DeWitt’s Pack 12

One-Night Stand with a Werewolf

Markus Lane was depressed when the man he loved mated with

someone else. To take his mind away from the pain, he decides to
take to bed the beautiful stranger he sees sitting in the bar behind

him. Little did he realize that his one-night stand is actually his
mate.

Lance Malloy is out to prove that werewolves exist. He's searched
for that proof ever since he was a child and a shifter saved his life.
That the gorgeous man who has been showing him all the best

hiking trails is a werewolf, and claims they are mated, is the best
news he's ever heard.

But to protect his lover he must give up his research. The packs
need to stay hidden, and when some of Lance's old colleagues

turn out to be hunters, and they track him down and attack
DeWitt's pack, how will he ever get Markus to trust that he had no

hand in this betrayal?

Genre: Alternative (M/M or F/F), Paranormal,
Vampires/Werewolves
Length: 36,483 words

ONE-NIGHT STAND WITH A

WEREWOLF

DeWitt’s Pack 12

Marcy Jacks

EVERLASTING CLASSIC

MANLOVE

Siren Publishing, Inc.

www.SirenPublishing.com

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ONE-NIGHT STAND WITH A WEREWOLF
Copyright © 2013 by Marcy Jacks
E-book ISBN: 978-1-62242-037-7

First E-book Publication: January 2013

Cover design by Harris Channing
All art and logo copyright © 2013 by Siren Publishing, Inc.

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED: This literary work may not be
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PUBLISHER
Siren Publishing, Inc.
www.SirenPublishing.com

Letter to Readers

Dear Readers,

If you have purchased this copy of One-Night Stand with a Werewolf
by Marcy Jacks from BookStrand.com or its official distributors,
thank you. Also, thank you for not sharing your copy of this book.

Regarding E-book Piracy

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ONE-NIGHT STAND WITH A

WEREWOLF

DeWitt’s Pack 12

MARCY JACKS

Copyright © 2013

Chapter One

Markus loved his pack. James DeWitt was a fair pack alpha who

only rarely needed to assert his authority over unruly omegas or
alphas who challenged him. He wasn’t a tyrant like Deacon had been,
and Markus was fortunate enough to not have been born into that
particular pack, though he had heard stories.

Lately, he found he couldn’t much handle being around his own

home. Not since John had taken a mate. A werecat mate.

Weirder things had happened.
Still, Markus couldn’t handle being at the pack lately, watching

them go through their chores, making eyes at each other. He couldn’t
handle the way every mated pair made eyes at each other.

In some strange twist of fate, it seemed that almost every male in

the pack was finding a mate in another male. Markus didn’t mind that
in the least. He himself was attracted to other men. One man in
particular.

The problem was that he’d started to think that maybe he and John

would be mated. Markus was attracted to his friend and had been for a
while. Just when he’d started to think that maybe John would return
his affections, but the other man had found himself mated to someone

8

Marcy Jacks

else.

Markus couldn’t blame the guy. It wasn’t as though Markus had

some claim on him since they hadn’t been dating, had never fucked or
kissed. The farthest things had gotten between them was talks.

They had spoken about how amazing it was for the other members

of the pack to find mates with their own sex, and then there had come
the hints, mostly from Markus, about how he would like to have
something more with his friend.

Again, it had never gone beyond those innocent talks.
Then John met Storm, and everything ended for Markus.
It was like losing his best friend, even though John hadn’t gone

anywhere. Hell, Markus was the one to avoid him. He couldn’t stand
seeing his best friend hand in hand with that stranger to the pack.

The cougar-shifter was a former hunter. Yeah, they might have

already gone through that with Isaac, but Isaac hadn’t had the nerve to
mate with Markus’s best friend, so yeah, he was being a bit of a dick
about it.

The first night that cougar spent on pack land, Markus had made

sure to tell him what he would do to him if he ever hurt John. Make
you wish you were never born was something along the lines of the
words he’d used.

It had gotten to the point where his pack alpha was starting to get

pissed at him for his attitude. Markus had been brought out on the
front lawn of James DeWitt’s cottage once already and forcefully put
down on his back with his neck exposed for mouthing off and just
being a miserable prick in general.

Now Markus was sitting in an empty bar in Brampton, sulking

and swinging back a couple of beers.

Getting put in his place in front of the entire pack, in front of John

and his new mate, was embarrassing enough, but he wasn’t about to
get wasted over it.

Werewolves were meant to avoid most human contact wherever

possible, but the problem was that it was not always possible.

One-Night Stand with a Werewolf

9

Werewolves had to do odd jobs here and there to bring in money, or
go grocery shopping once in a while as opposed to hunting all year for
their food.

Those were the unavoidable situations, however. Having a drink

in the local pub was all right, too, but actually hanging out here like
Markus was doing wasn’t exactly allowed. Getting piss drunk would
be even worse and grounds for exile from the pack.

Markus wasn’t quite ready to take it that far just yet. It didn’t stop

him from ordering another beer when the bartender took his bottle
away.

The guy didn’t speak to him, and for that Markus was glad as he

crossed his arms on the bar and hid his face in them.

Maybe he was a little closer to falling off the deep end than he

thought he was.

The front door opened, and the bell above chimed. The stupid bar

couldn’t be like a real bar, it was a restaurant, too, so it didn’t have
the dark, brooding atmosphere that Markus would have preferred. The
windows were high and bright, and everything just reeked of fun
family dining.

Thank God it wasn’t dinnertime yet and all the mothers and their

strollers hadn’t started packing into the place. That was the last thing
Markus needed.

“What can I getch’a?” asked the bartender. It was only Markus

and whoever the hell else had wandered inside, so with an empty
place and Markus already served, there was only one person he could
be asking.

The answering voice had that smoky, cigarette-sexy quality that

Markus had only ever heard on TV.

“Just a beer for now, thanks. Still looking through the menu.”
He told himself not to look up, not lift his miserable face from his

arms to see who owned that gorgeous voice.

He did it anyway, and he damned himself the second the

stranger’s blue eyes turned up from his menu, as though he’d sensed

10

Marcy Jacks

eyes in him, and stared right back at Markus.

He turned around and cursed himself. Markus quickly got up from

his stool and walked toward the men’s room, practically slamming
through the door.

He peered at himself in the mirror, and it was just as bad as he

thought it would be.

He looked like aging, sagging shit.
That’s what happens when you don’t sleep and have beers for

breakfast.

It was ridiculous how much he cared about this, but everything in

that man’s face, everything in his scent, just screamed sex. Markus
wanted to grab the guy and pull him into the bathroom, drag him
inside one of the stalls, press him against the wall, and fuck him until
he moaned and thrashed so violently that his wire-rimmed glasses fell
from his face.

Markus thought about what he’d seen in those two seconds before

he’d turned away and ran to hide in the bathroom like a teenage girl
or something.

The hair hadn’t been blond, not really, but it wasn’t dark enough

to be considered brown. Even a light brown. It was the color of dark
sand, with a few darker strands streaking the hair, but it seemed more
natural somehow. It was like honey. As stupid and cliché a
description as that sounded, that was the only thing he could call it.

Not that Markus was an expert in hair care or anything. He’d

never been to a barber shop before, and every time he’d had a haircut,
it had been done by Old Maggie, the pack’s wise woman.

He needed a haircut right now. His darker hair was disheveled and

didn’t look like it was done well, or on purpose, like the hair of the
stranger in the booth.

He was simply perfect. If there was one thing in the world that

would help Markus overcome his grief over losing John, it would be
having the man sitting out there, looking through his menu.

Markus needed to clean up first. Looking himself over in the

One-Night Stand with a Werewolf

11

mirror one last time, he wanted to groan. He looked like the fucking
undead or something.

He splashed cold water over his face, and then did it again three

more times, rubbing the cold water into his eyes especially. He dried
his face off and combed his fingers through his hair, using the water
to try to style it to his liking.

He still looked like shit, but it was the difference of comparing

someone who looked like the walking dead to someone who just
looked like they woke up on the wrong side of the bed. It was still
pretty noticeable.

With nothing else going for him, Markus took in a deep breath. If

he, by some miracle, managed to convince the guy out there to let
Markus fuck him, he would be more than happy.

For a time.
If Markus was turned down, well, it wasn’t like he hadn’t seen it

coming. He could always comfort himself by saying that he’d at least
tried for something else when everything seemed so shitty lately.

He stepped out of the bathroom.
The gorgeous stranger was still in his booth. The only difference

was that he now had a cold beer beside him. He also had a book in his
hand, some big and heavy tome that looked like it came from a
classroom.

He looked young, around Markus’s age at twenty-five or so.

Maybe he was a student or perhaps a teacher’s assistant.

Suddenly those glasses on his face became a whole lot sexier.
Markus walked by the booth, pretending he didn’t care about the

man’s presence at all. He kept his back straight and his eyes firmly
ahead, but he was still able to notice the way the man’s head turned
just barely when Markus passed him by, and the scent that came from
him was all wanting lust.

He could barely contain his excitement when he made it back to

his barstool. His body practically trembled with desire.

Holy shit, was that man digging him, too? Markus had hoped for

12

Marcy Jacks

this and everything, but he hadn’t expected it would be so easy as
that.

He thought he was going to have to work for it at the very least.
Markus half turned in his seat, looking back at the handsome

professor as he sat there reading his book with a straight back.

His eyes slowly turned to the side, though his head didn’t move.
Their eyes met, and Markus smiled at him. The man’s eyes

snapped back to his book, and the blush that bloomed over his cheeks
was adorable.

For whatever reason, despite how lousy Markus knew that he

looked, this guy was still into him.

He was totally going for this.
Markus took his beer, turned, and slid into the booth at the

stranger’s table, just across from him.

He was still looking at Markus with that partly curious, partly

wanting, and partly worried look on his face.

Markus cleared his throat and put out his hand. “Markus Lane,

don’t think I’ve ever seen you around here before.”

The man with the face a Hollywood actor would pay, or kill, to

have smiled and reached his hand across the table and grasped
Markus’s.

“Lance Malloy, and I’m just passing through.”
Markus pushed back the stab of disappointment he felt. Well,

whatever, most people who came to a town this size were just passing
through anyway. It wasn’t like there was a very big reason to settle
down in a one-street town like Brampton. He was probably off to visit
family somewhere several hours away.

If he was just stopping by for lunch and heading out in a matter of

minutes, then Markus’s chances of getting this man naked had just
shot down to practically nothing. There was no telling with some
people, really, but the man sitting across from Markus, Lance Malloy,
didn’t look like the type who would go for a quickie with a stranger in
the bathroom of the only restaurant in town.

One-Night Stand with a Werewolf

13

“I mean, I’m here for a couple of days, but I won’t be staying,”

Lance said, adjusting the glasses on his nose.

That little move actually made Markus’s cock twitch. He’d never

known before now how sexy that looked.

Then his words registered, and Markus’s hopes lifted once more

as his odds shot up. That was just fine. It wasn’t long term or
anything, but Markus wasn’t sure if he wanted to jump into a
relationship while he was nursing his stupid broken heart. Lance was
good looking, and clearly he was interested in Markus.

A fling with a stranger would be just the sort of thing to make

Markus feel better.

14

Marcy Jacks

Chapter Two

“How long are you in town for?” Markus tried to see what it was

that Lance was reading, but the other man swiftly closed his books
and put them away in a messenger bag beside him.

Embarrassment flooded Markus’s cheeks. “Sorry. I wasn’t trying

to pry or anything.”

“Oh, don’t worry. It wasn’t that. I just always thought it was rude

to have your things on the table while having company.”

Markus grinned at him, and just then the bartender came over with

a veggie burger plate and side salad and set it down in front of Lance.

“Vegetarian?” Markus asked, suddenly worried that Lance

wouldn’t approve of his mostly protein diet, which was stupid
because Markus wasn’t planning on dating the guy or anything.

Just flirting with him and fucking him.
Lance gave a halfhearted shrug. “I try to eat healthy whenever I

can. I’ll do this for about a week before I start to miss real burgers and
meat-lover’s pizza too much. Then I’ll binge.”

Markus could handle that. “In that case, would you mind if I

joined you for lunch?”

He was supposed to be back at the pack by now. He’d been gone

for longer than the designated time a were was allowed to be around
other humans, but hey, he was behaving himself, kind of.

Lance’s blue eyes lighting up was just the sort of good sign that

Markus wanted to see, and he could smell the mild lust wafting from
the man.

It would be coming off him in waves before they left the

restaurant if Markus had any say in it.

One-Night Stand with a Werewolf

15

“No, not at all. Actually, it’s really nice to be able to talk to

someone local. I don’t feel like such an outsider with you sitting with
me.”

Neither do I. Markus shook away the thought. Weird.
He called the bartender back over, shoving away the offer for

another beer in favor of a club sandwich with extra turkey, triple extra
bacon, and extra cheese.

Lance’s jaw just about hit the table. Markus laughed at him.
“How do you—” Lance shifted in his seat to get a better look at

Markus’s body, as if he could have missed it or something. Markus
loved the way the other man’s eyes lingered, and he couldn’t wait to
get naked in front of him. “You must have a killer workout.”

Some people might consider shifting into a wolf, running through

the woods, and hunting down buck and other game to be a pretty good
work out.

“Yeah, pretty much,” Markus said vaguely. He was going to need

some kind of distraction until the food got here, which he was only
using as another distraction for when he finally got inside the man
across from him.

“So, what do you do for a living?”

* * * *

It was good conversation. Really, Markus had been surprised, and

then the food came quickly, allowing him to eat it at roughly the same
time as his dinner partner, and they both managed to finish up before
the supper rush came in, which Lance was eager to avoid, for
whatever reason.

The whole time, Markus had covertly flirted with the handsome

human across from him, and when Lance began to shyly return his
advances, then they got to be a little more obvious and open to each
other.

It wasn’t like there had been anyone in the restaurant when they

16

Marcy Jacks

spoke to each other anyway, so aside from when the bartender came
over to make his rounds, they were able to act as though they had
been talking and hinting in the privacy of one of their homes.

The only thing Lance had been vague about was his occupation,

but Markus wasn’t too worried about that. The guy didn’t give off the
vibe that he was a hunter, and not everyone wanted to talk about what
they did for a living anyway. It kind of made it easier for Markus to
avoid the natural follow-up question of, I do this, what do you do for
a living?

It was hard for a werewolf to hold a steady job, and he didn’t

much feel like lying to the guy.

All in all, despite how shitty everything had felt that morning,

Markus felt pretty damn good as he walked out of the restaurant with
Lance beside him.

His cock was throbbing as he watched the other man walk. He

tried to watch, anyway. It was difficult to do something like that
without the other man noticing, and Markus really didn’t want to fuck
this up.

The other man still carried his messenger bag over one shoulder

and had declined when Markus had offered to carry it.

It took Markus a second to note that they weren’t walking to a

vehicle parked in the parking lot. “Where’s your car?”

“I walked here from the motel. I figured the town is small enough

that I could do that and still make it to the trails.”

That made Markus stop. “The trails?”
Lance turned to look at him. “Yeah, you know, for hiking and

stuff.”

Suddenly Markus had an idea. This sort of thing happened a

couple times out of the year. The area was beautiful and filled with
thick forest and the occasional lake. Nature lovers, and hunters, came
here to get away from the city. Clearly that was what was up with
Lance. He was on a vacation or something.

“Are you looking for a guide? I know the area pretty well. I could

One-Night Stand with a Werewolf

17

show you a lot of good places. Most people don’t even know about
them. They’re completely private.”

He’s purposely mentioned the last part, keeping his eyes on

Lance’s face.

His expression was interested, but a kind of neutral interest. Had

Markus not been able to hear the way his heartbeat picked up, or
smell the musk rolling off the man, he wouldn’t have known if Lance
was more interested in the chance to see some interesting scenery or
be alone on it with the powerful, sexual magnet that Markus had
suddenly become.

“Really? Should I go and grab some water bottles? Or can we go

now?”

Markus looked over the other man, getting impatient as all hell.

He was wearing hiking boots, and it was only about a ten-minute walk
to the nearest pond.

That pond on pack land wasn’t the only one in the area that was

secluded and beautiful.

“We can definitely go right now,” Markus said, and when he put

his hand over Lance’s shoulder, the other man seemed content to be
led away.

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Marcy Jacks

Chapter Three

Lance never considered himself to be the kind of person to just do

something like this. Sure, there had been a few kinky, experimental
things in college, but after that, his need for some sexual adventure
had dwindled.

His need for sex had shrunk to practically zero after he’d broken

things off with his partner. Getting out of a five-year relationship
would do that, he was told.

Then his eyes had landed on the god sitting at the bar, and then

that man had introduced himself, shared a lunch with him, made it
plainly obvious he was interested, and now they were walking
through the slim trail in the woods, brushing branches out of the way
as they went, toward a secluded spot that Lance was positive he
wouldn’t be paying any attention to.

He was actually going to do this. He’d come here for work, but

there was always time for play.

Markus hadn’t been kidding. He really did know the area. Just

when Lance was about to ask where they were and if he was sure they
were going in the right direction, Markus suddenly turned off the trail
and started leading him right into the tall trees and bushes.

He probably should have been scared, but his curiosity was

getting the better of him. Then the trees had opened up to reveal a
scene that even the world’s best artists couldn’t do justice to.

“Wow,” he said, his eyes scanning over the water that shimmered

in the sunlight but was so clear he could see the green plants growing
at the bottom as well as the minnows and frogs that swam around
between them.

One-Night Stand with a Werewolf

19

Strong hands gripped his shoulders, massaging nicely, and

Lance’s muscles turned to mush.

Warm breath ghosted over his ear. Lance thought he felt Markus’s

lips touching down on the outer shell of his earlobe. “You think that’s
something, you should see the pond on the property where I live.”

“This is beautiful. How can no one know this is here?”
He practically felt the shrug behind him. “There are lots of ponds

and small or large bodies of water in the area. They’re all fed by the
river, and it’s hard to keep track of them all.”

Markus’s fingers gently touched down on Lance’s chin, turning

him into a kiss. It was when their mouths met that Lance felt he’d
crossed the point of no return.

* * * *

Markus hadn’t expected it to be so good. There was like a

miniature explosion of awareness inside of him, something he’d never
felt before. He liked it.

When he reached his tongue out and was met with Lance’s, that

miniexplosion turned nuclear, and now Markus wanted nothing more
than to just stop with the easy-and-slow stuff and throw the guy down
onto the grass and moss and fuck him until he couldn’t walk straight.

He got started with the throwing down part. He grabbed Lance by

the shoulders, turning the man around so they were no longer back-to-
chest, but now facing each other at least. He hooked his leg behind
Lance’s and pushed backward enough that Lance lost his footing and
went down.

He made a shocked sound as he lost his balance, but Markus held

onto him, keeping him from hurting himself as he put the other man
on his back.

Lance grinned at him, and Markus could hear how quickly his

heart pounded with the excitement of what was happening. “You’ve
done this before.”

20

Marcy Jacks

It wasn’t an accusation. Lance clearly knew what this was

supposed to be, and Markus was glad.

The funny thing was that he hadn’t done this before. He’d taken

lovers, sure, but he’d never done the cheesy thing he was doing now,
bringing someone he wanted to a pretty place for privacy just to set
the mood. He’d never really cared for setting the mood beyond a few
bad one-liners and making sure the stall he had them in was clean.
Sharing this location was a first for him.

He decided not to get into the details of that with the other man as

he reached down and started kissing his neck.

Lance’s hands went to his scalp, his soft fingers threading through

his hair. They weren’t rough and callused like Markus’s hands. Lance
might like the outdoors, but he definitely didn’t work outdoors doing
any kind of heavy lifting, that was for sure.

Markus worked on the buttons of Lance’s plaid shirt, quickly

removing them and even ripping a few off, revealing a white T-shirt
beneath.

He could feel the man’s erection between his legs as they lay

together. Markus was becoming impatient to have it in his hand, in his
mouth, and bobbing between them as he fucked Lance raw.

“Wait, let me up,” Lance said, pushing Markus back a little so he

could sit up. He shrugged the rest of the way out of his button-down
and then lifted the T-shirt over his head.

Markus was slightly disappointed with that. There was something

a little naughty he enjoyed about having his partners partly dressed
instead of entirely naked.

When Lance began to shimmy himself out of his jeans, Markus

didn’t complain in the least.

“Take your clothes off,” Lance demanded. “Right now.”
Pushy. Markus was going to enjoy this so much.
“Give it a minute,” he said, gripping the hem of Lance’s jeans and

pulling them down as the other man fought to get out of them. The
jeans weren’t exactly tight or anything, but they fit well enough that

One-Night Stand with a Werewolf

21

when Markus did that, the underwear came off with them, sliding
down his hips and legs.

The sight of Lance’s cock, thick and uncut, sent all sorts of signals

to Markus’s brain, all of which he again pushed back. There was only
one message he wanted to pay attention to, and that was the instinct
yammering inside his mind to take Lance as hard and fast as the other
man could manage.

Lance seemed to get the idea of what Markus wanted by the way

he stared, and the other man grabbed him by the hair and started
pulling him down toward his dick. “Put me in your mouth. Suck me,”
he commanded.

Markus gladly did as he was told. He was alpha all the way, but

his lovers could command him during sex as much as they wanted.

Strange, since he normally hated giving head, but now the idea

didn’t bother him so much. He wanted this. He wanted to put Lance’s
prick inside his mouth and make the other man scream for him.

Markus put his lips over the swollen head. Lance shivered, and the

skin of his thighs and legs pebbled with goose bumps. The tip of flesh
was pulling back a little with how hard Lance had gotten. That looked
a little painful even. He was going to do something about it.

Keeping his mouth still firmly pressed around the shaft and his

hand gripping the base, Markus sank down.

He couldn’t really see up so well from the position he was in, but

it kind of looked like Lance had let himself fall back into the grass,
his head banging backward.

If it hurt, then the other man didn’t say anything about it as he

moaned and shivered. Markus felt that shiver all the way down into
Lance’s legs and cock. Lance lifted his knees and started pumping his
hips, all the while keeping his hands on the back of Markus’s head.

“Fuck, that’s nice.”
It was nice. He especially enjoyed the little sounds of pleasure

Lance made as he lost himself to what Markus was doing to him.
Markus sucked back hard, moving his head up and down while

22

Marcy Jacks

periodically tightening his mouth. He did everything he liked to have
done to him, and then he reached his hand up, pressing his fingers
against Lance’s asshole.

Lance moaned as Markus circled his fingers around the entrance,

and then he bucked hard when his fingers pressed inside.

“Oh, fuck! Yeah, just like that.”
A feeling of victory swept over Markus. Lance wanted it. He

wanted it so much, and Markus was going to give it to him. The need
he felt, and the musky smells right under his nose, nearly made him
come. It was torture to still be wearing clothes. His body throbbed for
the need to touch himself or have Lance touch him, but he was going
to wait. He wanted to enjoy this and draw it out.

Even though his cheeks and jaw were both starting to hurt,

Markus bobbed his head up and down faster. The more Lance
moaned, and the louder, the better. Humans took longer to recover
from their orgasms, but Markus wanted the other man to come. He
wanted Lance to fuck his mouth until he came down it and Markus
swallowed him.

He wanted Lance to claim him.
Lance’s hands vanished from Markus’s hair so he could grip his

own. He pumped his hips with wild abandon, yelling out his pleasure.
He was a screamer, it seemed.

That’s right, baby. Come for me.
He did. Lance came with another long shout, emptying himself

down Markus’s throat with hard jerks of his body. It was one of the
most intense orgasms Markus had ever seen in a human. He’d never
been with many, but enough to know that the nearly ten-second
experience Lance had just had wasn’t exactly common.

Markus kept his mouth moving the whole time, suckling and

swirling his tongue until Lance stopped twitching, his body turning to
slop on the ground.

His breathing rate slowly returned to normal, and so did his heart.

Markus pulled his mouth away and looked down at him. He was

One-Night Stand with a Werewolf

23

somewhat disappointed to see that those glasses he was wearing
hadn’t fogged over or anything like that, but maybe they needed to be
in a more enclosed space.

Markus hurriedly began to undress. Lance might need some

recovery time, but Markus hadn’t even had his chance to come yet,
and just the friction of pulling down his jeans was enough to make
him spasm and moan.

Lance looked at him, some awareness coming back into those blue

eyes. “Shit!” he laughed. “Sorry, I’m a bastard. Let me help you with
that.”

It could have been a cheesy line for all Markus knew, but right

now the only thinking he was capable of doing came from his dick, so
when Lance sat up and reached his hand out, taking hold of Markus’s
engorged dick, he let him. Markus happily pumped his hips into that
hand. It wasn’t even cold, so he was able to better enjoy himself.

Markus stayed on his knees, pumping against Lance’s hand and

gripping the man’s shoulders. All the while, Lance stared down at his
prick, like he was being mesmerized by it or something.

Well, it was a pretty awesome piece of equipment.
“You can return the favor if you want,” Markus said, gently

putting his fingers into Lance’s blond hair and pulling him down
toward his swollen cock.

Lance hesitated slightly. “This is going to sound like a flattery

line, but Jesus Christ, you’re big. Seriously, I think your cock is the
size of my wrist.”

“Yeah, it’ll look even better with your pink lips wrapped around

it.”

Markus allowed his thumb to stroke the edge of Lance’s bottom

lip. Those blue eyes snapped up to him, staring with just a hint of
shyness through those wire-frame glasses.

Then he laughed a little. “We’re going to have a hell of a wait

before we can actually get to the good part.”

To Markus, getting someone to suck on his dick was always the

24

Marcy Jacks

good part. It was one of his favorite parts, and there were often times
when he had trouble deciding which he liked best, the actual fucking
or receiving some nice, long attention to his cock via a talented
mouth.

Thankfully, Lance didn’t put up anymore of an argument. He just

wet his lips and put them around the head of Markus’s cock. He
shivered and allowed his eyes to fall shut. His back arched as he
started thrusting into Lance’s mouth. He didn’t have a small mouth or
anything, but neither was it very wide, and Lance hadn’t been joking
when he’d said that Markus was big. Markus knew he was big, and he
wasn’t just stroking his own ego thinking such things either.

Being a werewolf meant he saw a lot of naked men. Sometimes

that was difficult to deal with, considering his sexuality, but it was
something he’d gotten used to. It also meant he had practice sneakily
comparing his size with the other members of his pack, preventing
them from noticing what he was doing.

He wasn’t about to be cocky enough to say he had the biggest dick

in the pack, since there were definitely those with slightly bigger, but
he was up there, and everyone knew that the sexual organs of a
werewolf were always larger than their human counterparts.

Yeah, it really was a gift.
When Markus was able to finally open his eyes and look down, he

noted the way Lance had closed his eyes as he sucked back on
Markus’s erect cock.

Like Lance, Markus wasn’t cut, but he was definitely larger than

the other man. Despite that, and Lance’s half-worried observations, he
went at it like a real trooper and seemed to be genuinely enjoying
himself, much the same way Markus had been.

Markus shivered and moaned as Lance took his balls in hand and

began to gently massage them. He pumped his hips, fucking Lance’s
mouth, all the while staring down at him, not taking his eyes away
from the other man.

He was beautiful. It wasn’t just a realization Markus had come to

One-Night Stand with a Werewolf

25

either, he’d known if from the second he saw him in the diner. This
was a gorgeous man Markus had kneeling before him, sucking on his
dick like it was his favorite treat.

And he belonged to Markus.
Lance began bobbing his head quickly, and instead of using his

hand to stroke the base of Markus’s dick, he deep-throated him.

Markus gripped his shoulders tightly and shot down Lance’s

throat suddenly and without warning. His body trembled and shook
with the incredible sensation. No one had ever done that to him
before.

His dick had been so far down Lance’s throat that Lance was able

to swallow all of him without coughing or choking.

When he pulled back, Lance wiped his mouth discreetly with the

back of his hand, and he was grinning up at Markus. “We might have
to wait a few minutes now before we can continue.”

Even if Markus took the time to recover that humans did, it would

have been worth it. From the look on Lance’s face, he got the
impression that it was well worth it to him, too.

That wasn’t what he was thinking about, however. He stared

down at Lance, who was still naked and on his knees, those glasses
just slightly crooked on his nose and his blond hair messed up even
more so than when Markus had met him.

A realization came over him. The sudden information felt like a

curtain or even a blindfold had been ripped away from his face.

Those tiny little explosions he’d felt earlier, the lust at first sight,

it all made sense to him now.

Lance wasn’t just some guy he thought was good looking and

wanted to fuck. This was his mate kneeling in front of him.

“Holy shit.”

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Marcy Jacks

Chapter Four

Lance didn’t really understand Markus’s choice of wording, but

he didn’t complain when the other man reached down for him,
grabbing his shoulders and pushing him back down into the soft grass
and moss. Their bodies were now perfectly fitted to each other, and
Lance had never been kissed so passionately before in his entire life.

Though he’d just come, as Markus thrust his tongue inside

Lance’s mouth and shifted his hips until they were softly humping
against each other, their cocks creating friction together, Lance
became hard again.

It was slow at first, and he moaned these little appreciative

sounds, but then his dick began pulsing as the pleasure built as
quickly as though he hadn’t come yet at all.

Markus was so good with his tongue. He thrust it in and out of

Lance’s mouth, but it wasn’t sloppy or crude. The action was a
reminder of what they were both doing here and what was to come,
and Lance’s body just got all the more excited.

Markus pulled his mouth away, yanking his head back as though

he had to force himself to do it. “I’m going to fuck you. I’m going to
put my cock in your ass, and you’re never going to want me to stop.”

Lance wanted him to get started. He spread his legs wide until

Markus fit right between them. It was perfect. There was no sudden
cramp in his legs or the tiny pinching of hairs. It really was perfect,
and Markus was right. Lance didn’t want this to stop.

“Fuck me right now.”
He didn’t know what the other man would use by way of lube

until Markus spat in his hand. That made him tense up a bit.

One-Night Stand with a Werewolf

27

“All right?” Markus said as he pressed his wet fingers once more

against Lance’s asshole.

He was when those fingers made contact. “Yeah. I—aahhh—I

just…never did it…without…”

He couldn’t finish. His words wouldn’t come out without some

other sound or syllable that didn’t belong. It was one thing for Markus
to be playing around his asshole earlier, but now that he knew this
was happening without anything to ease the way, he was nervous.
Luckily Markus seemed to get the idea of what Lance was trying to
say well enough on his own.

He didn’t stop the press of his fingers inside as he spoke. “Don’t

you worry, baby, I know how to make you like it. Won’t hurt a bit.”

Lance doubted that very much. It was going to hurt, that was

natural considering the way they were going to do this, but he
believed that Markus wouldn’t hurt him too much and that he would
enjoy it.

“Relax your muscles. You’re tensing up.”
One would have thought Markus was speaking to a virgin or

something. The sudden care that had gone into his voice was a little
stunning.

Lance appreciated it nonetheless, and he did as he was told. The

reminders always did help.

When the burn came from Markus adding another finger, he

gritted his teeth and pushed out, trying to ease the way as much as he
could. Thankfully, he found that it really was something he could
handle. A little. Maybe.

He wasn’t about to ask Markus to stop anyway. He wanted this,

and he hadn’t realized how much he needed it either, but he did.

Then, Markus’s fingers pressed in even deeper, suddenly and

sharply, and Lance’s eyes flew open wide as he arched his back and
moaned out loud. His fingers dug into the grass beneath him, ripping
out the blades and scratching up dirt under his fingernails. The mix of
absolute pain and pleasure was blinding.

28

Marcy Jacks

Markus said something, and by the sound of his voice, he was

likely congratulating himself on finding the sweet spot, but Lance
wasn’t paying attention anymore as he was finger-fucked quickly.

His moaned turned into gasping breaths as he panted and keened.

Those fingers didn’t stop moving inside of him, and it was so good.
He was about to come again already. The pinnacle was right there. He
could reach it. He wanted it!

Lance’s hands flew down to grab at himself. His hands wrapped

around the base of his swollen cock and his balls, preventing himself
from coming.

“Stop. Stop!”
Markus did, immediately. It was another relief to him, and a little

new. He’d expected an argument out of the man as he kept on going,
but he did stop when Lance demanded it.

“What is it?”
The fear on Markus’s face was laughable. He looked like he was

terrified that Lance was going to change his mind, grab his clothes,
get up, and leave him hanging there.

Like he could do something like that at this point.
Lance’s heart and lungs were still working overtime. He let his

head fall back against the grass. “You’re good and everything, but if I
come one more time I don’t think even you will be able to get me
going again like that.”

Markus grinned as though he’d just been challenged.
“Seriously,” Lance said, getting up slowly, careful of the ache in

his backside. Despite that, every little blow in the wind and every
movement sent a shiver up his spine. If he so much as released his
dick, he was going to come.

He looked toward the water, and he had an idea.
“That water safe for swimming?”
“Yeah?” Markus was clearly still too horny to figure out what

Lance was getting at.

He probably looked ridiculous, but he kept a firm hold of his cock

One-Night Stand with a Werewolf

29

and balls as he got to his feet and started down toward the little pool.

The water was chilly enough to get his body to relax, but it was

hardly ice cold. As he got in his body quickly adjusted to the cold,
and he was no longer in danger of coming over any simple movement.
He gave his dick a stroke just to see where he was in that respect and
was glad as he shivered, biting his bottom lip to keep from moaning.

“You should get in here with me,” he said. He wasn’t sure if water

was a good substitute for lube, but it was better than saliva.

Markus’s feet were already dipping into the water. Looking down

at his feet, Lance was reminded of the old saying about feet and
men’s privates. He wasn’t sure if it was true or not, but in Markus’s
case, yeah, definitely.

They stopped when the water went up to their chests, and Markus

reached for him and kissed him, pulling him close until their bodies
were pressed together once more.

Lance’s cock came alive again at the subtle friction from

Markus’s thigh. He was definitely ready for this.

“Those rocks over there look good,” Markus said, nodding toward

the other side of the pond.

Lance had a look. Yeah, they were just about right. They were

large and round, not perfectly so, but they weren’t jagged or anything
by any stretch of the imagination. The rock that peaked above the
water was dry and clean under the sun.

“Let’s go,” Lance said, and he started off swimming to the other

side.

He kept his pace slow, not wanting to overdo anything, while

Markus plowed ahead of him. He swam quickly. Maybe that was how
he kept that body of his in such good shape.

Markus reached for him and pulled him the rest of the way before

Lance even had the chance to grab for the rock. He’d almost been
there, but Markus was clearly impatient.

The other man pressed his back against the rock, and again they

were humping and kissing in earnest. Because of the slightly rounded

30

Marcy Jacks

shape of the rock, it was easy for Lance to stay on his back and keep
the lower half of his body under water. He spread his legs as Markus
pushed against them, entering the space, and he felt the blunt tip of
Markus’s dick pressing against his asshole.

The harsh burn was still there, and at this point it looked like it

wouldn’t be going away, but with the addition of the water, and
adding the fact that Lance wanted that cock inside him so badly, he
was more than able to handle it.

“That’s good. Keep going,” he said when it looked as though

Markus might stop. He didn’t after that, and Markus kept up with the
slow slide until Lance felt the man’s balls touching down on his ass.

Then Markus began pumping his hips, thrusting his cock forward

and back, his breathing picking up as he did so.

He wasn’t slamming inside of him, but neither was he stopping

every two seconds to make sure that Lance was comfortable. He was
glad for that. Markus wanted this just as much as Lance did, and now
they were both unable to stop.

Point of no return. Those words flittered through Lance’s mind

again. He wondered what they meant, but then he was too caught up
in what happening.

Markus sped up the momentum, and he squeezed his eyes shut as

he fucked Lance hard against the rock, putting his strength into it.
And he was a strong man, Lance discovered.

Lance pushed back against him as best as he could, but Markus’s

weight and strength made it difficult to do more than just lie there and
let himself be claimed, because that was what it felt like. Underneath
the mind-blowing pleasure it felt strangely as though he was being
claimed for something. People fucked hard, and there were the good
times a man could have with a stranger, but this was different. Markus
fucked him like they were lovers and not simply doing this because it
felt good.

Again, he couldn’t delve too deep into these observations because

he was too caught up in the sensations of his body. The push and pull

One-Night Stand with a Werewolf

31

inside him and the blunt head of Markus’s rigid cock pressing against
his prostate made him lose all focus and all care. Their bodies
punched together, making splashes and ripples in the water, and
Lance’s back began to hurt as he was constantly pushed up and
against the smooth rock behind him.

He opened his mouth to yell out how good it was, but he hadn’t

meant to say what he said. “Fuck me! Fuck me harder!”

He was going to be embarrassed about that one later. Markus did

as he was told anyway, and Lance hadn’t even thought he could go
any faster or harder than he already was.

His orgasm came upon him again, and through the little space

there was between them, Lance wiggled his hand down and began
stroking his cock as hard and fast as Markus fucked him.

“Come inside me,” Lance said. He reached his arms around

Markus’s back. He needed it for the balance, but he found himself
slowly slipping down the rock, putting more of his weight onto
Markus’s cock.

Lance threw his head back. He smacked the back of his head

against the rock, and that made him see stars, but it wasn’t enough to
stop him from shooting his load into the water and his hand with a
shout.

As he came, he continued to thrust back against Markus’s dick,

stroking and milking himself on the other man. Markus clearly loved
it. He placed his hands on either side of Lance’s head and just started
pistoning his hips in a hard succession.

He came with a bit-down groan, and Lance felt his cum spurting

inside him, warm compared to the water, though his body was so hot
it was difficult to notice.

Lance was still holding onto him by the time the pulsing pleasure

stopped rushing through his dick and balls, but his heart was still
beating hard, and he still had trouble catching his breath. He focused
particularly on his breathing, and his fear left him when he got that
part under his control. His muscles felt like they’d turned into water,

32

Marcy Jacks

and that would take a little longer to get back to normal.

Markus held him up, and then Lance felt the gentle press of lips

against his neck, as well as the slide of a warm tongue and biting
teeth.

“You really are good at this,” Lance said, feeling spoiled by all

the attention.

Markus laughed against his neck, accidentally blowing a raspberry

in the process. “Keep talking like that and I might just get a little full
of myself.”

Lance was so relaxed and comfortable, even while his back was

still firmly pressed against a hard rock, that he knew he would fall
asleep if left here.

That was out of the question. He still had work to attend to.

Research to do and animals to track.

Carefully, he pushed Markus off of him, feeling cold all over his

body when Markus’s body heat was no longer on him or inside of
him.

The feeling wasn’t something that he liked. It put a drop in his

stomach that was damn near depressing.

Markus looked like he was struggling with something as well. He

wouldn’t look at Lance at all as he did the backstroke back to the
shore where their clothes were.

Lance followed him, taking his time as the sharp pain of what

they'd just done made itself more known now that the fun was over. It
was a little difficult getting back into his jeans and shirt,
uncomfortable, too, considering he was still dripping wet as he
dressed. He got his things on, however, and was only a little damp in
his clothes after the fact.

Now he just had to figure out how to broach the subject. This was

only supposed to be a one-night stand, or one-day stand, whatever, so
how did he ask if Markus wanted to meet up with him again while
Lance was still in town?

Markus cleared his throat and started talking first.

One-Night Stand with a Werewolf

33

Great. He was going to offer to walk Lance back to his hotel or

whatever, and then they would never see each other again.

“Do you want to, I don’t know, meet up again?” Markus asked.

His cheeks were a tad pink as he looked at Lance from the corner of
his eye. “I know you’re only in town for a little while, but maybe we
can hang out or something until it’s time for you to leave.”

The “or something” part made Lance want to laugh. “You did

offer yourself as a guide to me, didn’t you?”

Recollection dawned in Markus’s eyes, and he smiled. “Yeah, I

did.”

Lance was suddenly feeling a lot better about where they stood.

“We can go back to my motel room right now, if you want,” he said.

Markus put his hands over his heart in a way that Lance found to

be cheesy and endearing. “‘If I want,’ he says.”

Lance grinned, and he reached down for his bag.
His inhaler fell out of the side pocket, and the plastic container

bounced off of one of the dry rocks where they’d tossed their
clothing.

“Shit!” Lance yelled, rushing forward when it looked like it might

go right into the water.

Markus was faster and closer. One step and an outreached hand

and he had the inhaler safely in his grasp.

He looked down at it and then up at Lance. “Asthma?”
Lance nodded, taking back the inhaler when Markus offered it.

“Thanks, and yeah. Nothing too serious, really. I haven’t had an
attack in nearly two years.”

Suddenly Markus looked worried. “Uh, I don’t know much about

what causes that kind of thing, but I kind of keep dogs around—”

“No, don’t worry. There shouldn’t be anything in your clothes

that’ll give me an attack. Pets are fine, and I don’t smell any smoke
off you either, so we’re good.”

It almost looked like a light went off behind Markus’s eyes.

“That’s why you wanted to get away from the restaurant before the

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Marcy Jacks

dinner rush came in?”

Lance nodded. “Yeah, smoke can set it off.” And some bars and

restaurants in smaller towns like this still allowed smoking on the
property. “Anyway, let’s go,” he said.

“But you’re okay? Right?” Markus said, his eyes going down to

the little pocket where Lance had stashed the inhaler.

Lance didn’t much like speaking about his asthma. It wasn’t

serious enough to warrant a talk with everyone he met, and a lot of
people didn’t understand it enough to bother anyway. There were
either the people who thought all asthma was the same and that Lance
was about to drop dead at any second, or the people who didn’t think
it was a big deal at all. Sometimes Lance had trouble figuring out
which group was more annoying.

“I just keep the puffer for safety, but really, it’s fine. You just

made me as out of breath as I could be in the water. Trust me, I’m
okay.”

That brought a smile out of the other man. “All right. Let’s go.”
Markus put his hand on Lance’s shoulder as they walked. “We

can discuss the terms of me being your guide after I get you out of
those damp clothes.”

One-Night Stand with a Werewolf

35

Chapter Five

Markus had him again before the sun went down. Lance was

eager as could be when Markus put him on his hands and knees on the
rough motel bed, and he’d loved every second of it. More so because
they’d stopped to pick up some lube at the gas station before getting
down to this part.

He could still recall the grin on Lance’s face when he wiggled the

newly purchased bottle between his fingers while they were in bed.
“Last time was great and all, but let’s use this from now on.”

Markus had made sure to do just that, and he would do anything

so long as Lance would enjoy his attention even more. He’d almost
forgotten that Lance was a human back at the water, and now that he
thought about it, he was kind of surprised the man hadn't thrown him
off while they’d fucked.

Werewolves could handle sex without lube and still enjoy

themselves just fine. It had something to do with their strength and
endurance, that was all he knew. Humans, not so much, so Markus
had made sure to use a generous amount of the little bottle before
taking Lance again.

Whether he was putting his mouth over Lance’s pucker, or on his

cock, or just kissing him, Markus made sure to leave part of himself
over every inch of Lance’s skin. Lance was his, and this way every
werewolf would know it, too.

Clearly Lance was a human, and so he didn’t understand the

connection between them, but by the time Markus was finished
making the man sing his praises for a third time, he was more than
certain Lance wouldn’t forget him.

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Marcy Jacks

They’d had their night together, and now that Markus was his

guide, he could slowly introduce him to the idea of werewolves and
other creatures of the night.

At the very least he’d sealed the deal so that Lance would have

second thoughts about going back to…wherever it was he’d come
from.

They hadn’t done much talking. The next time they saw each

other, Markus was going to have to rectify that. He wanted to know
everything there was to know about his mate. So far he knew that
Lance was a part-time vegetarian, had a slight case of asthma, was far
sighted, and was into hiking and nature. He also knew where all his
sweet spots were, but it was debatable on whether or not those
counted as actually knowing him as a person.

He was grinning so much his cheeks were actually starting to hurt,

and it was enough that the people closest to him in the pack actually
stopped and took notice.

Maybe Markus hadn’t realized just how miserable he’d been

acting lately.

“Hey, you look good,” John said.
Markus spun at the sight of him. John was a good five years

younger than he was, but they had always been close.

Now, for the first time in what seemed like forever, he was

actually glad to see his friend again. That old heartache that had been
following him around ever since John brought Storm, his mate, home
with him was gone.

Things really were starting to look up for him.
“I feel good,” he said, still smiling.
“Good,” John said, actually laughing a little as the cautious

suspicion left him in favor of some genuine good cheer. “What’s up?”

He was so bursting with happiness that he wasn’t about to hide it.

“I just met my mate.”

“Really?”
“Yeah, let’s go get some drinks and catch up or something,”

One-Night Stand with a Werewolf

37

Markus said, hooking his arm around John’s shoulder.

Unlike in recent times, John didn’t squirm out of his hold or try

and make an excuse to get away from him.

Even John had his limits on what he could take whenever Markus

had been depressed and had gotten a little too touchy.

John did wrinkle his nose, however. “I think a drink is the last

thing you need. I smell beer all over you.”

Markus cursed, but he wasn’t angry. He’d forgotten all about that

part. “Well, I’m sober now, but yeah, maybe we’ll grab a Pepsi or
something,” Markus said.

They made their way over to one of the new picnic tables and

each grabbed a cold can from a bowl of ice that had been left over
from lunch.

“So, tell me what he looks like. What’s his name?” John asked,

his can hissing as he popped the tab.

“Lance,” Markus replied. The name rolled so perfectly off his

tongue that he wanted to say it over and over again.

“He got a last name?”
Markus thought back to when he and Lance had met. “Malloy.

He’s my age, and he’s got the nicest blond hair I’ve ever seen. I didn’t
think I cared about a man’s hair, but it’s perfect. He wears these box
glasses, too, that make him look…” Markus made a sound of
appreciation. “Give me all kinds of bad thoughts.”

“So you like guys with nice hair and glasses. Didn’t know you had

a type like that,” John said, smiling. He suddenly stopped before he
could bring the can to his lips. “Lance Malloy?” he asked.

“Yeah, why?”
“You both share the same initials. I mean, you do but in reverse,”

John said.

Markus thought about that. M and L were his initials, and L and

M were Lance’s. He grinned. “See? We’re perfect for each other.”

“James is gonna want to know about this when he comes back

from hunting,” John said.

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Marcy Jacks

“I know. I should have a shower before that happens.”
“Is he human?” John asked, and this time his words weren’t quite

so happy as they had been before.

That was to be expected. This was always the difficult part for

werewolves. Introducing human mates to a pack of werewolves was
never easy. In this case, DeWitt’s pack didn’t just have werewolves
either. There were two vampires, one of whom could see ghosts, a
former hunter, Ryan shifted into a wolf and a large green dragon, and
with the addition of John’s mate, a werecat as well.

That would be tough for anyone to take in, but Markus was

determined to give it a try.

So far everyone else who had taken a human mate was doing well.

Either because the human in question had to be transformed or
because they’d already known about this life. But that was fine. He
wasn’t worried. He and Lance were mated. It was only a matter of
time before they worked out the details.

“He is human, and he tells me he’s only in town for about a week

or so. I can’t really remember. I was too busy getting him naked.”

John blushed and shook his head. He tried hiding his blush behind

the can he held, but it didn’t work out so well. “You’re still the same,
I see.”

“I just need to convince him that leaving Brampton is a bad idea.”
“I’m glad Storm came here with my pack. Don’t know what I

would’ve done if we had to leave,” John said.

That was always the thing with taking mates. Sometimes it

required leaving the pack. If a werewolf found himself mated to a
wolf from another pack, then there would naturally be the discussion
on where they would live.

Lance was human. If he decided he didn’t want to stay in

Brampton—which wasn’t going to happen, Markus reminded
himself—then Markus wouldn’t be able to follow him. If Lance lived
in the city, then there was no way Markus could be with him. The
only way they would be able to make it work was if Lance owned his

One-Night Stand with a Werewolf

39

own house somewhere and enough private property for Markus to
become his wolfy self without scaring any neighbors.

But what were the odds of that?
“You’ve actually got me a little worried now,” Markus confessed.

“Kind of wish I had a way of asking him about his plans, you know,
without sounding like I’m being pushy or anything.”

“When do you see him again?”
“Tomorrow. I told him I’d be his guide and show him around the

area.”

John nodded. “That’s a good idea. You can keep him away from

the dangerous trails and away from our trails whenever we run in our
wolf forms.”

That was right. Markus would have to be there to protect Lance

from wild werewolves. They hadn’t been coming around here quite as
frequently as before, but he didn’t want to take the risk.

That was what he admired about John. He was still young, and at

twenty he was just barely old enough to be put on alpha duties, but he
was still capable of thinking these things through.

“Actually,” John said, snapping his fingers, “you can find out.”
Markus’s brows shot up. “Really?”
“Yeah. I’m an idiot for not thinking of this before. Let’s go.”
John put down his Pepsi can and started walking toward one of

the cabins. It looked like they were going to the house where he,
Storm, and a few of the other omegas lived.

Sharing and having roommates was still very much in practice in

this pack, especially after those wild omegas, and the wolves from
Phillip’s pack, were rescued and brought in.

It was midday, so most of the chores had been completed, and for

those who hadn’t finished everything off, they were still taking their
breaks from cleaning the houses or cleaning the catch that was
brought in by alphas.

John and Markus passed by four omegas who were sitting in the

living room of John’s cabin. Two adults who were catching up on

40

Marcy Jacks

sewing up holes in their laundry while they watched TV, and two
young ones who were working out math equations on the floor.

John and Markus waved to them, and the omegas smiled and

waved back before Markus was led down the familiar hallway that led
to John’s bedroom.

He shut the door behind them when they finally entered.
“So, what are we doing?” Markus asked.
“Check this out.” John pulled a laptop out from under his bed,

grinning as he held the thing.

“Whoa, where’d you get that?”
“Saved up some money for it. So did Storm, and we pooled

together and got it from the pawn shop. Derek got us a good deal on
it.”

Coming by computers nowadays wasn’t exactly hard, or

expensive, but for werewolves, the rules were always a little different,
especially when their money was stretched so thin.

Even with the added money Isaac brought to the pack with his

inheritance, there still wasn’t much left over for basic spending. Even
then, no one wanted to go up to him and ask for it either. Everyone in
the pack still liked to work for the things they had, and the fact that
Isaac was helping to repair and restore the cabins where everyone
lived, and even build a few new ones, was more than enough for
everyone to be happy with.

“Does it have Internet?”
“Yup.” John pointed to the router that was blinking on his

nightstand. He opened the computer and turned it on.

Considering it was secondhand, it booted up rather quickly.
“What are you looking for?” Markus asked, watching as John

opened up the web browser and started typing.

“Facebook.”
“Facebook?” Markus said, incredulous.
Then John clicked the Enter key, and Facebook did indeed pop up.
“You’ve got to be kidding me.”

One-Night Stand with a Werewolf

41

“What? Everyone has a Facebook account nowadays.”
Markus looked at him.
“Except for our kind,” John clarified. “What did you say his name

was again?”

Markus told him, and he was stunned when John typed the name

and Lance’s picture was one of the first to appear.

“Shit,” he said.
“What?” John asked, looking at him and then back at the screen.

“He’s cute.”

“Not that. If he’s got one of these stupid accounts, then it means

he’s somewhat social at the very least.”

“You know the friend counters on these don’t mean anything,

right?”

Markus hadn’t even seen that yet, and he wasn’t interested to

know how many people Lance had listed. “Yeah, but a few of them
must know him. It’s not going to be like with Corey or Jason, or even
Storm, but he doesn’t count because he’s a shifter anyway.”

“What are you getting at?”
“Corey and Jason had no one when they came here. Neither did

Chris, for that matter. They had no one to answer to, so it was easier
for them to just pick up and move here.”

He felt like an asshole for saying it, but it was true. Lance would

have a family and friends who would miss him. He couldn’t just drop
everything in his life and live here just because Markus would want
him to.

This was going to complicate things.
“I think you’re getting overly worried. Let’s see what’s on here

first before you start talking like that.”

Markus had no idea how to navigate Facebook. He’d never had a

computer before. Hell, most werewolves didn’t have cell phones
either, despite how cheap they were becoming.

It was too much of a hassle to replace items like that when they

were destroyed in a fight.

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John whistled. “Fifteen hundred friends listed.”
They weren’t all Lance’s real friends, but it made Markus mutter

miserably to himself anyway. He crossed his arms and started to pace
around John’s room. “Great.”

John ignored him.
It wasn’t at all lost on Markus how he used to wish he could get

into this room before and how he used to wonder what it would be
like to get John down on the bed. Lying down with nothing on rather
than sitting there with a computer on his lap had been the usual
fantasy. Now he had a mate, and like magic, he didn’t see John in the
same light as he used to.

It was all about Lance, and now that he was seriously getting

worried that he might not be able to keep his mate, the heavy dread he
felt was debatably worse than before.

“Some people have a bunch of weird things posted on his wall.”
“Great,” he said again, not really hearing John as he scrolled

through Lance’s information.

So long as Lance didn’t live smack dab in the middle of New

York, or any city for that matter, maybe Markus could get away with
it. Hell, a pack the size of DeWitt’s was managing to stay hidden
beside a small town, maybe one werewolf could stay hidden near a
large one?

“Uh, Markus, you should probably see this. Like now.”
It was the slightly panicked tone in John’s voice that had Markus

halting in his tracks. He looked down at his friend, and he noted the
worry on his face.

“What is it?” Markus went to him, and he looked down at the

screen. There were pictures of animals there. Foxes, wolves, and
strangely enough, even mermaids and fairies. There was a lot of text
and what looked like quotes from people talking a whole lot of
scientific speech that Markus barely understood.

He had an idea of what they were saying, however, and it made

him panic a little, too.

One-Night Stand with a Werewolf

43

“I went to his blog. This guy isn’t just some nature lover up here

for a vacation. He thinks shifters are real.”

“Thinks?” Markus asked, still reading through some of what was

posted. There were comments to each post, and while some of them
were of the negative sort, there were others that were offering their
praise, and a few people even shared their own stories of possible
close encounters they’d had with shifters.

“Well, he definitely suspects, and judging by the blog and the fact

that he’s in Brampton…” John trailed off.

Markus didn’t need him to finish. Lance was here looking to find

proof to the existence of shifters.

Clarity came upon him, and he wished for ignorance. “By the

stories floating around Brampton about wolves, he’s probably here
looking for werewolves specifically.”

He and John looked at each other. Now Markus knew there was

something worse than having a mate who might not be able to live the
country life. It was a mate who wanted to prove to the world that
werewolves were real.

He stood straight and sighed. “Goddamnit.”

44

Marcy Jacks

Chapter Six

Lance had never worried about his appearance before. Overly

much so, at any rate. He was going to go and check out the hiking
trails around Brampton, not take a stroll through the market, so why
should he bother with sticking any gel in his hair?

He wondered that for a third time before finally setting the

container down.

The stuff would probably just attract bugs that would get stuck in

his hair, and that would be the worst thing in the world to happen
while he was with Markus.

He never would’ve thought that a one-night stand with a perfect

stranger would have him this antsy, but there was no helping it. He
liked Markus, and he couldn’t wait for the man to get here so they
could get going.

He paced around his motel room when ten minutes after their

proposed meeting time, there was still no sign on of him. He worried
that something might’ve happened to hold the other man up when a
half an hour passed.

At the forty-five minute mark, Lance grabbed his bag of supplies

and slung it over his shoulder. Disappointment was a hard pill to
swallow, but he was here for a reason, and he would go with or
without a guide to aide him.

He’d just grabbed for the door handle when a hard knock pounded

on the other side.

It was so sudden that he actually jumped, his heart pumping fast

with the shock.

He told himself to calm down and get his breathing back under

One-Night Stand with a Werewolf

45

control. It only took a couple of seconds, but it had felt like forever
since the air had been sucked out of his lungs like that.

He cleared his throat and stuck his fist inside his bag, confirming

that his puffer was still there. On the second knock, he answered the
door.

Markus’s eyes seemed to light up at the sight of him. Likely he

was just relieved that Lance hadn’t gone anywhere without him,
considering how late he was.

“Hey,” Lance said, pushing past him. He shut and locked the door

behind him.

He wasn’t angry, not really, but he couldn’t stop the irritation he

felt from seeping into his voice. “You’re late.”

“I know. Really late. I’m sorry. I just got caught up with

something.”

Lance wondered what that something was, but then he

remembered that it was none of his business, so he decided to let it
go.

He might be a little sweet on the guy, but if Markus had some

other commitments that needed taking care of before he could cart
around a perfect stranger, then he didn’t need to be telling Lance what
they were.

He was just glad Markus had come at all.
“Are we still going?”
The relief on Markus’s face made Lance all the more curious.

Curious and glad.

Markus liked him back, and he wanted to be here.
“Yeah, definitely. I’ve got a few more places to show you. You’ll

really like them, and some are pretty private, too,” he added, shyly
glancing at Lance out of the corner of his eye.

Lance could feel himself blushing, but he smiled and nodded,

keeping his head up high and back straight.

He would be doing more than taking pictures of the local wildlife,

it seemed. That was fine by him.

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Marcy Jacks

The sudden image of Markus on top of him, moaning as he held

on tightly to Lance’s legs, which were propped up onto his shoulders,
pumping in and out of him, flashed through his mind. As well as the
image of Markus with Lance’s dick in his mouth, and later with that
wicked grin on his face as he turned Lance over to his hands and
knees, and—

He cut off the thought before he could put anything else into his

head like that. He was semierect already, and he didn’t want to walk
around with his pants tented with this man beside him.

He didn’t want to make his lust too obvious. Not until later.
Markus was smirking as they walked. It was like he already knew

he had Lance where he wanted him. “Is that okay?”

“Fine.” Lance had to clear his throat and say it again. “It’s fine.

You’re…ah…I don’t mind at all.”

He didn’t think it was be the best idea to compliment Markus just

now on how good in bed he was.

Seriously, the guy had Superman-like stamina to be able to go on

for as long as he did. It had to be contagious, because there was no
other explanation Lance had for why he still wanted the man so much
after everything they’d done together last night.

Suddenly, all thoughts of last night’s sex, and today’s soon-to-be-

happening sex, scattered from his brain. “Where’s your equipment?
You don’t have a bag or anything. You’re not even wearing any
hiking boots.”

Markus shrugged. “I know this area pretty well. I’ve never needed

boots or a compass or anything.”

“Do you even have a water canister? I thought we’d be out for a

good couple of hours.”

“We will be, but I know where all the lakes and ponds are.”
That wolfish grin was back on his face. All the bodies of water

around the town must be as clean as the water he and Markus had
been in yesterday for him to be confident enough to drink it.

“Come on,” Markus said, putting his arm around Lance’s

One-Night Stand with a Werewolf

47

shoulders. “I’ll show you all the good spots.”

Lance grinned and went with him. “Great.”
Markus cleared his throat. “So, uh, what are you hoping to find

out here?”

* * * *

Markus had never been very good at being subtle, but he liked to

think he was decent at reading body language. He saw the sharp way
Lance looked at him when he asked the question, and he could
practically feel the embarrassed heat rising up his neck and under his
cheeks.

“Saw the blog, did you?”
Because nature was virtually everywhere in Brampton, it was

simply a matter of getting across the highway and finding the right
trails to go hiking on. It took all of three minutes before they were in
the trees and off any man-made roads.

“Well, yeah. Sorry. I didn’t mean to pry or anything,” Markus

said.

“No, no, don’t worry about it,” Lance replied a little too quickly.

The trail they walked on was slim but still wide enough that they
could both walk side by side. It meant they were nearly shoulder to
shoulder. “The blog is there so people can read it. Sometimes when
someone I just met finds it, they tend to think I’m a little…” Lance
trailed off. He seemed to be having some trouble finding the right
words to use.

“Strange?” Markus said, doing his best to be careful here.
They both climbed over a fallen tree that had blocked their path

before continuing on.

“I guess that would be the nice way of putting it,” Lance said.
“I don’t think you’re strange or anything,” Markus said quickly. It

was difficult for him to think something like that when werecreatures
did actually exist. “But I am curious about why you would believe

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something like that.”

He needed to find out. It was one of the conditions James had

given him when he’d begged and pleaded to be able to come here and
meet Lance for their sort-of date.

Mate or no mate, someone who was out to prove that werewolves

and other similar creatures existed was to be carefully watched, and
suspected.

If Lance was in any way involved with hunters, the pack was

going to have some serious problems on its hands.

Lance was silent for a time. He sighed, and his whole chest

seemed to heave with the movement. “It’s hard to explain without
sounding even crazier.”

“I don’t think you’re crazy. I’m just curious.” Markus wanted to

be as honest with the man beside him as he could possibly be, minus
the whole werewolf-in-hiding thing. “People believe all sorts of
things, and I guess when you think about it this is just another belief.”

“But it’s not just another belief,” Lance said, looking at Markus

from the corner of his eyes. “I didn’t just read a book one day on
shifters through history and decide that they were real. I’ve…I’ve
seen them.”

That last part was spoken with some hesitation, and now Lance

was looking at Markus full on, waiting for his response.

Markus had no idea what he was supposed to say to that. “As

in…someone changed into an animal in front of you?”

Lance suddenly stopped. “Look, I’m sorry if this is too weird for

you. You don’t have to be my guide anymore if you don’t want—”

“No!” Markus said quickly. He stared at Lance as though the man

might’ve grown a second head in front of him. “I mean, it’s not too
weird at all. I don’t know if I entirely follow you here, but the locals
do say strange things, and I’m just curious to know where you’re
coming from on this.”

Lance raised a quizzical brow at him, and then he smiled. “I

couldn’t have been that good in bed.”

One-Night Stand with a Werewolf

49

Markus grinned back. “Good enough that I want to hear your side

on this.”

Lance continued to study him, and then he shrugged, and the both

of them kept on following the trail.

“It’s actually part of the reason why I came to Brampton. There’s

so many stories about wolves here. Sometimes wolves are even seen
walking around the town at night, and other times dead wolves are
found. I even found a newspaper clipping about a kid who supposedly
saw a man transform in front of him.”

Markus clenched his neck on that part. Eli had been the one to do

that little stunt. He’d gotten drunk at the bar in the local restaurant,
and when he decided to call it quits, he’d gone around back and
started taking his clothes off, getting ready to make the shift.

Apparently, James had dumped a bucket of ice over his head the

next morning before angrily shoving a paper in his face. The kid had
gone to the local news, but thankfully the reporters had been more
interested in what an underage teen was doing at the bar in the first
place, rather than anything he’d supposedly seen.

“I remember reading about that,” Markus said, the air suddenly

becoming hot around him. “That kid was drunk off his ass, from what
I understand.”

“I spoke to that kid. He wasn’t as intoxicated as the reports made

him out to be. Small towns like this don’t always follow the books so
strictly, and he wasn’t even made to use a Breathalyzer or any kind of
test to see how inebriated he supposedly was.”

Fuck. Lance was really doing his homework.
“So back to the previous topic,” Markus said, smiling and trying

to make this awkward situation as pleasant as possible. “What got you
believing in shifters to begin with? You said you’d seen them before.”

If Lance told Markus some heartbreaking story about how his

parents or siblings, or even both, were eaten alive by wild shifters,
Markus didn’t know what he would do about it. Stories like that were
exactly the reason why hunters existed today. Some jackass shifter

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turned violent and did something horrible, and the surviving victims
turned into bloodthirsty monsters themselves.

Lance didn’t give off that impression, but Markus was going to be

careful here.

“One saved my life.”
“What?” That certainly was never how the story went.
“It’s true,” Lance said, though he was still avoiding Markus’s

stare. “At least I’m pretty sure it is. I was young when it happened,
and whenever I told my parents they insisted it was a regular dog to
come and save me, not a person who turned into one.”

The more Lance spoke, the more curious Markus became. “So

what happened?”

“My father owns a small cottage on a private lake. Still has it, too.

One day when I was seven or so, I went out for a walk.”

“I’m assuming this was in the middle of the woods that you did

this?”

“Yeah, but my family was like that. It wasn’t anything to really

worry about, a young kid going off on his own to collect spiders, or
whatever it was I was doing. I can’t really remember.”

“Okay, more details on how a shifter saved your life,” Markus

said. He wondered if the others were around right now, and if they
could hear this story, too.

James had said he would get some of the alphas to follow them for

a little while and make sure Markus would be okay while he did this.

“I was stupid. I’d brought some cookies with me for my little

expedition, and a black bear smelled them. It was a young bear, but
not a cub, and you can understand that something like that would’ve
still killed me if it wanted.”

Markus nodded. It was ridiculous the way the story made him

worried. He already knew the ending. Lance clearly got away. “You
said a dog came to save you? What kind of dog?”

“Actually, back then I thought it was a dog, but now that I’m an

adult, I’m more prone to think it was a wolf. A werewolf.” Again, his

One-Night Stand with a Werewolf

51

voice became quiet as the word left his mouth. He seemed to be
constantly worried of what Markus might say to him.

“Okay.”
“He fought off the bear, always staying between me and the bear,

too. He took some hard hits, but eventually it gave up and lumbered
off.”

“What makes you think the wolf was a werewolf?” Markus asked.

He didn’t know where Lance grew up, but even if he did, it wouldn’t
matter anyway. Stories tended to get around in the shifter
communities, and even for a story that was nearly two decades old,
that should’ve made the rounds, too, where Markus would have at
least heard of it.

He hadn’t, so clearly this hadn’t happened anywhere near this

territory.

“It collapsed, and it transformed in front of me. Into a naked

teenager,” Lance said.

52

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Chapter Seven

By this point, Markus could scent some of the other alphas

surrounding him, following their path and listening to every word that
came out of Lance’s mouth. James’s scent was among the alphas. Had
he ever heard of this story?

“What happened then?” Markus asked. The ground beneath them

sloped a little, and soon they were walking into the rocky hills.

“Ran home screaming to my parents. I told them what happened,

and I think they only followed me back to the spot to make sure there
was no one else there. By then the shifter had vanished. I don’t know
if he left on his own or if he’d died.”

Lance’s mouth twisted just slightly. Markus could tell how much

the thought of his rescuer being carted off by some other wild animal
upset him.

Markus doubted that was the case. His kind were too tough, even

when injured, for that to happen.

He said so to Lance.
The other man actually smiled at him. “You talk as though you

believed me.”

Lance was going to have to know for sure eventually at some

point, if Markus wanted to reveal himself as his mate, that is. He
couldn’t just reveal himself right away, however. There were still
precautions that needed to be taken. “Well, like you said, weird things
do happen around here. The locals do have a lot of wolf stories.”

Lance’s smile was genuinely pleased. “Usually the people who

believe me don’t look so well adjusted.”

Markus wondered what sort of individuals showed Lance support

One-Night Stand with a Werewolf

53

for him to describe Markus as well adjusted. “Why? What kinds of
people believe you?”

“Fanatics, mostly,” Lance said. “The worst was when I got this

nice e-mail from someone, seemed intellectual, and was more
interested in the topic of shifters beyond what’s seen in the movies.”

“What happened?”
“He turned out to be thirteen.”
Markus laughed.

* * * *

Markus took Lance along all the trails he knew. All the ones that

he and the rest of DeWitt’s pack didn’t frequent, that is. To make sure
Lance didn’t stray too far away from those areas, every once in a
while, one of the weres would allow himself to be seen.

Markus recognized Adam and one of the newcomers to the pack,

Cole.

They were both in their wolf forms, sitting idly under the shade of

a pine safely down the hill. Lance saw them and immediately pulled
out his camera.

Adam and Cole scattered before he could get a shot off.
“Must’ve heard me reaching into the pack,” Lance said.
Markus just smiled and shrugged, and as they walked, he

continued to tell Lance about how the wolves came to these spots, and
how it was a good place to take pictures.

They stayed out for most of the day, with one of the members of

Markus’s pack coming out for a quick glance once in a while, even
James at one point, to give Lance something to look at.

They returned with little trouble to Lance’s motel room, and only

when the door was shut behind him did Markus feel like he was
finally alone with the other man.

“I might have to keep going out with you,” Lance said, and then

his face turned. “For more hiking trips. I mean, with so many wolves

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Marcy Jacks

around, it might be dangerous if I’m alone.”

This was exactly what Markus was hoping for as well. “I’ll give

you my number so you can give me a call. I take it you had a good
time?”

“Very. No proof of werewolves or anything, but even hearing the

stories from the townsfolk made coming here worth it.”

“Really?” Markus said, surprised.
Lance sat on the bed and was kicking off his hiking boots. “Sure. I

mean, if this really exists, it’s clearly been around for a long time. The
secrecy on something like that is already amazing. What are the odds
that I would be the one to expose it?”

Now Lance was undoing the buttons of his shirt. Markus

wondered if he realized what he was doing.

Getting undressed in front of him was a surefire way to get thrown

down on the bed and put on his stomach.

Then he realized that Lance was still talking to him. “Oh, right.

Yeah, learning stuff is always…good.”

Lance laughed, and then he leaned back on his hands. The plaid

button-down he wore was already entirely unbuttoned, and it hung
beautifully over his shoulders.

Lance did not have the sort of muscles that most of the alphas in

Markus’s pack did, but his lean body did suggest he was athletic at
the least. Maybe he was a runner? That kind of body had to come
from more than just hiking.

“You can come here, y’know,” Lance said. His eyes were hungry

as they flickered up and down Markus’s body.

Markus went to him. Lance put his hands on Markus’s hips,

drawing him even closer. “I had a real good time.”

“Well, you said you wanted to go, and I just wanted to make sure

you stayed safe.”

Lance was still smiling at him. “And keep an eye on me.”
Markus tensed up. Shit, had he figured it out? Did he know that

Markus’s interest in Lance’s activities weren’t what he claimed them

One-Night Stand with a Werewolf

55

to be?

“We were a one-night stand yesterday, and today we were hiking

through all your best trails together, talking. You took me out on a
date, and now we’re alone back here.”

Markus exhaled. The flood of relief was almost too much for him.

He smiled back, letting his hands come down on the smooth skin of
Lance’s neck. “Got me,” he said.

Markus couldn’t resist letting his palms trail over that warm skin,

beneath the opened collar of his shirt, and over Lance’s shoulders. He
pushed the thing off of him.

“I’d like to keep showing you around, while you’re still in town

that is.”

For the first time, Lance’s blue eyes flickered with a little

uncertainty beneath those glasses of his. Then his confidence
returned. “I’d like that, too.”

Lance leaned back, and he pulled Markus down on top of him.

They came together in a soft kiss. It was slow and long, and when
Markus pushed his tongue against Lance’s lips, the other man opened
for him.

There were few things in the world Markus enjoyed more than a

long, luxurious openmouthed kiss. At the moment he couldn’t think
of any of them.

As he shifted his hips, humping against Lance’s crotch and

producing moans from the both of them, there was one thing he
understood.

Lance still thought this was a temporary arrangement. He wanted

Markus, and was willing to have him, but he was expecting this to end
sometime in the near future.

Not if he had anything to say about it. If you love him, let him go,

if he returns, it was meant to be.

Markus had heard that somewhere before. Maybe from the pack’s

wise woman, he wasn’t sure. All he knew about it was that it was a
load of bullshit. He’d made up his mind. He wasn’t letting Lance go

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Marcy Jacks

anywhere, and if the man got stubborn and tried, Markus was just
going to have to bring him back before he could get very far.

Lance was Markus’s mate, and he was Lance’s. They belonged

together.

Lance moaned, and his fingers were no longer gripping Markus’s

shoulders. Now they were wiggling between them as he tried to get
hold of Markus’s fly.

Even as he fumbled with the button and zipper, using only one

hand, Lance took his free one and started palming Markus’s crotch.

“Hard for me?” Lance asked, gripping ever so gently but tight

enough that it nearly had Markus’s arms buckling.

He groaned, letting his face fall against the bedsheets beneath

them. “Yeah,” he said. His voice was rough. “I’m gonna fuck you so
hard. I’m gonna put you on your back, and on your stomach, and then
on your knees.”

Lance moaned at all the promises Markus was making to him. His

blue eyes were suddenly cloudy with lust, and he finally managed to
get the button loose and zipper down. He started shoving away
Markus’s pants with real zeal.

“Fuck me then. Put me on my knees and fuck me.”
He’s mine.
He pulled off the other man just enough to kick away his jeans.

With his body free, Lance shoved down his pants and boxers, and
aside from his socks, he was now entirely naked.

Markus grabbed him and turned him over quickly before he could

reach down and take those off, too. He kind of liked the idea of
fucking Lance while he was still partly clothed.

He left his fingertips trail around the little pucker of Lance’s

asshole. “You know, before I met you, I wouldn’t have thought that I
had a fetish for glasses.”

Lance laughed. “You’re the first to say that to me.”
He would be the only one to say it to him as well, if Markus had

his way.

One-Night Stand with a Werewolf

57

Markus didn’t want to have to wait for any lubrication. He didn’t

want to get off this bed to go into the bathroom and get anything that
could be used as a substitute either like they had done the last time.

He spat into his hand and stroked himself, and because he

couldn’t resist, he bent down and placed a kiss over Lance’s stretched
pucker.

Goose bumps came in a prickling wave all over Lance’s skin.

Markus could hear the sudden rush in pumping blood beneath his
skin, and Lance keened loudly.

“Oh fuck! Do that! Keep doing that!”
When Lance humped back against Markus’s mouth, he did his

best to accommodate his lover. Markus was still hard and throbbing,
but this held just as much appeal as actually being inside of his mate.
He would make Lance want him so much that he would never want to
leave. He was going to lick and suckle him until he begged to be
fucked.

More so than he already had, that is.
Markus had to grab hold of his hips to stop him from moving so

much. He couldn’t keep Lance absolutely still, but at least this way he
was able to better control him so that Markus could perform better.
With a target that wasn’t moving around so much, he was able to
reach his tongue out and push it inside Lance’s asshole.

Lance bucked, and then it got to be really difficult to keep him

steady.

Damn, and Markus had werewolf strength on his side. This

shouldn’t be that hard for him.

The next thing to leave Lance’s mouth was just a string of curses

spoken so quickly they almost didn’t make any sense.
“OhfuckohChristfuckmetouchmeplease!”

That was it. That was the sign that Markus had been waiting for.

Lance wanted to be fucked so hard right now. He was going to be in
love with Markus by the time he finished with the man.

He pulled his mouth away. Lance pulled the lube bottle he'd

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bought the other day and practically shoved it into his hands. Markus
made quick work of it and took his heavy prick in hand, lining up the
head with Lance’s trembling hole, and he sank inside.

It was fast. Lance screamed, his body shaking and bucking the

second Markus was balls-deep within him as he came and came and
came.

Having that pretty pucker squeeze him so tightly while Lance

heaved and moved was too much for Markus to bear. He thrust inside
of Lance fast and hard, his orgasm already upon him, until he was
coming inside of his lover with a shout.

And a howl.
He sank down on top of Lance’s back with a heavy sigh as he

finished spilling himself deep inside his lover.

That had been great. He really hoped the guys weren’t still outside

waiting for him. He didn’t want them to hear him having sex in here,
though they’d have to be idiots to not realize that was exactly what he
was doing.

The people in the neighboring room could definitely hear what

they were up to. The angry pounding against the walls being proof
enough of that.

Markus laughed. “Guess they didn’t enjoy it like we did.”
“Get off me.”
Those words, spoken sharply and with such anger, threw Markus

for a loop.

He kept right on smiling, thinking that maybe he’d misheard the

anger in Lance’s voice, though he still pulled out of him. “What?”

Lance spun around and pushed him hard.
The act, as well as the sheer rage on Lance’s face, stunned him so

much that he actually fell backward onto his ass.

“What the hell?” he snapped.
Lance was already picking up his pants and getting them onto his

legs, as well as throwing on his button-down plaid, in record time,
though in his haste he put it on inside out.

One-Night Stand with a Werewolf

59

“Get out, right now, you fucking prick.”
Markus shot to his feet, becoming defensive. “What the hell did I

do?”

Lance reached down and grabbed for Markus’s jeans, and he

hurled them at his head with all the force of a major-league pitcher.

Markus just barely managed to catch them before he got hit in the

face with them.

Lance was still staring at him with that fury that made his entire

body tremble. The worst was the way his eyes shined.

“I know what I do is ridiculous, but I don’t fucking like being

made fun of for it or tricked so you can put your dick inside me!”

Then Markus realized what he’d done. He’d howled when he

came. Shit, shit, shit!

“Look, it’s not what you think—”
“Get out of here!”
Lance was shoving him toward the door. When he pushed Markus

against the wall and Markus made no move to open the door, Lance
punched him.

It hadn’t hurt. Lance clearly hadn’t been in many fights before in

his life. The strength of his body was definitely from some cardio
thing, if that was the case.

Still, his mate had punched him. He didn’t know what to think

about that.

“Get. Out.” Lance pointed to the door, as though Markus might

not see it.

Markus wanted to defend himself, but they were both too angry,

and there was nothing he could say right now that would convince
Lance that he wasn’t making a joke out of a story he’d shared with
him from his childhood.

Now was definitely not the right time for him to make a shift

either. It was too soon, and in a motel room where there were people
who could clearly hear it if Lance screamed, well, the idea was out.

Markus shoved on his jeans and, avoiding Lance’s eyes, opened

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the door and walked out.

He wasn’t two steps away before the door slammed behind him,

the lock clicking in place.

Before the motel room had been cut off to him, he caught the

heavy scent of salt water in the air.

He looked back toward the door. The parking lot was empty of

people, and there was no wind. It was easy for him to hear the crash
of Lance knocking over the little table in his anger, as well as the
sudden coughs and gasps he made as he cried.

He nearly put his hand back on the door handle, prepared to beg

for some kind of understanding through the wood or even break down
the door if he had to, but a voice in his head stopped him.

“Leave him alone.”
Markus spun around. A large dark-brown wolf appeared briefly

from within the shrubs of the bushes across the street.

James didn’t fully expose himself, but Markus could see him just

fine. “Come home for now. We can talk about what you found out and
what happened in there when we get back.”

Markus looked back toward the door, longing to open it, so much

so that he was leaning against the wood.

“He thinks I was tricking him,” Markus said. How could he leave

while his mate thought that Markus was that kind of person?

The large wolf head nodded. “I know, but you can’t convince him

otherwise right now. Come home and we’ll discuss how you break the
news to him.”

That had Markus’s heart lifting a little. Words like that from his

leading alpha could only mean that James had heard enough for
himself, as far as Lance’s story went.

They were going to let him in on the secret, and much sooner than

Markus had expected, too.

This was good. The sooner Markus could explain what he was,

and let Lance know that he hadn’t been making a joke out of him
while he was inside of him, the better.

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61

Still, it took no small amount of effort for him to walk away from

the door. All right.

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Chapter Eight

Lance was still seething, long after he’d wiped away his angry,

and hurt, tears. The worst part about it was that he couldn’t remember
the last time he’d cried like this, and that humiliation only made the
situation that much worse.

Thank God he’d gotten Markus out of the motel room before he

could start bawling. For the man who had been making fun of him
once he’d had his conquest to see something like that would have
been too much.

He couldn’t believe he’d been so stupid.
Lance showered, pulled off the sheets they had both ruined from

the bed, and threw them onto the floor in a corner. He righted the
table he’d knocked over and then started setting up his MacBook.

This had always calmed him. Even when he was a kid and the

other kids had been making fun of him because his parents were
putting him through therapy, flipping through the pictures of wolves
he’d collected throughout the years or even reading the saved
documents he had always lifted his spirits.

Sometimes he thought that the boy who had saved him had never

left. The wolf had protected him then, and just looking at the images
of normal wolves brought him some comfort now.

He wrote a quick post on his progress in Brampton and posted it

to his blog.

Markus he wouldn’t mention, even as a guide. He didn’t even

want to think about that asshole.

How could he have believed that someone as normal and

gorgeous and nice and…well, he still could hardly believe he’d been

One-Night Stand with a Werewolf

63

taken in. Lance should’ve known better than to think anyone would
understand him enough to think he wasn’t crazy with his beliefs. He
would never make that mistake again.

His one-night stands would stay one-night stands from now on.
After more than an hour, his cell phone rang.
He picked it up, keeping his eyes still on the screen as he reread

the stories of the changelings from the days of old Scotland.

“Hello?”
“Lance! How’ve you been?”
Lance groaned and rolled his eyes, right before covering them

with his hand and pinching the bridge of his nose.

“Fine, Buddy, how are you?”
It wasn’t that he didn’t like Buddy. He did. But sometimes the guy

was just a little too cheerful for Lance’s liking. Now was one of those
times.

“Doing great. I might have some more pictures for you. How’s

your trip going? Did you find out anything?”

Yeah. He was pretty enthusiastic.
“A little. I had a guide but had to let him go. He had something he

needed to deal with, so I’ll have to find another.”

“Bummer. Did he at least get to take you around?”
Lance thought about the wolves they’d seen. “Yeah, and we saw

some pretty big wolves, but they always scattered before I could get
any pictures.”

“How big were they?” Buddy asked.
The wolves had always been at a distance or an angle, but if he

had to guess, he would say fairly large. “I’m thinking that the wolves
around here definitely get bigger than normal. I was also able to talk
to that kid from the paper.”

“The one who saw a man turn into a wolf?”
“Yeah. The paper painted him as a drunk teen, but he told me he

was sober enough to know what he saw, and I checked out behind the
bar one night, too. The lighting sucks, but if someone were to take

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their clothes off and turn into a wolf in front of me, I’m pretty sure I’d
know I wasn’t just seeing things.”

The tone of Buddy’s voice got all the more excited. “That’s

amazing. There has to be werewolf activity there.”

Lance had met Buddy in person a couple of times. Buddy was

apparently the president of his own paranormal club, and he and his
friends all talked werewolves and vampires and other shifters all the
time. He frequented Lance’s website and blog, and now that he knew
Lance was actually out in the field trying to prove werewolves
existed, Buddy had taken to calling him every now and again to hear
about his progress. Lance had even managed to get him to volunteer
to maintain the website for those times when Lance was away for too
long.

“Well, I haven’t proved anything yet,” Lance said, trying to calm

him.

“I should come down there and help you out a bit. You said you

were in Brampton?”

Shit, he didn’t want Buddy here. “No, look, really I’m okay. I’ve

got my equipment and some research, and there’s a few more stories I
want to read up on in their library.”

“A tiny-ass town like that has a library?” Buddy asked, sounding

incredulous.

“Sort of. It’s more of a one-room museum on nature, hunting, the

local animals, and the founder of the town. There’s a wall devoted to
books, and if there’s anything related to the wildlife in the local paper,
which is pretty damn thin already, they save it in their archives.”

“A tiny-ass town like that has a museum?” Buddy’s voice was

even more disbelieving than before.

Lance sighed. “Good-bye, Buddy.”
He clicked the end call button on his screen, and he put the phone

back down and sighed. He really had too much shit going on right
now. He needed a break.

Lance closed his computer and decided to head out to the local

One-Night Stand with a Werewolf

65

restaurant. He was starving and couldn’t think, and something in his
stomach might help with that, as well as take his mind off of Markus
Lane.

* * * *

“He’s sexually attracted to you, obviously, but that doesn’t mean

he loves you or will want to keep the pack a secret to himself once he
discovers us.”

Markus clenched his jaw as James spoke. “I know, I’ll ease him

into it. I’ll tell him about the hunters, too. He’s a good guy, James. He
won’t want to put us in any danger.”

“No, but being proven right after so many years of trying to

expose us and then being asked to not lift the curtain on our secret
anyway would be a tough pill for anyone to swallow.”

James, Markus, and the rest of the pack alphas, along with their

wise woman, had all spoken to each other around a crackling fire back
on pack land. After mostly everyone had followed Markus and Lance
that day on their hike and listened in on the man’s story, everyone had
come to the decision that it was time for Markus to reveal himself as a
werewolf.

He would still have to be careful about it, however. Lance’s

profession still left many on edge, and he was constantly being
warned to not scare the other man.

Markus couldn’t have Lance running away to write a quick post

on his computer or something.

Cole, one of the newer alphas to become part of the pack, piped

up. “I didn’t realize that taking a mate was so complicated. I thought
when you found them, that was it.”

James smiled at him. Cole was not their youngest alpha, but he

was a recently changed one.

He had been forcibly transformed by another rival werewolf,

Deacon, but instead of following Deacon or becoming wild and

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dangerous, Cole had somehow managed to survive with the omegas
and other alphas that had also been forcibly turned.

Markus had overheard James speaking to his beta on the odd

occasion, and it was clear that James suspected that the survival of
those omegas, out in the wild, had a lot to do with Cole protecting
them and hunting for them. Though there had been two other alphas
with him, they had mostly gone wild and likely would also have died
had Cole not stepped up for them.

“Even when werewolves mate, it can get complicated,” James

said.

Isaac had to throw his two cents in there as well. “This guy will

most likely be more scared of me than Markus. Lance wants to prove
that werewolves exist, he wants to see one, but I’m the one with the
guns.”

Yes, he was, but Markus knew he didn’t have anything to worry

about. Isaac was a former hunter, and he was going with his guns
holstered to him for educational reasons. Isaac might no longer be a
hunter, and he might regret some of the things he’d done, but he was a
living, breathing, and very real reason for Lance to not go to the
media or post any kind of proof to the existence of shifters online.

Isaac had offered to do this. The hope was that Lance would see

him and then realize how important the secrecy was.

Markus’s hope was that Lance would even want to look at him

after what happened earlier today.

“Okay, we’re basically in town now. Where is he?” James said.
Brampton was a one-street town that the pack was hidden just

outside of. It was easy to sneak in and out for certain things, and aside
from the truckers and other travelers passing through, there wouldn’t
be that many people to sniff through.

Markus already had that scent imprinted into his brain anyway. He

wouldn’t be hard to find.

He straightened his back, sticking his nose just a little bit into the

air, and he inhaled deeply and then several other short breaths through

One-Night Stand with a Werewolf

67

his nose.

The usual scents were there, pine, dirt, pets, as well as the scent of

cooking that was coming from the restaurant. He smiled when he
caught hold of Lance’s scent.

Markus and the others weren’t that far away from the motel.

Lance’s scent came just past them and moved in the direction of the
delicious scent of food.

Markus smiled. “Went to get supper, I guess.”
James looked up at the sky. “You said he didn’t like crowds. He’ll

be finishing up and leaving there before the regulars can sit at the bar.
We’ll catch him as he’s leaving and bring him around back.”

Markus immediately knew how James was thinking this would go

down, and though his alpha wasn’t trying to be cruel about it, Markus
couldn’t let that happen.

“He’s got asthma, James. If we just grab him and cart him off, it’ll

scare him and he might have an attack. Let me talk to him first.”

“You really think the guy will trust you enough to follow you into

the dark forest at night?”

Fucking Isaac had to be an asshole about it.
Markus clenched his jaw. “Probably not, but if he sees me first, I

don’t know…” Markus struggled to think about what could be done.
Lance was already mad as hell at him, and if Markus accidentally
killed the man while trying to explain himself, well, it would certainly
be a few steps backward to say the least.

James briefly squeezed Markus’s shoulder. “We’ll do it your way.

In the beginning. If you can’t make him follow you somewhere
private, we’ll have to force him. But I doubt it will come to that,”
James added.

Markus hoped he was right.
“I am right,” James assured him, using the telepathy that all

leading alphas had with their packs to read his mind.

Only rarely did Markus hate that ability. That he wasn’t always

careful with his thoughts was a big reason for that.

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“He’s your chosen mate. I’m sure he’ll see reason and not expose

us.” James hesitated here, which was a rarity for the alpha of an entire
pack. “My main concern is you, to be honest.”

“Me?” Markus said, completely taken aback.
Cole and Isaac both walked ahead a couple of steps, clearly

pretending they couldn’t hear what was being said, the bastards.

James clenched his jaw. “What troubles me is that he will keep the

secret out of respect for what he has loved all of these years, and he
might even feel like it was a repayment of a debt.”

“But?”
“But, I want you to prepare yourself in case he decides that he

can’t handle what he’s been looking for all this time. I don’t want to
see you get hurt.”

Markus didn’t want to get hurt either. He’d damn near forgotten

about this part. Telling Lance that he was a werewolf would be one
thing, but explaining they were mated was on a whole other level.

“Let’s just go and get him,” Markus said. He wanted to get this

confession part over with as soon as possible.

* * * *

Lance exited the restaurant after the third table walked in and lit

up. He had nothing against people who enjoyed their cigarettes. He
just wished he didn’t have to be listed in the group of people who
were so sensitive to it that he couldn’t even stay to finish his coffee.

Whatever, he had to get back to the motel anyway.
He’d just started walking when he heard Markus’s voice. “Lance.”
He spun around, his heart hammering at the shock. He hadn’t

expected Markus to be standing there under the yellow light of the
street lamp. He hadn’t expected Markus at all.

His anger quickly overcame him. “I do not want to talk to you.”
He started walking again, but Markus was quick to catch up to

him. Lance didn’t stop, however. He kept right on going. Markus

One-Night Stand with a Werewolf

69

walked backward just so they could both face each other as Lance
tried to make his getaway.

“Please, I just need you to listen for a minute—”
“Go away.”
“I can explain. I swear to God I wasn’t making fun of you.”
Lance shook his head. “Whatever. You just like howling like a

wolf when you come. That’s perfectly normal. Everybody does that.”

“It’s not like that. Will you stop?”
Markus reached out and took Lance by the arm. He was

surprisingly strong, and when Markus stopped, still holding onto
Lance, he had no choice but to stop with him. “Let go of me.”

“I promise I’ll leave you alone when this is over if that’s what you

want. I just need to show you something.”

Lance was immediately suspicious. “Can’t it wait until

tomorrow?”

If this was some kind of ploy to get Lance back in bed, he swore

he was going to kick the man’s ass.

Try to, anyway. Markus looked pretty fit.
Markus released him. “No, the sooner you see this, the better,

actually.”

He was far from in the mood, but maybe it was just because he

was a naturally curious person or that he still couldn’t help but look at
Markus and have some tender feelings for him, but he decided he
would go along with it. “All right, what do you want me to see?”

“Well.” Markus scratched the back of his head, and he looked

toward the darkly wooded area where the lamplight didn’t quite reach.
“We kind of need to be alone for this. Can you come with me?”

“Where?” Lance asked, though by the way Markus was standing

and occasionally glancing toward the woods, he already knew where
Markus wanted to take him.

“Well, I know this is weird, but I was thinking over there.”

Markus pointed, confirming Lance’s suspicions.

He raised his hands a bit and stepped back. He might like the guy

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and all, sort of, okay a lot, despite what a prick he’d been, but Markus
was still a virtual stranger to him. Lance was pretty sure that walking
alone with him into the dark forest at night was not a good idea.
Curious or not, that was a real recipe for getting cut into a hundred
little pieces and scattered all over the woods.

“Look, uh, thanks but no thanks. Whatever it is you want me to

see can wait until tomorrow. You can show me at the restaurant if you
want.”

“Lance—”
“I’ll see you later.” Lance turned to go, but Markus ran in front of

him, as fast as though he had Superman speed or something.

“What the hell?” Lance demanded, more annoyed than ever,

especially when Markus kept right on stepping in his way preventing
him from moving. His anger was so great that he wasn’t even
suspicious about how it was Markus had gotten in front of him so
quickly.

“Will you get out of my way, please?” he asked, which was more

of a demand.

“This involves your website,” Markus said. Now he was the one

to keep his hands raised, as though he were trying to show a scared
animal how harmless he was.

“What, you want to show me a werewolf or something?”
“Kind of, yes.”
Unbe-fucking-lievable. “Markus, I’m being serious, get out of my

way. Now.”

He didn’t know what he would have done if Markus still refused

to listen to him, but he spoke in such a threatening tone anyway
because he somehow felt it was what Markus would respond to best.

Markus looked past him for a second, toward the trees. Worried

about who, or what, he might be looking at, Lance quickly turned his
head.

He saw nothing. No one was there.
Jesus, of all the people in the world he had to pick up, why did it

One-Night Stand with a Werewolf

71

have to be this guy?

Lance quickly tried to step around him, deciding to just make a

break for it back to his motel room and leave Markus with whatever
inner demons he was struggling with.

“I’m really sorry about this,” Markus said, and Lance turned just

as Markus reached out and grabbed him.

“Hey!” Lance struggled when Markus grabbed him by the arms,

but unlike before, he didn’t let him go, and his grip was a hundred
times stronger, too.

“What the fuck? Let me go!”
“I can’t. I need you to see this.”
Lance tried to cry out, hoping someone from the restaurant would

hear him.

Markus’s hand was over his mouth in the next second, before he

could even get a good yell out, and then, with his free arm, he hoisted
Lance into the air and started carrying him toward the woods.

Jesus Christ! He was going to kill him! Lance wiggled and

struggled with every ounce of strength he possessed, but somehow
Markus had more strength in his one arm than Lance did in his entire
body. Even when he made his weight go dead try and force Lance to
drop him, he still kept carrying him toward the dark trees.

Then three more people stepped out from between the shrubs and

pines, and his heart really started to hammer as the panic set in.

“Calm down, baby, I can hear your heart going,” Markus said, and

then he muttered something about Lance’s inhaler, but Lance could
hardly hear anything else he was saying because he was panicking too
much.

“Guess he wouldn’t come quietly,” said the man with the deeply

scarred face, and Lance really started to kick and punch and squirm.

He never thought of himself as being weak or small. He’d never

joined the football team in high school or anything, but Markus’s
strength made him feel like a child.

“Hurry up, before someone sees us,” said another, younger-

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looking man. Were those guns under his arms?

Then they were within the trees, and suddenly Lance couldn’t

breathe anymore. That invisible hand that had always come to him
when he was a child, stealing the air right out of his lungs, returned
with a vengeance. Like it was making up for lost time or something, it
yanked every bit of air right out of him.

Now Lance wasn’t just struggling to get away, he struggled to

remove Markus’s hand from his mouth.

These signals he thankfully understood and followed.
“Oh shit! Lance!”
Markus’s superman arms released him, and when he was on the

ground and free, he viciously tore into his bag, gasping for breath that
he couldn’t seem to catch no matter how much he told himself to calm
down and take it slow.

He couldn’t find his inhaler. It wasn’t in the small side pocket

where he usually kept it, and that only deepened his panic.

Markus’s hands were also in his messenger bag, shoving items

around, also searching. “Where’s your puffer? Where is that stupid
thing?”

Lance found it first, hidden under one of his notebooks. It must’ve

fallen out of the little pocket during the struggle.

He grabbed it, ripped the cap off, and put it to his mouth. Like a

key that opened a door, his airways expanded and fresh air was able
to get down his throat. He breathed deeply, taking another breath from
his inhaler, even as he glared at Markus.

Markus had his hands on Lance’s shoulders, worry all over his

face. “Lance, Christ I’m so fucking sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you
like that.”

When Lance finally caught his breath, he threw another punch at

Markus’s face. Markus didn’t try to dodge it, but despite all the
strength Lance put into the strike, Markus barely fell back at all.

“What did you think would happen when you drag me into the

dark woods with your friends?”

One-Night Stand with a Werewolf

73

He tried to punch him again, but a pair of hands grabbed his

swinging wrist.

He was getting really sick and tired of people grabbing him like

this.

“Don’t touch him!” Markus yelled before Lance could start on the

guy who had the gall to grab hold of him.

He looked like the youngest member of their group. His face was

all young and fearful of the scene that had just played out. Lance had
no sympathy for him.

Markus suddenly coming to Lance’s rescue was a little confusing,

however.

Lance yanked his hand out of the grip of the young man. “What

does it matter to you if someone else grabs me after you just
kidnapped me?” he seethed.

If Markus had any feathers, they would’ve ruffled at those words.

“I didn’t kidnap you!”

“Technically, we are kidnapping him.”
“Shut up, Isaac!” Markus yelled.
Great. Now Lance had seen their faces, and now he knew what

one of their names was, too. This wasn’t boding well for him.

“Please just let me go. I never did anything to hurt you.”
Lance’s night vision kicked in, and he was able to see how

saddened Markus’s face had become. “You need to see this first, and
then, if you want, you never have to see me again.”

“What?”
Markus got to his feet, and Isaac, the young one, and the scarred

one came to stand behind where Lance was still sitting on his ass.
They were preventing him from running, he realized.

Lance didn’t start to worry until he looked over and saw Markus’s

hands on the button of his jeans, and then he started to undress.

The urge to run was greater than ever, but so long as those men

were behind him, he was going nowhere.

“What are you doing?” he asked when Markus was fully naked.

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All sort of horrible things were going through Lance’s mind.

Markus got down onto his knees, but he kept his eyes on Lance. “I

wasn’t howling like that earlier to make fun of you. I did it because I
am a werewolf, and sometimes I do that.”

Lance’s eyes widened. He shook his head.
The one called Isaac spoke again. “You’ve been looking for proof

all this time, but you won’t believe it when someone tells you that’s
what they are?”

He shook his head again. “Anyone can say they’re a werewolf.”

He looked back at Markus. “Prove it.”

Markus nodded, and then he fell onto all fours.
At first Lance didn’t notice the change in his body. He thought

maybe the moon was going behind the clouds or something because
the first thing he was able to notice was the way Markus’s skin
became darker.

It took him a second to realize that it was hair growing out from

the pores of his skin.

Then the sounds of snapping branches stuck the air, but they

weren’t tree branches being snapped somewhere. They were Markus’s
bones.

His bones were snapping, and there was hair growing on his skin.

His fingers shrunk, and his nose and mouth got longer, his teeth
becoming sharper.

Lance grabbed his puffer again and had to take a couple more

breaths as he watched the show, but this time he was not panicking.
He was so happy and excited that his breath was stolen from him.

The whole process probably took less than thirty seconds, but as

Lance watched and observed, it felt like so much longer than that.

Markus shook out his gray coat of hair when he finished with the

transformation, and then he sat and stared at Lance.

The man with the scarred face chuckled then patted Lance on the

shoulders. “Congrats. You’ve just witnessed proof to the existence of
werewolves.”

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75

Markus trotted toward him, and Lance held perfectly still as

Markus swiped his tongue across his face.

He couldn’t wait to tell Buddy about this.

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Chapter Nine

“You can’t tell anyone about this. Ever.”
Markus couldn’t help the disappointment he felt at the way

Lance’s face fell in openmouthed shock.

“But the world needs to know about this. You aren’t some product

of a horror movie. You’re real people. So much can be learned about
life and nature just from what you do. Just because you exist.”

Markus nodded, looking over at James and Isaac real quick for

support. “The fact that you even mention horror movies is one big
reason to avoid coming out. People fear us.” He would tell Lance
about vampires and other shifters later. That was a whole other kettle
of fish. “And as for learning from us, do you really think everyone
will be like you? People will want to learn from us by caging us and
dissecting us, not by going through an interview process or anything
like that.”

Lance shook his head. He’d long since gotten up from his place on

the ground, but he hadn’t bothered to wipe off the dirt or wet leaves
that had stuck to him yet. His glasses were crooked as well. Lance
seemed much too excited by what’s he’d seen to notice or bother with
any of that, however.

“They can’t do that. It’s against your rights.”
“We’re not human, so we have no human rights,” James said.
“Think about the way humans treat animals,” Markus said. “And

I’m not talking about cruel or evil humans either. Everyday humans
use animals all the time for their benefit. Whether it’s to eat them,
wear them, and there’s nothing wrong with that. We hunt and eat and
wear animals all the time. I mean we’re wolves. But if humans decide

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that we are an animal species, we’re all going to be fucked.”

He waited for that to sink in. Lance didn’t respond. A frown

marred his features as he thought over what Markus and James were
telling him, but he clearly still wasn’t entirely on board with what was
being said to him.

“Isaac,” James said then nodded to Lance. “Show him.”
Lance backed up a step when Isaac pulled his guns out.
“Whoa.”
“He won’t hurt you,” Markus assured him, and just to offer the

other man some comfort on that front, he went and stood just a little
closer to him as Isaac came forward.

He wasn’t pointing his guns at them, but he held them by their

grips, pointed down to give Lance a good view of the Glocks. Isaac
had said he wouldn’t put the clips in the magazines, but the man
would still never point a weapon at a friend, even if it wasn’t loaded.

“These are real guns,” Isaac said. “They’re basically a police

standard and aren’t hard for anyone else to come by if you have about
five hundred bucks.”

Lance looked up at him. “Why show me these?”
Isaac clenched his jaw. “I’ve used these guns to kill werewolves.”
“What?” Lance stepped away from him. He looked from Markus

to Cole and James and then back down at the guns. “How could
you—Why?”

When Lance’s eyes looked back up at Markus, fearful and wide,

he understood. Lance was wondering what a man who had killed
werewolves before was doing standing calmly with a group of three
more of them.

Markus cleared his throat. “Isaac is a former hunter. He used to

hunt and kill shifters for his living. We won’t tell you why or how he
came to be with us just yet. That’s his business, really, but he’s been
with us for, what is it? Almost a year now?”

“It’ll be a year in May,” Isaac said.
Markus nodded. “He mated with one of our omegas, and he’s a

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friend now. You don’t have to be scared of him.”

“But he’s killed people!” Lance looked at Isaac now. “How could

you do that? What the fuck is wrong with you?”

Markus had seen some of the newer members of the pack chew

out Isaac a time or two, and he always seemed to take the verbal
lashings with the kind of patience Markus himself didn’t possess.

Isaac saw it as deserved, for his time as a hunter. Even though he

was paying to fix up the cabins and helping to buy new toys for the
pups, and hell, even though most of the pack had come to accept him,
there would always be those times when someone had to yell at him
for the things he’d done.

Isaac wet his lips. “People like me exist all over the world. We

basically live in as much secrecy as the shifters do. We get licenses to
hunt big game when the season comes around, and when it isn’t in
season, we hunt them anyway. Then we go out and find shifters to
kill. Waiting until they’re in their animal forms is considered best,
especially when you want to skin them and sell the pelts.”

Lance looked like he was about to be sick, and this was exactly

what James and Markus, and every other member of the pack, had
hoped for. Lance needed to understand why he couldn’t write on his
blog anymore.

Markus looked to the others. “I think I got this now, you guys,” he

said. “I’ll take him back to his room.”

He expected some sort of warning to come from James, or at least

an order that he should return to the pack afterward.

James said nothing, and the three men turned around and

disappeared through the trees, leaving Markus alone with Lance.

Guess James didn’t want to make any assumptions about whether

or not Markus would be spending the night with his mate. Markus
didn’t even know where he stood on that front anymore.

Now that they were alone, Lance really started to shake.
“Hey, are you all right?” Markus put his arms around the other

man, expecting him to be cold.

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79

He was, but not enough to produce that sort of trembling.
Markus was grateful when Lance didn’t shrug out of his hold,

however.

“Jesus Christ. Jesus,” he said.
“I’m sorry I had to put that on you. It’s usually a lot for people to

take in.”

Markus got the feeling that it wasn’t just that that was producing

this reaction out of Lance.

“Oh my God. That guy’s a killer. And you, you’re a…” Lance

trailed off. He couldn’t seem to finish.

Markus sighed. James had been right. The confirmation that

Lance had been searching for all these years was too much for him to
handle. There was more to it than Lance had realized, and now it was
overloading him.

“I’ll take you back to your room,” Markus said. He’d long since

got dressed again, so he didn’t have to pick up any of his clothes. He
helped Lance to his feet, and together the two of them exited the dark
woods and were back under the yellow lights of the dreary and quiet
highway.

It took all of ten minutes to get back there.
Markus opened the door for Lance when his hands shook too

much to get the key into the lock. He gently pushed the other man
inside, not sure of his welcome at all. He didn’t yet turn away when
he saw the MacBook sitting on the table. Should he stay a little longer
to confirm that Lance wouldn’t write anything? He didn’t know what
to do.

Lance noticed him still in the doorway, and as though suddenly

fearful that he would leave, he beckoned him inside. “You can come
in. I’d really like to not be alone right now.”

Markus entered, and he quietly shut the door behind him.
This room didn’t have very good air circulation, he realized.

Markus could still vaguely smell the scent of their sex from earlier
today. The thought made him crack a smile. “At least now you know I

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wasn’t poking fun at you.”

Lance had grabbed a glass of water from the tap in the bathroom,

and he stopped suddenly as he lifted it to his mouth. It seemed to take
a second before he got what Markus was saying. He laughed a little.
“I should probably apologize to you for that one.”

Markus shook his head. “Don’t worry about it. Most people think

we’re a little crazy for the howling. I should’ve tried harder to keep it
in check.”

Lance wet his lips. Then he looked at his computer, sitting

innocently on the table, and then back at Markus. “Do you know what
you’ve asked me to do? I’ve worked my whole life to find you and
have been ridiculed by everyone you can think of for the things I’ve
said. My parents put me in therapy because I wouldn’t let the story of
that boy go. Now I see you standing there, and I know there’s so
many more of you, and I can’t say anything at all?”

Markus nodded. “Basically, yes.”
Lance put his glass on the nightstand beside the bed. He sank

down on it, and he ran his hands through his hair.

Markus hesitated, and then went and sat down beside him. “I’m

sorry. We brought Isaac with us so you could understand just why
we’re hiding from other people. It’s not like the secrecy is something
we keep to because it’s tradition or something, or that we’re that
afraid of humans. It has a little to do with that last part, but there
really are people out there who are an immediate threat to us. We
can’t be telling them where we are.”

Lance held his hands together between his knees, as though he

were keeping them warm. “Have you ever killed anyone?”

Markus didn’t want to answer this question. He did, and did it

truthfully, because Lance was his mate. “I have. Sometimes hunters,
and two other times it had been a werewolf from a rival pack.”

Lance looked at him sharply. “You kill each other, too?”
“It’s not what you’re thinking.” Markus got the feeling that Lance

only continued to sit beside him because, at this point, he had no

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81

choice but to give Markus the benefit of the doubt. “There are a lot of
packs out there who aren’t as well adjusted as mine. We’re lucky to
have such a good leader in James. He’s the alpha with the scarred face
you met today. He keeps us all safe and doesn’t abuse his power over
the omegas. There are other leading alphas who aren’t like him,
though. Some of them are constantly fighting over land, membership,
food, anything you can think of.”

Markus couldn’t believe he was spilling all of this onto Lance, but

the other man was still just sitting there, waiting and listening with
absolute patience. “There’s been a couple of times when my pack was
attacked by wild werewolves, or even a rival pack. You have to kill to
defend yourself in those situations. If you don’t, they’ll kill you and
take your land, and the omegas.”

What those werewolves would have done with the omegas had

they been able to take them was something Markus didn’t like to
think about it. “It’s how Isaac met his mate. Tristan was an omega
who was trying to get away from the leading alpha of another pack.
They met, and Isaac realized that not all werewolves are the evil and
dangerous things he thought they were.”

Lance nodded, though his mind still seemed to be far away.

Markus just hoped that little bit of information would be enough to
make Lance believe that Isaac wasn’t the serial killer he seemed to
think he was. He also hoped that, if Isaac ever found out that he’d told
Lance this, he wouldn’t think it a betrayal of information. It wasn’t
like he’d told Lance why he’d become a hunter, after all.

“I’m going to have to give up my work, aren’t I?”
Markus reached out and took hold of Lance’s hand. “I’m sorry for

that.”

Lance squeezed his hand back for support. “Me, too.” Then he

sighed. “I guess it’s the least I can do. That boy saved my life. He
didn’t have to. I’ll probably never find him, but if this is the way it is,
then I shouldn’t expose your secret.”

Markus forced a smile onto his face. “To be honest, and don’t be

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mad when I say this, but I’m kind of glad you haven’t found that other
guy.”

Lance turned to look at him, confusion on his face.
Markus had to explain himself through the building heat in his

cheeks. “I don’t really want to share you with anyone else.”

Lance shoved him, but he was smiling when he did it.
They sat there for a time before Lance released his hand, got to his

feet, and went to the computer. He turned it on. “I should delete my
website and blog.”

Markus got up to stand beside him. “It’s not that I don’t trust you

or anything, but…”

Lance saved him from explaining himself. “You can watch me do

it. Probably better that way. I won’t chicken out.”

Markus didn’t think Lance was a chicken at all.
Still, he watched as Lance logged into his accounts and deleted his

webpages, his blog, and even cancelled his domain name.

His shoulder sagged when he finished.
Markus wrapped his arms around him from behind, and he placed

a gentle kiss on his neck. “Thank you.”

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Chapter Ten

Buddy noticed almost right away when the website went down.

He had it saved to his phone, along with a few other choice sites, so
he could check on them periodically and see if anything was found.

He’d learned that it was a good idea to make a habit of keeping

tabs on his projects like that.

The fact that his bookmark produced one of those error messages

was confusing at first. When he tried again five minutes later to the
same thing, he called the service provider, and the domain name
provider, and was given the same answer by customer support.

The webmaster had authorized the accounts to be deleted.
Fucking hell.
There was only one thing that could mean, and so he put away his

cell phone, packed his bags, and got into his truck.

Brampton was only maybe a seven-hour drive away from where

he was. He could get there soon enough and find out just what it was
that had Lance disappear off the face of the earth.

* * * *

Lance enjoyed the warm, comforting touch of Markus’s hands on

his shoulders, as well as the soft press of his lips on his neck when he
thanked him.

Lance’s decision must have really been scaring him for him to be

showing this sort of gratitude.

“I won’t tell anyone. No one would believe me even if I did,” he

said, hoping to comfort the other man for when they eventually parted

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ways.

“There are people out there who would believe you. That’s what

we’re afraid of.”

And Lance had been the cause of that fear for an entire group of

people. Christ, that one man, the former hunter, had said that people
out there skinned werewolves for their pelts. No wonder they stayed
hidden. Lance clenched his fists.

“You don’t think…the boy that saved me…”
“I’ve never heard that story before, but we’re a pretty tough

species. I’m sure he got out of there just fine,” Markus said, still
hugging Lance to him.

“God, I hope so.” Just the thought that someone might’ve come

along and skinned that boy after he’d saved Lance’s life was enough
to make him start shivering all over again.

Markus didn’t release him, but he was no longer pressing those

comforting kisses to the back of his neck either.

“Do you want me to leave you alone?” Markus asked after a time

of silence.

“No,” Lance said quickly. The last thing he wanted was to be

alone right now, but it was about more than that. He wanted Markus
specifically to be here with him. “Please don’t leave.”

Lance turned around, and though it was stupid because Markus

had been holding onto him, he was surprised to see how close they
were standing.

Somehow, all of this seemed so far away.
No, they were together, in the same room, right in front of each

other, and Lance had just been given the secret to werewolves.

“Your eyes are gold,” Lance said, suddenly noting the difference

between what they had been before and what they were now.

“Yeah.” Markus’s voice was husky, and the way his eyes stared

hungrily down at Lance let him know just what it was that the other
man wanted from him.

There was something he needed to know first. “Why did you tell

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me? I told you what I was doing for a living. Why give me this?”

Markus wet his lips, and those gold eyes flickered a little. Almost

like he was coming out of a trance.

“It couldn’t have just been because I was mad at you,” Lance said.
Markus shook his head. “It was because…I needed you to know

because I mated with you.”

Lance’s eyes went wide. He gasped at the new information, and

Markus took quick advantage of his open mouth as he kissed him.
Now Markus wasn’t just hugging him gently, but pressing them
tightly together. Lance could feel his erect cock through his tight
jeans, and Markus pressed against his hips, kissing and pushing him
back to the bed.

Lance let him. He wanted this as much as Markus did.
He wasn’t an idiot, he knew what Markus was talking about when

he said he’d mated with Lance, and somehow, considering Lance’s
feelings that had developed for him in the little time they’d had
together, it made a whole lot of sense.

Now was not the time to ask for all the extra little details that

likely came with the revelation. He just wanted Markus to put that
firm cock inside him and fuck him until everything was all right
again.

When the back of his knees touched the side of the bed, they both

fell over with a small shout of surprise from both of them.

It barely put a stop to what they were doing. “I take it you

approve?”

“Yes,” Lance said, his eyes rolling back as Markus humped

against him, and his still-clothed cock sizzled with pleasure. “That’s
nice. Fuck me.”

Markus scrambled to get out of his clothes, and Lance helped him

out with that one by palming his crotch, squeezing and rubbing the
swelling that was there.

Markus groaned and nearly fell on top of him as he struggled out

of the T-shirt he wore. He managed to get his arms free, but it was

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still around his neck when he put his hands down on either side of
Lance’s head. “That doesn’t exactly help.”

“I know.” Lance started working on the button and fly, and he got

Markus’s jeans open and down his hips with little fuss.

Markus kicked them off, and when his fingers touched down on

Lance’s belt, he suddenly stopped.

“What is it?” Lance pushed himself up onto his elbows, and then

looked down at the steel buckle. “It’s not silver or anything,” he said.

“It’s not that,” Markus said, his bright, golden eyes still looking

down at Lance like he was a meal to be had. “You wouldn’t mind if I
destroyed these, would you?”

“What?”
“Do you have another belt and pair of jeans?”
It actually took Lance a couple of seconds before he was able to

answer that one. “This is my only belt, but I packed more jeans.”

“Okay.”
Markus fumbled with the belt, and actually managed to get it

undone with little effort, but then instead of working on the button
and fly to Lance’s jeans, he grabbed them by the waist in both fists
and yanked back hard.

The material tore, and not even down the seam either. Markus was

actually ripping Lance’s clothes off of him in an effort to get between
his legs faster.

Lance watched the ruined jeans sail across the room, and his lust

intensified. “You’re really strong.”

Markus grinned at him. “Good in bed, too, but you already know

that.”

Lance rolled his eyes, and then he shimmied out from under

Markus’s body and reached for the nightstand where he was keeping
the lube. He shook around the bottle a little in his fingers.

“Almost empty,” he said and then went to the bathroom. He came

back with one of those little bottles of hair conditioner the motel gave
out.

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87

“I think we should use this with it,” Lance said with a grin.
“We go through the stuff quick,” Markus said.
Lance did his best to not blush at that comment and was pretty

sure he was failing.

Markus got to his knees as Lance approached the bed and got

back onto it. He handed Markus the bottles, then leaned in and kissed
him.

“I’m sorry I was angry with you.”
Markus pressed his lips back against Lance’s. He might be an

alpha wolf, but he had the softest lips Lance had ever kissed.

Markus gently put him down on his back, and Lance eagerly

spread his legs for the other man.

“Here,” Markus said, lifting Lance’s knee and taking his hand.

“Hold this.”

Lance did as he was told, and though he couldn’t see it from the

position he was in, he could hear the pop of the cap off the little
conditioner bottle and the squeeze as Markus poured some into his
hand along with the lube.

At first Markus’s finger’s trailed around his hole, and he shivered

with the anticipation. He bit his lips together when Markus pushed his
fingertips inside.

“That’s nice.”
“I know. Just wait and it’ll get better.”
Lance was quickly learning that Markus was a little cocky when it

came to his sexuality. That was fine. Markus didn’t seem overly
confident at any rate, and Lance still liked it.

He groaned a little when Markus pushed his two fingers in and out

of Lance’s hole. He was still a little stretched from all the sex they’d
both had earlier, but the preparation with something similar to lube
was nice.

“Is it…ah, is it strange that I missed you?” Lance asked.
Markus took his eyes off the task he was performing and looked

down at Lance’s face. He had no doubt in his mind that if this was

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one of those motels with the mirrors on the ceiling or something, he
would see the lust all over his own face.

Markus grinned at him. “No. We’re mated. It’s normal that we

feel connected like this. I missed you, too, to be honest, so, so much,
baby.”

“I’m sorry I threw you out.”
“Stop apologizing,” Markus said. “You’ve apologized enough.

We’re fine. Everything’s going to be fine now. I’m going to make you
feel so good.”

Markus accented that promise by thrusting his hand harder against

Lance’s asshole, his fingers moving deeper, touching everything
inside him that could be touched. Then the blunt tips reached his
prostate. Lance bucked.

“Oh, fuck yeah! Just like that.”
He clutched at the bedsheets and looked down, trying to see what

Markus was doing. All he could see was the way his arm continually
moved back and forth, back and forth. Lance humped back against the
fingers that were fucking him, but he’d already had Markus’s cock
inside him before. Despite how good this felt right now, he knew how
much better it would be once Markus shoved deep inside him,
stretching his inner walls, claiming him.

“Fuck me. Please fuck me right now. I’m ready.”
“Thank God,” Markus said with a breathy laugh. He carefully

pulled his fingers out of Lance’s ass and then grabbed hold of his
dick. He stroked himself a time or two, adding more of the
conditioner to his hand to slicken his cock with. He bit his lower lip as
he did that and groaned with the pleasure of his own touch.

“You are so beautiful,” Lance said. He wondered if all

werewolves were as beautiful as Markus was. Granted, the one with
the scars had clearly seen some better days, but those were scars. The
wolf with the reddish-brown hair was also nice to look at, though he
didn’t hold a candle to the magnificence that Markus naturally
seemed to carry.

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89

He decided to keep the question to himself. Now was not the time.
Markus’s golden eyes were back on him, as serious as ever as he

pressed the head of his hard cock against Lance’s pucker and then
slowly started to push inside.

“You’re mine. No one else is allowed to touch you but me,”

Markus said as his cock was swallowed by Lance’s hole.

Lance never wanted anyone else but Markus to touch him. He

groaned deeply, voicing his approval of what Markus was doing to
him like that, but that didn’t seem to be enough for the other man.

“Say it. Say you’re mine.”
Lance wrapped his legs around Markus’s waist, locking his feet

together at the ankles. He kept his ass high enough so that even when
Markus began pushing against him, thrusting inside of him, he could
get as deep as he needed to.

“I’m yours. I’m yours!” Lance shouted as Markus’s dick touched

that spot inside of him that made him see stars. He would be Markus’s
forever so long as he never stopped doing that to him.

“That’s it, right there!” Lance yelled. He did his best to push back

against Markus’s pounding hips, but while he was on his back, with
his legs in the air, it was fairly difficult to say the least. He held on
helplessly as Markus punched their bodies together. Faster and faster,
and then slow and hard, before his hips began thrusting at a lightning
speed once more.

Lance cried out when Markus slowed down again. “Fuck me hard.

Please, fuck me hard. I’m gonna come!”

“No, you’re not,” Markus growled into his ear. He lifted one of

his hands away from the mattress and reached down between them to
grab hold of Lance’s cock.

Lance moaned loudly. He really hoped the people staying in the

neighboring room were checked out by now. If they weren’t, then
there was no way this was entirely private.

Markus didn’t stroke him to orgasm, Lance realized after a couple

of brainless seconds. He was gripping Lance’s heavy prick by the

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base, preventing him from coming.

“No, no! I want to come. Let me come!” Lance was desperate for

it. The block on his release was a sensation he couldn’t properly
describe, especially now that his mind had fled him. Markus’s cock
was still nudging his prostate as Markus shifted his hips. The pleasure
he felt continued to build and build, but now there was nowhere for it
to go.

It was nearly a form of torture.
“Markus, please!”
Markus spoke as calmly as though he didn’t have his dick in

Lance’s ass.

“I didn’t recognize you the second I saw you, or realize what your

scent meant. I thought you were just a beautiful human I could have
and forget all my troubles with, but you’re so much more than that.”

Markus stroked Lance’s cock in a quick up and down motion.

Lance released a breath of air that shook his lungs, but Markus’s
fingers were back down and around the base of his cock before he
could shoot his load.

“Fuck! Markus!” Lance’s head fell back against the mattress as he

tried to arch into that touch. He reached down to grab himself and
help the process along, but Markus simply batted his hands away.

When he tried again, with all the speed and strength Markus

possessed, he snatched Lance’s hands out of the air and pulled them
up and over his head.

“No touching,” he said. “This is mine, and I promise that when I

make you come you won’t ever have felt anything like it.”

Lance already hadn’t felt anything like it. He wanted to tell Lance

that, but all his throat and mouth could produce was a series of
breathy, helpless moans as he tried to thrust into that touch.

Somehow he managed to keep himself from fighting back too

much and from trying to tear his hands out of Markus’s grip so that he
could touch himself.

From the way Markus held onto him, it was almost like they were

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91

holding hands, and when Markus began thrusting his hips again, his
cock filling Lance up and touching everything inside of him, he went
wild with his need.

“I can’t take it anymore. I want to come. I have to come.”
Markus was showing him no mercy, however. Judging by the

speed in which he picked up his thrusting hips, he was coming to the
end as well. “Not yet. Not yet.”

“How…how can you even—ugh!—hold out for this long?” Lance

asked.

Markus actually laughed at him. “You…you have to ask?”
Smart-ass.
Then the thing that Lance had been waiting for finally happened.

Markus was about to orgasm. He squeezed his eyes shut and threw his
head back, his mouth open in breathy gasps.

He released Lance’s cock, and Lance shouted and bucked as he

came and came and came.

He squeezed his anal muscles around Markus’s dick, and he felt

the warm spurt of the other man’s cum shooting inside of him as
Markus moaned and cried out his pleasure. “Oh fuck! That’s it!
Fuck!”

Lance couldn’t remember the last time he’d had an orgasm that

left his body trembling like this after the fact. His cock and balls were
a little sore from the sudden rush, but he’d never been more content.

Lance vaguely felt Markus fall on top of him, and the warmth of

his skin was so comfortable. He put his arms around him, holding him
in place.

Markus softened, but he didn’t pull out right away either. They

were both content to stay right where they were, it seemed.

He’d thought for a second that Markus might have fallen asleep

on him, but that wasn’t the case.

“I can hear your heart beating,” Markus said. He was definitely

awake, but his voice held a sleepy note to it.

“What else can you hear?” Lance asked, running his fingers

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through Markus’s hair.

“The wind outside, your lungs expanding as you breathe, and even

some of the smaller animals lurking nearby.”

Lance was impressed. “Werewolf hearing is always that acute?”
“As far as I know,” Markus said. Now his fingers were the ones to

do a little exploring of their own. He ran his hands along the Lance’s
sides. Up and down in a slow, sensuous pattern that relaxed Lance
and nearly put him to sleep.

But…“Markus?”
“Hm?”
“I’m starting to get a cramp in my lower body.”
Markus laughed, and they both separated and stretched before

lying back down on the bed. Lance took off his glasses and put them
on the nightstand, and he was more than comfortable letting his head
rest on Markus’s well-muscled chest. The man’s body was so warm
that he didn’t need any blankets to cover him.

With his ear over Markus’s chest, now Lance could hear the way

Markus’s heart slowed down as he neared sleep. There was just one
more thing he needed to ask him before they both passed out for the
night.

“Markus?”
“Yeah?” was the sleepy reply. If Lance looked up, he had no

doubt he would see those golden eyes of his shut.

He hoped he wasn’t inviting in some insecurities on either of their

parts by asking this. “Do I only feel this way for you because we’re
mated?”

When Markus didn’t answer, Lance looked up at him.
Markus’s eyes were open, and he was looking down at Lance

curiously. Because they were so close, he was able to see the other
man just fine.

“Do I?” he prompted.
Markus seemed to think it over. Then he shook his head and

dipped his head enough so their lips touched.

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93

“No,” he said after their chaste kiss. “You’re attracted to me

sexually, clearly, but those feelings are all yours.”

Lance smiled, and he let his head come to rest back on Markus’s

chest. “I’m glad.”

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Chapter Eleven

The next day Markus decided to take Lance on over to his pack to

give the man something of a treat. Lance’s shocked expression when
Markus had explained that those wolves he’d tried and failed to get
pictures of were also werewolves was priceless.

“So many!” he’d said, that beautiful wonder never leaving his

blue eyes.

“More than that, even. Wait until you meet them.”
Though he was a little wary of meeting up with Isaac again, as

well as how he would be received since the entire pack knew Lance
had tried to prove the existence werewolves as recently as yesterday,
Markus was able to convince Lance to come along with little fuss.
Really, he was excited for it once the idea set in.

He didn’t check out of his motel room just yet, and Markus was

fine with that. Lance still had his own life to handle, and just because
he had accepted their mating didn’t mean he was about to drop
everything else to live with a poor man in his pack.

They still hadn’t spoken about what they would do about that, and

Markus wasn’t looking forward to that conversation.

Markus hadn’t been worried about it, not really, but Lance was

visibly relieved when he was well accepted by the pack. The alphas
came and slapped Markus on the back and shook Lance’s hand as
they all introduced themselves, and the omegas mostly did pretty
much the same.

The pups were especially interesting to Lance. He couldn’t seem

to stop staring at them, especially when a few of the transformed ones
ran by, being chased by the ones still in their human form.

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“They can shift at such a young age?” Lance asked.
Markus was going to have to expect a lot of questions for a little

while. Lance might no longer be uploading anything like this to his
blog or anything, but he still did have a deep interest in the mythology
of their species and the way it worked.

“It depends,” he said. “I was born a werewolf, but I wasn’t born a

wolf. Know what I mean?”

“Yeah, I think I get it,” Lance said.
“Good, okay, so for me, being born a werewolf is supposedly a

little different. People who are born usually can make their first shift
at around the age of five or so. I was nearly seven by the time I
shifted.”

“Late bloomer, you are!” someone yelled, and the other alphas all

laughed.

Markus flipped them the middle finger from where he sat. The

picnic tables had all been pushed together to form a line, and
everyone was enjoying a relatively normal barbecue to welcome
Lance into their circle.

“Anyway, the youngest I’ve ever heard of a transformation

happening was at two. I don’t know specifically which month during
that year it was. Maybe the kid was two years and eleven months, but
either way, that’s still pretty early.”

Lance looked over to where the pups were running around and

playing. Some even had a few portable game consoles in their hands.
Not the latest or greatest, but even werewolf kids enjoyed their video
games.

“I guess that makes it hard for them to go to school,” Lance said.
“Our children are all very decently homeschooled,” said Old

Maggie, the pack’s wise woman, as she sipped on her tea. She’d
finished her burgers and potatoes and salad and punch—Markus
wanted to laugh when he thought of the look on Lance’s face when he
saw such an elderly old woman piling so much food onto her plate—
so now she was enjoying a hot drink while Lance and Markus were

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celebrated.

“We have some very fine books on arithmetic for young ones,

reading, spelling, and some history books as well.”

Most of which were pretty outdated until just recently. Because

Isaac had been providing the funding to repair the cottages, that left
more money for James to put into the children’s school things and
other supplies they might need. It also meant more money went to the
baby things for the new pup that had been dropped into their laps,
though Corey seemed to be enjoying the company of the infant well
enough. Currently, he was sitting sideways on his bench, facing the
highchair, and helping Sammy to eat his mashed carrots.

“I believe you. I wasn’t trying to imply anything,” Lance said

quickly.

Old Maggie nodded and went back to sipping her tea.
“It really isn’t as bad as it sounds,” Markus said. “We don’t have a

lot here, but there is a computer in James’s house, and more of us are
starting to get the Internet lately. Before that, though, in the last ten
years it’s been much easier to get a high school diploma online. Not
exactly the same or anything, but definitely better than what it was
fifty years ago.”

The last thing Markus wanted to do was give Lance the

impression that the pack was made up of a bunch of uneducated
mongrels. He wanted to make the place look as good as possible so
that Lance would want to stay.

Lance smiled at him. “That’s true. The Internet is good for things

like that.”

More questions were asked of him. Jason, Corey, Tristan, and

several of the other omegas were all very welcoming and polite in
their questions about Lance’s choice of work and what he might be
doing now that he was no longer out to prove the existence of
werewolves.

Markus had tensed up when the question was asked. Lance only

sighed. “Well, before, the traffic from my site was enough to pay my

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97

bills, what with the advertising and all. It wasn’t exactly a lot, but it
kept the bank at bay. Now…” Lance took a few seconds to think it
over. “I guess I’m pretty good at web design. Or maybe I can offer
myself as a blog writer for someone else’s site. I hear that pays pretty
well. I make some money with my photos, too.”

Markus sighed. This was another point in his favor, that his

request wasn’t going to send Lance into the poor house either.

“Can you teach us about that?” James asked. “Earning money on

the Web, I mean. We pick up the odd job here and there from the
people in town, but it would be better if we could figure out
something a little more flexible that paid better for the extra support.”

Maybe Isaac was starting to run out of money with all the extras

he’d put into the pack. Maybe James was finally tired of taking his
money and wanted to gain some of the pack’s independence back.
Markus didn’t know.

Lance was good about it, and he offered to do what he could, and

he and James set up an appointment to meet later to discuss their
plans.

“I guess that means you’ll be sticking around for a little while?”

Markus asked hopefully.

Lance smiled at him, grabbing his Pepsi can and lifting it to his

mouth. “I guess so.”

* * * *

All in all, everything went well. Lance naturally had more

questions, and Markus answered them as best as he could, but the
pack seemed to leave a good impression on him, and now Markus was
a whole lot more confident of Lance’s willingness to want to bring his
life here.

For the first time since John had mated with Storm, Markus was

even able to look at the pair across the table and not feel that old
heartache that had seized him either. Now that he was mated, all he

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saw was Lance.

Every once in a while, Lance’s phone would vibrate in his pocket,

and he would pull out the device, frown at it, type something, and put
it back.

“What was that?” Markus asked.
“Someone who used to monitor the site for me when I was gone. I

think he’s wondering what’s happening now that it’s down.”

Ah, that made sense. Lance would still have to deal with that sort

of thing for the next little while before he was able to move on with
his life. Texts from people who worked closely with him and maybe
some e-mails from the people who followed his blog, wondering
where it went.

The realization made Markus relax every time Lance’s phone

beeped or vibrated and he hunched over to quickly answer it. Some of
the other members of the pack watched him skeptically as he did this,
but they were polite and didn’t say anything.

Markus was going to have to speak with his mate about it at some

point, but overall, he wasn’t worried.

They were alone now. Attacks from rival werewolves and hunters

had been nonexistent in the last several weeks, so he felt pretty safe in
bringing Lance off the property to show him one more thing.

“Where are we going?” Lance asked. He’d finally lost patience

after about an hour of texts and messages coming in and just shut off
his phone.

Markus took his mate by the hand. “There’s one more pond you

need to see. Not for that,” Markus said when Lance grinned at him.

“No?”
“Well, maybe, but seriously, you need to see this. It’s a very

special place.”

“Okay.” Lance followed him along the path. Summer was just

around the corner, but the air was still cool without being overly
chilly, and all the plants and flowers were out from their winter-long
hibernation.

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Lance eyes widened a little bit at the sight of the pond. “Wow. It’s

beautiful.”

Markus looked at the water fondly. The pond was being fed by a

small waterfall that came from a stream, which in turn came from
Salmon River.

“That other pond where you and I…” Lance trailed off, looked at

him, and then blushed. “Well, that place will always have a soft spot
in my heart, but this is just…wow,” he said again.

Markus led him over to the water. There were minnows and frogs

swimming about in the clear water. Some lily pads and other flowers
that Markus couldn’t name were also growing there.

“This water is pretty special. Believe it or not, it has healing

powers.”

“What?”
Markus smiled at the disbelief on Lance’s face. “Yeah.”
“No way, you’re having me on.” Lance came down to kneel by

the water. He stuck his hand in and the minnows scattered.

“No, really. It doesn’t always work, and we can’t exactly figure

out how it happened, but there’ve been people who’ve been close to
death, and the water would bring them back.”

Markus briefly thought about the people who hadn’t come back,

members of the pack who had died in battle. Eric, for one, as well as
Lyle and Derek. There was another Derek now in the pack, mated to
James’s brother, but Markus still missed his friend who had been
killed last summer.

He didn’t say that to Lance. Maybe he would share that with him,

and his former love of John, at a later time when they both were more
comfortable with each other. Right now he just wanted to enjoy the
company of his mate, without anything hanging over their heads.

“Or pups don’t walk around with quite as many cuts or scrapes

anymore from when they play because whenever they go swimming
the water heals them.”

Lance was looking down at the water with an amazed expression.

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“That’s so interesting.”

Markus loved that he could teach Lance these things. He reached

out and took his hand.

“Hey, Lance! There you are.”
Markus spun around at the unfamiliar voice. He’d been so focused

on romancing his mate that he hadn’t even heard the footsteps
approaching them.

Lance stood up. “Buddy?”
The man with the black buzz-cut hair and square face stepped

forward with all the familiarity as though he was an invited guest.

Markus smelled metal and gunpowder on him. His hunter senses

were tingling.

Buddy held up his smartphone. “Got the message you sent me.

You didn’t say you would be bringing a wolf along.” His eyes went
up and down Markus’s body. “Nice catch.”

Markus snapped his gaze over to Lance. The look he gave the

other man must not have been too trusting because Lance stepped
forward, toward his hunter friend.

“Look, I don’t know what you’re talking about, but this is my

friend Markus, and he’s not a wolf. I took the website down. There’s
nothing here.”

Markus growled when Buddy reached behind him, putting his

phone away and pulling out a gun instead. “You can drop the act.
We’ve got him surrounded. He can’t hurt us.”

“What?” Markus looked around as the trees around them ruffled

and several other hunters, all dressed in their camouflaged gear, came
out from hiding. Every single one of them pointed a gun in Markus’s
direction.

“What’s going on, Lance?” Markus didn’t want to believe it. He

didn’t want to believe that Lance was helping these hunters, even
though that man claimed he’d sent them all messages, and Lance had
been on his phone all morning.

Lance appeared to be lost. “I—” He looked back to Buddy.

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“You’re a hunter?”

“Come on. Don’t pretend like you never knew it. All those talks

we had, how we were both so interested in finding the werewolves.
That story you even told me. You knew they existed, and that wolf
might not have eaten anyone in your family, but just seeing it still
fucked you up.”

“No, it didn’t!” Lance yelled.
Buddy scoffed. “Right, because Mommy and Daddy sticking their

kid into therapy is so normal.” He then nodded to his hunter friends.
“Take the wolf. We heard all we needed to. Lance can take us to the
others. They’ve seen him and made friends with him, so he can get us
in the pack.”

Markus roared and charged at the first hunter to take a step toward

him. There was a shout and a shot fired, muffled through the barrel of
a suppresser, but he ignored it. He was banking on the hope that, if
they did shoot him, they would kill him outright, saving him the
trouble of being tortured until he transformed so they could skin him.

It didn’t matter because the bullet missed him, and he latched onto

the hunter with every ounce of strength he possessed.

His goal was to break the man’s neck, but he was surprisingly

difficult to get a hold of. Another shot fired, and Lance screamed.

No. Markus took his eyes away from the hunter he was trying to

kill, thinking that maybe Lance had been shot.

Whether or not the man accidentally gave away the location to the

pack, he didn’t want those motherfuckers to kill him.

He wasn’t dead. He didn’t even look hurt, which made Markus

breathe a sigh of relief. Lance was struggling with one of the hunters,
both of them fighting over a gun.

That idiot! What if it went off and he accidentally shot himself?
Markus tried to go to him, but the hunter grabbed him by the hair

and pulled him back. The fist against his cheek was so strong that it
was surprising again. Was this guy in steroids or something?

“Aren’t so tough now, are you?” Another fist against his eye sent

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Markus flying backward. “Piece of wolf shit,” said the hunter, who
wiped his mouth and spat, as though the word put a foul taste in his
mouth.

Only then, when Markus fell over, did he feel a sharp pain in his

shoulder.

He tried to look over, and then reached with his hand when his

head was too heavy for that and then felt them against his already
numb fingertips.

Darts. The cheating sons of bitches had drugged him.
The hunters swarmed him, bringing down their ropes and chains

on him. They tied him up so thoroughly that he could hardly move a
muscle. He was as good as a worm on the ground with how tightly his
arms and legs were bound. Next came the duct tape, which someone
wrapped around his mouth and the back of his head several times. It
was like they were afraid he would bite through it.

Markus couldn’t bite through a marshmallow at this point. He

barely knew which way was up and which was down.

He could still vaguely hear Lance’s voice, and when he looked up,

the blurred images he saw were disturbing.

His mate was arguing with the other man, about what, he couldn’t

even remember anymore. When Buddy tried to put his hand on
Lance’s shoulder, Lance shoved him away, but then the hunter
suddenly pulled him closer, and for a second Markus had the horrible
thought that they were kissing.

Then the scent of blood invaded his senses, and Markus knew

what happened. Buddy had stabbed Lance in the stomach.

His heart swelled and shattered as he watched his mate stumble

away and then fall to the ground, clutching at his stomach. The scent
of blood became thicker, and Markus had no doubt in his mind that he
wouldn’t survive that kind of wound.

The hunters spoke amongst each other quickly, but Markus was

too drugged up to make out their words. The ground vanished beneath
him as he was picked up, slung over the shoulder of one of the

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103

hunters, most likely, and then carted away.

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Chapter Twelve

Lance could only watch helplessly as the man he used to think of

as a friend casually refilled his water canteen from the pond, smiled at
him, and stole Markus away. Lance wanted to scream. He was off to
do every horrible thing that Isaac had said hunters do to werewolves
to Markus, and to every other member of that pack.

His stomach hurt so much. He clamped his hand over it, but the

blood wouldn’t stop coming. His fingers were sticky with it, and the
smell made him want to puke.

He couldn’t do that, however. All he could think about was

Markus, and those children back at the pack, as well as the little baby
that Corey had fed while they were at the picnic table enjoying the
barbeque.

Buddy was going to kill all of them if Lance didn’t do something.
They were werewolves, and most of them had a good chance of

surviving, but Lance didn’t want a single death to be on his hands.
Not one.

That boy had saved his life when he was younger. If he could, he

would at least try to warn the pack that those hunters were on their
way.

Buddy thought he was so clever. Apparently, up until Lance had

shut his phone off, Buddy had done something technical and traced
which tower Lance had been closest to by using the texts they’d been
sending to each other. That was how he’d managed to find them.

It seemed he’d gotten a little suspicious when the website and

blog were removed from the Web.

The stupid asshole hadn’t noticed when Lance had reached for his

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handgun when he’d pulled Lance closer to stab him with the biggest
hunting knife Lance had ever seen.

He looked at the weapon now. It was a revolver, the type of thing

that looked like it belonged in an old Western movie. He didn’t know
much about those. He’d never even held a real gun before in his life.

He quickly looked around for any sign of a safety switch, and he

saw none. After fiddling with it for a bit, he was able to figure out
how to get the chamber out.

All the bullets spilled around his head when he did that stupid

move.

At least now he knew he had something to work with.
He tried as best he could to wipe the blood off his hands on the

grass and sand around him. His fingers shook as he located the bullets
and reloaded them into the chamber. It took him a couple of tries
before he managed to get the thing snapped properly back into place.

Lance would love nothing better than to run after those pricks

with the gun in his hand and take down every last one of them for
what they had done, and what they had planned to do, but that wasn’t
going to happen. He could barely move.

There was one thing he could do with this gun, however.
If all the Western movies he’d ever seen in his life were right, this

sort of weapon made one hell of a noise, unlike those other dart guns
with the suppressors on them that the hunters had used on Markus.

The werewolves were suspicious of sounds like these so close to

their pack. Markus had told him so at one point in their conversation.

Lance rolled onto his back, pointed the weapon into the air,

prayed it would actually work for him, and squeezed the trigger.

* * * *

The echoing shots sounded, startling Buddy and every single one

of those dirty werewolves they were observing. They all stopped what
they were doing and looked toward the sound.

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Another shot fired, and the pups, as well as the omegas with any

children, ran for the safety of their houses while the alphas stood
straight and started sniffing. They all looked right in the direction
where Buddy and his men were hiding.

He reached down suddenly, searching for the revolver that he

always kept on him, and found it gone.

That little son of a bitch!
Buddy screamed out the signal now that their surprise attack had

been pissed down the drain, and he, his men, and every single
available alpha charged each other, seemingly at the same time.

He was going to get as many of these fucking wolves as he could,

even if it killed him.

* * * *

Markus shifted away from the hand that was slapping his face.

The next smack came harder, and his eyes flew open.

Hands on his shoulders made him fight back, but then the calming

voice that spoke to him suddenly made sense, and he recognized who
was in front of him.

John.
He was yelling something down into Markus’s face, but

everything sounded so far away. John’s voice echoed, and it took a
couple of seconds before the noises coming out of his mouth turned
into words that Markus could understand.

“Come on. Stay with me. You’re all right,” John said, still gently

smacking his cheek, as though trying to wake him from his daze.

Now it was really starting to work.
Markus sat up so suddenly that the world around him spun. He

turned over and vomited into a bush.

John was swearing and jumping back away from the carnage

Markus was causing before he came back and started patting
Markus’s back, as though that would help him out anymore.

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It took Markus another few seconds, and another bout of

vomiting, before he realized that his hands were no longer bound
together. Neither were his legs, though the circulation still felt stiff.

John must’ve just finished cutting him loose. “What happened?”

he asked groggily. The taste in his mouth was disgusting, and he had
to spit a couple of times.

“We’re almost done chasing them off the property. Killed some,

though. Cole is missing, and a few others are injured, but so far none
on our side are dead. Christ, I just saw you laying here. The hunter
must’ve abandoned you to escape.”

Just the mention of hunters brought to mind the one person

Markus should have been thinking of first.

“Lance. Where is Lance?” He tried to remember what happened

but couldn’t recall if the hunters had taken the other man with them or
not. They’d drugged him with something pretty damn strong, and now
he could barely think straight.

Then the memory came back to him. The heavy scent of blood

and Lance being stabbed before falling to the ground.

Markus launched to his feet, and then bent over and puked some

more.

John was rubbing his back some more. “Get it out of you. That’s

right. You’ll feel better when it’s gone.”

Markus was coughing now and trying to speak before he was even

finished heaving. “Lance?”

John’s hesitation was not a good sign. “We haven’t seen him. We

don’t know what the hunters did with him.”

That meant they’d left him back at the pond. They’d left him for

dead. Maybe he already was dead.

Markus pushed away from the tree he’d been leaning against and

started moving.

John followed him a couple of steps. “Where are you going?

There are still hunters crawling all over the place.”

A gunshot sounded, and then the shouts of members of the pack as

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they continued to attack came from somewhere behind them,
accenting John’s warning.

“Lance is at the pond,” Markus said, coughing and choking some

more. “He was stabbed. He needs help.”

He looked behind him briefly to see the way John had stopped and

half turned, looking back to where the fight was still taking place.

Markus wouldn’t have blamed him for going back. His mate was

back there, also fighting for his life, as well as the rest of the pack.
Really, John didn’t know Lance well enough to risk helping Markus.

He was both surprised and happy when his friend started running

with him again, until they were right next to each other.

“You’re going to need some backup,” John said.
They both ran as quickly as they could back to the pond.

Occasionally Markus needed to stop to heave some more, and his
body was so weak that, when he tripped over the odd tree root, he was
forced to rely on John to catch him before he fell.

They made it back to the pond in good time, however, and the

scent of blood, his mate’s blood, was enough that he nearly vomited
again.

Lance wasn’t where he’d been carelessly dropped by that bastard

hunter. No. He’d managed to drag himself, leaving a thick trail of
blood, toward the pond.

Markus had told him it had healing powers, after all.
“Lance!” He ran to his mate. Lance was half in the water, his face

partly submerged, and when Markus fell to his knees and pulled him
out, he was terrified that he would find that his mate had drowned
himself on accident when he passed out.

“Please be alive. You have to be alive.” Markus put his hands

against Lance’s neck, and he breathed a heavy sigh when he felt a
pulse there. Lance’s face had been adequately out of the water, so he
could properly breathe at least.

“Thank God.”
“I smell gunpowder,” John said. He started looking around the

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blood trail that Lance had left behind when he’d dragged himself and
then picked up a revolver.

John’s eyes went wide. “Holy shit. He was the one to warn us.”
“What?” Markus asked, barely sparing his friend a glance as he

searched his mate for any more injuries, as well as the stab wound
he’d received. He needed to make sure that Lance was in no danger of
dying on him. He hadn’t forgotten that the magic of the pond didn’t
always work.

What he found wasn’t very encouraging. It was a little more

difficult to find the stab wound than it should have been. The pond
water had washed much of the blood away before it could stain his
already dark clothing, and it took a minute before Markus found the
hole where the knife had gone in.

He ripped it open even wider with his hands to have a better look.
He hadn’t seen the size of the knife, or if he had, he couldn’t

remember how big it had been, but the slice in his skin was definitely
smaller than the hole itself had been.

He was healing, but blood still poured wet and warm from the

wound itself. There was no sign of clotting, which might have been
the fault of the cool water, and he was definitely growing paler.

Markus forced his breathing to calm down as he placed his ear

over Markus’s heart.

He could hear his heart, as well as his lungs. Both were slowing

down.

“Fuck!”
“What is it?” John asked, stepping forward. Every time there was

the sound of a twig cracking, he would turn around, searching for the
sound. He was clearly on edge now that they were out here on their
own.

“The water’s not healing him all the way.”
“What?”
Markus couldn’t explain it, and he didn’t want to try. Honestly,

miracle pond or not, the water here was really starting to piss him off

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for its lack of predictability.

He picked Lance up and started rushing into the water with him.

He could remember times gone by when some of the others had been
forced to bring their mates or family members here, and the water
either had worked for them or it hadn’t.

Christ, it was working a little, but nowhere near as quickly as it

should have been. Markus pushed forward until the water was up to
his chest. That was more than enough space for the pond water to
fully cover Lance’s body. Now he just needed the stuff to work.

“You’re okay. You’re going to be okay. Come on. Heal. Heal,” he

said, keeping one hand on Lance’s neck, wishing the ever-weakening
pulse and breath would pick up some strength already.

The blood still seeped into the water, and at first it was heavy, but

then it started to vanish and drift away, giving Markus a clear look at
the wound beneath the water as it closed up.

He laughed with the relief he felt.
“Is it working?” John called.
“Yeah,” Markus called back, and he kissed Lance’s pale cheek.

“You’re going to be fine. Come on, baby, open your eyes.”

He shook Lance a little, expecting some sort of reaction, but

Lance’s head drooped. His body remained limp in Markus’s arms, as
though he was a doll or something.

Worry crept back into Markus’s gut, and the little monster settled

down there, heavy and ugly and getting stronger by the second.

He shook his mate again. “Lance?”
Markus put his hand back on Lance’s neck, noting the way the

pulse had continued to slow down, to the point where, at one time, he
even thought his heart had stopped.

He was still dying.
“No!”
Markus turned, and with every bit of strength he had left in him,

he rushed out of the water.

John’s face was horrified. “What is it? What’s wrong?”

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111

There was only one other place that Markus could think to take

him that could possibly save his life at this point. “A hospital! He
needs a hospital!”

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Chapter Thirteen

Lance woke up feeling high and heavy at the same time. It wasn’t

the good kind of high he remembered from college, however. This felt
awkward and wrong, likely brought on by the heaviness in his body.
He didn’t particularly like that.

It took him several minutes, what felt like several minutes at any

rate, to determine what that beeping, sighing, and chemical smell was.

Plain, boring white walls, guard rails beside his bed, and was that

tubing in his nose?

Great, he was in a fucking hospital.
“Oh! You’re awake,” said the cheery voice of the male nurse.
That was good, right? If the staff were in good spirits while they

were in his room, then it meant he wasn’t dying, right?

A bright light flashed in his eyes, and the man with dark skin

wearing the pink top pulled back. “Can you speak?”

Lance tried it. His voice came out sounding worse than a frog’s

croak, and his mouth tasted like shit. “Where am I?”

“Sorry?”
He repeated himself to the best of his ability when it appeared as

though the nurse was about to brush him off as being unable to speak
at the moment.

“Try to rest your voice if you’re having trouble speaking, but

you’re in Beaverbrook Hospital. You had a pretty nasty fall.”

Well, at least he wasn’t going to have to make up some kind of lie

as to how he’d gotten injured. They’d already come to their own
conclusions.

Wait. Beaverbrook? Did that guy just say Beaverbrook? Lance’s

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113

addled brain tried to figure out precisely where that was, but he just
couldn’t figure it out before everything went black on him again.

The next time he woke up, it was dark in his room, but the

beeping and sighing of the machines were still there. Lance was able
to think a little clearer as well.

Beaverbrook. He didn’t know the area too well, but if he was

remembering it right, that was the next town over from Brampton.

It was also a hundred miles away from where Markus and his

pack were.

His first thought was to get the hell out of here as quickly as he

could. He needed to find Markus and explain to him that he didn’t
have anything to do with what Buddy had done.

Actually, he needed to find Markus period. Shit, they’d taken him!
He’d just fallen out of bed when an alarm went off. Several staff

members rushed into the room and grabbed him. He fought against
them, he screamed at them that he needed to leave, but then
something pricked him in the ass, and he realized they’d injected him
with something to calm him down.

The bastards, he thought right before he went under.
It was still dark the next time he woke up. He couldn’t even see a

clock anywhere to tell him if it was nearly morning or if another day
had come and gone.

He did hear the breathing of another individual in the room. At

first he thought it was the patient sharing the room with him, but he
was pretty sure he’d been alone the last time he woke up. Did they
bring someone else in here with him?

A car drove by the hospital outside, and the lights from the vehicle

quickly swept across the room, and Lance saw the shadowy figure
standing over his bed.

He tried to move away, but his hands were shackled to the bed. He

tried to scream, but hands came down on his mouth, keeping him
silent.

His heart worked overtime, and his lungs had trouble taking in air.

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“It’s me! Lance! It’s me!” Markus said, somehow managing to

shout the words but keep his voice down enough so only Lance would
hear him.

Markus then immediately removed his hands, and Lance had to

force his breathing to calm down enough so he could take in air.

It was especially hard to do because now he was crying. “Jesus

Christ, you’re here!”

“Yeah, I am. You need to keep quiet though. I had to drop you off

and run before any of the doctors could start asking questions.”

That was right. Werewolves couldn’t go to hospitals or be

questioned by the police. That would make things a little too
awkward.

Lance tried to lift his hands to hug the man, but then remembered

that they were strapped down when he couldn’t lift them.

“Can you get these off me?”
When Markus hesitated, Lance really started to worry. “Markus?”
“I think it’s best if we just keep our distance for the next little bit.”
Lance’s heart hammered, and then it dropped into his stomach as

his throat seized up. “I—no, I mean. Markus, I swear to God I didn’t
have anything to do with Buddy being at your pack. I swear I didn’t
know he was tracking me. I swear!”

“Shh.” Markus lifted his hands as he made the noise. “I believe

you. I’m sorry if I ever did doubt you, but that’s not the reason for
this.”

Lance couldn’t believe it. His tongue felt thick when he

swallowed. “Then why?”

Markus seemed to be going through a sort of struggle of his own,

but Lance could hardly sympathize with him when the man was
ripping his heart out like this.

“Lance,” Markus said, using a tone that suggested he was the one

to know best in this situation. “You nearly died. A hunter stabbed you
in the stomach because he was trying to get to us.”

“I haven’t told anyone here how that happened,” Lance said

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115

quickly. He didn’t even get a chance to really speak to any members
of the staff anyway, what with how drugged he’d been. Then there
was his escape attempt. “I won’t tell them how it happened. They
think I fell.”

Markus nodded. “I know. Ryan, one of my pack mates, he used to

be a cop, and he was able to sneak in here earlier and read the records
they were making on you. The water from the pond healed you, for
the most part, but you were still bleeding internally, and that made it
even more dangerous because there was no one at the pack who could
fix that.”

Lance frowned. For them to be able to treat internal bleeding, the

doctors would’ve had to cut him open again. He hadn’t felt any pain
or stitches, but that could very well be because of all the medication
he was on.

It certainly explained why the staff had been so panicked when he

tried to get away and so quick to get him back into bed.

“Who drove me here? They said we were in Beaverbrook.”
“I did,” Markus said, smiling and looking away. When he looked

back up at Lance, there was a shine in his eyes. “John held onto you
in the passenger seat. You should’ve seen the look on his face. He
was so scared we were going to get into an accident.”

For Markus to have gotten here in time for the doctors to save

Lance’s life, he must’ve tore up the car or truck, or whatever it was
that he’d been driving.

He couldn’t even imagine the speeds they must’ve been going at.
“I’m glad I wasn’t awake for it, then.”
“Yeah.” Markus laughed a little.
“Don’t go,” Lance said. He wished he could reach out to the man,

but his hands were still strapped down, and Markus was making no
move to free him.

“Lance, come on. You barely know me.”
“You said we were mated,” Lance retorted. “You said that my

feelings were about more than that, too. I know you love me.

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Otherwise you wouldn’t be here.”

Markus inhaled and exhaled in deep motions. It reminded Lance

of the stubborn way children fought back their tears. “Christ, you told
me your asthma wasn’t that bad, but since meeting me I’ve made you
stop breathing three times now.”

“It wasn’t that many,” Lance retorted. He’d only had to use his

puffer once. “Markus, please get these straps off me. At least so we
can talk normally before the nurses make their rounds or something.”

Markus shook his head. “They were already here a couple minutes

before you woke up. I don’t scent them nearby either.”

“Can you just let me out anyway? You can strap me back in

before they come back.”

Markus bit his lips together, and then he stood up. “I should go.”
“No, Markus, please.” It took everything Lance had to not yell at

the man to stop walking toward the window to make his retreat. Lance
couldn’t let him go. He knew that if Markus disappeared out that
window, Lance would never see him again.

“Come back. At least kiss me before you go.” He’d said that last

part out of sheer desperation, and he hadn’t actually expected Markus
to stop and turn around.

He did. Markus was a shadow again now that he was on the other

side of the room, but Lance could see the way the other man was
studying him.

He was thinking about it. Against his better judgement, Markus

was considering going back and giving Lance what he wanted. That
was exactly the sort of crack in the wall that Lance needed to exploit.

“I just, I need you to do it before you go. Just one more time.”
He heard the deep groan Markus made before the other man

crossed the room and was at his bedside.

Markus leaned down, taking Lance’s face into his hands, and their

lips came together softly yet needfully.

Despite how cracked Lance’s lips felt, and how dry his mouth

was, it was the sweetest kiss Lance had ever had.

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He struggled against the padded straps that held him in place a

little more, wanting so much to just put his hands around Markus’s
neck. He wanted to feel the other man’s skin beneath his fingers, to
touch his hair, his jaw, everything.

He wanted to tell Markus through his touch just how much he

didn’t want him to leave him there. There was nothing more
frustrating than being confined the way he was.

Though there wasn’t much he could do except kiss back to the

best of his ability, Markus’s lips, tongue, and hands did all the talking
for him.

He didn’t want to leave Lance lying there anymore than Lance

wanted him to.

His callused fingers were gentle against Lance’s face, and his

tongue was practically making love to his mouth. Lance pressed
himself closer, as much as he was able, begging for more.

Despite the fact that he was still a little doped up on the

painkillers, his body still reacted. His cock throbbed and swelled
beneath the hospital sheets. He was going to die of embarrassment if
he was making a tent down there.

Maybe Markus scented the change in his body, because he

forcefully pulled himself away from Lance’s mouth.

“You don’t want to leave, either,” Lance said quickly, before the

other man could turn around and vanish like a ninja out the window.
“I can tell.”

“Christ, it wouldn’t work out anyway. I’m your mate, and I can’t

even protect you. That fucking bastard stabbed you, and there was
nothing I could do about it. You were the one to save the pack.”

“Well, I don’t think I actually saved them.”
“You warned them,” Markus said. “Which was a lot more than

what I did.”

The clicking of heels just down the hall quieted the both of them

down, and Markus ducked behind the bed several seconds before one
of the nurses could come into the room.

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Lance shut his eyes just as the shadowy figure appeared in the

doorway. When he heard the footsteps walking away, he opened his
eyes.

He breathed a sigh to see that Markus was still there.
He was started to get a little angry with the other man. “If you

want to leave me for that then go ahead, because you’re not leaving
because you think it’s best for me or something. You’re doing it
because you’re ashamed of what you think is failure.”

“I did fail!” Markus seethed.
“No, you didn’t, but if you thinking that you did is enough to

make you want to dump me, then go ahead and leave.”

Lance wished he could walk away or something, his back straight

and his head held high, but he was still strapped down to the fucking
bed.

All he could do was turn his head away. After about a minute or

so, he started to think that all Markus was going to do was stare at
him. He turned his head back to snap at the other man again.

And found that no one was there.
The knowledge that he was alone, and that Markus really had left

him behind in this hospital, stole his breath away.

Lance clenched his teeth, neck, and fists. His whole body went

tight until he started to get cramps all over his muscles.

He wanted to kick and scream, but he didn’t dare draw any

attention to himself.

Markus really had left him.

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Chapter Fourteen

Cole woke up to the worst sort of stiff pain in his entire body. The

stabbing light of the morning sun made him close his eyes again. All
he could see before that was that he was still outside. The sounds of
the wind, birds, insects, and all the other creatures were all around as
the wildlife went about its morning routine. The nausea was killer as
well.

He tried to turn over as his stomach churned so that, if he vomited,

it wouldn’t be all over himself.

The covers and blankets over top of him prevented that.
Christ, how weak was he?
“Here.”
Someone gently lifted his head and pressed a cup to his lips. Cole

smelled the chicken broth first and gratefully drank down the soup.
Bits of bread were then hand-fed to him, and he started to feel much
better.

He could even open his eyes again without any pain assaulting his

retinas or making the headache he had any worse.

What he saw made him want to pass out all over again.
It wasn’t just that the blankets were weighing him down. He was

tied down. He was in a small camp, and the guns and knives that were
lying around clearly didn’t belong to any pack mate of his.

He could suddenly smell the metal and gunpowder that was in the

air as well.

A hand came down onto his forehead, testing his temperature.

“How do you feel?”

The voice was familiar. “Like shit,” Cole said then shook his hand

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away. “Want me healthy for when you skin me, right?”

The person above him didn’t say anything. Despite the trees and

the canopy, they were in a small sort of clearing, and the sun was
directly behind his captor, bathing him in light and making him hard
to see at the same time.

“I’m not going to skin you,” he said quietly.
Cole scoffed. “They told me what you would do to me if you ever

caught me. You’re lying.”

“Are you scared?”
Fuck, no one had ever said the hunters would be having these

weird conversations with him. “A little.”

A lot, more like it.
“Cole, don’t you recognize me?”
The fact that the man knew his name sent off all kinds of alarms

in Cole’s head. He looked back at the guy, his muggy brain suddenly
putting together just why that voice was so familiar to him, and it
made him more scared than ever before.

There was no way. He hadn’t been a hunter. “Everett?”
The sun shifted just enough behind one of the pines so that Cole

could finally see that sadly grinning face. “Hey, lover.”

* * * *

Lance made sure to exit the hospital as soon as possible. He didn’t

have the money to be staying for too many days, so with instructions
to not lift anything more than ten pounds for the next six weeks and a
bottle of pain killers than made him inwardly scream when he looked
at the bill, he was a free man.

He didn’t feel free. He still felt like shit, and he wanted to curl up

into a pathetic ball somewhere and cry out his sorrows.

He shook away the thought. Markus had been right. Despite the

mating thing, and despite what he felt for the other man, they had
barely known each other. Why was he being so emotional about this?

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121

Just because he’d practically told Markus that he loved him and

Markus hadn’t replied didn’t mean anything. Just because he now had
to go home and find a way to rebuild his life also didn’t mean
anything either.

He wanted to kill something when he opened his wallet and

realized he didn't have enough cash to get him back to the motel. He
didn’t even have enough money on his credit cards to buy a bus
ticket. He was a hundred miles away from Brampton, and he didn’t
have anyone to pick him up to take him back to collect his things.

Somehow that made his loneliness all the worse.
He’d never hitchhiked before, but with his lack of funds, it

seemed that was the only way he was getting back to collect his things
now.

Getting to a nearby thrift store so he could buy a shirt and jacket

with the little he had left was the worst. The looks on the faces of the
employees as he walked into the store with no shirt on, pretending he
didn’t see the no shirt, no shoes, no service sign.

He was grateful they didn’t kick him out and just let him make his

purchase. They even let him put the shirt on and take the tag to the
register so he could at least wear something on his way out.

Lance ducked his head as he left the store. God, that had been

humiliating. At least his bandages weren’t out in the open anymore.

He swore he was just going to get into his car and drive home. He

wasn’t even going to look at any wolf pictures for the rest of his life.

He started walking along the highway. He didn’t have any

luggage to carry beyond the little bag of pills and extra bandages so
he could change his wraps, but those were being carried in his coat
pocket.

It was icing on the cake when thunder cracked overhead.
Fuck. With how quiet the road was, it was going to rain long

before he got a ride back.

A few cars and trucks came and went. Most were going in the

opposite direction he wanted, so he ignored those. He really wished

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someone would stop to give him a lift though. It was already
showering.

Another truck appeared in the distance, but it was also driving

away from Brampton, so Lance didn’t pay any attention to it.

He frowned in slight confusion when the truck did a U-turn in the

middle of the road and then pulled up alongside of him.

Markus’s face was in the window. He rolled it down a little and

called out to him. “Get in.”

The rain was coming down harder now, and Lance wasn’t about

to stand there asking questions. He ran to the passenger side of the
truck and opened the door. He was careful as he pulled himself inside,
and he sighed when he sat down.

He hoped he was dripping all over Markus’s seats.
“Are you all right?” Markus asked.
Lance glared at him.
Markus looked away and put the truck back in gear. “Right, stupid

question.”

They drove for about twenty minutes or so before Lance finally

had to speak to him. He was getting sick of just sitting there silently,
stealing glances at the other man. “What made you come back?”

He noted the way Markus’s eyes flickered over to him as he

drove. “I heard you were released today. Figured you would want a
ride back.”

“You heard?” It didn’t take much to realize what had happened.

“You called the hospital?”

Markus didn’t say anything. His jaw did go a little tight, however.
Christ. “You’ve been keeping tabs on me while I was in there?”
“Well, of course I was. I didn’t want to strand you in that town

with no way to get back,” Markus snapped. His hands were extremely
tight around the steering wheel.

Lance couldn’t help the bitchy words that left his mouth. “No one

else volunteered to pick me up?”

“No, actually.”

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123

Lance winced. Markus really didn’t want to be here for him then.

That was just…ouch.

“Please don’t do that,” Markus said.
“Do what?” Lance replied, crossing his arms over his chest and

leaning as far away from the other man as he could.

“Don’t pout so much about it. You know I’m right. This wouldn’t

work anyway.”

“You really want to have this argument, don’t you?”
“No, I just want to send you on your way without any regrets.”
Lance couldn’t yell at him that last time they were together in the

hospital for fear of giving him away. He could do it now. “I told you
that I loved you! I just found out that the very thing I’ve been
searching for my entire life exists, and now I have to give it up, and
you, and you think I’m going to walk away from that like in some
fucking movie or something?”

“Lance…”
“Like, what did you think I was going to do? Agree with you and

go on my merry way thinking what a great little adventure it was I
had that I can keep close to my heart or something?” He sneered that
last part, putting his hands over his heart just to add to the sarcasm.

Markus clearly wasn’t a multitasker. Otherwise he would’ve been

able to have this argument and drive at the same time. He had to pull
over to the side of the road, and he put the truck in park right before
he turned his angry gaze to Lance.

His eyes were gold again.
“You are out of your fucking mind if you think I want to let you

go.”

“Then don’t!” Lance yelled.
“And what about your life? Huh? You’re just going to drop

everything you have, all of your friends, and come and live with me?”

“My friends were all a bunch of hunters who were trying to kill

you!” Lance yelled.

“Yeah! And they almost killed you just to get to my pack!”

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Something strange clicked between them as they yelled at each

other. Whatever it was, it seemed to send the signals to both of them
that made them launch themselves at each other at the same time.

They clawed and grabbed at each other while they kissed and

suckled. All that pent-up lust Lance had felt came boiling to the
surface, and now he needed to let it all out.

He didn’t give Markus the chance to get out of his seat before he

was in the other man’s lap. He could feel how stiff and heavy his cock
was even from under his jeans. Lance was in the same position.

His body was in command here, not his brain, and he didn’t mind

it one bit.

Markus kept his hands gentle as they unzipped the jacket and

lifted the shirt up to he could get a look at his chest.

Those golden eyes of his softened sadly at the sight of the

bandages that were wrapped around the wound.

“Don’t think about it,” Lance commanded him, and he took one of

Markus’s hands and pressed it down onto his cock. “Touch me.”

Markus did. He palmed and squeezed Lance’s dick, rubbing little

circles around it that drove him insane.

With Lance’s shirt still lifted, Markus leaned forward and took

one of his nipples into his mouth.

Lance moaned, pressing himself closer to that mouth and humping

into Markus’s hand. “That’s nice.”

This wasn’t one of those one-for-the-road fucks. Lance wouldn’t

let this be their last time. Markus wanted him, and he wasn’t about to
let the other man walk away after this.

It was pouring sheets outside. The rain made an awful sort of

noise against the windshield, and visibility was down to nearly zilch.
Lance wasn’t at all worried about someone driving by and seeing
them. It was more likely that the other people on the road had also
pulled over until the storm passed.

“Will you be okay for this?” Markus said, looking between them

to where his hand was driving Lance insane. His golden eyes were as

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125

bright as ever.

There was no way in hell Lance was going to say no. “Yeah. I

think we should just go it a little slow.”

Markus was already fighting with the button and fly to his jeans.

He had some trouble until he finally took his hand away from Lance’s
crotch and just started to undress.

Lance had to get off him for a moment so Markus could get his

pants down. The boots he was wearing made it nearly impossible, but
Lance was only wearing shoes, so he kicked them off and removed
his pants entirely.

He wanted nothing more than to just wrap his mouth around

Markus’s cock. It stood up at a slight curve, thick and swollen.

The only thing that stopped him was the idea of getting to his

knees and bending over like that in such a small space. He didn’t want
to rip open his stitches or anything.

Later. There was going to be a later.
“Please come here,” Markus begged.
Lance did as he was told. “Tell me you have something in here to

use.”

“Glove compartment,” Markus said, his voice nearly breathless.
Lance reached over and popped open the little door. Inside was a

bottle of sunscreen.

He took it and gave it to Markus.
It must’ve been nearly empty, because Markus had to shake the

bottle a little before anything came out. He finally got some into his
hands and rubbed them together, and then he stroked his dick, coating
it thoroughly.

His eyes slid shut as he touched himself. When Markus’s head fell

back, Lance couldn’t resist planting a kiss alongside his neck.

Markus helped him to climb back onto his lap, and he made fast

work of the preparation. He only got two fingers inside of Lance
before he lost all patience and lined up his dick with Lance’s asshole.

They had meant it to be something slow and enjoyable, but it

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wasn’t. It was hard and fast. Lance put his hands on either side of
Markus’s head, gripping the back of the seat as Markus fucked him.
He bounced on his lover’s lap, loving every second of it, squeezing
his anus around Markus’s cock and making the other man moan and
curse as he bucked beneath him.

Markus kept his hands on Lance’s hips, pushing him up and down

as hard as he could go without being too rough with him, ever
mindful of his still healing wounds, and in such a way that had Lance
shouting and coming in minutes.

Markus reached down and stroked Lance’s dick the second he

started coming, milking him and drawing out his pleasure. Lance
could feel Markus’s cum spurting inside him as he came.

His entire body trembled even after he came down from the high

of his orgasm. Every bone in his body felt weak and stringy, and he
didn’t want to move from Markus’s warmth.

He felt the tickle of Markus’s hands trailing patterns over his skin.

Lance thought that the two of them must look pretty strange, sitting
the way they were, with Markus’s pants only halfway down his legs
and Lance sitting in his lap.

Thank God for the rain.
“Are you sure you want to do this?”
Markus’s voice was small and unsure.
Lance looked at him. He put his hands on Markus’s neck, feeling

his strong pulse, and he nodded. “I’m sure. I love you.”

Markus blew out a long breath, and then, as though against his

will, he smiled. “I love you, too. We’re going to have to talk about
some things if this is what we’re going to do.”

Lance knew that. “My involvement with the hunters?”
Markus’s lips quirked. “Yeah. We got a few of them, one of them

your friend Buddy. He’s definitely dead, but James will probably
have you identify the others and question you about them a bit, but
that should be all.”

Lance blew out a long breath. Buddy was dead, and so were some

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127

of the others. “How many more did you get?” he asked against his
better judgment.

“Only two. That was a good group of hunters, and the fact that

they’re still out there worries me.”

Markus ran his thumb over Lance’s bottom lip when he said that.
Though their friendship had just been a lie used to get to

werewolves through Lance, he couldn’t help but wonder about the
other men he’d come into contact with while he’d worked on his
website. Was Everett still alive? Or Adam, or Luke? There were
others in the group as well, but Lance didn’t know them all.

He told himself it didn’t matter. They were nothing to him now.

Markus was everything to him, and he wanted to make sure the man
stayed safe. He wanted to be with him.

Markus cleared his throat, a light blush coloring his cheeks.

“Hunters aren’t the only thing we’ll be talking about once we get
back.”

Lance smiled at him. “Like where we’re going to live?” And

when Lance would be able to sell his house and come down to
Brampton permanently. Then there would also be learning how to tell
if any of the people he met were hunters, and how to avoid leading
them back to the pack again.

He wasn’t sure if any of the members of Markus’s pack would

want him around after he accidentally gave away their location, but
just selling the house alone would require some separation. He didn’t
think it would take too long, and now he was in too much of a good
mood to mind.

Lance looked out the window. The rainstorm didn’t seem like it

was about to let up, and it was much too dangerous to drive in it at the
moment.

“I want to live with you and your pack. If they’ll have me,” Lance

clarified, just in case Markus didn’t understand where his thoughts
had gone.

Markus’s smile was dazzling, and all of Lance’s worries over

128

Marcy Jacks

whether or not the pack would accept him melted away. “I think we
can manage that.”

THE END

WWW.MARCYJACKS.COM

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Marcy Jacks lives and works in Ontario, Canada, where she is

fervently pursuing the writer’s life while writing about lots of
gorgeous guys. She loves hearing from readers, and you can reach her
at [e-mail].

For all titles by Marcy Jacks, please visit

www.bookstrand.com/marcy-jacks

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