Page 4 of Forbidden (Dark Delights #3)

Wolf was beginning to understand what Talon and Malachi must’ve felt when they met their humans. Seeing Ira rush toward the door had awakened something primal and possessive in him. He didn’t want him to go, didn’t want him to return to a guild that told him to starve himself for their own ends and made him feel unsafe for the visions he’d been having about them . The urge to keep him there completely consumed him. He would do horrible things to stay in Ira’s orbit—but not to Ira, no. Ira needed to be protected, and Wolf needed to be the one protecting him.

A prophet of the Lord was having visions about him . Wolf. A nobody halfling who’d never meant anything to anybody. He was important somehow, and now that he’d had a taste of Ira, he didn’t want to let him go.

“You’re mine,” he growled into the soft skin of Ira’s neck, laying his hand flat against Ira’s stomach. “You’re meant to be mine, and you know it. That’s why you’ve been having these visions about us, isn’t it? It’s supposed to happen.”

Ira shuddered, covering Wolf’s arm with both hands now, gripping tight but not fighting him off. It was as though his body was trying to tell him to stay, too, clinging to Wolf just as Wolf clung to him. “I can’t just abandon everything I’ve ever known.” But he sounded uncertain.

“Even if it leads to something better?”

Ira didn’t speak for a long moment, staring at the door distantly. Finally, he growled under his breath, hanging his head. “Crap.”

Wolf bit his lip, waiting. Ira’s hand slowly traveled from Wolf’s wrist to the deadbolt, latching it firmly. Breathing a sigh of relief, Wolf curled around him and kissed his neck. Something in him recognized Ira, a tenuous awareness that Ira was the puzzle piece he hadn’t even known was missing from his existence, and he’d do anything to keep him here.

“Good, good, thank you.” He rocked them from side to side, and Ira huffed out a laugh at the treatment.

“I think you’re right,” he said, his voice raspy with emotion. “I knew saving you would change things. I just don’t think I expected it all to happen so fast. I didn’t expect one action tonight to change the course of my entire life.” He turned in Wolf’s arms suddenly, his soulful brown eyes wide and serious. “You get that, right? This isn’t a quick fling for me. I’ll have to uproot my entire life. Nothing… Nothing’s ever going to be the same after this. For either of us. Actually, not just us. We’re not the only ones who’ll be affected by this.”

It didn’t sound crazy at all. It was reassuring, in fact. Maybe he didn’t know Ira well, but he trusted whatever this possessive feeling was. Ira was meant to be here. The last thing Wolf wanted was for him to leave, and here was Ira telling him he wouldn’t. Wolf already knew he couldn’t go back to the way things were before. Ira was like a breath of fresh air after a lifetime underground. What he was doing before wasn’t living. It was just existing, drifting from moment to moment. Nothing gave it any meaning—until now. He didn’t need visions to tell him Ira was his. Something primal deep within him already knew it.

Wolf nodded, taking Ira’s face with both hands. “I understand. I’m telling you to stay anyway. We’ll go to your apartment right now, pack your clothes and whatever else you want to keep. Leave your phone there, leave anything they could use to track you. I’m not letting you walk back in there and wait until they discover us like Talon and Malachi did. We’re not risking your life like that. We’re not that stupid.”

Ira snorted.

“We’ll make you disappear, and they won’t be able to find you. You can stay here with me. You can tell me more about these visions on our way to your place. What’s our next step?” He swiped his keys from the breakfast bar.

He blew out a breath. “If you want me to figure out our next step, I’m going to need sleep and another twelve hours of fasting, probably.”

Wolf scowled. He didn’t like the idea of Ira starving himself for any reason. Besides, now that he’d mentioned Talon and Malachi, he knew where they needed to go next. Ira had said they wouldn’t be the only ones affected by Ira’s decisions tonight, and he was right. The others needed a heads-up about Commander Sloan’s new orders.

“Actually,” he said. “I know what our next step has to be.”

“What’s that?” Ira asked.

Wolf locked the door behind them and draped an arm over Ira’s shoulders, delighting when the man leaned automatically into him .

“You said Sloan declared open season on halflings. We’ll take care of your place first, but then we need to warn people.”

Ira’s face cleared with understanding. “Oh. Yeah, you’re right.” An uncertain frown crossed his face, and Wolf reached up to rub the furrowed brow with his finger.

“What’s wrong?”

Ira blew out a breath, offering him a weak smile. “It’s all really happening. In the past, I felt very removed from my visions. I saw things, I told my supervisors, and then the council handled things from there. I never saw the actual outcome. But now, I’ll be there. Front and center. It’s just going to take some getting used to, being an active participant in the events that will unfold.”

Wolf had trouble imagining what that was like, seeing things and knowing he wouldn’t be allowed to see them through. It sounded like the prophets were too protected—maybe even coddled. Tucked away where they had no influence on the events they were blessed—or cursed—to witness.

Wolf didn’t like it. He tugged Ira closer, curling his hand around the ball of Ira’s shoulder. “Well, if you’re sitting front and center, I’ll be right there beside you.”

Ira bit down on a smile.

Ira was quiet in the car. Pockets of light and darkness streaked past the windows outside, highlighting and shading his handsome face in turns. Wolf regretted that he’d driven, because he wanted nothing more than to stare, to drink in the sight of the strange human who had barreled right into his life and declared he belonged there.

Wolf had never experienced this kind of confidence in another being. He had friends, sure, and he’d had lovers over the years, but those relationships all felt muted compared to this. Suddenly Ira was all that mattered. It was as though Wolf had been asleep for centuries, and Ira had woken him. He wanted to reach out, ground himself with the warm press of Ira’s skin on his, but he was uncertain of his welcome. They still barely knew each other, after all, and Ira already seemed torn about what he was doing. Wolf didn’t want to push too hard and send him skittering away. He could be patient for as long as it took.

Ira’s apartment was a small studio about half an hour from Wolf’s place. Wolf lingered by the door while Ira grabbed a duffel bag from the closet and started packing. It was obvious he didn’t spend much time there. There was nothing but a calendar hanging on the white walls, in the dubious space that separated the kitchen from the rest of the room. He grabbed his toiletries from the small bathroom and then went to the dresser, grabbing clothes and stuffing it all into the bag. All in all, it took less than fifteen minutes for him to pack up his life. There was no need for furniture or food; Wolf already had those.

When he was done packing, Wolf took the bag from him. Ira grabbed a flavored soda water from the fridge and set his phone on the kitchen counter beside the door. He paused there, turning to face the apartment, and Wolf shouldered his bag, waiting. After a moment, he dug a notepad from the junk drawer beside him and went into his phone’s contacts. He wrote down a list of names and phone numbers and pocketed the paper .

“We’ll need those,” he said, and Wolf had never believed anyone more.

Next, he gently twisted the guild ring from his finger and left it sitting on top of his phone. The gravity of it hit Wolf as Ira looked around one last time at his pocket-sized apartment. He truly was leaving everything behind because of Wolf. His home, his things, his whole life. Had he gotten up this morning with any indication that his life would change? Did he know before it happened? Did he have time to prepare anything? Was there anyone at the guild he’d wanted to say goodbye to? Did he have friends? And how the hell did this man choose him over his entire life?

Despair filled him at the thought. Demons reinvented themselves all the time, but Ira wasn’t like Wolf. He was mortal, and this was the only life he’d ever known. How was Wolf worthy of this kind of abrupt devotion?

“Wouldn’t your life have been so much simpler if you’d just let me die?” he blurted, and Ira turned to look at him in surprise.

He paused for a moment, gathering his thoughts, and then admitted, “Yes. I considered it. In theory, it would’ve been the easiest thing in the world to go home and go to sleep and wake up in the morning exactly as I always did.” He smiled crookedly. “But I couldn’t. We’re… happy in my visions. In the future. None of it has happened yet, but I already feel like it has, because I’ve seen some of it. It’s stranger to me that you’re willing to accept me into your life like this without knowing what I know. I’m nobody to you.”

Wolf smiled. “A beautiful man who sees the future tells you you’re meant to be together, you listen.”

Ira’s mouth lifted weakly.

It wasn’t just Ira’s word that this was how things were meant to be, though, and Wolf struggled to put his feelings into words. “And more than that… I see what Talon and Malachi were talking about now. They both claimed they took one look at their human and realized they were made for them. You’re it for me. I don’t want anyone else. I don’t want to go back to my life the way it was before. I want to take you home and feed you and give you orgasms until you can’t even remember the life you had before me.” The moment he’d arrived, Wolf had felt drawn to him. Some instinct deep down inside him had recognized Ira and reared its head.

Those brown eyes glittered. “Oh.” His cheeks darkened, and Wolf couldn’t resist crowding him against the cheap counter, ducking his head to seal their mouths together. Ira sighed into it, angling his head back to deepen it. His fingers skated up Wolf’s sides, and he pushed up on his tiptoes, gripping Wolf’s shoulders to keep his balance.

When they parted, Ira huffed, “I feel so short standing next to you. I’m almost six feet tall, y’know.”

“I’m six foot five, tiny seer,” Wolf teased.

“Good God , okay, so you’ve got like seven inches on me.”

Wolf chuckled. “I believe I was a viking in a past life, though I can’t say I remember much about it.”

Ira’s brows rose. “That… makes a lot of sense, actually.” He gently tugged Wolf’s braid over his shoulder, touching the golden strands like they were something precious.

Wolf sighed regretfully. “It’s a shame we have responsibilities to tend to. I’d bend you over right here if we had time.”

Ira’s forehead thumped against his collarbone. “You can’t say things like that.”

Wolf couldn’t stop touching him, running his hands up and down his back, exploring the soft curls on the back of his neck. Ira was like a drug. “Why? Do you not want me to bend you over?”

A shudder rolled down Ira’s spine, and Wolf wrapped his arms around him. “I plead the Fifth.”

“We’re not in a courtroom,” Wolf whispered in his ear. Urging Ira’s face up, he said plainly, “I won’t do anything you’re uncomfortable with, tiny seer. You have my word.”

Ira relaxed, smiling easily. “I know. And stop calling me tiny.”

“Do you prefer small? Minuscule? Petite?”

Ira snorted. “ No .”

Wolf chuckled. “Well, I need something to call you.”

“It doesn’t have to be anything about my perfectly average size.”

He bit back a grin. “All right. Then how about… seidhr?”

“Seidhr?” Ira asked, looking up at him in confusion.

“Mm. In Old Norse, it was a type of old magic that involved telling the future. Prophet, seidhr.” He weighed his hands from side to side, as though measuring the difference between them.

“Oh, that’s… not bad,” Ira said sheepishly.

Wolf’s fingers scratched through the scruff on Ira’s jaw. “Good. Kiss me again, and then we’ll go.”

He didn’t think he’d ever get enough of Ira’s taste, or the way Ira arched up against him as though starved for his touch. A demon could get drunk off this sort of surrender.

With a regretful groan, he pulled away. “Come on. We really need to talk to the others before I take you home to pass out.”

Ira’s shoulders slumped at the prospect of sleep, his gaze going distant and dreamy .

“Maybe feed you one more time before I let you sleep,” Wolf said thoughtfully as he followed Ira out into the hall. One slice of pizza earlier probably wasn’t enough.

“I’ve been awake for almost twenty-four hours now, too. We’ll see what’s more urgent after we’re done talking to the others,” Ira suggested.

“Good point. You humans are so high maintenance.”

Ira laughed, and Wolf mentally patted himself on the back for a job well done.

“So, we’re happy in the future?” he asked as he pressed the button to call the elevator.

Ira cleared his throat, ducking his head bashfully. “We are, yeah. As far as I’ve seen, anyway.”

“I look forward to living it, then.” He stroked his hand back and forth across the curve of Ira’s shoulder. “What kinds of things do you normally see?”

“I can’t tell you that,” Ira declared as they stepped into the elevator. He pushed the button for the ground floor, dutifully avoiding Wolf’s gaze.

“Oh, now I’m very interested,” Wolf rumbled as the doors closed. He reeled Ira against him, and Ira gripped his waist for balance, rocking into him as the cabin started moving.

“I already told you, didn’t I?” Ira hedged.

“Mm, no. You told me we’re happy, and you told me we share meals together. But you also said you only sometimes see those domestic things. What else do you see?”

Ira licked his lips, his soulful gaze falling from Wolf’s eyes to his lips. His voice was soft, enticing Wolf to lean in to hear him better. “You and me, moving together. In bed. Against the wall. Sometimes naked, sometimes with half our clothes on like we couldn’t keep our hands off each other long enough to finish undressing. I’ve seen you on your knees for me. I’ve seen you holding me down, guiding me through things I’ve never—” He stopped suddenly, his throat bobbing.

They were both breathing hard. The urge to drag their bodies together and rut against the hardness pressing against his hip was almost overwhelming. He wanted nothing more than to take Ira home and show him everything . Goddamn their stupid responsibilities.

Wolf cleared his throat. “Just out of curiosity, have you ever had a vision that didn’t come to pass?”

His mouth twitching, Ira said, “No.”

The elevator doors opened. “Good.” He snagged Ira’s hand and led him from the cabin. “Let’s get this over with so we can go get started on those then, shall we?”