by Stormy Glenn
“I’m okay, Dom,” Keeland replied out loud. “Jarrod didn’t hurt me.”
Jarrod!
“Where…where…”
Chay shook his head without moving his gaze away from whatever he was watching. “You’re not going to believe this, man.”
“What?” Dom asked. “What are you looking at?”
With Chay and Keeland’s careful assistance, Dom sat up far enough to see what had both men so shocked, and then he knew exactly how Chay felt. Jarrod lay on the ground several feet away, unmoving. He was surrounded by forest animals who were biting at his skin, ripping him apart piece by tiny little piece. Squirrels, raccoons, birds, field mice.
It was weird…and gross. Very gross.
“How…” Dom frowned. “Shifters?”
“Nuh-uh.” Chay shook his head. “Those are your everyday garden-variety forest animals.”
“Then how?” Dom didn’t understand.
“Uh, well, I might be able to answer that,” Keeland mumbled.
Dom turned to look at his mate.
“I kind of called them.”
Dom’s eyebrows shot up. “You called them?”
Keeland’s cheeks flushed. “It’s one of the reasons I became a veterinarian. I have an affinity for animals. I know what they’re feeling and can sometimes understand them. It’s all just images really, not words, but…yeah.” Keeland gave Dom a strange look. “Seems I have an affinity for shifters too.”
Dom chuckled as he drew Keeland to him. “I always knew there was something special about you, mate.”
Gabe bolted out of the house, then stumbled to a stop at the top of the porch steps. “You guys aren’t going to believe what I found inside.”
“What?” Chay asked as he stood and then helped Dom to his feet.
“There’s an entire room dedicated to shifters. Jarrod had books and maps and profiles on people I don’t even know.” Gabe shook his head. “I don’t think he’s doing this on his own.”
“He said his father had friends,” Keeland said. “They were hoping to some sort of virus to wipe out shifters in mass quantities.”
Gabe started back for the house. “We need to gather up all this stuff and get it back to our place so we can go through it.”
“What about him?” Dom pointed to Jarrod’s body. “We can’t just leave him out here for the authorities to find.” The guards either.
“While you guys get all the bodies inside,” Chay said, “I’ll go back for the car. We can load everything up and then set the place on fire. Hopefully, the fire will erase any sign that they were killed by wild animals.”
Keeland shook his head. “That won’t work. If there’s no smoke in their lungs, the coroner will know they didn’t die in the fire. Best to leave them where they lay and let someone discover them. On the upside, they’ll most likely call me to confirm that they were attacked and killed by wild animals.”
Dom chuckled. “That’s convenient.”
“The sheriff will probably put out a bounty on large predators. None of you will be able to shift for a little while.”
“We’ll just have to be careful,” Dom said.
Keeland’s snort of disbelief was not amusing.
Chapter Fourteen
Keeland had waited as long as he could. Dom had slept most of the day away, healing what his shift didn’t take care of, and Keeland was going out of his mind. He leaned over Dom and pressed his lips to the man’s shoulder.
“Dom,” he whispered through their link. “Time to wake up, mate.”
Dom groaned and turned over, reaching for Keeland. In one flawless motion, he rolled some more, pinning Keeland underneath his larger body.
And here Keeland had thought the man asleep.
His mate’s vivid blue eyes were piercing as Dom stretched Keeland’s arms out above his head. He kissed Keeland. The man easily kept Keeland’s wrists pinned to the mattress, brushing more kisses over Keeland’s eyelids and both cheeks, then giving him a short one on his lips.
Keeland tried to keep his breathing steady as anticipation built inside of him. He'd never had his hands trapped before and found the experience exciting. His heart went wild and blood rushed hot through his veins as a groan rose up in his throat, arousal catching him in a vicious grip.
Dom slid his hands over Keeland’s body freely, caressing him, arousing him to a fevered pitch, making Keeland feel as if he were being slowly drugged.
His body tightened involuntarily, every bone and muscle in him reaching for Dom’s mouth, the hot draw of his lips, the moist wash of his tongue. Keeland could feel his heart struggling to keep up with the demands his arousal was placing on it. It beat hard and fast, blood bursting through his veins, a pleasure in and of itself.
Dom lowered his head to place his lips against Keeland’s. His tongue caressed Keeland’s lips, demanding entrance. He kissed Keeland with a hunger that belied his outward calm. Dom devoured him, and he was powerless to stop it, even if he'd wanted to.
Dom caressed his shoulders and back before moving down his chest to grab his hips. When he gripped his hips and pulled him closer, Keeland melted under the touch.
He could feel every contour of Dom’s body pressed against his, including the hard cock wedged against his stomach. As Dom moved his lips from Keeland’s mouth down his chin to his throat, Keeland tilted his head back.
He slid his hands up to wrap around Dom’s neck when he felt himself lifted into the air, Dom’s hands under his ass. He closed his eyes, tilting his head back even more as Dom began planting little kisses along his jaw and bare throat.
Keeland shuddered as Dom continued to move his fingers, whispering the sexiest words into his ear. When Dom pulled his hand back, Keeland let out a cry of protest. The man reached into the nightstand and pulled out a long tube. He snapped the cap open and wet his fingers with the clear liquid before returning his magical fingers to the crack of Keeland’s ass.
The pressure building inside of him was so intense Keeland didn’t know how long he could last. He thought he just might burn up and die. But not before he felt Dom inside of him.
“Dom,” Keeland pleaded. He thrust his hips against Dom again. “I need you.”
Keeland’s mind went blank when he felt Dom’s fingers trail along his skin. He soaked up every last touch, every single soft breath against his skin. A long tortured groan fell from Keeland’s lips as Dom's thick fingers pressed against his entrance. He hissed when the fingers breached him.
But then Dom’s tongue surged into Keeland’s mouth, and he was certain he’d died and gone to heaven. A blistering need slammed into Keeland as he twisted in the grip of an erotic heat that was burning him alive.
“I love how you react to my touch.” Dom’s rough whisper sounded tortured. He smiled, the curve of his lips tight.
The fingers in Keeland’s ass moved in a rhythm that had him swiveling his hips, trying to make them go deeper. Dom’s kiss tasted like midnight, dark and deep, frighteningly savage and yet with a power so seductive, Keeland became lost within it.
Dom sat up and knelt between Keeland’s thighs. Keeland tried to reach for Dom, needing to touch him, to hold him, but Dom grabbed his ankles and placed them over his strong shoulders. He gripped Keeland’s hips.
Keeland’s body vibrated. He knew what was coming and he craved it. Keeland fisted the blanket on each side of him. His body was primed and aching to feel Dom’s cock sink deep inside of him. Dom stretched out over Keeland, the head of his bulbous cock nudging Keeland’s hole.
Keeland wailed Dom’s name as the man pushed past the clenching muscles, stretching Keeland as his cock began to pick up a rhythm. He writhed under Dom, fighting to accept the thick width of the cock impaling him. Dom groaned above him, and his hands digged into Keeland's hips to the point of bruising in a kind of pleasurable pain.
Keeland arched his head back, his mouth falling open, unable to do anything except feel. He shuddered, convulsing beneath the intensity of Dom’s tou
ch as the world dissolved around him. Keeland whimpered in distress.
Keeland squeezed his inner muscles around Dom’s cock. When Dom’s body settled over the top of him, Keeland latched onto the soft skin of Dom’s neck with his lips and teeth.
Dom pressed him down into the mattress as the powerful thrust of his hips increased. Dom’s throat escaped in a ragged moan and the hands that held Keeland’s hips trembled. Dom snarled as his hips moved faster, his cock grazing over the sensitive nerve endings. Keeland had never felt anything like this as he thrashed beneath Dom.
A tingle started at the base of his spine and moved up through his body. Keeland knew he was about to come, and Dom hadn’t even touched his cock. He wanted Dom to come with him.
Keeland framed Dom’s face with his hands and looked up into his eyes. What he saw shocked him. Dom’s blue eyes were darkened with desperation and desire. Most importantly, they seemed to be filled with adoration.
“Bite me,” Keeland commanded.
Dom thrust so hard that Keeland screamed in pleasure as his mate brought his canines down onto Keeland’s shoulder, biting deep. Dom’s growl was rumbling, throaty, and wild as Keeland’s body shot its release, a rushing, endless stream.
Dom pulled his canines free. His arms became steel bands around Keeland as his hips quickened with unbelievable speed. Dom pounded his ass a few more times before growling out his release.
Keeland felt Dom thrust into him once, twice, then slump down on top of him. He slid his hands around Dom’s neck, holding him close, not wanting to let him go. Holding his mate in his arms had become one of his greatest pleasures, and he wouldn’t let anyone take that away from him.
“You good, Special K?”
Keeland grinned as he tilted his head back. “Yeah, I’m good. I could probably use a shower, but other than that…”
“Need help washing your back?” Dom wiggled his eyebrows as he glanced down at Keeland’s chest. “And your front?”
Keeland snickered. “Like I’d get any actual washing done.”
He’d always thought felines hated water, but apparently, panthers loved it. Dom pulled him into the shower or bath every chance he got.
Go figure.
“Aren’t Chay and Gabe supposed to be over later?
"Yeah, Gabe wants to talk to us about some new lead on one of my brothers.”
"What?" Keeland couldn't deny his curiosity.
Dom nodded as he rolled onto his back. “Gabe said he’d found something in all that paperwork he took from Jarrod’s house, but he wasn’t specific about what it was. He sounded like he wasn’t sure it would pan out, but we need to follow every lead until we find them.”
Keeland scooted close enough to lay his head on Dom’s wide chest. He fingered the hair between Dom’s pec muscles as he thought about the search for Dom’s lost brothers. He knew they had found a lead on one of them, and they were following that up, but the other one seemed to have fallen off the face of the earth. There was no sign of him.
Keeland knew Dom was secretly afraid he might have died, but there wasn’t even any sign of his death. The man had simply disappeared. Keeland suspected he’d done that out of self-preservation. Maybe this new information of Gabe’s would send them in the right direction.
“You know I’ll do whatever I can to help, right?”
Dom smiled as he curled his arm and brought Keeland up for a kiss. “I know, and I thank you for that. I don’t know if I could do this without you by my side.”
“Not something you ever have to worry about.” Keeland was in this for the long haul. The bond he had with Dom was unbreakable, shifter mating or not. “I’m not going anywhere.”
When Dom rolled toward him, Keeland eagerly opened his legs. Dom settled between them and then reached up to cup Keeland’s face. There was a glint of something in Dom’s eyes that made the blue seem even more vivid.
Keeland frowned as he stared up at Dom. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m not very good at this relationship thing,” Dom said. “I think that’s been established.”
Keeland personally thought the man was pretty good at it, but he held his tongue. Dom obviously had something to say, and Keeland wanted to hear it.
“But you need to know you are everything to me.”
Keeland smiled as his heart warmed. “I know, Dom. You’re everything to me as well.”
“I know I haven’t said it before now, but I love you. Having you as my mate makes me and my panther very happy.”
Keeland reached up and stroked a hand over the side of Dom’s face. “I know, Dom. You and your panther show me every day how much I'm loved.”
“I just…you need to know how special you are.”
Keeland grinned. “I know. I’m Special K.”
THE END
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