Canute (The Kindred Series Book 2)

by Frey Ortega

  “Does that feel good?” Haru asked.

  Canute smiled. “Are you sure you’ve never done this before? You’re being very forward, mon coeur.”

  “Mon coeur?” Haru asked.

  Canute’s reply was succinct, almost clipped as he bit down on his lower lip. “My heart.”

  Haru felt a bubble of happiness inside, a little tickle, or a giggle, that made him want to stop when he heard those words. But he couldn’t! He knew he shouldn’t. Instead, he bit his lower lips and started to run his fingers up the sizeable tool that grew more and more firm by the moment.

  Canute hurriedly pulled and tugged on his top until his kimono opened and bore his strong chest, the muscles, scars, and veritable forest on his body a perfect sign of his virility. His arms twitched and flexed, showing off the powerful muscles that stilled themselves for Haru.

  There was so much power, so much strength in Canute, all of it contained but ready to be unleashed. Haru knew when he gazed into Canute’s eyes that the man before him was a predator, though the much larger man would never harm him intentionally. By some incredible twist of fate, he had eyes only for Haru.

  It would have been a lie to say that Haru understood why this bond was, but he was happy, even if only for the moment, that it existed.

  Canute pulled him just a little bit closer. “Go on,” he said encouragingly. “Touch more of me…like this.” The vampire wrapped his own large hand around Haru’s, allowing him to really get a feel for the manhood that throbbed and ached just for him.

  Haru’s eyes widened, partly out of surprise, and mostly out of desire, but he also managed to let out just the softest, tiniest squeak of lust. Biting down on his lower lip, Haru’s hand moved from the hairy base of Canute’s cock, up the thick shaft, toward the sensitive tip.

  Canute quivered. “Take off your shirt, mon coeur.” His words were halfway between a request and a demand, one hand coming up to grab Haru’s shirt. It would have been easy for Canute to rip it off of him, and Haru knew it must have taken a lot of strength not to do it.

  With a few quick tugs, Haru removed the shirt off his body to bare his chest. Canute visibly shuddered, his eyes glazed over as he watched every inch of skin being exposed. Haru hadn’t ever felt as self-conscious as he did in this moment. Compared to Canute, Haru was so…different. He was lithe and slender, the definition in his form more like light caresses than the rigid, powerful strokes in each of Canute’s hard muscles. Still, when pressed together like this, Haru liked the disparity.

  With a single pull, Canute pulled down Haru’s shorts to below his balls, revealing the upward jut of his cock.

  Haru might as well have been naked. He was basically about seventy-five percent naked now, if he thought about it, though his mind was preoccupied with the feeling of Canute against him. Haru’s face heated up even more, especially since now there was only a single layer of cloth that separated him and Canute. Well, and his hand, which Haru slowly pulled away now that he’d gotten his fill of touching his Kindred.

  Rubbing their bodies together, Haru felt Canute’s much larger frame, and much larger erection, sliding against his. The feeling of body hair was definitely ticklish, lightly abrading, but not abrasive. Canute felt hard and firm, but oddly smooth and soft, the contrasts exquisite enough to be tattooed right into Haru’s memory.

  Haru even pressed his lips right against Canute’s chest, feeling the prickly hairs gently prickle against his mouth as he kissed all along the lines of Canute’s body.

  “Canute,” Haru whispered his name reverently, softly. The Viking placed a hand against his cheek. There was a shuffle of movement as Canute lowered his pants.

  “Shh, mon coeur. Just feel this moment. Be one with me,” Canute said, rocking his hips upward to slide his shaft up against the underside of his Kindred’s. “Embrace eternity with me, even if only for just this one moment.”

  Canute rocked his hips upward, leaning over just to spit on his fist and then rub both the tip of his cock and the tip of Haru’s together. Although Canute’s erection was much more solid in a way that Haru’s wasn’t, the young kami didn’t feel at all threatened. He knew Canute was the one meant for him. Perhaps it was a feeling that he had to embrace, even if he didn’t fully understand why.

  Regardless, when he slid upward and rocked the underside of his shaft right against the underside of Canute’s, the sticky slide provided by Canute’s saliva made Haru feel even warmer.

  Haru rocked his body upward, sliding his hips back and forth and uttering a soft moan. It just felt so good. Canute was perfect, solid, in all the right ways that Haru liked.

  Their bodies slid together perfectly, up and down, with Haru’s cock grinding against Canute’s much larger one. The steady, but slow trickle of Canute’s precum against Haru’s shaft felt that much more pleasurable, that much more exquisite. Haru didn’t really have a point of comparison, but if all sex with Canute felt this way, then he wanted more.

  He wanted all of Canute.

  Haru rocked himself steadily, shivering at the sensations that overtook him. A strange sense of euphoria built up inside him, one that he’d never felt before. With every rock of his body against his Viking lover’s, Canute’s eyes seemed to darken, and his grasp on Haru’s body seemed to become ever firmer.

  “Canute,” Haru gasped.

  Canute moved his icy blue gaze over Haru’s body until their stares met. The man’s hips were snapping forward and back, sliding exquisitely, grinding against the sensitive crown of his erection. With a little smile, Canute started rocking their bodies more firmly against each other. He moved two of his fingers against Haru’s lips. “Suck,” he said, his voice as much a command as it was a request.

  Haru did as he was told. He laced his tongue around those fingers, and for a few moments he hollowed out his cheeks and slurped on the pair of digits. It didn’t take long for Canute to pull his fingers free, and then move those saliva-laden fingers right against Haru’s hole to push into.

  Haru gasped. A single finger already made his toes curl, and his cock leak.

  “Mon coeur is so sensitive,” Canute said. “But I’ll take good care of you.”

  Haru knew that was a promise and a statement of fact. As he felt Canute’s fingers push into him and seek out a part of him he never knew would feel this good being touched, Haru felt more of his essence begin to leak from the tip of his shaft. A second finger joined in, and Haru’s body felt like it was melting into Canute’s.

  Gods, this felt amazing.

  And it was only mere moments later when Haru started to buck wilder and wilder, letting himself go until rope after rope of seed spattered both their skin, as Haru’s toes curled and it felt like the entire world had begun to sing all around him.

  A little prickle of pain appeared in his neck, but it melted away into something altogether different. Haru felt his essence being pulled from him through those little punctures, and something deep, something instinctive, maybe even spiritual, began to form between him and Canute.

  Canute pulled his mouth and hands free from Haru’s body, and it was only then that he noticed the sheen of sweat on the vampire’s neck and chest, and the little dribble of cum that was also on the Viking’s body. The much larger man laved his tongue across Haru’s neck, cleaning up the pair of fang-holes that Canute had inflicted on his Kindred.

  Still, with the exception of that sudden prickle of pain, Haru didn’t feel anything.

  Had he lost himself to the moment so acutely? He’d forgotten everyone else but himself and his Kindred, and still he forgot that his Kindred was a person with his own reactions, his own body. Haru had been consumed. He didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

  “Did that feel good for you?” Canute asked.

  Haru nodded. “It was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced.”

  “Good.” Canute grinned. “I’m glad.”

  They spent a moment of silence curled into each other’s arms. Canute felt so sec
ure, wrapping Haru in warmth and hard, firm muscles. Haru’s stream of thoughts eventually settled into one thing that made it feel like there was a fist that wrapped itself around Haru’s stomach.

  And no matter how much Haru wanted it to go away, he couldn’t shake it. Finally, he just spoke.

  “It must be a problem that your Kindred is a man,” Haru said, biting the inner lining of his cheek softly and looking away. “Let alone someone with no experience, like me.”

  The sudden insecurity felt odd. He’d never been prone to jealousy, or envy, or insecurity, and suddenly feeling it now when he felt Canute’s presence around him was strange, to say the least, but he couldn’t help how he felt.

  Maybe, now that Haru actually had something tangible in his life that wasn’t just the comfort of his surroundings, that he could actually lose, he felt his emotions begin to spike more strongly than ever before.

  Canute pressed himself even closer against Haru, wrapping his arms firmly around Haru’s slenderer frame. When Haru turned to look up at Canute, the vampire had a confused expression on his face. “Why would that be?” he asked.

  “Things are much easier with women, right?” Haru asked. “People won’t ask questions. Well, they won’t ask as many.”

  “I’m not going to lie, it’s certainly much easier to be with a woman, even in the supernatural world. Even though we have no choice over who holds the other half of our souls, who are we kidding? Some of us can’t help that we’re molded by human society in some way, in all its intricacies and prejudices. At its core, our cultures may be different, but some people’s thoughts will always remain the same as the people who influenced them,” Canute explained. It was obvious to Haru that his Kindred didn’t want to lie. He had to agree. If they had any chance of making this work, they needed to be completely honest with one another.

  “That being said, no. It’s not a problem for me. The people I deem important to me understand that we do not choose the other half of our soul. I don’t care, as long as I have you. You are the only one who is important to me.”

  “Do you regret us? Do you regret this?” Haru asked. With him, the curiosity mixed with the insecurity.

  Canute wrapped his arms ever tighter around Haru’s body, holding the smaller man securely in his grasp. He looked down into Haru’s eyes, and the slight smile at the corners of the vampire’s lips was enough to assuage that small part of Haru that felt anxious.

  “There’s nothing to regret. I wouldn’t give it up for the world, mon coeur. I have you, now. My life finally begins with you here,” Canute said. The resolution in his voice was a balm to Haru.

  With a small smile, Haru leaned against Canute’s chest, feeling the soft thrum and beat of the Nordic vampire’s heart against his thickly muscled chest. “Please come back to me safe,” Haru said. “I can’t shake the feeling that now that we’re together, something might happen.”

  Canute leaned down, his lips ghosting against the kami’s ear, and then moving closer to his cheek, until their faces were mere inches away from each other. “Always, mon coeur,” he whispered back softly, before darting his tongue out to give Haru a soft lick against the seam of his lips.

  “Always.”

  Chapter Seven

  As Canute ran out of the portal with three of Himiko’s best warriors in tow, he felt an unnerving sense of calm.

  Maybe it was the knowledge that Haru was waiting for him back home, and perhaps it was the understanding that there would finally be an end to the violence—at least where Canute was concerned—but the former Viking knew that the calmness he felt was kind of like the berserker’s trance. There was only the mission. There was only fury, only anger, and a desire to snuff out his enemies, but it was tamed with a patience and evenness unlike anything he’d ever felt before.

  It definitely helped that Canute still felt the rush of rage over Ranmaru and Oda’s betrayal, regardless of the fact that he’d found his true Kindred. Some betrayals were things one just couldn’t get over…especially something as sacred as the Kindred bond.

  Like some kind of seam being sewn up rapidly, the portal dissipated with whatever shamanic ether Himiko had used to create the spell in the first place.

  Canute was in unfamiliar territory now. He would be cut off from any support, back-up, or reinforcements.

  Still, he couldn’t stop thinking about what Haru had told him. Something felt off about this entire situation. Maybe it didn’t need to be this way. Maybe he didn’t need to kill. But that was all Himiko really wanted him for, wasn’t it? Since he was a soldier who didn’t complain and did as he was asked, he was the perfect automaton for Himiko’s plans.

  The thought bothered him. And it also didn’t help that being bothered actually bothered him even more. Hundreds of years ago, it was the same for him as it always had been. He had a purpose. He had a mission. Now, the only thing different was that he had something more to think about—a Kindred. He had been, after all, a drengr.

  Was that why this situation seemed so…off?

  Canute sniffed the air curiously. He couldn’t smell too many people, and the sounds that reverberated the air were a little quieter than usual. He could sense perhaps… five, ten men in the vicinity, and they weren’t even alert. The group would be easily dispatched by the other soldiers he was with, and they wouldn’t really even need to produce lethal force. Perhaps the distraction tactic had been successful.

  Everything, up until that point, had gone swimmingly.

  Almost too swimmingly, in fact.

  Maybe that was what discomfited Canute.

  Canute walked around warily, his senses heightened. He darted his eyes to and fro with only an intensity that could be borne from understanding the danger of the predicament he was in. Cut off from further support, Canute knew that he couldn’t make a mistake now. Any danger he came across was his to deal with alone. There was no room for error.

  Still, he couldn’t shake off this feeling of inherent wrongness that niggled in his mind.

  “Canute, are you there?”

  Himiko’s voice rang in his earpiece.

  Canute’s voice was the barest whisper. “I can hear you loud and clear.”

  “Good. I sensed your worry for a moment. Tell me what you see.”

  Of course, the shaman queen sensed it. Although it was a little suspicious that she wasn’t able to sense the same things Canute felt now. Then again, she’d proven fallible before. She certainly wasn’t the end-all be-all of precognitive abilities.

  “I’m right about where you told me. A floor plan would have been helpful,” Canute said. “Because as I look around, it feels like something isn’t quite right.”

  He looked around. The open courtyard-like garden was exactly as Himiko said it was. There was a koi pond right to the side. There was a sliding door that was slightly parted open to one side. It was eerily silent, with only the sound of a light stream of water flowing down onto the koi pound from a small, water fountain fixture on one of the walls.

  Above all things, however, what Canute immediately recognized was that where they had teleported to was not a defensible position. If there had been enemies around, Canute’s group would have been swarmed immediately. There were doorways into the garden at basically every direction, with only a wall behind them.

  Cornered—trapped—as soon as any person dared to come in.

  But why was no one there?

  “What do you mean?” Himiko asked.

  “I can’t shake the feeling that somehow, this is all proceeding a little too according to plan,” Canute said. “Like we’re being manipulated somehow.”

  “Shall I open a portal back for you, then?”

  Canute sighed. “No. Let’s see this through.”

  If Canute was going to be manipulated the way he was, he knew that the best thing was for him to let himself get captured, and let the others pull back. It was a stupid decision, all things considered. They could have just regrouped and ran back home, but letting thi
s war go on longer was becoming exhausting. Not just for Canute, but for everyone.

  Canute knew that maybe, just maybe, if he allowed himself to be pulled along like a puppet, they could see a clearer picture of what was happening. Maybe he could report back. Either way, Himiko could find a way to save him from his stupidity, and make sure that none of the others would be forced to undergo what he would have to. “Call your men back. If this is an ambush, I don’t want any extra blood on my hands.”

  “That’s madness. I know you’re a soldier without equal, but you can’t stay in enemy territory alone,” Himiko said.

  “Yes, but if this does turn out to be a trap, at least none of your men will have to lose their lives,” Canute replied. “And I’m not going to die without a fight. This is not yet my time.”

  He had something—someone—to go back to, after all.

  It was strange how none of them had even thought twice about this plan of action while they were plotting it out just the other day. Everything had seemed so solid, so perfect, that it seemed as though the vampire matriarch’s plan was foolproof. Now that it was in action, though, Canute was beginning to see the real holes and gaps in the plan.

  It wasn’t foolproof at all.

  Canute was beginning to think that the magic that Ranmaru used had ensorcelled them all far more acutely than he first thought.

  In fact, he had an inkling of a suspicion that this was all some plot by the siren and his lover.

  “If my instincts are correct, you’re going to need your men more than I do,” Canute said. “Because if this is a trap, like I think it is, the more manpower you have, the better my chances of survival. But if you throw us all in there now, you might need to add more people to the tally of those you’ve lost.”