STORY EXCERPTS

Philip could not believe the smell of the male on the ground in front of him.

A burning smell. The sort of scent that went right up into his nose and shot into his brain.

It was as if a signal were being sent off within him.

This is yours. This man belongs to you.

And yet he was so pale and thin and vulnerable on the ground. Fresh bite wounds in his neck proved that he had been used as a feeder.

And that pissed him off more than anything.

A feeder? They have used him as…

He didn't even want to think it. Where the hell was Triton? He needed his Alpha and he needed him right now because Philip could not be here for this.

He quickly shifted back into his human shape. Vampires still screamed around him as they fled the room. As they fled the sunlight.

Some vampires could handle a few minutes in direct sunlight. Davin had explained that it was like holding one's breath underwater.

With enough practice and patience, it was possible to go a few minutes at a time in direct sunlight. Some vampires could apparently last up to ten minutes before they began to smoke and burn.

Still, even for those who could last in the sunlight for those precious few minutes, they could hardly be pleasant minutes. And for those vampires who were unfortunate enough to be left out in the sunlight to fend for themselves, slowly burning alive was hardly the best way to go.

At least it made the vampires fearful. Breaking up the windows have been the best idea ever, even if that meant he had to deal with the pain in the ass of broken glass all over the floor.

Philip gently touched the scarred and bleeding throat of the male in front of him.

The man did not move. Philip breathed a sigh when he found a pulse.

Alive. He was alive.

Thank God for that. Philip also hoped to God that this smell he was picking up on was a mistake.

If this was what he thought it was then his entire life was about to change.

And finding his mate well in the middle of trying to kill a vampire nest was not the best way to make introductions.

Philip gently picked the man up off the floor. God, he was so thin and frail. How long did they hold him as a slave? And why the fuck couldn't he have made it here sooner? Philip wished with everything he had that he had voted to make the attack last week instead of today.

But the weather hadn't been good. The weather forecast today had proved to be accurate. A cloudless, sunny sky.

Last week the weather forecast had been dark and rainy and gloomy.

Normally these things didn't matter when it came to waging a war against one's enemy. But if they were going to break out the windows and let the sunshine in, the battle sort of depended on whether or not there was any sunshine.

"Triton! I need you, right now!"

They were all over the house. No one was sitting still, not during a fight like this. Not when everyone and everything was at risk.

Triton and Zeus would be out hunting down the vampires. Percy must have been having the time of his life to finally spill some blood, but there were humans in the building.

And one of them belonged to Philip.

Oh shit. He was already starting to overheat. He could feel it in his lungs, around his throat. Even the air in the room seemed too hot for him to handle.

Philip pulled the young man into his arms. Christ, he couldn't be older than twenty. What the hell was he doing here? Did the vampires lure him in? Had he been their slave?

He needed a safe place to put him, somewhere he wouldn't get hurt while Triton and Wilson hunted down Adolphus.

This was his house, they were supposed to put an end to this, and Philip was supposed to be there with them, helping them.

Not fucking everything up and finding his mate.

"Stay alive. Please stay alive," he said, heading for one of the doors that would lead outside.

The safest place for his new little human to be would be the outdoors. In the sunshine. Away from this house in case they decided to burn it to the ground.

Phillip turned into the nearest hall, but then stopped at the sight of multiple men in black suits and helmets, the sort of gear designed to protect them from the sun, and they were all looking right at him.

"Shit."

"Stop right there!"

Yeah, right. Philip had already turned tail and started running in the other direction, back through the sitting room, or blood room, whatever this space was, and toward the next door that would lead him deeper into the house.

He'd have to find another exit. Another hiding place. He had to keep his distance. He couldn't risk them shooting at him when he had his mate vulnerable and unconscious in his arms.

"Triton! Wilson! Hey!"

Shouting for help and drawing attention to himself was absolutely not the best move to be making when there could be guards lying in wait, hiding, ready to strike around every corner, but as he turned down another hall, he could hear the vampires still behind him, still chasing him down.

And then he heard the shots fired.

He couldn't last like this. He needed someplace to hide. They knew this house better than he did and if they really wanted to, all these men would have to do would be to spread out and circle in on him.

He found the first flight of stairs he could and rushed up them two at a time. Percy came down, stopping halfway, frowning at the sight of the male Philip held.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

"There's guards behind me. Get them off me!"

He didn't explain anything beyond that to the man because he didn't have the time, and he didn't care either.

Percy hated vampires, and he'd been itching to get a few kills in. Now was his chance and Philip was definitely not going to do anything to stand in his way.

Even though it was something of a dick move to leave a fellow member of the pack to fight multiple vampires on his own.

But there was something more important he needed to deal with right now. Something that could not wait no matter what happened.

In the upstairs rooms, there was more screaming to be heard. A few people, either more humans or civilian vampires, flew past Philip, screaming and ignoring him in the hopes that he would not attack them.

They might be bloodsucking dickheads, but they were still civilians. Even if Philip didn't have his mate in his arms, he wouldn't have gone after them.

Because he wasn't a villain.

But he still needed a place to hide.

ADULT EXCERPT

Lucas didn't know what was wrong with him, or if he could even say there was something wrong with him because everything this man did, everything he said, even the sound of his voice felt so good.

His shivered every time Philip spoke, and when the man touched his legs and began pulling at his clothes, a helpless sensation overcame him.

The sort of sensation that came with knowing this was something he had to do, otherwise he wouldn't be able to function properly ever again.

Philip pulled his vest off, undid the buttons of his shirt, and with the more clothing he removed, the worse the heat got.

Which was strange because Lucas would have thought that the heat would have gotten better, and he should have started to cool off.

No. It didn't matter how naked he got, or how naked Philip already was, the only thing that mattered was that he needed to get off.

And he needed this man to get him off, otherwise he was going to lose his mind.

"Hurry up," Lucas said, sighing and reaching for Philip. He grabbed on to the man's arms, impressed with how powerful they felt in his hands, but that only seemed to make the heat even worse.

The guy's skin positively burned him, but as much as Lucas wanted to pull away, he couldn't stop himself from touching, either.

"We have to be quick about this," Philip said, almost as though he were apologizing. "We can't do this here. We have to keep our wits about us."

Lucas had no idea what the guy was talking about. Maybe it was something to do with the banging noises that he heard outside? There were shouts, but that was probably because one of the lady vampires was screaming at her servant girl again for braiding her hair wrong.

Everyone was always yelling in this place.

Philip pulled him off the desk—why was he on a desk?—and turned him around so he was facing the other way before his legs were kicked apart.

He moaned, his body quivering under the treatment, but it still wasn't enough. He still wanted more. He needed so much more.

"You ever done this before?" Philip asked, his warm mouth so close to Lucas's ear that he shivered from the heat of it.

"I…yeah," he said. "I have."

One other time, but he didn't think he needed to get into those details. He didn't want to get into those details either, if he was going to be completely honest with himself, and what did it matter to this man anyway?

Except there was a weird growl that sounded right after, and the grip Philip held on his shoulder seemed to get harder, more painful.

"That's…that's fine. I'm glad," he said.

"You don't sound glad," Lucas said, but he still couldn't bring himself to care what this man felt so long as he did his job and got Lucas off.

He looked over his shoulder. Philip was frowning, still muttering something under his breath as his hands searched the drawers of the desk for something.

His frown only softened when he apparently found what he was looking for.

Sunscreen? What was that…oh. Right.

Lucas blinked and shook his head, trying to bring some sense of sanity back into his brain. Of course they would need that, and he should be grateful that at least one of them was thinking with the right part of their brain, because apparently it wasn't Lucas.

He'd been nervous the first time he'd been with another guy. It hurt, and he hadn't liked it, even though he had liked the guy.

Not that he ever heard from him again, and now here he was, about to have a one night stand, in the middle of the day, with someone he'd just met.

That was so fucked up. He wasn't the sort of guy to do that. He wanted to get to know the person first. Wanted to feel like there was something there, and yet as those slick, blunt fingers circled his asshole, he moaned, his body tightening and shivering.

And he knew right then and there that it didn't matter what happened between them, it didn't matter how little Lucas knew this man or that he was going to get fired after this was said and done, the only thing that mattered was how much he absolutely needed this.

Those fingers pushed inside his asshole. The burn was so strong that he moaned against it.

He'd forgotten about this sensation. Lucas pressed his face down on the cool wood and shivered. "Oh fuck. Oh my God."

"Sensitive."

No kidding. It wasn't as though he got around or anything, but then the fear of pain came over him, and Lucas had to force himself to take in deep and even breaths. He told his body to relax, that it would be over with soon enough and this heat soon would not be bothering him.

Almost there. Almost there.

Wait, fuck, these were just the guy's fingers. He hadn't even touched Lucas yet with his cock.

He wasn’t almost there. They weren't even close to being done yet.

"You don't have to be scared."

"I'm not," Lucas said, though he wasn't entirely sure if he was lying or not.

He just wanted more. Even through the fear of pain, he knew he wanted more.

Those fingers moved swiftly. Philip had said something about how they didn't have time to take it slow. In a way, that was a good thing because Lucas wanted to get through the pain and reach that peak as fast as possible.

Assuming he would get one.

"You're going to get me off, right?" he asked, looking over his shoulder.

"That's what I'm doing," Philip replied, and then he did something with his fingers that felt so utterly amazing that Lucas didn't think he would ever feel it ever again.

He saw stars. He shouted, opening his mouth and letting loose the pleasure that threatened to take hold of him.