The Link That Binds Read online

  Jace glared at his friend. “The bugger deserved it! And if he can’t handle me, then tough fucking luck.”

  “Jace,” Sol growled as he shoved him up against the fence, which thankfully wasn’t electrified while the gate was still open, “you need your mate, especially since you’ve already had sex with him.”

  “Says who?” Jace snarled and tried to get out of Solomon’s grip. He’d done perfectly fine on his own and just because he had this… infatuation with Link, didn’t mean he needed anyone.

  “You can be so thick sometimes, Jace. Already you’re in pain and you can’t even fucking admit it to yourself. I feel you, Jace! You’re burning up and your pheromones are all over the place. You may feel uncomfortable now, but this will only get worse and it’ll get worse fast. The only one who can spare you the pain, you just kneed in the fucking groin!” Sol growled, this time startling him by slamming his lips to Jace’s.

  Those lips had heated Jace’s on more than one occasion. Hell, he’d worshipped those lips numerous times, but this time Jace jerked away and heaved.

  The moment the taste of Sol’s lips registered, Jace’s entire body recoiled. His stomach cramped up and his head hurt like a mother fucker. It felt so fucking wrong, yet with Link it had felt so right, downright tingling even.

  Gasping for fresh air, Jace looked up at his friend. Fuck, he understood now. Whether he needed Link or not, he craved him, and only him… he couldn’t just find a replacement and hope his mating heat would pass.

  He could barely stand Sol’s lips on his without his entire nervous system screaming out. How the hell was he supposed to be able to have sex with anybody else?

  He fought the tears pooling in his eyes; he really couldn’t just ignore this. No matter what Link had done to him in the past. And how the fuck was he going to explain to Link that they were mates and why in the world would Link even care?

  He was human. He had no idea about even the concept of mates and oh yeah, he also happened to be working on a virus to waste the entire shapeshifter community on the vampires’ behalf.

  Lovely.

  Taking several deep breaths, Jace felt some of his color slowly returning to his cheeks. “I think I need to rest for a bit,” he told his friend and nearly stumbled as he tried to walk past him.

  “Whoa there!” Sol grabbed hold of him before he could hit the ground and, even as much as Jace hated it, supported him the entire way to his room. He just felt so drained.

  Sol’s body felt far too close and as if he was being pressed closer and closer to Sol’s chest the farther towards his room Sol led him. As he started to smell some nasty fumes, Jace couldn’t help but crinkle his nose at his friend. “Damn Sol, when was the last time you took a bath?” Sol’s scent was horrid.

  “Those would be your hormones telling you to get the hell away from the guy who’s not your mate.” Sol chuckled as he helped Jace get into bed. “You know, for a doctor, you should really know more about this stuff.”

  “Yeah, well, they didn’t exactly have shifter physiology 101 where I got my MD. Erh, but seriously dude, you smell like bad eggs. Could you at least take a shower or something?” Jace whined. That scent was just way too gnarly to be mismatching hormones floating around his breathing space.

  “Wouldn’t work.” Sol grinned as he turned to leave.

  “Yeah, well, humor me,” Jace just managed to call out after him before the door closed.

  God.

  The smell really lingered. He should have asked Sol to get him a bucket before he left, he wasn’t all too confident he’d make it to the bathroom in time if he needed to vomit. So much for the joys of mating…

  * * * *

  Link shifted the bag of ice as he sat awkwardly near the end of the bar. Jace, the little minx, had nailed him a good one. Hours later and his dick still throbbed painfully at every beat of his heart.

  Even Trey had started getting to him. Apparently, his employee had witnessed the little scene and was having a tough time keeping his smirk from showing. The man wasn’t known for his good sense of humor, but, right now, Link was contemplating whether resignation or strangulation was the better option for dealing with him.

  Fuck.

  The little kitty sure was something and he didn’t exactly know what was up, but something had to be cracking in the guy’s head.

  He’d seemed confused, too, and conflicted, to put it mildly, about something. One minute he was trying to crawl into his pants, and then the next, he nearly castrated him in the alley. And the see you soon thing…

  When the last customers started to stumble on home, Trey turned the open sign and joined him at the bar, placing a mug of beer in front of him along with a fresh ice pack.

  “You wanna talk about it?” Trey snickered.

  “Bite me.” Link sneered as he threw away the now melted ice pack and sighed in relief at the coolness of the new one. Maybe he should consider wearing a cup from now on.

  “I never really cared much for the business you do on the side, Link. But this new bit, I gotta say, is pretty… interesting,” Trey said as he took a sip of his own beer, “Never considered you to be gay either for that matter.”

  “Term you’re looking for, Trey, is bi and, as for my extracurricular activities, you already know my reasons.”

  “Hm,” Trey nodded, “I wonder what Debra would say to all this though…”

  “What? About me being bi or the fact that I’m working for the forces of darkness.” Link snorted as he drank down the rest of his beer.

  “Both, I guess, but what’s up with you and that guy anyway? From what I could tell he was sending you some seriously mixed up signals… with him going kickball on your nuts and all.”

  “Trust me, from what I’ve heard, he had it coming,” a large broad-shouldered man voiced out as he approached the bar with a predatory walk that said the man was all business.

  Link instantly reached for his gun, swearing low as he remembered he’d left it behind the bar.

  “Relax, I’m not here to start anything, I’ll have some scotch, though, if you’re offering,” the man stated as he took Trey’s seat when he went behind the bar to get the man his drink.

  After all, you didn’t let a guy his size wait around for too long.

  “If you haven’t guessed it already, I’m Jace’s Sorena, Solomon Jorgens,” the man called Solomon offered when Link didn’t recognize him.

  “Jace’s Sorena? What’s that? You his bodyguard or something ‘cause I gotta tell you, Jace seems fairly adequate in fighting his own battles,” Link grumbled as he remembered his earlier encounter, feeling another painful throb down below.

  He didn’t like the thought of the man being something more than a bodyguard to Jace either though. If this guy had some claim over him, he’d…

  Solomon chuckled. “Bodyguard, huh? Sorry to disappoint you, but I’m the Sorena, the leader, of our pride. Just like an Alpha is for a pack, only I’ve got bigger claws.”

  Link didn’t like the way this conversation was going. He’d been doing experiments on one of this guy’s acolytes, working with the vampires. Somehow he didn’t figure the two of them would get along all that well.

  The man drank his scotch in one gulp as Trey put it in front of him. Link didn’t miss the subtle gesture Trey gave him that he had the gun and without using words asking how to proceed.

  “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Solomon said as he gestured for Trey to refill the glass. “Even if you shot me in the head, it would take more than one bullet to finish me off and, frankly, you wouldn’t even have the time to remove the safety for the first shot before I’d hand you your ass.”

  “What do you want? Retribution for your little friend?” Link sneered.

  Solomon chuckled as he turned to look at him. “I think Jace managed that pretty well earlier, don’t you think?” He seemed to consider something before asking, “Do you know what a Keefe is?”

  Confused at where this was going, Link frowned
. “What?”

  “Hm, I figured as much.” The man paused again before continuing. “Then let’s start with something easier; what does Mika have on you?”

  Link tensed; no way he’d trade one blackmailer for another. At least he knew how to handle Mika; this Solomon guy however, seemed far too perceptive for Link’s liking. “What makes you think he has anything on me at all?”

  “Don’t make me out to be some ignorant cub, Link.” Solomon sneered at him and Link barely managed to hide a cringe. “I consider myself a pretty good judge of character and while I might not particularly like you, you are far from being directly evil. Besides, Leo told us how pissed off you got when Mika injected your little supernatural blend into him. If you were a true fang banger, that shouldn’t have bothered you.”

  Far, far too perceptive.

  “I can help you, Link, and you won’t have to hurt people for what I ask in return.”

  There. For a second he’d thought the shifter had appeared genuine, but as he’d suspected there was always a catch. “And what would that be?” Link bit out, letting the acid hang on every word.

  “Jace,” the shifter stated simply before downing his second drink with a pleased rumble.

  Frowning, Link asked, “What does he have to do with any of this?”

  “Earlier today you may have noticed some… erratic behavior on Jace’s part, not including the damage to your family jewels.”

  “I’m not quite sure erratic covers it, but yeah, I noticed.” Link wouldn’t be forgetting any of Jace’s behavior anytime soon, judging by the dull throb behind his jeans, which he wasn’t quite certain was all due to Jace’s attack. Despite the violence, Jace was somewhat of a lewd being and the man could definitely kiss.

  “I’m most likely going to get my ass handed to me by Jace for letting you know this, but Jace has gone into heat.”

  Link’s shock was sidetracked as Trey, who’d been taking a sip of his own drink at the time, sent liquid flying across the bar as he nearly choked.

  Feeling his cheeks heat up as the meaning of what the pride leader had said began to sink in. “So? That’s not my fault.” He practically hissed.

  Cat shifters going into heat hadn’t been included in Link’s knowledge of shifters. The thought of Jace being in heat though… did males even go into heat?

  Solomon chuckled bitterly, “Actually, it’s all your fault.” At what was probably an even more confused look from Link, he continued with an exasperated sigh, “You’re his mate, dumbass. It’s because of you that he’s in heat in the first place.”

  Chapter 8

  Link’s face had drained of pretty much all color at Solomon’s statement. He might not know how feline shifters, even the males, went into heat, but he did know about mates.

  The thought that he might be Jace’s mate was ridiculous… except Jace had definitely acted strange and what Solomon told him made the whole thing seem plausible.

  Then again, Link could probably name a dozen drugs that would cause the same effects. Of course, doing something so elaborate seemed a bit extravagant in ways of setting up a trap…

  How in the world he’d allowed himself to be persuaded to be brought along with Solomon to their lair, or whatever, was beyond him. He had to admit curiosity probably had a play in it, but this wasn’t really rational thinking.

  Solomon had a regal, no-nonsense aura about him and watching him as he drove, Link had to admit the guy was pretty damn hot too. His hair was like Jace’s, near white-blond, but the man had quite a bit to go on size-wise, even making Link feel slight.

  Apparently catching him staring, Solomon cleared his throat. “You should know that you’ll be a dead man if Jace catches you staring at me with interest showing so blatantly, even if you both happen to share similar tastes.”

  “Just admiring the view,” Link drawled. “Besides, I haven’t quite decided if I believe you yet. For all I know, Jace’s hyped up on some homemade shit.” Link snorted.

  “Unlike you, Jace actually uses his abilities to do good things in life. More into the healing part of things, not the deterioration of mind and body,” Solomon commented back.

  “What? Jace is your tribe’s medicine man or something? Or maybe some kind of shifter shaman?” Link quipped sarcastically, who the hell knew what kind of hoodoo these yahoos were into.

  “Well, I don’t know about him being a shaman, he does have an MD though,” the pride leader muttered, clearly getting annoyed by Link’s continued arguing.

  Surprised, Link didn’t really know what to say. He’d been studying to become a doctor himself before dropping out his second year, deciding to get a degree in biochemistry instead… he’d often thought about going back to medical school, but had never really gotten that far seeing as Mika had recruited him before he had a chance to do so.

  First he’d been fascinated, vampires existing, organisms that sustained their living by feeding off blood was a fascination that had soon ended. Soon but still too late.

  Jace being a doctor, though, wasn’t something he’d expected.

  “I’ve also slept with him on several occasions,” Solomon added, ripping Link from his thoughts.

  Link found himself glaring at the man he’d recently been admiring. “Not like I figured Jace to be much of a saint in the first place, so why tell me?” he seethed.

  Taken off guard by the anger rushing through his veins, he found he had to bite back a growl of his own. The thought of Jace being with somebody else left a bad aftertaste in Link’s mouth. Jace was his… or at least if what Sol said was true.

  “Several reasons actually. Mostly because I cherish Jace a great deal and, if you end up breaking his heart, I’ll be one of the kitty cats tearing your carcass limb from limb even after you’re dead,” Solomon growled.

  Link unintentionally shivered at the ice cold sneer he got from Solomon. No matter what the man might be, Link did not want to be the target of his anger. Also, it wasn’t often he met someone with a cold enough tone to make him shiver.

  “As for the other part, stuff like this is murder on a relationship if discovered later on. The whole honesty, don’t you trust me, how could you crap that is likely to transpire in those situations can’t always be rectified. The least I can do is let you and Jace try to work things out on your own terms, giving you equal footing at least.”

  “You’re just full of generosity, aren’t you?” Link growled and rubbed his temple when his right eye started twitching. He hated when that happened. It meant Sol had struck a nerve.

  “Always,” Solomon smirked, “and depending on how long it takes for you to get your head out of your ass, I will tell Jace everything about your darling Debbie and why you’re working with Mika in the first place,” he warned.

  “How the fuck do you know about them!?” Link snarled, cursing himself for not managed to sneak a gun in with him.

  Raising an eyebrow, Solomon whistled. “Them, huh? I hadn’t quite reckoned with there being a them.”

  Fuck! Solomon had tricked him?

  “I heard your barkeep mention someone called Debra, figured she was your girlfriend or something. Guess I undershot it a bit.”

  Before Link could strangle the man for what he knew, the car stopped and the window on Solomon’s side went down, revealing another attractive man with short brown hair and a golden gaze turning to scrutinize Link. “Hey…” the man said, “aren’t you…?”

  “I’ll fill you guys in later; just leave it for now, Kett. And no running to your brothers to blab about it either. Don’t think I didn’t notice you taking over as the pride gossiper when Jace was away.” Solomon scolded the pretty man who straightened, looking thoroughly offended.

  “I’m not gonna tell,” the young man objected, but a soft pink blush still colored his cheeks.

  Liar, liar…

  One thing was sure though, while Link might not entirely trust these guys, they sure had a helluva nice assortment of men. He also couldn’t help thinking Jace stil
l happened to be the prettiest and definitely the most enticing of the bunch.

  After the window closed a large iron gate opened, a small blue spark telling Link the gate, as well as the entire fencing, appeared to be one live wire. Beyond the gate, the view actually made Link gape.

  So far there was no sight of a building; instead they kept driving along a dirt road, disappearing into what looked to be a whole frickin’ forest inside the fence. Not that trees were lacking in general around these parts, but he could have sworn some of those trees looked to be pulled straight out of the jungle, mixed in with large oak trees and ferns, it was rather breathtaking.

  “I’ll give you to the end of the month.” Solomon interrupted by saying, “That’s how long you’ve got to tell him before I do.”

  “Just who the fuck do you think you are? And what makes you think I’ll even be here for that long?” Link argued.

  Bad enough having Mika pinning him down for drugs without being pushed around by an oversized tabby to boot.

  “I’ve got a hunch; let’s just leave it at that. And the end of the month should be enough time for you guys to figure things out, one way or the other,” Solomon drawled, having lost interest in Link’s arguing.

  “Right, so you guys are just going to keep me locked up then, is that it?”

  “Good god, you’re paranoid.” Solomon snorted. “Although… I did suggest that Jace have you thrown in a cage as retribution for his little vacation. Apparently he thinks that would be somewhat barbaric. So you’ll be free to come and go as you please… I’m going to have you followed though, don’t really trust you. Not yet anyway.”

  “Fuck you!” Link growled, as if the shifters were so fucking trustworthy. At least Solomon was upfront about having him followed.

  “No, I believe the idea is to fuck Jace,” Solomon reminded him.

  Somehow, Solomon’s words made him feel like he was some sort of gigolo with Solomon his fucking pimp. Although a round or two with Jace wasn’t exactly something you turned down, mate or not.