Authors: Kim Dare
“If you approach a wolf who’s a sub, and he lets you know he’s up for it, what do you ask him to do?” Axel asked.
Bayden stared at Axel for what felt like several hours before looking down.
Axel allowed a full minute to pass. Bayden didn’t make any movement that wasn’t necessary to keep him breathing. The fact he didn’t rush to answer wasn’t surprising, how disorientated he seemed to be was.
“Come here.”
The command flipped a switch, Bayden pushed himself away from the wall. He stopped two feet away from Axel, presumably just outside his personal space.
Axel stepped forward and closed the last of the gap. “Everything’s fine,” he promised. “I’m not walking away. And I’m sure as hell not saying I’m not interested. But I want you to finish telling me how things work between wolves. Okay?”
Bayden looked up at him. “It’s that important?”
“Yes. Go back to your seat.”
Axel gave him a few moments to pull himself back together while he busied himself on the other side of the kitchen. “The last question I asked was: what do you ask a sub to do?”
Bayden’s frown deepened.
“Have you ever approached a sub?”
Bayden shook his head.
“Because you haven’t had the opportunity, or because you’re not interested?”
Shrug. And maybe he was right not to consider that important. Bayden obviously had no interest in switching with him.
“What about the wolves who approached you—what did they want you to do?” Axel’s grip on the knife he was holding turned white knuckled as jealousy bubbled up in his mind, but even the worst topic wasn’t enough to dent his erection.
“Have sex with them. Get them off.”
The length of time it took Bayden to formulate his answers, had given Axel plenty of time to work. Food in the oven, he joined Bayden at the table. “What about you, would they get you off too?”
“Sometimes.”
“So the sub isn’t always allowed to come?” He was just about to put a tick in the mental box that said wolves understood orgasm control, when Bayden shook his head.
“There’s no rule against it. It’s just not important.” Bayden leaned forward in his chair. “I meant it when I said we can just do what you want.”
“Yeah, I know you did.” Axel tapped his fingers on the table as he turned the problem over in his mind. It was no use. “Why don’t you care if you get to come or not?”
Bayden frowned. Axel was tempted to do the same. Whichever angle he considered the idea from, it didn’t look promising. For a species that was apparently very hierarchical and inherently bisexual, the most obvious reason wasn’t to his taste at all. All the erotic possibilities that had been scrolling through his mind faltered.
“Do you actually enjoy having sex with men, or is it just about demonstrating your submission?” Axel asked, bluntly.
“I do like it. I mean, the bets are…they’re different. With wolves, I liked…” He hesitated, as if worried he was giving away dangerous information.
Axel rested one elbow on the table, sure that he was missing something obvious, but not able to quite pin down what that was.
“I like it, but it’s more important that the more dominant wolf is pleased,” Bayden offered, carefully. “Knowing that he is pleased is the main thing. I can always…” He made a vague gesture with his hand that looked far more like masturbation than he probably intended.
Pure sexual submission. Whatever wolves called it, whatever Bayden considered it, that was what it really was. Wanting to please his lover without expecting anything in return, making do with finishing himself off with his own hand afterwards if necessary.
In a few, simple sentences Bayden had once more made the world a bloody wonderful place, and Axel was back to wondering if he owned leathers which offered more room around the crotch.
“What if you don’t have permission?” Axel asked.
Bayden tilted his head to one side.
“If you don’t have permission to jack off, what then?” Axel translated.
“Why not?”
“A human sub would usually need his dom’s permission to come.”
“Even when the more dominant man isn’t there?”
“Especially then.” Axel smiled, far more willing to be tolerant of Bayden jacking off if he was there to watch the show.
Bayden frowned. The concept seemed to have caught him entirely off guard.
“If a sub agrees to follow a dom’s rules, those rules exist all the time.” Axel still studied Bayden carefully, trying to work out how his own expectations might differ to a lupine dom’s. “Some rules might be relaxed when you’re around people who don’t understand the lifestyle. There’s room for being discreet when that’s appropriate, but there’s no room for disobedience, or for jacking off without permission.”
“But once a human is untied, he can do whatever he wants… Can’t he?”
“If he just hooked up with someone for a one off scene, sure. But if the sub belongs to his dom, no.”
“And you don’t play with men who don’t belong to you,” Bayden guessed.
“I’m not interested in that.” Forget what he’d done with other guys in the past. Whether Axel had consciously realised that or not, casualness had stopped being an option with Bayden before they’d even kissed. In Axel’s mind, it hadn’t been about a one off scene for weeks. He’d bet the pub that Bayden felt the same way.
“If we…” Bayden ran out of words and looked to Axel for help.
Axel couldn’t lie. “This isn’t going to be a one off,” he said, very clearly. “Once this starts, there’ll be rules that exist all the time, and I’ll expect you to obey them whether I’m there or not. We’ll be working toward you belonging to me permanently.”
It was a stupid thing to say—more likely to scare Bayden off than anything else—but it was also the truth, and Bayden deserved that from him from the start.
Bayden didn’t look scared, but his expression was wary. “What kind of rules?”
“Just a few simple ones to start with,” Axel promised, he relaxed back in his chair and dialled back his desire to throw Bayden in the deep end as far as he could. “I’d expect you to stop screwing around or doing scenes with other people—human or lupine. You’d have to stop jacking off without permission.” He was about to go on, when he saw Bayden tense up. He smiled. No, Bayden really didn’t like the idea of needing permission to play with his own cock.
“What if it’s a bet?”
Axel raised an eyebrow. “Like the bet you took off Richards?” He straightened up in his seat, all his amusement with the situation disappearing as he realised that Bayden wasn’t merely trying to negotiate more orgasms. “That wasn’t a real scene—but the rules would apply to any bet that looked even vaguely like a scene too.”
Bayden took a deep breath. He closed his eyes. When he opened them, he didn’t look up. “I should go.” He stood up.
Axel was about to do the same when he remembered what Bayden said about wolves being expected to back away from doms they didn’t wish to submit to. He forced himself to remain in his seat. “You don’t have to leave the club.”
Bayden stopped halfway to the kitchen door and turned back.
“You don’t have to leave the room, either. Or the table.” Axel looked pointedly at Bayden’s chair.
“I won’t stop taking bets. No wolf would agree to that. It’s…” He shook his head. “It’s not a decision that a human should make for a wolf.”
“Why?”
Bayden hesitated, as if it had never occurred to him to question the idea before. “It just isn’t.”
“I hate to be the one to break it to you, pup, but you’re not tall enough to loom, even if I’m sitting down.”
Bayden blinked.
Extending one leg under the table, Axel nudged Bayden’s chair.
Bayden took the hint and cautiously sat down. “You’re not mad?”
“No, I’m not.” Axel took a sip of his coffee. Frustrated. Pissed off with himself for not playing his hand better. But no, angry wasn’t going to get him what he wanted.
“You still want to…” Bayden asked.
“Yes.” Axel took a deep breath and pitched his voice very carefully. “When you’re ready to agree to the rules, we will.” Calm, confident and completely in control—that was what Bayden needed to see when he looked at him, what he needed to hear in his voice. Axel had made his decision and that was that.
Bayden stared across the scrubbed pine table-top. He wanted what Axel was offering. He wanted to submit to him, and for a damn sight longer than a scene. Wolf or human, Axel could sense that longing in him. He wanted to belong to him. They would get there.
Axel just needed to wait for a less experienced man to catch up with him. He could do that. If it got him what he really wanted, he could be the most patient man on the planet. He met Bayden’s gaze across the table. So much uncertainty, so much need.
“Until you’re ready to submit to me, things carry on as they are,” Axel said.
“And that’s okay?”
Axel had never heard a man sound so lost. No room for miscommunication—that had to be the goal. “You still drink here. You still tag along and ride with us. Nothing changes.”
“And if someone makes a bet with me?” Bayden asked, dropping his gaze.
“Same as before,” Axel said, with slightly more forced calm. “You make the bet here, you see it through here. I’ll keep an eye on things.” It wouldn’t be so bad. Bayden wouldn’t hold out for long. Hell, Axel doubted he’d even have to watch him fight more than once or twice, let alone do anything else, before they got onto the same page.
Bayden looked up at him. “That’s okay with you?”
Axel nodded. “I’ll be completely clear. I don’t like seeing you doing things that look like scenes with other guys. But you’re not my submissive—not yet. Until that changes, you’re only expected to follow the club rules—just the same as everyone else.” He smiled as he turned his attention to a permission he was far less reluctant to grant, for now. “And you still jack off whenever you want to.”
Bayden nodded. He sipped his coffee, but he didn’t relax. He remained on the edge of his chair—obviously more out of his depth with a dom who was willing to wait to get his own way, than he had ever been with a man like Richards.
“As things stand, if I get in your space, what does it mean for you?” Axel asked, as he finished his coffee.
“I know you’re not a wolf,” Bayden said.
“Doesn’t answer the question.”
Bayden shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “Just because I have instincts, that doesn’t mean I can’t control them.”
“You still haven’t answered the question.”
“It means the same as it always has—that you’re more dominant than me, that I’m accepting that. It means I’m offering to do as you say—for the length of a scene.”
“Is that a problem?”
Bayden shook his head.
“Be sure, pup, because unless you tell me you don’t like me in your space, you’ll find me there a lot, and I won’t apologise for it.”
He wasn’t above playing dirty if it got Bayden to make the right decision more quickly. Bayden seemed to understand that. He took a breath so deep he trembled as he let it out. “It’s fine. You being in my space…” His voice dropped to a whisper. “I like it.”
* * * * *
“Rent’s due!”
Bayden paused halfway along the gloomy hallway as the door leading into his landlord’s flat swung open. Reaching into one of the pockets of his leather jacket, Bayden handed his rent to Mr. Phillips.
It was the right money—just like always, carefully counted and stowed away in a separate pocket ready to be handed over on time. Phillips checked it twice, huffed and disappeared back into his rooms.
Bayden made his way up the two flights of stairs to his room at the back of the building and closed the door softly behind him.
Pushing Phillips out of his mind, he took a slow steadying breath. The moment there was the slightest space inside his head, Axel’s presence expanded to fill it. Bayden stayed just inside the door, letting everything that had happened that day sink into his mind.
The visit with his grandfather. Riding with the Dragons. Going back to Axel’s flat above the pub afterwards.
Bayden touched his fingers to his lips. Without thinking about it, he leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. Axel’s presence was so real, he might as well have been standing there.
Bayden shook his head. Axel didn’t belong in a pokey little bed-sit in the very worst part of town. Pushing himself away from the wall, Bayden walked past the door into the bathroom and into the main room.
The air was chilly. He kept his jacket on as he lay down on his bed.
Bayden closed his eyes again. That was all it took for him to be back in Axel’s kitchen, the air warm and the smell of cooking food only overpowered by the scent of desire.
Bayden turned his head on the pillow. When he took a breath he could almost swear Axel was right there. Axel’s lips were against his, their bodies were pressed together.
Bayden squirmed, trying to find a more comfortable position on the thin mattress. His cock was hard behind his jeans. The scent of his own desire increased, as he imagined how it might have been if Axel had been interested in doing more than kissing him.
His wrists tingled at the memory of Axel pinning him to the wall. His touch hadn’t been rough, it hadn’t needed to be while Bayden lacked any interest in pushing him away. It would have been different if Axel had been inclined to prove a point.
Bayden massaged his cock through his jeans.
In his mind’s eye, he saw Axel step back to look him over. Frozen to the spot, unable to move without an order, all Bayden would have been able to do was wait upon the more dominant man’s pleasure—only in this version of events Axel wouldn’t have started another damn conversation.
What would Axel have done with him, if he’d realised there was no need for talking? Axel wanted to screw him. Bayden knew that as surely as he knew that scent didn’t lie, but there were a hundred different ways a man could use another person’s body for his pleasure.
After a long ride, Axel wouldn’t have wanted anything complicated. Quick and rough, pushed down against the kitchen table.
Bayden whimpered as he imagined strong hands shoving him into position. Bent over the table, bracing himself against the scrubbed pine, he’d have steadied himself as best he could when Axel tugged his jeans down. Harsh. Impatient. It wasn’t Axel’s problem if the denim ripped.