The Runaway Cat (Book 2 Cloverleah Pack Series) Read online

  “Come on Griff, you know you have to come. She’s family and a very determined woman. If you don’t come with us tomorrow, with Diablo, then she will just come down here and get you. You don’t want that, do you?” Kane was still laughing as Griff groaned again.

  “No. Okay. What time are you heading out?”

  “We’ll cruise by on the bikes about 10.00 am and head off then. We’ll bring yours from the shop Diablo so don’t worry about that.” Kane started leading Shawn out of the door. “Make sure you’re out of bed, or I will be dragging you out.” Kane and Shawn were still laughing as they got on their bikes and headed for home.

  Chapter Nineteen

  As soon as the front door had closed, Griff pulled Diablo into his arms and started kissing him hard, his fingers running down Diablo’s back to his ass which he cupped and pulled closer to him. Diablo wound his fingers through Griff’s long hair and returned the kiss feeling Griff’s erection through his jeans bunted alongside his own. For the longest while it was enough to just feel each other’s body and connect again physically. Griff loved how Diablo’s body fit against his. Although Griff was taller Diablo’s long legs meant their crotches were at a perfect height for each other and Griff’s extra couple of inches in his torso length meant he got to feel bigger than his mate without having to have the man stand on a box to kiss him. But even though Griff could stay kissing his mate’s gorgeous lips and reveling in the long lines of Diablo’s body forever eventually Griff pulled his lips off of his mate’s reluctantly even though he didn’t let go of the strong hold he had on Diablo’s body.

  “So I am guessing you want to know about this trip tomorrow?” He grumbled softly.

  “Would be kinda nice to know the situation we are going into,” Diablo said easily. He knew Griff would tell him and he was happy to wait the big guy out. Even while his mouth was being plundered by Griff’s delicious tongue he could sense his mate was uneasy and that there was obviously a story behind it. For now Griff dragged him into the bedroom and settled them sitting up on the bed leaning on the headboard. Griff tipped his head back for a moment with his eyes closed as if trying to work out the best possible way to start. He felt Diablo’s hand on his leg, reassuring and sensual all at the one time.

  “I know that I told you that I got kicked out of my pack about fifteen years ago for being gay and that I haven’t seen my parents or my siblings since,” Griff began hesitantly. Diablo just nodded, not wanting to stop Griff from telling his story.

  “The Alpha then was the eldest brother of both my father and Kane’s. He hated gays with a vengeance and had taught us all since birth that gays were an abomination, that we would never have mates and that basically we were cursed. Of course he didn’t know about Kane and I until we were in our teens. When Kane came out to his father, his father beat him and then went to the Alpha. The Alpha told Kane to leave his family and his pack and never come back.” Griff’s eyes were closed as though he was reliving that fateful night. Then he looked at Diablo and there were tears in his eyes.

  “If you could have seen Kane that night, Diablo. He was no where near as tall as he is now and he was skinny to the point of being a runt. His Dad had done a real number on him. He was covered in bruises and he had a cut on his face and he still stood tall in front of the Alpha. Told him that yes he was gay and he was proud of it. When the Alpha told him to leave I just couldn’t help myself. I stood up and said that I was gay too and that I would leave with Kane.”

  “He’s your cousin, your best friend. I know you did the right thing” Diablo said softly as Griff hesitated in his story. Griff gave him a small smile as he said, “I don’t regret it to this day, especially not now.” He sat there thinking for a minute more before he continued.

  “I knew when I confronted the Alpha that I would have to leave, immediately. I was prepared for that. But my Dad, he was so angry.” Griff couldn’t keep talking but Diablo could see in his mind the beating that Griff had endured, in front of the whole pack. Griff hadn’t been much bigger than Kane then. Taller and with a bit more muscle tone but still for all intents and purposes a child. The beating was brutally violent and humiliating and when the Alpha finally dragged Griff’s father off of him, Griff was a bloodied mess. As Diablo watched he could see Kane trying to help Griff up and the pair of them stumbled out of the pack circle with nothing more than the torn clothes on their back.

  Diablo swallowed deeply and fought to get his cat under control. He was so angry and wanted nothing more than to kill Griff’s father for what he had done. To beat and humiliate the father for what he had done to the son. But Griff couldn’t deal with his anger right now. Griff was in pain, tears falling silently down his handsome face, his hands fisted at his side.

  Diablo scooted round so he was straddling Griff’s lap, his hands gentle on the big man’s shoulders. Wordlessly he started kissing away the tears, soothing Griff with gentle touches as he poured words of love and commitment through their mind link.

  You are loved…I love you…you are mine…I will never let anyone hurt you like that again…you are perfect…I am never letting you go.

  Over and over Diablo repeated the litany, rubbing Griff’s shoulders, kissing away his tears until he felt Griff’s fists unclench and the bigger man threw his arms around Diablo’s middle and hung on to him like he would never let him go. His face was in Diablo’s hair, pressed into Diablo’s neck so Diablo started caressing Griff’s hair, kissing him, soothing him, caressing and loving his man until Griff finally calmed down.

  “Oh Diablo, I am so sorry. I have never broken down like this before.” Griff’s muffled voice caused hot breath to run across Diablo’s neck as he spoke. Diablo pulled back a bit and gently cupped Griff’s face in his hands, tilting the man’s head up so Diablo could look deep into his red-rimmed eyes.

  “You have nothing to be sorry about, nothing,” he said fiercely. “You are a strong, decent, loving man and I love everything about you. Everything.” Griff could see the honesty in Diablo’s eyes and he was so thankful for the man on his lap.

  “Kiss me?” Griff asked quietly.

  “You never have to ask,” Diablo growled as he bent his head and ran his lips over Griff’s, kissing, licking and nipping and sucking at Griff’s bottom lip as Griff’s mouth opened beneath him. He took Griff’s mouth and plundered it, showing Griff over and over again how much he was loved, wanted and needed. By the time the men came up for air they were both breathing heavily.

  “So,” said Diablo softly as he pulled himself together, “want to tell me why we are making this trip tomorrow?”

  Griff gave a small laugh. “Yeah I can see why you would wonder about that.”

  “Okay,” he said, “About three years after Kane and I left the pack the Alpha died and Kane’s Dad was next in line so he took over as Alpha. It didn’t make any difference to Kane or me because they were all homophobes in the pack so life pottered on until about three months ago when Kane met Shawn.” Griff looked at Diablo closely. “You’ve gotta understand that Kane and I didn’t think we could have mates even though I think I always hoped a little bit inside. So when Kane met Shawn it was a huge eye-opener for all of us in this pack. Through the hunter business that Shawn was going through and that little brat Saul, word got back to our home pack that Kane believed he had met and claimed his mate and my Aunty Cheryl came down with Kane’s brother Vincent to see for herself.” Griff laughed. “Actually that’s not entirely true. She also bought a Shaman to break the spell she believed Shawn had cast over her son.”

  Diablo laughed at that. “You are kidding me. She believed that a Shaman could break what the Fates have bought together?”

  Griff nodded. “Yeah we were all there. We had been staying at Kane’s because of the hunters and were waiting for Shawn’s uncle to come down for an Alpha challenge with Shawn. Kane and Shawn came down from their room, Shawn with this big hickey on his neck, hair all mussed and everything and of course Aunty Cheryl went ballistic. But Sh
awn must have convinced Kane to let the Shaman do his worst and of course the Shaman couldn’t do anything at all.”

  “But, the killer of it was that before the Shaman could try his thing, Kane made Aunt Cheryl promise that if the Shaman didn’t break the bond, then Cheryl had to go back to the pack and confirm that gay men could have true mates. And so of course she had to.”

  “So what happened?”

  “Ha, Kane had asked Shawn to join with him in an Alpha Mating Ritual and Cheryl got all worked up about that. She phoned her husband and told him she was staying to organize everything and that the Alpha was paying for the whole do. Kane’s Dad came down, met Shawn, challenged him and lost and then offered to stand by us all during the Alpha challenge. It all worked out in the end.”

  “But your Dad didn’t come?”

  “No,” Griff said shortly. He took a deep breath in and out. “I’m glad of it. I don’t think I could have faced him,” he said quietly. Then he grinned, “And now we have an Aunty Cheryl who is a meddling force of nature who wants to meet you and will probably tease the crap out of us about when we will be going through our own Mating Ritual. That woman loves to plan a shindig.”

  Diablo huffed softly. “So she’s not going to do us any harm then is she. Except probably embarrass us to death?”

  “Yep, that is probably it.” Griff grinned again. “You want to know what the kicker is?” Diablo nodded. “Kane’s younger brother, Vincent, met this guy Lucius from the San Antonio pack while he was here and they’re mates. So Kane’s Dad ended up having two gay mated sons instead of the one.”

  It had to be the height of irony that a man who had lived his whole life devoted to hating gays ended up with two of them as sons, but it seems from what Griff had said that Kane’s father, Uncle Arthur, had accepted it and attitudes within his pack were slowly changing. It seemed the biggest sticking point was Griff’s father although Griff did explain to Diablo that his mother apparently didn’t have a problem with Griff, but she was too scared of her husband to say anything.

  “So what’s this Mating Ritual thing that you and Kane mentioned? Some kind of wolf claiming or something?” Diablo asked.

  Griff thought about it for a moment. “Yes I suppose it is in a way - more like a wolf’s wedding. Kane and Shawn went through the Alpha Mating Ritual which is when an Alpha takes a mate and then has to proclaim before the pack why he thinks his mate is a good fit for him and the pack. Then Shawn had to explain to the pack why he chose Kane and ask for permission to be accepted as his mate, from the pack. Then the Shaman sends a spell to the Fates binding the two men forever under pack law and they now sport a small tattoo of each other’s wolves on the inside of their wrists. It is a mark for others to stay away.” Griff turned to lie on his side so he was facing Diablo who was lying on his back on the bed.

  “For pack members like me and the others our ceremony is slightly different. Pack mates are automatically accepted into the pack as Kane explained earlier so no permission is needed from other pack members. But the participants do have to seek permission from the Alpha to make the commitment. Then both shifters make their proclamation before the pack about why they want to be with their chosen mate and the Shaman conducts another spell that is as binding as the one that he made at Kane and Shawn’s Ritual. In a situation like ours the key difference would be the whole breaking heads aspect, which would be a lot of fun, I reckon.”

  When Diablo turned his head to look at his mate, Griff had a wicked grin on his face. “What do you mean, breaking heads aspect? The two men have to fight each other?” Boy, Diablo thought, wolves have some strange customs. But Griff was shaking his head.

  “No, not each other. Contenders.” Griff could see that Diablo was still confused. “You see in most cases wolves mate with other wolves, right? So in most mating rituals the other wolves respect one wolf’s decision to mate with another. A challenge can be issued. In fact one guy from Kane’s home pack did challenge Shawn for the right to bond with Kane and Shawn had to force him to submit before the ceremony could continue.”

  Griff’s laughter rumbled through his chest as he explained to Diablo, “Shawn didn’t even bother to shift which is a huge insult to any wolf shifter. He just caught the wolf in his arms and slammed him into the ground. Kane told me that Shawn didn’t want to upset Aunty Cheryl by getting his suit dirty.” Diablo’s eyebrows were raised but knowing that Shawn was a Shifter Guardian meant that he more than had the strength to contend with most wolves even in his human form.

  “But in our case, because you are a cat shifter, the situation would be a bit different.”

  “Different how?”

  “Well that’s where it gets interesting. You see to take another type of shifter as a mate the wolf has to prove that he is capable of managing and protecting his mate without causing the rest of the pack too much trouble.” Griff looked at his mate closely to see how Diablo was reacting to the story.

  Stretching out his long body, Diablo just grunted, “Like I need much protecting.”

  “Yes I know you are one big badassed pussy cat,” Griff had a teasing lilt to his voice, “but remember wolves can mate with smaller cats, even bird, squirrel or raccoon shifters. In those cases the wolf would be responsible for ensuring that their mate wasn’t a burden to pack resources especially in the case of a fight with outsiders.”

  “Uh huh, okay I can get that. But what do you mean about contenders?”

  Griff was leaning over Diablo at this point, slowly licking up Diablo’s exposed throat. Diablo’s cock sprung to attention and his whole body tingled at the contact. Fuck he could never get enough of Griff touching him, wanting him so fiercely. He poked Griff’s chest. “Oi, pay attention. Stop distracting me. You didn’t answer my question. What’s a contender?” Griff pulled back a little bit, but lust shone brightly from his green eyes.

  “A contender is someone either from within the pack, although that is unlikely here, or a wolf shifter from another pack who thinks they have more strength, skills or whatever else to protect the other shifter. If they like what they see before the Mating Ritual they can challenge the wolf concerned for the right to take the other shifter as their own. The wolf has to fight all comers before the Mating Ritual can be done.”

  “But…but…that’s almost barbaric. What if the people concerned are true mates like you and me? Going to someone else would be a waste of time. It is not as though the relationship could ever be…I don’t know…consummated.”

  “Well,” Griff drawled, “yes I can see your point to a point. But in a Mating Ritual challenge the contenders have to actually kill the wolf concerned, while the mated wolf only has to make the contenders submit. If the mated wolf is dead then under Pack law it is the killer’s responsibility to care for the shifter left behind. The bond between the mated pair is broken through the death of one of the partners and then it is up to the victor to woo over their new mate after the Mating Ritual has been performed on the new pair. Wolves believe that if the original mated wolf wasn’t strong enough to fight for their mate then they shouldn’t be mated in the first place.”

  Diablo couldn’t believe that Griff was talking about this as though it all made sense. How would anyone want to be mated to another person who had just killed their mate? In a warped way it was all about survival of the fittest, Diablo could understand that wolves prided themselves on their brute strength and their ability to protect their packs and their mates but this was a bit much.

  “What if the mated wolf is only a little wolf, someone like Dean for example? That would be so unfair if someone bigger wanted to take his mate from him.”

  “Dean is a little bit different because he is an Omega wolf. In that case Kane, Shawn or I would fight for him because we are all Alpha’s. Look Diablo, it’s not really that unfair and it doesn’t happen very often at all. We wolves pride ourselves on our strength and our ability to protect those we love. It’s almost a badge of honor to be able to do so in front of the pack an
d our mate before the Mating Ritual. The mated wolf doesn’t have to take on more than six contenders. If there are any more than that then another Alpha, or chosen person from the pack will take on the fight to submission only.”

  “Oh great so the mated wolf” and in Diablo’s head he was thinking about Griff, “only has to take on six challenges. What, were the pack leaders who made these laws worried he might not have the strength to fuck his mate at the end of the night or something?”

  Griff just grinned at him. He was still leaning over Diablo, tracing Diablo’s abs with his fingers. “Something like that. Personally I’m looking forward to it.” His fingers were moving lower and Diablo tried hard not to move into the touch, but it was really hard not to. His mate had really talented fingers.

  “I never said I would go through a Mating Ritual with you Griff. I didn’t even know there was such a thing until today.” Diablo was fast losing the battle against moving and knew his tone of voice betrayed his lust.

  “Ah but you will little cat. You know you would do anything for me,” Griff’s sexy drawl ticked Diablo’s ear and Diablo let out a small moan as Griff’s wandering hand had finally found it’s target in Diablo’s jeans. Diablo let himself get distracted for a moment but then pulled his thoughts back in to line with difficulty.

  “You never actually asked me. You don’t know what I’ll say.” Even to Diablo’s ears his voice was far too breathless to sound convincing.

  “I’m asking you now kitty cat. Would you do me the honor of joining with me in the Mating Ritual?” Nibbling down his mate’s abs Griff expertly popped the button on Diablo’s jeans and nudged the zipper down with his nose. As he ran his long tongue up the full length of Diablo’s cock the cat let out another moan and fisted his hands into the sheets.

  “Answer me kitty cat.” Griff’s tongue repeated the move lapping gently at the head because his mate just tasted so delicious.