The certainty of the thought should’ve shocked Zio. Repulsed him. But as need took over his every thought, he felt nothing but overwhelming desperation to feel Devan’s skin against his.
He backed Devan against a nearby tree. “You should be naked too.”
Devan hummed. “That right?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t want you to regret this like you did last time.”
“You regretted that too.”
“How do you know that?”
“I could tell.”
“How did that make you feel?”
“I didn’t feel anything.”
Devan moved like a snake and spun them around, shoving Zio into the tree trunk with enough force to make it bend. “Don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not.”
“Yes, you are. Just because you don’t understand something doesn’t make it less real.”
“I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about.”
Devan caged Zio with his arms, and disquiet threatened the coil of heat simmering in Zio’s gut. “You need to understand.”
“Why?”
“Because—” Devan shook his head. “Gods, I don’t know. Maybe we should do it your way. Follow our instincts and leave the words unsaid.”
Zio palmed his cock and tugged at Devan’s clothes. “No one can know.”
“Then you’d better keep your hands to yourself and leave this to me.”
Devan dropped to his knees before Zio could respond, freeing himself from Zio’s clumsy, grasping hands. “My venom may feel a little strange at first, but it won’t hurt you, I promise.”
Venom? “Wha—”
“Don’t worry. I’m only deadly to humans.”
Devan’s mouth closed around Zio’s cock, cutting dead his power of speech, of coherent thought, of anything save the sensation of Devan’s tongue sliding along his length.
Zio’s head fell back against the tree. Rough bark dug into his skull and breath tore from his lungs in a ragged moan. He thrust his hips, chasing more, but Devan’s hands held him firm, his unspoken assertion so distinct that he may as well have shouted it in Zio’s face.My terms, wolf.
Fear that Devan would pull back overrode any desire to fight him. Zio drove his hands into Devan’s platinum hair and tangled his fingers in the awaiting silk. Devan’s scent was all around him, trapping him in a vortex of pleasure as it melded with Zio’s, gathering his arousal in a storm cloud of fearsome heat.
Zio let out another groan. “How have you done this to me again?”
Devan’s only answer was to draw sharp teeth over Zio’s cock. A warning, or a gesture of affection? As Zio’s thighs began to shake, he couldn’t tell. He gripped Devan’s hair tighter, tugging hard enough to hurt. Devan dug shaking fingers into Zio’s tender flesh. Claws drew blood, but Zio was too far gone to make sense of what it meant. To catch sight of the beast within the man who held Zio’s every nerve in the thraldom of his mouth.
Madness hit Zio, a punch to the gut that doubled him over, his hands still buried in Devan’s hair. His wolf howled, undone by the pleasure-pain so akin to the wild thrill of shifting. Zio yelled, his gift unleashing before he could catch it, shaking the earth and finishing off the fractured tree he’d assaulted earlier. Branches fell and the ground rumbled. Ecstasy rocketed through him, white-hot, unstoppable, scorching everything in its path as he spilled his seed into Devan’s waiting mouth.
His roar echoed in the clearing. He slid down the trunk of the tree, but Devan caught him before he hit the ground.
Zio glanced at the darkening sky as his faculties returned to him. War had caught up with them, and they’d run out of time. “We need to go,” he whispered.