Bloodlines (29 page)

He
was hurting Redford. The one thing he’d never wanted to do. He did it without even thinking.

So he’d stopped. Hadn’t been that hard, really. He didn’t want anyone but Redford. But Jed didn’t let himself get into that mindset anymore, that weird headspace that had him turning himself into who he’d been before Redford. Before he’d gotten found. And now Redford had that look on his face again, something deeper, something that said he wasn’t happy, and Jed couldn’t even begin to imagine what had put it there.

“Hey, babe?” he murmured, cocking his head, studying Redford’s face. “Talk to
me.”

Redford wasn’t listening. Jed could tell that much from the way Redford’s eyes were fixed on his throat instead of his face. His only answer came in the form of Redford’s grip around the back of his neck tightening to near-bruising strength, and the sharp bite of teeth against his throat, right against where Redford had been sniffing earlier. A strangled little moan escaped Jed, his head falling back, giving Redford the entire long curve of his neck.

“I know it’s illogical,” Redford rasped lowly, his teeth worrying what would definitely be a bruise into Jed’s skin. “I know it’s stupid. I know you haven’t gone near any wolves in a… you know,
bad
way.”

He dragged Jed yet closer, moving an inch up so that he could get to a new patch of skin, seemingly determined to make another mark. Jed was whimpering, he realized dimly. Redford was claiming him so thoroughly and Jed couldn’t even think for how turned on he was. A few stupid little bites, the steel in Redford’s throat, and he was ready to come. Maybe Victor wasn’t so dumb after all.

“But you’re
mine
, and people have to know it,” Redford continued. He sounded half possessed, his eyes bright yellow now.

“God, all yours,” Jed agreed dimly. As Redford pulled him in closer, Jed wound up on his back, Redford hovering above him. Jed was just clinging to Redford’s upper arms, legs spread for him, hitching moans and whimpers in his chest. “Tell every-damn-body if you want.”

For a second, there seemed to be a brief hesitation in Redford, the pressure of his teeth lightening up slightly as if he was apologetic—but that moment didn’t last very long once he got a look at Jed’s face and saw that Jed was definitely enjoying it. He met Jed’s eyes for a long time, the harsh panting of their breaths underscored by the thunder of rain outside, the feral yellow so unlike the Redford that Jed was used to. This wasn’t the shy, soft-spoken man he spent his evenings with, the one that kept trying to make him play Scrabble instead of cleaning his guns.

This was a wolf.

And that thought was only reinforced by the hard movement Redford made, pushing his hips down against Jed’s as if he’d forgotten their pants were even there. He moved with a feral grace, an abandon that happened so rarely with Redford. Jed met him with a low groan, wrapping his arms around Redford’s shoulders, breathing kisses along his jaw. “Jeans,” he reminded Redford lowly, word caught up in a moaning laugh. “Hang on, babe. We need to take them off.”

He was met with a growl.

Okay, maybe Redford didn’t have time for removing clothes right then.

Redford’s teeth sank into Jed’s throat again, one of his hands grasping Jed’s hip and pulling him up close. What would ordinarily be painful as fuck—and okay, maybe it was, Jed was wearing
tight
jeans that didn’t leave much room for Margaret Thatcher or Rambo, much less Winston Churchill at full salute—he didn’t care so much about right then. Not with Redford showing this side of himself, the side that didn’t care they were in the middle of a thunderstorm on the side of a mountain, the side that had no time for anything other than getting closer to Jed.

Their hips ground together, Jed’s cock practically begging for release. Jed heaved in a breath, fingers digging into Redford’s shoulders. Every time he tried to get a hand between them to at least unzip, Redford pinned him harder, sucking and biting down his neck, rocking down onto him and sending sharp jolts of friction rocketing through his body. Jed was begging, he realized, in soft little gasps. Not for it to stop, hell fucking no. His legs spread wider, his body lifted to meet Redford, and he just kept asking for more.

It took him even longer to realize that Redford was speaking too. Just a single word, every once in a while, in between pants.
Mine
, he was saying, mumbled against Jed’s throat, barely audible.

And Jed had to reply.
Yours
, in every moan, every shuddering breath. Fucking right he was Redford’s.

He kept meaning to get his pants off. To find the lube, to get Redford’s cock in his mouth—
something
. Instead he was completely taken over, Redford grabbing his ass and lifting him up, fucking them together like their jeans didn’t even exist. Every rock together, every movement, every
bite
, only drove him higher. He came as thunder crashed overhead, as he moaned Redford’s name, fingers digging into Redford’s arm, grasping at the dirt, spread out on the ground and completely
Redford’s
.

Redford hadn’t reached the same peak, but he stilled as Jed did, the bites turned into gentle nuzzling, the occasional growl turned into a happy-sounding rumble. Holy fuck. Jed smirked faintly, running fingers along Redford’s shoulder, kissing his neck, and….

Fuck. He’d come in his goddamn jeans.

Wincing, Jed kicked his boots off before he reached down and managed to wiggle out of his pants. With a sigh, he tossed the denim out into the rain. Nature’s washing machine. “Haven’t done that since I was a teenager,” he sighed, flopping back down and hauling Redford in close again.

Redford’s eyes were still that bright, feral yellow, but instead of growling, he
grinned
. “Is that a compliment?” His voice was rougher than usual, and not just in an
I made Jed come really hard in his pants
way.

“Hell, yeah.” Jed smiled, arching his neck up to catch that beautiful grin with a kiss. “I am going to be so pissed later when I have to walk around in wet jeans. That is how good you are.” His neck ached with the bruises, and Jed loved the feel of them. He wanted to wear them always, like badges, like a sign that someone wanted him
that
fucking much. That Redford loved him. Rubbing his thumb along Redford’s hip, Jed’s smile grew. “Get your pants off,” he murmured. “I want you to come on me.”

“I know I’ve said I like it when you smell like me, but isn’t that a bit overkill?” Redford made a sound like a laugh, mostly a rumble of noise, rising up to his knees to smooth his hands over Jed’s chest, smiling down at him.

Well, that line had apparently worked better with the over-fifty and married crowd. Jed couldn’t count the number of times some thick-waisted older guy would pound his ass and then come all over his chest, like he was marking a prize. He was, frankly, a little surprised that the wolfish side of Redford wouldn’t want that.

Then again, the way Redford was looking at him, no one had ever even come close to that before. Yellow eyes or no, instincts or no—and these days, honestly, sometimes Jed wasn’t sure what to think about all of that—this was his Redford. And he didn’t need some porn set show to prove he’d had Jed. “Then get your pants off so I can suck you so hard you fall over,” Jed amended in a lazy drawl, tugging Redford close. Mouthing kisses along Redford’s stomach, Jed murmured, “You’re so goddamn beautiful. Best I’ve ever had. I don’t tell you that enough.”

Sitting on Jed’s hips, Redford leaned down, tugging Jed up to meet him halfway for a kiss. He traced his fingertips so lightly over the bruises that Jed barely felt his touch. “You could help me get them off,” Redford suggested. “If I try I’m likely to put my elbow in the fire.”

Jed kissed him first. Simply, intently, they kissed, Jed’s hand slipping into Redford’s messy hair, sprawling out near the warmth of the fire. They kissed, and Jed forgot his jeans were outside getting soaked or there was now dirt in his ass. It was just Redford, and how could he really want to change anything about that?

Fingers fumbling, Jed managed to get Redford’s jeans unsnapped, the zipper tugged open, and, finally, the pants shoved down Redford’s hips just enough that Jed could get his cock out. “Hello, darlin’,” he all but purred. Ducking down, he ran his tongue along the length of Redford’s dick, sucking lightly on the head. If he sprawled out, Redford kneeling above him, there was just enough room for Jed to get the right angle for Redford to fuck his face.

Digging his nails into Redford’s ass, he jerked him in closer, swallowing around Redford’s cock and managing not to grin at Redford’s surprised little noise. They’d had enough lead up, as his own jeans would attest. He just wanted Redford to come hard and fast.

Redford was apparently as wound up as Jed had been, though there was no growling this time, no bruising grips. Instead, Redford was gently carding his fingers through Jed’s hair, following Jed’s lead, and Jed guided his hips, his moan muffled around a bitten lip. When he came, he dug his fingers into the dirt beside Jed’s head, head thrown back in ecstasy.

And when he promptly collapsed in a puddle of contentment over Jed, his hip was digging into Jed’s shoulder. Jed couldn’t even find it within himself to protest the odd position for the moment. He painted kisses along Redford’s thigh, his side, whatever skin he could reach, hands smoothing along Redford’s legs.

He could sleep. Just like this, he could sleep for days. Last night had been more watchful wariness, only drifting off to a troubled sleep sometime before dawn. But now, despite the slightly uncomfortable angle, Redford was here, and he was warm enough that Jed really did think about dropping off.

Redford started moving, pushing himself back so he was more properly lying on Jed, his cheek resting on Jed’s chest. “The storm’s clearing up,” he murmured, sounding drowsy, like he was thinking about dropping off right here too.

Fingers tracing odd patterns against Redford’s back, Jed hummed a distant agreement, eyes sliding half shut. For a long time, it was just that. The two of them, skin to flushed skin, Jed’s idle touches, Redford’s soft breathing, and the light drumming of the rain easing off into silence.

“You okay?” Jed broke the quiet, rousing himself back to wakefulness. Napping on the job, while okay for office types, wasn’t so much allowed on his sorts of assignments. “You went all wolfy on me. I, uh, I gotta admit, I’m never really sure what I should do when that happens.” Jed huffed a laugh, dropping a kiss to Redford’s head. “Not that I’m complaining. I like it when you let go.”

When Redford turned his head slightly to look up at Jed, the only yellow remaining in his eyes were dim rings around Redford’s normal gray blue. He sounded hesitant when he replied, as if he already knew the answer but needed to hear it again anyway. “You do?”

Pressing a kiss to that worried crease in Redford’s forehead, Jed wrapped his arms around Redford, hauling him in closer. “I like it when you don’t feel like you have to hide shit from me,” he murmured. “And, hell, you’ve been working with the headshrinker on accepting that side of you, right?”

“Yeah.” Redford tucked his cheek back against Jed’s chest. “It’s just….” He gave a soft exhale. “Never mind. We’ve got hunting to do.”

It took some maneuvering, but Jed managed to reach one arm out to snag his pants back inside. They were soaked from the rain, and Jed sat up, still holding onto Redford, to hang them near the fire. “Can’t go anywhere, my pants are all wet,” he told Redford with an innocent look. “Might as well spill.”

Redford just smiled at him. Jed’s innocent looks never worked on him anymore, sadly. Then the hesitant expression came back. “You remember how in Cairo I had a lot of trouble with the, um, violence?”

Christ, there went that damn look again. The one that had Jed wanting to grab every gun he owned, every goddamn explosive, and build a wall a thousand feet high around Redford so that nothing bad could get in. It was a childish wish and he knew it, but that didn’t stop Jed from hauling Redford into his lap, from kissing his shoulder and resting his hand over the dog tags and whistle that were hanging against Redford’s chest. “I remember,” he said, giving Redford the space he needed to work out what he wanted to say.

Yeah, Jed remembered. He remembered a Redford so far gone he’d been ripping out vampire throats with his fangs and howling as he threw himself against a door, desperate for the chance to get back inside to kill some more. He remembered being fucking scared—not
of
Redford, but for him.

“It’s different here,” Redford sighed. “All these wolves, all this
space
. It’s like I want to go running through the forest and never stop.” He glanced up at the bruises still darkening on Jed’s throat, then leaned in to press a gentle kiss to them. “They’re all so in tune with themselves and their instincts, it’s kind of weird. Their lives are so different from ours.”

Because a wolf wasn’t supposed to be confined. It was funny, the first time he’d seen that damn cage in Redford’s bitch of a grandmother’s basement, when he’d seen the chains and the muzzle, the scratches on the wall, he’d hated her. He’d wanted so badly to give Redford something
better
. To have him be free. And he’d been patting himself on the goddamn back for doing so.

Why? Because Redford wasn’t tied up. Because Jed brought him
hot dogs
and played Frisbee in the apartment and rubbed his belly until he passed out every night. Because Jed held him through the change.

Because his cage was so much nicer.

Jaw tight, eyes distant, Jed ran a hand through Redford’s hair, struggling to keep his expression from breaking.
Their lives are so different from ours
. Because they were free. Because these wolves weren’t shut in with a stupid fucking human who, after a year, hadn’t figured out that someone like Redford needed to not be held prisoner.

Those voices in Redford’s head, that split personality mumbo jumbo, maybe it wasn’t all that bastard Fil’s fault. Maybe they were because of Jed too. Because Jed was putting Redford in a cage just as sure as his grandmother had. Maybe Redford wouldn’t ever get better around Jed, because what was Jed going to do? Open a fucking window?