by Shea Balik
“Something is coming,” Brandr said. His fingers curled into a fist and he pressed it to his abdomen. “I can feel it.”
“He’s right,” Kyleigh said. She had followed the others into the room but Brandr hadn’t seen her or he might not have said anything.
Ulf instantly started to pull her into his arms, but she held out a hand to stop him. “No. I’m fine, really. It’s just,” she glanced over at Brandr. “It’s like you said. I can’t exactly explain it, but I can feel it. The Fae are coming and they will do whatever it takes to stop us from completing the ritual on Samhain.”
The tension in the room grew and Brandr wanted to go find the man he loved above all others just to make sure he was safe. Based on the way his friends were clenching their hands, it was obvious they wanted to do the same.
“I did it, Oluf.” Leith raced into the kitchen with his proud smile huge on his face. Gillie, Bryce, Tess, Tyree, Maisie, and Joffrey were hot on his heels.
Like a punch in the gut, Brandr realized, as much as he wanted to keep Logan safe, it was these kids, as well as all the others in their care, that they had to protect. They were the ones who were most vulnerable. If he had to guess, he wore a similar expression on his face as his friends had on their faces at the moment.
“That’s great, Leith,” Oluf managed to say, although he sounded as if the words were a little more forced than they had been when he sent Leith on his first task. “Now, I need you to get at least five adults to stack wood near the fire pit.”
The fire pit they’d built wasn’t exactly huge, as they’d constructed it long before they had so many druids living with them. But Brandr was confident they could make it work, even if they had to stagger the seating, or, and this would be his preference, if they paired up and sat together.
Nothing would please him more than to have Logan on his lap for the evening. Maybe then the knots that were twisting in his gut would finally ease.
After Leith and his group of friends raced back out of the kitchen, Eirik asked of Kyleigh and Brandr, “Do either of you know when this attack might happen?”
Both of them shook their heads. Then, as if they were linked in some way, they opened their mouths and said at the same time, “But it will be soon.”
Brandr hoped he was wrong. He just didn’t believe he was. The need to go find Logan, drag him upstairs and stake his claim all over again, was riding him hard. It was as if he needed to ensure there was no chance of Logan dying.
Even the hairs on his arms were standing on end. A shiver shook Kyleigh, indicating she felt the same ominous future as he did. The only difference was, Brandr knew he and Logan would survive. He couldn’t imagine how horrifying it had to be for her to not have that kind of assurance.
CHAPTER 18
“Look, Bran.” Leith proudly held out the stick with the perfectly toasted marshmallow on the end. “I did it.”
Logan couldn’t help but smile at the way Brandr praised him and then taught him how to carefully slide the marshmallow onto the chocolate and graham cracker to make the delicious sandwich. It had been like this all night between the two of them and Logan’s heart melted every damn time he saw it.
He was still trying to figure out how a man who looked like some ancient warrior could be so patient with children. Not that Logan was all that surprised. Brandr may be great at barking out orders, especially when he was in his domain of being the group’s doctor, but that didn’t take away from the fact that since Logan had met him, he had also shown his softer, kinder side.
“Now, you need to wait until the marshmallow cools down,” Brandr told Leith. “You don’t want to burn your mouth.”
Leith’s eyes grew wide as he stared at the treat. Then he frowned, before his lips twisted into what Logan was learning was his puzzled face. Meaning, he was trying to figure something out. The question was, what?
Then his eyes lit up as he went to the plate each of them had been given for their gooey desserts. Picking it up, he handed it to Brandr, who took it. Then Leith placed the s’more onto the plate. “Can you hold this?”
Without waiting for an answer, Leith was running to the bag of marshmallows and pulling out another. Carefully, he stuck it onto the end of his stick, just as Brandr had shown him to do. With a huge smile on his face, he went back to the fire to try again.
But then again, that was Leith. Logan had been amazed with how diligent the boy was when he needed to learn something. He would practice for hours if necessary. At the age of four, he found that impressive, especially when none of the other kids, most of whom were older, could focus for even half the time Leith did.
“You really are good with him,” Logan whispered to Brandr when the man leaned back, plate firmly on his lap.
Warm tingles went through Logan when Brandr wrapped his arm around Logan again. It was like that whenever Brandr was near. It was never enough, for either of them, to just be in the same room. Like magnets, they seemed to always gravitate toward each other until they were touching.
“In fairness, Leith soaks up knowledge like a sponge,” Brandr murmured close to his ear, not wanting anyone to hear him bragging about Leith when so many other children were present.
Frowning, Logan glanced around their group and for the first time really started to wonder what was going to happen to them. Of the thirty-four people that Brandr had saved in the bunker there had only been fifteen adults. Five had left after healing from whatever injury they’d suffered.
Six of the remaining ten adults were over the age of sixty, Ruth being one of them and not likely to leave anytime soon. Between not having any family still alive and little money after being on the run for so long, it wasn’t like there were many options for them.
The other four, of whom Logan was one, leaving three, didn’t seem to want to leave. Logan wasn’t sure they wouldn’t at some point, especially if they were able to get the Veil sealed, but again, with no family and no jobs, it wasn’t like they had a place to go.
But it was the nineteen children all under the age of eighteen that concerned Logan the most. These kids already had been through so much. He didn’t think they should be forced to go into the foster system on top of that.
“What’s going to happen to everyone?” Logan softly asked Brandr.
Brandr frowned, but not like he was upset, more as if he was confused. “We’ll do our best to keep them safe…” Brandr said.
Logan sat up just a bit, so that he could look into those silver eyes. “No. I mean, after.” That was a big assumption. “If we seal the Veil, what happens then?”
A line formed along Brandr’s forehead, right between his eyes as he drew his eyebrows together. “They’ll stay here. It will take us time to get them the right paperwork so they can go to school, but once we don’t have the Fae to worry about, Arne and Dermot should be able to get that done fairly quickly.”
Shocked at what he was hearing, Logan didn’t know what to think. He didn’t know what to do, yet maybe it was just an impulse that took over. Either way, his lips pressed against Brandr’s, hard, as he kissed the man with all the feelings he had for him coming through.
“Gross,” Leith said.
Logan was fairly sure the laughter in Brandr’s eyes matched his own, even though neither one let out a sound of amusement. Instead, they turned to where the little boy stood, with Bryce and Tess right next to him.
Each was holding a stick with a marshmallow on it. Yet, none of their sweet treats looked at all alike. Tess’s either hadn’t been put over the fire at all, or she had managed to way undercook the thing. Bryce’s was charred black, appearing more like coal then something anyone could eat.
“Bran, I try to show them, but they not get it.” Leith appeared crushed to have failed in his duty to teach. “Can you come help?”
Logan smiled as he watched Brandr take all the kids back to the bag of marshmallows. As he took three out, Logan could hear him explain the importance of placement over the fire.
; He really was good with kids. It had never occurred to Logan that he would have the chance to raise children, but with Brandr by his side, even the challenge of having so many seemed like a dream come true.
“You know, you really are good with those kids,” Logan said later that night as they climbed into bed.
Brandr’s cheeks took on a pink hue as he pulled Logan in for a kiss. “Thank you,” Brandr whispered against his lips. “But don’t think I didn’t notice you helping Tyree, Maisie, and Joffrey with their own s’mores.”
The smile he already wore turned up a notch as he thought of all the antics from that night. Who would have ever imagined a campfire could be so much fun. Well, except for one small detail he hadn’t brought up yet.
“I also happened to notice your anxiety. Want to tell me about it?” It had been subtle, but Logan was so attuned to Brandr, to him it had been like a flashing neon sign. He could probably guess at the reasons behind it, but Logan was hoping Brandr would tell him on his own.
“I don’t know how to explain it, but I feel as if the Fae are going to attack us sooner rather than later.” Brandr’s words weren’t exactly news. Still, Logan hadn’t thought any of the Vikings had noticed the forbidding that seemed to cover the land like a heavy weight.
“Yeah, we know.” Logan and his druid friends had felt it a couple of days ago. With each day, that feeling only grew. It was why all of them insisted everyone stay close to home. He could see that Brandr was upset with him for not saying anything sooner, but he placed a finger over those lips he loved so much. “Look, we could have told you, but we didn’t see any point.”
That wasn’t entirely true. “Actually, it was more that we knew there was nothing that could be done about it, so why keep everyone on pins and needles waiting for an attack when we didn’t know what would happen, or when it would occur.”
The last thing any of them needed was more stress, especially the kids, who had already been through so damn much. Still, not willing to let it damper the night they’d had, Logan leaned over and kissed Brandr hard. His hands traveled to the solid planes of the man’s chest.
There was nothing better than to feel this strong warrior in all his glory. Every ridge and dip of his muscles sent tingles of pleasure through Logan as he ran his fingers over them.
“I need you inside of me,” Brandr said.
Every cell in Logan’s body froze as those words repeated inside his head on some weird loop. Each time it started over, his cock hardened even further, and his body felt as if it were about to go up in flames. He was sure he was about to fucking come and he hadn’t even gotten to more than a kiss.
“Fuck,” he finally said as he blew out a long breath. “Warn me before you say something like that.”
But when he looked into those silver eyes, Logan only saw the need shining in them. God, this man was constantly showing Logan why fate had put them together. Logan may not mind bottoming, but he also liked to top. That was something he never thought he’d get from someone as dominant as Brandr.
Yet, there he was, handing Logan that gift. No. Not just handing it to him, but actually begging for it, if the pleading in his gaze was anything to go by.
Cupping Brandr’s face with his hands, Logan pressed another hard kiss to those firm lips. “I would love that more than anything,” he said when they came up for air.
He reached under the pillow, where they had started keeping lube since reaching over to the bedside table sometimes was more trouble than it was worth. That had been especially true when Brandr ended up yanking the whole drawer out, spilling the contents to the floor.
It was bad that just pouring lube onto his fingers caused precum to dribble from the tip of Logan’s cock. There was no way he was going to last much longer. If at all. Yet, he was determined to make this good for Brandr.
“Roll over onto your hands and knees,” he told Brandr. It wasn’t very romantic, but he was fairly certain this was Brandr’s first time bottoming. Or, if he had done it before, it wasn’t often.
Once Brandr was in position, Logan had to grab onto his balls and yank them down. The bite of pain helped to stave off the orgasm threatening to barrel through him. But it wasn’t going to last long. Not when that perfect ass was raised up in the air just begging for Logan to fuck it.
Pressing a kiss at the base of Brandr’s spine, Logan did his best to worship every inch of his glorious taut ass as his fingers traced a path along Brandr’s crease. When he found the man’s puckered entrance, he gently massaged the muscles guarding his passage, until they relaxed enough for him to slide his finger inside.
Logan’s groan mixed with Brandr’s as tight heat wrapped around his digit perfectly, causing his eyes to roll to the back of his head. Wallowing in the sheer perfection of what was to come, Logan knew he was going too fast when he pushed in a second finger.
With Brandr’s hiss at the burn of being stretched, Logan did his best to slow down. He just wasn’t sure how to go about it. Between the fear that had been boiling inside of him for days with the threat of the Fae looming over them, and being offered Brandr’s ass, it was all too much for Logan to have any hope of holding out before he came.
Refusing to allow that moment to happen before being encased inside the man he loved, Logan tried hard to calm his excitement, while scissoring his fingers to open up the man’s entrance. But when Brandr actually groaned in pleasure and pushed back onto Logan’s hand, he thought for sure there was no way to stop the freight train barreling down on him as it took him into sated bliss.
His free hand wrapped around the base of his cock, just barely holding back from unloading all over Brandr’s back and ass. The image of doing that had him whimpering in need.
Next time, he promised himself. Or maybe the time after that. But he refused to deny himself the singular pleasure of being buried inside the man who was destined to be his.
With that thought in mind, Logan worked a third finger inside Brandr as he continued to kiss and lick the man’s ass like the feast it was. “Damn, you taste so good,” he said.
Brandr pushed back toward him again, as if silently pleading for more. Although, the groans and moans that were filling the air around them weren’t exactly quiet.
Logan nearly cried in relief when he felt the muscles around his fingers relax. Finally. It was as if he’d been waiting for this moment his whole life and didn’t even know it.
Tugging his fingers free, Logan scooted in closer and placed the head of his dick at Brandr’s entrance. The sight nearly undid all his hard work to stave off his impending orgasm.
“Hurry,” Brandr cried out as he pushed back as if trying to impale himself on Logan.
Refusing to let the man set the pace, Logan held onto one hip with his free hand, holding Brandr still. Then he thrust forward.
“Oh fuck,” he breathed out as the most exquisite, tight heat wrapped around his cock. Now he knew exactly what Brandr meant whenever he slid into Logan’s body and murmured he was finally home. For that was exactly how it felt.
Brandr let out a grunt when Logan pulled back and thrust forward again, this time pushing in a little further. With each stroke, he watched his prick get swallowed up more and more by Brandr’s amazing body.
When his groin was finally flush with Brandr’s ass, Logan had to remain perfectly still in fear of losing his damn mind and rutting like an animal. That wasn’t how he wanted to treat Brandr, at least not this time. Wild and out of control could be another time. Hopefully.
Several long moments went by before Logan felt reasonably sure he could control himself. Then he pulled nearly all the way out and once more thrust into the body that was made for him.
Shivers went down his spine as he set up a rhythm that would hopefully satisfy Brandr as much as it did Logan. Draping himself over his lover’s back, he reached down and fisted that long, thick cock and stroked it in time with his movements.
Electricity was shooting up and down his spine, warning Logan he wasn’
t going to last much longer. Desperate to ensure that Brandr came first, he tightened his grip on the man’s prick, just like he liked it.
Four strokes later, Brandr cried out. The muscles that had been massaging Logan’s cock perfectly squeezed him even harder. Then liquid splashed over his hand.
He barely managed to thrust into Brandr once more before his own dick throbbed as his release poured out of him and filled up Brandr’s channel. Exhausted, he collapsed on top of Brandr’s back, who collapsed onto the mattress.
They were both breathing hard for a long time before the bliss started to fade enough that Logan could move. Rolling off Brandr, he lay on the bed grinning like an idiot. He just needed a minute then he would clean Brandr off, just as his lover did for him whenever he topped.
“That was amazing.” Brandr rolled to face him. “Thank you for giving me that.”
Logan laughed. “Seriously, I should be the one thanking you. I never thought you would…”
Energy surged all around Logan, except it wasn’t just him. He could feel it… everywhere. He sat up suddenly as dread filled him.
“The Fae are here.”
CHAPTER 19
The moment he felt Logan sit up straight, Brandr had known. Logan hadn’t even needed to say a word, although he had to admit hearing, “The Fae are here,” had been chilling as fuck.
Leaping from the bed, Brandr shoved his legs into a pair of pants and grabbed his leather harness that held all his weapons from the hook on the wall. By the time he’d opened the door, not only was Logan also dressed, but all the other doors of his friends’ rooms opened, too.
Kyleigh called out, “I’ll get the kids,’ leaving them free to fight. Not that they wouldn’t be worried about the little ones, but at least they knew someone would gather them together and try to keep them safe.
Safe.
The word had new meaning as he raced down the steps to find the Fae had come into their home and were battling the most vulnerable of the druids. The mortal ones. There was no doubt they had gone after them not only because they could be killed, but because they lived on the other side of the house, away from those who would protect them.
