“Adam’s alive, in case you got the wrong idea. He’s just changed now.” Nathan plopped down on a plush-looking bench. “Ryder, you can set the bag in the cabinet to your right.”
“Okay.” Ryder stared at the interior of the plane until Marcus caught him with his hip. “Shit, sorry. Didn’t mean to block the way.”
Marcus grunted and put the bags he carried into a different cabinet. “I hate flying, but I learned that road trips, at least ones by myself, were reckless vanity trips. That’s how I ended up as Dobson’s punching bag for six months, so now we fly, a lot, and I bitch every time we do so.”
“He really does.” Nathan stood back up and waggled his eyebrows at Marcus. “So to spare them, we should, you know, get you into the bedroom. Make sure they aren’t exposed to your very un-AA-like whining.”
“I don’t whine,” Marcus said, clearly affronted by the accusation. “I just fucking hate flying!”
“Which I am trying to distract you from, yeesh!” Nathan planted one hand on his hip. “I mean, if you want to stay out here, instead of coming to bed and getting naked—”
“It’s only about a half-hour flight.” But Marcus didn’t sound like he was protesting. More like bartering, Harley thought.
Nathan hummed and turned around, walking with enough of a swish to make his ass sway. “Wonder what we could do for half an hour.”
“I’ll see you when we land.” Marcus was gone in seconds, and Harley was feeling kind of warm and flushed.
“Well, I guess we could send Ryder to the bathroom, or maybe he could go keep the pilot company,” Harley teased. Val looked at Ryder, who was glaring at them both.
“I think that’s a good idea, don’t you agree, Ryder?” Val ginned and Ryder flipped him off.
“No, I don’t. This is not some orgy flight, and if it is, then somebody better find me a sweet ass to fuck, stat.” Ryder huffed as he sat in a chair.
“Stat, Ry? Really? What the hell?” Harley tossed the only thing he could find at Ryder, clocking him on the ear with a quarter.
“Hey, twerp!” Ryder started to get up but the pilot came on and told them to buckle up. “I’ll get you back.”
Harley grinned. “And I’ll tell everyone about your nickname.”
Val sat up a little straighter. “His nickname? This sounds embarrassing, do share.”
“Don’t you dare,” Ryder muttered, then he switched to pleading, “Please, Har, please?”
Harley shot Ryder an apologetic glance. “Sorry. I don’t think I can keep it from my mate, so you better be nice to him. Make him want to keep you from being humiliated, Pooter.”
“Aw, God,” Ryder wailed, covering his face with his hands. “You just had to!”
“I did,” Harley agreed. “And he got that nickname for the reason it sounds like, too.”
“It’s vegetables, okay? I can’t eat them. Green ones do lots of people that way. Good for you, my ass.”
“Doesn’t sound like it was good for your ass at all,” Val snickered.
“Or anyone around him,” Harley added.
“Ugh. Little brothers are so annoying.” But Ryder started laughing, and for a second Harley thought his brother had lost his marbles all over again. “Har, I wouldn’t trade you for anything, you know that, right? Even if you do know all my embarrassing secrets.”
The flight was short, as Marcus had stated, and less than forty-five minutes later they were walking down the steps and onto the tarmac of another private landing strip, this one within sight of the sprawling house Marcus and many of his pack members lived in. Actually, Harley thought of it more as a compound than a house. Whatever, it was huge.
“Wow, a private jet, a handsome guy, and a place like this?” Ryder clicked his tongue. “Maybe I really do want to be the South American Alpha Anax. This shit’s amazing.”
“Yes, it is,” Marcus said as he came up beside them. His white-blond curls were messed and there were what looked like love bites at the base of his neck. Harley reached up and touched the still-tender spot hidden by his collar, where Val had bitten him days ago. He wanted to feel Val taking him like that again.
“We’ll be alone soon,” Val whispered in his ear. “I can see your need in your eyes. It makes me ache for you.”
“I think you two need a room, seeing as how Marcus and I hogged the plane’s bedroom.” Nathan winked and hooked his arm through Marcus’. “Come on, let’s go home.”
Chapter Fifteen
As soon as he shut the door behind them, Val hustled Harley to the large bed in the centre of their bedroom. “God, you have no idea how much I need you right now.” Knowing that Marcus and Nathan were fucking, or having some sort of sex on the plane, had made Val’s dick hard in seconds. It wasn’t that he wanted either man, but he wanted to fuck his mate, too. And now he would.
“Hurry,” Harley urged him, kicking his shoes off. “Just get it out, that’s all you gotta do, get your cock out for me.”
Harley’s arousal enflamed Val’s until he was panting roughly as he freed his dick. Harley shoved his tight jeans down and knelt before bending over the side of the bed. That just wasn’t going to do, Val decided, because he wanted to feel as much of Harley’s skin and lean muscles as he could. He also wanted in him immediately, but didn’t want to hurt him.
“Strip it all off,” Val ordered, doing the same himself.
After some grumbling, Harley did as Val wanted. Val rewarded him with a kiss that made Harley whimper and cling to him. Val laid him on his back on the bed then crawled over him and began licking the spot he’d marked the first time he’d taken Harley.
“Ah, please, mark me again,” Harley begged, holding his head firmly and pushing him at that bite. “Now, you can do it now and make me come. I swear, I’ll be ready to go again in no time!”
Harley’s desperation was the most potent of aphrodisiacs. Val lowered himself onto Harley and fitted his hands beneath him. He rolled, putting Harley on top of him, and the second their cocks brushed, he bit. Harley yelped and rutted against him, hard jabs that hurt more often than not, but the slick squirt of Harley’s cum soon eased the friction and his thrusts slowed, became less violent. Val sucked the place he’d bitten, tasting blood and life in the coppery tang. He was so very close to losing it, but he wanted to do so inside Harley, not against him. Val gave one last strong, sucking pull. Harley shivered and moaned, then Val released the flesh he’d marked and pushed at Harley’s shoulders. “Ride me, honey. Fuck yourself on my dick. Take what you want from me.”
Harley sat up and undulated his hips, rubbing his ass against Val’s groin. “Spread some of my cum on your cock.”
Val ran his fingers through a smeared puddle of spunk and spread it on his shaft. He reached for more but Harley pushed his hand aside. “No more. I’m gonna feel this, really feel it.” He reached beneath him and held Val’s cock at the base. Then he began bearing down, his ring opening, squeezing Val’s tip, sucking him into the hot, silky embrace of Harley’s inner walls. “Ah, yeah, babe, fill me up!”
Val wanted to, but he was going to let Harley set the pace. He ran his fingertips over Harley’s cock, down to his balls, and Harley’s ass rippled around his length. Val kept touching him, using both hands, and Harley groaned low and brokenly as he sat, impaling himself fully on Val’s dick.
“Harley,” Val whispered, desperate to see Harley’s eyes. Harley opened them, and the affection in their depths pushed Val close to the edge of his endurance.
Harley swivelled his hips then rose up until just the very end of Val’s cock was still inside him. Gaze locked with Val’s, he took Val’s length in, again, and again, until he was riding Val, moaning and whimpering, need etching lines on Harley’s brow as he sought his release.
Val struggled to hold back and stopped teasing Harley, wanting him to hold off just a little longer. When Harley slammed down onto him again, Val held him in place with a forearm across his thighs. He thrust up, getting deeper, then he flipped Harley ov
er, catching his legs and pulling them up as he powered into Harley, all need and no finesse. He got his hands on Harley’s nipples and pinched them hard. Harley screamed and sobbed, his inner walls constricting, trying to hold Val in.
Val wouldn’t be held, not when need tore through him like a wildfire fuelled by drought and wind. He fucked Harley, shoving into him, his balls slapping Harley’s fine ass repeatedly. Val kept at Harley’s tits, too, twisting, plucking, scratching, and Harley’s shouts grew louder, his ass tighter, hotter. Val’s balls were hard as stones, his orgasm climbing up to his dick. He released one nipple to fist Val’s cock, and that was all it took. Harley’s keen was almost a shriek as he jolted, semen splattering from his dick.
Val thrust in and ground against Harley’s ass as his vision dimmed, ecstasy slamming him and pouring from his cock. He pumped every bit of it into Harley’s ass, then carefully pulled out before collapsing beside him.
Harley murmured and curled up beside him, and for a little while they slept. Eventually Val became aware of someone tapping at their door. He rolled over just in time to see Nathan peeking in. Nathan blushed but, instead of leaving, he came in—and Marcus was right behind him.
“You should lock the door.” Nathan stopped and fanned his face. “Wow. I’m, uh, kinda turned on, Marcus.”
Harley rolled onto his back and opened one eye—and shrieked. “What the fuck!”
Harley’s panic knocked Val’s brain cells into gear and he sat up. He grabbed the edge of the blanket and covered Harley’s cock and balls, but that was about all he could manage since they were on top of the damn thing.
“Maybe this will be lesson enough for you to remember the lock next time,” Marcus chided. He sat on the bed, right beside Val’s hip. Nathan sat almost on Marcus’ lap. “Shifters are sensual creatures, you know that, Val. Harley should know it, too. We’ll leave if you’re too uncomfortable, but please believe that, while we are definitely enjoying the view, neither of us would be inclined to do more than look, any more than either of you would. The whole mate thing, once the bond is established. Kind of prevents cheating, which doesn’t make us any less jealous or possessive. You’d think it would, though. Huh.”
Marcus scooted down a little and Val checked with Harley, who hadn’t made another sound at all. Harley looked as if he were considering something very important. “What is it?” he asked Harley.
“I was just wondering, then, if we can barge in on Marcus and Nathan. I mean, if your door is unlocked, is that an invitation?” Harley didn’t wait for an answer. “Because I’m not sure how I feel about that, even if, like you said, no one is going to fuck anyone other than their mate. I’m torn between being freaked out and totally turned on.”
“Eh, we usually lock our door, but our species tends not to be so uptight, you know.” Nathan pointed at Val. “Like when we go for a pack run, lots of times there’s wolves fucking, people fucking, you know, and no one is doing anything bad. We’re just not as prudish, I guess. That took me some getting used to, but now it’s, er, interesting. But that’s honestly not why we barged in here. We needed to talk to you both and figured the whole bed-shaking stuff would be done with.”
“It is,” Val said, “and if it hadn’t been I think the visit might have killed it off anyways.”
Nathan gave him a thumbs-up. “Got it. An unlocked door doesn’t mean come watch.”
“Right.” Val got up and found a pair of shorts. It wasn’t like Nathan and Marcus hadn’t seen him naked before—kind of impossible when they’d all shift and run together—but he preferred to be somewhat clothed for serious conversations, which was what he thought was coming. “You want clothes, honey?”
“Please,” Harley answered. Val dug out a pair of sweats and a T-shirt from their bag. He brought them to Harley then waited until he was dressed. “Okay, is this about the medical treatment?”
“Yes it is.” Marcus pulled a small pill bottle from his pocket. “This is something a doctor, a shifter doctor in Amsterdam, used as a miracle cure. He said it fixed just about everything on a shifter, and when we thought Adam wasn’t healing fast enough, the doctor gave him one of these pills. Adam healed, all right, and quicker than most shifters I know, but he also had a painful, and unwanted, conversion into a shifter.”
Val frowned at the vial. “What the fuck is in those things?”
Marcus shook it. “That’s the gross part. What’s in here is, I’ve been told, the ground-up bits of an ancestor of Matamesius, who, according to legend, was the first shifter.”
Harley gagged and Val felt like doing the same thing. “That’s…that’s an old, old dead guy in capsule form?”
“So I’m told, and I believe it.” Marcus took one out and held it up to the light. The orangeish capsule seemed to glow from within. “Adam took one, and not only was he healed, he was turned. The pain was unbearable. He struck out at everyone, unknowingly, as he convulsed. He almost accidentally killed his mate. It’s been a very, very bad few days for us, and Adam and Todd. Well, Gabe and Mika, too. But,” Marcus lowered the pill then held it out to Val, “here’s the thing. This won’t, I don’t think, bring back your eyesight. I mean, I could be wrong. We don’t really know what all that thing can do. But it might heal your leg, and give your wolf the kick in the ass he needs to get up. Your mate needs you, Val.”
Harley shook his head. “Uh-uh, not swallow a dead guy bad, I don’t.”
Nathan snickered then covered his mouth. “Sorry.” He seemed to have himself under control when he moved his hand. “It’s just the way you said it. And the words themselves, yeah. But, Harley, what Marcus means is, there’s more to the mate bond, and neither of you are getting it because Val’s wolf is doing whatever it’s doing in there.” He tapped Val’s chest. “Mates need that bond, the mental one, even if it isn’t very strong, and Val needs his wolf to come back to him. No one here is trying to make you into one of us, that’s something only you and your mate should decide. But Val is already one of us, and he needs his wolf, don’t you, Val?”
Val ached just hearing that. “Yes, I do,” he whispered. “Even if it takes ingesting a dead guy’s remains to do it.”
“Then do it,” Harley said immediately. “As long as it’s not going to hurt him.”
Marcus shook his head and gave Val the pill. “I can’t promise it won’t hurt him, but the doctor I took them from said he’d used them on other shifters and there were no bad longterm effects. So he might be in agony for a little while, and he might not, but in the long run he’ll be better.”
Harley looked at him. “You do what you want to. I’m with you either way.”
Val popped the pill in his mouth and dry-swallowed it. The bitter, oily taste made him immediately wish he’d had something to wash it down with. The pill had barely hit his stomach when he felt the tingling beginning there. Val opened his mouth to describe it, and pain arced up his spine. He jerked and his eyes rolled back as Harley’s scream sounded in his ears, then Val was pulled into the blessed darkness where pain no longer existed.
Epilogue
“Open your eyes for me.”
Val blinked and swatted at the light blinding him. “Stop it,” he croaked. “You stop it,” Shania snapped at him. “Scaring the shit out of everyone like that. You
poor mate’s been beside himself the past couple of days.”
“Days?” Val got up on his elbows. He was still blind in his left eye, but his thigh didn’t
have the same constant ache he’d got used to. “Harley?”
“He just went to the bathroom. He’ll be—”
“Val!” The clinic room door flew open and Harley ran in, skidding to a stop beside
Val’s bed. “Oh! Thank God!” Harley sniffled and began kissing Val, covering his face with
chaste brushes of his lips. “I knew you were going to be all right. I told them, I could feel
you! I can feel you, Val!”
Val caught Harley’s chin and held him still. He loo
ked into his mate’s eyes and his heart
swelled with love. “I can feel you, too, Harley.” Val cocked up one side of his mouth. “I can
hear you, I can feel you, I can share everything, with you now.” And Val opened his mind as
Harley gasped. He held nothing back, letting him see what their bond truly was. “Val, Val, I love you too. Don’t ever leave me like that again. Even though I could feel you, I
missed you so bad.”
“I missed you too, Harley. Now, let’s see if we can get Shania to let you take me home.” Harley grinned. “Shania, I’m taking my mate back. Thank you for looking out for him.”
Shania muttered but didn’t say no, and Harley bent to kiss him deeper this time before
standing up again. “Can you get up?”
Val stretched his leg, and his wolf rippled under his skin, eager to play, happy to be
freed from the prison it’d got itself into. “Yes, I think I can. It doesn’t hurt.” The scar was
there, but even it was faded. Val’s bone didn’t hurt at all, and he’d take that, yes he would.
He got his feet on the floor and stood, naked and uncaring of the fact.
“I’ll let Marcus and Nathan know,” Shania called out as they left the clinic. “Show me,” Harley demanded. “Let me see you shift.”
Val’s wolf yipped inside him, but he hesitated. “Are you sure, Harley? I can wait to
shift until later.”
Harley rolled his eyes and huffed. “I don’t think so. I’m not afraid of you, Val, in any
form, and you’ve got to be wanting to do it.”
“I really do,” Val admitted. “But just for a second or two.”
“Take as long as you need,” Harley told him, but Val merely had to try it, to feel himself
in his wolf form once again. Then he needed his man. “You’re gorgeous as a wolf, too,”
Harley whispered when Val shifted. “Let me touch that thick grey fur.”
Bailey Bradford - Southwestern Shifters 06 - Reverence Page 18
