The Mating Project (22 page)

Dimply
aware of the men's movements growing frantic, as their sweat slicked body's
slid against each other, and the incredible fullness, as her ass, too, was
breached Maria rode the longest orgasm of her life and screamed her completion
until the world went dark.

****

Silas
woke up with Maria draped all over him, and he smiled and kissed her hair.
Their little cat had passed out on them last night. She hadn't even stirred
when they'd taken it in turns to wash her body down. Having taken a quick
shower each, they had climbed into bed with her, and both men had fallen asleep
instantly.

Silas
scrubbed a hand over his gritty eyes and grinned again. The sex had been beyond
fantastic. Being mated together, and thus able to tap into each other's
emotions had enriched the experience in ways Silas couldn’t even find words
for. The two of them had achieved what they set out to do. To wipe the worry
from Maria's mind and ensure she slept.

His
cock leapt into action at the thought that this was their life now, at least
until the goddamn duel.
 
Keeping Maria's
mind off that would be the pleasurable side of the deal. Dealing with his
emotions when they weren't doing that would be hard to take.

Malachi's
own worry wrapped itself around Silas's soul, and he carefully slid out from
under Maria to go in search of him. The sun was just rising, and the Anderson's
big mansion was eerily quiet. Even the servants weren't up yet. He shook his
head at that thought.

No
wonder Malachi still called their girl
princess.
The Andersons’ wealth was hard to take in at times. It was a credit to their
parents that all three of their children didn't flaunt that wealth. It hadn't
made them jaded or spoiled, far from it.

They
were a close and loving family unit, and Silas's gut churned with longing. He
hadn't missed the fact that Malachi hadn't bothered with condoms last night.
Guess there was no point, now that they were mated, and Maria was on the pill.
Something they would have to talk about. Silas wanted a chance to try for
children, whilst they waited for the duel to be set up. It would take time, and
in case the unthinkable happened, he wanted that for himself as well as Maria, the
knowledge that Malachi at least had a chance to father a child.

Birthrates
being what they were, it might never happen, but Silas couldn't squelch that
tiny seed of hope, that they, too, would buck the trend. They were true mates
after all, and Silas agreed with Cole Jackson's opinion that the answer to the
shifters' fertility problems lay in the ancient ways. Ways that had been left
behind and forgotten along the way, ways that the bear shifter was determined
to bring back. Ways that included ancient duels like the one Malachi would have
to face all too soon.

Silas
pulled on his jeans, and grabbing the tube of lube off the nightstand, shoved
it into his back pocket. Malachi would need distracting from those dark
thoughts he sensed, and besides, it had been way too long since the two of them
had a private moment together.

Honing
in on the tumultuous emotions that coursed through his lover's soul, Silas
eventually tracked him down by the rose garden. Hands held in a white knuckled
grip on the railings of the charming gazebo, Malachi stared at the rising sun,
and Silas was shocked to see the dried tears on his rugged features.

"How
is our girl?" Malachi
asked,
his voice thick with
emotion.

"Fast asleep.
We've worn her
out, man."

A
brief smile lit up Malachi's face as he continued to stare at the horizon and
the forest that edged toward the Anderson's property.

"It
seems fitting that it will all end in the one place where I first met her,
don’t you think?"

Silas
didn't answer him. He couldn’t. His own emotions were too raw and too close to
the surface. He loved this man with every fiber of his being, had done for a
long time,
even
though they'd both fought their
attraction to each other, even though they'd both had other partners. He'd
always known that Malachi was his
soulmate
, and the
thought of losing him hurt too much to even contemplate.

What
he felt for Malachi was different from the way he loved Maria. No less potent
and real, but different, and he needed to show him that they still had that
unique connection. He stepped up to his lover and wordlessly took the hands
that curled around the railings and buried his face in the crook of Malachi's
neck.

A
shudder went through Malachi, and he groaned and let go of the railing. He speared
his hands into Silas's hair and yanked his head round for a kiss that had
Silas's cock harden to the point of pain. Malachi, too, grew stiff, and they
rubbed their cloth covered shafts against each other as they devoured each
other's mouths in a teeth-clanging, bruising kiss of possession and need.

Malachi
slammed Silas into the wall of the gazebo and caught Silas's grunt of pain in
his mouth. When he finally drew back, there were tears in Malachi's eyes, and
Silas knew they mirrored his own.

"Don't.
You'll get through this. You've got to."

Malachi
rested his forehead against his, one hand still behind his head, the other
grasping Silas's shoulder in a bruising grip, whilst Silas's hands roamed to
Malachi's ass and yanked the man's hips closer to his.

A
grim smile played on Malachi's lips as both their cocks twitched, and they
groaned in unison.

"There
is a chance that I won't. That bastard has years of experience on me,
and—"

"And
justice is on your side." Silas interrupted him. "You've invoked the
ancient rite, and justice will prevail. It's written thus in the old texts. You
will
beat him. I won't entertain any
other notion, and neither will Maria. That's the only hope I can give her, and
I'm not taking that away from her. You've
got
to beat him."

The
other man's sigh trembled through him as the wealth of sadness enveloped them
both in its suffocating cloud of misery.

"I'll
certainly fucking try, Silas, but if I don't … no, let me say this."
Malachi stopped Silas's protest with a kiss that made Silas desperate to be
fucked by him. He needed to feel Malachi's cock in him, possessing him,
branding him as his. "If I don't, then make the best life for you and our
girl. Promise you will. Promise me you will not mope, but celebrate what we
have and go on living for all of us."

Malachi's
voice broke on the last few words, and Silas kissed the tears off his face.

"You
don't even have to ask, man, you know that. I wouldn't dream of doing anything
else. Now can you stop talking and please fuck me, before we both
explode?"

A
harsh laugh tore from Malachi, and he shook his head.

"What
here, now? I'm not prepared, I…" His words trailed off, and his grin grew
sinful when Silas pulled the tube of lube out of his back pocket and waved it
at him.

"I
am, so if that's your only objection, man, it's a pretty lame one,
because—"

Malachi
shut him up with a kiss and then spun him around and yanked his trousers to his
knees. Silas's cock jumped up, and he hissed through his teeth when his lover
grasped hold of his shaft and pumped him until the first drops of pre-cum
appeared on his swollen tip. Malachi swiped his thumb through the sticky fluid
and then shoved it into Silas's mouth.

His
mouth filled with Malachi's scent, Silas groaned and licked his essence off the
digit, and Malachi's wolf growled when Silas wrapped his tongue around the
man's thumb and sucked.

He
jumped when Malachi slapped his ass and then pushed him forward.

"Hold
onto that rail and don’t fucking move. I need to be in you."

Cold
liquid trickled down the cleft of Silas’s ass cheeks and then Malachi's fingers
were there probing, pushing, and preparing him. When he found Silas's
prostrate, Silas's hips had a mind of their own and he crunched his jaw to stop
himself from crying out in bliss, as Malachi fisted his cock again, all the
while keeping up the torture to his sweet spot. His balls drew tight, and his
release built at the bottom of his spine as sweat broke out over his skin and
dripped into his eyes with the effort not to shoot his load.

"Fuck
it, Malachi. I want you in me when I come. I want your damn cock."

Malachi's
harsh laugh in his ear almost proved his undoing, and he saw stars when the
other man sank his teeth into his shoulder.

"Fuck,
fuck, I'm going to…"

"No,
you fucking won't, not without me." Malachi grunted the words, and Silas
swore again as Malachi withdrew his fingers and replaced them with his cock.
There was a brief flash of pain and then nothing but ecstasy as Malachi
bottomed out in Silas's ass and started to thrust. The force of their frantic
coupling shook the very foundations of the wooden structure they were in.
 
Silas shot his load in a thick jet of cum
that arched through the air and hit one of the rose bushes, as Malachi
shuddered and groaned his release deep inside his ass. His wolf's howl echoed
through the stillness of the garden, and Silas knew he would remember this
moment always.

Chapter Sixteen

The
huge structure that had been erected at the edge of the forest gleamed in the
sunlight. Typically, the worst day of her life so far and the gods had deemed
it right to send beautiful sunshine. Surely it ought to be pissing it down to
reflect her mood.

The
round caged in area reminded Maria of human cage fights, and her stomach
churned at the thought. Only in this case no money would be exchanged, just
cougar pitched against wolf in a fight to the death. The cage would only be
opened when one of the opponents lay dead.

The mere thought
was enough to make her stomach churn. How she would make it through the day
without being sick, she would never know.

It just wasn't
fair. She blinked back tears and tried to channel the huge store of happy
memories the three of them had amassed over the last month. Maria had taken a
leave of absence from work, not only to spend as much time with her men as she
could, but also for her own safety. Anton cast his net of deception far and
wide, and no one trusted him to keep to his side of the deal. The last thing
they all needed was for the original to take pot shots at any of them.

Cole had placed
both participants in the upcoming duel under house arrest, so they had to spend
the last month at Maria's parents’ place. Not that it had been a hardship at
all. Carter and Jake had moved Anastasia and the triplets back into the
mansion, too, and it had been fun to spend this much time with the fast growing
babies. As was typical for shifter babies, they developed much faster than
human babies would, and were already crawling. The girl had surprised everyone
by shifting already, and had given her parents a merry chase around the
premises in her panther form.

The boys had yet
to shift, but the general consensus was that they would take after their dads
and be cougars. The mere fact that they shifted this early was another feather
in Cole Jackson's cap. Now that his Emmi was out of immediate danger, he seemed
more determined than ever to bring back the old ways. It would take money and
resources to convince the steadfast originals on the council that the ways they
ran the shifter community were at the heart of its problems. Silas was excited
to play his part in proving the matter by scientific means. In the meantime the
three of them worked on producing more anecdotal evidence.

Maria had thrown
away her birth control pills, and whilst she didn't dare hope that they had
already been successful, she was late, for the first time in her life.

However neither
one of the shifters in residence seemed to have noticed any change in her, so
Maria was pretty sure it was just the stress of the upcoming duel. Malachi and
even Silas with his enhanced senses would have noticed first. That's the way it
went, and they certainly hadn't mentioned it. Even if they were waiting for her
to say something, her mother would have screamed the news from the rooftops,
Maria was sure.

She crunched her
teeth together and leant back into Silas's comforting presence as he stepped up
behind her and nuzzled into her neck.

"Ready,
little cat.
Everyone has arrived. It's time to go."

Only the slight
tremble in his voice gave away his emotions, and Maria blinked her tears away.
She would be strong for Malachi, and not show any weakness. Justice had to
prevail today, it just had to.

"Malachi?"
she asked.

"Already in
place, as is Anton. The last of the officials is here, now, including Cole, so
we'll have to go and join them."

"Too
late to run away then."

Her grim attempt
at humor fell flat, and Silas's hold on her grew painful.

"Far
too fucking late.
At least Cole is here to open the duel. He's brought his whole security team
with him. De Souza's entourage would not dare to try any sabotage. I tell you,
I've never seen so many fucking bears in one place, and they're all huge. He's
even dragged that polar bear from his hiding place."