Chapter 14 Cal
CHAPTER 14: CAL
Cal ached all over as he dragged himself up the stairs to the apartment, but he didn’t really notice because the enticing lines of Luca’s back were right there in front of him, leading the way. For a few blissful minutes in the forest before everything turned to shit, he’d seen the best shifter life had to offer—running free in the forest, the scent of his mate filling his lungs, feeling an even deeper connection to nature than his elemental magic had ever provided. Even Marco’s testing of him had been surprisingly natural, fulfilling a deep-seated need he’d long since given up hope of ever meeting—the yearning for family and a place to belong.
Luca had been so brave. Cal knew just how much it had taken him to shift and play in a form he’d avoided for a decade and not to stress out about what they were to each other. Fuck, he hated what that asshole had done to his mate all those years ago. His . No one else’s. Especially not Garyth with his bought magic that was worse than rape.
His boy deserved better—respect. Love. He deserved to be the centre of someone’s fucking world, and Cal was determined to give that to him. Luca looked lost when they stepped into his penthouse, still adrift in thoughts of his uncle.
“Come on,” Cal said, pulling Luca gently toward his room.
“I should be working,” Luca said.
“You’re injured. Let me take care of you,” Cal said, not stopping until they reached the bathroom.
“It’s almost healed already,” Luca said, but he didn’t complain as Cal started the bath running and began undressing him.
“I can smell it’s still bleeding. The bath will draw the rest of the silver out,” he said.
“You mean your magic will.”
Cal inclined his head. “That too. Are you complaining?”
“No. I like the way your magic feels inside me,” Luca said, holding his gaze.
Cal moaned softly as Luca’s tongue flicked out and wet his lips. “That the only thing you like inside you?” he asked.
Luca snorted. “That was cheesy as fuck.”
Cal didn’t bother hiding his grin as he turned away to shut off the water. It had got Luca smiling again, which was the point. He’d do anything to take the pain and stress away from him. “Get in the bath.”
“Yes, Daddy,” Luca teased, his voice making it plain how ridiculous he found the words. It didn’t stop Cal’s cock hardening even further, though.
“Good boy,” Cal growled back as Luca relaxed into the water.
He didn’t say a thing when Luca’s body clearly responded to the praise, but he didn’t have to.
“Dammit. Why do you keep doing that to me? ”
Cal grabbed a washcloth and soap and started cleaning him, half his concentration taken up with extending his magic through the water so he could call any lingering silver from Luca’s body.
“Because I love seeing you flush with pleasure and your brain forget to stress.”
“It’s not fair,” Luca complained. “I don’t want anyone to have that power over me.”
“You think you don’t have just as much power over me? I’ve been half hard since you turned me from your scent alone. Hell, I couldn’t control myself even before that. From the moment you stepped into the bar, you’ve been my own personal aphrodisiac. I’m an addict,” Cal said.
He was doing his best to keep his hands G-rated and calming, despite the fact he was washing every inch of Luca’s skin. It wasn’t working. With his magic immersed throughout the bath water, he could feel every point the liquid was lapping up against his mate’s naked body. The graze from the bullet on Luca’s side had finally stopped bleeding. He used his power to remove the blood and contaminants from the water so Luca could soak in comfort.
“Get in here,” Luca said, as he finally set the washcloth aside.
Cal swallowed hard and couldn’t help but run a heated gaze down the length of Luca’s body, taking in the elegant length of his neck, the sharp definition of his abs, the … holy fuck his cock was beautiful—thick and long and so hard it was flushed a deep red. He might be taller and broader than Luca, but the man was still an alpha wolf shifter, and he was hung to match.
“Now,” Luca challenged, as he knelt up in the bath and reached toward the tie on Cal’s sweatpants.
Chuckling, Cal tugged off his shirt in one move and kicked his shoes behind him somewhere before letting Luca succeed in his single-minded quest to tug his pants down his thighs. It put his erection right at mouth height for Luca and he quickly stepped clear of his clothes and slipped behind Luca in the bath before they got distracted. Pulling his mate back against his chest in the warm water, Cal reached up and started massaging his scalp.
Luca sighed and let his head fall back on Cal’s shoulder, closing his eyes. “You know that would be a whole lot more relaxing if I wasn’t so hard it hurts and your monster cock wasn’t trying to dig a hole in my spine.”
Luca’s scent was intensifying as his arousal grew, the intoxicating smell swirling through the steam-filled room. Cal groaned and let his hand trace down Luca’s face to his chest, stroking his fingers across his pecs but never quite touching his nipples that had hardened as his skin quivered beneath his touch.
“Cal,” Luca whined, arching his back up to try and get his fingers where he wanted them.
“You want something, baby?” Cal asked, playing up the false innocence in his voice.
“You know what I fucking want,” Luca said through gritted teeth.
“I want to play,” Cal said, nipping at his neck. “Will you let me?”
Luca groaned and tilted his neck to the side, letting Cal run his tongue up his carotid artery and feel the rapid beats of his pulse. Then he paused and held still as he waited for Luca’s answer.
“For fuck’s sake, don’t stop. Yes, do whatever it is you’re teasing me with here,” Luca said, a desperate edge to his voice.
Cal smiled as he watched his mate’s cock jerk up from his stomach when he nibbled his ear .
“You ever tried temperature play, baby?” he asked.
“What?” Luca asked, clearly distracted. “Like kink? No. I’ve only been with one guy ever, and you know how that turned out. He was into getting himself off, not play.”
Cal froze, his hands gripping tight to Luca’s arms. “Luca …”
“I shouldn’t have brought it up,” Luca said, starting to pull away.
“You can talk to me about anything,” Cal said, resuming his kisses to Luca’s neck, and eventually he relaxed back against him again only a little stiffly.
Cal wished he could bring Garyth back to life so he could kill him all over again—slowly.
“So, what do you use for your temperature play? Ice? Wax?” Luca asked.
Cal smiled at the curiosity he could hear in his mate’s voice. “People use both those things, yes.”
“But not you?” Luca asked, tilting his head up to look at him.
Cal drank in the sight of him—flushed skin, dilated pupils, breaths panting ever so slightly. Yeah, his mate was intrigued. “I play a little different. Do you want to try? We can stop if you feel uncomfortable at all.”
Luca’s eyes searched his and finally the most beautiful words came out of his mouth, not because of the words themselves, but because of the level of trust that went with them.
“Yes. Please.”
“Relax back against me again,” Cal said, his voice deepening with the order. “If anything feels off, if you have the slightest doubt in your mind, you tell me to stop and I will. No questions. No need to explain. Okay?”
And for once Luca didn’t argue with him or get defensive. “Okay,” he said.
Starting slow, Cal ran his tongue up Luca’s neck again, but this time he followed up with the softest breath of air teasing over his wet skin, letting his magic cool it even further so he would really feel the contrast. Luca shuddered in his arms and Cal gave the sensitive edge of his ear the same treatment, revelling in the tension he could feel growing between them. With small flicks of his tongue and more chilled breaths, he left a trail of goosebumps across Luca’s neck and shoulder everywhere he could reach.
“Is that all you’ve got? I’m not fragile,” Luca complained.
Cal smiled against his skin. He’d have him begging for it before the end of the night.
“You want more, baby?” he asked, letting one of his hands drift into the heat of the bathwater.
“Give it to me.”
Lifting his hand out of the water, Cal held it poised over Luca’s chest, waiting for him to release the breath he was holding before he let a single drip fall from his finger, infusing it with his power as it fell.
“Fuck!” Luca yelped, his body arching as the now ice-cold liquid impacted with the tip of his already erect nipple.
“Too much?” Cal asked.
The benefit of his magic was he could control the temperature exactly, removing any risk of damage and maintaining the temperature extremes as long as he wanted.
“Not enough,” Luca gasped.
This time, when the drop hit his other nipple, Luca groaned and his whole body ground back on Cal. “So good,” he gasped.
Cal let his finger drift down Luca’s chest and abs, barely touching the skin as he reached below the heated water of the bath to trace out each delicious muscle in a line of freezing cold. Dipping down further, he did the same to Luca’s inner thighs, all featherlight touches letting the cold linger just long enough to drive his mate wild .
Luca’s hips flexed up as he traced down his Adonis belt and he could see pearls of pre-cum beading on the tip of his cock where it had lifted from the water.
“More?” Cal murmured in his ear.
“Fuck, yes,” Luca groaned.
Giving him time to realise where this was heading, Cal used one hand to take the base of his cock in a firm grip while he used the other to run a teasing finger up the heavy vein of his shaft without using any of his power behind it. Over and over again, he stroked Luca’s straining, beautiful flesh, toying with his foreskin and tracing circles around the head.
“Please,” Luca said, straining against his hold, but Cal didn’t let him get any leverage, keeping him flush to his body by his grip on his cock. The pressure on his erection nestled against Luca’s back was the best kind of torture.
“Good boy,” Cal said, rewarding him for asking so nicely.
Then he touched his finger to that enticing drop of pre-cum dripping from his cock and let the chill chase it down inside his shaft, adding that slight buzz of vibration that had made Luca come so hard the other day. At the same time, he heated the water surrounding his balls in a dual assault of contrasting temperatures.
Luca absolutely lost it. His hips jerked up so hard even Cal’s new shifter strength wasn’t going to hold him still. If Cal didn’t have such a tight hold around the base of his shaft, he was pretty sure he would have come already. His balls had pulled up tight. His hands, which had been fisted by his sides, were now reaching back to him, clawing at Cal’s biceps as he writhed against him.
“Fuck, Cal. Please. Need you. Need to come. Please.”
Biting down firmly on Luca’s neck in a move that made his fangs ache to release and his dick throb, Cal used the hand that had been holding Luca down to jerk him off in firm, fast strokes, using a touch more of his power to make the water slick enough that his motions slid up and down Luca’s cock with almost no friction. He wasn’t going to cause his boy any discomfort. He wanted him focussed on the delicious sensations he was creating inside his body.
There was no sight more exquisite than Luca enraptured in orgasm. Cal watched Luca’s muscles flex and drowned in his scent as his mate let go, spurts of cum gushing over his chest. It was all he could do not to bite down a little harder on Luca’s neck and break the skin. The drive to complete the mating bond was extreme, but he would never do that to Luca in the heat of the moment. Not even if he begged for it like he’d just begged so beautifully to come.
Groaning again, Cal couldn’t help but rub his aching erection against his mate’s back.
“You’re so beautiful, baby. My perfect mate,” he murmured, still stroking Luca through the waves of his pleasure.
Luca twisted in his hold until they were chest to chest and pulled his head down, pressing their lips together in a kiss that quickly turned filthy. Their first real kiss, Cal realised as he gripped Luca’s jaw firmly and used his tongue to explore the delicious taste of his mate.
Pulling back a little, he brought his hand to his mouth and licked the streaks of cum from his fingers as Luca watched on, moaning at the taste.
“Mmmm. Everything about you is delicious,” Cal said.
Luca ground down against his still achingly hard cock, making Cal gasp in a breath and grab for his hips.
“If you keep that up, there’s only one way this is ending,” Cal warned, revelling in the feel of his mate rubbing off against him. His mate who was still almost as hard as he had been five minutes ago.
Luca’s lips tipped up in a smirk. “I could go another round,” he said. “You can learn the benefits of wolf shifter refractory periods.”
Cal stood up so fast he almost sent them flying and Luca laughed as he wrapped his legs around his waist. Despite his haste, Cal still took the time to dry Luca thoroughly, holding him in his arms as he did so and ignoring his soft pleas to hurry up.
When he finally strode back into the bedroom and threw Luca on the bed, Cal just stood for a moment taking in the picture his tanned skin and jet-black hair made against the stark white of his sheets.
“Gorgeous,” he said, reaching down to stroke his aching cock.
As he worked himself while staring into Luca’s eyes, he rubbed his jaw. His canines ached to shift.
“Your body wants to complete the bond,” Luca said, a hint of caution in his tone.
“Will any bite that breaks the skin do it?” Cal asked.
Luca shook his head. “Only with the person you have the bond with, and only if your fangs are shifted when you bite. Blunt human teeth bites hurt like a motherfucker, though,” Luca said.
“I won’t pretend I’m not desperate for that, but I would never force that on you, and if you never ask for it, that’s okay,” Cal said.
“You’ll struggle to control yourself with all the new sensations,” Luca said.
Cal shrugged. “That’s my problem, not yours. I won’t hurt you like that. I couldn’t.”
Cal watched Luca carefully. He’d turned away slightly, and his erection, which had been diamond-hard a minute ago, was flagging. “We don’t have to do this if you’re not ready,” Cal said.
“I’m so sick of not being fucking ready!” Luca cried, banging his head against the pillow behind him and hiding his face in behind his arm in frustration.
“Do you trust me?” Cal asked.
“I trust your intentions, but it’s not reasonable to expect you to be able to control yourself with your mate only a day after you became a shifter and hours after you shifted for the first time. Your wolf is at the forefront of your instincts right now. I can see it in your eyes.”
“Okay. So, you fuck me from behind then. If I lose control and partially shift, you’ll be strong enough to keep me from biting you in that position,” Cal said.
Luca blinked at him and then blinked again. His mouth dropped open. “I … you’d do that for me?”
“I’d enjoy the fuck out of it. I don’t care how we do it, I just need to be connected to you,” Cal said.
“But you’re as dominant as any alpha, despite being made not born. More so, even, because you were already like that before your wolf came into play and everything will be magnified now,” Luca said.
Cal knew as much about shifter biology as the next witch, which was to say only the basics. From what he could tell, ‘alpha’ was both a title for the head of a pack and a species categorisation split of shifters born versus made. Alpha shifters were generally stronger and faster, more dominant, and could hold a partial shift.
“You think I can’t control you from underneath?” Cal asked with a smirk, pleased when he saw Luca swallow hard as his dick twitched against his abs.
“I shouldn’t want that,” Luca said. “Technically, I’m the alpha here.”
“It’s not a weakness to want someone to take care of you and make you feel good. And it’s brave as fuck to trust someone enough to hand over control. You have all the power here, baby. What you say goes. ”
Luca hesitated and Cal held his breath, waiting to see if his boy was going to get past whatever negative thoughts were going through his mind.
“I want you,” Luca said, finally.
“Thank fuck,” Cal growled, diving down on top of the man and pressing kisses to every inch of his skin he could.