He pushed Nicky’s legs up and massaged the lube into his tight, pink hole, pressing his lips over Nicky’s to catch his moans. “Does it ache for more, baby? Want me to fill it for you?”

Nicky nodded, panting hard for breath and clenched the bedposts harder as Marco could see him want to move, but want to obey him even more. “Good boy,” he whispered to him. “Very good boy. Let me take care of everything, baby.”

Nicky groaned, his entire body arching toward Marco’s touch. “What do you want, sweetheart? Want me to put my cock inside you?”

Nicky thrashed his head. “I-I…”

“Say it, baby boy.” Nicky closed his eyes, squeezing them shut. “No, baby, look at me with those beautiful blue eyes. Say it, sweetheart.”

“Please put your cock inside me.”

“I thought you’d never ask. I will, baby, just as soon as you tell me you’re my pet. Say it, sweetheart. There’s nobody to hear it but me and you.”

Nicky thrashed his head again and shook his head. “I’ve already…” He looked deeply into Marco’s eyes. “You bastard.”

Marco smiled and slid one finger deep inside Nicky and began to move it slowly in and out. The tight little passage clamped down on his finger, trying to expel it, but he slid it slowly back in until Nicky finally began to relax. He added another finger and the process started all over again.

“Feel that, baby? Is that what you want?”

“Marco, please…”

“Please? Please fuck you? Oh baby, I want to, I really do, but first you have to tell me. Tell me you’re my pet.”

“Marco, you asshole! Stop! Ooh, I hate you!”

“Want me to stop?”

“No, no! Don’t!”

“Which is it, darlin’, first you do and then you don’t…” He slipped in a third finger and rubbed all three hard against Nicky’s prostate until he shouted again and his eyes rolled back in his head.

“Please…damn it!”

Marco let his fingers graze over his prostate again. “Say it.”

“I’m your pet!” He was so breathless he could hardly get out the words.

“Good boy. I’m going to fuck this hot little hole,” Marco said, pulling out his fingers and easing his huge cock inside his lover. He thrust inside again and again, nailing his prostate with each thrust, until Nicky was making guttural, unintelligible sounds. Nicky’s tight, hot passage squeezed Marco so tightly he wasn’t making any sound other than moans either. With one more hard thrust, they came together, and Marco thought the top of his head would come off.

When he’d emptied into his lover, he didn’t think he could move. He lay there, his cock pulsing, his body drained. He drew out and gathered some of the cum leaking out of Nicky’s ass and painted it on Nicky’s cheeks, his lips, his forehead. He got more and spread it over his chest and his neck. “I want you to smell like my cum, baby,” he whispered to him softly. He put some on his finger and fed it into Nicky’s mouth, making him suck it off. “I want you to taste like it.” He felt his fangs drop down and he sank them into Nicky’s neck, sucking the hot blood into his mouth. “Mine,” he moaned into his ear. “Mine.”

“Yours,” Nicky said, pulling his arms down and wrapping them around Marco’s neck. “Only yours.”

“Damn right,” Marco said, and wrapped his boy in his arms, pulling his head onto his shoulder. Then wrapped up in him, their cum gluing them together, Marco sank into sleep.

Chapter Four

Marco untangled his legs from the smaller man next to him and eased himself out of bed. He stood looking down at Nicky for a moment before he turned away to go shower. He really was a beautiful young man. A sudden flash of memory hit Marco so hard he almost staggered.

Marco was sitting in a restaurant in Atlanta—he knew it was Atlanta, though he had no idea how he knew—and he was watching Nicky from across the room. Nicky was standing by a table with a pad and pencil, frowning in concentration as he took an order from the customer. He looked up with a smile and got that little look on his face that he got whenever he was about to make some clever remark, and the people at the table laughed as he said whatever it was. Marco wanted to go to him and bend him back across his arm and kiss that smartass little mouth until Nicky was breathless. Kiss him until he begged for mercy, but he wouldn’t give him any. Marco’s mother put a restraining hand on his arm. “No, Marco, not yet. He’s so young. Give him a little more time,” she said.

Marco shook his head. Where in the hell did that come from? He’d never been to Atlanta so far as he could remember, or watched this boy as he worked in a restaurant or anywhere else. Was that some kind of memory coming back? He turned away and moved to the bathroom for his shower. As he stood under the steamy spray, his mind kept wandering back to the night before. He’d had no intention of making love to his mate. Hell, he barely knew him, even if he did feel a strange possessiveness for him. So why in the hell did he practically jump the boy as soon as he’d kissed him? Why had he wanted so much to possess him, to tease him, to make him cry out his name?

He had an uneasy feeling about it. The dream from the hospital came back to him in a rush —the one where he was stalking the boy through the woods. What could that violent, disturbing dream possibly mean? He felt like he was going crazy. He finished his shower and dried off. When he came out of the bathroom, he saw Nicky sprawled out on his back on the bed, one slender foot hooked around the blanket and his golden hair spread out on the pillow. A feeling of deep satisfaction came over Marco to see him in his bed, looking mussed and well fucked and decadent, and Marco thought briefly about going back to bed to wake him up.

He liked having Nicky in his bed—it was right where he needed to be. Funny, he’d never liked sharing a bed with anyone before that he could remember. Usually he fucked someone and sent them home, preferring to wake up alone, but that wasn’t the case with Nicky. Nicky was special. Yet why did he think so? The young man was gorgeous, yes, but Marco hardly knew him. Why did he want so badly to go back and climb into bed with Nicky and make love to him all day long? The whole thing was downright mysterious, and Marco hated mysteries.

He was the alpha, and as the alpha he was responsible for the well-being of his pack. He didn’t have time to stand around and moon over some pet. It was a sign of weakness that his father would never have allowed in himself or any member of his household. If he found a weakness in himself, his father purged it ruthlessly, and Marco would do the same.

Marco’s weakness must be to blame for the changes he’d noticed since he arrived home from the hospital. None of the pets were wearing collars or leather pants, as they had done all the years he could remember. How could he have been so lax in letting the old, traditional ways fall by the wayside? He must have allowed himself to be seduced by this boy and persuaded to do things he never would have done before he met him.

But why? Why would this pet want to make changes to Marco’s pack? It was almost as if he’d been sent there by enemies of the pack to undermine his authority. He stopped in the middle of the hallway and shook his head. No, it was ridiculous—Nicky didn’t seem to be the least bit treacherous.

Like a scene from a movie playing in his head, another dream-like image assailed Marco. He stood facing Nicky in the ancestral ring, crowds of people watching them as Marco circled around him, looking for an advantage. Nicky had challenged him? A pet? It was unheard of. He stood very still, willing the memory to come on stronger.

Nicky sank down on his knees in front of Marco, presenting his neck. It was an instinctive sign of abject submission and humility. Nicky’s back was straight, his hands were behind his back, and he trembled. By sinking to his knees and giving up, Marco won the challenge by default. Marco could now rip out his opponent’s throat if he wished to.

A gasp came from the crowd when Nicky fell to his knees, but now it seemed the entire pack held its breath to see what would happen next.

Marco leaned over, putting his hands on Nicky’s shoulders, holding him in place. He brought his mouth down close to his throat to let him feel his hot breath on his neck. He could feel Nicky’s whole body jerking with fear.

The memory seared through his brain like branding iron. Could it be true? Had Nicky challenged him and faced him in the ring? He seemed to remember it, and how he backed down at the last moment and offered his submission, so Marco had spared his life. Yet they had still somehow remained mated after that. The blood match must have been very strong, indeed. Why had Nicky betrayed him? How could he have ever managed to trust Nicky again after such a thing? Nothing made sense, and he was determined to get to the bottom of it. He strode angrily down the hall in search of his council.

Nicky smiled at the sight of Evan’s widening eyes as he sauntered into the dining hall. He slid into the seat across from him and Logan. “How’s it hangin’, boys? I’m starving!”

Logan grinned and glanced down at his watch. “Twelve o’clock, Nicky? Surely you aren’t just now getting up?”

”Well,” Nicky said in an aggrieved tone, “I had to get my beauty sleep. Marco kept me up all night.” He grinned at both of them. “We didn’t get much sleep either.”

Logan shook his head. “Damn, Nicky, I thought he was going to beat your ass for sure when he followed you out of here. He seemed furious after Dr. Tate held your hand like that.”

“He didn’t hold my hand—he was just being friendly, and Marco totally overreacted.” He rolled his eyes. “Like that’s a surprise. I swear the man is way too uptight—he wears me out.” He shrugged and winked. “Sometimes in a good way.”

“Typical wolf,” Logan agreed. “Always trying to prove who’s the alpha dog. Marco’s the worst, outside of Casey. Both alphas. I might add. They sure as hell don’t share anything they feel they own, do they?”