Page 42 of Destined Prey
“We watch this Aldan guy, see who he’s talking to, and we avoid running in our usual areas.” Casey pointed at Ben. “That means you can’t go near the Double T unless you’re in human form.”
“I won’t. Are we running tonight?” Ben wanted to, but he could hold off if necessary.
“We’re running, all right,” Casey replied. “Right after we find out where Aldan whatever-his-name-is lives. You think Jack will give you his last name?”
“As long as we aren’t going to harm him, yeah.” Ben sent a silent request to Jack. “Okay, well, since everyone’s here, help me clean up, then we can get out of here as soon as Mr. Evans gets his truck.”
Then, tonight, they’d run. Fur, teeth, freedom. But stronger still was the knowledge that when it was over, Jack would be waiting, and for the first time in years, Ben wasn’t running toward the night. He was running home.
Chapter Twenty
As it turned out, Aldan lived with his mother, two blocks behind Ben’s shop. Spying on him wasn’t going to be as easy as it would have been if he’d lived in a more secluded area. But when Aldan stumbled from the house, his face battered as hell, Casey had growled, and Anne had stepped in front of him.
“Calm down, calm down. Let me handle him. I’ll keep in touch. Check for texts.” She plastered on a vague smile, then followed Aldan.
“And I’ll follow her,” Emil said. “Lacey?”
“You bet I’m going with you.” Lacey trotted after her sister.
Robin took a step. “Should I go with them?”
“No, you come with us. If everyone follows, that’d look suspicious,” Casey pointed out. “As is, there’s a trio going after him. As long as he doesn’t catch on, it should be fine.”
“Okay. I guess I should be used to being left behind,” Robin complained.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake!” Ben snapped. “Cut it out with your pity party! You aren’t left behind. You’re with us!”
Robin stuck his bottom lip out. “Fine. But you cussed.”
Ben pinched the bridge of his nose. Christ. Life and death pressing in, and his kid brother was hung up on language. He wanted to shake Robin and hug him in the same breath.
Casey patted Ben’s back. “Yes, he did, and I can’t blame him one bit. You really need to cut out the emo moody kid act, Rob.”
Robin’s belligerent expression came and went quickly. “It’s not like I want to be a jerk. It just happens.”
“Then stop it,” Ben ordered him. “You can control yourself. It’s called growing up and being an adult. Do it.”
Robin didn’t argue for once. Casey led the way back to the truck. “I know you wanted to run, Ben, but tonight’s not looking likely for that to happen. Why don’t you go on over to Jack’s? I promise to keep you updated. In fact, I think we need to halt all shifting and running until we find out what Aldan’s game is,ifhe’s even up to anything.”
Ben didn’t like it, but he had to agree. And he wanted to be with Jack.
“Okay. I’ll keep my phone on.” Ben let them drop him off at the shop, where he’d left his truck. He sent Jack a text, letting him know he was on the way over. Then he shared that mentally and was thrilled when that worked and Jack sent back a warm greeting—and a visual image of Ben naked, spread out, with Jack’s fingers working him open.
The rawness of it nearly stole his breath. For all the chaos circling them, Jack wasn’t shy about what he wanted, and Ben drank that certainty in like water. It steadied him, even as his body lit up with hunger. Underneath the lust, though, was a quieter emotion—relief. Jack wasn’t pulling away, wasn’t scared of him. Not anymore.
“You know how hard it’s gonna be for me to drive with a raging hard-on?”Ben sent to Jack.
“I know how hard my dick is right now, and how much I want to feel your tight ass around it.”
Ben groaned and got in his truck. In five minutes, he was out of the town limits and speeding along the road.
He didn’t hear anything else from Jack. Regardless, he was distracted and nearly missed the wolf shifters peering at him from a dozen or so feet off the side of the road, about ten miles from the ranch.
Ben didn’t slow down. He made note of where he’d seen the shifters so he could send the information to Casey.
And he saw them run, keeping parallel to his truck. “Shit.” Ben didn’t like this at all. He used his much-ignored cruise control then and fumbled for his phone. Once he got the screen unlocked, he remembered that he could use voice commands to get the phone to call Casey. “Should have thought of that before.” He asked it to call Casey.
“Hello?” Casey said.
