by Julia Talbot
Look who had embraced the whole man-on-man thing. Steve went right down on him, sucking hard, hungry as a cub with no momma. God almighty. Kamen moaned, trying to get more now, hotter and harder.
Steve gave it to him, licking and pulling with those soft, swollen lips. And Steve got the hands into it too, rubbing at his thighs and belly, rolling Kamen’s balls.
“More. Please. More.” Wasn’t like him to beg, but he did now, his breath coming in rough gasps, the water falling around them its own sort of caress.
“Mmmhmm.” Steve was into it, really sawing back and forth on his cock, teeth threatening.
Kamen framed Steve’s cheeks with his hands, staring down into Steve’s naughty puppy eyes. “Bite me and I’ll beat your ass like a cub.”
Those eyes twinkled a moment before Steve closed them and went back to work. The hint of sharp went away though, Steve really concentrating on the lips and tongue, on the underside of his cock. He pulled all the way up to the head, tongue working under the glans, then moving back down.
He had no idea how long they struggled with the pleasure, how long he punched his hips against the pressure around his cock. Suddenly he was roaring toward the finish though, his balls emptying, sparks shooting up his spine to explode in his brain.
“Mmm.” Licking, Steve pulled off, blinking up at him. “Was that the kind of bath you wanted?”
Kamen laughed, petting Steve’s shoulders. “You bet. And I didn’t even know it.”
* * *
Steve let himself into his apartment, half pausing to see if a big hand would fall on his shoulder, to see if a big, black-haired shadow followed him.
Sadly he was alone.
Sipping his mocha, Steve checked his messages and ran through his pile of accumulated mail. He wasn’t home very much anymore. How bizarre was that? It was like he’d snapped somehow. Kamen just brought out all this animal need and shit.
It was as mystifying as it was cool.
He had two messages, which had to be some kind of a record for a dork like him. One was from Colin, and was as short as it was cryptic.
“Need to talk to you, man,” Colin’s recorded voice said. “Call me on my cell.”
That was it.
The other one was from Elam, who Steve had always thought of as a troublemaker. It was also short and sweet.
“The pack is meeting tonight to have a vote. I would like for you to be there.”
The time-date stamp told him that the meeting would be tonight, but Steve figured he could skip it. He happened to know Kamen was out of town, and any pack meeting that happened without Kamen was about cake walks and fund raisers for the Cub Scouts or something.
He deleted both messages, and tried to call Colin.
“The party you have dialed is out of area. To leave a message, wait for the tone.”
Huh. Steve hung up and tried Colin’s home number. There he just got Myra’s perky answering machine message. Damn. What was up with that?
Steve tried Kamen’s cell, just in case. Kamen was supposed to call him when he got back to town, but he had said either tonight or tomorrow.
“Hello?”
Okay, not Kamen’s voice. No, that was a female voice, thin and reedy and old.
“Hi. Uh. I was trying to reach Kamen. This is, uh, Steve.”
“Steve. Thank goodness. You must come. Now.”
“Do I know you?” He didn’t think he recognized the voice. Not at all.
“You know me as Mirriam.”
Mirriam. One of the elders that he’d always met in wolf form. He didn’t even know she could talk.
“What is it? What’s wrong?” A hard knot of worry lodged in his belly.
“Please, you must come. Kamen has been hurt.”
No. Everything in him said no to that. Kamen couldn’t be hurt. He was the alpha. And if there was anything Steve had learned over the weeks he and Kamen had been together, it was that the big guy could take care of himself.
“What happened?”
“There is no time! Come. Bring medical supplies,” Mirriam shouted, and then she hung up.
Shit. Oh, shit. Steve ran around in circles for a minute, whining, before he snapped out of it. Kamen needed him. He had to go.
Chapter 5
Kamen knew he had screwed up.
Somewhere in the haze of red pain, he knew that for sure. He’d underestimated the pack’s desire for an alpha that would breed. Hell, maybe he’d just underestimated Elam’s need to be the big cheese. One way or the other, he’d expected anyone who wanted to take over the pack to challenge him to a fair fight.
Instead they had ganged up on him.
Fifteen of them. Strong males, but not primaries. No one that Elam would have to worry about challenging him later. Singly, Kamen could have beaten them all. Together, he had no chance against them.
The elders had kept them from killing him.
When the fight was over, Kamen bled from a hundred different wounds, his body too tired to get up and fight any more. That was when the elders stepped in, silently forming a ring around him, daring the young fools to take them on, to do further damage.
Thank God.
He’d gotten home early from his trip. Hell, he’d just picked up the phone to call Steve when they hit him. Fuckers had been laying in wait for him. In his house.
The elders had tried to warn him, but Kamen had just thought they were glad to see him, crowding around his legs and whining and growling.
Now he knew better.
He’d really screwed up.
A fresh wave of pain tore through his body, and Kamen curled up in a ball, willing his wolf form to take over. He could heal so much easier that way, gain strength, run all day, even on a broken ankle.
The problem was that it took energy he didn’t have, just to make the change.
“Steve is coming, love. He will know what to do,” Mirriam said, stroking the hair back off his face. His swollen face. God, he could barely open his mouth.
Steve. Oh, fuck, what if Steve got caught out by the pack? “Steve…” he whispered, reaching out, trying to get Mirriam to understand. “Need Steve.”
“I know. He’s coming. I talked to him.”
Mirriam was talking. It had been maybe five years since he’d heard her talk. Since he’d seen her as a human. She had more lines on her face now, but her eyes were just as bright, just as gold.
He patted her hand, his fingers feeling like a blown up surgical glove. “Need to… move.”
“Soon, love, soon.”
That gentle hand petted, soothed, and he thought he just blinked his eyes. Really. He didn’t fall asleep. When he woke up, Steve was there. Looking a little wild-eyed and frantic.
“Kamen? Kamen, you have to wake up and tell me what to do. I can’t get a hold of anyone. Please, Mirriam says we have to move.”
“Move. Yes.” God, he hoped Steve hadn’t called the next in line for alpha. Elam was behind this.
“I tried Colin and Sasha and Liam but none of them are answering…”
Not the others too. Elam and Shoshanna had been pretty loud about how they felt about Colin marrying Myra, and about how three living together like Sasha and his little pack did was wrong.
Kamen tried to stand, dragging his leg, his arms trembling under his weight.
“No! No, I just got you patched up.” Steve laughed, the sound cracked and raw. “That much I can do. Electrician’s fingers make decent medicine.”
“Thanks, honey.” That didn’t mean he could sit and let the rest of the pack hurt people who didn’t deserve it. “Need to move.”
“Okay. Okay. Where are we going?” Steve helped him get up, gently, so gently, and things swung into focus, so he could see Steve’s eyes. So dark. So concerned.
“Need to get the elders. Elam… will kill them.”
“Will they come for me? If I call them?” Steve asked, helping him prop up against something. His shredded couch maybe.
“Take Mirriam. They
’ll come for her.” His belly hurt, deep down. Kamen didn’t think anything was permanently damaged, but Jesus, he was down for the count right now.
So much for protecting what was his.
“Kamen! Kamen, they’re coming.” Steve slid in next to him like a runner sliding into third base.
“The elders?”
“Sasha. Liam. Colin. I can see Colin’s truck!”
Oh. Oh, good. “Stay with me, then, honey.” He needed that warm touch, that sweet worry. Mirriam could let the others in.
“Okay.” Settling beside him, Steve gave him heat and support, snuggling right up.
Kamen chuckled. “I thought you weren’t that way, man.” It had been too long since he had teased Steve about how easily he’d given into the poking and prodding and hunting.
“You convinced me.”
“No one had ever told me no before you.”
“I know.”
“I hate to interrupt this touching moment, but we need to get a move on.” That was Colin’s voice, and Steve launched up away from Kamen to give him a bear hug.
Good thing Kamen wasn’t the jealous type.
Sasha knelt next to him. It had to be Sasha with that dark hair but it was hard to tell otherwise. Even his sense of smell was messed up.
“I’ve got the girls in the truck, man. Let’s get you up. We’ll go somewhere safe and make a plan, okay?”
“The old ones…”
“Jenny can take care of them,” Sasha said. “We have the trailer. They hit her clinic, man. They just…”
Now he could hear the rage in Sasha’s voice, the utter freezing anger. Shit. Shit, this was all his fault. “Get me up.”
Liam was there to help, red hair flashing in his periphery, strong arms lifting him. His vision grayed out around the edges, and Kamen swayed, only vaguely hearing Steve’s cry.
Sasha and Liam and Colin would know what to do. He could rest. The other stuff, like taking his pack back, could wait.
* * *
Steve paced. Back and forth, back and forth.
Myra had given him a smoothie. Jenny had tried to give him a shot. Veterinary sedatives, for God’s sake. Liam had threatened to punch his lights out if he didn’t stop jittering.
It was Colin who finally grabbed him and dragged him away from camp, handing him a cigarette.
“Shit, man,” Steve said, staring at it. “I quit three years ago.”
“So did I. This is crisis aid.”
Steve took the cigarette and lit up without even putting up an argument. He’d been doing a lot of that lately.
“What happened, man? When you called?” Steve remembered now that Colin had called, wanted to talk to him.
“We went to this supposed pack meeting. Did you get that message?” Colin ran one hand through his thick blond hair.
“I did.” Shit, he’d blown it off. Maybe that was a good thing. Lord knew it was bad enough that they were out in the middle of some campground somewhere with a pack of old werewolves, an injured alpha, and two very pissed off males. Not to mention Myra and Jenny, who were plotting Shoshanna’s death. “What happened?”
“They ambushed us. Sasha and Liam thought there was something funny, so we left the girls at the new house. They tried to take us down, but we were on the watch, you know? We slipped away with just a skirmish.” Colin showed him a long, angry scrape on one arm.
“You said they got Jenny’s clinic?” Jenny was a veterinarian, and she took her job very seriously.
“Yeah. Shit, man.” Colin lit up too. “They got our place too. Our house. Your old one. The place is busted up.”
“So what are we gonna do?”
They had to do something. They couldn’t just limp away and hide.
“We’re going to let Kamen decide what to do,” Colin said, face set in hard lines. “He’s still the fucking alpha.”
Steve nodded, looking over at the little tent where Jenny was patching up Steve’s patch job on Kamen.
He hoped to hell his lover, because that was what Kamen was, would recover soon enough to make that kind of decision.
Chapter 6
Kamen lifted his arm, rotating the shoulder, trying to work his way back to full mobility.
He wasn’t permanently damaged by any means, but two weeks had passed and he was still stiff, still sore. Pushing himself only made it worse, but God, he was bored. Edgy. Ready to go take Elam down.
Steve wandered over, hand rubbing across the small of his back. “You look restless, babe.”
“Of course I am. We’ve been out here for weeks. I want my pack back.”
Those deep brown eyes met his, Steve biting his lip. “What if they don’t want you? What if they really did vote?”
“Then I’ll step down. But they have to win it fair and square.” Every time he thought about how they had come to his home, attacked him when he wasn’t expecting it… Well, he saw red every time.
“But what if…”
Kamen shut Steve up with a kiss. That he wasn’t too sore for. In fact, he figured he could do more than kiss. It would do his body good. Besides, Steve was the king of worry and a little nookie might clear his mind too.
“What are you --” Steve began, when Kamen started to drag him off, but he must have caught on, because he went all flushed and started dragging Kamen along instead. Yeah. They’d find someplace private.
It wasn’t long before they found a shady spot, overhanging cottonwood trees hiding them from the little pack they’d created for themselves, and then they were kissing, their mouths meeting. Wet. Hot. Good.
“Steve.” Kamen broke off the kiss, letting his lips trail down the side of Steve’s neck, his body on fire in a good way. Finally.
“Yeah. Yeah, babe. Need you,” Steve said, wrapping around him.
“Down.” They needed to at least sit. Standing wasn’t gonna work for him. At least not right now.
“Uh-huh.”
They sank to the ground, kissing and touching, both of them going crazy. It had been too long, and their loving was still so new. They needed to make it real again.
Kamen reached down, grabbing the zipper and pulling it down. His hand curled around Steve’s hot flesh, pulling on it, just reveling in the feel and scent.
“Kamen.” Steve arched up, body going taut, humping into his hand.
“Missed you, honey. Glad you came for me.”
Steve met his eyes, nodding, then took another kiss. And another. God, that tasted fine.
They stretched out on the ground, Steve burrowing into Kamen’s clothes too. They rocked together, working up until their cocks were side by side, until both of them could get a hand around hard flesh.
Then all they had to do was move. Kamen humped, wanting more and more of Steve. And Steve wanted more of him, biting at his throat, growling and rumbling, desperate for him.
It had been too damned long, and Kamen knew he couldn’t last. Couldn’t even come close to lasting. Instead, he just let his orgasm roll through him, his seed splashing out on their joined hands.
Two seconds later Steve gave it right up for him, coming like a ton of bricks, jerking and crying out. Oh, damn. Yeah. That was just what they needed.
Maybe five minutes passed while they dozed. Then Steve raised his head. “So what if…”
“No what ifs. I have a plan. One way or the other, we’ll be fine. I’m sorry I got you into this.”
Steve grinned, shaking his head, kissing Kamen softly on the lips. “I’m not.”
* * *
It took another week and a half for Kamen to feel ready.
Then he had to argue his way out of the circle he’d created around himself. Colin, Sasha, Liam, the girls, even Mirriam argued with him.
Steve never did.
Steve had his back.
“I’ll go with you,” Steve said. “Keep the rest from getting on you when you take on Elam.”
Half of him just wanted to say no. To keep Steve safe. The other half was so damned proud t
hat his scared-of-his-shadow, slacker lover was bucking up, he could hardly stand it.
“We’ll all go,” Colin said. “Safety in numbers.”
So they all ended up crashing the pack meeting Elam and Shoshanna were hosting. At Jenny and Sasha and Liam’s fucking house.
The fear in Elam’s eyes when he walked in gratified him.
“I challenge you to rite of alpha,” Kamen said, his voice ringing loud and clear in the big front room Sasha had built.
“You can’t,” Shoshanna said. “The pack has voted.”
He stared her down. “That’s fine. I always do what’s best for the pack. But Elam is no fair leader, and I mean to prove that in combat.”
One by one, the elders, all in human form, stepped forward. “There must be a fair battle,” Mirriam said, speaking for him.
Elam growled. “Then come and get me.”
In the blink of an eye they came together, just like that, no more talking. Elam was fast, smaller than Kamen, and not hampered by injuries.
Kamen had righteous rage on his side.
They bit and tore, going for weak spots like legs and bellies, blood running from dozens of tiny cuts. The battle moved like a tide, rolling out until they spilled on to the packed earth of the yard, snarls sounding, their human voices nothing but low growls, echoing in the night.
Kamen bit, his teeth flashing, his muscles screaming, trying to tell him he was too weak for this. He fought on, unwilling to be beaten down, even when he felt muscle tear under Elam’s nails, the fingers almost like wolf’s claws. He roared his fury, tackling Elam and taking him down, snapping, all but ripping Elam’s arm from his shoulder.
A sharp yelp sounded, Elam trying to buck him off, sharp nails clawing at Kamen’s belly. He felt his skin tear, felt hot blood flow, but the wound wasn’t mortal by any means. He could fight on. Kamen struggled to his feet again, backing off to make another attack.
They were both nearing exhaustion, their movements slow and clumsy. Swinging fists went wide, and they lunged past each other like dying bulls going past a matador. The ground turned red beneath them, the soil soaking up their rage.
When the dust settled, though, it was Kamen who had his teeth on Elam’s throat, the false alpha laid out in the dirt. Belly up.
