“Me? You’re the one growling in my ear and making me practically melt.”
“Growling?” Quintus had been completely unaware he was making such a rough noise, but he realized he was. “It’s you. You bring out the beast in me.”
When Quintus growled and bit along the side of his neck playfully, Renner surrendered beneath him. By lifting his hands and spreading his legs wide, Renner was offering up his entire body for Quintus. Unlike a true conqueror, Quintus didn’t plunder and pillage without mercy. He took everything Renner had to give, but he gave back even more. Everything he did he timed to give the man below him, the man he knew he wanted to be with until the end of time, everything he had.
Sweat poured off his body and Renner’s, making them slide together with frictionless ease. Each time Quintus went as deep as he could, he thought that was the limit, but they’d rock together until he went just a bit farther. When the moment for release came, Quintus lifted up and looked down at Renner.
His gaze was softly focused, dreamy, and so welcoming it was almost like they’d always been together. Nothing could touch them when they were enmeshed like this. When he looked at him and really saw him, Quintus saw a man who could run the gamut of very sweet to down-and-dirty kinky. He was compassionate, kind, yet he had his moments of utter cunning. Renner was everything Quintus had been looking for.
“I love you.”
Surprise widened Renner’s eyes, but a welcoming joy tilted them up at the corners. “I love you, too.”
Pleased, Quintus kissed him passionately, but he didn’t rock faster. He wanted to drag out the moment of bliss. It seemed to last for most of the night, but eventually, Quintus increased his rhythm as Renner tightened his ass around his cock. Each stroke became more difficult but also more pleasurable because he had to fight to get buried back in his mate.
When Renner wrapped his legs around Quintus, clinging to him as he fucked, Quintus poured everything he had into the moment until he climaxed. After being denied for so long, the release was the most intense one Quintus had ever experienced. His whole body seemed to collapse as he filled Renner.
Renner gripped up on him so tight Quintus couldn’t breathe, and then his head went back, urging Quintus to bite, which he did. Another orgasm tumbled through him, locking him to Renner as they shivered and shook. Nothing in his life could have ever prepared him for the powerful beauty of the moment. Renner was his completely. Or so he thought. But when he felt Renner’s tentative bite against his neck, he arched his head to the side, encouraging him.
Quintus wanted him to stop yet wanted him to continue. It was a lovely confusion of lust and fear. This would be the ultimate step. More than joining their bodies or blending their souls with declarations of love, binding their blood was unbreakable by anything known to man. After a few scratches that heightened Quintus’s awareness of the fragile nature of his neck, Renner bit him.
The shock of his life force flowing out to another prompted him to flick his hips, which set off another profound release. His entire body shook as Renner drank. While he slaked his bloodlust, he, too, twitched and found another release against their tightly pressing bodies. After a long pull at his neck, Renner licked the wound closed.
Rising up, Quintus looked down at him.
It seemed that Renner realized what he’d done. Babbling excuses were cut off when Quintus merged their mouths and shared the taste of their blood. Renner hugged him hard, his fear giving way to happiness. They were completely bonded now. There was no turning back. And again Quintus was left with the frightening notion of telling McBride the truth.
Chapter 10
“Are you here to finish what we started in the bathroom?” Caleb’s white dress shirt hung open, revealing his tanned chest. His slacks were black, and even with the generous cut, they somehow managed to display his cock. Dressed up, dressed down, or completely undressed, Caleb was stunning.
McBride’s teeth itched, but it wasn’t just a need to drink pushing all his buttons. It was his unquenchable longing for Caleb. Why couldn’t he just stop the thoughts that drove him to the brink of madness? Tonight, he’d practically shouted his intentions toward Quintus, but in all honesty, he’d felt nothing for him beyond friendship. But McBride believed that once he’d locked himself into a declaration, he had to honor it. Besides, as soon as he wanted him, Caleb would find another issue to put between them.
“I’m here to feed before I go to bed.” McBride had watched Quintus walk over to Renner’s house to feed and get his leg checked while he chose to go to Caleb’s. “Besides Renner, who’s tending to Quintus, you’re the only one left without a mate.”
Caleb bristled but then very deliberately shrugged his annoyance off. “I’ll get my mate. It seems he can’t stay away from me for long.”
“Don’t flatter yourself.” McBride laughed lightly. “All the others are in bed. Rather than disturb them, I came to the only man I knew wouldn’t be entwined in another’s arms.”
“I’m not the only one going armless this evening.” Caleb very deliberately slipped off his white shirt and untied his long black hair. Clearly, he knew how much McBride liked to see the strands draped over his strong shoulders.
McBride let a dozen comebacks filter through his mind, but he chose to leave them unspoken. Getting into a verbal sparring match would only excite his hormones. Caleb seemed to be the only man capable of engaging McBride’s lust by infuriating him. However, when he refused to toss back a rude comment of his own, Caleb continued to taunt him.
“Why don’t you just go feed from your future mate?” One sleek brow rose over a dangerous green eye. Caleb was smugly assured that McBride would do no such thing.
“He’s recovering.” McBride felt compelled to add to that comment even though he knew he didn’t owe Caleb an explanation or a justification. He found he wanted to put an end to this once and for all. So he lied. And he very deliberately chose the one lie there wouldn’t be any coming back from. “After claiming him with my body, he was too wiped out to finish with blood. Perhaps tomorrow we can complete the actual ceremony.” McBride paused for a moment to let all that sink in. “We’ll need a witness. I think Jonas—”
“You had sex with him?” Caleb’s voice was hushed and hurt.
“Of course.” McBride peered at Caleb as if he didn’t understand why he’d ask such a thing. “I had to be careful, what with his injured leg, but we managed.” McBride tossed the comment off as if he were discussing nothing more important than the weather. He knew his blow landed when Caleb curled in a bit as if he’d been punched in the belly. It would have been a triumphant moment, but McBride had never felt more like a hateful bully than he did right then. The only other thing in his life that had hurt almost as much was when he’d finally confessed to Caleb that he wanted him no matter what and Caleb had turned away. Somehow, this hurt more because he was deliberately hurting the man he loved.
All the bright vitality seemed to drain right out of Caleb. McBride felt cruel, but he had to put an end to their constant back-and-forth. Nothing would finish things sooner than the idea that McBride wasn’t just putting on a show of moving on but had actually moved on.
“What did you think, Caleb? I was going to sit on my hands pining away for you for the rest of my life?”
“Get out.” Caleb pointed to the door.
“Are you forgetting who I am?”
Caleb clearly wanted to say more, but he realized if he did, he was digging himself a hole he couldn’t get out of. For some perverse reason, McBride decided to help him shovel.
“You wanted Jonas dead, or you would go.”
“I did go.”
“Yet you came right back.”
“You’re leaving out the invasion of angry slammers.” Caleb put his hands on his hips, drawing attention to his form.
Matching his stance, McBride softly pointed out, “They’re gone now.”
“Do you want me to go?”
“Of course not.” As much
as Caleb leaving would make everything so much easier for McBride, he realized the foolishness of such a request. “You’re strong. You can fix things—we need you. But you need to keep your place, Caleb.”
“My place?”
“You threatened Jonas. And now I’m not so sure you won’t do something against Quintus.”
Caleb’s eyes and mouth rounded. “I have a legitimate concern with Jonas.”
“That you dropped when you realized there was nothing for you out there.” McBride pointed in the general direction of the town. “As soon as you understood that you had things better here, you dropped your demand against Jonas.”
“I didn’t drop it.” Caleb looked toward the big house, his hatred clear. “But things are what they are. Killing my brother’s mate would leave him without someone to comfort him and offer him solace. Since those damn slammers have basically killed everyone they’ve encountered, including thralls, there aren’t a lot of good men left walking this planet.”
What he’d said was entirely true. McBride had had the same thoughts himself. “Like I said, I want you to stay. All of us need you, and I think you need us, too. But you have to get along and go along. I will do everything I can to find you a mate—”
“I want you.”
“A suitable mate. There won’t be any more disregard for the law on my land.”
“Law?” Caleb laughed. “Didn’t you listen to Karsten and Quintus? There is no more law anywhere around here. Everything has changed.”
“Not everything has to change.” McBride felt certain that if he kept to the true ways, he could eventually restore the town to a functioning society. “Right now there’s chaos, but if we keep to our traditions and refuse to tumble down into lawlessness, we can rebuild the world the way it ought to be.”
“How is that going to happen when we’re it?” Caleb spread his arms as if he were encompassing every man on the ranch. “This is the last of mankind. Everyone who is alive right now is the end. At least on this planet. There won’t be any more men made when there aren’t any more men to make them.”
McBride had all the same thoughts, and he was certain many others had, too. “We don’t know that the Genetics Board is disbanded.”
“Do you really think they’re huddled up somewhere cranking out more men on top of the mess they’ve already made?”
“As unlikely as it seems, yes. I have to have faith that we can put everything back together.”
“If you really want to stick to the old ways, then why haven’t you done something about Ollie and Jonas?”
McBride realized he couldn’t pick and choose which laws he was going to enforce. If he didn’t think it was right for one man to form a relationship outside his class, then the same should be true for all men. As much as he wanted to put himself on the side of law and order, he couldn’t let them stand if he was going to paint himself as the leader of the old ways.
“Perhaps I should send them away.” Even as he spoke, he knew it wasn’t right. As a group, they needed them, but also McBride felt he owed them. Jonas had proven himself to be a powerful organizer and a man who wasn’t afraid to defend the farm. Ollie had shown the same, and as an added bonus he could cook. Right now, he was the only one who could. Exiling either man or the both of them was foolish.
“If I can forgive Jonas, then surely you can let them stay.”
“Tell me about that, Caleb. When did you have this change of heart regarding Jonas?”
“I don’t have to tell you my mind.”
“And yet you insist on knowing mine.”
Caleb grimaced. “He stood in front of Ollie.”
“You mean when I went down and he thought you would hurt your own brother?”
“Yeah. That’s when I changed my mind. Happy?” Caleb turned away.
“It was more than that.” There was simply no way that Caleb forgave Jonas so easily. Unless the issue had never been about Jonas in the first place. Perhaps McBride wasn’t the only one telling lies.
“When I told everyone about them, he didn’t deny it. He was proud. I thought he’d be ashamed. I thought—he didn’t behave the way I thought he would.” Caleb shook his head. “And you aren’t at all the man I thought you were.”
“Me?”
“All this law-abiding crap is just a way for you to push me away again.”
“You pushed me away after relentlessly pursing me.” McBride had practically gotten down on his knees and it still wasn’t good enough for Caleb. “Something profound caused you to reject me, and I want to know what it was.”
Caleb was silent for so long McBride didn’t think he was going to answer, or if he did, he would only tell him another lie. But he waited, hoping that they could at last hash things out and move forward.
“I already told you.”
“You told me a lie. A convincing lie because at the time I believed it, but it couldn’t have been true for you to so easily let it go.” McBride wanted to reach out to him but didn’t quite trust himself to do so. “Please tell me the truth. If you have any respect for me at all, you’ll be honest with me now.” McBride realized that if he wanted honesty, he should give it in return, but he was determined to go through with claiming Quintus. If he didn’t, he’d lose face and appear weak in front of his men, who needed to see his strength.
“I thought I was doing the right thing. If I left, you’d find one of your own kind, and then you’d be happy.”
“I find that hard to believe when you kept saying we were equals.” McBride considered how Caleb had never had a problem standing up to him. “Even out there on the road, you had no issue taking charge.”
“That was different. If I would have stepped back in deference to you, they would have started firing.”
As much as he didn’t want to agree, he saw that Caleb was right.
“I said that we were on the same footing because I guess I was hoping I’d believe it, but I didn’t. I don’t.” Caleb winced. “You’re a gentryman, and I’m a slammer. There’s no question that there’s lust between us, but do we really have what it takes to be together for the long haul? Sadly, I didn’t think so, especially when the world started falling apart. I suddenly realized that if you scratched your itch with me enough you’d eventually move on. But you just aren’t that kind of man, and I couldn’t settle for half measures.”
“You thought all I wanted was to fuck you?” McBride had never been so surprised in his life.
“Maybe.” Caleb lifted his hand, cutting McBride off before he could defend himself. “If you would have bloodbonded to me, I think you would have regretted it.”
Never had he ever thought Caleb left under some misguided notion he was protecting him. McBride thought he was going for his own selfish reasons. “I never would have regretting claiming you.”
“Don’t you think I know that now? You wanted to know how I felt then. Here it is. I wanted—I want what’s best for you. I thought it was me, and then I didn’t.”
“And now?”
Caleb looked out the window but didn’t seem to be seeing what was there. He appeared to be looking at the past and projecting that onto the murky future. “I don’t know if I’m right for you, but I know Quintus isn’t.”
What astonished McBride was that he agreed wholeheartedly with Caleb. McBride thought they’d spent all their time at cross purposes when the fact was they’d been very much in sync. He’d loved Caleb enough to let him go, but he felt too trapped by his own lies to claim him now. It was a mess. McBride saw no way to get out of it without completely losing face in front of his men.
“If you love him, or think that you really can love him, I won’t ever come between the two of you.” Caleb moved across the floor until he was standing a breath away from McBride. With him so close, McBride could smell that scent that always seemed to cling to him. Spice and soap and a light sheen of sweat. It was all things masculine and powerful. McBride wanted to find the source of that essence on Caleb and spend hours licking
the spot. “Just tell me that you honestly want him.”
Determined to end their relentless back-and-forth, McBride told Caleb the one thing that would shatter any hope he still clung to. “I fell in love with him the moment I claimed him.”
The look of devastation on Caleb’s face confirmed his blow had landed and utterly destroyed any chance for a future reconciliation.
Chapter 11
Renner woke with the scent of Quintus on his bedding and body, but the man himself was gone. He’d stayed as long as he dared last night, but he didn’t think the way for McBride to find out about them was to discover his potential mate in another man’s bed. So Quintus had dressed and left after a dozen passionate kisses.
Even with him across the yard in the big house, Renner felt him. Such was the nature of a strong bloodbond. Renner shivered and pulled the covers up to his neck. The remembrance of his love’s blood made him smile and grow erect in a simultaneous flush of excitement. Renner couldn’t remember how many times he’d pictured the moment when he would claim his mate with his mouth, but the taste of Quintus put all his daydreams to shame.
“He was luscious.”
Rather than attend to his arousal with his hand, Renner got out of bed and ignored his erection. He’d much rather wait for Quintus. It seemed a shame to let any of his lust go to waste now that he had someone he could share everything with.
Well, not quite.
He hadn’t yet come clean to his master, so he couldn’t really share everything with Quintus. If that really were the case, then his mate would still be in his bed. Although, if he were, Renner doubted his feet would have hit the floor this early.
Humming to himself, Renner went through his usual morning routine. He showered, groomed, ate, and then he was out the door, heading toward the garden. When he stepped onto his porch, the last thing he expected to see was Caleb standing there, arms crossed and anger turning his face red.
“It’s about time you got your ass up.” Caleb pointed to the garden. “There’s a row of weeds with your name on it.”
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