Page 18

Chapter 18

North

I ’ve never been so enraged and so proud of someone at the same time. On one hand, I want to call in every favor, threaten every powerful person, do whatever it takes to catch the asshole who’s after Ranen. I want to tear him apart until there’s nothing left that could possibly frighten or threaten him or call him some fucking ridiculous name like Pooh Bear.

On the other hand, I’m so fucking proud of Ranen for the fire in his eyes, for the way he’s so determined to make sure that we catch the guy. For the way he’s willing to do whatever it takes, even if it means making the asshole angry.

If he wasn’t intending to use me to make the bastard come after him, I might have been opposed to the idea. I know I would have been if he’d wanted to do it all by himself.

But Ranen looks at me like I hold all the answers in the world, like I’m a safe place in the midst of all the chaos in his life. He looks at me like he wants me to stay , like he knows as much as I do that we’re it for each other.

I won’t let him down.

Which means… I have to swallow my pride and do something that I should have done a while ago. I’m sure I can kill Ranen’s little stalker as soon as I get my hands on him, but I can’t watch Ranen and look for the fucker at the same time. I’ve never had this problem before, because I’ve never been trying to keep someone safe and alive while hunting prey.

Things are different now.

Ranen makes everything different.

I never thought someone would be able to come into my life and change things so drastically, that someone could break past the cool wall I’d had in place my entire life and somehow nestle themselves neatly beneath my ribs, against my heart.

I never thought someone could change me. But I feel changed.

I feel…

I feel too much. It’s dangerous. I don’t know if I can keep focused on hunting, on stalking, on keeping him safe and keeping my secret safe.

I don’t know if I can do this all alone, and I’m not willing to do anything that would risk Ranen getting hurt again.

That’s why I know I need help, even though I don’t want to ask for it.

I only let out a small curse when I dial Dad’s number and he picks up on the second ring.

“Something tells me you aren’t calling because you miss me.”

God, what is it about Dad that he knows shit before I even speak? Maybe it’s because I’m calling him a little later in the afternoon… or maybe it’s because he hasn’t seen me as much lately.

“I’ve been busy,” I say in way of an answer to my absence. I haven’t been to work, and I usually go to his house at least once throughout the week, even if it’s just to have a beer and catch up. I haven’t been doing that… and honestly, I’m surprised he hasn’t dropped in to Ranen’s apartment again with another pot of stew as an excuse to see why. Or maybe he already knows. “Listen… I might need your help.”

It’s not like I haven’t asked him for help before, but this is different. This involves someone else.

This involves someone who doesn’t know about me, about what we do. What we really are. I know in the back of my mind it’s not just myself I’m putting at risk by potentially letting Ranen know about me. It’s Dad. It’s Wylder. It’s all of us.

And I’m selfish enough that I’m willing to risk it if it means I can keep him.

Dad’s quiet for a second, then he sighs. “You’re sure about this, North?”

My eyes flick to the bathroom where Ranen is getting cleaned up, and I nod. “I’ve never been more sure about anything in my life.”

The words are true. Maybe I don’t know what I’m doing, but I know I can’t do anything else.

He’s quiet again, and I hate that I’m not there to see his face, to read his expression and figure out whether he’s upset or disappointed or happy for me. I don’t know what he thinks about all of this. I should have asked him about it when I was at his house, maybe while both of us were cleaning up the dead body I’d left in his basement. I could have figured out how he handled a relationship when my mother was alive. I could have asked him how I was supposed to make this work, how I was supposed to make Ranen understand.

I had all the time in the world then, but now…

Well, now I don’t have time to ask him much of anything, or tell him what I’m thinking or how I’m feeling. I can’t get any real advice. I can just let him know that I’m going to need it. Soon.

“I’m guessing you’re with him right now,” he says. At least he knows what I’m talking about.

“Yeah.”

“This sounds like something we need to be able to discuss freely if you need me to help you kill someone, son.”

I pause. He doesn’t sound angry about it. He doesn’t even sound upset.

Dad sounds… intrigued. Maybe a little apprehensive, but…

“I can call you back later tonight if you’ll be awake. I just need to make sure he’s safe, Dad. I…” I hesitate. “I don’t know what I’ll do if something happens to him.”

The confession comes out soft, catching at the back of my throat and threatening to strangle me with emotions I’ve never experienced before. I don’t know how to process them.

I don’t know what I’m doing.

“Just… North. You have to be sure—completely sure—that this is what you want. People like us…” He pauses, and I hear the strain in his voice, pain that echoes from a shattered past and a scar in the shape of my mother that trails across his heart. “It’s forever or nothing. Do you understand?”

“I do,” I say softly. He lets out a soft hmm and laughs.

“Well. Call me back later tonight. We’ll figure this shit out. And then I think you need to bring Ranen over so we can all talk.”

That doesn’t sound ominous at all.

“Okay.” I’m not exactly sure how I feel about some fancy family meeting, but I’m the one who called him for help. That means I can’t really question how he plans on giving it, can I? I just need someone to make sure Ranen is safe, maybe to help me track down the guy… I know who I should call for that.

Like he’s reading my mind, Dad speaks. “Have you thought about calling your brother?”

I already pulled Wylder into this by asking him to take out the men from before. His words from earlier are still echoing in my mind—people like us can’t keep people, can’t have what I want with Ranen.

Maybe I don’t want to hear it.

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

Dad doesn’t hesitate this time. “You know he could help.”

“Maybe,” I grunt. “But I can handle it without him. We can handle it without him.”

“North…”

The bathroom door creaks open, and Ranen comes out in nothing but a robe. My body instantly reacts, my cock going hard and my heartbeat accelerating. Since it isn’t a reaction I want to have while I’m on the phone with my dad, I quickly say goodbye and hang up.

“You look fantastic.” I stalk toward him without hesitation, and Ranen gives me a sweet smile.

“You look like you want to eat me.”

My eyes sweep along the length of his body, and I arch one brow.

“That sounds like a good idea to me.”

He smiles again, but I can see nerves flutter across his face. I know it’s not because we’re going to have sex, but because we’re doing it with intention—with purpose. We’re doing it to make someone else so angry that they fuck up… and a part of me hates it. A part of me wants to throw the camera out the window and fuck Ranen because I want to. Because I want to show him he’s mine and that nothing is ever going to hurt him, nothing could ever take him away from me.

Since I can’t do that and follow through with his plan, the second best thing I can do is fuck him so good and so hard that he forgets we’re playing a game at all. I want him so out of his head that he doesn’t remember the camera is there.

I want to be the only thing he’s thinking about.

And if that just so happens to show his fucking stalker, once and for all, that the only way he’s ever going to get to Ranen is if he’s brave enough to try to come through me, that’s perfect.

I’ll tear him apart and make Ranen a bouquet out of his organs.

No one could accuse me of not being romantic.

He runs his fingers through his damp hair and drags his palms down his face, wiping the worried expression from his features before he steps into me. When his arms go around my waist, I can’t stop myself from leaning down and pressing my nose to his hair to smell the sweet scent of his shampoo clinging to his skin.

Except he doesn’t smell like his shampoo. He smells like mine—my shampoo, my body wash—everything I brought with me. It makes the heat streaking through my body even more intense, and I know he’s done it on purpose when he looks up at me and the flush on his cheeks creeps all the way to his hairline.

“Are you ready?” Ranen’s voice is barely above a whisper, and I cup his face in my hands and bring my lips down to his without thinking. His mouth tastes like toothpaste, but I can still catch the flavor of him beneath it… breathe it in when he sighs against my lips and presses his body to mine. It floods my senses and leaves me pulling him closer, so I can slide my hands along his thighs and work his robe up to play my fingers teasingly against the crack of his ass.

“Are you?” I mirror his question back at him and nip his jawline. My lips trail up to his ear, and I press a soft kiss just beneath it before I whisper. “I’m going to eat you alive, baby. No one will be able to question who you belong to by the time I’m done.”

I feel the shudder that pulses through his body, and his fingers tighten to the point of pain where he clings to me.

“Please?” he whispers.

“Go get everything set up.”

He looks up at me like he wants to say something else, but after a second he nods and slips out of my arms to head to his cam room. I watch him go and blow out a low breath—it’s amazing, how difficult it is to keep myself from following him and lifting him up, fucking him against the wall where no one can see us.

I could take him to Dad’s and leave him there, safe and sound, while I hunt down the asshole who’s making him feel unsafe.

I could make sure he doesn’t have to deal with it at all… but…

This was Ranen’s idea. This is what he wants. And if he wants to take his power back, if he wants to finally feel like he’s really in control after he was attacked, I’m not going to take it away from him.

I’m just going to make sure that I’m there every step of the way to keep him safe.

I showered before Ranen, so I don’t need to do that, but I do step into his bedroom so I can get dressed. In theory, I just have to put on my mask. In practice, I want to do everything I can to show from the start that there’s nothing about our relationship that’s just for show, nothing about what we’re doing for the camera that’s just for money.

So instead of pulling on the mask, I strip. It’s not like I need clothes for what I’m doing anyway, and honestly, when I put on just the mask, there’s something enticing about it—my bare body covered in tattoos, on display from the get go, and my cock already hard.

People will know that I want Ranen. That I want him just from looking at him. That I get to have him.

That I get to claim him.

I want to leave evidence of it all over his skin—bite marks and bruises, little blossoms of red everywhere I touch too hard.

Everywhere that he’s mine.

I close the bedroom door behind me, and I can hear him talking to the people on his stream, getting them excited for the show. His voice is a sweet sound that carries through the apartment, and I follow it like a siren’s call.

“Since you enjoyed having him here so much before, I brought back our special guest from last… session.” Ranen’s voice trails off when I lean against the door, and I groan at the sight of the flush creeping up from his chest to cover his cheeks. His eyes go wide as I stalk around the room, positioning myself just behind the camera so everyone can see his exact expression.

“Hands and knees, baby.” I growl the words out low, deep, letting them filter through the air with all the lust and desire I have for him. His eyes widen, but he’s already moving to do exactly what I said, stripping out of his robe so I can see his cock already hanging hard and pink between his legs. He looks so fucking good… so ready .

“What are you going to do to me?” Ranen’s question is breathy, and I can see the tremble that pulses along his spine. I can also hear the chat going wild. They love this—they love the look on his face and the way he’s already in position with his ass in the air, so ready to be claimed.

Fuck, I want to claim it.

“I told you earlier that I was going to eat you alive.” I turn to the camera so they can see when my tongue comes out to wet my lips. “I’m going to make you come on my tongue, and then I’m going to fuck you until you see stars.”

The chat goes wild.

I’m positive that somewhere amongst the pinging messages and tips, there’s one very angry bastard who knows he’ll never have Ranen look at him the way he’s looking at me now, like I’m the sun and the sky—like I’m his entire world.

Good.

I want him to watch.

I want him to see it when I take Ranen apart.