STORY EXCERPT

“I told you everything’d be okay,” he said, and his hand reached for Emery’s hand, lacing their fingers together.

Emery squeezed tightly. He was so damned happy he could hardly breathe. Logan and Hyde came up to grab on to Griffin’s shoulders in manly shows of affection. Logan smiled at Emery, too, which was nice. Hyde slapped him on the back, and considering that guy was enormous even for an alpha, it kind of hurt and nearly threw Emery off his feet.

He managed to keep from falling over by holding tighter to Griffin’s hand, however, and the three alphas laughed.

Max spoke up, the muttering in the room apparently pissing him off to an extent. “Okay, everyone, shut the fuck up,” he snapped.

All was immediately quiet.

Max narrowed his eyes, and Emery didn’t think he’d ever seen a look like that on the alpha’s face, even when Emery met with him for the first time.

“Just so we’re all clear, Emery can stay, and obviously so can Griffin, but they’re still going to obey the laws of the pack. If Emery suddenly turns into a psychotic serial killer, he goes, all right? Do I have to start spilling the obvious?”

“He’s already a killer,” Dean muttered, glaring at Emery. “If he even looks at Joey the wrong way—”

Griffin didn’t let the alpha finish that sentence as he snapped his teeth. His teeth that suddenly looked so much sharper and longer than they had a minute ago.

Emery held his mate’s hand tighter. Fuck, if Griffin got into a bad fight with his friends because of him, he was never going to live it down. Emery would be the guy who turned Griffin on the rest of his pack. That would stay with him forever.

Thankfully, Griffin didn’t charge at Dean and Dean held back, too. Phoenix had his hand on Dean’s shoulder, keeping the man from doing anything else.

Yeah, they were pretty much just a bunch of normal guys. They lost their tempers, but they had one another to ground themselves when bad shit happened.

Max sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “Dean, for fuck’s sake, just mate with the kid already and be done with it.”

Dean’s face turned ripe tomato red. “What?”

“Everyone knows you want to mate with him. Why do you think Joey’s constantly getting sick? I’m tired of seeing you act like an idiot about this. Just claim him and quit dancing around it.”

That red look didn’t vanish from Dean’s face. It seemed to brighten and get worse. Emery kind of felt sorry for him, but he didn’t say anything. Anything he said at this point wouldn’t be even close to welcome, so he just kept his mouth shut, especially when Dean stormed out of the library, slamming the door so hard behind him that the wood sounded like it cracked.

“Jesus,” Max said, shaking his head, and he turned his attention back to Emery. “Do we have an understanding? The information you gave could still help us, but if you’re going to live here, you’re going to abide by the rules just like everyone else.”

Emery nodded. “Yes, sir,” he said.

“Sir?” Max said, laughing a little, and then he shrugged. “Okay, whatever.” Max looked to Griffin. “For the next little while I’m still going to want you with him though. Same rules as before. At all times.”

“That’s fine,” Griffin said. Probably because he was so happy that he was willing to agree to anything. It was about the same as how Emery felt in that moment.

“Am I allowed to leave the lodge with him?” Emery asked.

Max scratched the back of his head. “If we’re ever going to get to trust you, we’re going to have to let you leave. We’ll start off small. Store runs with Griffin. Short ones. Every time you come back, every time you’re at a place at the time you say you’re going to be there and then come back here, I’ll trust you a little more. Eventually it’ll get to the point where you won’t need someone around you all the time, but don’t count on that happening for a long while yet.”

“How long?” Griffin asked.

“I’d say a year at least.”

“A year?”

“A year?”

Emery and Griffin spoke at the same time, though Griffin sounded much more in shock and upset than Emery did. Emery was kind of pleased.

“Too much?” Max asked.

“It seems a little harsh,” Griffin replied, looking down at Emery.

“What do you think, Emery?” Max asked, looking to him.

Emery thought this was a test. He thought that if he whined and complained about the time, it would show this alpha that he wasn’t ready to be trusted with anything.

Which was fine, because he thought it was fine. A year of being watched wasn’t bad at all, considering the things he’d done.

“I think it’s pretty good, actually,” he said. “A year of sort of house arrest…it seems better than what I’d get if I were in a human court being tried with human crimes.”

Killing werewolves still wasn’t much of a crime, even for the circumstances that Emery had given. It was a slap on the wrist, do a couple of months in prison and maybe pay a fine, sort of crime. 

“I think it’s better than what I deserve. I won’t give you any reason to be suspicious of me. I promise,” Emery said.

He felt Griffin’s eyes, along with the eyes of everyone else in the library on him. He tried not to feel embarrassed over that, but it was there.

Max regarded him carefully. He finally smiled and nodded. “Good, now go on, get out of here,” he said, nodding to the door.

Griffin squeezed Emery’s hand, and they made their way out of the library.

Emery could hardly believe it was over.

ADULT EXCERPT

“Just trying to remember where I left the lube,” he said.

“Uh-huh, sure,” Emery replied, a satisfied, sexy little smile on his face that made Griffin just want to eat him up.

Maybe he would later on. The good kind, of course.

The lube was exactly where he’d left it in the drawer beside the bed. Griffin had no trouble locating it, and it was clear by the look on Emery’s face that it was just another bit of proof that Griffin actually had been kind of flustered.

“Shut up,” Griffin said.

“Didn’t say anything,” Emery replied.

“You were thinking it,” Griffin said. He pushed down his pants roughly, accidentally scratching his hip in the process. He was in too much of a hurry to care as he popped open the lid with his thumb, turning the bottle over, and squirting some of the clear lubricant into his open palm.

He stroked it over his cock before pressing two slick fingers against Emery’s hole. Because of how relaxed his mate had become, it seemed it was easy enough for him to open up to Griffin’s fingers.

They hadn’t been having insane amounts of sex lately. Despite the mating urge that drove them on, recent events, Emery’s awakening, and just everything else around them had seemed to prevent their coming together until desperation demanded it.

The beast was out of the cage now, and this wasn’t just about their win in the library, their relief, or their adrenaline coming out. The mating lust was also demanding satisfaction.

Griffin hooked his fingers, finding Emery’s prostate. He stroked his fingertips over that small nub inside of the man.

Emery bucked and moaned, and the scent of his warm cum filled the air after it soaked into the blankets beneath him.

Griffin knew this because Emery kept pushing his body back and away from the bed, thrusting his ass against Griffin’s fingers, so his body wasn’t so firmly pressed into the edge of the bed anymore.

Which also allowed Griffin to see how his mate was still hard.

“Gonna come again?” Griffin asked, pressing the mushroom-shaped head of his cock up against Emery’s hole.

Emery’s eyes were shut again as he nodded. “I…I think so,” he said, and he let his head fall down into the sheets. “Oh fuck.”

Good. This was exactly what Griffin wanted. “I’m gonna make the entire house hear how happy you are to be with me right now,” Griffin promised.

“Oh God,” Emery said, his shoulders slumping, and he sighed and arched his back when Griffin’s cock pushed through his asshole, sliding inside.

And God, this was what he needed. The slick heat and pressure surrounding his dick was gorgeous, it was what he needed.

And because Emery was positioned against the side of the bed, it was also the perfect position to fuck him in.

No matter how hard Griffin thrust forward, Emery couldn’t move forward. He could bounce back, but that was about it, and there was something about being in that position, about fucking into a body that could not be moved too far ahead. As much fun as it was fucking Emery across the bed, it wasn’t as much fun trying to follow him when he was trying to get a good grip.

Griffin couldn’t hold out for long, and he didn’t bother to try. His orgasm was right there, and he welcomes it when it came.

The high of pleasure that shuddered through his body that yanked a groan out of him as he came inside of his lover, marking the smaller man with his scent…there was nothing like it in the whole of the world.

Griffin sucked on Emery’s throat as he milked the last of the pleasure out of himself, almost collapsing onto the man’s back when he finished, panting for breath.

Emery shifted beneath him, shrugging his shoulders and getting Griffin’s attention. “Don’t stop, please don’t stop,” he said.

Griffin released a low, rumbling noise that might’ve been a purr had he been a cat instead of a wolfhound.

He found Emery’s ear with his teeth, and he took great pleasure in nibbling on it. “Gonna be a while before I finish with you,” he said, thrusting his still-hard cock forward again.

Emery moaned. Griffin reached around and curled his fingers around Emery’s hard prick. It jumped in his hand, warm cum shooting onto the sheets and into his hand. Now the whole of the bedroom smelled like cum.

“Fuck,” Emery panted. “Oh fuck.”

Griffin listened as Emery’s heart thrummed, coming back down to a normal pace. The man’s shoulders seemed to relax as he pressed his face against the bed sheets. He looked like he was trying to go to sleep.

“No, you don’t.” Griffin pulled free of his mate’s body, grunting slightly when his cock was no longer in that warm space.

“What are you—hey!”

Emery yelled in shock as Griffin scooped him up, stood, and then tossed his lover onto the bed.

“What are you doing?” Emery snapped.

Griffin continued to smile as he climbed over his mate’s body. “We’re not even close to being finished.”

Emery’s pretty eyes widened just as he shuddered, and right before he groaned. “Christ. I can’t keep up with you.”

“Trust me,” Griffin said. “You can.”

Griffin leaned in to kiss and lick at Emery’s chest, letting his teeth scrape over his nipples.