Tiny flares began to flash behind Nicky’s eyes as his climax caught him by surprise, sweeping over him and dragging him along, trying to fling him up on the shore of an orgasm, making him scream out Marco’s name and clutch him closer. Marco soothed him through it, sucking him dry until Nicky shuddered in his grip. Then he pulled off with a little pop and licked and nipped his way up Nicky’s abs and chest to reach his mouth. Nicky could taste himself on Marco’s lips along with Marco’s own particular brand of sweetness.
“Jesus,” Nicky said, breathless and spent. “And you said you wanted me to get out of bed? I may never move again.” It was true. As energetic and restless as he’d been earlier that afternoon, he now felt sleepy and spent. He would have liked nothing better than to snuggle down in the covers with Marco and have him hold him against his warm body all night. It was strange—it felt almost like two different beings inhabited his body. And the two of them rarely agreed on anything.
“No, you don’t. Open those baby blues and get out of bed. We have plans this evening, don’t you remember?”
Nicky groaned and tried his best to roll over, but Marco caught hold of his hands and pulled him up to swing him around on the side of the bed. “Wake up, baby. We’re going for a run. The moon is out and it’s beautiful outside. A little cool, but we’ll warm up in a few minutes.”
“You might,” he grumbled and stretched his arms over his head and arched his back in a huge yawn. “I’ll just get tired and colder. Can’t we just go back to bed?”
“No, sleepyhead. Now get up and get dressed.” Marco went over to the dresser drawers and pulled out a pair of sweatpants and a soft T-shirt. “Put these on. You don’t need underwear, because we’ll be shifting once we get out there.”
“You may be,” Nicky muttered under his breath.
“What’s that?”
“Nothing. I just don’t think I feel like it tonight. I’m really tired.”
“After the way you bitched everyone out today about wanting something to do? Oh no, you don’t, buddy. We’re doing this. You have to shift sooner or later, and now’s as good a time as any. You have to learn how to control your wolf.” Marco threw his tennis shoes at him. “Get dressed or I’ll take you just as you are. Nobody will mind.”
Nicky stood up and jerked on his too-short pants and tight-as-hell T-shirt. Almost nothing he owned fit him anymore. Marco’s things were still a little too big, and his were way too small. Feeling like a grouchy Goldilocks, he wondered if anything would ever be just right again.
He thrust his feet in his shoes without bothering to tie them. At least his feet hadn’t grown. He knew he was acting like a spoiled brat, but he couldn’t seem to help himself. He was scared of the damned lunatic wolf inside him, damn it. He’d explained all this carefully to Marco before, but he didn’t seem to care. It would serve him right if the thing inside him did rip out Marco’s damn throat.
The second the idea formed in his head, he pushed it right back out again, horrified at himself. He loved Marco better than anything, better than he loved himself, and that was saying a lot. According to Rory, nobody meant as much to Nicky as Nicky himself. Rory was wrong, though. He’d give up his life for Marco and never look back. How could that horrible thought have even come into his mind, however momentarily?
Marco nodded at him when he was fully dressed and then led the way outside. Nicky hugged himself as he looked up at the night sky, beset with stars. The moon slid across the sky like a silvery bangle on a midnight band of silk, the stars little inset diamonds in the cloth. It was absolutely silent—no, just there beyond the edge of the woods, Nicky could hear the trees murmuring softly to themselves. He shivered as a cold breeze slipped across the lawn and touched his back.
Marco caught hold of his hand and leaned over to brush his lips across his cheek. “Come on, baby. Let’s go.”
Marco led him along the trail that reached from Mountainwood to the new lodge built by Cade and his mate Jax higher on the mountain. Their lodge was some two or three miles away as the crow flew, but more than six miles along this meandering path that wrapped itself around the mountain with a much gentler incline. Marco kept up a steady pace, so that Nicky was easily able to keep up. Nicky kept his eyes on the ground, though, because after that first glance up at the moon, the beast inside him was stirring restlessly, eager to get out and run under the nighttime sky.
Nicky had hoped the running would wear him out to the point that he could avoid even the idea of shifting into that monster inside him who wanted nothing more than to hurt Marco. But as he jogged along behind Marco, he found himself getting energized again, the same way he’d been earlier in the day. This time it frightened him. A short way down the path, Marco stopped and began taking off his clothes.
“Come on, Nicky. I want to see you shift.”
Nicky stopped beside him, breathless and nervous. “No, not tonight. You go ahead and I’ll wait for you.”
“Bullshit,” Marco said firmly. He stepped closer and skinned Nicky’s T-shirt over his head. “Off. You’re going to let me see your wolf. I can’t help you if you keep him inside, Nicky. And it won’t work for long. You remember that day in the garden when you just lost control and the wolf came out, don’t you? Do you want that to happen again?”
Nicky pushed his hands away from the snap on his jeans and took a step back. “No, and it’s not happening now. Leave me alone.”
“The hell it isn’t happening.” Marco stepped aggressively toward him, crowding him on the narrow path. “This is why we came out here. Now shift.” He put a hand on Nicky’s chest and shoved him, not hard, but enough to irritate him and make him take another step backward.
“Stop, damn it. Don’t you get it? This thing inside me wants to kill you. I can feel it right now, trying to get out and tear out your throat.”
“And you think it can? You think my wolf will just stand by and let that happen? Bring it, baby. I’m ready for you.” Marco gave him another little shove and smiled broadly when Nicky snarled at him. To Nicky’s ears, it sounded completely inhuman. He could feel his gums prickling as his incisors dropped down and suddenly his mouth was way too full of teeth.
“No, Marco!” he yelled, or meant to, but it came out as garbled and more of a howl than actual words. Marco kept coming, getting up in his face and pushing him so that he was mostly off the path and backed up into a big prickly bush of some kind behind him.
“You’re fighting a losing battle and you have to know it,” Marco said, his breath hot against Nicky’s face. “One day, your wolf will be so strong you won’t be able to fight him anymore, and he’ll come out whether you want him to or not. You have to learn how to control him first or who knows what will happen. Do you want to hurt one of the children?”
Nicky fought his wolf back down, clenching his fists and exercising all of his strong will. He felt his incisors withdraw a little and he glared at Marco and shoved him back hard enough that he stumbled. “I said no! Leave me alone, damn you.”
Marco caught himself and snarled back at him, his eyes softly glowing in the moonlight. “Is that the best you can do? You were pretty full of yourself this morning when you threw me down and decided to fuck me. Why don’t you try that again? Let’s see what happens this time.”
Nicky had never felt such rage. Like a storm, it swept over him, sudden, violent, smashing everything in its path. He saw everything around him in a red haze. He fell to the ground in a frenzy of pain, vaguely aware that Marco had dropped to his knees beside him too. Nicky’s body was changing, morphing into something else, some bestial thing that felt like it was trying its best to kill him.
The horrible prickling started on his skin, just like the other times this had happened, tiny, itchy stings all over his body. He looked down at himself and saw fur matting his chest. Marco was saying something to him over and over but Nicky was too far gone to be able to understand. Another paroxysm of pain and the transformation was complete. He rolled over and got up on al
l fours, his pants hanging in tatters around his hips. Shaking himself violently, free of the human’s body at last, the wolf that had been trapped inside leaped to his feet and looked around himself.
Beside him on the path stood a huge silver wolf, glaring down at him in the moonlight. This was another alpha male, and the smaller wolf snarled in alarm and tried to back away. He was an alpha too, but instinctively he recognized the stronger male. The path was too narrow to retreat—there was no choice for it but to make a stand and fight. Crouching down, he laid back his ears and growled menacingly. The other wolf, bigger and bulkier, growled back, showing his gleaming teeth.
The smaller wolf wanted nothing more than to kill this alpha, to feel his hot blood slipping down his throat. His anger overcoming his fear, he scrabbled at the ground with his long, sharp claws and launched himself at the big alpha who met the leap with one of his own. They slammed into each other in midair and fell back to the ground. The smaller wolf was stunned and shook his head to clear it. The big alpha fell on top of him as he rolled to his back, kicking out wildly and trying to dig his claws into the alpha’s underbelly. The alpha sank his teeth into the side of the smaller wolf’s throat and bit down hard as the little wolf howled his pain.
Ignoring his cries, the alpha shifted to clamp down hard on the smaller wolf’s snout, forcing his mouth closed. This alpha was much too powerful. The smaller wolf decided to retreat, to get away the only way he knew how—by going back into the body of the human. He gave one last furious snarl and then disappeared, sinking deep inside Nicky to lick his wounds.
Nicky came back to himself with a start. He looked up and gasped in terror at the sight of Marco’s huge silver wolf standing over him, his teeth only inches away from his face with saliva dripping down from his fangs to pool in the hollow of his throat. Shrinking away, he instinctively covered his head with his arms and tried to curl up in a ball. The wolves could be dangerous when they shifted, though they usually recognized their mates.
Marco nudged Nicky’s arms and buried his snout deep into his neck, sniffing at him. Nicky lay very still, his eyes tightly closed, his face turned away. Instinctively, though it went against his need to get away from this predator, he bared his throat. Marco whined and stuck his muzzle down to sniff him thoroughly before licking up his throat with a rough tongue as he finally recognized his mate.
Then as quickly as it had begun, it was over, and Marco leaped away, running up the path so fast he was like a streak of white mist on the cold night air. Nicky shivered and sat up, listening to the sound of a low, undulating howl not far away. Wearily, he got back to his feet and made his slow way down the path and back to the lodge.
Chapter Three
The knocking on the door was becoming more and more insistent. Nicky rolled over and pulled the pillow down from across his face. He was alone in bed and he blinked at the clock on the bedside table, trying to make sense of the numbers. Ten o’clock. He should have been up hours ago—but then again, what for?
The banging on the door started up again, and he slowly rolled out of bed and got to his feet. Marco must have been gone for hours—the room had a still and empty feeling. He remembered when Marco made it back home the night before. It had been way after midnight and Nicky had pretended to be asleep, even when Marco slid in beside him and pressed his chilled body up against Nicky’s, settling in and throwing a heavy leg over both of his.
“I’m coming,” he called out as someone slammed his fist against the door. “Damn, don’t break it down.” He pulled open the door and grinned when he saw Jax leaning against the frame.
“What’s up?” Jax said, smiling at Nicky. “Definitely not you, I see.”
“Give me a break. Marco decided he wanted to go for a run last night.” Nicky turned with a vague wave for Jax to follow him and walked back toward the kitchen on a search for something to wet his throat. His mouth felt like someone had been marching around in it all night. He opened the refrigerator and got out orange juice.
“Want some?”
“No thanks. Too much coffee. Cade wanted to leave early this morning to see Marco and wanted me to come along with him, so here we are.” He flopped down on Nicky’s sofa and put his feet up on the coffee table. “And I have news.”
Nicky chugged down half the juice directly from the carton and put it back down on the counter. “Good news, I hope? I don’t need any more bad.”
“Yeah, it is good. Zack and Gabe are coming for a visit. They’ll be here later today.”
Nicky’s wolf stirred uneasily inside him. Ignoring it, Nicky scratched his belly thoughtfully. Zack was another damn alpha, and a cousin to Marco and Cade. He was a nice enough guy, not that they’d ever had much interaction. Being overly friendly to another alpha’s mate wasn’t exactly high on the wolf hit parade, so Nicky didn’t know him all that well, though they’d certainly been around each other a lot. Zack’s lodge was about thirty or forty miles away, down in the North Georgia Mountains. Gabe was his colorful, gorgeous mate who had been, from the first moment they met, one of Nicky’s best friends.
“I talked to Gabe just yesterday and he didn’t say anything. This is all pretty sudden, isn’t it? Are they staying here or with you and Cade?”
“With me and Cade. The trip is supposed to be to see our new lodge now that it’s finished, but I think we both know that Gabe is dying to see the changes in me and you.”
“And Zack can’t say no to him.” Nicky chugged down more juice and came over to sit beside Jax on the couch. “Or he says no, but Gabe just rides roughshod right over him.”
“It’ll be great to see him, though, right? I love Gabe.”
“Yeah,” Nicky said, getting an image in his head of how Gabe looked the first time he’d ever seen him. He was younger than Nicky by a couple of years, with hair as black as Nicky’s was blond. Their eyes were almost the exact same shade of blue, but Gabe wasn’t quite as big as Nicky, especially now. What he did have was broad, muscular shoulders, a trim little waist and a bubble butt that looked pretty damn good in tight jeans.
Nicky had always enjoyed his company because Gabe was so outrageous and full of fun. He was originally from Alabama, like Jax, and he loved country music and stupid line dances like the Canadian Stomp, which he would jump to his feet and perform at the slightest provocation, hooking his thumbs in his belt and twisting his ass just to see Zack squirm. He liked to bicker with Nicky over who was the best looking, though Rory said you would hardly be able to tell them apart except for their coloring. Probably that wasn’t so true anymore.
“You know we won’t be able to be as friendly with him anymore, now that we’re becoming more wolf than human. Zack wouldn’t like it, not to mention Marco and Cade.”
“I know,” Jax said softly. “But Zack’s pretty good with Gabe. He knows how far he can push it with him before Gabe puts his foot down. Besides, I don’t think the alphas think of us as real wolves yet. Not like themselves.”
“Adapting to change has never been their strong suit.” Nicky gave Jax a rueful smile. “Damn, I have to get some new jokes now that I’m becoming one of them.” He put his feet up beside Jax’s. “So what time do Gabe and Zack get here?”
“After lunch, I guess. I came to see if you wanted to go over to Highlands to go shopping with me in the meantime. I’ve outgrown almost everything I own. I thought you’d probably be having similar problems, so…”
“Yeah, okay. Let me grab a quick shower and we’ll go. If I can find something that still fits.”
“Try something of Marco’s. It’ll still be too big, probably, but maybe it will do until you find something else.”
Nicky smiled. Marco was extremely picky about his clothes, not even letting Nicky send them down to be washed. They had their own apartment-sized washer and dryer stacked unit in their rooms so he could do them himself—or have Nicky do them. “It would really piss him off if I wore some of his things.”
“So business as usual with you two then, righ
t?” Jax said, flipping through one of the magazines Nicky used to read so voraciously.
“Pretty much,” Nicky agreed and was still smiling as he went into the bedroom.
* * * *
Three hours later, Jax flopped down on a bench outside the fudge shop on the little town square. His feet hurt, he was hungry, and he still hadn’t been able to persuade Nicky to come out of the men’s shop to get some pizza.
Jax had never been much of a shopper himself, not having had much money in the past. His idea of a big shopping spree was to buy a couple pairs of Wrangler jeans and a few T-shirts at the local Walmart. Even though he had access to as much money as he wanted now, he still didn’t see the sense in paying a hundred dollars for a damn shirt, and he couldn’t even think about some of the price tags he’d seen on the jeans in that expensive store Nicky had dragged him into.
Nicky, on the other hand, seemed to be right at home. He’d picked out four or five pairs of jeans with names Jax had never heard of, but which Nicky greeted as long-lost friends. He also exclaimed over some men’s briefs with names like Pistol Pete and Gregg Homme, and shirts that, in Jax’s opinion, were too tight and way too expensive. Jax had finally bought two pair of jeans at Nicky’s urging and one of the shirts, but he passed on the barely-there underwear. He told Nicky he’d wait outside for him to try his things on, and that’s where he was now, his sunglasses in place to filter out the strong sun, watching the tourists and shoppers as they meandered up and down the main street.
Finally, after some twenty minutes had passed, he saw Nicky come out loaded down with bags. He saw Nicky spot him sitting on the bench, and head his way. Then a fur shop on the square caught his eye. He headed determinedly for it, but Jax jumped to his feet to intercept him. “Oh no, you don’t,” he said, catching Nicky’s arm. “It’s too warm for fur, and what kind of wolf are you anyway that you condone wearing animal skins?”