The Last Emperor

by Kari Gregg

  Curse him, though, Arit had been right.

  Nick was as virginal in their bed as his mate. He shook, hands clumsy. Where their kiss should have been smooth as silk, raw but skillfully potent, their mouths slammed together in desperate greed, and the unique zest of Arit’s blood gliding across Nick’s tongue told him he’d reopened the wound his teeth had sliced into Arit’s lip earlier. Damn it. Nick wanted to be gentle, to prolong their pleasure into a drugging haze, but Arit arching his ass up, thrusting into Nick, destroyed Nick’s self-control. His second orgasm of the night tightened his balls. At this avarice pace, it’d be over before they’d hardly started.

  Hell with it.

  Ripping his mouth away, Nick scooted down Arit’s writhing body. Arit whined in protest, but Nick ignored the needy sound until his knees planted on the bedroom floor. “Just…” Nick shoved Arit’s knees up, exposing Arit’s muscled ass. He spread Arit’s legs to open Arit up and groaned at his first glimpse of his mate’s hole. “God, I want you,” he said and bent his head.

  Arit arched his back at Nick’s tongue darting over his asshole. Nick had meant to start slowly, to tease and inflame his mate by gentle incremental degrees, but, need skittering up his spine, he shoved his face into Arit’s ass and ate voraciously. Innocent as Arit may be, he wasn’t completely ignorant. Nick tasted soap, indicating Arit had washed thoroughly, and then, the enticing earthy flavor of his mate. He licked, nibbled, and pushed his tongue into Arit’s ass, the shocked and broken sounds Arit made driving him to rim his mate with as much skill as Nick could muster. Arit’s musk intoxicated Nick, his wild tremble sending Nick’s arousal into a crazy spiral. Nick’s cock, dangling between his knees, dripped as Nick made a meal of Arit’s ass.

  Nick growled, reaching between Arit’s legs to slap Arit’s hand away when Arit grabbed for his dick.

  “Need to come.” Arit’s chest heaved with his harsh pants.

  “Not yet.” Nick snarled, wallowing in Arit’s protesting groan when Nick stabbed his tongue into Arit’s hole once again. Drawing his mate’s pleasure out was as beyond Nick as it was Arit, though. He wanted more.

  So did his mate.

  Heartbeat thudding a rapid staccato, he grudgingly withdrew his mouth from Arit’s wet, softened ring and, unable to resist, Nick sank his teeth into a taut ass cheek. Grunting, Arit jerked, but he didn’t move away. Not that he could go far with Nick’s canines embedded in his flesh. Hot, salty liquid flooded Nick’s mouth, streaming from his mate and into Nick who sucked and bit deeper, hungry for every drop Arit could give him.

  “Mount me,” Arit said, voice raspy. His hands fisted the sheets at either side of his hips. His ass bucked in spite of the tight clench of Nick’s teeth in him. “Want your cock inside me. Now.”

  Lifting his head up, Nick laved the wound with his tongue. The wet sounds he made slurping Arit’s blood maddened him. Was their scent mixing already? The thought alone zinged desire through him, like a raging inferno burning him to his core. “Center of the bed.” He caressed Arit’s flanks, the curve of his mate’s ass and tense muscle under silky skin almost more than Nick could stand. “On your hands and knees.”

  He didn’t have to tell Arit twice. He flipped onto his stomach, a stray foot clocking Nick on his jaw as he hurried to do as Nick said. “Shit. Sorry,” Arit said over his shoulder.

  “’s all right.” Nick grunted at the pain, grateful at least the blow jarred him out of his sensual thrall enough to see to Arit as his mate deserved. Instead of pouncing on him, Nick crawled onto the mattress. He rubbed his injured jaw, sure a bruise would bloom spectacular blues and purples by morning. “Rolan and I have done a lot worse wrestling each other for fun back home.” Before Arit could apologize again, Nick crouched over Arit’s legs. He licked a long line from the man’s sexy feet up his calf, sprinkled liberally with dark hair. He tasted the salt of his sweat. Nick inhaled the musky scent of his mate. He dipped his tongue into the back of Arit’s knees, teasing the soft and sensitive skin there before gliding up his thigh. Drunk with arousal, he lapped up a red stream spilling down Arit’s thigh from the bite on his ass cheek while Arit squirmed, bowing his back to tip his ass up in wanton invitation Nick couldn’t resist.

  Nick rose up, leaning over Arit to skate open-mouthed kisses up the line of Arit’s spine. Arit moaned, muscles rippling under Nick’s lips. Fucking him would be amazing, like riding the lightning, and Nick shivered in anticipation, need coiling inside his gut. When Nick’s dangling locket slid over the bunched muscle of Arit’s shoulder, Nick bit. Arit snarled, quaking so violently Nick wondered that his mate didn’t fly apart. With the hot splash of Arit’s blood once again filling Nick’s mouth, though, Nick focused. Reaching beside Arit, Nick slid his hand under the pillow for the lube he’d hidden. One handed, he flipped up the cap.

  “C’mon.” Arit glared over his shoulder at Nick. “Do me.”

  “Shh,” Nick said, spilling a few drops of lube onto the sheets as he wet his fingers. Closing the bottle, he tossed it onto the mattress and stretched his hand down while he gulped his mate’s coppery blood. Eager, Arit wriggled to spread his knees, and Nick traced the seam of his ass with slick fingers. Arit oomphed out a sharp breath when Nick pushed one digit past Arit’s ring. “Okay?” he asked, tearing his teeth from the banquet of Arit’s smooth shoulder, his golden skin broken again by Nick’s mark.

  Arit shuddered beneath Nick. “Do it.”

  Pumping his finger in and out of Arit’s hole, Nick hummed vaguely while he slurped at Arit’s blood spilling from Nick’s bite. Rather than obeying Arit’s lusty command, Nick fucked him with a single finger, spreading the lube inside Arit while Nick softened and stretched his ass for more. He patiently searched on every upstroke, a wide smile curving his lips when the tip nudged Arit’s gland and his mate stiffened, a feral growl rumbling from Arit’s chest. Nick worked a second finger into Arit’s hole and rubbed his prostate again. “Good?”

  “Sweet Goddess.” Arit let his head drop and shivered with his pleasure. “Give me your cock before I shoot into the sheets.”

  Laughing into Arit’s wounded shoulder, Nick slid a third finger into Arit’s ass. “You aren’t ready.”

  Grunting, Arit shoved his hips back and onto Nick’s plundering hand, forcing all three fingers into him with less care and caution than Nick would have. “Fuck me.” Nick glowered at Nick. “I won’t break.”

  Maybe Arit wouldn’t, but Nick suspected he might, lose himself in his mate’s ass and shatter into so many pieces he’d never be able to glue himself back together. Had sex ever resonated inside Nick like this, felt as beautifully right? Nick didn’t know. Couldn’t think. Every part of him attuned to Arit, reading his responses in the quiver of Arit’s muscle and the intensifying pants that rolled from the barrel of Arit’s chest. Nick stroked him, massaging Arit’s gland. Despite Arit’s increasingly urgent demands, Nick played his fingers inside Arit’s hot ass until Nick was sure Arit’s hole had softened enough.

  “Brace on your elbows,” he said, voice dipping into a husky growl. He finally eased his fingers past Arit’s ring. Nick lifted off Arit’s back and fumbled with the lube, slicking his jutting dick as Arit scrambled to comply.

  Nick’s senses took a dizzy spin when Arit tipped his ass up, inviting Nick inside. He lined his hips up with Arit’s. “This will burn at first. Try to relax. Tensing up will only hurt worse. Tell me if you need more time,” he said and, with one hand guiding his cock, he pushed the bulbous head to Arit’s opening, already slick and stretched. Tossing back his head, Nick gritted his teeth, and the tip popped inside.

  A shocked gasp slipped from Arit’s mouth, and he instinctively clenched.

  Stopping ate at Nick’s self-control, but halt he did. With the fat head of his dick alone seated inside the scorching grip of Arit’s ass, he caressed Arit’s flanks to soothe him while he waited for Arit to adjust to Nick’s girth.

  “Go ahead,” his mate said through gritted teeth after long, excruciating
moments.

  Not long enough, though. Taut muscle still squeezed Nick’s cock, so tight Arit’s ass all but strangled Nick’s cock. Nick rubbed and massaged him, tracing his lubed fingers through sweat dotting Arit’s skin. “Deep breaths.”

  “I want it.” Arit snarled, body quaking.

  “Me too.” To hurry the stretch along, he leaned forward and reached around Arit’s back to grope for Arit’s dick, which had flagged with the burn of his virginal ass stretching for Nick. Wrapping his fingers around the length, Nick pumped Arit’s cock, and Arit let loose a satisfyingly helpless moan of raw pleasure. Once Arit’s cock filled Nick’s palm, hard as steel, Nick finally dared to push his own dick deeper into Arit’s hole. He hissed at Arit’s muscles tightening around him, the heat of his mate consuming Nick. Arit didn’t stiffen or show any other signs of discomfort, distracted by Nick’s teasing strokes on Arit’s dick. He slid farther into Arit’s ass, not slowing until his length disappeared inside Arit and his balls tucked into Arit’s crack.

  The husky broken noises Arit made with Nick fully seated in his ass went to Nick’s head, confounding his thoughts and dazzling his senses. The tip of Arit’s dick dribbled pre-cum on Nick’s fist. Tangy and sharp with sweat, the musk of their sex perfumed the air they both struggled to inhale, and in that moment, Nick craved nothing else for the rest of his life except this. Arit’s body clenched around him, the sounds his mate made an aria of need and consuming pleasure. Stroking Arit, making him feel good, settled something elemental inside Nick. Lodged in Arit’s ass, Nick felt like he’d come home, only to no home he’d ever known before.

  He would’ve lingered in the daze of lust with his mate forever if he could, but the burning need that grabbed Nick by the balls compelled him to thrust. He dragged his hips back, and when the head of his cock stretched Arit’s ring, he shoved forward. Arit fisted the sheets, twisting and writhing in pleasure beneath him as Nick’s first stroke rubbed Arit’s prostrate.

  “Oh, fuck yes,” he said with a mindless groan.

  Nick lost himself in his mate’s ass. The heat intoxicated Nick. The clench of Arit’s muscle wringing Nick’s sensitive dick and their moans intermingling urged Nick to fuck Arit faster, harder, deeper. The slap of Nick’s groin slamming into Arit broke a quiet interrupted only by panted breaths and desperate, greedy groans.

  Arit came first. Nick would have held off the orgasm building inside him forever to coax Arit’s release from him, but mating heats synchronized their straining bodies if not their minds or their hearts. Arit stiffened, his back arching up and into Nick’s chest. He shouted, and his dick pulsed in Nick’s grasp, spurting thick ropes of semen onto the sheets. The sour, bitter scent of Arit’s cum reached Nick as he thrust and thrust into Arit’s hot ass. The sounds and smells of his mate’s satisfaction destroyed Nick, shredded his control. His orgasm gathered in his groin, swelling his knot at the base of his cock, and then raced up his length. Nick tipped his head back and howled out his release. He sprayed semen into Arit’s hole, filling his mate’s bowels.

  Spent, Arit collapsed into the bedding and, tied to him by virtue of his knot lodged in Arit’s ass, Nick dropped, too, following him down. Pleasure engulfed him in a blinding haze. Satiation exploded inside Nick, sweet and intense. His body clenched, hips yet bucking to shove into Arit’s well-used hole. Nick’s dick spit burst after burst. Astonishingly, Arit growled and shoved his ass back against Nick’s crotch, fighting to suck Nick’s cock deeper into him, too.

  Nick couldn’t resist the soft stretch of skin at Arit’s nape any longer. He nosed aside Arit’s dark hair and bit him again, slicing his canines into firm muscle.

  Arit screamed, body coiling. He wet Nick’s fist with his own jetting cum.

  When the fog of passion lifted, Nick withdrew his teeth from the back of Arit’s neck, placing a tired kiss on the torn skin. His arms weighed a ton, and his jellied legs still refused to obey his commands. Arit squirmed, pushing and pulling Nick until Arit lay on his side with Nick behind, Nick’s hard dick yet speared inside his ass and held in place by the mating knot tying them together.

  “You okay?” Nick mumbled, licking at Arit’s blood already slowing to a trickle from Nick’s bite.

  Sighing, Arit nodded. “You’ve killed me.”

  “If I didn’t, everyone else in the lodge soon will.” Nick wiped his messy hand on the ruined sheets. Not as sticky with cum, he stroked Arit’s abdomen. “We weren’t quiet.” He glanced over his shoulder at the closed bedroom door. “I’m surprised Lydia and Rolan haven’t barged in yet.” He nosed away the dark hair curtaining Arit’s ear and didn’t resist the instinct to nibble the dangling lobe. “Or your dad.”

  “I mated the last emperor.” Arit snickered. “You think any parent would believe you aren’t good enough? Would disapprove?”

  “I’m the last in my bloodline, but I haven’t been crowned. Until I am, I’m no one’s emperor, and if negotiations for my family’s memorial prove fruitful, I won’t retain my title as crown prince, either. I’ve no reason to believe we won’t resolve terms quickly now that I’ve informed Benjic I won’t continue the balls and parties feeding the tribes’ tabloid curiosity.” Nick chuckled, squeezing Arit tight. “I think your dad will worry. With the high-stakes games the elders and council play, I can’t blame him.” He blinked, nonplussed, when he realized how true it was. “I’m worried, too.”

  Turning his head, Arit stared at him, dark eyes flecked with shifter yellows. “You expect trouble.”

  “I lost my entire family when I was eight years old and would have been killed along with them if not for a human who had reached his fill of witnessing the horrors of war and death.” He curved his mouth into a sad smile. “In my experience, danger and risk are as natural as breathing. I’ve grown accustomed to it.”

  “If we are mated, I could become a weapon wielded against you.” Arit furrowed his brow. “Are you used to that?”

  “If?” he asked, voice droll, but he couldn’t resist Arit’s lips another moment. Leaning over him, Nick brushed his mouth across his mate’s, enjoying the warmth unfurling inside him anew. “I chose to love my mom, Rolan, and Lydia. Protecting them against all perils for loving me in return has been my highest priority since I was a boy.” He deepened their kiss, sharing the coppery taste of Arit’s own blood with him. “Yes, I’m used to it. Love can be a weakness, but love is also my greatest strength.”

  Wriggling his ass to seat Nick’s steely length more securely inside him, Arit angled his jaw to lick and suck at Nick’s tongue. “You don’t love me,” he said.

  Resisting Arit was futile. Nick didn’t try. He arched his hips, shoving his deflating knot farther inside the cloying heat of Arit’s ass. His mate’s vise-like grasp around him indicated they’d need more excruciating minutes to recover before fucking Arit wouldn’t hurt him.

  Nick sighed. “I will love you, though, as you will love me. Eventually. Your Goddess blessed our union with a mating heat—once we chose to come together, love became inevitable.”

  “She’s your Goddess, too, and She guides us to possibilities, not certainties.” Arit pulled his mouth away, bit his ripe bottom lip. “Benjic loves my dad. Still.”

  Nick bent to recapture Arit’s lips. “No one said love was easy.”

  When Arit opened his mouth to argue, Nick slanted his own over him. Their teeth clacked, but as Nick pushed his tongue inside, Arit’s met his in a slick, arousing glide. Nick wallowed in Arit’s shudder, steeped himself in his mate’s earthy scent. Nick reached down Arit’s flat abdomen to his groin, where Arit’s fat cock already jutted. He palmed Arit’s dick, letting his thumb sweep moisture gathering at the spongy tip.

  “Stop trying to distract me,” Arit said with a low growl, though he nonetheless pushed his ass back, hips grinding into Nick’s groin, “and tell me what’s next.”

  Happiness swamped Nick, wringing a laugh from him. “I’m distracting you?”

  He snarled, breath hot on Nick’s tingl
ing lips. “Tell me what your plan is so I can help rather than hinder you.”

  Wishing he could, Nick licked the seam of Arit’s frowning mouth. “You think I have a plan?” Arit elbowed his gut, and Nick grunted. Testy, testy mate. Perversely, Arit’s snarling ill temper at Nick’s reticence made Nick crave him all the more. “Fine. I had a plan.” He pumped Arit’s dick with his fist, satisfaction whirling inside him at Arit’s gasp. “Had. Past tense. I didn’t agree to the council’s proposed tour of the tribes until I’d settled on a strategy to get into the tribes and back out as soon as my birth family was decently buried, but meeting you sent my plan ass end over teakettle.” With his mate warming him, his hole choking Nick’s hardening dick, Nick couldn’t say he minded. “Now…? I’m winging it.”

  At the next taunting stroke, Arit groaned. “You are the most calculating, deliberate shifter I’ve ever met.” He glared at Nick. “Including my sire. Unless your promises to me before we fucked were bullshit, you wouldn’t have mated me unless you’d decided to stay in the territories at least part of the time, and if you are staying, you must have settled on a scheme to rule.”

  “Truly?” Gladness swamped Nick. “You think you know me that well? Already?”

  “I don’t know your favorite color nor have I met your human mother. I couldn’t name the meal you like best if my life depended on the correct answer,” Arit said, his handsome face twisting into a fierce scowl. “But I know you.” He lifted his hand to his hairy chest and rubbed the area over his heart. “As our bond strengthens, I can sense what’s important as readily as you can of me. Your character is no secret to me.” He glared at Nick over his shoulder. “If you’d rather keep the entirety of the game you intend to play to yourself, I won’t blame you. We are newly met and freshly mated. Wherever you go next and whatever you do there, you’ll need me at your side, though. You could at least tell me what in your strategy comes after we’ve sealed our mating. You owe me that much.”