Page 63

Soren

S oren’s initial thought had been to have Gabe fuck him in the kitchen.

For his human to bend him over the counter, or maybe let Soren ride him on one of the kitchen chairs.

But then Gabe had kissed him so sweetly, so gently, and before Soren knew it, he’d let himself be led up to the human’s bedroom.

Like this was some kind of… romantic interlude.

It was a far cry from the vampy, bloody sex he’d been imagining earlier in the night, pressed up against each other at the club. But the gentleness of Gabe’s kiss after the shock of thinking he’d seen Hendrick’s face had Soren all sorts of messed up.

Maybe that was why, up in the bedroom, he was still letting Gabe kiss him so fucking sweetly .

Gabe had both hands cupping Soren’s cheeks, holding his face like he was something precious. He was claiming Soren’s mouth with warm, gentle, openmouthed kisses, and Soren was letting him.

To be fair, Gabe was a fucking dreamy kisser, so Soren couldn’t really be blamed, could he?

Gabe was using his hold on Soren to angle his head the way he wanted, sucking gently on his lips in between smooth, silky strokes of his tongue.

Soren was letting out a whimper before he knew it.

Christ. He needed to breathe. Needed to take control of the situation before he drowned in all this sweetness. He took a step back, pulling his head out of Gabe’s grasp. “Strip,” Soren ordered, panting a little.

Gabe swallowed hard before following his command, pulling his shirt over his head in an instant, revealing all those delicious muscles. Soren rid himself of his own top quickly, pulling off his leather pants next.

Gabe groaned in appreciation, watching him undress. “Those fucking pants,” he muttered.

Soren paused in toeing them off his ankles. “Don’t like them?” he teased.

The heat in Gabe’s eyes could have melted steel. “Like them too fucking much,” he corrected.

As he should. Soren looked amazing in them.

“Grab the lube,” Soren demanded.

He lay down on the bed as Gabe complied, spreading his legs wide and watching in satisfaction as Gabe’s eyes darkened at the sight.

“Open me up,” Soren ordered.

“Fuck, yes,” Gabe sighed, moving forward to climb up on the bed.

And then Gabe was kissing him again.

Soren took control quickly this time, sucking on the human’s tongue savagely, giving in a little to the ferocity that lived ever-present inside him. Would Gabe protest? Ask Soren to be sweet again?

But his human only groaned in satisfaction, doing that addictive thing he did where he melted so easily under Soren’s ministrations.

Gabe’s thick, hard cock was pressed against Soren’s, his body weight bearing down in a way that should have left Soren panicked but instead left him feeling just so goddamn good.

Soren whimpered as a slick digit probed at his entrance urgently. Gabe pushed the tip inside, and Soren sighed in satisfaction at the stretch—Gabe’s fingers were so much bigger than his own.

Gabe kissed his jaw, his ear, his neck. “Open up for me, baby.”

Christ. Soren was getting addicted to that baby.

One finger turned to two, to three, and then Soren was grabbing at Gabe’s muscular ass, pulling him closer. “Fuck me, Highness. Now.”

Gabe smirked down at him as he lined the fat head of his cock up to Soren’s entrance. “How am I ‘Highness’ when you’re the one ordering me around?”

But Soren didn’t have to answer the silly question, because then Gabe was entering him in one smooth push, filling Soren up with that goddamn perfect cock.

“Yes,” Soren sighed, pushing up into that sensation. “More.”

He yelped in surprise when Gabe sat back onto his knees, using his hands on Soren’s ass to pull Soren’s lower body with him, until Soren’s upper back was pressed into the bed and his hips were high in the air.

The action was smooth enough that Gabe’s cock never left his body, still inside him to the hilt.

Soren clenched his hole around it, and Gabe moaned in response.

“You want to be the boss?” Gabe asked, his voice husky. “Fuck yourself onto me, baby.”

Hell yes. Soren could to that.

He planted his feet firmly on the bed, pushing up onto Gabe’s cock, watching with satisfaction as those golden eyes went to half-mast. Gabe was meeting him thrust for thrust but letting Soren set the pace. Again.

This human kept doing all the right things.

Soren’s breath caught as Gabe’s hands slid all over him, caressing his hips, his stomach, his chest—everywhere but Soren’s desperate and aching cock.

“So perfect,” Gabe murmured, running his thumbs over Soren’s nipples.

They were just words. But they sounded so fucking sincere.

Was that why Soren’s chest ached to hear them?

He thought he’d long ago given up on the idea of being perfect to anyone else.

His only experience with another’s expectations for him had led to nothing but pain.

But Gabe wasn’t thinking of some idealized version of Soren when he said those words—his human had seen every side of him tonight.

The monster. The rude brat. The coward.

And still the human seemed to want it all.

Soren panted. He suddenly wanted…something. Something different. Something real . He didn’t want to keep his human at arm’s length anymore. Soren’s hips paused as an overwhelming sensation flooded over him.

Gabe’s heated gaze softened in concern. “Soren?” he questioned, stilling his own movements.

Soren wrapped one leg around Gabe’s hips, then the other, pulling the muscled human firmly on top of him. “Fuck me properly,” he ordered. Somehow it came out sounding like a plea.

Gabe smiled down at him, brushing a lock of Soren’s hair out of his eyes. The move was unbearably tender.

Soren should have hated it.

Then Gabe’s weight crashed fully down on him, and he did as Soren asked. He fucked him properly, setting a brutal pace that left Soren gasping as the human angled his thrusts in a way that hit Soren’s prostate repeatedly.

So goddamn good.

It had been so long since Soren had willingly let someone else take control.

But he didn’t feel dominated. Gabe was gazing at him with what could easily be considered adoration in his eyes, even as he was pounding Soren with a force that might have left bruises had Soren been human.

Every now and then, the phrase “so beautiful” escaped the human’s lips, in between groans.

“Yes,” Soren sighed. “More, Highness. More .”

His orgasm hit him hard and suddenly, a cry escaping his lips as electricity shot up his spine and he coated their stomachs in his cum.

Gabe wasn’t far behind, his hips stuttering, and Soren gasped at the sensation of Gabe’s cum filling him up.

Gabe kept grinding into Soren, thighs trembling, as if he couldn’t bear to leave his body just yet.

Soren understood the feeling.

They lay together, Gabe blanketing Soren’s body with his own, for what felt like endless moments afterward, Gabe’s head on Soren’s chest, Soren stroking his dark curls gently. The tension and fear of the last few hours had finally left Soren’s body, and he felt soft, pliable.

Vulnerable , a voice in his head taunted.

He pushed it aside. Gabe’s weight felt comforting, like a big security blanket. Soren was done listening to that fearful, cowardly side of himself. Because there was another, deeper-rooted voice whispering the same word over and over again in his head.

Mate. Mate. Mate.

He’d known it for longer than he’d wanted to admit. Soren had heard the stories. He knew what it meant when a vampire was inexplicably drawn to a human. What it meant when the scent of a stranger suddenly smelled like home.

Soren had a mate.

But if Soren turned Gabe, if Gabe became his equal in strength and power, would his human still stay this sweet? Or would he start seeing Soren as something…smaller. Weaker. Something to own. His pretty possession.

Gabe’s words from the kitchen came back to him. I wish I were stronger. I wish I could protect you. Had Gabe really meant that? Even if Gabe being stronger meant he would no longer be human?

Soren opened his mouth to ask but stopped himself, glancing down at the head of dark hair on his chest. Gabe’s breathing was already the deep, even pattern of the sleeping. Soren should let his human rest. For now, it wasn’t Soren that needed protecting anyway.

He would keep his mate from harm.

He’d let the situation with Hendrick go on far longer than he should have.

Soren had become complacent. Too grateful for his freedom to try and mitigate the cost. It had seemed worth it—the pain and humiliation of giving in to Hendrick’s need to dominate, his need to hurt —in exchange for Soren having a life of his own.

He’d made a pattern of avoiding Hendrick as long as possible, until he was inevitably caught, suffering the consequences until Hendrick got bored, and then carrying on as he wished. Overall, Soren had thought he’d had the life he wanted. More or less.

Sure , a snide voice in his head remarked. Lonely. Wandering. Never getting too close to anybody.

Had he really been fooling himself all this time? Letting Hendrick push him around, convinced somewhere inside himself that he was still lesser just because some dysfunctional group of vampire rejects had told him so?

It was too late to regret it. Soren refused to cry over spilled milk. It didn’t matter if he should have dealt with it sooner.

He’d deal with it now.

Soren sighed, pressing a kiss to the forehead of the large, sweet human draped over him.

Soren had someone worth protecting now.

It was hours later when Soren finally brought himself to slide out from under Gabe’s warm weight. He tucked the covers up around his human, bending over to give him another forehead kiss, since there was no one else around to see how fucking sentimental he’d apparently become in the last few hours.