RufflingThePeacocksFeathers (8 page)

He’d started to open his mouth, to deny the man’s observation, but then he remembered the odd tingle and wash of peace he’d experienced last night in the bathroom. In fact, he still felt at peace now, his peacock relaxed.

Unable to believe it, he’d managed to mumble thanks as he stumbled from the room, remembering to grab his keys at the last minute. His one thought had been to find a place to think, to take some time to figure out just what had happened. And now, he was still thinking.

“He left this afternoon.”

Lamar squawked. His tail came down, tucking behind him.

How could that be? I’ve waited too long?

“Geez, Lamar.” Kontra shook his head and rubbed a hand over his face. “What did you expect? You left!” Sighing, Kontra added, “I have Payson following him. He’ll give me a call in a few hours to let us know direction.”

Looking around quickly, Lamar searched for humans. He almost started his shift when he spotted a slow moving truck coming down the street. He waited for it to pass, except,
it didn’t
. It turned into the parking lot and stopped in a space a few down from their motorcycles.

Lamar turned to head into the forest so he could find a place to shift. The figure that slid from the truck caught his attention. He cooed in surprise.

Rueben!

Payson on his bullet bike appeared, zipping past the parking lot. He revved his engine, popped a wheelie, then sped away.

Rueben settled his crutches under his armpits and started across the lawn. “Kontra,” he called.

Lamar knew the instant he spotted him. Rueben’s halting gate faltered and his eyes widened. Lamar watched Rueben’s Adam’s apple bob, then he seemed to come to a decision, for his eyes narrowed and his cool green eyes hardened, and he continued forward.

“I heard you were leaving, Rueben,” Kontra rumbled.

“I’d planned to, but—” He shrugged. “I guess I couldn’t just leave it like that.”

Kontra nodded as he levered himself to his feet. “I’ll let you get to it, then.” He turned and looked at Lamar. “This time, you call if you have a problem.”

Lamar chirped. If he had a problem at this point, he didn’t think even Kontra could fix it.

Rueben’s brows drew down as he glanced between Kontra’s retreating form and Lamar’s peacock. “So,” he started, then sort of seemed lost. He sighed. “I feel like an idiot, talking to a peacock,” he muttered, running a hand through his hair jerkily, working around his crutches.

Lamar cooed and turned toward the forest. He couldn’t change here. He’d left his clothes deeper in the trees. After several steps, he turned his head and eyed his mate. Rueben just stood there, watching. Lamar cooed again.

Smiling slightly, Rueben murmured, “You know, you really are a very pretty peacock.”

Rueben stroking his ego flooded Lamar with pride. He couldn’t help it. Lamar spread his feathers and chittered, strutting his next several steps.

Laughing, Rueben hobbled after him. “Can you understand me?”

Lamar bobbed his head, the best he could do to show agreement.

“Damn, I’m not even sure I believe you’re Lamar,” Rueben grumbled, but at least he kept moving.

He reached his clothes, relieved they were right where he’d left them folded in a waterproof backpack, tucked under a bush. He grabbed the bag in his beak and pulled it out. The brush of fingers over his tail feathers caused Lamar to jerk around and squawk.

Rueben yanked his left hand back. “Sorry,” he murmured. “Am I not allowed to touch you while you’re an, um, a peacock?”

My mate wants to touch me?

Lamar turned back to the man where he rested with one calf under his butt and his healing leg stretched out in front of him. His crutches lay near his right hand on the ground. Lamar cocked his head and stepped closer to his mate. He lowered his head a bit and cooed. He’d like his mate to touch him again.

Evidently, Rueben understood. He reached his hand out again and rubbed it over first his neck, then his body, and finally up a couple of his tail feathers. Lamar shivered under his mate’s touch.

Rueben smiled, the expression lighting his green eyes. “Like that do you?”

Cooing he rubbed his head against Rueben’s chest.

Chuckling, Rueben carefully cupped Lamar’s beak. He lifted Lamar’s head and peered into Lamar’s eyes, staring closely at him. “Your eyes look exactly the same,” he whispered. “Blue as the sky on a clear day.”

Unable to stand not being able to communicate with his mate a second longer, Lamar shifted. Rueben jerked his hand away and he fell backward on his ass, his mouth dropping open in shock.

His body shuddered and his skin goose bumped. Lamar’s muscles popped, his bones cracked, and his tendons snapped. His feathers retracted into his body. Holding back a grunt, Lamar’s head and body grew and altered, his wings becoming arms and his beak melting into his nose.

Lamar had always felt that was the oddest sensation in the world. Just as he did after every shift, he reached up and touched his nose, making certain the hard dark brown beak had truly turned into his slender, pale nose. Vain, perhaps, but he couldn’t keep himself from checking.

Finally, Lamar opened his eyes and looked at his mate. He easily discerned the lines of disbelief, but at least he couldn’t find any revulsion.

“Oh my God,” Rueben whispered. “They told me it was you. I even thought I believed it, but—” He shook his head hard, his eyes wide as he swept his gaze over Lamar’s naked form. “I guess I didn’t, really. I don’t…know what I thought.”

Sucking in his bottom lip between his teeth, Lamar tried to figure out what to say. “I’m sorry,” he blurted.

Rueben’s brows drew together. “Huh? Why are you sorry?”

“Uh…” Lamar really didn’t know.

Then, Rueben’s eyes narrowed. “I’ll tell you why you should be sorry,” he growled. “How about, because I had to learn you’re a shifter from Sam? How about, because I had to learn we’re mates from Sam? How about because you fucking fled instead of just being honest with me? How the hell can we have a relationship if you won’t communicate with me?”

“R-relationship?” Lamar’s brain seemed to be fixed on that one word.

“Yeah.” Rueben seemed to have quickly recovered from his shock of seeing him shift, for he faced Lamar squarely. “Sam says we’re connected now. That we’ve…bonded. It took a hell of a lot of thinking this afternoon, and, yeah,” he admitted, flushing. “I reached the edge of town, but I finally realized I wanted to figure this thing out between us. I feel—shit.” Rueben shifted, stretching his second leg out in front of him. His gaze swept over Lamar’s naked form, his gaze heating. “Why the hell are we talking about our fucking feelings when we should be fucking our brains out?”

Lamar flushed, his pulse speeding up at his mate’s words. Seeing Rueben’s focus drift to his cock, Lamar’s dick had an expected reaction to the scrutiny. It started to thicken. He sucked in a breath and opened his mouth, struggling to get words out. “W-we’re supposed to talk because we need to, we need to figure out our relationship.”

Growling low in his throat, Rueben rolled to his knees, reached out to Lamar, and grabbed his right thigh. Then, using his hold, Rueben yanked Lamar. He tumbled to his backside and felt himself slide along the grass. When he stopped, he found himself between Rueben’s spread thighs.

“Rueben?” he gasped, staring up into his mate’s glimmering green eyes.

“We did it your way last time, Lamar. Talking first and fucking second, and this is where it got us. This time, we do it my way.” A feral grin spread across Rueben’s lips. “Talking is overrated. I want your ass, Lamar.” With his free hand, Rueben pulled a single use packet of lube and a condom from his pocket. “I’ve waited too long to have it again.”

“You…you want me, even though I bonded us without permission? I didn’t mean to,” he added quickly. “I just…I don’t know how it happened. It
shouldn’t
have happened. Can you ever forgive me?”

Rueben released Lamar’s thigh, then rested a hand on either side of his head, lowering his head until they were only inches apart. “Lamar…that was my fault. Admittedly, I didn’t realize my actions bonded us, but it was still me. If anyone should be asking forgiveness, it’s me.”

Lamar’s jaw popped open.
It was my mate’s fault? How could that be
? “What?”

“But I’m not going to ask forgiveness. Do you know why?” Rueben continued, as if Lamar hadn’t spoken.

“Why? How? What?” Damn, he needed to get his brain in gear and get past these one word questions.

“Because it kept me from leaving,” Rueben admitted. “I sat in a bar at the edge of town for a good hour, Lamar, but somehow, I couldn’t get myself to keep going.” He rested his forehead against Lamar’s, peering deep into Lamar’s eyes. “I had to come back, had to see you again. It suddenly became more important than anything.”

“Oh,” he whispered. “Wow.” Rueben felt the pull that strongly? Of course, he did. They were mates.

“Yeah, wow,” Rueben murmured. “And now, enough talking.”

Lamar didn’t have the option to respond. Rueben captured his mouth, thrusting his tongue into Lamar’s mouth. At first, Lamar tensed. They were out in the open, even if shielded by the woods. Anyone could stumble upon them.

Rueben’s hand slid down his shoulder, over his chest, and plucked his nipple. Lamar moaned, his back arching as he pushed into Rueben’s fingers where they tugged and twisted the hardened nub.

Whimpering, Lamar sank into his mate’s touch. His tension melted away as he wrapped one arm around Rueben’s waist and the other around his neck. He bucked his hips up, his hardened cock rubbing against the crotch of Rueben’s jeans. The rough fabric against his prick sent shudders through his body.

Rueben plundered his mouth, thrusting his tongue deep, licking his roof, sucking his tongue. Lamar sank into the embrace, giving himself over to his mate’s ministrations. As desire and lust flooded Lamar, his cock oozed and dripped, and he could think of nothing but getting his mate’s dick in his ass. He wanted—needed—to feel that connection.

“Please,” he begged. “Need you.”

Chapter Nine

His lover’s needy look nearly caused Rueben to come in his pants. If the whole
mate
thing, the pull he felt, the desire to touch, hold, even possess, hadn’t been explained to him—by his brother, of all people, in a little wayside bar near the edge of town—he never would have understood what the hell was going on with him.

“My lover,” Rueben crooned, releasing Lamar’s nipple and getting back to his knees. He yanked his t-shirt over his head and worked the fly of his jeans, then shoved them and his briefs halfway down his hips, allowing his rock-hard dick to spring free.

Wrapping his hand around his shaft, Rueben admired Lamar’s lean, compact body. He liked the smaller man’s smooth, lightly tanned skin, his hard dark nipples circled by tan areoles, and his leanly muscled limbs. Rueben couldn’t wait to feel Lamar’s pert ass clamping down on his cock.

But, first…

“Roll over, Lamar,” he ordered gruffly.

Lamar’s eyes widened, but after a second, he scrambled to obey. Rueben didn’t bother trying to stop his self-satisfied smile at seeing Lamar’s quick response. Eyeing the firm flesh in front of him, he reached out and rested his hand on Lamar’s sides. Rueben gently stroked his palms down and over his flank, then skimmed them down and up his thighs until he palmed Lamar’s ass cheeks.

Lamar shivered and shuddered under his touch. His breath came in pants as his body trembled. His skin goose bumped. Whimpering, Lamar dropped to his elbows and arched his back, raising his rear higher, presenting himself to Rueben.

Humming with pleasure at the display, Rueben took what his lover offered. He pulled Lamar’s cheeks apart, giving him a better view of Lamar’s winking tan hole. Without wasting a second, Rueben leaned down and swiped his tongue over Lamar’s entrance.

Gasping, Lamar mewled and shook.

“Like that, do you?” Rueben murmured. He ducked further and bathed Lamar’s balls with his tongue, nipping the wrinkled sack gently, then ran his tongue up, over the man’s clenching muscle again. “Well?” he urged, before diving back in to suck and nibble, loosening his lover’s entrance.

“Yes, yes, yes,” Lamar chanted, rocking back against him.

Rueben thrust his tongue inside Lamar, bathing his entrance in saliva inside and out. Lamar’s words deteriorated into garbled non-sense as he squirmed. Rueben slid a finger in alongside his tongue, stretching his chute. After a few moments, he added a second one.

Lifting his head, he stared down at his fingers where they were clamped in tight, silky heat. He pulled them halfway out, then pushed back in, enjoying the view of his lover opening to him, rocking back on his fingers, reveling in his touch.

“More, please,” Lamar pleaded, looking over his shoulder at him with lust-filled eyes.

“Anything, babe.”

Rueben grabbed the condom and tore it open with his teeth. Before he could get it rolled into place, Lamar twisted under him. “No. No condoms. Don’t need them.”