by Mandy Rosko
They were mates, after all. Intimacy was about more than sharing the pleasures the body had to offer.
He was still curious about what Varinia planned to do for such a future.
“May I ask—?”
“I am to divorce him,” Varinia said sharply, her eyes still firmly ahead, looking through the glass, even though Cedric and Cecil had moved to the other side of the house by now.
Silus blinked, hardly daring to believe he had heard what he did. “I beg your pardon? But...is he not your mate?”
Varinia sighed. “He is, my lord, and I would never willingly leave his side, but he has forced my hand, and I have vowed to him that, should he still be alive by the age of seventy-five, I am to divorce him and settle down with another vampire of good breeding who will care for me.”
She smiled up at Silus, so innocently and sweet, and he had a horrifying thought.
Had the sole purpose of Cecil and Varinia’s quest, the reason why they had tracked down Cedric and Silus, been to reintroduce Silus to Varinia as preparation for the day when their lovers eventually wasted away?
He could not help the angry frown that pulled upon his face.
Varinia saw this and laughed.“Fear not, my lord, your virtue is safe with me. Our intentions have been plain since the moment my husband and I presented ourselves.”
Silus certainly hoped so, because at the moment, he could clearly remember that Cedric and Cecil were perfectly alone at this very moment, discussing the devil only knew what.
“Forgive my assumptions, Lady Varinia. I did not mean to offend.”
She nodded. “Not at all, my lord. Not at all. You were simply being curious. Regardless”—her lovely visage became saddened once more—”Cecil is forty-eight years of age, and I am more than twice that. If I am to be honorable and keep my word, I have less than thirty years left to enjoy him, and enough lifetimes after that, that I fear I may very well go mad once he is gone.”
Silus nodded in understanding. It was that way with vampires, sometimes. The loss of a mate was a devastating occurrence. Few made it out of their grieving periods as whole as they’d formerly been.
Or alive.
“Have you not considered transforming him into one of our kind?” Silus asked, hating himself, yet at the same time, hopeful for whatever Varinia’s answer might be.“The old legends say that a sun sprite cannot become a vampire, but they also say that a vampire cannot drink sun sprite blood without immediate death. We both know the latter is not true, so why not attempt the former?”
“Yes, the legends,” Varinia replied, looking thoughtful and far away. She turned her eyes back to him. They were sharp and cold. “There is always some truth to legends. Even the smallest grain can be helpful in a situation such as ours, and though thirty years might hardly be much, I would not be willing to risk those few years for a thousand of them.”
Silus nodded. “I understand.”
He did. Perfectly.
He turned, deciding to brave the bright-blue day in order to bring his lover back into the house, needing to at least see him after such a macabre conversation.
His hand touched on brass door handle when Varinia called to him. “My lord?”
He turned. “Yes?”
Her eyes were still cold, though her face was expressionless, and her voice deadly. “Please make a guinea pig out of your lover before you make one of mine.”
Silus had the decency to blush. He nodded, muttered his thanks for the conversation, and dipped out of the room, more intent than ever to find and be with Cedric.
Chapter Eight
Jackson ’s couldn’t keep himself from looking over at Joey from the corner of his eye. The kid’s arm was well healed by now, his accident having happened three days ago, and his healing abilities speeding up the process, but still, he was worried.
Not that the little shit seemed to care about his concern. Not in the least.
“Will you stop staring at me?” Joey demanded. More and more lately, Jackson was seeing what that pretty face looked like when irritation took over. “We’re supposed to be on guard duty. Pay attention to what you’re doing, and leave me alone.”
Now Jackson was the one to get irritated. “Imagine that, an omega telling an alpha how to do his job.”
Joey wasn’t looking at him. He threw his head back at the comment, his face turned to the sky as though praying for patience. Jackson watched the way his neck clenched up, the Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed his rage down.
“All I’m saying is that we would work a little better together if you wouldn’t get so distracted.”
The kid knew he was a distraction to Jackson. Not a good thing.
He nodded, pretending like he didn’t understand what Joey was talking about, and went back to sitting around and doing a whole lot of nothing.
The discovery of the wolf scent had been two weeks ago now, and that scent had long since aged and faded with nothing new to replace it. Not even a whiff of anything.
It wouldn’t be so bad if doing this particular duty, guarding the land, wasn’t so damn boring.
There wasn’t danger every day of the year, after all. Still, Damon kept them out on rotation, just in case, and Jackson respected the man for it. He would have ordered the same, all things considered. No one was yet entirely relaxed after the great escape from the Veturious mansion, and considering some of the emotional and physical scars that some walked out with, he doubted some of them would ever fully be able to let go of the past.
Jackson sure as shit didn’t want to forget it, but he definitely wanted to forget about the scent that Joey was emitting.
That was the problem with being a werewolf bodyguard. The most you could do on bored-to-tears days like this was keep your nose open in case an intruder, or a bear, was traveling upwind from you. It meant he had no choice but to smell Joey’s scent.
He inhaled deeply, closing his eyes and telling himself he was enjoying the scent of the woods and not the young man sitting across the clearing from him.
Joey had showered that morning, and Jackson could smell the Irish soap he’d used as well as his natural scent, like earth, like the trees around them.
Shit. Yeah, he was definitely not enjoying the scents of the forest. He shifted his legs, putting his ankle up on his knee to hide the reaction of his body.
Goddamnit. Don’t smell it. Don’t smell it. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
Luckily, Joey was sitting upwind from Jackson, so he remained oblivious to Jackson’s body as he inhaled and exhaled at hypnotic intervals, tasting the air and trying to locate any possible intruders.
It had been peaceful as fuck these last two weeks, and by now even the younger weres and omegas had begun to accept the nearly constant presence of the new female vampire and her sun sprite husband.
It was the only reason why Jackson hadn’t left yet.
The peace made it easy for him to change up his rotation with anyone willing to take it, keeping Jackson from Joey. It definitely solved his problem. He didn’t have to be near the guy and didn’t have to go off on some bullshit mission to find any possible werewolves who were likely not even in the area.
Jackson could stay with his family.
Then the kid just had to go and get himself hurt on Mitch’s watch.
Damon had been pissed, and now that Joey was in better shape to return to his duties, Jackson had to accompany him.
What he didn’t understand was why Joey seemed to be in no better mood to work with Jackson than Jackson was to work with him. More than once he’d gotten up from his stool to walk off somewhere, muttering about stretching his legs, but Jackson knew it was just a cover.
Sure enough, Joey got to his feet once more and stomped off, this time not even bothering with his usual excuse.
Not acceptable.
“Joey,” he said, glancing over his shoulder at Joey’s retreating back.
He didn’t stop or even slow down.
“Joe,” Jackson called. Using
that name usually got the kid’s attention. Not now. The bastard kept right on going like he was deaf or something.
Jackson clenched his jaw, staring through the shrubs at the land he was guarding, the younger alphas and omega chasing each other on the grass, while the older omegas supervised them. There were other alphas, older and trained, who surrounded the property, watching in places Jackson couldn’t see, but he knew they were there nonetheless.
He decided that with them still on the watch, it would hardly matter if he left his post to go and kick the shit out of that stubborn omega.
He pushed himself to his feet and stormed after Joey, following his scent.
Joey had moved farther into the trees to the point where Jackson couldn’t hear the shrieking laughter of the pups back at the house, even with his superior hearing. He could neither see nor hear anything going on back at the house, and that bothered him.
Joey had stopped in the middle of a small clearing. Even calling it a clearing was stretching the truth a little, but he was there, and Jackson was furious.
“You have exactly thirty seconds to explain to me what’s up your ass before I put you on your back.”
“Bet you’d like to see me on my back.”
Jackson halted his enraged stalking as the quiet words hit his ears. “What did you just say?”
Joey turned to look at him. If Jackson thought he’d been angry when Joe left, that was nothing to the way the kid looked right now. His arms were folded, fists clenching until the knuckles were white, and those eyes...
Jackson was torn between falling into them and shrinking back from the anger there.
He’d never in his life seen an omega so enraged, never mind Joey.
“I said, you would like to see me on my back,” he repeated. “Wouldn’t you?”
There was no point beating around this. Joey knew.
Jackson was going to kill Damon for telling him. “Clearly that upsets you. I apologize if I’ve caused you any discomfort. It wasn’t intentional.”
Jackson became aware of the fact that he still had a semi-erection, and he was no longer on the right side of the wind from Joey.
Joey’s eyes narrowed before they zeroed in on Jackson’s crotch.
Jesus! Did he have no shame?
There was hardly any point in hiding that he was aroused, and that Joey could smell it. He stood straight, crossing his arms, waiting for the barrage of abuse he was about to get for his lusty thoughts, the laughter, and the confirmation of what an old man he was.
“I never said it upset me. If you want to fuck me, I’m fine with that.”
The chosen language had Jackson falling back a step. What—?
“Or I was, until I overhear you pretty much demanding Damon take me off rotation.”
Jackson inwardly hissed. “Look, kid.”
“Stop calling me that! I am not a pup. I am a member of your— Damon’s guard, and you’re trying to get rid of me like I was some kind of—”
Joey stopped. His face twisted in anger, and his lips puckered as though he wanted to say more but couldn’t think of the right word.
“Omega?” Jackson finished for him.
“Fuck you.”
Jackson growled, his inner wolf not liking this hostility toward him, and he was finding it difficult to not just go over there and show Joey just which of the two of them was the real alpha here.
“I am going to pretend I didn’t hear that,” he said, skin tight and blood running hot, despite the deep breaths he was taking.
“Why? I know you want to fuck me, so why are you fighting it? Because I’m not an alpha?”
There was officially no point in hiding this anymore.“Because you’re too young.”
Joey scoffed at that. “No I’m not! Wolves twice your age have taken mates barely older than myself.”
“How would you know that?” Jackson shot back. There was no one in this pack of that age who had ever done so.
“I asked.”
The way he said it, as though Jackson were some kind of dumbass for not putting it together, made him see red.
Fuck Damon for continually encouraging this. If it had been any other omega, they would have been put on their backs, necks gripped, so fast.
Wait a minute. “What else did Damon tell you?”
Joey just continued to stare at him with that hateful glare marring his features. “He didn’t need to tell me anything else. I figured it all out on my own.”
Meaning that Joey was aware of Jackson’s lust for him, and that was about it. He didn’t know about Jackson’s dead mate.
He couldn’t handle this like an alpha. He had to deal with this like he was speaking with an omega, which he was.
“Look, I apologize if I’ve seemed a little harsh lately, but I was just trying to watch out for your best interests.”
“Uh-huh.” Joey lifted away the T-shirt he wore, allowing the white cotton to fall to the mossy ground.
“What are you doing?” Jackson demanded when Joey’s hands reached for his belt.
He did nothing but hook his thumbs under the leather strap, though. He didn’t remove it.
It was almost disappointing.
Joey stood straight, his muscles highlighted in the speckles of sunlight that managed to come down through the canopy above them. He wet his lips.
“Are you trying to seduce me?” Jackson couldn’t believe it. The very thought of Joey attempting such a thing was downright...alien to his nature.
Or he’d thought it had been. Had he really been so far removed and so blind to his own misery that he’d completely missed this shift in Joey’s personality? Was this confrontational aspect of an omega a product of being forced to work with and sleep in the same space as alphas for so long?
For the first time since following him out here, Joey emitted an aura of uncertainty. “Are you resisting because of what happened with Seth?”
Just the mention of that name from those lips brought the sound of a sickening crunch back to his ears. It was the sound Seth’s leg had made when Joey, in his wolf form, had broken it when Seth had escaped from the Veturious mansion, their former home. If it could be called that.
Wiktor Veturious, their former master, had been so enraged over their failure to capture Seth that Jackson had been subjected to the worst sort of tortures he’d ever imagined and he still shuddered to think about.
He wasn’t ashamed to admit that, at the time, he’d wanted to die just to escape them.
Jackson had taken the fall for Seth’s escape because, as their leading alpha, it was his failure to answer for. The fact that he didn’t want Joey to be subjected to those kinds of horrors was only the secondary issue.
“It’s not that,” Jackson said.
“Then what? If you want it, then—” Joey seemed unable to finish, and for a minute, Jackson couldn’t even remember why he was resisting.
He approached him. Joey held still as Jackson came forward, but at his back was a rather heavy oak, and Jackson had no trouble putting his hands out and trapping Joey between them. He made no other move.
Joey held almost completely still. His eyes moved down to look at Jackson’s lips, and his heart rate picked up, his neck and cheeks flushing with the rush of pumping blood.
Joey was the most beautiful sight Jackson ever beheld in his life. Unlike other omegas, Joey was larger, likely a product of the alpha he was descended from, Jackson’s former leading alpha, teacher, and best friend.
There was even a similarity in the way they looked. Though Jackson never saw his former leader in a sexual way, he couldn’t help but notice the way Joey’s skin was that same golden-tan as Kurt’s, the large shape of his chest, and the wide spread of his shoulders. Yes, Joey was definitely a descendant of Kurt’s, and, though he was an omega, the kid had some real balls on him.
He came out of his musings to the warm touch of Joey’s fingers on his cheeks. Now his heart was speeding up. Adrenaline ran through his veins as though he’d direct
ly injected it into his arms. Joey’s pupils were small, his nostrils flared, and Jackson knew he was having a similar reaction.
“Kiss me,” Joey’s demand came out in a desperate rasp.
He gave Jackson no chance to respond to his command as he pulled Jackson’s face down and—
Christ, he had the softest lips. They were plump and perfect, and Jackson never wanted to stop kissing him. Joey’s fingers slid into Jackson’s short hair and gripped him to the point that he grunted in pain.
He didn’t dare put an end to the kiss, especially when Joey slid his tongue into Jackson’s mouth.
Damon was right. Jackson hadn’t been giving Joey nearly the credit he should have. The kid had more alpha in him than he thought.
Joey tasted sweet, like maple syrup, which gave Jackson an idea of what Joey had eaten for breakfast that morning, and he pushed back with his tongue until he was the one dominating the kiss, but Joey refused to be dominated. He transferred his grip from Jackson’s hair to his shoulders and jacket, the low moan working up from his throat.
Joey was actually trying to get Jackson’s jacket off.
Jackson’s cock throbbed in such a sudden, desperate wanting need, that he lost all sense of caring. He wanted to push himself deep inside Joey’s body. He wanted to fuck him as hard and as fast as he could for however long he could hold out. If he so much as stroked himself once or twice, he was likely to explode, never mind what he would do when he was finally inside the man.
They said nothing. Jackson’s fingers fumbled with Joey’s goddamn stupidly difficult belt while Joey pushed the jacket off his shoulders.
They separated for only a few torturous seconds, as Jackson had to look down between them to finally get Joey’s belt off his narrow hips. Then he was able to slide his hands under the waist of Joey’s jeans, not even bothering with the button and fly. He ripped them clean apart.
“Christ!” Joey laughed, and then his breathing became hard and panting.
