Everything That You Are (6 page)

The man, suddenly larger than life, reached down to gently lift
Kaden’s
chin. So much emotion came through in that simple, warm touch. Joy, fear, desperation—but it was the overflow of excitement that, when combined with his own, made his entire body vibrate uncontrollably.

Michael tilted
Kaden’s
face to the side and a wave of anger rolled through
Kaden
. He knew the man had noticed the dark splotching on his face that could only be bruises and blood.
Kaden
watched the face above him contort in rage. Suddenly, his shirt was torn apart down the front, followed hastily by his pants, until his pale skin was unveiled to soak up the soft beams of moonlight shining through the slats of the rafters above them.

The man swept his hands almost reverently over
Kaden’s
exposed skin, searching for signs of further abuse. The only thing that kept
Kaden
from fighting back was the constant skin-to-skin contact and the emotions still pouring into him, letting him know that the larger man’s anger was not for him.

“Mine!”

Kaden
felt a ripple of electricity spear through his body at the depth of emotion in that one word. His paralysing fear turned to jittery anticipation as the massive form of the man who had walked away from him loomed over his now-naked body.

He tried to remember all of the reasons why he despised Michael. The hatred he’d nursed for him over time had been a means to help him cope with all of the pain and degradation he had been forced to withstand. But his mind wouldn’t cooperate.

All he could recall was the shameful secret he’d never been able to admit to anyone. Not even to
himself
in the light of day.

He wanted this. Had been privately harbouring the hope that one day, this powerful stranger would come to rescue him, claim him. But it was too late now. He’d been forced to fight for his survival alone, and he’d been okay with that.

So why was his heart hammering in his chest and his body humming with exhilaration?

The feel of the man’s hands upon his body were like trails of fire seeping just beneath his skin and burning him from the inside out. When Michael leant down and pressed his full lips to
Kaden’s
, he moaned into his mouth. To
Kaden’s
utter mortification, his body began writhing in complete abandon against the mass of muscle and flesh above him.

His conflicting emotions were almost overpowered by the stranger’s more intense feelings of need and lust. He was belatedly surprised that they didn’t cause him the sensations of pain or nausea he’d grown accustomed to when someone projected their emotions of desire and hunger into him through touch.

Kaden
was shocked by the intense feeling of Michael’s cock rubbing forcefully against his own. He gasped and arched his back, grinding into him with such passion that he thought he would burst at any second.

Shaking his head, he tore his lips away, gasping for air.
Kaden
tried in vain to remember why getting himself involved in any way with this man was anathema, but for the life of him, he couldn’t get his brain to function properly. Strong hands were everywhere, grasping and pinching and massaging until he felt that he might shatter from the pleasure of their touch.

“I’m sorry, little one,” Michael whispered against his neck in such a pleading tone that
Kaden
could not doubt his sincerity. “I must have you. Please!” The gut-wrenching, heartfelt plea from such a large, commanding man was
Kaden’s
undoing.

A niggling, faint voice at the back of his mind screamed at him to stop this—to end this whirlwind of passion that was threatening to rob him of his very independence. But he knew he was just as much a prisoner of this violent arousal as the dominating man that held him so close.

“Yes,” he whispered. “Please, yes!” No sooner had the words left his mouth than he felt the hard length of a huge cock pressing against his tight hole.
Kaden
tensed, bracing himself for the pain he knew would come from taking a cock into himself dry, but at the last second, the man spat into his hand and lowered it to lubricate his jutting member as much as possible.

The gesture reached into
Kaden’s
heart and created a small fissure in the wall he had so painstakingly built around it.

“I’m sorry. I can’t wait any longer. Forgive me,” the stranger said as he thrust his cock deep inside. They both yelled out, and though he could feel the burst of pleasure that bowled into him from the other man, his scream was one of pain.

He squeezed his eyes shut, trying to breathe through it, but was immediately struck by such a strong current of shame that he opened them again. The sight of tears pricking the eyes of the strong man above him caused the sliver in his heart’s encasement to widen. The stranger kept his body still for several seconds, licking along
Kaden’s
lips, his jaw, and the hollows of his throat, giving him the time he needed to adjust to the sudden invasion.

“Please forgive me. Please.” Slowly, Michael pulled back his hips until the head of his cock almost burst free of its confinement,
then
shoved it back in with a force that he seemed incapable of stopping.

Kaden
quickly felt the initial shock of pain dissipate and surrendered to a pleasure so profound that he could do nothing but hold on to the man’s massive shoulders as he was impaled over and over again by the largest cock he had ever taken into his body. It rammed into him with such force that if it weren’t for the tight grip of the man’s large hands on his hips, he was sure he would have slid head-first into the wall behind him.

Every thrust of that thick member grazed against something inside him that he had never known existed. It felt as though his body was about to fly
apart,
and yet the man’s firm hold kept him grounded and gave him a sense of security he’d never experienced. Deep, hazel eyes caught and held his and the emotions he saw in them rivalled the ones that threatened to devour him in their intensity.

Warm lips pressed down against his in a desperation that stole his breath away. There was a startling jolt as the salty taste of the man’s tears burst across his tongue, and he felt a tingling sensation race through his body. It started at his scalp and the tips of his toes and ran like rapid ropes of fire to his groin, where every feeling in his body coalesced into a burst that had him screaming out his release. At the same time he felt those lips leave his and a set of sharp teeth pierce the tender skin between his neck and shoulder.

Pain shot through him but quickly combined with the ecstasy of his orgasm, filling him with a magnitude of pleasure that was so ferocious and tender at the same time that his vision went black.

After two more powerful thrusts, a low growl rumbled against his skin and he felt warmth spilling into him, filling him. All he could hear was the pounding of his heart matching the fast-paced rhythm of the one beating through the chest pressed tightly against his.

Strong pulls of the mouth still attached to his throat brought on a multitude of vibrating and intense aftershocks that coursed through his system and refused to release him from his rapture. Eventually, the sucking slowed and came to a stop, much to his surprised chagrin, and he felt a rough tongue graze over the puncture marks on his neck.

For countless minutes, Michael lay there, encircled in the younger man’s arms, trying to breathe through the shock of what had just happened.

He’d been tracking Stephen’s scent for miles, to this large barn on a fairly vast stretch of land, but the smell that had hit his nose upon entering the building had taken over his senses. It’d invaded every part of his being until he was drunk with the fragrance of wild flowers and the tang of salty ocean spray.

His wolf’s body had practically buzzed with the excitement of finding his mate and he had wanted to howl in exultation at the thrill of feeling complete again. For so long, he’d been living with an ever-widening pit of despair tearing his chest apart. To feel it heal itself within a matter of moments, all due to the simple presence of the tiny form beneath him, had been too much to hold in.

This man was his, and he would never allow him to disappear again.

Before he could find his voice to express his thoughts, though, a streak of fury speared through his body like a knife and the delicate arms of his mate fell away. The feeling disappeared once he raised himself up and lost physical contact, but that only left him feeling bereft and empty.

He stared down into the violet eyes of the young man beneath him, now narrowed in anger, and felt remorse tug at his heart.

The man raised his hands and shoved them at Michael’s chest, delivering a blow of anger that was so
strong,
it sent him reeling onto his backside a good two feet away. The pain from hitting the ground was nothing compared to that which showed on the beautiful face before him.

With careful movements, Michael edged back towards the small figure of his mate when he saw him start to fold in upon himself with an expression that spoke of severe emotional pain. He placed a gentle hand on his mate’s shoulder, wanting to regain that brief connection they seemed to have built during their torrid sexual encounter of moments ago.

Pain and anger and guilt slammed into him with just as much force as before, but this time he was prepared for it. A grunt escaped his lips as the feelings raged through him, but he was able to tamp them down, channel and redirect them to a separate part of his mind. The sudden understanding that the alien emotions coursing through him were his mate’s feelings and not his own brought on a realisation that had him reeling.

“Oh shit, you’re a mage.”

Immediately after saying those callous words, he wished he could take them back, but the smaller man lying before him didn’t seem to acknowledge his voice at all. Concern began to take the forefront of his emotions, which he was still trying to disentangle from those of his mate, when a faint whimper broke through his concentration.

“Please,” a faint voice pleaded. Michael leaned in closer to his mate.

“What is it, sweetheart? What’s wrong?”

The man tilted his head to the side and opened his eyes, allowing Michael to see all of the pain shining through them, pain that he could also feel just from touching him. The man reached out a trembling hand to Michael’s chest and shook his head, pleading with his eyes and obviously trying to tell him something. It took him a few seconds before clarity dawned and he asked, “You can feel my emotions too, can’t you?”

His mate gave a slight nod and Michael almost pulled back his hand before stopping himself. He knew all mages were gifted with some kind of ability. Although Michael still had a lot of questions about how the young man’s particular gift worked, they would eventually need to get used to each other.
Sooner rather than later.

His mate’s eyelids drooped as if they had become too heavy to keep open.

Michael glanced at Stephen’s ravaged body but didn’t bother to check his vitals. Judging by the amount and temperature of the blood pooling underneath his body, Michael knew he was dead and had been killed not too long ago.

He was picking up three distinct scents apart from his mate’s, but they were new to him, which meant that the killers belonged to another clan. The probability that his mate had been there during the murder had his heart racing with fear.

What might have happened had I not shown up in time?

It was too stressful to contemplate at the moment, and there was still work to do. He concentrated on the unique mental path he shared with all of his Betas and reached out to Dennis. The man had insisted on following him in a vehicle some distance away, just in case Stephen was unable to travel in wolf form when they found him.

 
“
Dennis, I need a pickup down the road leading to Henry
Connel’s
farm. I’m heading towards you now from his barn. Joseph, Nick, you’re on clean-up duty. Stephen was attacked by at least three unidentified wolves that left before I got here. He’s dead, so I’ll need you to dispose of his body. Let’s all meet up at my place once you’re done here.”

“Shit,”
Nick sent. “
Guess he finally got in over his head this time.
Any clue as to which clan his attackers belong to?”

“No, but I might have a possible witness.”

“What are you going to do with this witness?”
Joseph asked.

“Take him back to my place. I’ll explain everything when we reconvene there.”

There was a pause before they sent him their mental equivalents of assent and closed their link. Michael knew they had more questions for him, but those could wait until he had his mate safe and secure in his house.

He grimaced as he noted the damage he’d done to the smaller man’s clothes in his haste to get at his body. It would only take Dennis about ten minutes to meet them, and he needed to find something to wrap him in. Aside from the chill in the air, there was no way he would allow anyone else to see his mate naked.

Looking around the
barn’s
interior, he spotted a shelf with a few rough, cotton blankets and supposed that would have to do.