Hell & High Water (THIRDS 1)

Sloane stared at him. “You really think he would have killed you?”

“To be honest, I don’t know. I’d like to think not, but the coldblooded way he shot that kid, I wasn’t going to take any chances especially since there were no witnesses around. He had a lot to lose. I played dumb. Said exactly what I knew he wanted to hear. I felt so sick, I nearly puked. When backup came, I… did what I had to do. The look he gave me when they cuffed him, and put him in the back of that cruiser, I’ll never forget it. It was the look of a man who never saw it coming.”

“I’m sorry.” Sloane motioned the bartender to bring Dex another two bottles. His partner had earned them. He’d help Dex home if he had to. Walsh deserved what he got, not just for his actions but for putting a man like Dex through that kind of hell. And for what?

“I knew it would probably be the end of my career, one way or another,” Dex continued, “but if I went up on that stand and lied, I could never look at myself in the mirror again.” A look of tired sadness passed over his handsome face, and Sloane yearned to have that smile back.

“Yeah, and we both know how much you enjoy looking at yourself in the mirror.”

“Dick,” Dex chuckled, giving him a playful punch in the arm. “By the way, that dude over there’s been staring at your ass so hard. I think he’s looking to relocate.”

Sloane glanced over his shoulder at one of the pool tables where some young guy in a faded rock band T-shirt and scruffy Eagles baseball cap was eyeing him. The guy smiled before one of the other guys in his group pulled him away. Sloane turned back to Dex with a shake of his head. “Not interested.”

“Why? He’s—”

“A chaser. I don’t do fetishes.”

“Wait, what? How do you know?” Dex discreetly peeked over Sloane’s shoulder.

“His neck. Chasers get tattoos to mirror Therian marks on the right side of their necks.” Thank God it was illegal for Humans to get tattoos on the left side, or it would make Therian identification more frustrating. Though he knew there were hardcore chasers out there who took the risk. “I don’t hook up with guys who only want to be with me for what I am. Not even for the sex.”

“Been there, done that, and all you got was a lousy T-shirt?”

Sloane grimaced. “Something like that. I would have preferred the T-shirt to the restraining order.”

“Shit, that bad?” Dex’s eyes went wide, and he leaned into Sloane, his cheeks flushed. Looked like his partner was well on his way to getting merry. Why the hell not.

“It was in college. This guy was really into me and I admit, I fell for what he was selling. It was hard not to. Not when he looked at me the way he did.”

Dex propped his head on his hand, a sweet smile spreading across his face. “What way?”

Kind of like the way Dex was looking at him now. Only when Sloane thought about it, he’d never gotten that heated, excited type of feeling he got when Dex touched him. His breath had never hitched the way it did when Dex was close. “Like he didn’t see me as some freak who might go feral at any moment and kill everyone. He looked at me like I was… I don’t know how to describe it. It was a nice change. Anyway, we started dating, sleeping together, and then things started to get a little weird. It was gradual. It’s not like one day he asked to put a saddle on me or anything.”

Dex sputtered a mouthful of beer, wheezing as he tried to speak. “Fuck, man. Don’t say shit like that when I’m drinking.”

“I’m sorry.” Sloane laughed, leaning toward Dex to pat him on the back as he hacked and coughed. “You okay?”

Dex nodded, his voice hoarse when he spoke. “Yeah, get back to the… you know, the thing.” He swiped up a napkin and wiped his mouth.

“Anyway, it started off small. He’d ask a lot of questions about my Therian form, which was fine. I was used to that. Then he’d use weird phrases when we were in bed together.” Sloane could feel his face getting red. “I can’t believe I’m having this conversation with you.”

“We could talk about my sex life.”

“Yeah, so he’d say things like um….” Sloane cleared his throat and leaned over. “If you laugh, I will beat the shit out of you.”

“Okay. No laughing.”

“He’d ask me to mount him and paw him. Then he wanted me to mark him.”

Dex stared at him. “Like, mark him, mark him?”

“Yeah, and it got weirder, but what pushed me over the edge was when he asked me to shift so he could jack off on me.”

Dex cringed. “Ooh, I can see how that might cause a rift in the relationship.”

“No shit. We broke up after that. Then he started stalking me so I filed a restraining order.”

“What happened to him?”