Chapter Fourteen – Big (Not Bad) Wolf
I will die if I can't have you now.
Those words had made him come undone. Who could resist that? Danny let his head fall back as Ryder went at his neck with the hunger of a wild animal. Something of how his unusual guest behaved made Danny think of him as a big wolf, but not a bad one. He shouldn't say it out loud. The good upbringing Ryder must have received from his very conservative family would most likely prevent him from telling Danny he felt insulted by such a comparison, but it would be a bad thing to mention, nonetheless.
Instead, he would just enjoy the way Ryder nuzzled his neck, biting it from time to time, but not hard enough to cause pain. It was an erotic act beyond Danny's usual fantasies. Ryder's teeth moved over his skin, triggering a shiver deep within him that went beyond the physical sensation.
They shared a connection. Danny thought they had something special, he and Ryder, and wished with all his heart that it wasn't only his wishful thinking playing a part in how he perceived this new experience. While he'd had sex before, none of it could compare to the rush of pleasure moving through him now, making all his nerve endings catch fire.
"I want you," Ryder whispered against the side of Danny's neck. He whimpered softly, and that small act of vulnerability and surrender – another thing making Danny think of Ryder as a big and nice canine – make the last vestiges of his resolve shatter.
He didn't want to live with regrets. Maybe he'd feel remorse tomorrow, under the unforgiving light of day, for succumbing to his desire for someone who was promised to another guy in the most old-fashioned way he could imagine, but tonight was different.
Tonight, Danny was going to throw caution to the wind.
"Let's go inside," he whispered hurriedly.
Ryder appeared reluctant to detach his lips from Danny's neck, which he licked a few more times as if to imprint some unique taste upon his memory before moving away.
Danny took Ryder's hand and pulled him along. He only stopped once, at the top of the ladder that led them to the landing below.
"About Theodore," he started, the words bitter on his tongue. "If you don't want to do this, if you think it's a mistake--"
Ryder embraced him from behind. "It's a mistake I can't prevent. Forgive me, Danny. I can't help wanting you."
That was all the justification he needed. No matter how much he wanted to be the same good person he'd been his whole life, he couldn't help wanting Ryder, either. Theodore, who already had everything, would have Ryder for the rest of his life. Tonight, Ryder would be Danny's, consequences be damned.
***
Danny's scent had grown stronger. It was making Ryder a bit dizzy, so he stole one last look at the moon on their way down. She shone from behind a cloud now, shy but playful. In his heart, he knew she approved.
So why was Theodore his fated mate? Destiny had a way of being impossible to understand. Ryder looked at the back of Danny's head and then his eyes moved lower to the curve of his neck, his shoulders, the rest of his back. He looked nothing like someone a witch would put in his way to tempt him. There was no guile in the way he moved, and his clean scent couldn't be the result of a cursed love potion.
He followed Danny back into the room and couldn't stop a soft whine from escaping him as his host abandoned him momentarily to search for something in one of the drawers by the bed.
"Sorry for making you wait," Danny said, his voice trembling a bit.
Ryder understood why Danny's scent seemed so much stronger tonight. The desire he felt was echoed in the other. Could he hope that Jack's cards were telling the truth, that this Average Joe was his destiny, and not Theodore Pembroke? But how could that be? Cassandra had been adamant that he must find Theodore and mate with him before the next full moon.
He would do that. He would do it with a heavy heart, because it was his duty. But tonight, he was allowed this last mistake before he followed the rules of his world and sworn himself completely to the one who had been written for him in the stars.
"We must use protection," Danny interrupted his gloomy thoughts.
Ryder stared at the items Danny was presenting to him with a shy smile on his lips. The artificial lights allowed him to see his host hesitating, as if he was still considering whether he should pull Ryder into bed with him or not.
Danny had a good heart. He believed that Ryder should be with Theodore, even if he didn't know the full truth. He believed that even if it went against his own desires.
Ryder turned off the lights. He could see Danny in the dark just as well as he had before, although the human before him, shivering with expectation and longing, wouldn't know that. He was gentle as he picked the items out of Danny's hand. They wouldn't protect him from wanting Danny whole, but that wasn't something he could say out loud.
His skin was on fire as Danny brushed his cheek alongside Ryder's arm. That simple act of rubbing against him, as if Danny wanted to imprint him with his unique scent, ignited all his senses. To stop the delicious madness creeping over him, he brought one hand to caress Danny's head. His hand curled around the back of his lover's neck, and their eyes met in the dark.
He knew, of course he knew, that Danny couldn't see his eyes. After all, he was only a mere human.
"Ryder," Danny whispered, "I think I must be horny as hell because I'm starting to see things."
"What things?" Ryder moved closer and began rubbing his lips against Danny's soft mouth.
"Your eyes… they look like they're made of burning gold."
Ryder let his eyelids drop. If it was so easy for him to lose awareness around Danny, wouldn't he give himself away before the following day came? He couldn't – wouldn't – lie to the special human welcoming him in his arms, so he remained silent.
Danny appeared to forget all about it as they kissed. The taste of his tongue invaded Ryder's mouth. There was no stopping now for either of them.
The hunger grew inside him like a thundering wave, higher and higher. Ryder reveled in the lips opening for him and deepened their kiss. Every reaction from the other's body, every little whimper, the softest moan, he swallowed them from those lips. He wanted to delve in Danny's body, drown in it, because there was no escape for him now.
His fate could wait. This night was his.
***
Ryder must have had an impressive number of prior lovers or was simply a natural, because Danny felt his entire body responding to every touch and kiss. Being hard was the tip of the iceberg, which was a funny thing to think for the simple reason that they were both burning. Weird desires swept over him and then faded the more his body rubbed against Ryder's.
It wasn't like him to be possessive, but he wished he could be naked already so he could cover every inch of Ryder's body with his own. Seeing how hot they both were, there was a chance they might spontaneously combust. Under the circumstances, that didn't sound like such a bad way to go, in the flames of passion they felt for each other.
It no longer mattered that guys like Ryder didn't sleep with guys like Danny, in Danny's world at least. All those well-defined rules had flown out the window, leaving nothing but two people and their desire for each other in their stead.
"Let me put the condom on you," he suggested.
He was acting like a sly fox right now, because doing that meant Ryder would have to allow Danny to undress him until he was stark naked.
With feverish hands, he managed to get Ryder out of his t-shirt. A disproportionate fight between him and a pair of stubborn jeans followed. He was about to shout for help when Ryder hugged him, forcing him upward.
Protests died on his lips as Ryder lifted him off the floor and placed him on the bed. He appeared to be making an effort to hold himself back, so Danny felt the need to correct the situation.
"I'm not fragile. You can, you know, go harder." He tried to catch another glimpse of those burning eyes he had imagined seeing earlier, but Ryder angled his head away, prohibiting him from checking. He probably thought that Danny was a bit cuckoo for saying something like that about his eyes.
It must have been his imagination and nothing else. He chewed over how he should apologize, but there was no time for that because Ryder grabbed him by the ankles and pulled him over to the edge of the bed.
Unlike him, his handsome guest had no trouble dealing with flimsy clothes, because Danny barely registered how he suddenly ended up without his sweatpants. His yelp got a response in a low sexy chuckle, and the next thing he knew, Ryder was all over him, pushing Danny's shirt up to reach his nipples.
The earlier neck nuzzling must have been nothing but an appetizer. Ryder must have also taken Danny's earlier encouragement at face value because he sank his teeth into a pebbled nipple as if he considered the poor thing a snack.
Still, it wasn't painful. Or maybe it was, but only a little. Above all else, it was electric. It made Danny arch his back off the bed, exposing himself more.
"Do you intend to eat me?" he asked as if he was begging for exactly that to happen.
"Just taste you thoroughly," came the reassurance.
"You're a man with a big appetite," Danny said, laughing and shuddering under Ryder's thorough exploration of his chest. "Hungry like a wolf."
Ryder stopped for a moment, making Danny's internal alarm start blaring.
"Not that I think of you as an animal," he hastened to add. "Nothing like that. It's just--" His avalanche of words was cut short by another small bite on his left nipple. "How do you even know to do that?" he whispered. "You must always drive your lovers mad. I can't wait for you to fuck me."
***
For a moment, Ryder had thought that Danny was trying to tease the truth out of him, but the babbled apologies that followed right after proved that those words were nothing but a shot in the dark. Or just another human thing of which Ryder had little to no idea.
All that mattered now were the words that had just left Danny's mouth. As crudely as he had put it in human terms, it was the naked truth. Ryder wanted to mate with Danny, possess him completely, and it wasn't possible. It was a good thing that they had the protection humans used for sex. It would prevent the accidental marking Ryder would feel tempted to give this delicious man while in the throes of passion.
However, he needed to be careful about revealing his wolf. His fangs were itching to go deeper into Danny's smooth skin, and his eyes must have turned golden because of the intense desire he felt for his human host.
He would be careful. After all, as much as Danny wanted him, he was still nothing but a human being with no knowledge of shapeshifters and the like. Ryder had to make sure he didn't scare Danny. That wouldn't even be the worst thing; he couldn't begin to fathom what losing Danny's trust in him would mean to him. It would bring him to his knees.
Having such incredible thoughts about a man who would never be his mate only proved how strong the attraction between them was. His pack members who had to be aware of the unusual appeal of human beings should have warned him about the danger. But he couldn't blame it entirely on them; after all, he should have felt like this toward his fated mate. Instead, he had lost himself in the scent of a human male who exhibited no traces of a curse or a love spell.
"Let me put it on you," Danny whispered.
It took Ryder a moment to understand what Danny wanted. He allowed Danny to turn him on his back and climb on top of him to give him another sweet kiss. In his everyday dealings, this human appeared shy and never ready to assert himself, but there were no traces of that behavior in him now. No, his hands were firm as they moved across Ryder's chest and his fingers were wicked as they tweaked Ryder's nipples in passing.
The sight of Danny between his legs, still struggling with removing Ryder's jeans, was something he wanted to be able to keep and treasure for all eternity.
"Finally," Danny declared in a victorious voice, as he saw Ryder naked before him.
He made quick work of rubbing Ryder's rigid cock. He had to be unaware of the effect his actions were having, because he leaned over and tasted Ryder's member, brushing his tongue over the head again and again.
Ryder shot out one arm to stop him. If he continued to do that, Ryder would give him a true taste of his seed, and wolfshifters shouldn't do such a thing with humans. There was no telling if that would count as an accidental marking or not. No wolfshifters were crazy enough – as he was now – to allow their attraction toward mere humans lead them astray.
"Ticklish?" Danny asked, stopping his relentless licking.
"Yes," Ryder breathed out, but his words sounded like a lie, even to his own ears.
"Then I'll just put the condom on."
That shouldn't have meant that he had to do it with his mouth. There had to be a wicked streak in Danny, one that must have driven his sex partners mad with desire. The thought of this human offering his scrumptious body to other men made Ryder growl. It was a low sound, rumbling through his chest, but Danny heard it.
"Am I being too slow or too fast?" he asked.
"I must be inside you," Ryder admitted honestly.
Danny looked up, and Ryder averted his eyes again. He had no idea if they had returned to their usual color, but he didn't want to risk it.
"You know," Danny said with a small nervous chuckle, "it's so not like me to be the guy who initiates things, but it would be too much if I asked you to let me be on top?"
Ryder frowned. A human, mounting him? He couldn't picture it in his mind, let alone—
"I mean, you know, I'd like to try it. Hey, did I freak you out? Oh, gosh," Danny exclaimed, "I didn't mean it like that! You're obviously a top, while I'm… well, I'm a bottom, of course."
Ryder shook his head to get rid of the strange longing of offering himself to Danny that took sudden root in his mind.
He brought Danny close for a kiss and helped him straddle his hips.
"Wait, we need lube, too," Danny breathed out.
Ryder waited, even if it felt like torture. Wolves didn't think of being the ones to offer themselves up if they were alphas, right? But that would be the exact role he would have to force Theodore into, and what if his fated mate couldn't fathom allowing such an invasion of his body? That could explain the violence of his actions.
Danny kissed him deeply, while his fingers moved quickly to get himself ready for being invaded. When he did that, Ryder had no choice but to forget about the mate fate had chosen for him.
***
He was so stupid, he couldn't trust himself to say another word. Clearly, Ryder must have been in shock over Danny's clumsy proposal. Who did that when they had a muscular top like Ryder eager to give them the ride of their lives? As if he had even thought of doing anything like that! Well, if he did let himself think about—
No, no, he couldn't go there, not right now. It was weird how much he wanted to do with Ryder, all at the same time if possible. But they only had this one night, and Danny needed to keep his odd fantasies in check.
He let out small, pained breaths as he moved slowly to allow his ass to adjust to being impaled by Ryder's amazing cock. If he thought of other reasonable considerations, he could argue that it would be a lot more comfortable for his very average dick to penetrate what had to be Ryder's tight asshole.
Nothing was reasonable about him and his actions now. Leaving aside the fact that he had never had someone as big as Ryder, he had also had sex last about… three years ago? He didn't play with toys, either so his body was completely unprepared for taking such a thing in.
"I don't mean to hurt you," Ryder whispered in his ear. "But I must have you."
Danny was about to protest when Ryder pushed inside him from below. His mouth made a perfect 'O', ready to express outrage at having just had that part of his body reshaped in ways he didn't believe possible, but instead of a cry of pain, one of ecstasy broke from him.
Wow. His body could take it. His ass deserved a medal, too, because Ryder's perfect, supersized cock was now all the way inside him, making Danny's mind break into tiny pieces.
"Oh, fuck," he whispered, "this feels so good I can't believe it. Now move," he ordered before he had the time to censor his mouth.
"Your wish is my command," Ryder said politely, although his cock, twitching like mad inside Danny's ass, was anything but polite.
His low growls as he pushed inside Danny definitely sounded animalistic. In other words, fantastic. Danny abandoned himself to crazy thoughts of being possessed, while pleasure built inside him.
TBC