STORY EXCERPT

“I wasn’t using him!” Frederik snapped, enraged that Daren could even suggest such a thing.

“No? You were in a position of power over him. How do you know if he didn’t want it or if he was just trying to please his master?”

“He did want it,” Frederik insisted. He thought back to all the times he’d been with Owen. Sure there had been shyness in the beginning, but Frederik hadn’t pushed him for sex. He didn’t think he had. He liked his partners willing, thank you very much.

Still, the seed of doubt had been planted, and now Frederik found himself frantically searching through all of his memories for any sign that Owen had been less than willing, and maybe just doing the things he’d done because he knew it would make Frederik happy.

No. That couldn’t be right. Frederik didn’t always ask for sex anyway. Sometimes they would just lie in bed together, and Owen would read to him some of his books. That was a favorite pastime of theirs.

“Just tell me what you did with him,” Frederik demanded, a surge of fear lodging deep inside of his ribs where he couldn’t get it out. That other servant girl had said that he’d collapsed. “Is he okay? Is he sick?”

Daren looked more troubled than Frederik had ever seen him. It was right up there with that look he’d carried around on his face after their father and brother were both murdered in front of them.

“Did you know he was a part of the fae?”

That again. “No! I always thought the fae were…I don’t know, maybe smaller? More in tune with the forests or something. I’ve never even seen a faery before.”

“Alden suspects that he might have been a half-breed. Fae apparently have this habit of looking neither male nor female. He was fair enough, I suppose, but he definitely looked like a man.”

Frederik instantly caught onto the way his brother was using the past tense when talking about Owen.

“Where is he?” he demanded, his voice a deadly whisper.

Daren licked his lips. “I’m only being so harsh with you now because you need to know that we have to leave. The Delanys were attacked and we have to leave for home right away—”

“Where is he? Where is Owen?” Frederik screamed, bringing back the raw soreness of his throat.

Daren’s eyes widened a little. “Is that his name? It didn’t occur to me you’d bother to learn it, but I guess that makes sense.”

“Where is he? I swear to God, Daren, if you don’t tell me right now, I’m going to attack you.”

Just to show his brother that he meant it, he lengthened his fangs, feeling them slowly slide farther out of his gums and into clear sight of the other man.

Daren rubbed the back of his neck and looked away for a brief moment before he would finally meet Frederik’s eyes.

“He’s dead. I’m sorry, brother, I didn’t realize you would have cared so much.”

Frederik stopped listening after Daren told him that Owen was dead.

He shook his head, letting his denial take over as he stepped away from his brother. His heart began pounding in his ears, and the worst pain imaginable bloomed in his chest. “You’re lying,” he said. He had to be. There would have been something, some sign that something more was off. Frederik would have felt it in his gut if Owen’s heart ever stopped beating.

“I’m so sorry, brother, but you had to know. There’s no time for us to stay here. I’ve wasted enough time already.”

“Doing what? What would you be wasting time on instead of letting me see my sick lover?” This time Frederik did let his anger take over. He surged forward and grabbed Daren by the collar of his dress shirt and slammed him up against the wall.

Daren was older, but Frederik always had a bit more bulk than he did.

Daren didn’t so much as blink in surprise. It was as if he’d known Frederik was going to have this reaction.

“I was dealing with the body. He was put in the pyre with the other servants who were killed recently.”

The only other servants who had been killed were the ones to be executed for trying to murder by Daren and Frederik.

Frederik’s jaw dropped as he slowly started to believe his brother’s words. “You—you put him in a fire with those traitors?”

“Yes,” Daren said. “There wasn’t enough time to make a new one and I didn’t want to leave his body here and unattended in case the humans didn’t attack.”

“Didn’t want his body to stink up the house, did you?” Frederik asked with a sneer. He wanted to collapse on his knees and bawl his eyes out like a child. He’d always favored Owen, but only now that the man was dead did he realize just how much he’d cared.

He didn’t have the energy anymore to hold his brother against the wall. He released him and backed away. He turned around and hid his face in his hand, just in case he did unman himself and shed tears. He didn’t want to do it in front of an audience.

He felt Daren’s hand on his back, and he didn’t even possess the will to shrug him off.

“He didn’t suffer, brother. Know that, and Tristan would not have allowed you to keep him anyway. Not after what happened with the wolves.”

Frederik scrubbed his face with his hands and inhaled a long breath. “You’re sure he didn’t suffer?”

“I’m sure.”

“Did he ask for me?” He had to know that much. He had to know if Owen was frightened and wanted him.

“Don’t look for reasons to blame yourself for this, brother. He was delirious, so he couldn’t have asked for you even if he tried. The mage did what he could, but I sent him from the house. All the servants are now packing up. We have minutes before we need to be gone. Tristan will want us close, and you still need to recover before you can even think about going into any battles.”

If Frederik was to go into any battles, it would only be because he wanted to die.

ADULT EXCERPT

“Say my name,” Frederik demanded, and then he licked around the head. “Say my name again.”

Panting, Owen sat up and looked down at him. “W–what?”

Now that he could see his lover’s beautiful blue eyes, so cloudy with lust, Frederik thought he might implode from his own desperate wanting, but he had to remain in control.

“I love hearing you say my name, without the lord bullshit in front of it. Say my name and I’ll fuck you until you come screaming.”

“Holy shit,” Owen said, and before he fell back against the blanket, Frederik caught sight of the way his face went entirely red.

He’d heard his instructions, however, and apparently he understood them just fine as well as he thrust mindlessly into Frederik’s hand. “Frederik. Ugh, God, Frederik!”

That was exactly what he wanted.

Frederik placed a kiss along the side of Owen’s dick and then got back up onto his knees. He quickly undid every safety clasp and buckle there was on his pants, and he pulled them down.

The suits were designed to be tight, so that was something of a challenge, and the boots, while not connected or anything, still needed to come off as well before he could get completely naked.

Maybe it only seemed to take forever just because he was in such a hurry, but as he undressed, needing both of his hands at one point, Owen took the initiative to take his cock in hand and stroke himself as he watched Frederik remove his clothing.

Frederik swore several times as he lost his patience. Owen laughed at him when they were both finally and completely naked.

“Yeah, yeah, very funny,” Frederik said, and he pressed his mouth to Owen’s quickly one more time before reaching for the jar of salve.

He felt Owen shiver beneath him as he grabbed for it. “Fuck me hard and fast. I can’t wait to have you inside me again,” he said.

Frederik could hardly wait either. His fingers were shaking as he dipped them into the slick salve. He tried to control his body, to take his time, but so many weeks apart, most of them worrying over whether or not he would even see Owen again, were having a negative effect on his nerves.

The shaking stopped the second he felt the touch of Owen’s hand on his arm.

The other man was breathing deeply, and Frederik could hear the frantic beating of his heart, but he was still smiling with all the trust in the world up at him.

“Take whatever time you need,” Owen said.

That was why Frederik loved him, because he just understood without words what it was that had Frederik so tense.

He smiled back and pressed his fingers against Owen’s tight asshole. No one had been here after Frederik had. Good. If he’d so much as suspected that mage of harming Owen in that way then he would have had to find a way to bring him back to life so he could kill him again.

If he was even dead.

“Taking our time might have to come later. I don’t know how gentle I can be with you,” Frederik said, and then he cast a glance back at Owen’s stomach. “I won’t be too rough, though.”

“I can take it,” Owen promised, and then he arched his back just a little as Frederik pressed two fingers into him. “I need it.”

“You’re not the only one.” Frederik’s body started to shake again as he fought against the urge to just claim the man as his own and damn everything else. He held off for as long as he could, however, adding in another finger and stretching Owen until he was sure there would be minimal pain.

Owen rocked his hips wantonly against Frederik’s fingers, and when he grabbed hold of his cock and started to stroke himself again, quickly this time, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back.

“So damn gorgeous,” Frederik said, and he reached for more of the salve and coated his dick with it. He smoothed a little more around Owen’s stretched pucker just to be safe. “I can’t wait to make you mine.”

“I am yours,” Owen said.

Well, Frederik supposed that was true, in a way, but he hadn’t meant it in the master-slave way, and he didn’t want it to be in that way either. He was going to have to have a talk with Owen about that.

After they finished here.

Frederik took himself in hand and pressed the head of his cock slowly into Owen’s asshole. When Owen’s body accepted him, and the man moaned softly beneath him, Frederik pushed himself in even farther until his balls touched the back of Owen’s thighs.

The greatest thing in the world, what Frederik most enjoyed about this position, was the way Owen always hooked his feet around Frederik’s legs, keeping him close as he thrust back against him.

“I missed you so damn much,” Frederik said, and he pressed a kiss to Owen’s throat as he pulled out until just the head of his dick was still inside of the other man. Then he pushed himself back in, using his knowledge of the other man’s body to find his prostate.

When Owen’s eyes widened, and he gripped his dick to prevent an orgasm instead of to bring one on, Frederik knew there was no point in drawing this out.

Neither of them was going to last beyond a few hard thrusts.

When his cock was fully submerged inside of Owen, Frederik moved his hips in a back-and-forth, side-to-side roll that he and Owen both tended to enjoy. Owen’s fingernails scratched at his back, but any pain he should have felt at that was only turned into more pleasure as his cock was squeezed tightly by Owen’s asshole.

“Harder!” Owen said through clenched teeth. His eyes were bright and sweat was beading on his forehead as he looked into Frederik’s eyes. “I want to feel you in me all the way into tomorrow night.”

Owen’s wish was his command.