Valentine's Day Tigers (The Holiday Shifter Mates Book 3)

by Kestra Pingree

  They were both wallflowers at a club where their age was acceptable. It had shoddy strobing lights that were starting to give Lance a headache. Yuri had just left, so Lance didn’t plan on sticking around. Then Drew happened. Lance saw him out of the corner of his eye, a smiley boy who was a little bit taller than he was. Lance was prepared to ignore him. People tended to stare at Lance. They told him he looked weird because of his albinism. He even turned his back when Drew held up his hand and said a short, “H-hey!”

  The guy visibly shrunk when Lance gave his usual cold shoulder. But he seemed harmless enough, and Yuri was always out meeting new people, so maybe Lance should put in an effort. Lance turned back to face Drew and said, “Hey.”

  The guy’s face lit up like there was a light bulb hidden somewhere down his throat. “Y-you alone?” he asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “W-want to dance?”

  Lance liked how he stuttered. He knew it was because the guy was nervous. The tiger side of him was sensitive to all kinds of emotions. It wasn’t a bad nervous, though. He wasn’t going to stand there and make fun of Lance because of how he looked.

  “Oh! God, sorry. I’m Drew by the way.” His sun-kissed cheeks went such a bright red they put the cheap strobe-lights to shame. He held out his hand to Lance; it trembled, but he didn’t back down.

  “Lance.” Instead of making the guy suffer, Lance took his hand and shook it.

  Drew was warm and bubbly when he took Lance out on the rather empty dance floor. Lance didn’t think too much of him at first, but he had fun. Lance never had any desire to know anyone outside of Yuri, but Drew was interesting. He was a chatterbox, and his smile was infectious. He was a little bit like Yuri in that way.

  But he was also nothing like Yuri.

  When Lance and Drew had danced their fill, the two of them were starving. Drew insisted on buying Lance dinner, and Lance let him. They both got a burger and fries, but Lance’s fries looked a ton better. Drew’s were the soggy sad bunch that were old and should have been thrown out while Lance’s were crisp and freshly fried.

  “Want one?” Lance asked.

  He was teasing. He thought nothing of it as he held a fry out to Drew, and Drew took it right out of Lance’s hand with his teeth. It sent a rush through Lance; a fluttering sensation filled his stomach as this guy gave him the stupidest grin. But he was cute. And Lance liked hearing his stories.

  “Can I have your number?” Drew asked.

  Lance mulled it over. He didn’t mind, but he didn’t normally have service. Gale didn’t even know he and Yuri had cell phones. They were cheap flip phones, but still. No one in Eurio had one except for Iris, but she was hardly ever in Eurio since she was off on Trinity business.

  Lance closed his eyes, drifting out of his memories for a moment as the water from the showerhead pounded his eyelids. He wouldn’t admit it, but Iris’s death had been hard for him. He knew it had been many times worse for Gale, but Iris was the reason Lance and Yuri were safe in Eurio. He’d always be grateful to her, even if he had never shown it properly.

  So, Lance had mulled Drew’s question over. He ended up saying yes. From then on, when Yuri wanted to go out, Lance found a way to see Drew again. They planned places to meet up whenever it was time for Lance to go home, and they talked on their phones when they could. Lance never told Drew much concerning his truths, but he started to know Drew, and Drew started to know him. Regardless of outside details, shifters and humans, their souls were made bare.

  Yuri never asked questions and never cared, so he never officially met Drew. He likely didn’t even know he existed, seeing as Lance and Yuri only met up at the end of their escapades to drive back to Eurio. Lance was more private than Yuri. It took him time to process things just like it took him a long time to warm up to people. Yuri never stayed with any one person for long, never long enough to know them. Each time they went to Fairbanks, he was out to find someone new. He likely assumed Lance was doing the same thing.

  That went on for weeks. During that time, just thinking about Drew gave Lance butterflies.

  One time, when Lance and Drew snuck into a back room of the same scrappy club they had first met, Drew kissed Lance for the first time. Lance was surprised, but he didn’t move back. They were alone, just him and Drew, and everything felt safe enough.

  Drew said, “I was worried you wouldn’t let me kiss you. I was starting to think these feelings are all one-sided.”

  “What do you mean?” Lance asked.

  “I like you.”

  “I like you, too.”

  Drew kissed him again after that. Lance had never kissed anyone before. It was a sloppy mess, awkward with noses bumping, but he got the hang of it with Drew’s help.

  “I keep forgetting you’re only sixteen,” said Drew.

  “Sorry,” was all Lance could think to say back. It wasn’t like Drew was that much older than him. He was seventeen.

  Drew laughed. “Why are you apologizing?” He placed his hands on Lance’s hips and kissed him again. This kiss was different. It wasn’t a question. It was a demand. And Lance wasn’t sure he liked it. The first kisses were lips brushing softly together. It made the butterflies in his stomach fly up and into his rib cage. His heart beat faster. But this kiss was hard, teeth biting, and Drew’s tongue fighting its way inside of Lance’s mouth. Drew pulled back before Lance could figure out how he wanted to retaliate.

  “I love you,” Drew said. “I don’t just like you.”

  Then it hit him. Lance realized he must have loved Drew, too. He had never let himself love anyone before, anyone outside of Yuri, but he did love Drew. He kept coming back to him. He anticipated seeing him, and the butterflies were there with every thought of him. It was hard for him to understand since he had become so detached. He and Yuri had to live that way to survive growing up on the streets. They never trusted anyone outside of themselves. Even all their time spent in Eurio, it was just the two of them. They stayed safe inside of their little duo, and then Lance let Drew in.

  “I love you, too,” Lance said. And he knew it was true because of the butterflies, because he never let anybody else in like this, because he felt a warmth with Drew that was very different from what he felt toward his brother. This had to be romantic love, the thing he’d seen floating around in Eurio, the thing he’d seen between Gale and Iris. He understood it now.

  “I locked the door, so unless somebody with the key tries to get in here, we have this room all to ourselves,” Drew said.

  “Okay?” Lance shrugged.

  Drew took off his shirt. He went for his pants next, but then he looked up at Lance with red cheeks. “Don’t make me strip all by myself. It’s embarrassing.”

  Lance thought to ask what they were doing, but he didn’t want to seem stupid or any more inexperienced than he obviously was. So, he stripped off his shirt too, and a wave of arousal hit his nose the same moment Drew stared at him with wide eyes.

  “Hell, you are ripped,” Drew said.

  Lance had caught whiffs of arousal before, especially between mates, but he never had a word for it until recently. It wasn’t until Yuri had started getting so interested in sex that his brother “educated” him on things. Lance knew Yuri’s sexual interest had partly to do with their age and partly to do with the fact that they felt safe enough to be regular teens to some extent, since settling as well as they had into Eurio.

  Yuri liked sex jokes, and Lance had to work to keep up. They often went over his head, but he was good at pretending, and he figured things out at some point.

  Drew stepped forward and touched Lance’s chest. “You’re so warm.”

  Lance stayed quiet. He observed Drew’s palm eclipsing the space above his heart. It made his heart sputter. He caught Drew’s brown-eyed gaze and was content to hold it, to let unspoken feelings pass between them.

  But he hadn’t known then that they weren’t operating on the same wavelength.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

 
; DREW WENT FOR LANCE’S pants, and Lance let him. He assisted him until they were both naked in front of each other. Drew took the opportunity to look at Lance from head to toe. Lance followed his lead once again and returned the look. He hadn’t seen Drew naked before. Maybe he was supposed to think something of it because that odd sugary scent permeated the air. It was thick, even tangy on his tongue.

  “You are so hot,” Drew said. He stepped forward again and touched Lance’s hips. It was a sensitive area that Lance never let anybody but Drew touch, especially not like this, and it made his skin jump.

  “And you’re so pale,” Drew commented. “It’s like you’re made of snow and ice.” Lance was about to tell him to shut the hell up because he had had more than his fair share of nasty comments when it came to his albinism. But then Drew said, “You’re beautiful.”

  Drew trailed his fingers down Lance’s skin, to his thigh, and Lance felt a buzz. He didn’t mind Drew touching him softly like this, but he didn’t really know what they were doing, or why he seemed so fixated on Lance’s dick.

  “Soft,” Drew’s cheeks were on fire.

  “So?” Lance asked.

  Drew took himself in hand. He was hard, and his face went even redder. “Don’t like what you see?”

  “What are you talking about? I love what I see.” Lance reached up and held the back of Drew’s head. Lance was not short for his age, but that year Drew had on him meant Drew was just a little bit taller, for now. Drew took the invitation to kiss Lance again, the aggressive kind. He stepped forward, and Lance stumbled back until his back was pressed into a wall. Drew kissed him deeper. This time he rocked his hips against Lance’s. Lance wasn’t sure what he thought about that. It was new, and he was starting to get hard with the friction.

  Drew breathed heavily as he moved back and took Lance in hand. Lance shuddered and grabbed Drew’s shoulders to steady himself. Something was building, and Lance needed… something.

  “There we go,” Drew said.

  Lance’s breaths came quicker, shallower.

  “Ready to feel good?” Drew asked.

  “I guess,” Lance said, but in all honesty, he wasn’t feeling that good at all. There was a tension concentrated in his dick that got worse as it built. He’d masturbated every now and then, but it was just because it was something he had discovered in the shower when he was bored one day.

  Drew must not have heard the hesitation in his voice, and Lance was too willing to let Drew lead. There were some cushions in the room that Drew pressed Lance down on. Lance was stronger than Drew. He knew this, but he was paralyzed for some reason. He couldn’t act, couldn’t put words to this sense of dread, because Drew seemed so happy. Lance wanted him happy. This was what two people who were in love did, right?

  “Do you trust me?” Drew asked.

  “Yeah,” Lance said. That was also true. Lance hadn’t trusted anybody but Yuri before, but he had let Drew in. He trusted him. Maybe he shouldn’t have.

  “This might hurt a little at first, but it will start feeling really good in a minute, okay?”

  “Okay,” Lance said, but his heart was beating a million miles an hour, and it had nothing to do with butterflies. He was starting to panic. This was a submissive position he took with no one. And Drew was still touching him, trailing fingers down sensitive skin. It burned in an uncomfortable way.

  Drew spread Lance’s legs so he could crawl on top of him. He moved Lance back so that he could get whatever meticulous positioning he wanted, and then he pressed his dick into Lance’s ass. At first, it was very shallow, but Lance immediately didn’t like it. Then Drew rolled his hips. Lance seized up and then grabbed at Drew’s hips to make him stop.

  “What are you doing?” Lance gasped.

  “It’ll get better. Promise,” Drew said.

  Lance held fast to Drew’s hips, but he didn’t stop Drew from rolling his hips forward again. This time Drew buried himself deeper. There was no lubrication, no nothing. It was painful.

  “Stop,” Lance said. “I don’t like it.” All the butterflies in his stomach died. They fell to the base of his stomach like rocks.

  “Sorry,” Drew said, wide-eyed. “Oh, I know what’s wrong.” He stared down at Lance thoughtfully as he moved back a little, but not far enough to let Lance up. “Let’s do something else instead.”

  Lance was about to say he didn’t want to, but Drew’s hands went around Lance’s length, building friction, building that tension into an unbelievably uncomfortable pressure. Lance gritted his teeth. He held on to Drew like he was the only thing keeping him from drowning and tried not to dig into Drew’s skin with claws that demanded to show face. And he just… held on. He wanted it to be over already. He wanted the pressure to release.

  “A guy did this for me once,” Drew said.

  And still, Lance couldn’t speak. His head was swimming as Drew’s lips went around him and he slowly took Lance farther and farther until it would have required him swallowing to go any more. His tongue was hot and wet, burning sensitive nerve endings. Lance writhed.

  Sweat poured down Lance’s skin as he tried to remember how to breathe, how to talk. He could get away. He could push Drew away and get the hell out of there, but none of it made sense. This was the same Drew Lance said he loved and meant it. He wasn’t being malicious. Lance could sense it. He was excited, eager to please, and none of it made sense.

  Finally, to Lance’s great relief, he climaxed. Drew backed up, startled as he choked on the hot liquid dripping from his mouth. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and Lance shuddered his relief.

  “You should have warned me you were close,” Drew said.

  Lance was too busy shaking his head to reply to that. Drew plopped down onto the cushion beside Lance, and then Lance started wondering how sanitary these things were, and how many other people had gone back here to do this same thing.

  “Feel good?” Drew asked.

  Lance didn’t know how to answer that.

  “Do you think you could help me get off?”

  Lance sat up. He glanced at Drew, at his face, the face he adored and dreamed about when he went to bed at night. Drew had comforting brown eyes, eyes Lance trusted, and stubble he was letting grow because he wanted to try out a beard. Then Lance looked down at Drew’s hard-on.

  “Sure,” Lance said. And he would, because he saw the stars in Drew’s eyes, like this meant something to him, something beyond compare.

  Lance took Drew’s length and gently rubbed, watching Drew’s reactions; his face went slack and scrunched up at the same time, and he squeezed his eyes shut.

  “Oh, man, I’m so close,” Drew said. “You want to try? I’ll walk you through it. Please.”

  Lance hesitated. “This isn’t good enough?”

  “Seriously?” Drew frowned.

  “Okay, I’ll try it.”

  They switched positions. Lance pushed away the repulsion he felt as he took Drew into his mouth. It was something about the bitter taste.

  “Take me as far as you can go,” Drew said between labored breaths. “Try using your tongue like I did.”

  Lance did as he said. He didn’t know if he was doing it right since Drew started twitching almost like he was in pain on the cushion, but he must’ve been since Drew kept mumbling for him to continue. His hands were in Lance’s hair, pulling, ripping.

  “Going to come,” Drew gasped.

  Lance took that as his cue to back off. He waited safely to the side as Drew finished. Drew stayed panting on the cushions and Lance stood. He watched the rise and fall of Drew’s chest and felt estranged, like an apparition floating around in the air. Lance wanted to go back out to the club. He wanted to dance. He wanted to share drinks like they usually did. He wanted to play the game where they tried to feed each other. Those thoughts brought the butterflies back to life.

  “What are you doing?” Drew asked as he pushed himself up. “Why are you just standing there staring?”

  “I don�
�t know,” Lance confessed.

  “You didn’t like that at all, did you?” And suddenly Drew’s scent went sour. The mood changed like the dull throbbing of the bass beats outside of the room.

  “You did,” Lance pointed out.

  “That wasn’t what I asked.”

  Lance shrugged. “Let’s get dressed and head back out. I’m hungry.”

  “Look,” Drew said as his eyes went down to the ground. He wrapped his arms around himself like he was suddenly embarrassed to be naked in front of Lance. “It’s fine if you don’t feel the same way. I just wish you had told me sooner. Before… I can’t be friends with you anymore, Lance. I like you too much. I thought you felt the same way I did.”

  “I do. I love you,” Lance reminded.

  “Don’t lie. You don’t love me.” Drew clenched his hands into fists and bit his bottom lip so hard Lance thought it might bleed.

  “Drew.”

  Lance reached out for him, but Drew shied away and shouted, “Don’t touch me!”

  Lance was taken aback. He moved away and sidled against a wall, giving Drew as much space as he needed. Lance knew how hard it was to let people in, and he knew the importance of giving them space when they asked for it. He knew the importance of needing to be alone to figure things out because he did that all the time. He watched Drew dress in a hurry, without a word, and then he watched him as he left Lance alone in the room.

  Lance never saw Drew again after that.

  CHAPTER NINE

  LANCE SLAMMED HIS HANDS against the shower wall. He leaned into the slippery tile, using his arms as a cushion as he rested his forehead there. He felt like he was suffocating in all the hot steam. He let out a breath.

  “Focus,” he told himself.

  He tried to think of Ash again. He tried to use nothing but his mind to get that tension going, to coax a hard-on, but it didn’t work when he thought about Ash. It only worked if he thought about sex itself, not even sex, just the thought of being aroused. But he wasn’t interested in that now, and he was too upset to bother trying. It didn’t matter anyway. He knew he could jerk off. There was nothing wrong with his body. It was something else.