by Marcy Jacks
Edward sighed, and he was about to speak just to pacify the other man, but then the sensation of water being poured down his throat made him gasp and choke from the shock of it.
“Edward? Edward!” Alistair yelled, but then his image began to fade as Edward continued to choke, and he was pulled from his dream and into the world of the awake and the living.
“Easy, easy,” Craig said, and Edward opened his eyes.
Everything was a blur, like he was looking at the other man underwater, but then his vision gradually began to clear, and he swallowed as he realized what was happening.
Craig had his hand behind Edward’s neck, and he was lifting his head enough so that he could drink from the glass that was pressed to Edward’s lips.
“There you go, good,” Craig said, and he pulled the glass away and set it down on a nightstand.
That was when Edward realized he was no longer outside. In fact, he was in a rather luxurious bed. He tried to sit up, but Craig’s hand on his chest pushed him back down.
“Whoa, easy, easy,” he said, repeating those earlier words that did indeed seem to make him want to relax.
“Where are we?” Edward asked, looking around.
He’d learned that houses were different in his time compared to now. They were cleaner, for a start, and they also had all sorts of things inside that looked like they ran on magic, but did not. Energy and power were the magics of today.
The walls were wooden and plain, and so was most of the furniture at least. That helped to ease Edward back into the sheets. At least not everything had changed while he slept.
“This is my place,” Craig said. “I think we’re safe here. You’re lucky that I managed to get to the highway carrying your heavy ass, and hitch a ride with the only truck driver in the world who was crazy enough to give us a lift and not be some kind of serial killer.”
Edward frowned. “What?”
“Nevermind,” Craig said, and he began playing around with something on Edward’s chest. There was a small square bit of white bandage stuck to his skin. It felt odd when Craig pulled at it and looked beneath.
“You’re definitely something else all right. Those hunters said that shifters heal fast, but I’m still amazed.”
“Let me see,” Edward said, and Craig only looked at him for the briefest of seconds before he pulled the bandage the rest of the way off.
Edward scoffed. “You call that fast? It’s still there, and it still throbs like a bitch in heat.”
“That made no sense at all,” Craig said, and he was gentle when he pressed the bandage back on to Edward’s chest.
Edward was still impressed that the bandage was sticking to his skin. “Of course it makes sense. I am an alpha wolf, I should not have a wound like that after being struck by a poisoned arrow.”
“That wasn’t what I meant,” Craig said. “Forget it. This is just too much,” he said, and he got to his feet.
Terror that he was about to leave lanced through Edward’s chest, and he snatched his hand out to grab on to Craig’s wrist, keeping him from going anywhere. “Stay,” he begged.
His touch, Edward’s fingers curled around Craig’s wrist, feeling his pulse and his warm skin, was enough to make his head swim and his cock swell.
It had been so many years since he’d last touched this man. He couldn’t recall the time he’d spent asleep, but he knew full well the amount of time that had gone by during those horrible days when he’d been awake.
He never forgot what that touch felt like.
“I wasn’t going to go anywhere,” Craig said, and the man’s heart was beating quickly, as though Edward’s touch was having just as much an effect on him as it was on Edward. “There’s nowhere for me to go, really.”
“I meant for you to not leave the room,” Edward said.
Craig blinked those wide amber eyes down at him. His heart started beating faster. “All right,” he said.
Edward sighed, and finally he was able to relax a little and gaze up lovingly at the other man. “You look…very well,” he said.
“A hot shower will do that after spending the last month and a half in the woods with those guys,” he said. Craig grabbed on to one of the chairs in the room, and he pulled it closer to sit in it.
“You’re looking a lot better yourself, considering I only know basic first aid. You’re lucky. That arrow could’ve pierced your heart.”
“The hunters wanted me alive to torture me for information. No doubt my pelt would have also brought in a decent price,” he said.
“Yeah,” Craig replied, and he looked incredibly uncomfortable at the moment. “That’s why I didn’t go to the police or take you to the doctor. That trucker who gave us the lift didn’t look much like he cared about anything other than keeping your blood off of his seats either, but I heard enough by being with those guys that dealing with hospitals and police isn’t really your thing.”
Edward frowned up at the other man. “That’s an odd way to speak about your own kind,” he said, and then he looked down at himself. He couldn’t see the bottom half of his body because of the sheets, but after wiggling his toes and feeling that they were indeed there, nothing was missing and he felt in good health, Craig had cared for him properly.
He didn’t doubt anything less from his mate.
Not his mate, he told himself. Craig was not his in this world, no matter what Edward’s instincts were telling him.
He tried to get back up again, but Craig was right there, pushing him back down. “You shouldn’t get up. You’re still healing.”
“I should not be in the bed you share with your mate,” Edward replied, but he allowed himself to be pushed back down because he enjoyed it when Craig put his hands on him. “Not that I would mind so much if your mate were to walk in and see us. He could battle me and I would win your hand.”
Craig yanked his hand back like he’d been burned. Edward couldn’t understand why he suddenly appeared angry.
“I was only making a jest,” he said, and that was when he noticed that the metal shackles were still around Craig’s wrists.
He hadn’t been able to get them off himself.
“Well, I wish you wouldn’t,” Craig said. His heart was still beating quickly, but now it had nothing to do with lust and everything to do with his frustrations. “I’m not mated to anyone. I’m not a wolf.”
Edward’s eyes felt like they were about to pop right out of his skull. “But you…” He couldn’t even say the word. He just stared at Craig’s belly, which was jutting forward as the child inside of him grew.
Craig folded his arms, a defensive gesture that he usually did whenever he and Edward were having an argument. “You might not need a doctor, but I sure as shit do,” he said. “I’m a man. I’m not pregnant. I’ve got a tumor or something and I need to get it removed.”
Edward was suddenly flying out of the bed. His chest hurt from the sudden movement, his vision was swimming again, and Craig yelled out in surprise as he was backed against the wall, but Edward hardly cared.
“You wouldn’t!” he said. “How could you think to do something like that?”
It wasn’t his child, but he could hardly believe that those words had left Craig’s mouth.
“Like what?” Craig yelled. “You’re just as crazy as they were! I am not pregnant!”
“You are!” Edward yelled back, and he found himself pushing away from the other man. He swayed a little on his feet, and he had to reach out to the bedpost and catch himself before he fell.
Craig didn’t touch him or help him back into bed. Edward wished that the man would, but he understood that Craig was fearful of him and wanted to keep his distance.
“I don’t know what your problem is,” Craig said, “but I am not pregnant. That’s impossible.”
“How is that not possible for an omega luna werewolf?” Edward said. Something was happening here, something he didn’t understand, and it confused him even more so than that day he’d woken
up from an endless nightmare, just to find himself in this world where everything was different and still just as frightening for his own kind.
He knew that the only way to find out what was going on was to keep Craig speaking. The other man had the answers, whether he knew it or not.
“I’m not a werewolf,” Craig said, and Edward had to look him in the eyes just to fully understand what the man was saying.
“You are not simply denying yourself. You really believe that,” Edward said, and he was dumbfounded. He really was.
He also couldn’t handle staring at the metal shackles anymore. “May I?” he asked, and he grabbed on to Craig’s wrists before he could give an answer and neatly pulled the metal apart on each wrist, freeing Craig completely now before tossing the warped metal away on the floor.
Craig paled slightly as he stared at where the metal landed. “Uh, thanks,” he said. “I’m grateful for what you did, but I would have noticed it if I was turning into a wolf every full moon,” Craig said. “I would’ve also noticed it if I had a boyfriend and if we’d been having sex.”
Edward’s heart was hammering in his chest at those words. It hadn’t beat so hard or fast since the day he’d returned to his den and discovered his mate and unborn child had been slaughtered. “What are you saying?”
Craig’s cheeks colored, as though he was humiliated. “I’m saying that I’m not a werewolf…and I’m a virgin.”
Chapter Five
Craig really wished this guy would stop staring at him like he was seeing double or something. He crossed his arms again. “All right, you know now. I don’t want to hear any jokes about it either.”
“I would never joke about a thing like that,” Edward said, but he then started smiling, even as he shook his head and got back to his feet.
Craig backed up a step.
Edward held his hands up, the universal sign of peace. “I mean you no harm. I would never harm you,” he said. “But am I to understand that you have no mate? Truly?”
“I would have noticed something like that,” Craig snapped.
He didn’t know why he was so irritated. This man had saved his life, and he was under the mistaken impression, just like those hunters, that Craig was something he was not. He would have noticed if he was a werewolf, as that wasn’t exactly something that could be easily missed.
But did the guy have to look so damned happy about the fact that Craig was a virgin and didn’t have a boyfriend? Or a mate, or whatever he wanted to call it.
He looked like it amazed him that Craig was even available now, as though Craig was even in the same league as a man who looked like that.
“Will you stop that?” Craig snapped.
“Stop what?” Edward asked, still grinning and starry-eyed.
“That! You…your stupid face,” he said, but he didn’t get the chance to say anything more as Edward lunged forward, grabbed him by the wrists again, like had a bad habit of doing, and then pulled him down until he was practically straddling Edward’s lap.
It was ridiculous. He didn’t know this man, other than the fact that Edward was incredibly good looking, had saved his life, was a werewolf and very interested in Craig, if the tongue in Craig’s mouth was anything to go by. Why was he allowing himself to be kissed like this?
Edward’s hands were all up and down the clean shirt that Craig had put on after his shower. His blunt fingertips were pressing hard enough that they practically seared him through the cloth.
Edward was mapping his body, it seemed. He was touching Craig everywhere, like he was something gorgeous that was worth touching.
That made no sense. Craig was swelling like a balloon that was getting ready to pop, and even before this had happened to him, he knew that he wasn’t that much to look at to begin with.
Yet here was this man, who could be one of those gorgeous underwear models in a magazine if he wanted to be, touching Craig’s body like he was a thing of beauty.
Well, he’d take it, he supposed. It was certainly hard to say no when his dick was throbbing so painfully between his legs. It had been so long since he’d even touched himself, because there had been no way in hell that he was going to do something like that when he’d been surrounded by four strange men who liked to hunt and cut up the shifters that they captured out in the woods.
Edward’s hand cupped Craig’s cock and balls between his legs and through the loose jeans he was wearing.
Craig almost came from that alone, and he held on tight to Edward’s shoulders, his fingernails digging in deep. “Oh! Fuck,” he moaned, and he thrust his hips against that hand, wanting more pressure as his dick swelled up in his pants, but even though he wore them because they were some of the few things that would fit him nowadays, they suddenly felt incredibly too tight for him to bother with.
“Harder,” Craig said, and he didn’t mind it in the least when Edward’s free hand came up and grabbed on hard to the neck of Craig’s shirt, and he pulled hard enough that most of the buttons popped free and went flying all over the room, pinging against the wooden walls.
“You want my touch, don’t you?” Edward asked.
The sounds of heavy breathing and racing hearts were loud in the room. It was the only thing that Craig could focus on, and it wasn’t just coming from him.
“Y–yeah,” he said. “No shame in admitting to it, right?” he said, trying to make a joke out of it.
“Do you crave my touch?” Edward asked, ignoring Craig’s own half-joking question.
“Yes,” Craig moaned, and he pressed his cock down harder onto Edward’s hand.
With his shirt open, Edward was free to move his other hand around Craig’s shoulders, his back, his chest, all he wanted. The man tweaked and pinched at Craig’s nipples, making him moan even harder and louder.
Everything on him felt so damned sensitive. It probably had more to do with the fact that Craig hadn't touched himself in weeks. Being kidnapped didn't exactly make him want to do that.
Now that he was being touched, by someone else's hands for a change, it was decidedly amazing.
Craig was pushing his hips down as hard as he could on Edward’s hands. The end was right there within sight. He could almost taste it, almost reach it, it wasn’t even a struggle to get there, it was so easy that it just happened, and Craig came hard with a yell.
His arms tightened around the other man’s shoulders as he held on, humping against Edward’s hand as his cock spilled warm cum into his underwear.
Craig was still moaning as the last shocks of pleasure ran through him, but oddly enough, his dick stayed hard, and instead of the usual discomfort that came when he continued to stroke his own dick immediately after an orgasm, it still felt good.
It still felt like he was building toward something, something that was a little farther away than the pinnacle he’d just reached.
“What was that?” Craig asked, his voice breathy, as though he’d just come off of a treadmill.
Edward pulled back from Craig’s shoulder before leaning in to kiss him.
Oh! His lips were so damned soft and full. There was a prickle of a beard coming in, but Craig didn’t mind that at all. The softness of the man’s lips more than made up for it, and then there was the briefest touch of tongue that made all of Craig’s thoughts go flying right out the window.
Edward pulled away from the kiss long before Craig could be satisfied by it, and he moaned at the loss.
Edward laughed at him, and he carded his fingers through Craig’s hair. “So impatient, just like you always were.”
Craig frowned. “You don’t know me,” he said. “Why do you keep talking like that? It’s weird.”
“I suppose it is, and I’ll explain all to you soon enough, but right now, I want to claim my mate,” Edward said.
The absolute crazy part was how Craig wanted to let him. He’d never had sex before. He didn’t know why, it wasn’t like he’d never had a boyfriend in his life, but it had just never come down to that.<
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Maybe the truth of the matter was that his stupid virgin fear had always gotten in the way, and now here was someone who didn’t scare him. Craig wanted to have sex with this man, and he didn’t care about anything else but that.
Craig rushed to get out of his clothes. The jeans were already starting to feel a little gross from the cum that was now cold inside of them.
His cock though…damn, just getting to his feet so he could push the jeans and underwear he was wearing down his hips brought a jolt of pleasure that nearly had him coming again. “Do it. Right now. I want you to fuck me,” he said, and he climbed back onto Edward’s lap and pulled the man’s face forward for another kiss.
Chapter Six
This was the very thing that Edward had dreamed of since the day that Craig had been killed.
His mate, alive and returned to him, was desperate to make love with him, to climb onto his cock and ride him hard like he hadn’t done since before he’d been taken.
There were still so many questions that needed to be answered. How was it that Craig was with child when he claimed to have no mate and be a virgin? Craig even seemed to believe that he was not a werewolf. How was that possible?
But then Craig’s tongue was thrusting deep into Edward’s mouth, and he forgot all about that.
He forgot about the questions that he had, and the questions that Craig no doubt still had to ask of him. Everything was gone. It was only the two of them, right there, touching and kissing.
Edward was not naked anymore, but he damn near was. He was wearing some small black thing around his nether parts as well as part of his thighs. It was similar to what Craig had been wearing, and there was no doubt that his mate had been the one to put that on him.
“Let’s get your underwear off,” Craig said. “It’s a shame, you look good in them.”
“We did not wear such things when we were together last,” Edward said.
Craig gave him a questioning look, but other than that, he said nothing as he grabbed on to the stretchy part of the underwear, and then pulled them down Edward’s hips.