STORY EXCERPT

“My name is Garrett, of the Deep Cliff pack. You’re both safe now.”

They looked utterly terrified. Neither spoke a word to him, and that was the most disheartening thing about this.

He held out his hand, wanting one of them to take it. It seemed one of the males was trying to protect the other. Garret got the spicy scent of a fox on one of them, and then the… well, that was interesting.

The dull, boring scent of a human.

A human and a fox? Garrett had no idea how that had come about. Were they lovers? He intensely disliked the idea, and he hoped it was not the case.

“I promise you, you are both safe now.”

The male, the one who smelled like a fox, hardly seemed to blink. He didn’t take his eyes away from Garrett as he reached out his hand to Garrett’s.

They’d barely touched fingers when Garrett felt the intense shock of their flesh making contact, as though there had been a bolt of lightning that had struck him, shocking his body into tensing up and really looking at the male on the ground.

“Uh, are you here to save us?” asked the human, a suspicious note in his voice, but Garrett couldn’t pay any mind to him. He couldn’t look away from the fox shifter. And he intensely despised how the two males continued to hold each other in their arms, protecting each other when that was meant to be Garrett’s job.

He should have been the one to do the protecting. He didn’t need this little human here to do that for him.

“Come with me. I will keep you safe. The both of you,” he added upon realizing that this fox shifter might not appreciate the other male being left behind.

Perhaps they were siblings? Garrett hoped so. It was not unheard of for one of the weaker shifters to have that happen in their bloodlines. One sibling born with the gift of change while the other had nothing.

The fox shifter hesitated, but then reached out and took Garrett’s hand again. The shock was there once more, but this time it wasn’t nearly so intense as it had been the first time they touched, and the fox held on with what appeared to be all the strength in his body.

Which, sadly, was not that much.

He was weak and thin. There was no telling how long he’d been here, but Garrett could see it in the man’s eyes that he had not been entirely broken by his ordeal.

Garrett pulled the smaller male to his feet. A little on the shorter side, but nothing they couldn’t work around. If anything, it just made that protective instinct Garret had within himself flare up even more.

The human pulled himself to his feet on his own. Shit, Garrett forgot about him.

“Are you part of the patrol packs?” the human asked, sounding slightly annoyed.

“One of them, yes,” Garrett replied, his body still buzzing from holding the smaller male in his arms.

The fox shifter said nothing, as though he was just as entranced with standing where he was as Garrett was to hold him.

The human seemed unwilling to let it go at that. “It sure took you fucking guys long enough to do something about this. Jesus Christ, we were in that shit hole for three weeks!”

Not as long as Garrett feared, but long enough to do a decent amount of damage.

“Now is not the time for explanations or excuses. My men are still fighting down there.” He couldn’t let himself forget it, even if he was holding a treasure in his arms. “Do you have anywhere to hide?”

“M-my sister,” said the fox, finally speaking. “We’re going to meet with my sister.”

“That sounds good to me. Let’s go.”

“Wait a minute,” said the human. “We don’t even know who you are. You could be working with them. Taylor, seriously, he could be trying to get us to show him where Odette and the other girls are.”

Garrett was too hung up on the fact that he was being blocked from assisting to be pleased with finally knowing the man’s name.

Taylor glanced up at him, a new caution in his eyes. Pretty hazel eyes.

Garrett shook his head. “I’m not one of the bad guys. I’m here to help you.”

ADULT EXCERPT

As Garrett leaned in, crawling on top of the bed, on top of Taylor, he noted the way Taylor’s breathing picked up, and how his eyes changed color from hazel to bright gold. As though there was a light shining behind them.

The color of the fox species. Garrett always thought gold was a beautiful color. He just never had the chance to appreciate it like this. He looked into those eyes as he leaned in, letting his mouth touch Taylor’s.

Taylor slowly let his eyes drift shut, which was a shame. It was downright criminal to hide eyes as pretty as that.

But then Taylor’s hands moved up, sliding to his shoulders as he lifted his knees.

Right. Another sign that Garrett didn’t have to be that careful here.

He reached down, his palm sliding across Taylor’s flat belly, to his hips, and then to his cock. Taylor inhaled deeply when Garrett’s hand made contact. He pressed firmly, feeling the heat and throb through the cotton pajamas.

He needed to get his mate out of these. One touch to Taylor’s dick was all it took and Garrett needed a taste of something other than his tongue.

Pulling back from the kiss and sliding back down the bed, he listened with pleasure as Taylor’s breathing picked up. He noted the way the smaller male pushed himself up to his elbows, realizing quickly what Garrett had planned for him.

“Oh God, seriously?”

“What?” Garrett asked. “You think an alpha wouldn’t want to do this?” He was sliding the elastic waist of Taylor’s bottoms down when Taylor responded.

“Well, yeah, kind of.”

Garrett stopped. He looked up at the man, hardly able to believe he just heard that. “Who were you getting into bed with that didn’t want to do this to you?”

Taylor pressed his lips together. “Yeah, yeah, I get it. Just… if you could…”

Garrett damn near laughed. The only thing that stopped him was the need to not entirely destroy the mood.

If his mate was embarrassed to admit he’d been with males who didn’t want to properly pleasure him, then it might not be the best idea to dwell too much on it.

Keep the mood. Don’t fuck this up.

God, Garrett couldn’t believe how much of a wreck he was. Even as he brought his attention back to where it belonged, watching as Taylor’s dick sprung up, pulsing when Garrett curled his fingers around the hot shaft of it, he couldn’t help but hope he wasn’t about to make a complete ass of himself.

If he’d still harbored any doubts about this being a true mating, then he didn’t have to worry, because being terrified he wouldn’t be good in bed for the first time in years was all the proof he needed that this was important.

He stroked his hand up and down, admiring Taylor’s cock, the way it pulsed in his hand, the thickness of it. He was of a decent size. About as big as Garrett was.

Which got his mind racing with all kinds of possibilities.

“Y-you just gonna stare at it? You’re making me think there’s something wrong with it,” Taylor said. The sound of his pounding heart was loud in the room.

Garrett smiled up at him, letting his hand move in lazy strokes, his fist clenching ever so slightly when he reached the head.

“Nothing to worry about here. I was just thinking about how pretty your cock is.”

“No one’s cock is pretty. You’re just trying to sweet talk me,” Taylor said with a heavy panting voice. He was clearly trying to hold in signs of his pleasure but having some difficulty through the hand job. “Trust me… you-you don’t have to. You already got me.”

“I know.” Garrett leaned in, letting his tongue slide across the head, over the slit, around the underside of his cockhead, taking in the taste of him. Salt and skin and something else he couldn’t place but something that was decidedly Taylor. “I like sweet talking you. Want to make you feel special even after I have you in bed.”

Taylor groaned, letting his head fall back onto the mattress. He reached out blindly for a pillow, yanking it over his face and moaning into it when Garrett let his lips kiss around the shaft.

He could do this all day, but he didn’t want to be that much of a tease.

Wetting his lips, Garrett got to the main event, holding Taylor’s hips down when they arched up, and listening with pleasure as the man groaned beneath the pillow as Garrett deep throated him.

He was pleased he could. Garrett was no stranger to this, but Taylor’s surprising size had Garrett worried.

Nope. He could do it. His lips stretched pleasantly around Taylor’s prick, and soon he released his throat, allowing the head to slid inside.

Garrett had to be a little slower about that part.

He considered himself well versed in this sort of love making, but that didn’t mean he was going to make a fool of himself and choke.

Damn, Taylor tasted good, and the fox went wild as Garrett was forced to keep a firmer grip on his hips.

“Oh God, oh fuck, that’s… that’s…”

Taylor reached down, his fingers sliding across Garrett’s short cropped hair, as though trying to grab a fistful of it and getting frustrated when he couldn’t find anything to grab onto.

Garrett tried not to smile around his mouthful, but there was something amusing in the frustrated noises Taylor made. He turned those into pleasured moans as he tightened his lips, sinking down as far as he could go, holding position, feeling Taylor’s dick pulsing against his tongue as the man tried to hold himself back.

“G-Garrett. I’m gonna... I’m gonna… Oh fuck, that’s really… I can’t…”