Home is Where the Heart Is (Cloverleah Pack #13) - Lisa Oliver

Chapter One

Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip. The persistent sound wasn’t helping the ache in Wesley’s bladder one damn bit. He needed to pee, but he didn’t want to lose the dream. It was his favorite - the one he had where he was back home with his pack in Cloverleah. Warm and safe in his bed with the hot body of a faceless male snuggled against him. Cloverleah, where there were pack runs, companionship, joking, shared meals, and happiness. Working for the FBI before that hadn’t been so bad either even though he was stuck in human form and had to hide what he was as if it was a deep dark secret. Hell, the FBI’s worst assignments were better than his current situation. Now? Wesley kept his eyes firmly shut. His reality wasn’t worth opening his eyes for these days.

Just five minutes more. Wesley tried to adjust on the sandy floor to get comfortable, but reality was a harsh bitch who wouldn’t let him be. Sleep and his dream of home evaded him, destroyed by his insistent bladder and that damned relentless drip.

Unable to ignore either any longer, Wesley pushed himself to his feet, dropping into a fighting stance. The rock walls and ceilings mocked him as they did every second he was awake. “Arrrgh!” He screamed, fists clenched, the veins in his neck standing out. “I’ve fucking had enough of this shit. Fight me. Kill me. Beat me. Just fucking do something, you bastards. Where the fuck are you?”

Just like all the other times he’d screamed at the rock walls, Wesley got no answer. Damn his fucking wolf shifter hormones. Damn them all to hell. They got him into this. That fucking night at the stupid human club seemed liked years ago. Wes had no clue how much time had really passed since that fateful night. It wasn’t as if he could see days passing in a cave with no sun or moon to guide him. Fuck. He screamed again. “Come fight me, you fuckers!”

The echo died away to the drip, drip, drip, which only made him want to scream more. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.” Each step to the edge of the wards was punctuated by a ‘fuck’. Wes celebrated with a “goddamn it” when he reached the spot he used for peeing. The bastards didn’t provide him with a toilet. At least the sand absorbed the liquid. Taking a crap was a different matter and he’d created a spot for that as far away as he could from his living space. Shifted, it was easier, and his wolf did his best to bury the necessary function. The wolf hated pacing around the cave as much as Wesley did, but in between bouts of raging at their captivity, both of Wesley’s spirits realized shifting was a necessity at times. And they both gave the toilet area a wide berth except when having to use it.

The one thing Wesley’s captivity had given him, was the time to meditate on his transgressions. Fuck it, what else was there to do when stuck in isolation in a fucking cave. In the long hours, days, weeks – hell, it could have been months for all Wesley knew – he came to realize that it was his jealousy towards his full wolf shifter pack mates that gave the Dark Elves their opening into his psyche; that it was his personal emotional hell that the fucking Dark Elves could exploit. And boy, did those fuckers exploit him.

Even now, Wes remembered the beautiful man, so fucking exquisite with the slight scent of a paranormal he couldn’t place. Tall and slim, ethereally elegant, with a silver tongue who spouted sympathetic words, and who seemed to know exactly what to say to get Wesley to open up. Only in hindsight did Wesley see how the man had twisted his thoughts, saying just enough to feed into an anger Wes had never admitted to himself.

Goddamn it. I was so fucking ripe for the picking. It didn’t take anything for the beautiful man to convince him to go out to the parking lot for a quickie. The man understood Wesley, sympathizing and encouraging his pain, his anger, and even… oh fuck it… the tiny slice of vengeance Wes felt towards his pack mates that ate away at his soul, coupled with the guilt he carried because he knew he should never feel that way. But Wes had been so fucking lonely as he watched his pack find their mates one