by Mandy Rosko
His skin was warm against Jackson’s cold fingers, his flesh perfectly smooth and soft. He hadn’t expected that, with barely a trace of tan lines under his clothes. Joey’s cock was perfect, standing proudly at attention from the patch of dark-brown curls between his legs.
Now he was forced to admit that Joey was right. He was the farthest thing in the world from a pup.
“Wanted this for so long.”
Joey’s breathless declaration had Jackson looking up at him in surprise, but then that surprise melted away as the most profound happiness took hold of him.
His mate. This was his mate standing in front of him. Joey belonged to him now, just as Jackson belonged to Joey. How long had they been mated and Jackson never noticed, or had fought so hard against it?
It didn’t matter. “Me, too.”
A happiness that Jackson had never seen before on Joey seemed to consume the younger wolf until he was all but glowing with it. The pride of finally being accepted by a mate was definitely nothing to take lightly.
He had the smallest of seconds to note the disappearance of that happiness, replaced with alarm, right before the flash of pain exploded behind Jackson’s head, and Joey’s enraged screams as Jackson dropped helplessly to the ground, the world turning thick and black.
Chapter Nine
“ What if we did it?” Cedric asked, stretching his arms along the back of their shaded swinging seat. It was another bright day, the cool airs of spring almost nonexistent now, and Cedric awaited Silus’s answer while his toe nudged them into an easy and hypnotic lull.
Silus sat beside his lover, listening to the drum of the other man ’s heart and always reassured by its healthy beat.
“Leave Mantua Lake, leave Veturious,” he said, thinking out loud and looking up at his house as he did.
“If we left we wouldn’t have to hide anymore. Or as much, at least,” Cedric said. “No more looking over our shoulders whenever one of us needs to go shopping, no more being isolated. We could even make a new nest with Cecil and Varinia, and we could survive for the longest time before any local vampires or sun sprites found out what was going on.”
Silus didn’t take his eyes off his house. Though it was not nearly the size of his father’s manse, he was most proud of it nonetheless. He adored the stonework and the climbing vines with their white summer blossoms on the east side of the house. He loved this lawn, the lake, and the way the sun caused Cedric’s golden hair to shine when he was walking along the paths.
He loved it because it was his entirely. The house was not inherited or given to him from a wealthy relation but purchased with Silus’s own funds that he had wisely invested. It was his first real home, free of coldness and duty, a dream, and he gladly shared it with his partner.
“Silus?”
Silus blinked, coming out of his thoughts to the realization that Cedric had been staring at him, still awaiting the answer he hadn’t given.
Silus pressed his lips together and heaved a heavy breath.“I must admit that I have become...attached to this land. It seems but an island, cast off and private from the rest of both of our societies. You are right, however, in pointing out that we still face dangers by staying so close to town...”
Cedric’s arm came down off the back of the chair and curled around Silus’s shoulders. Silus gladly allowed himself this moment of weakness, leaning into his lover’s embrace.
“Let’s not leave, then,” Cedric said.
“So easily you come to that decision?” Silus asked, allowing his disbelief to echo into his words.
“This place was my first home away from my clan, too. I love it just as much as you do,” Cedric said. “Besides, moving to Canada...” he said, clenching his neck slightly, “would make it a little hard to come down and visit Ben without staying in town or something. Too dangerous.”
Silus nodded. “Indeed, but we could wed, you and I.”
Cedric’s blue eyes shot over, and he stared at Silus with some surprise. Then the rush of blood that naturally came with his embarrassment flooded his cheeks.
“Silus, I—”
“You should not do that,” Silus said, pulling Cedric closer to him before he could move away at the start of an old topic. “It makes me thirst for you, and I have just fed.”
“I know,” Cedric said, scratching at the collar of his plaid buttondown shirt over the spot of bite marks Silus’s fangs had left behind earlier that day.
Despite the warning, Cedric blushed harder. The fact that Silus usually fed from his lover when inside of him seemed to produce that adorable effect.
And his constant blushing only made Silus want him in their bed again. At least now the blushing was from his enjoyment of their company rather than what Cedric had perceived to be a coming argument.
That, however, would have to wait. Clearly there were still issues to be resolved here other than the topic of marriage.
“Do you grow restless being here?” Silus asked.
Cedric stared straight ahead at the pack of werewolves who had become part of their strange new family. Most of the omega children were splashing around in the lake. “Sometimes,” he admitted. “It’s been almost two years since we’ve been here, and I love it here, and I love them, too,” he said, nodding to the children in question. “But there’s really nothing for me to do. You’re still paying for pretty much everything.”
As they’d had this argument before, Silus knew the awful taste that left in his lover’s mouth. “Have you asked to apprentice under Varinia?” Cedric had shown an interest in vampire medicine when Seth came to them, brutally injured and unrecognizable from his current image today. Considering vampires and sun sprites shared an anatomy that was nearly identical, it would certainly benefit the both of them if he was trained as a healer.
“Yeah, and she said yes, but how are we supposed to work something like that out? Eventually she and Cecil are going to go home, and it’s not exactly something I can learn if we’re chatting online.”
“Indeed. The likelihood of you creating a practice in Veturious would also be slim.”
“Right, and never mind all the years of apprenticing I’d have to do before that could even happen,” Cedric said, his voice dull and monotone as he agreed with the observation. “What I want makes no sense whatsoever. I don’t want to leave, not really, but I want to work as a practicing healer for sun sprites and werewolves, and that’s not going to happen either.”
And considering both vampires and sun sprites made house calls and that both species were out of the question for him to take clients from, even if a vampire family would be inclined to see a sun sprite healer, it truly was a predicament. It would remain so even if they left.
It was no wonder Varinia could not continue to practice her profession, even on her side of the world.
There was nothing Silus could do for his lover on that regard, but if there was a way to disperse this dark cloud that was hanging over his head, Silus would do it.
“Perhaps we require a holiday.”
Cedric snorted a laugh. “You would suggest a vacation. A vacation from what, exactly?”
Silus ignored the urge to hit his lover and leaned in closer instead. “It would be a vacation away from our indecent lack of privacy.”
As though to prove the point of how little of it they had and how noisy it could be in that respect, several shrieking children chased each other mere feet from their swing.
Silus licked his lips, fighting for patience. “Allow me to take you away from this for a time. A holiday in Europe would be most sufficient, and my understanding is that the vampires and sprites get on better in that part of the world anyway.”
Whether it was actually true or not was an entirely different matter.
Cedric looked down at his lap and grinned. “Then when we’re tired of seeing the sights we can come back to our little hideaway.”
Silus took it that, since there was no sarcasm in his lover’s voice, it was a good sign.
<
br /> He was about to comment on that when more screams reached his ears, disturbing their moment. His first reaction was annoyance, until he registered that these were not the playful shrieks of happy children.
Cedric sat up, his eyes and body becoming alert and aware as the younger werewolves ran toward the house while the adults ran away from it and toward the tree line.
They were not simply running. They were racing as though their lives depended in it, even some of the omegas.
“What’s happening?”
They needed to only turn their heads to see.
Where the thick line of trees began, several large, unkempt men came forth, some with the very children who cried and shrieked in their arms, forcefully pulling them back into the trees. The omegas running to the defense were likely the mothers and fathers of these young boys and girls, while the alphas of Silus’s pack ran ahead of them, likely with one goal in mind.
Defend their young. Kill the intruders. These were obviously the strange werewolves Damon had scented those weeks ago, and now it seems they had broken through the defenses of Silus’s guards and had come to attack.
Silus shot to his feet, ready to aid his employers in defense against these strangers. Cedric was right beside him, until Silus pushed him back down into the chair.
It swung back and creaked a long and groggy sound at the force Silus used. Cedric merely glared up at him.
“I can help.”
“Your ability to generate sunlight from your body is useless against them. Stay out of the way, and guide the children and omegas to the house where they can be better defended with Cecil and Varinia.”
Silus’s true intent was for Cedric to be defended by the sheer number of werewolves who would be surrounding him in within the house. The fact that they would all be omegas was something that, for the moment, would simply have to be overlooked.
He ran with all the speed he possessed toward the wild lycan warriors just as Cedric opened his mouth to continue the argument. He would withstand Cedric’s wrath after they came out of this alive.
Hopefully one of the alphas would see their sun sprite master and escort him to safety while Silus was busy running into danger. * * * *
That dirty, no good son of a bitch, Cedric wanted to scream as he watched Silus’s back as the bastard ran into the fray with the rest of the alphas. Whoever the hell these guys were, and wherever they came from, they were huge. Bigger than even the largest of alphas in Silus’s pack.
Wild werewolves. Cedric had heard of them, but because sun sprites tended to not employ werewolves, he’d never had any reason to fear them, much less ever see them.
They had been known to, on the rare occasion, stir up shit for families who kept tame werewolves.
How in the almighty hell did they ever find this place?
He hated it, but as he watched enemy after enemy, each were bigger, hairier, and altogether meaner looking than the last, coming from out of the trees to fight. Cedric had to admit that Silus was right.
Sun sprites had an enormous advantage over vampires because of the ability to generate sunlight from their bodies, but Cedric was as weak and helpless as any normal human against that kind of muscle mass. At least Silus would have his vampire strength to see him out of this.
He cringed as one of the larger men swung a beefy arm at Silus, teeth clenched and bared as though in a rage, and Silus, nimble and quick as a ninja, ducked out of the way of what would have been a stunning blow. He took hold of that arm, which Cedric swore was nearly the size of Silus’s torso, flipping the man over his shoulder. The earth let out a rattling crash as he landed on the grass, and Silus, still holding that arm, quickly stepped over his attacker’s shoulder so he had the limb between his legs, then twisted sharply to the side.
Cedric swore he heard the bone splintering even through the man’s scream.
Right. There was no way he could fight like that.
He ran to the lake first, helping the younger omegas out of the lake who’d been farther out in the water as they swam back. Not like there was much he could do. The remaining omegas were already pulling them out and rushing back to the main house with them.
There was too much screaming and crying. One skinny male omega, who was carrying a little girl in a pink bathing suit, fell to his knees as he was nearly trampled.
Cedric grabbed him by the armpits and hoisted him back up.
The young man was barely able to look at him and nod his thanks before he was off running again.
Goddamnit, this wasn’t helping. They were fighting to get up the steps of the deck and squeeze through the doors. It was like a mob, and it was just making things worse.
He could probably let out a loud whistle through his teeth, calm them down a little, but one look over his shoulder, and the sight of the battling wolves getting closer, the alphas falling down and bleeding in the grass, let Cedric know that this wasn’t exactly the time for calm and focused. Christ, he wasn’t even calm and focused right now! Getting the omegas to slow down and get into the house in a nice orderly fashion was definitely not going to happen.
Where the hell was Silus? Cedric couldn’t see him anymore!
“My lord.”
Cedric looked down. Varinia stared at him with those bottomless, black eyes of hers. She must have recently fed from Cecil, because she didn’t so much as turn red or steam up under the bright sunlight, and she wasn’t wearing much by the way of protection.
“What?” Cedric snapped.
If he didn’t know better, he would’ve said she was glaring at him. “Do you not join us in battle? Your lover fights, yet here you stand, stunned and helpless.”
His imaginary feathers bristled at the figurative kick to his balls. “I’m making sure everyone gets inside the house.”
She looked over at the chaos at the doors, which had broken up considerably by now, as most people were inside and staring with open mouths through the windows—the idiots—at the battle on the front lawn.
Cedric doubted most of these weres had ever seen wild werewolves.
Varinia lifted a brow then gave Cedric a hard look before she, too, ran off to join the fighting.
Fuck her. Cedric wanted to fight, but he wasn’t an idiot. He would just get in Silus’s way and get himself and Silus murdered.
He ran to the house, helping the stragglers inside and quickly checking to make sure no one was being left behind, and then he shut and locked the door.
Whether that would actually do anything to keep the wild weres out, Cedric doubted it.
It made him feel better, though.
He went into the main room where most everyone watched with their noses pressed against the tinted windows. They were mostly the child alphas too young to battle, and the curious omegas who could not be persuaded away from the windows by their parents. There was still loud chatter and some crying, and Cedric couldn’t think.
He whistled through his teeth. The sound pierced the air like a flying knife, cutting through the noise and panicky chatter.
That got the attention he wanted. Every frightened and excited eye was on him now.
He glared at the young males. “Get away from the windows.”
His command was obeyed instantly.
Right. Now what?
“Everyone get into the basement and stay quiet. This is a misunderstanding. The alphas and your master are outside taking care of this.”
Again, his command was instantly obeyed, even if several people cast wary and frightened glances over their shoulders to the windows and the battle outside as they went. It was almost too easy. Not so much as a peep or a question. Cedric had never realized he held this much power over the weres before.
But Cedric had never bothered commanding the weres like this before, either, partially because he’d always worried about whether or not they would obey.
It seemed he worried for nothing.
Cedric jumped as the glass from the window shattered. A huge body he did not recog
nize flew with all the grace of a limp doll through the window where, ten seconds earlier, the younger alphas had been watching in fascination.
Judging by all the grisly hair and matted clothing, Cedric would bet this guy was not on their team.
He couldn’t help but watch the still form, waiting for it to move. Afraid to move and afraid to stay. He was such a pussy.
A hand on his shoulder had him spinning and nearly brought about a heart attack.
Cecil. “Fucking Christ. Don’t scare me like that.”
His cousin didn’t take his hands from Cedric’s shoulders. In fact, his grip tightened.“We need to get out of here. It’s the omegas they want.”
And they weren’t going to take a single one of them. “Silus—”
“Is outnumbered, even with those alphas outside. Haven’t you been paying attention?”
Cedric slapped Cecil’s hands off him, pissed off at the presumption that he hadn’t bothered to so much as keep a half an eye open for his lover’s safety.
Which he hated to admit, he hadn’t.
Cedric ran to the broken window. His sitting room was so much brighter with the tinted glass in shards on his hardwood floor.
Cecil was right. Those wild weres were getting closer. They were overtaking Silus’s pack and coming straight for the house. Silus and Damon and every other alpha out there fighting were having a hell of a time just keeping up with the numbers of the huge men. Those fighting in wolf form weren’t faring much better, especially when, at best, the odds looked to be two to one.
Silus was doing a job of ducking and weaving around three giant weres, one of whom was in his wolf form.
Between their punches and kicks, or when the one shot out his paw for a deadly swipe across the chest, Silus was as nimble as a dancer. They could barely touch him before he landed a punch on one of them, producing smashed noses, bleeding mouths, and all-around pissed-off faces.
Despite his success in landing blows, he still couldn’t get them to go down, and they were slowly tiring him out.
Damon was in a similar position. Silus’s pack had the disadvantage of being bred smaller, even though Cedric always thought the alphas were enormous, but with that slighter figure came speed, which was what allowed some of those wild weres to get put down, like the poor bastard currently in a coma on the floor behind him.