Not that he needed it really. He had a good life at home, and he couldn’t wait to get back to it. He didn’t need this irritating, arrogant man, who tried to dominate him and control him. So why was his nearness so exciting? He was so close and he smelled so damn good, manly and with a slight musk scent that made Kevin’s skin tingle.

Damn it, he wanted this man, and to hell with all the reasons why it would be a bad idea. Kevin slanted his head up to taste Richard’s lips, the first time he’d initiated such a thing, sweeping his tongue inside Richard’s willing mouth, and sampling every breath he took.

Groaning, Richard turned Kevin so his back was facing the others, and his tongue slid over Kevin’s. He put his hand on Kevin’s ass, pulling it in toward him, arching against him and gradually heating and hardening the flesh made soft and cold by the water. God, Kevin wanted him. Whether this was true and forever, he didn’t know, but just then he couldn’t imagine ever wanting anyone else.

A shout from behind them made Richard turn and laugh as Gavin stood on the bank watching them with raised his eyebrows. “We have a long way to walk before we get back home this evening. Kevin has a busy, important night ahead of him as well. Don’t wear him out.”

“I’ll try not to,” Richard said lazily, looking back down at Kevin and taking one more slow kiss, despite Kevin’s reddened cheeks and attempts to get away. Richard towed him back to shore and helped him out before ducking into the trees and retrieving his clothes. Kevin sat down on the grassy bank to let the sun dry him off, as Tucker joined him.

Leaving only two guards, Gavin and Richard took their leave, wanting to make it all the way around the perimeter, they said, before nightfall. It occurred to Kevin that a lot of miles had to be covered by then, if that was the case, but he didn’t even try to apply logic to what the big ones said anymore. He just accepted that it didn’t make sense and went on. It gave him a headache if he thought about it too much, and really, almost none of it made any sense.

They stayed for about another hour, until they were all sleepy and beginning to get too hot again. They ate the lunch they’d brought with them and afterward headed back up the mountain. Kevin found the climb back up was more exhausting, though the gnats did leave him mostly alone this time, and when they got back to the lodge, he was pretty tired. He let Tucker talk him into some video games and by the time Tucker had annihilated him as usual, it was time for dinner. The others still hadn’t returned, but Kevin decided to go up and take a nap before the ceremony later that night. The unaccustomed fresh air and exercise put him out in no time.

He awoke maybe a couple of hours later and felt a large, hard body snuggled up against him. He scooted back into Richard’s warmth and closed his eyes again with a sigh. He awoke again, what must have been hours later, feeling disoriented. He was alone in bed this time and felt a little abandoned until he remembered that tonight was the ceremony. Richard must have left him sleeping. He glanced at the clock on his bedside table and saw that it was eleven o’clock. Why hadn’t Tucker come for him? They’d told him they would talk to him, and he would know everything after the ceremony. Was he not allowed to watch the ceremony itself? Fuck that. After what kept happening with Richard and how strong their connection was, Kevin could no longer ignore the fact that he was in this thing deep. He had to know the truth of what he might be facing.

He suspected they were all members of some strange cult, not necessarily religious in nature, but that was a possibility too. It might be a Nature-based religion or perhaps some kind of animal worship. They seemed to believe they were in some kind of pack, after all, and Gavin had said he was an alpha, like with wolves. The day before, Richard had even marked him with his scent, for God’s sake. If that was all it was, it may be harmless enough, though crazy as hell. He still wasn’t sure how Tucker had allowed himself to be roped into all this, unless the need for a family, to connect somehow and belong had been stronger in him than Kevin had ever realized.

It was all this talk of hunters and killing that bothered him, and he couldn’t shake the fear that this group was somehow responsible for the deaths in Florida, no matter how many times Tucker denied it. He had to find out once and for all, before he totally lost himself in Richard, like Tucker had apparently done with Gavin. These men exuded strength and power, and if he wasn’t very careful, he would be as overcome by it as Tucker had been.

Slipping from bed, he pulled on his clothes without turning on a light. The light streaming in the window from the full moon was bright and lit up the whole chamber with a silver glow. He tried the door to his room and found it locked, of course. He looked around the room for something he could use to slip the lock, and his eyes lit on a framed picture on the dresser. Sometimes, these pictures had stiff cardboard backings. He quickly dismantled it and found that it did, indeed, have a stiff, glossy cardboard backing to help hold the picture in place. He tore it in half, and using it like a credit card, he worked on slipping it down to tumble the lock.

He’d had a lot of practice at this when he was a teenager. He used to slip out of the house when he was fifteen or so to meet a boy he liked down the block. His mother, who never quite knew what to do with him, figured out that he was sneaking out at night, though she didn’t yet know it was to meet boys. At that point, she was worried he’d get some girl pregnant. She took to locking his door at night, as well as the front and back doors with a key so he couldn’t get out of the house. He’d become quite adept at slipping his debit card into the lock on his bedroom door and then easing out through a window downstairs. He hoped his skills would come back to him.

The card kept tearing in his hands and frustrated, he prowled around the room, looking for something else he could pick the lock with. Nothing. Frustrated he sat down on the side of the bed and thought. There was no way that Richard and Tucker would have left him completely alone in a locked room in the lodge. It stood to reason that someone had stayed behind, if for no other reason than to raise an alarm should anything happen. He went to the door and began to bang on it, yelling as loud as he could that he needed help.

After a few minutes of this, he finally heard footsteps moving down the hall toward him. They stopped outside his door and a female voice called out. “Is everything okay?”

“No, no, I’m sick. Please help me. Open the door.”

Praying it wasn’t one of the big ones, he stood back, waiting for the door to open. A small young woman with blonde hair eased the door open and then jumped quickly back as she saw him standing there. She was rather heavily pregnant, and she put her hands protectively over her stomach.

Kevin raised both hands in the air to reassure her. “I won’t hurt you. I won’t even touch you. I’m sorry I had to lie to you, but I need to leave this room, and I can’t have you raising an alarm.”

She wrung her hands and stared at him with big, blue eyes. “W-what are you going to do?”

“Nothing, honest. I’m really sorry about this. I just want to go to the ceremony. Now, if you’d just step inside here, I’ll lock you in and you’ll be safe. I promise. I’ll even tell someone to come and let you out as soon as I get there, okay?”

She nodded and stepped past him into the room. He tried to smile at her reassuringly, and then closed the door behind him, propping a chair from the hall against the outside. Even though he hadn’t touched her, he still felt a little like a big bully, and he figured that if one of the big ones was her husband, he’d have some serious explaining to do. They all seemed so protective. It was weird.

He was still quiet as he moved down the stairway, in case guards had been left outside. Tip-toeing to the back door, he opened it quietly and saw no one else around. Far in the distance, he could hear voices and see lights in the forest. He moved toward them, trying to keep to the shadows, in case anyone other than the young woman had stayed behind to guard the outside of the lodge.

Excitement coursed through him as he walked down the path. The moonlight made it easy to navigate, especially once his eyes adjusted to the darkness. Hearing what sounded like howling coming from the clearing ahead, Kevin felt a trickle of fear down his spine. He was almost at the clearing, and he faded back into the trees. Wanting to avoid detection for as long as he could, he edged closer, not sure what he was about to see, but feeling strangely excited. Perhaps, at long last, some of the mysteries were about to be solved. He found a big pine tree right on the edge of the clearing and moved over behind it, gazing out at the assembled group. There looked to be about sixty or seventy people in the clearing, both young and old. The bigger ones were all standing together in a group by the front, while the others were closer to the edge where he was hiding. He could see Gavin standing on a little outcropping of rock, slightly elevated, and he was talking to the group of men and women clustering around him. Kevin was too far away to hear anything they were saying.

Closer to him was a woman with long, gray hair, the oldest person he had seen at the lodge up to now. Despite her age, her body was straight. She had broad shoulders and powerful arms. Around her was a group of small children, and she seemed to be telling them stories. Kevin saw Tucker standing near this group, along with some of the other, smaller ones. He stepped out into the moonlight and went to Tucker’s side.

“Oh God, Kevin, you startled me,” Tucker said, turning to him in surprise. “What the heck are you doing here? Richard said you weren’t coming, and he even left someone to watch over you.”

“Yeah, about that. She’s locked in my room, Tucker. Better send someone to let her out.”

Tucker gave him a pissed-off look and spoke to a boy beside him. The young man hurried off back toward the lodge.

“If you scared her, Joshua will kill you.”

“I don’t know who that is, but I assure you she’s fine. I never even touched her.”

“Joshua’s her mate, Kevin. Like I’m Gavin’s mate. And you have no business being here. Gavin and Richard will be furious.”