Cade never even raised his head, just cocked an ear for a moment to listen to the strange whines and mewling noises coming from nearby. “That would be Nicky. Or possibly Marco, but I really don’t think wolves make noises like that.” He laid his head back down and pulled at Jax again. “Lie down, baby. I’m tired. It’s bad enough I have to listen to those Animal Kingdom noises next door.”

Jax twisted around to look into Cade’s face. His eyes grew wider. “That’s Nicky?” he said incredulously. “Oh my God. Is he…is he hurting him?”

Cade chuckled. “No more than he wants him to.” He squirmed around restlessly. “Damn it,” he said, glancing down at his own growing erection. He rubbed his fist against his groin. “Now they’ve got me doing it.” He pulled Jax more firmly under him and rolled on top, settling in. “Thank goodness I have my own little animal right here.” He leered down at Jax playfully. “Though I guess goodness has nothing to do with it.”

“Cade,” Jax said, “They can hear us.”

A shrill squeal sounded in the tent next to them. “Trust me, baby,” Cade said. “They’re not paying much attention to us.”

He lowered his mouth to Jax’s, sweeping his tongue over his full lips and Jax sucked it in. Jax told himself it didn’t matter if the connection they had wasn’t the same as the one Nicky had with Marco. He didn’t care—not really. And a connection would come in time. He already felt Cade’s possessiveness and that was close to love, in a way. Jaxdidn’t care how one-sided the love was—the sex would be good enough to burn away the loneliness he felt, the irrelevancy and this feeling of being anonymous. He couldn’t shake the feeling that it didn’t matter who was underneath Cade right now.

He knew all about the blood lust thing Cade kept on about, but that had nothing to do with him, with the person he was inside, the boy who loved peanut butter and sci-fi movies. The boy who liked to play video games and who sometimes wrote poetry that he never showed to anyone. Not the blood thing—that was only a trick, a crazy coincidence. He wished that it mattered who had this blood connection with Cade. He wished he mattered.

Cade held his face between his hands and kissed him with slow deliberation, as if they had forever in front of them. He reached down and pulled impatiently at Jax’s legs, urging him silently to lift them over his shoulders. When he did, Cade eased into him, the only lubrication his leaking pre cum. Jax’s balls ached with need as Cade rocked into him, pressing him down and taking complete control. He didn’t feel stretched enough for Cade’s cock, but Cade wasn’t rushing. He held the tip of his cock at Jax’s entrance, teasing in and out, still kissing him with long, slow kisses that madeJax’s toes curl. The head of Cade’s cock was poised to enter Jax, not pushing or demanding, and finally, Jax felt his body relax and open to him. He arched his back, wantingto speed it along, wanting Cade to take him hard and fast so he wouldn’t have to think anymore. He didn’t want to think.

Cade refused to speed up, though, rocking his hips slowly, controlling the pace. Jax felt the burn and the stretch, but the fullness felt good. He needed to be filled up and fucked hard. He wanted the hard stretch of Cade’s cock to blot out his thinking, his worrying.

Cade’s cock rubbed against the spot deep inside him that made him go crazy and he arched up again. “Harder, Cade, please.”

Pleasure arced between them and Jax buried his face against Cade’s neck, breathing him in. Jax felt the cum flying from his dick and landing between them. He strained up toward Cade, trying to muffle the scream trying to claw its way out of him. Cade thrust hard once, twice, and then he was straining too, groaning his own pleasure and filling Jax with his hot cum. He bit down into the back of his neck and sucked the blood for a long time, long enough that Jax grew restless and twitchy. Finally, he pulled away and slumped down on top of Jax, resting his forehead on his as he caught his breath.

He eased off to lay beside Jax, one leg still slung possessively over him. He reached for his T-shirt and wiped at himself before handing it to Jax. Jax used it and threw it to the side, feeling a little empty and let down now that it was over. Then Cade leaned up and kissed him, sweeping his tongue back into Jax’s mouth, making him breathless again with fresh need. He bit his wrist and held it to Jax’s lips. While he drank, Cade rubbed his hand down Jax’s stomach to his softened cock, not demanding, just petting and soothing, spreading heat. He patted it, murmuring in Jax’s ear. “Night baby. Sleep tight.”

Jax sighed and nodded, pulling his mouth away for Cade to lick the wound.

“You too,” he said softly. He let Cade pull him around and settle his ass against him. “I love you,” Jax said softly over his shoulder, but Cade was already breathing slow and steady, already sunk deeply in sleep. “I love you,” Jax whispered again in the dark.

Breakfast was almost over the next morning by the time Gabe leaned back against Zack and looked speculatively over at Jax. Jax could tell he was burning with questions and sure enough, he smiled lazily at Jax when he caught his eye. “So what’s your story, Jax? Where did you and Cade meet up anyway?”

Zack squeezed Gabe’s shoulder. “None of your business. We’ve been through this before.” Gabe pulled away and smiled an apology at Jax. “I didn’t mean to be nosy.” He stopped to give Nicky a sideways glare as he snorted into his coffee. “But as a fellow Alabama boy, I just wondered how you and your little brother got out to Louisiana.”

“Well,” Jax glanced over at Cade who didn’t seem to even be paying much attention to the conversation among the boys. “I didn’t make it all the way to Louisiana, actually. I met Cade in Mississippi. My little brother and Iwere at a roadside diner getting breakfast. ” He glanced over at Cade who was now staring steadily at him. “Um…Cade…spoke to me, and…”

“And we just hit it off, right babe?” Cade broke in with a little smile. Jax flushed, glad that Cade had spared him the embarrassment of the little tip-stealing episode.

“Yes, that’s right,” he said gratefully. “We just hit it off.”

“But how come you were in Mississippi,anyway?” Gabe said, leaning forward again. “School’s still in session for Mason, isn’t it? Were you traveling for some reason?”

“Gabe…,” Zack said warningly. He smiled at Cade. “Sorry. He’s nosy as hell.” “I’m offended by that remark,” Gabe said.

“Doesn’t make it any less true,” Zack said smoothly.

“It’s all right,” Jax broke in, seeing Gabe turn toward Zack with a clenched fist. “I was running away, actually,” he said, glancing over at Cade. This was a part of the story he hadn’t told even Cade yet. “My stepfather…he was abusing Mason, and I had to get him away.”

A silence fell over the group and Jax felt Cade’s hand on his back, quietly soothing him. He could sense the questions tumbling around in Cade’s head because of what he’d said. They still didn’t have a really clear connection, but sometimes now he could get a sense of Cade’s thoughts. It was disturbingly intimate.

Gabe and Nicky looked at each other, and Cade leaned up to murmur in his ear. “It’s okay. You don’t have to say anymore. We’ll discuss it later.”

“No, I really don’t mind.” Jax was almost surprised to find that it was true. For so many years, he’d had to hide who he was from everyone around him, along with what was happening in his own home, and it had eaten him upinside. For the first time in his life, he wasn’t ashamed to be in love with another man and to show that love openly, like Nicky and Gabe did, without fear. It was kind of a heady feeling.

“My-my mom left us when Mason was a baby. I just came home from school one day and she’d left a note.” He looked down into the campfire. “I was in the sixth grade.” He looked back up at Gabe. “I think my stepfather wanted to get rid of us too, but he was a coach at the high school, and he didn’t want people to know how much of a burden he really thought we were, me and Mason.”

Cade must have been sensing something, because he stirred restlessly beside Jax. “Really, Jax, you don’t have to talk about this.”

Gabe shook his head. “No, Jax. Zack’s right, much as I hate to admit it. I was only being nosy. I know what it’s like to lose your mom, and you really don’t have to get into it.”

Jax looked up quickly, his eyes bitter and hard. “My mother was a heartless bitch. She knew what he was and she left us with him anyway. She just left us with that…that monster. ” He broke off as tears sprang to his eyes. A shocked, uneasy silence fell over the men. Jax swiped angrily at the tears in his eyes. “God,” he said, his voice shaky. “I’m sorry. Didn’t mean to do that.”

Cade put his armaround Jax’s waist and pulled his head into his chest. “It’s fine, baby. I just don’t want you upset. What do you say we look around and pick out where to put the house. Sound good?”

Marco stood up quickly too and started gathering up the cooking utensils to rinse off in the stream. Cade rose to help him, while Zack also sprang up and rambled through his pack to find his toothbrush. He headed off to the stream with Marco and Cade. Gabe, Nicky and Jax sat quietly as the wolves hustled around them. Nicky shrugged and leaned in toward Jax, speaking softly. “They aren’t always comfortable with all our troublesome little human feelings.”

“Yeah, except, you know, lust. They’re totally down with that,” Gabe said.

Nicky smiled. “It’s not that they don’t care, they just hate having a problem they can’t solve by beating something up for you or making love to you.”

Jax huffed out a little laugh and dashed at his eyes again. “I know. I don’t know why I ever got into it all.”