Cam's Fortune

by Odessa Lynne

  The wolf was brushing hair off Cam’s forehead. Sweat gleamed on the wolf’s face and his golden eyes stared down at Cam with a fevered heat. “I don’t understand why you’re healing so slowly.”

  “Maybe you’re wrong about the healing tech,” Cam said, his voice coming out hoarse. “Maybe I’m just dying.”

  “No. Your smell isn’t the smell of a dying human.”

  “Nice.”

  The wolf’s mouth tightened in a frown, and Cam glimpsed the edges of sharp eyeteeth.

  A low hum started and warm air swirled across Cam’s skin. He blinked and glanced down.

  He’d been stripped of most of his clothes. Nothing but his wet boxers and damp socks covered him.

  “Might as well take it all off,” Cam said. “Not like it’s going to matter later.”

  “I had planned to,” the wolf said gruffly, “but your smell . . . I became distracted.”

  Cam spoke carefully, “If you’re rational enough to talk, then you’re rational enough to listen.”

  The wolf’s eyes narrowed on Cam but he didn’t speak.

  When Cam continued, he kept his voice low and his words calm. He wasn’t about to risk another bout of that painful coughing that had knocked him out. “You don’t try to fuck me while I’m half dead and I’ll mate with you for as long as you want when I feel like I can take a dick up my ass. That’s a promise.”

  Cam stared hard at the wolf. He was lying, of course he was, but he knew how to sell it.

  “There’s a cellar,” the wolf said, slowly, but then his eyes closed and he lowered his head. The bridge of his strong nose scraped over Cam’s collar.

  The wolf was sniffing him. What a fucking nightmare this was going to be if that wolf—

  “What’s your name?” Cam asked. “You know who I am, who are you?”

  “I am—” The wolf’s mouth opened against Cam’s collarbone. He said something, but the mumble of syllables got lost in a hot breath against Cam’s skin.

  Cam shoved the wolf’s head back with his hand.

  The wolf snarled at Cam.

  Cam flinched, the muscles in his back tightening involuntarily, and pain stabbed through him. “You fucking—” He raised his fist and tried to slam it into the side of the wolf’s head.

  The wolf roared at him and grabbed Cam’s wrists.

  Cam gasped and stilled. He hurt too bad to keep up the fight. His vision narrowed and his breath didn’t seem to be filling his lungs. He was going to pass out again and he didn’t bother trying to fight it this time.

  If he was going to end up fucked in his condition, he’d rather not be awake for it.

  Chapter 4

  If he’d been fucked, he sure didn’t feel like it, although when he woke, he did notice right away the cool air on his dick. His boxers were gone, and so were the wet socks. He wasn’t on a bed any longer either.

  He didn’t know what to make of that for a good five seconds. Then the cold numbness against his ass started to make itself known and he looked around the dimly lit space and realized he was in a—

  “What the hell is this place?” His voice broke somewhere in the middle of his question. He didn’t bother repeating himself. He was too busy staring at the wolf standing in front of him. The wolf’s clawed hand was wrapped around a thick chain, and the chain rattled in the pale light of a solar lantern. The ends of the heavy chain clanked across the synthetic wood slats that made up the floor beneath them.

  “I told you there was a cellar.”

  “You’re not putting those fucking things on me,” he said, gritting his teeth afterward. His chest ached, but not just from his injuries. He didn’t want to be chained up like a dog, and yet . . . if that was the wolf’s plan, he already knew there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it in his current condition.

  “Locking you away won’t keep you safe,” the wolf said.

  The wolf kept staring at him, and Cam’s heart beat faster. He licked his dry lips. “So what are you doing?”

  “I won’t be in control of myself for much longer. I cannot get you to safety in time to stop what’s going to happen when my heat overcomes the last of my control. Your scent is already stealing my thoughts, making me forget—” The wolf stopped and just stood there. The chain rattled and Cam raised his gaze to the wolf’s hand, fisted around the chain. A dark line dripped from the wolf’s wrist and it took Cam a moment in the pale light to realize it was blood. His gaze flickered to the wolf’s other hand, flexing at the wolf’s side, long, dark claws a shadow at the ends of his fingers.

  Cam swallowed and tried to shift on the hard floor. His back was to a concrete block wall with a large crack stair-stepping along the mortar joints toward the ceiling. The foundation had shifted at some point in the past and the portion below the crack jutted out into the cellar a few inches further than those blocks above the crack. His back was too close to the crack and he wasn’t comfortable and his ass was cold and numb, but he could see the shine of water to his left and right. He had a feeling this was the most comfortable he was going to get down here.

  “You’re injured too severely to mate.” Metal clinked as the wolf moved toward Cam.

  Cam’s instinct for self-preservation finally came back to him and he stiffened and kicked at the wolf’s foot. “Get back.”

  The wolf’s eyes gleamed hotly in the faint light. He didn’t retreat. “Submit, before you live to regret your decision.”

  Cam breathed through his nose, his eyes hot with the pain that stabbed through his chest. He knew enough about anatomy to know he’d been as good as dead the moment that knife slid between his ribs. That he hadn’t died was a stroke of good fortune he couldn’t ignore. He’d seen God in that moment, and yet God hadn’t come for him. Cam didn’t mind that so much, but he damn well minded the pain shooting through his insides with every breath he took.

  The wolf loomed too close to Cam. “Submit!”

  “I’ll submit,” Cam growled out, low and harsh. “I’ve already said as much. Now what do you want?”

  The wolf held out the chain. The low light reflected off the wolf’s dark, wicked claws. “Take it.”

  Cam grimaced. His hands shook and he hadn’t even tried to move more than a few inches yet. But . . . he was starting to get an idea of what the wolf might be planning and his relief gave him a jolt of energy. He reached for the chain.

  “If I chain you up and leave you here, you’ll die.”

  “You won’t leave me.”

  “Sure,” Cam said. “I’ll just sit here on this cold floor on my naked ass and babysit.”

  “You will.”

  Cam let out a choked laugh that hurt more than it was worth. “Yeah, that’s what I’ll do. Until when exactly?”

  “Until you’ve healed enough to mate.”

  “You really think—”

  “You made a promise. You’ll keep it. The door into the cellar is solid steel and it’s locked. I overrode the code and created my own. Even fully healed, you won’t be able to free yourself.”

  Cam mashed his lips together tightly, his gaze darting around the room. The solar lamp’s light shone just wide enough to let him see the very edge of a wooden flight of stairs but not much else. “What the hell. What if I need—”

  “I brought blankets for you from the house. Water. Food. I don’t know how long it will take you to heal, but I can survive for four days without water. You won’t have to come near me for at least that long.”

  Cam clenched his teeth. He was going to end up stuck here with this wolf, whether he liked it or not. “This idea of yours is insane.”

  “The alternatives . . . aren’t acceptable.” The wolf’s gruff voice echoed off the block walls, his accent thick and his words halting. He dropped the chain across Cam’s waiting hand.

  The chain was as heavy as it looked and the weakness in Cam’s arm was greater than he expected. He dropped the chain. The clinking of the links turned into a series of clatters and thuds and the end of th
e chain smacked into his ankle. He hissed in pain.

  The wolf’s eyes glittered down at him. “We don’t have much time.”

  Cam tried to sit up straighter. “I don’t know if I can—” He gasped and stopped moving.

  The wolf took a step backward, hesitated, and then took several more. His back came up against what appeared to be a weight-bearing column of concrete. “You will.”

  Cam didn’t have a choice and he knew it. He was either going to have to get up and find the energy to chain that wolf to that column or he might as well offer up his ass right then and get it over with, injuries be damned.

  Cam tried to roll onto his knee so he could push himself upright. He slapped his hand against the block wall for leverage. He counted to three, and when his arm didn’t stop shaking enough for him to feel like he could make it, he counted to ten instead.

  A harsh breath sounded too close, startling him into a quick glance over his shoulder. The wolf hadn’t moved from his place against the column, although his claws were digging into his thighs.

  “There has to be another option,” Cam mumbled.

  “I can’t think,” the wolf said. “Hurry.”

  “This is as fast as I can go.” Cam lurched upright then had to grab his chest as pain bloomed fiery hot inside him. He stumbled, almost went to his knee, and butted up against the block wall.

  The wolf’s harsh exhale drew Cam’s eyes. Blood spread like water on the front of the wolf’s trousers where his claws had dug deep into his thighs. Just looking at the self-inflicted injury made Cam shudder.

  The light didn’t allow him to read the wolf’s expression, but he figured he knew what was going on. The wolf was barely in control of his heat, probably already desperate to fuck.

  “I’m surprised you’re holding on,” Cam said, slowly, as he pushed away from the wall.

  The wolf’s eyes glowed and his breath came faster. “If you hadn’t passed out earlier . . . I would have taken you then.”

  “So I should just pass out again then, huh?”

  “That won’t be enough to stop me the next time. Your scent . . .” One sharp shake of the wolf’s head followed. Sweat gleamed on his skin, visible despite the low light, and teeth flashed, a dangerous reminder of one of the many differences between the wolves and humans. “Your scent is the most intoxicating scent I’ve ever come across. When my next cycle hits me, I will mate you if we don’t make it impossible for me to do so.”

  Cam grunted but kept any other response to himself. He very carefully squatted to grab a handful of the chain. He almost lost his balance but caught himself at the last second. The cool, damp air chilled his bare ass and the only reason he didn’t curse the wolf for leaving him stark naked was because it would take too much energy away from his effort to pick up the chain.

  He still didn’t know what to call the wolf. “What’s your name?”

  The wolf’s nostrils flared on a deep inhale. His eyes closed and his body stilled and Cam wondered if he was going to get an answer.

  He started easing his way closer, dragging the weight of the chain with him.

  “Paetarikeille ah se Skiatarweaieskg,” the wolf said, haltingly, in the wolves’ language. “Rick to humans.”

  “Rick, huh?” Cam snorted and stopped in front of the wolf. “Last Rick I met tried to kill me.”

  Cold satisfaction followed the memory of putting a bullet in Rick Swanger’s head. Cam had done a few things in his life he didn’t like to remember, but only a few of those haunted him. Rick’s death wasn’t one of those things. Cam didn’t like to kill, but he sure hadn’t minded killing that monster.

  He could still remember how those calloused fingers had felt on his skin.

  The wolf’s eyes reopened suddenly, their glimmer focused on Cam with a single-minded intensity that made it hard for Cam to swallow.

  He gripped the chain tighter, wondering how useful it might be as a weapon. He didn’t have to use it though, because the wolf didn’t move.

  “Are you feeling well enough to mate?”

  Cam shook his head.

  The wolf eyed him with undisguised lust. “Then get those chains around me because time has run out.” A rumble started in the wolf’s chest and set off pleasurable sparks along Cam’s nerves. The sound was unique to the wolves but the pitch of that distinctive sound irritated the nerves of most humans. Not so for Cam. The first time Cam had heard the sound, he’d been surprised as hell to realize it made him hard.

  He couldn’t escape the memory that came to mind, of Henry, a soft-spoken wolf Cam had met when he was fifteen, only weeks after the wolves had started settling on Earth. His chest tightened and he forced himself to focus on the cold metal in his hand.

  Thoughts about Henry never left him unscathed.

  “Sit down,” Cam said, gesturing to the floor in front of the concrete column.

  The wolf’s lips pulled back from his teeth, exposing the sharp points of his eyeteeth. That rumble started in his chest again.

  A tingle skittered up Cam’s spine. There was no way to hide the way his cock twitched and started to fill with blood—he was completely naked, after all. He kept his eyes on the wolf’s face and did his best to ignore his body’s reaction.

  The wolf’s nostrils flared wide, but he took only a shallow breath. He was fighting to stay in control, and Cam could feel the tenuous hold slipping just in the way the wolf watched him.

  It was a risk, but he closed his hand on the wolf’s upper arm.

  The wolf jerked. His head fell back against the column and he squeezed his eyes closed. He took the hint though and let his legs crumple beneath him. His back slid along the column until he was sitting on the floor.

  Cam didn’t waste any more time. He pulled and dragged the heavy chain until he’d wrapped it around the wolf’s lean torso. The wolf never opened his eyes. Cam was glad. If the wolf had, all he was likely to have seen was Cam’s semi-hard dick waving in his face.

  Like that would help their situation.

  When he got out of this, Ava would laugh her ass off about it, assuming he told her.

  He probably would; he told her everything else. She was the only person he could open up to without worrying about it coming back on him later.

  “The bar,” the wolf said, and for a moment, Cam had no idea what he was talking about. Then he noticed the piece of metal on the floor, a thick bar about four feet long.

  For two seconds he stared at it, and when he figured out what the wolf probably intended for him to do with it, he realized just how slow his thoughts were moving. He was too damn tired to think straight.

  Maybe there was a way out of this cellar and he just needed a clear head to see it.

  He yanked on the chain, pulling it as tight as he could. His chest gave a sharp stab of pain in protest and he breathed through it, teeth clenched tightly.

  He picked up the bar and threaded it through the loose ends of the chain and through a few more links for good measure. The bar was too strong to bend—it would take leverage Cam didn’t have—and so he just twisted until the wolf gasped and the chain had pulled taut and then he wedged it between the floor and a section of the chain.

  By the time he was done, the chain had the wolf’s back tight to the column and Cam himself was fighting a cough and the fresh taste of blood in his mouth.

  He staggered away from the column, dropped to the floor, and passed out to the sound of the wolf’s harsh breathing.

  Chapter 5

  Cam dreamed of Henry. Brilliant green eyes, odd smile that wasn’t really a smile as far as human standards went, but Cam had always known it meant Henry was pleased about something. He dreamed of Henry’s claws sliding along his skin, raking down his spine, and when he woke up, he was drenched in sweat and shivering.

  He reached for his dick before he even thought about what he was doing, but a dull pain in his chest brought him up short.

  Chain rattled and a wolf roared and it was enough to wash away the last
traces of his dream.

  Fucking—

  No. Cam sucked in a breath. He started coughing.

  His throat was so dry tears came to his eyes. He pushed up on one arm, then rolled into a sitting position. The chill of the floor against his ass and balls shocked him and he quickly rose up on his knees.

  The solar lantern had faded until there was almost no light brightening the cellar.

  He rubbed his face, trying to scrub the fog from his brain.

  He felt . . . better. Not well, not even good, but better.

  The cough eased and the dull pain in his chest settled into a soft ache.

  “Don’t guess you know what time it is?” he asked the wolf.

  His only reply was a cross between a growl and a roar. The chains jerked against the concrete.

  “Shit,” he muttered, then he snorted a low laugh and glanced down at his uncomfortably hard dick. “I bet you can’t wait to get a piece of that later.”

  He shouldn’t have been surprised when his dick actually twitched, but he was. He hadn’t fucked a wolf in years. Hadn’t even wanted to.

  “Release me,” the wolf demanded, his voice tight and gruff.

  “Not a chance,” Cam said. “You’re staying right where you are.”

  “Submit!” he roared.

  Cam winced. He brought his hand up and covered his ear with his palm. The ringing stopped after a few seconds.

  The wolf’s head reared back and he stared at Cam, looking almost lucid for two, three, four seconds. Then he opened his mouth and Cam barely got his hands over his ears in time to stop the wolf’s alpha roar from deafening him.

  An alpha. He hadn’t realized just what he was dealing with until that moment.

  He lowered his hands to the floor and crawled alongside the wall, squinting in the faintly lit darkness. There. A blanket, the pattern too subtle to make out in the available light. He reached for the bundle and dragged it around the water that stood in a shallow dip in the uneven floor. He rose up on his knees again and shook out what appeared to be a button up flannel shirt and a pair of—