The Beta - 3. Chapter 2- A Night Out

The Beta

Chapter 2-A Night Out

TGIF, Xak had had a week from hell! He was desperate for a night out. Hopefully, sometime this weekend, he and Chris could actually do something. Monday night was, by far, the worst possible night of his life. That was the night that his sister had killed their father while acting in her duties as Pack Enforcer. That was the night that he had learned some painful truths from Richard that, if known, would’ve made the last seven years of Xak and Chris’ life a hell of a lot easier. There never would’ve been any reason for Xak to blame Chris for something that he had concluded through misperceptions. That was the night that he went on a tirade on his Alpha, berating the man and reducing him to tears. That was the night he became the Beta. Tuesday morning, he was supposed to show up at the Pack Office and start learning what he needed to do to perform his new duties. Unfortunately, he had to play secretary for Richard for almost two hours because Trystan, Richard’s twenty-five-year-old human secretary, had “overslept.” When the woman showed up Xak would have bet money that she hadn’t slept at all, and she smelt like she had been out drinking all night. Still, she smiled pleasantly at Xak and thanked him for covering for her. He asked her if everything was okay, wishing Xena were here asking instead. Xak would have sworn at times that that girl was an empath or something. The next day, fortunately, she was only thirty minutes late. This time she looked like she was put together a little better, but she didn’t really want to talk to anyone, so Xak told Richard to send her home, he would fill in for her. Thursday, surprisingly, she was on time, looked presentable, and her bubbly personality was back. Upon arrival that morning, Xak received a call saying that she was going to be about an hour and a half late, she was stuck in traffic coming back from her parents. Xak told her that was no problem.

When he had heard she was coming back from her parents, part of him wondered why she would make the two-hour trip to Dallas in the middle of the week. The other part of him was excited because this meant he was probably going to get to see Jacob, her five-year-old son that was a pack member since he would shift into a panther on the first full moon after his fifteenth birthday. Trystan and her parents were the only family the poor boy had left and had been visiting them the past week, which he was thankful for given Trystan’s behavior the past few days. His father, Dean, died in Afghanistan; then, Dean’s parents had died about three years later, him to cancer and her to a broken heart from trying to live without her mate. Xak, Chris, Xena, and Gary had all kind of adopted Jacob as a little brother since they were young teenagers when the boy was born.

Finally, Trystan blew through the door, looking a little flustered. Xak looked expectantly, waiting for Jacob to come in. He looked at Trystan and asked, “Where’s my lil’ bro, girl? It’s been a week and I need a Jacob fix.”

She responded, “Huh? Oh he’s still with my parents. He’s having such a good time; he didn’t want to come home.”

Xak thought that was weird, since Jacob had admitted to him many times that his grandfather scared him, because he liked to scream at the TV when watched sports, and he thought his grandmother smelt funny and he didn’t like her kissing his cheeks. He looked at Trystan and said, “Really, alright, I always got the impression he didn’t have fun up there. I’m happy that’s changed, family is important. When will he be back?”

Trystan’s face dropped for half a moment when Xak had said something about family. Her smile slid right back in place when she said, “You’re right, family is important. Do you think that Richard would give us Monday off? We could head up to Dallas Sunday night, go to a club, stay in the loft, and then Monday morning go pick up the lil’ man.”

He laughed, winked at her, and said, “Thought you knew I was taken already.” He and Chris had made an announcement about their relationship on Wednesday night at the weekly pack meeting, which Trystan made it to, even though she had had the day off. The announcement was actually well received; nobody chose to leave the pack. In all honesty, nobody seemed surprised at all.

“I meant all of y’all. Maybe we could talk Richard into taking Monday off and meeting us at the lake.”

“Well, let’s go ask him. The worst he can say is no,” Xak shrugged when he responded.

The pair walked down the short hallway to where the door to Richard’s office was open, which was par for the coarse. Before they could even knock, he said without even looking up, “Yes, yes, and yes. Yes, all of y’all can have Monday off. Yes, y’all can use the loft in Dallas, just make sure you are not followed there. And, finally, yes, I will meet y’all at the lake and we’ll take the boat out.” When he finished, he looked up with a smirk that was only slightly different than his younger carbon copy’s signature confident, slightly cocky, shit-eating one that Xak couldn’t refuse. He could say no to Richards, though. “When are y’all heading out, and do you want to use a Pack SUV?”

Xak looked at Trystan and shrugged. She said, “Let’s take two cars, that way I can run and Jacob Monday morning and meet y’all back at the loft.”

“I can ride with you to pick up Jacob. You can introduce me as your boyfriend. I’ll tell them you’re robbing the cradle,” Xak suggested with a wink. He didn’t really notice that laugh she returned was a little forced.

For his part, Richard could see that something was going on with his secretary, and he was worried about her. He wanted to ask her if everything was alright, but between Xak and Xena this past week, he knew that she was beyond frustrated with that question. Besides, he had learned his lesson about getting involved with other people’s lives while his is so messed up. It was his job as Alpha to protect and provide for his pack. It was also his job to make the tough decisions for the betterment of the pack. That’s what he thought he was doing for all of these years, now he wasn’t sure of anything. He was still relatively young for a shifter. Hell, he barely looked over forty years old and he was 175 years old. His thoughts then turned to Nicolas. He missed holding the man. Nicolas almost seemed to be like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Over the years, he thought he had seen glimpses of his Nicolas; the way his voice sounded on the phone when he would randomly call, some of the words he wrote on the notes and letters that he would send were the code they would use while in the war to let the other know that he loved him. Maybe he was trying to see things that weren’t there. Maybe he was grasping at straws. Maybe it was time for him to let Chris take over the pack. The only problems with that were; would he be able to submit to Chris’ will, and, if yes, would Chris mind a former Alpha on his pack lands? He knew what his decision would most likely be, so he decided to put his new Beta to a test and present the question to Xak. Richard asked, “Trystan, could you give Xak and me a few minutes? There are some things that we need to talk about. If you wouldn’t mind hanging around here till about noon, then you can take the rest of the day off. Don’t worry about clocking out, I’ll clock you out at 5:00.”

Xak entered the office somewhat cautiously. He hadn’t been alone with Richard since before Monday night. He took the chair opposite Richard and asked somewhat nervously, “Is everything okay, Pawpaw?”

“Relax Xak, you’re not in the principal’s office waiting to see if you’re in trouble. I just have a couple of questions to ask of you. Also, we need to discuss the treaty with the Denton pack. I spoke with their Alpha, and although he isn’t exactly thrilled about the exchange not happening, he understands. I explained that none of us knew anything about the terms of the treaty Mike was agreeing to. He spoke to his Beta and was informed that Mike had told him that he had Chris’ and Xena’s permission to agree to a marriage. It’s going to take some time, but I think we’ll be able to get on good trusting terms with them again. Now, the questions I have for you. Do you think I am making clear-headed, rational decisions the positively affect the pack? Do you think that it might benefit the pack better if I stepped down and allowed Chris to take over? And finally, do you think Chris would mind me staying here on the pack lands if he does take over? Please, do not be afraid to be honest; answer truthfully, as my Beta, not my grandson.”

Xak thought about the questions for a few minutes before taking a deep breath and saying, “Let me ask you a few things. If you had a chance right now to save Nicolas and bring the man you loved back, he would still be a vampire, but it would cost you your life, would you do it?”

After a moment of thought Richard said, “Yes, I would sacrifice myself to save him.”

“Okay, now, if the Nicolas you knew before he was changed were to ask you to take him back but you would never see any of us again, what would you do?”

“Take him back,” he admitted in a mumble while looking at his desk.

“Finally, do you think you have led the pack well, and honestly have always thought about what’s best for the pack or have based your decisions with Nicolas in mind?”

After pondering that question for about a minute, Richard said, “No, I’ve been too obsessed with Nicolas.”

Xak looked the other man in the eyes and said, “Richard, as your Beta, I think it’s best for you to step down and let Chris take over. You just admitted to me that you would sacrifice yourself to bring back the man that you loved, that you actually do still love him, and that every decision you’ve made over the years was based on Nicolas. You did what you thought was right, but with Nicolas on your mind, you put the pack in unnecessary danger.”

Richard nodded and said, “I figured the same thing, but wanted to see how you would advise me. I think you and Chris are ready. It’s not going to happen immediately. We need to transfer everything over to his and your names, and go over all of the pack holdings. Do me a favor, please don’t tell Chris yet, I want to tell him. Don’t lie to him if he were to ask, but please let me talk to him first.”

Xak nodded and said, “No problem Pawpaw. What’s going on with Trystan? Is it something we need to worry about do you think?”

Richard pondered that for a second and said, “Have Xena watch her carefully this weekend, and if she asks for help, don’t hesitate to help her out. But, don’t hound her all weekend, she’ll clam up if you do. Now don’t you have a night out to go plan?” He chuckled and continued, “Get your ass out of here and go take care of my grandson, I’m sure he’s missing you right now.”

“Yes sir, glad to obey that order. Oh and even if Chris did have a problem with you staying on the pack lands he wouldn’t by the time I finished with him. Don’t you know I always get what I want?” Xak laughed as he left the office. As he passed Trystan’s desk, he said, “Looking forward to Sunday, if you need anything, pick up the damn phone.”

Monday night they went ahead and made it official and moved Chris’ and his things into the master bedroom inside the house Xak had shared with his dad and Xena. Gary moved into his old bedroom. He was on cloud nine. He was living with his mate, and his best friends, he was going to get a night out in Dallas this weekend, he was going out on the lake on Monday, and Chris was going to be Alpha soon. What could possibly go wrong? Actually, Xak could tell you all the possible things that might go wrong if you really wanted him to, but right then he was trying to not focus on anything negative. He glanced at his watch and noticed that it was almost noon, so he decided to go to the house for a bite to eat. Gary might be there, Chris should be there, Xena was at work, she was a social worker for Cherokee County, having just finished school last semester.

Chris, Gary and Xak had graduated from high school about a year earlier. Xak had wanted to go away for school originally, but Chris had been offered a job working as a coach at the community college up in Jacksonville while also attending there. He was so excited that Xak decided to take some online classes instead. Well, between the fall, spring, and both summer semesters, he had forty-eight hours accumulated towards a degree in Business.

Now that he was the Beta, he guessed that he had a job; he had an office down the hall from Richard’s with his name on it and complete with office furniture and a computer that he was expect to be in five days a week. He would say that’s a job. He would also be receiving a paycheck from Pack Inc. every two weeks. Original name, huh? Richard was being really creative when he came up with that one. He would be making roughly $11,500 per check, earning $300,000 a year! Only nineteen years old and making that kind of money, he couldn’t be happier. Of course, he was going to be smart with it, and invest most of it. Well, he figured he would buy a few things for Chris and himself and the house, but after that, invest. Just then, he suddenly remembered that Richard had that said that they were going to get everything transferred to Chris’ and his name. He now knew about how much the pack was worth. All he would tell Xena and Gary when asked was that on one account he saw that there were three place holders then a comma then three place holders followed by a comma and three more place holders, and the first number was a seven. It took Gary about twenty seconds before he shouted out, “Holy fuck, that’s over seven-hundred-millions dollars, and that was only one of the accounts? I guess Pawpaw really meant it when he said that if there was anything we wanted, all we needed to do was ask.” When Richard’s old pack had been killed, Richard naturally inherited everything. His father was worth millions at that time that he had inherited from his father. Richard never ended up selling any of the land in Beaumont, thankfully, because in 1901, they found oil. Needless to say, the pack is well taken care of through holdings, multiple bank accounts, mutual funds, and much more.

Entering the house, he noticed Chris and Gary on the living room couch, animatedly playing a game on the Xbox One. It was some first person shooter game which Chris wasn’t that good at, though he wouldn’t admit that to anyone except Xak. It was funny because Gary was actually beating Chris and the latter was getting angrier and angrier while the former kept laughing. Xak knew that if he didn’t intervene soon Chris’ temper would reach a boiling point. He crossed over to behind where Chris was sitting on the couch and put his arms around his mate and placed a soft kiss on his neck and whispered in his ear, “It’s good to know you’re not perfect, makes me look all the better standing next to you.” This got a good laugh out Chris who started to relax immediately. Xak continued, “Gary, let your cousin win or he’ll be pissy all day, and I’ll have to deal with him, Besides, you’re supposed to make your Alpha look good, remember.”

Gary laughed and said, “He’s not my Alpha, yet, so I’m going to beat him while I can.” That earned him a punch in the arm from Chris, to which Gary replied frowning, “Didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s not nice to hit people. That’s not how we make friends.” That got a laugh out of all three of them.

Xak said, “Oh, we’re going to spend the night up in Dallas at the loft Sunday night with Trystan and go out to a club. Then on Monday, she’ll pick up Jacob and then Pawpaw’s meeting us at the lake with the boat. This will probably be our last chance to do anything before school starts, so y’all go decide what needs to be washed and I’ll put a load on for you.”

Chris looked at him and deadpanned, “I’ll put a load in you.”

Gary busted his sides laughing, while Xak responded, “I thought you said last night that next time I get to put one in you.” Xak thought Gary was going to piss his pants from laughing so much.

It also had the wanted result of embarrassing Chris, who mumbled, barely audibly, “He better think again if thinks he’s going to do that anytime soon, I’ll show him who’s boss.” At this point, Gary literally fell onto the floor rolling with laughter.

Xak, pulling his best puppy-dog-eyes-lip-quivering-sniffles face, said, “Aww, Chris don’t be mad at me, I promise I’ll be gentle.” He reached around his mate once again and was unceremoniously pulled to other side of the couch and into his mate’s lap, where he proceeded to get tickled until he was begging for mercy, laughing the whole time.

Once Xena was home, Xak informed her about the planned day trip and while she got her things sorted and ready, told her that Richard wanted her to keep an eye on Trystan this weekend, but not to ask if anything was wrong. He then looked at his sister for a bit and questioned, “Can you actually tell when someone is lying, and how do you know?”

She took a deep breath and sighed, “Yeah I can, and I’m not sure how exactly I know. It almost feels like I’m experiencing their feelings along with them, but only when I concentrate on doing that. It’s not like I’m walking around all the time saying, ‘oh, he’s lying, she’s lying, she’s pissed, he’s jealous.’ I have to focus on the person I want to know about and it’s kinda draining at times. Why?”

“Well, I’m wondering if it’s because it’s something all enforcers have or if you’re a special case. I really only started thinking about it when I was walking over here from the office. Have you always been able to do this?”

“Honestly, yes, I never said anything when I was younger because I got really confused one time. I had discovered that if I tried really hard, I could tell if you lying when I asked if you had been in room while I was at school, so I tried it on someone else. That would’ve been Pawpaw, and I don’t know why I chose him, but when I did, what I felt scared me. Now I know why he felt like he was lying, but back then, I didn’t think he could do anything like lie to us. I figured it wasn’t real, and that I was just imagining that I could tell when people were lying, you were just easy for me catch in a lie. Then a few years ago, Pawpaw told me to trust my instincts, no matter what I thought. If someone didn’t feel right to me, go with that feeling. He didn’t want me to confront them, to let him or dad know, and they would take care of it.”

“Really? Can you read anybody you want, or are there people that you can’t read?”

“Some are harder than others, but I get at least an inkling about the people I do try to read, haven’t met anybody I haven’t been able to read yet. I don’t use it a lot, it feels like I’m in invading their privacy. I only use it when I feel I have to.”

“Damn, you know if we weren’t able to turn in to furry animals whenever we wanted, and I didn’t know mosquitoes and leeches weren’t the only blood-suckers out there, I’d call bullshit you. Besides, with those fucked-off dreams I’ve been having the past few years, I can believe just about anything. Let’s go get dinner started, I’m sure the boys are starving. I know that I am.” Xena had known about her brother’s dream world for quite some time now. He described it as another world, everything was in vivid colors, and it was exactly the same place every night down to the smallest details depending on where he fell asleep. If he were at home, he would always wake up and the same place, if he fell asleep somewhere else, he would wake up somewhere different, but he still knew it was the same world. She worried about him, it wasn’t normal for someone to a) dream in color, remember their dreams so vividly, and c) be in the same setting every single time. He said he thought it was probably just his mind placing him somewhere so that he wouldn’t get lost in his thoughts.

Saturday night, Trystan laid in her bed crying, having just hung up with her son asking if he could come home. Before Jacob got on the phone with her, Nicolas wanted to make sure everything was on schedule. He had made her go over the plan for the one millionth time. She didn’t want any harm to come to anyone, but she had to get Jacob back. She knew that once she had Jacob back they would have to run, probably forever, there was no way she would be able to return the pack. These were the people that had taken her in at the age of twenty when she suddenly ended up pregnant with her dead fiancé’s baby, a baby that one day would turn into a panther. She wished she had never met Dean. No, Jacob was her everything and Dean had been the love of her life. She finally fell asleep somewhere around 4:00 AM feeling completely unrested. The black circles under her eyes made her look twenty years older than she was. She said to her reflection, “You can do this, all you have to do is take them to the club, give the signal, and let them take care of the rest. You will get Jacob back tonight.”

Xena decided that there would be a boy’s car and a girl’s car for the drive to Dallas. Trystan was guarded, because she knew what Xena could do, she had overheard Richard and her talking about it enough. So, in the car, she tried to keep the conversation as casual as possible. Eventually, about an hour and half into the ride, Xena looked at her and said, “So, are you going to tell me what’s got you feeling so edgy or what? You know you can trust me, right?”

Trystan didn’t lie and said, “I’m just excited to get Jacob back, I’ve missed him so much this week. This had been the longest we’ve ever been away from each other.”

“I thought Xak told me that Jacob told him he didn’t like staying up here too much, something about your dad yelling at the TV and your mom kissing his cheeks too much.”

“Yeah, well Dad’s given up watching TV, and Mom gave up trying catch Jacob since he would only squirm away whenever she tried to kiss him,” Trystan said, carefully thinking about each word she said to ensure she wasn’t lying at any time. “Did you bring something appropriate to wear tonight? Remember we are going to The Church.”

“Oh trust me, I brought something totally appropriate to wear. I brought my black vinyl pants, my black corset, and my black stiletto boots.”

The Church was not really a church at all. It was a goth/industrial club that Dallas was known for. It had been around for over twenty years at the same location. That was practically unheard of in the Dallas nightlife scene, with the exception of the gay bars, which Trystan said they went to too much, a change of scenery was needed. Even Chris, the blonde haired, blue eyed, All-American Heartthrob, thought it sounded like it could be fun. Xak was definitely on board with the idea since the gayborhood got on his nerves most of the time, too many people hitting on his mate kind of pissed him off. A lot. Gary, as usual, went along with what everyone else wanted to do. He had gotten used to being happy with whatever Chris and the others wanted to do many years ago. As long as he was with his friends, he could have fun doing nothing at all.

They arrived in Dallas at about six in the evening, and after claiming the bedrooms they wanted and freshening up a bit, headed for the night out that they all felt they deserved. After dinner at Wolfgang Puck’s rotating restaurant at the top of Reunion Tower, they returned to the Deep Ellum loft to get dressed for the night. Xena’s outfit got some cat calls from the boys, which she took in stride. They arrived at the club around 10:30 PM. While Xena and Trystan went to one of the bars, the boys went to claim one of the tables lining the dancefloor. Surprisingly, they found the dancefloor wasn’t that big. It was mainly a stage that came about ten feet out from the wall and was around twenty feet across. It was flanked on both sides by a set of curved staircases that led to a second floor where more tables and another bar overlooked the dancefloor and stage. Everywhere they looked, they saw people dressed in black with either all black or multicolored brightly dyed hair dancing very erotically. Their movements were slow, sensual, and almost methodical. It was hypnotizing to watch.

The girls finally arrived at the table and sat with the boys. Xena had a cherry-vodka-sour in one hand and was carrying a Jack and Coke in the other, while Trystan had a shot of whiskey in one and a shot of tequila in her other. She used the shot of whiskey as a chaser for the shot of tequila. Xak gave her a sideways glance and looked at his sister, silently asking if everything was okay. Xena shrugged, because as far as she could tell, although Trystan was nervous and anxious, she had not lied to them.

At one in the morning, Trystan knew she was supposed to get Chris or Gary to accompany her alone to the dancefloor. The magic hour arrived and Trystan dragged Chris to the dancefloor, leading him by the hand. She didn’t notice that Xak’s hand had been grabbed by his mate, and he was following her to the floor, right next to Chris. Chris pushed Xak slightly in front of him just before Trystan turned around to dance with him. The instant she turned around, a panicked look crossed her face for the briefest of moments. She couldn’t let on that something was happening, that would endanger Jacob; also, she couldn’t signal Justin without alerting the pair in front of her. She did the only thing she could when Xak stepped up to her and started dancing, she went along with it, danced one song with Xak and then asked him to go get her a Coke. Hoping Justin had not noticed her yet, she pulled Chris to her and started dancing with him.

At the table on the second floor overlooking the dancefloor, Justin looked the useless drink in front of him, well useless to him anyway. It looked like a regular Coke, but with the little bit of Wolfsbane and drop of liquid silver he had added, it was anything but. He knew that it would render whatever shifter happened to drink it nearly incapacitated. Here he was, once again, doing Nicolas’ dirty work. He was getting tired of Nicolas’ fucking bullshit that he had put up with for the past seventy years. Sometimes, he swore that there were two different people playing one role. One moment he would be happy, non-violent, and non-sadistic. The next, Justin would see a vengeful, hateful, violent, sadistic fucker that would put him in silver shackles for fun while telling Toby it was his fault that his friend was in pain because he was nothing but a weak willed, co-dependent, worthless piece of shit that didn’t deserve anything he had been given.

Toby and Justin had been lovers for seventy-two years, but never were in love. It had all started because in 1945, liking what they did, it was convenient. Nicolas had met the pair one night and on a whim decided to “adopt” them. The first night, Nicolas had been sweet and talked them into his house to stay the night. He actually kept them up until just before sunrise, when he showed them to the spare room. They were awakened the following evening by Nicolas inviting them into his bed. Once there, he told them to strip and get comfortable. Justin was immediately on board, while Toby took some convincing. Then, once everyone was situated on the bed, Nicolas engulfed Justin’s cock, while Justin greedily sucked on Toby’s dick, and Toby half-assed tried to suck on Nicolas. Toby obviously was not as into this as the other two were. Nicolas quickly became bored with this and switched into a 69 with Justin. Toby had to watch as the person he had been having sex with for the past two years practically cheated on him right in front of his eyes. He had agreed to the threesome because Justin begged him to. He watched as Nicolas pulled off Justin’s dick, only to straddle him and lower himself onto it while looking straight at Toby grinning. He rode Justin hard. At some point, neither Justin nor Toby knew how, Nicolas pulled out some restraints from under the covers and placing one on each wrist, tied Justin to the bedposts. Justin started freaking out a little, but went along with it since the feeling on his dick was amazing. Toby sat there on the other side of the bed, limp-dicked, watching but not enjoying. When he went to leave the room, he suddenly heard a cracking sound from behind him, and heard Justin cry out in pain. He turned to see Nicolas holding a riding crop in his hand, standing next to Justin, who had tears in his eyes. Justin hated to feel anything especially pain, and Toby could never handle seeing anybody hurt in any way. There was a large red whelp rising on Justin’s inner thigh. Nicolas said, “Are you not enjoying yourself mon cher? Huh?” He hit Justin again. “Either you get back on this bed right the fuck now, or I will use this plus some other toys I have around here to see what Justin is made of. You don’t want that, now do you?”

Toby shook his head, looking down at the floor. “Then get back on the bed and lay down next to Justin like a good boy. NOW.” When Toby laid down on the bed again, Nicolas crawled between Justin’s legs, forcing them apart. Justin’s eyes got really big when he felt the head of Nicolas’ cock at the entrance of his virgin ass. He started fighting against the restraints when Nicolas spit on his cock and on Justin’s asshole. Toby decided he had had enough and tried to push Nicolas away from Justin. It was like pushing against a brick wall. The pain that erupted from the side of his face after the back of Nicolas’ hand met his cheek next, he would never forget. He must have blacked out for a minute because next thing he knew, Justin was laying next to with tears running down his face, his eyes shut tight to the world, repeating over and over please stop. Nicolas was ramming into Justin’s ass without mercy. The next thing he saw were the fangs in Nicolas’ mouth as his head and neck were being pulled towards them. He felt a stabbing pain, and blood was gushing all over the three. Justin’s eyes flew open and looked on with horror as Toby was bleeding from the wounds on his neck. Nicolas had a look of pure evil in his eyes as he threw Toby’s limp body to the other side of the bed. Justin’s neck was then attacked, and just before he felt the life drain out of him totally, a wrist was placed next to his lips and a thick liquid was dripping into his throat. The unmistakable taste of blood filled his mouth and he greedily drank. He felt the moment his heart stopped beating, and a minute later, his eyes flew open as his body was filled with unknown strength. Nicolas had stopped fucking him by this point, and he looked at the new vampire in front of him as the restraints were broken free from the bed. When he went to attack Nicolas, the fucker was too fast and was suddenly holding a moaning Toby in front of him as a shield. Nicolas said, “You have two choices, mon ami, you try to attack me, and I kill him, or, you let me save him right now. Decide, you only have about thirty seconds.”

Justin had never been in love with Toby, he really only kept him around because he was a good and easy fuck. He had always had a somewhat mean streak when it came to Toby too, he loved to hit on and do whatever he could in front of the other, daring him to say something. Still though, he didn’t want his “friend” to die, so he told Nicolas to do what he needed to do in order to save Toby.

Nicolas bit into his wrist again and place it over Toby’s mouth. The boy never really drank willingly, since death was already there practically. Justin didn’t think it had worked, since Nicolas threw Toby’s limp body to the floor, crossed the room and kissed him hard. Finally, after what seemed like forever, Toby moaned and slowly opened his eyes, meeting Justin’s. The pleading look he received from Toby only caused the mean streak to flare up and Justin grabbed Nicolas. Then, with his eyes wide open staring at Toby, kissed the other man. Toby looked to ground and silently wept.

Justin, still pondering the drink in front him, looked down at the dancefloor at one o’clock on the dot. There he saw Trystan and dancing in front of her was the kid from the picture Toby had shown him. Justin was sketchy about the plans. Nicolas wanted Richard’s grandson to use as leverage to get Richard up to Dallas. Justin wasn’t sure why, there had not been any actions taken on either side towards the other. It started when Justin was ordered to pick up some snot-nosed brat from up in Lewisville. He was to kill the older couple, give the boy’s mother the burner phone, and take off with the kid. He did exactly as he was told, only to have Nicolas, looking quite lost, ask him the next night why there was a five-years-old in the house. Justin asked if he was fucking serious, because he ordered him to. Toby, of course, had instantly taken to the boy and was trying his best to take care of and comfort the child. Toby was the only one of the three that the brat seemed to trust at all. Justin wasn’t trying to be nice to him, and Nicolas kept doing the hot/cold thing. Oh and to top everything off, Nicolas had started arguing with himself out loud, in two different voices, when he didn’t think anyone was listening.

He watched as they danced to one song, she whispered something to him, and then once he walked away, pulled the taller blonde and started dancing with him. Taking that as his que, he quickly descended the stairs that led to the lobby. There he noticed the auburn haired boy alone standing line at the bar. He crossed to him wearing a million-dollar smile, and said, “Hey what’s up? Nice moves, I noticed you dancing with your girlfriend on the floor.”

Xak laughed and said, “I don’t think my boyfriend would like it too much if she were my girlfriend.”

Justin smiled bigger, offering the young man the Coke in his hand saying, “Here I just bought this, haven’t even touched it, and you look hot.”

Xak, never one to pass up a flirtatious moment with anyone regardless if Chris was there or not (Chris knew where Xak would be sleeping every night, and that’s all that mattered, no harm in flirting a little bit), smiled coyly and said, “Really, you think I’m hot? I don’t guess you’re that bad looking either.” He then, not wanting to be rude, took the offered drink and drained all. Instantly, as soon as the cup was emptied, he felt light headed and weak. When he started to fall over, Justin quickly caught him and started leading him towards the entrance. To anybody that was watching, it appeared as if Xak were piss-assed drunk and Justin was helping a friend out of the bar before security could kick him out. Xak weakly tried to protest when they reach the main entrance. He tried to tell the bouncer at the door that he shouldn’t be leaving with this person, and went to grab the bouncer as they passed.

The guy said, “Whoa there, buddy, think you’ve had too much tonight and need to call it.” He then looked at Justin and continued, “Why don’t you get him on out of here and get him home.’

Justin smirked and said while looking at Xak. “Don’t worry. I’m going to take great care of him, aren’t I Chris?” He then looked the bouncer in the eyes and with some of his will said, “You won’t remember what I look like. Just that he left with a friend, drunk.” He then continued towards the parking lot.

Inside the club, Xena and Gary finally joined Trystan and Chris on the dancefloor. Xena looked around them and asked, “Where’s Xak?”

She looked at Chris first who was smiling and he started to say, “He was just here dancing, I think he went to get a Coke.”

Xena then looked at Trystan, who refused to make eye contact with her, and noticed when she glanced over to the bar. Xena pulled Trystan’s body towards her and focused on what she was feeling, asked, “What happened?” The feeling of guilt that washed over her nearly made her stumble, instead she grabbed Trystan by the throat.

When Chris noticed this, he started putting things together in his head. He had noticed Xak had been concerned with her actions and behavior over the past week. Jacob hadn’t been seen for over a week. Now, Xena, who could read other people emotions, or so he believed, looked ready to rip her throat out. He growled in a low menacing voice, “Outside, now.” He immediately stalked towards the door trying to find his mate’s scent. He picked up at the bar, mixed with a weird clove-like scent. He followed the scent to the main entrance and asked the bouncer, “Have you seen a guy with auburn hair, hazel eyes, about this tall wearing black jeans and a red and black shirt?”

The bouncer responded, “Yeah, he was piss drunk being helped out to a car by his friend.”

“What did the friend look like?”

“Hmmm, sorry I can’t really remember, just that his friend was helping to leave.”

Once they were in the parking lot, Chris turned and said, “Talk now, this better be good or I swear to the gods, you will regret living.”

Trystan simply said, “It wasn’t supposed to be Xak, he was supposed to take Gary or you. I need to get Jacob back from them.”

This pissed Chris off more, and he knew he was about to lose control. He needed Xak there to calm him down. He turned away from the other and notice something on the ground in an empty parking space. It was a note. Chris picked it up and read, “She can get the brat from the park on Ross St. about a mile from here. He’s on his way there now, so she better hurry up, so someone else doesn’t snatch him up. Tell Richard, if he wants his grandson back, he will call (214) 444-4444 by midnight tomorrow night, and that I do still love him so. Love, Nicolas.”

When he turned back around, and told Xena, “Get this fucking cunt out of my face right now, it’s taking every bit of my control not to beat her to pulp or snap her little fucking twig neck.” Right then, his body started throwing off massive heat and he was vibrating visibly. Next, he felt Gary’s arms wrap around him.

In his ear Gary said, “Chris, I’m going to need you to stay with me please cuz. You don’t need to lose control right now. I need my future Alpha to step up and help me find your mate. Please, I can’t do this alone. Please calm down.”

He wouldn’t have thought it possible, but he actually calmed down, turned in Gary’s arms and said, “First, we have a little boy alone in the park down the street to pick up. She helped them do this, but they think they have me or you, I’m sure which. Nicolas’ note said something about Richard’s grandson. We need to get him back before Nicolas figures out that he isn’t one of us, which won’t take long. Hopefully, he’ll realize that Xak is just as valuable as you or me, maybe even more so. Let’s go get Jacob, and then we have to call Pawpaw. You ride with Xena and the bitch. Lock her in the closet and something, I don’t want to see her when I get back and I don’t want Jacob to see her either.”

Xena placed Trystan in the back of the SUV. When Chris and Gary walked up, she could tell how much calmer and more focused Chris was. He looked at her and told her about needing to go get Jacob. He would take Trystan’s car, since she had driven up to the club also, and go pick up the little boy. Xena said she and Gary would meet him back at the loft soon.

Five minutes later, Chris pulled in to a parking spot next to an abandoned park that was in the middle of a scary looking neighborhood. He got out of the car and notice a little boy laying on a picnic table, curled into a ball. He could hear the boy softly crying from where he stood. He walked over to the boy and picked him up, saying, “Hey there lil’ buddy, do you know how much I’ve missed you?”

The ball in his arms looked up through his shaggy black hair and said, “Chris?”

“You know it buddy, are you okay?”

“I’m okay, Mr. Toby took care of me while I was at that house. He wanted me to tell you that Xak would be fine, make sure Pawpaw called Nicolas tomorrow night.” With that said, he passed stone-cold out, asleep.

Chris got him situated in the car and drove to the loft. On the way, he pulled out his cell phone, clicked on the name Pawpaw, and waited while it rang. Finally, a voice that sounded more asleep than anything, answered, “This better be worth it."

Chris, who didn’t realize he was crying, sobbed, “They have him Pawpaw. They have Xak. Nicolas wants you to call him tomorrow night. I’m lost, I need you, please help me.”

Richard, now fully awake, said, “I’m on my way, I’ll be there in two hours. Don’t worry, we will get him back.”