by Odessa Lynne
Five spread his arms on the bed. Heavy veins cut across his biceps and down his forearms. Dark hair grew at his underarms and across his muscled chest and tapered down to a thin line before reaching his groin.
Five’s belly trembled when Mason flattened his hand there, and a deep rumble started in Five’s chest.
Mason felt his way across the peaks of Five’s dark nipples and fluffed the hair under his palm.
“You sure as hell have plenty of muscle,” Mason said. He leaned down on his arm and dropped a kiss on Five’s collar.
Five sucked in his breath.
“For somebody who can’t get it up, you sure do act like you’re getting wound up.”
“My body would discover… a way around the damage to my…ahhhh…”
Five breathed out in a rush as Mason kissed his way down toward Five’s cock.
“Go on,” Mason said against Five’s belly. He could taste more sweat now and feel the heat flushing Five’s skin.
“I would heal quickly if the… device… wasn’t continually severing the…”
Mason raised his head, a sudden flicker of concern unsettling him. “What do you mean, severing?”
Five let out a shaky breath and curled his hands into fists. “The device has to allow me to partially heal each time so that it can perform the dissection needed to—”
Mason sat back on his heels. “Goddammit.”
“Don’t stop what you were doing.”
“I can’t do that knowing you’re being tortured.” Mason raked his hair back from his forehead with his hands and stared down at Five. “This is fucked up.”
“I’m not being tortured. I barely feel it when the dissection occurs. It’s a twinge of pain so minor—”
But at just that moment, Five took in a halting breath and tensed, and Mason knew—knew in the way he’d known Five was lying to him seconds before—that the pain of dissection might be fleeting, but it was a goddamned fiery stab of pain the moment it occurred.
The tension pulling Five’s muscles taut eased.
“We’ll spend the rest of our days together,” Five said, “and you’ll have plenty of time to learn these things. The den we’ll share will have access to many of the medical texts related to devices such as this.”
“Let’s not get carried away here. I’m just getting used to the idea of being mated. Now you want to move in together.”
Five gave Mason a steady look. “You will stay.”
“I damn well might, you arrogant bastard, but right now, let’s not talk about that. Just get that thing out of you.”
“If you insist.”
Mason gritted his teeth and glared at Five.
Five reached down and released two strips of material in a deft move, pulled one leg up, and then yanked. His back bowed as he sucked in a harsh gasp.
He flung the device across the room. The device banged hard against the window, startling a jump out of Mason.
Mason watched it fall to the floor, eyes wide. The needle-like projections sticking out of the base of the thing were as long as his fingers.
His gaze stuttered its way back to Five.
Five was breathing heavily, staring up at the ceiling.
“Prepare yourself with the lubricant. Hurry. I’ll heal quickly without the repression drugs to interfere. I should have waited.” Five’s back bowed again and a low whine came out of his chest.
Mason scrambled off the bed, already looking around. The only table in the room was clear and the low dresser near the door was an empty surface. “I don’t see any goddamn lube. Where is it?”
Five raised his head. His eyes had gone dark and shiny and he was breathing fast and shallow. “Under the bed. There are drawers.”
Mason bent and felt around on the smooth wood. A drawer slid out. He found several jars of lube.
“Got—”
Two hundred pounds of roaring wolf knocked him on his ass.
Chapter 40
Mason had never unscrewed a jar so fast in his life as he did that jar of lube. And then he almost let it fall right out of his hand as Five picked him up bodily and spread him out on the bed on his stomach. He clutched at the jar, but he was too busy trying to move into the motion of the bed as Five hauled him onto his knees and dragged Mason’s jeans right off his ass.
Five’s hard cock slid along the crease of Mason’s ass and he was just about to panic when Five stilled behind him.
The bed jostled and Mason hurried to get as big a glob of lube onto his fingers as he could.
Then smeared it all over the quilt as a hot mouth closed over his asshole.
“Oh fuck,” he said.
He spent the next several minutes gasping, trying the entire time to stay focused enough to get another glob of lube onto his fingers so he would be ready when Five—
He barely made it. He felt the glide of hot skin and thick cock against the backside of his fingers as he smeared lube all over his hole and then the hard push of thick cock stretching out his asshole well before he was ready.
“Uunnhhh…” he said, breathing hard through his teeth.
His forehead and knees dug into the bed and his thighs trembled as Five slid deep.
The hot pleasure of the stretch and the fullness of having that cock inside him reminded him of just how much he’d liked this the last time. Everything felt at least as good as he remembered, if not better.
Five thrust forward.
Mason groaned.
Better. It was so goddamn much better. Maybe in part because he could have sworn he felt a little spark of something coming from Five every time he buried himself in Mason’s ass.
Mason’s cock hardened a little more with every thrust and soon he was gasping almost as fast as Five. He dug his toes into the bed and tried to gain some leverage so he could stop sliding up the bed. He grabbed for one of the few remaining pillows on the bed, wrapped his arm around it, and wedged it under him, then grabbed a handful of quilt in the other.
If he didn’t, he was going to take his dick in hand and jerk off way too early.
He held out for a while. He wasn’t sure how long.
Long enough for Five to come in his ass and then on his ass and then in his ass again. He had alien semen dripping down the backs of his thighs and drying behind his knees, and Five didn’t seem to be anywhere near finishing.
Mason had just started sliding his lubed hand along his dick when Five roared.
“Mine,” Five said, then pulled out of Mason’s ass and flipped Mason onto his back.
Mason didn’t even have time to catch his breath. Five jostled his way between Mason’s thighs, pushing them toward Mason’s chest, and thrust his cock right back inside Mason’s ass.
The air jolted out of Mason’s lungs. Five curled over Mason, dragging his nose up under Mason’s arm, and with back curled and arms straining, he started fucking Mason again.
Mason smoothed Five’s hair off his forehead, breath hitching every time Five fucked into him.
“You’re beautiful like this,” Mason said, not sure Five would even understand him. Five was consumed by his heat, and his rutting had a frantic quality to it that touched at Mason’s soul.
He didn’t know how he knew what Five wanted—maybe it was the bond, maybe intuition—but instead of reaching for his own dick again, he put his arm around Five and held on to the nape of Five’s neck, letting his fingers dig in against Five’s skull.
Five made a soft sound and after a few moments passed, his thrusts lost that frantic quality, and he started to calm down.
Before Mason could decide if he was going to reach for his dick again, Five pushed up on one arm and reached for Mason.
Mason’s eyes fell closed as Five’s warm hand pulled at his dick. He came within moments, the shivery rush of release dragging a long, low groan out of him.
Later, he was staring across the room and trying to decide if taking a piss was worth the effort of climbing off the warm bed—and out of Five’s warm embrace
—when Five stirred from the heavy sleep he’d fallen into long after Mason came.
“I’m going to stay,” Mason said, before Five could say anything. “But if you say I told you so, swear to God, I’m never letting you fuck me again.”
Five just sniffed along Mason’s back and said, “I’ve never doubted you would come to realize the benefits of being my mate.”
“Goddamn you.”
Chapter 41
Mason stiffened his back as Five looked down at the table’s top. He tilted his head, studying the small marks Mason’s thumbnails had left behind the day before.
“I didn’t mean to do it,” Mason said. “You think it’ll matter? Or should I—”
Five clawed five long scratches into the wood.
Mason was so shocked he couldn’t move for a good three seconds. “I—that’s just—goddammit, Five.”
“You were upset. Now there’s no reason for you to feel responsible for scarring the table.”
“So this was you trying to make me feel better.”
Mason felt a slight increase in pressure in his chest, lasting only a fraction of a second.
Five’s expression turned wary. “You don’t feel better.”
“No, I fucking do not.”
Five sighed and glanced down at his claws. “Impulsive behavior is one of my weaknesses. I’ll work harder to correct it.”
Mason eyed him for a moment, then finished pulling out the chair he’d started to pull out earlier before giving in to the almost compulsive desire to make his guilty confession about the marks on the table. He sat and pointed at the chair sitting closest to his. “Sit. I haven’t eaten in I don’t know how long and I want food.”
The table was piled high with fresh rolls and hot stew, and even though it was early morning, Mason’s stomach was already grumbling.
Five fed him while Mason asked questions. He learned that Gray and Francis had, in fact, been locked up, but it had been temporary because Gray had developed a resistance to the repression drugs and needed to mate to calm his heat and Francis had been set on returning to the last known location of the human they’d come across during their side mission and had to be held back.
He also learned that some humans might have escaped the area of the laboratory, but the wolves were making every effort to track down anyone who could have had contact with the people responsible for the deadly virus.
However, the rogue wolves and their humans were gone. The wolf who’d attacked Mason had already been dead when help arrived. But two had escaped the ambush by Cecily’s people and left the area. Only one wolf had remained behind, and he would have to face the First Alpha.
“He’ll die then,” Mason said. “All those wolves were part of the group trying to overthrow the First Alpha—those that Brendan tried to make that deal with three years ago, right?”
“They are rogues, yes. But he will choose to submit and swear fealty to Traesikeille.”
“Why are you so sure?”
“He is the third from Traesikeille’s third, if I’m not mistaken. Without his alpha to interfere, he will submit.”
“I have no idea what that means.”
“They are kin.”
“Related?”
“He is one of Trey’s many children.”
“Oh.”
After that, the conversation changed direction for a little while, and Mason learned everything he’d wanted to know about what had happened after he’d been knocked out on the stairs.
But he still had one question related to the rogues and it came back to him as he was watching Five tear small pieces off the last half of one of the last rolls.
“Those rogue wolves mentioned a prophecy. Do you know anything about that?”
Five stopped what he was doing and watched Mason with curiously bright eyes. “The prophecy saved us from extinction and gave us purpose.”
“Ah. A religion then. I’ve always wondered.”
Five laid the roll aside. “It is not a religion. I don’t expect you to understand, but we found Earth because of the prophecy. Without it, we would never have asked you to share your world with us. The Diviners try to interpret and explain the prophecy, but it is complicated. We all have our part to play. You brought us your former alpha—”
“The hell I did. And I don’t have a former alpha. We talked about that.”
“Then your former friend.”
“Wasn’t really my friend, either,” Mason grumbled.
Five picked up one of the pieces of roll and dipped it into the remaining stew, then offered the bite to Mason. “Irrelevant. The point is that the prophecy predicted you would bring him to us, and it predicts he will bring peace. His son—”
“Whoa the fuck down. First, if I know anything about Brendan Greer, it’s that he isn’t the kind of guy who has kids. Second, how am I responsible for bringing him to you?”
“Alpha Craeigoer said you and your brother were questioned after you were brought into the den. The information you gave his pack helped them find his mate and Brendan Greer more quickly after they were lost.”
“I don’t remember anything like that.”
Five’s pause seemed overly long. “Interesting.”
Suspicious now, Mason sat back and crossed his arms. “Why is that interesting?”
“You would have been drugged. There’s no reason for you not to remember. But I’m certain it happened, unless…”
“Marcus told them he was me when he went off with that wolf. He let them question him twice, trying to protect me. Goddammit.” But then Mason frowned. “The timing on that wouldn’t have been right, would it? When did they bring in Brendan?”
“Irrelevant.”
“It’s not irrelevant.”
“It is irrelevant, because it’s unlikely he could impersonate you while being questioned under the influence of the drugs.”
“So why don’t I remember this then?”
“There are drugs that erase memories.”
Mason’s breath stuttered in his chest. “Why would someone use those drugs on me?”
“I don’t know. It’s unlikely.” Five scooped another piece of bread through the hearty stew and offered it to Mason. “Eat.”
Mason lowered his arms but didn’t take the bite. “I’m pretty damn uncomfortable with the idea that something happened to me that I can’t remember.”
“Eat,” Five said again.
“Would you not want to know? How would you feel if you couldn’t remember something that might be important to you?”
“I don’t remember much of what happened to me after the death of my heat mate during the last heat season. I’ve accepted that I will not remember. Whatever happened is in the past. Do you believe it’s really necessary to know this now?”
“I don’t know. How can I know if I don’t know what happened?”
“How can you assume it’s something you should know if you don’t know what it was?”
“Now you’re just being a difficult asshole.” Mason stared stubbornly at Five, who stared right back.
Five pressed the stew-soaked bread to Mason’s lips. Mason finally gave in and took the bite.
“You suggested Brendan Greer isn’t the type of man to have children. But you are wrong. He will have a child. The prophecy isn’t clear how that will happen. We have many people who would be willing to act as a surrogate for him and Traesikeille. No one can overlook the fact that the universe sent a human doctor to us even before First Alpha had claimed his mate.”
“Alan?” Mason said around his mouthful. “He’s just a guy who was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Coincidence. He’s not even a real doctor—I mean, he is, but he didn’t finish, so he’s really not. In case that matters.”
“The prophecy doesn’t care about technicalities.” Said as if Mason were really trying his patience.
Mason swallowed his food, then grinned. “Hey, you’re the one who thought I’d make a good mate.”
“You keep say
ing that as if you’re hoping I’ll change my mind. I will not.”
Mason laughed.
After another few bites, he said, “So about this kid…”
“We’ve discussed the prophecy enough for now. We have a mission to discuss.”
A spark of interest shot through Mason. “Another mission?”
“We’ll search for any indication that people might have returned to the lab since we collected the dead and cleared it of the virus. Nothing more.”
“It’s still a mission.”
The corner of Five’s mouth turned up. “It is.”
Meaning clearly that it was probably just something Five had come up with to distract Mason, but Mason let that pass. “Do I get a weapon this time?”
“I will be your weapon.”
Mason snorted. Then—
“You’re not kidding. Goddammit, Five!”
“The heat season hasn’t ended.”
“How much you want to bet we spend as much time fighting as we spend fucking?”
Five leaned forward and touched Mason’s cheek with the tip of his finger, so gentle. “I am your life, and you are mine. The anger I felt when I first realized who you were, what you were… it is gone. The scars of your past, like the scars on this table, make you what you are today, just as they’ve made me what I am. We’ll find joy in this mating. I do not doubt that at all. Do you?”
Mason swallowed, feeling caught in a storm by Five’s ocean-deep gaze. “We’ll probably do okay.”
A predatory smile exposed a flash of sharp eyeteeth. “If that’s the way you express all your great affections, it’s little wonder you’ve had so few mates.”
“Great affections? You’re such a goddamned arrogant bastard.”
“Yet you do not see it as a weakness.”
“There’s this old saying about fast cars and faster women. Swap out difficult for fast and you pretty much know everything about me you’ll ever need to know.”
Five studied him with narrowed eyes. “I cannot decide if I’ve been insulted or complimented.”
