by Gem Frost
Cae groaned and moved a little faster. “Jon,” he whispered, his voice thick, as if he were drugged. He lifted his head and looked down at him with heavy-lidded eyes, and Jon saw his nostrils flare. “You smell so goddamned good.”
Something had changed between them, in some way Jon couldn’t quite pinpoint, and he wondered if Cae could smell the change. He seemed almost as transported as Jon. His muscles tensed beneath Jon’s hands, his skin slick with perspiration, and his breath came in unsteady, ragged gasps.
“Please,” Jon whispered, uncertain what he was asking for, or whether Cae was able to give it to him. As an omega, begging came naturally to him, and yet he’d never wanted anything as badly as he needed this. He turned his head and inhaled, drawing in the compelling, sensual scent of male musk and sweat, and his balls squeezed with a desperate need. His cock throbbed with a desire so intense he didn’t think he could survive if Cae didn’t satisfy him.
Needing still more, he lifted his legs a little higher, resting his heels on Cae’s upper thighs. But it still wasn’t quite enough, and apparently the other man recognized that. He reached down with both big hands, caught Jon by the knees, and pushed his thighs apart just a bit further, making Jon totally open to him, utterly vulnerable. And then he thrust harder than before.
Jon felt the huge, hot cock deep inside him, stroking him exactly the way he needed to be stroked, giving him what he craved more than anything, and he cried out, feeling his body convulse in a helpless response as pleasure flooded him.
“Oh, Great Lupus,” he whispered, his hands digging into Cae’s broad, muscular back. “Yes. Just like that, Cae.”
Cae did it again, his hard cock slamming into Jon’s tender flesh, and they both sobbed with the pleasure of it. This, Jon thought fuzzily, was precisely what he wanted, what he needed—Cae’s body fucking his, hard and deep, over and over again. His cock was so hot and so hard, and Jon felt his own cock growing harder, felt the knot of need clenched inside him twisting more and more tightly.
He throbbed everywhere, his ass and his cock and his balls all one ache of terrible, pulsing need. He could feel Cae throbbing too, deep inside him, could hear the baritone voice he loved raised in a long groan of pleasure with every movement.
He remembered the way Cae had come in his mouth, remembered the gloriously sexual taste of him. He’d sucked off other men, a few times, but he’d never liked it all this much. But with Cae—well, the other man had tasted hot and wild and far better than he’d ever imagined possible. He’d felt him throbbing like this just before he’d lost it, and he was fairly certain Cae was right on the verge of losing it again.
And so was he.
Heat spiraled deep inside him, and the aching tension in his balls grew tighter and tighter. He moved against Cae with wild abandon, his hips rising off the hood of the old junker as the other man slammed into him, fierce, violent, demanding. Pleasure surged through Jon, a frantic, seething mass of flame racing through his nerves, and he threw back his head and howled with the wild intensity of his need.
And then Cae stopped.
Jon’s better-than-human hearing heard the other man’s heart pounding, heard the harsh, fast sound of his breathing, and he opened his eyes to see Cae’s head thrown back, his eyes clenched shut, his teeth bared almost in a snarl, his too-long hair wet and matted with sweat.
“Don’t stop,” he begged, squirming restlessly.
“I don’t…” Cae drew in a shaking breath, his voice barely a whisper, sounding as if the words were being pulled from him against his will. “Don’t want it to be over, Jon. Don’t want you to leave me.”
A knot of emotion suddenly wedged in Jon’s chest, every bit as tight and painful as the knot of need in his balls. He thought of all the times he and his best friend had hung out, the serious long talks over dinners, the movies they’d watched together, the uncountable times they’d drunk beer and watched humans chase footballs around on Jon’s tiny TV. He remembered the last night he’d seen Cae, the gentle humor in his voice when he’d teased Jon about his off-key rendition of “Happy Birthday,” the way he’d looked with frosting on his nose.
All at once he knew that he couldn’t ever let Cae go, no matter what it might cost him.
“I don’t want to leave you,” he whispered, raising his hand to stroke the dark, sweaty hair. “I won’t leave you if you don’t want me to. I promise.”
“You can’t stay.” Cae’s voice quavered. “Leaving the Pack… I can’t ask you to do that.”
They were pack animals by nature, and for any of them to set off on their own was almost unheard of. It would be particularly unusual for a low-ranked omega, whose scent made him vulnerable even among humans, and who depended on the Pack’s protection to survive. But at this moment, Jon didn’t care.
“So don’t ask. I’ll stay anyway.”
“God… Jon…” He moved, one hard thrust, and Jon cried out, his fingers digging into Cae’s ass in an involuntary reaction. Then Cae was still again.
“No,” he muttered. “I can’t… you don’t deserve… Jon, you saw me out there tonight. I almost killed that guy. I think I would have killed him if you hadn’t stopped me. And…” His voice dropped to a whisper. “God, Jon. I would have enjoyed it.”
“That isn’t like you, Cae.” Jon emphasized the affectionate shortening of the name, a nickname no one used except him. “You’re a good guy. You always have been. This is… something else. And you have to fight it, because it’s not you. It's not.”
“It is me.” He saw the flutter of eyelashes that meant Cae was fighting tears again. “Deep down, it’s me, Jon. I like… I like hurting people.”
“No.” Jon tightened his grip on Cae and spoke more sharply. “You always helped out everyone in the Pack. Always. Remember the time in senior year, when you ran back into the school when it was on fire and saved those little kids? Remember how you talked down that teenaged cub when she wanted to throw herself off a bridge, and got her the help she needed? That’s you, Cae. The real you. You’re angry and upset with the world right now, and I don’t blame you, because something’s very wrong. You’re taking out your rage on other people. But that doesn’t mean you’re a psychopath.”
“You didn’t see what I did last night.”
“Tell me.”
“The gang… jumped me.” His words came in unsteady spurts. “Twenty or more of them. They wanted to… to kill me. They had weapons. Knives. Boards. Clubs.”
“God, Cae.” His hand tightened on the other man in an unconsciously protective gesture. He wasn’t an alpha, born to protect and guard others, but this was Caeden, and he’d give his life for the other man in a heartbeat. Cae already felt alienated from the Pack, and he didn’t need to get the idea he wasn’t welcome in the human world either.
“It’s hard to hurt me with knives and clubs, right now. It’s hard to even touch me. You know.”
“I know. I saw tonight.”
“But…” Cae’s voice shook. “But I hurt them. Not much, just enough to scare them. And then I got the leader by the throat, and I…”
There was a long pause. Jon wasn’t sure he wanted to know the rest of the story. What if Cae admitted he'd killed someone? Could he ever look at his friend the same way again?
But he had to know.
“And then what?” he prompted gently.
“I beat him up. And I broke his arm.” The baritone voice was soft, and he lifted his head and stared down into Jon’s face. His eyes were wide and vulnerable, and for a brief, disorienting moment Jon saw his old friend looking at him. He looked like the gentle, decent boy Jon had always known, rather than the arrogant jerk he’d encountered earlier tonight. “I just twisted it, and it shattered. I could hear it crunch. And I liked it, Jon. I liked knowing I’d hurt him that badly. I wanted… I wanted to hurt him again. I wanted to hear that sound again.”
“Cae…”
At the sympathy Jon couldn’t keep out of his voice, the momentary vulnerab
ility faded, and the cool arrogance returned. “Forget about it.”
“Forget?” Jon stared back into his eyes, unflinching. “This is not something we should forget, Cae. Humans aren’t prey animals, and you don’t have any right to go around the city picking quarrels with them, hurting them, let alone killing them. You have to fight this. Whatever it is, you have to fight it. It’s not you. And it’s wrong. You know it's wrong.”
“Can’t fight it.” He lowered his head again and spoke in a low growl. Their bodies were still linked together, and Jon could feel Cae’s hard flesh pulsing in a steady rhythm, like the heartbeat he could hear thudding rapidly, a drumbeat in the silence of the night. “Something inside me… something’s changed, Jon.”
“I know.” He closed his eyes and dug his fingers into the other man’s hips, feeling the hot, primitive need churning inside him, a dark pool of lust and desire that he couldn’t fight, any more than Cae could fight his violent impulses. “Me too, Cae. Me too.”
Cae moved inside him, gently, and suddenly the sexual need swirled to the surface again, so powerful that it overwhelmed them both. Jon groaned and clutched at him, wrapping himself around the big, powerful body, their hips moving together frantically. Cae’s hands dropped to either side of him, and Jon heard the tortured groan of metal as Cae’s fingers clenched into the hood of the car and the steel crumpled like paper in his hands.
God, Cae was strong. Alphas were always the strongest in the Pack, of course; that was part of what made them alphas. But Cae hadn’t changed, and despite his age, he shouldn’t have the strength of a full-grown wolf yet. But there was no denying that he did…
Coherent thoughts faded as Cae thrust into him hard and fast, sobs and groans falling from both of them. An impossible fire lit inside Jon, scorching his veins. His balls squeezed with agonized need, and his body clenched on Cae’s hard. He heard the other man muttering curses, and then Cae slammed into him violently, so hard it should have hurt. But instead of being painful it was the best thing he’d ever felt, and he reached down and gripped the tight ass, urging him to an even faster pace.
The terrible knot of need in his balls unraveled and came apart with stunning suddenness, flooding him with heat and ecstasy, until he shuddered with it. He came in long, hot spurts, his cock jerking hard in an incredibly pleasurable release of tension. His ass gripped Cae’s cock, squeezing him in violent spasms, and the other man gave a long, loud shout, his body going rigid under Jon’s hands. Jon could hear the pleasure in his voice, could feel it in every line of his body, and he knew Cae’s climax was every bit as powerful as his own.
His orgasm went on and on, in long, fiery waves, and he felt Cae’s hot come spurting deep inside him in rush after rush. Their voices rose in unison, their bodies straining together, as the deep, intense rapture rolled over them, submerging them both in ecstasy.
Chapter 7
Caeden came back to himself slowly. He found that he was bent over Jon, leaning heavily on his arms, panting for breath. The acrid, polluted air of the city burned his throat. At least he hoped it was the air, and not…
Well, he wasn’t crying again, damn it. He just wasn’t.
Jon lay beneath him on the rusted-out hulk of the car, his eyes closed, his body slack with satisfaction. Caeden looked down, taking in the sight of him, his features relaxed, his hair scruffier than ever. Jon, he thought, was adorable after sex.
Adorable. Great Lupus above, he’d turned into a teenaged girl with a crush.
Despite the disdainful thought, he was uncomfortably aware it wasn’t that far from the truth. He very much wanted to run his hands through Jon’s hair and ruffle it, and if that wasn’t a crush he didn’t know what was.
Jon’s eyelids fluttered, and he looked up at Caeden with a trusting, adoring expression—the expression of a wolf low in status looking up at his alpha. But there was something more in his eyes, something unmistakable.
Love.
All at once, Caeden realized Jon loved him, and the knowledge almost sent him to his knees with shock and remorse.
He should have known. He’d known for a long time that Jon had a thing for him, of course, but what he saw in Jon’s gaze was far more than starry-eyed teenaged devotion. Jon, he suddenly recognized, loved him with every fiber of his being. And he’d taken Jon on the hood of a rusted-out old car. He’d treated Jon, his best friend, like a casual fuck.
Self-reproach hit him hard, and he straightened up and turned away, zipping up his jeans and straightening his clothes.
“Hey.” Jon’s hand touched his arm, a tentative gesture of affection. “What’s wrong?”
Caeden stiffened his spine and his resolve. “Go home, Jon. Get out of here.”
“I told you already.” Despite his mild voice, Jon managed to sound determined. “I’m not going home without you.”
Caeden rounded on him suddenly, looming over the smaller man ominously, using his body language to impress upon Jon that he was the alpha here, and must be obeyed. “I told you to go!”
Jon lifted his chin and refused to look intimidated, which Caeden knew took a massive amount of self-control. “And the Alpha told me to bring you home,” he said steadily. “So that’s what I have to do.”
“Oh, right.” Caeden imbued his voice with all the scorn he could manage. “You’re my father’s errand boy. That’s why you’re here.”
“You know that’s not true.” Jon reached out again, tentatively, and let his hand rest on Caeden’s bicep. Caeden thought about pulling away angrily, but couldn’t quite manage it. “I wanted to come find you, Cae. I volunteered. Your father didn’t think—well, he didn’t think anyone so low in status could manage it. But I convinced him that you’d listen to me more than anyone else, because we’ve been friends for so long.”
Caeden felt his skin burning where Jon’s palm rested on him. Something was happening between them, something he couldn’t quite understand. Something he couldn’t resist. Jon must have felt it too, because he drew back his hand, frowning. “What the hell?”
Caeden reached out and caught his hand, pulling it to his chest. “Don’t stop touching me.”
“Uh…” Jon looked worried, and that was adorable, too. “I don’t know what’s going on, Caeden, but… something is happening to me. I feel really strange.” He swallowed. “Did I catch whatever’s wrong with you, do you think?”
“I don’t know exactly what’s happening to you, Jon.” Caeden stared at him hungrily. “All I know is… you smell like sex.”
✽✽✽
Jon felt like sex, too. That was the problem. He looked back at Cae, seeing the long, black hair tumbling around his face, more rumpled and wavy than ever. His face was beautiful, the fiercely masculine bone structure softened by his enormous, long-lashed golden eyes. His body was as gorgeous as his face, the black fabric of his jeans and t-shirt displaying wide shoulders tapering down to narrow hips, a broad chest and thick arms heavy with well-defined muscle, and long, powerful legs.
As Jon’s gaze traveled down Cae’s body, he noticed there was a decided bulge in the black jeans. He remembered what that looked like, too, and despite the violent way he’d just come, his cock started to swell.
Cae was definitely beautiful, all over.
God help him.
“I have to… to go…” he muttered, and turned away, before his body could betray him any further. He was naked, but that didn’t matter, not really. He could always change into his wolf form if he needed to. He stumbled blindly through the rusting hulks that littered the junkyard, but suddenly Cae was standing in front of him, his huge, imposing body blocking his exit.
Jon blinked at him. Great Lupus, Cae was fast—as fast and as strong as any fully-grown alpha Jon had ever seen. He had all the power and speed that the Alpha should possess. If only he could shift, he’d win the respect of the Pack in a heartbeat.
If only he could shift.
“You can’t leave.” Cae’s eyes were so intense they practically glo
wed in the dark. “I want you again, Jon.”
The truth was that Jon wanted him, too. Which didn’t make any sense. They’d just had sex, and before that they’d… well, the two of them had burned off a hell of a lot of sexual energy in a short time. Wolves had powerful sex drives, but they needed a break between orgasms, just as humans did. And yet…
Cae stood only a foot away, so close that Jon could smell his masculine fragrance, a mixture of sweat and male musk and summer sunshine. Jon’s fully hardened cock twitched with a desperate throb of need, and he shivered.
“No.” His voice was a bare whisper, because he could scarcely force the word out past dry lips. “Something isn’t right here. I’m getting sick or something...”
“You said you’d stay.” Cae’s voice sounded hoarse. “You told me I didn’t even have to ask.”
Jon could see what it cost the other man to say that, to admit to such blatant need. “Yeah,” he admitted. “I said that. But something’s going wrong with me. I’m… I’m scared. I’m worried I’m going to wind up… like you.”
Cae reached out and captured his upper arms in his big, powerful hands. His palms were warm and strong against Jon’s bare skin, and Jon almost melted into a puddle at his touch. His knees gave out, and he leaned against the solid chest, feeling the heat of his body even through his clothing, feeling the barely leashed power in the iron muscles, feeling the sexual tension that roiled deep within them both.
God, he wanted Cae, so badly he hurt with the need. His body was one giant throbbing ache of desire.
“Stay,” Cae whispered into his hair. “Please.”
Jon knew alphas rarely said please to anyone, and the stark need in that single word brought tears to his eyes. He rubbed his face against the black t-shirt, brushing the tears away, then looked down at the big hands, holding him fast.
He didn’t want Cae to ever let him go.
“I’ll stay,” he said at last. “On one condition.”
