STORY EXCERPT

Harley growled and stabbed a finger into Silas’s chest. One angry nudge had been enough for Silas to feel a jolt of electricity that went right to his chest and groin. Shit. This werewolf was bad news.

“I ought to leave your pale skinny ass.” Harley faltered when Silas grabbed hold of his pointing finger, and slid the digit into his mouth.

Silas didn’t know what possessed him to suck slowly, his own fangs gently grazing the skin. One prick had been enough for a droplet of blood to well up. Silas froze, tongue catching the rich thick crimson elixir. So easy for him to do more and commit the unthinkable.

Harley did nothing but save him from his tormentors. Silas owed the guy his life, yet hunger, more intense than he’d ever felt hit him like a sledgehammer. He wanted to wrap the werewolf in his embrace, release his vampiric pheromones to keep his prey docile, but he knew a man like Harley would fight. He’d fight Silas to the death and the prospect of a challenge excited him.

Then his human brain kicked in. Silas drew out Harley’s finger from his mouth and whispered, “You should leave me here.”

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Harley demanded, grabbing his shoulders.

Silas shook his head and showed Harley the misery in his eyes. “They took me when Lucius changed me,” he said in an uncertain tone.

“Calm the fuck down. Take deep breaths—forgot that,” Harley said quickly. “Tell me what happened.”

Silas didn’t know how Harley could switch from being angry one moment and sound incredibly persuasive and soothing the next. He opened his mouth and Lucius and his story spilled from his lips. Silas gave Harley the condensed version, the summary without embellishments. Focusing on his words helped Silas think past his hunger a little better. After, Silas felt all hollow. Numbed out like an empty vessel missing his purpose in life.

“They kept on asking questions about some chalice I had no fucking clue about, then you know what happened after,” Silas finished.

Harley furrowed his brows. Feeling a little light-headed, Silas leaned in close. He was terrified he’d fall over and embarrass himself, but he felt Harley’s strong arms easily catching him.

Silas sniffed the line of Harley’s throat. Pressed his fangs so hard against his bottom lip to keep himself from sinking them into Harley’s neck, he tasted his own blood. Worse, he could smell the fresh blood on Harley, especially from the healing wound over his ribs, but he tried his best not to think about it.

“Easy there. You need to feed.”

“I don’t know how. Harley, you need to go. Save your own skin. You’ve done enough for me,” Silas muttered.

“Shut the hell up. You have no idea what you’re saying.” Harley’s golden gaze glinted with intent under the moonlight. “Take some from me.”

Stunned, Silas stared at him for a couple of seconds. “You’re offering me your blood? What if I can’t control myself? I’ve never done anything like this before. Why would you suggest something like that to a complete stranger?”

Harley snarled. “Whatever we are, whatever this thing between  us, we’re no longer strangers.”

Then the werewolf surprised him again by tilting up his chin and taking his lips. Lucius kissed sweet, tender, and occasionally rough, but Harley plundered. He took full possession of Silas’s mouth, eradicating any logical thought left in his mind. Silas’s insides melted. His heart raced when Harley gripped the back of his neck and deepened the kiss. He opened his mouth, letting Harley tongue fuck him.

The werewolf rubbed Silas the wrong way. Harley was coarse, hard, and warm unlike the sometimes chilly and reluctant affection Lucius gave. He was, Silas decided, all heat, incinerating everything in his mouth. When Harley let go of him Silas felt a little dazed and unlike himself. Harley had replaced his hunger for blood with temptation of a different sort.

“What was that?” Silas whispered, wide-eyed. “What are you doing to me? You’re making me feel things I shouldn’t be feeling again after my Master died.”

Harley pressed a finger to his lips. “Ask questions later.”

Silas moaned when Harley pushed him gently until his back tasted the rough texture of bark. He shouldn’t be feeling anything but the old aches of the torture he endured. It felt incredibly inappropriate to feel so aroused.

Harley pinned his wrists above his head one-handed, and kissed him again, sending his mind reeling. He pelted kisses down the side of Silas’s neck, while he used his other hand to reach for the button of Silas’s jeans. One flick and Harley sent it flying. He jerked the zipper down and pulled out Silas’s needy member.

Harley’s gaze darkened with intense need. “So hard for me already, baby?”

“We don’t know each other well enough to call each other pet names, honey,” Silas couldn’t help answer.

Harley chuckled. “Play nice or you won’t be getting any.”

“What kind of sick game are you playing?”

Harley leveled those bestial yellow eyes at Silas. “Tell me you feel nothing, Silas. Go ahead and lie to my face.”

“I can’t,” Silas admitted, looking away. “I don’t understand what this is between us.”

“We’re mates, Silas. Can’t you tell? That’s why I came running the moment I smelled your hurts. Why a guy like me who avoids trouble would jump in the line of fire for a stranger he just met.”

“Mates?” Silas echoed. He heard of the concept. Knew shifters mated for life, but it had been something like a fairy tale story or a made-up myth. “Like instant love?”

Harley laughed. “There’s no such thing. What we have is spark, something that can either go out, or go strong, because nothing in life is ever easy.”

“So what you’re doing, is distracting me with sex so I don’t think about eating you?”

Harley growled, slamming him against the tree. “I’m no one’s prey, little vampire. I lead the dance, not you.”

Then Harley curled his fingers around Silas’s member. Silas let out a gasp as Harley flicked the pre-cum glistening at his tip and teasingly pinched his cock head.

“Beg me,” Harley demanded.

ADULT EXCERPT

Silas turned so they looked at each other eye-to-eye. He kissed the side of Harley’s jaw, caught his bottom lip with his teeth, and then kissed Harley slowly and tenderly, letting Harley know without the need for words Silas felt the same. “You won’t lose me. We’ll get through this. It’s going to hard. Those hunters will raise merry hell, but we’ll survive to see another day. Finally see where this is going.”

“I know where this is going. A good place,” Harley answered for him.

He grabbed Silas’s hand, and began leading out of Garret and Bo’s property. Their house, Silas saw, was in a quiet residential neighborhood near the woods. Harley led him out of Garret’s yard and into the dark. This time, Silas didn’t feel fear or dread.

Harley moved with surety, as if he knew the forest. Silas wasn’t surprised. Here, the werewolves of Darkfall Mountain knew the trees and dirt like old friends. It was their territory—theirs to protect and guard from unwanted intruders. Harley didn’t lead them far, just a couple of feet from the house, so Garret and Bo wouldn’t hear them.

He pushed Silas against a tree, reminding Silas of the time Harley offered to quench his hunger by offering his own neck. Above them, the night sky was a net of stars. The moon rose above them, still bloated, providing their dirty deeds brief illumination.

Silas moaned, not caring how loud he sounded, as Harley pinned his wrists above his head. The sturdy wood dug into his back, making Silas aware of his position—trapped delicious between a tree and his domineering mate. The thought made him hard. The bulge in his jeans didn’t need to convey his mood to Harley because Silas knew Harley smelled his arousal.

“You’re wearing too many clothes in my opinion, vampire,” Harley remarked.

“Likewise, werewolf.” Silas grinned. “I want to see some skin. Run my hands all over those yummy muscles. Mine.”

Harley chuckled. “The last fuck before the scary battle, huh?”

“No. Not the last, but the first of many.”

That made Harley pause. His gaze grew darker. Intense. “You’re fucking right.”

“Enough talking. Strip. Please?” Silas added.

Harley let Silas’s wrists go and tugged off his shirt in annoyance. Silas licked his lips. “More.”

“Demanding vampire.” Harley unbuckled his belt. “Do you want me to tear those off clothes off you? Bo’s going to be mad, he’s picky about his stuff.”

“No way.” Silas stripped in hurry. Everything they did was. Silas just couldn’t wait any longer. Once they were both nude and touching skin-to-skin, Silas pulled Harley to him. Harley took control, restrained his wrists and plundered his lips. Silas’s head spun. Wouldn’t stop spinning, even as Harley drew back, grin on his lips.

“Impatient, aren’t we?”

“Damn you. Look who’s talking,” Silas threw back. He felt the press of Harley’s erection, long and thick against his belly. “Come on, big guy. Make us both fly.”

Complying, Harley reached for Silas’s member. He looked amused when Silas mirrored the gesture. Harley matched Silas for every stroke. Slow to fast. Rhythm picking up until both of them were panting.

“Give it to me. Your release,” Harley said, voice harsh. He pinched Silas’s tip. Silas exploded on his command, his cum spilling over Harley’s fingers. He shuddered. Pleasure assaulted his body, making him slump against the tree. Silas fought to snap back to reality, to return Harley the favor, but Harley grabbed his fingers. “I’ll finish in you.”

Harley didn’t ask, the demanding wolf, but Silas liked that just fine.

“Come fuck me, handsome,” Silas purred.

 Harley turned him, so Silas’s front touched the rough texture of wood. He shuddered when he felt the press of Harley’s steel-hard member pressing against the entrance of his ass.

“Hands pressed against the trunk,” Harley instructed.

Silas obeyed, laying his palms flat above his head. He spread his legs to balance himself.

“Baby,” Silas whined, shocked when Harley smacked his left ass cheek. The sting made him squirm and woke his limp cock back to life. Christ, that was fast.

“Behave, vampire,” Harley chided.

When Silas thrust his ass at Harley, Harley gave his buttocks another whack. Silas moaned in frustration. That made Harley chuckle. Harley’s lubed fingers found his crack a second later.

“You brought lube along? Planned this, didn’t you?” Silas asked. He didn’t need to face Harley to know his dominant mate was grinning.

“Of course. Going to make this ride memorable.” After spreading a generous amount of lubricant in his asshole, Harley nudged a finger in, silencing Silas. “You going to take me in you, baby?”

“Fuck yeah. Hurry it up.” Silas knew he sounded needy, but he’d take any comfort he could get, especially when tomorrow might mean their death or victory.

If they were fighting for love and their future, than shouldn’t they express their affection for each other the way they knew how? Didn’t someone once quote that sexual intimacy was the path to spiritual development? Silas knew his identity, his reason for living when Lucius picked him as his student. After Lucius’s death, Silas didn’t know his purpose anymore, until Harley came. Without Harley, Silas didn’t know how he’d summoned the strength to take up the responsibilities Lucius left him.

His petulant remark earned Silas another spank on either cheek. The sting combined with the anticipation of Harley breaching him made his prick thicken against the bark.

“Don’t be crude, Silas. I thought you had better manners than that.”

Silas sniffed, pretending to be offended. Harley slid a second slick digit in, and then curled. Silas moaned. Scissoring and finger fucking him, Harley spread Silas for his easy access. Harley nudged his cockhead in. Despite the slight burn, Silas willed his ass muscles to pull his mate in.

“Fuck, baby. You’re so tight.”