Matthew's Chance (21 page)

“Shit.” Matthew made a leap of logic. “Sal asked if it was okay not to use a condom when he sucked me off and I knew it wouldn’t hurt me so—fuck.” A knot settled in his stomach. “I just became patient zero in a possible future epidemic of alien origin because I didn’t use a condom for a couple of blowjobs.”

“The technology shouldn’t hurt him.”

“It almost killed me.”

“The same shouldn’t happen now that the biological agent has adapted to the human body.”

“Still—”

The sudden sound of an alpha howl whipped through the trees. A shiver raced up Matthew’s spine and Ash stilled abruptly, his head coming up.

The silence lingered only a moment, and another challenging howl rose, and then one came from somewhere ahead of Ash and Matthew.

“Alpha
Paetarikeille
has found Lujan—”

“Shit.”

“—and his heat’s on him.”

Ash grasped Matthew’s hand and tugged. “We need to go. Unless you want to fuck here in the woods. My heat cycle could return at any time and the drugs won’t wear off slowly. Not these. I’ll need at least another dose so you have time to rest before it comes again.”

Matthew couldn’t dispute that, because he was exhausted and shivering, so he hiked off into the woods with Ash and left Cam to his fate.

“I had sex with Cam Lujan,” Matthew said, staring across the table at Brendan and Ian.

Fletcher was late. He’d sent a message to Matthew’s new phone saying he was coming by whether Matthew wanted him to or not, but then he hadn’t shown up with the others.

The visit wasn’t supposed to last long—not because Matthew wasn’t healed, because he’d healed just as fast as he’d ever healed. In fact, he’d been almost his normal self by the time they’d made it to the den—except for the part where he’d fallen asleep and no one could wake him for nearly six hours.

Ash’s first heat cycle off the drugs had been … intense. Hot. But about three fucks too long for Matthew.

He’d almost fallen asleep at the end, only to jolt awake to the roar of Ash coming in his ass. Which had been weird as hell. He’d never imagined he could be so worn out from sex that he couldn’t even stay awake while there was a dick up his ass.

But hey, Ash had coped with that better than Matthew might have expected. He’d petted Matthew and nuzzled him and curled up with him and they’d both gone to sleep.

Only to wake up twenty minutes later when Matthew came lunging up out of a dream with his heart pounding, eyes wet, mouth dry. Ash had hugged him close and whispered comforting words, and after a few minutes, Matthew had let Ash help him clean up and they’d gone back to sleep. When he woke up later, Ash had told him Brendan wanted to visit.

Ian shrugged as if it was no big deal, but Brendan eyed him warily.

“The thing with Sal,” Matthew prompted.

Ian’s brow furrowed, but Brendan knew what he was getting at, because Matthew could see the comprehension in his eyes.

“Not your problem,” Brendan said. “Don’t worry about it.”

Matthew sat back in the chair and the wood creaked. He tapped his fingers on the table’s edge. “I’m worried.”

“Rick hasn’t come back. No one can find them.”

“Exactly,” Matthew said. “The alpha—Cam—”

“None of that’s your problem,” Brendan said again, a stern set to his mouth. “Not them, not the bullets, none of it. You’ve been through enough lately—don’t take on trouble that isn’t yours. Now tell me about the new place you picked out with Ash.”

Matthew forced himself to take a breath. Brendan was right. Cam wasn’t his concern, and neither was Alpha Rick. And the bullets… there wasn’t anything he could do about that either.

“It’s your way,” he said. “Halfway between Ash’s old place and Fletcher’s—”

The door across the room slammed open.

Matthew jerked, his gaze jumping from Brendan to the doorway.

Ian half turned in his seat, resting his arm across the back of the chair, and looked over his shoulder.

Brendan just kicked back in his seat and sighed.

“I hate all the goddamn rules they’ve put in place for this heat season.” With that, Fletcher glared at someone over his shoulder and slammed the door as he stepped over the threshold.

“Problem?” Ian asked.

The hostility dropped off Fletcher’s face. “You could say that. I can’t go anywhere without a goddamn escort and Kem was busy so I had to wait on him and then he made me eat the goddamn food right off his fingers before—Ah fuck. Forget it. I’m pissed because now I’ve got a hard-on after sucking his fingers and everybody’s so goddamn hot for that video of Matty pounding Ash. Even Kem’s fascinated, the asshole.”

Matthew sat up so fast his chair screeched against the floor. “What? What video?”

“You’re a porn star Matty. That’s what. Wolf porn. Who would’ve thought watching one of their own submit to one of us would send them into a frenzy, huh?”

Matthew opened his mouth and it took a moment before words formed. “How the hell did anyone get a video of me and Ash fucking?”

Fletcher dragged out a chair beside Matthew and sat, dropping his arm down on the table, his shoulder almost knocking into Matthew’s.

Matthew twisted to face him. “How?”

“That’s one of the buildings where they do interrogations. The back of that room you were in is just a wall separating the viewing room. The whole goddamn complex has seen it by now.”

Matthew stared at Fletcher.

“Breathe,” Fletcher said, reaching over and slapping him on the back. “It could be worse. Right now everyone thinks you’re a sex god or something. Fucking pricks.”

He took a second look at Fletcher.

Fletcher was
jealous
.

“Devon,” Ian said. “Leave him alone.”

Brendan raked his hands through his hair and leaned forward on his elbows. “I’m sorry, Matthew. I had no idea. I’ll see what I can do to get them to get rid of it.”

Matthew rubbed his hands over his face and muttered, “Too late for that. Shit.” He dropped his hands down onto the table. “How am I going to—”

He looked at Ian and Ian stared back at him red-faced.

“You knew!”

Ian coughed into his hand but nodded, then glanced at Brendan. “Craig said he’d take care of it so you shouldn’t have to do anything.”

Fletcher snickered and kicked the bottom rung of Ian’s chair. “You don’t just know about it, you’ve watched it, haven’t you, you pervert?”

Ian’s clear gaze fixed on Fletcher. “No, by God, I haven’t watched it.”

“Well, I did,” Fletcher said. “Three times. Beginning to end. I bet there’s some wolf here right now beating off to that—”

Matthew groaned.

“Yep, that’s about what it sounded—Hey!” Fletcher returned Matthew’s shoulder punch.

“Goddammit, Fletcher, don’t ever mention this again.”

“When are you ever going to start calling me by my first name? Nobody calls me Fletcher.”

“I do.”

“Call me Devon or ‘hey asshole’ but for God’s sake stop calling me Fletcher. It makes me feel old.”

“Well, there you go then.”

Fletcher’s eyes narrowed on Matthew and he scoffed. “I’m not fucking anywhere near old. I won’t even be thirty for another two years.”

“About four years before me. You’ll have wrinkles under your ass before you know it.”

“You fucking dick.”

“Asshole.”

Brendan frowned at both of them.

“You still owe me those fifty gold ten-dollars. One day I’m going to collect it out of your ass if you don’t pay up.”

Matthew laughed.

He didn’t mean to, but if he’d had fifty gold ten-dollars he’d have bet every one of them that Fletcher was pouting.

Fletcher turned a scowl on Matthew and Matthew tried to stop, but after the events of the last several days, he needed the release and before he knew it, he was laughing so hard he was holding his ribs and gasping for breath.

Fletcher—Devon—kicked him in the shin.

Son of a—

Matthew kicked back.

“What the hell,” Brendan said.

“Hey,” Devon said right back to him. “We’re having a discussion here. Stay out of it.”

“With your feet?”

“So what? We’re bonding. This is pack business.”

That comment surprised Matthew and he finally calmed down enough to breathe. “So you’re trying to bond with me by kicking the shit out of my leg?”

“No, you’re trying to bond with me.” Devon shrugged. “You’re not as bad as I remember you being back when you were fucking Brendan.”

“Don’t bring that up,” Brendan said.

Devon ignored Brendan. “You’ve grown up a lot the last few years.”

Matthew crossed his arms and sat back in his chair. “You haven’t.”

Instead of taking offense, Devon laughed. “Don’t plan to either. God, can you imagine how boring this shit would be if I had to take it seriously?”

Matthew wasn’t sure what “shit” Devon was talking about but he understood the sentiment. He shrugged and sat back and let the guys talk around him. He wasn’t exactly part of their group, but he wasn’t exactly outside of it either. He could see himself becoming comfortable with Ian, and Brendan was already his friend. Devon—maybe someday. Then he snorted quietly to himself.

“I’ve never seen that tattoo,” Matthew said, interrupting whatever Devon and Brendan were yammering on about. “I think since you watched me pounding Ash—” He emphasized “pounding” to match Devon’s earlier comment. “—three times, I should get to see your dick.”

Ian choked on a laugh.

Brendan shuffled back in his seat and glanced between Matthew and Devon, letting his gaze stop at Devon, eyebrows high.

Devon scowled. “Are you fucking serious?”

Matthew wondered if he was. His mouth answered for him before he’d even decided. “I am. Everybody here’s seen it. I want to see it.”

Five minutes and a mouthful of insults later, Devon showed Matthew his dick.

It was a start.

* * *

“I’m… not sure I believe,” Matthew said. “Religion, fate, any of that. But… I think I saw my mother.”

Ash rubbed his hand over Matthew’s forehead. He hadn’t let Matthew out of his sight for anything other than the visit with the guys in days. They fucked, and ate, and showered, and that was about it. But Matthew hadn’t been able to stop thinking about the whisper of memory that came to him every time he went to sleep.

Waking up with his heart thundering had become a thing.

He’d been laying there with Ash listening to the sound of wind and rain for the last twenty minutes because of waking up in the middle of their early evening nap after Ash’s last heat cycle.

“What’s real is real whether you believe or not,” Ash said. The warmth of his fingers seeped into that cold place in Matthew’s gut, giving him the strength to finish what he wanted to say.

“She told me to quit worrying about what happened to her. That it didn’t matter. That I wouldn’t find peace in the knowing.”

“Those were dark days. The first heat on Earth will always be remembered as a great tragedy, for both those who died and those who lived.”

“But don’t you get it? She’s dead. She’s been dead for nearly ten years now. I just… the dreams feel so goddamn real.”

“The dreams will fade as time goes on. But they’re a gift from the universe and you should appreciate them while they’re fresh.”

Matthew turned on his side in the bed. He moved in and kissed Ash, covering his mouth and slowly working his tongue between Ash’s lips. He dragged his bottom lip along the points of Ash’s eyeteeth.

Ash rolled to his back, pulling Matthew over with him.

Matthew planted his hands in the center of Ash’s chest, taking his time breaking the kiss, letting their warm breath mingle, moist and sweet.

Ash had a taste for apples and Matthew had fed Ash as many as he could eat before their nap.

“You know I love it when you fuck me,” Matthew said. “But… I love it even more when you submit to me. If I were one of you, I could take you while you’re in the middle of one of your heat cycles—”

“We’re mated. I would submit.”

That took Matthew aback. He frowned down at Ash. “You’re just now telling me this?”

“I… sometimes forget you don’t know these things.”

Matthew squeezed Ash’s chest, his fingers riding over the thick muscle under soft, lightly haired skin, then scooted down Ash’s body until he could touch Ash’s long alien penis. “You wouldn’t go crazy on me because you don’t have anywhere to stick this while your body’s desperate to breed?”

“I’ve mated males before during heat season,” Ash said. “We often choose more than one heat mate. I’ve bred females, and I’ve mated with males who don’t have the status to breed.”

“Wait, some of you aren’t allowed to have kids?”

The skin between Ash’s eyebrows furrowed. “Of course.”

“Of course.” Matthew wet his bottom lip. He shouldn’t let himself get distracted by this stuff. He had plenty of time to learn more about the wolves and their society.

“If one of my people were my true mate,” Ash continued, “he would demand my submission to his heat, and I still wouldn’t have anywhere to stick this.” Ash reached down and covered Matthew’s hand on his dick, his eyes gleaming under the light.

Matthew worked his hand up and down Ash’s dick, and Ash breathed out a low rumble. “My mate would expect my submission and I would give it.”

Matthew leaned down and rubbed his two day’s worth of beard across Ash’s cheek. He kissed Ash over the column of his throat.

“Submit,” he said, then bit hard enough so that Ash would feel it as more than just a playful nip. He had a feeling a token bite wouldn’t be nearly as exciting for Ash as something more dangerous, something more real.

He was rewarded for his daring when Ash’s dick seemed to jump under his touch, the hot, hard shaft pulsing as Ash dug his heels into the bed and came for Matthew with a rumbling groan.

Matthew released Ash’s throat and sat up. “Oh yeah, you’re gonna love this. Spread your legs for me.”

Ash’s amber gaze turned hot and direct and Matthew could see the way Ash’s pulse fluttered rapidly under his jaw. Ash spread his legs and Matthew shifted so he could kneel between Ash’s thickly muscled thighs.