Page 36 of Threads of Fate

“Ah. There you are.” Gideon has on a robe, and his hair is wet and pushed back off his face.Handsome. The scent of a summer storm and what smells like vanilla lube billows into the room along with the steam from his shower, and Grayson raises his nose to better catch the scent. It goes right to his cock, already hard and leaking.

“Come,” he growls, pulling at his bonds. Gideon glides toward him, sinuous and still too slow for Grayson’s comfort. He wants Gideon under him now. The pain in his belly surges, and Grayson thrashes against his bonds.

Seeing that Grayson’s bonds are holding, Gideon places a cool hand on his forehead. “Don’t be rude, Gray. I know rebound ruts suck ass, and we’ve already had to put you down twice with ketamine. Not sure what’s got into you, but alpha is being most unreasonable,” he teases.

The change in the atmosphere is immediate, and suddenly, Grayson remembers. Flashes of Nix slip through his mind: beautiful, vanilla-scented Nix, and he wants himnow.“Untie me,” he says, putting a bit of apushinto his voice. If he’d been inhis right mind, he would remember what a terrible thing it was; but he is beyond caring.

Gideon quickly grabs his jaw, forcing his mouth open so Grayson feels a stream of drool slide from the side of his mouth. “You’re being a bad boy.” Gideon is in his element, the scent of his arousal so rich it’s like lightning in the small room.

He is enjoying having Grayson at his mercy, and, as thrilling as that usually is, Grayson’s wolf is having none of it. Lightning fast, he snaps his teeth. Gideon pulls his hand away just in time, but Grayson still manages to graze Gideon’s finger with a sharp fang.

“I will muzzle you,” Gideon warns with a light pat on his cheek.

Even though it’s dripping blood, Gideon moves his finger to trace a line from Grayson’s collarbone down his sternum and over to his right nipple. The other is pierced, and Gideon gives it a hard tug with his other hand. The pleasure-pain is perfect. He has come more than once after a period of abstinence just by having his nipples stimulated. But never during a rut, as it’s as much an exercise in mental stimulation as it is physical, and his mental faculties are not available for that kind of play today. His hips buck up, so Gideon does it again. The pain, combined with the scents of blood and Gideon’s arousal, only add fuel to the fire.

And it’s the last straw.

The wolf roars, and with little effort, Grayson pulls the chains right out of the steel fastener embedded into the concrete wall. There is an almighty crash as the chain swings free, the momentum cracking the interior window’s glass. The wolf has a hold of his prey in a second, grabbing Gideon’s hair and forcing his head down onto the side of the bed.

The security door beeps to admit reinforcements, but his mate shouts, “Stop! Don’t come in. I’m alright!”

Growling, Grayson tries to crouch on the bed but is frustrated that his feet are still tethered. The restraints are designed to hold an alpha in rut, but Grayson’s wolf is an enigma, and the second set of chains breaks one after the other. The only sound in the room is their breathing as Gideon trembles, his stormy scent blooming into heavy arousal.

Mate.

He’s no longer holding Gideon by the hair, but his mate remains frozen, bent over the bed. Grayson hauls him onto the bed and puts him flat on his belly, pulling his ass up. He’s rewarded for his show of strength with a moan.

The wolf takes offense at the robe covering his prize, so he rips it and cleans it down the middle. Tossing it off to the side, he takes a moment to appreciate that Gideon’s ass is a thing of beauty; he takes two handfuls and squeezes hard just to hear him whimper.

“Goddess, Gray. Fuck.” Spreading Gideon’s cheeks, he sees his hole is already pink and glistening. Grayson knows immediately that he didn’t put it there. It fuels his anger that another wolf has been at his mate before him.

Circling his mate’s hole with his finger, he gets another whiff of sweet vanilla. He wants the taste of him in his mouth and licks a stripe with the flat of his tongue from Gideon’s balls to his hole.

The cloying taste of artificial vanilla clings to his tongue, a poor imitation of what he craves, and it only fuels the wolf’s anger. It’s not Nix’s sweet, rich bakery vanilla nor the electric tang of a summer storm. His alpha growls at the deception, wiping his face against his arm as his mate bucks and wiggles beneath him, desperate to get Grayson’s attention back on track.

Grayson gathers saliva in his mouth, spitting directly onto his mate’s hole, determined to replace the false taste with something real.

“Oh fuck, yes. Please,” Gideon moans.

Pinching the inside of his mate’s thigh, he stills. Seeing his mate still so eager, he wastes no time sliding two fingers past his rim, his spit chasing away the artificial taste with something warm and real.

Gideon arches into the touch, a moan spilling from his lips like a melody drawn from deep within. “Alpha.”

With rut hormones blazing through him like wildfire, Grayson’s cock is a swollen purple, hard as stone; his knot is already swollen and aching. There’s no time for teasing or torment now. Pulling his fingers free, he grips his mate’s cheeks and spreads them wide, running the flat of his tongue from his taint to his tailbone in slow, hungry strokes, over and over.

He hums low in his chest, pressing his tongue deeper as he chases his mate’s rain-and-petrichor scent, desperate to drown himself in it.

Gideon pants and groans, his hands gripping the bed sheets hard. Grayson reaches under him, squeezing Gideon’s knot hard just once, causing him to moan again, long and loud. The wolf really likes that, so he does it again. “Going to make me come, Alpha.”

If their positions were reversed, and if Gideon were in charge, there would be teasing; but Grayson has never gotten off on edging anyone but himself, and he is suddenly desperate to fuck.

Why isn’t he doing it already?

He sets his gaze on the back of his mate’s unmarred neck; he wants to bite there, scruff his mate, and force him to take everything Grayson has to give; hard and fast. The sweat gathers on his face and is running down his chest. He lies on Gideon’s smooth back to feel the slide of skin on skin and slips his cock right between his legs, head catching on his entrance, then pushing up under Gideon’s balls. It sends shooting sparks of pleasure through his cock, and the wolf repeats it a few timesjust to hear his mate’s breath catch as he begs. “Fuck me, Alpha. Fuck me.”

Grayson puts his mouth near Gideon’s ear, and despite the wolf’s urging to just fuck in already, he finds it in himself to stop. “Gideon.”

Gideon knows what he needs to hear. “I mean it. Fucking do it, Alpha. Come on. Waited too long already.”

---