by M. D. Grimm
Soul mates, Nordik had said. Was there even such a thing?
Feeling a headache growing behind his eyes, Poe deliberately shut his mind down and focused on sleep. Nordik’s heart drummed under his ear, and he concentrated on the sound, listening to the music of another life next him.
Nordik watched Poe sleep for a long time. His mouth hung open slightly, and his wounded hand lay next to his head. Nordik gently stroked the back of it, the bandages scratching his skin. It was brutal evidence of what Poe would go through to protect. Nordik suddenly felt the urge, the need, to do something just as brave, just as reckless. He needed to prove to his mate what he was willing to do to protect him, didn’t he? Of course he did. Nordik suspected there were other… Knights were they called? in his forest, and he planned on shredding them to pieces like he had the others.
And today? It had been glorious. He’d forgotten the delicious contrast between peace and challenge his mates brought to him. The emptiness of his loneliness never felt so acute as it did now, when he stared at his future. Poe’s laughter, his ferocity, passion, and strength delighted Nordik and filled him with pride. This was the soul mate fate, or perhaps Phoenix, had gifted him.
Nordik stroked Poe’s shoulder, relief easing all the tension in his muscles. Poe had finally chosen him. They were mates now. Soul mates. Merlin had been right, and Nordik was thrilled that he was. Poe would be by his side until the end. He wouldn’t grow old and die. He would stay young and strong like Nordik himself.
He tightened his hold on Poe and laid soft kisses on his brow. Poe stirred slightly but didn’t wake up. Poe was it for him. If Poe died, he would die, it was as simple as that. He adjusted and laid Poe’s head on his arm. His mate’s body heat warmed the entirety of Nordik’s own body. He gently stroked Poe’s back, and his mate, instinctually it seemed, curled closer to him.
Nordik closed his eyes. Poe had chosen him. The moment he’d stepped into the bedroom, he’d chosen him. Nordik planned on keeping his mate to his choice.
Nordik woke up to the sensation of someone watching him. He smiled even before he opened his eyes. A fiery blue gaze his, and a shy smile touched those soft lips when Poe realized he was awake. Nordik could spend an eternity looking at his mate. So much strength and intellect in that muscled body. So much beauty. Poe would never see himself as beautiful, and it only made him more so.
“Good morning,” Nordik said, stretching.
“Morning. Um, where exactly do you, you know, relieve yourself? Or do I have to go outside?”
He chuckled and pointed. “There’s a small crevice over there. It opens into an underwater stream that carries the waste out.”
“Cool.” Poe sat up and reached over to grab his underwear. Nordik raised an eyebrow and swiftly took them from his hands.
“I like you better this way.”
Poe snorted and a delightful blush darkened his cheeks.
“Pervert.” Poe walked naked toward the crevice. Nordik admired the way he moved, and since he could see just fine in the dark, he noticed the scars all over his mate’s body from battles fought and won. He liked them. They had an arousing appeal all their own.
Poe glanced over his shoulder and noticed Nordik watching him. He laughed and said, “You really are a pervert.”
Nordik grinned. “What can I say? I finally got you naked. I plan on keeping you that way.”
“Is that right?” Poe said as he finished and returned to the bed. He knelt down and made a grab for his underwear, which was still in Nordik’s hand. Nordik, however, just grinned and held them out of reach.
“C’mon Nordik.” Poe laughed. “Enough’s enough. I want those back.”
He chuckled. “My cave, my rules.”
“I’m cold.” Poe made another grab for his underwear before Nordik flung them away, who-cared-where.
Poe scowled and tried to stand, but Nordik grabbed him around the waist and shoved him back onto the mattress.
“I can make you warm,” he said in a low voice right next to Poe’s ear. His mate trembled as he danced his fingertips up Poe’s ribs. He enjoyed his mate’s smell and his soft skin, the curve of muscles.
“Nordik, I really need to talk to you―”
“Later.”
“Now listen here, old bear―”
He found Poe’s shaft, which was already half-ready, and gave it a firm tug. Poe’s words cut off, and he let out a swift gasp of surprise. He glared at Nordik. Nordik grinned, turned on. Those blue eyes were so full of life and fire. He wanted to see them surrender to him as they had last night. He wanted to hear his name said with a scream.
Nordik fondled, he touched, and Poe gripped his shoulders, no longer trying to push him away. In fact, his mate drew him closer. Before he gave Poe any release, he pulled back and turned Poe on his stomach. His mate lifted his firm ass immediately, and Nordik smiled in pleasure. His mate’s eagerness, his anticipation, only fed his own. Poe’s arousal was driving him insane, and he couldn’t get enough of that scent.
He cupped Poe’s ass with both hands and kneaded his mate as he took a deep breath of the scent he found there. Poe moaned and stroked his own erection. Nordik’s cock grew hard as steel, but he’d yet to indulge in something he’d been fantasizing about ever since he noticed Poe in his forest, since he caught him bathe nearly naked in his streams and take a leak behind a bush.
Nordik dragged his tongue across one cheek of Poe’s ass before nipping it lightly. Poe shivered and looked over his shoulder with desire bright in his eyes. Nordik met his gaze as he gave the other cheek the same treatment. He was teasing both of them, relishing the freedom and the happiness he felt at being with his soul mate. He’d been waiting for Poe all his life.
Then he spread his mate’s ass and gazed adoringly at the puckered hole that had given them both so much pleasure. Nordik touched his tongue there. Poe gasped, shock radiating through his body. Nordik felt it and puzzled at it.
“Has no one ever…?” he asked, his voice gruff.
Poe shook his head before dropping it on the pillow. “No. Never.”
What sort of lovers had Poe had in his life? And because that question made Nordik immensely jealous, he discarded it, focusing only on making Poe forget everyone who came before. Poe now belonged to him. Possessiveness swept over him, seared into him, and he relished it. He recognized it and let it come. Poe was his now, completely and utterly. Nordik ducked his head and demonstrated perfectly what sort of pleasure Poe had been missing. Before long, Poe was squirming on the mattress, his breathing irregular and hitched with faint sobs. His good hand was clutching a pillow in a death grip.
Nordik held his mate tightly and pushed his body further. When Nordik’s tongue slipped into him and squeezed his cock, Poe came.
“God, Nordik. Nordik, God.”
He chuckled. “I’m glad you think so.” He moved up Poe’s trembling and loose body, planting kisses on his skin, savoring the taste and smell. His blankets, his home, would smell like his mate now.
Needing his own release, he took himself in hand and with only a few strokes, came on Poe’s backside. He jerked and then moaned in pleasure. Nordik sighed, feeling smug, and landed on his side. He pulled Poe against him, his mate’s back to his chest, and stroked his fingers along Poe’s muscled stomach.
They were silent, catching their breaths. He knew he could stay like this for years.
“Poe?”
“Hmmm?”
“What does that tattoo on your chest symbolize?” He slid his fingers over the trinity knot.
“The Three Tribes.” Poe touched Nordik’s hand. “It symbolizes how we’re all connected and dependent on one another. Even if we don’t know it.”
Nordik sighed deeply. “All right, Poe. I will ally with the Agency.”
Poe turned and touched his face, his eyes serious. “No, Nordik. You can’t.”
He blinked in shock. “What?”
Chapter Ten
Poe wiped himself off and dressed quic
kly before leaving the bedroom as soon as he could. He pulled on his jeans and jacket as Nordik followed him, naked as usual and confused.
“What is it now, Poe?”
He couldn’t blame Nordik for his anger. Poe ran his hand over his hair in frustration. This had just exploded into an awful mess. Why did he have to have sex with the damn shifter? Why couldn’t he keep his damn hormones under control? His body still hummed with satiation, and it was hard to think and get his mind in order when Nordik had introduced him to such mind-blowing pleasure.
“Look, I’m not supposed to talk about Agency business with anyone but….”
“But what?” Nordik asked when he stopped, still fuming.
“But I think the US chief is working with Arcas.”
Dead silence followed Poe’s words. Nordik stared at him as a flush darkened his cheeks. His eyes started to glow.
“Are you telling me―”
“I am.” Poe sat on the couch and tugged on his boots, knowing he would have to be prepared when this went south. Unfortunately, his wounded hand slowed his progress.
“If Chief Anu is working for Arcas and he sent me out here to find you, and you killed Arcas’s mother―”
“And there are knights in my territory.” Nordik finished Poe’s logic.
“Exactly,” he said. “I have no proof of Anu’s treachery, but I’m not the only one who thinks he’s dirty.”
“Why do you think he’s dirty?” Nordik asked. Poe looked up from the laces he was tying and realized Nordik was watching his every move. His eyes were also beginning to narrow, his jaw clenching, as Poe put on his other boot.
“Little things really.”
“Tell me.”
Poe sighed. “The Agency monitors the internet and develops contacts around the world so we can be notified when a possible recruit pops up. We like to contact kids not long after their abilities manifest, so they don’t harm anyone or themselves. Even if we don’t ultimately recruit them, we can at least train them so they can live a normal life. We miss some, of course, for one reason or another.”
“All right.”
“Well, a number of those possible recruits go missing every so often. The Knights find them first. This has happened over the last couple of years, and there appears to be a disturbing trend. Many of those recruits on our lists have their families or a family member killed by a shifter.”
Nordik titled his head.
“And given the details of some of my recent cases, I have to wonder if the Knights aren’t, somehow, manipulating or brainwashing shifters into attacking on command to make the recruits ripe for the picking.”
Nordik growled words that were certainly not English, and sounded like a curse.
Poe nodded. “Yeah, exactly. Also, every time I get close to capturing a good chunk of knights at their substations, they’re gone. Like they’ve been warned.”
Nordik nodded.
“So I shared my suspicions with my captain,” he continued. “Who I learned had suspicions of his own. But our biggest confirmation came when we infiltrated the Knights’ headquarters. You see, Chief Anu was in Switzerland somewhere, having a meeting with Agency Chiefs from around the world. We didn’t inform him of our plan, and we finally succeeded.” He paused. “Well, almost succeeded. Arcas still got away.”
“So, you plan to do what, now?” Nordik asked when he fell silent.
Poe took a deep breath. “I plan on going back to the Agency, say that I failed to find you, and continue to search for evidence against the chief.”
Silence once more fell inside the cave, and it was thick with tension. It fairly vibrated against Poe’s skin. His gut tightened.
“I see,” Nordik whispered. “So it’s ‘thanks for the fuck but I have to go back to more important things?’”
“Nordik―”
“No!” Nordik pointed a finger at Poe, and he felt like a judgment was being handed down. “You do not leave here, Poe. You came to me last night. You became mine. We bonded.”
Poe squeezed his eyes shut in pain.
“I asked you a question last night,” Nordik growled, his voice reverberating off the walls. “One you did not answer. Now I ask it again. Are you with me, Poe?”
Poe’s heart broke. He felt it bleed, his final confirmation that he was in love. The pain he was subjecting Nordik to was unfair, cold, and cruel. The pain of leaving Nordik was more agonizing than getting shot in the hand. It was more miserable than the idea of leaving the Agency. But he had too many things left undone. He needed to set things right.
“No,” he whispered.
Nordik stared at him for a humming second before grabbing one of the chairs and throwing it against the wall, smashing it to pieces. Poe sprung to his feet and vaguely wondered if he should make a run for it. How violent did this guy get?
“You gave yourself to me!” Nordik roared, his eyes glowing hotly. While the air shimmered and his skin rippled violently, Nordik didn’t shift.
“It was a mistake!” Poe blurted. Boy, were those the wrong words.
Nordik charged and gripped his upper arms, lifting him before smashing him against the rock wall. Poe’s breath left him as Nordik shoved his face barely an inch from his own.
“The mistake was yours,” Nordik growled, his words barely understandable. “To think you could come into my domain, seduce me, then leave me.”
“Seduce you?” Poe found his voice and scrambled for any defense. “You’re the one who kept coming onto me, Nordik. I told you time and again that I am an agent! That I can’t be someone’s mate.”
“Yes, you did,” Nordik said softly, with ice. A chill went down Poe’s spine. His feet hit the ground hard when Nordik let him go, and he staggered.
“Maybe this is my fault,” Nordik continued, his voice like a dagger. “Maybe when I looked at you I saw a loving and kind heart, if a little afraid to love.” His face tightened. “But now I see there is nothing but a block of ice under that tattoo of unity.”
Poe felt punched in the gut. He was used to being called cold, from agents, from clients, but―not from Nordik. Not from the shifter who had given him more pleasure than he thought possible to feel. This shifter who had touched his heart and was now ripping it to pieces, just as he was ripping Nordik’s heart to pieces.
“You’re right,” he said lightly. “And now that you and I understand each other, I should go.” He grabbed his bag and slung it over his shoulder. “You’re safe here, Nordik. But I do recommend you build that army. I’ll see if I can’t take care of those pests still nesting in Sanctuary before I leave.”
“I can take care of my own home,” Nordik said, his words bitten out. “Without interference from you.”
Poe nodded with dignity and turned to leave.
“You are no longer welcome here,” Nordik said to his back. “Leave Sanctuary immediately and never pollute it with your presence again.”
Poe’s eyes burned, and he fought the tears as well as the urge to run back to Nordik. His legs shook violently, and his wounded hand throbbed. But even as he took one step toward the dark tunnel that led outside, Nordik grabbed his arm. He gasped as he swung around. He dropped his pack when Nordik crushed him against his hard chest. Poe could barely breathe.
“No. You will not leave me.”
Poe shuddered. Nordik’s voice didn’t sound human. No human could make that deep, vibrating tone, that growl that sounded like a bear. No human could put so much intensity, so much fury in only a few words.
Nordik lifted him and slung him over his shoulder. Poe sucked in air, and not for the first time, his training failed him. He felt helpless, weak. Nordik told him to go, didn’t he? Didn’t he say that Poe’s heart was a block of ice?
Poe cried out as he slammed into the mattress. The only light he could see was Nordik’s eyes, staring at him with fire. Poe had never been so terrified in his life. What was Nordik going to do to him? He couldn’t get his arms or legs to respond, they simply lay there, heavy, and
he couldn’t remove his eyes from the pissed-off master shifter’s face. His tongue was heavy and no words came.
Nordik swooped down and claimed his mouth. It was rough, hard, and Poe could only ride on the sensation. He could only let it pull him under and drown. Nordik’s hands, strong and rough, tore his clothes off, flinging them away. His large body pushed Poe into the mattress, not allowing him to move. He gripped Nordik’s shoulders, his wounded hand throbbing again. Hot skin lay under his palm, nearly scorching him. He could feel the muscles rippling just under Nordik’s skin. He could feel the air shimmer, a light breeze against his skin but Nordik stayed in human form.
There was no finesse, no gentleness like before. This was domination to its highest degree. Nordik was claiming him, possessing him. Those callused hands touched him everywhere, gripping, leaving bruises. That strong mouth bit his shoulder, marking him. Poe yelped as those teeth dug into his skin. He gripped Nordik’s hair, feeling a fierce need lash through him. All rational thought, all fear, was shoved out and pure need replaced it. Poe wrapped his legs around Nordik’s waist and bit the master shifter’s thick neck. Nordik growled, and his throat vibrated under Poe’s teeth. Then Poe bit Nordik’s earlobe, hard. Nordik snarled and jammed slicked fingers into Poe’s asshole. Poe arched off the mattress, pressing harder against Nordik, vaguely wondering when he’d opened the lube.
“Mine.”
The voice vibrated through every one of Poe’s cells, shaking his core. Nordik removed his fingers before roughly flipping Poe onto his stomach. Then his relentless hands urged Poe onto his knees. He cooperated eagerly, nothing but the need for more directing all his actions. He pushed back against Nordik and looked over his shoulder. The bear shifter’s eyes were on fire, and he slicked himself and Poe’s hole with more lube. Then Nordik shoved into him hard, holding nothing back. The pain twined so close with the pleasure that Poe didn’t know where one ended and the other began. He rode on the overwhelming sensations, delighting in the roughness and the strength of Nordik’s hands on his hips. Nordik rammed hard into him, not hesitating to use his full strength. He was fast as well, ripping cries from Poe’s throat, cries that soon turned into sobs. But Poe met him with each thrust, demanding more.