Chapter 7: Philip Harrington vs. Troy ‘Travis’ Stanton~ The beat to his heart … Ryan to the rescue!

***

A shocked Jeremy tore his eyes off his now stiff fireball-wielding brother when he felt a familiar warmth against him. His eyes widened in shock when his gaze landed on his sleepy mate. He was still in the sweats and t-shirt he’d left him sleeping in back at home. He couldn’t even seem to keep his eyes open.

“Baby?” Jeremy ran his fingers through Ryan’s disheveled hair. He thought his mate looked absolutely gorgeous with that sexy bedhead. “How…”

“Not me,” Ryan mumbled sleepily as he wrapped his arms around Jeremy’s waist and laid the side of his face against his broad chest. “The baby thought you were in danger. It brought me here.” He yawned. “As you can see, I was sleeping.”

“What?” Jeremy gasped as he wrapped his arms around Ryan too. “It can do that?” He looked stunned.

“It’s your kid.” Ryan chuckled. “What’s going on here?” He looked at a fireball-wielding gorgeous young man and smiled. “Your brother looks pissed,” Ryan murmured.

“Oh, he is.” Jeremy chuckled. “At Lip.”

“Oh boy.” Ryan breathed as he reached out to touch Philip.

“Don’t do...” Philip gasped when he unfroze. But he took in his stiff mate and just knew… “Ryan...” Philip muttered as he turned to look at where Jeremy stood, not at all surprised when he saw his friend's mate. Ryan was the only person he knew to have the power to freeze people. “Aren’t you supposed to be sleeping?”

“Yeah, my kid came to save me from your murderous mate.” Jeremy drawled as his eyes swept over the frozen people in the warehouse.

Deloris’ mouth was opened in a silent scream and her fear-filled eyes were trained on Troy. Gloria had both hands on her chest and tears on her cheeks.

“Shit, everything happened so fast I didn’t even notice she was in tears.” Jeremy groaned. “Hearing your son referring to sick assholes as family can be a bit…” He looked at Philip with a scowl. “Dude, you better keep that mate of yours in check.”

“Fuck off.” Philip snapped as his eyes turned to the deadly-looking fireball in his mate’s hand. “He’s so angry.” He whispered.

“No shit, Sherlock.” Jeremy drawled. “You know what this means, right?”

“What?” Philip turned questioning eyes to his friend.

“That mating ceremony is not going to take place anytime soon, Lip.”

“I hate to admit it but you’re right.” Philip sighed. “How is he even able to do that?” He rasped, pointing at the fireball in Troy’s hand. “Is that all those no-good warlocks could teach him? That can cause a lot of damage.”

“Damage?” Jeremy scoffed. “Is that how you’re calling death these days? The little fucker would have killed us all.” He said, ignoring Philip’s angry growl at the name he’d called his mate. “Honey, could you…” Before he could complete his request, Ryan waved a hand in Troy’s direction and obliterated the fireball. “Thanks love. Now can you please leave? As you can see, I’m fine.”

Ryan nodded. “Alright, see you later.” He tilted his head to accept a lingering kiss from his mate. “Bye.” He whispered breathlessly after the kiss but didn’t disappear as was expected. He remained where he stood. “I think it’s not convinced you’re safe.” Ryan finally sighed to the shock of both Jeremy and Philip.

The incredulous look on Jeremy’s face was so comical Ryan burst into laughter. “I just kissed you for fuck’s sake.” Jeremy gushed. “Isn’t it obvious I’m alright?”

“Hey, don’t kill the messenger.” Ryan yawned.

“How do I convince it?” Jeremy drew his mate back into his arms.

“I don’t know.” Ryan chuckled. “Be creative.”

“What the fuck.” Philip muttered as he watched Jeremy go down on one knee before Ryan. “That is one hard-core kid.”

“Just think about what you’re going to tell your unreasonable mate and leave my child to me,” Jeremy muttered as he pushed Ryan’s t-shirt up. He began to place tiny kisses all over Ryan’s exposed stomach. “Baby, daddy is okay and not in any danger. Your dad needs to sleep. So be a dear and get him back in…” Jeremy trailed off when Ryan disappeared. “Damn, now I’m missing him.” He muttered and he got to his feet just as everyone in the warehouse unfroze. Ryan leaving had clearly broken the spell.

“What happened?” Troy gasped, staring at his empty hands just as Deloris’ scream split the air. “What did you do to it?” Troy stared at Philip who actually looked bemused. “You better finish what you stopped your animals from doing the other day then. Kill me. Because I’m only going to come up with more fireballs to kill all of…”

“Enough,” Jeremy growled. “Are you’re willing to kill everyone here just because of whatever problem you have with him? Will that be a wise thing to do? You said it yourself that he stopped his…animals from killing you.” He stared Troy down. “Shouldn’t that tell you he’s not here to kill you?” Jeremy waited for Troy to respond but his scowling brother said nothing. With a sigh, he turned to look at Blaze and his men who looked like they were going to shit their pants. “So, who the fuck are you people?” He growled.

“Listen, you clearly have…unfinished business with these two.” Blaze croaked, his eyes pleading. “Did they steal from you too? I mean these boys have wronged a lot of people.

Myself, Shatta, the Stones, you…obviously. I mean you did send your animals after them, right. I bet there were some deadly Rottweilers in there too.” He paused to give a small whimper when he saw the dark scowls on the faces of the two male magicians. “Listen, why don’t you take both of them away? Huh? Consider it a favour from me. I mean it’s obvious you’ve been looking for them so... Let’s just say I found them for you.” He licked his lips and gave a hopeful but nervous grin. “Hey, I usually charge a fee to find shitty fuckers like these two for people but…” He shrugged, “…this is on the house. In fact, my men and I can leave so that…”

“Shut up.” Snapped Philip who had clearly had enough of Blaze’s nonsensical prattling. “Why did you have your guns pointed at him?” He pointed a thumb at Troy but his icy glare remained on Blaze.

“We helped them rob a bank,” Paul spoke up. “Now they want to kill us rather than give us our share.”

“You did nothing.” Blaze snapped.

“Troy diverted the police,” Paul said heatedly. “They would have busted your arses.”

“And who are you?” Philip asked Paul.

“He’s with me,” Troy said gruffly, glaring at Philip.

“So y’all stole all this cash huh?” Deloris drawled. “Alpha, I think we should give the police a nice present. What do you say?” She gave Philip a dazzling smile.

“Do it.” Philip breathed.

“Do what exactly?” Blaze asked, confused. “Hey, lady stop with the chanting and lets…” One moment Blaze was speaking, the next moment, he, his gang, their guns, and the stolen sacks of cash, were gone from the warehouse.