She nodded and walked into the kitchen area. She stood with her hand on the refrigerator door. “Are you hungry? I can make some pork chops.”
Rafir forced a smile. “No. Thanks. I ate at the bar.”
Julia raised a brow.
Rafir chuckled. It was a joke between them, ever since he’d started working at the vampire club. He looked around. “Where’s Alex?”
Julia fisted her hands on her hips. “I’m not his keeper.” She took a bottle of water out of the fridge, unscrewed the cap, and took a drink. “Besides, I’ve kind of been busy.”
The surge of animal in him pulsed strongly. He shouldn’t be angry with Julia. It wasn’t her fault Alex wasn’t home, but he couldn’t help the trickling anxiety inside him. He’d finally created a family -- two people he could love absolutely, his pack -- and it felt like he was losing them both.
He sat on the couch, head in his hands, and the door opened. Alex walked in and pushed the broken door closed behind him. His clothes and hair were disheveled, and the thick, pungent scent of cologne hung in the air.
Alex didn’t wear cologne. Rafir’s senses went on high alert. He could smell another man. The odor was unmistakably human. Had Alex taken blood from someone else? Did he kill again? No. Rafir didn’t smell blood. The scent was more raw and carnal. “Where have you been?” It was an accusation, not a question.
“I…” Worry creased Alex’s brow. “I wanted to give…” He glanced at Julia apologetically. “Julia’s parents…” He was stammering nervously, and it pissed Rafir off.
“Don’t blame Julia!” He rushed Alex, then pushed him against the wall.
He heard Julia yelp, but ignored her.
“Where were you?” A growl and tremor edged his words as his self-control faded. “Who the fuck were you with?”
The nervous energy in Alex disappeared, replaced by his own brand of anger. “Like you fucking care!” He pushed back, but Rafir maintained his strong grip. Alex glared furiously at him.
Rafir’s eyes shifted. His wolf took over. He could see every pore, every tiny line, every nostril flex, and mouth crinkle.
Julia shouted, “You’re losing it.”
It sounded like a gong going off in his brain. He turned his head and snapped his teeth at her. A growl rumbled from his chest. His wolf matched Alex’s fury, affronted the pup would try to exert his own dominance. Rafir was the leader, the alpha, and he would prove it. Inside his wolf snarled and scratched, fighting to get out. The self-control his human side had struggled to master disappeared with shifting bones. He screamed as the intense pain of shifting took him, but it sounded like a battle cry -- a call to war.
When he shifted fully, Rafir towered over Alex. He lifted the vampire and sniffed at his mouth then his neck. The scent trailed down his chest -- a saturated mixture of beer, cologne, saliva, and… frozen food? His wolf-self cocked its head sideways. What had his pup been up to?
Chapter Six
Alex looked away and held perfectly still under Rafir’s grip -- a kind of stillness only a vampire can achieve. He’d never seen him completely turned before. If he’d had a beating heart, it would have been pounding as hard as Raf’s. The werewolf’s pulsing blood thrummed along his skin causing Alex to lick his lips. It wouldn’t do for the wolf to think Alex thought of him as food. It was bad enough he’d inadvertently challenged him by glaring into his eyes. He suspected the right thing would have been to look away. If he’d been wolf himself, he might not have resisted the urge to cower. His human side had wanted to cower, but his vampire side insisted he was the top of the food chain.
Rafir’s were-form fascinated, frightened, and turned him on all at the same time. The fur along his skin was coffee-brown and short, more like that of a deer, not a dog, and definitely not the shaggy hair of a wolf. He wanted to reach out and touch Rafir, to stroke the skin resembling brushed suede. The wolf’s hands gripping his arms prevented him. He was tall -- taller than Rafir by several inches -- but now his lover was a towering hulk of power and energy. He could rend Alex from limb to limb, and Alex conceded to himself he would let him.
And except for the fur, his face still looked rather human. There wasn’t any elongating of the nose or real animal-like features made popular by Hollywood. Instead, it was still Rafir, only exaggerated. Rafir’s amber irises had a dark ring around them. They fluctuated and contracted with emotion as he snorted and chuffed. The heat of his sharp breath brushed against Alex’s cheeks and neck. He heard Julia gasp. He looked at her and shook his head just once. Rafir wasn’t home anymore, and while Alex might survive whatever Rafir had planned, Julia -- a human -- would not. Run, he mouthed to her. Hide.
A sob escaped Julia as she scrambled backward, turned, then leaped toward the bedroom. Rafir reacted by letting go of Alex’s arms, twisting his body and ready to pounce.
“No!” Alex shouted. He pushed the werewolf off balance, landing on top of him as they slammed to the floor. “Julia! Get in the bathroom and lock the door!”
The bedroom door slammed shut behind her. Alex heard the bathroom door and the clicking turn of the lock. He had to distract Rafir, keep him from going after Julia. He fisted his hand and slammed it into Rafir’s side.
A roar of rage tore through the were-beast. More cat-like than possible, Rafir flipped and shoved Alex sending him flying across the floor. He hit the wall with a thump, pain bursting from his chest where he’d been hit. The beast stood, shaking his head, then sniffing the air toward the bedroom.
Alex shouted, “Is that all you got?” He barely noticed the muddy blood seeping through the shredded fabric of his T-shirt. His jacket crowded his arms, and he wiggled out of it as he stood, bracing himself against the wall. “Ass.”
Rafir roared again, his focus shifting entirely onto Alex. An inhuman, “Mine,” rumbled from his mouth. He grabbed Alex and threw him to the ground. Alex winced as claws ripped at his pants. He didn’t fight back. Rafir needed him submissive, which meant allowing whatever was going to happen to happen.
He grunted when his jeans were yanked down around his thighs and his cock stuck in the material before it sprang free onto the carpet. Rafir in beast form dug his hands into Alex’s hips, then pulled him until his knees were tucked under his stomach.
Rafir pushed down on Alex’s neck, holding him tightly to the floor, his ass up and exposed in this position. Sharp nails from the werewolf’s free hand scraped down Alex’s back.
Alex hadn’t been afraid -- not until that moment. “Rafir,” he said, but it sounded muffled against the shag of the carpet. This was too reminiscent of the four vampires who had used him as a flesh puppet to satisfy their every desire and hunger. They’d taken his humanity and made him a monster. They had taken so much from him without a choice.
“Mine,” Rafir snapped -- the word full of possession and desperation.
In that second, Alex made his choice. He could stop Rafir. He was vampire, and it meant he was stronger than a werewolf. He chose not to fight, but it didn’t stop the scream tearing from his lips when Rafir shoved his thick, large cock inside his unprepared ass. The sharp pain burst through his gut and released in primal, desperate noises from his mouth. He searched the floor with his hands, trying to find purchase, a way to leverage himself to take the big beast without feeling like he was being split wide open. Rafir withdrew slightly then thrust again and again.
The pain grew into a warmth spreading into Alex’s limbs. He moved his knees slightly apart, desperate to make more room for the thrusting length. His own traitorous cock lay heavy between his thighs, sliding along the slopes of his legs, finding its own way to fuck as Rafir claimed Alex in the basest of acts. Rafir’s shaft penetrated deeper than Alex had ever felt before.
The size alone would have damaged an ordinary human being.
Alex felt the full extent of Rafir’s weight as the werewolf leaned over him. The heated chest sank against Alex’s back, the hot breath huffing against his cheeks, while Rafir unrelentingly thrust o
ver and over. Alex should have been appalled and disgusted, but his own monster, his vampire, embraced the claiming. He cried out again. His limbs went cold as his engorged cock thrummed. The animal sounds coming from Rafir were sharper, higher, and more frequent. The painfully pleasurable sensation of Raf’s cock tugging and thrusting inside him drove Alex to the brink. He felt Rafir’s breath on his shoulder followed by teeth sinking into the soft flesh near his neck.
“Rafir,” he bellowed as the bite forced his orgasm -- an explosive bloom shook his entire body as warmth spread into his stomach, chest, then out to his arms and legs.
Rafir roared, his groin jerking and twisting as he pumped his own orgasm deep and hard. When the last of his pleasure subsided, he draped himself over Alex.
Alex didn’t move for several moments, afraid what stirring might do to Rafir’s other self. He watched the furred arms and hands lying next to his face shrink and shift until gone and Rafir’s human self remained. At the same time, he felt Rafir’s cock soften.
“I’m sorry,” Alex heard him say with true contrition. Slowly, Rafir withdrew from him, leaving an ache in the wake of the absence.
Alex stayed in place. Submissive and compliant. He hadn’t noticed Julia standing across the room with her hands over her mouth. She’d come out of the bedroom at some point and had witnessed the final taking. He turned his head to see Rafir’s wide stare of horror as if just realizing what he’d done.
Julia shook her head. “He was raped.” The words choked in her throat. “He was raped. Like me. Used and battered.” She shook her head in disbelief and went to Alex, pulling at him, trying to get him up, get his pants up so he wasn’t so exposed. “You’re no better than the monsters who took me, who took him.”
“Julia,” Rafir said. “I…” He couldn’t finish. Alex could see the horror in Rafir’s face.
“No,” she said, still shaking her head. “I’m…” Her voice caught in a sob as she looked at Alex. “I’m leaving. Come with me.”
Alex couldn’t form the words to answer. Instead, he gave an almost imperceptible shake of his head. A “no.”
Julia squeezed her eyes tightly for a moment forcing hot tears down her face. “Fine. Be a victim.” She stood, walked to the door, and picked up a small waiting suitcase. “I’m going back to New York with my parents. I can’t deal with this anymore.”
“Wait,” Rafir said, but he didn’t move toward her.
“Good-bye, Raf.”
Alex covered his face and turned away, listening as the door opened and shut.
“Why did you make me do that?” Rafir asked.
Alex looked up, certain his face registered his incredulity. “I made you do it?”
“You’re mine,” Rafir said, the anger returning. “And you slept with someone else. Someone not pack. Not mine.”
“Like you give a shit.” Alex’s own anger matched Rafir’s. “You keep me on a leash with perfunctory feedings and the occasional pat on the head. I may be no better than a pet dog, but even a pet knows when its master is merely going through the motions. Jack was there and he wanted me. Only me!” Alex’s voice rose with ferocity. “It felt good to be wanted.”
“You had sex with him.”
“No.”
“I can smell him on you. All over you.” There was a panicked desperation in Rafir. Alex watched the shame crawl into his expression. “I can smell him.”
“I stopped, Rafir.” Alex let his anger go. “I stopped, because I am yours. God help me. I had a warm and vital creature in front of me. A man I once loved, who still loved me, and I told him no.” The “no” sounded bitter even to his own ears.
“But…”
“But nothing.”
Rafir’s arms wrapped around his upper body, and he stared at Alex. “Julia’s right. I’m a monster.”
Alex ran his hands through his hair. “At least I finally got your attention. I was beginning to think you didn’t care one way or the other.”
Rafir stepped tentatively toward Alex as if afraid Alex would bolt if startled. Alex didn’t. He let Rafir take his hand, touch his chest, and caress his cheek. “Did I hurt you?” There was fear in the question.
“Yes,” Alex replied. “And no. I’m a vampire. I can take a lot of damage.”
“I’m sorry. So sorry.” He pulled Alex into his embrace. “I can’t promise I’ll never hurt you again. I’m sorry. I needed…”
“Don’t be sorry.” Alex kissed his cheek and stared, mesmerized by the raw masculinity in his chiseled face. He knew what he had to do now. The only thing that could make it right for Rafir and Julia. He would leave. It would be his Christmas gift for Julia. She was family. Alex realized every part of him loved her. His bond with Rafir was stronger, but only because Julia had never let him in completely. He would do what was right for Julia. He would sacrifice his own happiness for theirs. Without Alex, she would return. She would know Rafir would never hurt her. She would come home.
Rafir leaned back to meet Alex’s gaze. He brushed the hair away from Alex’s face. “You have such beautiful eyes. I noticed them right away the first night I saw you.” His mouth curled in a half-smile. “I wanted to save you. Something inside me clicked into place. Something I’d been missing and no one else would do. It was duty and lust and a need to possess. I was desperate to have you, Alex. I’d only felt that way once before… with Julia. You are giving, so giving. I see the sacrifices you make trying to keep Julia happy. I’m sorry if I’ve made you feel less important than you are. You are magnificent.”
Alex felt the first pang of loss. This would be the last time he held Rafir. The last time he would touch his lover who had brought so much passion and purpose to his life. He wanted the moment to last forever. “So, what you’re saying is that you love me too?”
Rafir answered with a delicate brush of his lips on Alex’s collar. Alex closed his eyes and sank into the caress. Alex’s cock hardened, willing and ready for whatever Rafir wanted. He felt guilty. Rafir should be out looking for Julia, ready to do anything to bring her home. Alex knew the longer she was gone, the harder it would be for her to forgive Rafir. Alex’s absence would help. But Rafir’s strong hands kneading his back, his buttocks, and his thighs while kissing away the pain, kept Alex in the moment. He wouldn’t -- couldn’t -- deny him. He was giving up so much by leaving; he would take this brief respite.
He met Rafir’s lips with his own, hungrily tasting and taking. Rafir slipped a hot, hot hand between Alex’s thighs and took hold of his cock. He stroked the smooth shaft with his calloused hands. “I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
Alex thought it was too much like a lie. Rafir had meant to punish Alex, even if hurting him hadn’t been the intention. “Don’t talk about it anymore. I am yours.”
“And I am yours, Alex.” He nibbled over Alex’s collarbone. “Don’t ever doubt it.” Their lips met, and Rafir’s tongue thrust inside Alex’s mouth, filling it with heat as he thrust past teeth and tongue. The warmth spilled down Alex’s throat until he could feel it in his chest. He drew the heat from Rafir, relishing the feel of the were’s palms rubbing and massaging his back, arms, thighs, and cock. It felt so good to be touched, to be wanted.
Rafir climbed Alex’s body and straddled his lap. Alex cried out, the sounds muffled against his lover’s mouth, when Rafir guided Alex’s shaft inside him. A low sound, a growl, rumbled in Rafir’s chest as he lowered his body, taking Alex’s cock deep. The tightness of Rafir’s ass nearly caused Alex to come instantly.
“Alex,” Rafir groaned. “Oh, son of a bitch.”
“Am I hurting you?” Alex asked.
“Yes. No. God. I don’t know.”
“Do you want to stop?”
“No. I was just… unprepared.” He pushed himself down on Alex’s cock. “But damn, it feels kind of good and kind of bad all at the same time.”
Alex felt Rafir clench. He wiggled beneath and pressed his groin hard against Rafir’s ass. “Keep that up and it’s going to be over
quick.” He licked his thumb and grasped Rafir’s cock, now heavy between them. He slid the tip of his thumb over the precum forming on the tip. He stroked while gently gyrating his hips.
Rafir closed his eyes. “So fucking good.”
Alex put his hand at the base of Rafir’s back and pushed him back with his free hand. He licked the skin covering Rafir’s chest and stomach, paying close attention to the grooves around his tightly formed muscles. He managed to bend over far enough to take the tip of Rafir’s cock into his mouth.
Rafir’s hips bucked in response. He cried out as he came.
Alex drank him down, throwing his head back when the tightness in his groin exploded. He shuddered, his hips jerking beneath Rafir for several seconds until his orgasm subsided.
Rafir leaned forward, still straddling Alex’s hips. He kissed him. “That was… unexpected.”
Alex agreed. “Totally.” The whole experience had made what he had to do even harder. Knowing what he would be giving up made leaving an even deeper wound.
Chapter Seven
Rafir had lost control. He’d been powerless to stop the transformation. His wolf had taken one whiff of Alex, and the need to establish claim on the young vampire had taken over. The anger and jealousy had held him, forcing him to act. He hadn’t felt so out of control since he was eighteen. It’s why he’d left home and joined the army in the first place. He’d brutalized Alex, and just because Alex was a vampire didn’t mean he couldn’t hurt him. And what about Julia? She’d been right to leave. Rafir couldn’t blame her for wanting to get as far away from him as possible. After all, he’d more than proved he was as terrible as any monster.
He hadn’t known Alex’s history. Hell, he hadn’t asked. To find out he’d been forcibly taken stabbed a pain deep in Rafir’s chest. He’d kill anyone who hurt Alex now.
A Pack For Christmas (Kansas City Vampires Book 7) Page 4