Page 3 of Devil May Hunt (The Devils of Vitality #8)

He’d come here to avoid this sort of entanglement, and yet Gunho found himself unable to separate from the smaller man beneath him.

The one currently rubbing against him, already making sweet, soft, breathy sounds.

He reared back, taking a moment to inspect the man’s face. It was beautiful, prettier than he’d seen, but befitting an omega—

Wait. Not an omega.

Right.

The rut was messing with his head, making it harder to think clearly by the second. He had to decide now what to do with this pretty Vital that had landed, quite literally, in his lap.

They seemed to be of the same mind, because as the moment dragged on, he could see sense returning to the other man. He blinked past his drunken haze, staring up at Gunho, brow furrowing as he seemed to piece together his situation.

He had chocolate-colored eyes and shiny hair, almost the exact same shade. His cheeks were flushed from the drink and the arousal that was clear at the apex of his fit thighs, and he was dressed like one of the cadets from the Academy.

Had he come directly here after training?

Or had he hoped to find better luck attracting a bed partner by showing off his status?

The Academy didn’t allow just anyone to enroll.

It was an important training facility that housed the best and brightest, where only the strong would survive.

More students were kicked out yearly than at any other school, and according to the gray color of his button-up shirt, this cadet had at least made it to his sophomore year.

“Get off,” the man said then, his voice like music.

Instead of listening, Gunho’s hand slipped beneath his shirt, slowly easing the material up to expose defined abdominal muscles and velvety skin. His nipples were dusky rose and perky, practically begging for Gunho’s teeth, and he groaned at the sight of them.

“You’re pretty all over,” he murmured appreciatively, unashamedly feeling the man up, everywhere he could get his hand. “What about your hole? Is that pretty too?”

“Stop.” The pretty man grabbed onto Gunho’s wrist and attempted to remove him. “Let—”

With a growl, he flipped the man onto his stomach and tore the shirt off his body. The move brought a wave of perfume into the air, and at first he thought it was the pretty man’s cologne. When he realized it was natural, he almost came in his pants.

“Impossible.” He nosed the man’s nape and nipped at it, wanting more of that smell. Wanting it all over him. It was like ripe cherries, brown sugar, and bourbon. Edible. Euphoric. “Mine.”

Just the thought of another getting to experience that scent had him raging, his primal instincts causing him to bite down on the side of the pretty man’s throat, though he caught himself before breaking skin.

This time.

Next time, he might not be so capable.

He should end this. Let him go like he wanted and—

“Please,” the man begged in that gorgeous voice of his, and even though he’d clearly meant for this to stop, it was Gunho’s undoing.

“I’ll be good to you,” he promised, reaching to hastily undo the man’s belt. “You want it too. You’re still hard.”

“I’m drunk,” he argued, but he may as well have been speaking to a wall at that point, the rut taking control over Gunho and his actions.

Gunho pinned the smaller man down and purred, appreciating his tapered waist and the corded muscles bunching in his back as he struggled beneath him.

A good bed partner should have at least a little fight, and he made sure the sound rumbling through his chest was loud enough for the other man to hear, wanting to convey how pleased he was by his actions.

It’d been so long since he’d last done this, but clearly coming to Vitality had been a wise decision.

Here, there was no fear of accidentally impregnating an omega.

His grandfather’s reach didn’t extend this far, and he’d been careful not to allow his intended destination to leak when he’d left Glyph.

His bed partner’s struggles increased when he reached for the band of his pants, and Gunho took an elbow to the face, grunting at the sharp pain that exploded on his cheekbone.

With a growl, he slipped a knife from a sheath attached to his ankle and sliced through the man’s pants, leaving his garments in shreds around them.

“If you’re rough with me,” he promised darkly, “I’ll be twice as rough with you.”

“Hold on!” The man tried to rise again, but Gunho planted a palm to his narrow back, keeping him down. “Let’s just talk about this for a minute!”

“What’s to say?” His free hand undid his belt.

Within seconds, he’d captured the man’s wrists and secured them at his back with the thick leather strap.

“I’m too far into my rut to even consider letting you go, and you’re too drunk to properly fight me off.

You came onto me, remember? This was your suggestion.

Even if you’ve changed your mind, it doesn’t matter. ”

“That makes this—”

“I spent my childhood on Synastry,” Gunho cut him off. “Using terrible words like that won’t be enough to spare you.”

On Synastry, taking as one pleased when they were experiencing a rut or a heat was normal.

The belief was that everyone was responsible for managing their own proclivities.

Alphas and Omegas both had blockers that could help dampen or stop them from entering their mating cycle altogether.

Even after he’d been forced back to Glyph, Gunho had continued to take them, and he would have been fine if not for the fucking Emperor getting in the way.

His blockers had been tampered with, which he’d found out the hard way three months ago when he’d entered his last rut. He’d almost made a mistake then, almost got caught in the old man’s trap, but fortunately, his cousins had found him and put a stop to things before it’d come to that.

“Believe it or not, I understand how bad it feels when you’re forced,” he said, even as another wave of heat hit him, causing his cock to gush between his thighs.

A thick glob of precome splattered over the man’s bound hands and his captive cursed.

“I’ll make this so good for you, you won’t care in the morning when you wake up. Deal?”

“I don’t have to see it to know you’re too big for me.” The man glared over his shoulder at him, those beautiful honey-toned eyes of his sparkling with a rage Gunho felt zip all the way down to his toes. “I don’t even want to try.”

“There’s got to be something you do want though,” he said.

“Some reason you got this drunk to begin with and tried getting fucked by a stranger. Are you running from something, or trying to forget? Maybe both? I can help you with that, can’t you tell?

” He shifted his knees on either side of the man, pressing down so his hard-on bumped against the man’s exposed ass.

He was pretty there too, with round cheeks that begged to be spanked. There was only a peek of his balls from this angle, and no sign of his dick trapped beneath him, but Gunho wondered what he looked like.

“I haven’t seen anyone as attractive as you,” he confessed, “not even an omega. Tell me, are you all like this on Vitality?” He should have visited sooner.

The man tensed up again, but the mood changed. He looked away, dropping his head onto the couch cushion. “Most of us are much better looking. Trust me, you’re better off finding someone else. You wouldn’t settle for me if you weren’t experiencing a rut.”

“You smell good,” Gunho reassured, and then realized the other man probably didn’t even know what that meant. “You don’t have pheromones like my people, but I can still smell you, pretty lover. You smell like temptation and sin.”

“That’s cheap booze and sweat, actually,” he quipped. “Look, if you let go, I’ll find someone else for you. I bet there are a ton of people downstairs who’d love the chance to sleep with an alpha.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. It’s a whole kink here. Not to minimize what you are or your experiences. But that’s just how it is. I can find you—”

“I don’t want someone else.” They were wasting time.

“I can’t hold on much longer. The only reason I’ve been able to stay clearheaded enough to talk with you at all is because you’re not my kind.

But you are my type, and I don’t give up on the things I want.

The art of taking was practically ingrained into me at a young age.

You can’t win this argument, pretty lover.

You’re better off playing along and enjoying it. You wanted it a minute ago.”

“Yeah, before I felt how big—”

“Don’t be frightened.” Gunho shifted, using his knees to spread the man’s legs wide for him, then brought two fingers to his mouth and sucked.

“I’ll make sure to open you up nice and good first, how about that?

You have to make a choice quick though, I meant it about losing control.

You’re lucky you caught me at the beginning of my rut, but now that I’ve smelled a suitable mate, my body is about to lose it. Once instincts take over…”

Gunho would most likely spear his cock through the pretty man’s unprepared orifice and tear him to shreds doing it.

It’d been a long time since he’d experienced a rut this intense, he actually couldn’t recall the last time he’d felt this on edge.

It might have even been one of his early teen years, just after presenting as an alpha.

It was the smell.

A smell he thought he’d never get to experience.

This man might not be an omega, but his regular pheromones and natural scent was calling to his alpha nature all the same. It’d triggered something in him he’d been told he’d never have the chance to feel.

Fated mates weren’t a thing, and love at first sight was bullshit.

But chemistry?

Gunho believed in science, and right now, all signs were pointing to them having the perfect chemistry with one another.