by Joey W. Hill
Anwyn’s wisdom increased Rand’s debt to her. A human Dom might have had Wolf’s combat training and a decent level of strength, but there was a difference between a man trained to be a predator and a male who actually was one. When his own instincts kicked in, Rand didn’t have to rein it back the way he would have if Wolf was human. Rand could let all of it come out. The frustration, the need, the giant ball of emotions he’d been sitting on for weeks.
He did note that, no matter how dirty the fight was getting, the one thing Wolf wasn’t taking advantage of was Rand’s leg. Anwyn had pried that one out of him on her follow up call, when she’d insisted on knowing if he had any physical issues that should be considered. Since third marks were considered pretty invincible, he had to conclude Daegan or Gideon had given her the heads up about it.
Wolf wasn’t holding back in any other way, so Rand didn’t feel coddled. But he wanted to make damn sure of it.
He wrenched the guy’s arm on the twist a little too enthusiastically and got a solid slam in the face with Wolf’s elbow that had him seeing stars. Wolf flipped him in that split second of disorientation and had one of the manacles locked around his wrist. Rand whipped the free chain at him, but Wolf dodged, swept his legs and secured another manacle on his opposite leg. Then he was at the wall, drawing up the chains, limiting his mobility.
Rand yanked against the bonds hard enough to send a sprinkling of dust off the ceiling. Wolf’s gaze swept over his taut body, all Rand’s bunched muscles. “Fucking beautiful,” the Dom murmured.
Stay human, stay human… But so much in Rand’s head was wolf right now, calculating, studying. Except the erection that was big enough to split skin. It was all human.
Wolf closed in on him again. Though Rand put up a hell of a fight, he was now working with one free arm and leg, the other two limbs restricted by the shortness of the chains.
The vampire ducked under a blow, spun him toward the bench. With that incredible burst of speed that vampires had, he had Rand over the bench and his other arm and leg locked in manacles, but he wasn’t done yet.
To hold him in place, Wolf tossed another crisscrossing of chains over his back and locked Rand’s torso to the padded surface. In a couple more expert moves, he had Rand’s arms spread out, pulled forward and down, the chains hooked to rings in the floor. Then he bound Rand’s ankles to more bolts in the floor on the other side of the bench, keeping his thighs spread.
Wild animal panic speared through Rand, a reaction to being so quickly and securely restrained. He could fight the chains, break a couple. Or he could use the safe word he’d been given by Anwyn.
If he did, it would be over.
His human side might chicken out and do it, but the wolf wouldn’t. The wolf didn’t even know what a safe word was. To guarantee that he would see this through, Rand needed to let more of his mind go to the wolf.
The problem with letting his mind go to his wolf was his wolf didn’t play the denial games with his head that his human side did. The wolf knew what he really wanted, and it wasn’t in this room. Empty need and lust curled around something a lot more painful.
Which was aggravating, since Wolf was basically 100% fantasy material.
Well, hell, that was the point, right? Give himself to the fantasy, let every physical and emotional reaction loose, let it emanate from him like sonar waves. But if he did, his heart might crack in the process, those waves going flat before they reached anyone’s radar. One particular person’s radar.
“All right there?” Wolf murmured. The hand he had on the back of Rand’s neck was suddenly a little less hard. He was in control. It had been primal play, Rand told himself. He didn’t know all this stuff, but Anwyn had given him a BDSM 101 kind of thing. Primal play was a rough and violent—within certain limits—form of tussling. The way animals did it.
Proving that they were still working within a structure, Wolf had picked up on Rand’s distress and checking in with him, helping him out. But not too much, because as Rand managed a jerky nod, Wolf gave him that diabolical grin again.
“Good. Because I am going to fuck your ass until you scream.”
Reaction clutched inside of Rand when Wolf moved between his spread thighs, that giant dick making not-so-incidental contact with the inside of one. Up high.
“And I’m going to use your pretty, pretty mouth to lube me up,” the Dom continued. “So you better do a very good job, else this will get a might uncomfortable. You’ll be walking up on your toes for a week.”
As he spoke, his hand trailed down Rand’s back to his buttocks, and between his thighs to caress his balls. He did a brief side trip, running down Rand’s injured leg, gauging the tension there. It was fine. Rand didn’t want him focusing on that.
Wolf didn’t concede the point until he seemed satisfied the binding wasn’t causing the leg the wrong kind of distress. Then one finger played at Rand’s rim with clever skill, making Rand writhe, his cock leak pre-come. Get lost in the physical. Let it happen.
“Look at all those fucking gorgeous muscles. Thought you about had me there, whelp. You’re a hell of a fighter. With a little more training, you could have kicked my ass and our positions would be reversed. A little punishment for that first, I think. You’re trapped in your head, aren’t you? I can help you with that.”
Moving back into Rand’s view, Wolf sauntered over to another set of controls that rolled back a screen, revealing a wall full of very adult toys. The male pulled an Indiana Jones style whip from the offerings. In the same instant hard-on inspiring motion, he snapped his wrist and five feet of braided rawhide slithered and cracked, with a noise loud enough Rand felt it in his balls.
Can’t do this. Will do this. Can’t not do this…
Wolf moved in front of Rand and stroked a hand over his hair. Gathered it up only to release it, letting it spill forward over Rand’s shoulders. Cai liked doing that, too. Rand closed his eyes, but then they snapped back open when Wolf took a handful of his hair and yanked his head up. His monstrous dick was only inches from Rand’s flashing gaze. Before he could stop himself, Rand had licked his lips.
“Yeah, you can’t help yourself,” Wolf said in that ball-tightening voice. “But what gets me off is seeing how pissed you are, how much you’d like to be free and fighting me, at the exact same moment you’re imagining sucking me off.”
In one menacing note, Rand telegraphed the most creative curses Cai could have dreamed up. Wolf’s lips split in a dangerous smile. “Let’s see how much more pissed off I can make you, whelp.”
He coiled up the whip and left it lying in the small of Rand’s back as he moved behind him. Footsteps, and the sound of another screen rolling back before Wolf returned, standing between Rand’s knees.
Rand sucked in a breath as the male gripped his cock and balls with the confidence of long practice. He cinched them into some kind of tight harness. Really tight. Rand grunted as Wolf pulled it in another hole.
“Going to turn that bad boy blue. You aren’t coming until I get my rocks off three times with you, at least.” Retrieving the single tail and positioning himself in front of Rand, Wolf cocked his head, crossing his arms across his massive chest. “If you want me slick before I fuck your ass, you’ll do two things. You’ll use your mouth, as I said, and get me good and slippery. Do it well, and I’ll be kind, add a nice spicy warming lube to your efforts that’ll ease my way but keep the burn.”
He held up two fingers. “Second, you’ll ask me for the privilege, addressing me properly. “Let me suck your big dick. Master.”
Rand had another Cai-ism to answer that. Wolf’s gaze lighted and he caressed the single tail he’d wrapped around his wrist and forearm and was clasping in his other big fist. “Just the answer I was hoping to get.”
He circled behind Rand, and went to work. Cai had paddled him with a brush, used his bare hand on him. This was a burning sting that built in intensity, making Rand jerk and dance in his bonds, roar when the popper hit his balls,
his tender inner thighs. The stinging sensation spread, making his skin more sensitive, so when Wolf started to cover the same area again, everything went to flame.
Rand’s cock was screaming in agony in the harness because he was so damn hard. It was that thing that Cai had discovered in him, that the pain and the animal could be brought to the top, arouse Rand even as he suffered. That’s what he wanted to do for Cai, with Cai. Sometimes to Cai. Wouldn’t that be a hell of a fight?
Wolf traded the whip out for a metal paddle that was the hairbrush on steroids. It had raised edges from the holes drilled into it. And they cut skin. Bloodletting had been a key part of this scenario when Rand discussed it with Anwyn, though Rand’s mind was in such a chaos of lust, rage and helpless emotion, their conversation was a long time ago and far away.
He strangled on his cries. When Wolf paused an eternity later to reach beneath him, let the harness out a hole and caress his balls, Rand almost groaned in relief.
“See, whelp?” Wolf whispered. “I can be your demon or your Daddy. All you have to do is call me Master.”
Twice more Rand refused. The punishments became more severe. At one point, Wolf brought that cock close to his face, teased him with it, put it to his lips. He let Rand lick the tip, taste the thick fluid at the top. Then Wolf went around back and rubbed that tip against his rim. Rand couldn’t help but lift his ass, strain for it, even as it felt like his chest was going to explode. His body wanted all of this…and his heart was breaking, just as he’d feared.
If Cai wasn’t feeling him, hearing him, or reaching out to him, he might shatter. He was going to shatter. Rand had thought he could go all the way with this, to deal with the silence. But he didn’t know if he could.
“Ready to be fucked?” Wolf said once more. Now he’d picked up a violet wand and was testing it on a metal spatula, the crackle sending up blue sparks. “No, don’t call me Master yet. I know you were about to. Wait until I put this spatula against your balls and add the wand to it. Nice little jolt. Don’t want you ruining all my fun.”
He came back to Rand’s face, but he squatted, touching his jaw, his thumb sliding along Rand’s lips. Wolf became more serious, his deep voice even lower. “It’s okay to give it up, baby,” he murmured. “You’re a tough bastard, but if he’s not smart enough to claim your ass, I can give you what you need. All it takes is one little word.”
Master. All he had to do was call him Master. Anwyn was right about Wolf being one of her best. He’d figured out it was Rand’s trigger. Each time Cai had used the word, or Rand had spoken it, it had held such special significance on both sides. But his cock was impossibly hard, his body was aching, his heart was going to explode. He couldn’t take anymore. Didn’t matter if the rest of him was screaming no, there wasn’t going to be anything better than this waiting for him if Wolf let him loose. Might as well get an amazing fuck from a guy straight out of a firefighter beefcake calendar, so the night wouldn’t be a total loss.
He might not be able to look at himself in the mirror later, but he’d be headed back to West Virginia in the morning. Back to Fane and the second-best choice of lives he’d been offered.
He wet his lips.
You call that fucking bastard Master, you come for him, and he will not live to see fucking sunrise. And I’ll fuck you over his fucking beautiful corpse.
It was amazing, how hearing the voice of the person he’d most wanted to hear for over two weeks could be as powerful as a stroke of his cock right on the edge of a universe-shattering climax. Rand almost lost it right there, but he managed to call it back, to save Wolf’s life.
Cai’s tone said he meant it. He’d do it. The vampire really needed to work on his humanitarian side.
“Sunset,” Rand said. His safe word.
Wolf was gratifyingly disappointed, but Rand suspected Anwyn had prepped him for what might happen, because he took it all with good grace. Or his Dom side was professional enough to override his vampire take-what-I-want impulses, something Rand had to guess was pretty unique.
He immediately removed Rand’s bonds, helped ease him back to the mat, and treated the cuts he’d inflicted on Rand’s skin. Underscoring that impulse control, Wolf didn’t seem to get distracted by Rand’s blood, though Rand noticed Wolf did that clean up more swiftly than the rest of his aftercare, but all without stealing a taste.
Then the Dom gave him a massage that made Rand want to hump the mat and let go right then. Wolf knew it, offering a velvet chuckle and a friendly ass slap before he clasped Rand’s hand and helped him to his feet, tossing him his clothes.
A staff worker brought in a change for Wolf, so he hitched on parachute fabric cargo pants over snug boxers, and shrugged into an open white shirt made of some type of gauzy linen. He looked like he should be stretched out on a lounger on some Bahama beach. He made sure Rand drank some more water and sat with him. Engaged him in casual chitchat that Rand realized the Dom was using to gauge the sharpness of his mind, make sure that he was a hundred percent.
Cai had said only one other thing.
Two hours.
Rand couldn’t say what Cai’s terse command meant in terms of things going forward, but it meant one thing for sure. Cai was coming. He wasn’t here yet, but he’d be here soon. He hadn’t been thousands of miles away, out of range of their mind-link. Rand took that as a hopeful sign.
No matter the irrationality of it, he wanted to put on his clothes and head out right away, but Wolf wouldn’t let him go until he felt right about his physical and emotional state.
“Don’t test me, whelp,” the Dom had said, half-seriously. “If I have to put you on the ground and sit on you for thirty minutes, I will. My dick alone is heavy enough to pin you to the ground.”
Rand had snorted, but he pushed down his anxiety and reasoned he’d probably go crazy if he had two hours with nothing but his own speculation for company. So he sat with Wolf on a couch in a quiet corner of the bar area for about a half hour and admittedly enjoyed the male’s version of “after” aftercare.
Though he was sure Wolf was aware that Rand knew he was a vampire, Rand decided to leave that alone. Opening that door meant quid pro quo, and he didn’t know Wolf well enough to give him clues as to what Rand’s “otherness” was. But he liked the guy. His cock really liked him, but Rand suspected there wasn’t a gay male or straight woman on the planet who wouldn’t agree with that assessment.
So they talked about Atlanta, the club. Rand asked some more questions about BDSM stuff, increasing his knowledge base. Wolf didn’t react like Rand was a clueless idiot, though Rand was sure his questions proved just how virgin-new he was to a lot of this stuff.
Wolf confirmed he had combat training and had served in the military, which told Rand he was a made vampire. He hadn’t seen anyone hovering too near the male, so Rand surmised Wolf didn’t have a servant yet. Lucky bastard, whoever it turned out to be. Or female, because, like a lot of vampires, Wolf seemed to radiate equal sexual warmth toward the male and female staff members who stopped by to speak briefly to him, when it was clear he was in a social conversation, not a session. Apparently, he was part of management, reinforcing Anwyn’s high opinion of him.
But as good as the company was, the need to move, to run, grew too much. “I think I’m good,” Rand said, rising. Wolf’s gaze swept him, assessing, but he must have passed, for he rose, extending a hand.
“If ever you need to reach an important decision like that again, I hope I’ll be at the front of the line to help with it. You’re tough, man. I loved it. Would have loved it more if I could see it through.” Wolf winked. “Keep me in mind.”
“I will. And if ever I need to invade a small country and need a one-man battering ram, you’ll be at the top of that list, too.”
“Done my time in those war zones. Prefer this kind. But for the right cause, I’ll always be there. That’s the code.”
“Yeah.” Rand had never served, but in protecting his family, he knew exactly what W
olf meant. He clasped the man’s hand, enjoyed the strong handshake, and parted ways with him.
Anwyn was in the building somewhere, but occupied, so Rand scrawled out a quick note to her, leaving it with James. Maybe he’d come back and take her to dinner in a couple days. She could bring Gideon along and they could hope that Cai wouldn’t try to stab the former vampire hunter with a fork.
As he stepped out of Club Atlantis and lifted his head, Rand closed his eyes, opened all his senses. Both that of the wolf and the third marked servant. He and Wolf had been able to discuss some shared favorite parts of Atlanta, because Rand had been here a weekend or two with Dylef. They’d come to see Cirque du Soleil, stayed in a fancy hotel downtown. Just a weekend away from the farm, the kids, Sheba waving them off and teasing them about needing their “guy time.”
In an urban center, a shifter always knew the area parks. He visualized Stone Mountain for Cai now, where the Confederate generals Lee and Jackson, as well as Jefferson Davis, were impressively carved into the mountain’s face in a three-acre bas-relief. He made it clear the park was where he was going, where he’d be. Where he hoped Cai would come. Then Rand ducked into the cab he’d requested the hostess call for him, returned to his hotel, picked up his motorcycle and headed for that destination.
The acceleration and roar of the engine matched what was going on inside him. Two hours. If Cai was punctual—lesser miracles had probably been known to happen—that wasn’t long from now.
If the vampire wasn’t feeling contrary, that is. In which case, Cai might stop at a Starbuck’s for a cup of coffee. Finding a secluded area near the park’s campground, Rand parked the motorcycle and stripped down, putting the clothes in the saddle bags. Then he shifted.
God, it felt good. He needed to hunt, to take the edge off. Because he was hungry, he flushed and caught a rabbit for dinner. While he hadn’t agreed to pursue more in-depth healing things, he had listened to some of the physical therapy stuff Sangra’s friends had recommended. It had kept him limber enough to catch small game, if he used stealth in place of speed.