A week later, Rafe had gotten the whole story out of Berto, who’d come back to the fourteenth to resume his life as if he hadn’t disappeared at all.
Gregory had lied about one more thing, Rafe had found out. Gregory had known all along that Berto planned to come back to the fourteenth just as soon as Berto took care of some trouble that’d been following him around for a few years. Berto and Wicker had cleared out the apartment because they’d moved to a bigger place, just a few days before he’d taken off with his family to the second canton to deal with Dontan once and for all.
“I don’t like that Gregory,” Rafe said to Agg, not long after Berto and his family left Agg’s place.
“Gregory is my Berto,” Agg said. “So I can’t really agree.”
Rafe answered with a soft, “Hmmph.”
“I mean it.” Agg moved to the sofa and plopped down, then reached out, snagged Rafe’s wrist and pulled him down beside him. “Gregory is the closest person I have to a father, unless you count Mother for that too. You can’t hate him forever.”
“I don’t plan to. Just a few more years, and maybe I’ll be able to let go of the fact that he stuck me in cave and left me there for ten years.”
“That was Ilson’s doing, actually. Gregory just kidnapped you.”
“Yeah.” Rafe sat sideways on the long seat and started rubbing his hand over Agg’s chest. “Hows about we skip the lovers’ quarrel tonight and just go right to the fucking?”
Agg’s eyes lit up with the fire that never seemed well hidden. “Really?”
“I’m tired of all the arguing over your damned family. I’d rather just sit on your dick for a while.”
“Can I pull your hair the way Quinn did in that—”
Rafe shoved his fingers into Agg’s hair and shut him up with a kiss. Lips pressed soft and tight together, the taste of tart juice turning the kiss wet and slippery, while Rafe pulled a bit of hair, and Agg’s tongue swirled deep into Rafe’s mouth.
Which made Rafe want to suck on something, so for a few minutes, he did—he sucked on Agg’s not-really-human tongue while Agg fucked his mouth with it.
He squirmed over Agg, his dick aching and hard and his belly tight with desire. He had a feeling Agg was trying to train him for something and he suspected he knew what that was, but he let Agg get away with it anyway.
His asshole clenched, and Rafe took one hand out of Agg’s hair to start unfastening his trousers.
For the first time, Rafe let himself think about what the Yeeru mating might actually mean for him… and he couldn’t say the idea of it bothered him all that much.
What was he really giving up? Rafe was pretty damned sure he would’ve spent the rest of his life with Agg even if Agg hadn’t turned out to be a Yeeru monster in disguise. In the weeks before he’d found out Agg was a monster, he’d used the commcast to discover that oceandogs could live very long lives, much longer than humans. Of course, if Agg had indeed been just an oceandog, they wouldn’t be fucking.
The fucking was definitely a benefit he was happy to have.
But he loved Agg. Maybe he’d loved him for a while already, it had just morphed from something innocent and companionable into this white-hot need he’d developed for the Agg under him.
The same, but different.
Agg slid a hand down the back of Rafe’s trousers, his fingers going straight for the pucker of Rafe’s asshole.
Okay, maybe something really different, but still…
He wanted to spend forever with Agg.
Before he could talk himself out of admitting the truth, he said, “I love you, Agg. I don’t care why it started, I don’t care if it’s just the mating that’s making me feel this way. I love you. You’re my family now. I’m not moving back in with Berto. I saw how worried you looked when he offered.”
Agg’s beautiful blue eyes blinked up at him. “That’s probably for the best. I don’t think we would get along with Raf and Dirk.”
“You assumed you’d be moving back in with him too, if I accepted, didn’t you?”
“Of course. You love me. You wouldn’t just leave me behind, Rafe.”
“Then why the—”
“Because Raf might be your namesake, but he’s the biggest little shit I’ve ever met in my life.” Agg shuddered, caught a whiff of Rafe’s skepticism, and said, “Which mightn’t be all that long, I know what you’re thinking, but I’ve met my fair share of little shits. You haven’t met Harcon’s nest. Or Cole’s. Or—”
“Who the hell are you talking about?”
“My adopted nestlings.” Agg huffed softly and looked at Rafe with more disappointment than Rafe felt he deserved. “Keep up, please. I told you the names of them all yesterday.”
“I was too busy giving you a blow job to pay attention.”
“But—”
“Maybe you should stop talking so much when we have sex. Especially if you’re expecting me to remember any of what you say.”
“If you wouldn’t interrupt me every other time I try to talk to you about these things I wouldn’t have to save it all up for when I’ve got something stuffed in your mouth.”
“Oh,” Rafe growled out. “So that’s how it is.”
Agg reached out and tweaked the end of Rafe’s nose. “Now don’t start that. You know how much you like it when I stuff things in your mouth. That’s why—”
Rafe grabbed Agg’s wrist. “Nose, Agg. Next time.”
“You wouldn’t really punch—”
“Try me.” Rafe smiled, showing a good deal of teeth. “I’ve been trying to tell you from the beginning I’m not all that nice.”
“Fine then.” Agg’s monster shivered free of his human guise in a sudden, swift shift between forms.
Rafe gasped but didn’t have time to even yelp before Agg used his greater strength to flatten Rafe to the floor at the foot of the sofa. Rafe’s breath whooshed out of him, his heart pounding fast, his body held firm to the thick carpet.
Something very not-human slid right down behind Rafe’s half-open fly, circled around his balls, driving a high-pitched whine out of him, and then slid right into Rafe’s asshole without any hesitation at all.
Rafe’s whole body convulsed. He rode the brilliant shocks of pleasure shooting through him by holding his breath every time he had to gasp it in.
Agg fucked him like that, taking his time toying with Rafe, teaching him the lesson that sometimes being “not that nice” was a hell of a way to end up fucked.
Rafe was lying in their bed, temporary though it might be, a few days later when he said, “Having the kid around has really put your maturity level into perspective.”
Soon, Agg and Rafe would start looking for a piece of the fourteenth canton to call their own, a space Agg had had in mind for quite a few years. He thought Rafe would like it, but there was no guarantee. It wouldn’t matter in the end. Agg would go anywhere for Rafe.
But at the moment, Agg had other things on his mind. Such as Horace. Horace had been coming over daily since the trip to the second canton, offering to do odd jobs around the apartment, suggesting that Agg needed help doing whatever it was that he did to have so many zellis that he could pay Horace more than a month’s wages for a three day trip.
“So we should keep him,” Agg said.
Rafe side-eyed Agg. “Now that’s a joke.”
When Agg just kept looking at Rafe, Rafe waved his hand in the air. “He has a sister, a family. You can’t just keep him.”
“I’m not talking about stealing him away.” Agg turned onto his side to face Rafe. “Regular work builds character. Running off with people he doesn’t know to the second canton isn’t safe. What if he does something like that again with people who aren’t as safe as we are?”
Rafe raised his eyebrows at that.
“He needs a steady job,” Agg continued. “I have just the thing.”
“Holy hell.” Rafe let out an explosive breath. “He has a crush on you—and you like it.”
“Pfft,” Agg said, sniffing at the end. “He needs a mentor.”
“You’re probably not any older than him in monster years!”
Agg pursed his lips. “Were you always this insulting? I really don’t remember you being this way before Ilson put you to sleep.”
“Maybe I don’t like the idea of my—my—my lover keeping a fella around who so clearly—yes, he does, and by all holy hell don’t you try to deny it—who so clearly wants to replace me.”
Agg curved his hand around the back of Rafe’s neck, drawing him close. His thumb caressed the line of Rafe’s hard jaw. Several days growth of beard tickled his skin. “No one can ever replace you, my lovely Rafe.”
“He wants to.”
“And even if he did, he’s hardly old enough to be off his mother’s tit. I like a man with a few lines on his face. Older. Experienced.” Agg smiled. “Just like you.”
Rafe blinked, before his nostrils flared wide. “You shit,” he said, sitting upright. “I’m not a wrinkled old man. I’m decades away from middle age.”
Agg rose up on his elbows. “You’re definitely older. You keep reminding me of that fact.”
“Because it’s true, you damned monster.”
“You named me after a god. Damned hardly seems likely.”
“Now who’s being insulting, huh?”
Agg pushed himself upright. “It doesn’t seem necessary for you to damn me every time you get a little worked up about something. Mother says—”
“Oh for the love of—” Rafe crawled over Agg, lunging forward to cover his mouth with a hard kiss.
The kiss lasted a good long while.
Agg had discovered he quite liked the ways Rafe tried to shut him up when he mentioned Mother.
He probably mentioned Mother more often than was strictly necessary.
Agg enjoyed the way Rafe pulled at Agg’s bottom lip with his teeth.
Who was he kidding? Of course he did. He had good reason to.
When they broke apart, Agg said, “So, I already told him he had a job. He’ll be back in the morning with his things.”
“What?” Rafe said, his voice high and tight.
“He wants to be available when we need him.”
“He’s not moving in with us!”
“But there’s plenty of extra room here.”
Rafe narrowed his eyes, his gaze turned inward in apparent thought. “That little shit. I know exactly what he’s planning, too. First it’ll be—”
Agg dragged Rafe back into his embrace and started kissing him again.
Kissing was fun.
He knew something that would be much funner.
“Funner’s not a word.”
“Funner is a good word,” Agg said. “Trust me when I say that because Mother taught me everything she knows about human language.”
Rafe reared back, eyeing Agg with concern. “Why do I feel like I just missed something important?”
“Because you probably did. The mating’s tricky like that.”
“Hmmph.” Rafe continued to stare at him for a moment, then shook his head. “Forget it. We’ve got funner stuff to do.”
A while later, after plenty of soft, warm kissing, and a few rough touches, Agg said against Rafe’s hot mouth, “So, about my iltereida…”
Rafe bit the edge of Agg’s lip, and Agg thought Rafe was going to ignore him until… “Agg?”
“Yes?” Eager, quick.
“I saw the straps you bought at Thrifty Threads.”
“Um. Those were an accidental purchase. I’m not sure how they ended up in my bundle.”
Rafe scoffed and pulled away from Agg. He dropped down and sprawled out on the bed. “Too bad. I was just about to tell you to strap me down with ’em.”
Agg’s reaction was so intense that his monster shivered free of his human guise.
“Whoa! I said strap me down first, pal, because I have no idea how I’m going to react when you stick that thing down my throat!”
“You’re going to love it, my lovely Rafe, I promise.”
“Nothing crazy, though, right? No, uh, nest involved, because I’m really not…”
A giggle escaped Agg’s mouth before he could stop it. He coughed quickly to cover it. “Plant a nest with an iltereida? That’d be like fertilizing an egg with your finger, Rafe. Impossible.”
“Oh, okay. That’s good then.”
“Of course, I could put my hielireidi in your ass at the same time and—”
“Nope! Don’t think so. We’re good.” Rafe wiped his hands across his hot face, then looked up at Agg. “One thing at a time, pal.”
“I’m so glad you finally realized how much you love me.”
“Yeah, me too. Now about that kid…”
“That argument’s dead, you lovely thing.”
Rafe scowled.
Agg started to flick Rafe’s nose, noticed Rafe’s deadly glare, and changed direction. He dragged his thumb along Rafe’s bottom lip instead. “I can’t wait to try this out. Apparently there’s a chemical reaction that starts in your stomach with the slime—”
A wary look twisted across Rafe’s face.
Maybe mentioning the slime hadn’t been a good idea.
Agg tried again, waving away his last words. “When it paralyzes your—”
Rafe put his hand out. “Can I change my mind?”
Agg pursed his lips. Maybe explaining it was the problem. He should just let Rafe discover the pleasures of the iltereida for himself. “Don’t worry if it sounds weird. If it was just ordinary sex, what would be the point of calling it monster sex?”
“Okay, okay. Just… go easy on me.”
Agg took his time strapping Rafe to the bed. By the time he was done, Rafe couldn’t move his arms or legs more than the width of a hand in any direction.
“I’m thinking this was a bad idea.”
“Really?” Agg asked.
“I keep remembering what happened three days ago.”
“Do you now?”
“When you showed me just how not nice you could be.”
“Wasn’t that fantastic?”
Agg reverted to his natural form.
“Hey! Hey, hey, hey,” Rafe said. “Okay, there it comes, I—”
Agg cut off Rafe’s words abruptly when he thrust his iltereida between Rafe’s lips and into his throat without any hesitation. Rafe’s eyes widened, his face going hot.
Agg screeched, then dove deep.
Several hours later, Agg had his cock buried in Rafe’s ass and his hands clenched on Rafe’s hips, when Rafe said from above him, panting, “Maybe you should put that thing in my mouth again while you’re fucking me.”
Just the thought was enough to make Agg lose control over his human form.
Agg snapped back into himself and thrust deep, lifting Rafe, and then immediately let his monster free again, taking advantage of Rafe’s parted lips.
Rafe blinked at Agg when Agg didn’t push himself into Rafe’s throat. A soft feeling radiated outward from Rafe.
Warmth unfurled in Agg’s belly.
“I love you, too,” Agg sang in the Yeeru language, looking up into Rafe’s widening eyes.
Rafe tentatively licked Agg’s Yeeru flesh.
Agg shrieked, and the moment he managed to get hold of his human guise and reassert his control over it, he came.
Rafe jerked himself off with desperate strokes until he shot semen all over Agg.
In the end, both of them fell onto the bed, exhausted.
“If this is my future, I’m not fighting it,” Rafe said. “I’m too damned tired.”
“Tired’s okay,” Agg said. “Mother says older humans don’t have as much stamina as—”
“If you finish that sentence—”
“You know, you repeat yourself an awful lot. I’m definitely going to have Ilson take another look at your brain.”
“Agg?”
“Yes?”
“If it’ll make you feel better, we can go see Ilson, but you should know, I’m probably going to ask him if it’s normal for you to want to lick everything you can get your tongue on. And about you shifting out of your human form while you’re asleep.”
Agg was quiet for a moment. “Maybe visiting Ilson can wait.”
“Indefinitely, huh?”
Agg put his arm over Rafe’s chest and wriggled close. “Indefinitely sounds about right.”
Rafe patted Agg’s arm. “Go to sleep.”
“I’ll do that.”
“And don’t start licking my dick again like you did last night.”
“It was an accident. I was dreaming about cleaning my paws. I don’t know how my tongue ended up on your dick.”
“Sure,” Rafe said.
Agg settled in tight to Rafe, tucking his head in against Rafe’s neck, and laughed softly.
Rafe curled his arm tight around Agg. They might not be the same species, but they were lovers, and mates, and yes, they definitely had a future.
What was a little slobber on his dick compared to that?
Here ends Of Monsters and Love. Would you like to read more stories of the New Canton Republic? Check out the first four books in the series if you haven’t already, or let me know that you’d like more! odessa@odessalynne.com
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