Riley's Downfall [Brac Pack 29] (9 page)

Riley sighed happily as Sterling ’s tongue licked leisurely up the side of his neck and then back down the other side until he reached Riley’s throat. The tip of his tongue lingered around Riley’s Adam’s apple, teasing it gently with his teeth as his mate moaned. Sterling was draped over him, his cock digging into Riley’s stomach, and the moisture leaking onto his abdomen only reminding Riley that he had one sexy-ass man lying above him. He had his hands tucked behind his head, his legs spread, and Sterling lapping at his skin.

His mate ’s hands were causing havoc with every inch of skin that they reached and stroked. The man seemed to know just where to touch Riley in order to drive him out of his mind. Sterling’s fingers lingered on the body hair Riley had an ample amount of, tugging at it gently as he made his way around to Riley’s ear, nibbling on the lobe. Riley gave a little growl at the sensations rushing through him. The pleasure felt like soft currents lapping through his body.

Sterling kissed Riley ’s jaw and then licked his way around to the other side, doing to the same to the opposite ear. He was taking his sweet time and driving Riley nuts. He shivered when Sterling leaned to his side and began to kiss and lick one thick bicep. The man seemed to be enthralled with Riley’s large muscles, as if he couldn’t get enough of them.

His mate ’s hands were caressing his pecs, his fingers pinching and pulling at Riley’s nipples. Riley groaned, turning his head so he could watch his mate lick his damn muscles like a seducer. The man knew what he was doing and was doing it very well.

The moves were slow, lazy even, but Riley could see Sterling closing his eyes as if he were enjoying every second of what he was doing. Riley sure as hell was.

Riley had worried that things between them would be strained when they returned to the ranch. He worried that he wouldn’t feel as comfortable being affectionate with his mate as he had at the village. He had feared that once they came back to his bedroom, things would be awkward between the two of them.

He was so fucking wrong.
They had barely gotten in the door before Riley was pulling Sterling up the stairs to claim him again, and Sterling had seemed just as anxious to be back in Riley’s arms. All Riley could think about was how proud he was to be Sterling’s mate, and how special he had felt when his little mate stood up to a man who scared even Riley, just to defend him.
Had anyone ever had a more wonderful mate?
He had wanted to toss Sterling to the dirt floor in the hut everyone had been standing in, not caring who was watching as he claimed his sexy, braver-than-he-truly-was mate. It had made his cock hard hearing Sterling tell Ahm off. It had been even sexier when Sterling had proclaimed that Riley was
his
bear in front of everyone.
Sterling was perfect.
Riley almost laughed at how hard he had fought his mating with the human. He had been so stupid to deny Sterling. He finally understood why all of his brothers, and his father, too, turned into such saps when it came to their mates.
They couldn’t help it.
And now Riley could see why. Sterling had become the best part of his life. Riley didn’t want the man to leave his side—which was one big-ass contradiction to how he had been acting just a few short days ago.
How the mighty have fallen.
Although he would never speak it out loud to a single member of his family, he felt that he had gotten the best mate out of all of them. Sterling might drive him to distraction with his peculiar ways, but Riley was pretty sure he would die if anything ever happened to the man. He just wouldn’t want to live without his little blond-haired mate who drove him crazy and made him love every inch of the man at the same time.
“Sit on my cock, baby,” Riley said as he gripped his mate’s sides and lifted Sterling’s hips up into the air. “Ride me.”
Sterling’s light-grey eyes sparkled like twin diamonds as he sat up, his hands resting on Riley’s chest. Riley knew this was something Sterling had fantasied about, and he had plans to fulfill each and every one of Sterling’s fantasies.
Scratch that.
He had every intention of fulfilling each and every one of Sterling’s fantasies that was humanly, or bear-ly possible, to fulfill. With Sterling, one never knew. But if it was within Riley’s power to do it, he would.
“You are so fucking sexy, mate,” Riley whispered as he watched Sterling slowly lower himself down onto Riley’s cock. He watched where their bodies met, his breathing growing more rapid with each passing second. He couldn’t tear his eyes away. Watching Sterling sink down onto his cock was erotic as hell. “Just look at you,” he murmured. “Your ass was made for my cock.”
“Yesss,” Sterling hissed as his head fell back on his shoulders.
Riley’s eyes slowly moved up Sterling’s body, past the man’s flat abdomen to his well-defined stomach and then his lightly muscled chest. He gloried at the way Sterling was built. The man wasn’t a skinny guy with a narrow body and no definition. No, his mate was cut, chiseled, and was erotic as hell to look at. The man was well tanned all over, and Riley’s favorite spot on his mate’s body, aside from his ass, was the well-defined
V
that started on either side of the man’s stomach and ran down between his legs.
And it didn’t hurt that the man was hairless at his groin. Quite the opposite of Riley’s hairy body, but sexy as sin to look at. It gave him an unobstructed view of Sterling’s thick and long cock.
Riley’s eyes ran back up Sterling’s body to the brown-hued nipples on each side of Sterling’s chest and knew they were a work of art.
They were even more beautiful after Riley reached up and tweaked them between his fingers. They pebbled and turned white before fading to pink and then back to their golden tanned color.
Perfect
. But the sweet hiss that fell from Sterling’s lips was even better.
“Do you like that, baby?” Riley asked as he tweaked the little nubs again.
Sterling nodded rapidly, his eyes taking on a dazed hue, darkening from light grey to a steely grey. It looked like the clouds themselves were moving inside his mate’s eyes, and it was breathtaking. It amazed Riley that he could do that to another being, that he could bring this much pleasure to a man he was falling deeply in love with. He never wanted that sensual rapture to leave Sterling’s face.
Riley lay there for a second, feeling his heart expand and encompass the man straddling him. How could he have ever tried to push this guy away? Gods, he had been such a thickheaded jerk. “Did I tell you how sexy it was when you stood up to Ahm?”
Sterling licked his lips, his glazed eyes lowering down toward Riley. “I…I thought he was going to kill me.”
Riley’s eyebrows peaked as surprise rolled through him. “And you still stood up for me?”
“You’re my mate!” Sterling growled, doing a pretty damn good imitation of a bear, and Riley loved the sweet growly sound. He loved it even more that Sterling had claimed him, even to the point of standing up to someone he was scared of. That was what mates did for each other. He knew that, but it had still surprised him that the slim man had done it.
“And you’re my mate, Sterling. I’m never giving you up.” Riley didn’t miss the tears that misted in Sterling’s eyes at his words. He knew his mate craved the pretty little words spoken between mates. He just didn’t know how to express them verbally.
Riley wrapped his hand around the back of Sterling’s neck and pulled him down until their noses almost touched. He moved his hand around until he could cup the side of Sterling’s face, rubbing his thumb along the soft skin of his mate’s cheek.
“I wish I knew the words, Sterling.”
Sterling’s eyes sparkled with little chips of molten grey. He smiled.“You do,” Sterling whispered. “You’ll tell me when you’re ready.”
Riley wished he knew when that was, if ever. He knew he would never be sappy like his brothers or his father. He just wasn’t built that way. But he wanted Sterling to know how much the man meant to him.
Riley started to grow frustrated with his inability to express how he felt about Sterling. He gritted his teeth and searched his brain for the right words, but none came to mind, none that he could speak, anyway.
“Ssshh,” Sterling whispered as he pressed a soft kiss to the corner of Riley’s mouth. “You’ll find the right words when you’re ready.”
Riley wanted to say something, anything. Sterling deserved it. But then the man started moving, jerking his hips up and down at a rapid pace, and Riley forgot his own name, let alone trying to speak an entire sentence.
“Sterling,” Riley groaned as he grabbed Sterling’s hips and started thrusting upward, driving his cock in and out of his mate’s tight ass. He dug the heels of his feet into the mattress and met Sterling’s rapid movements every time the man came down and impaled himself on Riley’s cock. He could feel the skin around his mate’s entrance expanding, giving as Riley’s cock drove inside his mate’s body over and over again.
“Fuck, Sterling, how do you—” Riley groaned and snapped his mouth closed when Sterling started some sort of circular motion with his hips, gyrating them and driving Riley’s cock further into his mate’s body. Gods, how did he know how to do that? It was driving Riley crazy. Sterling seemed to squeeze his inner muscles around Riley’s cock at the same time he dropped down onto him.
Sterling fell forward, swiveling his hips in a quick motion as he bowed his back, staring right into Riley’s eyes.“Are you going to bite me, Riley?”
Riley stared up at Sterling, unsure of how comfortable he felt at the wicked grin on his mate’s face. Sterling was kind of scary when he seemed that happy during sex.
Sterling wiggled his dark-blond brows. “Well, big boy, are you?”
Riley was suddenly reminded of Sterling calling out to someone in his sleep that he referred to as “big boy.” Had Sterling been dreaming of him? The mere thought that Sterling had been fantasizing about him, even in his sleep, all of a sudden took hold of Riley and overwhelmed him.
He growled, flipping Sterling over onto his back. What madness had control of him, Riley would never know. He grabbed a handful of Sterling’s hair with one hand and hiked the man’s leg up to his chest with the other. He had Sterling twisted into a pretzel. His mate’s knees were touching his ears as Riley slammed his cock into his mate’s giving ass. Riley pressed both hands into the mattress on either side of Sterling’s head, his mate’s feet at his ears. Gods, he was a debauched mess, and Riley was turned on even more. The man was bent in half and smiling up at him.
Smiling!
“Mine!” he growled right before he struck, sinking his teeth into the soft flesh between Sterling’s shoulder and his neck. The first sweet taste of his mate’s life-giving blood ripped the last of Riley’s control away from him.
He threw his head back as his loud roar filled the room, shaking the windows, as his release took hold of him and tossed him over the edge into bliss. As his cock thickened inside of Sterling, swelling to the point of trapping him inside his mate’s body, Riley heard his own cry of release echoed in his mate’s soft cry.
Riley pounded into Sterling’s pulsing ass, licking the wound closed as the last of his seed emptied from his tight balls. His arms quivered as sweat dripped from his face. His mate’s stomach was covered with his own cum as Sterling lay there jerking slightly, satiation riding his features hard.
Riley had enough of a brain cell to roll to the side when he dropped down onto the mattress, taking Sterling with him. Riley wrapped his arms around Sterling as the man snuggled into his chest. He could hear a happy little sound come from his mate, and he couldn’t help but smile. Sterling really was something else.
“Riley?”
“Yeah, baby?” he whispered against the top of the man’s head.
“Where’s my pig?”

Maverick walked into the diner, glancing around. He spotted the wolf physician he was there to meet almost immediately. He nodded at a few of the townspeople and smiled at a little girl with wide blue eyes as Maverick crossed the room.

The little girl reminded Maverick of when Melonee was that age. He remembered the first time he had laid eyes on her. Maverick had been afraid he would break her. She was so damn small. He had wanted to give her the world.

And still did.
His adopted daughter had grown up so fast that Maverick yearned for the days when she ran around the den causing havoc and had every warrior wrapped around her little finger.
The warriors were still wrapped around her finger, but she was grown now, or almost. She had turned into a beautiful young woman and had a fierce attitude to match Maverick’s. But as he glanced over at the small girl with long brown ringlets, he wished he could make time stand still so his little Melonee wouldn’t let her mate claim her and then leave him. Melonee was his right-hand girl.
His mate, Cecil, was his best friend and everything else Maverick had ever yearned for in a mate, but Melonee was his sidekick, his buddy, and his get-into-trouble partner. What was he going to do without her?
“Is everything all right?” Dr. Carmichael asked as Maverick took a seat.
Damn, his eyes were misty. When in the hell did he ever get misty-eyed?
Duh.
When he thought of Melonee.
Maverick cleared his throat and nodded. “I’m fine. What did you find out?” His nostalgic moments of his daughter were for him alone.
“Well,” Dr. Carmichael began as he lifted his cup of coffee, “Cole’s blood test came back.”
“And?”
The wolf physician shook his head, took a sip of his coffee, and then set the cup down. “The blood I drew from Seth and the blood I drew from Cole have been tested. Although Seth has been converted into a bear, he has a minute trace of the drug Liquid Wrath in his system.”
Damn.
Maverick had prayed that Seth, Chance Lakeland’s mate, wouldn’t be infected. The Lakelands weren’t going to like this news.
“And Cole’s blood?” He still gritted his teeth to think that Shanta, the deceased fey leader, had tried to use the whelp for monetary gain. The otherworldly residents of Brac Village kept the news that Cole’s blood contained the cure for Liquid Wrath a well-hidden secret. They didn’t want another psycho coming after the babe. Cole’s father, Luke, hand had a hard enough time keeping his son safe when he ran from Shanta. Malcolm’s mate didn’t need any more bullshit coming his son’s way.
“I tested the child’s blood against the small sample of the drug I have. It’s still the cure for that horrendous paranormal drug. But when I tested his blood with the mutated version of Liquid Wrath, it was useless. The mutation allows for a human being to be converted into a shifter, vampire, demon, or whatever his mate is, but Cole’s blood is useless in neutralizing the mutated version of the drug.”
Maverick was both angered and relieved. He was angry that Cole was still a target, but relieved that his blood had gone down on a notch on the most wanted list. Malcolm and Luke would at least get some good news.
Maverick nodded at Tangee as the mate brought him a chai tea. The man knew his weakness. “Thanks.”
“Are you going to order anything to eat?” Tangee asked as he tapped his pencil on an order pad.
“Not today.”
Tangee nodded. “Okay, call me if you change your mind,” he said and then walked away to take some else’s order.
Maverick waited until they were alone and then turned back to the doctor. “Tell me, doc, why did Ahm turn white?”
The physician looked shocked, his brows jumping up into his hairline. “He’s not blue anymore?”
Maverick shook his head.
“I’m afraid I don’t know too much about the shadow elves, Maverick. The shadow elves are elusive. In all my life, I’ve only met one, and that was Ahm. Did he give you a reason?”
Maverick chuckled and then sipped his tea. “The Keebler Elf says it happens when a shadow elven turns five hundred years old. I’m just wondering if there is more to his story than he’s telling. But be warned, he isn’t too happy about not looking like Papa Smurf anymore.”
Dr. Carmichael clucked his tongue, shaking his head at the same time. “I swear, alpha. One of these days you are going to poke fun at the wrong person and they are going to poke back.”
Maverick grinned at the wolf physician, and he knew his smile was more demonic than humorous. “Let them try, doc. Let them try.”