Cam's Fortune

by Odessa Lynne

  “Just don’t die.”

  Tom had been standing back, keeping his mouth shut. Cam looked over at him, and the movement flipped Tom on his head.

  Cam jerked with the sudden vertigo and his hand slipped out from under him. He fell to his elbow on the cot just as Ava and Tom both jumped forward and tried to grab him.

  “I’ve got it.” Cam carefully lowered himself to the mattress and rolled onto his back. He stared up at the ceiling as the lights wavered in and out.

  Tom reached behind him and picked up the camera he’d been holding when Cam woke up. “You won’t be going anywhere if I don’t figure out what’s been making you pass out.”

  “My implants,” Cam said, voice quiet and flat. “I don’t think the biotech is compatible with them. I’m losing my hearing and the sight I’ve got left.”

  “Jesus,” Ava whispered.

  “It’s more than that,” Tom said. “There’s nothing wrong with the implants that I can find. It’s you.”

  Cam let his eyelids fall closed. “Shit.”

  “You could say that,” Tom said. “I’d be more likely to call it a miracle if it goes the way I think it’s going. But it’s still too early to tell for sure.”

  A furrow tightened Cam’s brow. He turned his head to the side to look at Tom.

  Tom raised his eyebrows. “Looks like you’re growing new optic nerves. Just haven’t figured out if your brain’s going to know what to do with them.”

  Chapter 19

  Cam entered Rick’s cell first, Olly behind him.

  Olly had the tray of food and the pitcher of fresh water. Cam was afraid he would have another dizzy episode and drop everything. He carried one of his own white t-shirts and a pair of softly worn jeans, clean socks and underwear.

  Rick rose from what had appeared to be a deep sleep with remarkable speed. His bare feet slapped against the floor and claws extended from beneath his toenails to click on the tile.

  He growled, just before his eyes dilated and focused in on Cam.

  Olly plopped the tray down on the floor just inside the door, pushed it forward with the edge of his foot, and hauled his ass right out of the room.

  The door shut and the lock engaged.

  “I have food for you,” Cam said. “Water to clean you up.”

  Rick lurched to his feet, steadied himself, and showed Cam his teeth. “I don’t need food. I need to mate.”

  No point being shy about it. Cam dropped the clothes to the floor beside the tray of food and they landed with a soft whumph. His hands moved to the waistband of his jeans and he flipped open the clasp holding the fly together.

  Rick shuddered and his eyes half closed. His chest rose with a shaky breath. He raised his hand and crooked his finger at Cam. “Come here,” he said, and the words were just as demanding as the gesture he made.

  Cam left his jeans hanging on his hips, shucked off his t-shirt over his head, and then stalked forward to stop directly in front of Rick.

  He met Rick’s gaze head on.

  “You want something,” Rick said, and although Cam heard the tremor of need and want underneath, he had to marvel at the way Rick was controlling his urge to take what he already thought of as his.

  Because of what Ava and Tom, and then Cordell, had described to Cam of their earlier encounter with Rick, Cam wasn’t expecting this measure of control.

  Of course, Henry had been younger, and not an alpha. His inexperience with the heat had shown through that first time, and he’d been so feral that Cam had been surprised by a surge of fear when he felt Henry’s claws on his back. That had been the first time fear had made Cam hard. Gentle Henry had become demanding and forceful, and Cam had liked it. A whole damn lot.

  Without his shirt as insulation against the chill in the air, the cold started to seep into Cam’s skin.

  “I do want something,” Cam said. He reached for the hem of Rick’s bullet riddled, blood stiffened shirt.

  Rick snagged Cam’s wrists, jerking him close. He thrust his nose against Cam’s collar and sniffed. Cam raised his chin and closed his eyes and enjoyed the hard press of Rick’s nose and mouth against his skin, the heat of his ragged breath, and the firm length of hard cock so close he wanted to shove his hand down Rick’s pants to feel it in his hand.

  “I don’t have the strength to discover what it is you’re hiding from me this time. We must mate now, or I won’t be able to resist my instincts.” Rick pulled away from Cam and Cam lowered his chin.

  “I don’t care if you hurt me.”

  “I do. You’re my mate. I must . . . care for you, better than I have been.”

  “I’m in the mood to fuck. Let’s save the deep and meaningful conversation for afterwards.”

  Rick jostled him closer still, his inhumanly strong arm a vice around Cam’s back. He clamped one hand around the back of Cam’s neck.

  “We won’t be fucking,” Rick said in a deep, rumbling voice. “We’ll be mating.” The emphasis he put on “mating” left Cam with no doubt that he had insulted Rick.

  “If that’s what you want to call it,” Cam said, “that’s fine by me. Maybe you should teach me the difference between the two so I get it right next time.”

  Rick’s eyes glittered and dark, fierce triumph pounded through Cam.

  He always had been good at getting what he wanted from other people.

  Rick pushed him away. Cam stumbled back, reaching out quickly to catch himself on the nearest wall.

  “Strip off the rest of your clothes and show me your submission.”

  Cam dropped his jeans and kicked them off. Then he turned around to face the wall. He slapped his palms flat on the cold block surface and said, “I prepared myself right before I came into the room. I bet you already know that.”

  Rick had moved silently behind him. Hands pushed Cam’s arms higher on the wall. Claws tickled the underside of his arms. Then Rick’s nose pushed into the space under Cam’s arm.

  He jerked, the feeling almost a tickle to the sensitive skin there.

  “Your smell . . . is like a drug to my senses.”

  “They used to call that huffing,” Cam said. “Does it make your dick hard for me?”

  Rick took one of Cam’s arms in hand and twisted it behind Cam’s back. “Feel.”

  Cam couldn’t turn his head far enough to see what Rick was doing, but he heard fabric rip and then hot, hard flesh pressed against his palm.

  Cam fisted his hand around Rick’s cock.

  Rick hissed through his teeth. The weight of his forehead pushed hard into Cam’s spine. “I want . . .” He took a sharp breath. “It hurts to resist what you don’t realize you’re offering.”

  Cam’s heart thundered in his chest, heavy and tight. He started to say what was in his head, but stopped. He wanted to say it, but the words felt like a betrayal. But he and Rick had mated. Henry would want him to say it. Of course he would. So Cam stopped hesitating and said what he wanted to say. “See that scar back there?”

  Rick whimpered and thrust his hips against Cam’s ass. “Yes,” he said, sounding almost choked.

  “I know what you want,” Cam said. “Do it.”

  “It’s not—safe for humans.” Rick’s voice broke, the tremor becoming more pronounced as he continued. “I can’t.”

  “Henry did it. He didn’t mean to, but he did and it didn’t do a damn thing but hurt like hell and bleed. If he could do it and not kill me, you can too.”

  As if Cam’s words stole all Rick’s resistance, Rick growled and bit down on the back of Cam’s neck.

  Sweet Jesus, Cam had forgotten how bad that hurt.

  The world flashed white around Cam. His arms gave out and his breath caught, and Rick’s hold on him was the only thing keeping him from falling. Then Rick thrust his cock at Cam’s asshole and pushed inside hard and fast, and the rutting started before Cam had even caught his breath.

  His neck burned and sharp little shards of pain stabbed through him, radiating outward, only to
fade as fast as they came.

  Rick had him mashed up against the block wall, rutting into him while those sharp eyeteeth continued to pierce the skin around Cam’s spine. If Rick were to bite too hard, he would rip out Cam’s spine and there’d be nothing to save him.

  He had to be fucking out of his mind to have offered that, and yet . . . he had.

  That had been Henry’s mark back there, and he’d just allowed Rick to cover it with his own.

  God. Henry.

  Cam closed his eyes and pressed his cheek against the cold of the painted block wall and rode out Rick’s frantic mating, and he wished . . . he wished he regretted what he’d done.

  He’d started letting Henry go, and that hurt worse than the bite.

  Rick came quickly, filling Cam’s ass. The thinner, alien semen didn’t stay inside him long as Rick continued to rut into Cam. Fluid trailed down the backs of Cam’s thighs, tickling through the hair on Cam’s legs and teasing the skin behind Cam’s knees. He gasped from a particularly hard thrust that brought him to his toes and then shoved back against Rick so that Rick’s next thrust felt a hell of a lot better than the previous one.

  “God,” Cam muttered. “That’s it. Fuck me like you mean it.” Another spark of hot pleasure washed over him. “Sweet Jesus, yes. That’s right.”

  Rick came inside him again and the heat of Rick’s semen spurting inside him started Cam’s dick hardening again.

  If this kept up, he’d be filthy with Rick’s spunk when this was over.

  That was the plan anyway.

  After a few minutes, Rick slowed and became rational enough to release Cam’s neck and move them to the torn mattress on the other side of the room.

  Cam fell back on the mattress with an oomph and breathed easier than he had since he’d walked into the room. This was what he’d come for, a hard, messy fuck that would leave him smelling like a man who’d been thoroughly fucked and mated by one of the wolves.

  It was just another layer of protection he could offer Mig when they headed out—and having Rick fuck his ass—mate him—wasn’t a hardship.

  “I want my betas to show you submission,” Rick said abruptly. He crawled up Cam’s body and stopped over Cam, arms shaking as they held him up. A drop of sweat fell from his nose and landed on Cam’s cheek.

  Before Cam could swipe it away, Rick swept down and licked Cam’s face.

  Cam turned into the move and caught Rick’s mouth with his. He gasped into the hot, wet kiss as Rick thrust into him, his asshole clenching around Rick’s thick alien cock.

  The kiss ended and Cam spent the next few minutes gasping for breath, jerking his own cock, and wondering why the hell he hadn’t grabbed the bottle of lube out of his front pocket on his way to the bed.

  Not that he needed the lube for his ass yet. Rick had put enough semen inside him that things were still slippery as hell down there. He stopped jerking off to quickly spit on his palm before taking himself in hand again. He shoved aside thoughts of lube and let himself get lost in the pleasure of his approaching orgasm.

  He was going to come any minute and—

  Yes. The pressure released like a flooded river behind a dam. Cam groaned and thrust his head back, digging his heels into Rick’s muscled calves. Rick must have taken Cam’s raised head as an invitation because he roared and clamped his teeth along the column of Cam’s throat.

  Cam yelled and shot off against Rick’s belly, thick, silky white streams of semen spurting between him and Rick with unusual force.

  Cam fell slack against the mattress and gulped air for several long minutes while Rick just seemed to fall deeper into his raging heat cycle.

  After Cam’s breath started to come easier and he knew the rush of dizziness he’d felt as he came wasn’t him about to have another episode with his implants, Cam buried his fingers in the back of Rick’s hair and pressed his mouth to the side of Rick’s throat.

  “Stop holding back,” he said. “It’ll be more fun if you don’t try to think.”

  Then he bit down hard on the muscle running up the side of Rick’s neck.

  Rick gasped, then growled, his chest rumbling, and he levered up onto his knees and clamped his hands tight under Cam’s buttocks. He roared and the sound raised every hair on Cam’s body. Then he started pounding into Cam’s ass, one wild rutting thrust after another.

  It was one wild ride, and by the time Rick had worn himself out and collapsed in Cam’s arms, Cam had had plenty of time to regret leaving the lube across the room.

  He stretched and every muscle in his body seemed to protest. He groaned softly and patted Rick’s belly. Somehow he’d ended up spooning Rick on the narrow mattress, holding him tight and resting his cheek on Rick’s shoulder blade.

  He sighed but it turned quickly into a yawn and he buried it against Rick’s warm, salt-scented skin. He wanted to give Rick more time to recover, but he had a timeline to think about. Rick wasn’t going to like what Cam had to say no matter when he said it, so now was as good a time as—

  “Your thoughts are as loud as your sighs,” Rick said, his graveled, tired voice cutting through Cam’s self-talk. He rolled over, landing nearly on top of Cam before he repositioned himself on his side and ended with his face a few inches from Cam’s.

  Cam rubbed his hand over his jaw and took a good look at Rick.

  Fatigue had made the skin around Rick’s eyes tight. Lines to the outside of his mouth also emphasized that although he might have superhuman strength and stamina, his reserves weren’t unlimited, and he’d had a rough couple of days.

  They both had.

  Cam moved his hand to rest on Rick’s arm.

  “I might actually like you.”

  Rick’s thick eyebrows rose slightly. “Good. Mates should like each other for more than mating and fucking.”

  “Yeah. You were right earlier, there’s something we’ve got to talk about.” Anticipation of the argument he was about to have with Rick caused Cam’s shoulders to tense and the dull throb at the back of his neck intensified.

  “Ah.” Rick brushed a lock of hair off Cam’s forehead. “The reason you goaded me into giving in to my instincts despite my desire not to hurt my mate.”

  Cam rubbed his fingers over the small area of Rick’s arm where his hand rested. “It hurt more than I remembered, that’s for damn sure. I can’t say I would have offered if I’d remembered.”

  Rick exhaled softly, just strong enough to stir the air against Cam’s lips. “I’m sorry. If Henry was as young as you say, his bite wouldn’t have been as severe.”

  “That might explain it.”

  “So tell me what you want from me. I’m growing tired of playing along with your deceptions. I have obligations to attend to.” Despite the words, Rick’s tone sounded light and gentle.

  Cam grinned. “Tough words for a guy locked in a cell.”

  “Your confidence is attractive.” Rick flashed his teeth in an expression that could have passed for a mocking smile. “I’m afraid it’s misplaced in this instance, though.”

  Maybe it was the tone of his voice instead of the smile that did it, but either way, Cam lost his grin.

  Chapter 20

  “I’d wondered about your nose,” Rick said, and he brought the tip of one clawed finger to the bridge of Cam’s nose and trailed the point of his claw carefully down the length of it. “I’m always surprised by the reminder of how easy it is for you humans to break your bones.”

  Cam eased himself up onto his elbow and looked down at Rick.

  That golden-eyed gaze worried Cam.

  “You trying to tell me something?” Cam asked.

  The corner of Rick’s mouth twisted. “Do I have to tell you?”

  “Jesus.” Cam sat up. “Where is it?”

  “It’s amazing how uncomfortable humans are around us during the heat. Not that I don’t understand.”

  “Fuck.” Cam started to climb over Rick and across the mattress, but Rick rolled first and pushed Cam down into t
he mattress again.

  He leaned over Cam and whispered close to Cam’s ear, “You left me nothing but a pot to piss in, as you humans say.”

  Of course. He ought to have known. It was something he might have done himself.

  “Since when?”

  “The moment I realized it was possible I might die at human hands. We no longer share our technology with you indiscriminately.”

  Cam exhaled a gust of air and scrubbed his hand across his face. “We’re compromised. Shit.”

  “An appropriate assessment. Somewhat ironic too.”

  “Dammit,” Cam said. He tried to shove himself upright again, to get out from under Rick’s weight, but Rick very deliberately held him to the mattress.

  “I know what you have planned, but it won’t be necessary.”

  Cam stilled. “Where are they?”

  Rick’s inscrutable expression didn’t change. “Your arrival interrupted my final transmission.”

  “Fuck!” Cam thrashed under Rick, trying to fight his way free, but Rick’s grip on his arms kept him pinned and left him few options.

  Rick had the greater strength, even as exhausted as he had to be, and Cam was left breathing raggedly and no closer to knocking Rick off him. Rick’s thigh had slipped between Cam’s own, and the pressure against his naked dick made him aware of just how vulnerable he was at that moment.

  “Whatever you’re using to communicate with and spy on us, it can’t be one of your normal devices. There’s no way you could have swallowed something that size.”

  Rick’s gaze seemed to communicate a great deal of censure at Cam’s short-sightedness. “You aren’t the only species capable of creating devices for covert use.”

  Son of a bitch.

  Cam wasn’t used to feeling stupid. He didn’t like the feeling.

  “You also aren’t the only species capable of deception.”

  “Got it,” Cam said. Then, because he didn’t want to misunderstand, he asked, “How much deception are we talking about here?”

  “Lying to a mate is difficult, but not impossible. But we are definitely mated. Don’t mistake my words for something they aren’t.” Rick leaned down to sniff at Cam’s throat. “Gathering intelligence was necessary. Discovering the character of my future mate was a benefit I didn’t expect when my own deception started, but my instincts had been telling me for a while that I might have met my mate in you.”