Gerald's Lot Page 5

  Nevertheless, Gerald couldn’t relax until he saw that the wolves weren’t coming closer, but were instead trying to drag Gerald’s struggling new mate deeper into the woods in the direction of the den’s main complex.

  He didn’t have time to think about what was going on, though, because Tanis pushed him forward again onto his knees and pressed his clawed hand heavy between Gerald’s shoulders and started fucking him again in earnest.

  Gerald didn’t have another opportunity to rest until he was as weak-kneed as a new born foal.

  He was sprawled out on the ground with his arm slung over his face, his t-shirt a pathetic excuse for a pillow beneath his head. His chest rose and fell with his every exhausted breath, and something hard was poking at his naked shoulder blade. The air had started to turn cold against his overheated skin.

  Tanis was nuzzling at Gerald’s belly, all that naked skin of his holding the chill at bay. Gerald had a hazy memory of Tanis almost whimpering at one point and pretty much tearing his own clothes off to get closer to Gerald. Probably just about the time Tanis’s heat cycle had really kicked in.

  God. He’d forgotten just how much stamina a wolf in heat had.

  Leaves crackled nearby. Footsteps, maybe.

  He thought he was too tired to care, but when a twig snapped, he jerked upright with a flash of adrenaline that nearly sent his heart through his chest.

  Tanis sat back on his heels, his shadowed eyes taking in their surroundings without much apparent concern before settling on something just out of Gerald’s line of sight.

  Gerald turned to look at whatever it was holding Tanis’s attention. The movement pulled at the bite on his neck and he winced and raised his hand to tentatively poke at the injury while his gaze zeroed in on a man walking toward them.

  It was Alan, the only human doctor who lived in the wolves’ den. He took care of many of the humans who’d made their homes here in the wolves’ territory. He was also just four years and eight days older than Gerald—something Gerald had discovered the moment he had the chance to look Alan up in the databases he had access to.

  He wasn’t sure how Alan had ended up in the wolves’ den, or why Alan was working with them, because nothing in the records Gerald found had been able to explain it and no one really talked about it, but Alan had a smile for everyone he met, and he and Gerald seemed to get along fine—or they had.

  Gerald wasn’t sure how Alan would react to him now that everyone knew what Gerald had been up to for the last three years.

  Alan stopped well away from Gerald and Tanis, hands loose at his sides. He flashed a small smile at Gerald, so quick Gerald wouldn’t have even noticed it if he hadn’t been staring right at Alan. Then Alan’s gaze zeroed in on Tanis. “Is it safe?”

  “It’s safe enough,” Tanis said. “It’s never safe. I’ve injured him. I…” But Tanis didn’t finish the thought, his eyebrows drawing tightly together and his hand reaching for Gerald’s neck.

  Tanis stopped and dropped his hand, his stare unfocused enough to worry Gerald. It didn’t help that Tanis’s accent had thickened, a sure sign something wasn’t right.

  Gerald looked to Alan.

  Alan was still watching Tanis with a great deal of caution. Unease shimmied down Gerald’s spine.

  “What’s going on?” he asked, while he started trying to find a way to get his pants up over his dick without making a big deal about it.

  Gerald wasn’t sure why Tanis had bitten him—although he was sure it had been a damned dangerous thing for Tanis to have done. Maybe it was just the heat, driving Tanis to react with some alien instinct Gerald still didn’t understand. He didn’t understand a lot about the wolves, despite his three years of close contact, but at least he seemed to be okay. He wasn’t bleeding anymore; he could feel the dried blood caked along his neck, pulling every time he moved his head.

  He wasn’t looking forward to seeing the damage—or the scar it would probably leave behind.

  Alan dropped to a crouch, resting one forearm on his knee and rocking forward on the balls of his feet. He was still watching Tanis.

  “Leif told us what happened. Alpha sent me—he was concerned you might react badly to him showing up here so soon after—well—” His gaze darted to Gerald and back, and that was enough to make Gerald’s hands still on the waistband of his pants.

  When Alan’s gaze returned to Gerald, Gerald jerked back into motion, struggling to his feet as quickly as he could while he held tight to his underwear and trousers—only to grunt at the unexpected pull of exhausted, overused muscle.

  Despite the weakness in his knees, he yanked his trousers up on his hips, just as Tanis reached for Gerald’s wrists.

  Gerald looked down where Tanis’s fingers pressed into his skin, then met Tanis’s fiery gaze.

  “I’ll do it,” Tanis said.

  “What? Fasten my pants? I’ve got it.”

  But he didn’t have it, because Tanis used his grip on Gerald’s wrists to make Gerald release the fly of his trousers. Luckily, his trousers were snug enough that they didn’t fall right off him. Not that it mattered much with the middle seam ripped completely through.

  At least his underwear had survived mostly intact.

  “I’m your mate. Your care is my responsibility.”

  A frown tightened Gerald’s face. He understood the care that came with being a heat mate—he’d fucked Cory through the heat, after all, and Cory had done a damn good job of taking care of Gerald after the fact.

  But this… Tanis wasn’t his mate. He’d kind of expected…

  He wasn’t sure what he’d expected. “Huh?”

  “We have mated. Submit, human.” Said with more ire than Gerald expected. As if—

  “What the hell has you so upset? You’re the one who bit me, not the other way around.” Gerald raked his gaze over Tanis’s naked form, eyes skittering over that long, thick alien penis and heavy scrotum and the soft, dark hair curling at Tanis’s groin, down those strong, muscled thighs, then coming back for a lingering look he couldn’t have helped if someone had smacked him upside the head for it.

  “Holy mother of God,” he muttered. “That is one massive piece of—” And then his thoughts caught up with his mouth and he snapped his mouth shut, choking out a sound of disbelief at his own behavior.

  “Meat” was a word he’d stolen from an old acquaintance, something to give his persona a little personality. It’d been something people called a dick a hundred years ago, but damn if he hadn’t gotten a little too used to the word over the last three and a half years. He used it whenever he could, just because he liked the way it sounded.

  Tanis fastened Gerald’s trousers, eyes locked on Gerald’s face. “Are you attempting to flirt with me again?”

  What? Shit. Gerald’s face went hot.

  “That wasn’t flirting,” Gerald mumbled while Tanis smoothed the fabric of Gerald’s waistband.

  Tanis rose to his feet with a grace that didn’t seem possible. Gerald took the moment to look off into the trees where the bright sunlight of afternoon had created a profusion of deep, dark shadows along the bare oak trunks.

  Knuckles grazed the spunk-matted hair that disappeared behind Gerald’s pants, jerking his attention back to Tanis and making him suck in his breath, his stomach quivering at the touch.

  God. What was he going to do about Tanis once his actual mate healed?

  Despite how tired Gerald was and how used his ass felt after riding that big dick, he wanted another chance at it. And maybe another chance after that. Big dicks had always done it for him, even though he knew it was stupid to focus on size over all other considerations.

  There was just something about a big, beautiful dick that made his mouth water every damn time he saw one.

  From the glares his supposed mate had been giving off, though, Gerald didn’t think he was going to end up lucky enough to have a mate willing to share, which was too bad.

  Then again…

  Gerald could be pre
tty persuasive when he really put his mouth to—

  Tanis leaned close, startling Gerald out of his lustful thoughts, those firm lips coming within a hairsbreadth of Gerald’s ear. “I can smell the stink of your arousal. I think you were flirting with me.”

  Gerald reared back, intending to put a little distance between them, but his abrupt movement ended when Tanis clamped his hand around the back of Gerald’s neck so fast all Gerald had time for was a short, sharp gasp.

  Tanis nipped Gerald’s earlobe with his teeth. “I like your strange human flirting. It makes me want to put you on your knees again and take pleasure with you outside of my heat cycle—when I can think easily enough to wring every drop of pleasure from you and your beautiful human penis.”

  A hot shiver traveled down Gerald’s spine. His asshole clenched, making him very aware of his ass full of semen, and his cock tried to twitch itself back to life. Unfortunately, his asshole was more sore than not and the tight clench just reminded him of how badly he didn’t need to encourage Tanis.

  Tanis could fuck all day.

  Gerald had already had about as much as he could handle. He needed a shower—and some more of that magical lube the wolves had created. Nothing soothed a sore hole the way that stuff did.

  Alan stood and gave Tanis another cautious look before turning a much more pointed stare at Gerald. “His heat cycle seems to be over, but he’s still going to be touchy about submission.”

  “Huh?” Why was Alan telling him this? Wasn’t Tanis and Gerald’s little interlude about to come to an end?

  “Just something to keep in mind. They aren’t all that reasonable during the heat season about what counts as defiance from a mate.”

  “We’re not unreasonable people,” Tanis said, an edge to his tone, his hand tightening on Gerald’s neck.

  Alan winced. “I’m sor—”

  He got cut off by the heavy growl that vibrated up through Tanis’s chest.

  The hair on Gerald’s arms stood up.

  Alan wisely shut his mouth.

  Gerald gave Alan a “what the hell?” look but Alan ignored him—probably because he was smart enough to keep his gaze on Tanis, watching for the first sign of trouble.

  The growl stopped just as abruptly as it had started, and the hard line of Tanis’s lips eased. He also relaxed his hand on Gerald’s neck and Gerald breathed a little easier. He hadn’t had a wolf act so dominating around him in years; he was surprised at how different it felt than he remembered.

  Or maybe Cory had just never been—but no, Cory had been pretty damn forceful during the time they’d mated. Gerald remembered that. But Cory hadn’t been an alpha and he wasn’t as large as Tanis and he’d never had the same stomach-twisting fiery hot gaze Tanis had.

  Fear had made Gerald light-headed the first time Cory had pushed inside him, because he really and truly hadn’t known what to expect—hadn’t known what he was letting himself in for. He’d known only that he was unwilling to back down, to let Devon slip away, or to leave Devon, sick and weak and unable to defend himself from the wolf they’d ended up owing their lives to.

  With Tanis, the fear had been nothing but an undercurrent to the hot, twisting desire Gerald had felt the moment he’d first seen Tanis looming over him.

  Not that he wanted Tanis as his mate. Gerald needed someone more pliable, easier to control. He’d make it work with the beta, somehow, until he found a way out of the wolves’ territory that wouldn’t fuck the treaty. But not with Tanis.

  “I’m sorry,” Alan said. “I didn’t mean to insult you.”

  “You expect us to mold ourselves to your ideals of civilized behavior while you barely grasp the nature of our needs. We are not human and we will never be human.”

  “Understood,” Alan said. “I’ll watch what I say next time. I just wanted him to understand how difficult this time is for your control over your instincts.”

  “It’s not my first heat season,” Gerald said.

  Alan shook his head. “They’re even more demanding and territorial over mates than they are with mates.”

  Gerald frowned. Alan had an aptitude for the wolves’ language, and he’d used the wolves’ word for mate both times and there was no reason for it as far as Gerald could tell. Only… there had to be a reason for it.

  Shit.

  He’d missed something. Something important.

  Before he could ask Alan to explain what that might be, Alan moved closer to Gerald, staying just out of touching distance, and pointed toward Gerald’s throat, a mild accusation in the expression he leveled at Tanis. “You could have killed him. Kem won’t like it when he sees it and neither will First Alpha when he hears of it.”

  Tanis showed his teeth.

  Alan let out a frustrated sounding exhale and raked his hand through his hair, staring at Tanis.

  Tanis stared back, a rumble building in his chest. The hair at Gerald’s nape prickled.

  Alan lowered his gaze, then his head for a moment, nodding his submission to Tanis’s alpha status. When he raised his head again, Gerald glimpsed the rapid flutter of Alan’s pulse at the base of his throat.

  Alan wasn’t nearly as calm as he appeared.

  Tanis pulled Gerald toward him by the neck and dragged a claw slowly along Gerald’s jaw, giving Alan a sideways look. “I regret hurting him, but I regained my control before it became more than a flesh wound. As long as he submits, he has nothing to fear from me.”

  Gerald didn’t get to see Alan’s reaction, because Tanis pushed Gerald’s chin up and swiped his tongue along the column of Gerald’s throat. Gerald’s heart thundered and the rush of blood behind his ears drowned out the crunch of leaves underfoot.

  Had he thought he wasn’t afraid of Tanis? Bullshit. Tanis was a complete unknown. Gerald would do well to remember that.

  Still, his body betrayed him by tingling in all the wrong places. His underarms started to sweat despite the chill in the air.

  Tanis raised his head and directed a fierce stare at Alan. “He wants me even now. He cannot resist the desire to submit.”

  Gerald’s grunt of denial escaped before he could stop it.

  “Gerald,” Alan snapped.

  Tanis caught Gerald with his hot-eyed gaze, his hand tightening again around the back of Gerald’s neck.

  Gerald shoved his hands up between them, body going tense, “I wasn’t rejecting you, honest to God. It just slipped—”

  Tanis’s laugh brought his hurried explanation to an abrupt end. The soft grumble stung Gerald’s ego even as a warm tingle spread along his nerve endings. His skin felt too tight and his scalp prickled. He scrubbed his hands over his forearms, trying to rub the sensation away.

  “You’re kind of a prick, you know that?”

  “I enjoy your eager submission, human. Maybe this mating has purpose after all.”

  “Huh?” Gerald twisted his head to see Alan, lungs tight with the suspicion that’d he’d just figured out what it was he’d missed but desperate to be proven wrong. “What’s he mean?”

  After a two second delay during which Alan barely had time to hide his flinch—

  “What the fuck! Are you saying I just got wolf mated by the wrong fucking wolf?”

  Another flicker of something Gerald didn’t want to see, but Alan wasn’t saying anything, deferring instead to Tanis with a careful look in his direction.

  Gerald turned a wide-eyed look on Tanis. None of the words that came to mind seemed enough to express his emotion at that moment, so he stole one of Devon’s favorite phrases. “God Almighty! What the fuck did you do?”

  Chapter 8

  Tanis growled at Gerald. Gerald jerked within Tanis’s grip, but quickly recovered his control.

  Speaking the wolves’ language, Tanis said, “We are mated. Accept your fate.” Every word sounded like a command.

  Gerald shook his head. “Unh uh. No way.”

  Tanis’s expression darkened, the lines of his face pulling tight. The sharp points of his eye
teeth made an appearance. Defiance was risky, but Gerald was just pissed off enough not to care.

  “Don’t you say it, by God.” His voice shook. “Li—les—Fuck! Whatever the hell his name was. Lessy.” He twisted his hand into the front of Tanis’s shirt. “He was good enough for me. I don’t want—”

  Another growl and this time a clawed finger pressed to Gerald’s lips and teeth. Hard.

  “You’re trying the patience I do not have, human. Submit.”

  Gerald closed his mouth, the jittery feeling of too much adrenaline upsetting his stomach. He was behaving foolishly, and he knew it, but his pride was getting in the way of his common sense.

  Then his stomach growled.

  Tanis’s eyebrows drew tight.

  Gerald stared at Tanis, throat working.

  One of Tanis’s dark eyebrows quirked.

  Gerald dropped his head forward onto Tanis’s naked shoulder, his own shoulders shaking uncontrollably as he choked back a stupid laugh.

  Because fuck this shit. He hadn’t eaten in hours.

  Tanis wrapped his arms around Gerald’s back, almost hesitantly, and it was the oddest thing, because Gerald hadn’t seen Tanis do one thing hesitantly since the moment he’d met him. Those warm hands felt really good on his bare back, pulling him closer.

  He’d also forgotten just how naked Tanis was, standing there in front of Alan and him as if nothing was strange about that at all. Gerald closed his eyes, just to avoid temptation.

  He was totally fucked. He would never get the upper hand with an alpha like Tanis. He’d be stuck with the wolves for the rest of his life if he didn’t do something foolish—dangerous—to get away as soon as possible.

  But the treaty—he couldn’t be responsible for destroying the peace between the States and the American Protectorate. He just couldn’t do it.

  So yeah. Totally fucked.

  Mated to an alpha and under his thumb, because Gerald wasn’t trustworthy as far as the wolves were concerned.

  And he wasn’t. His loyalties hadn’t changed. He would sell them out to James and his superiors at the first opportunity.