Exodus (9 page)

“You don’t get to decide if I’m in shape to fuck or not,” Aaron seethed, scooting away and rolling over to face him. “I’m an adult, not your pup. I’m hurt, but not broken. I want you. If you don’t want me, just say so.”

Valen was startled by the temper Aaron displayed. He put it down to the injuries and fever. Not that he’d say as much. Stupidity wasn’t something Valen suffered from often.

He’d just be gentle with Aaron. Valen brushed the back of his knuckles over Aaron’s cheek. “I always want you. Never think I don’t.”

Aaron bared his teeth in something that wasn’t a smile, nor was it a snarl.

It was fucking hot, that’s what it was, Valen decided. “You want to fuck me?”

Aaron shook his head. “No, I—” Then he narrowed his eyes. “You’re afraid to fuck me. Think I’ll break?”

“I think you’re not yourself,” Valen said honestly. “You’re borderline combative.”

“Borderline?” Aaron
growled
at him.

Valen knew his mouth was hanging open in shock. He reached for an explanation. “You…you’re not yourself. You aren’t like this with me—”

“I am now.” Aaron sat up, wincing and holding his head. “No, I’m not. What’s happening to me?”

“It’s the head injury,” Valen guessed. “It can make a person out of sorts.”

“I want to tear something apart,” Aaron rasped. “I want you to tear me apart. Fuck me until I scream, until I hurt and can’t take anymore.”

Valen was repulsed, and even more so because the words stimulated him. “I—”

Anything else he might have said was cut off by Aaron slamming his mouth over Valen’s. It was every bit as brutal as the impact implied. Aaron was fueled by some inner demon—that was all Valen could think it was. Never was Aaron so aggressive and powerful.

Valen could have fought him. Instead, he touched Aaron gently, caressing the leanly muscled back and rounded buttocks as Aaron straddled him. Aaron’s skin was still a little cool, but it was quickly heating under Valen’s touches.

Aaron bit at his lips, bringing up blood—his or Valen’s. Valen suspected it was both. There was a strong, oak-like flavor to the blood that wasn’t his, and he’d not tasted it when he’d bit Aaron before, when they mated, or when he’d pulled him away from the split in the ground.

It was there now, and Valen thought he could even smell it. Something wild and new wrapping around his olfactory sense and filling it up.

Valen was unbearably stimulated by it, and by the aggression Aaron was displaying.

Aaron kept biting at him—his lips, his chin, his jaw—and each bite stung. Some of them hurt, which made Valen’s cock leak pre-cum. Aaron clawed at his chest, leaving stinging trails from Valen’s pecs, over his nipples and down to his belly.

“Yes,” he found himself saying. “Take what you need. Take it!” It was a damned good thing they were in their own little secluded spot, otherwise they’d just be putting on a show because Valen wouldn’t have denied either of them this experience, the villagers’ prudishness be damned.

As it was, Valen let go of the questions nipping at his mind over Aaron’s change in personality. If it was from hitting his head, at least this was a pleasurable detour for them both, and Aaron wasn’t suffering.

No, Aaron was grinding against him, thrusting his slick-tipped cock alongside Valen’s with a desperate need that was unmistakable.

Valen cupped Aaron’s ass cheeks and spread them wide, knowing he’d stretch that little hole nestled between them.

“Fuck.” Aaron hissed and humped faster, then he sat up and spat into his hand. He reached behind himself and spread the moisture on Valen’s cock.

“That’s not enough—” Valen snarled at Aaron when he bared his teeth and forced himself down on Valen’s cock.

“I…need,” was all Aaron said before tipping his head back.

And howling.

It didn’t register at first. There was too much happening, too much fucking and biting and fangs and claws.

Valen wasn’t the only one who bit. He wasn’t the only one with canines capable of sinking in deep and penetrating skin and muscles and more.

The shock of that, of being bitten in such a way, threw Valen right out of his mind an instant before he shouted and spunk jetted out from his cock into the warm channel of Aaron’s ass.

Aaron bit harder, liquid heat splattering between their bodies.

“Argh,” Valen managed, the pain growing from where Aaron was biting his neck, where it met his shoulder. “A-Aaron.” He gripped Aaron’s arms and squeezed. “Aaron!”

Another smaller, intense climax rippled through him. Valen had never felt anything like it in his life, and he’d experienced some nut-drainers with Aaron that had left him nearly unconscious from the pleasure.

This was more than simply pleasure. This was pain and something scary that was happening.

Aaron pulled back, the act of removing his teeth from Valen’s flesh more painful than the actual biting had been.

Valen clamped his lips together. Blood coated Aaron’s lips, and dripped down his chin to his neck. Aaron had a glazed look in his eyes.

And he had
fangs
, canines like Valen’s, like every other shifter Valen had ever seen.

Valen’s pulse skyrocketed. “What’s—?” he rasped just before Aaron bolted off him as if catapulted. “Aaron!” Valen shot to his knees.

Aaron convulsed on the ground, bleeding from scrapes and cuts, his muscles contracting, froth spilling from his mouth as his eyes rolled. The grunting, panting, animalistic sounds coming from him terrified Valen to his core.

“Aaron!
Aaron!
” Valen scrambled over to him and ducked as Aaron flung an arm out. It wasn’t intentional, nor was the kick he took to one thigh or the blow to his gut. The latter one sent him sprawling, the cave floor tearing at his back and buttocks. Valen just managed to catch himself before his head collided with a wall. As soon as he stopped the backward momentum, Valen was up and crawling to Aaron’s side. He shouted until his throat was raw, until he tasted the coppery tinge of blood.

Nothing he said reached Aaron. Nothing calmed his convulsions. His back arched sharply, so sharply that Valen screamed in fear that it’d snap. Aaron’s heels and the back of his neck were all that touched the ground.

“Valen! Oh my gods! Aaron!”

Valen blocked out the others, people who came either because of his yelling or the awful, tortured sounds Aaron made. He reached for Aaron again and again, with his voice, with his thoughts, with his hands.

More times than not, he was scratched, once he’d narrowly missed being bitten. Something was happening that he couldn’t comprehend—the fangs, the claws, the sounds.

Then Aaron howled, and it all clarified in that instant. There was no mistaking it. Aaron morphed, his body snapping and wrenching awfully, leaving him a panting, whimpering, silver-coated wolf instead of the lover Valen had held so many times.

Chapter Ten

Rivvie couldn’t believe his eyes. He’d had to run out and retch more than once while whatever had happened to Aaron happened. The horrible sounds and the sight of Aaron’s body being contorted in ways no body ever should be, the froth and fear and stench that had rolled off him, had all combined to turn Rivvie’s stomach.

Some beta he was, losing it like that. Rivvie would bitch himself out later. For now, he was trying to stop trembling, and staring like an idiot at the wolf Aaron had turned into.

“How…?” Matt trailed off, covering his mouth with one shaking hand. He shook his head and began to back away.

Rivvie couldn’t look away from Aaron. He’d been a man, a human. How had this happened?

“Val?” Rivvie asked tremulously.

Valen shook like he was still out in that frigid freak of a storm. He was bleeding from a dozen or more places, small wounds that would heal easily enough.

Not so for the damage done to him emotionally—or mentally—whatever it was. Probably a mix of both, Rivvie guessed. His own head was fucked up from what had just happened. Valen’s had to be a hundred times more screwed up. He’d just watched Aaron go through almost an hour of torture, maybe longer. Rivvie wasn’t sure how long it’d gone on before he’d heard Valen’s scream and a howl he didn’t recognize.

And now there was Aaron, after all that suffering, panting heavily, his tongue lolling out, his eyes still rolled back in his head.

“A-Aaron?”

Rivvie saw Anita and Walter in his peripheral vision. One of them sobbed.

“What the hell did you do to my son?” Walter demanded, with every bit as much fury as nature had just thrown at them. “What did
you do
?”

Valen didn’t answer. He brushed a hand over Aaron’s fur. Tears streaked his face, and his breaths held a heavy rasp with every exhalation. The sight of Valen’s vulnerability penetrated Rivvie’s daze and he remembered his duty as Valen’s beta.

“Leave him alone,” Rivvie said, rounding on Walter. “You know he didn’t do anything to hurt Aaron.”

“Obviously he did,” Walter snapped, pointing a finger at Rivvie. “Don’t think you’ll do that to our other son!”

Rivvie jerked back, the words as painful as a slap. “I wouldn’t hurt Matt!”

“Like Valen wouldn’t hurt Aaron?” Anita asked in a strident voice. “Do you think Aaron wasn’t in agony throughout his…his…alteration?”

Rivvie glanced away. He couldn’t argue that. “Leave. Valen and Aaron don’t need you here, causing a fuss.”

“He’s our son,” Walter began.

Rivvie turned all of his hurt on the man. “He’s Valen’s
mate
, and Aaron chose
him
, not you. Do you think that’s changed?” Rivvie gestured to Valen and Aaron, who was whimpered and licking Valen’s hand. “Does Aaron look like he regrets his choice?”

Walter’s stubborn expression was forewarning enough that he doubted Aaron’s decision would hold, though his words confirmed it. “He is probably too stunned by what has occurred to understand it. When he does, he’ll regret being turned into something unnatural.”

Rivvie understood just what a cold fury was then. He took a half-step toward Walter. “I won’t tell you again to get out of here.”

“We’ll be getting out, all right.” Walter took a hold of Anita’s arm. “And we’ll be taking Matthew with us, along with all the other humans. None of them will want to be made into a shifter.”

Like anyone had known it was possible. Rivvie had to bite his tongue to keep from spitting out hateful words. He also waited until Anita and Walter left before his shoulders slumped under the weight of worry and loss. He had no doubt Matthew would go with his parents. He loved them, after all, and Rivvie was just a new plaything. All he had to consider was the speed with which Matthew had fled the cave upon seeing Aaron’s new form.

And Rivvie couldn’t even blame him. Who’d want to risk such intense anguish just to have sex with him? With anyone, for that matter?

So Rivvie didn’t pursue Matthew. He didn’t leave the cave and try to stop any of the villagers from leaving.

“Let them go,” Valen said when Rivvie asked if he should interfere. Valen kept petting Aaron and talking to him, apologizing over and over again.

Rivvie sat on the ground close to the entrance. If anyone came in and tried to cause trouble, he’d take all his hurt out on them. The ache in his heart was too great for the short time he’d had Matt to himself. It was unreasonable to be so torn up over losing him.

Unreasonable and stupid
. Traits Rivvie had displayed plenty of times. He sighed and tried to find a more comfortable position on the floor. When that didn’t happen, he shifted instead.

He tried not to stare too much at Valen and Aaron, but it was hard not to when they were so obviously in love with each other. Plus, seeing Aaron sit up, wag his tail, and lick Valen across the face was priceless. In that one move, Aaron absolved Valen of any guilt. Whether or not Valen forgave himself remained to be seen.

Rivvie pondered what had happened. It had to have been something to do with Valen and Aaron having sex. And biting. Valen must have bitten Aaron.

But they’d bitten humans before when fighting them. None of those humans had turned into shifters.
Uh. We kind of bit them dead. They’d have been zombie shifters.
Rivvie shuddered, not certain such a thing wasn’t possible, given what had happened with Aaron.

The lack of a written shifter history probably worked against them when it came to things like this. Rivvie couldn’t recall any stories about turning humans into shifters, either. Humans and shifters didn’t interact, hadn’t until Valen and Aaron had met and fallen for each other.

Then again, perhaps they had. There was enough hand-me-down history to know that shifters had felt the need to stay hidden from human perception before the End Times had occurred. Perhaps there’d been another reason for humans to fear shifters besides the fact that they were different. If something like what had happened to Aaron had occurred hundreds—or even thousands, of years ago—that’d have scared the wits and sense out of everyone. Fear inspired hatred, and hatred inspired violence… There was no telling if it’d ever happened. Rivvie was inclined to think so.

Then he was inclined to stop thinking so much. He sat up, sniffing, and turned his head to the cave entrance just in time to see Beal enter. She shook out her gray coat and looked at him warily.

As if he would snap at his own mother. Rivvie whined softly and belly-crawled over to her. He could use some comfort. His heart was still raw and hurting, and he suspected it would be for longer than the short time he’d had with Matt.

Beal rubbed her muzzle against his and licked his ear. She sniffed at him and lay beside him. Rivvie let her coddle him and love on him. It’d been a long time since she’d done such a thing, back before he’d become an adult, at least. He let the hurt run through him, the pain of knowing his last words to his father, and from his father, had been harsh, because Rivvie had wanted to join Valen’s pack rather than remain with his father as a good son would have done.

Then there was Matt, and the loss of him. That was fresher, hotter, and it rent something inside him.

Rivvie let himself whimper, and let his mother comfort him. They both needed it. She’d been wrapped up in her own pain for too long, and he’d been too busy trying to be the perfect beta to help her.