STORY EXCERPT

Trey ran into the bathroom, hand to his mouth, and he just barely managed to make it to the toilet before he threw up.

As in stomach-twisting, body forcing everything up because what was inside him was apparently trying to kill him sort of throw up.

He groaned, sinking to his knees and clutching at the cool porcelain.

Thank God the toilet was clean. He wasn’t always very caught up on his own chores, but Nate must have cleaned this toilet recently because it smelled brand new.

Well, it would again in a minute. Trey flushed down the contents but then stayed where he was, just in case something happened.

“What the hell?” he moaned.

This was the second week in a row that the smell of eggs made him have to rush to the bathroom like this.

Puking so much wasn’t normal. The nausea always went away, eventually, but this wasn’t something he thought he could handle anymore.

He needed a doctor.

There was a knock at his door. Not the bathroom door, that was still open, but his bedroom door.

He was currently living in a mansion, the sort of thing where, if he’d just been charged rent for his room alone, he’d never be able to afford to live here.

Everyone’s room had a connected bathroom, which was good because lately Trey had needed it.

“Just a second,” he called, pushing himself to his feet when the knocking sounded again.

He washed his mouth out in the sink, quickly gargled a little mouthwash, and then went to the door.

He tensed to find Ronan on the other side.

“Are you all right?” Ronan’s nostrils flared just enough to let Trey know he smelled what Trey had done. “Were you sick again?”

Trey struggled to keep from grumbling.

“What is it with you shifters and your hearing? And your smell? It’s weird.”

Normally Trey wasn’t so short with the people who had kindly rescued him from enslavement and certain death, especially not to Ronan, but his stomach still hurt, and he wasn’t in a good mood.

“Sorry,” Ronan said, though the soft smile on his mouth suggested he was anything but. “I just wanted to check on you.”

“I’m fine,” Trey said, trying desperately to hide the fact that he was honestly touched by the fact that Ronan wanted to care for him at all.

Ronan was the one who’d brought Trey here. Trey had been a prisoner in that vampire blood farm for months. Almost seven months, actually. He’d made friends with another prisoner, Owen, and when Owen had been taken away, Trey wanted to go with him.

Ronan had let him come. Trey only found out later it was for a very specific reason.

Because his brain worked differently from that of other humans.

No one knew about vampires or werewolves, or the war between them. Even the other prisoners Trey had been with didn’t realize it. Some kind of spell. Even as they were having their blood drained from them, it was as though something in their minds prevented them from processing how they were being used like cattle by vampires.

Everyone seemed to think their blood was being stolen so it could be sold on the black market. Even when they actually saw the vampires themselves, teeth, pointy ears, pale, bluish flesh and all, a block kept them from seeing the big picture.

Not for Trey. And not for Owen, either. They’d known, and the others just looked at them as though they were crazy when Trey and Owen tried to reveal the truth. They thought the blood loss was making them hallucinate, and when they were freed, they all went back to their lives, assuming the criminals had been caught and the world was right again.

Not for Trey. Ronan recognized that and took him, showing him how much more there was to the world than he’d originally thought.

At least werewolves seemed…well, good. It had been bad enough finding out vampires existed. When Trey discovered werewolves were a thing, he nearly passed out.

It was only because Ronan had saved him that Trey was willing to give the man, and his pack, a chance.

That, and Ronan was pretty nice to look at.

Today he wore a James Dean number. A white T-shirt with blue denim jeans. He was a full head taller than Trey was, and his silvery blond hair was pulled back in a braid.

Trey had never seen that style in his hair before. He’d seen it loose and around his shoulders that one time they’d gone to bed together.

Never this. It looked good. Made Trey wonder what it would look like if that hair were left to settle around his shoulder…

Fingers snapped in front of Trey’s face. He blinked out of his trance. “Wait, what?”

Ronan looked at him with genuine concern, silver eyes holding something inexplicable.

“You spaced out there for a good two minutes on me.” Ronan put his palm to Trey’s forehead.

Trey’s body instantly heated to ten thousand degrees.

“You’re hot, too.”

This was the first time Ronan had touched him, really skin-to-skin touched him since that night. The night Trey hadn’t been able to take it anymore and had wandered into Ronan’s bedroom, and his bed.

He’d wanted the comfort of Ronan’s touch. He’d wanted someone to make love to him, make him forget.

It was supposed to be a one-time thing. Trey wasn’t supposed to get hung up on it like he was.

And he was totally hung up on it, and now Ronan was touching him and making his body heat up.

He was screwed. He was totally screwed.

ADULT EXCERPT

Ronan got Trey out of his clothes quickly. Ronan struggled to keep from ripping out of his own.

Even though he was in a fairly accommodating place, he didn’t want to take the risk that he embarrassed Trey by having to order new clothes brought up to their room together.

Trey already seemed uncertain about the bellboy knowing they were going to fuck in here, though Ronan was fairly sure he was helping his mate to forget about his worries as he kissed and licked his way down Trey’s slim stomach.

The man was no longer quite so skinny, and he’d even put on a little weight since that first time they’d spent the night together.

Ronan kissed around Trey’s belly button. It was outward facing. Ronan rubbed his tongue over it, delighting in the way Trey shivered.

Ronan kissed Trey’s stomach next, marveling at how his mate was already carrying their child, how his belly would grow, and how very soon they would both be holding their child together.

Ronan couldn’t wait.

“More,” Trey rasped out. “More.”

He was clearly not thinking of the same things Ronan was. Ronan didn’t blame him for his head being in another place, not when Trey’s dick throbbed against his belly.

Ronan’s did the same.

He fisted Trey’s cock, stroking it with just enough pressure to tease. “You like this?”

“I…I’d like you inside me…a lot more.”

Ronan grinned. He knew he was showing off his teeth to his mate, but that was all right. Ronan knew how much some omega mates liked it when a little teeth got involved.

It made things fun.

“I have a better idea.”

Ronan grabbed Trey by the hips and flipped him around. Trey gasped sharply, but then he was belly down on the bed. He looked back just as Ronan pulled him by the legs down the side of the bed until Ronan was on his knees on the floor and Trey was at the very edge.

Ronan took more of the lotion he’d grabbed from the bathroom, coating his fingers with it before he leaned down and pressed his mouth and tongue to Trey’s crease.

Trey shivered. Ronan wished he could have seen the man’s eyes when he did that, but he could already imagine how Trey looked.

Wide-eyed and startled.

“What…what are you doing?”

Just as Ronan suspected. He’d known Trey was innocent, but he hadn’t realized how innocent.

“I’m going to put my tongue on your hole.”

“What? No, no don’t do that. That’s gross. You don’t have to—oooooh!”

Ronan grinned, keeping his tongue out, still licking along that tight ring of muscle.

He was going to put his tongue inside there, and then he was going to put his cock there.

Everything had been so rushed between them the last time that there had been no chance to really do anything fun.

That was what the hotel was for. They had their chance now, and Ronan was going to take it.

He pulled his tongue back just long enough to get the words out he wanted. “I’m going to tongue fuck you until you beg me to make you come.” He briefly pressed his mouth to Trey’s hole again. “But I won’t fuck you. I’ll keep teasing you. I’ll make sure you don’t come.”

Trey nodded. “I’m…I’m yours.”

Now it was Ronan’s turn for his heart to stop. He’d been keeping his ears open for whenever Trey’s heart rate went into overdrive, but now his own heart was doing that exact same thing.

He got control of himself quickly. “That’s right. You are mine.”

With a growl, Ronan returned his mouth and tongue to what he’d been doing. Trey moaned loudly. He began arching his hips and ass back against Ronan’s tongue. As though he was trying to pull Ronan’s tongue deeper inside him.

Ronan wanted to. God, he so wanted that, but he was as deep as he could go. He flicked his tongue inside, knowing it would drive Trey wild, though his jaw also hurt from the effort he put in.

“Oh God, I…I love….that! I love it when you do that.”

Ronan’s stupid heart made another one of those heavy thumping noises in his ears.

So close. They were so close to getting that revelation out of the way.

No matter. Ronan knew how to be patient. He would hear those words on Trey’s lips soon enough.

Until then, so long as Trey was enjoying what Ronan did to him, he saw no point in not giving his mate what he desperately needed.

He might even hear Trey slip up again and profess his love for real this time.

Ronan continued to lick and kiss around Trey’s crease. He licked and kissed inside him whenever Ronan could, loving the man with his tongue, showing Trey how loved he was without saying those words either.

He hoped that, on some small level, Trey would still get the point. He would understand that all of this had still been done for him and that Ronan’s feelings were never going anywhere.

God, Ronan reached down and stroked his cock, relieving some of the pressure. It was almost too much for even him to handle.

He moaned, humping into his hand while he pressed his tongue back to Trey’s hole.

He wasn’t going to last if he kept doing this. Ronan could no longer keep up the facade. He was desperate. He needed to be inside his mate.

Flicking his tongue one more time, and enjoying the moan and shiver that shook Trey’s body, Ronan removed his tongue from Trey’s asshole.

Trey didn’t seem to like that too much. “No, no,” he moaned. “What are you doing?”

“Do you want my tongue, or do you want my cock?”

Trey swallowed. “Your cock. I want…I want your cock inside me. Right now. Stop teasing me.”