by J. D. Light
I brushed the scruff of my chin against his neck, and he moaned, cutting it off by clearing his throat. "Uh…" He licked his lips, his eyes sliding open enough for me to see the heat in them, and the absolute dazed lust. "I'm pretty sure I'll have a mate someday."
My stomach swooped happily. "So, shifter, not human? Why is that?"
He reached back gripping the hem of his shirt and lifting it, once again glancing at me over his shoulder. "Because I'm chosen."
I jerked in surprise, pulling back to look at the skin he was exposing to me, letting out a small chuckle when I saw the slightly raised mark that disappeared into the band of his jeans.
"I'm not even really surprised," I said, shaking my head and running my thumb over the skin. He shivered, his eyes once again falling closed.
I knew both West and Lane were chosen, and it honestly just seemed like everyone I knew lately was mating a chosen. I should have known from the very first inkling that he might be my mate that he was probably chosen. There was a part of me that wanted to rant and throw a fit at the very idea that he would put himself in that kind of danger, but I fully understood how hard it was to walk away from something you loved.
When I'd retired from the FBI, I'd been burnt out on all the rules, and sick of some things getting swept under the rug because of favors given and received. Hell, my own partner had surprised me by letting go a man who'd killed an entire family because he'd lost his. They were neighbors and he’d lost his mind when their little dog pooped on his prized lawn.
It had only become our case when it became clear that it wasn't the first family that had been mysteriously attacked by a wild bear in the neighborhood. Apparently, it was the third, and a new police officer on the force happened to go on the call. The young lion had immediately recognized the scent of another shifter all over the bodies, and the fact that the same scent seemed to be coming from the house next to the family.
He'd called a friend, who'd called a friend, and before you knew it, we were showing up to arrest the man and take him in for an evaluation… except, my partner knew the man, and when I'd left the hotel room to go grab us all something to eat, he'd let the guy go. He'd even staged the room to make it look like they'd gotten into a fight, but the idiot hadn't thought about the fact that I'd be able to tell his claw prints scraped across his chest from the bears, but I knew within ten seconds of entering the room exactly what had happened.
I'd left the FBI right after that, jaded toward the FBI and a little broken at the prospect of giving up a way of life that I had loved so much. It was why when Foster had called me to tell me about this new organization they were putting together and the people that would be involved, I'd jumped at the idea of getting back to the thing I'd loved without having to deal with the corrupt people.
I cleared my throat, once again rubbing along the mark. "I'm also not going to lecture you on the dangers you and your friends put yourselves in. You're a smart boy, I'm sure you already know."
Dylan's eyes opened and he glanced at me over his shoulder again, dropping his shirt. "Lane was in way more danger than West or me."
"Hmm, Maybe." My eyes zeroed in on the chain I could see peeking out of the collar of his shirt, and with the way my body was humming in that moment, there was no way I could keep from reaching up and sliding my finger under the thing before twisting it around until I could find the clasp.
"What are you doing?" he asked, his head once again falling forward and allowing me access to his neck.
"I want to smell you."
"Why?" He sounded so confused, but he didn't try to stop me when I slowly slid the necklace off him before tossing it across the room. It hit the bottom of the door and fell to the floor where it would still block our scent from anyone outside.
It was slow coming, the scent dawning on my fox and me slowly, but there was no denying the fact that I'd been right. This man was my mate.
I groaned, burying my nose in Dylan's neck, my arms wrapping around him completely from behind as he gasped.
"Damn," I whined against his skin. "I should have waited."
My body was a mess of feelings and urges and emotions, my hormones bouncing around all over the place as I continued to sniff at the exposed skin of Dylan's neck.
"Waited for what?" he asked breathlessly.
I growled, stepping back away from him, needing a little space to get myself together, to cool down before I took advantage of the arousal I could smell coming off of him, and claimed him before I even told him that he was my mate.
I might have wanted him with an urgency I'd never felt before in my life, but I wasn't about to take his choice away from him.
"I get first shower," I whispered gruffly, clenching my fists at my sides so I didn't reach out and grab him again.
"But, what about my ass?" he asked, turning slightly. "Shouldn't I get first shower?"
"What about it?" I ran my eyes over his back and ass slowly before meeting his gaze again and giving him a small, crooked smile. "It looks fine to me."
Chapter Five
The door to the bathroom shut with Renn on the other side, and I collapsed against the table before sliding down into one of the chairs, blinking in shock at nothing.
What the fuck had just happened. I knew what it seemed like just happened, but I was still just doing my best to process it, as my eyes fell to the necklace lying in a tangled mess on the floor.
My body was on fire from how close he'd been standing… actually it had been on fire before that. I'd been standing there trying to concentrate on the fucking plans sitting right in front of me, so I could send them off to the guys who'd be on their way soon, but my attention had been horribly divided as I kept stealing glances over at Renn on the bed we'd be sharing later, and wondering how I was going to make it through the night without doing something humiliating.
Or maybe I should say something else since I’d already broken my ass in front of him.
I reached up, running my fingers over my neck. Was I blowing things out of proportion? Was all the touching and sniffing about sex, or was he actually just curious about the damn delphinium? He'd definitely wrapped his arms around me at the end, burying his face in my neck like he really liked what he smelled, but then he'd run off to the bathroom.
I'm freaking out about nothing, aren't I? He was messing with me. We had managed to form a bit of a friendship throughout the day, maybe he'd been doing it to be funny, and…
Oh shit! He was a shifter. The moment that necklace went sailing across the room, he'd have been able to smell my arousal immediately. Was that why he'd taken off to the bathroom? To escape me and my arousal. Had had he been messing with me, pretending to be interested in me and gotten a bit of a surprise?
Groaning, I dropped my head to my hand, resting my elbow on the table and glancing down at my crotch. Thankfully, I'd started to flag a little. Apparently, my body didn't like the idea of running him off with our ridiculous reactions to him any more than I did.
I'd worried so much about embarrassing myself in front of him when it came to sleeping arrangements, and instead, I'd done it completely awake and fully aware of what I was doing.
The bathroom door opened and I stood quickly, not really sure what I was planning on doing, but I felt like an idiot sitting there staring at a fucking necklace… so I became the idiot standing there, staring at a nearly naked man who had little drops of water falling from his hair and sliding down his delicious body. Admittedly, far better to look at than a necklace, but the accessory designed to keep my scent hidden didn't exactly give me dirty thoughts that made it near impossible to not pop wood.
I swallowed hard as I looked him over, watching the water glistening on his skin slide down, down, down to disappear into the towel barely hanging on his hips. I'd known his body was amazing. He'd definitely filled out a tight tank to perfection… but fuck. I'd never seen anyone so perfectly formed in my life.
"Careful with that handle," Renn said, his deep voice drawing
my attention back up to his face. That wasn't much better than looking at his body since the lust present in his eyes right then only made things worse as his gaze moved over me slowly, resting for a long, pointed moment on the front of my pants.
I cleared my throat, dropping my hands to cover my hard dick and only really succeeding in making him smirk.
"If you need just a little more warmth, just tap it lightly in the hot direction. It will straight boil you if you push it too far," he said, stepping out of my way so I could squeeze by.
I nodded, not needing to be told twice. The last thing I wanted was scalding water getting anywhere near my body in that moment.
"Almost roasted your weenie?" I asked, unable to keep from looking back over my shoulder one more time as he turned to face me, his hand resting on the knot of his towel for a brief moment before he gave it a tug, letting the material fall away from his body.
"Definitely got close," he growled, his hand immediately going to his beautifully engorged dick and giving it a slow stroke. "It's still there, though."
Yes, it definitely was, and it was absolutely perfect. I could worship a dick like that for hours if just given the opportunity. It was long and thick with an even thicker head that plumed out looking like it would fit perfectly against my tongue.
I needed to get out of there. I needed to get into the bathroom so I could actually think clearly… you know, the same way I'd been thinking clearly before he'd come into the room looking like that.
I groaned with little to no dignity and scurried to the bathroom, letting the door click shut before falling back against it, covering my mouth so I didn't say any of the things I was tempted to say, knowing his shifter hearing would pick it up.
***
A cold shower later––because I was absolutely not masturbating with him right in the other room, fully aware he could probably hear every breath, and even if he couldn't hear me because of the water and me being extremely quiet, he'd most likely smell it––and a few moments of excessive contemplation, and I was still no closer to an answer than I had been before.
Why was he suddenly circling me like a shark? Had he somehow been tipped off by my behavior that I wanted him so desperately? It wasn't like I'd been all that good at hiding it in the last thirty to forty-five minutes, but I'd thought I'd hidden it pretty well before he'd put himself in my space like that.
I'd come to think of him as a good guy, but was I wrong? Was this his way of messing with me? It didn't feel right. I honestly couldn't see him as being that kind of man, and I felt like the people being brought in for this project were all good people. Surely Foster wouldn't invite someone along who would purposely try to hurt someone else.
I wrapped myself in the towel, gripping the handle on the bathroom door and taking a deep breath. I'd just ask him what was going on. It didn't do any good to sit in there and speculate what I thought was happening. This was no time for assumptions, and it had been previously proven that assuming something about Renn never seemed to work in my favor anyway.
Was I shaking? It sure felt like I was shaking.
He was standing there by the window, staring out into city of Santa Fe… completely naked.
I hadn't gotten to see his ass and back earlier, and that was a real shame. His shoulders were wide and beautifully carved. The muscles of his back stood out proudly under his smooth, bronzed skin that was the same color… all the way down. His ass…
This was my fault. I didn't know how, but I knew it was. Had I made him forget to get his bag out of the cab? Had I distracted him downstairs when he was checking us in, and he'd left it at the front desk. Had West switched his clothes out for something ridiculous, like bottles of lube?
Stop thinking about lube!
Whatever happened, I blamed myself.
"Uh, do you need to borrow some clothes?" I asked stupidly, still eyeing his body. Even going as far as to squint at the sight of an adorable little freckle on the outside of his left ass cheek.
I wanted to tongue it. The freckle, the cheek and the ass.
"No," he said, finally pulling my gaze away from the freckle that was taunting me, to his face reflecting at me in the glass. He smirked, probably having seen me and my stupid, staring eyes the whole time. "I have plans, and clothes would get in the way."
He was going to walk around the room naked all night? What type of plans could he possibly have? Oh fuck. Did he do naked yoga or something?
But I'm so young. I don't want to die.
"O… okay," I said swallowing. "Just… I'll grab my stuff and give you some room." I moved over to where my bag was sitting, catching sight of my erection out of the bottom of my peripheral vision, bobbing happily along.
I groaned, wishing I had the ability to poof my clothes on. Maybe I should make friends with a witch. If I could passingly avoid situations like this, I'd even make friends with that damn witch in Terra Mortis that Kinsey was always whining about. Though, from what I heard, she had a tendency to make situations like this a lot more embarrassing.
There was a deep sigh behind me, and then a strong hand gripped my forearm. I was spinning before I even registered that anything was happening.
"Wha––" I squawked just before Renn's mouth met mine, his hand cupping the side of my face and the other going straight to my hip, holding me in place for a moment.
He pulled back before my brain even caught up to the fact that he was kissing me, and I blinked up at him owlishly with my mouth hanging open attractively even as my lips tingled.
Wait! Did he just kiss me?
I squeaked, the air from my gasp––that I hadn't even realized I'd been holding––leaking out of me in a slow, noisy stream like a balloon.
Renn chuckled, leaning back in, and when he kissed me the second time, I kissed him back, tilting my head slightly and fitting my lips against his.
I didn't know what the hell was happening, but I wasn't one to dwell too much on the impossibility of things that were happening right in front of me. I'd worked for the immortal division of the FBI far too long for that shit. I'd seen some really, really interesting things.
My eyes slid closed, and I groaned when Renn licked at my mouth. My hands moved of their own volition, finding his sides, and I let my fingers sink into the muscular flesh as I tilted my head a bit further and parted my lips for his questing tongue.
I moaned against his mouth, my body moving closer to his as I gripped him harder, tugging us together. Our bodies met skin to skin, and I was so fucking happy we were so close in height, because it meant more of my body touching more of his.
Our tongues slid together erotically as we licked at each other's mouths, and our bodies melded from thighs to chest as my arms slid around his waist and one of his slid around my upper back and the other cupped my face almost punishingly.
I wouldn't say that I'd kissed a ton of people. High school had been a rough time for me all the way around since I spent a lot of that time avoiding my father, which sometimes meant staying away from my house and going to school for a couple days in a row in the same clothing.
That had really only happened a couple of times because I eventually got smart enough to start taking a few days' clothes at a time, but kids could be mean and cruel, especially if they didn't understand you, and not many people understood me.
After high school, I'd spent a lot of my time working my ass off, so I could make something of myself. There had been very little time for dating.
I'd always liked kissing with the few people that I'd actually kissed, but this was something else completely. This was…
I pulled back with a gasp, staring wide-eyed at Renn as the pieces started to fall into place. The reason I was so drawn to the man. The reason I'd been so willing to protect him from me, even if it meant running from him every time he came around, even when something inside me always wanted to run toward him. Why we'd always get stuck staring at each other.
"You're my mate, aren't you?" I whispered, my face
almost hurting from the huge smile that was quickly spreading across it.
He gave a small chuckle that almost sounded as disbelieving as I felt and nodded. "Yeah. I've been starting to suspect it more and more lately," he whispered, watching my eyes. "I should have realized from the very beginning when I spotted you through that window, and even before I realized who I was looking at, I was dying to get inside. The pull toward you from the very beginning has been so strange. Not at all something I've ever experienced in my whole life."
"Yeah. I know exactly what you mean," I whispered, for some reason feeling the prick of tears in the corners of my eyes. "Is this okay with you? Are you okay with me being your mate?"
He pressed his forehead to mine, letting his thumb slide lazily over my cheek. "You know how this works, Dylan. You've seen it enough. You know that everything about you is exactly right for me." He gave me the softest, sweetest peck on the lips.
"We can't pick who our family is. Mine is all over the place, and I haven't seen any of my siblings or my parents in over forty years because they were all against the fact that I was gay." He chuckled again, and I couldn't deny how the sound combined with the way his face slid into a slightly evil smile sent tingles shooting straight to my dick. "From what I understand, our entire skulk broke apart when the old alpha found his mate in another man. I haven't followed through on any of it because I honestly don't care about any of them, but that's what I mean.
"Family isn't about blood. It's about relationships and caring. I don't care that Max Young is the man who fathered you. I didn't from the beginning. I was an idiot who saw a gorgeous guy and suddenly forgot how to talk to people. I wasn't telling you that stuff to attack you or make you feel bad about something you probably already hated. I was just shocked that you were there, and even more shocked to know that I really just wanted to throw you over my shoulder and run away with you."
"I wish I had taken that fucking necklace off sooner," I whispered, chuckling. "This could have already been a thing."