In the process of buckling up, Karl shot him a grin. “Seriously? What about our lives hasn’t fallen into that category lately? I’m amazingly good with weird, as it turns out. Go figure.”
“Yeah, well…I kind of need a best man.”
“Fuck me, you’re getting married? To Demi? This is the promise you made to his parents? I can’t believe they’d be down with that instead of measuring you for a coffin.”
“Not exactly.” Jesus. That was on him for using the wrong terminology. The ceremony was already outside his comfort zone. No way was he ready for a permanent commitment. Besides, Demi was too young for that. Wasn’t he?
“I need to do this thing on Friday with Demi. A sex thing.” He winced at his awkward explanation.
“A sex. Thing?”
“Sex. Just sex, Karl. I have to have sex with Demi.” Jee-sus. Could this conversation get any stranger?
“Have to?”
Trust Karl to focus on the inanest of his word choices. “It’s basically a medical necessity.”
“Uh-huh.”
“Really. The way Harry described it, Demi is going through some kind of physical change that requires, ah, deflowering.”
“Shit, that’s almost poetic.”
“Fuck you,” Trey said without heat. He started the car and pulled out of the space. “I have to pop his cherry. Is that better for your perpetual thirteen-year-old self?”
“You’re going to fuck him. I get it. Me and Young Karl are fully engaged with this plan.”
“I’m glad someone is,” Trey muttered. “Actually, technically he’s going to fuck me.”
“Hmm, interesting.”
“That’s one word for it.”
Karl coughed once. “I guess if I thought about, which I definitely have not, I would’ve expected you to be a top kind of guy.”
Trey couldn’t resist playing out a brief fantasy of what it would be like to sink his cock into Demi’s cherry-tight ass. He felt guilty a split second later, but for a glorious moment, he was in heaven. Unfortunately, it only served to make his pants tighter.
“You wouldn’t be wrong, but this isn’t me picking a random up at a club. I’m simply trying to provide a service based on their species’ customs and physiological needs.” Like a science project. Homework. Duty. If he kept telling himself that, he might convince his cock and all the rest of him. Probably not. Shit.
Karl was silent for a few seconds in which Trey imagined the guy was trying hard to scrub certain unwanted images from his brain. “Right. Am I supposed to witness this event? I mean, is it like medieval times when people stood around the bed and watched the consummation?”
Trey almost ran off the road. “Christ, no!” Except, come to think of it, he hadn’t nailed down that kind of detail with Harry. No, no way. That couldn’t be the case.
“I’m supposed to have some kind of entourage, for lack of a better word, when Harry and Lucien hand Demi over. I was hoping you could, you know, stand with me.”
“Well, sure, no problem. I’m, like…honored or whatever. But shouldn’t it be family or something?”
Trey flicked his gaze at his partner. “Seriously? How would I ever explain this to my brother? Hey, Dante, I’m going to do something that makes me look like a pedophile, but it’s all good ‘cause he has alien blood in him and he doesn’t mature lineally. How about you act as my wingman as I carry him up to bed?”
Karl snorted. “You’re right. That was a stupid thing for me to suggest. He is kind of young,” he added. “How are you handling that?”
“Badly,” he confessed. “No matter how long he’s been alive or how much Harry explains the physiology of a hybrid, I still see Demi as a kid—and one that I want more than my next breath,” he confessed before he could think better of it. “Christ, I am a pedophile.”
Karl chuckled. “You so are not. Look… I get your reservations, but you have to trust Harry on this. No way he’d be setting this up if it weren’t beneficial for his son.”
“I suppose.” It still felt wrong, and yet too right at the same time.
His dick had no conscience. It was straining in his pants in a way that hadn’t happened with Craig. That had been another problem with his relationship with the man. They’d both been alpha males vying for control, even though he’d always been attracted to men that looked much like himself. Or that’s what he’d thought until he’d stopped fighting his impulses and allowed his attraction to twinks come to the fore. Demi was his dream lover. No question about that.
“I know you, Trey,” Karl persisted. “You’re the best guy I’ve ever known. Truly. I’ll be proud to stand with you on Friday.”
“Yeah? Thanks, man. I appreciate it. Thanks, too, for accepting this whole alien thing. Keeping that secret from you was killing me, and I’m not sure how I’d have handled all of this without you by my side.”
“Ah, Jesus, listen to us,” Karl scoffed. “Turn on sports radio, for God’s sake, before we each grow ovaries.”
Trey shook his head. “So un-PC, man.” He did as his partner asked anyway, happy to end the conversation. If for no other reason, he needed his dick to settle down before he arrived at the club.
* * * *
“Alex, I’m not going to have this conversation again.”
Quinn’s angry voice caught Trey’s and Karl’s attention before they reached Alex’s office. The door was open, so they became privy to the heated discussion whether they wanted to or not. They exchanged glances before slowing their steps by unspoken agreement. Whatever was going on with the two lovers, they didn’t want to get involved.
Val was pulling up the rear of their little convoy. He had no qualms, apparently, as he passed them the moment their steps faltered. “Jesus, this again,” the guy muttered.
“Darling boy, I’m sorry to inform you that we are.” Alex’s smooth words held a hint of an edge to them.
Quinn came rushing out of the room, nearly crashing into Val. The bouncer moved in a blur to get out of the boy’s way, not that Quinn got far. With equally fast movement, Alex came to grab his arm and pull him up short.
“I said that we’re not done with this discussion.” Trey had never seen Alex this forceful outside of an actual fight. “This is too important for you to act the brat.”
“Oh!” Quinn jutted his chin up and shot fiery eyes at his lover. “You mean that what you want matters and what I want doesn’t.”
“That is not even remotely close to anything I’ve said.” The alien leader’s tone was icy and commanding.
“Yes, it is.” Quinn jerked his arm, but of course, there was no way for him to free himself unless Alex let go.
Trey eyed Karl and could see that his friend was thinking the same thing. Neither of them was going to stand by and let Alex hurt Quinn, not that they stood any chance of overpowering the guy. And, from everything he’d seen of this alien, Trey didn’t believe that Alex would ever do anything like that anyway. Val hung back with his arms folded, his usual stance, with an expression that conveyed annoyance but not alarm. Trey supposed the bouncer knew Alex better than anyone, and if he wasn’t worried, there was probably no reason to be. Then again, would Val ever challenge his superior?
Quinn and Alex seemed uninterested in their audience, regardless. More importantly, Quinn didn’t appear afraid, only seriously pissed off.
“You consistently dismiss everything I say about how I want my life to be.”
“Because you aren’t acting rationally.”
Quinn’s mouth popped open on a gasp right before he pounded his fist once against Alex’s massive chest. “You think I’m being overly emotional because I’m too young to think things through.”
“I didn’t say that, either. I’m simply pointing out that you have the opportunity to enhance your education and make more of your life.”
“I don’t want more!” Quinn nearly shouted it out. “I want to dance and warm your bed and…and, I want to be changed,” he finished with a hitch to
his voice that sounded suspiciously like he was going to cry.
God. Trey really felt like a voyeur. He wanted to slowly back away but also didn’t want to call attention to himself or Karl.
“You’re so young.” Alex’s voice dipped down low and soft. “There’s plenty of time for you to make the decision to change. Once it’s done, there’s no undoing it. I don’t want you to end up like Dafydd, stuck with no longer being human and perhaps forever dependent on something you don’t want.”
Quinn scoffed. “How could I ever be like him when you are nothing like Dracul?”
Alex’s expression hardened. “I will be if I allow this to happen without deliberation.”
Quinn shook his head. “See? There it is. You say we’re a couple, but we’re not equals. You’re the boss of me, and I would be fine with that if you would only acknowledge that I have ultimate control and that when you insist on something, I have the right to refuse.”
By the hold on his arm, Alex shook the boy, once and not hard, merely for emphasis. “We are a couple and you do. Changing you is something I have to do, though, and I will not do it unless and until I think you are truly prepared to make that irrevocable decision.”
“Right, sure.” Quinn huffed. “You decide, not me, when and if I’m ready. Admit it, Alex. You can’t commit. That’s the real problem. You don’t want marriage and children. You don’t want me.”
“Darling boy, that’s not true. I want you more than the breath I take or the blood I drink. There’s simply no rush for you to make decisions that are irreversible.”
“The only pressure I’m feeling right now is from you, and I don’t like it. I won’t tolerate it, Alex. I know my mind, and what I want is to spend the rest of not just my life with you, but the rest of your life. I refuse to grow old and die centuries before you do. If you can’t understand or accept that, then we have nothing left to discuss.”
“Quinn.”
“Now let me go. I need to practice.”
“You don’t have to dance.” Alex’s tone sounded weary, and that was new in Trey’s experience.
“That’s where we disagree. Let. Me. Go.”
For a second, Trey really worried that Alex wouldn’t. Then suddenly, he released his hold on Quinn and stepped back. The two men stood staring at each other for another second before Quinn turned and strode away. Not fast enough, though, for Trey to miss the sheen of tears in his eyes.
Christ. He had to agree with Alex, however. Quinn was maybe nineteen at this point. What was the hurry in making a life-altering change? And for that matter, where was the harm in furthering his education? From what Trey knew, Quinn had taken the job dancing at the club out of desperation. He had choices now, ones that lots of kids, like the ones Father Ted had ministered to, would give anything to have.
Alex’s gaze stayed on Quinn’s retreating back for a few more seconds, before he trained it on his visitors. “Gentlemen, sorry for the wait. How may I be of assistance?”
The guy acted as if they’d disturbed nothing more than paperwork instead of a knock-down, drag-out fight between him and his lover. Okay. If he wanted to play it cool, that was fine by Trey. Apparently, alien men were just as good as human ones in pretended their hearts weren’t being ripped out and stomped on.
Trey started forward. “We may be jumping the gun on this, but Karl and I have a problem. And,” he added with grunt, “we’re afraid it might be a Dracul-adjacent one.”
Alex’s eyes narrowed. “Indeed? You’d better come inside, then. It appears our brief period of peace and quiet may be at an end.”
Chapter Five
“That bastard!” Mackie uttered his harsh assessment of Alex once Quinn had finished stammering out his tale of the big fight.
“Mackie, that’s not helping,” Jase admonished before patting Quinn on the back.
Demi held his tongue, silently agreeing with Mackie, yet not wanting to stir up trouble for himself. Not now. They were all sitting huddled at the big table in the kitchen, keeping their voices low so that Damien wouldn’t hear their precise words. The human was super chill in Demi’s experience and easily becoming part of their group. He still didn’t know their big secrets, though, and probably never would. So, they couldn’t afford for him to hear about Alex refusing to change Quinn. It was enough that there were clearly relationship issues and that Jase needed to take a break from kitchen chores to lend comfort.
Mackie made a face. “I call them like I see them.” He blew out a breath. “Honestly, these men treat us like infants sometimes.”
“Isn’t that kind of your thing?” Demi asked. He knew very little about the BDSM lifestyle because his fathers had kept him far away from what went on in those second-floor rooms. He was intrigued, though. Not that pain sounded like fun but being restrained held some titillation. He’d imagined during more than one jerk-off session what it would be like to have his wrists tied to the bedposts while Trey tortured him with pleasure.
He shuddered and his dick stiffened—again. God, it had been a little more than an hour since the last time he’d drained his demanding balls. He kind of wanted to save himself for his night with Trey. His body had other ideas. Of course, Trey was at the club, and while Demi wanted to be supportive of Quinn, he was also really hoping to catch a moment with his man.
Mackie looked down his nose at him. “If you knew anything about what it means to be a slave, you’d know that I ultimately wield the control in our relationship. Val does nothing without my consent.”
Demi shrugged. “You’re right. I don’t get it.”
It made no sense to him. Maybe it was the difference between how humans saw things and his own alien nature. While he’d chafed at his fathers’ control for his entire life, the idea of giving himself to Trey, totally and completely, left him feeling calm and steady. Some primordial part of his brain was maybe connecting to the hive nature of his people. There was a hierarchy and the certainty of it was oddly liberating. Then again, perhaps it was a fantasy and the reality of it would be quite different. Quinn was certainly miserable, when Demi would have bet anything that the boy loved being commanded by someone as, well, commanding as Alex.
“He’ll come around eventually,” Jase comforted. “In the meantime, would it be the worst thing in the world to look into classes? I’m going to enroll in a local culinary school because Emil thinks it’s the best way for me to learn.”
Quinn made a face. “Except you like cooking, so it makes sense for you to follow his advice. I want to dance. I love it, actually. And, I love getting fucked by Alex, too. I want him and only him forever more. Plus, I’ve been spending a bit of time with Idris. I started doing it to help Lucien then found I really like it. I want to give Alex sons,” he added in a near whisper.
Demi did, as well, truth be told. Too bad Papa said that hybrids were wholly male. Unlike Mackie and the others, he wasn’t going to be able to actually carry Trey’s babies. Still, they could adopt. Lots of humans needed parents. Not that he was in any hurry. Trey wouldn’t need to pressure Demi to take time to finish his education. Demi was determined to go to medical school, just like Papa.
Although, he realized with a sudden jolt that, as a human, Trey wasn’t going to live as long. They didn’t have much time together. He hadn’t considered that. And the idea of Trey dying within a few decades gave him a pain right where his heart was. Maybe there was a way to alter that. What if he fed Trey his blood? Would it extend his life? He’d have to ask Papa.
Mackie patted Quinn’s hand. “Like Jase said, he’ll come around to your way of thinking. You just have to stay firm and wait him out.” His face took on a sly look. “Where are you sleeping tonight?”
“Oh.” Quinn sat back. “I hadn’t thought that far ahead.” He shrugged. “I’m not sure I can face Alex, but it’s not like I have a bedroom of my own anymore.”
That was true. Dafydd was ensconced in the guest room.
“You could maybe hang out with me,” Demi offered. “My b
ed’s queen-sized.” He’d just have to do his nightly jerking off in the bathroom. “A sleepover could be fun.”
Mackie clapped his hands. “Perfect.”
“I don’t know, guys,” Jase said. “Isn’t there some kind of rule about not going to bed angry?”
Mackie batted that concern away. “Nonsense. This will give Alex a taste of what it’s like not having Quinn around. An object lesson,” he added with a firm nod.
Jase didn’t look convinced, but Quinn seemed happy with the idea. And while he really didn’t want to piss Alex off and worried that his parents might put a stop to the plan, Demi decided that if he was going to enter adulthood, he was capable of asserting himself. He would have to put his foot down.
Except his thoughts on the whole thing fled in the next instant at the sight of Trey entering the kitchen. His faithful partner was hot on his heels, but Demi didn’t care. Trey took all his attention. He was up and heading toward him before his brain registered the idea. He frowned as he saw that Trey hadn’t noticed him. He was approaching Damien, who stood by the stove stirring a huge pot of something.
“Hey!” he called out and picked up his pace, careful to keep it at human speed, even though the effort was almost painful.
Trey glanced at him, flashed a smile and kept his focus on the sous chef. “Damien, got a minute?”
The boy tapped the big spoon in his hand against the edge of the pot and set it on the counter. “Um, sure. What’s up?”
“Let’s sit down. I have a few follow-up questions about Father Ted.”
“Of course. Whatever I can do.” Turning, he headed to the other end of the table from where the boys still sat.
The cops followed. “Guys, if you don’t mind, I’d like to question Damien without a big audience.”
The others got up before Damien said, “I’m cool with their being here—you know, if you are.”
“No, that’s fine,” Mackie said for all of them. “We need to practice anyway.”
“I don’t,” Demi countered with a grimace. He didn’t want to lose a chance to spend time with Trey, no matter what was going on. It was bratty of him, maybe. Then again, he didn’t feel much like being grown-up right at the moment. His dick ached and a flash of heat crept up his skin.
Mating Dance Page 8