His to Claim (8 page)

Kyle could feel a blush warming his cheeks.
"Where did you find that?" he asked, even though he knew exactly
where it had been. He'd cleared out most of his "toy" collection one
day when Alex had been at work, but it had gone against his personality to
trash a brand new butt plug still in its packaging.

Alex winked and put the bright green,
glow-in-the-dark butt plug and the bottle of lube he'd given Kyle earlier on
the kitchen bench. "I already washed it," he said with a sexy grin.

When he dropped the towel and left the room,
Kyle could do nothing but follow. He quickly turned off the stove, grabbed the
plug and lube, and followed his mate.

~*~

Alex breathed a sigh of relief when he heard
Kyle step into the room, but he couldn't suppress the shiver that ran through
him. Other than a brief exploration with his own fingers when he'd first
discovered his sexuality, Alex was inexperienced when it came to this side of
things. He was, however, eager to explore and experiment with Kyle.

He knew what he liked when he topped a guy,
so he crawled onto the bed on his hands and knees so that his ass was pointing
in Kyle's direction, and then very slowly lowered his head onto his hands.

The desperate groan that came from behind
him was rather satisfying.

"Babe, you could tempt a saint."

The feel of Kyle's warm hand on his ass had
him groaning. In the past three weeks they'd kissed, licked, and sucked just
about every inch of each other, but they'd both drawn the line at anal play.
Alex wasn't sure which one of them was shaking more when Kyle finally dipped
his fingers between Alex's ass cheeks and ran the callused tips over the
sensitive skin of his anus.

Alex jolted away slightly, not out of fear
but rather from surprise at how good it had felt. He immediately pushed back
into Kyle's touch, desperate to reassure him that everything was okay.

He laughed when he felt Kyle press a kiss to
his ass and then suck hard enough to mark him, but it was the feel of a warm
tongue pressing between his ass cheeks that had him gasping in surprise.

Kyle steadied him with a hand on his hip as
he dragged his tongue over his sensitive hole again and again. By the time Kyle
reached for his cock he was about ready to explode, but when he used his grip
to pull him back onto his tongue and started to stab that clever, slick muscle
against his opening over and over Alex couldn't hold back. He cried out as his
cock throbbed and cum burst from him, bright white lights bursting behind his
eyelids as he moaned in release and writhed in sensation.

He was still trying to catch his breath when
he realized Kyle had managed to catch most of his seed and was currently
spreading the slippery fluid over his hole. The tongue fucking that followed
had him gripping the sheets in pure ecstasy. He was hard again and leaking
copious amounts of pre-cum by the time Kyle reached for the bottle of lube.

A single, thick finger gently pushed past his
tight muscle, exploring and caressing him intimately for so long Alex was
pretty sure he was begging for more by the time he added a second and then a
third. God, it felt heavenly. Not just the touch but also the trust and
connection he felt with this man.

When he realized Kyle was finally slicking
up the butt plug he felt a moment of panic—but not for the reasons he'd once
thought he would.

"No," he said on a groan, even as
he continued to writhe from his mate's gentle touch. "I want you, Kyle.
Not some piece of silicone.
Just you."

"I'm bigger than the plug," Kyle
said in a voice thick with his arousal. "I won't risk hurting you."

"You won't hurt me," Alex said
quickly. "Please, Kyle.
Just you."

Alex could feel his lover's trepidation in
the shaking of the fingers inside him, but he could also sense his need for
them to share this first time without anything else getting in the way.

He moaned in delight when Alex
drizzled
lube onto his ass and then pushed a fourth finger
inside, gently stretching him until he was mindlessly begging for the man to
fuck him. Instinctively he pushed back, bearing down when Kyle removed his
fingers and pressed the head of his cock against his opening.

They both moaned in sensual agony as Kyle
slowly slid inside.

~*~

Kyle was panting hard as he desperately held
on to his control and slowly pushed into his mate's body. He'd dreamed about
this since meeting the man, but he'd never imagined how intense it might be or
how incredible it might feel to be one with Alex in this way.

I love
you.
He wanted to say the words out loud, but it
wasn't the time. Not yet.

He carefully leaned over his mate and
pressed kisses to his shoulders and neck, giving them both a chance to adjust.
Kyle was already nearing the edge of orgasm, so he dragged in a few deep
breaths and tried to regain control. No way was he letting Alex down now. The
man trusted him not to cause him pain and Kyle fully intended to live up to
that faith.

"Okay?" he asked in a whisper as
Alex moved sensuously underneath him.

"Never better," Alex replied in a
nearly breathless voice, "but I think I need you to move now."

Kyle
nodded,
grinding his teeth as he carefully pulled halfway out and then resisted the
urge to slam back in. Slowly, again and again he eased in and out of his mate's
fine ass, pressing loving kisses to every inch of skin he could reach.

"You feel incredible," Alex
whispered, pushing back against him as he forced Kyle to increase the pace,
"
but I really, really need you to
fuck me now
."

The words were so soft that Kyle had almost
missed them, but he heard the desperation behind them. He reached a hand around
his lover, grabbed that thick, hard cock and started to force it through the
circle of his hand as he began rocking into and out of Alex's ass at a much
faster pace.

His lover moaned in delight, crying out when
Kyle managed to hit is prostate just right. "You're fucking
incredible," Kyle practically growled as instinct started to take over. He
could feel his teeth elongating, his paranormal nature starting to take
control. He forced himself to keep his mouth shut, to hold his teeth away from
the flesh he wanted to bite, but he couldn't stop his hips from moving faster,
from his cock swelling inside his lover, from his hand closing just a little
harder as he forced his lover into orgasm.

Alex practically screamed when he came, his
anal muscles tightening around Kyle's cock as he pumped stream after stream of
cum onto Kyle's hand. Alex surrendered then, relaxing under Kyle as he rode his
mate hard, taking the submission Alex offered so freely.

Kyle roared as his climax overtook him, the
incredible sensation of filling his mate with his seed like nothing he'd ever
felt before.

He felt amazing. He felt sensational. He
felt humbled. And…he felt loved.

He lay pressed against his human mate,
grateful for Alex's strength that meant he wasn't going to crush him. He
eventually moved sideways, staying inside his mate, loath to break the
connection, the sensation of being one with the man he loved.

"I really do love you," Alex whispered
softly. "And I promise one day I'll say the words out loud."

~*~

"Out loud?"
Kyle asked with a soft laugh in his voice.

They lay spooned together, still intimately
connected, and while Alex would admit to a certain amount of post-coital bliss,
he wasn't confused enough to understand what Kyle meant. He laughed as the
strange thought passed through his mind. "Not confused enough to
understand" pretty much described most of their relationship.

"What do you mean?" he asked his
lover even as he cuddled closer.

"A whisper doesn't count as 'out
loud'?"

"What whisper?" Alex asked, trying
to remember what words he'd used when he'd begged his mate to fuck him. That
alone had been completely unexpected. He'd known there would be a certain
amount of pain—he'd been an anal virgin after all—but he hadn't expected to
enjoy it so much that he'd begged his lover to take him harder on their very
first time together. It took a moment to realize Kyle hadn't answered his
question. "What whisper?"

"Sorry, probably just wishful
thinking."

"What did you think you heard?"

"It's not important," Kyle said,
running a soothing hand up and down Alex's side.

"I'm lying here with your cock up my
ass, everything's important." They both laughed softly, but it changed to
a groan when Alex felt Kyle's cock twitch inside him. Despite his orgasm he
hadn't really grown soft yet—
yay
, for bear
shifters—so every movement was a delicious reminder of what they'd just shared.

"I thought I heard you say you loved me
and promise that one day you would say it out loud."

Alex stilled as he tried to remember if he'd
actually said any of that out loud. He knew he'd thought it, but he'd been
panting so hard at the time he was pretty sure he'd been too busy breathing to
try and whisper something he'd not actually intended to say today.
In the future yes, but not right here and not right now.

An explanation occurred to him that was so
outrageous he wanted to squirm away in embarrassment.

"Telepathy?"
Kyle asked as if Alex had spoken the words.

Alex shifted awkwardly to try and see his
lover's face. "Now I know I didn't say that out loud."

"But I heard it anyway," Kyle said
in a perplexed tone.

"So this is…what? A side effect of sex
with you?"

"I don't think so," Kyle replied,
tightening his grip on Alex slightly when the idea to leap out of bed and pace
the room occurred to him. "Yeah, I heard that thought too."

"Well this kind of sucks," Alex
said as he tried to wrap his mind around the idea that Kyle might be able to
hear everything he thought. He was well on his way to a full-on rant when he
realized the connection went both ways. Kyle was already worried this would be
a deal breaker.

"Not a deal breaker," Alex said
quickly, unable to stand the worry passing through his lover's mind.
"We'll find a way to adapt."

"Do
me
a
favor?" Kyle asked in a voice that wobbled with his worry. "Remember
that I'm bad with words, even inside my own head. Often what I think
instinctively,
isn't really what I mean."

"So the idea to go foraging for berries
and honey right now isn't really what you mean?"

Alex smiled when he realized he'd said the
exact right thing. He wasn't sure he was interpreting anything that he was
sensing correctly, but he did understand the risk of wayward thoughts. Not
everything that passed through a person's mind was indicative of the person
they truly were.

"Thanks, babe," Kyle said as he
breathed out a soft sigh of relief. Alex could already sense the man's chaotic
thoughts settling down just a little.

They lay together quietly for a few more minutes
and calmly—well as calmly as they could both manage—explored the unexpected
connection between them. Alex relaxed when he realized the man he'd begun to
love really was the same on the inside.

His lover's quiet laugh followed him into
sleep.

Chapter Eleven

"So you can hear everything each other
thinks
?" Tyler asked curiously.

"Not quite," Alex answered calmly.
He knew Kyle wasn't comfortable talking about the connection they had—mainly
because he was worried he'd inadvertently think of something inappropriate
while Alex was close enough to listen in—but it seemed important for them to
know what was happening between them.

"But only each
other?"
Tyler asked. "Not anyone
else?"

"No," Kyle answered gruffly.
"Just the two of us and only when we're within arm's length of each
other."

They'd come to Adrian's home, rather than
the head office of Alateeka Protection Services in an effort to try and keep
this among immediate family only. If books and movies were anything to go by,
most people were uncomfortable with the idea of coming face-to-face with a
telepath. They couldn't hear anybody else, but not everyone was going to
believe that.

Kyle had nearly blown a fuse when Alex had
suggested they talk to his siblings, but Alex was pretty sure that had more to
do with Kyle's prior infatuation with Tyler rather than his reticence to
explain what was happening to his brothers and sister.

The irony of it was that Alex already knew
what Kyle had once thought he felt for Tyler was no longer relevant. These days
Alex's mate was very clearly attracted to only one person—Alex.

"
Relax,
Ky
, nothing that happens here is going to make me
love you less,
" Alex said inside his head, hoping that his lover would
hear his words. It was far from an exact science, and it was strongest when
they were intimately joined, but he was glad when his mate reached for his hand
and squeezed it gently in response.

The discussion among the Alateeka siblings
went on around them, each of Kyle's brothers offering one theory after another.
Lilly was suspiciously quiet.

Kyle gave him a strange look and then turned
his attention to his sister, obviously having heard that random thought.

"Lilly?
Any
thoughts?"
Kyle asked, stalling the conversation and turning all of
the attention onto the sister they adored. Before she could say anything she
was interrupted by an uninvited guest.

"Honestly, what does a goddess have to
do to get an invitation around here?"

Alex blinked several times, convinced he was
hallucinating. Kyle had told him about the woman who claimed to be a goddess
and had gifted them with their paranormal traits so long ago, but he hadn't
actually mentioned the woman dropping by now and then.

The fact that she'd slowly materialized out
of thin air was also something he'd failed to mention.

"Did you want something, Anaedra?"
Derek asked in an annoyed tone.

The woman was tiny, probably an inch or two
less than five feet tall, but she somehow filled the room with her presence.
She arched an eyebrow at Derek and then turned her smirk in Adrian's direction.
She seemed a little off balance when Tyler moved closer, wrapped his arms
around her, and gave her a loving hug.

"You need to drop by more often,"
Tyler said affectionately as Adrian smiled on indulgently.

"I…um…I've been busy." She stepped
away a little less gracefully than seemed to be her norm, and then turned her
attention to Alex. "So…let's have a look at the new boy. He's kind of big
for a human."

Alex felt Kyle bristle at what seemed to be
a mild insult, but Alex simply squeezed his hand and smiled at the woman.
"It's nice to meet you, Anaedra."

"Polite too," she said to Kyle as
if Alex wasn't in the room.

"Anaedra," Adrian growled in a
low, annoyed tone.

The woman rolled her eyes, but it seemed
that she'd gotten exactly the response she'd been hoping for. "Fine,"
she said in a voice that sounded just a little more gleeful than annoyed,
"I'll play nice." She turned her attention fully to Alex. "You
can hear your mate's thoughts because that's the way it works for bear
shifters."

"But
I'm not a bear shifter"
was on the tip of his
tongue, but Alex managed to stop the far-too-obvious statement from spilling
from his lips. Anaedra actually looked disappointed when nobody offered the
denial or made a comment of any kind.

She rolled her eyes again, stamped her
delicate little foot against the carpet, and pouted like a five-year-old.

"Paranormal history 101," she
finally said, her tone derogatory as if they should already know what she was
about to teach them. "Shifters are mostly extinct because they were stupid
enough to breed with humans. Their DNA, as human scientists call it, is spread
throughout the human genome, but is mostly dormant. Judging by his size, I'd
say Alex got more bear-shifter genes than most, and that's why the telepathic
mating bond has developed."

She glared at everyone in the room, made a
huff of disappointment when nobody argued with her or even seemed particularly
surprised, and then faded out of sight with yet another roll of her eyes.

Thankfully, Kyle was holding onto him by the
time Alex's brain caught up to the information he'd just been given. It made
sense, especially with everything he'd learned about paranormals over the past
few weeks, but being told he was part bear shifter was a rather strange
surprise.

"I guess that just proves how perfect
you are for each other," Adrian said with a wide grin. "Welcome to
the family, Alex."

Alex nodded his thanks but really had no
idea what to say. He'd woken this morning believing he was fully human, so it
was probably going to take a little more than a few minutes for him to adjust
to the idea.

"We should celebrate," Gavin said
with a wide grin. "Who's up for a night at Santutegia?"

The others nodded in agreement, but it was
Kyle's sudden worry that caught Alex's attention.

"What's Santutegia?" he asked,
trying to pinpoint his lover's sudden change of mood.

"It's a local nightclub that we
own," Brody said with a shrug. "Upstairs is a typical dance scene,
but the fetish rooms underneath are by invitation only."

"Fetish?"
Alex asked with a soft laugh. Was his big bear shifter worried Alex
might not like that he had a few kinks? He laughed softly, for some reason
envisioning his bear shifter wearing black leather, but then an image of a
smaller man tied to a post and being hit with a whip while he screamed in pain
entered Alex's mind, and he jolted away from Kyle in response.

"You did that?" he asked, not even
caring that the rest of Kyle's family was there to hear his outrage.
"That's what you're trying to hide from me? That you tied up a man and
beat the crap out of him?" He glanced at Tyler and realized why he'd been
Kyle's guilty obsession when they'd first met. The guy was nearly the same size
and build as the man in the memory Kyle had just accidentally shared.

"Babe—" Kyle began, but Alex cut
him off.

"Don't… Just don't talk right
now." He glanced around the room, not really seeing anything through the
haze of anger crowding his mind, and then turned and left Adrian's house.

He stood out the front of the large home and
stared up at the night sky, desperately trying to reconcile the protective guy
he knew with the man who'd be capable of doing something like that.

~*~

"Kyle, wait," Brody said, reaching
out to pull him back as he tried to follow his mate out of the house. A part of
him understood that anything he said now would likely make things worse,
especially with his awkward way with words. He already knew that Kyle
considered domestic violence absolutely unforgivable, so he'd purposely avoided
talking about Santutegia.

He wasn't ashamed of anything he'd done with
the subs he'd been with over the centuries, but his mind had, of course,
slipped straight to the scene that had convinced him that subs who were also
pain sluts simply weren't for him. He'd given the young man what he'd needed
that night, what he'd specifically asked for, but Kyle had quickly found a Dom
more suited to him afterward.

"Let Tyler talk to him," Adrian
said, blocking his path so that he'd have to get past his brothers before he
could get to his mate.

In his head he knew that Tyler, Adrian's
mate
and
his submissive, was probably
the best person to talk to Alex right now, but Kyle's heart already felt like
it had been torn from his chest. He couldn't lose Alex over something like
this. He simply couldn't.

~*~

Alex wasn't surprised that Tyler was the one
to follow him out of the house, but he really didn't want to talk to anyone
right now. He was too busy trying to understand how he could still love a man
who'd done something like that. He'd been called out to way too many domestic
violence calls to ever think what apparently went on at Santutegia was
acceptable.

Fortunately, Tyler didn't start with any of
the excuses for the Alateeka brothers that Alex had half been expecting.

"Anaedra seems to like you."

Alex couldn't help but laugh softly at that
comment. "How could you tell?"

"She spoke to you directly. She very
rarely lets a human see or even
hear
her. You must be
pretty darn special for her to break that habit."

"'Bear shifter DNA' is not really the
answer I'd been expecting."

"Me neither," Tyler said with a
shrug, "but it does explain the mate bond you and Kyle have
developed." He was quiet for a moment, perhaps deciding whether to say
something or not. Eventually he patted Kyle on the arm and turned to go back to
the house.

"Does Adrian…" Alex really didn't
want to ask the question out loud, fearful of the answer, but he had to know
what sort of family the
Alateekas
were. He might
still love Kyle, but staying with a violent abusive man would go against everything
he believed in.

Tyler bit his bottom lip, apparently
choosing his words carefully. "About a year before I met Adrian, I lived
with a Dom who…well, let's just say the guy missed the point of the D/s
lifestyle." He shrugged and gave Alex a soft smile. "Adrian gives me
what I need as a sub, but I'm always the one in control. If I use my safe word,
everything stops."

"So he beats you?" Alex asked as
memories of some of the domestic abuse victims he'd dealt with over the years
paraded through his memory.

"I know it's not easy for a person
outside of our lifestyle to understand, but it's what works for me and Adrian.
I promise you, Alex, my mate has never done anything that I haven't thoroughly
enjoyed."

"Do you know how much you sound like
them? Like the beaten wives who made excuse after excuse for their deadbeat
husbands? They'd be covered in blood and barely able to open their eyes through
the bruising, but they'd defend their husbands and deny what was happening all
the way up to the day they ended up in the morgue."

"I know I can't convince you with
words," Tyler said in a sad voice, "but I think you already know Kyle
is a good guy. Whatever you heard or saw or felt through your mate link, I know
Kyle can explain it."

That was partly what worried him.

Was he so in love with the man that he'd
listen and believe any explanation he offered? Alex had never thought of
himself as gullible, but it really was possible that Kyle had that sort of hold
over him. Was Alex really willing to set aside a lifetime of beliefs just so he
could keep on loving a man who was so wrong for him?

"Can you tell Kyle I'm going for a
walk? I just need some time to think."

Tyler gave him a worried look and Alex shook
his head.

"I won't disappear. I'll be home in a
few hours."

Tyler nodded warily, leaned in to give him a
quick hug, and then hurried back into the house.

Half expecting his mate to come roaring out
the front door at any moment, Alex quickly moved onto the suburban street and
deliberately walked in the opposite direction of the home he shared with Kyle.

~*~

Kyle was ready to crawl out of skin—almost
literally if one took into account the fact that he couldn't seem to stop his
hands from changing into paws, wicked six inch claws and all.

If he shredded one more thing, Alex was
liable to think he'd come home and done a temper tantrum. Hell, he still might
if his mate didn't come home soon and let him explain. They'd spent most of the
past few days together practically joined at the hip, so to say he felt lost
without his mate was a complete understatement.

Sitting still had never been his style, but
he knew Alex wouldn't appreciate him ignoring his request for space. Kyle took
a deep breath, forced his paws back to human hands, and sat down in front of
the TV.