“Bitter will duplicate it and the shield.”
Like he trusted a fairy with Nero’s life…not.
“Is there any way I can talk you out of going tomorrow?”
“No. I’m sorry.”
He figured as much. “Then I hope it works out for you.”
“It’ll work out for you too. If my team doesn’t die, then Wulf, Inc. won’t go looking for tech support. We’ll never force the shift on you and—”
“Youneedtechies. And you said I’d probably change at some point anyway.”
Nero blew out a breath. “You might. You might not. Your father has the gene, and he’s never gone furry. Neither has Ivy or Bruce. Just your one uncle.”
“Yeah, I read his file.” The entire family thought his uncle had died in Vietnam. Nope. Meanwhile, Nero brought him back to the painful present with a surprising apology. “Look, Josh, I know I’ve been a real dick today. You were right that I was pushing you away.” He shrugged. “Somehow that felt easier.”
“Because it is easier. For you.”
Nero had the grace to flush. “Yeah. It was, and I’m sorry. And now you get to go back to your real life as if none of this ever happened to you. As ifInever happened to you.”
Josh dropped down on the second bed, abruptly too exhausted to deal with Nero’s bullshit while on his feet. “You sound like that’s a good thing. Like I’d want to forget everything that’s happened in the last six weeks.”
“Don’t you? You’ve been bitching this whole time about how we blew up your life. How we’ve taken you from your family, screwed up your PhD, taken you away from Savannah. Well, now none of that will happen.”
Josh rubbed a hand over his face. “Yeah, you did.” He blew out a breath. “But maybe my life wasn’t so great to begin with. Maybe it needed to get blown up.”
Nero’s brows went up and he flicked on the bedside light. “Come again?”
“The way you guys go about recruitment sucks. It’s fucking awful, and I’m going to make sure that gets fixed. But in my case….” He shrugged. “I was drifting. I wasn’t going to leave school until they kicked me out. I didn’t have anything I wanted to do and was afraid of going out and looking for it.” He stared hard at Nero. “But now I do. Now I have Wulf, Inc. I like the work there, and you guys sure as hell need the help.”
“We’ve been doing fine for centuries.”
“Well, it’s a new century, and things are changing.” Josh leaned forward. “But I won’t remember any of this, will I? Because you’re going to wipe it away with one big fairy deal. Say you win tomorrow. Everything will go back how it started, and I’ll never be recruited.” Josh stood up. “For the record, I don’t want to erase that. Yeah, you fucked up, but that doesn’t mean I want to forget you. To never have what we did? What we—” His voice broke, and he felt like a wuss here, trying to express how much he felt for Nero. How much he stilllovedthe guy. And come tomorrow morning—no matter what happened—it would all end. If Nero won, then Josh would never be recruited. This timeline would disappear. And if Nero failed, he would still be whisked off to Fairyland. Assuming he survived at all.
Which meant that even if Josh got recruited to Wulf, Inc., it wouldn’t be like it had been. It wouldn’t be Nero holding his body when he came out from a shift. It wouldn’t be Nero poking him into calisthenics or forcing him to eat meatloaf and broccoli when he’d really rather have had nachos and a soda. He wouldn’t have the big lug in his bed, in his heart, in his body.
“We balance each other, asshole. And you’re going to wipe all that away.”
Nero sat up, but his head seemed to hang heavy on his shoulders. “Don’t ask me to choose between you and them. They came first, Josh. Do you know why I fought us so hard? Because I knew from the beginning that it wasn’t real. I knew I’d go for my do-over, and either way, we wouldn’t happen.”
“It was fucking real!” Josh screamed.
Nero had been waiting for Josh to lose it. That was how they worked. Nero poked and pushed until Josh faced whatever he was feeling. Until it all came out in an agonizing rush of anger and pain. And no matter how violent the explosion, Nero was always there to catch his pieces. To hold him while Josh released everything he’d kept trapped inside. And together they weathered the storm.
This was no different. Josh screamed and lunged forward. Nero caught him when he was trying to both hit and kiss the man at the same time. He let Josh’s momentum carry them backward onto the mattress, and then, when Josh’s bellow became a choked-off sob, Nero held him even tighter.
“It is real,” Josh kept saying. “It’s real.”
“Yeah,” Nero murmured into his hair. “Yeah, it is.”
Josh held on to Nero’s broad shoulders as he clutched the man tight to his chest. Josh wrapped his legs around Nero’s thighs, and he held on as if that could keep them from getting ripped apart. As if it would keep them from gettingerased. But it couldn’t, and they both knew it.
When Josh lifted his face for a kiss, Nero met him with his lips. And then they were devouring each other. Mouths, hands, legs, dicks. Everything entwined with everything else. They sucked, they rubbed, and theyneeded.
The sex was hard and fast. They spread, shoved, sucked, and rammed with a brutality only werewolves could withstand. And when they were face-to-face with Nero deep in Josh’s ass, he held the man still and growled into his ear.
“You’re mine,” Nero said. Then he bit down into Josh’s shoulder until blood dripped onto the sheets.
