Jayden was beautiful, all pale skin and long legs, even for his small height, and Heath couldn’t resist leaning down and kissing his way up Jayden’s right leg. Jayden giggled when Heath paused behind his knee, then again when he stopped where his thigh met his groin and licked a strip along that line.
Heath wanted to do the same with the other leg, but Jayden slapped his arm and pointedly looked at the bottle of lube still in Heath’s hand. Heath laughed and pushed his legs open again, then finally opened the lube, smiling at Jayden’s little relieved sigh.
“Bossy bottom.”
“And bossy top, and bossy librarian, and bossy everything else. Better get used to it, because you’re stuck with me.”
“I never said I didn’t like it.”
Heath slipped his slicked fingers along the crack of Jayden’s ass and toyed with his mate’s hole, rubbing small circles around it before pushing in with one finger when Jayden glared at him.
Heath added another finger. He’d remembered sex, of course, but not having it, and it felt so... intimate. The kind of thing he couldn’t imagine doing with anyone but Jayden. And for once, he was kind of glad he’d lost his memory. Not all of it, but the sex parts... yeah, those he was glad he didn’t remember.
He gently grasped Jayden’s balls with his free hand and rolled them, loving the way it made Jayden writhe under him, his glance never leaving Jayden’s face. Jayden was giving him this memory, and Heath didn’t want to lose one second of it.
So Heath watched Jayden. He looked... relaxed, and Heath realized that for all he’d insisted on being the bottom, he wouldn’t have been as relaxed Jayden was now. He needed control in his life right now, because it was the only way he could think of to not be afraid of his empty memory.
He cleared his throat, tears suddenly prickling his eyes, and asked, “Jayden? Are you ready?”
“Yeah,” Jayden croaked. Heath lifted Jayden’s knees and slid his arms under them. He moved forward, bringing Jayden’s legs up, and lined himself up.
Pushing slowly but steadily, he watched as the first inch of his cock slid in. Jayden gasped and Heath stopped, but Jayden shook his head. “Don’t you dare stop. It’s not gonna make it easier, so better get it over with.”
“Jeesh, Jay. Thanks. So much for me being tender and sweet.”
“No one said you had to be tender and sweet, Heath. Just... go on. Get in. Possibly now, unless you want to—”
Heath pushed and slid in completely. He could feel Jayden’s ass against his balls and Jayden arched his back, groaning. “That’s... yeah. That.”
“I didn’t hurt you, right?”
“I’m fine,” he responded. “Or I would be if you, you know, started moving.”
So Heath obeyed his mate. “Jayden, shit...” he moaned. He began to rock back and forth, admiring the way Jayden moved under him. He sat back and pushed Jayden’s knees further apart as he began to thrust harder, faster.
The headboard slammed against the wall, and Heath hoped they weren’t disturbing whoever was on the other side of it. He didn’t even know who it was, or if there was someone.
Then Jayden tightened around him and all thoughts that weren’t his mate flew right out of Heath’s mind. Jayden thrust down and tightened almost at the same time and Heath’s orgasm took him by surprise. He groaned and arched his back, but Jayden grabbed his shoulders and pulled him down, hard. Jayden tilted his head to the side, and Heath felt his fangs in his mouth.
He followed his bear’s instinct and bit down on the pale skin Jayden was offering him. Blood spurted in his mouth and Heath greedily drank it down, his hips slowing to match the rhythm of his mouth. Jayden squirmed and Heath licked the wound one last time before straightening.
Jayden clamped his legs around Heath’s waist and, using a force Heath didn’t know his mate had, rolled them until Heath was flat on his back with Jayden straddling him. How Jayden managed to do that without Heath’s dick slipping out of him Heath didn’t know, and then Jayden was moving, circling his hips rather than moving up and down, and it was almost enough to make Heath hard again.
He still wasn’t completely soft, but Jayden was still hard, and he needed to come. Heath wrapped a hand around his mate’s cock and pulled, loving the way Jayden swore in answer. Then Jayden leaned forward, trapping his cock and Heath’s hand between them, and Heath tilted his head, much like Jayden had done for him.
He didn’t even have the time to tense in expectation of the pain. Jayden sank his fangs in his neck and groaned against his skin, and Heath felt wet heat splash on his stomach as Jayden came.
A few seconds later, a connection flickered in his mind, and Jayden’s emotions came over him in an overwhelming wave. Jayden stopped moving, stopped sucking, and rested his cheek on Heath’s chest.
They were both breathing heavily, and Heath wasn’t sure he’d ever be able to get up from the bed.
There was a loud boom, and someone yelled, “Jesus Christ, guys. Next time try to keep it down, or at least warn me!”
Jayden moved and looked down at Heath, and they both started laughing.
“Who was that?” Heath asked, breathless.
“Taylor.”
“Maybe we should be quieter next time.”
“Or we should do like he asked and warn him.”
They looked at each other and Jayden collapsed on Heath’s chest, laughing. Heath tightened his arms around his mate and basked in the sensation. He wasn’t complete, not yet. Maybe he’d never be, what with the huge chunk of life he couldn’t remember. But he still felt more complete than before, and it was thanks to Jayden.
Chapter Seven
There was a loud knocking on the door and Jayden stuck his head under his pillow.
“Jayden! Come on, open the door!”
Jayden raised his pillow, yelled, “Go away!” and covered his head again. Heath chuckled next to him and he gave his mate a swift kick in the shin.
“I can’t. This is important. Come on, man. Open up.”
Jayden groaned and tried to bury himself deeper under the blankets. It was the day after Christmas, the day after his and Heath’s mating, for fuck’s sake. Couldn’t he have at least this one day to sleep in?
He felt Heath move and get out of bed, a rustle, then the door opened and someone shrieked. “You could’ve dressed before opening the door!”
Oh, Jayden recognized Keenan’s voice now. He peeked from his bundle of covers and snickered.
“I am dressed,” Heath pointed out.
“You only have underwear on! And they’re tight! I see too much of you for me to be comfortable with.”
“You said it was important.”
Keenan sobered immediately and Jayden knew they were about to have problems, Big ones, if Keenan’s expression was anything to go by.
“There was an attack. In Lowndesville.”
Jayden extracted himself from the blankets and jumped out of the bed. “An attack? What happened?”
Keenan looked at him, shrieked again, and closed his eyes while pointing. “You’re naked! Naked! I don’t want to see you naked!”
Jayden looked down and saw that yeah, he was naked, and still dirty from the night before. He shrugged and pulled on the blankets, extracted one from the bundle and wrapped it around his body. “What happened?”
“Is it safe for me to look?”
“Yeah.”
Keenan slowly opened his eyes, checked that Jayden really was dressed, and nodded. “Dominic sent the enforcers there this morning. They called, and it’s... it’s bad, Jayden. No survivors.”
Jayden let the news sink in. He didn’t know how he felt about it. Their gang had been small, but he’d never really had much contact with most of the members. They kept to themselves, living close but not too close, and the only one Jayden had really seen regularly had been Murray. He never had anything against the other members except the fact that they’d never helped him when Murray got
angry and beat him, but then neither had his parents. How could he have asked something from strangers when not even his parents had done it?
“What do you need from me?”
“Did you know the gang members? The enforcers are trying to... identify the dead, but they have no idea where to start, especially since what they think was the alpha’s house got burned down.”
“Yeah, I knew them, unless something changed in the past few years. I can help.”
Keenan frowned. “Are you sure? You don’t have to. We can find another way.”
“No, it’s fine. I’ll go.” Jayden really wasn’t sure it was fine, but he wouldn’t step away from this. Dominic needed his help, and he wasn’t about to send Teddy. “Just give me the time to shower and dress.”
“Right. We’ll be in Dominic’s office.”
Heath closed the door when Keenan walked away and faced Jayden. He gently pulled Jayden in his arms and rubbed his back, and Jayden relaxed. “I’m sorry, Jay.”
Jayden shrugged. “Me, too. It’s terrible that so many people had to die, but... it’s not like I knew them, Heath. I’ll be fine.”
“Not if you have to go there and look at dead bodies.”
Jayden chuckled darkly. “Believe me, it won’t be the first bodies I’ve seen.”
Heath tensed. “What happened?”
“The time I spent in the lab was bad, and I was one of the lucky ones who made it out alive. What I saw there... it’s enough to give me nightmares for the rest of my life, and it’s worse than a dead body.”
“Do you want to talk about it?”
Jayden shook his head and moved away. “No, at least not now. Maybe later, but right now... well, I have somewhere to go.”
“I’m coming with you.”
Jayden didn’t’ even try to say no. Heath’s tone said exactly what his answer would be if Jayden did try, and he didn’t want to anyway. He might not have known the people who had died well, and he might have seen worse, but he knew it wouldn’t be as easy as he’d tried to convince Heath.
They showered together, but it was in silence and without touching each other more than necessary. Once dressed, they got to Dominic’s office, and Jayden wasn’t surprised to see it was full. Some of the council members were there, as were Nate, Finn, and Keenan. Everyone looked up when they entered and Dominic rose from his chair and walked closer.
“I’m sorry, Jayden.”
“It’s okay. Like I told Keenan, I didn’t know anyone all that well. We weren’t like the pride members.”
“Still, I’m sorry you’ll have to see that. I wouldn’t ask you, but we have no idea—”
“It’s fine. Even if Murray’s house hadn’t been burned down, I doubt he had a list of the gang members. We never were as organized as you guys.”
The alpha nodded. “All right. Let’s go.”
“You’re coming?”
“Yes. You and Heath can shimmer with Finn. I’ll go with Ani.”
The alpha mate shimmered in the room just then, a grim expression on his face. Jayden nodded at him and offered his hand to Finn, who took it. Heath looked nervous as he took Finn’s other hand, but he didn’t protest, and a few seconds later, they were in Lowndesville, in front of what had been Murray’s house.
It was still smoking, but the fire had been put out, and several enforcers were working around it. Jayden was surprised to see that the human police or firefighters were nowhere to be seen. “How did you keep the police out of this?”
“We have enforcers in the force, and in the fire department. It wasn’t that hard, especially since the house is isolated,” Dominic answered.
“Where...”
“They’re at the back of the house.”
“They?”
“There are eighteen bodies.”
Jayden blanched. “They were all taken here?”
“Yes. We weren’t sure they didn’t live here, but—”
“No, they didn’t. Everyone had their own house. How...”
Dominic shook his head. “We don’t know exactly what happened, but it was well organized, and whoever did this clearly has a lot of man power to kidnap that many people, take them here, and kill them.”
Jayden felt sick, but he did what Dominic had asked. He followed his alpha around the house and identified all the bodies but two, probably new members of the gang. He felt sick by the time he was done, and wanted nothing more than to go home and sleep for a week, if the nightmares allowed it, anyway. He slumped in the back of someone’s car and cuddled against Heath’s strong body, looking for Dominic from where he was.
He found the alpha talking with a big guy in boots and a uniform and sighed at the idea of having to get up again to talk to him. Still, he really didn’t want to stay there more than he had to, so he pulled Heath along. Heath had been next to him for the entire time, silently supporting him, and Jayden didn’t even have the words to tell him how grateful he was at the moment.
“Dominic?”
The alpha turned. “Yes?”
“Can I go?”
“Wait a second.” He said a few last words to the guy he’d been talking with, closed his eyes, then turned back to Jayden. “Ani’s coming.”
“Thanks. Do you... do you know what happened?”
“Not exactly. We do know it was the same group who attacked the swans back in October, though.”
“It’s a hunter group?”
“Yes. Humans.”
Jayden pressed his lips together. “They’re coming for us.”
Dominic’s face was grim when he answered. “Yes.”
The End
About the Author
Catherine lives in Italy, country of good food and hot men. She used to write fantasy as a child, but it was reading her first gay erotic romance novel that made her realize that that was what she really wanted to write.
After graduating from college in English language and translation, she divides her day between writing, reading, taking care of her son and reading some more.
You can find her on Facebook and Twitter or on her website: authorcatherinelievens.wordpress.com
Email: [email protected]
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