Seth
He probably should be too hot, judging by the weight on top of him. He must have been under about a million blankets. How was he not smothered?
Well, that explained the weight.
“Riley.”
Riley’s face crumpled, and fresh tears started coursing down his cheeks. “You were in so much pain. I—I really hurt you.”
Seth’s poor, sensitive boy.
“Not intentionally,” Seth soothed. “You warned me it would happen.”
Seth shifted under his covers. He was naked.
Presumably Riley had never redressed him after the shower.
Riley was naked too. He’d probably had bigger things to worry about than clothing.
Like, for example, Seth’s heart stopping.
But with the sheets and the duvet, there was still too much fabric between them.
Seth needed to feel Riley right on top of him.
He needed the reassurance of his touch. Everything was a little too bright, or too loud, or too…
intense. The bedroom light hurt his eyes, and he could hear his elderly neighbor in her yard way too clearly, and he could smell the shampoo in his own hair, clogging his nose.
It was only that warm pulse inside him that was keeping him from getting completely overwhelmed.
Seth kept returning to it, prodding it in his chest. It felt steady. Irrevocable.
That was Riley’s love for him, wasn’t it?
Had Riley told Seth they would feel each other’s emotions once they’d bonded? Seth couldn’t remember. It seemed like an important bit of information to impart.
Seth would freak out about that later.
“Come under the covers,” he requested.
Riley only stared at him. The tears had slowed down, though, so that was good.
Seth shifted and nudged and pushed and cajoled until Riley was wrapped in his cocoon with him, still on top of Seth but now skin to skin.
There. That was better.
Seth grinned up at him. “Hello.”
Riley dropped his forehead to Seth’s with a little wounded sound. Poor baby. It had been a lot of change in one day, assuming it was still the same day as when Seth had…turned.
Whatever day it was, Seth was a vampire now. They were bonded. It was done.
Seth had made the decision as hastily as he’d previously been determined not to, and he’d chosen right. He knew that now, as certain as he knew anything. He knew it because that love that was pulsing inside him belonged there, just as his belonged to Riley.
Something else inside Seth stirred at the thought, something covetous and hungry.
“Can you feel me?” Seth asked, wrapping his arms around Riley’s back and nuzzling his forehead against Riley’s. “Inside?”
Riley nodded as best he could, and he was too close for Seth to see his smile, but Seth could feel it anyway. “Yeah. You really like me, huh?”
“I love you,” Seth corrected. He spread his legs a little, shifted again.
“And you—you feel okay?” Riley asked. “You’re not…ravenously hungry? Aching? Ready to die if you don’t bite into someone and drain them dry?”
God, was that how Riley had felt waking up after his transformation? It sounded horrible.
Seth shook his head, liking the way their foreheads rubbed together with the motion. “None of that. I just want to be close to you.”
He shifted again, bending his knees a little. There. Now if he could just—
Riley suddenly rose onto his hands, his brow furrowed as he peered down at Seth. Seth blinked up at him.
“Seth.”
“Yes, baby?”
“Are you trying to…sneak my dick inside you?”
“Huh?” Seth asked, the picture of innocence. He tilted his hips up, then huffed in frustration. Riley moving had really messed with his angles.
They were both hard though—Seth had felt that the moment Riley had pressed down fully against him—so it wasn’t like Seth was exactly sneaking. He’d just felt certain that if he could get in the right position, they would just…slip in together.
Seth wanted that. Needed that, actually. Some inner part of him, hungry and alert, was demanding it.
“I just—” Seth wriggled upward. “Um, I feel very strongly that you should be fucking me right now.”
He was pretty sure he wasn’t the only one feeling it either. He could sense Riley’s desire, like a tingly, spicy addition to that wonderful, pulsing love feeling.
“Consummation,” Riley said solemnly, like Seth was spouting actual wisdom. He was still holding himself up on his hands though. Too far away. Much too far away. “It’s part of it, the bonding. The drain, and the exchange, and then consummation.”
Consummation. How lovely. Now if they could just stop talking about it and actually do it.
Hands would probably help. Seth had those. He reached blindly and managed to grasp Riley’s thick cock in his palm. There. Perfect. Now to just get it where Seth needed it to go.
“Baby,” Riley chastised, all faux-stern.
It made Seth grin even as he wriggled. He liked when Riley called him that. Liked that they had the same pet name for each other. As if they were two halves of the same whole.
Ugh, that was sappy. Seth was going to be embarrassed by that thought later, when the horniness subsided enough to let his brain work again.
“Baby, we need lube.”
Seth frowned up at Riley. That sounded like a delay. Even more so when Riley shifted, moving as if to leave the bed.
“No.” Seth immediately released his grip on Riley’s cock and wrapped his limbs around him as tightly as he could.
“I’m just—” Riley struggled, leaning precariously over the side of the bed with Seth still attached. “The drawer.”
Seth didn’t free him. He heard the sound of rummaging, and then Riley was moving them back to the center of the bed. He had a bottle in his hand. Lube, presumably.
Riley froze, staring at Seth. “Seth. You have fangs.”
“I do?” Seth ran his tongue over his teeth. He did. Sharp little fangs. How fascinating. “Lube your dick up for me,” he ordered.
That starving pit in his stomach was growing deeper, its presence inside him getting more impatient by the second. He and Riley needed to be joined. Entwined. Slick skin sliding and empty holes filled. Gasping and thrusting and melting together.
“You want me.” Riley grinned at Seth as he pumped lube into his hand, then quickly coated his erection. “You want me so bad, and I can feel it.”
He moved to put his fingers inside Seth, and Seth slapped his hand away. “No fingers.” He tilted his hips up for what felt like the thousandth time. Was he going to have to beg? “Just go.”
“But—”
“Go slow. I’ll be fine.”
Riley hesitated for only a moment before nodding, wide-eyed. “Okay.” He sucked in a breath, staring down at where Seth had spread his legs wide, his eyes hot. “Yeah. Okay.”
Riley carefully pressed Seth’s knees back, tilting Seth’s hips at an even higher angle. He kept one hand on the back of Seth’s thigh and used the other to notch the head of his cock to Seth’s waiting hole. He shifted forward.
Seth bore down and let him in.
Yes. Yes, yes, yes. Seth could have cried, his relief was so strong. This was it. This was what they needed. Even just that fat head slipping inside him was heaven.
It was slow at first, despite Seth’s eagerness.
He’d never really worked himself open on someone’s dick before.
At the slightest resistance, Riley would withdraw and push in again carefully, gaining small bits of ground at a time.
Seth let him move at his own pace, concentrating on the perfect fullness of the stretch, the slight burn as Riley’s cock filled him inch by inch.
Seth kept his eyes on Riley’s face. He liked watching the sweet furrow of concentration on Riley’s brow.
His forest scent was stronger than ever and more nuanced than Seth had ever noticed—damp earth and sharp bark and traces of fog.
Seth breathed it in, losing himself in Riley’s dark gaze as heat swirled in his belly.
“This is very intense,” Riley whispered. The hand holding Seth’s leg up was shaking.
“Yeah,” Seth agreed. “So intense.”
How could it not be, with both of them staring into each other’s eyes like the other one would disappear if either of them blinked?
Seth giggled at the thought, some of his feral energy waning now that he was getting what he needed.
The sound cut off into a sharp whine as Riley finally bottomed out with one hard thrust, his hips pressed firmly into the vee of Seth’s thighs.
Seth immediately wrapped his arms and legs around him again, holding him in place.
Oh God. Seth was full. Perfectly, blissfully full.
He felt giddy with it. It didn’t help that through their new bond, Seth could feel the sharp spikes in Riley’s pleasure, his satisfaction at sheathing himself inside Seth.
And then there was Seth’s own arousal, the hot pool in his belly that had him clenching down on Riley’s cock.
It was desire layered on top of desire, sharp want and heady lust swirling together.
Seth’s veins were full of it, his muscles trembling with the force of their joint emotions.
“My mate,” Riley rasped, deep and hoarse in Seth’s ear.
Seth couldn’t tell if it was the vampire or the man speaking.
It didn’t matter. They were one and the same, Seth’s loves.
Their appetites might have been different, but they were part of the same soul, the one Riley had linked to Seth’s own with blood and pain.
Vampire. Man. Monster. Boy. Every part of Riley belonged to Seth, just as every part of Seth belonged to Riley in turn.
Riley groaned, his breath hot on Seth’s neck, and then they began to rock together, skin sliding against skin, just the way Seth had wanted. Their joining was desperate and wordless and deep.
So, so deep.
Seth let the pleasure take over. He was babbling, something stupid and sappy with a lot of “oh fucks” thrown in, but he couldn’t seem to stop.
He could have come just like that, his cock rubbing against Riley’s firm stomach as Riley filled him, but Riley suddenly withdrew and flipped Seth over, impaling him from behind before Seth could even protest the loss.
He bore down into Seth again and again, chanting now, the words frantic and fevered. “Mate. My mate.”
Seth arched his back, hissing his approval. That was right. Seth was Riley’s. He’d given up his mortality, and in return he’d gained this perfect, primal devotion.
Seth wouldn’t take the gift for granted. He’d nurture it, protect it, and return it with his own tenfold. He’d be the best mate he could be for this brave boy who’d found Seth in these woods, who’d been as patient as he could bear while Seth adjusted to their fate.
“Love you,” Seth moaned. “Love you. Love you.”
Riley pressed him down into the mattress, deep and insistent until Seth was flat on his belly, Riley’s hands digging into the mattress by his head.
The pleasure that had been building without mercy crested, and they shuddered together, Riley’s release filling Seth just as his spurted onto the sheets.
It was the most natural thing in the world for Seth to lunge forward and press his lips to Riley’s wrist, to let his mouth fall open, to let his fangs slide in, to suck and swallow what flowed out to coat his tongue.
Riley’s blood was rich and earthy and decadent, just like the forest that surrounded them. It was his essence, his life force, full of all the strength and power that lay hidden under the beautiful, vulnerable exterior.
“Yes,” Riley murmured, letting his weight fall once again over Seth’s body, covering him completely. Keeping him in place. Keeping him close. “Take it. It’s yours.”
Yes, Seth thought, gulping greedily as the new presence inside him rejoiced. Mine.