by Alex Kidwell
“Fuck that. Red and I are bailing five minutes after he gets there.” Jed smirked widely. “It’s the full moon. I have it on reliable intel that all the wolves are going to get very frisky. Why don’t you take a little risk?”
“Your attempts to get Randall and I back together are hardly helping,” Victor said crossly. “He’ll spend the full moon with his brothers. If he can’t look at me, I highly doubt he’ll want to rekindle the one-night-long relationship we had.”
Rolling his eyes, Jed gave Victor a little push toward his tent. “So make him want to look at you. Fuck, Victor, I don’t know. But you two acting like the world is your fainting couch is getting old. Do something.”
“What an inspirational speech,” Victor said drolly. “Isn’t all this talk on topics other than guns and explosions making you break out into hives yet?”
“Yes,” Jed grunted. “So consider this the last time we’re ever doing anything remotely like this.”
“Duly noted.” Victor looked like he might be almost smiling. Jackass.
Jed left him to go do his nerd thing and obsessively arrange his books, and went back to the campfires. Redford was busily grilling meat, Edwin already in wolf form and happily gnawing on a chunk of raw something. Venison, probably. Jed sprawled out on one of the logs next to Redford, leaning into his side. “So, Victor and Randall are going to be here for dinner too,” he informed Redford, kissing his cheek. “Hey.”
This close to the full moon, there was a hint of yellow beginning to show in Redford’s eyes. But there was no menace there, no sign that he was anything but fully within his right mind. Redford budged his shoulder against Jed’s in greeting. “You took a while,” he noted, adding some more meat to the fire. “Is Anthony okay?”
There was something wild about Redford now, something just a little more confident in the set of his shoulders, a little more relaxed, like he was learning to be at peace with himself. This was the right thing for him, to be here. Jed might want to go home—and at some point, they’d have to—but right now, this was exactly what Redford needed. Jed could deal with tramping around in mud and being the only human to get to see Redford like this. Eyes darting to Edwin, Jed absently took Redford’s hand. “We’ll talk about it later,” he murmured. Probably shouldn’t discuss Anthony’s big plans in front of Edwin. “But Victor’s an idiot.”
Though Redford looked concerned, he didn’t push the topic about Anthony and focused on the topic of Victor instead. “Over Randall?”
Snorting, Jed hooked his legs over Redford’s lap, curling up closer. He liked this. There was a fire, there was the smell of cooking meat, and Redford. He was pretty damn happy. “Yeah. So we’re going to leave them alone once they get here, and hopefully the wall of stupidity will break.”
Edwin gave a wolfy chuff, something that might have even been a laugh. Clearly he approved as well.
Redford snorted quietly. The meat was well on its way to roasting, and Redford left it alone for a few seconds to focus on Jed, curving a hand over his knee. “I bet neither of them were too happy at that plan.”
“Like I care.” He trailed his lips along Redford’s jaw, happily teasing kisses across Redford’s skin. “They’re annoying.” And he was done talking about them for sure. Edwin grabbed his dinner and took off, leaving them relatively alone. Smart kid.
With a low laugh, Redford turned to catch Jed in a kiss, more demanding than usual. “They are,” Redford agreed. “But they’re friends.”
“Let’s not get carried away.” Jed slid his hand up under Redford’s shirt, fingers sprawling against the warm skin. “Anthony asked us to take care of his brothers if he died. I said okay.” There, now Redford was all caught up. “Should we go to our tent?” he asked hopefully.
Sadly for him, Redford was too busy looking pleased at the news. “You promised Anthony you’d take care of his brothers? That’s really nice of you.”
“I promised we would. We.” That was very important. “And by we, I definitely mean you.”
“You’ll help, if we need to fulfill that promise,” Redford said knowingly. “I know you will.”
“Not a family guy, Red,” Jed reminded him, arching an eyebrow. “Just the man with the weapons.”
“You’re a family guy when it comes to me.” Redford kissed him again, smiling. “Trying to convince yourself you’re an island isn’t going to work much longer.”
“You are different,” Jed murmured against his lips, hooking him in closer. “Two-person island. Two people and a cat. That’s it.”
“I’d be okay with that.” Redford paused in the middle of kissing him. Before Jed could complain, he heard two sets of footsteps approaching—one from the north, one from the west. Victor and Randall. They had terrible timing.
“Five minutes,” Jed insisted. “Then I want you. Got it?”
Victor made a derisive noise. “Can you not talk about your sex life in public? Besides, you won’t have time. It’s getting dark quickly.”
“You would be amazed what I could do in fifteen minutes.” Jed reluctantly pulled back, grabbing a plate from the stack next to Redford.
“That is rather more information than I needed.” Randall approached next, awkwardly, gaze constantly drawn back to Victor despite his best efforts to appear unaffected. “Er. Hello.”
Redford started dishing the meat onto four plates. Jed caught a hint of his expression: somewhere between bemusement and worry for Randall and Victor. “Good evening,” he greeted both of them. “I hope the meat’s done enough for you. This is thicker slabs than I’ve worked with before.”
“It will be fine,” Randall assured quietly. He took a plate and sat, knees hunched almost up to his chest.
“That’s not true, babe,” Jed said, eyes widening. “You are used to way thicker meat than this.” A grin slowly replaced the put-on innocent expression he had as he waited for Redford to get the joke and ignored Victor’s scowl.
“That steak we got from the organic market was not cut nearly as thick as this,” Redford corrected.
Very lightly, Jed took Redford’s hand in his and casually cupped the front of his jeans with their joined fingers. “Much, much thicker,” Jed informed him with a huge smirk.
“Jed!” Redford yanked his hand away, but he was laughing as he did so. “Yes, okay, I get your innuendo now. And you’re completely right—”
Victor made inelegant gagging noises in the background.
“But,” Redford continued, “we can talk about that later.”
“I don’t know if I’ll be able to talk with your big, delicious—”
“Victor, why don’t we take a walk.” Randall had shot straight up, eyes wide, looking at Jed as if he was quite sure he was going to start taking off clothes right then. “Or… go find earplugs.”
“God, yes,” Victor agreed desperately. He yanked two plates away from Redford for himself and Randall. “Anywhere but here.”
Hey, look. His master plan worked. “Go get yours, princess.” Jed was enormously pleased with himself.
Redford just shook his head in exasperation as Randall and Victor took off in a hurry. “Did you plan that?”
“Nope.” Jed shrugged. “But hey, it worked.” Although, watching them, Randall was obviously standing farther away from Victor than people who wanted to fuck should. Definitely not his problem, though. Now it was all on Victor. God help them both.
Redford leaned into Jed’s side again as they started eating. Despite his worry about not cooking the meat right, Redford had done a damn good job—better than Jed ever could. He’d never been able to figure out just how the fuck cooking worked. To his mind, Redford dropped a whole bunch of things in a pot and bam, a gourmet meal. It was pretty much magic.
“Do you want to come to the woods with me?” Redford asked. “Just while I turn. I, um, don’t really know what the instincts will want to do after that. I think I’ll go run for a bit and then I’ll come see you?”
“Sure.” Jed ran his
fingers idly through Redford’s hair, sharing bites of the spicy meat between them. “I mean, I’ll run with you if you want, or just wait. Whatever you need.” He still wasn’t quite sure what the right thing to do was, but he was damn sure he was going to let Redford figure it out. If he wanted to go run all fucking night, Jed would keep up the best he could.
A glint of mischief shone in Redford’s eyes. “You don’t need to come running with me. I think you’ll need to save your energy for the morning.”
Now that Jed could agree with. He tugged Redford in for a slow kiss, lightly parting his lips, happy to let Redford take the lead. There was something intensely sexy about Redford’s quiet strength on the average day. Now, this close to the moon, it was completely irresistible.
Redford turned his head to shove his nose against the side of Jed’s throat, inhaling deeply. Words seemed to have lost all importance. Whatever Jed wanted to say, Redford could probably read off of his scent.
The sun was finally beginning to duck the last of itself behind the horizon, and wolves all around them were starting to vanish into the forest. Redford drew back from Jed, his eyes shining fully yellow now. “Sorry, I don’t think we’ll get that fifteen minutes beforehand,” Redford apologized.
Jed just hooked him in for another kiss, hard, hungry. Redford’s teeth nicked his tongue, his hands were demanding, and Jed just submitted to it fully. God, that was hot. “You are so gorgeous,” he murmured. “God, I love you.”
“Me too,” Redford said lowly. He kissed Jed a final time, long and lingering, then reluctantly drew back. “Come on. Otherwise you’ll wind up kissing a muzzle, and that would be really weird.”
“I’d adjust,” Jed teased, taking both of Redford’s hands in his. They walked, wound up in each other, Jed kissing Redford’s neck and shoulders. When they reached the woods, Jed lightly backed Redford up against a tree, smiling at him in the low light, helping him tug his shirt off.
“Sure we don’t have time?” Jed asked in a murmur, sinking to his knees with a wicked leer. “I can be very quick.”
Redford looked torn, but only for the briefest of seconds. Then he launched himself forward, bearing them both to the ground, where he pinned Jed with hands on his chest, ducking down to kiss him hard. “Time enough,” Redford managed. “I can make time.”
“You need to change,” Jed reminded him, even if it had been his suggestion. Even though he was quickly pulling off Redford’s pants, tossing them away, and eagerly wrapping his hand around Redford’s cock. “Don’t want you to hurt yourself.” God, he’d never get over how good it felt to have Redford’s cock in his hands.
“Then if I change in the middle of this, we can both be horrified and try to forget it,” Redford muttered, scowling down at Jed’s pants as he tried to undo them. “But right now, you smell amazing when you’re turned on.”
“Oh, God, don’t change,” Jed half laughed, half moaned. “I don’t even know what I’d do.” He kicked his jeans away, spreading his legs and groaning loudly as their hips arched together. “I’ve been turned on since you growled at me this morning for waking you up too early.”
“I was having really nice dreams,” Redford insisted, biting his way along Jed’s neck. He shifted like he wanted something different, turned around, and without warning promptly took Jed’s cock in his mouth, sucking hard. No patience for foreplay, no slow lead-up, just right to deep-throating.
Jed was not at all ashamed of the volume of the noises he was making. It took him several minutes of lying back on the ground, legs spread, hands digging into the dirt, to even begin to be able to think of anything but the delicious heat of Redford’s mouth, the tight pull of his lips. When he did finally manage to get his brain working, all he could think about was touching Redford.
Grabbing Redford’s hips, he pulled Redford in, arching his head up to take Redford’s dick into his mouth, tongue sliding down the deliciously thick length of him. Muffling his moans, Jed pulled Redford in closer, bobbing his head fast and deep.
Redford’s grip on his thighs was bruising—not keeping him down, just maintaining contact with Jed with a strength he couldn’t think about holding back right then. It was completely and utterly hot as fuck. Jed did his best to keep up, wrapping his arms around Redford’s hips, nails digging into his skin. They were moving together in a symphony of grunts and wet moans. Jed was fairly certain that his lips would be bruised and swollen with how Redford was thrusting down onto him. Not that he cared. Fuck, having his mouth full of Redford was better than just about anything in the world.
It wasn’t long before he felt the telltale signs of Redford close to losing it. He had a pattern, one Jed had eagerly memorized: his grip would tighten, any noises he made would start to have an edge of a growl, and he’d double his effort of whatever he was doing. In this case, he was already close to blowing Jed’s brains out—the extra need behind Redford’s movements just about had him seeing stars. Determined to give Redford an orgasm he’d be shaky from all night, Jed tightened his lips, drawing Redford down farther, letting him use his mouth to push him over the edge.
Redford was the most unselfish partner he’d ever had, something that still surprised Jed sometimes. When Redford came, he didn’t immediately disengage and roll over and wait for Jed to finish himself off. He just muffled his groans around Jed’s cock and worked him harder, determined to make him come as well. It didn’t take much. Gasping, grasping at Redford’s leg, his back, any part of him he could reach, Jed tensed, back arching up off of the ground. He came with a soft cry of Redford’s name, sagging back down, panting heavily.
Holy fucking bouncing baby Jesus.
Only when Jed was starting to get ridiculously oversensitive did Redford back off, looking rather pleased with himself as he twisted to hover on hands and knees over Jed. Jed didn’t lose any time pulling him in for a kiss, long and deep, hands roaming over Redford’s back like he could somehow figure out a way to just sink into him completely. “God, that was good,” he murmured against Redford’s lips. “You’re incredible.”
Redford nuzzled against his neck, giving a contented noise. He’d said a few times that he liked it, right after sex, when Jed would smell like both of them. “We’ve got the morning to look forward to,” he reminded Jed.
“I know.” Jed let his head fall back, exposing the curve of his throat to Redford. It was a thing with wolves, he’d figured out pretty early on. And he liked what it did to Redford. “And you’ve got a whole night of running. It’ll be good.” He just wanted to give Redford something to remember.
“It’ll be even better when I’m with you again.” Redford reluctantly drew back from Jed’s throat and started shedding the few remaining clothes Jed hadn’t gotten around to ripping off. He’d lost some of the fear he’d had about turning, but there was still worry in his eyes—there probably always would be.
Jed just hauled Redford into his arms, sitting there, uncaring that there was a stick under his ass. “Everything’s better when I’m with you,” he agreed, kissing Redford one more time. “Come on, I can hear the rest of the pack running around. I bet Edwin can’t wait to show you something gross he’s sniffed out. I’ll stay with you until you want me to go.”
Redford nodded, tugging Jed in for one last kiss. Jed bit his lip lightly as they pulled back, grinning at him. No one in this whole damn world was half as beautiful as Redford was. Jed would lay down his last dollar on that fact. He sat back as Redford took his jewelry off, carefully handing it to Jed. Redford had theorized yesterday that he doubted he’d be able to completely control the shift on full moons, like the wolves here did, so when Redford tipped his head up to watch the moon, he looked like he was waiting.
When it happened, it wasn’t quite as brutal as Jed had gotten used to seeing. There was still pain, still the awful noise of bones shifting and joints changing direction. It still wasn’t as fluid and smooth as the pack managed. But it was better. It didn’t cripple Redford with agony anymore.
/> It was still a weird sight, though. Jed wasn’t sure he’d ever completely get used to it.
After he’d gotten his paws under him and looked steady enough, Redford budged his head into Jed’s knee and held out his right foreleg. A week ago, Redford had gotten the idea to put a GPS tracker in his bracelet, just in case Jed ever needed to find him in the middle of the forest. One of the pack, a woman named Emily, was practically going out of her mind without any form of technology. She had been more than happy to take the tracker and turn it into something Redford would be able to wear.
“Be safe,” Jed told Redford, kissing the top of his head. He slipped on the bracelet, making sure it was tight enough but not painful, and gave a good-bye scratch behind Redford’s ear. “I’ll be in our tent.”
Redford got himself up on Jed’s knees to give Jed a long, disgustingly slobbery lick to the side of the face. With a bark that sounded like a laugh, he took off into the forest, mere seconds passing before Jed couldn’t hear him anymore. Wiping off his cheek, Jed remained sitting for a few more minutes, listening to the echoing howls, the sound of wolves running through the undergrowth. Finally, he got himself dressed again and headed back toward the camp. He passed a few of the sentries on his way in, all of them in wolf form, yellow eyes gleaming in the pale light. Everything seemed quiet.
Randall was standing at the edge of the camp, alone, eyes blazing yellow, still unchanged. “You’re out late,” he greeted Jed.
“You’re not furry,” Jed responded. “Have fun with Victor?”
“You’re very lucky I don’t bite you.” Randall showed his teeth, but there was no real threat. “Don’t play matchmaker. You’re terrible at it.”
Anthony, already wolfed out, trotted over to sit next to Randall, looking up at him with an exasperated huff. When he noticed Jed, he was promptly up again, affectionately throwing himself against Jed’s legs. Jed immediately crouched, rubbing both hands on either side of Anthony’s cheeks, behind his ears, laughing when he got a slobbery lick. “Yeah, yeah, you giant fluff ball,” he murmured. To Randall he added, “Don’t worry, sweetheart. That was my one and only interference. I think I got heartburn from caring.”