STORY EXCERPT

All of the bars to his cage were thick. They were all strong. And they all seem to be spaced out in equal measures to each other.

Which was when Gabriel turned his attention to the lock itself. There was a small latch, and a handle. The smaller pieces to the cage were right here. Probably from where some machine or person had put it together in an assembly line, but if this was his only weakness, then Gabriel was going to take it. He was done with this shit. He wanted to be out of here and home in time for the holidays.

So, he began scraping his teeth against the actual lock.

To his intense amazement, the lock wasn’t coated in anything silver. There was no smell of wolfsbane on the hinges, though even that was difficult to tell, thanks to the shit being absolutely everywhere.

Still, he had to try. Not that he hadn’t been trying already. It was just difficult to find a way to bite his way through steel.

Ever since he transformed for the first time, ever since he found out that he could control this, Gabriel had realized that his strength had gone up tenfold.

At least, he thought it was tenfold. It wasn’t as if there was a way for him to measure this.

But it seemed that all he could do was scrape his teeth across the metal. He wasn’t breaking it. He wasn’t even bending it.

He was just making these scraping marks that would draw attention to what he’d been doing.

Not good. Not if he wanted to get out of here without anyone spotting him.

More voices were coming. Shit. It was time to play dead again.

Except, while these voices did laugh, they did sound of music, and they did smell of that fake, sugar, maple syrup stuff, there was another voice in there that made him gasp.

Mainly because that voice went right through his chest, and down to his cock.

Which wasn’t a great thing to think about while he was in an animal shape, but that was the reaction he had.

“Get the fuck off me! Get off!”

Gabriel was supposed to be playing dead, but that voice had him raising his head up. He was wide awake.

What the hell was that?

More of those people in their bathrobes walked by. Did they not have fucking clothes or what?

Not that he cared, not when someone else was brought into the side of the barn where his cage was being kept.

A human. Obviously. The guy was still talking. Still had clothes on. Blue jeans and a red T-shirt.

He also struggled and squirmed to the point where four people had to carry him in. There was another cage, just across the barn, about ten feet away from where Gabriel’s cage was.

“Let me go! Let me go, you motherfuckers!”

Gabriel watched, interested. The sound of that voice pulling something primal from deep inside him.

Who was this guy? And why did it feel like he knew him?

He couldn’t be a shifter. Gabriel wasn’t sure what it was, but he couldn’t sniff it out in the air. He was pretty sure that he would be able to tell something like this.

He wasn’t entirely sure how, but it seemed logical that this person was not a werewolf.

But not human either. He’d been wrong in his earlier assessment.

He was something else. Something…that Gabriel cared about very much.

Fuck. Did this mean there were now two prisoners? The people in the bathrobes took their prisoner to the cage and locked him inside. They used the padlock, ensuring that there was no way for him to just open the door for himself.

“You’re going to stay here for a long time. At least until the boss knows what to do with you.”

“Fuck you and fuck your stupid boss,” shouted the young man, glaring death and destruction up at everybody who would put him in that cage.

He had dark, wild hair. Like he just rolled out of bed.

Or had just been manhandled by a bunch of people in their bathrobes.

He also had the brightest blue eyes that Gabriel had ever seen in his life. It was almost distracting how beautiful they were. Like something out of a romance movie or novel. He didn’t have the words for them.

The only thing he knew for sure was that they struck him dumb and held him in place.

And that wasn’t even because the guy was looking at him. He was still glaring at his captors, hurling abuse at them and promising revenge.

Very detailed, very violent revenge.

As though remembering that Gabriel was there at all, someone stepped forward.

“Should we leave him with this wolf? It might be a bad idea.”

The middle-aged man in gray waved off the concern. Gabriel had seen a lot of him around lately. He couldn’t tell if the guy was in charge, but it seemed a lot of people deferred to him for decision making.

Either in charge, or one of the higher-ups.

“This wolf is a little more than a dumb animal at this point. Leave them. I want to get back to our other prize.”

Shit. The other shifter. Gabriel nearly forgot about that person. Someone who had an animal trap clamped around their wrist.

That couldn’t be pleasant.

It had to be one of the people he’d been looking for. Someone who was just like him.

The man in grey looked down at Gabriel. He got close to the cage. Gabriel didn’t attack it. He kept away, trying to look as cowed as possible.

Nonthreatening. Couldn’t possibly be waiting for his chance to get the hell out of here and rip out some throats along the way.

Nope. Nope. Nope.

The bastard smiled.

Took everything Gabriel had to not snap his teeth and wipe that smile off his stupid face.

The man shook his head, as though amused, before standing straight again. “Let’s go. We have better things to attend to.”

They actually left him and the blue-eyed beauty alone.

And did Gabriel just think of the guy as being a blue-eyed beauty?

Holy shit. That was kind of pathetic and definitely a little weird.

“Hey! Where the hell do people think you’re going? Get me out of here!”

When he was ignored, the man slammed his palm onto the bars of his cage.” I said come back here and let me out! You people are looking at the wrong guy. I’m not the guy you’re looking for!”

The more Gabriel looked at him, the more he thought that this was the right guy.

ADULT EXCERPT

Uh, I’m not having any hallucinations or anything right now, am I?” he asked, touching Gabriel’s chest, just to confirm to himself that the man was made of hot flesh and muscle, and not a figment of his imagination.

“You’re really here?”

Gabriel took him by the hands and brought them to his face, letting Evan’s fingers push through his trimmed beard. “I’m right here. I’m never leaving you again.”

Evan moaned softly, and he melted into the next kiss, his eyes burning with the need to cry.

He held it back. He wasn’t about to destroy the mood by getting the water works going.

Gabriel must have also stolen the clothes he wore, because, while they settled over his shoulders and hips, they didn’t exactly fit.

As though they were owned by a man who was a little more round at the belly, and his clothing had stretched accordingly.

That was fine. It made it easier to get Gabriel naked.

The man growled, his hazel eyes flashing to gold as they were both in front of each other now, no layers to separate them.

Gabriel’s cock throbbed in front of Evan. His hand was drawn to it. He needed to touch.

When he did, he wasn’t disappointed.

Gabriel inhaled a trembling breath, his dick jumping in Evan’s hand, and a drop of pre-come forming at the head, sliding down the shaft.

“That’s…that’s what I want,” he moaned.

“I can keep touching?” Evan asked, that self-conscious feeling coming back to him.

Gabriel smiled, shaking his head. “Baby, you can do whatever you want to me. I’m not going to stop you.”

That was good to know, because there was something Evan desperate wanted to do.

He let go of Gabriel’s cock, smirking at the little disappointed sound he let off, moving so Evan could adjust his position.

But then that sound turned to something much more interested as Evan placed himself onto his belly, looking up at the other man.

Gabriel’s cheeks were flushed. The man looked ready to lose his entire mind.

And he moaned a broken, beautiful noise as Evan took him into his mouth.

He was big. There was no way Evan had the skill to get Gabriel’s huge dick into his mouth, so he was forced to use his hands to reach for what his mouth couldn’t take in.

That seemed to do the trick, and Gabriel’s eyes slid shut, his massive, perfectly sculpted chest rising and falling with each heavy breath.

“B-baby. You feel so damned good, oh!” Gabriel arched his spine, and the feeling of power that came over Evan as he did this, as he made this strong man come undone with just his lips and tongue, was intoxicating.

Evan was getting drunk on it, and even though his position was quickly becoming uncomfortable, the thrill of it was enough that he was able to keep going.

He’d say sorry to his lower back later. Right now, his dick throbbed, and the only way he could get some relief was by thrusting gently into the sheets.

He hoped that whoever this cabin belonged to wouldn’t mind the mess.

But Evan and Gabriel were going to, hopefully, be long gone before they could get caught.

Evan would leave an apology note. And maybe another, smaller note of thanks.

He wanted this so bad that he couldn’t stand it.

But Gabriel, on the other hand, seemed to have other ideas for what he wanted.

The man grabbed Evan by the shoulder, pulling himself back before Evan could really see what his tongue was capable of doing.

Evan barely realized Gabriel wanted him to stop until it was over. He hadn’t exactly been paying attention.

“Sorry, what’s wrong?” Evan asked, wiping the side of his mouth with the back of his hand.

That seemed to get Gabriel going all over again, because Gabriel stared at him like Evan had just done something incredibly sexy.

“I want to come inside you.”

Oh, yeah, that made sense. The very thing Evan had wanted from him in the first place.

“Do you want me to?” Gabriel asked.

Evan sat up quickly, getting to his knees in front of the man.

Even though his cock was absolutely huge, Evan had no fears.

That sense of how right this was, how they knew each other, and had known each other for a long time, came back over him.

The only word in Evan’s vocabulary at that moment was a resounding yes.

“If you don’t,” Evan threatened, “then I might throw you down and have my way with you instead.”

Gabriel tilted his head to the side a little, the corner of his mouth turning up in a quirky smile.

Then he grabbed Evan by the waist, throwing him down, and straddled him.

“If you think you can, you’re always welcome to try,” he said, nuzzling the side of Evan’s throat.

“For now, I’m going to mark you. My mate.”

Evan shivered. “Can’t wait.”