodding. “Yeah.”

“That was a nice block you put up yesterday. Stopped me cold.”

Oh my god, he's talking to me! “Thanks. I got lucky.” I couldn't believe he was sitting here, complimenting me on my block, and he even knew my name.

“A bit,” he said with the cocky grin he had. He had reason to be cocky. He was big for a QB, muscled in a way that showed he was strong, but I knew he was stronger than he looked. Dark, black hair with a bit of highlights, almost feral green eyes. Always seemed to have a 5 o'clock shadow even after he shaves. So, he was basically a stud. “Still, you got some skills. Just don't get too cocky or I'll knock you on your ass.”

“Me? Cocky is something I am not.”

“I know.” His words held a tone that he liked that I wasn't cocky. That I wasn't trying to be a better baller than him. He liked that I wasn't trying to be number one. “Hey, Mikey, get Colt a soda.”

The jock in question rolled his eyes, but he got me a soda. He was...cute. Not like Ashton, but he had this thing about him. I liked him in an instant. “Here, Colton. And call me Michael. Something Ash never seems to remember.”

“I remember, Mikey, but you'll always be Mikey to me. Don't you forget that.” I looked at Ashton, seeing a force in his gaze that held Michael's for a second. It was almost eerie.

“Whatever.” The laugh they had dispelled the tensions, but I was seeing something I wouldn't know what it was until later. I was so blind then. I didn't see it.

I told you I like Lycans. It's no secret, and it wasn't much of one then either. Wolves were my favorites, but I liked bears too. I guess high school jock cliques were a lot like pack mentality. There was an alpha and he had his enforcers. Only, I didn't realize that Ashton was feeling his own need to assert dominance over everything. That included me. “So, what are you doing after practice?”

“Homework. Chores. Babysitting my little brother.”

“After that?”

Was he asking me to hang out with him? “Um...nothing, I guess.”

“Good. We'll pick you up at nine.” With that, he and his crew just got up. Michael did spare one glance back at me, a slight shake to his head.

I had to make up some excuse to hang out with the coolest guy in school so Mom wouldn't freak out. I chose study group for calculus as I knew I needed help in math. “Okay. Just be home by eleven.”

I ran out and jumped in the truck with the guys, feeling on top of the world. I was hanging out with the cool guys! And I was sitting next to Ashton in the front. “Seat of honor, Colt. Just for you.” He slung his arm across the seat back and ruffled my hair. God I was so stupid. I didn't see what he was doing. I was too caught up in the feeling of being popular, being noticed. He was pretty much marking me as his own.

We drove out to the pond where everyone liked to hang out, and I was given the seat next to Ashton. I felt so...accepted. I should have had red flags pop up when he offered me a beer. I didn't drink more than a sip on occasion, but he gave me my own beer. “There's more where that came from,” he said as he put his hand on the back of my neck and gave it a squeeze. A not so subtle gesture that saying no thanks would not work. I had two beers that night. Not enough to get me drunk, but enough to get me loose.

Near eleven he took me home. I didn't believe this night had happened. Then I stopped thinking about it all when Ashton, right in front of his boys, turned my head and kissed me full on the mouth. I was stunned. His kiss was hot, his lips supple, and I knew I was going to be showing some major chub in a second. “After the game tomorrow night, you and I are going to hang out. Alone.”

“S...sure thing.” Mister Straight, His Royal Jockness, had just kissed me and wanted to hang out with me.

I should have seen it coming. I knew it was all too good to be true. The next day I was almost following him around, which he liked the attention, but he firmly turned down any advances as far as closeness. “Wait. Chill out, Colt, you'll have time later. All night in fact.” His voice dropped down and the rumble made me get hard almost instantly. Then he jogged off to PE while I had to go to Math.

“Don't go over to his house, Colton, you'll regret it.”

I turned to see Michael there. “Why? He likes me.”

“Yeah...now. You're not the first boy he's seduced and then let go.” I should have listened to him and not my dick.

“Whatever,” was all I said.

“Then don't come crying to me when he tosses you aside.” He left after that.

* * *

“Except I did go crying to him. Ashton...took that time to mark me, infect me, and otherwise make me his sycophant. Michael...he held me that first night. He didn't say I told you so. He didn't hold me again either.” Colton looked at me with tears in his eyes. “I was so mean to him. Even after the first moon, seeing Ashton as the jackal that he was and seeing all his boys as Lycans too, I was still so mean to Michael. That was my big mistake. Not Ashton...how I treated Michael. My first real crush. The first man I actually loved. I tried finding someone else, and I thought I was happy, but no one would replace my brown bear.

“I have a thing for bears. I...know what they're feeling. What they're thinking. Too late really.” He looked down at his feet and wiped his eyes. “That's why I took to Zeke so fast. He reminds me of Michael. I'm not moving in on your mate, Quint, so don't worry about that. It's...hard to know he's out there.” He seemed done talking for now.

“Why tell me this now?”

“Because. Amos was not the only one to take Zeke. Ashton was there too. So was Michael.”

It hit all of us in the chopper hard. I looked around at the Alphas and Dylan to see they found this turn of events to be just as durned depressing as I did. They knew Colton better than I, knew what this might do to him. “I can't let that get in my way though. Zeke needs to be rescued and Amos put down. I know my path...and no one will stop me from making another mistake.” The steel in his voice was something I was not used to in the seemingly lighthearted Colton. His past coming back must have shaken him pretty bad, but he was not backing down. I never took Colton very seriously until now. He was young, a bit ornery, and never seemed to take much seriously. Was it all by choice? Looks like it.