Jacks, Marcy - Eli's Reluctant Mate [DeWitt's Pack 5] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) (11 page)

The thought made him blush, and not for the first time in the last five days, he really wished he wasn’t such a coward.

“Oh, hey, Chris.”

Chris stopped and turned. The sudden sharp thumping in his chest calmed and returned to a normal beat once he  saw Andrew.

The alpha was leaning on the side of one of the cabins, his bent leg up and foot resting against the siding. He had his hand, and the soda he was holding, resting on his upturned knee.

Chris smiled at the sight of him. He turned and walked over to the other man. “Hi, Andrew.”

Andrew had a cooler beside him, and he reached down and pulled out another soda, lifting it from the sloshing ice, and handed it to  Chris. “Calling it a night?”

“Yeah, soon I guess,” Chris said, flipping open the tab. He’d  just had something sugary with Eli, but he was still trying to make friends here.

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Andrew nodded and took a swig from his can. “Yeah, full moons can get a little crazy around here.”

As though accenting the man’s point, there was a long and loud moan that sounded from one of the cabins. Chris didn’t know where it

came from or recognize the voice.

He lifted the can to his mouth for a drink, hoping to hide the rush

of heat to his cheeks.

If Andrew noticed, he didn’t say anything.

“You don’t seem affected,” Chris said, suddenly realizing that

Andrew was out here with a cooler of cold drinks, and not inside with

a mate.

Andrew shrugged. “Don’t have a mate.”

Chris didn’t know the other werewolves very well, but he had hung out with Andrew a time or two when he wasn’t with Eli. From what he’d learned, Andrew wasn’t exactly a man of many words. For the most part.

He hadn’t said a lot, but the tone of his voice suggested how unhappy the fact that he had no mate made him.

Now Chris felt kind of bad. “Don’t you…I mean, doesn’t it bother you that you don’t have a choice. That someday someone will come along and that will be the end of it for you?”

Andrew took another drink from his soda can. He stared at it when

he responded. “No. I’m looking forward to it. For the most part.”

“The most part?”

Now Andrew did look at him. The other man smiled a little, and

when a howl and a moan sounded from another one of the cabins, he

even laughed. “A little nervous to be honest. I think it’s great that so  many of our gay or bi males are  finding mates with other males. My  only worry is that I won’t be among them.”

“You’re worried you won’t find a mate?”

Andrew sighed, looking up at the coming stars. “It’ll happen  eventually, so I’m told, but I’m not bisexual or just curious about it. I

am  gay. Now that I see all the guys finding mates with their own sex,

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I want that, too. I don’t want to be mated to a woman. Up until recently, I thought that was going to happen no matter what. Now…”  He trailed off.

“I just think the others are really lucky  to have what they have.”

Chris shouldn’t feel as bad as he did. Even though he had  something that Andrew really wanted, and was afraid he couldn’t  have, that was no reason to feel bad. Just because he had started to

wonder what it would be like to go to bed with Eli, and had been  thinking of doing something about it but hadn’t, was no reason to feel  guilty.

He still wanted to cheer the man up a little. “Well, I’m supposed  to be good luck, right?”

Andrew grinned. “Sure.”

Chris felt like an idiot, but said, “I gift you with enough luck to

find a male mate.”

Andrew laughed.

Chris did, too. “Yeah, that was pretty dumb.”

“But funny. Thanks.”

Chris nodded. At least he got the man smiling. “No problem.”

Andrew pushed away from the wall they were leaning against andstretched his hands over his head. “Think I might go for a run. You should head inside soon, before the mosquitoes come out looking for a snack or something.”

Chris nodded, looking up at the sky now, as though he would be able to see them coming. “Yeah. Don’t like them too much.”

“Little vampires, they are. You take care.”

“You, too,” Chris said, watching as Andrew headed for the tree line. He was an alpha. He would be all right.

He stayed where he was for another minute before he put the lid back over the cooler.

Chris took one step toward the cabin where he was supposed to be staying then stopped.

Biting his lower lip, he turned around and headed back to Eli’s

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house.

* * * *

Eli had known what the full moon would do to him, being so close to his mate but still having not claimed him yet. The problem was that he’d forgotten that the full moon was tonight.

It was bad enough that he sometimes heard James and Corey going at it since his cabin wasn’t all that far away from theirs. Every mated wolf in the pack would be rutting like rabbits tonight.

Eli stopped pacing like a caged animal in his kitchen. He needed to prepare himself an ice bath before the fiery temperatures his body was producing made him pass out.

He doubted that would be enough to make his dick go down though. He’d already had it in hand twice after Chris left, and it was still rock solid and pulsing.

He was just about to get into the bathroom again, and this time get naked, when he heard the click of the door. Eli had forgotten to lock it, and  he expected to see…He wasn’t sure what he expected, but it definitely wasn’t Chris.

“What are you doing here? You should go.”
 
Go before I do something we’ll both regret.

Chris still had his hand on the door handle. He was looking down at it, as though contemplating his own actions, before he looked up and met Eli’s eyes.

What he saw there made Eli so hopeful it was scary. Then Chris lifted his T-shirt over his head, revealing that beautiful chest Eli had wanted to see so badly since that time in the motel.

Eli’s whole body went stiff. His cock, already erect for what seemed like hours now, just made a little longing twitch. “If you don’t leave right now,” Eli said, “I can’t be responsible for what I’ll do.”

Chris wet his lips―was he purposely trying to tease him?―then nodded. “I know. It’s okay.”

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Eli didn’t wait for any more permission than that. Hell, he didn’t want to give Chris the chance to change his mind.

His mind and body went into instinct mode. He ran to Chris. The other man opened his mouth in surprise, but Eli got to him before he could say anything, and he pressed his mouth over Chris’s, stifling any shocked sound he would have made.

He held the smaller man tightly to his chest, pressing them

together. His inner wolf wanted to howl in delight. Finally! Yes,  finally!

He fought to maintain some sense of control. He wanted to make  sure that if Chris sent him any signal, any sign that he’d changed his  mind, that Eli would be able to stop.

But Chris wasn’t fighting him off. His arms didn’t wrap around  Eli’s shoulders like he would have preferred, but neither did they try  to push Eli away either.

There was the most tentative push back, however, with Chris’s  mouth.

Too fast. Eli was moving too fast, giving  Chris no chance to participate, but he couldn’t stop himself. This was going to be rough, filled with all the wanting and yearning that Eli had suffered with for nearly a week now.

Still, at least he wasn’t telling Eli to stop.

Eli pressed his tongue into  Chris’s mouth, delighting in the taste.  His blood sang when Chris widened his mouth to make for an easier entrance, and Eli felt the distinct feeling of Chris’s slick tongue pressing back against his.

Try to slow down. Try to slow down
. But he failed miserably when  Chris gripped his shoulders.

He wanted this. His mate wanted this, and Eli would be denied no

longer.

He was vaguely aware of the noise of shock Chris made when Eli

grabbed him around the waist and lifted him off of his feet.

He carried Chris down the hall to his bedroom, and in his haste, he

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kicked open his bedroom door.

Did it just fall off the hinges? It didn’t matter.

They both fell onto the bed, and Eli ground his still-clothed cock  against Chris’s groin. He moaned, pressing his face into Chris’s neck,  kissing his flesh, feeling the other man’s skin as their chests rubbed  together.

“Slow down. Slow down, Eli.”

He thought he was talking to himself again, but those were Chris’s words in his ear, and this time, when he gripped Eli’s shoulders, itwas to push him off just enough for them to look at each other.

“Christ, your skin is hot,” Chris said then looked into Eli’s eyes.  “Your eyes are like a wolf’s.”

Were they? Eli couldn’t tell, even as he looked at his reflection in  Chris’s mismatched eyes , admiring the different colours.

Okay, control, get control. This was getting serious now. Chris had agreed to be here, and he was going to let Eli finish the claiming, but that didn’t mean the other man was any less frightened. Eli had to get control of  himself.

It was a struggle, but he managed it. A little.

“They’re normal again,” Chris observed. “Your eyes.”

“That happens when my inner wolf tries to take over.”

Chris looked like he wanted to ask more questions but said nothing else. Their positions were hardly fit for another lesson on werewolf instincts and history.

“Just—” Eli heard the sound of Chris’s throat working as he swallowed. Nervous. He was very nervous, but his heart was pumping, and Eli could feel Chris’s erection through the jeans he

wore. “Slow down a little. Not used to this.”

Eli didn’t doubt it. He’d never met a man so afraid of sex before.

How the hell was he supposed to claim his mate, on a full moon night no less, while making sure his animal side didn’t try to take over the show?

Eli got up off him.

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Chris looked a little stricken.

“Wait right here,” Eli said. “Be right back.”

He made sure he didn’t take long as he ran into his bathroom,  grabbed the first bottle of lotion that his eyes landed on, and then  jogged back to his bedroom where Chris still waited for him.

Eli had to stop at the sight. His mate was sitting on Eli’s bed,  leaning back on his hands, his chest exposed, mouth plump and pink  from kissing, and his hair gorgeously dishevelled.

Eli really did feel like the luckiest man on the planet.

“What’s that?” Chris asked, nodding to the bottle.

Eli took the time to look at it. “Skin cream.”

“Like taking care of your good looks, do you?” Chris asked, a  playful smile on his face.

“More likely one of the female omegas left it behind after they  moved out.” He squirted a little of it into his hand and rubbed his  fingers together. It would serve.

He looked down at Chris, and then gave him the bottle, then took  off his jeans. “Lube your fingers with that.”

Chris’s eyes popped open wide.  “Me?”

Eli climbed into bed with him, naked, his body still hungry and  twitchy for Chris’s touch. He wanted to put his cock into Chris’s  body, wanted to fuck him again and again, but now that his human  mind was logically thinking, he had to act before the moon got too  high and he completely lost it again.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever had sex with another man before, but  my first time, I didn’t like it by a long shot. You’re too nervous to do  it like this, and when I get into mating mode, I won’t be too worried  about whether or not you’re enjoying yourself at all.”

“But—” Chris looked helplessly at the bottle in his hand. “I don’t  know how to make you like it either.”

Eli smiled at him and kissed him. “Trust me. I’m going to like  anything you do to me tonight. I’ll show you the basics and leave the  rest to you.”

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He did, and somehow Eli’s little minilesson on proper sex only served to make him want it all the more, and when Chris finally got his pants off, tossing them onto the floor, Eli could clearly smell theother man’s musk. It was proof that he wanted this, too.

Chris took his lubed fingers and pressed one into Eli’s hole. Eli had gotten onto his hands and knees to make this as easy as possible for the both of them, but he hadn’t been kidding when he said he would like anything Chris did to him.