by Susan Laine
DESPITE their still slightly disheveled appearance, Kris and Rafe arrived promptly at the dining room, where everyone was already waiting for them. Privately Rafe had to admit he took some guilty pleasure in watching his lovely mate squirm a little in the presence of a large number of their pack members, the large oak dining table fit for forty people filled to capacity. Kris’s eyes widened at the table packed to the brim with dishes of all varieties—grilled steak, mashed potatoes with gravy, green vegetables, and blueberry pie with whipped cream. Rafe enjoyed Kris’s excitement. Dinner was an important, special time of the day for everyone at the ranch because in the morning they didn’t have time to socialize, and lunch typically consisted of a picnic-type luncheon amid daily chores.
Silently overlooking the meeting of his ma and his mate for the first time, Rafe let the moment sink into his permanent memory—just in case this was all he was going to share with his youthful mate. Where his pa—Daniel King—was levelheaded with a cool demeanor, his ma—Rebecca King—was vivacious, earthy, and emotionally robust. The personalities of Rafe’s parents complemented each other perfectly, as they had forged the strength of their relationship in the span of near four centuries together as lycans. Rebecca had a tendency to overshadow most people who came into contact with her, and Kris was no exception to the rule. Overall, however, Ma was clearly taken with Kris since they had scholarly interests in common, Rebecca King having a master’s in environmental studies. Pretty soon they were chatting like long-lost friends, and Rafe beamed.
Rafe, in the place of honor to the right of his pa, who sat at the end of the table, sat across from Kris, who kept glancing furtively his way from under his lashes with a shy smile on his full lips. Rafe returned the gesture with a salacious grin of his own, feeling better about all this than ever before. Yes, maybe their relationship wasn’t doomed to begin with after all, he pondered with glee, reminiscing on the sweet taste of his mate’s lips.
Near the high windows and French doors leading to the patio outside the dining room was the smaller kids’ table, also packed with laughing, playing children. Rafe observed Kris looking over his shoulder at them a couple of times before he leaned over the table a bit to whisper politely, “Are they wolves too?”
Chuckling, Rafe shook his head. “No, not yet. Wolf traits emerge during puberty along with all the other physical and hormonal changes. The only wolf feature lycan children have is regeneration. They can’t get sick, and if they’re injured, they’ll heal quickly enough.”
Kris nodded, glancing over to the children with a simple kind of unabashed curiosity that Rafe didn’t want to quench even a bit but would rather encourage to full bloom. Kris’s natural inquisitiveness was a charming quality that Rafe intended to relish, savor, and nurture. Every moment they’d spend together would a learning curve—for both of them in equal measure.
Looking Rafe squarely in the eyes, Kris bit his lower lip and flushed a bit. “I—I wanted to thank you, Rafe, for healing my mom with your blood. It was very kind of you. And if you knew anything about my mother’s inability to stay put for longer than ten seconds, you’d understand how grateful we all are at not having to suffer through her recuperation period.” The meaningful look Kris gave him made Rafe stifle a clamorous burst of laughter, considering Claire Ellis sat only a few chairs away. Instead of answering with words, he gave his mate a wicked wink—which earned him a brisk kick in the shin under the table. It was all good fun, and smiling broadly, Rafe felt as though they were the only two in the room. Neither could certainly take his eyes away from the other long enough to notice other people around them.
“It was my honor,” he replied to the compliment, gently inspecting his mate’s beautiful visage as it again broke into a grateful smile. Rafe realized he was finally getting a glimpse of the man he’d spoken with over the phone, the true self-confident Kris, now that he was getting more comfortable, relaxed, and at ease—free to express himself without anxieties dampening his buoyant enthusiasm.
Taking a bite from his peppered grilled steak, Kris grinned insinuatingly. “I guess you’re not vegetarians, then?”
Rafe winked back. “Nope. Strictly carnivores dwell in this cave.”
Nodding with an amused smile, Kris proceeded to ask Rafe, “So, where were you when the Great Unveiling happened?” This was a commonplace question because everyone in the world knew exactly where they’d been on that fateful day and hour, just like 9/11, and Rafe nodded in acknowledgement of the mutually timed, though not shared in detail, experience.
“Over at the stables,” he answered, bopping his chin back to indicate the direction. “I felt it, the electric tingling crawling all over my skin.”
“The sound, that thundering whoosh that made all my hairs on my body stand up? Yeah, I remember that too.” Kris confirmed his own recollection. “I was only twelve, but I still remember it. Did you see the rippling wave?”
“Of the Veil lifting? No, only felt it since I wasn’t outside. You saw it then?” Rafe had heard from a multitude of sources how they’d observed the rainbow-colored electric wave move across the sphere of the entire world, like a ring ripple when a stone was cast at the center of a still pond. Ground Zero, though calculated down to the millimeter, was even after nine years a point of political and religious contestation—and guarded by an international joint military force. Yeah, as though the Unveiling could happen twice. Rafe smirked sardonically.
“Yeah,” Kris admitted keenly, his startlingly blue eyes lit up. “It was pink, and sort of purple too. For a flash, it blanketed the sky, but then it moved away, and the sky was blue again. I thought I’d imagined it—until we all saw the news on TV that night. Is it true that all those belonging to the Unseen world felt it? I only saw and heard it, just like Iz, my parents, and all my friends.”
“Yes, it’s true,” Rafe said, staring far into the distance, remembering all too well the shudder that had nearly knocked him out cold—and scared all the horses out of their minds when a heavily armed Minotaur hunting party had appeared in their sights in the blink of an eye.
“Why do you think it happened?” Kris asked quietly, frowning in confusion and frustration, and Rafe couldn’t exactly blame him for feeling so—even though it did hurt a lot, like a stabbing pain deep into his ribs, aimed squarely at his vulnerable heart. “I mean the world could not have been less ready for the revelation.” Rafe realized Kris hadn’t referred to the two of them but to the state of the world at large, and the ache in his heart lifted—just like the Veil separating the Unseen world and the Common Earth, as those of the Unseen world called it.
It had been a struggle for people from both sides to come to terms with the fact that once the Veil had lifted, two separate worlds merged into one. Significant changes took place all over. Like the magical sprite grove that had appeared in the middle of York, England—and two villages standing there had vanished into thin air, leaving only confused people behind in a newborn wilderness. Or the mountain dragon’s lair—with the whole mountain in tow—eradicating four city blocks on Staten Island, New York. Where before the Unveiling there had been human settlements, now rose supernatural sites of magical power and vice versa. Where there had been highways, now dangerous and untamed wilderness had taken hold.
This melding of two worlds kept reshaping the Earth, even after almost a decade. Rafe and his kindred—those who were half human—already had always one foot in both worlds, and to them the transition had not been as overwhelming as it had been for others.
“I don’t rightly know why the Unveiling happened, honey. But time and space, nature and the universe don’t move according to humans’ timetables. This is the reality now, and we all have to adapt to it and not let it interfere with us living our lives. Time waits for no man, as they say.”
Smiling kindly, Kris gave Rafe butterflies in his stomach. To his astonishment, he figured out that that had never actually happened to him before. This was certainly a day for first times—for all those around. �
�Have you always been a cowboy?”
Rafe liked Kris’s curiosity, even though he had a hard time coming up with suitable answers for some of his questions. “No, honey, I’ve done a lot of different things over time. But I like being a cowboy. I love horses and the wide open plains and prairies, the Rockies, and the ranch. Even if I weren’t a lycan, I’d still probably be a cowboy—and I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.” Rafe told the truth. The ranch was his life and would always be. He loved his family and friends, and he adored his pack.
So engrossed in reliving in his mind the life of his dreams, Rafe didn’t immediately notice how silent Kris had become. Blinking when he suddenly smelled the unease emanating from his mate, Rafe refocused his attention on Kris—and worried because Kris looked kind of sad but trying his best to hide it.
“I’m sorry, honey.” Rafe began to backpedal. “I didn’t mean that I would never—”
Frowning, Kris furiously shook his head. “No, no. I can tell you meant it. Don’t lie.” Biting his lower lip, avoiding eye contact, he muttered, “It’s better to know where you stand now than years down the line when we’ve both invested our hearts and—”
“No lifestyle is worth losing you,” Rafe interrupted emphatically, steadfast in his belief.
Kris paused for a moment. “I had trouble accepting the possibility that I might have to change my plans for the future because of you—and give up something I’ve wanted for a long time. It would hardly be fair of me to demand you to give up what you love when I’m not sure I could do the same.” When Kris looked up at Rafe, his smile was bittersweet. “I was just…. I thought about the fact that you’ve been a cowboy for two centuries now, and wondered if you might want to try something else…. It didn’t occur to me that you must’ve—obviously—done other things too. I’m still getting used to the fact that you have hundreds of years of experiences accumulated already—despite your youthful appearance.”
Rafe reflected upon what he was hearing. “Yeah, I understand, honey. I do. Before the Unveiling we could travel all over the country because the likelihood of a confrontation was smaller then. The Unseen world intended to remain as such—unseen—so there were strict rules and regulations about contact with others of our kind so that we wouldn’t betray our presence and existence to humans. So, yeah, I’ve tried my hand in a lot of different areas—”
“But after all those… tests and trials,” Kris clarified, “being a cowboy is where your heart lies. Here at the ranch with your family and pack.”
“You are my mate,” Rafe replied to what sounded like an accusation, unable to hold back the fierce growl. “You are family and pack too.”
“But we’re not alike,” Kris inserted. “I don’t want to be a cowboy or a rancher—”
“You don’t know that because you’ve never tried—”
“I’ve never tried being an airplane pilot either, but I know I don’t want to be one, or even try it.”
“There’s much to do on a ranch, and—”
“Son, give him time to figure it out on his own,” Daniel King interjected from between Rafe and Kris, placing his big calming hand on Rafe’s arm and squeezing gently. Turning to Kris, his pa smiled politely. “There is no pressure, Kris. Time, as I’m sure you understand, is something we have plenty of. Even if patience is lost on the young sometimes,” he added, glancing pointedly at Rafe, who couldn’t help but blush over his father’s intervention. Rafe wanted to work things out with his mate on his own, and he didn’t need or want his father’s help.
“Rafe mentioned you raise horses here,” Kris said, directing his polite inquiry at Daniel, in Rafe’s opinion probably to include the older man in the conversation or out of simple curiosity—and Rafe felt like punching a wall in frustration. He wanted his mate’s attention to be focused solely on him 100 percent.
“Horses and cattle,” Daniel replied casually. “My daughter, June, manages the ranch, while my boys handle the animals and the livestock. Rafe and Michael train the horses, and Gabe and Uri tend to the cattle.”
Tense, holding back his anger at losing control of the situation, Rafe watched and listened to his father and his mate engage in a conversation about tending a variety of animals, grooming them for the rodeo or merely for riding, and herding a hundred head of cattle. Just when Daniel was explaining how they were going into the business of training bucking bulls, Rafe heard a whisper from his right side.
“Hey, I just wanted to say that you have nothing to prove to me—even if I acted like a jerk and demanded it. I’m sorry.”
Puzzled at the offered olive branch, Rafe studied Isaiah’s features. He seemed—and smelled—sincere enough. “It’s all right. Kris told me you were just looking out for him. After all, that’s what brothers should do for each other—watch each other’s backs.”
“You know Kris is into you, right?” Isaiah said after a few bites of his steak and swallows of mashed potatoes.
His face heating up, Rafe nodded. What they had been doing upstairs in his bedroom had revealed that fact. “Sex is easy,” he confessed at last in a hushed tone. “Being with someone who doesn’t share your interests is not. Opposites may attract, but similarities form a more permanent foundation for a relationship. I’m a cowboy who lives on a ranch in the middle of nowhere, and he’s going to be a scholar who belongs in huge metropolises with intellectual challenges. I’m a lycan who wants to claim his mate, but Kris…. He has a whole life to lead—without me.” Sighing, with a lump the size of Wyoming lodged in his throat, Rafe blinked away a veil of tears. “As much as I want Kris in my life right now, and not later, he should have his chance to go out into the world and make a life for himself so that his dreams may come true. To build the life he’s always wanted—just like I knew I wanted to be a cowboy, and ride in the rodeo, and train horses, and, hell, even mucking stalls—”
“That’s crap.” Isaiah cut him off tersely, waving his hand dismissively. “What the two of you need is some one-on-one time to figure out what the hell either of you want separately and together, and not greater distance to mull over what you’ve lost before you’ve even had it.”
While Rafe was busy steaming, all of a sudden he realized Isaiah had spoken so loudly that the whole table full of people now sat in silence, watching them intently. Rafe saw Kris flash his blue eyes as strong as steel while staring at his brother.
“What?” Isaiah said defensively, spreading his arms. “I’m not saying anything either of you haven’t already thought of. Because—despite what I said before about lucrative opportunities, and fortunate businesses, and all that rot—the truth is, Rafe, you would be damn lucky to have Kris, and he’d be damn fortunate to have you. And no, I’m not talking about a material fortune here. Yeah, sure, there’s the whole business of a marital contract, and all that jazz, but ultimately this is all about the two of you. So, why don’t you kids go on off to play while we grown-ups have a chat, huh?”
Despite himself, Rafe was beginning to like the slugger, caught somewhere between wanting to punch the guy’s lights out and to thank him wholeheartedly with a huge hug. He decided on a compromise. “Thanks, Iz. I think we’ll do just that.” Turning to Kris, he asked, “Shall we?”
Already getting up from his seat, Rafe waited silently in place for Kris to decide his own actions for himself. Pretty soon Kris got up too, and without a word, followed Rafe out of the dining room toward the stairs and up to Rafe’s bedroom.
When the door closed behind them, Kris seemed to enter into fury mode, clenching his fists, shaking his head angrily, and mumbling something angrily incoherent. Rafe waited for a moment for the tirade to end but soon quit waiting when Kris didn’t seem to stop. “I’m beginning to warm up to your brother and see his appeal. Is he by any chance single?” Shock finally concluded Kris’s quiet self-absorbed ranting, and he stood in place, gawking at Rafe with his mouth hanging open. Rafe grinned wickedly and winked. “Just kidding, honey.”
Kris’s blue eyes flashed and na
rrowed. “He’s straight.”
“I couldn’t care less,” Rafe replied, standing on the verge of his self-control as he kept wondering about the sensory experience of his mate-to-be, how he would taste, smell, and feel like oozing sex from every pore, and what he would sound like and look like when he climaxed in his arms. Rafe was dying to find out.
And then he just couldn’t wait a single second longer, so he crossed the room from the door with an easy stride, took Kris in his arms, and dipped his head to kiss his mate deeply and thoroughly. Their tongues brushed softly and tentatively, sliding against each other lazily, and pushing closer smoothly and then withdrawing for quick breaths. As he covered Kris’s mouth with his own, tasting the peppered steak and the rich essence that was pure Kris, Rafe felt a heady high suffocating his brain until he felt like he was floating on air—first his brain, and then the rest of him. He’d never before felt such intensity of emotions and sensations mixed, and in his heart Rafe knew he never would again with anyone else.
FIREWORKS. That was what kissing Rafe felt like to Kris. As if he’d never been kissed before—like it was the first time. It was the sweetest torment in the form of languid exploration, as if they had all the time in the world—and since his mate was immortal, it was kind of half true. Rafe’s questing tongue, his fastening lips, his nibbling teeth—all worked in unison to drive Kris crazy with want until he was clinging to Rafe’s shoulders, like a strangling vine, and pressing his body against the solid strength of his mate’s muscular form and his rigid cock. So smooth, so hot, so wet—Kris moaned into Rafe’s hungry mouth, and Rafe responded by wrapping his arms around him so tightly he was left breathless.
“Rafe…,” Kris murmured against the mouth devouring him. “I want you. I need you. I need to know what sex with you will be like. I have to know if it will overpower me.”