STORY EXCERPT

Kendall Reece barely saw the dark thing in the road, and when he did, he sure as hell made his tires scream hot murder when he slammed his foot down on the brake.

His Jeep swerved, and for one hard, heart-pounding second, he thought he was going to tip the vehicle.

No. Didn’t happen. He was sideways on the road, but he was still fine. No tipping.

“Jesus Christ,” he panted, half angry now that his adrenaline was pumping and he knew he wasn’t going to die.

He looked out into the dark road. What had that been? Had he hit it? God, he hoped not. It had looked like an animal.

The roads were fairly dead tonight. This wasn’t a busy area, and all the shops closed up a lot earlier than this. The only reason why Kendall had been out was because Mrs. Keith had a kitty emergency.

Fluffy had been coughing up too many hairballs, and the old lady had panicked.

That thing hadn’t been in the road when Kendall had driven to the clinic. He jumped out of his Jeep quickly, rushing to the back. He opened everything up and grabbed his flashlight. He turned the beam on, and he didn’t have to search long before he found the thing he’d nearly hit.

And by nearly, he really meant inches. Kendall nearly stepped on the animal itself when he’d started looking. He’d come so close to hitting it.

Might already be dead.

Kendall’s heart lurched. He loved animals. God, some prick had hit this wolf and just drove off?

Kendal bent down, but when he shined his light over the animal, he realized to his horror that it was still breathing. It was still alive.

And bloody.

“Fuck.”

Kendall worked quickly. He opened up the back of his Jeep and made room. He needed to get this animal to the clinic.

There were precautions and procedures for animals like this. Kendall’s mind went strangely blank on them. It didn’t matter that this was a predator he was handling. That it was a wild animal and could, at any second as he picked it up, wake up in a blind panic and turn those teeth onto him.

His throat was fairly exposed in the t-shirt he wore.

Kendall didn’t even wear gloves. He just put the animal into the back in the crate he kept in there for emergencies.

Only when he had the crate shut and locked did he realize the stupidity of what he’d done.

Whatever. Kendall shrugged it off. No harm had come to him anyway, and he’d wash up when he got to the clinic. The animal hadn’t bitten him, so there was no need to worry about getting sick with something.

Kendall briefly glanced down at the blood on the road, and he scowled, cursing the driver of whatever it had been to hit the poor animal.

Kendall couldn’t waste any more time on that. He needed to get this animal the care it needed.

He jumped back into the driver’s side of his Jeep, suddenly grateful for Mrs. Keith’s kitty emergency this late after all.

Kendall was one of two Vet’s in the area, and even when he wasn’t on call, he had the keys to the building. It was easy enough opening the door and letting himself inside, but he needed to get something to help him.

Sometimes big packages were delivered. There were dolly’s in the building to help with those. Kendall grabbed the one with the bigger, flat surface and ran back to his Jeep.

The wolf was still breathing, heavily, almost as if it was scared, but its eyes were closed. That was good. Kendall really didn’t want to wake it as he pulled the crate onto the dolly.

It took some effort, but he managed it without dropping the injured animal inside.

Kendall barely remembered to lock the doors to his Jeep when he went inside, and he was parked across two of the parking spots, but it wasn’t like he expected anyone to come in at this time.

“Come on, you’re going to be fine. You’re going to be just fine, bud.”

Kendall turned on all the lights, and he made it to his exam room. He barely remembered to grab gloves this time as he opened the crate and gently pulled the wolf out. He laid it gently on the exam table.

It was big even for a wolf. Kendall was about to look for something that would make sure the animal stayed asleep, just as a precaution so it wouldn’t wake up to try to attack him, but before he could do that, something caught his eye. Something under the fur where all the blood was.

Kendall frowned, then leaned in for a closer look.

“What?”

He pushed some of the bloody fur out of the way, working as gently as he could to not irritate the wounds any more than they already were.

He probably should have bothered. The long gash along the side of the shoulder and fur was closing up before Kendall’s very eyes.

It was a slow process, but that was usually the case with shifters. They healed incredibly fast in comparison to human injuries, but when it was something more severe, it was still slow. The wound was still bleeding.

Holy shit. This wasn’t a wolf. It was a werewolf.

Kendall backed away from the creature on his table, heart pounding.

He shook his head. What did it matter? The animal…man, whatever, still needed his help.

Since stitches probably wouldn’t be needed, Kendal quickly got out everything he could that would clean the wound before it closed entirely, then some bandages, in case it stayed open longer than he thought it would.

He needed to call the hospital.

* * * *

Red Johnson breathed in the sweet scent of cut grass and fresh air. His favorite smell in the entire world. It was right there. Just at the edge of his nose. His tongue peaked out, wanting to lick at it, but then the smell…it backed off.

Weird. The smell didn’t exactly go away. Scents didn’t work like that, but it wasn’t as strong, suggesting the scent was attached to a creature that was moving around.

His creature.

Mate.

ADULT EXCERPT

Their clothes came off quickly after that. Kendall was barely aware of them, when they were on him, and when they were off him. The only thing his body knew was the high tension buzz of desperation and pleasure.

He hadn’t gotten off more than once in one day since he was a teenager. Now he felt as horny as though he could go all night long.

Which was great because if he was going to have a marathon of awesome sex, he didn’t want to have it with anyone else but the man on top of him.

God, his fingers were so beautifully long. Red had perfect fingers. They reached inside him and touched everything and everywhere.

Kendall sighed. This part was usually embarrassing as fuck, but he couldn’t help himself. It felt good. He liked it, and he was going to come again really soon if Red didn’t cut that out.

“That’s it. Fuck, you’re sensitive,” Red purred, his mouth still grazing Kendall’s skin.

This wasn’t like any of the other times Kendall had sex. He’d only been with two other men in his life, and those relationships hadn’t lasted long. The sex had never gotten beyond the shy and awkward fumbling that happened in the beginning.

While that was cute and romantic at times, it got old really fast when Kendall really wanted someone confidant to yank him into bed.

Red didn’t seem like the sort of guy who would ever get shy about anything. He definitely seemed to know what he was doing, and that was one of the biggest turn-ons Kendall had ever had in his entire life.

“I’m going to fuck you. Then I’m going to bite you.”

Kendall nodded. “O-okay.”

Whatever he wanted, just so long as Red kept on hooking those amazing fingers deep inside him. So long as he continued to tease and torment his prostate like this, they would stay the best of friends, and oh fuck he was touching it again!

Kendall’s mouth dropped wide open. It wasn’t as though he had neighbors to worry about, but he covered his mouth anyway, not wanting anyone to hear him yell so loudly, not even the man he was in bed with. That would’ve been too much for him to handle.

“You don’t mind it if I bite you?”

Kendall shook his head. He could bite wherever he wanted. “Right there, fuck, keep your fingers right there.”

“It will make you mine forever. There won’t be any going back.”

There wouldn’t? That was fine. Kendall honestly couldn’t see a reason for wanting to go back when he felt so good right now. This was heaven. Heaven was in this bed with this man while he pushed his fingers deep into Kendall’s hole and made him sing. There was nothing in the world better than this.

“Come on. Tell me you want it?”

Kendall groaned, punching his fist down onto the mattress. “Do you want me to write a song about it? Yes! I want it!”

Red’s eyes were no longer golden. That was the thing that shocked Kendall out of his lust-filled stupor. He looked hard at the other man, agape and shocked. Those eyes, those eyes that had Kendall completely and utterly under their spell, were no longer golden.

They were bright red. Blood red, and Kendall knew this well enough because he saw blood on a regular basis.

The only difference was how this blood color didn’t give him an uneasy feeling like the blood of the animals he sometimes treated. This color did something else entirely to him. It made his body tight, made the pleasure building up just behind his stomach swell out a thousand times more, and his toes curled when Kendall tried to thrust his hips forward, to take those fingers deep inside him because that had to be the cause of this feeling.

“Wh-what are you doing to me?”

Red removed his fingers, which was a crying shame, and then reached for the bottle of lube, which was an enormous relief. He poured more into his hand, then stroked his cock with it until it was shiny.

Kendall looked down at it. He liked looking at Red’s cock. It was by far the most attractive penis he’d ever seen in his life, including all the ones he’d seen in porn videos online.

Somewhat dark in color when it was hard, thick, and long, with a slight curve to it as the head took on more of the color. Kendall got a mental image of himself on his belly, with Red in front of him, within easy reach so Kendall would be able to easily put that cock into his mouth and show Red just how much he was loving this.

“You’ll get your chance soon enough,” Red promised.

Kendall looked sharply up at him. “What? I…can you read my mind?”

Red chuckled, shaking his head as he pulled Kendall’s legs over his shoulders. “No, though that would be amazing. It’s just fairly obvious what you’re thinking about when you look at me like that. Or, when you look at my cock.”

Kendall didn’t think it was possible, but his body got so much hotter in that instant. He was fully body blushing, that was the only explanation for the rush of heat that met him.

Red kept on smiling that sinfully sexy smile, the one that made Kendall a pile of jelly in the man’s hands. “You’ll get your chance soon enough.”

Kendall almost asked when, but then he felt the hard, smooth head of Red’s cock pressing against his asshole.