Master

by R Phoenix

  Caleb paused in inhaling his Happy Human Kibble or whatever the fuck it was long enough to shake his head then went back to eating. Zain had always snuck him something extra to go with it, but he’d gotten used to the crunch and the bland taste all over again when his alpha had gone. The vampire still didn’t properly know how to use the measuring cups, and it meant he was either too full or hungry at any given time.

  Wordlessly, he went to the water, gulping some down with the skill he’d acquired over the past few months of being a pup, but it was different then. He’d gotten used to it, and it simply… was. But tonight it affected him. It was about more than drinking, which his dripping cock attested to. His tail wagged slowly, and he looked up at Liam as water dribbled down his chin. The vampire reached down, wiping it away with his thumb.

  “I am sure you will get many treats tomorrow, so I will not spoil you too much tonight,” Liam said even as he poured more of the kibble into the bowl.

  It was almost like… cereal. Just weird cereal.

  At least it wasn’t as bad as that beef stew from a can Liam had fed him the first night they’d been together. He shuddered at that, diving back into the kibble with more gratitude — and more irritation, because he knew that was part of all of… this. Give him nothing, so he’d be grateful with a little. Show him a little attention, so he’d be thrilled with a bit more.

  He knew all of that, rationally, and he… He sort of hated that knowledge. He wanted to be grateful and happy and cheerful like he’d been, where his greatest worry had been whether he’d be sleeping in the kennel or at the foot of his master’s bed. Now that his mental faculties had mostly returned, there was a whole hell of a lot more to worry about it.

  Caleb knew he hadn’t drifted too far, even if he’d been in it deep, or he wouldn’t have been able to reemerge at all. Right then, he sort of wished he hadn’t.

  But then Liam’s hands were massaging his ass cheeks, one of his thick fingers moving to circle his hole, and he forgot about his dinner, his water, his troubled mind — everything but those base instincts that drove him on and made him want to do nothing but get fucked.

  “Are you finished eating, Pup?” Liam asked, his voice husky in a way it hadn’t been since the man’s sire had arrived.

  To hell with dinner.

  Caleb barked, and Liam smirked, tweaking his ears. “Then let’s find new accommodations, yes?”

  Oh fuck yes. They might’ve fucked countless times in the kitchen, but the last thing he wanted was to be interrupted while Liam’s cock was buried deep inside of him. He shivered, scampering after his master as the man turned and strode toward the bedroom. Thank fuck, he wasn’t going to have to think much longer. He could descend back into that feral place where nothing else mattered, and he was grateful for it.

  The second they were behind closed doors, Liam popped his fly open, and Caleb instantly went to him. Mouth watering, a little bit of drool sliding down his chin, he pressed up hard against the waiting cock beneath those soft briefs. The vampire chuckled, tugging them down along with his pants, then pulled off his suit jacket.

  Caleb’s teeth caught the bottom of that formal shirt, too, and Liam unbuttoned it.

  “Demanding little pup,” Liam chastised, but there was no real admonishment in his voice. He tossed the clothing aside, and Caleb whimpered in pleasure at the sight of the man above him.

  He couldn’t wait to get his mouth on that cock, which was already half-stiff and looking divine. He didn’t stop himself, going for it like a dog for a treat — minus the whole teeth part — and he took the head of Liam’s cock in with a greedy gulp.

  He couldn’t hold back his enthusiasm, and Liam didn’t seem inclined to try to get him to slow down. The filthy sounds of sloppy sucking and licking filled the room, and it was making him harder and harder. That gorgeous cock left his mouth with a pop, and Caleb abandoned sucking it in favor of lavishing attention on it, licking along the underside and getting his nose wet with precum.

  He felt like he’d been starving, but it hadn’t just been for food. This was what he had wanted, intimacy and to satisfy some part of him that felt neglected and alone.

  Liam’s fingers wound into his hair, toying with his ears, but he indulged Caleb and let his pup play with his cock until he finally warned, “I want more than just your beautiful mouth, Pup.”

  Caleb should’ve seen that — oh, his sense of humor was definitely back, because he snickered to himself — coming. Liam wouldn’t be satisfied knowing that Zain’s cum had been the last in his ass, even though Liam had just thoroughly bathed him.

  No, he’d have to be the one to claim him the most thoroughly. “Up on the bed,” Liam directed, advancing on him and finally just grabbing him when he didn’t move fast enough.

  Caleb landed in the soft sheets with an oof, and he found his ass in the air before he could even draw another breath.

  “You should be ready for my cock after your time with my ‘wolf, no?” Liam asked, his voice heated. He reached past Caleb to the bedside table, grabbing the lube.

  That was when Caleb realized Liam was fucking jealous. Well. He’d known the vampire was possessive, and obsessive even, but he hadn’t realized that would be an issue.

  Not a problem, per se, unless they tried to cut him in two, because he rather liked it when their gorgeous eyes blazed and they fought it out over him — him! A human from the slums! He moaned, and even though his body had long since tightened again, he didn’t mind as he felt the thick head of Liam’s cock pressing against his hole.

  “Are you ready for me, Pup?” Liam hissed against his ear, lust dripping from his voice to the point where Caleb knew the answer didn’t matter.

  “Fuck me,” Caleb said in lieu of giving a real answer, but he knew that was what the vampire wanted to hear anyway.

  It was what he wanted anyway, too.

  The thick, hard head of that cock breached him more slowly than he’d expected, slick and dripping with enough lube to make him feel grateful for it, and his breaths came raggedly as Liam slid into him — insistent, hard, a little uncomfortable and a lot inexorable, but hitting all the right places.

  Caleb moaned, grinding down against the bed, fingers curled tight in the mitts on his hands as he wished he could grab the sheets to steady himself. Liam’s arm came up around him, though, holding him in place as he started to first leisurely thrust into him then pick up the pace.

  “Whose are you, Pup?” Liam asked hotly in his ear.

  Caleb shivered, lifting his ass and begging for more with the motion and his moans alike. He let out a little yip.

  Liam’s grasp tightened. “No,” he snarled. “Whose are you, Caleb?”

  “Yours, Master” Caleb gasped out, and the next thrust against his prostate had him spilling all over the bed with a loud groan. “Yours,” he said as he rode his orgasm, wanting to collapse onto the bed but held up into place.

  Liam let out a bestial growl. “Damn right you are, little pup.”

  He started to fuck Caleb harder, faster, picking up pace until it started to hurt — then it evened out again, turning into bliss. If he wasn’t careful, he’d end up hard all over again. He didn’t have time to stiffen again before Liam shoved into him with a final snap of his hips, the loud, feral snarl accompanying the feeling of cum filling Caleb’s ass.

  Caleb whimpered, licking his lips, and he didn’t even care that Liam dropped him down onto the wet spot on the bed. Inconsiderate asshole… but Caleb couldn’t bring himself to care, especially as fangs sank deep into his neck from behind. He came again even though he hadn’t even been fully hard, soaking the sheets beneath him even more, and he writhed as Liam drank from him.

  Liam moaned and ground against his ass, his wet, flaccid cock against Caleb’s skin, and he drank greedily. He could’ve kept going forever for all Caleb was concerned, even though a rational part of him knew that would be a royally bad idea.

  Finally, reluctantly, Liam pulled back, and Caleb let o
ut a whine of protest.

  His possessive anger seemingly sated, Liam chuckled. “My insatiable pup,” he said, and there was something almost like… fond amusement. Fond. It was progress.

  All it had taken was the idea of someone else potentially taking him away.

  Caleb would never understand Liam — or any vampire, really, or potentially any supe — but he understood this much. Power, control, pleasure… They were all there, components of a powerful formula that gave him something so few humans had in these times.

  All he’d had to do was surrender everything he was, and he had gained an edge over the others.

  Sometimes he didn’t know if it was worth it, but in the wake of his climax, he was positive it was. He could deal with the ears, and the wildly wagging tail, and the layer of fur — and he even had the crazy thought that he could deal with fucking more, too, even though he didn’t want more.

  Even though he didn’t even really want what he had, whether it got him hard or not.

  But that was fine, because Liam was nuzzling his neck and lapping at the last few drops of blood lingering on his skin, and he was sated beyond what he’d been since before Zain had left.

  Apparently, Liam wasn’t ready to surrender much more, because he directed gruffly while rolling off of Caleb, “Foot of the bed, Pup. Good pup. Now get some rest.”

  He didn’t mention that he’d need his strength for the next day, for his delivery to Zain, but Caleb could read between the lines.

  As he crawled down and curled up at Liam’s feet, though, he couldn’t bring himself to give a fuck. He was… content, mostly full with his needs sated, and it had been so, so very good.

  Really, if Liam and Zain were going to fight over him like this, it might not be too terrible for him…

  Chapter Ten:

  Zain

  There had to be something he should’ve been doing, but Zain couldn’t bring himself to get up. The bed was nicer than he’d slept in since leaving Liam’s house, and the relief of finally having some peace and quiet was immeasurable. He hadn’t realized how much the noise and stress had grated on him until it was gone.

  Well, the stress of the pack was gone, at least. That couldn’t be said about other parts of his life.

  Zain still wasn’t sure what would happen with Liam, and he still wasn’t sure he’d done the right thing by bringing Caleb back to his human self. He told himself he’d done the only thing he could do, but he wasn’t sure if that was the truth or not.

  The part he could be sure was true of was that Caleb needed to be able to make decisions about where he lived and what he wanted. Liam called him slave, but Caleb had never been that to Zain, and he wasn’t going to start treating his pup like that now. Not when everything was turned on its head.

  Zain just wished that Caleb had been a little more helpful.

  It was just his luck that he’d brought his pup back to his human side only to be blindsided by the frustrating pup’s insistence that they all stay together. It wasn’t what he’d been expecting, and Zain wasn’t sure he appreciated having the wrench thrown in his plans…and his emotions.

  How could Liam have thought they’d pick things up just like nothing happened as soon as the asshole was gone? Zain had always known the vamp didn’t really care what anyone else thought or about a little thing called right and wrong, but he hadn’t thought the guy was delusional.

  When he’d called the vamp crazy, he hadn’t actually thought he was really nuts.

  “Evidently I was right,” he muttered.

  That sucked.

  Zain wasn’t sure things could fall back in place that easily, no matter what he’d told Caleb. He sounded melodramatic even to himself, but Liam had tossed him out without even a thought about where Zain would live or what would happen. What if the pack hadn’t taken him back in? What if they’d killed him just because they thought he was a threat to the pack’s safety?

  Had Liam not been capable of seeing that or had he just not wanted to?

  Zain moved his head just far enough to see his bag propped up in the corner. Knowing the money was safely tucked inside until he found a better place to put it had him feeling safer than he had in weeks… longer, if he was honest with himself.

  It shouldn’t have made a difference about his decision or how he saw Liam, but it did. Zain knew he couldn’t count on Liam’s nonexistent humanity to push the vamp into making the right choice or even the feelings he had for Caleb making it worth it. Knowing he had a way to take care of himself if something went wrong again framed some of it differently, though.

  He wouldn’t pretend that Liam meant nothing to him, but could he live with knowing Liam could throw him away that easily?

  No matter what Caleb had said, it had been easy for him.

  But the jealousy at finding them together, and the anger when Liam realized that Zain wasn’t submitting before him any longer, gave Zain hope. It was a ridiculous emotion considering who he was obsessing over, but it was hope nonetheless. If Liam felt jealousy, that meant love was in there somewhere, right? It was a warped, twisted version of the human emotion Zain had always pictured but something close to it anyway.

  But would that be enough?

  He’d been expecting it, but the knock at the door still gave him a start. Climbing off the bed, Zain went to the door. Seeing the bored-looking courier through the peephole, he opened the door.

  He had seem how bright outside it was around the hotel room’s thick curtains, so it didn’t surprise him that Liam wasn’t the one ushering Caleb in. He didn’t recognize the witch holding Caleb’s leash, but Zain took the end of the lead with a polite nod.

  Caleb sat there, still utterly and unsurprisingly naked. If he was bothered by that fact, he didn’t show it. He looked… well, he looked thoroughly fucked. That was the only way he could describe his appearance, from his tousled hair and fur to his somewhat dazed expression to the smell of sex that clung to him like an abundance of perfume.

  Had Liam… marked his territory before sending Caleb to him?

  Caleb’s scent had Zain’s cock hardening, but the sexy, well-fucked look made him want to pull Caleb in his arms and let the sleepy puppy relax. “Come here, Pup.” Zain led a relaxed Caleb into the room and closed the door. Not sure what they should do, he glanced around the room as he leaned down and unhooked the leash. “Up on the bed, Pup.”

  Caleb gave Zain a soft bark but nodded, so Zain wasn’t quite sure where his head was at. Pup or human? Even as Caleb crawled over to the bed and climbed up, Zain still wasn’t sure.

  Crawling back on the bed beside Caleb, Zain gathered him in his arms and pulled him up so he was curled up next to Zain on the pillows. “How are you doing?”

  Caleb blinked at him a few times, his tail wagging enthusiastically and ears moving despite the languor that he’d fallen into. Finally, he took a breath, cleared his throat, and replied, “Feeling a little rude. You want to bathe me?” He flashed Zain a mischievous grin, tail wagging harder. “I sorta like this kind of fighting.”

  And Zain definitely liked seeing his pup acting both human-like and pup-like at the same time. Chuckling under his breath, he smiled at Caleb. “Did you drive Liam nuts, or was it all on his own?” He leaned down and kissed his pup’s head. “And yes, a bath for you seems like a good idea.”

  Caleb tilted his head in that dog’s way, but his eyes were alight — definitely human, much to Zain’s relief. He hadn’t slipped back, and he seemed to be in a good mood.

  Maybe Liam’s asshole sire hadn’t been around.

  “Well…” Caleb said, tongue darting out to touch his lips. “It sorta started out as one and ended up as the other, then Master insisted we were running too late for me to bathe.” He rolled his eyes, showing just how true Caleb thought that statement was.

  Not bothering to hide his amusement, Zain nodded. “He likes a tight schedule. You might want to mention when you go back what a thorough bath I had to give you, though. Just to make sure he kno
ws I’m taking care of you.” Running his hands over Caleb, Zain sat up, swinging his legs off the side of the bed. “So bath and then how about we find a movie or something on TV? Just curl up and have a quiet night?”

  Caleb gave another nod, half-hearted and still not quite with it. “‘kay.”

  Letting him rest another minute, because it didn’t look like Caleb was ready to get off the bed just yet, Zain stood and headed into the bathroom. He’d give Liam credit for one thing: being able to pick a hotel. The large bathroom and tub would make giving Caleb a bath much easier.

  As he turned on the water and adjusted the settings, Zain searched for soaps and a washcloth. Who knew how long it had been since Caleb had been thoroughly cleaned? As the water started to rise, he went back into the bedroom. “Let’s get you clean before you fall asleep.”

  Caleb had already started to do just that, and he gave a huge yawn before getting up on all fours. He stretched, sleek and graceful as a beautiful dog doing the same, and Zain admired the lines of his body for the moment. It was intoxicating, and he wanted so badly to get his pup to reconcile both his human and pup sides so they could have a balance just like right now.

  He just had to keep it going.

  Getting down was a little more difficult for his pup, and he plopped down onto the floor with considerably less grace before padding over to Zain and bumping his head against his leg.

  Letting his hand rest on Caleb’s head, Zain looked down at his mitts and knee pads. “Let’s get those off you so we can get you in the water.” Leading Caleb into the bathroom, Zain knelt down and started getting Caleb ready. As Caleb finally climbed into the tub, relaxing back on his haunches and watching Zain with a content smile on his face as he surreptitiously stretched out his fingers, Zain leaned in and kissed him gently. “I’m glad you’re here.”

  Caleb kissed back, though it was nowhere near as gentle, as though trying to urge him to challenge him back. “I wish you were home,” he countered.

  Zain wasn’t ready to make any promises on that, but he gave Caleb a half-shrug. “It would definitely be easier.”