Desiree Holt - Caught in the Middle

Mr. Washington stood on the far side of the club. In the darkness, it took a vampire’s night vision to pick him up, but Hayden obviously wasn’t reading the room with his eyes-he took one sniff of the air in the club and he was off across the room.

By the time Stafford caught up, Hayden had picked Mr. Washington up by the neck and had him pinned to the wall, his feet dangling several inches off the floor.

“Where is she?” Hayden demanded.

“Perhaps he’ll answer you more readily if you release his windpipe,” Stafford said, from a few paces behind him. Cold amusement dripped from his voice-if Jasmine was not at stake, he imagined it might be a great deal of fun to play bad cop to Hayden completely-bloody-psychotic cop.

Hayden reluctantly lowered the man to his feet. Stafford stepped in close to him, crowding the man into a corner.

“Jasmine left the hotel with you. Where is she?” he demanded.

The human was far more resilient than any other Stafford had met. He didn’t look the least bit impressed with their interrogation technique.

“Neither of you have any claim on her,” he said calmly. “She signed a contract. She belongs to me.”

Hayden began to growl low in the back of his throat again.

“Where is she?” Stafford demanded, leaning in close to the human man so he had no space at all to breathe.

“She went away for a few days. She’s staying with family. I don’t know where.” He sounded incredibly bored by the conversation.

Hayden’s growl escalated.

Mr. Washington looked from one of them to the other. “Grow up both of you-she’s no toy for you to play your petty games with. And do stop trying to play above your weight-I’ve been dealing with vampires and werewolves since long before either of you were born. Neither your parents nor your grandparents scare me, you two aren’t about to either. Especially not when I remember you as a scruffy little pup, and you as a bawling baby.”

Stafford cleared his throat, suddenly feeling rather like a child who was about to be sent to bed without his supper.

“And I remember both of you before you hit puberty and decided to hate each other-apparently for no good reason other than to annoy your parents.”

Stafford opened his mouth, he closed his mouth, then he pulled himself together. “Whatever you remember of us, neither of us is a child any more-Jasmine belongs to us.”

“No, she does not. Neither of your species has ever had any idea how to keep a human submissive,” Mr. Washington said. “Your lot always go back to your pack and your lot never keep one of your ‘human pets’ around for longer than a few feedings. Jasmine deserves a damn sight better than either of you.”

“She is my pack,” Hayden snarled.

Mr. Washington stared back at him, obviously not the least impressed with the show of temper.

“You sent her to us,” Stafford reminded him.

“She’s been rather annoyingly able to remain detached from every damn master I’ve tried to place her with up until now-who could have known she’d be foolish enough to take an interest in two childish idiots.”

“What?” Hayden blinked. “You’re her alpha…”

“I’m her trainer,” Mr. Washington said coldly. “I have no interest in the girl.”

“Right,” Stafford said-as if any man could ‘train’ Jasmine and not give in to the temptation to enjoy what she seemed to offer far too freely.

Mr. Washington smiled slightly, amusement dancing in his eyes for a moment. “You two are both far more my type than she will ever be,” he informed them.

It was Stafford ’s turn to blink.

“Sir?”

Stafford turned around, a young man stood near them with a tray of drinks. He looked from them to Mr. Washington and back again.

“It’s fine, Stewart. These are the two gentlemen I told you about. They’re looking for Jasmine.”

“Do you know where she is?” Stafford demanded.

The young man looked him up and down with more haughtiness than he had ever seen in someone who wasn’t one of his own species. “She’s not here. And my master says you’re not good enough for her.”

Mr. Washington chuckled, genuine affection warming his voice. “ Now the boy starts listening to me.”

Hayden turned and looked over his shoulder, then he looked back to Mr. Washington. “He is your pack,” he observed. “He’s your mate.”

Mr. Washington nodded.

“Jasmine is our pack,” Hayden told him seriously. “She is our mate. She belongs with us, just as he belongs with you. Can’t you understand that?”

“Both of you?” Mr. Washington asked.

“Yes,” Stafford said, without even thinking about what he was actually saying.

The human looked back and forth from one to the other of them. ”She’ll be here tomorrow,” he said. “It’s her choice if she will accept you or not.”

“You said it was her choice before.”

“If you hadn’t come to get her now, you wouldn’t have been worth choosing. And she was in no condition to make the choice right then.”

Stafford narrowed his eyes. “If anyone has hurt her, we will kill you.”

Mr. Washington didn’t seem at all impressed with the threat.

Stafford stepped back, seeing nothing else to be done with the human. “Tomorrow,” he said and turned away.

Hayden followed along behind him and got into his car as if it was obvious he would be welcome there.

Stafford started the car and considered his options. He wasn’t about to leave the wolf on his own, so Hayden could go off and search for Jasmine without him. “You can stay at my place,” he offered.

Stafford ’s bedroom door swung open. Hayden stood framed in the moonlight, just visible as a shadowy outline.

“What?” Stafford demanded, leaning up on his elbow. After finally getting the other man to go to bed in the early hours of the morning, he was damned if he was going to get up before noon. He glanced at his watch. “It’s four o’clock-you haven’t even been in bed an hour!” God, it was like babysitting a damn toddler!

Hayden calmly walked across the room and got into the bed next to him.

“Get out,” Stafford demanded.

“Wolves don’t sleep alone,” Hayden said, making himself comfortable in Stafford ’s bed.

“Well, vampires do!” Stafford informed him.

“You didn’t sleep on your own a few nights ago.”

“That was different-Jasmine was with us then.”

“We aren’t a proper pack without Jasmine,” Hayden said sadly.

Stafford hesitated when he saw the pain and the worry in the other man’s eyes.

“We’ll find her tomorrow,” Hayden said. It sounded suspiciously like he was trying to reassure himself, not Stafford.

Stafford sighed. “I suppose I can put up with you for one night if I have to. Just stay on your side of the bed.”

Hayden turned his head on the side. “Why?”

“I’m not used to sharing my bed with another man.” He would have felt a hell of a lot better about it if Jasmine was sleeping in between them.

“Packs always sleep together,” the wolf explained.

“Fine-here are the rules. You stay on your side of the bed and you keep your hands, your tongue and all other parts of your anatomy to yourself. Understand?”

“You think I want to have sex with you,” Hayden observed. “Like Mr. Washington and Stewart.”

Stafford hesitated. He really didn’t want to have this conversation on top of everything else, but perhaps it would be better to have everything sorted out between him and Hayden before Jasmine got back and got caught in the middle of this mess as well.

“Do you?”

Hayden shook his head. “You are not my mate. Jasmine is my mate. You are a member of my pack. It is different.”