“You can have anything of mine you want, anytime, sir. All you have to do is call.”
With that pledge, I lowered my mouth to Ze’s and finally kissed him.
Ze ran a hand through my hair and pulled me tight against him while he possessed my mouth and my body. Our tongues and teeth worked in perfect harmony to build our want and need in seconds. Ze stole my breath and then gave his own for me to live. I was breathing him in, his essence flowing deep into my body. Just like his taste an hour before, his breath was etching itself into me, so I’d never forget it.
But this wasn’t one-sided like before. Ze was breathing me in also, and he was learning my smell and taste, too. I felt possessed and so fucking turned on. I wanted him to turn me over the table we had just eaten on, in the middle of this godsforsaken place and take me, mark me as his with everyone here as a witness.
I knew better than to say the thought out loud ever. I had been warned never to think that way by Ze, and I didn’t want to ruin what we were building. Deep inside, I still knew this was what we were meant to be, even if I would never be able to experience it for real.
As quickly as we had started, Ze pulled away from me. With a deep breath and a hand moving through his hair, he patted my ass in a universal signal to move. So, I rose up and moved to the chair next to him, scooting under the table to try and hide my painful erection. I’d have to deal with it, though.
Ze stood, making no move to hide his hard cock standing proudly beneath his thin pants. He motioned to Luke, and the two moved off through the crowd around us toward the back of the floor.
“Where are they going?” I asked Geordie, who was looking well fucked and loopy, from his petting session and world-class kiss.
“It’s time for rounds this morning. They have a few concerns, so they need all the time this morning to sort it all out.” Geordie sighed, pulled out a pad of paper and began writing in a language I’d never seen before. It made no sense, but he seemed to know exactly what he was doing. Every minute or two he would smile, then laugh. A minute later he would frown for a second before he would mark something out and rewrite the line with a huge smile and fist bump himself. I had nothing else to do, so I watched, somewhat fascinated.
Then I had a thought. If Geordie was so immersed in his project, whatever the hell it was, then maybe I could get him to share a little more than he had before. I decided to start small and see.
“Yeah, these rounds are important to Ze, I know.”
It was true. I did know that since he never let anything distract him from them. If I implied we had discussedwhythey were important, that wasn’t completely lying. Not really.
“Yeah, it is. It’s his mission in here. He’s determined to make things better as much as he can. While he’s still here, anyway.”
It was a lightning strike to my gut when I realized what Geordie had said.
While he’s still here.
What the fuck did he mean while he was still here?
Geordie had replied to my first question as an afterthought, keeping all his concentration on his task at hand on his paper. I needed more information before the panic I could feel creeping in began to take over.
“While he’s still here? I thought he was in here for life, like me.”
Geordie shook his head in the same distracted manner as before, like he was shooing a fly from his vision so he could concentrate.
“No, he’s only in here for a year. All three of us are. It’s been over nine months already. So a little over two months, and we’ll be out of here and move on.”
Yeah, it was officially time to panic now. I thought I’d have years for Ze and me to be together, to build something between us. There was something there, something real. I felt it with my power, whenever I touched Ze’s aura. It was tangible, not just a wish or a hope but a real connection.
Now, all of my plans were impossible. Ze would be gone in two months, and I would be on my own. Gods knows what would happen to me then, who I would have to belong to after this. I should have died. I should have given up and not come back if this was my fate eventually. My whole future would be painted in uncertainty and possible pain after Ze left.
I couldn’t think about the possibilities though. As my dad had always told me, I wouldn’t borrow trouble. Ze would be gone one day soon, but he was here now. He was mine, and I was his, right here and right now. I could enjoy the next two months, and then I’d make a decision for the future once he was gone. And if I was going to be his, I wanted to spend as much time as I could with him. Including going on rounds, whatever that was. I needed Geordie to answer one more question for me, and then I’d take matters into my own hands.
“Where are Luke and Ze doing rounds today, Geordie?”
His big green eyes turned from his scribbles for a second and focused on my mouth, then my eyes. I thought he would realize what he’d let slip or how upset I’d been, but he was still held in a trance by his work.
“Oh, um, they were going to go check on the older shifters today over by the back stairwell. Ze heard Farley wasn’t doing well. He’s a coyote shifter, and the diet in here has been causing him some trouble.”
He dismissed me again and stared back down at his strange lines of letters, numbers, and symbols. He wasn’t the happy, perky little guy while he was working, and I really wanted to ask what the hell he was doing.
But, I had a mission now. I got up and pretended to have all the confidence in the world, walking through the cat shifters surrounding us, then finally emerging into the open floor by myself for the first time since that first day.
Today was different though. I had been claimed publicly by the baddest ass in the place. I was marked now as untouchable, or so I believed. I decided just to go with it and see what happened. The worst that could happen would be death, and I’d thought about that possibility more than enough lately to be afraid of it now. What happened, happened at this point, I thought.
The smaller shifters I passed, moved out of my way quickly and never made eye contact. The larger shifters I encountered as I walked across the floor didn’t make way for me, but they didn’t move to stop me either. Kane was in front of me one second, and the next second he was standing by my side. I had no idea what his plan was, but he wound up shadowing me all the way around the wolf section. I wasn’t insane enough to push my way through that crowd.
