Brendan's Fate (Wolves' Heat)

by Odessa Lynne

  Brendan frowned. Why the hesitation?

  He said, slowly, “So keeping me isolated is the plan here? That’s a stupid plan and I don’t like it.”

  Trey’s expression gave nothing away. “Strong emotion can sometimes trigger memories strong enough to bleed through. It’s rare, but it does happen. That one still wants you. He thinks he loves you.”

  Brendan pushed to his feet and uncrossed his arms. “You don’t think Matthew really cares about me?” he said, challenging the idea that Trey would know how Matthew felt. Brendan might not know Matthew well, for now, but he sure as hell knew Matthew better than Trey did.

  Trey approached Brendan to stop in front of him, eyes glinting with a hard light. “He desires what he had with you—which has ended, but he doesn’t love you. How could anybody love who you were?”

  Brendan felt like the very breath had been knocked out of him. “What a goddamn cruel thing to say to me,” he said. Tremors of anger and hurt made his voice crack. “I can’t believe I—”

  Trey grabbed Brendan by the arms, claws poking hard enough to prick Brendan’s flesh. Brendan struggled, once, jerking against Trey’s hold, but gave up as soon as he realized Trey wasn’t going to let go.

  “Did you think that because I’ve come to care about the person you’ve been while you’ve been with me these last two days that I would have any love for the you of three days ago? You were a selfish, unforgiving man who thought nothing of murdering us just because of something no one—no one—could have predicted would happen when our heat came on us. You were responsible for the deaths of breeding females and children, Brendan. My people. My children. You planned attacks. You recruited more renegades to your cause. You were their leader, their alpha, and you were just as responsible for their actions as for your own.”

  “God,” Brendan said, throat working. Children. He couldn’t believe he had killed children. He wouldn’t believe it, not yet, not until he had to. “I don’t remember. It wasn’t me.”

  “That’s who you were and you’ll face that soon. Sooner than I’d like, to be truthful, and if you don’t see who you were, who we are, with a clear perspective, the likelihood of you choosing a better fate is insignificantly small.”

  “I will,” Brendan said. “I don’t want to be that person anymore.”

  “Say that after you have your memories back, when the hate that fired your blood is running through your veins again. See how easy it is to say then.”

  “So don’t give them back to me. I don’t have to remember. I can stay like—”

  “No.” Trey pushed Brendan away from him.

  Brendan caught his balance and grabbed for Trey’s arm.

  Trey’s gaze locked onto his. “Brendan.”

  Brendan released him quickly. “Come on, why can’t you just do that? You’re the First Alpha, you said it. You’re the leader of all the packs. You rule them all.” Brendan didn’t bother fighting the quaver in his voice, the fear, because it gave him the push for what he really wanted, a chance to start over and put his past behind him.

  “No,” Trey said again. “You’ll submit to me as First Alpha with your memories intact. That’s what the Diviners say must happen. You’ll submit, or you’ll have no choice but to fight and we both know you won’t survive.”

  Brendan raked his hands through his hair and spun around to face the opposite wall. The room wasn’t that large, but the space was big enough for a round table made of the same wood as the chairs beneath a window that looked out into the darkness of—

  He spun back around. “Where are we?”

  Trey reached for Brendan again and put his hands on Brendan’s shoulders. He turned Brendan to face the window. “We’re going to my home.”

  “You live on a ship.” Awe kept his gaze glued to the view. Outside the window he could see their approach and the ship was monstrous, so massive that he couldn’t imagine how many lives had been lived there.

  “I do,” Trey said, and his fingers curled gently over Brendan’s muscle and bone, his touch a comfort in light of the stomach churning knowledge Brendan held that he was no longer on Earth. “Most of the time.”

  “We need to talk,” Brendan said softly, his anger hard to recapture under the gentle touch of Trey’s hand and the vastness before him. “I need to know what’s going on, who you people are, what this heat is, why I hated you, so I can at least have a fighting chance against my other self.”

  Trey scraped his teeth over Brendan’s earlobe.

  “After,” Trey said, and he licked a small stripe across the bumps of Brendan’s spine above the collar of his shirt. “First, submit to me now, on your knees, so that when I walk into my home there’ll be no question that you belong to me.”

  Brendan turned and Trey tugged him close. His dick went completely hard. Trey used his hands at Brendan’s waist to grind them together, pressing the bulk of Brendan’s fly hard against him, and Brendan sucked in his breath at the thick hardness of Trey’s cock against his own.

  “After—” His voice cracked and he tried again. “After everything, how can you even want to—”

  Trey nipped Brendan’s skin with his teeth. The bite stung.

  “Submit,” Trey said, chest rumbling, the vibration causing gooseflesh to rise on Brendan’s skin.

  “Maybe I’m not ready to let you fuck me again. I barely know you.”

  “Submit,” Trey repeated, without any force at all, as if he knew more wasn’t necessary.

  Brendan sighed and bent his head back, and let Trey’s hot breath drift over his neck. “God. Do it,” he said. “I submit. Fuck me.”

  “Yes.” Trey’s voice held a triumphant edge, but Brendan just gripped Trey’s arms and let Trey walk him over to the bed, backward, where his calves bumped into a soft mattress and Trey pushed him back to sit in the midst of the pillows.

  Chapter 12

  Brendan stretched his t-shirt off over his head, wondering if Trey would like what he saw now that they weren’t in a dark cave. Brendan looked down at his tight brown nipples and the trail of hair that disappeared under the upper edge of his jeans. He dug his hands into the silky smooth covering on the bed and propped himself up on his arms so he could lean back while Trey tugged at the belt holding Brendan’s pants closed. His eyes flickered when Trey tossed the belt aside and the buckle clanged against the floor.

  Trey yanked Brendan’s fly open, the zipping sound louder than the rustle of fabric and Trey’s heavy breath.

  Brendan toed his boot off, and then watched as Trey opened the brace with a flick of his fingers against the clasp. The pressure released suddenly, and Brendan’s ankle twinged, but that was all he felt. He gave his foot a tentative turn but didn’t feel much other than a dull throb.

  “You still need it when you’re on your feet, but here with me, I’ll make sure you don’t hurt yourself.”

  “Okay,” Brendan said. He’d rather not wear it anyway.

  Trey rose up over the edge of the bed and reached for Brendan.

  “Oh—what—fuck!”

  Instead of taking hold of Brendan’s waistband to remove his pants as Brendan had expected, Trey had flipped him over with ridiculous ease.

  Brendan scrambled to get his knees under him while Trey dragged Brendan’s jeans and underwear down over his ass and legs.

  A bare second after his last foot was free of the tangle of jeans, he heard the fabric hit the floor.

  He dropped to his elbows for added stability, realizing a moment too late that by doing so, he’d just given Trey even easier access to his ass.

  Trey didn’t move for a few seconds, but Brendan could hear him breathing harshly.

  He wanted to look back over his shoulder, see what the problem was, but something held him back. He felt … vulnerable, exposed, and he wasn’t sure he liked it. He dropped his head to the bed between his forearms and took a slow breath, trying to calm his racing heart. He had to have done this before Trey, with someone, somewhere, he knew that on a ration
al level, but it still felt like last night had been the first time, like maybe he wasn’t as used to this part as he could’ve been.

  Then he heard a boot hit the floor and then another, and then the edge of the bed dipped.

  Heat trailed down his spine, Trey’s mouth warm and wet, his tongue tracing every bump of Brendan’s spine while Brendan fought the shiver that swept over him. Sweat rose to the surface of his skin.

  He jerked when a warm finger dragged right across the pucker of his asshole and his asshole clenched.

  “God,” Brendan said. “Don’t play with me, just fuck me.” Brendan’s voice carried a strong undercurrent of demand. He hadn’t had an opportunity to clean up in two days so he wasn’t that interested in a lot of foreplay.

  Trey reached beneath him and tugged on Brendan’s balls with just enough force to make Brendan gasp.

  “Submit,” Trey growled, his breath heating the base of Brendan’s spine. Then he wrapped his hand around Brendan’s dick and gave it a few firm pulls, and while Brendan struggled to breathe through the spreading heat in his balls and the clenching of his ass, Trey’s teeth grazed Brendan’s lower back.

  “Okay, okay.” Brendan leaned forward onto his forearms and breathed hot and heavy into the fabric beneath him.

  Trey released Brendan’s cock and then put his hands on the inside of Brendan’s thighs and spread his knees further apart. Brendan heard a low swoosh and he looked around to see Trey taking something from a drawer that had opened from beneath the mattress.

  “I won’t hurt you,” Trey said, putting one hand in the center of Brendan’s lower back, his thumb very close to the edge of Brendan’s asshole, before he rubbed slick lube around on the outside of Brendan’s tight pucker.

  Brendan’s asshole quivered against the touch. His cock leaked at the tip. He dragged in a deep breath. “Last night was good,” he said, and the words almost felt like a reminder to himself that he wanted this.

  “I shouldn’t mate you now, but I can’t resist you like this. Your submission is—”

  Brendan felt the firm push of Trey’s nose as he dragged his face between Brendan’s shoulders, rubbing skin to skin in a way that made Brendan want to curl into the touch.

  “Your submission makes me feel lust-crazed, as if my heat’s coming on again.”

  Then Trey’s finger slid deep into Brendan’s asshole and Brendan groaned.

  “I want to mate you.”

  “More,” Brendan said, a low whine to his voice. “Another finger. Come on.”

  He wanted to feel the stretch and burn like he’d felt last night in the dark cave. He wanted Trey to take him again and then ride him hard.

  He wanted to be fucked, and fucked hard, and maybe forget that he seemed to be the kind of guy who used sex to get what he wanted from others. He wasn’t sure how many times he’d let some guy fuck his ass, but he would erase them all by giving himself up to Trey.

  Every last one of them.

  Trey’s breathing sped up; Brendan could feel it hot and damp against his back, burning up his spine, making him arch upward.

  Another of Trey’s fingers entered alongside the first. Trey slid them in deep and then back out again. It wasn’t enough. Brendan chased away a lock of hair with a heavy exhale and rocked back against Trey’s hand.

  “Fuck me,” he said. “Please.”

  Trey brushed his fingers along the inside of Brendan’s ass, touching off a wild spark of pleasure that tingled through his balls and into his cock. He gasped and when Trey did it again he groaned.

  “Please,” he said, and this time he was outright pleading. “Come on. I want you to fuck me. I submitted. Fuck me hard. Make me feel it.”

  Trey seemed to get in a hurry then, as if Brendan’s words had finally had an effect on his control. He pulled his fingers out of Brendan’s ass, almost too fast and Brendan caught his breath.

  “I shouldn’t—” But Trey didn’t finish the thought. He buried his head against Brendan’s back and shifted closer on the bed, until his thighs pushed against Brendan’s hip, and his hand spread across Brendan’s ass, the faint prick of claws giving away the flex of Trey’s fingers.

  Shouldn’t what?

  Was Trey having that much trouble maintaining his control?

  Brendan didn’t care. The ache in his cock made him want to rub against the bed.

  “Do it,” Brendan said. “I want you to fuck me. I’m asking for it. Come on.” Impatience fired his words.

  Trey’s strong fingers pinched at Brendan’s waist as his knees caged Brendan’s calves and he pulled Brendan back.

  Without any further delay, Trey pushed his thick, hard cock against Brendan’s asshole until he breached the tight hole and then shoved himself inside.

  “Ah … God,” Brendan groaned. “That’s good. That’s perfect. Do that again.”

  Trey did. And again, until Brendan’s breath came in rugged gasps and the sweat dripped into his eyes. Trey came once, early, the way he had in the cave, but he kept rutting into Brendan even after the fact, his body bowed over Brendan and his panting breath hot against Brendan’s spine.

  When Brendan thought he was about to shake apart from the hot pleasure riding up his spine with every forceful thrust, one of Trey’s clawed hands gripped Brendan by the back of his neck and pushed his shoulders down into the soft mattress. Brendan got a face full of the extra soft bedding just before Trey used his grip to turn Brendan’s head so Brendan could breathe. The sharp prickle of those claws left a tingle in their wake, as the pressure from them disappeared, but not the weight of Trey’s hand at the back of his neck.

  “Mine,” Trey said, again speaking in that other language of his, the word a growl at Brendan’s back. “No matter what happens, what choice you make, you are mine.”

  Trey leaned in until their bodies were plastered together, his hips rutting against Brendan, hitting the exact right spot to steal Brendan’s breath with every jarring thrust. Trey reached around Brendan with his other hand and caressed Brendan’s cock. Brendan sucked in his breath at the hot stab of pleasure that jolted into his stomach and balls, and his knee slipped along the silky bedding but Trey’s grip at his neck held him in place.

  Trey wrapped his strong fingers around Brendan’s cock and pumped Brendan’s aching, hard flesh until Brendan had to bite into his lip to keep from losing it too soon. He wasn’t ready—he needed more—

  But his body wasn’t going to cooperate.

  “God,” Brendan said. “God, I’m gonna—”

  His hips rocked into Trey’s hand and the white hot release hit him hard. His semen pulsed onto the bed and his belly, and dribbled onto Trey’s hand. Trey dragged the last of Brendan’s spunk out of his cock with another slow squeeze.

  “Ah—enough,” Brendan gasped, his cock sparking with sensitivity and his ass clenching around the cock still buried inside him.

  Trey licked the spot between Brendan’s shoulder blades, tongue scraping roughly over Brendan’s skin. “My heat was torture, knowing I couldn’t have you. Breeding was impossible, even with drugs. I can’t decide if you’re a gift from the universe or a test. All I know is that you taste like the universe to me and I want you with a strength I’ve never wanted anyone.”

  Trey’s hand flexed on Brendan’s neck, fingers tightening before easing their grip.

  Brendan wasn’t sure what to say so he didn’t say anything, just lay there and let his heart slow and his breathing return to some semblance of normal.

  He couldn’t stop himself from pushing back on Trey’s still hard cock though, his ass more sensitive now that he’d come. His cock wasn’t ready to recover yet for another round, but he could easily imagine himself fucking Trey like this anyway. Just because he wanted to enjoy the stretch of that cock for a little while longer.

  Trey caressed the sweat-slicked skin and then Brendan felt the sharp scrape of one claw tracing the same path a rivulet of sweat had taken. The touch tickled and Brendan jerked. He twisted his arm back over
his head and made a grab for Trey’s hand. He missed.

  Trey took hold of Brendan’s wrist and pushed his arm down against the bed, holding it there over Brendan’s head with little effort. “This was a mistake,” Trey said.

  Brendan tried to turn. Trey didn’t let him.

  He puffed out a frustrated breath of air against the bedding under his cheek. “You’re the one who started this—in that cave. I remember telling you I wasn’t going to have sex with you.”

  “We fuck for pleasure as often as for breeding, the same as you humans do. I wanted to fuck you and you wanted me to fuck you. The sex isn’t the mistake. The mating is. You weren’t ready.”

  “I was ready or I wouldn’t have said ‘I submit’ and ‘fuck me.’” Brendan wriggled his ass, shifting Trey’s cock inside him. “I know how the hell to say no and mean it.” Brendan paused, the feeling wending through him an unexplainable twinge of disquiet.

  He shook off the feeling abruptly, uncomfortable with the reminder that he didn’t really know himself at all. “Feels like you’re still ready. I don’t understand how you do it. You don’t go soft after you come.”

  “Enough,” Trey said. “Turn over and I’ll finish this.”

  “Don’t turn into an asshole just because—”

  “Because I made a mistake? I regret mating you. I should have resisted, but I couldn’t and I regret that too. Eventually I’ll have to face the consequences of my actions, as will you.”

  “God, you really are an asshole sometimes,” Brendan muttered, then yelped, because Trey’s hand came down on his ass hard, a stinging burn spreading across the side of his butt cheek.

  “Fucker!” Brendan said, but his cock started a slow throb as blood started to pool and his face flushed hot. “I don’t want a goddamned spanking from you!”

  “The smell of you tells me you’re lying.”

  Brendan gasped when Trey’s hand came down again, but Trey stopped short of actually smacking him. The warm weight of Trey’s palm settled over the spot he’d smacked earlier. He rubbed Brendan’s flesh until the burn faded.