Page 6 of Forbidden (Dark Delights #3)

Wolf had never been so comfortable having someone in his private space. He’d spent centuries alone, and suddenly he had Ira, who fit seamlessly into his quiet little life. After his phone call, Ira took a long shower. The urge to follow him into the bathroom and take advantage of the fact that he was naked and wet was difficult to resist, but he didn’t want to push harder than Ira could handle. He was likely already sore from this morning. When he emerged in a cloud of steam with his hair curling and his body smelling deliciously of Wolf’s soap, he sprawled out on top of Wolf on the sofa and promptly passed out.

Wolf spent the afternoon with a book and Ira’s sleep-warm body curled against him, his soft snores filling the air. He could get used to this.

As afternoon waned into evening, he reluctantly pulled the prophet from his nap.

“Time to wake, seidhr,” he said, stroking Ira’s spine.

Ira groaned, shifting up Wolf’s body and throwing his arms around his neck. “Don’t wanna. ”

“I’ve got a shift at In Extremis.”

“I know,” Ira murmured in his ear, and a low curl of heat filled Wolf at the sound.

“Are you staying here, or do you want to come?”

Ira groaned again, long and dramatic.

“Seidhr,” Wolf prompted, chuckling. He poked Ira’s sides until the man squirmed.

“I’ll go,” he finally said, though his sleep-lax body said otherwise. “Can you get word to Luke and Alex that I want to meet with them? We’ve got a base of operations to find.”

“The abandoned skating rink?” he asked doubtfully. It didn’t sound like much of a base.

“Don’t judge. We’re poor.”

Wolf snorted out a laugh. “Fine. I’ll let them know, but you’ll have to let me up first.” He’d left his phone in the kitchen after Ira used it to call the captain.

“No can do. Too comfy.”

“Oh no,” Wolf deadpanned, “how terrible.” He spread his legs and wrapped his arms around Ira, settling more comfortably against the cushions. “We’ve got a little time before I have to get moving anyway.”

“Mm, good. Not sure whether I’m excited or nervous to see In Extremis in action.”

Wolf hummed. In Extremis could be overwhelming for first-timers, he knew. “If those two can handle it, I’m sure you’ll be fine.”

“You overestimate me. Those two have been exposed to a lot more shocking things than I have. Prophets don’t see a lot of field time. We sit in quiet rooms and meditate. I’m downright sheltered.” He angled his head back to give Wolf an adorable pout .

Wolf stole in for a kiss. “I’m aware of your problematic background.”

Ira chortled at that.

“I’ll protect you, seidhr.” Actually, if he truly wanted to protect Ira, there was something more he could do than simply watching his back. Something to make sure Ira would be stronger, faster, and healthier.

Ira raised his head to inspect him properly. “You have a funny look on your face. What are you thinking?”

“Let me up. I’ll be right back.”

Ira sat back on his heels, and Wolf slid away from him to fetch something from one of the kitchen drawers. He returned with a paring knife, settling back down sideways and drawing Ira between his legs once more.

“ Oh ,” Ira said significantly, his eyes on the knife.

Wolf offered the carbon fiber handle to him. “Of course you already know. Are you interested?”

His blood could make Ira stronger. It would make him heal faster if he was injured. The idea of Ira drinking his blood sent a little shiver of satisfaction down his spine. He wanted it more than anything. Wanted Ira to not only be safe but to have a part of Wolf inside him.

“I’m… not uninterested,” he said carefully. “I don’t like the idea of hurting you, though.”

Wolf smiled fondly, tugging his shirt off and letting it fall to the floor beside the couch. “You won’t hurt me, seidhr, but I can do the cutting if it bothers you.”

“Maybe.”

Wolf nodded, guiding Ira to straddle his lap as he took the knife and pressed it to his chest. “I heal quickly, so don’t worry about cutting too deep. Besides, this isn’t a holy blade. It won’t do any real damage. The only risk here is the mess. ”

He pressed the tip into his skin, watching the way Ira’s expression twisted with concern. He made an inch-long incision and then moved the knife out of the way as black blood trickled toward his nipple.

Deep brown eyes flickered briefly to his, and then Ira ducked his head. His tongue grazed Wolf’s nipple as he lapped up the blood, latching his mouth onto the wound as it healed. Sparks of pleasure-pain fizzled in his brain. His cock hardened rapidly, and he couldn’t stop the moan that left him.

Ira raised his head, his eyes alight. “Oh, this turns you on.” He shook his head at himself. “Duh, of course it does. I should’ve known.”

Wolf’s body shook with laughter. He’d laughed more since meeting Ira than he’d laughed in a decade. “Yes,” he admitted, “it does.”

Ira held out a hand, and with a shiver, Wolf handed over the knife. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d trusted anyone enough to be this vulnerable. The last time he got off with another person was two years ago. He’d picked up someone random from the club and gone back to their place. It was a perfunctory fuck, nothing special. He certainly hadn’t trusted them enough to give them a blade and permission to use it on him. Even people who knew what went on at In Extremis rarely indulged in those darker desires at home. It was a novelty for most of their human customers. And given his intimidating size, most people expected him to be the dominant one—which was fine most of the time. But sometimes he wanted something more.

It made it all the more exciting when Ira’s fingers wrapped around his throat and urged his head back. Wolf went pliant, his front open like a flower blooming in the light, sprawling back against the armrest and baring himself for this precious, incredible human. Staring up at the ceiling like this, he didn’t know where the pain would appear next. He squirmed, his hands fitting over Ira’s thighs, squeezing tightly.

This time it was a vertical line between his pecs, a quick slash, there and gone, followed by the heat of Ira’s tongue, licking over the wound and then spearing the tip against it. Endorphins flooded Wolf’s brain, the pain bright like starbursts behind his eyes. He moaned, his hands drifting up to Ira’s hips and guiding his weight over Wolf’s cock, giving him something to grind up against.

“Oh, you like this a lot ,” Ira crooned, pressing the blade to his other pec and sealing his mouth over the fresh cut, scraping it hard with his teeth to draw out more blood.

The next press of the blade was just shy of his areola, circling his nipple, and Ira tossed the knife to the coffee table, latching his mouth over the wound. His tongue laved at the wound, flicking his nipple with each pass, and then teeth closed around the wound as Ira’s hand plunged into Wolf’s sweatpants, wrapping around his length and stripping him with long, sure strokes. Wolf moaned to the ceiling, fucking up into Ira’s grip as best as he could with Ira’s weight on his legs. It made him feel trapped in the best way, forced to sit there and take whatever Ira wanted to give him.

“Oh, fuck, yeah, just like that,” Wolf murmured.

Ira bit his way across Wolf’s chest to the other nipple, sucking it into his mouth and clamping down around it hard enough to send Wolf writhing. Sparks of heat shot through him.

“Harder, harder,” he whined, and he didn’t know whether he meant Ira’s hand on his cock or his teeth on his chest. Ira obliged with both, biting down on his pectoral so hard his teeth popped through the skin and tightening his hand until Wolf’s cock barely fit in his grip, squeezed like a vise.

He came with a whimper, his seed leaving white stripes across his stomach, and Ira raised his head, grinning brightly like he’d just gotten an A on an exam. A droplet of black blood clung to his bottom lip.

“You look very pretty when you come,” he said, and Wolf had to contend with a very unfamiliar reaction—a blush .

“Only half as pretty as you,” he recovered, reeling Ira in for a long, deep kiss, tasting the remnants of his blood on Ira’s tongue.

Ira shook his head but didn’t argue.

“Time for me to return the favor?” Wolf asked, crushing Ira against him.

Ira chuckled sheepishly. “As hot as that was, I need a little more recovery time after this morning.”

Wolf hummed, peppering his neck and shoulder with kisses and hungry nips. “Going to put you on a healthy diet. Multivitamins and protein shakes. Got to get your stamina up.”

“Hey, I did just fine,” he protested. “Besides, I’m supposed to fast for visions. Like this morning. Had one before breakfast, remember?”

“And brained yourself against the wall,” Wolf grumbled.

“Well. That’s a hazard of the occupation.”

But it wasn’t an occupation. Ira didn’t choose this. It wasn’t a job he could pick up and put down. Wolf didn’t like to think that this was just the lot in life he’d been dealt, that he would always have to go hungry and risk hurting himself because of this thing he’d been born with that was completely beyond his control.

“Humor me,” Wolf said. “You don’t have to log visions anymore. You can have them on your own time. Let me feed you before we go to In Extremis.”

Ira shrugged one shoulder. “I’m really not that hungry.”

Wolf doubted Ira could really tell whether he was hungry, certain he was so used to ignoring his body’s hunger signals that it wouldn’t register to him until it was urgent. He stood, holding Ira easily in his arms. “You’ll forgive me if I don’t believe you. You barely touched breakfast and you slept through lunch. Do you like turkey? I’ll make you a sandwich.”

“Do I get a choice?” Ira asked lightly as Wolf carried him to the breakfast bar.

“About what food I make you, yes. About whether or not you eat, no.” He narrowed his eyes, daring Ira to argue.

To his relief, Ira gave him an exasperated smile. “Fine. Then yes, I like turkey.”

It was probably a matter of time until someone from the guild spotted them, but Wolf wanted to delay it as long as possible. He took Ira into In Extremis through the butcher’s shop tunnel, a secret passageway beneath the city block where In Extremis was located. The halflings had put it in specifically to escape notice from their enemies. Ira clung to him as they walked through the unsettling butcher’s shop, with its dirty plastic partitions and ominous, dangling chains. They’d left it that way on purpose to deter curious trespassers .

“Did you already know this place was here?” Wolf asked curiously.

“Here exactly, no, but I knew there was a passageway somewhere,” Ira explained as Wolf guided him down the narrow staircase and into the darkness below.

Within moments, they were entering the club. If Ira was shocked by the state of In Extremis when they arrived, he masked it well. His eyes trailed around, taking everything in as Wolf led him through the red-lit VIP hall and out into the main club. The party was already going strong. Music pulsed from hidden speakers. Smoke machines made everything look hazy and soft, catching the multicolored lights that strobed from the ceiling. A crowd had already gathered on the dance floor, by the bar, and around the room. There were bodies in every alcove, seeking the pleasures of the flesh. Some danced, some fucked, some traded blood.

Ira’s eyes were wide, but there was no uncertainty or unease in his expression. Overwhelmed but not regretful. Wolf would take it.

He spotted Talon and Alex in their usual booth as he led Ira through the throng, curled close together with their heads almost touching. Xyra was behind the bar, passing out beer bottles and refilling glasses. She lifted her fingers in greeting and went back to taking orders.

Wolf pushed Ira onto a stool and said, “Wait here, I’ll get you something.” He rounded the bar.

“Wait, Wolf, no! I-I don’t want alcohol.”

Wolf shot him an arch look. He picked out a lowball glass, dropped two cubes of ice into it, and set it in front of Ira.

“Wolf,” he protested as Wolf turned away to fetch the drink. When he turned back around with a chilled soda can, Ira relaxed, smiling. “Asshole.”

Wolf cracked the can open and filled the glass. “Calories.”

“What is your obsession with feeding me?” His gaze was deep and warm, and Wolf rounded the bar once more, heedless of the stares. He didn’t normally leave the bar during work hours, and certainly not to interact with a customer. But Ira wasn’t a customer, not really. He was so much more.

He nosed Ira’s ear, his arms looping around Ira’s waist. “I like taking care of you. Is that okay?”

Ira turned sideways and patted his cheek. “Yes, it’s—” He broke off, his gaze falling away and going distant, like he was seeing something no one else could.

Wolf didn’t move. At least if he was holding on, Ira couldn’t fall off the stool and hurt himself again.

“Is this what it looks like when he has a vision?” Talon asked, and Wolf turned to see him and Alex standing beside them.

“Sometimes, I guess. He fell to the floor this morning and hit his head.” He smoothed his hand down the back of Ira’s head. He’d found a lump there after it happened, but his blood had healed it.

Alex nodded. “I’ve heard stories. There’s a reason they usually sit in quiet rooms filled with soft places to rest. I also heard that they fast from a very young age.”

“Fast,” Talon repeated. “Like, stop eating for an extended period?”

“Yeah,” Alex replied. “When I was about fifteen, I saw a prophet-in-training faint in the hallway because he’d gone too long without eating. Apparently there’s a fine line between making yourself have a vision and starving yourself.”

Wolf growled, and Talon shot him a knowing look.

“The guild is okay with prophets doing that to themselves?” Wolf asked.

Alex shrugged. “As long as the prophets keep giving them what they want, I guess they don’t see a problem with it. The ends justify the means.”

Selfish, Wolf thought.

And Ira hadn’t fasted today. In fact, Wolf had layered his sandwich with so much turkey, lettuce, and tomato that Ira had complained about having trouble getting his mouth around it. But he’d eaten the whole thing. He definitely wasn’t hungry. It made him wonder if the guild hadn’t been entirely truthful to their prophets about how their visions worked. But what would be the point? To keep them weak and subservient?

He had a feeling that wasn’t far off the mark.

One moment Ira was staring at nothing, and the next, he blinked, coming back to himself. Wolf wondered why this one was different than the one from this morning. Did some of them just affect him more, or was it because he’d just eaten?

“Well, that was helpful.” He met Alex’s eyes. “Oh, hey! Looks like we’ve got some work to do tonight. Are Luke and Malachi here?”

Alex looked intrigued. “They are. I can?—”

“So,” a new voice cut in, “this is the psychic.”

Wolf couldn’t mask his scowl as he turned toward Shadrach. A leviathan like Talon, he had black eyes and close-cropped hair that was faded on the sides. He wore tailored black slacks that probably cost more than Wolf’s car and a white button-down with the sleeves rolled up. He was a little taller than Talon, lithe like a swimmer, and his eyes held a dangerous gleam. He didn’t come to the club much, because he didn’t play well with others. Wolf lamented that he’d decided to come tonight when Ira was here.

“I’m not psychic, Shadrach, I’m a prophet,” Ira said, and Wolf watched Shadrach’s eyes brighten at the sound of his name.

“You know me.”

“They mentioned there was another leviathan around,” Ira said. That wasn’t the whole truth. He’d all but told them he’d seen Shadrach in the future, but Wolf understood the impulse to deny Shadrach’s curiosity.

“Did they?” Shadrach asked gleefully, glancing from face to face.

Talon, looking unamused with one arm draped over Alex’s shoulders, said, “Shadrach, don’t be a dick.”

He pressed a hand to his chest, but the innocent look was belied by the wickedness glittering in his eyes. “I would never.”

Talon rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to Ira. “What’d you see?”

“Uh, something for us to do tonight,” Ira said to Alex. “You, me, and Luke. Of course, your partners are more than welcome to come along. We could probably use their help.”

A low growl pitched out of Wolf. They were going to leave? He had to stay for his shift behind the fucking bar. He didn’t want Ira to go anywhere without him. He needed to protect him, and he couldn’t do that if they were off on some crazy mission while he was slinging drinks for a crowd of horny drunk people.

“You don’t have to worry, Wolf, I’ll be okay,” Ira said, leaning back against him. He reeled Wolf in, his lips brushing Wolf’s ear and adding for him alone, “You gave me your blood. It’ll protect me even when you can’t be there to do it yourself.”

He knew Ira was reassuring him with more than empty words. Ira knew he’d be okay, because he’d seen it. But Wolf couldn’t quell the anxiety that roiled within him. He would only know for sure that Ira was okay when he had eyes on him.

“You can’t keep me with you twenty-four-seven for the rest of my life,” Ira said, as though he could read his mind. Hell, at this point, Wolf wasn’t entirely sure he couldn’t.

“Is that a challenge?” Wolf quipped.

Ira chuckled. “No, definitely not. Listen, you have my word that I’ll be okay.”

Wolf sighed. “Okay. In the morning we’re getting you a phone.”

“I’ll have one of the others text you when we’re safe.”

Alex murmured that he would go find Luke and Malachi and patted Talon’s stomach as he stepped away. Talon watched him go, his hungry gaze lingering on his partner’s body. For the first time, it was a sentiment Wolf understood. He couldn’t get enough of Ira.

A warm hand wrapped around his wrist, and he looked down to see Ira staring at the black door hidden in the corner. The door that led up to Lilith’s office.

“Will you be okay here by yourself?” he asked.

Wolf opened his mouth to speak, but Shadrach beat him to it.

“Don’t worry, little psychic, I’ll stay with him.”

Ira shot him a contemplative look .

“She’s not here tonight,” Talon offered. “For what it’s worth.”

Wolf added, “And with Storm and Xyra here, I’ll be fine.”

Shadrach raised both hands. “What am I, chopped liver?”

“Right now, yeah,” Ira said boldly.

Shadrach tilted his head. Anyone else would be treading very carefully, but Ira barely spared him a glance. Wolf was in danger of getting turned on. He liked cocky-Ira.

Shadrach flicked his hand, and something small and shiny flew up into the air. Ira fumbled for it reflexively, catching it against his chest. Over his shoulder, Wolf saw that it was a quarter.

“Tell me my future, little psychic.” He grinned.

Ira looked unimpressed. “I’m not a fortune teller.”

“Oh, come on. Give me something ,” Shadrach needled.

Ira glanced at Wolf, who shrugged.

“I can’t tell you much—mostly because saying too much might change things, and the future is tenuous at best. But I’ll say this.”

Shadrach leaned forward eagerly, and even Talon was listening closely.

“You think all of these guys are so stupid for getting involved with paladins,” he said evenly, “but when you and Talon finally come to blows, it’ll be over your human.”

Shadrach’s eyes narrowed. “Bullshit. My human.” He scoffed. “I’m not stupid enough to fall for one of you.”

“I know,” Ira said dismissively. “That’s true right now. It’s not time yet.”

“That’s true always . You think I’ll be swayed just because you tell me I’ll want a human later?”

“No,” Ira said plainly. “In fact, I think telling you any of this will make you less likely to accept it when the time comes. But you’ve annoyed me, and I know that knowing this will annoy you back.” He frowned. “I should probably do better about keeping my emotions in check if I’m going to do this without having anyone to supervise what I say.”

Wolf snorted out a laugh, muffling the sound in Ira’s hair. “I think you’re doing just fine.”

Talon and Shadrach eyed each other cautiously.

“Don’t worry, neither of you kills the other,” Ira added.

They both scoffed at that. They’d always reminded Wolf of siblings, antagonizing each other without doing any real harm. For all their banter, they’d never actually tried to hit each other. The fact that they would one day soon, and over a human Shadrach would fall for, was a revelation. He wondered if Ira realized the bomb he’d just dropped on the two leviathans.

Alex returned with Luke and Malachi in tow. “Got ‘em. You guys ready?”

“Yes,” Ira said quickly. “Let’s get going.” He turned, pecking a kiss to Wolf’s lips like they’d been doing it for years. “I’ll have Alex text you the address to the place after we get it cleared out, and you can pick me up from there. Sound good?”

Not really, but he didn’t have much of a choice. And based on Ira’s smile, he knew exactly what Wolf was thinking.

“Yes, fine. Be careful.”