Aaron had rushed in without thinking, which was a good way to get killed.
He steeled his nerves and let the rock fly into the air. It wouldn’t hit Valen. Aaron wasn’t fast enough to harm the wolf. No storytelling could have prepared him for the speed of a shifter in beast form, or the size of it. Add in intelligence that was a blend of human and deadly predator? Aaron was merely stalling his own demise.
He should have ridden out with everyone else.
The second werewolf came out from the thorny brush, arcing around to the left. They were going to pen him in. It wouldn’t be difficult. Aaron was up in a tree, and if he simply dropped to the ground and ran, he’d be caught in no time. He truly hadn’t thought out his retreat.
No wonder his parents hadn’t let him leave the village before this. He was an idiot when it came to combat and survival skills.
He fired off another rock then realized he had lost sight of Valen. An ominous feeling came over him and goosebumps prickled his skin. Rivvie was still to the left, though he was much closer now, and Aaron forced himself to do the one thing that he was suddenly very afraid to do.
He looked down. “Shit!” Aaron’s heartbeat tripled and he actually had a split-second of dizziness from it, or the fear tearing at his innards.
Valen leaped, his long claws digging easily into the tree bark. His fangs were bared, and anger snapped in his yellow eyes.
Aaron tried to scamper farther down the limb only to give up on that plan since the branch was too thin and weak to hold his weight very far from the trunk. Panicking, he dropped his slingshot and, shortly thereafter, lost his grip. Aaron closed his eyes.
Gods and demons, he was dead meat.
And he only had himself to blame. It seemed odd that in the moment his body slammed onto the ground, Aaron only felt relief. He wasn’t going to live to disappoint either himself or his family. In a few seconds, all the truly awful fears he’d lived with for so long would cease to matter. He could only find comfort in that. Aaron closed his eyes and hoped that dying didn’t hurt too much.
He heard the thud of Valen leaping from the tree, maybe even felt the ground quake a little, it was hard to tell when he was shaking like his bones were trying to break out and make a run for it. While he wasn’t afraid exactly, his body was trying to kick into flight mode.
His mind told it to knock that crap off and let his troubles end.
Strange sounds reached him. Aaron didn’t dare to open his eyes. He didn’t want to see death coming for him.
“Open your eyes.”
The roughly spoken command had to have come from Valen. Aaron had heard him speak before and it sounded like him.
“Rivvie, back off. Find my bag, and if you can’t, find the trail of the person who has it.”
Aaron wanted to look, to see what expression was on Valen’s face. Was he as handsome as Aaron had thought? With dark hair and masculine features, Valen had seemed very appealing from a distance—at least physically.
“I said—”
A sudden weight settled on Aaron’s stomach. He snapped his eyes open at the same moment that Valen grabbed his wrists.
Valen pinned them to the ground above Aaron’s head.
Aaron had the strangest reaction to that, his groin warming with arousal as his penis began to grow erect. It was every nightmare he had about being discovered. Panic chased the blood in his veins as he stared into still-glowing yellow eyes.
In the darkness, he couldn’t make out Valen’s features so well now. When the moonlight had been on Valen earlier, Aaron had seen shadowed, handsome features. Now, with the moon behind Valen, very little showed in his face except for those bright orbs and long white fangs.
Even as a man, this shifter keeps his fangs. Aaron registered the fact with some intention of passing the knowledge along to his village mates until he remembered that he was about to die.
Hot, harsh breaths warmed Aaron’s heated cheeks even more as Valen bent over him.
“Where is my bag?” Valen demanded, his voice as rough as the grip he had on Aaron’s wrists. “Where is it?”
Aaron’s mouth and throat were so dry he couldn’t even swallow, much less speak.
“Where?” Valen snarled. He squeezed harder on Aaron’s wrists.
Pain began to shoot up and down Aaron’s arms.
Valen leaned even closer, and Aaron could now make out the thick brows over narrowly slitted eyes, the bold nose and thin lips. Valen had broad cheekbones and a square chin that either had a dip in the center of it that softened his features somehow.
Aaron licked his lips. He was old enough to know what was going on inside himself even if he hadn’t ever experienced anything quite like it before. Arousal was building in him and he couldn’t control it. His cock swelled beneath the loose pants he wore, and his balls seemed to throb with the need to have someone touch them.
No, not someone. It was the dominant man pinning him to the ground that Aaron yearned to give himself to.
Once acknowledged, the truth terrified Aaron. He bucked and kicked, thrashed and yelled, all to no avail.
“You’re going nowhere until I have my bag back,” Valen snapped, slamming Aaron’s wrists against the ground. “Fight all you want. You’re only going to hurt yourself.”
Aaron tried to hook a leg around Valen and pull him off.
Valen tightened his hold even more.
Aaron cried out, unused to such harsh treatment. “Stop!”
“Then give me what I want.”
Oh, that dark, demanding voice sent a jolt of desire shooting up from Aaron’s balls to his lungs, making breathing an impossibility.
“Holding your breath won’t save you,” Valen said with something that sounded very much like disgust. “Fight like an adult, not a tantrum-throwing child.”
Aaron gasped as Valen slid back an inch. It wasn’t much, just enough so that Valen’s buttocks pressed against the bulge of Aaron’s erection.
“I could be wrong, but I don’t think he’s hating you, Valen,” Rivvie said from somewhere off to the right. “Then again, humans are weird, so what do I know?”
Valen stared down at Aaron with an intensity that made every particle of Aaron’s insides quiver. Anticipation and fear coiled tightly in his chest as his dick hardened even more.
Valen was completely nude, a fact that Aaron couldn’t miss. There was hot, naked man on him, holding him down, almost sitting right on top of Aaron’s aching shaft.
Never looking away from Aaron, Valen asked, “Did you find it?”
Rivvie chuckled. “Oh yeah. The other humans aren’t far off. Guess they thought they’d hang around and—”
“Please,” Aaron finally got out, his voice cracking. “Don’t hurt them.”
Valen bared his teeth at Aaron and emitted a rumbling noise that didn’t carry a hint of anything pleasant in it.
“Anyway,” Rivvie continued, “it only took a few growls and they were practically pissing themselves. Humans don’t seem overly bright, no surprise I guess, considering how they almost did themselves in. I mean, if there was a big wolf barking and growling at me, and lunging for a leather bag I held, and I was a puny Human? Yeah, I’d toss that bag down so fast it wouldn’t have time to make a thump when it landed.”
“Rivvie, enough. Check the contents.” Valen still hadn’t so much as blinked.
“What was in it?” Rivvie asked.
Aaron had to try again. He was worried for the others and hadn’t been assured that they wouldn’t be harmed. “Please, don’t hurt them. It was—is—my fault.”
“Of course it is,” Valen agreed darkly. “You stole from me.”
“You got it back!” Aaron yelped when his wrists were squeezed painfully again. His throat ached and his stupid dick was more rigid than ever before. Was he turned on by the fear he was feeling? Just how twisted was he?
Aaron wasn’t certain he wanted to know the answer to that question. Then Valen raked him with a look that tore down every ar
gument Aaron had for keeping his desires hidden. If Valen wanted to touch him, to do things to him, and he held Aaron captive while doing so, then Aaron had no choice but to accept it, didn’t he?
It was a perfect excuse to experience the things he’d longed for without the responsibility for choosing to do so. First, he had to make sure that neither he nor his friends would be killed. Dying wasn’t what he had in mind anymore, not at all.
Chapter Three
It wasn’t just the penis prodding at his backside that proved the man beneath Valen was turned on. There was the thick, heady scent of his arousal that filled Valen’s lungs every time he inhaled. His own cock was beginning to rise, and that wasn’t acceptable to him.
He’s a thief. A human. He’s—
“My name is Aaron.”
Valen blinked.
Aaron nodded jerkily. “That’s my name, Aaron Olsen. I’m twenty-two, which is getting up there for us, I know. I…” He coughed and winced. When he swallowed, his throat clicked in a way that sounded painful. “I’m sorry,” Aaron rasped. “I’m really sorry and—”
Valen wiggled his hips. There was still a decent-sized erection behind him. “And this?”
Aaron’s face darkened with a blush and he closed his eyes as he turned his head aside. “Just do it quickly.”
“It?” Valen pursed his lips, thinking over what exactly ‘it’ could refer to. Did the human—Aaron Olsen—did he think Valen was going to kill him? If that were the case, why was Aaron turned on? Valen could make no sense of the man beneath him. “It what?” Asking for clarification would be better than playing stupid guessing games.
“You never told me what was in the bag,” Rivvie reminded him. “I’m seeing another talisman pouch, or maybe that’s medicines. Or seeds. I can’t read, you know that, but there’s a label. Some tools and weapons, knives, flints, stuff like that. The first utensils and drinking vessels for when you’ve established your home, you know, those carved wooden ones Ashley does. Oh! And Father sent a headband for you! That’s so cool. There’s three, actually, so I guess you, your mate, and your shaman once you find her or him. Wow, I’m so jealous. I want shiny stones like these in something. Why is it only the alphas and their mates that get these?”
“And the shaman,” Valen felt compelled to add.
Rivvie snorted. “Well yeah, shamans get whatever they want. No one with any sense screws them over.”
Aaron frowned.
Valen didn’t like that. The man was attractive, and he had full lips that should either be parted on ecstasy-fueled moans or tipped up in a smile.
Then again, Valen was still holding his wrists and straddling him.
“I guess that’s all of it,” Valen answered his brother finally. “I didn’t look in it before I left. Didn’t have time. Sounds like the parting gifts an alpha would receive, though.”
“I’d have been digging in this sucker the second I was free of Father’s property. You have too much patience. And there’s still this thing going on.” Rivvie’s footsteps were light.
Valen still heard him approach.
Aaron yelped and jerked under Valen.
Valen hated to take his gaze off Aaron, but he had to. “What the hells did you just do?” He glared over his shoulder at Rivvie, who was squatting behind him and to Aaron’s right.
“I poked that.” Rivvie’s arm moved. “He’s got a hard-on.”
“Stop!” Aaron shrieked.
Valen growled, the sound escaping him before he even knew he was making it.
“Sor-reeee,” Rivvie muttered. “I didn’t know if it was a dick or a weapon. Your species are big on weapons, right?”
“Did you just touch his—?” Valen couldn’t go on, so taken aback was he by Rivvie’s behavior.
“I wasn’t sure that’s what I was poking,” Rivvie reasoned. “What if it was a poisonous snake or a wombat?”
Valen wanted to bang his head against the nearest tree, or, better yet, bang Rivvie’s against it. “You’ve never even seen a wombat! For all we know, they aren’t real!
“Never saw a Human before now, either,” Rivvie said. “He looks real to me. Have you ever seen a wombat, Human?”
“Aaron, my name is Aaron.” Aaron coughed again.
“What’s wrong with you?” Valen asked him.
“Thirsty.” Aaron hacked. He turned his head back toward Valen. “Not that it matters. You’re going to kill me anyway.”
That seemed to answer the question regarding what ‘it’ was. “I’m not killing you. Why would you have an erection if you thought I was going to kill you?”
“I didn’t!” Aaron shouted, although not very loudly, as his voice seemed to be going out on him. “I— You— It’s— You’re naked!”
Valen was definitely naked. He was also gay, which didn’t mean he wanted to fuck every naked guy he saw. The very idea made him want to shudder, considering some of the people he knew were well into their senior years.
Aaron, however, had attracted him from the first scent Valen had had of the man.
“I am indeed naked.” Valen canted his hips, rubbing his balls and butt over Aaron’s groin. “And killing you is the last thing on my mind. Fucking you would be more along the lines of what the both of us want.”
Aaron’s eyes were huge, and if Valen wasn’t mistaken, they were a dark blue. His night vision in wolf form was very acute, and he’d been able to discern that much about Aaron’s features while pursuing him. Aaron was not as big as he’d appeared to be while on horseback. Valen liked the size difference between them. While Valen was of average height, Aaron was a good few inches shorter than him, sparsely muscled and not like any shifter Valen had ever seen.
“I don’t want that,” Aaron denied. He pressed his lips together until they no longer looked plump, they were merely a thin line.
Valen knew the man was locking his jaw to prevent admitting the truth. Aaron did indeed want Valen. The proof of it was in the air, in his eyes, in the hard, eager length of his dick.
Valen wasn’t one to force himself on anyone. No one with an ounce of respect for themselves or others would do such a thing.
Yet he wasn’t able to let Aaron go. “Is it because I’m a shifter?”
Aaron shook his head, his nostrils flaring.
Valen arched an eyebrow at him and leaned down until he was almost nose to nose with Aaron.
Aaron shivered and a bare hint of a whimper slipped past his lips.
Valen grinned slowly, letting it convey his own eagerness to fuck. “Is it because you’re a virgin?”
Aaron went wild under him, slamming his head up and grunting.
Valen was faster. He jerked back and lay fully on Aaron, using his greater weight to keep the man from escaping. “Stop. I’m no rapist. Calm down.”
For whatever reason, the words only added to Aaron’s panic.
“I don’t think he’s right upstairs,” Rivvie said, moving to stand just beyond Aaron’s fingertips. “You know, he’s crazy? A few twigs short of a nest? Or maybe he only has a few twigs in the first place and it’s not even enough for kindling, and he thinks it’s a nest.”
Valen blocked out Rivvie’s babbling and concentrated on Aaron, who showed no signs of calming. Valen truly feared that Aaron would hurt himself.
“Enough,” Valen roared when Aaron almost nutted him, driving a boney knee against the inside of Valen’s thigh. Aaron was wriggly and sweaty, and Valen’s grip was becoming more tenuous with each passing moment. “Enough!” he repeated.
The second time, Aaron finally obeyed. He went limp as plucked flowers left out in the sun all day.
Valen smelled salt, and saw the tracks of tears on Aaron’s cheeks. Guilt assailed him. He was brutalizing someone weaker and smaller than himself. And why? Because he didn’t want to let Aaron go. Was that the kind of alpha he intended to be?
Aaron’s not pack. Not mine. Deep inside, his wolf made its unhappiness with those claims known, snarling like a mad beast. Telling
himself to calm down just as Aaron had, Valen began rubbing his thumbs along the insides of Aaron’s wrists. The skin there was smoother than anything else Valen had ever felt, and he could feel Aaron’s pulse at certain points.
“I’ve no intention of hurting you in any way,” Valen finally said. “I’ll let go of you if you promise not to run.”
Aaron sniffled and gave the barest bob of his head in agreement.
“All right. Understand, there is no reason for me to exact revenge. I have my belongings back.” After another few seconds, Valen regretfully loosened his grip on Aaron’s wrists. He liked touching the man, but he really disliked the tears. And, Valen scolded himself mentally, he really needed to act like the kind of alpha he intended to be. No, the kind he was. Rivvie was part of his pack now and Valen should be setting an example. A good one, rather.
Aaron’s cheeks were wet when Valen fully let go of him. Valen moved off Aaron and sat beside him instead. “Are you hurt, or scared?” He suspected it was a mix of both. He had been forceful at first as he’d held onto Aaron.
Aaron sniffed again then scrubbed at the tears on his face. He rubbed his eyes and sat up.
Rivvie propped his hands on his hips while looking down at Aaron. “You’re kinda puny. So were the others. Are all humans scrawny?”
“Rivvie, fetch some water for Aaron Olsen.” The novelty of a last name had Valen wanting to say it.
“With what?” Rivvie asked. “All there is for carrying water is the—”
“Then use it,” Valen snapped, losing all patience with Rivvie.
Rivvie crouched and glared at him. “No. That would make this place your home, and you know you can’t live close to another pack. You and Father would have to fight, at some point.”
For being such a jokester at times, Rivvie could be direct and articulate, too—usually right when Valen didn’t want him to be. “It’s just a gods-be-damned cup, Rivvie. It doesn’t choose my home. I choose it.”
“Because using the cup—” Rivvie flapped a hand at him. “Oh, never mind. You’re going to be stubborn. I’ll figure something out. Like, I don’t know. Throwing Aaron over my shoulder to carry him to the stream, or oh! How about this? He can walk!”
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