As he and Marvin made their way out, he couldn’t shake the feeling that Max needed him to stay, but more important, Max wanted him to stay.
“Marvin,” he said, as they pushed through the door and out into the parking lot, “what do you know about savage judges?”
* * *
Max watched Bryan leave his office and had the strangest sensation of losing a life raft. And no, it wasn’t that he wanted to climb aboard the big werewolf and ride him. Although that was certainly part of it. Some forgotten quintessence corner of him yearned for the wolf. As if, when faced with the inherent threat of an unknown mage – any judge wanting to see a sumage was by definition a threat – what he reached for was a shifter. Which was, frankly, warped.
He supposed Bryan made him feel oddly safe. But there was more to it, some instinctual belief that there was something in Bryan that could actually help Max. If it came to a fight. When it came to a fight. No doubt the man was pretty kickass as a wolf, but a fight with a judge meant quintessence, and what could a shifter do there? All Bryan had were minor savage abilities, and all that did was shift him and heal him. Sometimes helped him heal others. As being a Beta helped him calm others down. Wasn’t like he was Alpha or anything special.
Max shook his head. Sexual tension is driving me bonkers. I just need to fuck him and get this out of my system. Or have him fuck me. I’m not fussy.
And now, concentrate, judge wants you.
Max looked to his boss, wondering how much sway he had in this situation. Could he force a public meeting rather than a private audience? Not likely, he supposed. Lowly sumage meets, what… Oh, shit. “This is a Surge-level judge we’re talking about, isn’t it?”
The kelpie nodded, not looking too worried.
Max frowned and decided to try to delay the inevitable. “I’m quite busy right now – can I offer him next week?” He sounded prim.
“It’s your funeral. Here’s his assistant’s extension.”
Max called and scheduled a meeting for the following week as far away as possible, then he kept insanely busy for the next few days, totally not admitting to himself that all he really cared about was that he had a date with Bryan on Friday.
CHAPTER TEN
A Bad Case of Enchantment
Biff was ridiculously nervous about his Friday night date. He’d spent some time looking up what might be a romantic evening and thought he had a good plan. But he didn’t know enough about the area, or Max for that matter, to be confident. The pack had helped, and hindered, and teased, because that was what they did. It’s what made them pack.
Marvin’s report must have been reasonably favorable, because even Alec seemed excited.
“Marvin says he’s really handsome.”
Biff narrowed his eyes. “What’s Marvin doing noticing how handsome my boyfriend is?”
“Ooo,” teased Kev, “you said boyfriend.”
“Well, crap, I did. Not sure that’s right.”
Colin nudged him, looking quietly pleased. “But you want him to be?”
“Kinda.”
Lovejoy, who was heading out for work, twirled his hips (in a way no straight man had any right to) and said, “Biff’s in luuuuuuve.”
“You all suck.” Biff’s nervousness was now tenfold.
“Any man would be lucky to have you,” said Colin, staunch and loyal.
Biff looked at him gratefully. “Yeah?” He needed a confidence boost.
“Yeah. Big, strong, you clean up nice, and you don’t chatter.”
Judd looked like he objected to some part of what was going on but held his tongue. Judd had been acting odd lately, but Biff chalked it up to crowded quarters and a new location. Judd hadn’t come from their original pack. He’d been a friendly loner, living upstate, who paid his respects by occasionally joining them for a run. When he found out Alec was gay and starting a queer-werewolf West Coast revolution, he’d privately petitioned the new Alpha to join. What was said remained private, but Alec had welcomed him warmly. Biff had to admit Judd fit in remarkably well. Lately, though…
Biff gave him a funny look.
Judd grimaced in apology.
If he wasn’t so worried about his date, Biff might have followed through. As it was, he merely began searching for his phone and wallet. Never could find anything in the mess that was the living room.
“Don’t forget,” said Alec mildly, “we’re apartment hunting tomorrow.”
Biff groaned. So far, they hadn’t had much luck. The Bay Area wasn’t a great place to find a large house for a large number of large men. They weren’t particularly fussy about the house itself, just that it be big enough for each to have his own room, and within easy running distance of open space. They’d told DURPS Sausalito but that was proving outside their price range. Now that a few of them had jobs, they looked better on paper, but local prejudice ran toward werewolf-equals-frat-house means parties and destruction. Landlords were suspicious. Legally, they had to declare their species on application forms – thus, even Marvin’s charm was failing them. And their crash pad was going away soon. Manifest Destiny was returning to town, her East Coast tour over, and no doubt wanted her apartment back sans large, hairy squatters.
“Right, I’ll be back in time.”
Alec smiled at his brother. “Not too early. Have fun. I love you.”
“Love you too.”
A chorus of “aws” rose from the rest of the pack. Biff flipped them all off and, scooping up his gear, headed out to his bike.
Max was waiting for him at the end of his driveway, looking totally edible. He’d rustled up a proper motorcycle jacket this time, although it belonged in the ’80s. I suppose that’s vintage and trendy now. His long legs were hugged by thick jeans, and his torso by a cashmere sweater.
Biff pulled his helmet off but didn’t leave the bike, playing it cool.
Max seemed to approve.
“Hey, sexy.” He came over and kissed Biff hard, without any kind of reservations and with lots of tongue. It was as if he intended to map the erogenous zones of Biff’s mouth. Biff would let him chart every corner.
Max tasted of caramel, rum, and brown butter, and Biff wanted to turn off his bike, lift him over his shoulder, and go right back inside that tiny apartment. But he intended to be a goddamn gentleman tonight. Prevailing attitudes seemingly against werewolf roughhousing, Biff felt he must prove something to Max, because Max was a local.
Still, he gave in to a bone-deep urge and dug the fingers of one hand into Max’s silky hair, tilting his head to just the right angle and plundering. Only for a moment. He might be a Beta, but a certain amount of attack-and-take was nested into all werewolf nature.
Max clearly didn’t mind. He melted into Biff’s grip, giving a little whimper of pleasure. He really does like a bit of dominance. Makes some sense. No one as snarky as this man did it without hunting a reaction.
Biff relaxed back, grinning.
“What?” Max looked dazed, and mussed, and suspicious all at the same time.
“I just got it.”
“Just got what?”
“You’re a brat.”
Max laughed. “You only now figured that out?”
Biff didn’t stop smiling, seemed he couldn’t. “Mount up, Trouble – let’s go.”
Max fastened Biff’s spare helmet to his head and slid himself over the seat. He tucked in against Biff’s back, all lean warmth and hard cock. Guess he liked their kisses too. Uh-oh, thought Biff, that’s a bit distracting.
Then Max slid his hands around front to test Biff’s own aroused response to their kiss.
“Behave,” Biff growled, pulling on his own helmet.
* * *
Max was delighted that the ride was a relatively short one. Not because he was having an awful time, but because bitching on the back of a motorcycle was like intense foreplay with no climax in sight. He shouldn’t have started anything back in his driveway, although Bryan had pushed it further when he’d seized control of that kiss.
Max couldn’t be faulted for getting hard. The very idea that his werewolf had a bit of a dominant streak was a total turn-on. Max loved being pushed about in the sack. And now he was forced to cling to Bryan’s broad back, cock nested against his tailbone. Anything more than a half hour’s ride and he might have died of need.
Fortunately, Bryan’s plan only took them to Muir Beach. Max was charmed – it’d been years since he visited. Too much of a tourist trap on weekends, but this evening it was peaceful, the fog having rolled in and driven all but the locals away with damp silence.
They parked the bike and strolled along. Bryan, after a moment’s hesitation, took Max’s hand in his larger one.
It was sweet.
Max hated how much he liked it. Hated how easily Bryan was quiet. How well he fit those worn jeans. His ass was a thing of beauty. And his hazel eyes were kind. He’d brought Max on a date that meant something, after Max had taken him into the Castro just to torture him for not being brave enough, or stupid enough, to be out.
Now he holds my hand like it matters. Like I matter.
I’m a jerk.
Stop hating yourself and think about his ass instead.
“You’re unusually quiet.” Bryan looked sideways at him, measured.
“Just wondering if you’re a top or if I’ll get a chance at that ass of yours.”
“That kiss worried you?”
“Naw. I liked it, obviously. But you do have a fine ass.”
The werewolf lowered his lashes. “Not as hairless as yours.”
“Mmm, I know. All peach fuzz and deliciousness.”
“You prefer to top?” Bryan didn’t sound upset about it, just curious.
“Sweet cheeks, I enjoy either way, but that ride has given me visions of all your luscious muscles spread out beneath me.”
“Damn.” Bryan gave himself a discreet adjustment.
Max laughed in delight. “We are going to have so much fun.”
“I don’t know that I’ll like it.”
“Never say I’m your first? Like, first first? No girlfriends into pegging?”
“That okay?”
Max was surprised by how okay, how weirdly possessively thrilled he was, like some crazy old-fashioned lord plundering the maidenhead of a village girl. Like he owned Bryan. Like Bryan is mine. But Muscles was looking nervous again and clearly needed reassurance. Max squeezed his hand. “I will be so gentle with you, my bruisable ripe peach.”
“Ripe? Really? Must you?”
“Shut up. You’ll be begging for it by the time I’m through.”
“Damn it, Trouble, we’re walking down a public beach. There are people around. We gotta talk about something else.”
Max grinned and left off his torture. “Fine, big guy, but we will revisit this later. What do you want to talk about?”
“I kinda love how hairless you are, so much easier to lick all over and—”
“That is not a change of subject.”
“Sorry, I was trying to ask about your ethnicity.”
“Oh. Oh? You mean in a sexy yet politically correct way?”
Bryan looked embarrassed again. “I’ve never met anyone who looked like you.”
Max laughed. “I know, I’m a freak. Asian eyes but they’re blue, skin that could pass for black in some parts of the world, taller than most, present company excluded. And I’m graceless.”
Bryan frowned. “Don’t belittle yourself. You’re the best-looking man I’ve ever met.”
Max swallowed a sudden lump of arousal, but also… What? Sentiment? Affection? “Scars and all?”
“Period. End of discussion. Hottest man ever. Stop fishing for compliments.”
Max hadn’t been. He’d been fishing for reassurance. He got it because Bryan automatically assumed that anyone who saw Max naked would want a second date. Because Bryan planned a beach walk at sunset – well, in the fog, but hey, that counted as a sunset in Marin – and held his hand like he was normal…
Max took a breath and reached for equilibrium. “Okay, so, ethnicity? I know it all. The one thing my family records is its bloodlines. There’s even a special online forum for tracking the family tree. Everyone is on there, even the sumages – especially the sumages. Family likes to know when they fail. Last I checked, I’ve got black, Asian, white, some Native American. Surges breed for quintessence ability and don’t care about anything else. It’s a fucked-up kind of egalitarianism.”
“Eugenics?”
Max tried to come up with a way to explain his family’s procreative philosophy. “Kinda, but also like Alpha-to-Alpha pack alliances. My line sought out strong Siphons and Sluices but really focused on Surges. Searched the globe for civic mages with that kind of power.”
“Why?”
“Honestly? It’s just a long-term breeding program. I assumed that the end goal was to produce the strongest Surge of them all.”
“What good is that?”
“I know, right? What can a super-strong Surge do? Blow up the planet or some shit like that? Sometimes, I think they’re shooting for the golden apple. You know, the myth and the legend.”
“Magistar?” Bryan’s surprise was genuine. There hadn’t been a new Magistar in decades. Only the oldest shifters knew anything about them, and they were closed-mouthed on the subject. Understandable. The last government attempt to create a Magistar had nearly cost them a city.
“Yeah. I know, crazy. But Dad was kinda crazy. Now you see what an epic disappointment I was.”
“But what about the other requirements?”
“I think he believed if you just bred a Magistar, everything else would follow. The mastery. The full scope of power. The familiar. The whole thing.”
“Man, that is fucked up.”
“Told you he was crazy.”
Bryan shook his head. “I always wondered how they worked.”
“Familiars? Ask a pre-Saturation shifter, if you can find one. Otherwise, who knows? The American government experimented during Iraq.”
“Of course they did.”
“They found a few ambitious Surges and attempted to get them to use cats and dogs to draw quintessence and shit like that. The records are sealed, but I happen to know that the Surges and the animals ended up all messily dead. Of course, the government had to stop – they needed Surges for the war more than they needed to source a Magistar.”
“How’d you know?”
“My father ran those tests.”
“Anyone tell you you got a fucked-up family?”
“Oh, yeah. Yours any better?”
“Mom’s all right. Jack’s cool. Jack is our household ghost.”
Max must have made a face because Bryan actually tried to explain. “Ghosts aren’t all bad. Jack used to be our neighborhood drag queen. He got us the house-sitting gig here.” He seemed to be waiting for something from Max.
“That’s all the family you have? A mom and a ghost?”
Bryan noticeably swallowed. “My brothers are thuggish, but better now they got families. My sisters are okay. Jack’s the only one who stays in touch.”
“So, why’d you leave?”
“Well, my brothers tried to beat the gay out of Alec when we were kids, until I put a stop to it. They eventually decided not to care. But my dad never stopped caring or beating.”
“Your dad an Alpha?”
“Beta, like me. But big with it, like me. It happens sometimes.”
“No wonder you stayed in the closet.”
Bryan gave him a funny look. “I kinda came out to the pack.”
Max felt his heart catch in his throat. Not that he thought Bryan’s pack would give him grief for it; obviously they were accepting, but because the words felt like some gift Bryan was handing to him – haphazardly wrapped and possibly heart-wrenching. “Yeah?”
“This pack, I mean. My pack. Well, Alec’s pack. I was pretty upset after, you know…” They were still holding hands and Bryan’s thumb moved gently up Max’s wrist under the sleev
e of his sweater to caress the place where his trace lines began.
“I let it slip that you were a he and not a she.”
“How’d they take it?”
“Fine.”
“Bryan…” Max growled it.
“I like it when you call me by my real name. No one else does, you know?”
Max stopped, tugged his hand away, and glared.
Bryan sighed. “I don’t really know how they reacted. I was upset. By the time you and I made up, they’d all come to terms with it. Alec was a bit surprised, maybe betrayed, but Alec knows how hard it was with our dad. Marvin was delighted, but Marvin is always delighted when anyone goes from sea lettuce to kelp, as he puts it. The others all teased me, because they can. Haven’t told the rest of the family yet. Why bother?”
Max arched a brow.
Bryan said quickly, “I will if you want me to.”
Max couldn’t help it – he tugged Bryan in for a kiss. Lips cool and salty from the coastal air. God, he tasted so good. Max had never liked kissing as much as he did with this werewolf. It was as if there was something addictive in his saliva. This boy has heroin spit and a cayenne cock. How will I ever let him go?
“You’re a darling man, you know that?”
Bryan dipped his head and lowered his lashes in that way he had when embarrassment ate at him.
Max decided to lighten the mood. “Now, are you going to feed me? I need stamina for later.”
This time, Bryan did blush. “About that.”
“You want to wait a bit? Not into premature butt sex?”
“That’s okay with you?”
Max tried not to be thrilled by the implication that Bryan was planning ahead, not just this date but the next one, and maybe another after that.
“More than okay. It’s nice to go slowly. No one’s ever actually courted me before.”
“Good. Would you consider, maybe, seeing only me for a while?”
“Land’s sake, you asking me to go steady, honeychild?” Max fluttered his lashes and put his free hand to his heart.
Bryan hunched, self-conscious. “I know it’s old-fashioned and not really the gay lifestyle… And we are in a gay Mecca… And you have lots of options. But maybe see if you like us enough to keep me around? Unless that’s not—”
Sumage Solution GL Carriger Page 13
