by Fel Fern
He let Asher’s prodding tongue in. His mate deepened the kiss. Sparks of electricity went straight to his dick. Asher moved his hand lower, down his body to cup his dick. He breathed hard as they parted from the kiss, groaning when Asher gave his cock a squeeze.
This, Dan thought, was real. The gorgeous amazing man in front of him belonged to him, too, as much as his heart and body were Asher’s to claim. Asher scraped his teeth against the mate mark on his neck, making him shiver.
“Ready to come home with me, little cat?” Asher asked, light in his eyes.
Home. He never thought he’d find his way back again to the safe arms of his mate and the wonderful life he’d built for himself.
“I’m ready,” he replied without hesitation.
Chapter Twelve
“Do you really think threats will work against me?” Charles Roman asked from behind his desk. Charles’s lawyer, Mr. Benson, leaned forward to whisper in his ear, but Charles waved him off.
Asher sat coolly in his chair. He brought all the evidence forward, but kept multiple copies of it online in case this meeting went sideways. Dan sat next to him, nervously rubbing at his hands. He hadn’t wanted Dan to come in case Charles decided to gun them down the instant they walked through the office doors, but Dan insisted.
Besides, Dan was a huge part of this, too. Like Chris’s victims, Dan needed closure, too.
He met the gaze of the tiger Alpha in front of him steadily.
Charles Roman might have a mountain of pride, but he heard from rumors Charles was a businessman, too, and bringing in this amount of bad press would taint the Roman family name forever.
“Were you aware of your son’s activities?” he asked.
“No comment.”
Charles’s immediate reply had been answer enough. Unlike Chris, though, the tiger Alpha was a sleek and careful monster who wouldn’t make the same slippery mistakes his son did. Well, the last thing Asher wanted was to make an enemy of such a powerful man. Charles not only controlled the largest tiger clan in the city, but other clans in the region answered to him.
“If I end you both here, I take it the evidence will be leaked to the press by your associates?” Charles asked.
He shrugged. Charles was a smart man.
“Look, Chris was a bad business investment. All we want is compensation for the victims, discreetly, of course. The last thing we want is a huge media circus. We can come to a mutual agreement,” Asher finally said. He made it clear this wasn’t a debate.
“Do you think I’m so heartless that I wouldn’t want vengeance for my son?”
“Your son,” Dan said in a shaky voice, meeting the tiger Alpha eye-to-eye, “was a monster.”
Dan took a deep breath. Asher didn’t interrupt, let his mate do the talking. Dan earned the right.
“You probably knew it from the start Chris wasn’t natural, thought it would go away like some kind of bad trait that could be shaken off. Maybe you hoped that Chris would change, but a monster can never change its spots,” Dan said in a flat, emotionless voice.
He didn’t like his mate sounding like ice. All Asher wanted to do was take Dan in his arms, give Dan comfort and all the tender loving he needed. However, he knew Dan needed to say his piece.
Dan rose from the chair, and Asher watched his mate, wondering if Dan would lose control. Violence against Charles might cause them legal problems, would work against their favor, but Dan only spread out the photos of the dug graves, the victims in various stages of rot. The earlier ones were only bones, but Chris made it hard for them to be identified.
“Look at what your son did. There’s DNA evidence of him all over the house, over the recent victims,” Dan said in disgust. “Also, note that two of the victims, Brandon Lee and Joseph Miller, are shifters who come from prominent families,” he added.
Charles blew out a breath, the first hint they rattled the man behind the perfect mask of control. “Benson, go through their demands.”
The lawyer took the papers they’d laid out. Dan returned to his seat, although Asher could sense frustration through the mate mark.
“These seem agreeable, given the circumstances. My client and I will get back to you soon,” Mr. Benson said.
“No. We’ll wait here as long as needed,” Dan insisted.
“I’ll get a lawyer here, too, to make sure we miss nothing,” Asher offered.
Dan gave him a tired nod. It had been a rocky day yesterday. Right after they drove from Chris’s estate, Dan took a shower and collapsed in bed. Asher suggested they delay the meeting, but Dan wanted it done and over with. Asher rose from his seat and kept a close eye on Dan as he rang up Mr. Chang, a reputable lawyer they used on most of their cases before. After Chang agreed to come in half an hour, he returned to his mate.
Benson and Charles excused themselves, probably to have a more detailed discussion.
“This is okay, right?” Dan asked him upon his return.
“Absolutely. You did great, baby. Mr. Chang will be arriving in thirty minutes.”
Dan drew a sharp breath. “He’s not going to change his mind, is he?”
“No. Charles knows when he’s defeated. We’re going to get it all, baby. Our freedom and peace for all those victims.”
Dan shivered, and he walked behind Dan’s chair to give his mate a tight hug.
“It could have been me buried in there,” Dan whispered.
He kissed Dan on the side of his neck, made the mate mark pulse to life, to remind Dan he was alive and his.
“You’re a fighter, baby. You would have fought to the last breath, would have kept finding ways to escape.”
“You sound so certain of that, of me,” Dan said.
“Of course I am. You found your way to me all on your own, didn’t you?”
“No offense, but I was starving, lured by your sandwich, not your tantalizing scent.”
That got a laugh out of him.
“There’s my sassy, incredibly awesome mate.”
Dan locked his hands over his. He squeezed Dan’s fingers for reassurance. “We’re really going to be okay, huh?” Dan asked, as if only believing the words for the first time.
“Of course.” Asher would say it as many times as Dan needed.
It took the entire day and night, but the next morning, they managed to draw up agreements to compensate the victims’ families. Charles Roman and any member of his clan would also leave them the fuck alone or they would leak the evidence to the press. They left the Roman building, tired but in a good mood.
“I’ll keep you two updated constantly about the case,” Chang told them as they parted on the sidewalk. “I don’t expect any problems, though.”
The lawyer left them. Noticing Dan looking at the building, he twined his fingers with his mate’s, raised them to his lips, and gave them a kiss. Dan blinked, looking at him.
“That’s the last time you’ll ever need to come here. You’ve done your part, baby. Those victims’ souls could be put to rest, knowing they’ll be returned to their family members.”
A smile tugged at the corner of Dan’s lips. A wave of tenderness washed over him. Hard to believe this amazing, strong tabby cat shifter was his alone.
“Let’s go home,” Dan said.
* * * *
Once in their apartment—Dan still had trouble wrapping his head around that fact—Dan collapsed on the bed, kicking his shoes off. Asher stood by the door, watching him, gaze golden. Dan smiled, extended a hand out.
“Join me?”
When they went to Charles Roman’s office yesterday, he’d been a bundle of nerves. The worst-case scenarios flew through his head, that Charles Roman wouldn’t take them seriously or worse, kill them both on the spot.
When Asher took his time taking off his shoes, Dan rolled to his side, so he had a perfect view of his sexy and buff mate. He wet his lips. “Just the shoes?”
Asher chuckled, the sound melting his bones. The werewolf shrugged off his shirt, revealing g
leaming muscle underneath.
“Mine,” he said.
Asher approached the bed, still wearing his pants. “Greedy little cat.”
“Mine,” he repeated.
Asher joined him in bed, sliding behind him. He felt Asher’s large, callused, but amazing hands on his shoulders a second later, massaging them. Admittedly, Dan was disappointed they didn’t just go right to the sex, but this was good, too.
When Asher massaged a particularly tense spot, he moaned. “Oh, baby. Right there’s good.”
“Here?” Asher kissed the side of his neck, worked on him until all his muscles relaxed.
“God, this might even be better than sex.”
“Let’s put that to the test.” Asher stopped, peeled off his shirt. Dan lifted his hands to speed up the process. Asher reached for his belt buckle, pausing when Dan didn’t do anything else. At Asher’s questioning look, Dan leaned forward and gave Asher a kiss on the lips.
His mate took over, kissing him back with the same tenderness and sweetness. Asher had always been so careful with him, he realized. Oh, Asher considered him strong, but he knew sometimes, Asher held back in the bedroom for fear of hurting him.
Asher a brushed over the mate mark on his neck, a proprietary touch which made him shiver in anticipation.
“Baby, I want to feel you so deep in me I can’t breathe,” he breathed out the words, certain he loved this man with every breath and heartbeat. Dan wanted them to grow old together, to lie side-by-side on the earth only to see each other again the afterlife. That kind of forever.
Quietly, Dan said, “I love you so damn much, you know that?”
Chapter Thirteen
Asher thought he imagined Dan saying those words, but Dan repeated them once more. Never in his wildest imagination did he ever consider finding his fated mate, the one who would complete him, make him whole. He’d envied Raul, never expecting love to find him next.
“I love you, too, baby,” he responded, leaning forward, nipping at Dan’s bottom lip and running his tongue over the top half.
Dan brightened at those words. Asher gave Dan’s chest a gentle push, so his mate landed on his back.
“What are you doing?” Dan asked, curious as Asher hooked his fingers into the belt buckles of Dan’s pants and yanked them down.
Asher grunted. Fuck, these skinny jeans looked amazing on his mate, but he’d rip them at this rate. Dan unzipped his button and Asher, after some painful seconds, managed to toss them aside, along with Dan’s boxers. He liked his lips at the sight of Dan’s half erect prick.
“Do I look good enough to eat?” his sassy mate dared to ask.
He curled his fingers over Dan’s shaft, gave it a few pumps. His mate groaned, squirmed on the sheets, a pretty sight. By the end of the night, he wanted to hear more sounds of pleasure spill from his mate’s lips.
“You, too,” Dan blurted. “Naked, I mean.”
Laughing, Asher rolled off Dan and quickly dropped his jeans and briefs, before rejoining Dan in bed. He reminded Dan who exactly he belonged to by leaving a rain of kisses and nips down the line of Dan’s lean body. When Dan first arrived, Dan resembled a skinny skeleton, but after making sure Dan ate three times a day, Dan filled out nice. Asher pressed his mouth to the old rake marks marring Dan’s skin, old wounds Dan had been initially ashamed of but Asher taught him to be proud of.
“I’m so lucky to have you,” Dan said above him.
Asher flicked a tongue over Dan’s pre-cum, gave the head a swirl. He paused from his important task of making Dan purr for him. “You’re wrong on that account, baby. I’m the lucky bastard who managed to get his devoted, sweet little cat with a spine of steel, with enough courage to look one of the most powerful men in the city and not flinch.”
“I was scared out of my wits,” Dan admitted.
“Fear makes us human. You don’t have to think about Charles Roman anymore, baby. He’s never going to bother us again.”
Asher and the others would always keep a close eye on the tiger Alpha, though, and he would never let his guard down. After contacting the families of the victims, the parents of Brandon Lee and Joseph Miller had offered their assistance in return for the bodies of their lost sons. They and some of the parents had debated whether to leak the news or not but decided they preferred the peace and quiet, that their sons be laid to rest with the inference of the media.
Given the Lees and Millers came from two large werewolf packs, he accepted their offer, knowing he needed all the ammunition he needed in case Charles Roman would decide to break his promise.
He didn’t think so, though. Charles was a businessman first and news of his psychotic son would ruin his reputation.
He returned his attention to Dan’s dick. Using his hands, he gave Dan’s balls a squeeze before using his tongue to trace Dan’s veined length. His mate tugged at the sheets above him, stretching his gorgeous body out, a feast all for Asher to enjoy.
“Lovely,” he remarked, licking Dan from root to tip and retracing his path all over again.
Dan shuddered above him. “How long do you plan on teasing me?”
Since he was feeling particularly merciful that evening, and besides, his dick pressed up against his belly, ready for some action, he opened his mouth wide. He took Dan’s prick easily, bobbing his head up and down. Dan mewled above him, fisted the comforter.
“God, Asher.”
He always loved his name on Dan’s lips.
Hearing Dan moaning for him, heat radiated from his insides and right to his dick. Knowing Dan was close, he pulled his mouth back. Dan panted, let out a frustrated hiss. He crawled up higher, letting Dan taste himself on his mouth. He continued the task of making his mate come by giving Dan a hand job.
It wasn’t long before Dan exploded, spilling his jizz all over his waiting fingers. He smeared some of Dan’s need on Dan’s belly, licked the rest off his fingers, liking how Dan’s eyes widened.
“Little cat, you taste so good.”
Dan blushed at that. “Sometimes, I think you say provocative things like that on purpose.”
Chuckling, he kissed the tip of Dan’s nose. “Guilty as charged.”
“When are you going to fuck me?”
“Demanding little cat. On your hands and knees.”
He helped Dan get into position, grabbing a pillow to place under Dan’s belly and making sure Dan’s ass faced the edge of the bed. Certain his mate was comfortable, he took his time, admiring his mate’s form. Asher ran a possessive hand down Dan’s spine. Reaching the cleft of Dan’s ass, Dan spread his legs wider for him.
“Nice.” He thumbed Dan’s puckered entrance, pushed a finger in, added a second.
Dan groaned as he began to make twisting motions. His mate was already so slick and ready for him, Dan’s self-lubricating Omega genes a gift to hasten things up. Dan let out a whimper as he brushed that special spot. Smiling, he did it again.
“God, baby. Enough. I want you to ride me hard and fast.”
“Exactly the speed I want to go.” Deeming his mate ready for penetration, Asher pulled his fingers out and replaced them with his dick, which was already hard and leaking pre-cum. He pushed in, not stopping once. Dan gasped. “Breathe in and out for me, baby.”
Dan obeyed, because he could feel Dan’s inner muscles relaxing, giving way for him so he could finally sheath himself to the hilt. He gripped Dan’s hips, reached around to give Dan’s once more thickening cock a squeeze.
“So big, so good,” Dan murmured into the sheets.
He began to move, starting at a slow rhythm, the only sound in the room was their ragged breathing and flesh slapping flesh.
“Faster,” Dan begged.
Asher complied, speeding up, each thrust deeper, faster, until he breached Dan’s most intimate places. Dan sighed beneath him. Asher switched the angle of his thrusts and, judging Dan’s gasp, he found Dan’s prostate. Dan arched his back, made that delightful noise once more as Asher aimed for the spo
t again.
“Touch yourself,” he ordered.
Dan reached for his prick, used one hand to keep himself balanced and obeyed. The sight of Dan fondling himself while Asher rutted him, made for an erotic sight. His wolf rose up inside of him, meeting Dan’s cat midway, a perfect fit.
He kept pounding that particular spot, until Dan cried out beneath him, telling him Dan was so close. Asher wasn’t far along either. The pressure inside him continued to build and his balls tightened against his body.
“Give me your release, baby,” he ordered, pushing one more time. That did the trick, because Dan screamed out his name, exploding.
Asher hammered in and out of his mate a few more times before reaching climax himself. The room fell away from his line of sight, and he let out a howl of triumph. Blanketing his body over Dan’s, he bit lightly at the mate mark, his mark, and gave Dan a hickey. They collapsed on the bed after, with Asher tucking Dan close to him.
Dan snuggled close without reservations, head on his chest, hand rubbing at his abs. Dan seemed to like doing that for some reason but Asher liked being petted. Maybe his little cat was merely affectionate by nature. Either way, Asher liked returning the favor, loved it when his mate purred and mewled and made all kind of sounds for him.
“That was wow. I swear, each time we fuck is better.”
“Make love, you mean?”
Dan fumed. “You know what I mean.”
Asher laughed. “I do, baby. I love teasing you.”
“That, you’re a particular expert at.”
Asher had wanted to wait for his surprise, but he decided now was a good time. He reached over, tugged the drawer beside the bed open. He fumbled for the present inside.
“What are you doing?” Dan asked, sitting up, but Asher set him back down. Dan relaxed, but there was a suspicious look in his mate’s eyes.
Asher pulled out the tiny rectangular box which contained nothing. Dan took it, eyes wide, frowning as he opened to see nothing but the shape of a key inside.
