Chapter Seven
Ekon
His world moved at warp speed in his brain as it caught up with the memories pouring into him.
The longest of lives, the eons of changes that occurred over many centuries.
His brain hurt as it worked to assimilate and process what was occurring while it held his body hostage and immobile, understanding he would run to escape.
It wasn’t gentle, and somehow the change, as he believed, was worse than what the scientists had inflicted on him against his will.
He had no will over this. None. It was thrust at him, and it was all happening at lightning speed.
At the same time, Ekon’s heart trembled at gentle hands holding him.
Pain came and then receded twice before he felt his body being laid on something that smelled like sunshine and freshly cut grass after a downpour.
His body’s reaction to the desire of those capable hands was more an afterthought with the pureness of the magic pulsing and expanding within him.
Nothing made sense, and yet he could see the world through a different lens, and everything made sense. A deep, masculine voice spoke words, but they floated over him, making little to no sense when Ekon was in the throes of his metamorphism. It was the only word that fit.
Ashes melted into his cells, reforming them and making him—different yet the same. He strained against the boundaries of the change, and despite the effort, he couldn’t flicker an eyelash to let the man he sensed who remained close know of his distress.
You are the same, just unbreakable, his cougar said with authority.
The voice of his animal didn’t help when they seldom had this type of connection.
Don’t fight, this is meant.
The floaty voice of the man who was borrowing into his cells, blood, bones, and soul, had no right to tell him not to fight when he didn’t understand what this was all about.
You will.
He couldn’t respond because with those last words, the heat in his core turned volcanic.
It burned everything in its path. He was part of it but not.
He couldn’t open his eyes, move his limbs even with the delicious scent of the man teasing his nose.
In his mind, he cried, shouted, and screamed, his body writhing in agony.
It stopped so suddenly that Ekon couldn’t breathe.
Panic surged waiting for the next assault.
Only nothing happened, and his limbs were suddenly released from the pressing weight, and he groaned, or he thought he did, he couldn’t be certain until a deep masculine voice murmured next to his ear, “What do you need?”
Touch me. Touch me. Let me know I’m not dead, he begged, uncertain he was speaking aloud.
A large, warm hand brushed the side of his face. The hand was so big it engulfed the whole side of his head, fingers sinking into his hair, rubbing gently. “Is this what you need?”
The husky rasped request did unspeakable things to his body, this time when his blood heated, with it came a thirst worse than the one time he’d been hunting his prey and got stuck in the desert with no water for ten days. His throat burned with the need to taste.
“Do you understand what we are to each other?”
The hesitant question got his eyelids flickering open.
He drank in the dark, intense pools of desire that met his gaze, and sent sparks of lust straight to his dick.
“No. Yes,” he growled the single word answers to the questions in order.
He couldn’t form a more coherent sentence to explain what his body was telling him when the need was all-consuming.
His cock strained against his boxers in its attempt to drill past the fabric.
The damn thing was doing Ekon’s thinking for him.
So he let it and didn’t think about more than taking what he needed and yanked the man—panther—on top of him. Ekon moaned in bliss at the weight and feel of being surrounded by strength with the press of taut muscles.
The guy's lush lips parted in surprise, and to Ekon it was all the invitation he needed. “Mine,” he demanded with a confidence he had never felt in his life before and claimed the man’s mouth in a hungry kiss.
Sweetness and heat made his body yearn when it came with resistance for a split second, then tongues met, sliding in an erotic dance that had his ass becoming slick.
The man crushing them together, the fingers in his hair digging in painfully as he made an erotic sound in the back of his throat, made Ekon’s cock leak.
“Smell so fucking good,” the man muttered between hungry kisses. He changed the angle, hands holding Ekon’s head as he explored Ekon’s mouth, seeking—what, who knew. Ekon just never wanted it to end.
He’d been kissed before—no that was wrong, what the man was doing wasn’t kissing it was taking him apart in greedy bites.
He sucked Ekon’s tongue into his mouth. A sharp tooth nicked the side of his tongue and the pained growl the man made sent spikes of desire straight out the end of his cock, soaking his pants and scenting the air with sex.
His body throbbed and bucked, pushing his hips up seeking something to grind against to release the erotic torment building like a pressure cooker. He was desperate to blow.
“No,” he cried as his mouth was released, chest heaving, lust-filled glazed eyes stared at him. Those swollen, temping lips were too far away. Ekon reached up and dragged him back. “Don’t stop.”
Lips brushed his in a teasing kiss, and he groaned in frustration. “I don’t know your name.”
Ekon blinked owlishly, his sluggish mind trying to play catch up when his dick was getting pissy at being denied. “Name?”
The deep chuckle made his heart skip a beat, as did the light of amusement in those dark eyes he wanted to dive into. “I’m Mao Putney.”
His dick pulsed as he scrambled to figure out why that name sounded familiar to him. “Putney,” he rumbled, working to get his breathing under control when Mao was lying on him. “I’m Ekon,” he replied absently watching Mao nod.
His eyes revealed concern, or was it that Ekon could sense it? His senses were humming with something.
“You might know my brothers. Ben and Kylo,” he uttered so quietly that at first Ekon thought he must be mistaken.
He reversed their position in a flash, his cock not happy but his brain was getting back online at the mention of Ben. The same Ben, who was the ex-shifter council lead, they’d kidnapped and held hostage. Fuck. Fuck. Had Ben told Mao that?
Ekon moved and sat back on his heels, staring at the man on the ground now resting on his elbows.
He was fucking stunning: all dark curls around a handsome face that sported those lush lips and eyes that seemed to see right into Ekon’s soul.
Dressed in camouflage clothing, it wasn’t that capturing Ekon’s attention but the rather impression erection tenting his trousers.
His mouth watered for a taste, to feel it stretch his lips with its impressive length.
He forced himself to switch his attention when he reminded himself who Mao was.
He was taller than Ekon by maybe an inch or two he assessed.
He was bulkier with impressive arms and shoulders.
Exactly the type Ekon was attacked to before he considered the mate aspect.
That wasn’t what he was thinking about right then—yes, it was—just it wasn’t the priority.
What was Mao doing here?
Who cares, he’s our mate, his cougar purred, stretching in his mind almost like it was trying to show itself off.
Quit it. I need to think.
I wasn’t the one with my tongue down his throat a minute ago.
Ekon pretended his cheeks weren’t heating and possibly the color of a red rose right then. He tried to think of something to say as the silence between them lengthened. His cock in pretty much the same state as Mao’s, it hadn’t gotten with the program that sex wasn’t what they should be doing.
Say’s who?
I liked it better when we didn’t talk, Ekon snipped back.
“Do you know them?” Mao asked when the tension between them snapped at the air like a bull whip.
Ekon licked his lips and moaned low and needy at the lingering taste of the man on the ground.
Mao’s nostril’s flared as his eyes narrowed and dipped to Ekon’s protruding cock. “I do… I kidnapped your brother,” Ekon confessed trying to give them both something else to think about.
A full-bodied laugh filled the forest as Mao’s head tilted back, revealing his throat.
What sun that flittered through the canopy sprinkled Mao’s hair with threads of gold.
Captivated, Ekon’s teeth extended, pushing through his gums in a thirst to taste the blood thrumming through the jugular at the base of his surprisingly graceful neck.
The laughter died as the strength of his desire flooded the forest. “Do you want me?”
A solemn question, one Ekon had only one answer to, his nod was curt. “Do you?”
Mao didn’t respond immediately, emotions with like a fast-flowing river crossing his features too fast for Ekon to fathom when he didn’t know this man—expect on a soul level that spoke to him being his.
Would it be enough for now? His hunger to taste made everything else feel immaterial to him. Was it the same for Mao?
The panther rose with exquisite grace. Ekon’s heart raced when Mao peeled off his clothes, his gaze never moving from Ekon even when he had to raise his booted feet to unlace them.
When gloriously naked, he stood on his sleeping bag, his arms out at his side, offering silently. His gaze challenging him.
Dressed he was impressive, naked he was stunning.
Silky skin covered well defined muscle that his fingers itched to touch to trace the outline of the V muscles that drew attention to the cock curving out toward him.
A nine-inch beauty, by his estimation, with a blushed head, slick with pre-cum.
His balls were snug beneath. A perfect package waiting to be explored with Ekon’s tongue, hands, and ass.
Ekon’s ass clenched at the emptiness, his scent increasing with his body emitting its need to its mate through the thickness of slick coating his rim, readying itself for what was to come.
He followed suit and stripped. He kept his discomfort from showing with how soaked his boxers and trousers were as they dropped to the floor. The changes to his body were never more obvious than at that moment.
To give himself a moment to gather his fraying nerves, he used his T-shirt to rub away the black smears on his skin. Not allowing himself to think about what caused them when Mao curled one finger, beckoning him closer.
Ekon sucked in a sex-scented breath and gave into the emotions coursing through him and leapt at Mao, who caught him easily.
He wrapped his legs around his hips, ankles crossing, arms looping around his neck.
His cock slid over rippling abdominal muscles, as Mao’s was snug slid his balls, encountering his slick-coated skin.
They moaned into each other’s mouths as their lips met in a toe-curling kiss as hard muscles rubbed together.
The silkiness stretched over steel was a delight.
The size difference made Ekon purr in the back of his throat while Mao deepened the kiss, exploring his mouth with a determination Duron used to fell trees they used to build their house with.
It was impressive and a turn-on. Kissing had always seemed a waste of time, but this, gods it made his blood hum and his cock and ass throb with the need for more.
For it to never stop. He forgot about being embarrassed at how he was something other than alpha when Mao rocked his pelvis making his cock tunnel between his slick cheeks.
The licking flames of desire built steadily. The sounds of grunts and growls came with needy whimpers. Ekon rolled his hips in a fluid motion along the stiff cock. As Ekon rolled his hips forward, his cock rubbed against the solid wall of muscle that was Mao’s stomach.
The climb to the top of the peak was there, he felt it, panting and rocking faster. It was not close enough for Ekon to reach it. “Fuck me,” he demanded hoarsely, in an unrecognizable voice against Mao’s mouth, not wanting to release his lips. “Now. Do it!”
Mao dragged his head back and Ekon growled in complaint, “Don’t stop.”
“Are you sure this is what you want, Ekon? There’ll be no going back…” Mao ground out in a shaky tone, his body against Ekon’s trembling wildly.
A sultry smile spread over Ekon’s kiss-swollen lips.
“Yes.” He didn’t wait for further debate, using his strength he pressed his heels into Mao’s ass and rose creating a gap, while leaning back behind him to reach for Mao’s cock under his ass.
He stroked down the silky, hardness to move until the slick head met his twitching hole.
He met Mao’s gaze and smirked, feeling the pressure of the wide crown against the sensitive nerve ending enjoying the feeling.
Mao’s pupils blew and only then did Ekon give in to the desire and slut drop onto Mao.
His slick making it an easy glide. The stretch and fullness—yeah, that was more than he expected—left him struggling to adjust and catch his breath while heat built at his core.
“Fuck you’re big, don’t move,” he gasped, sweat beading on his forehead as his body adjusted.
Mao did his best, Ekon was sure, but his laughter rocked him and the cock against the spongy nerve endings that left Mao’s stomach smeared in cum as he spurted hands free.
Ekon’s body took over, and he bounced on that solid length for all he was worth, testing out Mao’s leg strength at the same time.
His mate howled, hips thrusting up to meet Ekon’s wild bouncing. “So fucking tight, you’ll leave an imprint on my cock,” he gritted out between gasping breaths.
“Yes,” Ekon growled in approval. His teeth, which hadn’t fully retracted descended. On pure instinct, as his ass clamped on Mao’s cock, Ekon struck at Mao’s throat when Mao’s head arched back his body tensing preparing to shoot in Ekon’s ass.
Ekon’s teeth sank into flesh, and as sweet blood filled his mouth, he swallowed as hot bursts of cum spurted deep in his ass. A sense of floating came before Mao’s fangs locked on the side of his throat and the sting of pain came this time with a flying sensation.
A soul flying on euphoric ecstasy.
His eyelids fluttered open, and his teeth released with a suddenness that Mao made a pained sound, his own teeth retracting.
He could feel Mao’s confusion as if it was his own, but right then it wasn’t his major concern as he licked at his teeth, staring down at the ground…
was that they were around ten feet away from it. “Holy fuck, how did we get up here?”
Mao chuckled wryly. “You’re the magic one, maybe you should answer that? And better yet, how do we get back down, my cat doesn’t enjoy flying!”