by Shea Balik
Nothing was better than pleasing Kegan. Sending him out of his head as his body matched him thrust for thrust, chasing their orgasms.
Leaning in, Bjorn nudged his nose along Kegan’s throat. His lover tilted his head to give Bjorn more room. Already feeling the tingling at the base of his spine, Bjorn was determined to make Kegan come first. His canines extended and he bit down on the mark he’d left on Kegan’s skin the first time they’d had sex.
Kegan shouted, his hole clamping down harder on Bjorn’s cock as he sprayed their abdomens with his release. Black and white spots blurred Bjorn’s vision as his orgasm rushed through him. He barely managed to extract his teeth before roaring out as he filled Kegan with his seed.
Bjorn’s body heavily leaned against Kegan’s, pinning him to the wall as they panted, neither able to speak. Slowly, Bjorn’s vision returned to normal, his breathing slowing as his body recovered enough to move.
Gently, he pulled out of his lover and carried him to bed. Then he strode to the bathroom to get a washcloth and towel to wipe them both down. When he was done, he crawled under the covers with Kegan curled up in front of him.
“Still think I’m old?” Bjorn teased, sure his lover would find some reason to say he was.
Kegan glanced over his shoulder to give Bjorn a grin. “Guess that depends on you, big guy.”
Bjorn kissed those lush lips before asking, “Depends on what?”
“How fast you can get it up for round two.”
Bjorn chuckled, then flipped Kegan onto his back and he loomed over him. “I guess we’ll have to see.”
And see they did, two more times.
CHAPTER 21
The next morning, Kegan and Bjorn went down for breakfast, unsure what they would find. For the last several years, Bjorn and his friends had a difficult time getting to the druids before they had either run, or ended up dead at the hands of the Unseelie. Either way, they usually came back with no one.
All of that changed when Eirik brought Ryley and Meghan home. Then Bjorn found Kegan. Since Cullen’s birthday had been on Imbolc, he and Ryley suspected he would be found, but they couldn’t be sure. Just because his birthday fit with the timeline, didn’t mean it would be Cullen and not someone else who would be joining them.
Although they both hoped it would be Cullen, for that would mean he would be alive. Neither of them wanted to consider the possibility of Cullen dying. Not that the Unseelie’s pets would have an easy time doing so.
Opening the kitchen, Kegan glanced around to find Oluf, Hrafn, and Fritjof had returned. Eirik, Ryley, and Meghan were also in the kitchen. Platters of food had already been prepared, something Oluf liked to do to keep busy.
When Kegan had asked him about it a few weeks ago, Oluf told him he hated idle hands. So, if he wasn’t training, he was cooking or cleaning the kitchen. The rest of the house was up to the others, but the kitchen was Oluf’s domain.
“Did anyone have any success?” Bjorn asked of Oluf, Hrafn, and Fritjof.
All three glumly shook their heads.
“When I arrived at the home where the druids lived, it was on fire. The good news is, I don’t believe they died. In fact, I think they purposefully set the fire to throw off the Unseelie,” Hrafn said.
Kegan tilted his head as he studied Hrafn. The man was more astute than most people gave him credit for, but knowing who was or wasn’t in a burning house would seem sort of impossible. Right? “How do you know that?” he asked, unable to come up with something on his own.
Hrafn grinned as if he were happy with himself. “I found a set of tire tracks heading out across the field to the east. When I followed it, it came upon a road about two miles from their home. The tracks had been fresh and since I’ve never heard of the Unseelie driving…” he shrugged. “I assume it was the family.”
Oluf also hadn’t found the druid he was in charge of protecting, which was good, since there was no bodies. Fritjof, on the other hand, had gotten there too late. A man and woman had been killed. Not knowing if there had been anyone else there, he couldn’t be sure anyone had gotten away, but he didn’t think so.
“What about Brandr and Ulf?” Bjorn asked.
Both Bjorn and Kegan had filled their plates and sat around the table with the others. None of them had the heart to eat, but they were too damn hungry to ignore their grumbling stomachs.
“Brandr found the family he was sent after and saved them from the Unseelie pets, but the family refused to remain with him. They’d heard the stories from our infamous Viking raid, apparently,” Eirik told them. “They said they’d rather take their chances on their own.”
“What?” Kegan was stunned. Who would ever want to take on the Unseelie alone “That doesn’t make any sense. Maybe I should fly there and talk to them.”
Eirik was shaking his head. “They packed up their stuff and left. There’s no way to know where they went.”
“Idiots,” Ryley mumbled.
“What about Ulf?” Bjorn had stared right at Eirik.
Ulf was Eirik’s biological brother. Kegan knew if anyone heard from Ulf, it would be Eirik.
But the worry in Eirik’s eyes said it all. They hadn’t heard anything.
“The only good news from yesterday is the ritual worked. No one is getting through until the Spring Equinox,” Eirik told them.
Great. Seven weeks. That’s what they had before they once more had to face the Unseelie’s pets. Fun times.
“Do we know yet if the Veil is intact?” Kegan asked, feeling that was more important than anything else. “Facing the Unseelie’s pets at the ritual is bad enough,” he said. “I don’t really want to do so any other time.”
“What?” Oluf asked as the others stared at him like he was speaking a different language.
Kegan glanced over at Eirik and Ryley. “You didn’t tell them about what happens if there aren’t enough druids to perform the ritual?”
Eirik shrugged. “We figured we’d wait for everyone, so we didn’t have to go through it more than once.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Fritjof demanded.
Thankfully Eirik did answer, because Kegan wasn’t really up for that particular explanation. He’d been plagued by nightmares all night just thinking about the possibility of the Veil not holding.
It had been a good thing Bjorn had no trouble taking his mind off it each time he woke up screaming as something more terrible than the monsters he’d already faced sliced all he loved wide open with a maniacal glee shining in their eyes.
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Fritjof yelled when Eirik was done. “You’re telling me, because these idiot druids won’t allow us to protect them, it’s possible an Unseelie, not just their pets, but an actual Unseelie, might come through one of the openings?”
Eirik nodded.
“Fuck me,” Oluf whispered.
“Yeah, so not happening, no matter how much you want it,” Arne said as he strolled into kitchen looking like he’d been hit by a truck that had then reversed direction to hit him again, before rolling over him as it continued on.
“What the hell happened to you?” Bjorn asked.
Arne dropped his backpack on the floor next to the table, then practically fell into a nearby chair. “Hell,” Arne answered. “That’s what happened to me. Absolute hell.” He glanced over at Ryley, then Kegan. “Either of you know someone by the name of Dermot Kincaid?”
Both of them sat up straighter. “Did you find him?” Ryley asked.
The rage that blazed in Arne’s eyes wasn’t a good sign. “I did, but the little shit ran as soon as things got tough. He and his family left me to fight forty of those damn minions.” He winced as he moved to get a little more comfortable. “It’s going to take me a week to heal after that.”
That was definitely saying a lot. Only when wounds were really deep, or because they’d suffered too many injuries, did it take more than a day or two for the Viking warriors to heal.
“Where did he go?�
�� Kegan asked, praying Arne had found Dermot and his family.
Arne scowled at him. “Don’t know. Don’t care. Did you miss the part where they rabbited on me?”
“Dermot has always been…” Ryley hesitated as he tried to come up with a nice way of ending that sentence.
Kegan didn’t have the same problem. “Chicken shit.” He chuckled, even though nothing about the current situation was funny. “Remember that time he thought there was a bear in the bushes and it ended up being a…” he widened his eyes as he glanced in Arne’s direction before saying, “bunny.”
Ryley and he started to crack up at the memory. “It’s true,” Ryley said as if he just couldn’t deny it any longer. Dermot jumped when he saw his own shadow. I imagined when he saw the Unseelie pets, he probably peed his pants.”
“Not that it matters.” Kegan’s words had all eyes turning toward him. “His birthday is March twentieth. This year’s Spring Solstice. If this curse thing you all were talking about is real, he needs to be found, and saved.”
“Fuck,” Arne whispered. “Please let someone else be assigned to him next time,” Arne said as he glanced upward as if praying.
“What difference does it make?” Hrafn asked with his head tilted to the side as if trying to find a reason why Arne would pray he wasn’t the one sent after Dermot.
“Because,” Arne said as kindly as he could considering he still looked pissed off. “So far whoever has been sent to find one of these guys,” Arne pointed to Ryley and Kegan. “Ends up claiming them. I, for one, would prefer to be matched with someone who doesn’t leave me to get killed.”
Hrafn shook his head and even moved his lips as if resaying what Arne had in his head. When he frowned, it was obvious he still didn’t understand. “But you can’t die,” Hrafn finally said after several minutes.
Arne’s eyes flashed with rage again. “He didn’t know that, yet he ran anyway.” Then Arne pushed up from the table, a groan of pain spilling from his lips at the move, but he kept going anyway. As he reached the kitchen island, he grabbed a banana and blueberry muffin and several slices of bacon. “When Brandr gets here, can you send him to my room?”
As the door swung shut after he left, Oluf joked, “I think we don’t tell him about the Unseelie possibly getting through the Veil.”
“Agreed,” Bjorn said as he tugged Kegan close to his side. “He’s always been a bit off, but lately…”
When Bjorn didn’t finish, Fritjof did, “He’s nuts.”
No one raised a voice to object to that statement. Then again, Kegan imagined it couldn’t have been easy to go through twelve hundred years with no one to love. Before meeting Kegan, Bjorn had been willing to die just so he wouldn’t have to live any longer.
At least Kegan had Bjorn by his side. As much as he hated the life he was born into, Kegan would face a million Unseelie monsters and live for eternity if it meant he had Bjorn by his side for all eternity.
Life wasn’t always easy, but now that he’d found love, Kegan was grateful for that flicker of hope Bjorn brought him.
About the Author
Best Selling author of the Cedar Falls Series, Paranormal War Series, and Miracle Series, Shea Balik has always had a vivid imagination with stories running around in her head. Often her stories are taken from observations of other people with her own spin.
Traveling is one of her favorite ways of fulfilling her passion of people watching. You never know, one day you may spark her imagination for her next book.
Whether at home or traveling she is usually in front of her computer writing or curled up with a good book.
You can stay up to date with everything Shea by following her!
www.sheabalik.com
