by Cooper Davis
Josh was a model of determination. “Come on, man,” he said forcefully. “One more go before you hit the road.” Joshua studied him with a greedy, sensual expression. “It’s cold outside, but my bed is all warmed up for you.” He patted the rumpled sheets in invitation, just as he’d done a few hours before. “There’s even a little whiskey left. Imagine how warm you’ll feel with me between your legs again. Of course, there’s always that snow-covered, frigid SUV of yours out there.” Josh lazed backward, spreading his legs open, his rigid cock falling against his taut abdomen. He gave his erection a slow, sensual tug, never taking his gaze off Hayden. “Your choice, college boy.”
Hayden’s whole body tightened in lusty agreement, his jeans becoming like a vise about his groin. But a quick glance at his watch tamed his eager reaction, and had him pulling on his hiking boots. “It’s almost five-thirty, baby,” he said. “Got to get back to the folks, make up some excuses about where I’ll be…and then get right back to you. They’re gonna freak otherwise.”
“Tell them you belong to me now.”
“Shit, Joshua, they’re gonna smell you all over me if I’m not careful, but we’ve got to break this news slow and easy. And you know why.”
Josh had growled deep from his chest right then. “How long?” he asked in a frustrated tone. “’Cause just so you know, all I want right now is to have you to myself. All day long, you and me going at it, Garrett. I’m feeling extremely Alpha all of a sudden, and being patient has never been part of that instinct, at least not for me. So tell me how long you’ll be.” Another growl came from Josh’s core right then, deeper and more possessive than ever, one that lit Hayden up like a fireworks display. His whole body reacted, tensed as he caught a fresh waft of Josh’s marking scent.
“Stop that,” he warned in a thick voice, fumbling with his bootlaces. “Or I’ll never make it home.”
In a very firm voice, Josh issued one very powerful word—the most powerful word any Alpha could issue to another wolf. “Stay.”
Hayden’s blood ran even hotter at his lover’s commanding tone. Planting his right palm on the mattress, Hayden leaned low and nuzzled Josh with a sweet, gentle kiss. Josh’s tongue teased against his lips, his arms encircling Hayden’s shoulders to bring him much closer. Then, with a soft rumble, Josh lapped at Hayden’s cheek, nuzzling him back. Alpha to Alpha, they pressed their faces together, panting quickly.
Later, once they’d regained enough strength, they’d transform into their werewolf bodies and run together through the woods. Hayden’s heart hammered at the thought, and he only wished he possessed enough strength to call forth his wolf form right now. There’d be no going home if he could, though, so perhaps it was for the best that he was forced to remain human for now.
Still, when they were strong enough to transform, they’d roam the valley, the streams, the mountains together, all the while feeling the heat of the moon’s rays beating upon their sleek bodies. Hayden could barely wait to run wild with his mate.
Josh licked his throat with the tip of his tongue, making playful growling noises. “Stay,” he repeated, tugging on Hayden’s shoulders.
Hayden shook his head. “Can’t, baby. But you tell me when you want me back here,” Hayden groaned, “and this wolf will heel and comply.”
“Now.” Josh’s reply was a throaty rumble. “I want you now, Alpha. But you head back to your parents’ house ’cause you have to. Do your thing, then come right back home to me.”
Hayden cuffed the back of Josh’s nape with playful roughness. “An hour. Back in an hour.”
Josh nuzzled him again, running both hands through Hayden’s hair in a gesture of deep possession. “Too long. Faster.”
“The only timetable I’m on is yours, baby, so I’ll be quick.” Hayden laughed, knowing he would have to be the disciplined and focused one. He rattled off his duty list with quick efficiency. “Jump in the shower, grab clothes, deal with folks, back in an hour…or less.”
“Perfect timetable.” Joshua collapsed onto his back with a frustrated groan of desire. Then he propped his head on one elbow, giving Hayden an aroused, sensual grin. “Just know that this bad wolf will be waiting for you, feeling very hungry indeed.” He patted the empty place beside him on the bed. “And keeping the sheets warm.”
Hayden remembered staring at him for one long, last moment, then hurrying out the door. The world had seemed more open, more rich than hours before. He’d left Joshua’s small, warm house whistling contentedly. He could remember tossing his car keys into the air, feeling the deepest, truest completion he’d ever known in his life. Feeling beautiful and sexy and loved.
He belonged to Josh, he’d thought, his entire body humming with the spiritual and physical connection that occurred when two wolves mated for life. I’m his—and he is mine, he’d marveled, heading out to his SUV. After that, everything in Hayden’s mind turned as blank as a whiteout blizzard.
Timetable. The word clicked around in his head, familiar. Haunting. Timetable… The only timetable…
All at once, Hayden recalled Josh’s words to him the other day. When he’d shown up the day after their meeting in the bar. Josh had held him from behind, promising to woo him, swearing that he’d make Hayden understand just how much Josh loved him. He’d whispered the words in Hayden’s ear, brushing up against his nape like liquid heat.
The only timetable I’m on is yours. Timetable. The word echoed in his mind, haunting him, gaining painful new context. Joshua had repeated Hayden’s very own words from all those years ago, obviously trying to jog some forgotten memory from Hayden’s own mind.
Oh, God. Joshua had been referring to the night of their mating, a night Hayden had never remembered until now. What had Josh lived with, all these years, the memories alive and real to him? Knowing that those same experiences were all but dead to his mate?
It’s okay, baby. I remember now, Hayden pledged his lover. I will remember all of it, I promise. And then I will come hunting and prowling…for you, my mate. Only for you.
Chapter Ten
Five years earlier, December 30th, shortly after six a.m.
The headlights of Hayden’s SUV fanned across the remote two-lane, illuminating freshly fallen snow marked by a single set of tire tracks. The road was a remote one, a shortcut between the rural area where Josh lived and the more populated main highway to Jackson. Absently he wondered who else had traveled the same path at such an early hour on Sunday morning.
Lifting his coat sleeve to his nostrils, Hayden drank in Josh’s scent, not surprised to discover that he was absolutely drenched in it—his mate had marked him from the crown of his head all the way to his toes. Smelling this strongly of another wolf, Hayden would be damned lucky if his dad didn’t attack him from blind instinct before he’d even crossed the threshold to their home. It was in the nature of any male wolf to guard his den against predators, and with Hayden reeking of a rival clan’s scent, his father might misinterpret that initially, so he needed a good strategy.
Damn, why hadn’t he taken just a few minutes to shower? He’d been too hurried, too concerned about getting home before his parents woke, but now he couldn’t help cursing his lack of planning. Hayden could only hope that his father slept through his own arrival, including the mating scents that were all over his body and clothes.
He was mentally rehearsing what he’d tell his dad when his thoughts were interrupted by unexpected movement about twenty yards ahead. Hayden squinted, making out the dark forms of what appeared to be two men standing on the roadside beside a rusty old clunker. Looked like an El Camino, with its squat size and long open bed. Maybe they’d broken down, he thought, slowing as he approached. He wondered if he would recognize them from around town, but couldn’t make out any details of their features in the whitewash of headlights and stark snow.
Pulling closer, he began rolling down his passenger side window, but then experienced a dark kick of adrenaline. The two men moved forward and huddled their bodies
together like a barrier, clearly hoping to conceal something. Only theirs was a feeble effort—Hayden instantly spotted a human body lying lifelessly on the snow beside their vehicle.
The rest happened in what felt like slow motion, an off-kilter, sinister kaleidoscope of imagery. His window on automatic, still sliding down; his foot hovering against the accelerator; the men glaring at him, eyes glowing in the headlights; the crumpled male form by their back tires; dark crimson splotches seeping into the snow.
From the corner of his eye, he saw the bigger of the two men—a stringy-haired, bearded figure—move toward the passenger door of the vehicle. The other turned back toward the body as if he intended to move it.
Hayden gunned his SUV, heading toward a turn-around that he knew was only a few more yards ahead. He’d get to it, pull through, and drive back to the main highway as fast as possible given the road conditions. He focused on the road ahead, but then suddenly a pair of headlights popped to life in his rearview—the men were following him. His mind flashed on the image of the blood-soaked snow and dead body again—he had to get off this remote switchback road and fast. On instinct, he patted his jacket pocket, reaching for his cell phone, only to recall that he’d left it at home.
But then he thought of Josh waiting for him back in bed, sleeping beneath sheets that were strewn and rumpled from their lovemaking. Josh became Hayden’s one beacon in the terrifying moment’s reality, and although he knew the men were dangerous, he also knew that if he could just get back to Josh’s house, they’d be able to call the cops. It was much farther to his parents’ place, or even to any gas station. On this remote strip of road, his best hope was of returning to Josh. He pressed the pedal down with even more force, ignoring the way his rear tires chewed at the snow.
He hit the wheel on a hard right, his back tires fishtailing so badly that he nearly lost control of the SUV. Thankfully, he managed to make the turn without spinning out and then accelerated back toward the site. He swallowed hard as he prepared to pass the crime scene a second time. There was no other way to safety—not if he didn’t want to lead the two thugs right to his own parents—than driving past them a second time.
Up ahead, their own headlights grew larger, a blinding swathe in the darkness. Hayden drove faster, praying the men didn’t have a gun they were aiming at him. A few more seconds and their two vehicles would be passing each other as they approached him at a thunderously fast pace all their own.
He had to get back to Joshua, and fast. Suddenly the five-minute drive to his mate seemed the longest of his entire life. And he’d never yearned for Joshua Peterson more than he did in that single heartbeat of a moment.
I should stop the car and transform. Go wolf and fight these men, here and now.
For a moment, he took his foot off the pedal, reaching for the hem of his sweatshirt. But then, with sickening dread, he remembered that his wolf’s defenses would be useless to him. Now that the mating process had begun, he’d be utterly unable to transform to wolf form for weeks. Possibly until the next full moon. All his wolf’s instincts and nature were engaged in securing the bond with Josh.
Flexing his hands, wishing they were paws, Hayden yearned for his werewolf nature more than he ever had before. But it was lost to him right now. There was only one choice, and although it was dangerous, he had to take it.
Hayden sped down the long drive to Josh’s house, eyes locked on his rearview the entire time. By his calculations, he only had a few seconds lead on the men who had followed him the entire returning distance. Slamming his SUV into park, he leapt out of the vehicle and scrambled up the back steps that led to Josh’s kitchen back door.
“Josh!” he shouted as he tried the knob, praying that his mate hadn’t locked the door behind him. Hayden hit full scale panic when the handle didn’t budge and began pounding on the door with his fist, screaming for Josh to open up. All the while he kept his gaze turned sideways, watching for his pursuer’s headlights.
And then he saw them, their icy silver illumination thrown up against the tall aspens that ran the back length of Josh’s property. “Joshua,” he screamed shrilly. “Open the fuck up! Josh!”
He heard stirring on the other side of the door, saw the spit of snow and dark tires round the corner of the house—only ten feet or so from where he stood. The door jerked open and he practically fell inside, atop Josh.
“What’s going on? What’s wrong?” Josh stared past Hayden, wide-eyed and confused. And totally naked, just like Hayden had left him.
“Lock it,” he said breathlessly, slamming it himself. “No, go get something to barricade it. Get a phone. Do you have a gun?” He blurted more directions, hardly able to breathe, barely managing to explain what he’d come upon in his truck.
Josh was instantly on the other side of the kitchen, yanking open drawers and sending utensils flying. A thunderous pounding began on the other side of the door. Josh froze, long steak knife in his grasp, and Hayden paused right in front of the door. He hadn’t even been given enough seconds to form an additional barricade. It wasn’t exactly Fort Knox, either, and those violent men would easily be able to break down the door. Their only hope was if they could call the police and now.
Hayden’s gaze locked like a laser on Josh, who stood silent and still on the other side of the room. Joshua’s nakedness, so beautiful and arousing earlier, now made him seem brutally vulnerable, as if nothing would separate him from the murderers on the other side of the door. His mate was without even the most basic protection of clothing.
The door began to rock beneath physical blows from the outside, its thin wood bowing in the center. Hayden’s eyes watered and his throat went dry. Never taking his gaze off of Josh, he asked in a still whisper. “Where’s the phone? We’ve got to call the cops.”
Josh pointed down the hallway and toward his bedroom. “Only have my cell,” he whispered, his own eyes wide and bright. “It’s in the bedroom.”
“Go.” Hayden gestured with his head, pushing both palms against the door—as if he could keep the men out as a mere human.
If only he had enough strength to turn wolf, but he didn’t. His internal energy was too spent; no way did he have the kind of primal power to transform, not after such intense mating.
“Hayden, I can’t leave you here,” Josh told him, his tone raw and protective. His mate took several steps toward the door, but all Hayden could focus on was how naked and vulnerable he looked.
“Get the fuck back to your room, Josh! Now! Call the cops. I’ll keep them at bay long as I can.”
Josh sprang toward him, pressing the kitchen knife into Hayden’s hand. “This is all I’ve got. No guns. I don’t have the strength the transform…”
“Neither of us do, not right now.” Hayden pulled Josh close, needing to hold his mate, if only for a moment. “I’m going to protect you, baby.”
“We fight together,” Josh insisted, stepping out of Hayden’s brief embrace.
Hayden thought of the dead body he’d seen in the snow, the pool of red blood beneath it; then he pictured the two men on the other side of the door. He braced both forearms against the wooden frame, ready to fight, even if only with his human strength.
“Call the police, Joshua,” he instructed as calmly as possible. “Then lock yourself in your bedroom. And don’t come out, no matter what happens or what you hear. Stay in there, okay?”
“No fucking way!” Josh sprinted down the hall, calling over his shoulder. “I’m not locking you out, Hayden. I’m coming right back.”
The door splintered into pieces at that precise moment, a meaty fist reaching through and grabbing Hayden’s throat before he could recoil from where he stood.
“Open the goddamned door,” the attacker who held him spat, slamming Hayden’s forehead against the solid part of the wood as he spoke. Immediately Hayden’s vision swam, making it impossible to get a good look at the man who held him. But he could smell the rancid breath and stale cigarette smoke that went with the
voice. Hayden tried to jab his knife at the man, but the weapon was wrestled from his grasp.
“I’m…not making this easy for you,” Hayden spat back and was immediately punished with another slamming blow of his head against the frame, as well as a tightening grip around his throat. He pictured Josh, how naked and exposed he’d been.
Get dressed, Josh, he thought. Put clothes on for this fight.
He wasn’t sure why, but instinct told him it was very important that Josh not be naked when these men got to him. Another hand came through the gap, reaching through and unlocking the door and Hayden was sent sprawling backward. He landed on the floor beside the hallway right as the men burst inside practically atop him. In that chilling moment of violence, the thing he noticed most of all was the frigid air from outside, hitting him like a solid wall…and that one man was already moving into the hallway, closer toward Joshua. Driven by a mate’s instincts, he leaped to his feet and barreled into that man, body slamming him against the wall. There was a moment, a slow-motion, surreal one, where that assailant gaped back at Hayden, too stunned to move. And Hayden seized that split-second window of time to make his move.
He sprinted down the hall, intent on protecting Josh and making sure that he could complete the call to the police. But the minute he entered the bedroom, he realized the authorities weren’t coming. It was too late for help. The cell phone lay in shards against the wall, where presumably it had been flung by the thug who now pinned Josh against that same wall.
“Let him go,” Hayden said in a voice of forced calm. “He’s not part of this. He didn’t see what I did. Leave him be.”
The man turned chilling, lifeless eyes on Hayden right then. They reminded him of a coyote’s yellow, ancient gaze, boring into Hayden with pure evil intent. “Well, well, well,” the man said, his long, stringy hair falling across those eyes. “Look what we got here. A pair of queers, huh? That why you were on that road at this time of morning…that why this one here’s naked and shivering? ’Cause you’re his lover?” He spat that last word at Hayden, still staring, and then slowly turned his attention back to Josh. The man kept Josh pinned by the throat, the Alpha’s back pressed against the wall. Josh never so much as flinched despite his captor’s tight grip around his throat.
