STORY EXCERPT 

The fire was close enough to Orin's skin that it burned. It hurt. He forced himself to stay put, forced the creature in his arms to get closer to the flames, even though it was hurting him as well.

Worth it.

“Let me go! Let me go! Creature! Foul creature!”

The vampire cursed, scratched and spit as Orin closed in on the largest part of the fire. Where he'd dumped the majority of the gasoline.

It smelled like an outhouse exploded nearby. Vampire blood always did smell like shit, but he didn't care about that either, or the fact that he was covered in the stuff.

This was for Milo. For his mate. When Orin died, he would make amends and Milo would be free.

Orin pushed himself into the fire with his prey. The vampire screamed as Orin held his face into the burning embers, the flames licking his hands and the vampire's face, burning its hair.

It shrieked. Orin screamed with him. It hurt! He wanted to let go and back away. He never knew he had this sort of willpower to keep going, but it was there, and he didn't dare stop.

Not until the vampire ceased to move. Even then, Orin wouldn't let himself pull back, not until he was sure the other man wasn't faking it.

He backed off then, his adrenaline coming down, and the pain flaring up with it.

Orin fell back into the snow. He pressed his face into a clean, bloodless patch. Now his face was cold but his back felt as though it was on fire.

Maybe it was. Orin rolled to his back. Everything was bright, despite the fact that it was night time out.

He only wished that cunt, Queen Zoella had been here. He could have killed her, too.

No, of course not. She'd left some time that morning, as though she'd known Orin would be coming back.

As though she'd known he was going to betray her when the house woke up and found Milo gone.

Milo had been the only reason Orin had stayed. The only reason to betray his pack, his brother.

Though his entire body stung with the closing heat, Orin's inner wolf panted with its tongue lolling.

God, it felt good to kill vampires again. Better still to open up the barn and let out all the humans and omegas kept prisoner there.

Blood farms were disgusting, Orin was disgusting. He was covered in vampire blood, and...

And he'd tried to kill his best friend's mate.

Orin looked up at the stars. His heart beat seemed to slow. He couldn't tell if that was because he was relaxing, or because he was dying.

The stars were beautiful. He hoped Milo was looking up at them tonight. One kiss hadn't been enough. Not nearly enough to satisfy, but at least he would be free. Milo was no longer a feeder for the queen, and the other omegas and humans were out in the world. They would make it to the highway, call for help, and the humans would forget about what happened to them.

Humans were funny like that. A vampire could hiss in their faces, claim to be a vampire, show off the teeth and all, and the human would go back to playing with their smartphone, thinking a Goth was just being cute.

Milo wouldn't forget. He would remember this for the rest of his life.

He'd been so cute. Orin had met the man under stars like this. The first night he'd scoped out this property, hiding, lurking, searching for just the right place to strike.

In some lights, Milo's hair appeared a brighter shade of red than it really was. It was actually strawberry blond, but that night, it looked on fire.

Like right now.

Kind of fitting. The fire closing in, threatening to consume him, and Orin was so tired he could hardly bring himself to care.

Fire hair, fire, hot, and the stars. This was a good way to die. It might have been selfish, but Orin really hoped Milo didn't forget him. Orin had worked so hard to make sure the omega wouldn't notice him too much, but he couldn't resist taking one kiss from the smaller man before dumping him off on his twin's doorstep, and then hot footing it out of there before Orin could change his mind.

He could almost hear his brother right now, calling out to him. Yelling at him. Orin just wanted to go to sleep.

ADULT EXCERPT 

“Fuck, you're beautiful,” Orin rasped, his tongue licking against Milo's hole one more time. “So fucking gorgeous. I can't believe I...”

Orin cut himself off from whatever he was about to say.

Milo didn't get the chance to ask him about it when the alpha suddenly grabbed him by the hips and pulled him back up.

Milo gasped as he was forced to his knees, and then shoved to the head of the bed.

“Hang onto this,” Orin rasped, grabbing Milo by his hands and forcing him to hold tight to the headboard.

It was really just a steel frame, but Milo got the impression of what Orin wanted to do to him. He shivered.

“Yes, please, yes.”

Orin reached for the nightstand. Some of his medications were there, as well as a jar of cream.

Milo shivered again, knowing what Orin planned on doing to it when Orin unscrewed the lid and had a sniff at the white contents.

It was supposed to help with his burning. Orin likely wouldn't scar, and in a couple of weeks, if not sooner, he would be fully healed. All the same, it was important for him to have something by way of cream for his skin.

Orin apparently also decided it was good enough to use on Milo's hole.

Milo gasped when he felt one of Orin's fingers touching his pucker. He lurched away from the cold, and then settled back against it with a deep, satisfied sigh, the pleasure already hitting him as those fingers circled the ring of muscle.

“That feels good,” he moaned. Milo dropped his face against his hands, his cock throbbing as he panted for breath.

“You want my dick inside you?”

Milo nodded.

“No going back after this. You're mine after this. Understand?”

Milo nodded again.

Orin growled. He grabbed a fistful of Milo's hair and yanked him back hard, until his back pressed firmly against Orin's chest.

“No, say you understand. I am not a nice person.”

What? That made no sense. Milo blinked at the other man, trying to understand his confusion and settle the things he knew about Orin with the things Orin was saying about himself.

“Yes, you are.”

Orin's entire body seemed to freeze. He didn't take a breath for four whole seconds. Milo knew because he didn't breath either, not when that pain entered Orin's eyes.

Orin shoved Milo back into position before he could ask what the matter was, and then those fingers pushed inside him hard.

Had he been a virgin, this part might have been unpleasant. It was as though Orin was struggling with his inner demons, as though he wanted to hurt Milo just enough to scare him away, to prove to him that Orin was not worthy of being a mate, but couldn't quite bring himself to cross the line.

The result was dominance, the kind that skirted around the edges of pain but didn't quite get there, that made Milo excited to know who was boss in this bed, and who was the one who would be getting fucked by such a powerful man.

And he moaned like a bitch in heat, thrusting his ass back into those fingers, begging for more, begging for Orin to put his cock inside Milo's body.

To make Milo his.

The stretching didn't last long before it seemed Orin couldn't hold himself back any longer.

He pulled his fingers away, panting, still growling a little, and then lined up the head of his cock with Milo'd entrance and pushed inside hard.

As though still wanting to scare Milo away with how rough he was being.

Milo would not be scared away. Poor Orin didn't realize that the more he tried to dominate, the more Milo liked it.

“That's it,” he moaned, clenching his eyes shut as he was breached, stretched and filled to the hilt. He felt Orin's balls touch the back of his ass, and the wild fox inside him scurried around, full of energy, wanting out, to participate.

Milo wanted to laugh at the creature.

Heh, no. Sorry. This was for his pleasure and only his. Milo did not feel like sharing what belonged to him.

Orin fucked him. He canted his hips slowly for the firs three strokes, and then gave in to his inner demons and slammed his cock forward, as though he'd been waiting for this for as long as Milo had.

As though he'd wanted this from the day they'd first met, just as Milo had.

“Oh God, that's what I want,” Milo moaned, thrusting his ass back against Orin's cock, meeting him halfway every time, their rhythm off, but that was all right. It was part of the appeal and he used his other hand to stroke his own nipples one at a time as Orin fucked into him, gave him everything he could possibly need and more.

It was like coming home. This was his home. This was his alpha.

This was his mate.