Cam's Fortune

by Odessa Lynne

  “I think you’re trying to push me into letting you send Miguel and Luis to work with your father.” Rick sounded thoughtful.

  “I think you’re learning how to read me too damn well.” Cam grinned.

  “I assume you intend to keep staging these little rebellions until you get what you want?”

  “You’d probably be smart to do that.”

  “And if I demand your submission on this?” Rick’s accent had become pronounced.

  Cam had a feeling his answer was terribly important to Rick.

  Cam let his gaze flicker across Rick. His stomach tightened, but he didn’t let himself second guess what he was going to say. “I would submit, because you’re my mate.” His gaze returned to meet Rick’s. “But you’re not going to do that, are you?”

  “When you submit so well in every other way?” Rick raised his empty hand and dragged the tip of his finger along the underside of Cam’s chin. “I would not.”

  Cam grinned. “My mate knows a good thing when he’s got it.”

  “My mate is learning.”

  Cam stepped into Rick’s space and thrust his fingers into the hair at the back of Rick’s head. “I know I’ve got a good thing here, sweetheart. Don’t worry about that.”

  He kissed Rick, deep and slow.

  They mated. For several hours, until Cam was exhausted and resting flat on the bed, his ass still tingling and his feet cold where the quilt had wrapped around Rick and moved with him as he fell into a deep sleep, more restful than the last few naps had been.

  Was it because the heat was winding down, or because of something Cam had said?

  He eased away from Rick, only to have Rick wake unexpectedly and try to haul him close again.

  “Gotta piss,” Cam said. “I’ll be right back.”

  Rick let him go, and Cam walked quietly into the bathroom and took care of his business. He splashed water on his face, and dried off, then made his way back to the bed.

  Rick had fallen asleep again, a lock of fine hair trailing across his forehead, his strong features just as hard in sleep as when he was awake.

  Cam’s heart thudded heavily in his chest and he sat on the side of the bed and stared.

  The sun went down slowly, and when he got too tired to stay awake any longer, he stretched out on the bed and tucked himself in close to Rick’s warm body.

  Rick’s arms came around him and held him tight.

  It was all Cam wanted.

  * * *

  “You should understand you aren’t returning to the States’ anti-renegade organization after heat season. You’re my mate. You won’t be safe there.”

  “Oh, I understand all right. You're going to have to give me a little bit of leeway here. There are things I need to finish. I won’t stay gone long. I want a part in taking down the people on that list.”

  “Your status as my mate will make you a valuable target for the renegades. You’ll submit in this, because I won’t change my mind. You can help in other ways.”

  “Rick—”

  “Submit.” Rick had lowered his voice, and that deep, dark pull Cam had felt many times in the past few weeks bloomed inside his chest.

  He could resist, if he tried hard enough. But he didn’t want to. He’d known he wouldn’t if that’s what Rick asked of him.

  He let his hand fall to the pillows stacked beside him and folded his other arm behind his head and leaned back on his arm against the wall. They were in the living room, stretched out together with empty plates to one side and the excess pillows piled up on the other. Naked.

  “I submit,” Cam said. “I won’t go back.”

  Rick flicked his finger across Cam’s nipple.

  Cam jerked and grabbed for Rick’s hand.

  Rick moved too fast and Cam missed.

  “Shit!” he said as one of the pillows slid out from under him and tossed him sideways.

  Rick caught him before he slammed into the hardwood.

  Cam laughed.

  Rick licked the side of Cam’s neck, then dove for Cam’s underarm.

  “No, don’t.” He twisted, Rick leveraged him sideways, and then he ended up on his knees, his arm behind his back, a heavy claw-tipped hand at his neck and a growling Rick with his mouth at the tender skin just to the outside of Cam’s underarm.

  “Defeated by Alpha Pa’tar’k’ille,” Cam said breathlessly. “But I hear submission has its rewards, so I’ll submit graciously.”

  He eased his way forward, wondering if Rick would let him move. Sometimes, when his heat came on him suddenly, he got a little hard to handle. Cam liked handling him, so he was okay with that. Didn’t mean he didn’t have to be a little more careful then, though.

  Rick didn’t seem to have a problem with Cam giving him a better look at his ass. He even helped out by pushing Cam’s head to the floor.

  Maybe “helped out” was the wrong way to describe the firm, hard push that ended with Cam’s cheek kissing the cool hardwood and his ass high in the air.

  “You try to pretend you like denying me your submission, but your deceptions don’t fool me.”

  “They don’t, huh?” Cam licked his bottom lip. “You going to prove it to me?”

  Rick snorted softly against Cam’s spine. He lifted his weight off Cam’s back.

  A strong surge of disappointment coursed through Cam even as a soft laugh turned his head.

  Rick sat back on his knees. “It’s too soon for my next heat cycle, and your ass needs time to recover from the last.”

  Cam sat up on his knees. “Sure, buddy, if you say so. You’re the alpha. I’m just your lowly beta.”

  Rick gave him a sour look, one Cam didn’t remember seeing before. “You’re not my beta. You’re my mate.”

  Cam scooted forward on his knees, knocking aside one of the empty plates, and skimmed the back of his hand down Rick’s muscular abdomen. His knuckles brushed the hair that surrounded Rick’s beautiful alien dick. He barely resisted his desire to take hold of Rick.

  As they’d gotten deeper into the heat season, Rick had stopped Cam from touching him, explaining that the kind of manual stimulation Cam sometimes needed to reach his orgasm was more pain than pleasure for him at the moment. He wouldn’t be nearly so sensitive after heat season ended.

  On the other hand, he could pinch and bite Rick’s nipples all he wanted, because Rick claimed his nipples weren’t much more sensitive than any other patch of skin on his chest.

  But his spine . . .

  Cam had taken to dragging his fingers down Rick’s spine near the end of Rick’s heat cycles, and every time he did it, Rick acted like he was being driven out of his mind by pleasure. His fucking became a frenzy of rutting that usually lasted until he completely wore himself—and Cam—out.

  Cam did it anyway because he knew Rick liked it, even if he wouldn’t ask for it.

  With a last look at the cock he couldn’t touch, Cam dropped down on the pillows again and patted the one beside him. “I’ve got a few questions for you anyway. We don’t talk about you much. Time to change that.”

  Chapter 35

  Rick sat, crossing his legs and sinking into the soft pillows as if he’d done it thousands of times before. He did it effortlessly, despite his size, and Cam watched with envy.

  “Ask me your questions,” Rick said, his arrogance on full display.

  Cam let out a soft laugh.

  Rick turned his piercing gold eyes on Cam.

  Cam remembered what Salvadore had said about Rick’s stare. He’d been wrong.

  Intimidating, that was the right word for it. Not scary.

  Because yeah, Cam could see that.

  Cam propped his bare foot on the cool floor and his arm on his knee, letting his hand dangle free. It was a comfortable position for him, and it was about as close as he was going to get to crossed legs.

  When he was settled, he tilted his head and looked through his lashes at Rick. “Tell me about your betas. Henry used to talk about his alpha and su
bmission and it sounded like you guys spent a lot of time having orgies or something.”

  Rick made a soft huffing sound. “Submission has its rewards. One of those rewards is pleasure. There’s a certain thrill that comes from sexual submission to your alpha that doesn’t come through other forms of submission.”

  “Sex is more fun than saying ‘Yes, Alpha’ and ‘No, Alpha.’ Got it.”

  Rick’s hot gaze landed on Cam. “You don’t ‘got it.’”

  Cam couldn’t stop his abrupt laugh. “Okay, I don’t ‘got it.’ Tell me.”

  “Here,” Rick said, placing his hand on Cam’s stomach. “The feelings start there and spread outward. The pleasure is like . . . the sparkle of sunlight on water, and it grows until it’s like the embers flying from a fire with a gust of wind. The wind is your alpha and the water is submission.”

  “So sex is fun,” Cam said.

  Rick stared at Cam, the lines of his face caught somewhere between irritation and frustration.

  “It’s okay,” Cam said. “I like sex.”

  “So do I,” Rick said, another look overtaking his expression that Cam couldn’t quite identify. “But unfortunately, Traesikeille’s mate isn’t fond of some of our more pleasurable customs. Traesikeille has chosen not to allow his betas to submit to him in that manner.”

  Rick sighed.

  Cam watched, fascinated, as the gold of Rick’s eyes brightened. It was a physical thing, the irises changing color with his mood, and a strong surge of gratitude that he could see such brilliant colors made his throat tighten.

  Cam cleared his throat. “If you want your betas to continue to submit to you that way, I’ve got no problem with that.”

  He visualized watching some other wolf servicing Rick in the name of submission.

  Rick nostrils flared, his eyes zeroing in on the evidence of the truth of Cam’s statement.

  “I do enjoy accepting submission from my betas, but . . .”

  “Yeah? Do you?” Cam’s voice cracked. He ignored it.

  “I would rather watch them submit to my mate. To give him the honor and pleasure he deserves.”

  “Jesus,” Cam said softly. His fingers curled against his thighs. “What kind of things would they do to me?”

  “Whatever I believe you’ll enjoy.” Rick’s eyes seemed to get even hotter, brighter.

  “I like being fucked,” Cam said. “Will you let them fuck me?”

  Rick leaned closer, speaking with a low, deep voice, “I will demand they fuck you. And they’ll do as they’re told, because they’ll enjoy fucking you as much as I’ll enjoy watching them fuck you. I want to hear you scream with the pleasures you find under the hands of me and my betas.”

  Cam’s cock throbbed with the rush of blood filling him. His balls had pulled tight into his body and he had to cup his scrotum to calm himself down as his heart thudded wildly in his chest.

  Heat season couldn’t end fast enough for him with the thoughts of what was to come.

  “Now,” Rick said, slowly sitting back. “We should talk of something else, or my next heat cycle might come on me early. I want you to rest before we mate again. It’s my duty as your mate to put your needs before my own whenever I can.”

  “Hmm,” Cam said. He shifted on the pillow beneath him. One side of his ass had almost gone numb.

  When he was more comfortable, he said, “So . . . mating. I suspect you have a whole damn brood of offspring. Sal mentioned something about running into the first from your third a few weeks ago. Said he was in his first heat. Then there was Henry. How many others?”

  “The first from my third is female.”

  Cam frowned. “Pretty sure he said this was a guy. Said another of your wolves—Egan, I think—called him one of your favorites.”

  “Ah,” Rick said. “Egan would have meant Paeisikeille. He was with us when we reached Matthew and Beintaegoer.”

  He said the words softly and the wolves’ names slipped off his tongue in a way that made the back of Cam’s neck tingle.

  “Paeisikeille is the first from my fourth. You’ll like him. He’ll remind you of your Mig when you meet him. Clever and intelligent. Energetic. Determined. He has always submitted with grace and strength. His mother says he’ll make an excellent alpha someday.” Rick’s eyeteeth showed for just a moment. “Of course, his mother believes all her children will make excellent alphas someday, so I have to make my own judgments.”

  Cam laughed, nothing obscene, just a soft, gentle laugh that mocked his own belief in Luis and Mig’s futures. The boys were destined for much more than tagging along with Cam, living in a bunker—or the wolves’ den—and he knew it as sure as he had known that Rick wouldn’t let him go once they’d mated.

  And if he wasn’t right about any of that, he didn’t want to know it. He didn’t lie to himself often, but this was one instance where he’d rather live with a lie than accept anything different.

  Rick shook his head at Cam’s reaction and continued. “Her son Ethan might rise to alpha status someday, but it’s too early to know. His first heat will tell us more about his prospects.”

  “Ethan—the same one I’ve met?”

  Rick pulled Cam down onto his lap, adjusting their positions until Cam’s head rested across one thigh and he could run his fingers through Cam’s hair.

  Cam watched Rick’s eyes. They seemed focused on Cam’s hair, but Cam had a feeling Rick was seeing something else altogether.

  “Yes.” Rick’s claws gently scratched Cam’s scalp. “Ethan is another of Ulyllaesikeille’s children. She has many. Her mother was a great alpha and she picks who she’ll mate wisely. She’s bred every heat season since we shared our first heat.”

  Cam stilled, his breath slowing so he didn’t miss a word.

  “She was also Henry’s mother.”

  Maybe it had been the way Rick’s tone of voice had changed just before he’d mentioned Henry, or maybe . . . Cam had recognized those eyes Ethan had, and despite his own dismissal of the notion that those were Henry’s eyes, he’d known, deep down, that there had to be a connection there.

  Having it confirmed didn’t really change anything.

  “Haenirarki was the second from my first.”

  A bittersweet thrill sparked along Cam’s nerves at the sound of that name. He hadn’t heard it since the day the human assigned ambassador to the wolves had introduced Henry to the small group of humans in the program.

  Henry was gone, but he would live on inside Cam’s memories forever. Cam took comfort in that and let the gentle rake of Rick’s claws through his hair soothe the hurt that didn’t pierce quite so deep anymore.

  “Our families believed his mother and I would have strong children,” Rick continued, “so we mated. I impregnated four females my first heat, only days before the ships carried us away from our home world. Two were on one of the ships that didn’t survive.”

  “Your parents are dead, aren’t they?”

  “They didn’t make the journey onto the ships.”

  It was answer enough. Cam reached for Rick’s hand and gripped it tight. “It’s so damn easy to forget everything you’ve been through, how many loved ones you must have lost. I’m sorry, Rick. I’m so fucking sorry I don’t even know what to say.”

  “How can we know joy if we haven’t known sorrow?”

  “I don’t know.” Cam brought Rick’s hand to his face and held it to his cheek. “I sure would like to try it someday, though.”

  “The universe’s plan is always ahead of us, pulling us out of the past. That’s the way it should be. My sorrow has given my joy a depth it wouldn’t have had otherwise. It’s a fate more generous than I had expected.”

  Rick sat quietly for several minutes while Cam contemplated fate and sorrow and joy. What was joy?

  A vision of Rick asleep in their bed came to mind, and Cam’s next breath felt a little harder to take than the one before.

  He cleared his throat. “You didn’t really answer my question. Ho
w many children do you have?”

  “I have many children.” The arrogance was back in Rick’s voice and his eyes gleamed under the light as he stared down at Cam, his fingers still buried in Cam’s hair.

  Cam stared hard at Rick.

  Rick stared back.

  “That’s not a number.”

  “There are enough that my betas don’t always remember their proper birth order.”

  Cam tried to sit up.

  Rick’s fingers tightened in Cam’s hair, his claws no longer extended.

  Cam huffed and relaxed. “That didn’t answer my question.”

  “Consider my lack of answer a challenge.”

  “A challenge?” Cam gave Rick another hard look. “I like challenges, but this doesn’t seem like much of one. All I have to do is ask around.”

  Rick’s eyebrows quirked in a look Cam was sure signaled amusement. “You might not find it so easy. Not even my most trusted betas know everything about my children. But like submission, challenges come with rewards.”

  Cam didn’t have to think hard about that. “I like rewards.”

  Rick’s claws started to come out again and the tips tickled Cam’s scalp. “Salvadore has questions about his father’s death. If you can discover my children’s names and birth order, I might be tempted to allow you to assist him in his investigations.”

  “You might, huh?”

  “Consider unfettered access to my new beta Salvadore a reward for meeting my challenge.”

  Cam’s eyes narrowed. “Some people might call that blackmail. I’d already planned to help him.”

  He and Salvadore had discussed the questions Salvadore still had about his father’s death while they were both half-drunk, but his memories of that discussion had been clear and sharp after the fact, and he’d meant to follow through on his offer of setting his team to work on getting the answers Salvadore wanted.

  “If we’re going to have a satisfying life together as mates, my children should be as important to you as your children are to me.”

  “Luis and Miguel are important to you?”

  Rick’s forehead furrowed. “Of course. That’s why I worry about sending Miguel and Luis away. They’re safe here. But if someone discovers their connection to me through you, they’ll become just as much of a target as you.” Rick’s hand moved to Cam’s chest. “This would hurt your heart a great deal.” His other hand moved to his own chest. “And it would also hurt mine.”