Pushing in slowly, Alec kept his gaze locked with Mark’s. The heat in his eyes sent Alec’s pulse racing, and he didn’t stop until his cock was all the way in.
Mark hissed a little but wrapped his legs around Alec’s back and whispered. “Fuck me.”
Alec shivered, everything he’d bottled up over the last couple of days rising to the surface, ready to spill out. Mark said he wanted it rough, said he could take it. Alec hoped he’d been telling the truth. “Tell me if it gets too much.”
In answer Mark grinned and raked ten claws down Alec’s back, making him arch and push in deeper. “It won’t.”
With a roar that filled the room, Alec pulled out and slammed back in.
He gripped Mark’s shoulders, claws sinking in deep, but Mark just tipped his head back against the pillows and moaned as Alec fucked into him again and again. The long expanse of his neck called to him like a siren, but Alec closed his eyes, concentrating instead on the feel of his cock sliding in and out of Mark’s body.
“Fuck… I’m gonna come.”
Alec glanced down to find Mark staring up at him. He wanted to kiss him so badly in that moment, but this close to the edge, he had no chance of retracting his teeth. Instead he lay down, covering him with his body, and sank his teeth into Mark’s shoulder, all his earlier plans going out the window.
Mark cried out as he came between them, body arching and claws buried in Alec’s back like ten tiny knives.
Pain and pleasure assaulted him, pushing him over the edge. It tore through him like a white-hot fire burning away all the pent-up guilt and anger festering inside, leaving him spent and boneless. He collapsed on Mark, letting him take his full weight.
Mark half-grunted, half-laughed, but didn’t ask him to move.
They lay in that position catching their breath.
Alec licked his lips now that his fangs had retracted, tasting Mark’s blood. A quick glance down showed him Mark’s shoulder had already healed, the trickles of red running down to the bed sheet were the only evidence it had happened. Alec’s back would look much the same.
Pushing himself up onto his forearms, Alec met Mark’s gaze, and the urge to kiss him flooded back in. He did it without thinking. Dipping his head and capturing Mark’s mouth, slow and lingering.
Wrapping his arms around Alec’s back, Mark ran soft fingertips up and down his spine, as though smoothing away the damage his claws had done. “See,” he whispered. “We healed.”
“We did.” In more ways than one. Alec hadn’t felt this at ease on the eve of September twenty-seventh since it happened. It left him feeling vulnerable in a way he wasn’t used to.
Mark kissed him again, unhurried like the first. Alec could get used to this if he wasn’t careful.
Rolling to the side, he pulled Mark with him, wrapped an arm around him, and tucked his head against his shoulder. He had no idea what prompted him to start talking. Maybe ten years of bottling it up inside was too much for anybody. Or maybe it was the fact Mark wasn’t part of his pack, hadn’t seen him go through this year after year. Whatever the reason, the words flooded out.
“Do you know what tomorrow is for me?” He didn’t expect him to remember. They might have been one pack at the time, but most people would have forgotten by now. And Mark would have only been young.
Mark shook his head, hair brushing Alec’s skin. “No.”
“Ten years ago tomorrow, I went out on my first mission with my new unit.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Mark swallowed and wrapped an arm over Alec’s waist. “During the pack war?”
“Yes.” Alec sighed. “I was so fucking excited. Finally being allowed to join a unit and be a part of the fight.”
“Weren’t you part of a unit before that?” Mark had only been fourteen at the time of the pack wars; he didn’t remember much.
“I was, but we didn’t really see eye to eye, if you can imagine that?”
Mark laughed. He had no trouble picturing Alec as a pain in the arse. “I bet you hated being told what to do.”
“It wasn’t just that. My beta at that time was perfectly adequate, I was just desperate to be part of the fight, and at that point, our unit was one that worked to keep the pack business running. Someone had to keep our livelihoods intact, but I didn’t want it to be me. For thirty years old, I was incredibly young and selfish.”
Mark held his breath when Alec paused, hoping he hadn’t decided to stop talking. “What happened?”
Alec’s bitter laugh made him flinch. “What always happens in war. Someone died and suddenly there was an opening. I begged to be transferred, and I was, much to the rest of that unit’s displeasure. I had no formal training, and they were one of the top fighting units. As far as they were concerned, I was a liability. And they were right.”
