NecessaryDecision

by A. D. Christopher

  Caleb. Caleb, whom he’d just been thinking of, one of the first people in the Orion Pride to have both a warrior-mate and a female mate. Caleb leapt into the air, his face split in one of the biggest grins Kylar had ever seen him wear. When he met Kylar’s eyes, his grin grew even bigger.

  Caleb crossed the forest between him and Kylar at a run. Strangely, Kylar felt himself blush a little at his nakedness. Nudity never mattered much in the Pride. They saw each other naked all the time, especially in the woods where it wasn’t uncommon for Pride members to shift into were-panther form to run, or for couples to spend passionate hours on the soft ground.

  But for some reason seeing Caleb fully dressed, seeing the absolute joy on the other man’s face, did embarrass him a bit.

  No, actually…it shamed him. It shamed him because, for a second, for one split second when he’d seen Caleb running toward him, he’d been envious. Two weeks ago, Kylar had cynically believed Caleb’s new happiness would never last, but now…seeing him so full of joy, it was easy to believe it would. Well, it was obvious Caleb had everything. Two mates who loved him. The respect and admiration of so many and the friendship of almost everyone. Yes, Kylar had respect and admiration and friendship too. But he didn’t have even one mate who truly loved him.

  Gable loves you.

  No. Gable wanted him. Love? He wasn’t sure about that.

  And this wasn’t the time to think about it. Instead he plastered a smile on his own face and said, “Caleb! You look happy.”

  “I am!” Caleb almost sang the words. “We got the best news today, Kylar, the greatest news!”

  Kylar knew what it had to be. He just knew. And when Caleb spoke, he wasn’t surprised by his revelation.

  “Kerrick and I are going to be fathers! Mercy’s pregnant. Isn’t it wonderful? I can’t believe it. We both thought it would never happen for us. Well, being warrior-mated it couldn’t, but now…” He tossed his head back, laughing with pure joy. “We’re all so excited. I can’t stop telling everyone.”

  “I’m excited for you too,” Kylar said. And he meant it. Better Caleb than himself. Having children had never been something Kylar wanted. As much as he envied Caleb his happiness, he didn’t envy him the road he was about to follow. Kylar’s own father had taught him how difficult it could be to rear happy children and made him a firm believer that parenting was a job better left to the other members of the Pride. To men and women who didn’t have quite so many…issues. “That’s great news, Caleb. Tell Kerrick and Mercy I’m happy to hear it.”

  Caleb threw his arms around him, his body warm through his clothes against Kylar’s skin. The contact only lasted a few seconds, but it felt good, a mercifully uncomplicated embrace. “Thank you! We’re having a party to celebrate next week. You’ll come, won’t you?”

  “Of course. Just tell me when, and I’ll be there.”

  “Great. We’ll call you.” And with that Caleb was off, running farther into the woods, still shouting his happiness into the trees and sky.

  Kylar stood there for a long moment, watching his friend’s body disappear into the forest. Stranger things could happen than the fulfillment of the secret wish that had crept into Kylar’s mind. Caleb and Kerrick had taken a chance. They’d asked for a female mate and they’d gotten one. Who would have ever thought a warrior-mated couple as devoted to each other as Caleb and Kerrick could open their hearts to a third, and that their love could shine even brighter for the addition? But they had, and they did. The three-way mating hadn’t diminished their connection, it had simply added to it. Kylar had never seen three people so happy in his life.

  So if they could do it and grow their love…why couldn’t Gable and Varek? Was it possible that’s what they wanted? Was it possible for him to put aside his own emotional baggage and let them speak their truth?

  He had to find out. If he didn’t, he knew it was something he’d regret for the rest of his life. He turned and headed back into the woods, back the way he’d come.

  Chapter Four

  Varek dove—down, down, into the icy water at the bottom of the creek bed—forcing himself to hold his breath until it was almost painful, until his lungs ached and burned and his chest felt it would implode. Only then did he shove his feet into the sand and surge upward, heart racing as he wondered if he would make it to the surface in time.

  One stroke, two, three—

  “Ahh!” He sucked in a desperate breath and—for a moment—the sweet bliss of oxygen pouring into his lungs was the only sensation in his body. He was light and free, purified by his swim.

  The free feeling lasted all of a minute and a half. As soon as his breath leveled out and the urgency and need of those last moments under the water faded, the fear crept back in. Would Gable succeed in his mission? Would Kylar ever give Varek the chance to prove he was more than an obstacle to be overcome? Was his and Gable’s dream of a permanent partnership just that—a dream, one that would never be more than a phantom that came in the night?

  Anxiety pinched at his shoulders, made his stomach cramp. What was going on across the woods at Kylar’s house? Not knowing was maddening, and even a swim hadn’t helped as much as it usually did. But maybe if he swam harder, stayed down longer…

  Varek was about to dive back down into the depths when he saw him—Kylar. He stood near a clutch of trees on one side of the bank, silent as a shadow, watching him. The hair on Varek’s neck stood on end, the animal part of him wondering if Kylar had come as a friend or a foe. It was too dark to judge by Kylar’s expression. Night had fallen and the rays of moonlight that illuminated the swimming hole didn’t penetrate the thick foliage near that part of the bank.

  “I thought you were in trouble,” Kylar said, his voice soft and deep, lacking the hostility from earlier in the evening. Varek felt a bit of the tension ease from his shoulders. So he hadn’t come as an enemy then. “I was going to dive in and save your life if you’d stayed down another ten seconds.”

  “I can hold my breath for a long time.” Varek silently cursed himself as soon as the words were out of this mouth. He sounded like a fool! Couldn’t he have thought of something more charming to say, something that would help change Kylar’s opinion that Varek was three hundred pounds of baggage Gable needed to drop at the door to the slave quarters?

  “You can hold your breath for an eternity.” Kylar laughed, just the smallest chuckle, but still enough to lift Varek’s spirits. “I couldn’t help but imagine what other…uses you might find for that skill.”

  Varek smiled and strode slowly toward the shore. “Well, yes…there is that.”

  “There’s always that,” Kylar said with a sigh. Varek could feel the other man’s eyes on him, trailing down his water soaked chest. “You and Gable have been lovers for over a year.”

  It was a statement, but Varek could feel the question lurking beneath. “We have. Since we were not much more than boys. At first, I offered him my protection, but then…” He shrugged, the movement easing some of the tension in his shoulders. “It’s impossible not to love him.”

  “I know. I…I know.” There was pain in Kylar’s voice. He stepped out of the trees and the moonlight kissed his strong face, revealing pain there too.

  Varek stopped, letting the water lap around his waist. “Gable loves you, Kylar. He told me as much, and then he went to look for you. He told me he’d always love me, as well, but…well, it’s still not easy to see the man you love run off after another man.”

  “You’re telling the truth?” he asked, almost as if he were afraid to believe.

  “I have no reason to lie.”

  Kylar grunted beneath his breath and took a few slow steps toward the water. “So that’s why you’re half-drowning yourself?”

  Varek smiled. “Yes. Only half-drowning. I wanted to be alive when Gable came back to give me the bad news, to tell me you…” Varek’s words trailed away as Kylar waded into the swimming hole, and his strong body was fully illuminated by the moonlight. He
was truly gorgeous. Tall and strong, with that impossibly silky brown hair hanging down to his shoulders.

  “I can still smell him on you,” Kylar said, wading deeper, until only a few feet separated them. Kylar’s potent energy surged in the air around them, making Varek’s skin prickle and his cock swell between his legs. He was so different from Gable, this man, not a bit of playfulness in him. But still, Kylar affected him.

  Powerfully, instantly.

  “I guess I should keep swimming then,” Varek said, standing his ground, even drawing up a bit straighter when Kylar closed the last of the distance between them.

  “No, I like it.” Kylar had to tilt his head up just the slightest bit to meet Varek’s eyes. “I’m not sure I like you, but…”

  Surprised laughter burst from Varek’s lips as he realized Kylar had made a joke. He had a very different sense of humor than Gable’s, but it was a relief that he actually had one. “I’m not entirely sure how I feel about you either. Gable insists I’m going to love you as much as he does,” Varek said. “But you seem kind of like a cranky asshole.”

  Kylar’s lips twitched at the edges. “Is that right?”

  “It is.” Varek reached out and wrapped his arm around Kylar’s waist. His cock swelled even thicker, harder, when Kylar allowed the touch. “But being in your asshole… Well, that was a different thing altogether. Fucking you was…amazing.”

  Kylar’s strong fingers mirrored Varek’s grip on his waist and pulled him close, until their twin erections pressed tight, pulsing against each other as their excitement grew. “I’m man enough to admit I enjoyed it a hell of a lot more than I expected I would.”

  “Enjoyed? Is that all?”

  Kylar moved one hand to Varek’s thick neck, urging his mouth closer, closer, until Varek could feel Kylar’s breath rushing across his lips. “My head felt like it was going to blow off when I came,” Kylar whispered, the heat in his voice making Varek’s cock twitch. “It was that fucking good. Is that what you want to hear?”

  “Actually, I think talking is overrated.” Varek smiled, and finally dared to believe.

  “I agree.” Kylar circled his hips, grinding against Varek’s cock, drawing a gasp from the other man.

  It was a sound of passion, but not submission. There was nothing submissive about Varek. His hands were commanding, not questioning, as his fingers dug into Kylar’s skin, tugging him in for a heated kiss. Their tongues twined together, jaws working, power meeting power and coming away frenzied. Kissing Varek was like kissing fire, something that consumed and devoured, daring Kylar to burn just as bright.

  Gable was a shiver of joy that filled him to bursting with fullness. Varek was a storm that blew fierce and strong. They were as different as two men could be, but each completely entrancing, captivating.

  And arousing, so goddamn arousing.

  Kylar fisted Varek’s cock and jerked as they continued to kiss like the world was ending, stumbling toward the bank through some unspoken agreement that the water wasn’t the best place for what they wanted to do next.

  “Fuck,” Varek groaned and worked his hips in time, as eager for Kylar’s touch as Gable had been since the first.

  “Yes. Fucking is exactly what I had in mind.”

  Varek laughed, a short, breathless sound that quickly turned into another moan of passion. He brought his big hands to Kylar’s cock, tugging his shaft with one hand while cupping and rolling Kylar’s balls with the other. He was as shameless and eager as Gable, ready to reach for pleasure with both hands. They were both such passionate men, so in tune with their bodies and desires.

  “You are…amazing. I can see why he fell so fast,” Varek panted against Kylar’s lips.

  And their hearts. They were also in tune with their hearts. Kylar knew he could stand to learn a thing or two from these amazing men. But first, he wanted to learn more about Varek, about this strong, masculine body and that tight ass the other man had so eagerly presented for him earlier in the night.

  “I want to fuck you.”

  “Then fuck me,” Varek said, a challenge in his voice Kylar couldn’t resist. He crouched, sweeping his arm under Varek’s legs, knocking him in the shallow water. Varek let out a sound of surprise—half laughter, half shout—and tackled Kylar, wrestling him to the riverbank. There they rolled over and over, first Varek pinning Kylar and then Kylar, Varek, and again and again, until they were sweating with exertion and Kylar’s cock throbbed with the need to shove between Varek’s legs.

  When Varek faltered for a moment, leaving his back unprotected, Kylar pounced, digging his fingers into the other man’s thick shoulders, spreading his legs with a rough jerk of his knees. Varek arched his hips with a moan, presenting his ass, giving Kylar the last encouragement he needed to thrust into his second hole. Varek cried out in pleasure-pain as Kylar drove deep, deep, deep, stopping only when he was buried to his aching sac.

  “You feel amazing,” Kylar whispered against Varek’s neck, scenting the spicy hint of Gable’s sweat on the larger man’s skin and finding it sexier than he could have imagined.

  He wanted to fuck this man, wanted to ride him while the smell of Gable rose between them, uniting them, sealing the promise that lingered in the air. The promise to try, to explore, to see if Gable was right, if Varek could love Kylar, and maybe Kylar could love Varek as well.

  But for now, love came second to lust, to the pulse-pounding desire that made it hard to go slow, to ease in and out of Varek’s ass, giving him the chance to adjust to Kylar’s length and girth.

  “Is this what you call fucking?” Varek asked, shoving his hips back with a sharp movement. “I’m not made of glass, Kylar.”

  “Oh yeah?” Kylar asked, digging his fingers into Varek’s hips, not sure whether to laugh or growl at the other man. Instead, he smiled and sped his rhythm, driving into Varek with increasingly punishing thrusts. Faster, faster, so hard he could feel the bruising contact of Varek’s ass bones stabbing into his thighs, until Varek cried out and his hand went between his own legs, jerking himself with the same frantic pace.

  The next few seconds were blinding, a blur of bliss and torment that culminated in an orgasm that ripped through Kylar’s body with the force of a hurricane. He threw his head back and howled his pleasure to the treetops, his heart soaring as Varek’s own cry joined his. Together they gave thanks to the night and the moon and the gods of love and passion.

  “That’s what I was…talking about,” Varek said several seconds later, still not quite recovered of his breath.

  Kylar laughed. “Glad I could please you.”

  “I’m glad you could please each other,” came a voice from the bank. Kylar turned to see Gable standing on the shore, glorious and beautiful in the moonlight, smiling at them both, not a trace of anger or hurt in his shining brown eyes. “Did you two save any energy for me?”

  Varek turned over his shoulder, catching Kylar’s eye. A new understanding passed between them, something so certain it didn’t need to be spoken aloud. Of course they had energy for Gable. They always would. They both loved Gable. But maybe…after what they’d just shared… Maybe there was room for more love, for something bigger than two…

  Gable held his breath, not quite ready to allow himself to believe the miracle in the water. Varek and Kylar had found each other, and just finished up quite the “getting to know you” session if their entwined bodies and satisfied expressions were anything to judge by. They’d made love, without him there to talk them past themselves and into pleasure. It truly was a miracle.

  A part of Gable realized that the average man might be jealous that his lovers had sought each other out in the night while he’d been fruitlessly searching for Kylar, but he couldn’t summon up the glimmer of envy. He wasn’t that sort of man. He was the sort who seized upon any spark of hope and held tight, wringing every bit of joy out life that he possibly could.

  His childhood had been hard, his early life as a slave even harder and if he hadn’t learne
d to look for the goodness in every situation he would have lost his mind and maybe even his sense of humor. Gable truly didn’t know which would be worse.

  “What are you smiling about?” Kylar asked, a teasing note in his voice as he pulled from Varek’s body, his cock coated with his own fluid, glistening in the moonlight.

  “You two.” Gable smiled wider. “I’m glad you got past the fighting cock stage.”

  “I’ll never be past the fighting cock stage,” Varek said, getting to his feet, water dripping from his strong body. Between his furred thighs, his cock thickened, as if to add its own emphasis to his words.

  “I don’t know, Varek.” Kylar’s hand curved over Varek’s shoulder in a gesture that was sexual but also…affectionate. Something real had happened between Varek and Kylar, something that had brought all three of them closer to Gable’s dream of a three-way mating, of a family. It made his heart ache in his chest, but it was a good ache. A beautiful ache. “You shouldn’t underestimate the power of teamwork.”

  Varek laughed softly beneath his breath. “What did you have in mind?”

  Kylar started through the water, prowling closer to Gable, bright blue eyes all for Gable’s nude body though his words were still for Varek who followed close behind him. “I was thinking one of us should fuck Gable’s ass and one should suck that perfect cock of his.”

  Arousal zipped through Gable’s body. His cock swelled even thicker, until he was so hard his shaft stretched up to kiss his navel and his hole pulsed with eagerness. He couldn’t imagine anything better than being pleasured by both of these men at once, being the focus of all that intense, male attention. Already his skin burned, even before Varek came to stand behind him, the heat of his enormous body banishing the chill of the night.

  He was suddenly so much warmer, but still, Gable shivered—with arousal—as Varek’s hands wrapped around his chest and pulled him back into his strength. Kylar came to stand in front of him, his fingers teasing down Gable’s flat stomach to trace the ridges of his swollen length. Fluid leaked from the tip of his cock and a trembling sigh escaped his lips as Kylar leaned in to claim his mouth, tongue teasing along the seam of his lips, carrying the taste of Varek and the promise of love that could last.