by Lynn Hagen
“You know I’ll have to find work since my dickhead boss fired me for getting attacked and kidnapped,” Jaycee commented as he closed the dresser drawer and then straightened.
“You told him that?” Wolf asked in shock.
“No, but I told him I had a family emergency that took me away for a few days. He said it was considered a no-call, no-show, so he fired me. I wonder who else is hiring around town. Of course, I’ll need my car, but that hunk of junk is still curbside.”
Wolf growled as he rolled from the bed. “You cannot work, Jaycee. It is too dangerous for you to be out there by yourself. What if a hound finds you, or a rogue? It isn’t safe, zaterio.”
“So, what, you want me to sponge off of you?”
“It isn’t sponging if we are mates, Jaycee.” Wolf pulled Jaycee back toward the bed, wanting to forget the conversation about finances and fuck the man until they were both limping.
“Are you trying to distract me with sex this time?” Jaycee asked as a blush brightened his cheeks.
“Maybe.” Wolf grinned. “Is it working?”
“What were we talking about?” Jaycee laughed gently, his rich, chocolate-brown eyes filled with a humor and tenderness Wolf never wanted to lose. The man was amazing, simply gorgeous, and the perfect mate for him.
“We were talking about me giving you a blow job.”
Jaycee’s eyes widened in surprise. “We were?”
“We were,” Wolf agreed as he deposited his mate onto the bed and yanked his jeans free. The delicious cock that he now craved bounced free, and Wolf didn’t hesitate to drop to his knees and swallow the beautiful length in one smooth motion, sucking hard and ferociously.
“Oh!” Jaycee yelped. His hands landed on Wolf’s head, his legs spreading wide apart. “Hell, yeah!”
Wolf chuckled around his mate’s length and then began to gently roll Jaycee’s sac around in the palm of his hand as one finger circled his mate’s tight entrance.
“Grab the lube”—Jaycee panted—“if you’re going to be playing back there.”
Without releasing his mate’s shaft, Wolf stretched his arm over to the nightstand and grabbed it. He could feel the pulsing of Jaycee’s cock in his mouth as he wet his fingers and then he wiggled them inside his mate’s ass.
“Just like that, Wolf. Just like that!”
Wolf pulled all the way back out and then pushed back in, fucking Jaycee with his fingers for a few strokes as he bobbed his head over his mate’s cock.
“Wolf!” Jaycee shouted as hot spurts of cum shot down his throat. Jaycee clamped his hands down on Wolf’s head and pumped his hips toward Wolf’s mouth, fucking it in frenzy.
When Wolf pulled back, Jaycee released him.
“Good gods, man. Where did you learn how to do that?” Jaycee panted as his wobbly legs fell to the sides. “My turn.”
Wolf stood, released his cock, and started stroking himself quickly. “I’m already too damn close. Just open wide.”
Seeing Jaycee lying there with his mouth wide open for Wolf sent him over the edge quicker than anything in his life. Wolf leaned forward as he growled, pearly-white ropes of cum shooting from the head of his cock and landing on Jaycee’s chest and neck. There was a small splatter on his chin.
“I think your aim is off.”
Wolf leaned forward, taking in a shaky breath, and then grinned. “But you look damn good wearing my seed, Cheerio.”
Jaycee ran his fingers through Wolf’s spunk and then licked his fingers. It was the most erotic thing Wolf had ever seen. He wanted to paint Jaycee’s entire body and mark him so everyone in the world would know the man was his.
That, and Jaycee looked sexy as hell lying there with spunk all over him.
“Zymlye, Wolf.”
“You are learning, mate.” Wolf grinned as he helped Jaycee to his feet and then smacked his ass. “Keep this up and you will be speaking Zantharian in no time.”
“Really?”
“No.” Wolf chuckled when Jaycee gave a small growl and smacked his arm. “But over time, I will teach you to speak our tongue. You sound sexy when you speak Zantharian.”
“It sounds exotic.”
“It is a very exotic language,” Wolf said as he led his mate to the bathroom. “And soon you will be speaking it in bed.”
“You’re going to teach me all the naughty words first, aren’t you?” Jaycee asked as he reached into the shower and cut the water on, a pretty pink blush chasing across Jaycee’s cheeks.
“You’re damn right,” he replied. He wasn’t stupid. Of course he was going to have Jaycee shouting out his pleasure in Wolf’s native language. Was there anything sexier?
“I need to go talk to Nazaryth while you shower.” Wolf turned to leave, but Jaycee grabbed his arm.
“It’s about my cousins, isn’t it? I saw the bandages on both Morgan and Donovan. Do you think they were here?” Jaycee sounded worried, and Wolf couldn’t blame the man. If it truly was one of his cousins, then the man needed to be brought here before a hound finished the job.
Wolf cupped the side of his mate’s face. “I’m not sure what’s going on with them, but if one of them was here, then Renato has a right to know.”
“But they’re human!” Jaycee said. “How can they survive a bite? I was just scratched, and it hurt like a bitch. You told me a human couldn’t survive a bite. It can’t be either of them.”
Wolf didn’t think a human could either. In all the years he was alive, he had never heard of a human surviving a hell hound bite. It was impossible, but he just couldn’t shake the gut feeling that one of them had been in the green room. It was like a gnawing feeling in the pit of his stomach.
“They can’t, but I would rather rule them out than forget about what I saw and then have a hound go after them.”
“No!” Jaycee shouted as he grabbed Wolf’s arm and shook it. “They’re my cousins. You can’t let anything happen to them.”
Wolf gave a quick, grim nod. “Then let me go to Nazaryth and tell him what I suspect. It may not pan out to be anything, zaterio, but we have to look into it.”
“Go,” Jaycee said as he pushed Wolf from the bathroom. “Go find out if they’re okay. Call Mom.”
Hearing Jaycee refer to Connie as Wolf’s mother made his stomach flutter. He had a mom. Something Wolf never thought to have. Jaycee just didn’t know how much that meant to Wolf. He would be forever grateful to his mate for giving him not only a zaterio, but a family to call his own.
He had the winged beasts, but having Jaycee’s family was different. They interacted with him differently and treated him like one of their own. None of them were warriors, yet Wolf had felt an inherent strength in all of them. He could tell they loved their cookouts, and it meant a lot to them to be gathered together as a family.
He couldn’t wait until next Sunday.
“Thank you, zaterio.” Wolf kissed each side of Jaycee’s mouth and then his lips. It was tender and just a small kiss, but Wolf poured his emotions into the brief touching of their lips.
“For what?” Jaycee asked as his hands pressed over Wolf’s, looking up at Wolf as if the sun rose and set for Jaycee in Wolf’s arms. He liked that look.
“For giving me so much,” he replied.
Jaycee’s smile curved with tenderness. “I’m glad you came after me, Wolf. I can’t imagine my life without you in it, even if it’s filled with monsters.”
“What, are you afraid of monsters now?” he teased.
“Hell yeah.” He snorted and then changed the subject so quickly that it took a second for Wolf to catch on to what his mate was saying. “I was thinking about having the winged vampires over next Sunday.”
It didn’t take him long to catch on, though. Wolf growled. “All of them?” Connie would flip. Wolf could just see her questioning each and every one of them about the hell hounds. But then again, she was a great woman to have as a mother-in-law. He knew the winged beasts would love her just as much as he had grown to love
her. She was a wonderful person, and Wolf loved her just for giving birth to Jaycee.
“Yes, Wolf, all of them. Go talk to Nazaryth and let me know what he says,” Jaycee said as he stepped into the shower.
“I will.” Wolf left Jaycee to go find Nazaryth. He had to tell him about Jaycee’s cousins and find out which one might possibly be Renato’s missing mate. He knew it was impossible. Wolf knew it was crazy. No human could survive the noxious poison in a hell hound’s bite.
But he couldn’t shake that feeling.
And if one of them were Renato’s mate, it would save not only Renato from going mad, but it would take the burden off of their shoulders of having to kill the beast.
And that was worth it to Wolf.
Renato was their brother, with them for more years than Wolf could count. And killing the beast was something Wolf wanted to avoid at all costs.
He glanced back at the bathroom, smiling as he heard the shower turn on. For two thousand years Wolf had been alone, no mate at his side. Even with Jaycee running scared in the beginning, Wolf knew everything they had been through, and things still to come, were all worth it as long as he had his Cheerio at his side.
Renato sat on the cliff’s edge, staring over the countryside and feeling a loss so profound, so unimaginable that he wasn’t sure why he hadn’t gone mad yet. His mate was surely dead by now. It had been a week since discovering the blood in the green room.
A human couldn’t survive a bite.
His heart had died with his mate, and Renato knew the madness would come soon. There was no way it couldn’t. His zaterio had died alone, without his winged beast at his side. Renato would never forgive himself for not finding the man in time. It was a pain so raw, so encompassing that Renato stared over the cliff’s edge, yearning to join his mate.
He heard the footsteps approaching from behind him and knew that it was the commander. Renato didn’t want to hear anything the man had to say. What was there to say? His zaterio was dead, and Renato couldn’t find it in his heart to care about anything anymore.
“We need to talk, Renato,” Nazaryth said as he squatted down at Renato’s side. “I think your mate is still alive.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lynn Hagen loves writing about the somewhat flawed, but lovable. She also loves a hero who can see past all the rough edges to find the shining diamond of a beautiful heart.
You can find her on any given day curled up with her laptop and a cup of hot java, letting the next set of characters tell their story.