by Joey W. Hill
Rand’s legs were splayed out, showing his replete cock and testicles. The collar rubbed against the fang marks that Cai had somehow sealed to keep them from bleeding, but the snug hold of the strap increased their dull throbbing, a hammer reminder in his brain that he’d just fed a vampire. And was being held somewhat pinned by one as he jacked off, studying Rand with keen desire.
“Fuck, you’d make a hell of a guard dog, wolf. Chained up in my yard, ready for my cock anytime I wanted to take you. If I had a home and a yard. But the fantasy…”
Cai’s eyes drifted half closed, and he kept stroking his cock. Though Rand’s cock couldn’t revive that fast, the strong ripple of reaction in his upper thighs and deep in his loins said he’d remember this vividly when he was ready. He could fight against the chains, get loose.
“Try, wolf. I like to watch you try.”
He felt that cloak of heat, this time over his arms and chest where the chains dug in. The vampire had done that binding thing, but it didn’t feel as…immovable. Rand tried to get loose. He didn’t succeed, but there was enough give that he kept trying. Or maybe he kept trying because of the way the vampire’s desire grew, the more he watched Rand’s muscles bunch, the more he struggled…
He was not getting hard again. It was impossible, but there it was. The more Cai worked himself, the more logic and anything human in Rand took a backseat, leaving him to a hot, simmering feeling somewhere between anger, lust and need.
“There you are. Let me have that. It’s like nectar from your mind. Fuck…”
Cai’s head tipped back and he came, his seed fountaining over his fist. Rand wet his lips. A flash of images went through his mind, and he hoped they came from the vampire, because the alternative was unthinkable.
Cai putting him on the ground, chained and collared, forcing his cock into Rand’s mouth, hand on his hair as he demanded that Rand take him, suck him off.
He turned his face away, closing his eyes. That was not something he fantasized about. Not ever. He’d fantasied about doing it to Dylef, and they’d done something similar a couple times, but not quite that…forceful.
“But you wanted to, didn’t you? Just like you kind of want me to try and force you to it, because a fighter likes to fight, on either side of the equation.”
Cai’s eyes went to slits as Rand’s attention returned to him. The vampire rose, jeans still open, and moved to the nearby creek, squatting to wash his hands. “Time to let you go so you can finish your dinner. Then I think it’s time to drink some Jack. I’ve been carrying a bottle for a couple weeks and I’m tired of toting it around. We can share. It’ll help you sleep and forget about me for a while. Promise.”
He smiled, an easy, uncomplicated gesture that took Rand off guard. Rising, Cai fastened his jeans before coming to him and loosening the chains. When he unbuckled the collar, his fingers caressed Rand’s throat. The feeling was different from earlier. Quieter, but no less intense. Rand felt a tightness in his chest he didn’t understand.
Cai nodded. “A collar isn’t always about subjugation, taming. Sometimes it just means belonging. You’re a pack animal, Rand. Everything to you is about belonging.”
“Vampires aren’t like that?”
Cai scoffed. “Alone is better for us. We’re vicious killers, Rand.” His mouth tightened, though he kept the same light, I-don’t-give-a-damn tone. “Some of the vampires pretend to be civilized so they can live in the human world. Then they get surprised when they try to tear one another apart. But maybe all of us humanoids have that problem.” Cai studied him. “Except one like you.”
He retrieved the meat and broth, bringing it back to Rand. “There. Put this away. Then we’ll talk about our lives and feelings, the way self-respecting males do it. With a stranger and copious amounts of alcohol.”
Chapter Four
“So how did you lose your pack, wolf?” Cai gestured with the half-empty bottle of Jack and Rand took it, indulging another long, generous swig that helped the swirling, pleasant numbness along.
“You can finish it,” the vampire said. “Had all I need.”
Rand nodded. He’d eaten the rest of the rabbit and, as the night deepened, Cai had brought out the Jack Daniels. They didn’t talk about too much of import at first. Cai asked him some more about what Rand knew of vampires and servants. At first, Rand thought Cai was testing him, determining the extent of his knowledge, but the vampire’s follow up questions and curiosity suggested he wasn’t aware of a lot of stuff about the relationship between vampires and servants. Curious.
The firelight got even more wavy. Rand was feeling sleepy. He could ignore the vampire’s latest question, about the loss of his pack. Answering it would hurt too much. Thanks to the alcohol, maybe not quite as much as it usually did, but still. If he had to choose between a rusty knife excising his organs, or a truck running over him, backing up and doing it again, he’d tried to avoid either. He asked his own question instead.
“Tell me why you’re not hanging out with your own kind.”
“Vampires aren’t pack animals.” The vamp made it sound like an insult, but Rand ignored the goad.
“Yeah, but you still usually have a servant or belong to a territory. Network or that type of thing, with others of your kind.”
“Network.” Cai let out a short laugh, amused but ugly. “Your vocabulary wasn’t entirely lost while you were four-legged. That’s a hell of a word to describe vampire social skills. But okay. You tell me your touchy-feely sob story and I’ll tell you whatever closely approximates it from my sad, wasted life. But you have to go first or no deal.”
“You”—Rand pointed at him, squinting a little—“are a miserable bastard.”
“Yeah. But I’m good at fucking. Admit it.”
Rand snorted. “So’s a deodorant bottle, you lube it up enough.”
Cai chuckled, leaning back on his palms on the other side of the fire. He had his legs stretched out and ankles crossed in a far-too-appealing way. He seemed to like the jeans-only, no-shirt look. Maybe because he knew that it kept drawing Rand’s attention. His laughter was genuine, though, inspiring Rand to grin at him. “Now I get it,” Cai said. “You hadn’t had a good deodorant bottle in months. I happened along…”
“And I couldn’t control myself.” Rand nodded vigorously and drained the last of the Jack.
“Need to take you to a sex toy store, wolf. They’ve made some serious improvements on that bottle idea.”
When Rand’s cheeks warmed, Cai’s brows lifted. “You’ve never?”
“Of course not. I don’t…we didn’t…”
“Ever been to a strip club?”
“No.” Sheba would have taken a strip off their hides. But it was more than that. “The noise and scents…they’re unpleasant. A co-worker who didn’t know what I was tried to take me once. Dirty place at an old truck stop. No windows. Closed in.”
“Ah. They’ve made a lot of improvements on the venue, too.” Cai’s gaze glittered behind the leaping flames. He was looking at Rand as if he’d told the vampire he was a virgin, but thankfully, Cai moved on. “While I nurse my bruised feelings about being equated to a toiletry item, tell me more about shifters. Beyond the fact they avoid human vices. Except for drinking.”
Rand studied the bottle. When it had been half full, the reflected firelight had danced through the remaining liquid. Becoming a wolf was where he went when he needed to grieve, so he hadn’t indulged the bottle much, hadn’t used that crutch. He wasn’t much of a drinker, so he guessed he didn’t have a good tolerance for it. The vampire was having no problems. Oh, he was acting friendly and mellow, but those sharp eyes were just as sharp. Maybe vampires didn’t get drunk; they just used alcohol to take the edge off. Well, no argument with that. He kind of wished Cai had another bottle, but refused to ask.
Start with the easier stuff, he thought to himself. He didn’t have to start at all. But maybe it was the intimacy-of-strangers stuff, the alcohol, the fucking. Cai saving his lif
e and knowing so much about him already, so fast. He knew he was going to talk. So might as well do it. He’d likely regret it.
“Pack leaders are hetero.” Rand moved his attention from the bottle to the flame. Trying to keep the images in his head to a minimum. “Just the way it is. You have to produce pups to keep the pack strong, right? And wolves just aren’t… There aren’t many of them like me. But I found one. Dylef. That’s probably getting ahead of things, though. You don’t know much about shifters.”
“Only what I know from the one I found in the forest. Clever and violent. They bleed. Stubborn as hell. Made-for-sex body when the fur goes away.” Cai’s gaze slid over Rand’s chest and down to his genitals. “Well, when most of it goes away. I like the pelt that remains. Start with the general stuff,” he added quietly, uncomfortably reinforcing Rand’s own thought. “Work up to the other.”
“Not going to tell you the other.” Rand lifted the bottle, remembered it was empty, set it down again. “Shifters are kind of like vampires. Most of us are born shifters. Bitten people don’t shift unless they consent, are approved by a pack and are brought in to do the ritual for it. And it doesn’t always take.”
Cai pursed his lips. He had a good mouth. A distracting one. “Does a born shifter come out in a litter of puppies or as a human baby?”
“A litter.” Rand nodded at his expression of surprise. “Once the female conceives, she can stay in human form for a little while, but eventually she has to shift. She’ll stay a wolf through their birth and weaning. The pack remains close, in either form, during that time, because she’s unable to defend herself without risking the pregnancy. Maybe because of the mix of anatomy, it’s hard to carry a shifter litter to full term. About one out of every five conceptions results in a litter, and most often it’s the alpha male and female in a pack who manage it.”
He shrugged at Cai’s curious look. “No idea why, but wolf wolves—”
“Is that the official term for wolves that aren’t shifters?”
“Not officially.” Rand ignored Cai’s smirk. “Shut up if you want me to tell you. Non-shifter wolves usually only have one breeding pair per pack, and it’s the alpha male and female. They lose about sixty percent of their litters to starvation or predators.”
Not being able to supply food for his family. That was a problem he hadn’t had. Before…everything that had happened, he’d thought about the non-shifter wolves, and how awful it would be to have a pup die merely because you weren’t fast enough, couldn’t find enough game…
“I guess that’s part of why shifters have been able to stay so invisible. Low population.” Cai’s voice drew him away from that darkness. Rand focused on the vampire, saw the blue eyes watching him, watching him deep. But not in a mean way.
“Yeah.” Rand resumed his explanation. “When she shifts back to human is when the pups shift to human for the first time.”
At Cai’s fascinated expression, the corner of Rand’s mouth tugged up. “You know how some mothers don’t want to give up on breast feeding? Well, the wolf version of that is the mother wolf who holds off on that first shift as long as possible. Part of it is because it’s hugely stressful. The babies have no control over it. It’s a compulsion that hits them when the mother shifts that first time. One moment they’re a wolf puppy, the next, they’re a human baby, a few months old. If the pups are healthy, it’s rarely fatal, but for the first couple days they’re pretty freaked out and need a lot of attention.”
“I’d think it would be the mother who would be freaked out, suddenly having a volleyball team of human babies.”
Rand chuckled. “We don’t have more than three or four in a litter, but that’s still a lot. It’s why having pack members is critical at that time. When she does the shift, the event is planned. All hands are on deck to help with the transition. There’s a celebration. Like a birthday party for the pups, an accolade to the mother and her mate. The pups are communally raised. Which is good. It means everyone gets a chance to be parents, even if they can’t conceive or bring a litter to term.”
“So when do they shift back to wolves again?” Cai asked. His questions about less personal aspects of Rand’s life was giving Rand more space to breathe. Maybe he didn’t have to talk about the other stuff. He laid his spinning head back on the tree behind him.
“About five years old. They shift back and forth with no control, which means they’re closely monitored until they get a handle on it. That happens around puberty. Most pups are home schooled until they reach their teens. Until then, stress or unpleasant emotion can flip the switch.” Rand pushed that thought away, again avoiding the dark chasm that waited beyond it.
“Once they learn control, what’s to stop them from doing it to impress their human friends? They’re still teenagers.”
“Yes, but far more mature than kids at that age. If you think about it, a non-shifter wolf lives to be somewhere between ten and eighteen, depending on how tough life is on them. While we have a human’s longevity, there’s a certain level of accelerated maturation for pups. A thirteen-year-old shifter is about a decade ahead of their human counterparts, at least in impulse control. The bond with the parents is also extremely strong. They defer to them on all decisions until they’re old enough to establish an adult role in the pack.”
“Ah.” Cai shifted, lacing his fingers behind his head. Bare-chested and bathed by firelight, it increased the distraction effect. Things probably weren’t helped by Rand’s nakedness, where every reaction he had to the vampire was all the more noticeable. But Cai hadn’t offered him clothes, and seemed to prefer him like this, another unsettling message.
Rand’s mouth was dryer than it should be. Cai must be hearing Rand’s thoughts, but his expression gave nothing away. Holding the upper hand. The vampire was just dominant by nature. He didn’t really understand the significance of it, the gravity that attended such dominance. Which was why Rand resented his own reaction to it, the craving it opened in him. He was craving an illusion, and his brain was too fogged by grief and alcohol to care.
“Want to come sit over here?” Cai asked.
Rand shook his head. “Time for you to tell your sob story.”
“Let me get a few more details of yours. Mine’s boring.”
“You’re avoiding.”
“Maybe. But I find you far more interesting than me. Where were you born?”
Rand gave him a look, but relented. It was an easier question. “Colorado. Lost my parents early, car crash. But the new alpha of the pack, my father’s beta Sylvan, did okay for a while. He had Sheba, his alpha female, and she was tough as nails. Dylef was accepted into the pack soon after that. He had left a pack in Washington state when there was a change of leadership. I met him one night on a run in the forest.”
Rand paused, remembering it. He liked to run on his own at times, and that had been one of them. When the unfamiliar scent crossed his path, he tracked it. Dylef had shifted to human, and was bathing in a deep-water creek, the noise and wind direction masking Rand’s approach.
Dylef had a wolf tattoo that stretched across the broadest part of his back. If Rand closed his eyes, he could almost reach out, trail his fingers along it like he had then, for he’d shifted, too. Come slowly into the water, the two of them staring at one another, knowing. As rare as shifters were, what they were—male wolves who preferred males—was even rarer. It didn’t make Rand desperate. He had had hookups with human males to take the edge off, but inhaling the scent of a fellow wolf who looked at him with sexual interest, the way he looked right back at him…
His instincts had led him. He’d drawn closer, stood before Dylef, met his gaze. Dylef had not spoken, but after some long, weighted moments, punctuated by the sounds of the creek, the wind and the birdsong, he’d averted his gray eyes just enough, dipped his head. Rand had leaned in, pressed his nose to his crown, inhaled. Dylef had dark blond hair, a little long, and it tickled Rand’s nose. He liked everything he smelled, and he let his m
outh drift to his ear, nipped there, nipped the neck. Nudged him so he turned, so Rand could trail his fingers down his back. Over the tattoo.
Then, with a tilt of his head and playful flash of his eye, Dylef bolted from the water, shifting beautifully into a silver and white wolf. Rand had leaped after him, and the chase, the beginning…had begun.
He’d been quiet for a while, he realized. The crickets were chirping, the fire making its soft crackling, popping noise. It had been warm for a fire tonight, but the vampire seemed to like having one and Rand didn’t object to the ambient light.
“Then Grey came in.” He should have left it there, but something brought forth the words.
“Grey? His parents stretched themselves on that name. I guess Wolfgang was taken.”
“Yeah.” But Rand didn’t smile. He turned the bottle in his hands, watching the firelight get captured and released by the glass.
“Grey came from an urban pack. They’re a different, harder breed, less connected to the land, stronger footholds in human culture. He’d been run out of there by a stronger alpha. Well, a stronger alpha and a team of betas that knew he was bad news. He was tossed out with three or four male wolves who became his betas. Big, mean. Street smart. If they were the weaker members of the pack, I’d never want to meet the alpha, though I applaud his decision to kick Grey’s ass out. Just wish he’d killed him instead, but I guess even the urbans have a strong code on that. There aren’t enough of us to be killing one another over anything less than the gravest offenses. At that time, I guess Grey hadn’t crossed that line.”
“Too bad you can’t kill someone for future crimes, right?”
Rand’s gaze shifted to Cai. He wasn’t surprised the vampire was already putting it together. It wasn’t a hard story to follow, or even all that unique of one. Didn’t make the pain any less.
