by Kian Rhodes
Ralph drew in a deep breath. “It’s what I didn’t see, Rafe,” he said quietly, shaking his head. “Rafe, none of the cameras caught him leaving.”
“I know that,” I snapped. “I told you that already.”
“No, son” Ralph released his breath just as slowly. “You said the parking lot footage was useless.” I nodded and Ralph continued. “Rafe, the cameras over the exits don’t show him leaving the building.”
My head jerked up and I started scanning the footage on high speed. It only took a minute to review the exits and realize Ralph was right. “He’s got to still be in the building.”
Ralph nodded, slowly rising from his seat. “And after he got on the elevator, it was headed down.”
“Time for a field trip,” I stated, pulling my department issue pistol from the desk drawer and shoving it into my waistband. “You packing?”
Ralph shook his head, his eyes glinting in the light. “My piece is still at the house, but I’ll be fine.”
“Then let’s do this.”
I led the way through the halls to the elevator that Colby had disappeared into. We were already on the first floor, so he had to have gone into the basement. I barely managed to hold back a growl. “If he’s in the building and he’s still alive, there’s only one reason that neither Trevor or I can reach him.”
Ralph nodded. “R&D, it is.”
Stopping outside the research and development lab, I palmed my gun, just in case, and kicked the door open, the impact forcing the bulletproof glass to vibrate wildly.
“Dammit, Alpha,” Colby gasped, jolting upright from where he was reclining on the cot in the corner. “What the hell’s gotten into you?”
I tossed my gun onto the drafting table and crossed the room at a dead run, wrapping my arms around my mate and dragging him against my body.
“Ralph, get out,” I snarled, barely able to hold back the wolf trying to claw his way free. “Lock the fucking door.”
I heard my boss chuckle from behind me. “I’ll update the search party and Alpha Coruscate on my way out. See you in the conference room at, oh, let’s say midnight, shall we?”
I heard the door lock engage behind me and turned back to my Omega and dragged him to the floor.
Chapter Thirty-One
Casen
After Ralph left and I was left alone with a strange Alpha, I expected things to be awkward. Instead, the Sharon Hill sheriff treated me like an old friend. He made up a bed on the couch and, when I woke up a few hours later, poured me a cup of coffee. When I shivered in the slightly cool morning air, he wrapped a soft, well-worn quilt around my shoulders.
“Sorry,” he apologized, smiling at the Omega who was curled up on the loveseat opposite us, waiting for his man to rejoin him with a soft smile on his lips. “Antoine runs a little warm, so I don’t light the fire until it gets pretty cold.”
“No problem,” I assured him. “I, ah, appreciate you guys letting me hang out.”
“No problem,” Keeson said with a grin. “Ralph and I go way back.” He winked at Antoine. “He’d be the first person I’d think of to take care of my most important possession, too.”
“Fuck you,” Antoine laughed, shaking his head. “A possession, now, am I?”
Keeson smirked. “Pretty sure you’ve said you belong to me a bunch of times.”
I smiled into my coffee cup as they bantered. They were so obviously in love that it should have been sickening, but, instead, it was just too cute.
I was about to ask how they’d met when a crashing noise from the back of the small cabin made me jump. Keeson and Antoine just exchanged a bemused look.
“We’re in here, Pete,” Antoine called out, draining his coffee cup and handing his empty cup to his Alpha with a coy glance. “It’s your fault I’m tired, so..”
Keeson snorted, but took the mug and kissed his Omega on the cheek. “Yeah, yeah. I remember you screaming, but somehow I missed it being for me to stop.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake,” an annoyed voice snapped from the doorway. “Isn’t it bad enough I have to listen to you two fuck like rabbits half the days and nights? Do I really have to listen to you talk about it after, too?”
“Sorry, Pete,” Antoine started, only to be interrupted by Keeson.
“Nope! No, we are definitely not sorry,” he huffed back at the newcomer. “If you don’t like it, you have a home, right?” He narrowed his eyes. “In fact, why are you here?”
The owner of the annoyed voice stepped into the room and I gasped. It was a huge freaking rabbit! But, not really. It was like a cross between a rabbit and a man..and..my brain failed me. I mean, obviously, I interacted with shifters all the damned time, but a man with a rabbit nose, whiskers, and long, floppy ears in a pair of boardshorts and a tank top simply wasn’t anything I’d ever expected to see.
“Well, now,” the giant bunny’s nose twitched, wiggling his whiskers as he stared at me. “Who is this?”
“He’s mine,” another new voice – this one I was well familiar with – came from the front door. Ralph’s boots thudded across the pine floor and he dropped down on the couch beside me, scooping me into his lap and cuddling me close. “Missed you.”
Just like that, my heart melted into my stomach. I snuggled against his chest, burying my face in his neck to hide my blush. Damned if I could even understand how, after over twenty years as a professional sex object, this one Alpha could make me feel like a virgin with his first crush.
“Well, that’s disgusting,” the rabbit, Pete, huffed. “Is everyone in this fucking burg getting laid but me?”
“Maybe you should check the attitude and language,” Ralph admonished mildly. “You’re not likely to find someone talking like that.”
Keeson snort-laughed and Antoine gasped before choking on his giggles.
“Conveniently, we’re on our way out, anyway,” Ralph laughed, standing with me still in his arms before setting me on my feet. When I looked up, the heat in his eyes caught me by surprise. “I have a promise to keep.”
No matter what the official record says, I absolutely did not gasp in surprise and try to pull him toward the door.
A slow smile spread over Ralph’s face. “And here I was afraid I’d left you on simmer too long,” he murmured in my ear.
I shook my head, calling out my thanks to my hosts over my shoulder. When the door closed behind us, I stopped and looked up into his face. “You know, it’s a long ride home and jeep sex is vastly underrated.”
Ralph’s deep laugh echoed through the trees. “Don’t you worry, beautiful,” he said, his deep voice almost a growl. “I am not wasting one more minute.” He reached for my hand, intertwining our fingers. “I’ve already driven a ridiculous number of hours today and there’s a little bed and breakfast less than three miles from here.” He rubbed over the pulse in my wrist. “You’re okay? Your heart is racing.”
I nodded eagerly. “I am, I promise,” I assured him. “Just ready.”
“Oh, really?” Ralph stopped and backed me against the jeep, pressing his hard body against me. He slid his hands inside my too-big sweatpants to cup my ass, dragging one rough-tipped finger through my crease.
I moaned when the rough skin rubbed over my sensitive pucker before barely dipping inside. “Oh!” I gasped when his fingertip grazed over my prostate before pulling his finger free and sucking it into his mouth. Watching him suck my slick from his finger in front of God and everyone was easily one of the filthiest, most erotic things I’d ever seen.
“You are definitely ready,” he agreed, thrusting his hips against my rock-hard dick, making me gasp again as I stared in shock. Ralph winked and reached around me to open the jeep door. “Now, let’s hit the road. You’re not the only one who is ready.”
Less than twenty minutes later, we were checked into the cutest little bed and breakfast and Ralph had already stripped me naked, tossed me onto the king-sized bed with a box of condoms and a bottle of lube, and was standing over me, de
vouring me with his eyes.
He stopped just long enough to be sure what I wanted and, when I spread my legs to invite him in, he didn’t waste another minute in taking what he wanted. And what he wanted, it seemed, was my sanity.
Chapter Thirty-Two
Ralph
Cass, naked and spread-eagle on the bed, his erection taut against his belly as he stared at me with wide eyes was easily one of the most erotic sights that I’d ever beheld. My blood was pounding with the need to take him, hard and rough. To throw him over onto his knees and mount him like the animal I was, to let the beast inside me rut into my Omega, to seed him, to lock us together and make him ours in every possible way.
And when Cass slowly drew his knees up to his chest, meeting my eyes and offering himself up to me, I knew I could do exactly that. Unless I was missing my guess, he was expecting me to do exactly that. Cass would let me. He would welcome me into his body, he would whimper and moan underneath me as I railed into him. He’d do his best to choke back his scream as he came, not wanting to disturb the faceless people in the rooms on either side of us as his body drew my own release from me.
Something about the knowledge that Cass didn’t expect any more than that from me held me back. He’d referred to himself as a whore enough times that I was hesitant to even take him, to accept the gift he was offering me, in case he thought I was just another horny Alpha looking for a willing hole to screw. As I stared down at Cass, watching me with trusting eyes, the lust boiling in my veins suddenly eased.
Not dissipating – I still wanted him desperately – but the desire to join with him switched to the back burner, my arousal slowing to a deep simmer as I toed off my shoes and pulled my shirt over my head, folding it neatly and setting it on the chair by the bed. My pants followed. Then my boxer briefs and socks, leaving me naked before him and, for the first time, allowing Cass to study my body the way I’d studied his.
I was in better than average condition for a man of my age, but there was no denying I wasn’t cut like some of the younger guys on the force, so the heat that flared in my Omega’s eyes sent a thrill of pride through me.
I slid onto the bed between Cass’s spread, raised knees and reached for his thighs, smiling when he gasped at my touch.
“You okay?” I asked softly, running my palms lightly down his outer thighs. Cass nodded and I tsked. “I want your words, sweetheart,” I ordered gently, squeezing his thighs. “I want to hear everything, understand?”
“Yes, Alpha,” Cass agreed eagerly. “I’m fine.”
I chuckled. “Well, you are definitely that,” I teased him. “But if you don’t like something or want me to stop, tell me, okay?”
Cass nodded and then caught himself. “Yes, Alpha. I will tell you.”
“Good.” I ran my palms down his lean legs, smiling when he moaned at the light contact. I gripped his calves and eased his knees away from his chest, guiding his legs back down to the mattress. When his forehead furrowed, I thought I knew why, but I checked anyway. “What’s wrong, Cass?”
“I thought..” he started and then shook his head, disappointment flooding over his face. “Never mind.”
I cocked my head. “You thought what? Tell me.”
Cass sighed, in distress instead of pleasure, making me frown. “It’s not important.”
“It is,” I disagreed, letting a touch of command creep into my voice, not enough to force compliance, but enough to trigger the submission that he kept such a tight rein on. “Tell me.”
He swallowed and looked away. “I thought we were going to fuck,” he finally said, his soft voice at odds with the vulgar term.
“We’re definitely not doing that,” I assured him with a wink. “But we are going to make love.” I caught his eyes when he looked up in surprise at my words. “I’m not going to be another jerk who uses you and walks away, Cass. I want you to enjoy this. I want it to mean something.”
I released his legs and laid one hand on Cass’s tummy, drawing a shaky breath from him. “Your skin is so soft,” I mused as I petted him, drawing my hand south, skirting the head of his erection to comb through the neatly trimmed curls at its base.
“Ralph..” Cass sighed, arching his hips up in a search for my touch.
“Ah-ah,” I scolded teasingly, tapping his flank with a mock spank. “Your Alpha didn’t tell you that you could move, did he?”
“Nooo,” Cass groaned with a small laugh. “I’ll stay still.”
“Good boy,” I murmured, leaning over his body so I could whisper in his ear. “Only good boys get rewards, you know.” I traced his lips with my tongue. “You want to be a good Omega for your Alpha, don’t you, baby?”
Cass’s breath was beginning to stutter as he nodded eagerly, “Yes, Alpha. I want to be good for you.”
“Good,” I purred in his ear, lowering my hips and rolling them, dragging my hard cock against the answering hardness beneath me. “I want you to tell me something, Cass.” I nibbled my way down his long, smooth neck to the spot that held a tattoo instead of a claim scar and sucked a kiss over the inked skin. “How do you like to get off?”
“Huh?” Cass looked a little dazed.
“When you take my cock,” I explained, intentionally keeping my tone conversational as my words brought the warmth of my breath wafting over his already goosebumped skin. “Do you want to be on your back as I shove my cock into you? Do you want your wrists pinned over your head so you can fight against me as my cock hits your prostate over and over?”
Cass’s dick jumped against mine and he whimpered when I rolled my hips again, reveling in the rush of precum he released at my words. I began to stroke one hand down his side to the curve of his hip, smiling when he raised his butt to allow my hand to continue.
I dragged my lips down his chest and followed his happy trail to his leaking dick, licking the tip clean before I rose back to my knees, sitting back on my heels.
“Noo,” Cass whined when the heat of my skin was replaced by a rush of cool air.
“No? You don’t like missionary? Or you don’t like being held down and dominated?” I teased, knowing full well that it wasn’t either of those things he was protesting. With the hand under his bottom, I gave his cheek a rough squeeze, making Cass squeak, before I drew it back. “I guess we’ll have to keep figuring out what you might like, hm?” I patted his hip. “Rollover for me, gorgeous.”
Cass scrambled to obey, dropping his chest to the bed and propping his perfect round butt in the air. I palmed his cheeks and spread them, swallowing my own groan at the sight of the pink pucker already glistening with leaking Omega dew. Unable to stop myself, I swiped my tongue over his hole, savoring the taste of his arousal before I continued teasing him.
“Or do you want to stay on your knees?” I nibbled on the knobs of his spine, licking my way from one to the next. “So I can tongue your sweet little hole until you’re begging for my cock?”
Cass’s keening cry when I punctuated the question with another lick of his pucker had me dangerously close to losing control.
“Mmm, my Omega likes being eaten out, does he?” I teased him with the tip of my tongue again and again before burying my face in his crease and drawing in a deep breath of his most intimate scent. Moving my palms from his cheeks to his hips, I called forward just enough of my inner beast for my tongue to get the rough barbs that I knew would torture the delicate nerves in the best possible way.
He cried out again with each of the light licks and I smiled with my tongue still flattened against his taint, drinking in the way that each of his shuddering breaths moved him against me, driving his pleasure higher.
“Or maybe that’s not exactly where you need to be licked?” I curled my tongue and shoved it through his rim, sucking on the muscle as I thrust my tongue inside him, savoring the sweet taste of the slick that was coating my tongue and dripping down my chin.
A shiver ran through Cass’s body and his tunnel began to twitch, warning me that my game was in
danger of ending before I was ready. I sucked one more mouthful of sweetness from his body and leaned back over him, nestling my cock in Cass’s slick-coated crease as my chest draped over his back that was rising and falling with rapid, ragged breaths.
I frotted against him as I growled in his ear, “Then, when you were all wet and desperate, I could slide in just deep enough to hit that spot that makes you crazy, hmm?” I slid one finger inside him, still rubbing my cock against his leaking hole. “What do you think, Cass?” I knew my Omega was well past being able to speak, but he obviously liked the dirty talk, so I kept it up as I pulled back to wrap my cock. “You’ve been so good for me. How do you want to get off?”
Cass looked back at me over his shoulder, his eyes wet and desperate, his face red with the exertion of holding still as I played with his body. All he could manage was a whispered, “Please, Alpha..”
“I’ll take care of you, baby,” I promised, gripping his hip in one hand while I used the other to line up with his entrance. “Always.”
As I drove into Cass’s more than willing body in a long, cleaving stroke, his muffled scream drowned out my own pleasured cry.
I was home and we both knew it.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Rafe
“Oh, fuck, baby,” I groaned, pinning Colby’s hard, muscular body beneath me as I tore at our clothes, tossing scraps of fabric aside in a desperate bid to get us both naked as fast as possible. “You’re okay, right? We’re okay? You’re not leaving me?”
“What?” Colby shook his head, staring up at me in surprise. “Rafe, what the fuck has got into you? Are you okay? Why did Ralph take off?”
“Just tell me, baby,” I wasn’t even ashamed to be begging. “Please, tell me you’re okay.”
“I’m fine,” Colby said. “Why wouldn’t I be?” He groaned as I yanked the last piece of his shredded jeans off, finally leaving us bare. “Fuck, Alpha!” He spread his legs, obviously still confused, but more than willing to let me take him.