Tucker hesitated, still furious, but fucking turned on. Why the hell did this macho bullshit of Gavin’s arouse him like this? When he finally bent stiffly at the waist, Gavin jammed a finger into him and Tucker gasped at the bright slash of pain. “Goddammit!” Tucker gritted out. “Why the fuck are you doing this?”

“So you can feel me inside you the next few days. Help you to remember who you belong to, since you seem to be having trouble.”

He thrust his finger again, and Tucker whimpered, though his damn cock stayed hard as a rock. Tucker felt another soft kiss on his neck and then Gavin was pulling his finger out. Despite the burn, Tucker almost cried out at the loss. He twisted his head around to look at him, but Gavin was pushing him back down, kissing and licking at his rim, murmuring something soft and sweet sounding. Gavin thrust his tongue deep inside him and Tucker felt his knees completely give away. He would have fallen to the floor if Gavin hadn’t been holding him with an arm around his waist.

Gavin straightened, pulling Tucker back up against his chest while he moved his hand around to trail slowly down his stomach. Tucker’s cock was swollen and throbbing by now, standing straight out, pearly drops of pre-cum sliding down it. Gavin held him up while he moved the skin overTucker’s shaft up and down harder and faster. He began to lick the nape of Tucker’s neck and murmuredsomething over and over that Tucker couldn’t quite understand. He could feel the pressure building at the base of his spine, and then Tucker was sending a fountain of cum overGavin’s hand to splash against the wall. He lowered his head to catch his breath.

After a few minutes, Gavin let him go, reaching down to pull his pants back up over his hips and tuck his shirt inside. He turned Tucker around and leaned him against the wall, while he fastened his jeans and generally tidied him up. “Now go back inside and sit down, or go home. But don’t dance with anyone else, and stop messing around, you hear me? I won’t be responsible next time, Tucker, I swear to God.”

“You think I’m scared of you?” Tucker said in a belligerent tone. “I’ll dance with whomever I please. Especially while you’re sitting over there with your boyfriends.”

Gavin flushed darkly and Tucker thought he was going to try more of his me-Tarzan-youJane tactics on him, but instead he took a deep breath and swept a hard forefinger softly down his cheek. “Please, Tucker,” he said. “I can’t stand to see you with anyone else. It kills me. Those guys are not…honey, please listen to me. I have work I have to do, but if you’ll come back here at eight o’clock tomorrow night,I’ll explain everything then, I promise. Please, Tucker.”

Well, since he said please like three times… Tucker nodded.

Gavin bent down and took his lips in a kiss that was both demanding and sweet and damn near perfect. He held the kiss for a long time and then held the curtains back for Tucker to go through and out to the main area of the bar. Gavin came out right behind him, moving past Tucker, and going back to his table. When he sat down and looked back up to catch Tucker’s gaze, Tucker felt a flush of strong emotion wash over him, and he decided to go for the exit, his face burningas the others at Gavin’s table stared at him too.

Damn him! How could he embarrass him that way in front of his friends and in front of Chase? And why the hell was his cock half-hard again just thinking about it? He started toward his car when he saw Chase standing in the parking lot, backed up against his car by a tall blond who apparently had wasted no time after Tucker had been hauled away. Unwilling to explain or talk about it, Tucker just wanted to avoid Chase and drifted out to the bar’s large deck overlooking the beach. He thought maybe he could sit out on the deck in the cool breeze, order a beer and wait for Chase to move along, but the deck was packed with tourists on this Friday night. So, on an impulse, Tucker walked out on the beach, leaving the lights and the noise of the Nightstick behind him.

The soft breeze cooled his cheeksas he made his way down to the water’s edge. He could hear the gentle break of the waves, and on an impulse, he slipped off his shoes and socks, rolled up his pants legs and strolled down the beach, away from the music and voices behind him.

The tide tugged gently at his feet, warm as bath water, comforting as the tender darkness around him. He stood for a moment, some fifty yards along the sand, looking out toward the waters of the Gulf, its lazy tide moving in a slow waltz back and forth with the shore. What the hell was happening to him? Why did he allow Gavin to handle him the way he did, and most importantly of all, why did he respond to it with such excitement? Why did it seem to fill some hole inside him he never even knew he had?

He jammed his hands in his pockets and scrunched his toes down into the sand. He didn’t even know Gavin’s last name, or where he was from—he knew nothing about him really, yet when Gavin told him he belonged to him, his stupid cock enthusiastically agreed. He should have punched the man’s lights out. He should have told Gavin to go to hell when he ordered him to go home and leave other men alone. What he shouldn’t have done was tuck his tail between his legs and take off like a damned kicked puppy. Gavin told him to be back the next night at eight o’clock. He wondered what Gavin would do if hedidn’t show. Kicking at a shell near his toe, he shrugged in irritation, knowing it was a moot point. He’d be there, and they both knew it.

“All alone, officer?” A deep voice came out of the darkness behind him. It sounded rusty and cracked, like its owner rarely used it. Tucker turned to see a tall, muscular figure standing about fifteen feet away. A little irritated at being disturbed, he shrugged and gave the newcomer a polite, disinterested smile, before a little warning bell dinged inside his head. Had he been followed from the club? How did this guy know he was an officer?

“Do I know you?” he asked, a bit of a challenge in his voice. He removed his hands from his pockets and turned fully around to face him, instantly on the alert. Just a day before, a good cop had been murdered outside this club. A prickling sensation started up on the back of Tucker’s neck.

“I know you,” came the low answer. “Or at least I know what you are.”

Tucker cast a quick glance around him. The beach was deserted this late, and he doubted that anyone at the club could even hear him over the music and the noise if he shouted. A sudden cold breeze swept down the beach and Tucker shivered. “What I am? Who are you? Why did you follow me here?”

Only silence met his question, but the man was somehow closer to him, though Tucker hadn’t actually seen him move. Tucker sidestepped, intending to move closer to the lights and sounds coming from the club. Again, in a movement so rapid Tucker could barely fathom it, the man was in front of him, still six or seven feet away, but now blocking his way back toward the club. Another step brought the man even closer and again Tucker retreated back toward the darkness away from the club. Was he being herded? As that thought exploded into his consciousness, he felt a momentary panic, images of the bodies of the murder victims flashing in his mind.

“Who the fuck are you?” Tucker repeated, as he took another step backward. A warm, moist breeze off the Gulf brushed his hair from his forehead. Voices and music still drifted on this same breeze down the beach toward him, a song by Bon Jovi. Far out in the water, little lights twinkled, signaling fishing boats out for their nightly catch. Everything was too normal, too sane for this to be happening. The prickling on the back of his neck, though, assured him that it was.

“You know who I am,” the voice replied, as the man seemed to glide to within four feet of Tucker. Suddenly Tucker smelled him, his scent almost overpowering this close. It was an animal-like smell, gamey and unpleasant, like a wet dog.

Tucker planted his feet in the sand, squaring off, getting ready, resisting the urge to turn and run. He didn’t know who or what this fucker was, or even what the hell was happening to him, but he’d be ready when it came at him. He might even get in a little payback for the men who’d been killed by this son of a bitch. A little smile played at his lips. “Well, bring it, asshole. I haven’t got all night.”

For just a second, the man in front of him cocked his head to the side, perhaps a bit nonplussed at Tucker’s comments, like he was trying to figure out why Tucker was flapping a red flag under his nose. In that half-second of hesitation, two things happened at once, so fast Tucker could never say afterward exactly what it was he saw. A huge mass of fur and teeth slammed into the figure in front of him. The two figures fell to the ground in a roiling, snarling, thrashing ball of confusion. But even before the images could register on Tucker’s brain, what felt like a huge maw settled on the back of his jeans, and ripped him backward with such force his neck snapped back and he fell to the sand, rolling some ten feet away and landing on his back, looking up at the stars.

Stunned by the impact, his head pounding and swirling, Tucker only half-registered sounds of the fierce battle still going on up the beach. He was vaguely aware that some large animal was standing in a crouch between himself and the desperate struggle on the sand. He tried to raise his head, but a sharp pain crashed into his neck and head, and he fell backward, trying to breathe through it. It continued to build, though, and a wave of blackness washed up and over him, leaving him floundering in the dark as he sank down into unconsciousness.

Chapter Three

“Tucker ? Tucker, wake up!” Cradling Tucker’s head in his arms, Gavin gently shook him, his heart still pounding almost out of his chest. The bastard had been so close to Tucker—so ready to rip out his throat. In seconds, they would have been too late to save him.

The idea of losing Tucker made another icicle of fear spear down his spine, and he gathered Tucker even closer in his arms. Todd, one of his gammas, had pulled Tucker away from the fight so he wouldn’t be harmed as Gavin himself tore the creature limb from limb, his desire to kill the thing fueled even further by his fear and rage. Since they had already been in their wolf forms, and had been instinctively since the moment they saw Tommy so close to Tucker by the water, his gamma, Todd, had perhaps used a bit too much force as he pulled Tucker out of the way. It was hard to control their strength around humans, sometimes, especially while they were shifted. Gavin had already carefully checked Tucker for broken bones, and he seemed to be all right, just stunned from the hard landing on the sand.