It took longer than planned to buy food and drink for the next few days and Sean wanted to get back. He didn’t like leaving Kayley behind with Luke. In the odd moments the man let down his guard, Sean could see Luke barely held it together. He truly realized, for the first time, what it must have cost for Luke to hold back and take his time when he wanted Sean as his mate. Sean now witnessed the ferocity of Luke’s need to claim Kayley as his, alongside the ruthless way he stamped it down, which only increased his love and respect for his mate, but also deepened his concern.
Then there was Kayley. He’d developed an attraction to her through his bond with Luke, but after last night, holding her in his arms, it had morphed into something deeper. He knew her fragility; he’d walked in her shoes and felt a sense of kinship because of it. Sean understood how badly that sort of violence left you scarred, deep down where it lingered for the longest time. He shook his head to release the storm clouds of gathering memories. Today was far too sunny and beautiful to go there.
Will whistled a low tune as he drove. Their new member seemed positively relaxed, hands loose on the wheel, lips pursed as he blew out some song Sean didn’t recognize. Sean wondered if Kayley joining them had wrought the change in Will? Hopefully, once Will knew the truth about her status as their intended mate, he’d quickly become used to the idea.
Although Will might be a shifter in physiology, in his mind he still clung onto human ideas, and the sort of powerful and sudden bonding shifters felt would be strange to him. Will appeared to trust the pack, though, and he wanted Kayley to return home with him—and as their mate she’d do just that. But there were ways of dropping that sort of news on a person. Luke possessed all the subtlety of a nuclear warhead going off. Sean winced at his gathering headache and considered all the ways the situation could get out of control.
“Crap, we forgot potato chips and beer,” Taylor muttered from the backseat.
“There’s a store near the rental place. We could stop there?” Will offered.
“No!” Sean’s senses were really tingling now. Christ, at this rate he’d soon be as psychic as Luke.
Will shot him a puzzled look, so Sean toned it down. “Let’s get back okay? We’ve beer enough in the fridge, and we’ve left Kayley alone with Luke and Julie. Between them they might put her off coming home with us for good,” he joked.
“You mean Luke might?” Taylor said. “He intimidates people with that intense, brooding thing he’s got going on.”
“Kayley’s female. You’ve seen the way women look at Luke, right, Taylor? No offense, Sean.” Will’s gaze flicked over to him before turning back to the road. “But women do tend to drool over the boss man. She probably thinks the sun shines out his backside.”
“Hey, what about me? The ladies like my style.” Taylor flexed his huge arms, the biceps popping out and stretching the fabric of his T-shirt to near ripping point. “Some ladies like their men pumped.”
“There’s pumped and then there’s massive. You spend hours in the gym and your idea of good food is beef jerky and protein shakes. You’re not quite what I had in mind for my cousin.” Will flashed a grin over his shoulder, and Sean bit his cheek to keep from laughing.
“Well, now, I could be offended by all of that but as it’s true…I’ll let it slide. And for your information, beef jerky is a high protein, healthy snack. Anyhow, your cousin isn’t some sort of brood mare that you can marry off to whomever you choose. She’s got a mind of her own. She might prefer a big strong man.”
Will snorted. “My cousin is a lady of good taste, and she prefers brains over brawn.”
“I’d protect her.” Taylor waggled his eyebrows.
“Actually…that’s true.” Will’s face turned serious as he drove. “I’d be more than happy for her to take any of you guys as a partner because for the first time since the attack, I’d feel she’d be truly safe. There’s just the tiny problem of her having to be turned into a goddamned werewolf in order for any of you to do so.”
Sean made a conscious effort to keep his heart rate and breathing calm as the conversation hit a little too close to home. Will wouldn’t likely pick up on the signals of his distress. The younger shifter was still too newly turned to understand them, but why take the chance?
“We are wolf shifters not werewolves, how hard is the fucking concept? And why wouldn’t you want her turned? You like life as one of us, don’t you?” The levity left Taylor’s voice as he continued. “And dude, what’s not to like? You’re stronger, immune to disease, and you live a long, long time.”
“There’s nothing wrong with it, but…it puts us on the outside. Kayley’s suffered years of that, I want her to have a normal life.”
“Normal is highly overrated.”
Sean tuned out their bickering and thought back to Will’s words. So Will would be okay with Kayley having a relationship with one of the team, in theory, but he didn’t want her turned into a shifter. In some ways, it was more than Sean had hoped for. He wouldn’t tell Luke, yet, if he thought they’d any sort of advantage Luke would push it. It wasn’t in Sean’s nature to keep something from his mate, and it made him uncomfortable to do so, but the situation needed very delicate handling. Sean sighed again and closed his eyes.
They pulled up outside the large family home. Taylor stepped out and slammed the car door loudly, exclaiming, “God, Miami traffic is the worst!”
The screen door banged behind them, and they entered the wonderfully cool house in time to see Kayley fly up the stairs, tears on her face. Luke sat on the couch looking tense as hell next to a wide-eyed Julie.
“What the fuck happened?” Sean snapped. He’d dreaded coming back to a scene like this, and couldn’t quite believe his worst fear had come true.
“It’s fine.” Luke bit off the words like they tasted bad.
“It’s my fault.” Julie surprised Sean. He’d been convinced Luke would be the one behind the drama, fearing he’d pushed Kayley too fast.
Julie sniffed slightly and flicked red-rimmed eyes warily to Will. “I started to talk about Kayley maybe staying in Alaska, and she didn’t seem too receptive to the idea. I didn’t understand why not. I mean now her dickhead ex is dead, I’d have thought she’d be raring to come home. I like her. It’s really nice having female company. Maybe I pushed things a little too hard because she got upset, told me I didn’t understand.”
Julie flushed and dipped her head. “I got a bit defensive and said maybe I didn’t understand because her cousin missed her and she should give home another chance. I made her cry. I didn’t mean to. Then I got upset, too, and Luke walked in on us right before you guys got here, and Kayley took off upstairs.”
Luke ground his teeth, and Sean could see the anger simmering below the surface of his mate’s granite face. Julie must have sensed it because she let out a soft whine and moved toward him on the sofa, head down.
“I’m sorry, Luke. I fucked up. I made her remember bad stuff. I hope it’s not going to stop her wanting to come back with us to visit for a while.”
“It’s okay.” Luke patted her hand, and she smiled and arched up to him, head still down, almost resting against his chest.
Sean understood Julie’s behavior. It was a wolf thing. The female shifter needed to know her place in the pack still stood, along with her place in their alpha’s estimations. Luke’s hand moved up to her neck and held it gently as he lifted the hair from her nape and set it back down around her shoulders. She smiled, lifting her head. Sean cursed. Julie’s eyes glowed preternaturally bright out of her flushed face.
“Stop it,” Sean whispered.
She turned to look at him, eyebrows raised. “Stop what?”
“Your eyes, damn it. You can’t let your wolf show, not with Kayley here!”
Julie’s hand flew to her mouth, and her eyes immediately turned back to their usual green, the yellow swirling around and around as it faded.
Keeping his voice low, Sean addressed them all. “Until we’ve let her grow to trust us, we can’t let Kayley see any hint of what we really are, and only then if Will decides to tell her.” Sean nodded at Will. “It’s your decision, Will.”
“It’s so frustrating.” Luke’s jaw ticked as he stared morosely at the coffee table as if insulted by its very existence.
“No disrespect, but she’s my cousin. I don’t see why it’s frustrating for you?” Will jerked his chin up and squared his shoulders as he pointed at Luke.
Luke’s head snapped up, and his mouth tightened into a thin line.
Oh, hell. Will might have a point, and Luke ought to watch what he said about Kayley, for fucks sake, but Luke’s control looked wafer thin, so he acted quickly.
“Luke? Can you come with me? I need to talk to you.” He walked by the couch and grabbed a handful of Luke’s T-shirt, yanking the man to his feet as he pulled him in the direction of the stairs.
Only when they reached the safety of their room did he let go. He looked at Luke with trepidation. The other man refused to meet his gaze as he stalked to the bathroom and closed the door behind him, his actions clear. When he heard no click of the lock Sean followed, and with a small snarl, flung the door open and marched in. Luke whirled around, but Sean was ready for a fight himself and would not be cut out.
“What?”
“It’s not your fault Kayley got a bit freaked out. Julie did this, not you. Don’t go getting all stressed out about a small setback. We can still turn this around. I truly believe she’ll want to come back with us when we have to leave.”
Luke gave a low, threatening growl. “Shut up, Sean.”
“Do not tell me to shut up, just don’t.”
Luke’s eyes flashed with anger for a brief moment before something that looked like sorrow filled them.
The fight ran out of Sean. “What do you need?” He ignored his hurt at Luke’s unusually dismissive words, too focused on the sadness in his mate’s stormy eyes.
“You,” Luke said, his tone softer. “Her.” He gave a small smile, a barely perceptible twitch of his lips. “I need her to know, need to tell her. It’s killing me, keeping this covered up. Watching every single reaction I have toward her, not letting myself get too near, keeping everything locked down tight. I don’t know if I can do it again. You don’t really know how much it cost me with you. I nearly gave far too much away down there. Will picked up on my concern. Like I said, I don’t know if I can do it again. Maybe we should go home?”
“No.” Sean’s emotions surprised him, but he didn’t want to give up. The previous night, when he’d held Kayley tight, her scent had hit him, powerful and familiar, despite them never having met. He assumed the familiarity must come from the shared visions his bond with Luke had provided sometimes. It had taken everything he possessed to act his usual, casual self when inside he burned for her. So, yeah, despite his reservations and fears, deep down Sean believed Kayley belonged with them. Even more so now he’d spent time with the female human.
“Let me help you relax. What do you need?” He asked the question again, edging nearer Luke, letting the warm, purely male, scent of his mate wash over him and fill his senses.
“I…I…agh!” Luke slammed his fist into the tiled wall, cracking one of them clean down the middle.
“Come here.” Sean pulled Luke flush against him. “That’s a trip to Home Depot for you in the morning!” He huffed out a laugh against Luke’s warm neck.
His mate stood as stiff as a board in his arms, so he ran his hands up Luke’s back and into his hair, carding his fingers through the thick tufts in a way he knew the other man loved. “Please, baby. Look at me.” Luke finally did and Sean sighed in relief to see his eyes back to their usual velvety gray, the silvery coldness of moments ago gone. Sean wanted him, desire hitting him like a sledgehammer, sending blood galloping south as he hardened painfully fast.
“I want you.” Sean gave voice to his desire, marveling at the way Luke could still get him hard in record time with nothing more than a look, a smile, or one of his low, dirty laughs.
An almost growl rumbled in the back of Luke’s throat, and he moved like lightning as he grabbed Sean and pulled him in. Luke’s teeth clashed with Sean’s as he claimed his mouth, his tongue pressing in immediately. Sean let out a strangled moan. Luke tasted so good it should be illegal. His scent hit Sean again. Luke’s lust for Kayley, plus his anxiety over the situation, must have heightened his pheromones, and Sean found himself high on them.
Luke maneuvered him toward the bed, and pushed Sean down onto it as, still standing, he started to undo the string on his black sweatpants. He pushed his T-shirt up when he did so, showing a toned slab of rock hard stomach. Once the string on his pants was undone, Luke dropped them. He hadn’t taken his shoes off, and so his pants pooled at his ankles.
Luke gave a brief, wry grin as he dropped his briefs to join his pants, and Sean could only stare up at him, lust struck. The man looked like every dark fantasy Sean had ever entertained. Luke’s cock jutted out angrily, his bunched pants and pushed up T-shirt framing the sight obscenely. He stood before Sean utterly unashamed and hard as nails, his length reaching past his belly button, the flared end deep red and swollen with blood.
Saliva flooded Sean’s mouth. He quickly toed off his shoes, kicked off his jeans and briefs, and pulled his shirt over his head. He grabbed the lube from the drawer and slicked two fingers up. This wasn’t going to be gentle lovemaking, and he was more than okay with that.
He laid back on the bed, prepping himself quickly, flushing at the hungry way Luke watched him, eyes eating him up.
“Touch yourself.” Sean possessed a voyeuristic streak a mile wide.
His partner obeyed immediately and grabbed his cock as he moved his large hand up and down the length. Sean watched rapt. Luke ran his thumb over the top, spreading a bead of precum out and down, using the natural lubrication to up the tempo. The sight of Luke working ruthlessly at himself, his clothes still hanging from him, was devastatingly erotic.
“Come here.” Sean crooked a finger at Luke, sighing in relief when Luke settled himself between his legs and began rubbing the thick head of his cock around Sean’s hole, gazing right into Sean’s eyes as he did so. Expecting a quick and brutal fucking, and not getting it, Sean could only buck up against Luke as he kept up the leisurely contact.
“You gonna tease me all day or actually do something?” Sean goaded. The tension of the last couple of days coalesced into a bright burning need. He loved having a physical reminder of Luke’s passion and enjoyed the ache after a vigorous fucking. He enjoyed seeing a lingering mark where Luke had bitten him, or the odd faint bruise from where Luke had dug his fingers in hard. He especially liked the deep purple marks, which Luke would regularly suck onto his neck, near the mating bite etched in his skin. Weird, maybe, but it was how he rolled.
“Oh, I’m going to do something, don’t you worry.” Luke smiled feral and hard, as finally he pushed in, still slow and gentle in his movements.
Sean forced himself to relax and take it, to wait for the brief, initial discomfort to turn into the pleasure he knew would ignite. After a few seconds, it became easier and he felt the burn morph into something much more blissful, as Luke moved in and out, still keeping up the frustrating pace. Sean didn’t want gentle or slow, he needed the fire and heat of it hard and fast. If the way Luke trembled was any indicator, he desired the same thing, and barely restrained himself.
“Fuck me properly, Luke, dinnae gentle me, damn it.” Sean’s accent, normally hard to pin down, fell back into a soft, Scottish brogue as he sank into the heat of their coupling.
The next moment, his eyes rolled shut, as with a quick snap of his hips, Luke did as asked. At first he drove into him so hard it became all Sean could do to hold on for the ride. After a while, Luke tempered his strokes slightly and changed the angle, so every single time he slammed home he hit Sean’s prostate.
“Oh, God!” Sean moaned around the words. His breath came in quick gasps, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to hold out for long. Luke wasn’t the only one riled up by Kayley’s presence. Sean’s need to take her built, too, and he wondered at how one female could turn him on in a way no other ever really had. He moaned louder as Luke thrust in even deeper, his strokes smooth but harsh, the sensation like nothing else. He only wished he could spend his whole life doing nothing but fucking Luke. Sadly, he couldn’t, and his balls tightened further, heralding the approaching end.
He grabbed himself and jerked, two, three times and then he came, head thrown back as he shot all over his stomach. He contracted around Luke’s hard length as he did, which intensified the climax. “Fuck.” He opened his eyes as the last tremors ran through him.
“Sean.” Luke whispered his name, stared down at him, looking at him as if Sean were something to be worshipped. He stilled and pulled out, but he hadn’t come, and Sean was about to ask what was wrong, when Luke positioned himself over Sean’s body and started to slowly jack himself again.
“Want to add to that mess you’ve made all over yourself. Going to mark you good and proper. You are mine.”
The hard possession in Luke’s voice electrified Sean, the deep guttural rasp making him shiver in response. Sean might have come mere seconds ago, but he still loved seeing Luke kneeling over him, fucking his fist. The sight kind of blew his mind, truth be told. And there went his voyeuristic streak again! Sean smiled as he let go and reveled in it.
With a grunt, Luke found his own release, all over Sean, adding rope after rope to the already drying mess on his stomach. Eventually Luke let go of himself and rolled onto his side.
“That was…different.” Sean looked at Luke, a big grin splitting his face. He wished he’d filmed the session to watch over and over again. Nothing turned him on more than seeing Luke touch himself.
“I don’t know what happened.” Luke’s amused smile held a touch of hesitation, not his usual state, by any means. “I wanted to mark you and didn’t think I could bite you, not without risking freaking Kayley out if she sees it. You’ve already got my permanent mate bite, and I didn’t think I should go adding others, so this was my way of doing it.” He hitched up one shoulder in a shrug. “I’m kind of on edge and let a bit of the wolf out…sorry.” He didn’t sound too apologetic, and a slow smile spread, chasing away the uncertainty.
Sean smiled back, lazy and sated. “That was porn worthy. No need for the half-assed apology. God, I wish I didn’t come first though, so I could do it while watching you.”
“Who knew you were such a slut for my cum?” Luke laughed and nipped at his earlobe.
“Much as I’m a slut for it, and I am, I think I’ll take a shower and wash myself off. You should join me. You look all beat to hell. You can tell me exactly what happened down there while we clean up.”
“Nothing really to tell. Julie pushed it and Kayley became upset.” He shook his head. “Wish you’d been there, you handle shit like this so much better than me.”
One of the things Sean loved most about Luke was how he never treated him like a subordinate, even though he technically was, both at work and in their relationship. Well, he was if you followed traditional wolf shifter rules of alpha’s first, mates second. Many packs ran their affairs that way and thought nothing of it. Sean had lived that life once before and never wanted it again. Luke always kept Sean in the loop and genuinely seemed to value his input. There were many times he’d changed course after taking Sean’s advice.
“Let’s get cleaned up and go find her.” Sean stroked a finger down Luke’s arm.
“Maybe we should give her some space?” Luke said.
“She told me last night she loves cooking, why don’t I get her to help me out in the kitchen?” Sean said. “That way she doesn’t have to talk about it, or sit with everyone, but she’s still part of the group, still included.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Luke turned his head to drop a single kiss in Sean’s palm.
Sean reached down and undid Luke’s shoes, taking them off before pulling his pants down. By the time he got to drag the T-shirt over his head, Luke’s dick started showing renewed interest in proceedings, already half hard.
“You’re insatiable. A veritable animal.”
“I am an animal and so are you. Wanna make wild monkey love in the shower?” Luke grinned.
“Nah. I hear monkey love is overrated. Wolf love on the other hand…”
Sean gave a mock howl of outrage as Luke pulled him up and swatted his behind, following him into the shower.