by Lynn Hagen
“If you’re not ready for this, say so, shorty. There’s no going back once we start.”
“I thought we already started.” Newt smirked as nervous tension built inside him.
Orlando shook his head. “We haven’t begun yet.”
That hotter-than-hell kiss said otherwise. But Newt took a moment to stare into Orlando’s eyes. “Are we really mates?”
Orlando glided his hand up Newt’s thin chest before cupping his face. “We are.”
Could Newt go back to his old life knowing there was someone out there made just for him? Could he deny what he felt whenever he looked at Orlando? Would being with the guy be so bad? Orlando was sweet, caring, and, as Newt had thought before, the total package. Could he walk away from that?
Hadn’t Pat said Newt would want for nothing, that a shifter put his mate’s needs before his own? What person didn’t dream of having something like that?
“I’m scared,” Newt admitted. “Your world…you…your wolf…everything.”
Orlando pressed a soft kiss to Newt’s lips. “I know, but I’ll always try my damnedest to make you happy. That doesn’t mean we’ll always see eye-to-eye, but I’d never hurt you, Newt.”
Newt melted at Orlando’s promise. “Then I’m ready.”
“Are you sure?”
“Ask me one more time and I’ll walk out of this room,” Newt threatened.
Orlando grinned. “No you won’t.”
“No, I won’t.” Newt reached between them and grabbed Orlando’s cock, stroking the hard flesh as Orlando groaned.
“Point taken,” he said. “I’ll stop asking.”
He painted Newt’s neck and chest with slow kisses, alternating with long licks and a few nibbles. His lips glided over Newt’s skin like soft, warm silk. The longer Orlando’s lips touched him, the needier Newt became. He arched his back, desperate to get closer, for Orlando to do more than pleasure Newt with his mouth.
“I’ll be right back,” Orlando said as he pulled away, leaving Newt completely confused. “Get those pajamas off while I’m gone.”
Orlando walked out the door but returned a moment later, bottle of lube in his hand. “Didn’t I tell you to get naked?”
Newt’s heart raced as he shoved the material down his legs and kicked the pants the rest of the way off.
“So fucking beautiful.” Orlando’s heated gaze swept over Newt.
Newt had never been complimented so much in his life. Should he thank Orlando? Since he wasn’t sure, Newt kept his mouth shut as Orlando crawled back into bed. He lay on his side, pressing kisses to Newt’s shoulder as a slick finger slid over Newt’s pulsing hole.
Newt sucked in a breath as he spread his legs, moaning as Orlando’s thick finger breached him. He wiggled his butt, trying to adjust to the invasion.
Orlando added another finger, kissing Newt so passionately that white-hot pulses of need had Newt crying out for relief from the all-consuming fire building inside him.
The fingers disappeared, and the blunt head of Orlando’s cock replaced them. But he didn’t enter Newt. He simply stared down at him, something close to reverence in his eyes.
“Here’s the part where we don’t turn back,” Orlando said. “Are you ready?”
Newt’s hole pulsed, and his heart quickened. If he refused Orlando, they would never connect. This was when Newt should tell Orlando to stop, but he couldn’t form the words. If he walked away now, Newt knew in his heart that he would never find anyone else who could measure up to Orlando.
“I’m ready.”
Orlando pressed his hands on either side of Newt’s head, his powerful thighs keeping Newt’s legs open. “Do you accept me as your mate, Newton Bradley?”
The words were spoken so sincerely that Newt nodded and then remembered to speak. “Yes, I accept you as my mate, Orlando Werth.”
They almost sounded as if they were exchanging wedding vows.
Orlando drove his cock deep inside Newt, making Newt cry out as he clung to his mate, gritting his teeth at the sudden girth stretching him wide.
Newt continued to cling to Orlando as his mate pulled back and then punched his hips forward, taking Newt at a punishing pace. His cock pounded into Newt’s ass, making him groan so loudly that the people in the next town should have heard him.
Then the strangest thing happened. Newt wasn’t sure how he knew, but their hearts synchronized. He felt Orlando inside him, and he wasn’t talking about the man’s dick.
A white mist shot from Newt’s chest. He was terrified but also fascinated as the white mist swirled into transparent ribbons of smoke. A purple mist emerged from Orlando’s chest, doing the same as the colors twirled and danced around each other.
“It’s our life forces,” Orlando said. He’d stopped moving as they watched the breathtaking moment. Suddenly Newt’s white ribbon crashed into Orlando’s chest as Orlando’s purple ribbon slammed into Newt’s.
His mate snarled as he started moving again. Without warning, he sank his sharp teeth into Newt’s shoulder. Instead of pain, Newt shouted as his orgasm rocked him to his soul.
Orlando thrust a few more times before he licked the wound closed and buried himself deep, his cock pulsing in Newt’s ass.
They lay there for the longest moment, each trying to catch his breath. Then slowly, Orlando eased out of him.
“That was…” Newt couldn’t think of a good enough word to describe what had just happened between them.
“I know.” Orlando patted his leg. “I know.”
Sore and achy, Newt curled into his mate and closed his eyes as Orlando pulled the covers over them and tucked Newt against him.
He now belonged to Orlando—the sexy sheriff who had changed Newt’s entire world. As he drifted off to sleep, Newt smiled, at the moment content with the world.
Chapter Seven
After showering, Newt dressed and headed toward the deep voices he heard. At the dining room table sat Orlando, Vince, Dillon, and what was that other deputy’s name? Newt remembered Orlando calling it out when they’d ducked behind the Jeep earlier today. If Newt remembered correctly, he was Jacoby.
Max was lying at Dillon’s feet, and there were papers spread across the table. Orlando was looking at one of them, scanning it, as Vince and Jacoby talked and Dillon scratched Max’s head.
Newt leaned his arm against the wall, watching the men, afraid of disturbing them as they worked. But he couldn’t help but appreciate Orlando’s handsomeness as his brows crinkled while he read the paper in his hand.
Newt’s gaze lowered to his mate’s lips, and his body tingled as he recalled how they’d felt on his body. Seeing Orlando sitting there, being a cop, his men gathered around him, it was hard to imagine the sheriff with canines. He still couldn’t believe everything Pat had told him was true. Newt rubbed his chest at the remembrance of Orlando’s purple mist entering him.
“Look who’s awake.”
Newt hadn’t realized the deputies had stopped talking or that they were staring at him. Max got up and padded to him, licked his hand, and then returned to Dillon’s side and rested his snout on the guy’s lap.
“Hungry?” Orlando asked as he set the paper aside.
“I can manage on my own.” He gave Orlando a smile as he walked past the table and headed into the kitchen. Moments later Orlando was in there with him, pressing his body into Newt’s back.
“How’d you sleep, handsome?” He ran his hands down Newt’s sides.
“Like a log.” Newt stood there and ate up the attention, the heat of his mate’s body, and the feeling of being surrounded by so many muscles.
Orlando reached past him and opened the over-the-range microwave. “I made dinner, but you were knocked out.”
He pulled a plate free and lifted the lid. Newt’s mouth watered as he stared at a plate of roast—complete with carrots, potatoes, and glazed onions—mashed potatoes and a few biscuits.
“You’re gonna spoil me with your cooking.” Newt snatched t
he plate and went to the drawer for a fork.
“Join us.” Orlando poured glass of sweet tea, gave Newt a scorching kiss that had him growing hard, and then guided him to the dining room as Newt’s head spun from the kiss.
Screw dinner and whatever the men were talking about. Newt wanted to go back to the bedroom, strip naked, and demand another kiss…while Orlando fucked his brains out, of course.
“We might have a lead.” Orlando placed the glass of tea on the table in front of Newt, sat back down, and then shuffled through the papers. He retrieved the one he’d been looking for and passed it down to Newt, who had sat on the opposite end of the table.
Newt set his plate aside and took the paper from Dillon. “What’s this?”
“Just look it over,” Orlando said.
First, Newt took a bite of the roast. His fork cut easily into the meat, and when he shoved it into his mouth, Newt’s eyes rolled to the back of his head. He didn’t give a crap if he was drooling. It was the best roast he’d ever tasted, even putting his mother’s recipe to shame.
Though he’d never tell her that.
“He makes me want to go for seconds,” Dillon said with a chuckle.
Newt opened his eyes to see everyone once again staring at him. “What?”
“Dude,” Vince said, “you make eating roast look pornographic.”
Orlando slapped Vince on the back of his head as he gave a small growl.
Vince held his hands up, palms out, as he stared bug-eyed at his boss. “What? It’s the truth.”
“Everything that pops into your head doesn’t have to be said out loud,” Orlando snarled.
Jacoby snickered.
“I can’t help it,” Newt said before he took another bite, savoring the flavors that made him a happy man. “This is so good.”
Orlando smiled with pride glistening in his eyes. “I appreciate the compliment.”
After a few more bites—and the mashed potatoes were amazing—Newt read the paper in his hand. His brows dipped as he scanned the itemized list. “Why do you have a printout of my grandmother’s costume jewelry?”
“Where is her jewelry?” Orlando asked.
Newt set his fork down and glanced at the list one more time. “In a safe deposit box at the bank. They’re not worth anything, but they’re valuable to me since they belonged to my nana. I didn’t want anything happening to them.”
Orlando picked up another paper and sent it down to Newt. After taking it from Dillon, Newt looked at what seemed to be a police report. He was surprised to find his cousin’s name at the top. “What’s this?”
Newt read the charges, and his jaw dropped. Doug Bradley had always been so sweet and kind. But the charges ranged from burglary to extortion, and Newt wondered if his parents knew about this. Newt had spent most of his childhood hanging with Doug. They’d been close until their teenage years. Newt had gotten a job, and Doug had disappeared, Newt’s mom and dad telling him that his cousin was doing missionary work in some other country.
Newt had always been proud of him, wishing he’d been as adventurous as Doug. He looked farther down the paper and saw that Doug had done time in prison. As Newt mulled things over in his head, he realized the dates of imprisonment corresponded with his overseas work.
Newt’s parents had lied to him. They’d known where Doug was but had lied about the facts. Why would they do that?
Newt set the paper down and looked across the table at Orlando. “What does Doug have to do with this?”
“It’s just a lead we’re working on,” Orlando said. “We’d like to get your grandmother’s jewelry appraised.”
“That would be a waste of time,” Newt argued, refusing to believe his cousin had anything to do with the break-in, the shooting, or his nana’s jewelry. “It’s all junk. It’s only value is sentimentality.”
If the broaches, necklaces, bracelets, and earrings had any real value, Newt highly doubted his mother would have handed them down to him. And even if she’d still wanted him to have them, she would’ve told him they were pricey.
“Will you humor me?” Orlando asked.
With a sigh, Newt set the paper aside. “We can go to the bank in the morning, but I’m telling you, you’re chasing the wrong lead.”
“It’s just a hunch,” Orlando said. “It might not even pan out, but we have to exhaust every avenue of inquiry. Your cousin is a criminal, and I suspect he’s hired some thugs to find that jewelry. I can’t think of any other explanation as to why your house was torn apart.”
“Or invaded,” Vince added.
“Or why you guys were shot at,” Jacoby said.
“Okay, I get the point, but I don’t like it. Doug and I were real close at one time. He wouldn’t send killers after me.”
“Maybe he didn’t intend for you to be harmed,” Orlando said. “Remember, they overlooked the closet you were hiding in.”
His mate’s theory was insane. Newt refused to believe Doug would do something like this. He shoved his plate aside, no longer hungry. Max padded over to him and rested his head on Newt’s lap, looking up at him with sorrowful eyes.
Newt ran his hand along Max’s thick coat of fur, turning things over in his mind. It was late, but first thing tomorrow morning, before he went to the bank, Newt was calling his mother and demanding the truth.
* * * *
Orlando wasn’t trying to eavesdrop as Newt spoke to his mother, but he couldn’t help but hear both sides to the conversation as he made himself and his mate a light breakfast. Newt paced the kitchen, his phone pressed to his ear, his free hand waving around as he talked.
“I don’t understand why you kept that from me,” Newt argued.
“Because you idolized your cousin,” his mother argued right back. “I didn’t want to break your heart, and I know you, Newton Finnegan Bradley. You would have gone to that prison on a weekly basis to visit him, pouring your hard-earned money onto his books, and I couldn’t let you waste your life like that. Doug isn’t worth your kindness, and I’ll be damned if I let you give him one red cent.”
Orlando kept quiet as he scrambled some eggs, but he agreed with Newt’s mother. His mate had a big heart, and as much as he’d cared about Doug, he would’ve spent years trying to help his cousin. In Orlando’s opinion, Newt’s mom had done the right thing.
“You knew he was bad all this time?”
His mother snorted. “Since he was a teenager. He stole Grandpa Scott’s pocket watch when he was sixteen and tried to run off with Grandma Scott’s sterling silver when he was seventeen. That’s why I banned him from my house.”
Orlando assumed Scott was Newt’s mother’s maiden name. Which meant Doug was from the father’s side and the jewelry was from the father’s side since Newt had referred to his grandma as nana instead of Grandma Scott.
“How the heck did I not know any of this? How was I so blind about it all?”
“Your father and I didn’t want you to know what a monster he truly was. You have a big heart, dear, and like I said, I didn’t want you wasting your life on him.”
Newt dropped into the kitchen chair and pressed a hand over his forehead as he stared at the floor. “I’m asking all this because…” Newt sat there and told his mother everything that had happened over the past few days, leaving out the part about Orlando being a shifter and mating her son.
“I’m gonna find that rotten bastard and strangle him with my own bare hands!”
Orlando liked her already.
“Is the jewelry real, Ma?”
“I honestly don’t know. I was told it was fake, and even if it hadn’t been, I still would’ve handed it down to you. But I swear, I would’ve told you its value if I’d known.”
“The cops want to get it appraised.”
“Let them,” she said, “because if Doug is behind all this, I want the book thrown at him. When your father finds out that piece of shit hired professionals and one of them shot at you, he’s gonna go insane.”
The
woman had fire.
And a potty mouth.
“I’d say don’t tell him, but I know you will.” Newt tilted his head back and looked at the ceiling. “I’m really hoping the jewelry has no value.”
“We’re both gonna find out,” she said. “Your dad and I are heading to Brac Village, and your cousin better hope I don’t find him first.”
She ended the call.
“She’s…spirited.” Orlando smiled as he dumped the eggs onto two plates, placed some strips of bacon on each one, and added some toast before carrying them to the table.
“She’s insane.” Newt set his phone down. “My mom is the nicest, kindest woman you’ll ever meet. She’ll give you the shirt off her own back. But if you cross her…” Newt shivered.
“I look forward to meeting her.” Orlando frowned. “She does know you’re gay, right?”
Newt waved a hand as he pulled his plate toward him. “She threw a damn party when I came out.”
“And she doesn’t have a problem with interracial relationships?” Orlando wanted to make sure there wouldn’t be any static when she arrived because as progressive as the times were, there were still a lot of people who frowned at mixed couples. He would move Newt into his bedroom and give the parents the guest room, but he didn’t want, nor would he have, any tension in his home.
“She wouldn’t care if I dated an alien, just as long as I’m happy.” Newt chuckled. “The first guy I introduced to my parents was Spanish. The next thing I knew, my mother was taking Spanish classes so she could not only speak his language but learn about his culture.”
Orlando grinned. “She sounds like a dedicated mother.”
Love shined in Newt’s blue-gray eyes. “My mom and my dad are the greatest.”
“We’ll have to do a dinner while they’re here and invite my parents over,” Orlando said.
Newt glanced at him. “They won’t have a problem with us being together, will they?”
