Instincts, urges, needs—fuck, he didn't know what to call them—rose up in him, telling him to grab Dex and fuck him, sink his teeth into that strong shoulder muscle.
The desires warred with his conscious mind that screamed this was wrong. He didn't bite people. He wasn't a freakin' vampire. And he didn't fuck guys, though recent experiences pointed out that wasn't precisely true.
“Maddock—” Dex put his hand on Maddock's arm. He yanked back.
“Don't touch me.” He backed away. Pain filled Dex's eyes, but Maddock rejected the twinge of sympathy. “I don't know what the hell is going on here, what kind of scam you've got going, but I'm done.”
“Maddock, you—” Dex took a step forward. Maddock retreated. He couldn't let the guy touch him—not again—or he'd end up fucking him on the hood of his car.
“Just stay the fuck away from me and leave me the fuck alone.” He yanked open his car door and threw himself inside. The engine screamed to life and he spun the tires, flinging gravel as he roared out of the parking lot.
Whatever the fuck was going wrong in his life, it all centered around that place. Coming here had been a mistake. He just needed to stay away and it would all disappear.
Breath left Dex's chest as he watched his mate's car peel out of the parking lot.
What the hell just happened?
“What the hell just happened?”
Dex shook his head, not knowing how to answer Micah's question.
“I don't know. His wolf obviously—” The words clogged his throat. “I'm obviously not his mate.” Tears tripped over his lower lids. “How could that happen? How can I not be his mate?”
Micah shrugged. “I don't know.”
Needing the comfort of a stronger wolf, he leaned in, putting his head on Micah's chest.
“Oh, Dex, don't cry. You know I don't handle crying.”
Dex gulped and lifted his head. Micah sighed and put his hand on the back of Dex's head and pressed him against his chest.
“How could fate be so mean?” he mumbled against the hard muscles of his Alpha.
“Well, you did say the guy seemed like kind of a prick, right? Maybe this is fate's way of telling you to find someone else.”
“He thought it was a scam,” Dex whispered, ignoring Micah's logic. “Why would he think that?” This time he looked up, meeting his Alpha's gaze, needing the older wolf's wisdom. “Why didn't he want me?”
Chapter Six
Depression weighed down his chest, but Dex knew he didn't have a choice. Micah had demanded that he show up today.
“Get your ass back to work” had been the actual turn of phrase.
Four days since Maddock had stormed out and Dex had spent most of that time in bed. Staring at the wall, trying to figure what he'd done wrong.
So, dragging his mate into the bathroom for a blowjob wasn't the most romantic gesture, but it didn't really qualify for rejection. Maybe a spanking.
That idea had started tormenting Dex two days ago…Maddock punishing him for being bad.
He squirmed as his cock pressed against his jeans. His wolf didn't understand why Maddock was gone. The damn animal just wanted his mate.
They'd only met a few times. Was it possible his wolf had imprinted on Maddock and he'd never have another mate?
His chest tightened at the thought. What if he was bound to Maddock? And Maddock never wanted to see him again.
Not only was he looking at a loveless future but a sexless one as well. Already the thought of fucking someone else made him physically ill.
Maybe Reese would know a way to break the bond. Or Rhian. She was a witch. There had to be a spell to make him not want to vomit when he thought about sex with someone besides Maddock.
But for now, he just had to get through the day and that meant work.
They only had one car between them so Rhian had come out to pick him up. It was early—the bar didn’t open for two hours—but he could sit in Micah's office and brood.
He sighed and went inside. He wasn't going to let Maddock's memory take over The Red Dragon. It was his second home and he loved it. Being here would give him something to think about besides his missing mate.
Entering the bar, he stopped. A strange energy filled the room. Maybe it was the way Micah and Reese stood near the bar, staring at him. Not speaking. Obviously they were waiting for them to arrive. Rhian put down her purse and went to lean against the bar, taking the place next to Micah.
Dex stopped. The intense stares of his pack mates sent a shock into his heart. Why were they all so serious?
Dark fear washed over his soul. The last time he’d faced a panel like this, he’d been kicked out of his pack.
But Dex was pretty sure they couldn’t kick him out of a pack he’d practically formed.
“Hi.” Dex tried to force some cheerfulness into his voice, but it came out as a squeak.
Reese glanced at Micah as if looking for permission to speak. Micah nodded.
Anxiety filled Dex's chest as he watched his pack mates. Reese turned those blank eyes toward him. Rhian offered a half-smile, supportive but still cautious. And Micah…well, Micah just folded his arms and glared at the universe in general.
“What?”
“I think I've figured out the problem with your mate,” Reese announced.
“You figured that out the first night.” Dex's heart tightened to a painful squeeze then released, letting him breathe again. “He's a prick.”
He pushed his shoulders back and lifted his chin, needing that little bit of confidence boost. He would get through this. They'd only fucked once. Surely his wolf wouldn't have imprinted on him in that short of time. At least he hoped. If what Micah had said was true, there was someone else out there, just waiting for him. Someone who would want Dex for what he was.
“Well, that might be part of it, but I think it's something else as well.”
Dex squished his lips together and tried not to whimper—it was so undignified. He’d hoped that work would be the one place he didn’t think about Maddock. “Just let it go, Reese. I have.”
He started to spin away but Micah's voice stopped him.
“You need to listen to him because if what he thinks is true, we have a bigger problem on our hands.”
Dex's jaw tensed, but he sighed. Better to get this over with now so he could get on with finding his real mate…because if fucking Maddock was anything like fucking his real mate, he wanted to find that man.
“Fine. What is it?”
“I'm not sure your mate knows he's a werewolf.”
“Not possible.” He shook his head. He remembered too many nips, growls. Fuck, the guy was pure wolf. Almost as alpha as, well, the Alpha.
“Did he ever ask about your pack or your Alpha? A wolf, even a lone wolf, would check your affiliation.”
“He knew my affiliation.” He flung his hand toward Micah. “I told him Micah’s my Alpha.”
“I'm not your Alpha,” Micah insisted. “But maybe he didn't see the significance.”
“Listen, Dex, I started to think about it, after he stormed out of here the other night. He came here looking for you but he didn't know why. You said he wanted to know what you had done to him, right?”
Dex nodded. Maddock had been furious, almost as if Dex had cast a spell on him. But Dex had put it down to not wanting a male mate. Reese leaned on the bar.
“I’m wondering if he doesn’t know about mates or the mate bond. I think he doesn’t know he’s a wolf.”
Dex grabbed his lower lip between his teeth and chewed on it. Could it really be so simple? And such a fucking mess at the same time?
“How could he not know? I mean, when I hit my change, it hit me.” He remembered that first change like it was yesterday—the brutal slam of the moon's power into his body. The wolf had basically clawed his way out of his body. When he'd finally come back to his human form, when the wolf had released him, he'd been bloody and scratched up. Not fun. And not something one could i
gnore.
Since then, he'd learned to manage the change, at least enough so that the wolf's arrival wasn't so violent. He still didn't have the control other wolves seemed to have.
“Maybe he grew up without a pack around him. He's never mentioned a pack to you or why he left, right?”
“Well, no, but honestly, we haven't done a lot of talking.” Fucking, yes. Talking, not so much. “I still don't know how he could have reached his thirties and not changed.”
“Maybe he can't change, babe.” Rhian curled her lips in sympathy. “Joshua used to say there are latent wolves around all over the place.”
Reese nodded. “Or maybe it takes the presence of other wolves to trigger the first change. Everyone assumes it’s age because we all make the change in our mid-twenties but what if you’re never around another wolf? It could be the wolf senses another wolf and then decides it’s time to take its physical form. No one really knows.”
“But how—”
Micah held up his hand, stopping Dex's words. “This is getting us nowhere. We need to talk to him because if he's got a pack or is a lone wolf, then fine, we'll leave him alone. But if because he's suddenly around you and feeling the mating call, and he doesn't know he's a werewolf, that could cause some problems.”
Dex's eyes got wide. “When's the next full moon?” he asked, already knowing the answer.
“Three nights away.”
“Damn.”
Reese nodded. “He could be in real trouble.”
“Get him out here so we can talk to him,” Micah commanded.
Dex winced. “We didn't exactly part on good terms.”
“Stay the fuck away from me and leave me the fuck alone” didn't inspire one to call.
“We don't have much of a choice.” Micah's grim pronouncement hit Dex in the chest.
He was right, of course. Not that Micah was always right, but on the big things, on the things that mattered, he usually got pretty dang close.
Dex grabbed his phone out of his pocket and tapped the screen. Maddock's number was at the top of his favorites list despite that fact that he knew he couldn't, shouldn't, wouldn't call him. And he hadn't.
But his finger had hovered over the name a hundred times over the past few days.
This time, he let it rest on the screen.
“What if he says no?” he asked as he put the phone to his ear.
“Tell him you need to be fucked,” Micah said.
Dex felt his cheeks turn red and honestly he never blushed. The gentle twinkle in Micah's eyes made his heart flip. He must be pitiful if Micah was being nice to him.
He looked at Reese. Even through the blank eyes that stared back at him, he saw comfort and support.
“Brennan.”
The snappy greeting jolted Dex out of his thoughts.
“Maddock?”
Silence greeted him, then a cool response.
“Dex?”
“Yes.” He opened his hand to Micah, silently asking for guidance. The Alpha just shrugged. “Uhm, hi.”
A heartbeat of hesitation gave Dex hope, then the chilly “hi” shot through the phone line and settled in Dex's chest.
“How're you doing?”
“I'm fine. Dex, I'm in a meeting right now. I'll have to call you later.”
“Wait. I need to see you.”
Silence filled the line and for a moment he thought Maddock had hung up on him.
“I'm really busy.”
“It's important.” He glanced at the encouraging looks from Rhian and Reese. “Really important.”
“I don't have—”
He was going to blow him off.
Fuck, this was worse than just being without his mate. If his presence had awakened the wolf, Maddock was in danger of making the change alone.
Or in front of others.
“I need you.”
“What?” The question came out low and harsh.
“I need you. To fuck me.” He turned his back to his friends and closed his eyes, remembering how it felt to have Maddock inside him, those strong fingers gripping his hips as that thick cock slid in and out of his ass. He let all that sensation flow into his words. “Please. I need you inside me, fucking me with your fat cock.” He moaned, his own prick twitching, the pictures in his head becoming real, so real he could almost feel it. “Please, Maddock. I'm so hard right now. I need you.”
“Dex—“
The warning was clear, but Dex ignored it. He needed his mate and right now, his mate needed him.
“I want to taste you. I want to suck you off and feel you come in my mouth. Oh fuck, then I need you, pounding my ass, just like before. You felt so good. Hard and deep.”
The harsh breath on the other end of the line told him he was getting through.
“Fuck, for days afterward, I could feel you inside me. I—“
“Stop.”
He couldn’t disobey the sharp command. His breath caught in his throat as he listened to the silence on the other end of the phone.
“I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
The connection clicked off, leaving Dex holding a silent phone. He tapped the screen to end the call and turned to face his pack mates.
Reese stared at him, eyes wide. Micah looked about the same, but because he wasn't behind the bar, Dex could also see that Micah's cock was hard.
“That would get me across town,” Micah announced.
“Damn straight,” Reese muttered.
Rhian laughed. “Boys are so easy.”
Dex wrapped his arms around his chest. “What do we do now?”
“We wait,” Micah announced as he reached for his whiskey bottle.
Reese looked at Dex. “You might want to get ready for him.”
“Get ready?”
“You know, cuz he's going to be coming in hard and fast.”
“Wha—? Oh! Right.”
“I have something that might help.” Reese reached under the bar and pulled out a plain paper bag. Dex was pretty sure he knew what was inside.
“I don't want to know what that is.” Micah held up his hands and backed away.
Dex giggled. “I just want to know why you have it here.”
Reese just smiled. “It never hurts to be prepared.”
* * * * *
Maddock killed the call and turned to face Monica and the VP of Sales and Marketing.
It was hell to get the three of them in one room. They had business to discuss. The Green Property sale was going through and they needed Sales and Marketing to get their asses in gear. Maddock had called this meeting, prepared to ream the VP a new one.
But Dex's voice echoed through his skull like a chime and he couldn't ignore it.
The past few days had been hellish. Sleep had become nonexistent. Energy hummed constantly through his body, keeping him awake and fuck, aroused.
The sleeping pills his doctor had given him only worked enough to take the edge off…during the day. They made him barely able to function. They were worthless at night.
Fuck, he hadn’t been at The Red Dragon long enough to have been dosed with anything. And there was nothing that lingered in the system this long.
His doctor was running more tests—blood, not sex this time—to see if he was ingesting something that would keep him vibrating like this.
He paced to the window and stared out at the skyline. Dex’s pleas rang through his head, quieting the other noises.
He hadn’t told his doctor about those. How did he explain that he wasn’t hearing voices? It was more like snarls and growls.
He tugged on the end of his suit coat, making sure it covered his erection. Dex’s voice—hell, the general pleading to be fucked—had made him hard.
“Is there a problem?”
Yeah. My cock's so hard I could pound nails and I need to get across town to the sweet little ass that will make it all better.
“Yes. I have a meeting across town that I'd forgotten about.”
Monica rai
sed her eyebrows and folded her arms across her chest. Classic female disapproval. She wasn't irritated with him woman to man, but Vice President to President. She was all business.
She would never understand driving thirty miles out of town to fuck.
“Can't it wait? This is important.” She stepped close and leaned in. “Tills will screw this job up. You need to get him on track before this company falls apart.”
That was a bit dramatic, but Monica was right. This was important.
I need you inside me, fucking me with your fat cock…
“I have to go. You talk to Tills.”
“He won't listen to me. You know he only takes direction from you.”
She was right. Tills was a bit of a chauvinist and a suck-up.
Maddock grabbed his tablet off the table and started for the door.
“Tills, don’t fuck this project up or you're fired.” It was a little more blunt than he usually liked to be, but he didn't have time for subtle. Dex was waiting and that tight ass better be lubed and ready. “Monica knows how to run it so listen to her or again, you're fired.” He walked out of the conference room and swung by his office to tell his secretary that he was leaving and probably wouldn't be back today.
Once he had Dex pinned against the wall he wasn't letting him go anytime soon.
The drive gave him a few minutes to clear his thoughts and remember why he'd told himself he wasn't going to see Dex any more. He went over the reasons even as he guided his car closer.
A male lover didn't fit into his chosen lifestyle.
Certainly not a male lover who brought out all those tendencies, tendencies that had invaded his dreams and thoughts. Normal fantasies didn't do it any more.
He needed Dex, bent over, ass bright red.
He hadn't actually spanked Dex's ass, but his hands tingled every time he thought about it. And in his dreams…damn, he'd reddened that sweet ass just before fucking him, hard, making the guy scream as he pounded into him.
And then there was the biting. Never a kink of his before, now he couldn’t get past the urge to sink his teeth into Dex’s flesh, holding him in place while Maddock fucked that tight ass.
His foot floored the gas pedal, his entire body vibrating with the need to touch and taste Dex.
Welsh Wolves 1: Let Sleeping Wolves Lie Page 8
