by Cooper Davis
Keeping his gaze pinned on Hayden and licking his lips wolfishly, Josh slowly removed his own shirt, stripping his chest bare. He eased back on the bed, propping his back against the headboard. Hayden had never seen a more developed physique—and he had glimpsed Josh shirtless plenty of times back in high school when they’d played on the same baseball and football teams. But Josh had filled out tremendously since then, especially in the past year, and now possessed cordons of muscle that knotted across his flat abdomen, as well as powerful biceps and shoulders. Josh wasn’t tall compared to him, but he was strong and bulky through the upper body. Hayden let his gaze travel lower, to Josh’s jean-clad lower body, and instantly recalled the feeling of the man’s strong thighs about his hips. The truck with Josh had been glorious. But being in the bed with him, naked? Was going to be downright rapturous.
Josh caught Hayden ogling him. “Like what you see, do you, Alpha?” he teased, leaning back a little farther so that his sculpted chest stood out even more sexily. Josh stroked lazy fingers across his abdomen, lingering at the waistband of his jeans with a suggestive look. No more shy guy. Interesting.
“I’ve always liked the look of you, baby,” Hayden returned, chucking his sweatshirt onto the floor. “You’ve always known it, too. My soul be damned, but I could never hide my feelings from you…or hide how you aroused me.”
“Your scent always shocked me. I never knew what the hell to do about it—or about you, Hayden. But I do now.” With an unabashedly wicked grin, Josh patted the place beside him on the mattress. “Come on, Alpha. Bring the whiskey.” Then Josh growled, low and sexy right in the very back of his throat. “And drop the jeans while you’re at it.”
They rolled to face each other, the bed giving a creaking groan. It was a weathered four-poster, hardly quiet for lovemaking. Good thing Josh’s house sat way off the road without a neighbor nearby, what with all the ruckus his old bed was going to make. Being silent or even quiet wasn’t going to be possible, not while making love to Josh.
Hayden slid a hand down to Josh’s hip, took hold and urged him a little closer. Josh ran his tongue over his own lips and complied. The guy began trembling as their groins brushed together, even though they still wore jeans. Was it with fear? Arousal? Hayden wasn’t sure, but the hair on his nape bristled when he caught the faint aroma of Josh’s mating scent.
“You need another shot of whiskey,” Hayden told him softly and sitting up in bed, reached for the bottle. The bed groaned again and Hayden laughed. “Does the bed make always make this much noise…when you bring females here?”
“Wouldn’t know.” Josh poured himself a shot and tossed it back.
“Thought you were Mr. Experienced.” Hayden couldn’t help being curious. If Josh was so big with the ladies, then why hadn’t he ever brought any of them home?
Josh met his surprised stare and smiled. “Never asked anyone back to my place before now, that’s all,” he admitted, color hitting his cheeks again.
Hayden leaned forward and kissed him, chest tight as a drum. I’m the first he’s ever trusted like this.
Pulling back, Hayden gazed long and hard into the other wolf’s magnetic eyes. They’d changed color again, those flecks of amber far more pronounced than usual.
Sliding his hand back to Josh’s hip, he rubbed him there, then slowly slid his palm between the man’s thighs, palming his groin. A thick ridge bulged through the center of Josh’s jeans, punching the zipper out, and protruding boldly. Hayden took his fingertips and very gently traced the outline of the other wolf’s erection. He’d have sworn it bulged even more beneath his hand.
“I like this,” Hayden growled in a throaty voice. “A lot.” He allowed his touch to grow firmer, become an actual stroking caress as he traced Joshua’s thick hard-on once again.
Hayden’s hand paused at the zipper, and he ran his fingers along the length of it, feeling the way the metal bowed outward with Josh’s erection. Josh jolted slightly in reaction, reaching toward Hayden. With a moan, he sank his fingers into Hayden’s hair, arching slightly.
Hayden whispered against Josh’s sandpapery cheek, “I know firsthand that you are neither a boxer nor a briefs man, so I’m going to be very gentle about this.” Hayden popped the button of Josh’s jeans and with infinite slowness eased the zipper down. Josh truly began trembling in earnest then, right as Hayden peeled back those jeans and Josh’s cock sprang free from the fabric’s confines.
With his right hand, Hayden gripped the blunt head of Josh’s thick erection. With his left, he moved inside Josh’s open pants, sliding his palm behind until his fingertips found the man’s muscular buttocks. Kissing Joshua, Hayden moved his hand behind and underneath him until he found the man’s sweet spot of arousal. Working his fingertips at the puckered opening, Hayden gave him a gentle, exploratory stroke.
Josh bucked and inhaled harshly in reaction, obviously shocked when Hayden’s fingertips probed his sensitive spot. Can’t push too fast, Hayden cautioned himself and slid that hand up to the base of Josh’s spine, stroking him soothingly. He’d wait to touch Josh’s private place again, allow the other Alpha to relax into his arms a bit more—and reach a more fevered level of need.
Hayden focused his full attention on Josh’s cock, rubbing his thumb forcefully over the slit until warm dampness formed beneath his fingertips. Until Josh buried his face against Hayden’s shoulder with a loud, uninhibited moan of pleasure.
Hayden stroked harder, the wetness in his palm growing, and he spread it in a teasing circle around the tip of Josh’s erection. Then back to the head for more wet slickness, which he used to work his way in an aggressive rhythm down to the thick base of Josh’s cock. He then took hold of the man’s twin sacs, pleasuring him until Josh’s hips rode of the mattress, rolling on a stroke of Hayden’s hand.
“That’s it, Joshua. Give in to me.”
He wanted to arouse Josh, tantalize him—fulfill his needs so thoroughly that he would never want a woman, not ever again. Make him so caught in Hayden’s own thrall that Josh would follow him to the very ends of the earth to hold him once more.
At that precise moment, the mating scent erupted powerfully all across Josh’s body, the aroma so rich, Hayden swore he might get drunk off it.
Josh was desperate to get his hand on Hayden Garrett’s cock. There was only one problem with that plan: Josh was terrified to reach across the few inches separating his groin from Hayden’s. It was a ridiculous form of paralysis, considering Hayden was slicking a palm low and hard down Josh’s own hard-on. As Hayden’s strokes grew more aggressive, Josh moaned…again. He’d been unable to stop moaning, in fact, and the rising fever of need and desire only made him ache to touch Hayden even more.
With eyes pressed closed, Josh reached toward the firm length that kept bumping into his own thigh, and with a thrilling gasp, felt warm skin brush into his palm. He dared to look then, gazing down to see that Hayden’s boxers had slipped open, his hard, warm flesh protruding invitingly. He rubbed a tentative thumb over the crown, imitating the way Hayden had initially touched Josh, then with a firm, long stroke—knowing what felt so damned pleasurable to him—he began stimulating the man. What he got as a reward was a thing of sheer beauty.
Hayden moved onto his back, tugging the cotton boxers low down his hips and began moving with Josh’s hard caresses, all the while keeping up his own gentle friction on Josh’s arousal. Then Hayden rolled to face him again, much closer this time. So close, Josh could feel the other wolf’s heated, panting breath against his jaw—so close that as their hands tightened in a grip about the other’s erections, moving faster and faster, their knuckles bumped. Their fingers grazed. Their sweat mingled between their thighs and groins.
Hayden shocked him by reaching mid-motion, and twining a pinkie with Josh’s, never stopping his fluid, arousing force on Josh’s cock. Their hands began moving almost as one, creating divine pleasure unlike any Josh had never known in his life.
He felt his erection pulse
, the veins tightening, and he pressed a staying hand against Josh’s knuckles. “Garrett,” he warned. “I’m going to lose it totally if you keep this up.”
Hayden leaned his jaw against Josh’s, brushing his cheek back and forth against the bristle of Josh’s goatee as if savoring it. “If you lose it, my virgin, it’s only going to be to me tonight. But if you come in my hand, I’ll just get you hard all over again.”
Josh quivered at the words, the seductive promise, and lifted a thigh up around Hayden’s right hip. With a familiar slide—familiar yet utterly brand new—he slid his straining cock between Hayden’s legs. Instead of that hidden wetness he was accustomed to with a woman, he reveled in the hard warmth of gliding against Hayden’s own hardness. Gasped at the pressure of their twin erections pushing and warring in a back and forth pressure—at the velvet hardness of the sensations, contrasted with the much softer press of Hayden’s sacs.
“Why did we wait this long?” Josh blurted without being able to stop the words. “All the time…”
Hayden groaned in his ear. “You didn’t want me.”
“I did.” Because Josh suddenly knew he had wanted Hayden Garrett, ever since their first run together several years earlier. “I always wanted you. I just didn’t understand.”
“I’ve loved you for years, Joshua.”
Josh pressed his eyes shut, trembling all over, aching to feel the pressure of Hayden deep within him. “Take me, Alpha. Now. Right now.”
Thank God Josh was into self-pleasuring and did it in style. Otherwise, he never would have had what they desperately needed for this first time, and it wasn’t like the drug store was open at two a.m.
Josh fumbled with the bedside drawer and tossed a small tube to Hayden, flushing like he’d just spent the day over on the slopes of Snow King.
Hayden smiled, was fast about his task, then bent low between Josh’s legs, gently working the slippery stuff against his tender opening. “We’ve had plenty of whiskey, baby, and I’m gonna be gentle. Just like I promised. Still,” Hayden warned, “you’ve got to relax. You’re tensed up back here.”
Josh nodded, sinking back into the pillow obediently, urging his hips upward so Hayden could get a better position as very slowly, very tenderly, he slid a single finger into Josh’s tight opening. Josh yelped loudly at that first erotic probing.
“Fuck,” he blurted under his breath.
Hayden leaned down and kissed him slowly on the belly, wanting to ease his fear and tight emotions. “True. That’s exactly the idea.”
“Shut up, college boy,” Josh muttered with a low laugh. At that exact moment, Hayden slid a second finger inside, spreading Josh a little, taking advantage of the humorous, relaxed moment to get him wider.
Once he’d worked at the opening, preparing his lover, he levered his hips upward until he was positioned atop Josh perfectly. He heard the other Alpha suck in a sharp, expectant breath—as if he were waiting to be slugged across the jaw.
“I know this is going to hurt like hell,” Josh murmured, eyes pressed tight in wincing anticipation.
“I’m going to turn pain into the sweetest pleasure you’ve ever known,” Hayden promised, pushing at the man’s taut opening. No give at all. He put more force into the motion and gained a good inch, and this elicited a long, low moan from Josh.
Hayden kissed him encouragingly. “That’s it,” he promised. “I’m going slow, baby. Really slow.”
He gained more purchase, easing and forcing his way into his lover, an inch or so at a time. When he’d managed to sheath himself about halfway, Josh suddenly clutched at Hayden’s shoulders, grinding harsh fingers into the muscles. “Garrett, this burns like hell,” Josh gasped. “It…I don’t know. I’m…it’s like you’re setting me on fire. Fucking hell. I just don’t know if I can—”
Hayden silenced the frantic protest with a full-mouthed kiss, promising the world to this man whom he’d forever craved—all with the stroke of his own tongue. “It’s okay, Joshua,” he murmured, finally breaking the kiss. “It’s okay. It’ll get better soon…feel better. You’re just a virgin, that’s all.”
“Not…really.” Josh grunted uncomfortably, his expression tight.
“Anyone ever come inside of you before?” Hayden whispered against his lover’s jaw, loving the tickle of Josh’s goatee against his own smooth skin. “Any man ever get between your legs like this, Joshua?”
“You’re…it. You know that.” Josh dug his fingers into Hayden’s back. “But God, you’re big…”
“So you’re a virgin, baby. Totally mine. And you know what they say about losing your virginity, right?”
Josh shook his head and groaned as Hayden pushed in a great deal deeper, desperate to get his lover’s pain over with. “No. Tell…me.”
Hayden moved his hips with the strongest force yet at that precise second. “A moment of pain, a lifetime of bliss.” And with his firm motion, he felt Josh’s whole body react, those gorgeous eyes flipping open.
“Holy mother!” Josh barked, hands and arms wrapping all about Hayden in desperation. “Oh, yeah, Garrett. Yeah!”
Hayden grinned and began showering the other wolf with gentle, probing kisses. He’d just reached the man’s most sensitive, erogenous spot. Now Joshua Peterson understood exactly what Hayden could offer him, how he could love him. And he’d realized that no woman would ever be able to do for him—to him—what Hayden could.
Their bodies were a perfectly choreographed, sluicing movement of one. The deeper and harder Hayden rode Josh, the more the other man reacted—crying out, moaning, howling. The sounds alone were enough to get Hayden off, they were so sensual and reactive. He’d never had a lover as expressive as Josh before, and as they drove their hips together, crashing like waves of electric desire, a strange thought passed through Hayden’s mind: Joshua intended to take him as mate. Somehow Hayden knew this was far more than lovemaking. It was ownership.
The thought carried a thrilling accompanying scent.
Joshua, head thrown back, a look of utter ecstasy on his face, was marking him as his mate. The scent was slowly seeping between them, layering over Hayden’s own body like possessive cologne, like a mate’s musk.
Panicking at the realization, he stilled inside Josh. Not that Hayden wouldn’t thrill to have him for a mate, but they were just now coming together for the first time. Surely the other Alpha didn’t intend…
Josh’s eyes opened and he lifted his head off the pillow. “Why’d you stop?” The tone was nearly like begging, his hands already reaching to urge Hayden back into a stroking rhythm.
Hayden leaned down, brushing damp, waving locks of hair away from Josh’s eyes with both hands. For a moment, he said nothing. Then whispered, “You’re marking me.”
Josh’s eyes drifted shut, and he sank back into the pillow. “Oh…yeah.”
“Joshua,” Hayden murmured more firmly. “You can’t. You really shouldn’t mark me.”
“Why not?” Josh asked languidly, eyes still closed, hands roving across Hayden’s lower back, sliding lower still.
Hayden gripped Josh’s chin. “Because it can’t be undone, baby. You know that.”
“I thought you wanted me,” he said in a slightly dazed tone, and suddenly Hayden wondered if Josh had gotten drunker off the whiskey than he’d realized. “You said you wanted me,” Josh repeated, finally opening his eyes again. They were pure darkness, the amber that usually lurked in the irises gone.
“Look, Josh, you know I do, but mating is for life.”
All at once, Josh leaned up on his elbows, incredibly lucid, his musky marking scent flowering even more potently between them. The fragrance was heavy, possessive. “If you don’t want to mate,” he told Hayden plainly, “you’d better get off of me and leave the house, because I can’t stop this. It’s beyond my control.”
Hayden gaped down at him, slowly moving his hips again despite himself. “Your marking me is…you can’t control…what?”
Josh collapsed
back into the pillows, tightening his thighs about Hayden’s hips. “You’re my mate, Garrett. I knew it the minute you got all the way inside me. Instinct’s taken over,” he said, groaning slightly. “So if you don’t want me, then get the fuck away. Otherwise, take me. Now.”
Hayden felt tears burn his eyes as a freight train of an orgasm shot to his groin. “I claim you,” he cried in reply. “Mate, you are mine.”
With those words, his own marking scent flowed out of his pores, rolled out of him in waves just as he felt his orgasm erupt. For long slow moments, they panted, Josh’s own cock equally spent, their bodies burning and slick.
That was when the next mating wave hit them both with the primal force of nature.
Ungrounded lightning pulsed between them, a physical bond that spun like an iron spider web, uniting them. Electrifying them. Growing hard, solid. Tangible. Hayden gasped in reaction, gulping at air. His eyes watered and his entire body jackknifed as their mating union formed. He could feel it, in the core of his heart and soul, a connection so vital, he knew nothing could ever shatter it. They would never be cut apart, never divided, not after this moment of pure union. For weeks, this bond would deepen, grow stronger, richer. They’d not even be able to transform to their wolf bodies, the supernatural process was that intense.
As the sensations gained strength, began pummeling through Hayden’s shoulders, his chest, he sensed and felt Joshua Peterson as if he existed within his own soul. He knew his mate’s mind and thoughts, felt the beating tempo of the other wolf’s heart, the same as if it pounded within his own chest. The mating act was complete. They were fully one, connected together by a link so permanent, no man or wolf could ever sever it. United by a tether forged of steel, one only death itself would ever manage to dissolve.
The avalanche of physical and emotional sensations reached a shaking crescendo. The spiritual joining crested, climaxing, and as it did so, their bodies sang in response. Hayden felt Josh’s cock thicken into a hard wedge, pushing sharply between them. Hayden’s own erection hardened all over again, pushing deep within Josh. Lengthening, throbbing until the mating peace he’d felt moments before transformed. Instantly, that thrilling stillness was replaced by something much more primitive and animalistic. His wolf nature awakened, although he remained in human form. Thrusting his head back, Hayden released a long, singing howl.