Bailey Bradford - Southwestern Shifters 06 - Reverence (12 page)

“Harley, I have you,” Val said, and Harley could only retch as Val held him tenderly, tucking his hair behind his ears and rocking so slightly it was almost unnoticeable. “I have you. I wish I could kill him all over again for you. I would. I would.”
Harley coughed and spat, too exhausted to be humiliated. He slumped back against Val, his stomach finally empty. It took him three attempts before he was able to speak. “He had one of his men shift, and put those teeth to my throat. If I didn’t put on a show he said he’d let them have me to do whatever with. I didn’t know what else to do except what he said to. So you see, he didn’t actually rape me, even when he let one of his men shift and mount me like he—” Harley just couldn’t finish that. “He didn’t do it.” But the shifter had been stimulated, his erection impossible not to feel as he’d rubbed against Harley.
“I’m so sorry.” Val kept touching him, gentle sweeps of his hands over Harley’s stomach, his arms, even his legs, but never going too close to his groin.
It irked Harley in a way, as if he were now untouchable in a sexual manner, and he cursed and caught Val’s hand, jerking down to cover his limp cock. “I’m still a man. I still—” He pushed, trying to feel a hint of arousal. All he ended up feeling was stupid. He tried to shove away from Val, but the shifter kept him in a loose hug, murmuring soothing sounds and stroking, comforting, gentling him. “I don’t want to be fucked up. I just want to be a whole person again.” What was he talking about? Complaining about, when Val had suffered so much worse?
Val rumbled wordlessly for a moment, petting Harley’s chest, spreading warmth from his big palms into Harley’s bones. “I understand. I know you didn’t mean it as a jibe against me. When I tell you I understand, I mean it, too. Dobson took something from me I will never get back—my sight in my left eye, a whole, pain-free leg, maybe even my wolf—he scarred me, and I can’t hide it. I live in a society where the strong heal and there are almost no scars, so I am a freak, certainly. To some. I don’t want to be one to you, Harley, and you’ll never be weak, or less than a man, to me.”
Then Val sighed, his moist breath tickling Harley’s neck. “And, this might change your mind and make you hate us all over again. I’m not sure, but you said you couldn’t help but touch me the first time, then you had to come after me at the club, and again when I tried to send you away?”
“Yeah,” Harley mumbled. “Weird as hell. I mean, the attraction I felt—feel—towards you is like none I’ve ever experienced before. I can’t even fight it, not even when I was trying to hate shifters. It’s the reason I don’t, why I had to rethink my views and face the fact that I’m being a bigoted asshole. I just—man, you’re gonna think I’m a stalker or something, but I swear I’ve never been like this with another guy.” Harley turned, and Val helped him, didn’t try to hold him now, as if he knew what Harley needed. Harley knelt between Val’s legs and framed his cheeks with his hands. “It’s like the thought of being without you terrifies me. I don’t know if I’ve developed some new mental issues due to what happened, or what. But I panic thinking of you leaving me. Now, I know that sounds crazy as hell, and you probably want to run out—oomph!”
The rest of Harley’s words were swallowed by Val as he slashed his mouth over Harley’s. He thrust his tongue between Harley’s lips with a sureness that brought Harley’s cock to full staff immediately. Harley moaned and locked his hands together behind Val’s neck. He tipped his head to the side, sinking into the kiss, offering himself to Val, only to have the confusing man pull back. Harley blinked open eyes he didn’t remember closing and saw Val chewing on his bottom lip. “What? Why are you looking like something bad is gonna come out of your mouth?”
Val huffed and patted at Harley’s hands as if silently asking to be released, so Harley let him go. It took Val a moment, and he looked like he wanted to groan more than once, but he got up from the floor and sat on the side of the bath tub. Harley stood and, for lack of a better place, put the lid down and sat on the toilet. “Tell me.” Whatever it was, he would rather know now.
Val glanced nervously around, not quite meeting Harley’s eyes. “I think, maybe, it’s possible—but it’s hard to be sure, because my wolf isn’t, I can’t feel him very much. I mean, he’s there, but he’s, it’s like he’s coming out of a sleep but isn’t awake, kind of.” Val groaned again and dropped his head in his hands. “God, I sound like a babbling idiot. I just mean I think it’s possible we might be mates, destined for each other.”
Harley frowned. “What was that? Can you raise your head up and say it again?” Because surely he hadn’t heard right the first time.
“I said,” Val tipped his head up enough to look at him, “that I think we might be mates. It would explain the instant attraction, and normally I would be panting after you more than I am, but everything shifter about me is fucked up!” Val roared the last two words and slapped his hands against the tub. “God damn it!”
“Yeah, God damn it,” Harley repeated, stunned and trying to figure out what he was feeling. Not scared, or freaked out. In fact… “That makes me feel better, I think.”
Val rolled his eye up at Harley. “How in the hell does that make you feel better? Fuck, I wish we had the mental link mates have.”
“Mates have, what? Like telepathy?” That was kind of cool, and sure would prohibit lying and cheating, wouldn’t it? If they were really mates, and
if
Val recovered from the accident enough that his wolf could be felt. Or did Harley have to become a shifter? He had heard horrible stories about how that could be done.
“Yeah, something like that. Kind of sensing each other’s emotions, although the bond is supposed to get stronger and the mental link does, too.” Val ran his fingers through his hair then grimaced when he reached the back of his head. “Forgot about that. I think the cut’s already healed.”
“Why didn’t you heal there?” Harley didn’t mean to be rude, but he didn’t understand why there was a scar since shifters did heal so quickly.
Val shrugged. “Datura, probably. It’s a plant that is toxic to us in even small doses. Doc thinks maybe Dobson dusted his vehicle with it or something, got it on me somehow. That, and I was lying there with a chunk of metal in me for a while. As fast as we heal, sometimes that’s a bad thing. Parts healed that would have been better off not healing so fast. Because of the foreign object, as Doc Shania called it, sticking in me, vessels and tissues began healing around it and it totally screwed up everything else once the metal was removed. It was just a clusterfuck of reasons, I guess.”
“I didn’t mean to be rude, I’m just trying to understand.” Harley stood then walked to Val. He traced the silver scar. It felt soft and cool under his fingertip. “I meant it when I said this doesn’t detract from your looks at all. I’m sure you were handsome before, but with the patch, and this? Devastating, babe. Utterly.” He bent and licked the thin line and Val shuddered for him very prettily. “Oh, I think I like making you do that. A lot.” Harley licked again, then kissed Val’s scar. “Let me clean this blood off you, then…”
Val took his hand, brushed his knuckles with warm lips. “Then what, Harley? Don’t think you have to do anything. I do believe we are mates, and I’m sorry you got a damaged one—”
“Stop that,” Harley sniped, tugging Val’s ear in reprimand. Val gave him a startled look and sputtered as Harley talked on. “No. You don’t get to insult yourself any more than I do. Yeah, we both have wounds, but that doesn’t mean we’re damaged. We’re just…altered, maybe.” He was never going to win any prizes for talking, that was for sure.
“Altered.” Val seemed to consider that for a moment then he snickered. “You know that’s another way of saying a dog or cat is neutered or spayed, right? I don’t want to be altered.”
Harley clenched his thighs as his nuts tried to crawl up inside his body. “No shit. I mean—”
“I know what you meant, and I get it.” Val eased himself up gingerly. Harley hovered and tried not to be obvious about it. “But, I do mean it about us not having to do anything. I’m not sure I could do a lot just now, except lay there.” Val’s eye widened and he flushed from his forehead to his neck. “Uh.”
Harley, a strict bottom, suddenly began thinking he shouldn’t be so set in his ways. He had to work through a few things before he would be comfortable being fucked, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t try something new, did it?
“You want me to fuck you?” he asked for clarification, because Val sure seemed nervous all of the sudden.
Val shifted his weight, grimacing when he put too much on his left leg. “Uhm. I think so?”
“You think so?” God, the man was just kind of adorable, especially when he chewed on his lip like that.
Val nodded.
Harley didn’t know whether to shout with joy or tremble with fear. He’d never once fucked anyone.

Val’s world had been turned on end, or rolled over, turned on its side—he didn’t have enough clichés to toss around. He’d gone from moving away from his pack under order from his Alpha Anax to finding out the man he was supposed to guard unobtrusively was most likely his mate. Not to mention he’d blown Harley, and fought another shifter—“Shit!”

“What?” Harley asked as he jumped back like Val had poked him. “We don’t have to do that. And I told you, I haven’t exactly been safe, or I don’t know if I have been. I planned to get tested tomorrow.”

“It’s not that,” Val said as he waved a hand in the air. “I got this,” he touched the knot on his head, “when the shifter we saw attacked me. He’s huge, and I don’t know him, and he seemed, I don’t know, odd. Odder than we usually are,” he corrected quickly, because Harley probably already thought he was off his damn rocker.

“I came back because I didn’t want you facing him alone.” Harley came closer until he was standing toe to toe with Val. “Not because I think you’re weak or anything, but because I’ve seen how vicious shifters—some shifters, I mean—can be. And that scared me. I didn’t want you hurt, and you got hurt anyway.”

“Not bad,” Val murmured, touched by Harley’s concern. “It’s probably down to a little bump now. The thing is, he can scent me, I’m sure, and he was looking for you, I think. He said some weird shit, I can’t remember exactly. I think the hit to my head rattled my cage more than I first suspected it did.”

“If he finds me, he’ll find us, and we won’t let him hurt either one of us, okay?” Harley said fiercely.
He made it sound so simple, but Val was still worried. That shifter had been damned big and strong. “Maybe you should start carrying a gun. Would you do that?”
“No,” Harley answered immediately. “No. I won’t carry a gun. Maybe a stun gun or something like that. I’d be more likely to shoot myself with a gun, I’d be so nervous.”
“Okay. Okay.” Val made a mental note to call and talk to Alex, the leader of Marcus’ guards. Unless Alex had gone off with Marcus and Nathan, then he’d talk to whoever was left in charge and ask about what options he had excluding guns without explaining why he needed to know.
“My place has a better door, and more locks.”
Val canted his head at Harley’s almost timid admission. Then he remembered, Harley had been abducted out of his apartment. What had happened in there before that? He believed Harley when he said he hadn’t been raped exactly, but Dobson had violated him, in many ways, including making him fear his own home.
“I don’t like being there at night, because that’s when it happened. I thought Dobson was just a one-off and when we got to my place, it was bad.” Harley looked at the wall, as if he could see into his apartment on the other side. “He put his hand here,” he touched his throat, “and choked me. Not fast. Just enough pressure to slowly suffocate me. To make sure I had a while to feel the sheer terror of knowing I was going to die. That’s what always got that sick fucker off, I think. Seeing that kind of fear in others.”
“We can stay here.” Val cautiously stepped around Harley, then stood behind him so he could link his arms around Harley’s waist and pull him back against him.
“No. I’m really tired of being afraid. I’m afraid of too many things, and I don’t want to be. Help me,” he urged, craning his neck and staring up at Val. “Help me to remember who I was before. Help me be someone better.”
“That’s a lot of responsibility, but I accept,” Val said, and he knew then that Harley was indeed his mate. His wolf needed to wake the fuck up, but maybe it was better this way. Fate worked in ways shifters like him seldom understood, but if he’d been at full strength, his wolf strong in him, who was to say he’d be capable of exercising the patience Harley needed? Not that he’d hurt Harley, but his wolf would be pushing hard for mating, for claiming, for biting and marking and fucking hard and rough. Val wanted Harley, he wanted him badly, but his ability to reason wasn’t being impinged on by the ravaging lust of his beast. He could be patient, and not push, and even do something he’d never done before like let Harley fuck him.
Val was kind of scared about that, but he wanted to give Harley something, some way of being close without forcing Harley to offer himself before he was ready to. Val was scarred physically, but not sexually, like Harley was, and they were both emotional basket cases, but together they would work it out. That was what mates did.
Val stopped nuzzling Harley’s hair. He hadn’t even thought about what he was doing, he just sought Harley’s scent, his touch. “We’ll do what you want to do. Nothing more.”
Harley hummed and rubbed against him. “I liked you doing that, nosing my hair, kissing my temple and stuff. It felt good. But, I want more, and I want to have a steel door between us and the world, and three deadbolts, and maybe not have to worry about a hundred boxes and where your towels are. Still need to clean the blood off you.”
“Well, you have several valid points,” Val admitted. He hadn’t thought of those things. “You mentioned that you hadn’t been safe. You need to know that as a shifter, I can’t contract any communicable disease, but you still have to get checked out, Harley. I don’t know if turning you would cure any of the human illnesses like herpes or HIV, or if it’d make them worse or—”
“I don’t want to be turned, not if it means biting each other’s dick when we come. No. No fucking way,” Harley said heatedly. “That’s just messed up, dude.”
“There are other ways.” He wasn’t supposed to know of them, but he did. He knew Marcus had turned Gabe for Mika through a blood ritual of some sort that hadn’t required Marcus to fuck Gabe. Gabe, a human, was also Marcus’ twin brother’s friend, as was Mika. Val wasn’t sure how it’d happened, but he knew it had. Shifters could be the biggest gossips. He’d beg Marcus to change Harley if necessary. If Harley wanted to be a shifter. Val hoped he would, but pushing was something he refused to do.
“We’ll talk about it later. For now, let’s go to my place so you can shower.” Harley winked at him. “I have this huge shower that I think we’ll both fit in just perfectly. And I— are you sure you can’t catch anything from me?”
Val nodded. “Yeah. That’s well known and proven and all that in shifters. One of the few medical things we are certain of. I have no problem with you fucking me bare, Harley. I’d prefer it, but you can use a condom, of course. Whatever makes you comfortable.”
Harley whimpered and pressed his palm to his groin. “Damn. I haven’t topped before, didn’t think I wanted to, but you are making me ache for it.”
Val felt a twinge of worry over the two of them being virgins in their upcoming lovemaking roles, but, as a bottom, Harley should know exactly what to do to make sex good for Val and Val could speak up if it was too painful. He didn’t have to grit his teeth and lie still.
“You’re thinking so hard I can hear it,” Harley teased. “Or at least, I can hear your mental gears grinding. Maybe being able to know one another’s thoughts would be a good thing, but so is talking honestly, isn’t it?”
“Yes, it is.” Val stepped back and turned Harley towards him. “I’m just nervous about getting fucked, but I want to do it. I was thinking that you know what feels good as a bottom, so you’ll take good care of me.”
“I will,” Harley nodded. “Now, let’s find you some clean clothes. Any idea which boxes to look in?”
Val headed for the bedroom. “There should be five boxes in here marked ‘clothes’. Probably I should have been more specific and put labels like jeans, or shirts, or underwear on the boxes, but hindsight and all that.” He noticed Harley had stopped outside the bedroom door. Val didn’t ask why. He had a damned good idea of what put that glint of fear in Harley’s eyes. “Let’s see, I’ll hand you boxes, and you can take ’em to the living room and open them.” Val didn’t wait. Harley needed to be occupied before too many bad memories came at him.
Val picked up the first box he found with the proper marking, then he lifted it, his left thigh throbbing. He handed it to Harley and dropped a chaste kiss on his pink lips, then went for another box. In short order, he and Harley had some clothes stuffed in a bag and they left his place, locking the door after.
“You’re good,” he told Harley, seeing a tension creeping into him. Maybe they didn’t have the mental bond, but Val was already beginning to be able to read his mate. “Just think about me, and you, and what we’ll be doing together very soon.”
“I’m gonna come in my jeans if I do that for very long,” Harley grumbled, but he smiled and seemed more relaxed as they walked to his door. Harley unlocked the three deadbolts then stepped inside before Val had a chance to check the place out. He really wished he could smell things like he used to be able to. Instead he had to rely on one eye and his instincts, which he thought were duller with his wolf snoozing away inside him.
The inside of Harley’s apartment was a hell of a lot nicer than his, and he told Harley so.
Harley looked around then ran over to grab a pile of clothes. “It’s messy. I’ve been crashing in here when I had to sleep.” He turned red and darted into what Val thought was the bathroom. Sure enough the sound of water spray soon followed. “Come on in here when you’re ready. I’m gonna get naked.”
Well hell, Val really wished he could teleport. “Tease,” he called out, making his way to the bathroom. He stopped six or so feet away and set his bag on the floor. Val kicked off one shoe, then the other before propping himself against the wall and peeling off his socks. Next he removed his shirt, then, the hardest part, he stripped his jeans off, figuring it was best to get the scar-baring over with.
Should I take off the patch?
His eye was intact, but he’d leave that decision up to Harley.
Val took a deep breath and straightened from where he was leaning. He made the last few steps to the bathroom. As soon as he stood in the doorway, all thoughts of his own shortcomings vanished, because he couldn’t think of anything but Harley’s beauty. He appeared almost delicate, but Val knew he wasn’t. Harley had been pared down to his raw strength, then hardened and made tougher than anyone Val knew. He was thin, probably too much so, making his knees and elbows and hips, even his shoulder blades seem sharp, but he had elegant musculature, and his abs were perfection, barely sculpted just like Val preferred in his lovers. Harley would be his last, his permanent lover since they were mates, and Val was more than fine with that.
Harley was studying him, looking every bit as hungry, every bit as pleased, at Val’s nude form. Val was glad for that, and he let himself keep staring, finding the thick curved length of Harley’s cock. The flared head had been in his throat, and it’d felt huge there. Val clenched his ass. What would it feel like spreading him open?
“Come here, please,” Harley rasped, and Val dragged his attention up to Harley’s fineboned face. “Let me touch you.”
As if Val was ever going to say no to such a request from Harley. He shuffled in, left leg stiff and growing more so by the minute. Harley pulled back the bubbled glass shower door. “In, get under the water, then I’m going to run my hands all over your fabulous bod.”
Val almost laughed at that, but the want in Harley’s eyes shut him up. He got in the shower and bit back a whimper as the strong, hot spray pelted him.
“Feels awesome, doesn’t it?” Harley asked.
“Fuck yeah,” was the best Val could manage as he turned so his left thigh caught more of the massaging stream. “Ah, ah, God.” He closed his eyes and slapped a hand against the tile wall so he could lean and get some of his weight off his injured leg. “Uhn. I may wanna live in here forever.”
“Nah, we need to come out for food at least.” Harley smoothed a hand over his aching thigh. “Let me get some soap on the loofah…”
Val opened his eye. “Loofah?”
Harley popped him lightly on the butt. “Let me guess. You’re Mr Macho and have never in your life used a loofah.”
“Eeeh! Wrong!” Val grinned. “I’m just glad as hell you got one. Need to keep my skin soft and pretty.”
“Exfoliating,” Harley told him. “That’s very important, but I have to say, you have rough hands, and I find that a major turn-on.”
“Huh.” He’d make sure to keep them callused. Val moaned when Harley began rubbing his thigh, working the sore muscles and scrubbing his skin. He parted his legs when Harley patted them, then he almost melted as Harley massaged him from foot to hips. Val would have never guessed that he’d love having his ass kneaded and caressed, but he certainly did. And when Harley lightly stroked over his hole, Val wanted to arch and ask for more. He didn’t, though, as Harley said something about washing the blood out of his hair.
“Water didn’t get it all?” Val asked, wanting more of Harley’s erotic touches.
“Maybe, but rinsing with water doesn’t clean it. Soap does.”
And soap him was exactly what Harley did. Of course he had to tweak Val’s nipples along the way, and Val ended up whimpering and squirming. He hadn’t known his tits were so sensitive, but the way Harley pinched and scratched them was another barrel of accelerant poured on the fire of his arousal.
“You like that a lot, don’t ya?” Harley asked him. Instead of answering out loud, Val arched into the pinches, encouraging Harley to give him more pressure. “Shh, I don’t want to twist your nips plumb off,” Harley scolded. “Maybe I should check ’em.”
Val started to turn around but Harley ducked under his arm and, the next thing he knew, fire bloomed from the nub Harley was biting.
“Oh fuck, fuck!” Val wanted to throw Harley down, or wanted Harley to throw him down, whatever. Harley worked his nipples until the little nubs were swollen and dark red, and so sensitive Val couldn’t even look at them without whimpering.
“Yeah, you have sweet little tits,” Harley murmured. “Mmm, taste so good.” He lowered himself to his knees, licking a trail down Val’s belly. “Man, look at this monster dick. Got some nice balls, too. Can’t wait to taste you more.” Harley delved his tongue into Val’s belly button and Val’s cock spurted out some pre-cum. His legs started to quiver and he put both hands on the shower wall. “Mmm, yeah, I wanna taste this,” Harley said right before he sucked Val’s crown into his mouth. He palmed Val’s balls at the same time, and used his other hand to grab a handful of Val’s ass.
“Yes,” Val hissed. “Do it. Let me feel your fingers in me.” Being so vocal while having sex was new and intriguing, but not nearly as intriguing as the jolt he got when Harley pushed a fingertip into his ass. “Ungh,” Val grunted, kind of liking the way it felt to have something in there wriggling around.
Then Harley bobbed down on his cock, taking in over half of it. He pushed on Val’s sac, and another digit was added to the one in his ass, and Val wasn’t so sure he liked the burn. Didn’t think he did, until Harley stroked over his gland and nearly melted his mind.
“Keep doing that,” Val tried to say, though whether he succeeded he didn’t know, because Harley sucked his cock down to the root, and those soft, wet tissues contracted around his length, massaging and loving on his shaft. The fingers inside him seemed to multiply, stretching him wider, and the ache from it tangled with the pleasure shooting up from his dick, and Val threw his head back and shouted as spunk jetted from his cock.
He thrust as hard as he could without using his left leg much, and revelled in the sensation of his dick being milked by Harley’s throat and mouth.
Harley kept at his gland, and, as a result, Val’s cock didn’t soften in the least. His balls began to throb like he needed to come. Then Harley withdrew his fingers and left off sucking Val.
Val made an inquisitive noise, not yet trusting himself to speak.
“Need to fuck you,” Harley explained as he stood. “You’re too tall for me to do it in here unless I bend you over the toilet. I’d rather have you on the couch, and I gotta warn you, this might get rough.”
“Rough’s good,” Val told him. “Anywhere you want me is good, too.”
“I don’t want to give you good, I want to give you absofuckinglutely fantastic,” Harley grumped. “Out.”