by Tl Reeve
A rush he couldn’t explain, filled him. The tingle of his impending orgasm raced down his spine and settled in his balls. He sucked air the second he started coming then bit down. The electric connection he’d felt when he first touched Gabriel, pulsed between them. It locked into place, and it felt as though a whole new part of himself he hadn’t realized was there, opened up.
“Coming.” Gabriel groaned.
The splat of his release hitting the wall, drew Rafe’s attention. Satisfaction and pride welled within him. While he watched Gabriel, the base of his dick twitched, and he pumped more cum into his lover. He’d never experienced that before, either. With each shift of Gabriel’s hips, he throbbed. What the fuck.
“Go with it.” Gabriel panted. “Feels good.”
Rafe opened his mouth, letting go of Gabriel’s neck. Seeing the mark, he’d placed there, grabbed him by the gut. Arousal spiked within him again. “What the hell is this?”
“I don’t think this is a conversation you want to have with your dick still unloading in my ass.”
True. “How long?”
Gabriel shrugged. “Not sure.”
“I just rode your ass hard, and I’m ready to fuck you again.” Not that he didn’t have stamina. He’d figured it out long ago. His wolf could keep him in peak condition for as long as he needed, but this was different. More intense. Almost as if his wolf took over and wouldn’t let go.
His mate laughed. His ass clamped down on Rafe’s dick, causing him to let loose with another jet of cum. “Damn.”
“Wolf stamina,” Gabriel said. “This is nothing. Wait until the full moon.”
Rafe caught himself as he began to pump his hips, because some instinct told him to continue. He needed Gabriel again. Needed to rut and fuck. Needed to empty his balls inside Gabriel. He didn’t want to stop until neither could move. He glanced down the empty hall and cursed himself. What the hell was he doing? They could both get caught. Then what?
Reluctantly, he pulled from Gabriel. His dick was covered in cum as it continued to jerk and dribble out the remains of his release as he stood there. Gabriel, on the other hand, gave a couple of rough strokes of his cock and groaned. Shocked by the display, Rafe stood there while Gabriel came for a second time.
“Do it,” he stated. “It’ll help, marginally.”
Rafe did as he said. It didn’t even take two strokes and he was coming again. It was as if he hadn’t spent himself in the wolf seconds before. However, what Gabriel said was true. He did feel better and not so out of control. “Thank you.”
Gabriel flipped their position and pinned Rafe to the wall, surprising the shit out of him. “Don’t think I always bottom.” He licked Rafe’s neck. “Next time, your ass is mine.” He pulled his pants up and smirked. “You did good. That mark’s not going anywhere for a long time.”
Before he could answer his mate, Gabriel strode away, leaving Rafe to stare at his retreating form. “What the hell just happened?”
Chapter Ten
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
Gabriel wanted to kick his own ass. How could he allow himself to-to be fucked out in the open? Why had he done it? One minute, all he wanted to do was get away from Rafe and the next he couldn’t get enough of the man. And, why the fuck did he bite Rafe’s lip? Had he been that pissed off? Hell, the last time he bit anyone, he’d been a kid, and his father laid into his ass for biting someone smaller than him. For weeks, he’d carried around the guilt of doing such and worried he’d disappointed his father to the point, Jase wouldn’t love him anymore.
Some days it sucked being a Raferty.
He rubbed his neck and groaned. The mark Rafe left behind was deep and ached something fierce. Gabriel hadn’t been kidding when he said the bite wouldn’t go away any time soon. It was permanent. Now, every time they had sex—if they did it again—Rafe would reclaim him. The thought thrilled Gabriel and also twisted his gut. Rafe didn’t understand what was happening between them. The man didn’t understand the significance of what he’d done.
Gabriel took Rafe’s ability to choose just like PBH had done as well.
As he headed back inside, he growled, pissed off more at himself than anything else. He let his urges dictate what he wanted, not what was best. Nothing good ever came from shit like that. Nothing. He hit the button on the elevator and waited for the car to descend. He needed a shower. Getting Rafe’s smell off of him was priority number one. Then he’d go back to work. As it was, he had a lead.
Maybe.
The secondary lab in Peabody was fully operational. If he could get over there and maybe track where they were shipping Éviel to, maybe they could figure out who was behind killing Aurin, Bain, Lyle, Felicia, Blake, and the children. If they were lucky, they might also find the missing teen. When the doors slid open, Gabriel took a step back. Inside the waiting car, were Midnight and Adrian. He lowered his gaze instinctively and mumbled something about getting back to work as the two men exited.
“You’re a little high-strung today,” Midnight said. “Trying to work out the excess energy?”
Shock filled him. Had they seen the mark? Fuck! Why did I have to tell him to bite me? “Uh, sure. Went for a walk.”
Adrian smirked. “How’d it go?”
“Shitty. My brain is still a jumbled up mess. But I think I have a plan.” He stepped into the waiting elevator. “Where are you off to?”
Midnight cut his gaze to Adrian. “Food run.”
“Oh. I’m starved. Guess I’m glad you’re going to get something.” He gave a half-hearted chuckle and scrubbed the back of his neck.
“Yeah. Something like that.” Again, Midnight glanced at Adrian.
The icy tendrils of paranoia gripped his stomach turning it to a block of ice. “Great.” He hit the button for the fifth floor and tried to play it cool. “See you when you get back.”
The doors started to slide shut, and Gabriel let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. They knew. No way they couldn’t know. The mark was clearly visible. Midnight or Adrian would call Kalkin. Then he’d call Gabriel. Pretty soon his whole family would know and then— What?
Gabriel didn’t know.
He should probably talk to Blake. If his hunch was correct, Adrian was on the phone now with Kalkin spilling all the gory details of his sordid mating with a fallen angel/wolf. Gabriel raked his fingers through his hair and grumbled to himself as the car reached his floor and the doors slid open.
What would he say, though? Hey, dad, could you explain what you do to Jase to make him calm down? Does he still cry? Like, how did he insert himself into the most intimate of moments between his parents, just so he could understand Rafe? Better yet, how did he explain taking the choice of mating him, away from Rafe, to his parents?
He slipped his key card into the door at the same moment his phone began to ring. Instead of entering the room, he slipped his phone from his pocket and stared at the screen. Blake. Either he has ESP or, he’d been correct in his assumptions. Gabriel slid his finger across the screen to answer the call. If he didn’t, Blake would jump the next plane to find out why Gabriel didn’t answer him, and that wasn’t an exaggeration.
“Hey, Dad,” Gabriel answered, strolling down the hall to a secluded space.
“I have waited for you to call, and you haven’t,” Blake pouted. “Danielle told me everything.”
Gabriel blew out a sigh of relief. Of course, Danielle would. “Yeah, kind of been busy here. Solving a murder and all.”
“I know, I know.” Gabriel could practically see Blake rolling his eyes. “She said you might have found your mate, and you’re worried about him.” The soft, prodding way Blake opened the conversation between them had always been his way. He was the unassuming father. The doting dad who went against everything Loraine and Jase did. He was also the one Gabriel could go to and talk about stuff.
“I don’t even know how to talk about this.”
“Start from the beginning, silly. I have all
the time in the world for my favorite blue-eyed wolf,” Blake assured him.
“I thought Jase was your favorite blue-eyed wolf,” Gabriel teased.
“You both are,” Blake answered. “But, you and Natalie will always be my babies.”
The warmth of his dad’s love filled him, easing some of the worry and strain he’d been piling onto himself. “Thanks, Dad.”
“Of course. So, start from the beginning. What is his name and how did you meet?”
“His name is Rafe, he’s the leader of the team we met here, and he’s a fallen angel,” Gabriel said.
“Oooo,” Blake gushed. “Sounds de-lish. Go on. Tell me more.”
Like with Danielle, Gabriel gave his dad the run down on everything that had happened since they’d arrived. He even told Blake about Éviel and Rafe being drugged. The guilt ate at his gut. He’d done the one thing he never thought he’d do. Take advantage of someone at their weakest moment. Sure, Rafe had been the aggressor, but it didn’t make it right. “I fucked up so bad. I’m not sure how to fix this.”
Blake gave a soft, tinkling laugh. “You are still my strong, sensitive boy. You find all the sparrows with broken wings and want to fix them. Some can be and others, not so much. Rafe is your mate, son. What happened to him before meeting him, is not your fault, and it’s not his fault. What comes now, is for both of you to decide, and from what you’re telling me, he is willing and able.”
“I told him to bite me. Shouldn’t he have done it because he wanted to?”
Blake sighed. “Mates have no out of bounds when it comes to sex. You can’t force someone to bite you.”
“Not necessarily.” Gabriel frowned. “There have been cases.”
“True,” Blake hedged. “Let’s see if I can put this another way. Who made the first move? Who initiated the sex?”
Gabriel already understood what his dad was getting at. “Blake, I—”
“Answer the question, Gabriel.” Blake’s stern tone, surprised Gabriel.
“Rafe did.”
“There you go,” his dad answered. “If Rafe didn’t want to, he wouldn’t have. You, as so many before you, cried out in ecstasy, yearning for the mark to bind you together with your mate. In fact, it was more the wolf than the human who demanded it.”
“He’s been drugged, though,” Gabriel whispered.
“Well, then you’re on your way to a very creative life with a man who will question everything, fuck uncontrollably, and will love you with such a single-minded focus it’ll become suffocating sometimes.” His dad’s tone became a bit retrospective. “It won’t be easy, but nothing in this world is.”
“How? God, I can’t believe I am asking my dad this.” He frowned. “How do you calm father down?”
Blake laughed. “Oh, my dear, sweet, innocent boy. There are so many debauched ways I handle your father.” He made a bawdy sound in the back of his throat. “Toys are excellent tools to help relieve your father, especially the ones I can use on his prostate and—”
Gabriel closed his eyes and whimpered. “Okay, okay I think I understand. I don’t need instructions.”
“But, we were getting to the best part,” Blake pouted. “I guess bonding time is over. For shame.”
“I love you, Dad, but not enough to hear about your sexual exploits with father.” Gabriel chuckled.
“Oh, all right then,” Blake murmured. “Do you feel better now?”
Actually, he did. “Yeah. Thanks, Dad.”
“It’s what I’m here for. Tell your sister to call me. I miss my little boopsey,” Blake cooed.
He laughed. “I’ll tell her when I see her.”
“You haven’t seen her?”
“Oh, I have. Before you ask,” Gabriel added, “she’s fine. A little boy crazy is all.”
“Aren’t we all?” Blake gave a devilish chuckle. “A man in a fitted pair of jeans or your father’s uniform.” His dad groaned. “Amirite?”
“I gotta go now.” Gabriel clenched his fist at his side as embarrassment washed over him. “I’ll have her call you.”
“Toodles, Gabie-Wabie.”
Oh, God. Why me? He hit end on his phone and trudged back to his room. By now, Haley had to be getting bored. When he stepped into the room he found Natalie instead, on the floor with Halo, as the little girl batted at the small dangling soft toys attached to the play pad. He didn’t say anything to her. He couldn’t. Not yet. Not until he washed the smell of Rafe off of him.
When he emerged from the bathroom, Halo laid in her basinet sleeping once more. Natalie, on the other hand, sat on the couch, a small cup of tea in her hands. If she noticed his mark when he came in, she didn’t seem poised to talk about it. After their argument, he didn’t think she’d want to talk to him, anyway, or care either way. Regret filled him. He’d yelled at his sister because he couldn’t deal. He directed all of his guilt and fear and misplaced disgust in himself, at her and none of it was her fault.
“Hey,” he said. “I-I think I owe you an apology. Big time.”
She arched a brow. “Before or after you tell me about the mark on your neck.”
He frowned. “It just happened.”
“I bet.” She took a sip of her tea. “You’re a mate now. Does it feel any different than before?”
He shook his head as he sat down beside her. “I feel worse.”
“Why?” Her features twisted in a curious look. “Did you force him, or did he force you?”
“No,” he answered. “Never. Neither of us forced the other. It’s a bit...”
“Complicated.” She sighed. “It always is with you.”
“Hey now, I—”
“It’s okay, big brother. I understand. You’re forgiven. I should also apologize. I acted out of turn. I embarrassed you.” She snorted. “I embarrassed myself. I don’t know what’s come over me.”
“Like Blake said, we’ve met our mates. Shit happens.” Okay, so their dad didn’t exactly say it that way. “He wants you to call. He said he misses his boopsey.”
“Oh, my God. He didn’t.” She groaned. “When will we outgrow these stupid pet names?”
“I’m thinking never.” Gabriel chuckled. “Are we good now?”
Natalie nodded. “We’re good.”
“Great, then let’s get back to the case. I have an idea.” He grabbed his laptop and the document containing the information for the lab in Peabody. “Have you seen these yet?”
“No.” She took the paperwork from him as he opened his laptop. “What is it?”
“I don’t think it’s a full-on lab. I think it’s more a distribution hub.” He pulled the surveillance photos up on his computer. “See, at these times, several trucks leave the facility, and by morning, they return. I think the burnt-out warehouse is where they did the experimenting.”
Natalie drew her bottom lip between her teeth while she studied the information. “What’s your plan? What do you want to do?”
“I want to follow one of the trucks. See where it goes and then take down the seller. If we can do that, maybe we can figure out what happened,” he replied.
“When?”
“Tonight.” He pointed to the schedule form she’d been looking at. “If this is correct, then they send out six trucks every other night. Tonight is the night they’ll send out another shipment.”
Natalie glanced up at him. “What if it goes out of state?”
Gabriel shook his head. “I don’t think it all does. I think some do. However, two of the loads are local. My guess—within a hundred mile radius.”
“How will we know which is which?”
It was a crap shoot. The whole operation could send them ass over tits. However, if they didn’t do something, they’d never figure out what happened to their friends. As it was, finding their killer might be slim and none so, Gabriel was determined to at least shut down this fucked-up operation. “We won’t. We’ll have to stick with one and ride it out.”
“We should have backup.”
“You want Rafe and—”
“Shax,” he said.
“To go?” Disbelief filled her words. “I thought you hated him.”
Gabriel dropped his head. “I’m a fucking moron, okay? I’m messing everything up.”
“Go on...”
Gabriel wrinkled his nose. “You should be happy, too. If that ugly bastard is the one, so be it.”
“Wow, that must have hurt,” she teased.
“Shut up.” He playfully shoved his sister. “Anyway, I’ve been thinking and projecting. I should’ve supported you.”
She grinned. “Thank you. He is very nice when you get to know him. You just have to give him a chance.”
“Yeah, maybe.” He gathered up his things. “Speaking of which, we should head over to their room and explain our plan.”
“Right.” Natalie finished her tea then went to the basinet. “Who are we leaving this little one with? We, obviously, can’t take her with us.”
“Midnight and Leora?” Gabriel glanced at his sister. “I think Adrian and Haley will want to be in the thick of this mission as will Lix, Caim, and Raum.”
“Agreed.” She lifted Halo to her shoulder while he grabbed the sling. “We’re not going home when this is over are we?”
Her question surprised him. The last time he talked about sticking around, it’d been him and Rafe outside the morgue. “No. I want to see this through. I want to help solve the other murders and find the mole. What about you?”
“The same. I was afraid you’d leave me, though.” A single tear rolled down her cheek. “I-I thought you’d forsake your mate and go home.”
Gabriel wrapped her in a tight hug. “Never. I’d never leave you. You’re my twin. My wombmate. You’re my everything and then some. I hate the idea of ever being apart from you.”
She nuzzled his chest and sniffled. “Same here. I hate when we fight.”
“Me, too.”
