And just as his former lover’s lips brushed over the head of his cock, the apartment door swung wide open. Warren and Avery walked in. The werewolf gaped in surprise. The troll simply crossed his arms over his chest and raised an eyebrow at Sid.
Sid vaulted from the bed, accidentally planting a knee beneath his seducer’s chin as he did so. Lord Richard let out a pained “Oof,” and dropped to all fours near one side of the bed.
“What’s going on?” Warren said.
Sid quickly zipped up his jeans, smoothed the wrinkles in his sapphire blue dress shirt. “We have a problem. Well, potential problem.”
“We can see that.” Avery frowned at their visitor. “What brings you here?”
“Nice to see you’re as surly as ever, Avery.” Lord Richard rubbed his chin and winced. “I’ve been sent by Council Headquarters with a special request.”
And then he gave the story of the two new werewolves to Warren and Avery. Council Headquarters were also suspicious of the pair, and they wanted the triad to investigate under the guise of training the younger werewolf. Since this new werewolf had already requested as much, it made the matter simple. But Sid knew nothing was ever as simple as it seemed. At least not in his experience.
***
As they strolled through the street of Underground, Lord Richard led the way, occasionally shooing a monster child out of his path with the tip of his polished cane. The children would squeal, laugh, or poke forked tongues out at him before skittering off.
While they walked, Sid could feel the anger coming off Warren. Out of the corner of his eye, he kept catching the werewolf glaring at him. Avery walked ahead of them and Lord Richard. Sid sensed the troll held quiet anger inside, but he’d wait until later to unleash it.
Finally, unable to take the sideways daggers from Warren any longer, Sid pulled his lover close and hissed, “I didn’t cheat on you, for chrissakes.”
“Yeah, but what if me and Avery hadn’t come home, hmmm?” Warren snarled in return.
Sid sputtered in frustration. But he feared what would’ve happened had his two lovers not intervened. “The fact remains. I didn’t cheat. So quit giving me dirty looks and cut me some slack. We’ve got business to focus on here. It’s no time for petty jealousy.”
Warren pulled his arm away. “Easy for you to say. You weren’t the one who found your partner with some stranger vampire between his legs.”
And then the werewolf sped-walked away until he fell in stride with Avery. Sid heaved a weary sigh and left Warren and Avery alone, for now.
Their destination came into view after they rounded a corner opposite the hill that led to the sex bazaar. Three pyramid shaped buildings. These held the training centers, where the newly turned learned to be disciplined monsters. Warren had been training here with Sid and Avery since their return from the island. Now, Sid and Avery would help him train another werewolf.
“Now, gentleman, I’ll ask you to keep cool heads inside the training area,” Lord Richard said, as they entered a long, wide foyer that held an indoor rock garden complimented by ivory fountains and emerald mosses. “Please, no more fighting over me.” He cast a knowing glance at Warren.
The werewolf growled as Richard strolled by him. “Wouldn’t be a problem if you could keep your hands to yourself.”
Richard stopped, turned, stared the werewolf down. “I’ll remind you you’re speaking to a Council Liaison.”
Just as Warren made to lunge, Avery got between them. “And I’ll remind you not to play games with us, Lord Richard. You’ve come between Sid and I in the past. It won’t happen again.”
Richard remained silent as he gave the troll and icy glare. Then he left them long enough to go and retrieve the two werewolves the triad had come to meet.
“Hey, do you realize it’s December 5?” Warren said, beaming. “It’s only 20 days until Christmas!”
Avery raised an eyebrow at him. “And why are you bringing this up now exactly?”
Warren looked mortified. “Okay, maybe my timing is off, but—”
Just then an angry volley of shouts cut through their back and forth. Sid watched a man of average height with closely cropped salt-and-pepper hair run toward them. He wore a olive green duster and drab clothes beneath. The look he wore when he came at them was one of pure determination. His steely eyes locked on Sid as he tore through the three of them, throwing punches intended to lay them low.
Warren yelled, “Hey asshole!”
Avery grunted and lunged for the guy after he knocked Warren on his ass and sent Sid stumbling sideways. But the fleeing man slipped through Avery’s grip and out of the foyer.
“Don’t let him escape!” Richard appeared in the doorway that led to the main area of the training center. His hat had been knocked from his head. The walking stick he brandished had been broken in two, and his immaculate suit was a rumpled mess.
Sid and his companions went after the man, while Lord Richard stayed behind after muttering something about attending to the young werewolf.
Just before they left the training building, Avery told Sid and Warren. “I know that guy who tackled us.”
“Who is he?” Sid asked as they dashed out the door.
“He was an agent of Purity, before we blew their main lab up. I met him on the island.”
Sid wanted to know more, and he felt his eyes widen from the news.
“There he is!” Warren pointed to the hill that led toward the sex bazaar. Their quarry stood atop it briefly then slipped out of sight.
Sid decided to ask questions of Avery later. Now was definitely not the time. The man slipped out of sight behind the hill and they ran after him.
A crossroads lay just before the sex bazaar, and their quarry veered down the right fork instead of the left. Here the road grew rougher and the air grew drier. Sage brush and cacti began dotting the landscape. Soon these gave way to arid sand dunes and a complete lack of visible plant, animal, or monster life anywhere.
Sid began to slow down, heart thumping hard. He looked to Avery as he stopped. Before them was a barrier made of snarled barbed wire, a wooden fence that was half assed nailed together and, behind this, a thick border made of sandbags and a potpourri of jagged metal junk designed to keep trespassers out.
“We aren’t going in there,” Sid said, not missing the perplexed look Warren cast him, or the slightly concerned one he received from Avery.
“Why not?” Warren asked.
“We’ll talk to Richard first,” Avery said. “Get a plan together and some suitable gear. We can’t go into the Sands of Aziza without reinforcements.”
“Why not?” Warren whirled on Sid and Avery, hands on his hips, obviously annoyed at their lack of answers.
“Because it’s haunted by disembodied djinn who will kiss you tenderly while they rip your intestines out.”
“Oh.” Warren appeared overwhelmed by Sid’s response. “Guess you’d wanna be prepared for that kind of welcome.”
“Come on,” Avery said, turning away from the barrier. “Let’s go see how Richard’s doing. Granted, he’s not my favorite person in the Underground, but he might need some help with the werewolf kid.”
Back at the training center, they found a rumpled Richard in one of the changing rooms. He was stooped over a scared looking, skinny man tied to a chair. The young man looked younger than the twenty years of age Richard said he was. He had wide brown eyes and a bald head peppered with dark stubble. His cheeks were ruddy and baby smooth. Even sitting down Sid could tell he was tall and lean. Probably just under Avery’s height but less than half the giant troll’s size.
“Will you kindly help me?” the frustrated Council Liaison glared at them all as they just stood there and stared at him. His hands flew over intricate knots, but there were quite a lot and he’d only managed to unfasten a few.
“Sorry, we were just chasing down the one you let get away,” Sid laid the sarcastic tone on heavily. “Perhaps you forgot that.”
Richard grumbled something unintelligible as they all gathered close and helped him untied the young man. Once he was free, he sprang from the chair, chest heaving with panic, and stood close to Richard.
“He wants to kill you all,” the young man whispered. “That’s why he brought us here. Why he encouraged me to request training with you three. To find the triad and wipe them out. He was going to kill me because he knew I discovered his plan.”
Sid felt compassion for the poor young man. He laid a hand on his shoulder and stared into his gleaming hazel eyes. When he did so, he received a vision that nearly knocked him to his knees. This werewolf was brought Underground for many reasons, and he was to be the new leader of the Council Hunters.
“What’s your name?” Sid asked, his voice shaking from the force of the prophecy he’d just witnessed.
“Harris,” the young man replied meekly, not meeting Sid’s eyes as he did so. “Harris O’ Connell.”
“Who was the man who just fled from here? Who was he really?”
Harris still avoided Sid’s gaze as he spoke. “His name is Garrity Tyler. He was from Purity. We both were. He saved me when the lab on the island blew up. I was one of Purity’s prisoners. He was one of their modified human experiments.”
“But he passed himself off as a werewolf,” Richard interjected.
Harris nodded. “Because he is. They used my DNA to turn him into one.”
Harris told them how Garrity nursed him back to health and brought him to Underground. Garrity had concocted the elaborate story about the wolf pack they’d been traveling with, and the troll attack that supposedly brought their pack down.
“He said we couldn’t say we were survivors of Purity,” Harris told them. “Said you would question our true motives then, and we’d never get into Underground.” The young man gave a bitter scoff at this. “And I believed him. Went right along with his scheme without question, cause he told me I’d been chosen.” The young man rolled his eyes.
Sid’s gut tightened and he revisited his recent flash of prophecy. “Chosen?”
Harris looked up at him with sad eyes. “Yeah, he said I was destined to be some Council Hunter. What a crock.”
Sid touched the boy’s shoulder again in a reassuring gesture. “Don’t be so sure everything Garrity told you was a lie.”
Harris, Warren, and Avery looked at him then, frowned, and spoke in unison, “What?”
Sid was too weary to explain, but Richard interrupted and saved the trouble. “Where is Garrity exactly?”
“He escaped into the Sands of Aziza,” Avery answered.
Richard paled and played with the cravat at his throat. “We’ll have to go in and get him.”
“We’ll need supplies,” Avery said. “You don’t go into the sands unprepared.”
“Do we really need to go in at all?” Sid blurted, hating the dubious stares it earned him. “Let’s face it, this Garrity doesn’t know what waits for him in the sands. He’ll be dead by tomorrow evening.”
Harris shook his head. “No offense, but you don’t know Garrity. That guy can survive anything.”
Richard gave Sid a disapproving look. “We have to make sure the threat to Underground is eliminated.”
Sid breathed hard. The back of his neck tingled with a faint tickle of doom. He remembered what happened last time he stepped onto the Sands of Aziza. A mission with Richard and Avery, back when he’d been in vampire training. A mission to retrieve a young gorgon who had run away and got lost in the Sands of Aziza. That expedition saw three monsters laid dead, their bodies torn beyond recognition. The young gorgon was never found.
He couldn’t be responsible for that again. What if he lost Warren and Avery in the sands this time?
He fisted his sweaty hands, frowned at the others in the room. “We aren’t going in there. I promised I’d never go back, never take anyone into that forsaken place. I stand by that promise.”
Then he stalked off, out of the training building, ignoring the shouts of his companions to “Come back.”
***
Sid sat on the floating bed, staring toward the window, when Warren and Avery came in. They sat on either side of him.
“We shouldn’t go in so close to Underground’s birthday,” Sid said. “The veils will be too thin. The djinn will be extra powerful.”
“You don’t even know the ghost djinn exist for sure,” Avery said, slipping a brawny arm across Sid’s shoulders. “That’s just a legend to keep people out of those cursed sands…”
Sid looked at the troll and frowned. “Besides, we have to attend that special early Underground birthday party at Council Headquarters. We can’t up and leave for the sands and miss that.”
“Wait a minute,” Warren piped up. “Is this birthday thing kinda like the human’s Christmas?”
Sid rubbed his chin and thought about that. “In a way, I suppose. We don’t celebrate the birthday of a holy child, but we celebrate the birth of our monster sanctuary. The day Underground was officially opened to all creatures seeking shelter.”
“So will there be presents and a tree?” Warren wore a sassy expression.
Avery growled at Warren. “Not the time, werewolf. Not the time.” Then he gathered Sid closer and stroked him tenderly. “It’ll be different this trip. We’ll get in and out quickly.”
Sid relished the warmth of the big monster’s body. He wanted to melt into it, but he could read the energy in the room. He had a good idea where things were going.
“Did you tell Warren about our last visit to the sands?” he whispered, his lips brushing over the light dusting of hair that covered the troll’s pec.
Warren’s hand slid up under Sid’s silky shirt. The werewolf cupped his bare waist. “Yes, he told me, and to protect Underground it’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
Now Sid definitely knew where this was going. He could read the energy in the room loud and clear. His companions planned to seduce him into saying yes to this suicide mission.
“So you’ve teamed with Lord Richard to bring me around, have you?” he said as the werewolf nipped and licked his neck. The hot stroke of tongue and sharp sting of teeth made him shiver.
“We need to do this together,” Avery told him, pushing him flat against the mattress and moving between his legs to remove his jeans.
In a few swift yanks, Sid lay naked from the waist down. “What if I refuse your advances?”
Warren chuckled. “Say no to sex? Sid, you lack that ability.”
Feeling peevish and cornered, Sid pushed the two away from him and leapt off the bed. “You underestimate my control.”
Avery huffed, briefly crossing his arms over his chest. “Fine, then we’ll make out in front of you.” He turned to Warren as he started to strip. “Let’s see how long it takes him to join us.”
The troll peeled tight jeans off sculpted thighs, then he yanked the werewolf’s white t-shirt off his sinewy chest. Next the troll scooped the werewolf into his arms and pulled him closer on the bed. He yanked Warren’s cargo pants and underwear off in one rough tug.
The sound of ripping and the scent of passion filled Sid’s head, making his senses swim. He fisted his hands and struggled to maintain control over his libido.
The werewolf freed the troll of his muscle hugging tank top, and soon their eager hands explored each other’s bodies.
Sid’s stomach tightened as the werewolf’s tongue traced over the contours of the troll’s pecs. With lips and tongue, he next teased the troll’s nipples. The werewolf’s hand curled around his lover’s cock, who returned the grip with his own seeking fingers. They stroked each other rock hard as the werewolf licked the lines of definition in the troll’s abs.
The vampire’s cock tingled in his pants and began to stiffen. He moaned in his torment, but he still made no move toward his lovers. He watched on and tried desperately to ignore his growing horniness.
Never one to receive pleasure without giving it, the troll scooped the werewolf off his
knees and the werewolf gave a surprised squeak as his lover laid him flat on the mattress. The writhing pair now pressed up against Sid’s legs. As they positioned themselves for a 69, Sid inhaled sharply. His cock twitched harder still.
The pair rolled over so he had a great view of the werewolf sucking the troll’s massive, veiny cock. He groaned again as he watched the werewolf thoroughly lave the bulging blue veins snaking underneath taut, pinkish brown skin.
“Are we getting to you yet, Sid?” Warren lifted his head long enough to cast the vampire a sultry look.
“I’m like stone,” Sid murmured, hating the way the rasp in his voice betrayed him.
The werewolf smirked at this and ran his tongue all over the troll’s balls before lapping at his shaft until pre-cum jetted faster from his cock head. As the vampire watched, his breathing grew shallow and rapid.
While the werewolf gave the troll an expert blow job, one of the troll’s hands slipped up the vampire’s jean clad thigh. “Come on,” the troll coaxed. “You know you want to join us.” Then he went back to poking his tongue in the werewolf’s asshole while fondling his perineum.
Finally the vampire could take it no longer. The troll’s long, thick fingers made their way farther up his thigh and teasingly brushed against his balls. He felt his ramrod stiff cock spurt pre-cum in his silky boxers. After another strangled moan escaped his throat, the vampire shucked his jeans, underwear, and silk shirt to get in on the action.
But as he ran a hand down the werewolf’s rippling, sweat dampened back, the troll said, “Oh wait. Didn’t we tell you? You can’t partake unless you say yes.” His wide smile was positively evil.
Sid crossed arms over his bare chest and scowled. “Say yes to what?”
“Our mission in the Sands of Aziza of course.”
He hissed through gnashing teeth, “You’re a right pair of bastards.”
The troll chuckled. “Now you just sound like Lord Richard.”
The werewolf pulled his mouth away from the troll cock, which now shone from a film of spit. “So you in or not?” He, too, wore a smile full of wickedness.
Surrender Boxed Set (Surrender Series Volume 1 - 7. BDSM romance with man love, bad boys, and billionaires.) Page 53
