by Shannon West
Page 3
I hope you enjoyed it, baby, becausehe was the last man who’ll ever touch you besides me. Possessive jealousy and the urge to punish the man for being with someone else swept over him. Luckily his rational mind knew he was being unreasonable. It didn’t make him feel much better.
The man was young, just into his twenties, he would guess. He was naked in the moonlight, kneeling down and splashing himself. The sight almost made Zack lose control. He wasn’t very big, but his body was amazing, with broad, muscular shoulders tapering off to a small waist. There was almost no hair on his chest, but even from where he stood Zack could see the faint black treasure trail leading from his navel downward. He stood up and turned around, giving Zack a good view of his rounded little ass and perfect legs.
He turned again, and Zack’s mouth went totally dry. His mate’s very respectable cock was drawn up a bit from the icy cold water, but was still very nice. His balls were large too, and he had a thatch of black hair covering his groin. Zack’s own cock grew uncomfortably hard. He shifted his feet to adjust himself and a stick beneath his feet cracked loud enough to cause the young man to tense and look around him warily.
Zack watched him silently until he settled down and climbed back up the bank to his tent. He hadn’t fooled him, though. He came back out carrying a shotgun. Zack experienced a little sense of pride in his mate for being smart and fearless.
Moving quietly up near his tent, Zack watched him scan the tree line. He didn’t want to scare him, but he needed to challenge him, find out who he was and what pack he belonged to. It didn’t matter who he belonged to, really, because from this point on, the man was his. He made his first words harsh and challenging, wanting him so much and fighting the urge to throw him on the ground and make love to him for hours.
“What are you doing in my territory, rogue?” Actually, he wasn’t sure if he was rogue or even if he werea wolf or a pet, but he almost hoped he wasn’t a member of any pack. If not, he wouldn’t have to worry about complicated negotiations with his alpha. He wasn’t quite sure of his mate’s status, but he was no alpha, even if he did offer up a defiant remark to his challenge.
Zack was puzzled by the conversation that followed. He thought any Werekin would recognize the alpha of a pack, and he’d just told him it was his territory. This young man acted like he knew nothing about pack life, being belligerent and challenging, yammering on about the full moon. If he didn’t know how to give proper respect,he wasn’t going to learn any younger. Smarting off to an alpha could get you severely reprimanded unless you immediately apologized and showed signs of submission. This young whelp wasn’t showing the proper respect. A lesson was definitely in order.
He stepped up closer to him, hearing him continue to run his smart mouth with only half an ear. He was looking at his gorgeous, pale blue eyes sparkling in the moonlight, and at the way he bit his full lower lip when he got nervous. Zack’s crotch got tighter every minute. When the boy started backing up and talking about leaving, Zack paid closer attention. Oh, hell no.
“You’re not going anywhere. ” He grabbed him and held him close, but the little fool kept struggling. Zack had both his mate’s arms trapped behind him and drew him up to his body where he fucking belonged. Withthe man’s dick between his thighs, Zack almost came from the sweetness of holding his naked mate close in his arms, his delicious scent beneath the other smells seriously testing his control. The damn man wouldn’t be still and even stomped his foot. All he succeeded in doing was hurting himself, and holding him, Zack felt the pain radiating through his sweet body.
Knowing his mate would continue to struggle, Zack couldn’t allow him to hurt himself any further. He had courage, he thought proudly. A suitable mate for an alpha. He caught him up in a bear hug and squeezed him till he passed out, cradling his sweet body as he collapsed.
He laid him back on the ground and quickly gathered his few belongings. He found a duffle bag inside the small tent and looked for some clothes to put on him, but everything reeked of unpleasant smells. He’d take them back to be washed before he could allow his mate to wear any of them. He found a blanket and wrapped it around him, picked him up, and threw him across his shoulder. Picking up the boy’s duffle and his gun in one hand, Zack began the ten-mile trek back to his home.
* * * *
Gabe woke up, thinking for a moment he was having a crazy dream. He was hanging upside down, being carried through the woods like a sack of potatoes. He yelled and cursed, trying frantically to move his arms and get away, but his arms were trapped at his sides, and he was wrapped tightly in a blanket. He reared up, bucking his body, and got a hard swat on the ass for his troubles.
A voice called out, harshly, “Cut it out!”
“Let me go, you crazy fuck!” Another hard swat on the backside caused him to yell out in pain. “Ow! Stop hitting me. Damn it,fight me like a man!” The man carrying him ignored his orders and taunts. He tried again. “Are you afraid to fight me like a man? Is that it? Crazy wolf bastard!”
The man carrying him stopped and lowered him to the ground. Gabe tried to get his arms out but the asshole kept the blanket bunched tightly in his hand as he pushed down on his chest, keeping him firmly in place. Damn, the son-of-a-bitch was strong. How could there be so much difference in their strength? He was a werewolf himself. Wasn’t he? As Gabe stared up at him, the man sank long fangs into his own wrist, and Gabe watched, fascinated as the blood poured out. He put his wrist down to Gabe’s mouth and held it there.
“Drink!” he commanded.
Gabe pressed his lips together tightly and thrashed his head, but the big wolf followed his every movement. He was supernaturally quick, his bloody wrist following him no matter which way Gabe tried to move. Even worse, his forearm was pressing against his nose, blocking his air. To get a breath, he opened his mouth, and the wolf pressed the bloody wrist right between his teeth, wedged his mouth open more and prevented him from closing his jaw. God, the smell was overpowering in its sweetness. Blood dripped onto his tongue, and the taste was like nothing he’d ever tasted before. Instead of being disgusting, as he expected, the blood was sweet and delicious, almost like honey.
His tongue curled, and his lips sealed to suck. He was lost in seconds, transported into a dreamlike state, flying high in the sky where the oxygen was thin. The wrist at his mouth was the only thing keeping him alive, and he drank from it to keep the sweet air flowing into his lungs. From far away, he heard a voice he almost recognized as someone very important calling to him.
“Enough,sweetheart. ”
The wrist was pulled away. Gabetried to grab it and hold on but couldn’t. He was pulled down toward Earth again, down and down into soft darkness.
The next time he awoke, he was on a cot of some kind in a darkened room. Wait a minute, not a room, but a cell. Gabe had been in jail before and knew exactly what a jail cell looked like. This one was no different. A cot, a pillow, and a blanket adorned the cell, but not much else. A toilet sat on the side against the bare gray walls. He was still naked, wrapped up in the same blanket, though not so tightly. Swinging his legs over the side of the cot, he sat up, listening. He could hear nothing. Slowly getting to his feet, he wobbled over to the toilet to piss. He felt hung over like he’d just awakened from an all-nighter. Finishing, he made his way to the bars of his cell. He gave the door a shove to make sure it was locked. It would be pretty stupid to stay in here for days and discover the door was unlocked all along. He rattled the bars. It was locked all right.
“Hey, let me out of here!” he yelled, and down the long hallway, he heard someone coming closer.
A large, unfamiliar young man with dark hair, dressed in jeans and T-shirt peered through the bars at him. His expression was neutral, and he walked up to the cell and opened the door with a key he pulled from his pocket. Gabe tried to rush past him, but his large, solid body blocked the opening.
“Let me out! You have n
o right to keep me here!” Gabe made his voice loud and defiant, but the man gazed at him furiously. Gabe took an involuntary step backward. What the hell had he done to get this guy so pissed? If anyone should be angry, it was Gabe. He was minding his own business when he was attacked, kidnapped, and abused by the big dude on the mountain.
“You need a bath, boy. Your stink is fouling up the whole area. Follow me and I’ll take you to the bathtub. I’ve just prepared it for you and was coming to get you. ”
“Fuck you!Get out of my way before I knock you out of it. ”
The man rolled his eyes, sneering at him. Gabe could see him flex his hands. “Zack said you’d be difficult. He told me to tell you if you don’t cooperate, he’ll come downstairs and bathe you himself. What do you want to do?Should I call for him?”
“Who the fuck is Zack?” Gabe asked, stalling for time.
“He’s our alpha. He brought you here. ”
Memories of being carried over the brute’s shoulder and whacks on his ass came flooding back. He had no doubt the asshole would make good his threat to bathe him.
“Look, I don’t know about all this alpha shit. I’ll leave, I promise. I just want to get out of here,” Gabe said, trying to reason with the guy in front of him.
“Bath,” the man said implacably. “Now. ”
“Damn it!” Gabe yelled. “What’s the matter with you people?”
“Right,” the man said. “Maybe I’d better go get the alpha. ”
“No! II’ll go with you. ”
Casting him a furious glare, he motioned for Gabe to precede him down the hall. He waited with thinned lips added to the glare, watching Gabe make a break for it and run up against a locked steel door at the end of the hall. Gabe had to make a walk of shame back to where the man stood with his arms folded over his chest.
“If you’ve got that out of your system, go inside and get in the tub. ”
Gabe stomped his way through the door into a kind of bedroom. A large bed was in the center of the room, and the room was nicely appointed, though windowless. An open door led off to a bathroom where the tub waited. Gabe pulled off his blanket and showed his body to the man. He knew he had a very nice body, and maybe he could seduce the guy into letting him go. He stepped up close to the guy and looked up at him from under his long lashes.
