Page 15 of Blood Loss (The Obscura Saga #2)
LATH A N
In the vehicle, Lathan tries not to be obvious, but he’s drained. He’s been attacked by family twice within a few days’ time. His mother’s venom that brought back traumatic memories, and now a cousin in the pack he’s biologically part of—though it’s clear he won’t ever be emotionally part of. And on top of it all, he’s worried about Kylo. About what he’s going through, and the changes in his transformative nature. Though he also admits, in his head, that it did something for him to watch Kylo be that protective.
“Stay inside, okay? I don’t want anyone to see you and make any calls. We don’t need that right now.”
Maria feigns a smile as she looks at her son in the backseat of her SUV. Her hands haven’t left the steering wheel, fidgeting and twisting the leather-like material.
“Okay.” Kylo doesn’t look at her, not directly, seemingly staring out the windshield beside her head.
“Okay,” she says. “If you haven’t shifted back by tomorrow, we’ll have the pack come here instead.”
Lathan’s stomach drops. Here is safety. It’s his only safety. If Kylo can’t figure out how to shift back to normal, that safety will be broken by people who don’t understand—and adamantly hate what they don’t understand. He’d have nowhere to go if he needed to.
“Uhm. Have whatever you need from the fridge. But remember that your brother and sister are staying tonight as well, so you might want to keep to the guest house. Oh, and—”
“Thank you, Maria,” Lathan cuts in, softly stopping her. “I’ll take care of him.”
She rolls in her lips to force her nervous rambling down.
“Good luck with the circus,” Kylo mutters, ducking his additional height out the door.
Maria sighs but says nothing else as the guys exit the vehicle and shuffle to the back of the house quickly to evade any neighbourly onlookers. Lathan unlocks the guest house and enters first, tossing the keys and his wallet onto the counter. Then he backtracks and slams himself into Kylo, enveloping his now-taller frame and holding him firmly.
“That was such shit. I’m so sorry, Kylo.”
“What?” Startled, Kylo’s arms float up at his sides, but he starts to lower them around the man hugging him. “No, I’m sorry. I should’ve never let it get that far. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, but that was unacceptable.” The man-wolf sinks down to his knees to become smaller than his mate, looking up at him apologetically; Lathan watches his pupils expand again. “We should have left the second they disrespected you. ”
Lathan shakes his head the whole time Kylo speaks up at him. “It shouldn’t have been about me. It isn’t . I wanted to support you, but I was stupid to think anything else would have happened by being there.” So stupid …
I fucked this up.
I’m fucking everything up.
He doesn’t deserve this.
“Lathan,” he says low and slow, reaching a furred hand to cup his face. “You are my mate . I marked you, I brought you into my pack, and you had every right to be there for the conversation about the attack. Don’t blame yourself for their abhorrent behaviour. I’d give them up for you in a heartbeat.”
You shouldn’t have to give anyone up for me , Lathan thinks, looking down at the wolf, nearly begging on his knees.
“Had I not been there,” he says, taking Kylo’s hand from his cheek and flipping it, examining his darkened claws, “you wouldn’t be stuck half-shifted right now.”
He feels over Kylo’s talons, the fur protruding up his wrist. His eyes are softer as he touches the very instinctual parts of him, the werewolf parts that took over when his mate was hurt. “But… gods , you amaze me.”
I brought this out of him . I did this to him .
But he also did this for me.
“What do you mean?”
“Just…everything. You’re incredible.” Lathan runs a hand up Kylo’s forearm, through the fur trying to push out of his skin, out fr om his rolled up sleeve. The muscles flexed and straining the fabric. “Every time I see you shifted. Every change. Every protective instinct you have. You are so strong…and watching you grow into this is so beautiful.”
Lathan’s always been attracted to Kylo. From the night they met, with the moonlight against his goofy awkwardness, his fluster. But he’s changing now—getting stronger, becoming braver, and the seriousness that rasps from his throat whenever he takes control burns something new within Lathan. He finds it intensely beautiful.
He exhales an almost-laugh, still analyzing the half-shifted features of his boyfriend. “Is it terrible that, after seeing you protect me like that, I couldn’t stop picturing you on top of me?”
Kylo takes a deep inhale, his eyes like black saucers, clawed toes curling onto the hardwood. “You shouldn’t have told me that,” he exhales in a soft growl, lowering his hands to unbutton his shirt. Releasing himself from the confines that are barely hanging on as it is, a few buttons popping loose as he does so.
Lathan watches him undress with growing anticipation, his heart starting to skip in his chest. The adrenaline has died out from the pack meeting, but there’s a quiver in his hand as he draws it up to his own dress shirt. The clatters of Kylo’s buttons on the floor are sharp, sending shivers zapping through him.
“No?” he teases. “What should I have told you instead?”
He tugs the sleeves of his shirt loose and lets the cotton blend slide off him. From when they first met, Lathan’s body is now riddled with scars. Some are still healing—the teeth gashes on his side from the event at Obscura, bright and pink—while others have settled into his pale skin. Long scars cut through the tattooed flowers and honeycomb up his shoulder, pointing in the direction of his mated mark.
Kylo laughs as he sheds his ripped shirt to the floor. His chest is covered in soft fluff, shorter than his usual werewolf coat, making it easier to see the definition of his denser muscles.
“I take that back.” His eyelids lower and his hands slide up the sides of Lathan’s naked torso, widening his grin. “Say it again.”
The animalistic sounds Kylo makes always raise chills up Lathan’s body, especially next to his cheeky, wolfish grin. He arches closer to him, a slight squirm against his touch, the sharp, ticklish draw of his talons up his skin. “I want you on top of me,” he says, pressing his hands against Kylo’s chest and feeling the grooves of his half-shifted pecs. “ Inside of me.”
A guttural purr echoes up Kylo’s throat. Gripping Lathan’s waist with strong hands, he lifts him off the ground as he stands. With a bounce to shift his grip, he throws Lathan over his shoulder and crosses the small living space to the bedroom.
Usually being carried embarrasses Lathan, but after what he just said to Kylo about strength and being amazed by him, he feels the same way as he’s hoisted so easily off the floor—and he’s aware he isn’t a very small guy to pick up. His heart thunders in his chest, beating heavily against Kylo’s shoulder, and he hooks his feet around his waist to keep from teetering off balance.
At the foot of the bed, Kylo digs into Lathan’s hips and, with a jerk, slams him down onto the mattress where he bounces on his back.
“It was a challenge keeping my hands off you during the full moon,” Kylo admits, standing tall before him. “Every cell in my body reacts to you—to our bond.” His hands grip the waistband of his slacks, popping open the button and lowering the zipper. “The way you look, your fucking scent. Nothing else matters right now. Just us. Just you .”
He attempts to pull down his trousers but they’re too tight, snagged on the bend in his knee and calf. With extended claws, he tears his pants and briefs clean off—the loud sound of tearing fabric echoes in the isolated suite. Rich brown fur decorates his thick, strong legs and pubic bone, above where his length is already lifting. Just like the rest of his body, it, too, has grown in size, in both length and density, midway between his two forms.
Lathan watches the display like he’s seeing it all for the first time—and in this form, he supposes he is. His lips part as his eyes follow Kylo’s movements: the painstaking undoing of his trousers, the spring of his enlarged erection as his clothes are forcibly removed. He can feel his heartbeat in his throat as he tries to swallow his anticipation, his excitement, but hearing how deeply he affects Kylo through their mated bond—and seeing it before him—makes him harden beneath the looming height of his mate. Lathan’s never been turned on by feeling small and submissive, but when it comes to Kylo…he’s starting to welcome it .
He props himself up on his elbows, feet dangling off the edge of the mattress. “Show me—show them —the Alpha that you are. Take control. Take me.”
Kylo shudders a breath. Quickly stepping forward, he slips his hands under Lathan’s back, leans down, and presses their mouths together. His face isn’t as elongated as when fully shifted, nor his teeth as sharp, and, though it feels strange to kiss him like this, he can’t keep his mouth off of him. Kylo’s hot tongue laps in Lathan’s mouth, searching hungrily as he begins to undo his pants.
Lathan can feel their bond scorch within him as he meets Kylo’s tongue with his own. The scarred tissue of his mated mark tingles against his reach, using one hand to grab the half-beast by the neck and lurch him closer against him. The air grazes Lathan’s hips as his bottoms are shoved down, and his body aches for Kylo’s teeth—the electric feeling of being nipped on the mark that connects them.
Bite me , he wants to say, but his mouth is occupied in a heated kiss he doesn’t wish to break. Claw me. Tame me.
Once Lathan’s dress pants hit the floor, Kylo pulls from his mouth, dragging his tongue across his jaw and kissing it with moans of desire. Clawed fingers wrap firmly around his mate’s waist as he trails down his neck—licking and sucking on his skin the further down he travels. Kylo spits accumulated saliva into his palm and runs it over his erection before opening his mouth over Lathan’s shoulder and latching on desperately. As his teeth press into the flesh around the scarred mark, he lets out a growled moan.
Lathan’s pupils pin down into dots in the centre of his dark irises. Lightning crackles from his scar, down his arm, his chest. He grips onto Kylo desperately, harder than he ever has, his blunt nails digging into furred flesh.
Kylo acts quickly. Keeping his mouth attached to the mark, he raises Lathan’s legs, pressing his knees into his chest, and then lines himself up before carefully pushing the full length of his cock into his mate.
He gasps sharply as Kylo suddenly nestles inside him, his muscles tensing with the stretch he still isn’t used to. When he releases his breath, it’s shaky. Though trying to be gentle, Lathan can tell Kylo’s fighting his urges, as he knows Lathan isn’t another werewolf.
But he’s still strong.
“It’s okay,” Lathan breathes once more adjusted to the mixed feeling of pleasure and pain that is Kylo inside of him, “you can be rough with me. I won’t break.”
Kylo huffs, his tongue swirling on the skin in his mouth. Pulling himself out to the tip, he rams himself back in, repeating it again, and again, until he builds up momentum and rhythm. The bond sparks between them the faster he thrusts.
Lathan almost regrets telling Kylo to be rough as he braces against his strength, the sting of his talons as they pierce his skin. He clenches around Kylo’s length out of reflex, squeezing his eyes shut so tightly that yellows and greens erupt in his vision. He whimpers, harsh breaths huffing out of him with each hard pound he’s subjected to. And slowly, his body begins to tingle, building in pleasure deep within his core, until he can no longer keep his teeth from extending, fangs long and thin and prepared to devour as they glint behind his parted lips.
Kylo releases Lathan’s mark, but the feeling between them doesn’t waver, still vibrating through both bodies like a circuit in motion. “ Lathan ,” he pants with grit, huffing moans into the air as he continues to thrust, slamming the base of his shaft against Lathan’s ass.
It’s as though Kylo’s animalistic instincts bring out his own, too, with pupils shrunken and fangs readied. He almost worries the rest of his body will follow suit—secondary fangs and curved ears and winged arms. He locks their eyes as he lets out a long moan, lashes fluttering.
Kylo smirks devilishly. “Gods, you’re hot,” he purrs as he admires the writhing body beneath him—his blackened stare dropping to the vampire’s mouth, the fangs dropped with desire. “My vampire mate,” he adds, sounding pleased with himself. “Bite me. Drink me.”
Just as fast as Kylo was before, his words of confirmation trigger Lathan’s senses. He reaches forward and latches onto the werewolf’s throat, sinking his fangs into the side with no more than a pinch. He draws his blood into his mouth with heavy, desperate gulps, moaning against the taste coating his tongue, heightening the pleasurable sensations pulsing through his body. His hips squirm, feet searching for grip on the bed.
A loud, growling moan forces its way out of Kylo as Lathan’s fangs sink into him, drinking him like a feast, slowing his built up rhythm. The venom rushes through him lightning fast, his accelerated heart rate hurrying it along, and Lathan knows when it’s really hit him when he howls.
Kylo manages to push through the haze of the venom and pulls Lathan up from the mattress and tightly into his lap. A fuzzy mitt cradles his head, it allowing him to drink deeper as Kylo fucks up into his mate.
“Fuck,” he moans, driving his cock inside him faster and faster. He growls and hitches forward, catching himself with a hand against the wall, filling his mate with pumps of warmth as he huffs and whimpers.
Lathan’s muffled groans vibrate against the clutch his mouth has on Kylo’s neck. His toes curl, the werewolf’s thick, rich, warm blood running down his throat, bringing his orgasm to the surface. He breaks off Kylo’s neck to gasp in air as he’s filled, and he finishes into Kylo’s fur—without his cock being touched once. His breathing is ragged as he tries to take in enough air, lips red with his mate’s blood, holding onto him as though he’ll slip away if he lets go.
Kylo sighs out a breath, leaning back onto his heels. “I missed how you feel,” he whispers.
It’s been months since Lathan last bit him, dating back to Yule. He almost forgot how good it feels…but could never forget how he tastes . How it makes their sex feel so much more intense, almost ethereal.
He wasn’t going to ask. He tried not to even drop his fangs. They haven’t spoken about sexual feasting since—
He wasn’t going to ask. But Kylo said to. ‘ Bite me ,’ he demanded. ‘ Drink me .’
“You’re welcome to have me whenever you want,” Lathan says, toeing carefully around the meaning of Kylo’s statement. His eyes are bright with his fresh feed, and he rolls his hips forward, teasing the length still inside him.
Kylo lets out a groan, tipping his head back with closed eyes as Lathan grinds him. Swallowing, he lowers his hands to grip his ass. “Don’t tempt me, or we’ll have round two.”
Lathan runs his tongue over one of his fangs, sucking off the remnants of Kylo’s blood. “Would that be so bad? I know you can keep going,” he says, referring back to their intimacy under the full moon, when Kylo easily sprang back into action after his first release.
“As much as I’d like that, I’d rather give you time to recover”—he kisses Lathan’s bloody mouth—“so you’re ready to blow off steam tomorrow”—he kisses him again—“after another pitiful gathering.”
With a smirk on his face, he lets Lathan go and leans all the way back, holding himself up with straight arms, hands planted into the duvet. His eyes trail over his mate’s sticky, sweaty, bloody body. “I bet those two would burst into flames if they knew what we were up to right now.”
“I think they know,” Lathan says; his hair has half fallen out of the bun it was tied up in, cascading over his shoulders, framing his mated scar. “They probably think this is all we do.”
The metallic taste of blood lingers in his mouth. He thinks about it, how that is what they think he does all the time. Bite people. Drain them of their lives. Attack Kylo the same way.
“And, oh, what a grand life we would live if it was. Just two beasts making love,” he purrs, kissing Lathan’s scarred mark and nuzzling his face against it. “It’s beautiful.”
Lathan shivers with the warmth cobwebbing from his scar. It is , he agrees internally, it’s beautiful . He wants to stay like this, in this bliss with Kylo, forever. No outsiders to judge them. No classes to separate them. No parents to come between them. That isn’t reality, but maybe they can make their own fantasy together in the future, once they make it past the haunting details of their current lives.
If they make it past.
“I’m impressed,” he says after a few beats, “that you held this form the whole time.”
Kylo chuckles breathily, blowing strands of Lathan’s hair that drape near his face. “About that,” he says, and lifts one of his arms in front of them. Kylo’s muscles relax before his eyes, the claws retracting back into his nail beds, fingers shrinking to their regular slender size .
“I think my body shifted to protect you. To be strong for you,” he starts softly and somewhat unsure. “Now that the threat is gone, I think I can shift back.”
Lathan brings a hand up to meet Kylo’s, touching their palms and fingertips together to feel the humanoid hand once again against his own. “Incredible,” he breathes—the ability to control it reminds him of a vampire’s true form. It, too, is triggered; he had to protect Kylo, and couldn’t revert those features until much later.
“I’m not used to being protected,” he says, voice small, like a child’s revelation. And maybe it’s his younger, unhealed self that has been in such awe of Kylo. A child looking up to his hero.
He sits up straight, trying to square himself, look bigger. “You need to protect yourself too, though, Ky. I can handle myself. I’ve done it my whole life.”
“I know you can, but you shouldn’t always have to. I liked being able to be strong for you.”
Lathan continues to stare at their joined hands. He’s never been protected. He’s always been the one to protect. And that part hasn’t changed—from the start, he’s felt this unnamed pull to protect Kylo, and has put a lot of his energy into that affliction. But to hear someone feeling the burning need to protect him— to go to these bodily extremes to do so — is something he didn’t realize he yearned for.