MoonFish--Surprise Visit--Part 8--FINALE

*pant pant pant*


So this is it. It was supposed to be a "ficlet" but in reality, it's about 15K--so a full out novella. Now honestly, I don't think this is publishable because too much relies on things from other books, so it's still going on the back of Fish on a Bicycle.

But one of the fun things about following me on social media is you get to see it now.

Enjoy!

Surprise Visit!--Part 8

Jackson couldn’t keep his eyes off monstrosity dangling over his head.

“Really?” he asked nobody in particular.

“I was about to say the same thing,” Ellery muttered, staring in the same direction. “I mean, apart from being hideous—”

“It’s gonna fall on our heads and kill us all?”

The hideous thing in question was a large plywood rainbow arch, painted in neon colors—badly—and suspended about thirty feet off the ground using nylon cord in the branches of trees, and a cherry picker. Besides looking garish and unhealthy, it also looked… precarious. Damned precarious.

Jackson looked at Ellery, and they both looked at his mother, who was lingering over a table of admittedly lovely blown glass baubles that had caught her eye.

“We need to get her away from this thing,” Ellery said, and Jackson nodded in return, his blood running just the tiniest bit cold. This had been the longest four days of his life—but he was damned if it would end with Lucy Satan’s blood on his hands.

He gave the sign, which read, “Crafty, Free, LGBQT!” another dubious look and caught a flash of something shiny from a gap in the cherry picker.

Fucking aces.

With a shake of his head he turned towards Ellery’s mother, who was charmingly terrorizing the poor blue-haired waif behind the counter.

“So, these were blown by your wife? That’s wonderful. Is that her there?”

“Yes ma’am.” She nodded at a tanned, wiry woman waiting on another customer. “She’s been learning the craft from her uncle since she was in high school.”

“Well this must be her calling. And did you make the felted bags they go into? Because they complement the artwork so very well.”

Blue-haired waif smiled weakly and looked toward her wife, who was not in rescuing position. “Thank you,” she squeaked. “We, uh, like color.”

They did indeed. The glass globes were done in a variety of techniques, from color diffused throughout the glass, to the kind that looked like flowers in the center, to the kind with abstract shapes drawn throughout the sphere, the colors undulating and receding with the angle.

Jackson smiled and winked at the poor woman, not talking because he sort of got that wasn’t her thing. Instead he peered at the artwork, as fascinated by the colors as Ellery’s mother seemed to be.

“Which one do you like?” Lucy Satan asked, and for once he didn’t get defensive or snark at her. For one thing, the girl watching them was fragile, and she might not get that with them, being bitchy was a bit of a dance.

“Mm…” Jackson ran his finger down one that was a cluster of white and ebony flowers, with hints of green. “That one’s very Ellery, except it’s a little girly. But pretty.” He smiled at the waif again. She smiled back gratefully. “This one…” He had to reach out and touch it. The colors were rich brown and bright magenta, and they reminded him of his sister’s hair. Back before it had been a thing, Jade had found a way to put a strip of that bright puplish pink in her rich brown hair. She’d done it as tightly kinked curls, she’d done it as waves. Even when they’d been in high school and she hadn’t had the money to get her hair “done”, she’d bought a box of something totally inappropriate for her hair and combed it through her tight mahogany-bronze ringlets. The dye had lasted until her next wash, of course, and she’d needed to cut the ends off because it had fried them completely, but she’d loved that color.

His sister of the heart—he’d put her and her boyfriend through a lot this past year. And she hadn’t wavered, not once. It had been her idea to break off the on-again-off-again thing between them—which was good, because they’d both fallen in love with other people. But she was a lesson—a true good lesson—in how love, real love, wasn’t something you could just fuck away.

“This,” he said thoughtfully. “Reminds me of Jade.”

“It does indeed,” she said.

Jackson risked a look at her, and she was regarding him thoughtfully.

“Did you and Ellery decide on the office?” she asked, catching him by surprise.

“The one on F street.” He sighed. “The parking is going to suck, but you know, he really loves the inside.”

“And you’d do anything for him, wouldn’t you?”

Jackson nodded. “Well, yeah.”


She patted his hand. “I appreciate the two of you, doing what I asked this week. Not asking questions.” She let out a little sigh, and he wondered if she was as tired as he was. “I think I was asked to come here because you and Ellery could handle this situation, and Ellery’s father…”

“Is too sweet for words.”

She gave a throaty little laugh. “IT’s really so very much easier for us to be in danger, isn’t it? Than to let our loved ones be?”

Jackson nodded, and out of instinct, he looked up at the cherry picker.

Burton was standing up and sighting somebody in the cherry picker!

Jackson grabbed Ellery’s mother and wrapped his shoulders around her, hating that she was six inches shorter than he was, even in her pumps. With a quick look around he saw Ellery, standing under the sign, head cocked like he couldn’t’ figure out what in the hell Jackson was doing.

And beyond him, he saw a motorcycle, veering toward them, ready to go up and over the sidewalk and into the crowd like it was out of control.

From far away, he heard Burton shouting “Rivers, get down!” at the same time he said, “Ellery move!”

And then…

Burton had never almost frozen in his entire life.

He’d had them all in his sights. The happy little family, looking at doo-dads, Ellery standing a few paces off, apparently entranced by his mother and Rivers making nice. Wasn’t that fucking adorable, right?

Then Jason had spoken up in his earbud. “I got Charley One, repeat, got Charley One. Charley Two is inbound motorcycle, heading east down K street. He has no options, repeat zero options.”

Uh oh. Bad guys with zero options often got desperate. Burton disregarded invisibility and stood to spot the motorcycle when he saw two things.

One was Jackson, wrapping his body around Ellery Cramer’s mother, and the other was Cramer, standing right in the way of the motorcycle straight toward him.

And then the third thing. The big assed nylon cord, the granddaddy of sailor’s knots that held the entire hideosity of a sign up from this side.

He screamed, “Rivers, get down!” at the same time Jackson screamed, “Ellery move!” and then he prayed for timing and pulled the cord.

Ellery didn’t give a shit what everybody was yelling. Jackson was protecting his mother bodily and Ellery had to go help him. He lunged for the two of them, knocking them both to the ground just as the giant piece of plywood swung down and knocked off some poor asshole on a runaway motorcycle that was heading for the craft fair.

The cycle went sideways and slid across the concrete, coming to a stop about a foot away from Ellery’s backside as he lay on the ground, feeling foolish. The rider—wearing black leathers with a yellow helmet—got unsteadily to his feet and was reaching around behind him for something when suddenly he fell to his knees, and then on his face.

Ellery’s eyes went wide as a thin trickle of blood came out of his helmet and a gun went skittering across the sidewalk.

And out of nowhere, an ambulance pulled up.

Jackson and Ellery’s mother were still climbing creakily to their feet as the ambulance guys—no medics Jackson or Ellery had ever met, and they knew this beat pretty well—gathered the cyclist up and put him on a gurney without even taking off his helmet. Given the lack of movement as a whole, Ellery suspected the helmet was probably holding all the cyclist’s brains in, after the bullet had liberated them from the rider’s skull.

As they clambered to their feet and checked for bruises, Ellery caught Jackson looking over their heads and nodding, before going back to making sure Ellery’s mother and Ellery didn’t have any scrapes.

Jackson, of course, had bloodied his elbow going down, because Jesus Christ, that man.

As the crowd started muttering to itself and stopped looking for police—who didn’t appear to be coming—and nobody noticed that the motorcycle had just seemed to pick itself up and drive away—Ellery looked a question at Jackson.

“So….?”

Jackson shrugged and smiled wearily—and then jumped and checked his pocket. “Uh, so, Lucy? We can go the fuck home now.”

For a moment Ellery’s mother sagged, looking a little older, and a little fragile, and a little like she’d actually needed that protection after all.

Then she stood upright and gave Jackson a level look. “Of course, dear boy. But if you will excuse me, I have a purchase to make, and I’d really love to see the rest of the booths here, don’t you think?”

Jackson let out a little laugh. “Of course, Lucy Satan. Of course.”

They stood back and let Ellery’s mother make her purchases, and Ellery put his hand solidly on the small of Jackson’s back.

“So, is it over?”

Jackson pulled out his phone. One bad guy dead, one in custody. Will text you tonight with the all clear. Nice reflexes, by the way.

As Ellery watched, Jackson texted, Thanks for the apple fritters.

And that was all. “Wow,” Ellery muttered. “So, do we still have to go to the game tonight?”

Jackson just looked at him. “After we’ve invited Jade and Mike? Do you really think your mom is going to cancel now?”

Ellery groaned.

No. No she would not. But they would get to go home and have dinner there and spend some time on the couch. And since his mother couldn’t get another flight out until the day after next, they had an actual day to sit quietly and visit, while Jackson swam laps in the pool and tried really really hard to forget the last five days had ever happened.

Good luck with that, though.

Before she left, Ellery’s mother gave them a charming hosts’ gift.

A hand blown paperweight, with the unlikely color combo of bronze and magenta mingling in the center. Jackson had smiled as he’d unwrapped, and set it down on it’s felt coaster with surprisingly respectful fingers.

Ellery had just cocked his head.

“You don’t like it?” his mother inquired.

“Mm… not my colors,” he said diplomatically.

“Well then, think of it more as Jackson’s gift.”

And Ellery did. But that was okay. He gave his mother a genteel kiss on the cheek. “Something that makes him happy is a gift for me,” he said, feeling sappy.

But his mother just smiled and patted his cheek, and it was time to take her to the airport.

They got back and collapsed on the couch in complete relief.

“Please tell me you won’t miss her,” Jackson begged.

Ellery looked at him, wearing the waterproof bandage on his elbow like a badge of honor. “Jackson?”

“Yeah?”

“If I stripped naked and bent over the couch, would you to get the lube from the bedroom? I’d really like to celebrate being alone.”

Jackson’s chuckle, ripe and filthy, was enough to get him to stand up and start toeing off his shoes.

Epilogue

Jason Constance had learned to sleep on a helicopter a long time ago—but he couldn’t. Not today.

“You dropped a sign on his head,” he said in disbelief.

Burton opened one eye, because he had been sleeping. “You taught us to use the weapon at hand,” he replied, voice mild.

“I don’t even believe how that went down.”

Burton snorted. “I don’t believe you subdued your guy without killing him. It took an awful lot of fun with knives to get that guy to talk.”

Constance shrugged. Like Burton, the physical things—the running, jumping, shooting people while you did it—that part had been the easy part.

It had been holding on to the tiny fragments of his soul that was hard.

“But a sign!”

Burton blew out a breath. “If I tell you a secret, will you shut up about the fucking sign?”

“Sure.”

“Ernie texted me the day after we left. There was ‘Rivers get down’, and there was ‘Pull that thing!’. Guess how it played out.”

Constance started to giggle. “Really?”

“Really.”

The giggles died abruptly. “Let me know if he texts you anything about me, okay?”

Burton just stared at him, and Constance got an uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach.

“What? What’d he say?”

“He said that in the end, when it’s all over, you’re gonna be okay.”

And for the life of him, Jason Constance, who’d had a plan all his life, couldn’t think of another thing to say.

Scorched Haven--Finale

Hey all!

Rampant, part 2 is coming out this week, along with Summer Lessons  and Freckles is out and doing just fine.

Quickening is under edit, and The Virgin Manny is all up on the website-- whew. I've been telling you that I wrote 260,000 words in 2015 that were on a long publishing release schedule... well, guess what's all coming out next year!

Anyway-- it's time for the finale of Scorched Haven, like I promised.

Now, eventually, I'm going to gather all this together and convert it to .pdf and put it on my website as a freebie--and hopefully pay someone to help me edit it, because I am fully aware that it does not showcase the best of my typing skills. (That is apparently what happens when you wait until midnight to write 3K installments of a serial--color me not shocked.)

But ticks and flaws and all, here is the last part of it--I hope you've enjoyed falling in love with Zeb and Colton as much as I have :-)

And oh!

If you haven't yet read the other 12 installments, well, here are the links!

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
Part 9
Part 10
Part 11
Part 12

 Alrighty then... okay... let's see, let's see...

Where were we?

Oh yes.

They were home.

 *  *  *

"Why aren't we in your room?"

Zeb looked up from dumping his duffel bag on the chest of drawers in the corner.

"I have a roommate," he said with a little shrug. "Nice guy--were-kitty. They don't bond as mates and he likes poly. Not my thing, so we weren't likely to bond together."

Colton frowned and looked around the room--which was, all things considered, pretty nice. Wooden king-sized bed featuring a sort of fractal rainbow design on the quilt, with hangings on the walls to match. The wood paneling in evidence in all of the hill was here, a light-colored wood, that made much of the sun coming in from the window over the headboard.

"It's a nice room," Zeb said defensively. His bare feet squished happily in the plush area rug. Yeah, it was nice. Better than his student flat had been, even before he'd sold all his possessions for drugs.

"Well yeah, it's nice!" Colton half-laughed. "But it doesn't make any sense. You do realize we shouldn't have a window to jack from here, right?"

Oh. That.

"It's... well, nobody talks about that here. It's sort of elven magic, but real subtle like. The elves like sunlight and the vampires need half the hill to be underground."

"Oh shit--right!"

He had to smile at Colton's enthusiasm. The kid sort of took to this life like he was born to it. It had taken Zeb three years to accustom himself to the casual magic that permeated every breath he took.

"Yeah. So don't ask me how we have a window--but the only rooms that don't have windows are the rooms that wouldn't see sunlight if half the mountain sheared off.  Green's doing his best to feed everybody's soul, you know?"

Colton nodded, and tucked a piece of hair behind his ear. "So, uh..."

"I'll shower," Zeb said promptly. They'd both thrown up on that horrible ride. "And nap. Green will probably call a banquet tomorrow to explain shit. In the meantime..."  Zeb bit his lip. This was so embarrassing. "Green will probably come get you. Don't, uh, feel bad for anything that happens. I mean, even if we were going to bond, or already bonded, it would happen. It's... it's how Green gets to know people. It will make you feel good, trust me. There's no shame involved at all."

That scowl was lethal. "I'm not just going to cheat on you because we're not--"

Zeb grabbed his hand, shivering with reaction just from the contact. He took a step into Colton's space and breathed in, feeling that smell surrounding him again. They'd been inside each other, again and again and again. In his entire life, Zeb had never committed to anything--not even Green's Hill, with the fervor he'd committed to this young man.

"It's not cheating," he said softly, nosing the hollow of Colton's neck. Colton shuddered and tilted his head back. "It's answering to your ultimate pack alpha. There might not even be sex involved--and even if you come, it won't feel like sex. It'll be... important."  Zeb took a step back, fighting the erection that had become an almost permanent thing since he'd awakened that morning, replete and exhausted, in Colton's arms.  "I'm going to shower first," he said, feeling grubby and road worn. "And brush my teeth. Uh, if you want food, go into the kitchen and--oh!"

Tiny glowing lights had ably to be washed--and then, bless everybody, a platter of what looked like tri-tip, complete with biscuits and gravy and steamed veggies, appeared.

With two forks.

"I guess there's snacks," Zeb said, smiling faintly.  The meat smelled great--but he wasn't a new werewolf. He could wait. "I'll be out in a few. Save some if you can."

If he couldn't, Zeb knew where to go.

He set the shower to parboil and coated the sponge in body wash. The last three days--Ritchie's death, his own wounding, then Colton, all of the world, all of his heart and body about Colton--lay heavy on his skin. Maybe he could wash some of it off, right? Maybe he could scrub and scrub and let the days run down the drain in a swirl of dirt. Maybe if he rinsed off the scent of Colton's come on his skin, he could erase the way his heart ached at the thought of Colton moving into his own room, discovering the other creatures there at the hill.

He'd been so fine, so noble, going down on one knee before their leader. Learning the ins and outs of this world from Zeb's hurried, half-distracted explanations.

Zebulon, third spear carrier on the left, was not a mate for that fine young man.

The his chest hurt, and his throat, and his eyes burned. He stayed under the water until that went away, and he was worn from letting it out.

When he got back out, Lady Cory was sitting on the bed, looking exhausted but interested, as she spoke to Colton, who was sitting across from her on a room chair.

"So he crashed through a guard rail!" she said, her voice holding the thrill of someone asking about a fight at school. "That's sick." She looked up at Zeb, who stood with a towel around his waist, feeling stupid. "He's telling me about your mad-ass driving skills--I'm totally impressed!"

Zeb flushed, feeling unworthy. "It's amazing what you can do with the right motivation," he mumbled.

"Right?" She grinned at both of them. "Did you see Bracken fly? I mean, not his favorite, right? He wobbles--but dudes, you should have seen us at the thing, with the place? When we sprang the new werewolf and the half-elf. It was pretty amazing."

"The thing with the place?" Zeb asked, winking at her over his shoulder. He was rooting around the drawers to see if he could find some sweats or something.

"Well, you missed a lot while you were gone." She grew quiet then. "We're sorry about Ritchie--I know you guys weren't close, but it's hard to lose someone. And he was your friend."

Zeb paused, boxers and pajama bottoms that had just magically appeared in his drawers in hand. "Thank you," he said, moved. "I... I liked him, you know?"

"Well, five hours in a car will do that," she said back seriously, and he could have kissed her just for understanding. Then she turned back to Colton. "Now, Green usually likes to talk to all the new recruits--but he's sort of got his hands busy tonight. Do you think you can wait until tomorrow?"

Colton nodded unhappily. "Do I have to sleep with him?" he asked baldly, and Zeb wanted to bang his head against the dresser.

She regarded him with the sober attention of a judge. "Not have to--and it's not really 'sleeping' or 'sex'." A wicked grin appeared. "I mean, yeah, sometimes it is. But sometimes it's just talking, in private, to someone who won't judge you for the thing in your heart that you fear the most.  So don't worry about it. If it's sex, it's sex. If it's not it's still time with Green-- and that's important." She grimaced. "You are really lucky, you know? I mean, Zeb might not have told you, but usually bites don't work like that--especially not when you're so close to death. You must have been really damned strong--but more than that."

"More?" Zeb asked, surprised.

"Oh yes." She nodded and wrapped her arms around her knees. She was wearing stretchy shorts and a ginormous white T -shirt over them--Zeb had seen her dress for a formal audience and look stunning, but here, in their temporary room, she looked very domestic. A plain young woman with freckles and thick curly hair and a bold nose.

Her power was almost more terrifying like this.

"See," she said, talking to both of them earnestly. "What you have to understand is that it doesn't always work--not the were-creature bite, not the vampire bite. I mean, it works mostly here because Adrian chose a lot of you, and if he didn't, his people did. And he just sort of knew, right? Who would fit in? Who would welcome the transition? But some of our people--like Jack? Teague's mate? He's such a stubborn asshole, Teague almost couldn't keep him alive long enough to meet with Green, so he could accept the change in his life. And Charlie-- Charlie was dying of cancer. He got the bite, but he was so weak Whim had to invoke the power of the Goddess to change him."  She half-smiled. "It was pretty awesome, actually--I mean, that's what everybody says. They wouldn't let me go."

That last thing was spoken so wistfully, Zeb had no choice but to accept that there were some parts of being Queen that he wouldn't want a damned thing to do with.

"So why do you think it worked with me?" Colton asked her--but respectfully, as though he understood how much she would have loved to have been involved in everybody's life.

"Oh! Because Zeb was already half in love with you," she said, and Zeb sucked in a breath.

"We'd only just met," he said, not having anywhere good to look. Colton was staring at him, hunger in his eyes. The bedspread and wall hangings were damned bright. And Lady Cory looked so surprised.

"You didn't know?" she asked. "Neither of you?"

Colton was glaring at him now--Zeb could feel it. "He keeps trying to tell me that I'll get here and it'll be some sort of porn-ucopia and I won't want him anymore."

Cory snorted--an unladylike sound. "Bullshit. Zeb, look at me!"

He did, and her eyes were incredibly, sincerely, velvet green/brown.

"Are you paying attention?"

  He nodded.

"Good. Because you couldn't have saved his life if you hadn't cared for him. And if by some miracle he'd lived, he would have ripped you to shreds after his first change--especially because it didn't happen supervised, or during a moon.  Even the way he changed was Goddess-given. Zeb, you must have fallen in love with him at first sight. Because your heart--the power of your heart alone--is the only reason he's here."

Zeb couldn't look at her anymore, but the only place he could look was into Colton's wet, limpid eyes. "Your voice," he said weakly, exposed--literally, naked. "I was hiding under that porch, and I wished... everything for you. I was rooting for you to get laid until I realized he was a douchebag, and then... I just wanted more."

Colton nodded.

"I'm nothing special," he said quietly. "I'm a small-town guy with a narrow mind. But you saved me from all that. Why won't you let me save you?"

Zeb blinked. "From what?" But he felt it--the yawning void of nothing that he had been. The quiet despair of being the third spear carrier on the left.

"From being invisible to yourself," Colton said, standing.

Lady Cory popped off the bed and padded out, shutting the door quietly behind her, and Colton approached and stroked the side of his face with gentle fingertips.

"I'm going to shower," he said softly. "I'm gong to take about a minute and a half. Eat the leftovers--you're going to need your strength."

Zeb just gaped at him, and Colton turned toward the bathroom. He paused at the doorway--"Don't bother putting on your pajamas," he warned.

Zeb let them fall into the drawer, and headed for the tray which sat on the end table. He pulled back the covers and sat down thoughtfully, towel still wrapped around his waist, and managed a couple of bites of meat before Colton came back into the room--damp and smelling like body wash--and naked.

Zeb dropped the fork with a clatter. "Uh--"

"Are you ready for this?" Colton asked. He stood in front of Zeb, so Zeb was eye level with his crotch, and he managed a sarcastic eyebrow-lift as looked up at Colton's face.

"Very funny," Colton told him, dropping to a crouch. He leaned forward and kissed him, a kiss devoid of desperation and fear for their lives--but still very much full of the passion that had driven them for the past days.

Zeb opened for him, holding nothing back. Why should he? His queen and leader had already laid his secrets bare. Colton knew--had known from the very beginning, that Zeb was his for the taking.

Colton pressed him back into the bed, kissing relentlessly, hands moving over Zeb's body with sure possession.

Zeb was his--all his. They'd done this dance, and Zeb had conceded. The only difference was that Colton knew any objection he'd made had been pretense and bullshit anyway and now they both knew it.

Colton covered Zeb's body with his own, their skin soft and silky together, as Colton sucked on his neck and jaw hard enough to leave love bites. Zeb bucked at the zing of pain, and Colton bit his neck harder.

"No more hiding," he growled into Zeb's ear. "Whose are you?"

"Yours," Zeb breathed willingly.

"Who wants you?"

"You do."

"Who loves me?"

Three remarkable days.  Three days that changed his life more profoundly than the bite that pulled him into this world, this amazing world that he would never leave.

"I do."

"I love you too," Colton growled. He shoved two fingers into Zeb's mouth and Zeb sucked.  Colton pulled them out and Zeb gasped, "Lube in the drawer."

Colton paused to grin, the grin making him boyish and young.  "Lube would be good," he said, lowering his hand to tease Zeb's entrance anyway. Zeb flailed for the drawer as Colton penetrated one finger and rubbed, the harsh friction making him crazy stupid needy.

"Here," he gasped as Colton penetrated with the other finger. "He---eeerrrr..."

Ah! the mix of pain and pleasure--almost... almost... then Colton fumbled with the lube bottle, and the sudden cooling of slick on Zeb's sphincter was an arousal in itself.

Colton laughed softly and kept stretching him, fingers scissoring as Zeb spread his thighs in abandon.

He would give himself to the boy--this man--again and again and again. And he wouldn't feel used, or used up, he would feel rebuilt and reborn, every time Colton took him.

Colton poised his erection at the slicked, stretched entrance of Zeb's body, and Zeb moaned.

"Yes."

"I belong here," Colton told him, thrusting in.

He did--he belonged in Zeb's body just as surely as they both belonged in Green's Hill.

"Yes..." Zeb breathed again, and as Colton began his stroke, rocking back and forth.  "Yes--Goddess, Colton, all of me. Take all of me!"

"I thought you'd never ask."

Colton's flurry of thrusts left Zeb breathless and pleading, aching for climax, cock throbbing for release.

And repossession.

Forever and ever again and again.

Colton's hand on him, gripping him into orgasm was almost anti-climactic next to the revelation that Zeb was already bonded. This man's every touch was magic on his skin, on his soul. He was the most important thing in Colton's life, and Colton wanted it that way.

Colton wanted him.

Zebulon's deep throated groan of come resonated through his entire body. Colton must have felt it, because he gave his own cry of climax, and fell into Zeb's arms, rutting still, even as Zeb wrapped his arms and legs around Colton's body.

"You love me," Colton panted, as though Zeb's soul hadn't been bared for him just moments ago.

"I love you," he confessed.

"I love you back," Colton told him, an almost shy smile pulling at his mo uth.

"Good."

Colton kissed him then, with such incredible sweetness he wanted to cry.

And then he wanted to do it again.

Colton was a new werewolf after all.

*  *  *

Cory sat in the common room, knitting, and Green huffed in, looking miffed.

"Are they still at it?" she asked, amused.

"It's been hours!" he complained good-naturedly. "Usually new recruits are, you know, sort of anxious to meet me, right?"

Cory laughed softly, and Green regarded her, knowing his expression was fond and not caring.

"Are we feeling slighted, oh fearless leader?" she asked, voice all sweetness and sarcasm.

He rolled his eyes. "I have things to do this morning, you know. I was sort of hoping to make sure the poor kid isn't going to hate it here."

"Well, judging by the great schmoopy eye-fucking they were giving each other last night when I went in to visit, I think he's going to be okay."

Green rolled his eyes. "I still have to--"

"I know." She set her knitting down and stood, rubbing her hands up and down his arms. Her touch sent a wave of yearning right to the pit of his groin. Yes, he spent much of his day serving his people--but Cory, always Cory, was so much different than that.  "I'll tell you what. You let them have round four or five or twelve or whatever, and you and me..."

She raised her eyebrows and smiled prettily.

He reached under her bottom and pulled her up until she was straddling his waist. "We make hay while we have a quiet house, right?"

"Every chance we get."

Enemies were out there and allies were uncertain. Their children were, even now, growing in her body, making her every breath more of a burden.

But love and lovemaking were the fire in their blood that reminded them that they were alive, and that  even the worst that could happen was not a tragedy if love had been made and had when the Goddess gave them means.

Her mouth opened for his, and he carried her, kissing and moaning, hands roaming his chest and back, into his room.

He closed the door behind him and made sure it was locked for good measure. Lovemaking was sacred in Green's house, and he was going to make love to his beloved.

It was his most heartfelt prayer for the safety of all he watched over.