STORY EXCERPT

Rafe looked at his boss, feeling a twinge of regret that he’d been away so long. In reality, he could have returned much earlier, but he’d kept himself away because he knew his mates weren’t old enough, and his feelings for them would have put them all in an untenable position.

“I’m sorry I missed that, Joe. I should have been here. I just…” He broke off, not wanting to voice the thoughts in his head.

Joe clapped a hand on his shoulder, squeezing firmly.

“Rafe, I know why you stayed away. We all do. You had to do what you had to do. No one thinks any less of you. I’m just glad that you came back. I wasn’t entirely sure you would.” Rafe shot him a startled look, frowning.

“Bro, I know you. I also know you’ve been keeping your emotions inside a reinforced bunker, not letting anyone in.” Joe tightened his grip, his eyes intent. “Whatever you’ve done, whatever you’ve had to do to survive, it doesn’t matter to us. We’re all here for you. We always have been.” His arms opened, inviting Rafe in for a hug.

Rafe took a step forward and clasped his arms around Joe’s big frame. He felt tears prickle against his eyelids as his eyes closed, accepting the warmth of Joe’s friendship. Another piece of the wall around his heart loosened, fell away, and shattered.

“Sweetie, we’ve been friends for over a decade and a half. We’re definitely here for you.” Zack stepped up, and Rafe hugged him, too. One by one, the rest of the crew did the same. Mick, Murphy, Cody, and even John welcomed him back, literally with open arms. He realized something in that moment. He was the dick. He had friendships here that were closer than a blood bond, forged by war and the horrors they’d all suffered through the years. He had isolated himself for so long that he’d failed to realize that the very people he had been trying to keep at arm’s length had already wormed their way into his heart and were just waiting for him to wake up and smell the coffee.

“Isn’t this sweet?” Sheriff Pace Achak sauntered into the house, green eyes mocking. “Joe’s bunch of crazies all sharing man hugs. I’m so glad I didn’t miss this touching bonding moment.”

Rafe snorted, flipping him off. The man hadn’t changed, despite having a mate of his own.

“Darling man, you’re just jealous because it’s been at least three hours since we shared touchy-feely stuff. Here give me some sugar,” Zack drawled at his husband, winking at Rafe as he gave Pace a sizzling smooch in front of everyone. Pace blushed a little as a rousing cheer went up, everyone sniggering at his embarrassment.

Rafe chuckled, rubbing surreptitiously at his eyes, hoping no one had seen and then groaned as he met John’s knowing smirk.

Instead of teasing him, John slapped his back and then leaned in toward him. “Welcome back, Rafe. We missed you.” He said it quietly, serious for once. “If you need anything, you know where we are.” He seemed to be trying to convey something to Rafe, but Rafe wasn’t quite ready to go there yet and merely shrugged.

“I know.” He met those steady green eyes, reading the sincerity there. John always came across as laid-back and was rarely serious, but the man had a heart as big as Texas and had gotten Rafe out of more than one jam in his time.

“I need to get things straight in my head first. I need to talk to Lucas and Archie, let them know…stuff.”

“You do, my friend,” John replied, nodding. “When I told Cameron about me, I found it was easiest to just blurt it all out like ripping a scab off a wound. You’d be surprised at how therapeutic that feels.”

He gripped Rafe’s shoulders firmly and looked Rafe dead in the eye. “You’re already healing, Rafe. That’s the power our mates have over us, the power their love has to complete us. Don’t wait too long. You deserve to be happy.”

Rafe grinned as John looked a little emotional himself and then gave an amused snort as John turned away to find every eye in the room staring at them both.

“Wow!” Pace had recovered enough from Zack’s kisses to return to his usual sarcastic self. “John Hastings has a tear in his eye.” He yelped as his irritated husband cuffed him upside the head, scowling furiously.

“Darling, if you’d like to spend tonight in our bed, all nice and warm, next to me, I suggest you rein in your grouchy side and behave yourself.”

Rafe bit back another chuckle as he saw Pace wince at the warning.

“Might I remind you of your own tears not too long ago, getting all emotional, over that lovely movie we watched the other night. What was it, now?” Zack tapped his foot impatiently, then snapped his fingers and smiled evilly at his mate.

Pace winced again, closing his eyes as Zack answered his own question.

“That’s right. It was Gone with the Wind.”

The room erupted again with shouts of derision and sarcastic comments bouncing off the walls, Pace looking decidedly uncomfortable.”

ADULT EXCERPT

“I want you inside me,” Rafe muttered, peppering kisses all over. “Both of you, I want both of you inside me.” He mashed his mouth against Lucas’s and then Archie’s. Then he fell onto his back and raised his legs to reveal his moist hole. “Please, I don’t want to be nervous with my mates. I don’t want to be afraid.” He began fingering his own hole, sinking in two fingers to the knuckle and crooking them around as though searching for something inside.

“I’ll get the lube!” Archie yelled, leaping to his feet and discarding clothing rapidly as he went. He disappeared from the front room and returned with a tube of lube. Naked, he sank to his knees, his cock dripping pre-cum, its hard length swollen and red.

“Let me help.” He stroked Rafe’s thighs gently and then pushed one of his fingers into Rafe’s hungry chute alongside Rafe’s own fingers. “You, too, Lucas,” Archie said.

Lucas gave a growl of pleasure, ripping off his clothes and joining his mates on the soft rug. He curled up on his side, placing gentle kisses against Rafe’s cheek, turning his head so their lips could meet. He inserted one finger into Rafe’s hole and groaned as the moist tunnel sucked it in.

“Archie can go first. He’s the birthday boy, even if it’s a belated one. Then me.” Lucas whispered against Rafe’s lips. “Then I’m going to fuck you through the floor, lover,” Rafe grabbed the back of Lucas’s head, raking fingers through the soft hair.

“Are you ready?” Archie asked, and Rafe and Lucas parted, looking at their lover intently.

“If I were any more ready I’d be shooting another load,” Rafe growled, reaching down and prizing his ass cheeks farther apart.

Archie grinned, parked his cock at the entrance to Rafe’s loosened hole, and pressed gently. He’d lubed up liberally, and as he eased forward, his entry was smooth as butter.

“Oh, yes, baby. Don’t stop,” Rafe begged, hitching his hips higher to give a better angle.

Archie groaned as he sank inside, panting hard as his dick disappeared inch by slow inch. All three moaned as he bottomed out, Lucas finding Rafe’s spent cock and stroking into renewed life. His mouth found Rafe’s kissing him hungrily as Archie paused for a moment, his face frozen with the sheer bliss of being deep inside his lover.

“You’re so fucking tight, Rafe. I’m not gonna last too much longer.” Archie began to move, thrusting slowly inside Rafe, gripping Rafe’s thighs gently as he increased tempo. He alternated thrusts with a swivel of his hips, then a hard slam, then slowed again, driving Rafe out of his mind. “Thank you, thank you, thank you for trusting me,” Archie cried out, tears streaming from his eyes as he fucked Rafe tenderly, making love to his ass for the first time.

“Too soon,” he cried out again, then jerked, tensed, and slammed his hips into Rafe once and then twice before the smell of spunk increased as Archie shot his load deep inside Rafe’s clenching hole.

Rafe groaned, arching his back as Archie came hot and hard.

“Now me, beautiful,” Lucas said almost desperately, his cock knowing where it needed to be. Archie moved aside, curling up next to Rafe and stroking his damp hair lovingly. He began kissing Rafe languidly and then straddled their lover as Lucas sank his cock inside Rafe’s hole with a hard thrust. Lifting up slightly, Archie lubed up quickly and then sank quickly, impaling himself on Rafe’s rigid dick in one go.

“Fuuuck!” He screamed the word, back arching as Rafe speared him. “Shitshitshit.” He rocked up and down and then leaned forward and kissed Rafe again, his avid mouth hard and hungry.

Lucas watched his mates as he began to move, not carefully this time. He wanted Rafe to forget any previous encounters, to only think about Archie and Lucas when they made love. He snarled, his hips snapping back and forth. His balls slapped against Rafe’s with every in stroke. He knew he wasn’t going to last, knew it and didn’t care. He wanted to mark his lover as Rafe had marked him.

He roared, the sound reverberating around the house as he came with startling speed and force, lashing Rafe’s insides with cum in an orgasm so hard he was sure he’d shoot through the top of Rafe’s head. Archie cried out, then spurted over Rafe’s chest as Rafe came in unison. The three of them screamed their pleasure to the heavens before collapsing to the carpet in a sweaty heap of sated flesh. Fangs flashed, and at the peak of sexual bliss, they each sank sharp canines deep into each other’s flesh. Archie bit deep into Rafe’s neck, Lucas into Archie’s and Rafe sank deeply into first Archie and then Lucas before the last tremors ebbed away.

“That was fun. Can we do it again, soon?” Archie finally asked, giggling as he sprawled on Rafe’s hard chest, Lucas draped over his back. Rafe kissed him tenderly, dragging Lucas into the kiss as well, and they spent several minutes savoring the afterglow.