Kane barely managed to reach the cot before he began to shift back into his human form. The raven landed on the cot just a second after Kane crashed down on it. The moment he touched the rough canvas, Everet began to morph.
His hands had barely changed from talons into fingers before they wrapped around Kane’s wrists, pinning him down against the hard mattress. Their mouths met the second their beaks deserted them.
Kane tipped back his head, thinking of nothing other than offering the other man his complete submission. There were no games to be played now. It was too soon after his change for him to be anything other than the man he was and to react the way his nature dictated.
Everet was bigger and stronger than him, but more to the point, he was good and strict, and Kane really did love him more than he’d ever believed a magpie was capable of loving anyone other than himself.
Everet growled deep in the back of his throat. Kane moaned in response and squirmed in an effort to spread his legs and offer his body to the other man.
“Mine,” Everet snarled against Kane’s lips.
Kane was too busy kissing to talk. Lifting his head off the mattress, he brought their lips together again. Everet pulled away, swiftly taking his mouth out of kissing range and glared down at him. He was as stubborn as ever. Nothing would be granted to Kane until he knew what was required. Another shot of adrenaline shot through his body.
Perfect.
“Yours.” There was no hint of doubt in his voice.
Everet rocked his hips, rubbing their crotches together. Hard flesh slid against a mirror image of itself, teasing, tempting, slicking skin with pre-cum. There was no controlling themselves, no way that they could actually have sex.
Fingers which still half-thought they were talons weren’t suited to applying lube. Humping each other like teenagers in heat was all they could manage—it was all they needed.
Kane gasped, moving even more quickly as he reveled in the lack of control he sensed in Everet’s movements.
Masters absorb something of their submissives too.
Ori had been right. Even as he lay there, Kane sensed some of Everet’s self-control give way to a little of his own brand of impulsiveness.
Everet was his master just as much as he was Everet’s submissive.
Kane squirmed and writhed beneath the heat and strength of Everet’s body, glorying in both the mental and physical hold the other man had over him, that they had over each other.
He bucked, arching his back he came, spilling between their bodies, slicking their movements even further.
Everet didn’t pause for a moment. If anything his thrusts became more determined, more resolute. Blinking rapidly, Kane managed to focus on Everet’s face. The raven’s control gradually returned as his human side moved to the fore, but he still wasn’t the ice man he’d been when they first met.
Kane stared up at his master, completely enthralled by Everet’s every movement as the other man determinedly thrust his way to orgasm.
Pleasure flashed across his face as he came. He was beautiful. A strong, hard, masculine kind of beautiful, but none the less perfect because of that. He was glorious—a man anyone in his right mind would fall in love with the moment he set eyes on him.
Everet collapsed against Kane as all his energy seemed to desert him. Their bodies molded together as if they’d been designed specifically for that purpose.
The cot was built for one. There was no room for them to move farther apart on it. Someone had to lie on top of the other. Everet had to pin him to the bed. Kane smiled as his eyes fell closed and sleep rushed to claim his mind.
Positioned as they were, Everet didn’t need to have a lock on the cage door, or put an alarm on it, either. There was no way Kane could get up, move, or even breathe without his master knowing about it. He’d never felt safer in his life.
Chapter Fifteen
“So, this is where you’ve hidden yourselves away.”
Everet lifted his head. It was the only part of his body he could move without waking Kane. The magpie lay half on top of him and half wrapped around him, in a complicated arrangement of limbs that barely allowed Everet to take a deep breath. Wriggling was out of the question.
Raynard stood just outside the cage looking more than a little amused. “Hamilton’s ordered men to search the entire nest for you. Apparently, your fellow guards completely failed to notice your presence here…”
Everet said nothing. It seemed unlikely that Raynard would allow anyone to be disciplined for hiding his whereabouts, but it wasn’t his place to risk other men’s backs on it.
“You really ruffled Hamilton’s feathers by rushing off the way you did.” Raynard couldn’t have sounded less concerned by that fact if he’d tried. “And after he put all that effort into getting her here so he could prove Kane is a lost cause.”
“He’s not a lost cause!”
Kane made a disapproving noise in the back of his throat and snuggled into Everet’s side, as if he sensed his fury but, while asleep at least, couldn’t comprehend that it wasn’t directed at him. Everet automatically held him more firmly and stroked his hand down his spine in an effort to soothe him.
Everet knew that Raynard observed it all. He wasn’t one to miss a thing at any time, but when their eyes met, Raynard merely nodded his approval.
“Ori and I agree with your assessment. I wouldn’t have believed it if I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, but he’s turned out passably well.”
From a man like Raynard, and directed at someone other than Ori, it was high praise indeed. Everet was too shocked to think of thanking him for it.
“Our visitors have left,” Raynard went on. “Ori will talk Hamilton down off the ledge—he’s proven to have quite a talent for it. So, it’s quite safe for you both to come out of the cage. Neither of you will be punished.”
“I’m glad you both think well of Kane, sir,” Everet said. “I have a favor to ask.” He studied Raynard’s expression very carefully as he rushed out the request.
The hawk raised an eyebrow at him. “Oh?”
Everet took a deep breath. If it had just been for himself, he’d have bid a rapid retreat. Raynard and Ori had done so much for him already. Asking for anything from them was the most ungrateful insult he could have stumbled upon, but this wasn’t for him.
Sometimes being a good master involved putting your submissive first and doing whatever needed to be done—even if it meant going down on bended knee and begging a favor, even if it meant admitting that he wasn’t able to make everything right in Kane’s world all by himself.
* * * *
Kane arched his back, stretching his spine as he stirred. He lay against a warm, strong body. That was always a good way to wake up. A calm, content feeling filled every corner of his mind. That was even better. It meant the body he rested half on top of was Everet’s. No one else had ever made him feel that way.
He opened his eyes and lifted his head.
Everet was already wide awake. Their eyes met.
Kane smiled as a wonderful idea rushed to the front of his mind. Morning sex!
He blinked and rubbed at his eyes then, as his surroundings nudged at the edge of his senses, hinting that they weren’t in Everet’s apartment.
Metal bars. Narrow cot. Cell. Cage. Damn!
Kane pushed against Everet’s chest as he tried to sit up and re-process everything that happened just before he fell asleep. He failed on both counts.
Everet’s arms wrapped around him, making it impossible for him to rise. As for his memories, Kane was sure they would never make sense.
“Anything special you want to say?” Everet asked.
Giving up on doing anything except leaning against Everet’s chest for the moment, Kane shook his head.
“Raynard dropped by while you were asleep,” Everet mentioned, almost casually.
Kane’s instincts for self-preservation instantly went onto high alert. “Why? What did he want? Am I—?”
Everet put a hand over Kane’s mouth.
Bite? Kiss? Caught between two options, Kane finally settled for doing nothing.
“We’re expected in the elders meeting room. Now.”
Kane pulled his head back, taking his lips away from Everet’s hand.
“No.” Everet’s tone of voice didn’t invite disobedience at the best of times, but it seemed to be especially true then.
Kane was caught so off guard, he forgot what he’d been about to say.
“Don’t talk. Just do as you’re told.” Everet released Kane from his embrace. “Get up. Get dressed.”
Within seconds, Everet was on his feet, his clothes half on. A strange kind of tension filled his body. Kane saw it in every movement Everet made. Something was wrong. Everet was hiding something from him.
Kane frowned as he hesitantly followed Everet’s example and picked up his trousers. Cum stains decorated both their bodies. Kane toyed with the idea of suggesting they head up to the apartment to take a shower—after all, it would probably be disrespectful to turn up in front of the elders unless they were nice and clean. And, once he got Everet up to the flat, he could probably convince him to—
No. Kane stopped himself short before a single word left his lips. Everet deserved better from him than that sort of behavior. That probably applied even when he kept secrets from him.
Kane dressed and followed Everet out of the cage.
The raven paused there for a moment, and wiped something off the slate with his fingertips.
Kane lingered in the entrance to the cage. There was a strange sort of safety to be found behind the bars. There were no temptations there. It was impossible for him to do the wrong thing.
“Come on.”
Everet’s order pulled Kane away from the cage, offering him a different kind of security—one that put all his temptations directly in front of him and demanded he learn how to resist them.
The guards said nothing as Everet walked past them with no more than a nod. Kane hurried to keep up with him, feeling as if they’d just enacted the least subtle jailbreak in the entire history of the cage.
Up in the main part of the nest, Kane tensed even further. People stared at them, turning their heads to watch them go—and it probably wasn’t because they smelled like sex. Something was up. Kane had been in the cage for less than a day, but something had changed while he’d been there.
Kane sped up, walking closer to Everet’s side. For once in his life, he wasn’t interested in being the center of attention.
Everet glanced toward him. His expression changed slightly. The seriousness in his eyes didn’t disappear, but it softened a little. Reaching out, he took hold of Kane’s hand.
It shouldn’t have felt either reassuring or strangely romantic. It was either criminally soppy or a blatant precaution against any attempt to run away on Kane’s part. Somehow, Kane still found he liked it. Being connected to his master that way felt good. Not as good as being screwed into the silverware, but very nice nonetheless.
Bolstered by his lover’s touch, Kane’s steps didn’t hesitate, not even when a servant opened the door leading to the elders meeting room and they made their way inside.
They walked forward, side by side, until they stood directly in front of the long oak table. On the other side of it sat Raynard, Ori and Hamilton. None of the other elders were present. Kane wasn’t sure whether or not that was a good sign.