STORY EXCERPT 

At first the people down in that pit didn’t move. They looked up at Hugh and Fergus as though terrified they were having some terrible prank played on them. Hugh couldn’t blame them, but he needed to get them out of there, like right now.

He held out his hand, trying to smile, trying to look friendly despite all the blood that was covering his body.

“It’s okay. You’re all safe now. I promise.”

Fergus cleared his throat. “We’re here to take you all home. Come on, now.”

Fergus was never very good at pretending to be nice, but Hugh appreciated the effort in that moment.

The first brave soul stepped forward. A woman. She was crying as she reached the ladder. She climbed it slowly, even though the pit was no more than twenty feet deep.

As though someone had cut out the entire first floor and transformed the basement into this strange prison no one could climb out of. No doors. No windows, no way to reach the ladder or hidden exits at the top…

Hugh reached for her, helping her the rest of the way up and glad that she didn’t fall back in.

“You’re safe now,” Fergus said, pulling the small woman into his arms. She cried, seeming to not care at all about the smell of vampire blood, or the blood itself, all over Fergus’s body.

More people came after that, ready to take the leap, to escape now that escape was within sight.

Hugh smiled. “That’s it. Come on. You’re all doing great.”

One after the other they came. Hugh was glad for that. He wanted them all out of there. He couldn’t believe how many there were, and he realized that pit down there took up the entire bottom of the hallway.

The other empty rooms probably all had trap doors like this, but the space down in that pit seemed ongoing.

They were only on the third floor. How could Hugh have missed something like this?

“We should check the first floor, too,” Fergus said. “For all we know they dug out a room like that in the ground itself.”

“Or converted their basement into a prison.”

“They did,” said one smaller voice, a voice that made Hugh’s heart seize right up.

He stared down into that hole, watching a blond-haired young man step up to the ladder. His hand was to his eyes, blocking out the light.

Even without Hugh pointing his flashlight down there, it seemed what little light that came down was still too much for him to take.

Which was when Hugh picked up a scent that broke through the disgusting smell of vampire blood. It was a scent unlike anything he’d ever smelled before in his entire life. It was sharp, shooting right up his nose and clearing his sinuses in an instant.

His blood heated in his veins. Hugh got tunnel vision, and that young man was the only person he could see in that moment.

The only person who mattered. The only person Hugh could ever want.

The man down there lowered his hand, revealing blue eyes. Blue eyes so bright and pure they could be the color of ice. He’d never seen eyes like that…

Hugh shook himself out of it. What the fuck was he doing?

He reached his hand down to the young man, hoping he would take the hint and climb up the ladder to him. “Come on up here. You can explain everything then.”

The man didn’t move, and it was only then that Hugh was able to take in the dark circles under his eyes, the hollow look of his cheeks. He was so skinny, and Hugh had been drooling over how handsome he was…it was kind of sick, but what the hell was he supposed to do when he met his mate in a vampire blood farm?

“Come on up here, sweetheart. I’ll get you out.”

The man looked up at Hugh with a strange expression. “You’re not…”

Hugh tensed. Shit. Did he know? If he was Hugh’s mate, then he was bound to have an easier time picking up on the things around him.

Hugh didn’t take his gaze away from him. He was trying to beg him with his eyes to say nothing, but how was he supposed to get that through the head of a human who’d been kidnapped and tortured?

“I swear I won’t hurt you. I’m here to set you free. I promise. What’s your name?”

The man swallowed. Hugh wanted nothing more than to get him out of that pit and put some food in him.

“Owen.”

He had a name now. Hugh liked his name. It was a nice name, almost gentle. “Nice to meet you, Owen. My name is Hugh Greywolf. Come on, Owen. I’ll take you home.”

He could see the struggle happening in Owen’s eyes. Hugh couldn’t not see it. The other humans down there seemed equally as transfixed on what Owen was about to do.

When Owen started to slowly pull himself up the ladder, Hugh got the feeling he wasn’t the only one who felt relief. Whatever last particles of doubt remained in the people down there, they all seemed to slip away as Owen pulled himself up one rung at a time.

Hugh reached out for him, and when Owen’s hand slipped into his, he felt that same sense of doubt vanishing.

The heated touch of his mate, the touch that sent a shockwave through his hand, up his arm, and into his heart.

Hugh had found his mate.

ADULT EXCERPT 

When Hugh pressed his fingers forward just a little more, Owen thrust his hips out to meet him.

He sighed when he felt the exquisite breach, the heat of being stretched, the brief discomfort, and then the pleasure.

That felt insane. Maybe it was just because Owen hadn’t allowed himself to have this kind of pleasure in so long. He hadn’t touched himself, and no one had touched him, but he swore that, somewhere in the universe, a star exploded when Hugh breached him.

He groaned. Owen wanted more. He wanted so much more.

“Impatient,” Hugh said, as though he was pleased about that.

Was Owen talking out loud? He should have been embarrassed by that, but all he could feel was the sheer impatience rushing through him.

“Hurry. Please, hurry.”

It was getting to the point where Owen no longer cared if the sex was good. He just wanted it to happen.

It was crazy. How could he not care if the sex he had was any good? That was sort of the point to sex, but it was almost as if the thing he was craving right then was more powerful than the need to get off. The desire to be connected and taken. To be owned by this man was overpowering every other instinct Owen had.

“Almost there, baby, almost there.”

Owen was starting to not think so, but then he felt those fingers leave him. Hugh added more of the conditioner to his hand, and Owen couldn’t help but think that, when everything was said and done here, he was going to have a very soft hole.

He smiled at the thought.

Hugh looked at him. “You like that?”

Owen nodded. He was not about to tell the other man what he’d actually been thinking.

“Good,” Hugh said, and then he pressed the head of his dick to Owen’s asshole.

Owen sucked back a deep breath. This was it. This was the thing he’d been waiting for, what he’d wanted from the very beginning, and oh God, now it was here and he couldn’t believe it.

Hugh pushed inside him, stretching him wider. The fingers hadn’t been enough, but that didn’t matter.

So long. It had been so long since Owen had felt this, and it had never been as good as this.

“So big,” Owen groaned.

“Same with you,” Hugh said through his teeth. He reached down and held Owen’s prick. “I’m kind of impressed.”

Owen swallowed. His dick was getting complimented. Not that it had never happened before, but like with everything else, this had a different feel about it, something Owen couldn’t place.

Hugh started to move. Finally. It was everything Owen had been waiting for. The man’s cock pulled back before thrusting back in, until Hugh was completely sheathed, and Owen felt the scratchy soft hairs of Hugh's pubic region touching the back of his thighs whenever he pushed forward.

He loved it. He wanted more of it. Hugh was being too damned gentle with him.

“Harder.”

“No.”

Owen’s heart skipped. Hugh just continued to smile at him. “Trust me, you’ll like this,” he said. His cheeks deepened in color as he arched his spine, pushing forward again and again.

He seemed to find his rhythm easily, his hand pumping Owen’s dick while his cock pushed into Owen's ass again and again.

“I need to have you,” Hugh said. “I need you, but you’re about to pass out on me. Tomorrow. I’ll take you as hard and rough as you need me to tomorrow, but not tonight. Tonight we’ll just have this.”

The heat started to rise in Owen’s chest, and he had to admit what Hugh was suggesting did sound nice. His pleasure was mounting, and the heat in his belly grew along with it.

He nodded. “All right. But I need you to kiss me.”

Hugh grinned. “I can do that.”

He did. Hugh was masterful in his movements. He never stopped the motion of his body. He’d clearly figured out how to make a guy lose his mind in bed because the more he touched Owen, the more Owen thought he was going to come apart.

He loved the taste of Hugh’s mouth, the way Hugh moved inside him, and the way his hand never forgot what it was doing.

Owen was starting to feel badly for not participating enough. He slid his hands around to the back of Hugh’s neck then his shoulders, and his chest.

Owen tweaked and played with the dark buds of Hugh’s nipples, enjoying the little gasping noises the man let out, and just because Owen wanted to see how far he could take it, he pushed back against each of Hugh’s fluid thrusts.

Hugh gasped, the muscles in his shoulder tightening.

There. That was better. Owen wanted to make Hugh feel good. He wanted Hugh to feel as good as Owen felt. He wanted the man to think of Owen all the time and never want to leave him, and whenever Owen wanted pleasure, Owen wanted to be the one Hugh thought of all the time, the one he came to, the one he kept.

Weird way of thinking about it, but then again, his thoughts weren’t exactly right. He was still half dreaming even as he started to feel his orgasm reaching its final destination.

“That’s it,” Hugh moaned. His grip on Owen’s hips tightened. He was going to leave bruising there, but Owen liked the thought of it. “Oh, baby.”

Owen didn’t stop moving his hands. He thought he said some things to Hugh, but he couldn’t be sure. It was as though his mind was working to fill in the blanks he was leaving behind. So tired. So weak. But he wanted to finish. He wanted it so much.

He thought he told Hugh to come inside him, and to...to bite him? Yeah, that was what he’d said.

And then he felt a pressure against his neck, something he thought should hurt but didn’t.

The rush of orgasm hit him, and it hit hard. He didn’t have any defenses for it, no way to push it back so he could make this last, and when the flood of warmth pulsed inside him, that was when Owen knew he was finished. He was...out of energy. He couldn’t keep his eyes open anymore.

Hugh said something to him. The man shook his shoulder, but Owen couldn’t be bothered to move.

He was done.