A Cowboy in Ravenna

by Jan Irving

  Trin licked a claw, and then the cool tip touched Chace’s entrance. Trin penetrated him carefully.

  “I love that in me. I love being your possession,” Chace groaned. “Promise we’ll try it out sometime, Trin, that you’ll tie me up and milk me.”

  “Oh, fuck. We’ll put you in the cellar under my cabin,” Trin said, swallowing hard. His hair was rumpled crazy around his skull from Chace’s hands. His lips were shiny from sucking Chace, reddened from sex. “I like the idea of cuffing your wrists and ankles and then touching you, stimulating you until you produce.”

  “Trin!”

  “Give it all to me. I want to swallow you down.” Trin’s mouth was tight and wet around Chace’s cock, receiving. He grunted, sounding ravenous as he swallowed. Chace shook above Trin, drained dry, quivering as Trin licked, taking his essence.

  He collapsed on Trin. “You didn’t—”

  “I’m not sure it’s safe. You don’t know what I can become.” Trin closed his eyes. “I’d need… I’d need you to tie me down first.”

  Chace grinned. “If that’s supposed to be a turn off, game over.”

  “You kinky little brat.”

  “I want you to come.”

  “Inside you?”

  Chace cuddled closer. “Yes. God, yes.”

  Trin’s heart was pounding under his ear. “We’ll try it soon. Right now the beast is satisfied. You gave me your taste.”

  “You really go for that.”

  “I had no clue I’d want something like that until I tasted you. I’ll need you to feed it to me regular. Now I’ve had you that way, I crave it.”

  Chace traced the mark on his neck. Weirdly, it was almost healed. “This means something to you.”

  Trin’s eyes were smoky again, the beast relaxed for the moment. “I claimed you.”

  “Does that mean you’ll take care of me sexually?”

  “Straight to the point like always. You’re so impulsive. Passionate.”

  “And yours.”

  Trin’s expression darkened. “Yes, there’s no going back. I hope you won’t be frightened of me.”

  “Oh, yeah, you made me want to run screaming when you were sucking me off.” Chace climbed off Trin. Separating himself from Trin was hard…unnatural. But damn, Chace was hungry enough to eat his weight in food. Hopefully their Italian hotel would have the promised vegetarian offerings.

  Trin smacked his ass and Chace loved it. He looked over his shoulder and rubbed the pink imprint.

  “Kinky brat,” Chase said as they finished dressing.

  Trin wrapped his arms around him and Chace felt a moment of perfect, centred peace, body singing and inner Buddha smiling. This was where he belonged. This was why it had hurt when Trin tried to push him away.

  “Let’s feed you. And then…I guess you have stuff we’re supposed to do today.”

  Chace laughed, tugging Trin from their room. “It won’t be so bad. No carpets to—” He stumbled over something lying on their threshold. “Holy shit!”

  Sabin was curled into a ball. His eye was swollen purple, his lip cut and his clothes spattered with blood.

  Chace knelt beside him, instinctively pulling him close. He looked up at Trin. “Help us.”

  Chapter Seven

  Chace opened the hotel door, spotting Sabin lying on the bed. His long auburn hair was damp and he was shirtless, curled up like a withered leaf. Trin was sitting nearby, running his hand above Sabin’s body.

  “What are you doing?” Chace asked. He’d seen Trin do the hand thing before with sick horses. He’d always figured it was somehow connected to his healing talent.

  “Mapping his energy.”

  “Like chakras? Sasha knows a lot about them.” Chace put down the things he’d picked up at the local farmacia as well as at the market for Sabin—fruit, bread, cheese and some salve for the bruises.

  “I don’t.” Trin shot him a look. “It’s just…I can feel where he’s hurting.”

  “How does it work?” Chace doled out additional food he’d macked from the breakfast room—chocolate-filled croissants, Italian cookies, pineapple juice, yoghurt and espresso for Trin. He’d brought enough for three people.

  “It feels red and hot where he’s bruised. Cool where he’s low on energy.” Trin’s brow furrowed. He took Chace’s hand in his, hovering it over Sabin. “Can you feel that?”

  Chace closed his eyes. The mark on his neck throbbed and then his palm prickled. “Warm, yeah,” he said. “He’s so fucking tired.”

  “Someone kicked him.” Trin gently rolled Sabin onto his stomach. He moaned but didn’t open his eyes. “In the kidney.”

  “Oh, shit. Does he need a hospital?”

  “Not now…” Sweat stood out on Trin’s forehead. He squeezed his eyes shut and his hand trembled. “From the bruise, looks like the fucker used a steel-tipped boot.”

  “Will he be okay? He looks so…” Vulnerable.

  Chace brushed the fiery hair, wondering what kind of life Sabin lived. Had he tried to rob the wrong person?

  “He’ll be fine but he’ll need a safe place to rest. The knock to his head didn’t help. He’s still woozy.” Trin sat back, crossing his arms and breathing heavily. Evidently healing someone zapped him. “He’s had a rough life, Chace. I hate seeing a young shifter on his own this way. Where are his pack, his family?” Trin pulled back the long hair at the nape of Sabin’s neck, exposing a knot of scarring. “This old marking scar didn’t heal right. I can feel…he’s blocked somehow. His mind.”

  Abruptly Trin’s hand fell. He was shaking. “His memory…” he whispered, staring at Sabin.

  Chace shoved some biscotti into Trin’s hand. “Eat.”

  Trin looked amused at Chace’s pushiness…and kind of aroused. “Only in Italy do you get cookies for breakfast. I could like this place.”

  “Yeah. The cornettos are awesome too.” Chace couldn’t finish his. He left it for Trin, who looked like he could use the calories after his healing deal. “So you mentioned your, uh, pack?”

  Trin sighed and then reached for his espresso, as if he had to caffeine up before this conversation. “I was the shaman of a shifter’s pack, a healer. I trained for years under an elder of our village.”

  Chace settled into half-lotus. “What exactly are shifters? I mean, I’ve seen werewolf movies…”

  “Werewolves are wolf shifters gone wrong, either physically or mentally out of control,” Trin explained. “Most shifters just transform into a big wolf, usually around the time of the full moon. Some of us can assume a half-transitional state.” He shrugged and colour touched his bronzed cheeks.

  Yeah, Chace knew that form. “But you’re so big when you’re like that. You must go through a lot of 501s.”

  “I haven’t done it for a while.”

  “What brought it on?”

  Trin raised an eyebrow.

  “Oh. Me.”

  “You let me put my mark on you.”

  Chace remembered the moment he’d tilted his head, allowing Trin to bite him. “I’ve always been yours. There was always a connection.”

  “Yeah.” Trin cleared his throat. “I could feel you.”

  “Is that why we can sometimes share images?”

  “Think so. I don’t think it’s common to most shifters. It might be because of my training.” Trin shrugged.

  “So…” Sabin drawled. His eyes were still closed so that Chace had thought he was still out of it. “The shifter took you as his mate. Aren’t you afraid? You’re just a human and he can…hurt you.”

  “You’re awake,” Chace said, reaching out to touch Sabin’s slight shoulder.

  Sabin slapped Chace’s hand away.

  Trin grabbed Sabin’s hand. “Don’t do that. Don’t ever hit him.”

  “Fine.” Sabin struggled to his elbows. He grabbed his belly.

  “Maybe that will teach you a lesson,” Trin said, not looking particularly sympathetic. “But I doubt it.”

  “Gotta get
out of here…” Sabin managed.

  “Then why did you come in the first place?” Trin asked.

  “Safe place for a while. Now I’m leaving.”

  “Don’t let me stop you.”

  “Trin!” Chace reached for Sabin but Trin held him back.

  Sabin’s face twisted, sweat popping out on his forehead. He was so pale his freckles and the terrible bruise over his eye stood out like heavy makeup. He managed to sit up, made it to the edge of the bed—

  Fell.

  “Enough.” Trin, his face softening, let go of Chace and knelt beside Sabin. Trin swung Sabin into his arms, putting him back on the bed while Chace poured fresh juice, handed it to Sabin. “I have some Tylenol,” Trin said. “Hang on.” Chace grabbed his bag, dug through it and found the bottle.

  “Give me three,” Sabin said.

  “It says you should only take two.” Chace shook out two pills.

  “I take three.”

  “This happen to you a lot?” Trin asked.

  Sabin avoided Trin’s gaze. “Often enough. My mate likes things rough.”

  “Your mate?” Chace’s hand went to the new mark on his neck.

  “My mark’s on the back of my neck.” Sabin touched the heavy scarring Trin had pointed out. “Oh, you got a load of it already. Good to know what’s in store for you, human.”

  “Who is your mate?” Trin demanded. Gold lit his cool grey eyes like sparks in a fire. “I’d like to meet him.”

  “What does it matter? He found me. He always…” Sabin shook his head. “But I picked up the trail on the kids so it was worth it. I’ve almost got enough to buy one of them.”

  “Buy?” Chace was astounded.

  “Buy them, set them free,” Sabin said. “Only sometimes they don’t know how to handle that.” He swallowed. “Sometimes they latch on to me, as if I know how to fucking help them.”

  Trin was rigid. “You’re talking about the lost ones. You know where they are?”

  Sabin studied Trin before his gaze went to Chace. He reached out, gripped Chace’s hand. “You have to help them. You…care. You would be good for them, the little ones.”

  “We’ll help them,” Trin said. “Tell us where they are.”

  “Help who?” Chace looked at Trin. “Tell me.”

  Trin swallowed. “Outlaw shifters steal children. Sell them as slaves.”

  “These kids are like you, they have gifts?” Chace asked.

  Trin nodded. “Even if we mate with humans, the shifting gene is dominant.”

  Chace scrutinised Sabin. “You are one of the lost ones, aren’t you?”

  “I don’t need to be rescued,” Sabin said.

  “Oh, yeah, I can see that.” Chace raised a brow pointedly at the black eye.

  “We’re wasting time,” Trin said. “You’re in no shape to help anyone right now so it’s down to us.”

  Sabin gripped Chace’s arm. “He didn’t hurt you when he… But the mark on your neck is fresh.” Sabin’s brow wrinkled, as if he was confused.

  Chace touched it. “He didn’t hurt me. It was…special.”

  “Special… Whatever.” Sabin eyed Trin. “I have a meet set up tonight with the seller but he’s expecting someone real, a player.”

  “I can handle it.”

  “We can handle it,” Chace said.

  Sabin nodded, eyes hardening. “Your little mate has a soft heart. I want him to take part or it’s no deal.”

  Trin’s jaw tightened. “I won’t put him in danger. He’d be too attractive to our kind.”

  “That’s his tough shit,” Sabin said. “Do you want to help the kids or not?”

  “I have to make a call,” Trin told Chace as they left the room.

  “Who are you calling?”

  Trin shook his head. “I don’t want you involved in this.”

  “Trin, you’re a man of your word so now I am involved,” Chace said with a familiar frustration. Trin was still hiding from him. “Sabin would only share with us if I took part.”

  “I don’t have to like it.” Trin rubbed the back of his neck. “I haven’t…” He lowered his voice as they pulled back off the main street and took shelter under a tree, well back from the many cyclists that bumped over the ancient cobbled street. “I haven’t been inside you yet so we’re not fully mated.”

  Chace inhaled sharply.

  “I have to keep you safe but I also need to help those kids.” Trin shoved back his hair. “We don’t even know if we can safely fully mate.”

  “We’ll help the kids. Let’s focus on that.”

  Trin left a brief message to someone to call him and then put his BlackBerry away.

  “So you do know how to use it.”

  “When I have to.” Trin gave an impatient shrug. “I should have known he wouldn’t answer right away. Stubborn bastard.”

  “Do we need to do anything else?”

  “Not till tonight. Tonight we meet the local shifter’s pack.” Trin’s hand ghosted down Chace’s forearm. “Do you think you can handle that?”

  Chace swallowed. “Sure.”

  “They’re kind of hard core, from what Sabin said.”

  “I got that.” Chace lifted his head, took in warm Italian sunshine. “Let’s go sightseeing. Sabin’s resting and the guy you called hasn’t called you back and we can’t do anything about meeting this pack until tonight.”

  Trin gripped his arm. “I’m sorry, Chace, for ruining this for you.”

  Chace shoved him. “You’re kidding, right? You think I could tamely go on with my holiday while kids suffer?”

  “No, you couldn’t.”

  “All right then. I thought we’d go to the Basilica of San Vitale today. It’s the most famous, but…” Chace reached up and cupped Trin’s cheek.

  Trin nuzzled his face into Chace’s hand, as if he couldn’t stop himself. “Don’t. Not here in public. I don’t want to shame you.”

  “I feel no shame being with you. I don’t care if people stare at us, spit at us. Come on, there’s something I want to show you.”

  He consulted his map and, like everything in the micro city, what he wanted to see was within close walking distance. They walked through winding streets, past cafés and courtyards, villas fronted by tall grass and overblown roses.

  “Another pile of brick,” Trin said, when they reached their unimpressive looking destination. “Except smaller.”

  “Yeah, the Arian Baptistery isn’t very big,” Chace said. “And it’s not an architectural marvel.” They went down a spiral staircase and into the base of the tower, breathing in the dank earth smell. Trin looked around at bare walls, tiny windows.

  “Look up,” Chace whispered.

  Above them in tiny jewels a youth was being baptised.

  “Oh… God, Chace. He looks so human, so vulnerable.”

  “Once upon a time it was sacrilege to portray Jesus that way,” Chace told Trin, hoping he’d understand the deeper message. “Times change.”

  Trin studied Chace, as if considering his words. “After my son went missing I searched for him. I thought I was taking just another job when I met you. Taking care of you… I had a purpose. I’ll never be whole without Sage, but I had a purpose.”

  Chace didn’t speak. What was there to say?

  He looked like who he was, a man close to the earth, a simple working man. “You make me live.” Trin grazed the side of Chace’s face with rough fingers.

  “If I could do it, I’d give you back your son,” Chace said. “I’d do anything…”

  Trin hugged Chace. Emotion vibrated through the walls, silent singing.

  Chace swallowed, took a step back. I love you, I love you. He ached to say it. He cleared his throat. “We’ll do what we can for those lost kids. I know you need to heal them, bring them home to their families.”

  Trin nodded. He put an arm around Chace, who didn’t care if anyone came in or if they shocked anyone. Expressing how he felt here was right.

  “Thanks.”r />
  Chace smiled. “For what?”

  “For bringing me here. I expected to feel like Cass—out of place, some hick cowboy, but this…” Trin glanced up at the ceiling again. “I don’t have words. It grabs me by the throat.”

  “Some things don’t need words.” Like how Chace felt.

  “Touching.” A hulking shadow blocked the sunshine from the single entrance.

  Trin shoved Chace behind him.

  “Cut it out.” Chace moved beside Trin, who tugged Chace close enough to feel Trin’s body heat.

  “Calhoun,” Trin said.

  The man was massive and intimidating in inky black leather. A nightmare of a scar ran down from his forehead to his left cheek. Eyes the pale blue of a gas fire burned over Chace.

  “Pretty boy you got.”

  “Don’t look at him.”

  “He’s just what the slavers look for—beautiful, a natural human submissive.”

  “I just called you. What are you doing in Italy?” Trin demanded.

  “The kids are here, Trin.”

  “I know.”

  Calhoun cocked a brow. “Mind telling me how?” His black hair flowed free over his shoulders, so long it reached his hips, a silken curtain. A weird picture popped into Chace’s head. Calhoun and Sabin, bodies close, bright and dark hair tangled.

  “It’s a long story,” Trin said.

  “I’m for a Moretti. Been here long enough to get a taste for Italian beer,” Calhoun said.

  Chace narrowed his eyes, still looking Calhoun over. “You’re a shifter, like Trin, like Sabin.”

  Blue eyes fixed on his. “You know Sabin?”

  Chace bit his lip.

  “What do you know about Sabin?” Trin asked, his body tightening whenever Calhoun looked in Chace’s direction.

  “He’s mated to the head alpha of these parts. Word is he was once a truly superior whore.”

  Chace’s gut twisted. “I think he was one of the lost kids.”

  “Yeah,” Calhoun said. “So you up for that beer?”

  Chapter Eight

  “Are you scared?” Sabin asked Chace hours later.

  Chace was curled in one of the uncomfortable gold and white chairs in the hotel room. Sabin was still on the bed. He looked tired, and Chace thought that if he could see Sabin’s spirit, it would resemble a fading bruise.