Page 14 of Destined Prey (Wild Ones #1)

Chapter Twelve

Jack rubbed his left eye, almost fell on his head and slapped his left hand down on the floor again.

All the blood was rushing to his head, but he couldn’t shove himself upright.

There was a gloriously nude, perfectly sculpted man under his bed—the very man who’d haunted Jack’s dreams and most of his waking hours for days now.

Then it stopped, and Jack snapped back to himself. He gasped, slid off the bed and hunched down to look at Ben from right-side up. “Ben?”

Ben blinked hard, scrunching his eyelids and eyebrows up as he did so.

“Shh.” Ben sighed and looked at him. “Trust me. Please. I swear I’m not a psycho stalker.

” Then he winced. The wince did more than the words.

It knocked the edge off Jack’s panic—a human, helpless little tell in the middle of a nightmare he couldn’t name yet.

Jack should have run for the door. Should have, but he was remembering odd bits and pieces.

“I passed out because I saw a coywolf, and it…” No, no that couldn’t be right, he assured himself.

He hadn’t heard Ben answering in his head.

Jack glared at Ben. “Why are you under my bed, why are you naked, and how did I get in here? Answer those three things in under a minute, or I’m going to scream the house down.

” His palm was slick on his phone, thumb hovering over 9–1–1.

He told himself to move, to run; his legs felt wired wrong, like any sudden motion would shatter whatever fragile thing was holding him together.

“I need more than a minute,” Ben whispered. “Please?”

“Please. Please let him listen to me. God, I can’t blow this, and the traps—they can’t put out the traps! My family could be killed!”

Those were not Jack’s thoughts. He skittered back, away from the bed.

Cold slid under his skin, quick and mean.

Hearing his own name in a voice that wasn’t in the room—and yet was—made the floor tilt under him.

“I heard you. I heard you. How…?” He could barely make his voice work, he was so freaked out.

“Heard me what?” Ben asked, working his way to the side of the bed where Jack had just been sitting. “Say I needed more than a minute, please? Was that it?”

Jack shook his head rapidly, making himself a little dizzy.

“You said ‘Please. Please let him listen to me. God, I can’t blow this, and the traps—they can’t put out the traps.

My family could be killed.’” Jack thought he was beginning to hyperventilate.

“Tell me you didn’t think those words. Tell me I’m hallucinating.

Tell me something that makes more sense than you…

than me…than us being—I don’t know!” Jack just managed to tone down the wail, to keep from being loud enough to alarm Rhett.

He barely spoke above a whisper, his throat so tight with fear.

And, disturbingly enough to him, his stupid cock was filling, growing erect. Maybe that shouldn’t have come as a surprise, considering how gorgeous Ben was. He rolled out from under the bed and came up onto his feet in a fluid movement that Jack envied.

Then he stopped envying and just stared, because hot damn!

Ben was hung. “Jesus.” Jack knew he was probably drooling, but he couldn’t help it.

Ben was tall and perfect, from his big feet to the top of his head.

There were scars, some newer than others, some worse, deeper than the rest. Those piqued Jack’s curiosity, unlike the muscles, the curves and angles, the golden-brown hair that was sprinkled liberally over Ben’s legs, torso and arms. Those things made Jack so horny he would have begged Ben to fuck him… under different circumstances.

Ben was watching him with unmistakable hunger.

Jack reached down and adjusted his dick.

There was something seriously wrong with him.

He should be flipping out, screaming for Rhett, bolting because there was a nude man who’d hidden under his bed, and there were odd bits of memories Jack wasn’t certain were real.

Gold eyes, a rough whisper in an alley, heat at his side where a stranger’s hand had rested.

Each piece clicked toward a picture he didn’t want to see whole.

Ben stretched his arms up over his head. The pull and ripple of muscles under golden skin stunted Jack’s thoughts. The rumbling, contented sound Ben made sent a shiver through Jack.

Ben lowered his arms, then casually sat on Jack’s bed, seemingly unselfconscious about his nudity. “Are you sure your brother won’t come in here? I’d be hard pressed to explain to him.”

Jack gave himself a shake. “You’re going to be hard pressed to explain to me.” He forced himself to move, to walk over to the nightstand and open the drawer there. He picked up his phone and held the button down to turn it on. “I’m not locking myself in here with you.”

“I won’t hurt you. I couldn’t.”

“Can you—?” Jack coughed, trying to clear his throat. It’d gone dry when he’d glanced at Ben. “Cover up, please?”

Ben didn’t smirk or argue. He took an edge of the blanket, then pulled it over his lap, covering his gorgeous dick and balls, as well as part of his thighs and belly.

Jack’s lungs loosened a fraction. Not because the blanket hid anything important, but because Ben did what he asked without pushback. Obedience wasn’t the right word. Consideration, maybe. It steadied him more than it should have.

“Better?”

“I can at least think now,” Jack grumbled. His phone emitted several notification tones for texts, missed calls, voicemails and emails. There were so many, and from what Jack could tell, most of them were from Alex. “Jesus, go away already.”

“Er, I could head out the window—”

“Not you,” Jack said, interrupting Ben. “My ex. He agreed to leave me alone, and he’s so not doing it.

” Now why had he told Ben that? Honesty came out of him sideways around this man, like his mouth had stopped taking orders from his common sense.

He didn’t know if that was terrifying or a relief.

Jack’s hand trembled as he cleared off his notifications and set up the music app.

He had soothing jazz playing seconds later, and he set the phone down before connecting it to the charger.

Then he turned to face Ben. He was surprised Ben hadn’t asked any questions about Alex.

Ben was staring down as he fidgeted, running his thumbs over the tops of his fingers repeatedly. “What do you remember?” he surprised Jack by asking.

“Just tell me what’s going on,” Jack demanded.

Ben looked at him with a serious expression. “Jack, I need to know what you remember, Otherwise, I might put you through more than is necessary.”

Jack scowled. “That makes perfect sense—not. Either you tell me the truth, all of it, or I’ll call the police.

” Empty threat, his better judgment scoffed.

The rest of him clung to it anyway, a cracked shield held between them while his pulse jackhammered at his throat.

Some small voice inside of him argued that he would do no such thing.

Jack ignored it. “I don’t care how attracted I am to you—I have a brain that overrides my dick and libido. Talk.”

“You were just freaking out on me,” Ben said pointedly, one dark eyebrow arching up. “Now you want explanations, regardless of what it might do to you?”

Jack bristled. “I am not weak.” He tucked his hands into the front pockets of his jeans. “Despite what I was babbling about. I passed out.” He felt his cheeks heat with a blush. “You think I’m a wuss because of that.”

Ben shook his head. “I don’t. I just hesitate to blow your reality out of the water.”

“My reality? Because it’s different than yours? You live in an alternate world or something?” Jack asked scathingly. He was angry, scared and still horny, which made him both angrier and more scared. “You’re sexy as hell, I’ll give you that, but I’m not sure you’ve got your full bag of marbles.”

Ben surprised him by laughing, then quickly covering his mouth to muffle the sound. Ben’s chest heaved as he continued to be amused at Jack’s expense.

Jack’s fear was quickly being drowned out by anger…and lust. He folded his arms over his chest and gave Ben his sternest look. “I think you need to leave.”

Ben’s amusement died instantly, and he uncovered his mouth. “No, wait. I’m sorry. It’s just that, if you think I’m crazy now, you’ll really think so once I tell you the truth.”

“So this is one of those cases of truth being stranger than fiction, then?” Jack didn’t doubt it.

“Considering you were naked and hiding under my bed, and the last thing I remember before that was going outside with a baseball bat to check on…” His mind raced with images and sounds.

“On…” Ones he couldn’t believe were real, but he couldn’t explain away.

Ben’s expression had gone blank. Even so, Jack heard the mental chaos start again, with Ben’s pleading voice asking someone to not let Jack flip out on him.

“I hear you,” Jack murmured, sure of it this time. “I hear you, even though you aren’t speaking.” He also felt panic pulse from Ben to him. “You’re really afraid I’ll want nothing to do with you.”

Ben nodded curtly. “I don’t know what’s happening.”

Jack pointed at him. “You’re lying!”

“I don’t know all of what’s happening,” Ben amended.

He sighed and pushed a lock of hair off his forehead.

“I don’t know about the…the hearing each other’s thoughts part.

” Jack’s shoulders sagged. The admission landed heavier than a denial would have.

He’d been braced to be gaslit. He hadn’t prepared for agreement.

“You can hear mine, too?” Jack hadn’t realized his voice could get so squeakily high-pitched.

Ben shrugged. “Sort of? Like not whole sentences, just bits, just feelings, maybe, is more like it. Whatever, it comes through with a lot of noisy interference.”

“Why are you afraid I won’t want anything to do with you?” Jack demanded. “I know you thought that.”

“I’m not denying it.” Ben licked his lips, then bit down on the bottom one before releasing it.

“I can’t stop thinking about you, and not in that creepy, if I can’t have him, no one else can kind of way.

It’s like—like I’m drawn to you, something deep inside me feels like you might be my home.

” He canted his head to the left and looked at Jack.

“And possibly, that I could be your home. That we belong, and I’ve never felt that way with anyone else. ”

Jack had to turn away, because that confession threatened to undo him and make him lay himself out for Ben, bare not just his body but his heart and soul as well. “It’s hormones. Pheromones. Chemistry.”

“Then let’s explore it together,” Ben urged. “You feel it, too.”

Jack still didn’t face him. “Tell me the rest.”

“Show me,” Jack said, surprising himself with the steadiness of his voice. “Whatever it is, show me.”

There was a long moment of silence before Ben said, “The rest?”

Jack walked to his door and grabbed the handle.

“Okay, okay! The rest, you’ve got it,” Ben rushed out. “Just, remember, you pretty much made it impossible for me not to tell you.”

Jack turned to him. “Yes, so—” He gasped. “What the—?”

Ben wasn’t sitting on the bed. A big, floppy-tongued wolf-coyote-coywolf was there, in his place.

Jack felt like he was going to pass out again. He braced himself, locking his knees and shaking his head rapidly, trying to get the blood flowing like he needed it to.

“Okay,” he whispered to himself. “Okay. Okay.” The word didn’t make sense of anything. It just kept him on his feet. The explanations he was coming up with couldn’t be real.

Then the animal shimmered and blurred, and Ben was there again, arching, stretching like his bones needed to fall back into place.

Ben canted his head again. “Well?”

Jack barked a laugh he couldn’t stop. The motion was so dog it shattered a little of the terror. “You can’t do that and then be cute about it,” he muttered, and the absurdity kept him breathing.

Jack thought the move very dog-like. He bit down on his tongue to keep from giggling.

Ben’s mouth curled up on one side in a crooked smile. “You haven’t thrown me out yet.”

“What are you?” Jack blurted, nervous, excited, and disbelieving even though he’d seen what he’d seen.

“Coywolf shifter,” Ben answered, raising one hand up and inspecting his nails. “We are pretty badass, but none of the other shifters like us. Well, the wolf and coyote shifters don’t, and neither do the actual animals. Makes it hard sometimes.”

Jack pressed a hand over his heart. “And the other night, out here?”

“Turf war.” Ben lowered his hand. “We aren’t trying to claim this territory, but someone else is intent on making sure we have nowhere to run.”

The memory of Rhett saying “traps” knifed through Jack. Metal jaws. Blood. The house felt smaller all at once, like danger could seep through the window frames.

“Who?” Jack’s whole reality had just been altered. “There are other shifters?” God, he was talking to a human coywolf!

“We don’t know who, exactly, and Casey says he could be wrong.

Just seems like there’s an awful lot of coyote and wolf shifters gunning for us lately.

All we want is to be able to live our lives in peace, run under the moon, and just…

be. As do other shifters, sure. In just about every species, as far as I know. ”

“What?” Oh, there went his voice, squeaking again.

Ben nodded. “Yeah, weird, right? When we hunt for our food, we always make sure we aren’t about to eat another shifter. Some of our kind aren’t that picky.”

“Oh my God.” Jack needed to sit down. “Horses? Dogs?” A horrible thought occurred to him. “Cattle? Please tell me I haven’t eaten a cattle shifter!”

Ben hopped up and slowly crossed over to him.

“I’ve never heard of cattle shifters, or horse ones, or mice and so on.

I meant birds, dogs, cats, deer and elk, mountain lions, bears and so on.

” Jack’s stomach rolled. The world had cracked open and there was a food chain inside it he’d never known to look for.

“I can’t—” Jack began to tremble. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. He couldn’t discount it, either. “Jesus!”

“I’m going to hold you,” Ben warned, his eyes very serious, as was his tone. “If you’ll let me.”

The ask mattered. Not the arms, not the heat—the permission. Jack nodded, throat too tight for words, and stepped into it because every part of him that was rattling finally went quiet there.

Despite the completely bizarre nature of what had just occurred, with Ben shifting then turning back into a human, Jack still wanted him, with every atom of his being. “Yes.”

Maybe he was crazy, but Jack had never felt safer than when Ben pulled him close and held him.