by Odessa Lynne
If the others didn’t come for him before the wolf on the ground woke up, well, then, he’d worry about that then.
Salvadore shivered and huddled back against the tree’s trunk.
Chapter 9
“What happened?” Wolf said from the ground.
Salvadore let out the breath he’d been holding and eased forward on his limb. “He fell. What the fuck took you so long?”
“We had to lead the rogues away from your scent.” The sounds of Wolf walking through the leaves carried over the rustle of the trees in the chill breeze.
Wolf said something in the wolves’ language, and Salvadore was certain it wasn’t meant for him.
“You getting me down from here or not?”
“In a moment. He’s one of Alpha Paetarikeille’s pack.” Buried in his comment was a mess of sounds Salvadore couldn’t decipher.
“Who?”
“The alpha you met.”
Salvadore cleared his throat. “So he’s not one of the wolves you were fighting?”
“No. Your scent probably lured him in. He might have tried to claim you to mate but I doubt he meant you harm.”
“If he was going to try to mate me that’s close enough. Is he—” Salvadore rubbed his palm on his thigh. “Is he dead?”
Wolf moved into the moonlight and his head tilted. His eyes glowed eerily from below. “He’s not dead.”
“Well, that’s good.”
“It’s strange.” Wolf moved again, and Salvadore couldn’t track him into the shadows. Leaves crackled underfoot, followed by the sound of something dragging along the ground.
“What are you doing?” Then, “Where’s Egan and Reed?”
“They’re dealing with the prisoners.”
“What?” Salvadore’s voice cracked and he cleared his throat again. The cool air made his lungs burn. “Prisoners?”
“Yes.”
“Will they be traveling with us?”
“Yes.”
“That’s not going to be safe—not for me.”
“No, it won’t be.”
Salvadore rubbed his hands along the bark and scooted away from the trunk of the tree so he would have room to swing his legs over behind him while keeping a good grip on the limb. “Then leave ’em,” he said. “They’re the bad guys anyway, right? Tie them up and leave them behind.”
“We can’t do that. They have information any alpha loyal to Traesikeille will want. I need to prove my value to my new alpha.”
“Fuck that. I don’t want any more of you wolves anywhere near me. What about the goddamn drugs? You’re already out.”
“They have a supply of the repression drugs and they’ve sworn fealty to Traesikeille. Those who wouldn’t are dead.”
Salvadore stiffened, looking down through the limbs to Wolf’s shadow. “You killed them.”
“We did.”
“Was it during the fight or was it murder?”
Wolf’s movements paused. The silhouette of his upper body turned and he seemed to be staring up at Salvadore again, contemplative and curious. Or so Salvadore imagined. He couldn’t actually see well enough to know—but he felt it all the same.
“You’ve killed someone,” Wolf said, his voice carrying solemn and quiet through the darkness. “You feel a great deal of guilt over this.”
Salvadore couldn’t move for a moment. “You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”
“We didn’t murder them. They chose to fight instead of submit to a fate they didn’t want. That’s their right, even if it means death.”
Salvadore’s voice shook when he spoke. “Is that what you tell yourselves about the humans you kill during heat season? That it’s not murder because we just didn’t want to accept our fate?”
“Only with those of you who deliberately put yourselves into our territory. Those people—you—made a choice when you chose to stay inside the protectorate after the first heat season. Humans seem to lack the ability to see even the most obvious outcomes of their choices.” Wolf took that moment to begin climbing into the tree.
The limb under Salvadore shook with the force of Wolf’s movements and Salvadore grabbed tighter to the limb while Wolf climbed the tree with an agile grace that inspired both awe and jealousy in Salvadore.
He didn’t know why Wolf’s earlier comments had gotten to him but he needed to let it go. Wolf and the others were probably the only thing standing between him and the kind of death his nightmares had been filled with for the last decade.
Wolf finally reached Salvadore’s position. “I’ll hold onto you as you lower yourself,” Wolf said. “I won’t let you fall.”
Salvadore bit back a “fuck off” and said instead, “Thanks.”
The climb down was actually harder than the climb up because Salvadore couldn’t see where he was putting his feet half the time. If not for Wolf’s help, he would’ve no doubt lost his balance or his grip at some point and plummeted to the ground, breaking an arm or a leg if he was lucky, and if he wasn’t, his back or his neck.
His luck held better than that, and when he dropped from the lowest branch to the ground, he breathed in the first easy breath he’d taken in hours.
“Thank God,” he said. He stomped his feet on the forest floor and rolled his shoulders a few times, trying to release the tension that had coiled tight in his muscles.
“We won’t be rejoining Eebaenetakim and Raeisikeille for a while.”
“Why not?”
“We need to mate before we catch up with them.”
“What? No.” Salvadore took a step back, his gaze raking over Wolf, noting how Wolf’s expression never changed. “The fuck we are. I’ve told you—”
Wolf was too fast for him. One moment, Salvadore was watching Wolf stalk toward him and the next, Wolf had grabbed Salvadore’s upper arm.
Salvadore punched at Wolf’s face, but Wolf grabbed his wrist and stopped him mid-swing. Salvadore struggled, but Wolf held tight.
“You fucker,” he said through gritted teeth. He jerked half way around, pulling hard against Wolf’s hold. “I should’ve just accepted my fate when I went out that window and left you to fight over my dead body. That’s a better fate than to end up fucked to death!”
Wolf’s eyebrows drew tight. “Do you know your fate?”
“What? No.” Salvadore grunted with the effort to pull free of Wolf’s grip. “Let me go.”
“Then can you read fate?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Your eyes,” Wolf said, lowering Salvadore’s arm even though Salvadore did his best to stop Wolf. “It’s disconcerting for us to see eyes like yours, so dark they’re almost black. Only Diviners have eyes that dark.” Wolf’s gaze fixed on Salvadore’s face. “You’ve met a Diviner.” He spoke with a certainty that twisted Salvadore’s gut.
“I haven’t,” Salvadore said. He finally gave up and left his arm at his side, Wolf’s fingers still wrapped firmly around his wrist.
“What did she—” Wolf stopped and his stare made it hard for Salvadore to draw a breath. “No, not female,” he said softly. “What did he tell you about your fate?”
“Humans can have black eyes,” Salvadore said instead of answering Wolf’s question. “It not my fault my fucking eyes make you feel weird.”
“Humans have brown eyes so dark they appear black. Humans don’t have black eyes.”
“Plenty of humans have black eyes. Trust me. All it takes is one good fist.”
Salvadore knew a thing or two about black eyes. He and Chen had fought a lot when they were young. Salvadore hadn’t appreciated having a step-brother stealing his father’s attention; Chen hadn’t appreciated sharing his mother with Salvadore and El. Salvadore had given Chen a black eye or two that first year and Chen had given Salvadore a painful bruise over his kidneys. Chen had always fought dirty, but eventually Salvadore had learned a thing or two from him. They’d finally made peace with each other on the day his step-mother died.
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Wolf contemplated Salvadore far longer than Salvadore felt necessary. “Ah,” Wolf finally said. “You’re trying to use humor to deflect me from my question about the Diviner. I didn’t understand the joke at first.”
“Forget it, it was a stupid joke anyway.”
“I like that you have a sense of humor,” Wolf said.
“And I like being free to do what I want, and you’re interfering with that.”
“Anger suits you,” Wolf added. “You stop being so afraid. I enjoy your defiance, but the time for it isn’t now. My heat is rising. I can feel it firing my blood. Your defiance won’t lead to me proving myself as a worthy mate, it’ll lead to your death.”
“Maybe I’d rather die.”
“I would rather you didn’t,” Wolf said, his tone flat and hard.
“Well fuck you. I get to decide—”
Salvadore’s defiant words ended with a yelp as Wolf jerked him almost off his feet. He clenched his fists in Wolf’s shirt. Claws pricked the underside of his arms for the first time since Wolf had taken hold of him.
“You choose your fate,” Wolf said, “but I choose mine.”
“Don’t try to pretend this is something it’s not. You’re in heat and you want to fuck someone—anyone—and I’m here and I’m human and my smell is fucking with your head. Fate has nothing to do with it.”
“I won’t hurt you.”
Salvadore’s blood rushed and his heart thudded against his ribcage. “Liar.”
“I’ve claimed you to mate. Submit.”
Salvadore twisted his fists tighter in Wolf’s shirt. “No. I’m not going to let you fuck me—I don’t want you to.”
Wolf’s head tilted and daybreak must have been closer than Salvadore realized because he could almost make out the color of Wolf’s eyes. He watched the irises darken at the edges. He’d never seen anything like it—he hadn’t exactly spent a lot of time with wolves—and the sight was so unusual that he stared into Wolf’s eyes longer than he meant to.
Wolf’s nostrils flared with a sharp inhale. “The time is now. Soon it won’t matter how much of the drugs I’ve taken, I won’t be able to stop my reaction to your scent. I only have hours at the most before my heat is on me fully.”
“Please,” Salvadore said. “Please. Just let me go.”
Wolf’s hands slid up to Salvadore’s shoulders. He pushed Salvadore back and Salvadore stumbled, almost losing his footing because of a protruding root.
“What—”
Teeth flashed and a low growl rumbled up from Wolf’s chest. Wolf took a step forward.
“Don’t,” Salvadore said, raising his hand, palm out. “You’re scaring me.”
“You have no reason to be afraid. Submit.”
“I’m not going to submit.” Salvadore looked behind him. Even that short, quick glance took too long.
Wolf loomed in front of him again. “Submit, and you won’t have to be afraid of anyone else trying to claim you. I’ll fight to my dying breath to protect you from all of them.”
“If I can make it out of this, you don’t have to worry, I won’t be around to be claimed. I’m leaving the protectorate and I’m never coming back. You can fucking count on that.”
“I feel the lie in your words. You won’t leave, not permanently. Something calls you back.”
“That’s not true.” But his thoughts flickered toward his father’s workshop, his father’s life’s work buried in shelves that stretched the length of the old house’s basement.
“You can’t leave,” Wolf said, his gaze steady.
“You’ll have to kill me to keep me here.”
“I’ll never choose to hurt you.”
“You’re choosing to hurt me now, you goddamn wolf!” Salvadore spoke too harshly, but acid burned at the back of his throat. He rubbed his mouth with a shaking hand and his cold fingers were a shock to the overheated skin of his face.
“I’ll turn your thoughts away from fear and to the pleasure I can give you when I mate you.”
Salvadore laughed, a hollow sound that lacked any humor at all.
Wolf tilted his head, teeth flashing in a strange grin. “Do you doubt me?”
Salvadore bit into his bottom lip, his gaze dragging over Wolf’s lean body. A twinge of something—he wasn’t ready to say it might be lust—tightened his muscles.
“Let me touch you,” Wolf said, his accent sharper, stronger than before, his voice low and heavy and his gaze burning hot on Salvadore’s skin. “I’ll show you why you’ll want me for a mate.”
“I don’t want you for a mate,” Salvadore said and he was shocked by how hoarse he sounded. He cleared his throat, but it didn’t remove the lump that seemed lodged there.
“You will,” Wolf said, so utterly confident that for a moment, Salvadore could only stare at him. “You’ll enjoy what I do to you. You’ll beg me for more.”
“Bullshit.”
“I’ll prove it to you.” Wolf put his hand out, claws peeking from beneath those dark fingernails—fingernails that made Salvadore’s stomach clench just looking at them. “Submit.”
Salvadore opened his mouth, his first instinct another “fuck off.” But he hesitated, Wolf’s earlier words playing through his head, and in that moment, Wolf’s nostrils flared wide with a strong, sharp sniff of the air and his eyes narrowed, and he looked at Salvadore as if he knew he’d won.
Chapter 10
It was a mistake to even contemplate having sex with Wolf. Salvadore knew that. But Wolf’s promise tempted him. You won’t have to be afraid. I’ll protect you from all of them.
All in exchange for his agreement to submit. That’s all he had to do. Overcome his fear and fuck Wolf until they got wherever they were going and then … well, he didn’t know what would happen then, but the here and now seemed a hell of a lot more important right then.
But how could he do it? How could he put aside the fear that seemed to want to eat a hole in his belly and had left his mouth so dry he couldn’t even swallow?
Wolf had said no to drugs already. Salvadore would’ve done that, without a whole lot of hesitation. Anything to keep himself from having to deal with the memories the sounds of a rutting wolf might bring to mind.
Wolf stepped forward, and Salvadore stepped back and his elbow bumped into a tree. He jerked, turned his head, and that was all the time Wolf needed. Wolf’s hands came down on Salvadore’s shoulders again and he stood so close that Salvadore could feel the heat pouring off Wolf’s body, seeping through Salvadore’s t-shirt and the front of his pants.
Salvadore reached up and clamped his hands around Wolf’s wrists. “I—” He couldn’t finish though, had no idea what he wanted to say.
Wolf moved his hand to Salvadore’s chin. “I’m going to kiss you.”
Salvadore shook his head, then stopped and gave a jerky nod. He could do this. Start with a kiss and let it go from there. Just let it happen.
Wolf moved in close, his breath quiet, his body pressing Salvadore back until Salvadore came up against the tree they’d climbed earlier.
“What about that wolf? Or someone else? Anybody could walk up on us if you fuck me right here. We’re in the middle of a fucking forest.”
“What better place to mate than in a fucking forest?”
“There are a hell of a lot of better places to fuck than in a fucking—” Salvadore blinked as his brain caught up with his mouth. He hesitated, and then said suspiciously, “Was that supposed to be—”
“A joke,” Wolf interrupted him. “Yes.” The points of his eyeteeth flashed in the early light of daybreak.
“My God.” Salvadore reached up and rubbed his eyes and forehead and laughed, a sound that could’ve passed for a cough it struggled so hard to clear his throat. “I don’t fucking believe it.”
Wolf huffed a breath against Salvadore’s cheek. “It wasn’t a very good joke,” he said, “and now we have something in common besides a desire to mate.”
“I don’t—”
<
br /> Wolf kissed Salvadore before he could finish.
Salvadore sucked in his breath through his nose, and then ruined the kiss with a cough.
Wolf didn’t give Salvadore the break he expected, only nosed his way over to Salvadore’s ear. Teeth bit down on the flesh of Salvadore’s earlobe. “Submit,” Wolf growled out.
“You didn’t actually answer my question.”
“Because I have no answer that would reassure you. We need to mate.”
“Just kiss me,” Salvadore said, reaching for Wolf’s neck despite his second thoughts about the whole thing. “Just a kiss.”
Wolf complied. Relief flooded through Salvadore and he closed his eyes and concentrated on the feel of warm lips on his.
It wasn’t so different from the kiss of another man. Salvadore didn’t even think about it when he slid his tongue into Wolf’s mouth, it was such a normal thing to do in a kiss as deep as the one Wolf had instigated. A growl rumbled up from Wolf’s chest, that sound again that shivered through Salvadore, setting his nerves alight. He gasped and tried to pull away, but Wolf’s hands slid up to Salvadore’s neck and held him in place.
The back of Salvadore’s head scraped against the tree’s trunk, a few strands of his hair catching. He hardly noticed. His tongue dragged across the point of one of Wolf’s strange eyeteeth and he pressed his palm against the cool bark behind him and worked the fingers of his other hand into the soft, fine hair at the back of Wolf’s neck.
The kiss lasted long enough for Salvadore’s dick to take notice. Every breath seemed to come a little faster than the one before, and before he’d even realized what he’d done, he’d bent his knee and was using his booted foot against the tree behind him as leverage to grind himself against Wolf, seeking out pressure for his cock.
Wolf broke the kiss and trailed his mouth down the side of Salvadore’s throat. Salvadore turned his head, opening himself to the sensation, but a faint stab of pain stiffened his spine. He started to turn his head back but Wolf pressed his hand flat to Salvadore’s jaw and held him against the tree.
“Odd,” Wolf murmured against Salvadore’s skin. “I’ve been fighting so hard to ignore your scent that I forgot Eebaenetakim bit you.” The wet warmth of Wolf’s tongue scraped across his neck and Salvadore made a sound low in his throat. “Does it hurt?” Wolf asked.
