STORY EXCERPT

“You saved me,” Scott said.

Elric nodded and turned the rabbit. “I did. I would always do so.”

There was something else that Scott was remembering as well. “You called me your mate.”

Elric turned his head to look at Scott full on. His black hair was so dark on his tanned shoulders, and there was a seriousness in his eyes that Scott didn’t think he’d ever seen before in his life. “You are my mate.”

And Elric was apparently a hawk shifter. Scott was going to have to rethink this thing about him being an alpha. Could hawk shifters be alphas? “Can a hawk shifter mate to a werewolf?” he asked, giving a voice to his last question.

Elric shrugged. “You were not a werewolf the last time I knew you,” he said.

“The last time…?”

“No more questions, little one,” Elric said, and he pulled the rabbit off of the fire, and he handed the entire stick of it to Scott.

Scott hesitated when taking it, only because Dicun had tried this trick on him before, and Scott had received a beating for being so presumptuous. “I haven’t worked for it, yet.”

“You have survived the worst sort of conditions,” Elric explained. “Especially with an animal such as Dicun. That warrants a reward.”

Elric continued to hold out the rabbit to him, and Scott had to take the risk, even though he was terrified of what would happen if he was wrong.

He reached for the rabbit and snatched away the stick it was picked on. Just in case it was a trick and Elric attempted to attack him, Scott backed away from the man even more, pushing himself to the safety of another tree as he bit down on the soft meat and ate. All the while he kept his eyes on Elric, in case there would be another attack.

Elric just stared at him with sad eyes, completely silent before he walked away. “I shall find another rabbit for you to eat,” he said over his shoulder, and Scott tensed up when he began to take off his clothes. A jacket, a T-shirt, and a pair of faded jeans. “There is clean water in that pail by the fire. Do not leave this spot, for your own safety.”

Now the man was naked, and Scott couldn’t do much else but stare at the perfect swells of his ass as Elric walked to the woods.

Scott’s mouth was only watering because of the delicious rabbit on his tongue. That was the only reason, and he wasn’t staring at Elric’s ass as the man vanished through the trees. He absolutely wasn’t.

Scott relaxed a little when the other man was finally out of sight, and then there was a loud cry through the woods, the sound of a hawk, and when Scott looked up at the sky, it was flying high and away. Off to search for more food.

Scott finished eating his rabbit quickly. He didn’t stop to get a drink until after he’d sucked all of the meat from the bones and licked the grease off of his fingers.

He was still hungry, that was a problem, but Elric had said that he would be back with more food.

If Scott wanted to do something as foolish as trust a man he never met, a man who also claimed that he knew Scott, that they were mated, and who had probably saved his life last night, then...well, fuck. The saving Scott's life part sort of did build up a sense of trust. Scott figured that, and the food, was enough of a reason for him to stay.

Whether or not Scott believed the part about being mated was going to have to be something to think about nice and hard, but Elric had saved Scott last night. That much, at least, wasn’t up for debate.

Neither was the fact that Scott had been given a warm place to sleep.

He should probably try to run again. With any luck he could find his bearings, figure out exactly where the hell he was, and then maybe be back with Rowan and Alistair and the others in just a few days.

The problem was that even getting to his feet to walk back to the warm bed of furs was proving to be a challenge on his muscles. It wasn’t just that his muscles ached from all the stress he’d put on them either. His ankle actually hurt, badly, and so did his ribs.

He looked down at himself. Black and blue spots were on his ribs, the deepest bruising that Scott had ever seen on himself in his life, and his ankle was a similar color.

He remembered the cracking sound he’d heard last night, and he winced just thinking about it. Had he actually broken his ankle? If it had been that badly injured, then it was no wonder it still hurt like hell right now and looked so bad. It was a miracle that his werewolf healing had kicked in enough to allow him to even walk at all.

Walking might be something of a problem, but he definitely wasn’t running out of here either.

That was fine. Scott was suddenly feeling incredibly tired and not at all in danger enough to need to run when he slipped back into the warm furs beside an equally warm fire.

He sighed as he pulled the soft furs up to his neck. His eyes were already sliding shut, and it was the damn rabbit that was doing it. He always got tired after eating, and because he’d had a somewhat decent meal for the first time in what seemed like a lifetime, there was nothing that could keep him awake now.

Scott didn’t have nightmares about Dicun. He just dreamed about Elric.

ADULT EXCERPT

Elric didn’t dare dip his fingers inside of Scott’s hole. Not without oil, but it was a damned chore to pull his hands away from the other man, especially when he moaned and gasped so prettily.

“I have oil we can use,” he said. “Let me up and I will retrieve it.”

“Oil? Oh! Oh, right. It’s right here,” Scott said, and he reached to the side and picked up the vial that Elric had been using for himself on lonely nights after he woke up in this strange world.

He couldn’t help but smile at the sight of the thing in his mate’s hand. “You have been searching for something to use, I see,” he said, and he stroked his hands over the swell of Scott’s ass.

Scott’s blush rose up his neck and went all the way into his ears. It was a pretty sight. “I was just looking for something to clean your wounds with. That’s all.”

“And I’m certain you were not thinking of using it on me at all,” Elric teased, and Scott’s answering blush told him all he needed to know.

Scott had been thinking about it, and that was one more thing that made his heart swell with affection for the smaller man.

“Here,” Scott said, putting the vial into Elric’s hand. “We need to hurry up and do this, before I come to my senses or something.”

“You will not,” Elric said, and as if to prove his point, he set the vial aside and lifted Scott just enough to put him on his back on the soft furs.

“What are you doing?” Scott asked, and Elric could hear how quickly his heart was pounding inside of his chest.

However, his legs also tightened around Elric’s hips.

Elric kissed him, and he touched Scott’s legs, a silent request for release. “I have every intention of giving you as much pleasure as possible. This will not be a quick tumble,” he said, and he slid down Scott’s body when he was free of the man’s legs.

Scott’s heart was beating faster as Elric went farther down, until his face was directly in front of the man’s erection. His cock was the same as it had been in their old lives as well. Long and thick without being overly so on either part. It was dark and slightly curved, and Elric couldn’t resist pressing a kiss to the head before he wet his lips.

“Do you want my mouth on you?” he asked.

Scott was already grabbing on to his blond hair and puffing for breath. “Yeah,” he said, and he lifted one of his knees as Elric sank his mouth down around the head and shaft of his mate’s dick.

Oh! He tasted the same as well. Elric thought he might weep with emotion, but that would ruin the moment, so he kept his focus on the task at hand. He did everything that he knew drove his mate wild, and touched the man everywhere that Scott had enjoyed being touched.

He bobbed his mouth up and down, slow but steady, briefly pulling away so that his lips could also pay homage to his mate’s testicles.

“Oh!” Scott moaned, and then his hands left his own hair as they reached down and grabbed on to Elric’s dark locks. “That’s…that’s really…holy shit!”

Elric chuckled as he sucked one of Scott’s balls into his mouth, and then he abruptly released it so he could put his wet lips back onto his cock.

His hand replaced his mouth on Scott’s testicles, however, and he was gentle as he massaged them, rolling them just the way Scott always enjoyed.

“You…you’re really fucking good at this,” Scott said.

Elric had to lift his mouth away to answer to that. “No. I have just had much practice with your body.”

Scott looked down at him. There was only some confusion in his eyes, and likely that was because he was still so overcome with lust that it was creating a fog around his brain.

That was exactly what Elric wanted. He wanted his mate to remember everything there was to remember about him, and Elric was going to pour as much of his energy and power as he could into the man to see to it that it happened while they were being the most intimate with each other.

He quickly opened his lips and put his mouth back down around Scott’s cock. He wanted to keep his mate as much in lust as he possibly could, but now it was getting to the point where Elric was beginning to notice his own cock that was throbbing painfully for attention.

Scott seemed to take some pity on him as he slid his leg down, and the little imp’s foot pushed against Elric’s naked dick. Back and forth it went, teasing him and making him look up at his mate and smile. “I never would have thought this would be something I would enjoy from my mate,” he said, panting the words as the pleasure welled up deep inside of him.

Scott didn’t reply, but he swallowed hard enough that Elric was watching as his Adam’s apple moved up his throat.

His mate didn’t need to reply for Elric to know what he was thinking. Really, his mate’s thoughts were loud in that moment. Scott was still shocked that he was here and doing this with a man he barely knew. Such an odd thing to think, since there was no one in the world that Scott knew better.

Elric reached for the oil, and he lifted Scott’s knee up onto his shoulder, exposing his pink pucker.

He couldn’t resist, he had to lean in and pressed a kiss to it, thrusting his tongue forward and adoring the way Scott’s body trembled with the act.

Each panting moan sent a thrill through Elric, and he wanted nothing more than to put his cock into that tight, warm space.

“I’m–I’m coming! Elric!”