by Marcy Jacks
Whereas before Chris had been shy and just barely willing to spend time alone with Eli, now he was insistent on locking the door to Eli’s cabin to prevent any unwanted guests, shutting the windows to keep them from being seen or heard, and putting Eli on his back at every possible moment.
Not that he was complaining in the beginning, and the knowing little smirks that were sent his way after going several hours without being seen by anyone were a huge boost to his ego.
But now that his wolf was more than settled, Eli had grown curious.
Chris was a young man, hardly a teenager, but still at an age where he should of had some experience with sex.
With the eager way he acted and the needy behavior he displayed, Eli was prone to think that Chris had never had an orgasm in his life before Eli came along.
He asked him as much the next time they were alone. James had given the both of them permission to travel with the group of alphas and omegas to the pond for swimming, and though they were dressed for a day out, shorts, T- shirts, sandals, and whatnot, neither were up for swimming.
Eli should’ve expected the defensive answer Chris gave him. “I wasn’t a virgin or anything, if that’s what you’re asking.”
“No, I didn’t think that,” Eli lied. Truthfully, the thought had briefly entered his head. It had been what he’d hoped for. It was the preferable scenario over what Eli suspected.
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“It’s just that you don’t act like someone used to having sex.” That, and Chris still showed a slight fear of letting Eli top him. The last time Eli tried, he’d been so careful, and yet still Chris had trembled beneath him, his body actually shook with fear, and Eli was forced to stop.
Chris might say he was ready, but Eli could tell otherwise, and now that they were properly mated, Eli wasn’t being controlled by his instincts so much that he couldn’t tell when Chris was frightened of his touch.
“I didn’t much get around before you.”
At least there was that part about it. Those words coming out of Chris’s mouth still made Eli feel strong and powerful, like Chris really was entirely his, even though someone else had had the other man at least once before Eli.
“I just wish you still weren’t so scared of me, is all,” Eli said, throwing away the stalk of grass he’d been playing with.
“I’m not afraid of you anymore,” Chris said. “I never really was. Not really, I was just ”…
Chris didn’t continue. This was the last touchy subject between them, and it was driving a wedge between them as wide as though they’d never made any progress at all.
It wouldn’t be such a big deal for Eli had he not been born an alpha, and his inner wolf was beginning to growl at the constant reversal of positions.
Another big issue was something Eli had yet to share with Chris, and that was the constant danger the other man would be in so long as he had those pretty eyes of his. Eli worried that he wouldn’t be able to protect his mate all the time from the other wolves who would want him, and because Chris still showed a reluctance to giving himself over fully to their bonding, Eli worried over whether or not the other man would leave.
Another thing that bothered him was the idea of if it would be
responsible or not to try and stop him.
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“You used to swear up and down that you weren’t into men, and now I can barely get into the shower without you following me inside.”
Eli sensed Chris’s mortified anger spiking the moment the words were out of his mouth. “Wait,” Eli reached out and grabbed hold of Chris’s wrist before he could sulk off. “I didn’t mean it like that. I
just…dammit, you know how I meant it.”
Chris looked at him and then at the group of children splashing around in the pond, being overseen by the protective alphas. He and Eli were sitting in the shade of the trees, but James had forbidden them to stray too far.
“My first time with another man…” Chris swallowed, and Eli felt his pulse grow quick from his wrist. “It wasn’t something that I wanted. Can we just leave it at that?”
Eli struggled valiantly, he really did, to keep from asking anymore questions. Chris had basically just told him that someone had raped him. Eli had suspected sexual abuse, but to know for sure…
It really was a testament to his willpower how he managed to keep his mouth shut. He wanted to ask who had done it, how long it had been, and if he’d been hurt. He didn’t ask those things. One day Chris would give him the details, and then Eli was going to go hunting for the piece of shit who did it.
Eli pulled Chris back down to sit with him, and Eli wrapped his arm around the other man’s shoulders, keeping them close. He kissed Chris’s hair.
“I’m sorry I pushed it. You can have as many secrets as you like.”
For now. “Take all the time you need, I can be patient.”
Chris snorted, nudging Eli in the ribs. “Yeah right.”
* * * *
They’d returned home to the cabin that had become theirs and theirs alone, and considering Chris’s hesitation to be topped in bed or
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to lose any form of control while they were naked and alone, Eli was pleasantly surprised when Chris pushed him against the wall of the kitchen, got down on his knees, and put Eli’s dick in his mouth.
Holy fuck. Eli grabbed Chris around the shoulders and, as gently as he could, thrust his hips in time with Chris’s bobbing head. He would ask no questions. He knew better than to look a gift horse in the mouth, and his inner alpha was loving the attention.
Chris seemed to appreciate the steady pace Eli was taking him with, and when he looked down, their eyes met, and Eli could see the curiosity in those multicolored depths.
It occurred to him that this was probably the first time Chris had ever given anyone head before. He was going to have to give him some hands-on lessons, but for the moment, the only thing he would be able to offer was some instruction.
“Use your tongue around the base. Fuck, yeah. Keep your mouth tight when you get to the head.” Eli groaned as Chris proved to be very good at following instructions.
It was steadily getting hard to not just thrust his cock between those pink lips as hard and fast as he could. He released Chris’s shoulders when the other man made a small pained sound.
“Sorry,” he said. He hadn’t meant to grip so hard.
Chris just smiled up at him, and with his mouth still around Eli’s cock, it was the most beautiful sight Eli had ever seen.
Then it was back down to business as Chris grew steadily confident in his new skills, and Eli’s head banged against the wall as he threw it back and moaned.
This was just what he’d needed.
He wanted to come inside Chris’s mouth so badly, to have him take everything Eli had to offer, but he again reminded himself that Chris was new to this, and he should make an attempt to warn him.
“Fuck, I’m coming. Ugh, Chris!”
He grabbed the other man’s shoulders again and tried to push him off, but with their positions it was difficult to actually push him off,
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and Chris was determined. Eli couldn’t hold back anymore, and God help him, he tried.
There was nothing Eli could do but grab hold of his mate and empty himself into Chris’s mouth.
Well, the other man certainly learned his lesson as he was forced to pull back from the rush of fluid down his throat. He coughed and gagged a bit, but otherwise was fine and managed to catch his breath on his own.
“Told you I was coming,” Eli said.
“Ha-ha.” Chris wiped his cheek with the back of his hand, removing all traces of what he hadn’t managed to swallow. “Wanted to try it. I didn’t think it would be that hard.”
Eli reached down and grabbed him, and after throwing the other man over his shoulder, he carted him off to his bedroom fireman-
style.
He enjoyed the shoc
ked noises Chris made at the new position, but would enjoy the pleasurable wails he made even more when Eli taught him the proper way to suck a man’s dick by leading through example.
* * * *
“Can we go back to the pond?” Chris asked. “I like it there.”
Chris had been asking this a lot lately. If Eli managed to get permission from James to go, this would be the third time this week.
Not that he could blame the other man for wanting the change in scenery, what with the lack of any difference in scenery in the main
camp.
Eli smiled and kissed him, they were still in bed, naked, and letting the cool breeze from the early morning waft in through the open windows. He couldn’t deny Chris what he wanted. Eli was going to have to ask James if that was normal of a mated alpha after he asked to go back to the pond. Of course, James wouldn’t always be
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able to spare the extra alphas to go with them as guards, just so that the pair of them could relax by the water.
“I’ll see what I can do. Going to go swimming this time?”
“Maybe,” Chris blushed as he stared up at the ceiling. “What are the odds that we’ll get to be alone while we’re there?”
Eli sighed. With several days having gone by since the last attack, Chris had grown complacent and seemed to think that the danger was over or at least had dwindled enough that it was safe for just him and Eli to go off by themselves.
No matter what Eli said, he couldn’t seem to truly convince his mate that he was important, and that he would always require protection, and that Eli wouldn’t always be strong enough to give it to him.
More of that fear bubbled up in Eli’s head. Chris was becoming antsy here and with good reason. Any normal human being wouldn’t want to be cooped up on such a small piece of land, never having the freedom to go wherever he wanted to go.
When he discovered that was the way it would always be, Eli wouldn’t stop him when he finally decided to leave and go somewhere where no wild and dangerous werewolves lived.
“I doubt it. Why?”
Chris still avoided eye contact with him. “No reason. Just thought we’d get some time alone.”
Time alone was always good. Eli wondered what he was up to.
“How many werewolves did Deacon make?” Chris asked, changing the subject suddenly. “It can’t be that hard if he’s still doing it.”
“I’ve never changed anyone before, so personally, I don’t know,” Eli said. “From how I understand it, though, it’s as simple as just scratching someone while in wolf form. Or biting, if you want the process to go any faster.”
“And then they just turn into wild werewolves?” Chris asked.
“Only if they don’t have another wolf around to teach them how
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to behave. It’s too easy to just let ourselves go in the beginning, to want to be more wolf than human. For myself now, it’s no problem at all. I don’t even think about it. But my brother and I were born werewolves, not changed, so I’m betting the experiences aren’t the same.”
Corey, James’s mate, had nearly gone wild due to his sudden change. Not only that, he’d also suppressed his inner wolf without knowing it, which was just as dangerous as letting it go entirely.
“But, say if you were to change me, there’s a chance I would go wild?”
Eli looked at him then shifted onto his elbow to better see Chris’s
face. “Do you want me to change you?”
He never lost that blush, like just asking was embarrassing or something. “I don’t know. Maybe if you did, I wouldn’t be so helpless all the time. I hate it.”
“You would still need protection,” Eli said. “I can already tell you would be an omega wolf.”
“Well, even then, I would still be fast enough to run away. And if they caught me, I could defend myself long enough for you to come, or maybe even get away on my own.”
Eli had to admit the idea held appeal. Turning Chris into a werewolf would practically guarantee that he couldn’t leave, and it would only serve to strengthen their bond. As two bonded werewolves, they would even be able to communicate telepathically.
That, and Chris was right. As a werewolf, he would be faster and stronger, able to better sense when danger was coming. He wouldn’t be at risk one-hundred percent of the time like he was now.
Why the hell not?
Eli got to his knees. “Are you sure? You want to do this?”
He would have to ask for James’s permission first, but if Eli told
him the reasons, he didn’t think his alpha would be against it. In fact
he was positive that James would be more than for it.
Chris smiled shyly up at him. He nodded then opened his mouth
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to answer when a loud wolf howl sounded outside, and then the
growls and whines of pain started.
Those could be explained away with the roughhousing the other wolves were constantly doing, but Eli heard the undercurrent that Chris did not. He caught the sounds of many padded feet running onto the land, the alpha wolves charging to meet them, and the scuffling sound of nails scratching in the dirt and teeth biting into hair as the fights started.
He got up and out of bed quickly, and only then did Chris seem to take note that something was off.
“What’s wrong?”
Eli heard it coming, and he got in front of the window. The curtains were closed, so hopefully the attacker wouldn’t be aware of Eli standing there.
“Get under the bed and don’t come out until I say so.”
“What?”
The window shattered, and razor-like glass flew around Eli in a thousand large and small crystallized pieces as the snarling wolf leaped through.
Eli put his arm up just as those jaws clamped down, and Chris yelled.
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Chapter Eleven
Chris screamed as he watched Eli get thrown down into a bed of shattered glass by the wild animal who jumped through their window. The blood spurted next, and just as Chris recalled Eli’s command for him to hide under the bed, he thought, Fuck that.
Chris jumped out of bed, still completely naked, and he ran behind the wolf that currently had his lover in a death grip. Eli had put his arm up to defend his face, but now his arm was in the mouth of that raving wolf, and it was being torn to shreds.
“No!” Eli yelled at him when he caught sight of what Chris was doing.
Though he felt compelled to turn back and run, or at least make an attempt to obey Eli’s earlier command―which in itself was only a product of their mating―Chris ran behind the wolf.
The gray mass of snarling hair was too busy trying to yank Eli’s arm out of his socket that he didn’t notice Chris approaching from behind. Not until Chris grabbed the creature by the ears, digging his fingernails into the sensitive flesh, and yanking back as hard as he could.
The result was instant. The wolf released its hold on Eli’s arm as
it bucked back in pain. Chris felt some of the skin tear up and collect under his fingernails when he scratched too hard, but he had no time to reflect on that as the wolf twisted around and shot out its claws
along Chris’s chest.
He didn’t feel any pain. The wolf missed!
“Chris? Chris!”
Chris only heard the alarmed shout as though it had come from
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down a long tunnel. He felt a warm, wet something cripple down his chest, and he looked, expecting to see wolf drool or something.
He saw red. Blood. He didn’t understand why his eyes were playing tricks on him like this. It looked like it was squirting from several gaping slashes on his chest, going from the top, all the way down into his stomach, where the slashes got to be deeper.
That couldn’t be right! He wasn’t hurt!
The wolf whined, its tail cowering between
its legs before it jumped back through the window, disappearing.
Chris had scared it away. Good.
Then he keeled over.
Eli caught him before he could land on the hardwood floor, and then Chris really started to feel the pain.
That had been so fast. Less than ten seconds, and now he was
going to die.
Eli shook him. “Chris? Chris! Stay awake!”
“I’m fine,” he said, but Eli ignored him, heaving Chris into his arms and running out of the bedroom.
From Chris’s position, he could only make out things that were happening above him. First the slightly cracked ceiling of their cabin. Then the blue sky, and then the faces of the other members of Eli’s pack gathering around him. Their faces ranged from sick horror, to sympathy, and then sadness.
“James!” Eli shouted, even though his alpha was standing right there. Eli was panicking. “He’ll be okay, right? That other wolf infected him, so he should start healing soon? Right?”
His voice became more and more desperate the more he spoke.
Chris’s vision was starting to go fuzzy now, but he could still make out the way James clenched his jaw and bit on his lower lip. He looked behind himself and called for someone to step forward.
Old Maggie came into view. The pack’s wise woman. Chris felt a sense of calm at seeing her. She would tell everyone that he was fine, that all Chris needed was some sleep, bandages, and chicken soup or
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something.
She scrutinized the wound carefully, and Chris’s eyes became heavier and heavier. Eli shook him again.
“Stay awake! Baby, please, stay awake. Don’t die on me.”
Eli was crying now. Chris could tell by the way his voice broke, and the gentle, tickling splash of warm tears on Chris’s face.
“His bowels were nicked,” Old Maggie said, and then she shook her head in a decidedly nonencouraging way. “I have nothing that can save him from that.”