Sumage Solution GL Carriger Read online

  “What exactly is my kind?”

  “Biker. Badass. Wolf. You know.”

  “Fair enough.” Biff had to admit those parts were true. Well, Alec wasn’t really a biker, but the rest of them were. Biff was rather fond of his ride, a sweet ol’ Howley with curves like a ‘50s starlet. He’d named her Marilyn.

  “Look, should we just cut this short so you guys can move on?” Barker was losing his cool.

  Biff bit his lip. He hadn’t meant to push things that far with his silence. He just didn’t know what to say.

  Barker, on the other hand, had no such reticence. “Werewolves don’t like it here. Too much aberration. Nothing’s predictable. No one’s gonna put up with a bunch of homophobic moon-changing asshats storming through the Castro beating up any twink wearing too much glitter.”

  That was the second time he’d said something along those lines. Sensitive. Was he gay?

  Well, Barker did kinda look like he wanted to eat Biff with a spoon.

  Biff uncrossed his arms and flexed a little. Barker’s eyes widened. Yep, they’re blue. They also dilated slightly. Biff caught a change in the man’s scent, shifting toward the salty delicious side of caramel. Arousal. Okay, if not gay, then definitely bi. And clearly likes his men with muscles. Biff could run with that. Although damn him for lusting after a sumage. How the hell could that even happen?

  But he also needed to fix these accusations. Yeah, he knew werewolves didn’t have the best reputation. There was a tendency for packs to hang out in trailer parks and crash shit. Or join the military. Rednecks. Well, red mouths, really. Damn it, I’m gonna have to actually explain some shit. In detail.

  Biff took a deep breath. “Fine. Shut up and lemme speak.”

  * * *

  Max had to encourage his own anger to stop himself from drooling. This is ludicrous. But the werewolf was so yummy. Now that Max was looking for it, Bryan had that kind of solid, stable thing that so many Betas emitted like a drug. It was wildly attractive. All of Max’s smart-mouth words, and dumb-ass actions, would never shake Bryan’s calm.

  He was still way too big for a Beta. The way he flexed, the way he sat, arms crossed. Militant posture screamed enforcer. But he didn’t vibrate with that suppressed frenetic energy that most enforcers had.

  No, Bryan had to be telling the truth, he was Beta, and the whole situation upset Max’s equilibrium. Alpha size, enforcer attitude, Beta calm. If Bryan was an example of this new pack, perhaps it was weird enough to fit into a San Francisco mold.

  Max sat back, crossed his own arms, and waited. He wasn’t comfortable being silent, but the man clearly needed some time.

  Finally, Bryan said, “It won’t be a problem with my pack.” Offering no further information at all.

  “Give me more.”

  “You say that to all the boys?”

  “Just the ones with big dicks.” Rather than looking shocked or offended or flying into a rage, the man across from him dipped his head, lashes lowered.

  Okaaaay. Max tried to slow his breathing and keep his own dick from getting hard. Well, harder. Down, boy. So he’s gay. And shy about it. Holy shit, that’s just about the sexiest thing to happen to me in years. But was this dude interested, or just newly out and easily traumatized by flirting?

  I must be hard up, thinking about a werewolf in such a way. At work. “Come on, big boy, explain.”

  “The size of my cock? Let’s see, it’s about eight inches—”

  Max actually sputtered. Serves me right, taste of my own medicine. He held up a hand, trying desperately not to think about Bryan’s cock and taste in the same sentence. And now I have. “About the size of your pack.”

  The werewolf looked pleased with himself, having thrown Max off balance. Well, he should. I totally deserved it.

  “Can we keep this off the record? It’s not my business to talk about. I didn’t clear it with my Alpha.”

  Max nodded.

  “What’s your name?”

  “You stalling?”

  “No, but if I’m to trust you, it’d help a bit.”

  “Maximillian Barker. Don’t you dare laugh.”

  The werewolf didn’t look inclined to. If anything, he looked kinda smug, as if he’d won a prize.

  “Max’ll do.”

  “All right, Max.” Bryan rolled it round in his gravelly voice as if he liked the flavor.

  And here I go with thinking about his mouth again.

  Bryan explained at last. “Alec, my Alpha, he’s gay.”

  Max blinked. Really? Never heard of such a thing.

  Bryan seemed to stumble, trying to find the right words.

  Max let him sweat it.

  “Not that he’s shy about it. Just that it’s pack business and no one else’s. Not even pack business, really, ‘cept that Alec’s also not your standard Alpha. Not that that’s anything to do with being gay. Leastways, I don’t think so. He’s always been a bit different.” He swallowed hard. “I’m not saying this right.”

  Max frowned, genuinely trying to understand. This was getting weirder by the second.

  The big man took a deep breath and tried again. “He’s my little brother, see? Smart and sweet, no violence in him.” He shook himself. “All I’m saying is that we’re abnormal too. The whole pack is. We’d fit here.”

  Max narrowed his eyes. “Okay, so you got a gay Alpha. And his Beta is his brother, not his lover.”

  Biff winced.

  “So, he’s mated?” It was a fair question. Mated Alphas were more stable. Alphas mated to a Beta were most stable of all. That evidently wasn’t an option here. Unless they had two Betas? Naw. No pack got that lucky.

  Bryan nodded. “Marvin. He’s not on the list.”

  “Not a werewolf?”

  “Merman. That’s why we’re asking for Sausalito. It’s good placement for a pack that needs to run but also be near the ocean.”

  “Wow.” Max’s mind boggled.

  “I know. But Alec always did have this thing for sushi.”

  “Mermen aren’t fish.”

  “Now you sound like Marvin.”

  Max made a note.

  “You said you weren’t writing this down.” Bryan instantly leaped into nervous defense.

  “I’m not. No sexual orientation or anything like that. It’s illegal to deny permits based on that kind of thing. But I am noting that your pack has a track record of interspecies acceptance. That’s a good thing. Most packs are xenophobic as well as homophobic. Neither attitude will ride with the locals here.” Max forced himself to look back at the big man. Bryan had relaxed a bit. “So, your brother, your Alpha, is mated to a merman. How’d the rest of your pack take it?”

  “Alec might not look or act like most Alphas but he is Alpha. He’s easy to follow. He leads, in his absent-minded way.”

  “Absent-minded?” Max felt like he was treading water in a very choppy sea. This was, without a doubt, the oddest interview he’d ever conducted. That was leaving aside the sexual tension in the room. Between a civic mage and a shapeshifter, like that could ever happen. Then again, if a gay Alpha werewolf could mate a merman, anything was flipping possible.

  Bryan, poor dude, continued trying to explain, fumbling and awkward. “He’s a marine biologist. Got a wicked sharp mind. Always writing academic papers and stuff.”

  “What?” Could this get any weirder?

  “I’m messing this up.” The werewolf shook his head, frustrated with himself.

  Max kind of wanted to leap across the desk and cuddle the massive baby. He really didn’t like talking. That’s okay, sweetheart, once we’re done here, I’ll do all the talking. Wait a second, “sweetheart”? What the hell, Maximillian?

  “You’ve a gay, interspecies-mated, academic Alpha. Got it. What about you?” Please, big guy, you know that’s what I’m really interested in. Not that it mattered for the application. There was no way Max was kicking this pack out now. They were the most interesting thing to happen to him since he starte
d working at DURPS.

  Bryan blushed. “Well, that kinda explains me. I mean the muscles.”

  “Sweetheart, you never have to explain muscles to me.”

  Bryan blushed harder and fiddled self-consciously with the corner of a piece of paper.

  Oh my god, that is so cute.

  “Look, I know I surprised you with the Beta thing, but Alec doesn’t need a normal Beta. Most Betas are talkers, organizers, but Alec is already good at that, so instead I watch his back. Fight for him. You know. He’s kinda a peace-loving guy. Not that he can’t whoop some ass if needed, just he’d rather I do it.”

  “Fine.” Max felt he was losing the thread again. “So, your pack doesn’t have enforcers?”

  “Sure we do. Judd and Kev. I wrote them down. Judgment Day and Kevin Mangnall. See there?” He pointed to the application form.

  “Judgment Day!”

  “His parents probably thought it hilarious. But he’s so big no one laughs. Not to his face, anyway.”

  “Bigger than you?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Holy fuck.”

  “Yeah.”

  “They gay too?” Max pressed his luck.

  “I’m thinking that’s their business.”

  “You gay?” Max couldn’t help but ask.

  “I’m thinking that’s my business.”

  Okay, that’s good, not an outright denial.

  “Would you be open to making it my business?” There goes my fucking mouth again. Oooo, that got one of those precious blushes. Ohmygod, so hot.

  “You asking me out, smart-ass sumage?”

  “Apparently, with your pack, weirder things have happened.”

  Bryan burst out laughing. My, but that was a beautiful sound. Deep and rough and rolling, it prickled over Max’s skin and went straight for his cock.

  The werewolf said, when he’d stopped laughing, “Let’s just get through this interview, okay?”

  “Okay.” Well, that put me in my place. It’s probably the sumage thing. What shifter would want to spend any more time around a civic mage than he could possibly help? Especially a failure like a sumage. “So, that’s four of you. What about the other three wolves? Got yourselves an Omega?”

  Bryan shook his head, looking sad. “No. And I know that doesn’t help our case. But we’re stable. I swear we are. And we’d take one in, in a heartbeat.”

  So say most packs. Every pack needed a strong Alpha, and every Alpha needed a capable Beta, but Omegas brought the whole pack together. They were unity. And they were rare.

  Max chuckled.

  “What?” Bryan looked wary.

  “Trying to imagine what kind of strange flipping Omega your lot would end up with.”

  Bryan cracked a smile. It spread over his face, turning it stunning – white teeth in that facial scruff, the flash of canines from that serious mouth. Why is that so hot?

  “So, the other three in your pack? Any other Alphas?” Not that a pack couldn’t contain multiple Alphas, but with the head Alpha being unique, and no Omega around, it would be difficult.

  Bryan shook his head. “Just regular old wolves. Well, not regular like your prejudices tell you. They all chose to leave exactly the kind of pack you fear and move to California. So, you know…”

  Max nodded, understanding it all at last. These really were Bay Area wolves. Bay Area in the same way all the other lost souls who found SF were. They were misfits. The kitsune who dated nahual, the kelpie who wanted to run a DURPS, and the gay sumage Placers with more untapped power than brains. “You’re freaks.”

  Biff bristled.

  “I mean that affectionately. We’re all freaks here.”

  Bryan’s long lashes lowered, shy again. “Even you?”

  Max wrinkled his nose. “Failed Surge.” He felt the humiliation of it like a sign over his head: here sits a man who could have been the best.

  Bryan blinked at it. “You’re a Placer?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’ve never met one before.” He said it like he’d been thinking that a lot recently.

  “Yeah. So, you see? Freak.”

  Bryan didn’t seem to know what to say to that. What was there to say? Sorry, dude, you got the raw end of the mage’s deal. All the power and no ability to access it at all. Even if you could, you’d be a fucking Surge, and what shifter wants that around?

  Bryan, being a man of silence, said nothing.

  Max kinda loved him for it. “Shall we get back to your application?”

  Bryan nodded.

  “Anything else you think I should know? This one here’s called Lovejoy Barnes – that a female werewolf?”

  “Not so lucky. Just another hick name. Look man, we mean to stay under the coolant. We won’t be a bother.”

  Max laughed at that and then couldn’t help but push his luck. Since there was no other reason to mention coolant but that his recent use of quintessence was bothering the werewolf’s heightened sense of smell. “Poor baby, am I making your nose twitch?”

  But the man wouldn’t be baited. Of course he wouldn’t, he’s a Beta.

  Instead, he seemed inclined to get some of his own back. “That’s not the smell that’s bothering me.”

  “No?”

  “No.”

  Max didn’t want to, but his big mouth. “So, what is?”

  “Your dick, leaking.”

  “Holy shit, you can smell that?”

  “No.” Bryan sat back, smug.

  Max realized he’d been neatly trapped into admitting he was hard as nails. Well, it was true. It’d been a long time since he’d been this attracted to anyone. Bryan was wearing a high-necked T-shirt, but Max laid good odds on him being a pretty hairy dude underneath. Max was in favor of chest hair, having none of his own. Truth be told, nearly everything about this man appealed, except the werewolf part. He even liked his monosyllabic answers. Made a man wonder what kind of monosyllabic noise he made when he was screwing…or getting screwed. Great, now I really am leaking.

  Max shifted in his seat.

  “So, sumage, we done with this interview?”

  “Yep.” Now Max was monosyllabic. Cock, stay down, stop twitching. What is going on? Max normally had pretty good control. Epic control. Over his body if not his fast fucking mouth. This was not normal. Nothing about this situation was normal.

  “You gonna let us stay?”

  “I am.”

  “You gonna ask me again?”

  “What?”

  The werewolf stood. All bulging and looming and sexy as sin, leaned over, and scribbled something down on a corner of the application in front of Max. Max didn’t dare look – he was fixated on the hotness suddenly so close. First time in his life he was glad his desk was small.

  “If I’m gay.”

  “You gay?”

  “Yep.”

  “Christ, you’re a really strange werewolf pack.”

  “Yep.”

  Then the big man sauntered out of his office. Absolutely nothing should look that good from the back side.

  Max pressed the heel of his palm down on his highly unruly dick, then shifted the application around to see what the wolf had written there. A telephone number. Thank fuck. Should have that tattooed on my hand.

  Max transferred the number into his cell phone so fast, he hurt his thumbs.

  * * *

  Biff could not believe he’d actually done that. Admitted I was gay. Out loud. To a hot stranger. Before I told my brother. Before I told my pack. And I gave my number to the hot stranger. Who’s also a goddamn sumage. Oh, but so so hot. And I accused him of being hard for me. Like I’m actually good at flirting or something insane like that.

  Biff smiled, slipping astride his Howley. Max hadn’t denied being aroused. Maximillian Barker. Biff rolled the name about on his tongue. Freak like me. He grinned into his helmet, buckling it under his chin. Werewolves didn’t really need helmets (they could survive most motorcycle accidents) but California had a helmet law and
it was easier, when you basically looked human, not to constantly get pulled over. Besides, Biff liked the mystery the helmet provided.

  He took off, happy. That had gone way better than he had thought it would. Plus, he might have gotten a date out of it. My first date with a guy. What am I going to do if he actually calls? Man, I hope he calls. Well, if a civic mage can get over his werewolf prejudice, I can get over my mage prejudice.

  Max hadn’t smelled that bad. Not bad at all.

  I think I’m going to like California.

  * * *

  Alec was talking to Jack, the family ghost, on the phone when Biff walked in. Biff would have crept through to the kitchen to start tea, except that Alec waved at him. It wasn’t a private call and his Alpha wished him to stay. Likely to give a report on how registration went. Damn it, what exactly am I going to tell him? Alec was tolerant, but Biff didn’t want to launch into his own gayness by waxing poetical about some hot motor-mouthed sumage pushing papers at DURPS. Biff snorted at himself. Like I wax poetical about anything.

  Werewolf senses meant he could hear Jack clearly from the other end of the line. Although, to be fair, Jack was strident enough for plain old human ears.

  “You’re taking care of Mana’s place? She can be such a queen about it, and I should know.” Jack’s voice was remarkably firm for a non-corporeal entity.

  Alec frowned. “We’re doing our best. Do you know when she’ll be back?”

  “No, dear, but I gave her your number, so she’ll text. Such a sweet little thing. She came by to see me yesterday, special. They’re doing the show here in Boston for a few nights. Anyway, how are you settling? Did you register yet?” Jack was trapped in their childhood home, much to his distress. He always lamented that if he had to haunt somewhere, couldn’t it be somewhere stylish?

  “I sent Biff to DURPS.”

  “Oh, but darling baby boy! He’s the worst possible representative.”

  Biff raised an eyebrow at Alec.

  Alec shrugged at him, saying to Jack with suspicious casualness, “Yeah, why’s that?”

  “Well, dear, he looks exactly how people expect a werewolf to look. All muscled and fierce. I mean it’s lovely, of course, but he’ll give the wrong impression to the locals. The locals don’t want Biff, they want you, darling.”