Hunter's Moon (8 page)

Kieran stepped back, shook his head furiously, and then stepped forward. With a challenging stance, he jabbed a finger at Gabe’s chest. “Don’t you fucking ‘Kieran’ me! You have no idea what this is doing to me, and you don’t even seem to care—”

“I care, Kieran,” Gabe cut in, almost whispering, urging the man to lower his voice, too, and cool down. “I
do
care. You are my—”

“No!” Kieran shouted, practically foaming at the mouth, his face red, his eyes feral, and his fists clenching and shaking. “This isn’t real. None of this is real. What I feel isn’t real. It’s just chemicals. Just your fucking pheromones. Nothing more. This isn’t real.” He kept shaking his head, as if trying to convince himself of the truth of his words, and Gabe winced. Kieran wasn’t really seeing Gabe anymore in his self-induced rage, and he continued mumbling fragmented, incoherent sentences.

“When your body and mind tell you different, opposing things,” Gabe said quietly, not wanting to goad the man further, “you trust your instincts. You listen to your heart.”

That snapped Kieran out of his inner ranting and ominous stupor. And then his temper clearly got the better of him, as he looked about ready to slug Gabe. “You….” His voice trailed off, and he was shaking.

With a flat palm, he pushed Gabe on the chest, forcing him to take a small step back, the tree scratching a cut on his skin as his bare arm brushed briefly against it. He had known Kieran was strong, and now his rage had magnified that power within him.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” Gabe’s tone dropped to husky, his statement a clear warning, but Kieran didn’t heed it.

Kieran’s wide eyes were filled with conflicting emotions, and he was out of control. “Don’t tell me what to do, you fucking asshole! Don’t tell me what to say, how to feel, how to be. I am not your fucking puppy! I won’t sit and roll over just because you ask for it or expect me to—”

“You have absolutely no idea what my expectations of you, of me, or for this thing between us are.” Gabe gnarled his words, starting to lose his footing on the formerly solid ground of serenity he usually knew like the back of his hand.

That just pissed Kieran off more, and he pushed Gabe in the chest again, hard. “What you gonna do about it, bitch!”

Gabe’s reactions were instinctive—even though he hadn’t lost control of himself since WWII, and even then it had lasted for all of two minutes.

In a flash, his eyes had morphed into wolf eyes, the brown sliding into gold brightness, his fangs dropped through his gums, stinging on their way out, and his hackles rose until his whole head of hair looked like the mane of a wolf. The growling came through loud and clear, and as if by a snap of God’s fingers, nature around them fell silent in reverence and submission, and Gabe’s low bark and Kieran’s startled, heavy breathing were the only sounds left.

“Don’t.
Ever
. Shove. Me. Again.”

For a brief moment it looked to Gabe like Kieran had regained his senses. But then he bared his teeth, like a challenging wolf, let out a fierce shout, and jumped Gabe with his whole body weight behind the attack, his feet leaving the ground as he climbed the bigger man like a crushing vine. Briefly, the smell of his mate’s fresh sweat, mingling with his male musk from his exertion, overwhelmed Gabe’s senses.

But even amid their different kinds of haze, Kieran was no match for Gabe.

As effortlessly as throwing around a gangly bag of potatoes, Gabe tossed Kieran over his shoulder, and the man landed heavily on the ground on his back, air swooshing out of his lungs. Grunting, he somersaulted backward in a swift motion, up on his feet in less than two seconds. Next thing Gabe knew Kieran charged toward him again, with murder in his eyes.

Everything’s going wrong
.

A series of attacks followed, and Gabe stopped every one of Kieran’s advances with an equal countermove of his own, not wanting to harm his mate, who didn’t know what he was doing. He would regret it tomorrow when the bruises came out—if he lived that long—and at the moment Gabe wasn’t sure if he had the self-restraint
not
to harm Kieran. None of Kieran’s blows hit Gabe dead on, but they did brush his skin no matter how much distance he tried to keep between them.

“Kieran, stop this before you get hurt.”

Gabe’s muffled plea, due to his fangs, just seemed to infuriate Kieran further, like pouring gasoline on a bonfire. Kieran doubled his efforts to get to Gabe, whose wolf within was beginning to get seriously ticked off. Yet Gabe knew he could never seriously injure his mate—even if the guy was being an ass.

“
You
stop trying to placate me, control me, drive me mad—”

Kieran was making no sense, or perhaps he was to himself, but Gabe had had enough.

Using his superior mass and height to his advantage, when Kieran lunged at him again, Gabe simply swooped the guy up in his arms, threw him on the soft earth, launched himself at him, and pinned him to the ground with his whole body. Kieran was immobile, but he tried his best to free himself from captivity, to no avail.

Gabe said and did nothing, just waited for the man to exhaust all his steaming rage. And soon enough Kieran merely lay there, panting, his body tense but unable to move as Gabe held his arms above his head with his own hands and straddled his mate’s hips.

“Get off me,” Kieran grunted vehemently, still fighting for breath.

“As soon as you calm down.” Gabe held Kieran’s blue-gray gaze locked with his own stare, finding his center of calm within and cooling off in an instant.

His eyes flashing as they narrowed, Kieran observed Gabe’s controlled demeanor and exhaled a long sigh. “I’m totally cool. Now get the fuck off me.”

Since Kieran’s voice had leveled, his breathing slowed, and his body relaxed enough, Gabe felt it might be safe to let the man get up, move off, and think about the craziness he had just exhibited. Letting out a sigh of his own, he loosened his hold on Kieran.

Suddenly, Kieran’s legs came up from behind Gabe and surrounded his upper body. Kieran locked his ankles to pin Gabe between his legs and then yanked Gabe back with the force of his thigh muscles. As soon as Gabe could no longer keep a grip on his mate, the tables turned as Kieran displayed his strength yet again by rolling them around so that Gabe’s back was against the ground and Kieran was positioned above him. Gabe concluded that the only reason the move worked was because the guy was his mate, and as such, he was letting Kieran get the upper hand.

This was getting out of control in the worst way, and Gabe knew he did not want this, so he let his body unwind and rest at ease. If Kieran really wanted to hurt him, he could at any time, so the sooner the better.

Hovering above him with a mystified expression, Kieran watched Gabe settling down, not resuming the struggle. His hands were pressed against Gabe’s shoulders, bearing him down, but at least he wasn’t hitting him, for which Gabe was glad and relieved.

“You got me, Kieran. Now what?”

B
UT
Kieran had no answers to offer the man beneath him, who made no move against him even though he had tried his best to assail and damage the cool exterior of Gabriel King. Well, Kieran was going to find out if the man really was a block of ice regardless of his wolfish actions a moment ago, because that could have been nothing more than a temporary lapse in judgment, unlikely to be repeated. Unless Kieran did something drastic.

So he did what he had never in his life imagined he could or would do.

Dipping his head so fast the move left him dizzy, Kieran kissed Gabriel on the lips, hard at first, but softer when the cowboy didn’t push him off. He let go of Gabriel’s shoulders, cupped the man’s face with his hands, angled his head to the side to part both their lips, and then, deepening the kiss, slid his tongue inside the mouth of the first and only man he had ever kissed.

Instantly, it became obvious to Kieran he was kissing another man. The rough stubble of the man’s jaw and around his soft, wet lips scratched and tickled his skin, burning him with new sensations. The taste of the cowboy was rich and masculine, and he couldn’t get enough. His hands slid down Gabriel’s neck, past his collarbones and his prominent, muscular chest until he reached the hem of the man’s T-shirt. Yanking it up in a heated frenzy, he let his fingers skim the hot, velvety skin underneath as he learned his way around a man’s body.

When he found the waistband of Gabriel’s pants, Gabriel’s hands landed on top of his and stopped him. Their lips parted for a distance of less than an inch, and the cowboy breathed his words out hard. “Kieran.” The hesitation there undid all of Kieran’s own doubts. Even after he had assaulted the man, Gabriel was still trying to protect him. After all, Kieran had emphatically told him he was not gay, so he wasn’t letting Kieran close to the point of no return.

But if the skirmish he had just had with Gabriel had proved anything, it was that Kieran was fighting a losing war. Gabriel had been right. The mating bond was too strong to overcome—even if it meant Kieran lost some of the control of his life. Or did he…?

He pushed Gabriel’s hands aside roughly. “No, let me.”

“You don’t have to prove anything to me,” Gabriel said warmly, with a hint of a smile gracing his luscious lips that Kieran wanted to kiss again, for five minutes, an hour, the whole night, for an eternity. “You don’t have to do anything you’re not ready for, and the timing—”

“Is way off, I know,” Kieran finished the sentence for him. “But I want to taste you. All over. I know your mouth now—” He flicked his fingertips across the kiss-swollen lips, hungry for more. “—but it’s not enough. Want your skin, your cock, your cum. Just… more.”

Gabriel’s face was riddled with reservations, with encouragement and approval mixed with bewilderment, reproach, and even rejection. But ignoring the waves of uncertainty emanating from both of them, Kieran forged onward—or, to be precise, downward. Shifting above Gabriel, Kieran moved down the man’s body, and stopped when he reached the ridged stomach revealed by the pushed-up T-shirt hem. Closing his eyes, he pressed his lips against the smooth skin, feeling the muscles rippling underneath as he inhaled the man’s scent and licked around his navel in lazy circles. Gabriel groaned huskily, and Kieran’s cock twitched, pressing hard against his fly.

“Fuck,” he muttered, unable to prevent the word from coming out with his exhale.

Kieran stuck his tongue into the hollow of Gabriel’s navel, and the hunger within him grew. Gliding down the treasure trail in an unbroken lick line until he reached a dark-blond nest of curly pubes, Kieran had never felt such sensual ecstasy before. He was out of control—and he liked it. The smell of man was more pungent here, Kieran became aware, and he rubbed his face into the curls until he felt something smolderingly hot and deliciously wet touch his skin.

There it was—a man’s cock, all hot, hard, and dripping precum. Kieran swallowed.

Pulling back, he couldn’t stop staring. Gabriel was, for the lack of a better word, huge. No, he was
fucking
humongous. Kieran swallowed again. The cock before him was uncut, thick and long, brown, and yet the mushroom-shaped head was getting more exposed and turning redder as blood filled it with every heartbeat. Though it must have been Gabriel’s heartbeats, since Kieran wasn’t sure if his heart was beating at all. He was relatively sure he wasn’t breathing either.

No way in fucking hell is that monster ever going to fit inside my ass
.

The fact that he was even entertaining the idea slowly seeped into the part of his brain that was screaming Gabriel’s name with loads of “oh, fuck, yeah” for good measure. A few seconds ago, Kieran had been giving Gabriel a hard time and a scuffle with serious intent to harm, but here they both were: Gabriel letting him explore at his leisure, and Kieran…. Oh, he was so definitely exploring—and conquering.

Grabbing the base of the massive cock in front of him firmly, Kieran closed his eyes and rubbed the flared head all over his face, the silky, blunt head taut and hot. Gabriel’s odor was spicy, masculine, and warm. Kieran’s face was instantly smeared with his cowboy’s precum as Gabriel was leaking steadily now. Kieran had expected tart and bitter, but what he got was a mix of sweet and salty, a flavor he wished to savor by licking it off the corners of his mouth.

“This doesn’t taste as bad as I thought,” he muttered, more to himself than to Gabriel.

But Gabriel heard him fine. “Precum doesn’t have the bitterness that cum does. It’s mostly sugar anyway. Have you never tasted your own cum?”

Why the fuck would I have?
Kieran could not look at Gabriel, the frustrated response so close to his lips, nearly erupting like a volatile flood of lava. It killed him to realize that the man’s knowledge of men superseded his own wealth of information. “No” was all he could muster.

And then he swiped his tongue across the heated tip of Gabriel’s cock. His taste buds burst on fire with a man’s sexual aroma unlike any other, and the top of his head blew into fireworks of delight as his nerve endings got a taste of perfection. Licking the plump cockhead, Kieran felt a hunger deep within and started lapping the dripping precum off the tiny slit like a thirsty dog. His tongue moved as if it had a will of its own, twisting and twirling around the fat tip until his mouth enveloped the engorged head entirely, and he sucked.

“Oh my
God
,” Gabriel groaned, his hips bucking up involuntarily, and Kieran gurgled as his gag reflex kicked in. He backed off immediately. Looking miserably apologetic, Gabriel looked down at him, his eyes still hooded with lust. “Oh, Kieran, I’m so sorry—”

“Don’t. Fucking. Apologize.” Frustration over putting Gabriel in a position where he felt he needed to excuse his desirous behavior caused Kieran to shake his head angrily. “Don’t, okay? Just… don’t.”

Relief washed over Gabriel, his features softening and relaxing, and a flicker of a tiny smile spread across his lips. “All right. Anything you want.”

With a curt nod, Kieran placed his left hand on Gabriel’s hip and pressed him down while he took his cowboy’s cock back into his mouth. Determined not to let anything interfere with this experience, Kieran wet the silky cockhead with his saliva and sucked hard on just the head, and Gabriel’s reaction was instantaneous. He moaned low and his body trembled. Kieran felt like the king of the world and grinned, satisfied, even while Gabriel’s cock was lodged in his mouth.