Gilbert (13 page)

“I never knew.” He kissed Gilbert, a lingering press of lips, a brush of tongue, before he lifted his head enough to speak again. “Feeling what you felt, your pleasure, how much you…feel for me. Gilbert, I—” Jihu shook his head and kissed him again. “I want you, so badly, but I just can’t, not yet.”

Gilbert was only a little disappointed. Yes, he wanted Jihu to fuck him. No one else ever had before. But he’d get to have Jihu’s sweet heat surrounding his cock, and that was never going to be anything he’d be disappointed about.

“You haven’t been…on the bottom?” Jihu asked, his eyebrows meeting to form a wide v. “Ever?”

Gilbert raised a shoulder in a shrug. “Nope. I didn’t trust anyone, and besides, I told you I’m nervous around people. When I did have sex, well, I look like the stereotypical top. No one ever even asked if I wanted to be fucked. I was fine with that.”

Jihu made a breathy little sound, and he rubbed his stiff cock against Gilbert’s belly. “I want…uhn.” He dropped his chin down and rutted for a moment. “I just…I have to come, Gilbert. Make me come. Fuck me, I can’t think, I need you so much.”

“Let’s get to the bed,” Gilbert rasped, moved by the ease of Jihu’s confession.

He stood and Jihu slid down his body, moaning softly before saying, “Okay.”

 Gilbert’s nipples stood erect, the flesh dark red and tempting Jihu to touch, which he did, a light brush of fingertips over them.  “Look at these, so swollen and red.” They felt hot, and he needed to touch them again.

Gilbert looked down and hissed just as Jihu plucked at his nipples. “Fuck fuck fuck!” His dick was harder than it’d been minutes ago. “More.”

Jihu twisted first one, then the other, watching Gilbert’s face. “It’s not too much?” He frowned and Gilbert felt him inside his mind, searching, monitoring Gilbert’s reactions. “No, you really do want more.”

“Yes, I—ah!” Gilbert thrust his chest out, unsure if he was pushing away or pushing into the bright-hot pain circling out from his tits to slap into nerve endings along his spine. “Oh my God, Jihu,” he began, then gibbered as Jihu tormented his nipples with an exquisite skill made possible through their bond.

Gilbert had never had anyone read him so clearly, as Jihu did, taking Gilbert as far into the sensation or pleasure-pain as he could bear to go. Gilbert’s throat burned, his chest burned, his entire groin burned with the force of his need. If he didn’t come soon, he thought he might just keel on over or burst from holding back.

“It won’t come to that,” Jihu said with a chuckle. “Watching you, feeling you, inside and out, head and hands, Jesus, Gilbert. I’m not going to last a minute when this big cock slides into me.”

Mewling, that was what he was doing as he listened. Gilbert was reduced to the very physical nature of his leopard and his man. Jihu spat into his hand and reached behind himself and Gilbert lost the little control he had. He grabbed his mate and spun him around. Gilbert put his hands on Jihu’s shoulders and with a little pressure, encouraged Jihu to kneel. Another nudge, and Jihu lowered his shoulders. The position caused his ass to be thrust up and out. Jihu flexed his cheeks.

“Fuck me, Gilbert. No more thinking, wondering, worrying. Take me.”
“Feel me, like I feel you,”
Jihu continued.

Gilbert panted as he bent and spread Jihu’s ass. He licked the little clenching hole, not just to wet it but because he needed to taste Jihu at his core. He rumbled at the musky, salty flavour and pulled Jihu’s cheeks further apart, exposing him as much as possible. Gilbert sucked at his opening, licked and nibbled it, until Jihu was sobbing and shaking, his hole wet and dripping from Gilbert’s attentions.

Only then did Gilbert surge up and, cock in hand, press into Jihu’s ass. Gilbert couldn’t take it slow, not with Jihu’s desire pulling at him as surely as those hot, snug inner walls pulled at his length. He hissed then moaned as he let go of the base of his cock and thrust, seating himself fully in Jihu’s body.

Perfect friction, perfect warm constriction around his cock, and Gilbert threw his head back, yowling as he gripped Jihu’s hips. He was dimly aware of his claws protruding, of his leopard working to the surface, but Jihu’s pleasure soared with the grip and his body called out to Gilbert’s, his leopard to Gilbert’s own.

Gilbert barely withdrew at all before he slammed back in, balls slapping, hips bruising. Want poured through him, flowed to Jihu and back again in an endless cycle as their link strengthened. Gilbert powered into Jihu, fucking him with a barely restrained violence they both demanded.

Jihu growled, snarled, cursed as he shoved back, at times almost knocking Gilbert over. Their mating was a battle of want and need, their cats rough and hungry for each other. Some day they would shift and fuck until they couldn’t move—let their feline nature loose on one another to satisfy their leopards.

But today, they were men, driven by internal forces both human and supernatural. Gilbert couldn’t get deep enough, couldn’t get enough, period, of Jihu. His hole clenched around Gilbert’s base, his inner muscles massaged the rest of his length. It was perfection, it was beauty, and still it wasn’t enough.

“Mark me,”
Jihu demanded, his rough growls growing louder. Gilbert grabbed a fistful of his hair and pulled Jihu’s head back. A tip to the side and he had his spot laid bare. Gilbert didn’t fight the need. He covered Jihu’s body, chest to Jihu’s back, and shoved into him, cock and teeth.

Jihu’s shout rang in Gilbert’s ears for a split second, then he heard nothing but the roar of his pulse as his climax slammed into him. Jihu’s body constricted around his cock, tensed and taut beneath him as Jihu yelled again.

The smell of Jihu’s spunk drove Gilbert to bite harder, to suck the blood from the wound and take that bit of Jihu into himself as he poured his own essence into Jihu’s ass. He ground against Jihu’s bottom, sucked and marked him all over again as he shot jet after jet of spunk, coating as much of Jihu inside as he could.

Eventually he came down, as did Jihu, and which of them whimpered first was a mystery. Gilbert felt his own pain, his knees and nipples tender, his cock almost raw from the forceful mating. He also felt Jihu’s aching ass, the burning and stretch there and the bite on his shoulder—Jihu’s smugness was catching. Gilbert was pretty damned pleased with himself.

Actually, he was pleased with them both, and he had every right to be. They’d crossed another barrier to their mate bond, and Gilbert knew they would only continue to grow closer. He just hoped they had the chance. He was getting a wonky feeling about their planned hunt for Bae, and Jihu’s, family.

Gilbert buried it quickly, while Jihu was still floating in the afterglow of his orgasm. Maybe he was just being paranoid. He’d only just found Jihu, and any threat, any at all, was a terrifying thing.

Yet Gilbert felt the weight of worry growing, and he closed his eyes, imagining a brick wall around the darkness he thought of as that fear. It would do neither of them any good for it to grow.

Gilbert just hoped it proved to be a totally unfounded worry and he, Jihu and Daniel got to have their long, happy life together. But something told him he’d have to be very lucky to make it so.

Chapter Eleven

Jihu was only mildly embarrassed as Bae examined him. “This is, uhm, different.”

Bae glanced at him then resumed writing on his notepad.

“I mean, you’re a veterinarian, and I’m a person.” Jihu pursed his lips. That wasn’t quite what he’d meant to say. “I just mean, I feel weird sitting here on an exam table while Isaiah drives and everyone else either watches or doesn’t.”

“I am a veterinarian, but have extensive training,” Bae pointed out before setting his notes down and taking Jihu’s left arm. He extended it and touched some of the pock marks left by needles. “These are healing up well. Whatever they gave you was intravenous not intramuscular. I wish to hell I knew what it was. Something that can repress our shifter senses, that’s a dangerous drug. Very dangerous,” Bae muttered.

“I could still feel my leopard,” Jihu said. He watched Bae rub his thumb over the marks. “It was so strange. My leopard was there, but it was almost like he was muted. I couldn’t shift, and I’m guessing my hearing and sight, and scent, all of that was what I supposed a regular human has. It was awful.”

Bae looked at him and nodded. “I bet it was. My concern is, we don’t know what was used on you, if there’s any long-term effects, dangers—nothing. Do you remember who gave you the shots or was it different people?”

Jihu thought back and tried to pull up a name but none came to mind. “Either they were very careful not to use names in front of me or they just, I don’t know, didn’t. But it was a very old man the first few times. I remember thinking he smelt bad, and he scared me.” He flicked a glance at Gilbert, who looked like he was concentrating on every word, every emotion Jihu was feeling. “After that there was an old woman, I kept thinking she was maybe his wife, mate, I don’t know. By the time she showed up, I was already unable to shift or anything. I truly don’t think I ever heard either of them speak, even.”

“Hmmm.” Bae patted his arm. “Leave it just like this, I’m going to put some cream on these even though they are almost healed up. I bet they itch.”

“Yeah, especially now that you said so,” Jihu joked, although it was also true. He scratched at the marks.

“Could you or Gilbert sketch the old man and woman?” Bae asked when he came back from digging medicine out of a cabinet. “I want to see if I recognise them. Some clue or hint. I don’t know, but we need to find them and destroy any of that drug. How we can keep them from manufacturing more, I don’t know.”

“I wonder if long-term use renders us completely human?” Oscar asked.

“We already know that’s possible. Our shifter spirits can abandon us if we abuse them,” Bae pointed out. “But I think I see where you’re going with that question. It’s one thing to be responsible for causing our own spirits to be altered, and another for someone to strip our shifter from us.”

Jihu shivered as an icy chill washed over him. “Or for someone to bind your shifter spirit inside you, where you could never free it. What would that do to someone?”

Everyone was quiet then. Bae slathered on the cream, rubbing it into Jihu’s skin. Finally he took Jihu’s other hand and held his arm out. He thumbed the inside of his elbow. “I know I just treated your other arm, but I would like to take a blood sample. I’m limited to what I can do. A lab could run tests for any foreign matter in your blood. I can’t send your sample off, though. If they found something… Well, I can’t risk tipping anyone off about our existence.”

Jihu understood that, and he was certain everyone else in the van did too. All shifters had the need for secrecy drilled into them. Their lives depended on it. “That’s fine. Anything to help.”

In short order, Bae had his sample and Jihu was able to put his shirt back on and sit with Gilbert. Gilbert patted his lap and Jihu almost said no, aware of the others around them.

“You don’t have to, baby. I just wanted to hold you.”

Jihu shook off his inhibition.
“I want to. I’m not used to this. People, the intimacy—but God, I like both of them. Very much.”
Jihu smiled and plopped down onto Gilbert’s lap. “So, Bae, if you have paper and a pencil you spare, I’ll try my best to sketch the old ones.”

“That’d be great. Let me just…” Bae opened one drawer, then another. “I know I have blank paper—aha!” He pulled out a slim stack of loose computer paper and stuck it on a clip board. He snatched a pencil and brought the supplies to Jihu. “How are you at drawing?”

Jihu’s cheeks burned but he gave an honest answer. “More than adequate. I wanted to—” He took the clipboard and pencil. “Well, I dreamed of being an artist when I was younger. Before the lepe began with their plans to whore me out.”

The bitterness surprised him. Anger had been a tight kernel in his chest for a long time now, but Jihu was used to that. The surge of bitterness, like the surf slapping the beach in a storm, that was not something he’d expected, but he should have.

“It’s good, getting the anger out,” Bae told him. “Otherwise the anger festers until it’s like a deadly infection, a toxin-filled pustule—”

“Okay, gross, Bae,” Gilbert snapped. “Really, we don’t need the visual. Go play with your mate or something.”

“Thank you,” Jihu said even though he did feel queasy thanks to Bae’s description.

“I’ll help you with the anger, and anything else you need,” Gilbert promised him. There was a dark need in his eyes that was like a physical touch to Jihu’s cock. He grew erect with a sudden vision of him fucking Gilbert, his beast just below the surface, their mating wild and rough and—

“Oh God,” Jihu panted softly. Gilbert’s dick was hard and jabbing against his buttocks. Jihu clenched them, wishing they were alone, but the image of him taking Gilbert wouldn’t go away. The fear and disgust he’d experienced when forced to copulate with the female shifter was there, yes, but it wasn’t anywhere nearly as powerful as his desire for his mate.

“
F
uck, Jihu, you’re going to make me beg you right here in front of everyone! I…I need you, so much. So much.”

Levi coughed then coughed again, snapping Jihu’s attention his way. “Guys, you know we all pretty much have boners now. I know it’s easy to get lost in your mate, me and Lyndon do it all the time, so do Oscar and Josiah and, I’m assuming Bae and Isaiah. But the pheromones, or hormones, or whatever, they cause the other shifters around us to spike, too. I’m just saying.”

“What you’re saying but not saying is, cool it?” Gilbert asked.

Levi looked around the van, and Jihu did the same, noting the pinched expressions, the scent of arousal that was almost cloying. “Yeah, that’s what I meant. Otherwise there’s likely to be a whole lot of fucking going on soon. With our mates, I mean, so stop scowling, Gilbert, and we’re family and all, but that would probably be getting too familiar for all of us.”