Howl Down the Moon, page 20
“I wish you both would reconsider talking to him, even if it’s just virtual sessions,” Rand said on his way back to the fridge. While he was rummaging around, Slade ate, mulling over Rand’s request.
“We made strawberry lemonade,” Rand said, placing a glass in front of him. “And Jell-O too, but I’m not sure if either of us is supposed to eat it yet.”
“Okay…why not? Did you guys put vodka in it?”
Rand looked thoroughly perplexed. “And why would we do that?”
“To make Jell-O shots.”
“Which are?”
“A rather delicious and buzz-inducing concoction the humans came up with,” Slade explained. “You mix the vodka into the Jell-O, replacing some of the water. It can get pretty strong, depending on how much you substitute. You pour it in shot glasses and wait for it to set, then spend the rest of the night tossing them back and getting mellow.”
“No one told me you’d lived off pack grounds.”
“I haven’t, but I have a few friends who do. They roll through here from time to time on their motorcycles, stay for a couple weeks, and then hit the road again. They’re part of the Howling Devils, a nomadic crew of bikers, who all happen to be shifters of some flavor or another. Last time they came through, they introduced me to the Jell-O shot thing.”
“Sounds like an interesting bunch of guys.”
“They are,” Slade said, smiling a little at the thought of seeing his friends again. “They’re going to be blown away when they learn about you and Luka.”
“Why?”
Slade chuckled, looking around. “I live in the middle of nowhere, and I’m an asshole. If that alone wasn’t a deterrent to actually meeting a potential mate, you add in my temper and a healthy dose of stubborn, and you get the point.”
“I will neither confirm nor deny the validity of what you just said,” Rand replied, making Slade chuckle.
“A couple years ago, they invited me to come along,” Slade admitted. “I gave it some serious consideration, but I love the wilderness too much to want to leave it, and while the idea of roaming around on the back of one of those sweet-ass bikes had merit, I couldn’t see myself getting into a few of the things they’ve been involved with.”
“Illegal?”
“Depends on whose laws you’re looking at.”
“Gotcha.”
“So, if the Jell-O isn’t for eating, what’s it for?” Slade asked, rather curious now, especially when Rand blushed a little.
“Were you aware that Luka has been watching videos that are a bit…explicit…for lack of a better word?”
“Explicit how, and please tell me we’re not about to launch into another round of answer the question with a question.”
“Not this time, no, and explicit as in sexual acts.”
Slade had just taken a sip when Rand said that, and he nearly choked on the liquid when the words registered. “Whoa, I, um, no, totally unaware.”
“Apparently, he was curious about the how of mating, and well, he came across some rather interesting videos, which led to an amazing blow job with ice in his mouth that definitely drew out the experience thanks to those flashes of cold.”
Blinking, Slade took a moment to be certain he’d heard what he’d thought he’d heard. “Are you saying Luka gave you a blow job?”
“Yeah, right after you left this morning. We were joking about you getting to go out in the cold and cool off, but you’d kind of left us hot and bothered, which was when he said he’d seen something in a video that might help, and well, wow, that’s all I have to say. Apparently, there was another video regarding Jell-O, which he wants to treat us to a performance of.”
Slade wasn’t sure what to say about that, let alone how to feel. Aside from kissing, grinding, and washing one another in the shower a couple times, they hadn’t engaged in anything overtly sexual yet, but then, Slade hadn’t been certain how much Luka knew about intimacy and hadn’t wanted to push him, especially when his own tastes drifted toward the rougher stuff. For his part, Rand stayed silent, letting him process things at his own pace, which was good because that jealous, possessive streak of his had started to rear its ugly head. His wolf got it under control though. Reminding him that there was no his, only ours, which meant Rand had as much right to be pleasured by Luka as he did. He was also contemplating what Rand had told him about Luka’s rapidly shifting moods.
“I was worried about taking advantage,” Slade said after the last of his supper had been consumed. “Not knowing what or how much he knew, and not being particularly comfortable broaching the subject, I’d been taking things slow with him.”
The panicked look on Rand’s face would have been comical if he was someone who’d pissed Slade off, but seeing it on his mate, and knowing his temper was the cause, didn’t make him feel very good at all. He caught Rand’s hand and tugged gently, watching him bite his lip and hesitate before taking the two steps between them.
“I’m not upset with you guys,” Slade said. “I’m kind of glad, actually. Now that he’s blown the door off the subject, maybe talking about it will be easier.”
“As affectionate as you two are with each other, I just figured…” Rand stammered.
Slade shook his head slowly. “Nope.”
“What made you so uncomfortable you didn’t get the answers you needed?”
Running his thumb over his lip, Slade tried to figure out how he wanted to word what he wanted to say. “Because I honestly didn’t know where to start,” Slade finally admitted. “I’ve had partners before, but all of them were as experienced or more experienced than I was. My first time was fueled by anger and booze. I barely remember most of it. I don’t know how much needs to be explained before we get to experimentation, ya know?”
“Not exactly,” Rand said, looking uncomfortable as he stared down at the tabletop. “It was my first blow job. And for the record, kissing you and Luka last night—those were my first kisses too. I’m afraid I’m less experienced than he is, considering he was smart enough to find a video to get the answers he wanted. In the kitchen this morning, he took total control, right up to the point of helping me remove my briefs while I was standing there too dumbfounded to move. Obviously, being a physician, I know the technical aspects, but there was nothing technical about what he did this morning. Something tells me that if we don’t get with the program, he’s going to move us the way he wants us to get us there.”
Dumbfounded, Slade stood there trying not to think about a completely beguiling and seductive Luka on his knees with Rand’s cock in his mouth and couldn’t because he seriously wished he’d been there to see it in person. Add in the knowledge that he had not one but two inexperienced mates, and his mind went to all the firsts they’d have together.
“Any idea exactly how many videos he watched?” Slade asked, wondering how he’d found them in the first place. Was there actually porn on the streaming service, and if so, how had he not found the channels himself by now?
“Not one clue,” Rand said. “Was worried you’d be jealous if we tried to explore the rest of the things in the videos without you.”
Chuckling, Slade nodded. “Maybe not jealous, but definitely envious. What did it feel like when he had your cock in his mouth?”
“So good,” Rand stammered, his whole face flaming at the question.
“It’s nothing to be embarrassed about,” Slade remarked. “Our mate is hot.”
“And apparently as quick a study as you claimed he was, to learn all that from the video. The things he did with his tongue… Wow, for a moment there, I think I forgot my name.”
“You don’t have to rub it in. Damn, I get it. I missed one hell of a morning,” Slade acknowledged, hoping to steer the conversation elsewhere before he was tempted to wake their mate and plead to be shown what he’d learned from the Jell-O video. “What changed to bring down the mood?”
Rand rubbed his finger along the tabletop, thinking back to the discussion about the meal and how Luka’s emotions just shifted on a dime.
“We went from teasing and having fun to trying to decide what to make for supper,” Rand recalled. “He brought out some venison steaks, told me about the deer, and hunting with you, how you talked him through it when the sounds got to him. At that point, he said it was good that we had you to hunt because he sucked.”
Slade shook his head. “He just never had the chance to learn; that’s all. His parents didn’t have a third mate, but they had two tiny pups in addition to Luka. He told me his sister was three, and Liam, the baby, wasn’t even a year old yet. If Luka wasn’t watching the little ones, then his cousin was, which would have made it difficult to get much practice hunting in.”
“Doc Washington said it took three people to keep Luka from going into the fire to help,” Rand said. “And that the cousin was off making out with a boyfriend somewhere and had left the kids sleeping in the house.”
“You have got to be fucking kidding me!”
“I wish I was,” Rand said. “Luka was at school. Doc said he was a curious kid who loved learning. That goes hand in hand with how easily he picks things up.”
“Only, he never went back.”
“Yeah,” Rand said.
“Doc ever tell you what happened to the cousin?”
“No, and I didn’t ask, which was probably a good thing, considering the look in your eyes right now is the same one you had when I stepped between you and Dimitri.”
“She ran away,” Luka said softly, leaning in the doorway for who knew how long. “It was suggested to her that it might be a good idea before she wound up dead.”
“I’d have killed the bitch,” Slade growled.
“I tried.”
Slade was out of his seat in an instant, pulling him into a tight hug and kissing the top of his head, feeling his mate suck in a breath, then let it out slowly.
“I thought she was inside too,” Luka said. “Then she came bursting through the trees with her boyfriend. Those three guys who were holding me, they slammed me to the ground and pinned me there when I tried to shift and go after her. I caught her three days later. I should have waited until I caught her alone, but I was furious and impatient. I attacked her outside of her house. Folks heard the commotion and managed to pull me off before I could tear her throat out. I wonder when wolves will learn that there is some shit they should keep out of.”
“Amen to that,” Slate muttered, feeling a little sheepish about that when Rand cleared his throat while wrapping his arms around Luka from behind, the doorway pretty much holding all of them up at this point.
“It seems to me like I have two hot-tempered, loyal mates, who would destroy the world to get at someone who hurt the ones they loved.”
“You best believe that,” Slade growled, every protective instinct springing to life. The gods better be prepared to help anyone who harmed one of his mates because that was what it would take to stop him from ending them. And yes, mates, because now that he’d let Rand into his life, held him in his arms, and spent time talking and laughing with him, there was no way, no how, he would ever say he didn’t care about, or want, Rand again. He still needed to make that right and properly apologize, he realized, as he reached over and ran his hand up and down Rand’s arm. He’d said those hurtful things out loud, so he needed to make his apology the same way. Right now, though, they were all exhausted. Luka looked like he was being held up by the two of them, and when Slade glanced down at his half-lidded gaze, he decided carrying him might be easier than trying to get him to walk down the hall.
“Can you kill the lights and television?” Slade asked Rand. “I’m going to get him tucked in before he goes deadweight on me.”
Nodding, Rand moved to do as he’d asked, as Slade scooped Luka up and carried him down the hall. Luka’s hair fanned out around his face when Slade lay him down on the pillow, almost reminding him of a lion’s mane. It was only then he remembered the vicious way Luka had torn the throat out of the deer and the tiny bursts of aggression he occasionally displayed. Coupled with what he’d admitted to doing to his cousin, Slade got the sense that Luka would be a force to be reckoned with once he learned to be confident in who he was. Another protector of the borderlands, which they desperately needed with the way the grizzlies had been pushing into their territory.
He was still staring down at Luka when Rand slid into the bed on the other side of Luka.
“Something wrong?” Rand asked, drawing the blankets up and around him.
“No, was just thinking about all the untapped potential he’s got locked away inside of him,” Slade admitted. “I hate that he can’t see it.”
“I hate that I added to his insecurity,” Rand said, slipping an arm around Luka and hugging him close.
“There’s something else I hate,” Slade said, propping himself up a little so he could look over Luka to where Rand was cuddling beside him. With his perfect night vision, he saw Rand flinch, just a little, and hold his breath, like he was waiting for Slade to say him.
“What’s that?”
“That I did the same thing to you,” Slade replied softly, keeping his voice low so as to not wake Luka. “I’m sorry. There are so many ways I wish I’d handled things that might have gotten us to moments like these a lot quicker. It was cruel, and the shittiest part was that I stood there and told the council that no one deserved to be treated that way and, in the next breath, turned around and did it to you.”
When Rand reached for him, Slade took his hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “I’m sorry I hurt you that way.”
“I know, and I forgive you. We both reacted the same way to what, in effect, was the same situation. Maybe that’s why the fates felt the three of us would be such a good fit for one another. The more we spend time together, the more I see the similarities between us all. You were right about it taking an extreme set of circumstances to bring us together with the directions our lives were headed in. As painful as those weeks were, it scares me to think that undoing any of those mistakes and misunderstandings would cost me one of you.”
Nodding, Slade could more than understand that sentiment. “In the cave, when Luka first woke up after his trip down the river, I told him the fates must have felt that I needed to freeze a little before rewarding me with him. Guess they decided I needed to learn a lesson in humility and forgiveness before they’d rewarded me with you.”
Rand’s tiny gasp and the shimmer of tears welling up in his eyes told Slade how much his mate had needed to hear that from him. Laying his head back on the pillow, Slade kept hold of Rand’s hand, their arms over Luka, and fell asleep that way.
Chapter Twenty
CARVING ANOTHER LINE through the wood he’d been working with, Luka studied the image that was slowly emerging from the wood. When Slade had insisted on setting up a place in the garage for him to work until the new rooms could be built, Luka had declined, not wanting Slade to rearrange his space just so Luka could fiddle around with some wood.
Of course, Slade had disagreed and done it anyway, then sternly lectured Luka for trying to tell him it was a waste of time and space. He’d also insisted on displaying several of Luka’s carvings around the house, resulting in another lecture when Luka told him they would take up too much space. Slade had even threatened to put him over his knee if Luka kept disparaging himself and his creations; only, that had sounded like it might be fun, especially after a couple videos he’d seen, and Luka had told him so, resulting in Slade throwing his hands up and muttering something about a porn channel.
He’d come out to the garage after breakfast when Rand and Slade left to look in on a sick pup, Rand grumbling the whole time that wouldn’t need an escort if Slade would just draw him a map. Their mate was too protective for that. He’d keep escorting Rand until he’d introduced him to everyone and was confident that Rand knew the way backward and forward. It was just how he was.
Bending his head to the task at hand, Luka worked on the wing tips of the owl he was carving and focused on getting the details just right. Intense eyes and laid-back ears marked out the head, but for the feathers, he was trying for a poufed up, ruffled look of annoyance, like the owl he’d stolen a kill from the day he’d gone into the river.
His shoulders were getting sore by the time he got to the feet, but he wanted an accurate rendering of those talons, so he was taking that part slowly. He’d just laid down his chisel when someone touched his shoulder.
“You’re back,” Luka said when he turned and saw Rand standing there. “How’s the pup?”
“Tiny, definitely could have used some extra help when she was born, but we got things turned around,” Rand replied. “I see now what Slade meant when he said they were in desperate need of a physician and clinic out here. Some folks, especially the elders, have allowed conditions to go untreated because they couldn’t make it to town or assumed it was just a natural part of the aging process, so they were learning to deal with it.”
“Does that mean you’ll stay?” Luka asked softly, hoping the answer was yes.
“Will you?”
“Slade’s right. You do like to answer questions with questions.”
“Maybe, but that wasn’t an answer either,” Rand pointed out. “Slade said you only agreed to stay until spring.”
“Yeah, but that was before our bond marks, and before I realized I didn’t want to go back to being alone, not after finding both of you,” he admitted.
“That’s the same way I feel,” Rand said, stepping up beside him and looking down at the table. “That is amazing.”
“It’s not even close to done.”
“Doesn’t mean it isn’t coming along beautifully. All those details you work in, the lifelike poses you capture—that takes talent, skill, and a lot of patience and practice.”
