Exodus (13 page)

Matt returned his gaze, all the while licking and taking Rivvie’s cock in deeper.

Too deep, when Matt gagged, his face turning red. He came up off Rivvie’s cock and began jacking him instead.

An idea, or accusation, that had come to Rivvie hours ago spilled right out of his mouth. “You really wanna be one of us bad enough to have sex with me again?”

Matt let go of him so fast that Rivvie’s dick slapped his belly. “You asshole!” Matt hissed, his eyes sparkling with ire. “I want
you
, not your stupid fucking ability to shift!” He sprung up, completely nude, and so gorgeous Rivvie wanted to worship him. “
Wanted
you, but now—” Matt shook his head. “You won’t listen to me, and you throw your verbal daggers. Maybe that one will be the one that severs this fucking tie that binds me to you!”

Matt kicked a rock and it bounced off the boulder several feet past Rivvie. He gave Rivvie a hard look then turned and left him on the ground.

Rivvie wasn’t a morning person, or an any-time-after-just-waking person, for that matter. The blow job had surprised him, and he’d reacted with the leftover hurt he’d nursed to sleep.

He was an utter fool. Still, the doubt was there. Matt envied shifters their strength and builds. Whether or not Aaron grew bigger remained to be seen, sure, but Rivvie kind of thought he’d fill out some more. Maybe not as big as Valen or Rivvie, just not as puny as he’d been.

That would all be something Matt would want, bad enough to stop hiding that they were seeing each other. Which, it wasn’t a secret anymore anyway, Rivvie reminded himself. Of course there’d been no way to hide it after Beal’s outburst, not unless they wanted to look like liars, and neither man wanted that.

But they hadn’t had much time together.

They could have had more, if Rivvie hadn’t been an idiot. He groaned and sat up. His dick had gone soft, and the saliva was drying on it, sticking the stupid limp thing to his thigh. Rivvie shoved it aside and got to his feet. As much as he wanted to think the worst of Matt, he couldn’t just assume things because he’d gotten all butt-hurt. They needed to talk, and Rivvie would apologize—for more than just having been a jerk just then.

Belly rumbling with hunger, Rivvie trotted off after Matt. He expected to have to chase him down, but Matt must have heard him.

Matt turned and looked as miserable as Rivvie felt.

Rivvie slowed his approach. “I’m sorry. I was an asshole. Can we talk?”

“Without sniping at each other?” Matt shoved one hand in his hair and fisted it. He must have gripped hard, because his eyebrows were tugged up his forehead an inch or so. “I don’t know. Have we ever really liked each other?”

Rivvie’s chest went tight. “I’ve always liked you, Matt. From the first time we met, when I couldn’t stop flirting with you. Well,” he laughed at himself. “Not
with
you. You weren’t participating in that at all. More like I was flirting and you were telling me you weren’t interested. Repeatedly. Loudly. With force.”

Matt smiled distantly. “I was so confused. Couldn’t figure out why I was turned on. I tried to blame it on the fighting, but I think I knew, even then, that wasn’t the case.” His smile vanished, giving way to a grimace. “Then I had to ass it all up by fucking someone else that night. Why did you ever bother with me, Riv? I’m such a twat.”

“A twat?” Rivvie scratched his chin. “Okay, what’s a twat?”

The question had the effect of wiping away Matt’s unhappy expression and putting one of amusement on his fine features. “You really don’t know? It’s a crass term for a woman’s vagina.”

“So you’re a woman’s vagina, and that’s an insult?” Rivvie asked. “Do you
know
what those things go through? I wouldn’t think being called one in any manner would be an insult.”

“You may have a point there.” Matt gestured. “Can we walk a little way? I have a lot to say, or at least it feels like a lot.”

“Yeah, we can walk, and I have something to say, too, starting with, I was a jerk about you wanting to be a shifter.” He waited for Matt to deny it.

But Matt stayed silent for several moments. Then he peeked through his lashes at Rivvie. “You weren’t wrong about me wanting the abilities and strength shifters have. I went from being the best in the village to being just another average human in a pack. I don’t like it. But.” He stopped and turned to Rivvie. “I wasn’t with you in the first place because I thought it’d turn me into a shifter. I was with you, and want to be with you still because…because… There’s this light in you, and I swear I can see it shining out of your eyes and your smile, that I can feel it when you touch me or when I touch you. That light reaches into the darkness in me, the insecurities and doubts, and chases them away.”

Matt moved closer, his eyes luminous while he spoke. “That’s just you, being you, Rivvie. You glow with goodness, and you’re so damned humble about it. Like just being an amazing person is nothing special, nothing that deserves notice. I notice, though. I notice you, every day, every word you speak, every movement, like when you tuck a strand of hair behind your ear. Even when you’re in wolf form and your fur ripples under the caress of a breeze. I notice you all, and I don’t know why you’ve bothered with me in the first place, but I’m so fucking glad you did. I hope you will at least be my friend.”

“Even after what I said? You think I have something good in me, after that?” Rivvie didn’t. Well, he wasn’t
all
evil, but he could be the biggest asshole around. “You aren’t mad at me?”

Matt shook his head. “No, I’m not. We’ve both done and said some hateful, stupid things in the past. I think we should leave the past behind and consider whether or not we want a future. Together, I mean. A future together.”

Rivvie’s heart did a slow rollover at the same time he forgot how to breathe. His head spun and he gasped, his entire body heating with embarrassment. “You want—” He coughed then tried again. “You want a r-relationship? Not just sex?”

Matt moved right up to him, pressing against Rivvie from chest to knees. “I don’t think this has ever been
just
anything.” He caressed Rivvie’s arms, lingering over his bulging biceps. “Except you. I get it now. It’s been about you, for me, and I’ve been too selfish a bastard to see that.”

Anything Rivvie might have said dried up on his tongue as Matt pushed up for a kiss. Rivvie wrapped his arms around Matt, who was still wonderfully nude.

And not trying to dominate the kiss, either. Rivvie’s surprise came out in an odd sound since he was still kissing Matt. He ran his hands over the lean planes of Matt’s back, then down further, teasing at the upper swells of his buttocks.

Matt didn’t pull away. He pushed eagerly against Rivvie and hitched up one leg as he began to rut.

Rivvie went for it. He thrust his tongue in as if he were laying claim to Matt, and moved his hands down to cup Matt’s ass cheeks.

Matt moaned and tried to climb up him.

There was no faking his arousal. The hot, hard cock that Matt was rubbing against him was leaving a wet trail on Rivvie’s stomach. He helped Matt up.

Matt locked his legs around Rivvie and just went wild. It was as if something in him had come undone, like some steel lock that had kept his hidden desires under wraps had given way.

Matt was pure, uninhibited need. He held onto Rivvie hard enough to bruise and humped desperately on him.

Rivvie’s own cock was in need of touch. He backed up a little way until he didn’t feel rock beneath his feet, then he eased them both to the ground, with Matt on his back and Rivvie free to drive his shaft wherever he chose to put it.

Prying Matt’s legs loose, Rivvie lowered one down then wedged his dick beneath Matt’s balls. He had to end the kiss so he could get Matt’s other leg in place, both clamped closed around Rivvie’s shaft. Rivvie lowered himself down and thrust.

Matt clenched his thighs and rammed a hand down between his and Rivvie’s belly. It was good, but Rivvie needed more. The dry rub of his cock against Matt’s skin was going to leave him raw.

Raw wasn’t something he cared to experience when it came to his dick.

Rivvie knelt, panting so hard his chest heaved. “Roll over.”

Matt flipped without argument and tipped his pretty ass up.

Rivvie grabbed his hips and pulled him back. “Bend here,” Rivvie ground out, too close to losing his load before doing what he wanted to do. He pressed on Matt’s lower back.

Matt arched, spreading his ass cheeks in a presentation that made Rivvie’s mouth water.

“Don’t freak out on me,” he warned before he ran his thumbs down Matt’s seam. “Just a little—” He parted Matt’s cheeks and exposed his pucker.

Matt squeaked, much like a mouse, but he didn’t pull away or ask Rivvie to stop.

Rivvie gave him the opportunity. “Too much?”

Matt arched his back even more.

“I just want a taste,” he said, before licking Matt from the top of his crack to that furled, hot skin.

Matt cried out, even as he shoved back.

Rivvie popped Matt on one butt cheek and licked his opening again. He rubbed the spot he’d swatted, though he hadn’t smacked Matt hard. “Don’t want a broken nose,” he stopped rimming Matt long enough to say by way of explanation for the tap.

“Do it again,” Matt said, his voice deep and rough as if he’d been sucking cock. “You said, once. Spanking. Do it.”

Rivvie didn’t try to make sense of that jumbled demand. He didn’t have to. He knew what Matt meant.

Rivvie began to knead Matt’s cheeks harder as he lapped at Matt’s hole. He wanted the skin sensitized, the muscles warmed up and pliant.

As soon as he was able to slip his tongue past Matt’s tight ring, Rivvie increased the pressure on Matt’s ass. He licked into Matt repeatedly until the lack of lubrication wasn’t a problem, then he sat up, wiped off his mouth, and slapped Matt’s butt, hard.

Matt howled and shot forward a few inches before immediately jamming his ass back. “Don’t stop!”

Rivvie eyed the bright red handprint. “Looks good,” he surmised, then quickly put a matching one on Matt’s other cheek.

He didn’t spank Matt for long, too aroused for extended foreplay. Matt was ready for him, too, so when Rivvie covered Matt from behind and wedged his dick between Matt’s thighs, he knew he wasn’t going to last long.

Matt closed his legs and squeezed.

Rivvie fisted Matt’s cock and did the same, holding it tight. Then he began to thrust, no easing into it, riding Matt at full speed, jacking him off with just as much desperation.

Matt went wild beneath him, bucking, scratching at the ground, cursing and making throaty, erotic sounds as he chased his release.

Rivvie’s hit first. His balls drew up and sent currents of ecstasy to all points of his body. Rivvie shouted, and before he knew it, he had scraped his teeth over Matt’s nape, then bit lightly at it.

The shock of sweat and skin in his mouth just penetrated through to Rivvie’s awareness before he could really sink his teeth into Matt. Rivvie jerked his head aside and rammed his hips against Matt’s ass until he’d spilled all of his seed.

Matt’s cock spurted then, as Matt’s arms gave out and he went down onto his chest, his hands beneath. He kept his butt up, his thighs clenched as he came, and when he stopped shaking and shooting cum from his slit, Matt whimpered and flopped onto the ground.

Rivvie went with him, knocking the breath out of Matt. “Sorry.” Rivvie managed to roll onto his back beside Matt, but that was it. He wasn’t ever going to have the energy to get up—or get it up—again. “Think you did me in, man.”

Matt hummed but didn’t speak.

Rivvie started to drift back to sleep. It was nice lying there out in the open, the sunlight on their skin, the still-damp ground beneath them. A little chilly, he mused. Rivvie was considering dragging Matt with him to sun on one of the boulders off to the side of where they had flopped. It’d be nice to have the sun warming them without the chill of the earth beneath them.

Just as Rivvie started to sit up, a shout rang out from the other direction, back where everyone had been sheltering.

Another shout quickly followed, then the unmistakable, vicious sounds of wolves trying to kill. “Stay here,” he said.

“No, I won’t.” Matt was on his feet as soon as Rivvie was. “Go. Shift. They need us and we’re not fighting about it.”

Rivvie had enough sense not to insult Matt, especially when Matt was right. They were needed, because the scent on the wind told Rivvie blood had already been spilled.

Chapter Sixteen

Valen roared as he tore through meat and bone. He and Aaron had been patrolling what he considered the entrance to where his pack was staying. One second, all had been fine. Then a forewarning came to him in the way of a vision of an arrow coming right at his back.

Valen had leaped aside, knocking Aaron out of harm’s way just before either of them could be shot. His vision had been wrong—there wasn’t one arrow, but many.

Their attackers didn’t wait to move on them.
Their mistake
. They’d have been better off retreating and using their damned bows and arrows to try to kill Valen. Instead they surged out of their hidden places behind rocks and debris, shouting and waving their weapons.

They reeked of sweat and waste—and something else, something foul from within. All of them were hardly more than skeletons covered in flesh, they were so malnourished.

Valen took the first half dozen down easily. He hated it that Aaron would have to kill, but it was unavoidable. At least he’d have his wolf’s instincts to guide him.

It was when Valen heard more shouts back where his pack was that he realized he’d been outmaneuvered. It was quite possible the attackers here were only a diversion to keep him and Aaron busy.

They weren’t that good of a diversion. Valen ramped up his instincts and let them guide him. Aaron took a couple of men out, then it was done. Bodies were strewn around them, over a dozen dead men.

Valen saw that Aaron was unharmed. Assured his mate was okay, Valen was able to concentrate on getting back to his pack as soon as possible.