* * * *
Evan gave Lewis a throaty growl, climbing up Lewis’s body in a slow and seductive prowl, drinking his mate in with his eyes.
Evan did a reverse push up, holding his weight on his arms as he lowered his mouth to Lewis.
Lewis placed his hands on Evan’s arms, holding them there loosely as Evan tilted his head, running his tongue over Lewis’s lips, nipping the bottom one. He pulled back when Lewis tried to take more. Evan had waited so fucking long for this that he feared it being over in a heartbeat.
Evan lowered his upper torso back down.
Lewis’s wide-eyed innocent look was merely a smoke screen, and Evan knew it.
Lewis’s hands moved from Evan’s arms and wrapped around his neck in one swift motion. Raw lust glittered in those beautiful eyes.
Yeah, it had been a smoke screen. Evan pushed up, grabbing Lewis’s shirt and lifting it to his wrists, locking them in place.
Lewis licked his lips as he panted, staring up at Evan.
Lewis’s Dream
51
Evan’s hand snaked between them, unfastening Lewis’s jeans and pulling his heavy and aching cock free. He gave one last nip to Lewis’s lip before leaning back and devouring his mate’s cock. Evan didn’t take lightly, and he wasn’t one to hesitate. He sucked his mate’s crown, circling his tongue around, and then backed off. He needed in his mate now.
“Tease,” Lewis hissed.
“Take these jeans off, and I’ll show you a tease.” Evan pulled at the waistband, bringing the fabric down to Lewis’s ankles, removing his shoes. Evan yanked them the rest of the way off.
“Socks…get rid of my socks. Can’t have sex with them on. It’s just weird.”
Evan quirked a brow at Lewis but did as he asked. Evan stood over Lewis, giving his mate an eyeful of what he had to offer.
“I’m impressed,” Lewis tried to joke, but the lustful way his mate was staring at him made Evan rock hard.
Evan lay back down over Lewis, fisting his mate’s cock in his hand. He kissed Lewis, pouring all his emotions into that one intimate act. A web of arousal spun around him as he squeezed his mate’s shaft, his thumb caressing over the leaking head.
Evan growled when the door was cracked open, and a bottle of lube tossed in before the door clicked closed.
He chuckled.
“Damn, any privacy around here?” Lewis asked as Evan leaned over him, grabbing at the bottle. His mate took the opportunity to lick across Evan’s abdomen, the moist tongue taking him close to the edge.
“Are you complaining when it will get us both what we want?” He moaned.
“Guess not.”
Evan grabbed both of Lewis’s ankles in one hand, swinging Lewis’s legs up and over, and then pushing them back to Lewis’s
52
Lynn Hagen
chest. Lewis’s tight hole smiled up at him, and Evan’s teeth began to ache in desire to sample it.
Later.
He needed to be inside Lewis now, damn it. Now wasn’t soon enough to Evan. He lubed his cock with one hand, getting the slick stuff all over the place and giving a shit less about it.
He threw the bottle down and walked forward a step on his knees, his heart racing as his cock got closer to coming home. And Lewis was home. Evan knew it in his bones.
After their shaky beginning, he wasn’t taking any chances on waiting.
“Oh, god,” Lewis moaned as Evan thrust hard and deep. His mate bucked, wrapped his ankles around Evan’s neck, and bowed his back for him to go even deeper.
“Do you accept me as your mate, Lewis?”
“Yes, Evan.” Lewis groaned. “Just don’t stop. I’ll shoot you if you stop.” He gave a lust-driven warning.
Evan grabbed Lewis’s wrists, pulling him up and over to Maverick's desk, dropping his mate on his back as he lifted his right leg and planted it on the desk, driving into Lewis’s ass. Evan’s head fell back, his canines lengthening as his head rolled from side to side.
Evan lifted his head, staring down at the passion on Lewis’s face.
That one look had Evan craving the bond.
Lewis howled when Evan sank teeth into his shoulder, sucking the bite wound as he powered his pelvis into Lewis’s ass.
“Fuck, yeah,” Lewis shouted, grabbing Evan’s shoulders as he came hard. Evan’s balls were aching for a similar release. He was relentless, plowing into Lewis as he drank from him.
Even felt the individual souls untwine from their bodies, dancing around each other then slowly settling back in, a piece of his mate with him forever. His heart thumped loudly as they also synchronized.
They were bound mates.
“Did you say you were wolf or vampire?”
Lewis’s Dream
53
Evan smiled around his mate’s neck and sealed the wound finally, throwing his head back as a howl ripped from his chest. He drove harder, faster as his mate cried out again. Evan collapsed on top of Lewis, sweaty, sticky, and sated.
“Mine.” Evan kissed the wound, pushing his hands under Lewis as he held him close.
“What did you just do?” Lewis pushed Evan back, staring him into his eyes.
“I claimed you as my mate.” Evan’s guard was slowly going up, Lewis looked pissed.
“Without asking me?”
“I did, and you said yes.” Evan pulled himself up, standing over his mate.
Lewis rolled over and off the desk, getting to his feet.
“What does this claiming mean?”
“It means I’m it for you. No other.” What the hell had his mate’s panties in a bunch? Evan braced himself for the fallout, clenched his fists preparing himself for the venomous words.
“And what about you?”
The light went on over Evan’s head. “You are my last stop, train doesn’t go any further. I won’t cheat, Lewis.
Ever.
I don’t desire anyone else.”
Lewis stared at him for a moment, a smile breaking up the dark look that had just marred his beautiful face. “I can live with that.” Evan blew out a breath. He had thought for a moment they were going to have another knockdown-drag-out argument.
Lewis stared into Evan’s face. “I really did think you were a dream.”
54
Lynn Hagen
Chapter Five
“Can I touch it?” Kyoshi stared at Lewis.
“No, you can’t touch it. It’s not a toy.” Kyoshi pleaded, “But it’s so…so tempting.” Lewis rolled his eyes. How many times had he heard that before?
“No, Kyoshi. Not gonna happen.”
“Just once. I won’t tell anyone you let me.” Kyoshi clapped his hands together in a prayer-like manner.
“No, you say just once, but once is never enough. They always beg for more.” Lewis wasn’t budging on this.
“I promise not to grab it too tight.”
“No.”
“Please.”
“No.”
“Fine, I’ll go play in traffic since you want to treat me as a child. I can handle it, I swear.”
Lewis growled. “Storm, come get your mate,” he shouted into the den.
“What’s going on?” Storm looked from Kyoshi to Lewis.
“Kyoshi is begging to touch it. Tell him it’s loaded, and it will go off with the slightest touch.”
“Dragonfly, you cannot play with guns.” Storm picked his mate up, carrying him back into the den.
“I need to get a trigger lock for this house,” Lewis mumbled as he went in search of Evan. He was feeling a bit edgy. He needed to take his mind off of the thirst starting to claw at his throat.
Lewis’s Dream
55
“I feel it, too.” Arms skated around Lewis’s waist and shoulders as a kiss was whispered across his nape. “Come on, let’s go for a walk.”
Evan pulled Lewis along, taking him out of the kitchen door.
“This place has been in Maverick’s name for over two centuries. It’s home to wolves that have been shunned by their own packs for their sexual preferences—a safe haven—although we Timber wolves are the strongest of the breed, everyone needs a pack.” Lewis looked around at the beauty of the forest. The backyard was expansive with a garden off to the right and a child’s small playground. “It must be nice to shed who you are and run free.” Something Lewis wished he could do when the craving hit him hard.
To be able to run free sounded unbelievably perfect.
“I’ll admit it’s nice to feel the ground beneath my paws as I tear up the miles. Clears my head, focuses me.”
“Will I become a wolf now since you bit me?” The question had run through Lewis’s mind. If it was anything like those old horror movies that made it look painful as hell, then he didn’t want any part of it. Would he have a choice?
“No, you have to be born that way. Although now that we’re mated, you won’t get sick, and injuries will heal faster than in a non-mated human.”
“Cool. I always seem to get the flu.” That was lame, but Lewis couldn’t think of anything else to say. Never get sick? That was pretty fucking great. “What did you mean when you said you felt it, too?”
“If we are in the same room, close by one another, I can feel your emotions.” Evan led him onto a path leading into the dense forest.
Was that a good or bad thing? Lewis couldn’t decide, but it made it hard to lie that everything was fine when it wasn’t.
“Come on, I want to show you a favorite spot of mine I like to go to when my head needs focusing. I’ve never shared this spot with anyone else. You would be the first, as you should be.” Lewis followed Evan for a few miles until they came to a clearing.
56
Lynn Hagen
“It’s beautiful, Evan.” Lewis stood at a rock ledge where a mini waterfall cascaded down into a small pond. Toads and fish swam around. Plants decorated the circumference of the little slice of heaven. It was a peaceful scenery, and one Lewis knew he would be back to visit. The atmosphere was peaceful, a place to just sit and take the time to reflect.
“Now it’s also your spot.”
“You would share this with me?”
Evan chuckled. “Don’t look so stunned. As the humans say, what’s mine is yours.”
Lewis took a steady breath. “Can I ask you something, Evan?” When the larger man nodded, Lewis continued. “When we first met…why did you hate me?”
* * * *
Evan led Lewis over to the rocks that sat at the edge of the pond and pulled his mate down to sit between his legs, Lewis’s back to his chest as Evan laid his chin on Lewis’s head. “I didn’t hate you, never hate. I was frustrated because you didn’t feel the pull and wouldn’t acknowledge me.”
“But I didn’t even know you, Evan.”
Evan closed his eyes at the truth. It was the same thing Maverick had told him.
“Is that what that feeling was, a pull?” Lewis asked.
“Yes.”
“It made me want to turn around and run right into your arms,” Lewis confessed.
“I wish you would have. I was also angry because I pride myself on control, always a clear thinker, and you were taking that from me.” Lewis chuckled. “Seems we both were pissed about that. I was angry for the same reason.”
“You’re a control freak, too?”
Lewis’s Dream
57
“Yep, had to be. When my mom killed herself, I knew I didn’t want to end up like her, to let someone have so much control over me that I would do something out of character. I ate control for breakfast.
Pushed myself to finish school, better myself, you know?”
“I can see why you would need it.” Evan kissed the top of his mate’s head. “For me, I had anger issues growing up, if you couldn’t tell already. I almost killed a boy my age when I was younger because he made fun of me for liking another boy. I knew if I didn’t take control of my emotions that I would be dead before I was old enough to leave my pack.”
They both just sat there for awhile, lost in their own thoughts.
Lewis broke the silence. “I started drinking when my partner was shot and killed. It was a routine questioning, and the punk didn’t want to go to jail. So, instead, he pulled out a small handgun and shoved it right at my partner’s chest. The bullet lodged into his heart, and he died instantly. We were just questioning him about a robbery next to where he worked. Kid didn’t even have a record. Come to find out, he was the one who pulled the job.”
Evan ran his hands up and down Lewis’s arms, letting him release the demons he’d held in for so long. This would be healthy for him to let his them go. What would it have been like to live his mate’s life?
Would he have turned out the same? A person, and a human at that, could only take so much stress.
“The realization hit home that we really never have control over our lives. That, one day, we just blink out of existence. Scary shit when you think about it.” Evan had a feeling Lewis just admitted his greatest fear. The fear of giving someone everything that you are and then lose them.
Evan agreed, but he had to let his mate know how he felt. “But you can’t let the fear of dying or losing the one you love control your living.”
Lewis laughed. “You make it sound so easy.”
58
Lynn Hagen
Evan nipped his ear. “It is when you let go of that fear and give the one you love your trust, mate.”
Lewis settled back against his chest. “I like that word.
Mate
. It sounds different from boyfriend or lover, or even partner. It makes what we have feel worlds away from what I’ve experienced before. It feels closer, deeper…and, god, I sound like a girl.”
“You sound good to me. I like that you feel that way, that what we have is different. There’s one more advantage to being mated to me.” Evan saved this for last, hoping Lewis didn’t freak out on him.
“And that is?”
“I’m two hundred and thirty-four years old, and I will live to be one thousand…and so will you.” He held his breath, waiting. When his mate just lay against him, not saying a word, Evan’s anxiety began to reach an all new high. Sometimes silence was worse than ranting and raving.
“Huh. One thousand. I can’t even get my head wrapped around how long that is.”
Evan started breathing again.
“You’re old.” Lewis laughed as Evan squeezed his arms around his mate tighter. “You have been around long enough to see our modernization take shape.”
“You wouldn’t believe how happy we Sentries were when the cell phone was invented. Beat standing in a phone booth naked making a collect call.”