“Wow,” Josh murmured, and Nero echoed the sound. And though his heart ached that she had to pay for his choices, he remembered the look of awe on her face as she held those tiny dragons. Her year’s employment wasn’t going to be as awful as he feared. She might even love it.
“But what about—” Josh said. Nero didn’t let him finish. He kissed him quick and hard. And when Josh melted into him, Nero let his body surround his lover and cradle him the way he hadn’t been able to before now. He held Josh with his whole heart and soul.
Then he whispered into Josh’s ear. “No buts. No questions. Not yet. There will be time enough later. I just want to hold you.”
Josh returned the hug, squeezing him until he felt breathless. And then Josh whispered back. “Can we do a bit more than hold each other? I mean, if you want….”
“Yes.” A thousand times yes. But instead of saying more, he kissed Josh again, pouring all of his need into it, which Josh took and gave back, like an endless loop of lust and love. Then Nero broke the kiss with a gasp. “Hotel. Now.”
“Yes.”
Nero’s favorite word.
It was a measure of their distraction that they only then realized that Nero was naked. He’d never dressed after shifting back from a wolf, and it probably wasn’t a good idea to walk through a city park in his birthday suit.
Fortunately Bitterroot had been kind. They found a neat pile of Nero’s clothes at the base of a nearby tree. And right underneath the clothes sat Josh’s backpack, already filled with his laptop, headset, and the dime novel on the Wisconsin demon.
Nero dressed quickly while Josh hoisted his backpack onto his shoulder. Then they held on to each other as they walked. Neither seemed very steady on their feet, and yet Nero had never felt more filled with life. He struggled to put a label to this feeling welling up inside him that was more than lust and even bigger than love. In the end, the word whispered out from his lips before he even realized how right it was.
“Home.”
Josh turned to him. “What?”
“This. You and me. It feels like home.”
“Better than home,” he answered. “At least my home.”
Nero snorted. “That’s family. That’s different, and it’s got good and bad in it.”
“Ain’t that the truth.”
They kept walking while Nero settled into this feeling with Josh. It felt as if no matter where he was going or what he was doing, he would always come back to Josh. Because Josh was home in a way that even his pack had never been. That thought grounded him, pleased him, and gave him the strength to say his next words.
“I love you, Josh. I want us to stay together. I’ll figure out how to work it with Wulf, Inc. I can lead a geek pack with you in it or bring you into a combat pack. Or if you want civilian life, I can work on that too. I want to be with you.”
Josh stretched up and kissed him hard and fast. And when Nero would have deepened it, he pulled back. “I’ve already committed to you. Hell, I was going to work for that asshole for forty-nine years just to make you happy. I love you. Whatever you want to do, we’ll work it out. I swear.”
“Me too. I swear, I promise,I do.”
“Yeah.” Josh grinned. “I do too.”
Their next kiss was tender, sweet, but it held the shared promise of forever. And it might have gone on that long if it weren’t for a sound—a steady clapping noise that came from over Josh’s shoulder. Eventually they heard it. They stiffened and twisted around, both startled to see Bruce leaning against a tree trunk and watching them with dark green eyes.
“Congratulations, little brother. Looks like you’ve found love.” The words sounded sincere, but there was a dark look in the man’s eyes and an envious taint to his expression.
“Bruce, what are you doing here?”
“Following you.Watchingyou.”
Oh shit.
Josh blew out a breath. “Look, I know it seems strange, but—”
“It seems like you’re werewolves who make fairy deals.”
Nero tensed. Even if the guy had been following them for the past twenty-four hours, he couldn’t have figured all that out. Bruce hadn’t been in the alternate timeline, and he sure as hell hadn’t seen either of them go wolf. “What makes you say that?” he asked, working hard to sound casual.
“The freaking fairy told me.”
