by Zoe Perdita
Now they effected the one person he didn’t want them to effect—the one person who might’ve been his saving grace.
He thought about the alpha so long, the fog burned away and morning wore into noon. At one point he swore he could even hear Tyler’s voice.
Then Quinn caught the hint of wolf musk on the air—the scent he’d know anywhere now. It smelled like home—his mate.
“Fucking trees!” Tyler’s said, and he sounded like he was right over the rise in the landscape.
Quinn sat up straight.
It was right over the rise!
He glanced from side to side, like he could hide behind one of the rocks, all of which were too low to the ground for that. Plus, the chain around his neck only gave him about six feet of leeway. Quinn gave up once the head of blue tipped hair popped up, and those keen brown eyes locked on him.
“Why the hell didn’t you say something?” Tyler growled as he stepped closer. He was following a different path than Quinn and Bradley usually took. More of a non-path, since the ferns brushed his knees and his clothes were damp with sweat. His hair clung to his brow. Bits of greenery stuck to him and the knees of his jeans were smudged with dirt stains.
Quinn frowned heavily and pulled his knees to his chest. “You shouldn’t have come. I told you not to come. You’ve ruined everything.”
Tyler’s eyes, which looked like someone rubbed a mixture of blueberry juice and charcoal underneath them, narrowed. “That’s what you have to say to me? I came out here for you, dumbass.”
“I’m not a dumbass. You’re a dumbass for coming out here when I expressly told you not to. It’s a trick. Bradley knows everything about us, and he’s trying to hurt you. And mostly me, but you’ll get hurt because of me,” Quinn said. “I already tried to release you from the bargain. If you just accept it, you can stop worrying about me.”
“Do you even know what dumbass means?” Tyler asked and stepped onto the actual path. He wore black boots that didn’t look made for hiking at all.
“A stupid donkey,” Quinn said into his knees and pouted. “Because that’s what you’re acting like. A stupid stubborn donkey.”
Tyler snorted and his steps brushed closer until he stood next to Quinn. Then, when Quinn still didn’t look at him, Tyler squatted in front of him and grabbed his chin. “I was worried about you. If you really wanted me not to come, you shouldn’t have sounded so desperate.”
Quinn’s heart didn’t seem to be working properly. It skipped several beats. Tyler’s hands were cool, but the touch singed Quinn’s flesh. “I was desperate for you not to come,” Quinn said and lifted his eyes.
Tyler’s gaze was even, and the high points of his cheekbones were slightly pink. He scratched one of his lightly bearded cheeks. “Bradley came to my place.”
Quinn sat up so straight he nearly sent Tyler tumbling backwards, but the alpha caught himself and frowned. “Bradley came to you? Then this is a trap. Go. Now! You shouldn’t have even been able to get past the barrier.”
“Yeah, that shit took all morning, so I’m not leaving. I don’t care what this is. I’ll probably live. So will you. Now stop complaining and let me rest a minute,” Tyler said and settled next to Quinn. Their legs touched all the way from knee to hip, and Tyler slipped his fingers into Quinn’s and interlocked them.
He hadn’t said anything about the metal collar or the chain yet. Maybe he didn’t notice them, or he was really too tired to do anything yet. Not that there was anything he could do. The magic around them was too strong.
“How did you get past the barrier?” Quinn breathed and dipped his free hand into the water and cupped it. It looked just like any other clear mountain stream at the moment. He held it to Tyler’s mouth, and the wolf sucked it up quickly. His tongue darted out to catch a few drops.
“That better not get me sick,” he grumbled and yawned. “I did as you said: found a weakness and exploited it.”
Quinn almost smiled. That’s exactly what he was doing to Tyler at the beginning—exploiting a weakness to get his own freedom. A new pit opened in his gut, and his chest ached.
The part of him that was simpler to hide during the rest of the month bubbled to the surface this close to the full moon. Maybe it sensed the pacing alpha inside Tyler. Quinn felt it with every breath the wolf took.
“You can’t stay. It won’t end well,” Quinn said and bit his lip.
Tyler snorted. “Too bad. I’ll stay as long as I want. Is Bradley going to show up?”
“No, but if you see me—the real me—I can’t explain,” Quinn snarled and rattled his chains. “Do you think this is for show? I’m locked up for a reason, and if you try to break the spell—”
Tyler shrugged and yawned again. “Are you going to stab me with your big ass horn?”
Quinn might as well have jumped into the pool for the rush of coldness that fell over him at those words. “You have no idea how magnificent I am to look upon. And how terrible. Are you planning on testing me? You won’t win, alpha. No matter how grand your form, mine is superior.”
“Have you been watching Lord of the Rings or something? Stop talking like that. It’s giving me a headache,” Tyler said and sat up. His fingers trailed over the heavy chain to the rock it was embedded in.
He yanked on it several times, and it didn’t budge.
Figured.
Quinn’s stomach grumbled. “I don’t suppose you brought any food, useless mutt?”
Tyler snorted and dug into his jacket pockets. They were deeper than they looked, and he yanked out a crumpled plastic bag and unraveled it. “Is that your best insult? I know what you’re doing. You want me to go, so you’re trying to chase me off by acting like a dick. I’ve done it for years, but I know you, Quinn. Drop the act. You’re my mate, and I’m not leaving you.”
“You’re impossible. And it’s not just because I’m trying to get you to leave, you really are a useless mutt. I can see things you don’t want me to see—things you don’t want anyone to see. If you don’t go—”
Tyler tensed. His hands closed on a bag of trail mix. It was the kind with almonds, chocolate and dried blueberries—Quinn’s favorite.
“Like what? What the do you see?”
Quinn pinched his eyes shut. This was just what he’d feared almost as much as the mirror itself. The truth he’d be forced to speak if Tyler approached him so close to the full moon, when the basest parts of his nature came out and relished in his own cruelty.
Tyler studied him for a long moment. “Did you hate whatever it was?” he finally asked.
Quinn thought about the look in Tyler’s eyes when they got into that fight—the fury of the alpha. “No, but you might.”
Tyler rolled his eyes and pressed the trail mix into Quinn’s hand. Then he slid around to the other side of the rock and leaned against Quinn’s back. “I have something to tell you. Something about me that I didn’t want you to find out, but fuck it. Now it doesn’t seem to matter.”
Quinn held his breath. “You don’t have to—”
Tyler squeezed Quinn’s hand and cut him off. “It’s the worst part of yourself that you try to hide from people you love, isn’t it? Because the truth can be ugly, but it’s important. Bradley thinks he knows what I’ll see if I look in that mirror. When he came to see me last night he brought me a present.” Tyler bit out that last word.
It couldn’t have been a good present, considering who brought it.
Quinn’s heart stood still while he waited for Tyler to continue.
“I used to be a junkie. Two years ago, I overdosed on heroin and ended up in the emergency room. I almost died, but I pulled through. Then I went to rehab, and I’ve been clean since. Twice a week, I go to Narcotics Anonymous meetings. Cage, that alpha I told you about, he’s my sponsor. So Bradley brought me a big bag of smack and told me to make a choice—you or the drugs.”
“And you chose me,” Quinn said softly, his mind spinning. The only thing he knew about drugs were what he’d
seen on TV shows, and that hadn’t been much.
“Yeah,” Tyler said, his voice soft. Gentle. “So I’m not leaving you. Not until you’re free.”
Soon, his breathing fell into a steady pattern, deeper than before, and Quinn quietly opened the package and munched on the nuts, berries and chocolate until his eyes were too heavy to stay open.
Bits of late afternoon sunlight filtered through the trees when he woke. It illuminated the whole forest in a soft green glow. The air warmed during the day, but it was nowhere near hot, just pleasant enough that the cool rocks and the chill from the water didn’t bother him. Also, Tyler’s solid heat, still pressed against Quinn’s back, helped.
“You awake?” Tyler asked and nudged Quinn gently in the shoulder. “You know, you get all PMSy around the full moon. I thought being an alpha was bad.”
Tyler got up. Slowly, his arms slid around Quinn’s neck, and his head rested on Quinn’s shoulder. His touch sent a shiver up Quinn’s spine.
“That’s sexist. I think. Merci would say it was anyway,” Quinn grumbled and turned his face. His cheek rubbed Tyler’s scratchy beard. “What does the alpha do this time of month?”
“Usually he wants to kill things. I almost—I could kill Bradley. That’s pretty fucked up, isn’t it? I don’t even know if I’d feel bad about it, which is worse. It wants to do other things too, and before I met you I’d just go to some club and fuck a girl, no problem. Get drunk and the sensation would pass. Since I found you, that won’t work now.”
Quinn held his breath and let it out slowly. The idea of Tyler going home with someone else turned his stomach. “Did you try it?”
“I don’t want to. Not anymore,” Tyler growled, and he slowly pulled the sweater off Quinn’s shoulders. “Not since you sucked me off.”
Quinn let the fabric trail off his arms and over his hands. “Maybe I did it to get you to help me.”
Tyler snorted. “Well, it worked.”
The alpha was more alluring than he knew, and the rough hands that wound under Quinn’s shirt right now proved that. Each touch lit a little flame under Quinn’s skin.
A gentle kiss lighted on Quinn’s neck, and he bit back the desire to make a noise. Why didn’t the darkness that always crowded his mind on days like this come out and stop it? Instead, the stallion nudged him forward, content with the situation in a way he’d never been before. No, content was the wrong word—he was gleeful, and that was worse than being angry.
“You already mated me,” Quinn said.
Tyler paused and let out a heavy breath. His deft fingers went back to work at the buttons on Quinn’s shirt.
Flick.
Flick.
Flick.
They popped open one after the other, exposing his bare chest.
“When I first met you, I thought you were crazy as shit. I hoped you never showed up at the meeting so I could forget about you, because you made me want to do things like this. I know I already claimed you, but I want you to claim me, before it’s too late,” Tyler said and pulled the shirt off Quinn in one fluid movement.
Quinn turned and the chain clanked. Tyler wasn’t blushing this time, his face was calmer than it should be after saying that—though his chest heaved and his eyes burned with a kind of light Quinn had never seen before. The breath caught in his throat.
Tyler yanked his shirt over his head. He’d already taken off his jacket at some point. It was crumpled in the rocks next to Quinn’s clothes.
Something inside Quinn snapped—broke—like a chain that could no longer bear the weight of its load. His body felt lighter, and the shadows that crowded his mind retreated and were replaced only with the singe of desire that flared through him.
“I never realized I wanted a mate at all until I met you,” Tyler breathed and touched the necklace on Quinn’s neck.
His fingers brushed the skin lightly and begged Quinn to lean close.
“I feel the same way,” Quinn said.
His skin sizzled, charged and electric. No matter what else befell them, they had this moment and all the ones before it.
A smile brushed the edge of Tyler’s lips, and he pulled Quinn close with a gentle tug. The chain dug into Quinn’s neck as their bodies collided, lips meeting in a rush. The taste of tobacco was lost in the distance, replaced with fresh water and the scent of Tyler’s musk as it flooded Quinn’s nose.
Hands brushed through his hair, and Quinn yanked Tyler as close as he could—until the wolf was straddling his lap and the throbbing bulge in his jeans pressed into Quinn’s stomach.
The moon wouldn’t rise for another hour. They had time, all the time in the world, it seemed, in the quiet forest that surrounded them. Though Quinn never imagined he’d have to tame an alpha, it was a lot easier than he’d have thought.
He wished he’d be able to do it more than once.
Tyler’s body burned against his, and his lips nipped as often as they kissed—the ring pinched Quinn’s flesh pleasantly, trapped between their urgent mouths, and he dug his fingers into the muscles on Tyler’s strong back and squeezed.
Quinn’s cock hardened as Tyler ground on top of him, that elusive smile making a rare appearance between each kiss.
“Take off your fucking pants,” Tyler growled as his hands wound over Quinn’s chest, tweaking his nipples on the way.
The pinch of pleasure pain woke something primal inside Quinn—the stallion reared.
“You first.”
Tyler chuckled breathily and stood up long enough to shed his jeans and boxers and unlace those clunky boots. His skin glowed golden in the fading sun, the black lines of ink and splashes of color seemed to come alive as he moved, though Quinn knew it was just a trick of the light.
He sunk to his knees in the mossy ground and pulled at Quinn’s zipper. Tyler’s hot breath sent a new shock to Quinn’s groin, and he lifted his ass and let the wolf pull them off with several short yanks.
He paused at one point and ran his thumb over the broken cage on Quinn’s hip. His eyes clouded, and he leaned in and kissed it gently.
“I’ve never fucked in the woods before. You?” Tyler asked and pressed his elbows into Quinn’s thighs.
“Never,” Quinn said and groaned as Tyler fisted the base of his cock and smirked.
“I’ve never sucked cock before either, but shit—I want to know what you taste like,” he growled and the velvet heat of his tongue darted out to tickle the tip.
A jolt shot up Quinn’s spine. His fingers snagged in Tyler’s hair as that mouth engulfed him slowly, sucking him in.
Tyler’s tongue danced while his cheeks sunk in, and Quinn’s head rolled back. He rocked his hips in time with the sensation.
“You can use your teeth a little,” Quinn breathed.
Tyler obliged—the gentle draw over the shaft opened up a whole new world of pleasure as Tyler sucked him deeper and deeper. The sounds he made—dammit! He growled and hummed and his lips and throat vibrated.
The sensation rolled up Quinn’s stomach and set off lights behind his eyes.
For someone who’d never done this before, Tyler was a fast learner.
Each long lap and draw in and out inched Quinn closer to the edge until he teetered on it, ready to fall. One last brush of Tyler’s blunt molars across the sensitive head shoved him over.
Quinn groaned, his hips snapped, and his load burst into Tyler’s mouth.
Tyler coughed, and his mouth popped free, cheeks flushed and lips dark with exertion. “Warn me next time,” he said, but his mouth quirked into a smile.
“Did you enjoy that?” Quinn asked as the alpha smirked at him. “You even swallowed.”
“Fuck off. I’m just warming you up,” he grumbled and bit the inside of Quinn’s thigh lightly. “Open the bag.”
Bag? Quinn didn’t remember any bag.
Tyler sighed and grabbed the plastic grocery bag from the ground and fished inside it for a moment. He pulled out a bottle of lube.
Quinn stared
at it, his heart racing. “You were pretty worried to go shopping for lube before you came here.”
Tyler leaned forward and kissed Quinn’s lower belly. “It was near that trail mix so shut the fuck up. I saw the lube and went for it. Are you going to complain about everything?”
“I didn’t complain about the trail mix.”
Tyler snorted and squirted a healthy amount on Quinn’s cock. “And I said I didn’t want to go slow, and I don’t feel like waiting until I get to see you again.”
If they got to see each other again.
That’s what he really wanted to say—Quinn felt it.
That truth hung in the air heavily.
Quinn knew he should say something—ask if this is really what Tyler wanted—but that selfish part took over. The thought of his cock inside that alpha almost got him off on the idea alone. Those lube slick fingers pumping the life back into his shaft didn’t hurt either.
“You need to—” Quinn started, but Tyler put the bottle in his hand and crawled over him.
Quinn leaned back on the rock and let him.
“You do it,” Tyler growled and nipped at his lips.
The angle was awkward, but Quinn wouldn’t have asked Tyler to move even if that act alone would’ve broken his bonds for good. Instead, he squeezed a liberal amount of lube, cool from the mossy ground, into his hand and onto his fingers.
As he brushed the cleft in Tyler’s round ass, the alpha leaned into him and moaned. “Fuck. You’re like sex with legs, you know that?”
Quinn smiled. “I’ve been called worse things.”
He’d never really seen Tyler until this moment, like all the layers that the alpha draped himself in were stripped away until he was laid bare and beautiful.
Vulnerable yet undeniably strong.
He brushed his lips delicately over the tattoos on Tyler’s shoulder. The bandage was gone, but the dark red mar on his flesh looked like it’d leave a scar.
The rock under Quinn’s ass was cool and lightly carpeted in moss, which helped calm the intense heat of Tyler’s body pressed against him.
