Destiny's Love

by Preston Walker

  But the distance between them was like a chasm right now. They could see each other, could wave, could say all sorts of things, but they couldn’t touch. Not in the way that they needed to. Not right now.

  Markus slipped off the bed, leaving the TV on so that the sudden absence of sound wouldn’t awaken the alpha. He went into the bathroom, spending most of his time trying to scrub off the remaining spots of blood that the washcloth hadn’t been able to get. It was under his fingernails, caught in the creases of his knuckles, splashed stickily up the side of his face right by his hairline. Most of it came off when he worked at it, though in some places its presence had dyed his skin a sickly shade of rust.

  He could still smell it. Like he’d rolled in a vat of pennies. A cloying, copper reek no amount of soap could touch. It would need to wear off on its own.

  He came back to bed and was about to walk around to his side, when Destiny stirred from underneath the blankets. His eyes opened, glimmering in that backlit way that night vision will cause.

  “Sorry,” Markus said, not sure exactly he was apologizing. He’d done pretty much everything he could think of to keep from disturbing the other man.

  In response, Destiny held out his arms.

  This was exactly what Markus had wanted. He slid eagerly under the covers on Destiny’s side of the bed, plastering their bodies together. Their arms and legs wrapped tightly around each other, their cheeks pressing together. There was so little room between their bodies at this point that they might as well have just been one person.

  They only held each other in silence in the dark of the hotel room, occasionally illuminated to a brighter degree by whatever was playing on the television. Markus clutched his arms as tightly around Destiny as he could, letting the warmth and stability of the alpha soothe him. His heartbeat slowed. He relaxed, his body molding itself even more perfectly to the shape of the alpha.

  Destiny smelled of warmth and sleep and wolf, a distinctly animal odor not unlike trees and wind and fur. Nuzzling his nose deeper against Destiny’s neck, Markus breathed in and let the alpha’s presence fill his thoughts. Long locks of pale hair draped over his head, dangled down in front of his face like a curtain.

  Destiny sighed, the movement of his chest causing Markus’ body to rise and fall. “You know,” he murmured, “how I said that we would talk about all this when everything was over?”

  Markus felt his heart tighten with worry and anticipation. “Of course I remember.”

  “I had thoughts. While you were out there. In the park. Getting attacked behind me. All I could think was that…that no one should hurt you because you belong to me. ‘Mine.’ That’s what I thought. Over and over. Mine, mine, mine.”

  Each tentative repetition made something tighten inside him, and it wasn’t his heart this time. His deepest, most primal instincts were being called to, and his body was answering.

  “That’s why I was so angry and out of control. I wanted to make everyone pay for what they had done to you. It almost made me afraid, how much I care about you. Even after we had sex, I just wanted to pretend that it would go away. But I really can’t deny it any longer. I feel stronger about you right now than I did even in the past.”

  “Dusty…” It was all that he could manage to say. His thoughts were going away, his brain lacking the proper amount of blood to support them because all of it was heading right down to between his legs. He wondered if Destiny could feel his erection yet, and the thought was so exciting that it made him even harder.

  “I thought that I loved you back then. Now I know that I love you. Even with everything that’s gone wrong and all the times that I’ve fucked up…I have to tell you that I love you. I want to be with you. I can’t help it. I feel so strongly that you belong to me, like we broke up too soon. Like I didn’t give you everything you deserved, and I want to spend the rest of my life making up for it.”

  Destiny hadn’t looked at him this entire time. He was speaking almost to the television. His eyelashes stood out against his tanned cheeks, looking almost frosted at one point by the bright light that came with an advertisement for condoms, of all things.

  “You don’t have to say anything right now,” Destiny continued, his voice lowering softly. “I can wait.”

  “Haven’t you learned anything?”

  Destiny did turn to look at him now, eyes widening slightly with surprise. Markus had spoken a little more briskly than he meant to. It served his purpose well enough anyway, catching the alpha’s attention.

  Markus pushed onward, making a deliberate effort to speak quieter now even though it was getting harder and harder to keep himself under control. “Dusty, I don’t want you to wait. Take the leap. Claim me. Make me yours, because I love you, too. I love you, you stubborn wolf.”

  He leaned forward, and their lips brushed across one another, warmth and heat glancing together and away again.

  Destiny gave yet another sigh, and this time it was one full of utter contentment. He slid his hands down to Markus’ waist, leaving trails of tingles where he touched even though he was only touching on top of his shirt.

  Markus pulled in a deep breath, almost a gasp, as heat flooded through his entire body. His toes curled against the mattress, the muscles in his legs tensing.

  Destiny’s breath tasted of toothpaste, clean and fresh, warm and sweet. Placing one hand on Destiny’s chest, Markus leaned forward and pressed their lips more firmly together. Their tongues tangled together between them, sucking and pulling and thrusting in an imitation of sex.

  Hard hands gripping his ass. He felt all ten fingers individually, digging into his skin even through layers of underwear and jeans. That hot, sensitive spot deep inside his most intimate place started to throb, responding to the pressure. His mouth opened wider, and Destiny’s tongue took the invitation, sliding deep inside. Destiny held his ass even harder, making him hotter, making him throb even more; his kiss grew in intensity, his tongue pushing towards the back of Markus’ throat, fucking towards it.

  The feeling of being devoured, of being claimed, made his body start to shake and tremble. He bucked his hips as spasms of pleasure rocked through him, rubbing his erection hard on Destiny’s muscular thigh.

  Then suddenly he was on his back, the world a blur around him as a result of being tossed down on the mattress. The back of his head bounced off a pillow and then settled down again, ending up at the perfect angle to gaze right into Destiny’s eyes. One gleaming sapphire, the other brown as mahogany and very deep. Together, they combined to pin him in place so that he couldn’t move.

  He didn’t want to move. He wanted to lie here forever with Destiny looking at him like he was the only thing that mattered.

  Reaching up, Markus wrapped both of his hands around Destiny’s face. “I love you,” he said, relishing the taste of the words. They felt so good in his mouth, and they sounded even better in the air, like a song that he had been dying to sing for years and years.

  Destiny let himself be pulled down, kissing him so deeply and temptingly that the very air seemed to be holding its breath. He lifted up his own hands, wrapped them around Markus’ wrists, and suddenly shoved them down hard on the pillow beside his head. Growling low and deep in the back of his throat, Destiny murmured, “I love you, too.”

  Then he slid his mouth down over Markus’ cheek, to his chin, all the way to his throat.

  Markus closed his eyes. He felt like he was standing on the edge of a precipice, about to leap. What awaited him was a rough fall, perhaps a rougher landing, but he wanted it so much.

  “Do it.”

  Destiny opened his mouth. Markus felt his breath, the heat of it, and his body shivered helplessly. Teeth dimpled his flesh, teasing him, preparing him.

  I’m ready, he thought.

  It seemed to him that their thoughts connected right then, as if Destiny heard him, because the alpha twisted his head around and clamped his mouth hard on the soft place between shoulder and neck. His fangs came ou
t, puncturing deep.

  There was no other way to describe the bite except fantastic, a combination of glorious pleasure and impossible pain. Crying out, Markus wrenched his hands out of Destiny’s grasp and clutched hard at the alpha’s back.

  Then there was no pain, because he was outside of himself. His awareness of his body was nothing more than a faint echo, something glimpsed just barely out of the corner of his eye. He only knew his mind, which was so full of light and happiness that it outshone everything else he might have been thinking. There were no thoughts at all, as far as he could tell. Just himself.

  Himself and Destiny.

  Their minds rubbed together. Their souls touched, coming together as only two mated wolves can. Their hearts were singing, howling, a song that only they could know.

  Markus dropped back into reality, panting and breathless and shaking. His neck was warm, rapidly growing colder, with his own blood.

  Destiny kissed him again, and he tasted copper on top of an abundance of sweetness.

  Very distantly, mostly lost in the kiss, Markus was aware that he had had an orgasm in the middle of being marked. That being said, he was still as hard as ever. Those two facts didn’t seem to want to mesh in his mind, but it was an unavoidable fact.

  Destiny started to undress him, pulling his clothes away with something like reverence. The air in the hotel room was cool on his skin, in sharp contrast with the heat inside him, and the heat of Destiny’s body on top of his.

  The alpha wolf shed his own clothes, revealing the glory of his body. The light coming from the TV caught beautifully in the distinctive lines and curves of his muscles, outlining their perfection. His cock was a powerful tool, jutting out from between his legs. Markus was breathless at the sight of it, remembering how it had felt inside him that first time. It had hurt at the start, and he imagined that it would hurt again, though he was in such capable hands that it hadn’t mattered at the end.

  In time, he was sure that it wouldn’t hurt him at all. Practice made perfect, and he was going to love his practice.

  Leaning over to the side, Destiny pulled out a drawer from the nightstand and reached inside. He brought out a tub of Vaseline.

  Startled, Markus laughed out loud. “Excuse me?”

  The hunger on Destiny’s face momentary abated, replaced by something almost bashful. “We really should get some real lube. It would make it so much better for you.”

  “Why do you even have that?” He couldn’t help but to laugh again. His hormones were up, adrenaline racing through his veins, and the laughter came so lightly and easily in the face of all that. The last remaining bits of stress drained away and he was free.

  “I didn’t know if we were going to need it. So I thought, better safe than sorry.”

  Markus just shook his head, smiling. “This is why I love you.”

  “We wouldn’t be doing this if you hadn’t told me to do it. That’s why I love you.”

  “So, you should listen to me more.”

  Destiny folded his arms across his thick chest, still holding the lube in one hand. “Oh, is that what you think? Well, what would you like from me, Markus?”

  “Make love to me, Dusty,” he said immediately.

  Destiny was only too eager to obey, popping the top off the Vaseline and tossing it away so it smacked against the window like a particularly stupid bird. He held his cock in one hand and started rubbing the jelly in a thick layer all up and down his length.

  Reaching for the jar, Markus suddenly found that his hands were being held down by his side again. He wiggled a little, pretending to struggle, and then all the strength went out of him when he felt the tip of Destiny’s slick, swollen cock sliding around his puckered entrance. He used his cock with the expert finesse of a master artist with their paintbrush, applying the jelly for him.

  The cold jelly quickly grew warm between their overheated bodies. Closing his eyes, losing himself to the pleasure, Markus pressed himself hard against Destiny.

  The alpha pushed inside him at the same time, stretching him, filling him from the inside. Markus cried out, tossing his head back. “Yes!”

  He wriggled his hips, helping Destiny to slowly thrust deeper and deeper inside him until their bodies were flush together. There was nothing better in the entire world than this, to feel that they were one fully and completely. Mates, just as they always should have been.

  Then Destiny started to pull out. The friction of his rigid texture sliding across Markus’ sensitive inner walls made his entire body spasm with pleasure. He clawed at the mattress, forgetting that his hands were being held down.

  Destiny pushed back in, his swollen tip shoving against that seat of pleasure deep inside Markus. He often felt that place inside him burning, begging for attention whenever he used to please himself, but he had never been able to reach it on his own. It was too deep, his fingers weren’t long enough, and he had been afraid of using a toy in case it hurt.

  It didn’t hurt now. It only felt fantastic. His body writhed, speared on Destiny’s cock, trying to impale himself deeper.

  Destiny pressed his face to his neck, hot breath on his skin driving him crazy. Tender, wet kisses, in complete contrast with his fierce thrusting that was continuing to come faster and faster.

  His mouth slid up and then they were breathing the same heated air, their mouths attacking the other, lips fighting, claiming, striving together.

  Destiny kept thrusting, and Markus was dimly aware of his body shoving back, his hips bucking. There were fireworks exploding in his mind, tight coils of pleasure that kept erupting inside his groin. He could feel his cock rubbing hard on Destiny’s washboard stomach, just another level of sensation that drove him on even faster towards orgasm.

  There was no telling how long this went on for, the back-and-forth of the most primal act that two people could perform together. Markus didn’t know, didn’t care. He had ceased to be a person. He was a wolf in his mind, being fucked, being owned.

  Destiny’s hard thrusts started to slow, almost as if he was fighting to perform while being submerged underwater. His big body trembled and bucked, occasionally slamming his cock even harder than before inside Markus.

  Wrenching his hands finally free, Markus grabbed at Destiny’s back and scratched at it. He had his head tossed back, was hardly aware of what he was doing. The only thing he knew was that there was skin and hard muscle beneath his fingers, sensual ridges slick with the sweet sweat of exertion.

  Then Destiny wasn’t moving at all, could thrust no longer. They were knotted together, and the only thing that he could do was press their bodies together even harder, grinding, hitting every single centimeter of excited, swollen flesh inside of Markus.

  The gyrating, circular motion of his body rubbed the tip of Markus’ own dick in such an exciting and mind blowing way that he couldn’t help it. Another spasm rocked through his body, and this one didn’t stop. The fireworks reached their crescendo, nothing but light and color in his thoughts. Someone was crying out, howling with release; later on, the rawness of his throat would convince him that he had been the one doing that.

  The only thing that managed to break through his crowded senses was a sudden rush of warmth from deep inside, as Destiny orgasmed inside him.

  Collapsing hard on his back, Markus trembled. He tried to breathe. In. Out. Each lungful of air hitched and bounced on its journey, like an old car over a rough road. Every muscle in his entire body was limp and relaxed. Tingles still raced through his veins. His ass felt sore and somehow satisfied.

  Destiny finally relaxed on top of him, his cock sliding neatly out with the motion. He pressed warm, breathless kisses all over Markus’ neck. They sent little aftershocks of tingles through his body, though he was too worn out by now to even have a hope of getting excited again. Then, Destiny wrapped his arms around him. Markus clutched at him, and they consciously shared their thoughts for the first time. It was a communication composed not of words, but of images and fee
lings and fragments of intention that the mind then interpreted. There was no pesky language barrier, no potentially inferring a different meaning, because there was no language. It was only the two of them in their connected, mated minds, as close as any two people could ever be.

  Everything will be okay, Markus thought to himself. He hadn’t exactly meant to share that thought in particular, but Destiny let out a faint murmur of agreement anyway.

  It would take time, for sure. There would be a whole hell of a lot more fuck-ups along the way. They would learn from those, would give this their all and everything to make it right again.

  The invaders would pay. Their packs would be at peace, Lethal Freedom and Shadow Claws living alongside one another in friendly rivalry. And he would live with Destiny, giving his everything to the wolf who should have been at his side all along.

  Fuck Brock.

  Fuck what anyone else thought.

  This was how things were meant to be. He knew that now, and he fell asleep imagining how their lives would be when all of this had finally ended.

  12

  Markus didn’t really need to imagine what it would be like to live with Destiny because that was exactly what happened. When it became clear, after three nights of sex and tense relaxation, that they probably wouldn’t be able to return to their packs for a while yet, they entered phase two of the waiting period.

  Continuing to spend nights at hotels would be much too expensive in the long run. No landlord would ever dare rent them an apartment for just a single month. Not only was that an absurd and potentially suspicious situation, it also would create more work for whoever they were renting from. Then there was the uncertainty surrounding this whole situation. They just didn’t know how much time they would need to take.

  That left a third option, which was to rent a room at the local YMCA.

  Up until Destiny mentioned this option, Markus hadn’t even known it was something that could be done. He hadn’t been in the YMCA since he was a young kid. It was almost like a rite of passage for youngsters. When you lived in a beach town, you were probably at the beach long before you were capable of remembering it. However, that was always in the close company of parents who wouldn’t let you get more than a couple feet away from them at a time.