STORY EXCERPT

There was a set of cement stairs at the end of the hall. Max had always assumed he’d been in the basement. Now, he knew it for sure.

He took the stairs three at a time, then slowed down when he made it to another door.

Locked, just as he’d thought. He checked the keys awkwardly as he held his mate in his arms.

On the second key, the door opened, and that’s when he had to be even more careful. He had to be quiet. Light spilled down the dim hall, along with the voices of more people, and the scents of fresh air, dirty people, alphas.

Fuck, that alpha downstairs hadn’t been kidding. He was absolutely surrounded.

Think. Think. Think.

He must smell like those other alphas wearing these clothes.

If he walked around in a familiar scent, there was the small chance no one would stop him, that he wouldn’t be noticed.

But it wasn’t likely. People would notice that he didn’t look like the person he smelled like. The alphas in this pack were dangerous. They would look at him, and they would demand their answers.

Then he looked down at his small still-unconscious mate.

Max kneeled, keeping Tommy in his arms. God, he weighed so little. Was it a fae thing that he seemed so light? Or was this because of how he’d been treated for however long he’d been a prisoner here?

“Tommy, you need to wake up. Come on, sweetie. Please wake up.”

Max shook the man, trying to be gentle about it, but he wasn’t sure how much he was succeeding on that front.

Tommy needed rest. And he needed a hospital, but his power could be used to hide both Max and Tommy. Max could walk right out of here and no one would notice them.

He just needed to get his mate to open his eyes.

“Baby, please.”

Max shook him a little more, desperately trying not to let his panic get the better of him, but it was difficult, especially as some of those alpha voices came and went. Each time an alpha came close to the door, there was the risk of being sniffed out, or seen if the alpha opened the door to come into the basement.

But then, thank God, Tommy opened his eyes.

It was just a little at first. His long blond eyelashes fluttering like newborn butterfly wings.

Max smiled down at him, a puff of relief leaving his chest. “There you are.”

Tommy smiled weakly up at him, and nothing else in the world mattered.

That feel-good sensation stuck with Max for a good three seconds, which was three seconds longer than he needed, considering the situation.

“Honey, I know you’re tired, and this might even be weird to you—”

“Not weird,” Tommy said, his voice slurred as if he were waking up from a very long sleep.

And struggling not to let the darkness take him.

“Not weird?”

“I know you’re mine.”

Max’s heart fluttered. He’d never felt so good in his life, but he got serious again quickly.

“Hey, come on. Don’t close your eyes, sweetie. Look at me. Show me those bright blue eyes.”

Tommy did, and once again, Max allowed himself to feel relief.

He was going to have to go about this with the tiniest of baby steps. It was going to be frustrating, considering how much he wanted to just get the hell out of here, but that’s what needed to be done.

“Okay, we need to get out of here. Can you cloak us? Tommy, open your eyes. Can you cloak us?”

“I…I’ll try. Not supposed to.”

“Not supposed to?”

It sounded so utterly ridiculous that had his mate not been so weak and pale, Max might have shaken him. They were in trouble. They were going to die if they didn’t get out of here, and the only thing that held him back from leaving was that he wasn’t supposed to?

“Okay, never mind that. Tommy, I’m your mate, and I’m giving you permission right now. Understand? I’m giving you permission to leave with me. You need to cloak us. I know you’re tired and you spent a lot of energy fixing me up down there, but I need you to do this one more thing, and then we’re good. We can go home. Understand?”

“Home?”

Tommy smiled a weak smile at the word, as if it were foreign to him, something he’d always wanted.

Max nodded. “Yeah, home with me. You belong with me. It’s nice there, I promise. There’s a spot just for you.”

“With you?”

Max nodded. “Absolutely.”

God, if only he could show his mate how much he meant that. How much he wanted to take Tommy home with him so they could start their mating off properly, not wildly fucking in a dirty prison cell.

“Can you do it?”

Tommy nodded, and he closed his eyes again.

Max waited. He waited for Tommy to do something, say something, but he didn’t. He didn’t move.

Max’s first paranoid fear was that Tommy had died. He had to focus his attention as hard as he could toward sensing Tommy’s heartbeat.

It was there, beating steadily, so there was at least that, and he was breathing, so that was two for two of the important bits. But other than that, Tommy didn’t move.

“Tommy? Come on, sweetheart. Open your eyes again. Shit.”

ADULT EXCERPT

And Tommy gasped, from the shock of the situation, and the pleasure.

Alphas didn’t do this. Everyone knew that. Alphas had this sort of thing done to them, but they never debased themselves…

Tommy gasped and panted through the pleasure. His muscles tensed within him against his will. He couldn’t control the curling of his toes or the way his balls tightened.

No, this wasn’t debasing. Nothing that gave this sort of pleasure could ever be bad. Why he’d ever thought it was a complete mystery, because this was positively amazing.

Though he couldn’t stop from clenching Max’s hair. He might have been hurting the man, but it didn’t matter when he came.

The surge of energy and pleasure that hit him refused to be contained, especially when his mate swallowed down everything that Tommy gave him.

Tommy felt scandalized all over again. Shouldn’t Max have at least been against doing that? It was one thing to put his mouth on Tommy’s cock and…give him this sort of amazing pleasure, but to swallow it down?

That was wonderful.

Tommy sighed when the air of the SUV touched his wet cock as Max pulled back. The warm air seemed cold now that his dick was wet.

“How did you like that?”

Tommy nodded, having no words for it, but he sat up, an idea coming to him that refused to be ignored. “I wanna do that to you.”

Max laughed. Tommy liked the sound of that laugh. He wanted to hear the man moan more.

Max allowed himself to be pushed back into a sitting position as Tommy settled between the man’s knees. The back seat was spacious, but Tommy was still forced to get onto his belly.

Max’s cock was big. It was strange how he took note of it now, considering it had already once been inside him, but now that they were safe, or safer than they had been in Tommy’s pack, Tommy felt more at ease with being able to take in the beauty of it.

He’d never thought another man’s cock was beautiful before, but he definitely thought so about Max’s. He took the base of it in hand, and his belly warmed when the organ jumped. A drop of Max’s pleasure spurted out from the top as his mate groaned, gently thrusting into his hand.

“God, yeah.” He sighed, bringing a large hand down and resting it on Tommy’s hair. “That’s it. Been waiting for this for a while.”

Tommy’s cheeks heated up. He couldn’t stop it from happening. “Because you’re in heat?”

They had just mated, after all. Tommy knew about the lust and heat that rushed through all alphas when they’d taken their mates.

“Not just because of that, gorgeous.”

Tommy felt more heat flooding his cheeks. The hint that Max wanted him because Tommy was his love as well as his mate, and being called gorgeous, were treats he wasn’t exactly used to.

“Your cock is nice,” Tommy said. “I like it.”

Max’s mouth quirked. “Do you?”

Tommy nodded, leaning in. “Want to taste it.”

He did taste it. He licked at the underside of the head, then couldn’t resist as he put his entire mouth around that swollen crown.

He’d never liked doing this with any of the alphas who had demanded it of him, but doing it to Max was…nice.

That was the only word he had to describe it. It was nice, and it even made him a little happy because he could give his mate the sort of pleasure that Max had given to him.

He paid special attention to the slow thrust of Max’s pelvis, to the way his mate groaned and sighed when Tommy sank his mouth down as deeply as he could go.

Which wasn’t very deep. He wanted to take the entire shaft into his mouth, but he couldn’t seem to do it. He’d never been able to do it. Tommy tried and tried, but it kept becoming uncomfortable, forcing him to pull back.

“Don’t force it if you can’t do it,” Max said, but the next guttural moan that came from his throat revealed just how much he was enjoying the effort.

And Tommy did try again. He should have been able to do it. This wasn’t like the other times when he hadn’t been putting much of an effort into it. He didn’t like those alphas, and he certainly hadn’t loved the ones he’d done this to.

He loved Max. That should have been enough to make him better, to make him be able to take his mate’s cock all the way to the root inside his mouth.

And yet he still couldn’t do it.

Tommy pulled back, frustrated, and even a little angry with himself.

And Max actually laughed at him. “You look like you’re not having the best time.”

Embarrassment flushed through him. He might have blushed if he weren’t positive he was already doing it.

“I want to make you feel good.”

“You are making me feel very good,” Max assured him, pulling him up and off of his belly, then guiding Tommy so he was sitting in the man’s lap. “Trust me.”

It was those words that had Tommy tensing. He tensed because he did trust Max. He trusted his mate with absolutely everything he had inside him.

But Max had no reason to trust Tommy. Tommy was keeping a secret from him. A secret he might not forgive if he ever found out.

“Don’t be scared. I promise I would never hurt you.”

Tommy blinked. Was Max taking his reactions to mean…? No, that wasn’t right. Tommy shook his head quickly. “Don’t think that. I know you won’t hurt me.”

“Good.” Max sighed, and then he leaned in. He captured Tommy’s mouth in a sweet kiss just as he took his own cock in hand and pressed the swollen head that Tommy had been paying so much attention to just a minute before to his stretched asshole.