by Lynn Hagen
They were even more beautiful after Riley reached up and tweaked them between his fingers. They pebbled and turned white before fading to pink and then back to their golden tanned color. Perfect. But the sweet hiss that fell from Sterling’s lips was even better.
“Do you like that, baby?” Riley asked as he tweaked the little nubs again.
Sterling nodded rapidly, his eyes taking on a dazed hue, darkening from light grey to a steely grey. It looked like the clouds themselves were moving inside his mate’s eyes, and it was breathtaking. It amazed Riley that he could do that to another being, that he could bring this much pleasure to a man he was falling deeply in love with. He never wanted that sensual rapture to leave Sterling’s face.
Riley lay there for a second, feeling his heart expand and encompass the man straddling him. How could he have ever tried to push this guy away? Gods, he had been such a thickheaded jerk. “Did I tell you how sexy it was when you stood up to Ahm?”
Sterling licked his lips, his glazed eyes lowering down toward Riley. “I…I thought he was going to kill me.”
Riley’s eyebrows peaked as surprise rolled through him. “And you still stood up for me?”
“You’re my mate!” Sterling growled, doing a pretty damn good imitation of a bear, and Riley loved the sweet growly sound. He loved it even more that Sterling had claimed him, even to the point of standing up to someone he was scared of. That was what mates did for each other. He knew that, but it had still surprised him that the slim man had done it.
“And you’re my mate, Sterling. I’m never giving you up.” Riley didn’t miss the tears that misted in Sterling’s eyes at his words. He knew his mate craved the pretty little words spoken between mates. He just didn’t know how to express them verbally.
Riley wrapped his hand around the back of Sterling’s neck and pulled him down until their noses almost touched. He moved his hand around until he could cup the side of Sterling’s face, rubbing his thumb along the soft skin of his mate’s cheek.
“I wish I knew the words, Sterling.”
Sterling’s eyes sparkled with little chips of molten grey. He smiled. “You do,” Sterling whispered. “You’ll tell me when you’re ready.”
Riley wished he knew when that was, if ever. He knew he would never be sappy like his brothers or his father. He just wasn’t built that way. But he wanted Sterling to know how much the man meant to him.
Riley started to grow frustrated with his inability to express how he felt about Sterling. He gritted his teeth and searched his brain for the right words, but none came to mind, none that he could speak, anyway.
“Ssshh,” Sterling whispered as he pressed a soft kiss to the corner of Riley’s mouth. “You’ll find the right words when you’re ready.”
Riley wanted to say something, anything. Sterling deserved it. But then the man started moving, jerking his hips up and down at a rapid pace, and Riley forgot his own name, let alone trying to speak an entire sentence.
“Sterling,” Riley groaned as he grabbed Sterling’s hips and started thrusting upward, driving his cock in and out of his mate’s tight ass. He dug the heels of his feet into the mattress and met Sterling’s rapid movements every time the man came down and impaled himself on Riley’s cock. He could feel the skin around his mate’s entrance expanding, giving as Riley’s cock drove inside his mate’s body over and over again.
“Fuck, Sterling, how do you—” Riley groaned and snapped his mouth closed when Sterling started some sort of circular motion with his hips, gyrating them and driving Riley’s cock further into his mate’s body. Gods, how did he know how to do that? It was driving Riley crazy. Sterling seemed to squeeze his inner muscles around Riley’s cock at the same time he dropped down onto him.
Sterling fell forward, swiveling his hips in a quick motion as he bowed his back, staring right into Riley’s eyes. “Are you going to bite me, Riley?”
Riley stared up at Sterling, unsure of how comfortable he felt at the wicked grin on his mate’s face. Sterling was kind of scary when he seemed that happy during sex.
Sterling wiggled his dark-blond brows. “Well, big boy, are you?”
Riley was suddenly reminded of Sterling calling out to someone in his sleep that he referred to as “big boy.” Had Sterling been dreaming of him? The mere thought that Sterling had been fantasizing about him, even in his sleep, all of a sudden took hold of Riley and overwhelmed him.
He growled, flipping Sterling over onto his back. What madness had control of him, Riley would never know. He grabbed a handful of Sterling’s hair with one hand and hiked the man’s leg up to his chest with the other. He had Sterling twisted into a pretzel. His mate’s knees were touching his ears as Riley slammed his cock into his mate’s giving ass. Riley pressed both hands into the mattress on either side of Sterling’s head, his mate’s feet at his ears. Gods, he was a debauched mess, and Riley was turned on even more. The man was bent in half and smiling up at him.
Smiling!
“Mine!” he growled right before he struck, sinking his teeth into the soft flesh between Sterling’s shoulder and his neck. The first sweet taste of his mate’s life-giving blood ripped the last of Riley’s control away from him.
He threw his head back as his loud roar filled the room, shaking the windows, as his release took hold of him and tossed him over the edge into bliss. As his cock thickened inside of Sterling, swelling to the point of trapping him inside his mate’s body, Riley heard his own cry of release echoed in his mate’s soft cry.
Riley pounded into Sterling’s pulsing ass, licking the wound closed as the last of his seed emptied from his tight balls. His arms quivered as sweat dripped from his face. His mate’s stomach was covered with his own cum as Sterling lay there jerking slightly, satiation riding his features hard.
Riley had enough of a brain cell to roll to the side when he dropped down onto the mattress, taking Sterling with him. Riley wrapped his arms around Sterling as the man snuggled into his chest. He could hear a happy little sound come from his mate, and he couldn’t help but smile. Sterling really was something else.
“Riley?”
“Yeah, baby?” he whispered against the top of the man’s head.
“Where’s my pig?”
Chapter Nine
Maverick walked into the diner, glancing around. He spotted the wolf physician he was there to meet almost immediately. He nodded at a few of the townspeople and smiled at a little girl with wide blue eyes as Maverick crossed the room.
The little girl reminded Maverick of when Melonee was that age. He remembered the first time he had laid eyes on her. Maverick had been afraid he would break her. She was so damn small. He had wanted to give her the world.
And still did.
His adopted daughter had grown up so fast that Maverick yearned for the days when she ran around the den causing havoc and had every warrior wrapped around her little finger.
The warriors were still wrapped around her finger, but she was grown now, or almost. She had turned into a beautiful young woman and had a fierce attitude to match Maverick’s. But as he glanced over at the small girl with long brown ringlets, he wished he could make time stand still so his little Melonee wouldn’t let her mate claim her and then leave him. Melonee was his right-hand girl.
His mate, Cecil, was his best friend and everything else Maverick had ever yearned for in a mate, but Melonee was his sidekick, his buddy, and his get-into-trouble partner. What was he going to do without her?
“Is everything all right?” Dr. Carmichael asked as Maverick took a seat.
Damn, his eyes were misty. When in the hell did he ever get misty-eyed?
Duh. When he thought of Melonee.
Maverick cleared his throat and nodded. “I’m fine. What did you find out?” His nostalgic moments of his daughter were for him alone.
“Well,” Dr. Carmichael began as he lifted his cup of coffee, “Cole’s blood test came back.”
“And?”
The wolf
physician shook his head, took a sip of his coffee, and then set the cup down. “The blood I drew from Seth and the blood I drew from Cole have been tested. Although Seth has been converted into a bear, he has a minute trace of the drug Liquid Wrath in his system.”
Damn. Maverick had prayed that Seth, Chance Lakeland’s mate, wouldn’t be infected. The Lakelands weren’t going to like this news.
“And Cole’s blood?” He still gritted his teeth to think that Shanta, the deceased fey leader, had tried to use the whelp for monetary gain. The otherworldly residents of Brac Village kept the news that Cole’s blood contained the cure for Liquid Wrath a well-hidden secret. They didn’t want another psycho coming after the babe. Cole’s father, Luke, hand had a hard enough time keeping his son safe when he ran from Shanta. Malcolm’s mate didn’t need any more bullshit coming his son’s way.
“I tested the child’s blood against the small sample of the drug I have. It’s still the cure for that horrendous paranormal drug. But when I tested his blood with the mutated version of Liquid Wrath, it was useless. The mutation allows for a human being to be converted into a shifter, vampire, demon, or whatever his mate is, but Cole’s blood is useless in neutralizing the mutated version of the drug.”
Maverick was both angered and relieved. He was angry that Cole was still a target, but relieved that his blood had gone down on a notch on the most wanted list. Malcolm and Luke would at least get some good news.
Maverick nodded at Tangee as the mate brought him a chai tea. The man knew his weakness. “Thanks.”
“Are you going to order anything to eat?” Tangee asked as he tapped his pencil on an order pad.
“Not today.”
Tangee nodded. “Okay, call me if you change your mind,” he said and then walked away to take some else’s order.
Maverick waited until they were alone and then turned back to the doctor. “Tell me, doc, why did Ahm turn white?”
The physician looked shocked, his brows jumping up into his hairline. “He’s not blue anymore?”
Maverick shook his head.
“I’m afraid I don’t know too much about the shadow elves, Maverick. The shadow elves are elusive. In all my life, I’ve only met one, and that was Ahm. Did he give you a reason?”
Maverick chuckled and then sipped his tea. “The Keebler Elf says it happens when a shadow elven turns five hundred years old. I’m just wondering if there is more to his story than he’s telling. But be warned, he isn’t too happy about not looking like Papa Smurf anymore.”
Dr. Carmichael clucked his tongue, shaking his head at the same time. “I swear, alpha. One of these days you are going to poke fun at the wrong person and they are going to poke back.”
Maverick grinned at the wolf physician, and he knew his smile was more demonic than humorous. “Let them try, doc. Let them try.”
Sterling had big plans for Bacon. He wasn’t sure if other people would consider his plans “normal,” but he didn’t care. Bacon was his little girl, and he was going to pamper her like a princess.
“Chauncey?” Sterling said the man’s name as he walked into the kitchen and spotted the big guy eating right from the ice cream container. He was going to have to make sure he forwent any ice cream in the future.
The man leaned against the counter scooping the treat out, but Sterling noticed that Chauncey’s moves were a little uncoordinated. He looked like he was scooping just a little too slowly, and his wrist kept jerking.
“Would you mind taking me into town?” he asked, smiling at Chauncey.
Chauncey licked the spoon as if he would never taste ice cream again, and then he gave a slow nod, as if only half listening to Sterling. “I can do that for you, Sterling. Do you want to go now?”
“Now would be nice.”
Sterling wasn’t sure if Chauncey was the right person to ask. His movements were still jerky, and he was walking a bit slow. Sterling was actually a little concerned.
“Is everything all right? I can ask someone else.” He wanted to say more, but Sterling wasn’t sure if asking the man why he was walking funny was any of his business. He may be a chatterbox at times, but he knew when to butt out of someone’s business.
“I’m cool,” Chauncey replied. “I was in an accident not too long ago. Even though I’ve recovered, sometimes my coordination screws with me. I go right when I want to go left, or I miss the toilet seat altogether.”
Yeah, Sterling so did not want to know about that last part.
“But I can take you.”
This man was about to give him a ride into town? He was going to be behind the wheel of a truck? “Uh…maybe I should ask—”
“I’m fine,” Chauncey said as he wiggled his brows. “Just make sure you wear your seat belt.”
Sterling took a quick step back.
“Just kidding.” Chauncey chuckled. “You’re too easy. But you are going to wear a seat belt. Besides, it’ll give me an excuse to harass my mate at work.”
Okay.
“I’ll be right back.” Sterling shot up the steps and grabbed Bacon from the small pen that Riley had constructed in their bedroom. It wasn’t big, but then again, neither was Bacon.
“Where’s the fire?”
“Going into town,” Sterling shouted to his brother over his shoulder and then skidded to a halt. “Why aren’t you at work?”
“It’s my day off. I do get those, you know.”
Sterling narrowed his eyes as he walked down the hallway toward his brother. “You didn’t ask for a vacation package and a 401K, did you?” The last town they were in, his brother had done just that. They nearly weren’t hired.
“And Cody said after my ninety days, I would get it.” Darcy looked smug. “I told you I knew how to negotiate.”
“I guess.” Sterling turned and walked down the hallway, heading back downstairs.
“Hey, Sterling,” Darcy called out.
Sterling turned.
“Maybe later we could hang out?”
He had missed his brother. They lived under the same roof, but Darcy worked as a prep cook during the day and spent his nights with his vampire mate. Sterling hadn’t seen much of Darcy in the past few weeks, and he really missed hanging out with the guy.
“Okay.” He grinned as he ran down the steps.
“Ready?” Chauncey asked.
“Yep.”
As they approached the truck, Sterling became confused when Chauncey headed toward the passenger side. Maybe Chauncey was going left when he should be going right. That thought did not comfort Sterling.
“Want to drive?” Chauncey asked as he dangled the keys in front of his chest.
It had been too long since Sterling drove. He had a valid license, but didn’t own a car. “Really?”
“Sure.” Chauncey tossed Sterling the set of keys. Sterling caught them in midair, nearly dropping Bacon. He scooted her back up his chest and climbed into the truck.
“You’ll have to hold Bacon so I can drive,” Sterling said to Chauncey as he held Bacon out to him. Once Chauncey took the pig, Sterling reached down and readjusted the seat. His legs were too short to reach the pedals. Of course, he wouldn’t have that problem if a single one of the Lakeland men was built like a normal person.
Sterling chuckled lightly to himself. He wasn’t sure he would like them as much if they were. He certainly knew he wouldn’t like Riley as much if he wasn’t so tall and sexy and—damn. He needed to stop thinking about his mate or he’d never make it out of the driveway.
He watched in amazement as Chauncey buckled Bacon into a seat belt between them. He never would have thought of that. Sterling started the truck and pulled from the drive, heading into town. He was so excited that he was driving that he hadn’t watched his speed limit.
“Cops are behind us,” Chauncey said as he looked over his shoulder. “And their lights are flashing, speedy.”
Sterling felt panic well up in him. He had never been pulled over by a cop before. What if they took him
to jail? What if they threw him on the ground and handcuffed him? He didn’t even know a lawyer he could call.
“Should I try and outrun them?” Sterling asked as he glanced in the rearview mirror.
“You could try, or you could just pull over,” Chauncey said with a snicker. “But I would opt for pulling over. I’m too pertty to go to jail.”
“Yeah,” Sterling said as he licked his lips, feeling his mouth dry out, “me, too.” Sterling slowed the truck, pulling over to the soft shoulder, and put the truck in park, turning the key and shutting the motor off.
He was sweating bullets.
His entire body stiffened when the cop slid from his patrol car and walked toward the truck, his towering frame seeming larger than life. Sterling saw bars in his future.
“He’s coming toward us,” Sterling whispered to Chauncey from the side of his mouth.
“They tend to do that when they pull you over.” Chauncey chuckled.
Sterling was a nervous wreck. He had never been stopped by cops. Ever.
“Do you know what speed you were going, son?” the cop asked as he approached Sterling’s side of the truck. The man was wearing mirrored sunglasses, hiding his eyes. That was not helping Sterling relax. He imagined big, bloodred eyes that would hypnotize Sterling into confessing everything he had done wrong in his life. He was ready to jump from the truck and beg to man not to arrest him for running that frog over.
“No,” he whispered, averting his eyes, terrified the man was going to haul him from the truck as Sterling was kicking and screaming.
“The speed limit is fifty-five, son. You were going seventy.”
“I’m dyslexic?”
He heard Chauncey laugh beside him as the cop pulled his sunglasses down the bridge of his nose, his stern blue eyes filled with bafflement. “That still makes it fifty-five. And the word is dyscalculia when it pertains to numbers.”
Oh, hell. Sterling would have to get stopped by a cop who knew his shit.
“Is that a pig in a seat belt?” the cop asked as he leaned into the truck. “Why isn’t he in the back of the truck?”