Jacks, Marcy - Eli's Reluctant Mate [DeWitt's Pack 5] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) (13 page)

“Sorry,” he said. He hadn’t meant to grip so hard.

Chris just smiled up at him, and with his mouth still around Eli’s  cock, it was the most beautiful sight Eli had ever seen.

Then it was back down to business as Chris grew steadily  confident in his new skills, and Eli’s head banged against the wall as  he threw it back and moaned.

This was just what he’d needed.

He wanted to come inside Chris’s mouth so badly, to have him take everything Eli had to offer, but he again reminded himself that  Chris was new to this, and he should make an attempt to warn him.

“Fuck, I’m coming. Ugh, Chris!”

He grabbed the other man’s shoulders again and tried to push him off, but with their positions it was difficult to actually push him off,

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and Chris was determined. Eli couldn’t hold back anymore, and God  help him, he tried.

There was nothing Eli could do but grab hold of his mate and  empty himself into Chris’s mouth.

Well, the other man certainly learned his lesson as he was forced  to pull back from the rush of fluid down his throat. He coughed and  gagged a bit, but otherwise was fine and managed to catch his breath  on his own.

“Told you I was coming,” Eli said.

“Ha-ha.” Chris wiped his cheek with the back of his hand,  removing all traces of what he hadn’t managed to swallow. “Wanted  to try it. I didn’t think it would be that hard.”

Eli reached down and grabbed him, and after throwing the other  man over his shoulder, he carted him off to his  bedroom fireman-

style.

He enjoyed the shocked noises Chris made at the new position,  but would enjoy the pleasurable wails he made even more when Eli  taught him the proper way to suck a man’s dick by leading through  example.

* * * *

“Can we go back to the pond?” Chris asked. “I like it there.”

Chris had been asking this a lot lately. If Eli managed to get  permission from James to go, this would be the third time this week.

Not that he could blame the other man for wanting the change in  scenery, what with  the lack of any difference in scenery in the main

camp.

Eli smiled and kissed him, they were still in bed, naked, and  letting the cool breeze from the early morning waft in through the  open windows. He couldn’t deny Chris what he wanted. Eli was going  to have to ask James if that was normal of a mated alpha after he  asked to go back to the pond. Of course, James wouldn’t always be

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able to spare the extra alphas to go with them as guards, just so that  the pair of them could relax by the water.

“I’ll see what I can do. Going to go swimming this time?”

“Maybe,” Chris blushed as he stared up at the ceiling. “What are  the odds that we’ll get to be alone while we’re there?”

Eli sighed. With several days having gone by since the last attack,  Chris had grown complacent and seemed to think that the danger was  over or at least had dwindled enough that it was safe for just him and  Eli to go off by themselves.

No matter what Eli said, he couldn’t seem to truly convince his  mate that he was important, and that he would always require  protection, and that Eli wouldn’t always be strong enough to give it to  him.

More of that fear bubbled up in Eli’s head. Chris was becoming antsy here and with good reason. Any normal human being wouldn’t want to be cooped up on such a small piece of land, never having the freedom to go wherever he wanted to go.

When he discovered that was the way it would always be, Eli wouldn’t stop him when he finally decided to leave and go somewhere where no wild and dangerous werewolves lived.

“I doubt it. Why?”

Chris still avoided eye contact with him. “No reason. Just thought we’d get some time alone.”

Time alone was always good. Eli wondered what he was up to.

“How many werewolves did Deacon make?” Chris asked, changing the subject suddenly. “It can’t be that hard if he’s still doing it.”

“I’ve never changed anyone before, so personally, I don’t know,”  Eli said. “From how I understand it, though, it’s as simple as just  scratching someone while in wolf form. Or biting, if you want the  process to go any faster.”

“And then they just turn into wild werewolves?” Chris asked.

“Only if they don’t have another wolf around to teach them how

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to behave. It’s too easy to just let ourselves go in the beginning, to  want to be more wolf than human. For myself now, it’s  no problem at  all. I don’t even think about it. But my brother and I were born  werewolves, not changed, so I’m betting the experiences aren’t the  same.”

Corey, James’s mate, had nearly gone wild due to his sudden change. Not only that, he’d also suppressed his inner wolf without knowing it, which was just as dangerous as letting it go entirely.

“But, say if you were to change me, there’s a chance I would go wild?”

Eli looked at him then shifted onto his elbow to better see Chris’s

face. “Do you want me to change you?”

He never lost that blush, like just asking was embarrassing or  something. “I don’t know. Maybe if you did, I wouldn’t be so helpless  all the time. I hate it.”

“You would still need protection,” Eli said. “I can already tell you  would be an omega wolf.”

“Well, even then, I would still be fast enough to run away. And if  they caught me, I could defend myself long enough for you to come,  or maybe even get away on my own.”

Eli had to admit the idea held appeal. Turning Chris into a  werewolf would practically guarantee that he couldn’t leave, and it  would only serve to strengthen their bond. As two bonded  werewolves, they would even be able to communicate telepathically.

That, and Chris was right. As a werewolf, he would be faster and  stronger, able to better sense when danger was coming. He wouldn’t  be at risk one-hundred percent of the time like he was now.

Why the hell not?

Eli got to his knees. “Are you sure? You want to do this?”

He would have to ask for James’s permission first, but if Eli told

him the reasons, he didn’t think his alpha would be against it. In fact

he was positive that James would be more than for it.

Chris smiled shyly up at him. He nodded then opened his mouth

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to answer when a loud wolf howl sounded outside, and then the

growls and whines of pain started.

Those could be explained away with the roughhousing the other  wolves were constantly doing, but Eli heard the undercurrent that  Chris did not. He caught the sounds of many padded feet running onto  the land, the alpha wolves charging to meet them, and the scuffling  sound of nails scratching in the dirt and teeth biting into hair as the  fights started.

He got up and out of bed quickly, and only then did Chris seem to  take note that something was off.

“What’s wrong?”

Eli heard it coming, and he got in front of the window. The  curtains were closed, so hopefully the attacker wouldn’t be aware of  Eli standing there.

“Get under the bed and don’t come out until I say so.”

“What?”

The window shattered, and razor-like glass flew around Eli in a thousand large and small crystallized pieces as the snarling wolf leaped through.

Eli put his arm up just as those jaws clamped down, and Chris yelled.

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Chapter Eleven

Chris screamed as he watched Eli get thrown down into a bed of shattered glass by the wild animal who jumped through their window.  The blood spurted next, and just as Chris recalled Eli’s command for him to hide under the bed, he thought, Fuck that.

Chris jumped out of bed, still completely naked, and he ran behind the wolf that currently had his lover in a death grip. Eli had put his arm up to defend his face, but now his arm was in the mouth of that raving wolf, and it was being torn to shreds.

“No!” Eli yelled at him when he caught sight of what Chris was doing.

Though he felt compelled to turn back and run, or at least make an attempt to obey Eli’s earlier command―which in itself was only a product of their mating―Chris ran behind the wolf.

The gray mass of snarling hair was too busy trying to yank Eli’s arm out of his socket that he didn’t notice Chris approaching from behind. Not until Chris grabbed the creature by the ears, digging his fingernails into the sensitive flesh, and yanking back as hard as he could.

The result was instant. The wolf released its hold on Eli’s arm as

it bucked back in pain. Chris felt some of the skin tear up and collect  under his fingernails when he scratched too hard, but he had no time  to reflect on that as the wolf twisted around and shot out its claws

along Chris’s chest.

He didn’t feel any pain. The wolf missed!

“Chris? Chris!”

Chris only heard the alarmed shout  as though it had come from

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down a long tunnel. He felt a warm, wet something cripple down his  chest, and he looked, expecting to see wolf drool or something.

He saw red. Blood. He didn’t understand why his eyes were  playing tricks on him like this. It looked like it was squirting from  several gaping slashes on his chest, going from the top, all the way  down into his stomach, where the slashes got to be deeper.

That couldn’t be right! He wasn’t hurt!

The wolf whined, its tail cowering between its legs before it  jumped back through the window, disappearing.

Chris had scared it away. Good.

Then he keeled over.

Eli caught him before he could land on the hardwood floor, and then Chris really started to feel the pain.

That had been so fast. Less than ten seconds,  and now he was

going to die.

Eli shook him. “Chris? Chris! Stay awake!”

“I’m fine,” he said, but Eli ignored him, heaving Chris into his  arms and running out of the bedroom.

From Chris’s position, he could only make out things that were  happening above him. First the slightly cracked ceiling of their cabin.  Then the blue sky, and then the faces of the other members of Eli’s  pack gathering around him. Their faces ranged from sick horror, to  sympathy, and then sadness.

“James!” Eli shouted, even though his alpha was standing right  there. Eli was panicking. “He’ll be okay, right? That other wolf  infected him, so he should start healing soon? Right?”

His voice became more and more desperate the more he spoke.

Chris’s vision was starting to go fuzzy now, but he could still  make out the way James clenched his jaw and bit on his lower lip. He  looked behind himself and called for someone to step forward.

Old Maggie came into view. The pack’s wise woman. Chris felt a  sense of calm at seeing her. She would tell everyone that he was fine,  that all Chris needed was some sleep, bandages, and chicken soup or

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something.

She scrutinized the wound carefully, and Chris’s eyes became  heavier and heavier. Eli shook him again.

“Stay awake! Baby, please, stay awake. Don’t die on me.”

Eli was crying now. Chris could tell by the way his voice broke,  and the gentle, tickling splash of warm tears on Chris’s face.

“His bowels were nicked,” Old Maggie said, and then she shook  her head in a decidedly nonencouraging way. “I have nothing that can  save him from that.”

“No!” Eli screamed, mirroring Chris’s thoughts.

“The pond! I’ll take him to the pond.”

“He may very well not make it that far,” Old Maggie said. “And

those wild werewolves are still surrounding us.”

Chris didn’t care. He didn’t want to die, and he did his best to

convey those thoughts to Eli.

Eli looked down into his face and must’ve seen that. “James?” his

voice was begging.

Luckily, he was on board. “Andrew, take Nick and Adam and run  ahead. Take down anyone you see that we don’t know. Isaac, pull  your guns out. You and Morgan can cover us.”

The sound of a gun barrel clicked. “Will do.”

Chris was already starting to feel the world shaking around him. If  he’d wanted to fall into a peaceful sleep before, he didn’t now, since

everything was too uncomfortable as Eli ran with him in his arms.

Chris had been told about the pond’s strange healing powers, but  he’d never bothered swimming in it before. He really hoped that what  Eli and the others said about that water was true and that he  could