by Mandy Rosko
“Though I adore your attentions,” Silus said, trying to drawl out his words yet failing as his lust won out, “I am hardly getting younger up here.”
He certainly wasn’t getting older, either.
The next kiss Cedric placed was on Silus’s asshole. Goose bumps pebbled in a moving wave all across Silus’s flesh, and Cedric heard the pop in the leather as he gripped it too tightly, puncturing the arm of the couch with his fingers as he moaned, his body making jerky spasms.
“OhGodsrighttheredonotstopughh!”
Whatever that was supposed to be, Silus spoke so quickly that Cedric couldn’t really make any sense of his words, other than he was doing a good job and should keep right on going with it.
The sounds Silus made and the heavy musk scent of his need all served to bring Cedric closer and closer to his own orgasm, even though his cock wasn’t even touching anything anymore.
Despite that, his balls were heavy and aching, his cock was throbbing to the point that it pained it, and he wanted nothing better than to be inside Silus right now, fucking him hard and fast until everything else in the world was gone.
Cedric used his tongue, lubing Silus’s hole as best as he could, feeling the ridges of that ring of muscle, and tasting his salty skin and sweat before finally pulling away. He had to be quick about this next part. If he was having a hard time keeping control over himself, then Silus must damn near be going insane with sheer wanting. Cedric did not want him coming until he was balls-deep inside him, claiming him and owning him.
He spat in his hand and spread the saliva over his cock. Rarely did they lose control to the point where they had to resort to this, but there was no way they were stopping to go to their room and get the lube bottle in the nightstand.
When he put the head of his cock to Silus’s waiting hole, Silus must have decided that enough was enough, and Cedric couldn’t overpower him when the vampire pushed his hips back, impaling himself in one quick movement before Cedric even had the chance to realize what his lover was up to.
Of course, being not entirely used to this end of the fucking, Silus’s body tensed up.
Cedric could hardly breathe. His hands trembled on Silus’s hips. “You all right?
Please be okay, please be okay. For the love of God, don’t be hurt.
He wished he were having those thoughts out of chivalry and concern for his mate, but realistically, he was so far gone that if Silus had put himself in pain and didn’t wish to continue, Cedric didn’t know if he would be able to stop himself from going on anyway.
Silus looked over his shoulder. It was the sexiest sight Cedric had ever seen in his life. “I will be once you get on with it.”
Right. He needed no more hint than that. Cedric’s brain went straight to his cock, and his hips went on autopilot.
Mine. Mine. Mine, he pumping hips then lost all inwardly chanted to the tune of his thought as his body took complete command.
They moved out of rhythm with each other for the most part, their sole focus on reaching the end, their bodies slamming and punching together in a desperate rush to the finish.
It didn’t take long, considering all the teasing Cedric had been doing beforehand. Silus grabbed his cock, pumping it as Cedric fucked him, and when he came, his mouth latched onto the only thing available to it, the arm of the leather sofa. He bit down, muffling his cries of pleasure and creating more puncture wounds in their couch as his body tightened as he came.
The feeling of Silus’s anal muscles clenching around Cedric’s dick brought him to the edge, and he thrust harder and faster, needing to get there, needing to come inside his lover.
He opened his mouth, releasing a deep, satisfied sound that was neither a groan nor a scream. He collapsed on Silus’s back, his hips still jerking and twitching as spasms of pleasure still rocked through him.
That. Was. Great. He’d needed that.
Cedric could barely manage to get up, even when Silus collapsed facedown on what remained of the couch.
He muttered something, and Cedric pressed a kiss to Silus’s back, enjoying their closeness and body heat. “What was that?” he asked.
Silus lifted his head. His hair was all over the place, and it made Cedric smile.
“I said we need to purchase a new sofa. We ruined this one.”
Chapter Four
Jackson grabbed a broken twig off the bed of dead grass, moss, and leaves, all left over from the previous fall, brought it to his nose, and sniffed.
Definitely the scent of that vampire woman. How in the hell had they missed it?
“Damon!” he called then lifted his hand so that the other man might see what he held in his fingers.
Damon did see, and he rushed over, taking hold of Jackson’s hand and inhaling the scent on the offered twig. “Christ,” he said.
“Not exactly fresh, either,” said Jackson, dropping it. “They’ve known we were here for a good while at least.”
Damon’s face twisted, and he looked as though he wanted to say some pretty nasty words, but he held his tongue in check. Whether it was out of respect for Jackson’s former position as the leading alpha, or that he didn’t want to give off to him how much the situation bothered him, Jackson couldn’t say.
“What should we do?” Jackson asked. He wasn’t the leading male in their pack anymore. He needed to be the one to take orders in situations like these, not give them. Though, if he were the one in charge, he would want to find out exactly how that vampire lady had gotten onto the property without any of the wolves sniffing her out.
“Search out the root of the scent,” Damon said. “We’ll sniff out where the scent leads and maybe find out where they’ve been coming from, because as far as we’ve always known, there’s only one road leading to the lake.”
Jackson nodded, pleased with the verdict. “She can handle some sunlight, like Lord Veturious, but in all likelihood, she would have come in during the twilight hours. If she came through the trees, the canopy would’ve offered her even more protection. Not everyone would be up and running around after dark. It could be easier for her to slink around then, instead of waiting for a cloudy day.”
Now Damon was the one to nod. “Good thinking. We’ll have to set up a midnight sentry to keep any other curious eyes from finding us. Let any stray hikers know that this is private property.”
That was what Jackson liked about his replacement. Damon was the sort of alpha who would still take into account Jackson’s opinions and suggestions without turning it into some kind of rivalry or pissing contest, as had been known to happen with former leaders and their replacements.
It sure made working together easy. “I’ll go get Mitch and a couple of the other younger guys together. They can do the midnight duty for breaking Cedric’s window.”
“Get Joey in with them, too.”
Jackson stopped just as he’d turned to go. “Joey wasn’t the one throwing around a football too close to the house,” he said, looking back at the other male.
Damon shrugged. “Why does that matter? He can still volunteer.”
“He’s better suited to be in the main house with the rest of the omegas,” Jackson said.
Damon glowered at him, for the first time showing Jackson just why Damon was able to keep their enormous pack of nearly sixty werewolves in line.
For the most part.
“Watch your tone when speaking to me,” he snarled.
Jackson put his head down, clasping his hands in front of him, and all but stood at attention. He was still getting used to this reaction, to submitting to another dominant force after so long of being the dominant force, but regardless of how the alpha inside him snarled back, Jackson was in enough control of himself to know how to keep the peace. “Apologies, sir.”
He couldn’t stop himself from adding on, “But he’s an omega, sir. The dangers he faced at the old Veturious house are gone. There’s no need for him to take on alpha duties anymore.”
Joey was an omega
wolf, to be sure, but it was difficult to tell by merely looking at him. He was big, just slightly smaller than the other alphas who worked as guards in the pack, but still big enough that when Jackson and the other alphas lied to their former master, claiming Joey was an alpha himself, the old vampire bastard had believed them and put Joey to work.
Omega werewolves were not treated kindly in the former Veturious house. Though Silus Veturious had been a kind master, never one to take advantage of his servants, Wiktor Veturious and his wife, Lady Ariadne, were hardly of the same mindset.
The omegas were made to act as servants, housekeepers, and cooks. Not unusual tasks, really, nor cruel, but it wasn’t until their vampire masters held a ball or celebration of some kind, or hell, even a business social—and those had been the worst—that the omegas suffered the most.
It had always been the young and pretty ones who had been chosen. Wiktor would rent them out for a few hours to his guests, offering them privacy in one of his many spare bedrooms. Usually, it had been the humans who did such things. Rich, evil, and in the same black market as Wiktor. Human trafficking.
Joey Sloane had been barely fifteen by the time he started getting noticed by these specific guests.
He was an omega, and everyone in the pack knew it, and they all knew what his fate would be if they allowed him to stay with the omegas.
But he did have strong alpha blood in him. Joey’s grandfather had been the pack leader whom Jackson replaced, and Kurt Sloan had been one huge son of a bitch. Maybe that was the reason why his grandson was so large, even for an omega.
Because of his size, and Jackson’s respect for his former leader, he’d convinced the other members of his pack to not lie, exactly. They never would have been able to get away with that sort of disobedience.
Really, it had been easy. No one had to utter a single word. When Jackson invited Joey to be trained with the other alphas and to run with them and sleep in their quarters, making sure Wiktor was around to witness the new member of their team, well, the old vampire had assumed Joey was an alpha himself.
The alpha wolves were never sold as sex slaves. They were too valuable as guard dogs.
So Joey had remained safe, all without any dishonesty toward their master, even years later when he started going out on real missions with the pack. Joey had quickly learned how to stand his ground and when to fight the other alphas who tried to dominate him.
Sometimes Jackson forgot that Joey was actually an omega.
Until they came here, and there was no more need for the charade. The omegas were treated with respect here, which meant that Joey could finally be in his proper place within the pack.
“I’ve spoken with Joey,” Damon said. “He doesn’t like doing the housework. It makes him restless, and he wants to come back on duty.”
“He was never officially on duty. We only kept him around to keep him out of those sex parties,” Jackson said.
He’d succeeded in that mission at least. Not at all like the way he’d failed to protect Connor, his dead mate.
“Why are you fighting me on this? Just do as I say, and I say that Joey can work the grounds.”
That was an order if Jackson ever heard one, the kind not meant to be argued with.
“Yes, sir,” Jackson said through his teeth, fighting the urge and the instinct to fight back and get his way.
He was an alpha, forever and always, but he was no longer in command. He had to let it go and do as he was told, so Jackson went off to collect his volunteers and let Joey know that he didn’t have to rake leaves today.
* * * * Damon watched his former leader, now second in command, march off. It was like watching a child pout over not getting his way.
He wouldn’t have caught the scent of their spy had the wind not shifted, and he wanted to strangle the guy. “Get out here where I can see you.”
There was a hesitation of about three seconds before Joey appeared from where he’d been listening in on them behind a relatively heavy pine.
Damon was not impressed. He didn’t like it when people eavesdropped, and he made that perfectly clear in his tone. “What in the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Joey’s face turned a bright red. He was the size of an alpha, all right, but it was times like now that Damon was forced to remember that he was just a gentle omega.
Maybe Jackson had been right.
“I’m sorry. I wasn’t trying to spy on you,” Joey said quickly.
Damon folded his arms. “What were you doing over there?”
It was almost fun watching Joey squirm. It very nearly made Damon forget to be angry with him. That was just the way omegas were. It was hard to stay angry at them for long.
“I was trying to find the scent of that vampire woman who’s been spying on us.” He glared at something in the dead leaves down by his foot, rather than look up and keep on blushing, while he explained himself to his alpha. The blushing was likely half the reason he was so embarrassed.
“We already found it, so don’t worry about that,” Damon said. “But I don’t recall giving you permission to do that. Why did you leave the house?”
Joey stiffened, and now he did look up at Damon. “Please put me on guard duty. I’m sorry I came out here. I just couldn’t handle it in the house anymore, and I figured since you were thinking of letting me back anyway—”
“Enough,” Damon said.
Loyal kid that he was, Joey shut his yap.
So he had overheard Damon’s command to Jackson. Damon wondered how much else the poor kid had overheard.
“You can still come out with the others,” Damon said, cutting off what would have been a happy reply. “But stay within the group and don’t take off like that without permission ever again, or I’ll skin you alive. Got it?”
Joey nodded, his back soldier-straight. “Got it, sir.”
“Good. You go on and find the others now. I’m going to keep looking around here.”
“Right.” Joey turned to go, but then he stopped himself. “Hey, Damon?”
He didn’t look up from another twig he’d bent down to sniff at. “Yeah?”
“Did you guys really...I mean, what Jackson said...”
They must have been going soft on him if a few months out of training had him acting like such a, well, like an omega when his feelings got hurt.
“You were, and still are, a valuable part of our pack. Jackson’s just trying to watch out for you.”
Joey’s response didn’t sound too reassuring. “Oh.”
Damon wasn’t very good at emotional stuff or saying the things that would make someone feel better when they were down, or Christ, even recognizing when someone was suffering from an emotional hurt.
Luckily Joey didn’t stick around to ask more awkward questions or make puppy faces at him. He took off back to the main house to get into the group that would be guarding the house tonight, and every night, until Damon was satisfied that their masters were safe.
Still, he looked in the direction Joey had taken off in, recalling how strongly Jackson objected to letting him run with the alphas again.
He wasn’t good at the emotional stuff, but if there was one thing he was good at, it was zeroing in on when his wolves were avoiding other wolves, and why.
Those two really needed to just screw and get it over with.
Damon was about to leave the area before another scent hooked him by the nose, this one weaker than that of the lady vampire.
Barely.
He bent down, grabbing another handful of dirt and lifting it to his nose. Yup, it was there, just beneath her scent, and Damon growled low in his chest.
Other wolves had been slinking around the property as well.
Chapter Five
Though Silus did not consider himself a jealous vampire, nor one to hold long-standing grudges, there were times when he had to admit he disliked the way his lover seemed to rely on Ben Volio, former bodyguard and current friend, for nearly everything.
/> To be fair, his jealousy was hardly unfounded. Ben had had feelings for Cedric. He’d been in love with the sun sprite he’d been charged with protecting and had damn near been open about it. More than once, Silus had scented the lust coming from the human in waves, and though such behavior was no longer an issue since he and Seth had claimed each other, Silus still found himself irritated whenever Cedric saw fit to involve Ben in the goings-on of their home.
What troubled Silus further was his own awareness of just how much they could use the man’s help.
He was a bodyguard, after all, with years of experience with Cedric’s family, and currently under training to become, as Cedric had cheekily put it, a “private dick.”
Silus hated to admit it, but they required the man’s assistance.
“I’d heard of Cecil’s story, but by the time I started working, the local sprite clans weren’t too paranoid about their protection against vampires anymore, so it wasn’t exactly something that was talked about every day, or even every month,” Ben said.
At the moment, it appeared that whatever assistance Ben could offer would be little to nothing.
“Well, he’s obviously not dead,” Cedric said. “And neither is she. You and I were aware that what the guards and butlers heard was always not what was being passed around. How did you hear it?”
Ben scratched the back of his dark head of hair then let his arm rest over the back of his lover’s chair. Silus noted the bite marks on Ben’s neck, fresh, still healing, and still smelling ever so faintly of blood.
Seth certainly looked as though he was being kept well fed, though how Ben was keeping him in constant supply of blood, Silus hardly knew. He surely could not be feeding Seth entirely from his own vein. Something of that nature was not healthy for the feeder. Perhaps Ben was getting the blood from local hunters, or even a butcher shop.
“It was going around that the story of Cecil being kidnapped was bullshit. I once even overheard Dad saying that a bunch of the sprites from the neighboring clan had even kidnapped the vampire girl and raped her.”
