Ignoring everything else, Alec opened his eyes and met Mark’s gaze. “I can’t stay here.”
“But—”
Alec pressed a thumb to Mark’s lips, shushing him. “It’s bad enough out here, having to breathe in his scent knowing he hurt you. If I go in there….” He nodded towards the living room and caught the faintest trace of blood in the air.
Mark’s blood.
Oh fuck.
His wolf took over, bursting to the surface as Alec half-shifted, his enraged roar deafening in the confines of the hallway. He couldn’t think straight, a red haze clouded his vision, the need to protect blotted out everything else because Mark washis.
“Alec.” Mark’s voice was softer this time. He put a hand on the side of Alec’s distorted face, thumb stroking back and forth. “Look at me.” Powerless to do anything else, Alec met his gaze. “That’s it.” Mark kept eye contact, both his thumbs now on Alec’s jaw, their slow repetitive motion calming him down enough to shift back. Ever so gently he coaxed Alec’s head down towards the crook of his neck.
“No—” Alec protested, not wanting to smell how close Wes had got to him, but Mark didn’t let go.
“This side. He didn’t touch me here.”
Alec gave up, letting Mark guide him the rest of the way in. Wes’s scent was still there, clinging to him, but underneath it all, Mark’s was stronger, and Alec focused on that. “I want to bite you.”
Mark sighed. “I know.”
It was painfully obvious what was happening between them. The way Mark tipped his head to the side, unconsciously or not, told Alec it wasn’t all one-sided either. Not that he’d thought otherwise. He was stubborn, not stupid. “We can’t.”
“I know that too.” He sounded sad and disappointed, and for a second, all Alec wanted to do was to take that away, sink his teeth into Mark’s neck, and join them together.
Instead he tore himself away and stepped back until his shoulders brushed the far wall. His wolf howled in protest, every instinct telling him it was wrong to be that far away, but Alec finally had himself under control. If barely.
Mark rubbed at his neck, the side where Wes had hurt him, and Alec growled.
“It’s done. You need to get over it.”
Alec huffed out a harsh laugh. “I want to kill him.” He wanted to rip Wes’s throat out for ever laying a hand on Mark.
“The alpha council would probably have something to say about that.” Mark smiled, but it soon faded. “We’re fucked, aren’t we?”
“Pretty much.”
The signs were there, but Alec had chosen to ignore them. Too caught up in the way Mark made him feel—truly alive for the first time in years. He wasn’t stupid, but he was selfish. Ignoring what was happening between them had put Mark’s life in danger and triggered Alec’s wolf’s reactions. Before he might have been able to walk away without too much effort. It would have hurt for a while, but that would have faded.
Now though?
Now it would be almost unbearable.
Alec covered his face with his hands and tried to clear his head enough to think. “Fuck it, I can’t concentrate here. We need to leave or there’s every chance I’m going to pin you against that wall again and bite you.” Just saying the words made his cock fill and his teeth slide out.
Mark’s eyes darkened, and he reached down to adjust himself. “That’s not much of an incentive to leave.”
“Mark,” Alec growled. “We need to go. Now.” The hard set to Mark’s jaw told Alec that ordering him around wasn’t going to work. He tried again, softer this time. “Please. Being here is driving me crazy, and I don’t want to do something that we’ll both regret.”
Straightening his shoulders, Mark’s gaze hardened, the challenge obvious. “I’m not sure I’d regret it.”
“I’m not sure either,” Alec answered without thinking, too on edge to manage anything but the raw truth. “But if I was ever going to bite you, to claim you as mymate—” Mark’s breath hitched, and Alec clenched his fists at the flood of desire rolling off him. “—it wouldn’t be a rush job in the hallway of a random P-pack flat.”
Mark swallowed, and Alec watched the bob of his throat, wanting more than anything to get his mouth on it. “Besides, I don’t think we need any added complications right now.”
“That’s true, but….” His gaze dipped to Alec’s neck, and Alec shivered, imagining Mark’s teeth there.
“But?”
