by Dakota West
“But you tried anyway?”
Hunter nodded. He took another long drink of his beer.
“I should have just put it to sleep,” he said. “Instead of making it go through surgery.”
“You had to try,” Ash said.
Then he put his beer back down and spun it slowly on his coaster.
“What is it?” Hunter said. “I know that look.”
Ash looked up, a smile in his eyes.
“I might have good news for us,” he said. “I met a girl today.”
Before he could say anything else, the doorbell to Tony’s rang, and someone from the back shouted. Out of habit, Hunter turned his head to see who it was — chances were, it was someone he knew.
Instead, in walked the most gorgeous woman he’d ever seen. Even though she was just wearing jeans and a t-shirt, her hair pulled back into a messy bun, Hunter felt like she might as well have been wearing a ball gown and getting crowned Miss America, because she was stunning.
Deep inside, his bear woke up and began growling.
Ours, it said, baring its teeth. Hunter fought to keep it down, even as a surge of desire rode through him.
Her face had a splash of freckles across an upturned nose, full, plush lips, and hazel eyes that weren’t exactly one color.
From ten feet away, sitting in his booth, holding his beer, Hunter stared. He couldn’t help himself, and it was all he could do to keep from standing, walking over to her, and then pressing her against the restaurant’s plate-glass windows, sliding his hands over her perfect, full breasts and hips, then undressing her, lifting her up, her legs around his waist as she moaned...
“Hunter,” a voice said.
He whipped his head around, dragged back into reality.
“Do you see—”
“I gave her a traffic ticket today,” Ash said. “Well, I gave her a warning. She was going twenty-five over the speed limit.”
Hunter turned his head to look at the girl, trying not to stare so openly this time.
Still, it was hard.
“Twenty-five over,” he murmured to Ash. “I like it.”
Ash frowned.
Hunter grinned at his mate and took another sip of beer.
“You like it too,” he said. “Come on. You get her number at least?”
“I gave her mine,” Ash said. His face was very serious, and he was concentrating pretty hard on not looking at the girl. “You know the rules.”
Hunter made a face.
The rules weren’t official, but they existed.
While it wasn’t illegal for a shifter mate pair to pursue a human woman, it was a very bad idea, and every shifter in the world knew that it was a quick way for them to make the national news — and not in a good way.
Oversexed shifters attempt to mate woman, a recent one had been. In reality, the shifter pair had asked her on a date.
Shifters lose control; propose perverted orgy was another. That time, a shifter pair had suggested that a woman get coffee with them.
“We have to do something,” Hunter breathed. “We can’t let her walk out of here.”
“She lives here,” Ash offered, sipping at his beer. Hunter looked at his mate.
“Why are you so calm?” he said.
The girl was paying Gloria, behind the counter, and accepting a medium-sized pizza box.
“I’ve had a couple of hours to chill,” Ash answered. “Don’t worry, I’m just as keyed up as you are.”
Hunter looked at her again, the way her ass filled her jeans out perfectly.
“What’s her name?” he asked.
“Cora.”
Then, she turned to look at them for the first time.
A smile spread across her face, and Hunter swallowed, his bear now roaring and growling. It was all he could do to keep himself in check.
Ash waved at her, and before Hunter could properly collect himself, she waved right back.
Then she walked out of Tony’s, got into a car, and drove away.
Hunter drained his beer in a couple of seconds, and Ash did the same.
He felt wild and unhinged, short of breath.
One look into his mate’s eyes let him know that Ash felt the exact same way — feral, his bear absolutely roaring.
“Gloria,” Ash called.
“Pizza’s almost up,” she called back. “Slicing it now.”
“Could we actually get that to go?”
She peeked around the corner and frowned.
“Everything okay?”
I need to go fuck my mate, Hunter thought. Now now NOW.
“Just got a call in that I should go see about,” Ash responded.
Hunter was impressed. He gripped the legs of his jeans so tight in his hands that he thought he might rip the denim, but Ash managed to keep cool, calm, and collected.
“No problem, sweetpea,” Gloria responded.
Hunter stood, his keys in his hand. A few moments later, Gloria handed the pizza over the counter.
“Thanks,” he managed to say. “Sorry for the rush.”
“It’s no problem at all,” she said, but Hunter and Ash were already leaving through the back door, the one that led to the parking lot. Ash’s pickup truck, the thing he drove off-duty, was parked right next to Hunter’s SUV, only a couple of feet between them. There were no other cars in the lot, the two vehicles secluded from the road and the restaurant.
Ash unlocked his truck and looked at Hunter, his eyes desperate with lust.
“I’ll see you at—”
Hunter didn’t let him finish his sentence. Instead he pushed the other man up against the doorjamb of his truck, haphazardly tossing the pizza into the bed of the truck, and kissed him on the mouth, so hard that he drew blood.
Chapter Five
Ash
Hunter’s lips pressed against his own, and Ash groaned into his mate’s mouth. He could feel the other man’s erection rock hard against his own, their lengths pressing together even through two pairs of pants.
Ash tried to pull away, but Hunter’s tongue was already in his mouth, his whole hard body pressed against his own, and Hunter’s entire body felt like it was sparking with lust, every nerve twitching.
He wanted to rip Hunter’s clothes off and throw the other man to the ground, mate him right here on the gravel, but they were in public, and Hunter’s hands were already under his shirt, squeezing his sides like he was trying to rip him apart.
At last, Ash broke away, putting his hand on the other man’s face, his thumb over Hunter’s lips.
For moment, they stared at each other, and Ash swallowed, hard.
“We’re in public,” he said.
Hunter sucked Ash’s thumb into his mouth and then bit it.
A jolt of electricity shot through Ash, and he closed his eyes for just a moment.
No one can really see us... he thought.
“Live a little,” said Hunter’s low, gravelly voice, ragged with lust.
“It’s public indecency,” Ash protested, weakly.
“It’s not indecent if no one can see us.”
Now Hunter grinned, and Ash’s stomach sank even as his erection hardened.
He knew that grin all too well.
“The house is twenty minutes away,” he suggested, even though he knew he was losing.
In answer, Hunter began unbuttoning his shirt, his wicked grin never leaving his face.
Even though Ash knew every inch of his mate’s body by heart, watching him undress was still a lesson in desire, every single time: his hard, perfect chest, his sculpted abs. They were a perfect physical match.
Then, in one jerk, Hunter tugged his shirt off and tossed it into the back of truck, on top of the pizza, getting cold in its box. Before Ash knew it, Hunter was on him again, his back up against the hard, cool metal of the truck.
For a moment, Ash could taste blood, but then he wrapped his hand around the back of Hunter’s head, pressing himself back against the other man’s body, let
ting himself feel every hard inch of it. Now it was Hunter’s turn to growl and groan, a low noise that reverberated through both of their bodies.
In a moment, Ash’s shirt was off and on the pizza box, and he was half-nude in the parking lot of a pizza joint.
You really shouldn’t be doing this here, he thought through his dizzying lust. What’s it going to look like when an officer of the law gets arrested for fucking his mate in public?
As if he could hear Ash’s thoughts, Hunter began fumbling with his belt, trying to undo it against the tent of Ash’s throbbing erection.
“Quit it,” Ash mumbled into the other man’s mouth, still on his. “Someone will see.”
Hunter just laughed and thrust his hips against Ash’s even tighter.
“Then someone’s about to get a good show,” he said.
Ash tightened his hands around Hunter’s, his grip vise-like, and pulled the other man’s hands away from himself.
He summed his best Cop Voice.
“We need to go home and do this there,” he said, even though he was breathing hard, shirtless, and sporting an aching erection.
“Nah,” said Hunter, who was flashing that wicked grin again.
Ash knew that he wasn’t going to win this battle.
Hunter took a step backward and leaned against his own SUV, then unbuckled his belt and pulled out his own long, thick erection, stroking it from tip to root.
“Mmmm,” he rumbled. “Hope nobody sees this.”
He winked at Ash, standing there, shirt off, knees trembling.
“Wish it was you stroking my cock,” he said.
Ash snapped. He lunged for Hunter, covering the other man’s body with his own, slamming him against the SUV, kissing Hunter as hard as he could,
Then, as their erections slid together, one clothed and one not, his lips moved down Hunter’s neck until, at last, he bit Hunter’s shoulder, hard.
Hunter gasped.
“That’ll leave a mark,” he said, his voice dusky.
“It had better,” said Ash.
Then Ash wrapped his hand around the other man’s cock and pumped once, hard.
Hunter chuckled, the sound coming from somewhere deep in his chest. It drove Ash nearly insane, and he spent a moment simply panting against Hunter’s shoulder.
The only thing he could think about was turning Hunter around, pressing him up against the vehicle, and sinking his cock up to the hilt inside his mate, but he couldn’t.
Not in public. He was a police officer, goddamn it.
Instead, he tore the back door of the SUV open, nearly ripping it from its hinges.
“Get in,” he snarled, pushing Hunter. The other man stumbled into the open door, not bothering to protest, and Ash followed him in, slamming the door behind him.
Hunter’s SUV had tinted windows, at least. It wasn’t perfect but it would have to do.
Ash grabbed the bottom of Hunter’s pants and practically tore them off the other man, throwing them into the front seat. He pinned Hunter down against the seat, grabbing his huge cock in one hand as he did, listening to the other man’s growl of pleasure.
Before Ash knew it, his pants were also undone and pushed halfway down his thighs, his cock hard in Hunter’s hand, and he was groaning right along with the other man.
Then a car pulled into the parking lot.
Ash froze, even as Hunter kept on stroking his cock and thrusting himself against Ash.
“They can’t see us,” he murmured, that glint in his eye again.
The car pulled into the lot directly next to the SUV, and without thinking, Ash dropped himself on top of Hunter, trying to lie on the seat so that no one would see the two men about to fuck in the backseat.
He listened as two doors slid open, a man and a woman spoke, and then a bunch of kids.
“You asshole,” he growled.
“They can’t see us,” said Hunter.
“Do you even know what kind of trouble I could get in?” Ash said.
Just for good measure, he bit Hunter’s other shoulder, hard, making the other man gasp.
The sound of the family slowly faded away, and Ash popped his head up to watch them disappear into the restaurant.
Ash hoisted himself on his hands, and then reached into the center console between the front seats.
“Turn over,” he told Hunter.
Hunter just raised his eyebrows, bringing himself to a sitting position.
Ash pulled out the tub of vaseline, then tossed it onto the floor of the backseat, in easy reach.
“I said, turn over,” he told his mate.
Then he grabbed Hunter’s ankle and yanked. As Hunter was off-balance, he grabbed the other man’s hip and flipped him over, so that Hunter was now suddenly face-down on the backseat of his own car.
Ash knew Hunter hadn’t really put up a fight. Neither of them could do anything that the other didn’t want them to do.
He grabbed the vaseline and tore the top off of it, his need throbbing as he stared at Hunter’s back, the long, hard lines of the muscles, all the way down to his perfect ass.
Ash pumped his cock hard, twice, coating it in vaseline. Hunter had gotten to his knees, bracing himself against the door of the SUV, looking over his shoulder at the other man.
That teasing grin was still on his face, driving Ash completely wild.
“I’ll get that look off of your face,” Ash growled. He rubbed the tip of his cock against Hunter’s puckered hole and heard the other man gasp.
“How are you going to do that?” Hunter asked.
“You’ll be too busy screaming my name,” Ash said, and then eased himself in, feeling the tight ring of Hunter’s asshole close around him, offering resistance.
All he could hear was Hunter’s ragged breathing, and he could picture Hunter’s face, even though he couldn’t see it just then — his eyes were shut in a mixture of pleasure and pain, and he bit his lip.
Then, just like always, Ash felt that rush of sweet relief as the head of his thick cock popped past the ring of muscle, and the rest of his shaft slid in smoothly as Ash moaned.
“Fuck yes,” Hunter said quietly in front of him.
“Shut up,” Ash growled. He grabbed Hunter’s ponytail and pulled just hard enough for the other man to notice. “You’ve caused me enough trouble today.”
Hunter looked at him. For a moment, another grin played around his lips, but then Ash grabbed his hips and thrust just a hair deeper, and the smile was replaced by Hunter’s eyes rolling back into his head as he moaned.
“That’s what I thought,” Ash whispered. He also felt almost overcome by Hunter’s tight, hot passage, and even now, he could feel that he wouldn’t last long.
Even as he looked at Hunter, he thought of Cora for a split second — what if she were there, mating both of them, completing their triad?
As if he could read Ash’s mind, Hunter spoke up, his eyes still closed.
“What do you think she sounds like when she comes?” he asked.
Ash pulled his cock out and thrust into his mate again, harder this time.
“I bet she’s a screamer,” Hunter said.
Ash fucked him again, each thrust going deeper than the last. He bit his lip and tasted blood, the fire pooling in his belly.
“She probably curses,” Ash said. He moved his hand around to grip Hunter’s cock one more time, squeezing it hard, vaseline still on his hand.
“Oh fuck, Ash,” gasped Hunter. “Fuck that feels good.”
Sweat poured down Ash’s body, mingling with Hunter’s as the two men moved together in rhythm. The SUV rocked back and forth, but they didn’t even notice.
“I bet she’s a sweet girl with a filthy mouth,” Ash said. He meant to go on and say something else, but he couldn’t even get the words out, just a low, guttural, animal growl.
“Ash,” Hunter gasped. Ash could feel the other man’s cock beginning to throb and harden in his hand, a surefire sign he was getting close.
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br /> “Don’t stop, I’m about to cum,” he moaned. “Oh god...”
Ash bit Hunter’s shoulder, and then felt the other man jerk as he came, moaning Ash’s name loudly. His cum splattered just a little on the SUV window as Ash’s hand stroked his cock steadily, feeling him spend himself, the ring of muscle in his ass tightening around Ash’s cock.
Then Ash came too, losing himself in the volcanic explosion of pleasure that erupted from deep inside him. He wrapped his arm around the other man’s waist, hard, sinking himself as deep into Hunter as he could possibly go, every muscle in his body spasming and jerking as he spent himself.
After a long moment, the two men separated, sprawling on the backseat of the SUV.
“I can’t believe I let you goad me into this,” Ash said, still breathing heavily.
Hunter rolled his eyes, smiling.
“I’ve never gotten you to do a single thing that you didn’t already want to do,” he said.
They both paused for a long time, basking in the post-coital bliss.
Then Hunter spoke up again.
“Cora,” he said.
“Cora Sapphire Leighton,” Ash said. “I saw her license.”
“I was starting to think it wasn’t going to happen for us,” Hunter said.
“Me too,” Ash admitted. He reached for the other man’s hand, raised it to his lips, and kissed it.
“I’d have been okay if you were all,” Hunter said.
“Me too,” said Ash.
Another brief pause.
“How do we find her?” Hunter asked.
“Be patient, for once,” Ash said. “Give her a few days to get used to Cascadia.”
Chapter Six
Cora
Even though she’d only been in Granite Valley, Cascadia, for three days, Cora was accomplishing a lot. It was astonishing what she could get done, she thought, when she wasn’t constantly looking over her shoulder or afraid that every time she opened an envelope, there would be a picture of her along with a creepy message.