Talan blinked to make sure they were seeing the same thing. “Wasn’t the shifter stabbed?”
Adrian nodded. “Yep.”
“Why would the sheriff search the cabin and not see a gun?” Adrian scowled. “Who said he searched the place? He took out the body and looked around for fingerprints. I think he did the bare minimum. I doubt he opened any drawers. I wonder what else he might have missed?”
In complete agreement, the men put off their amorous escapade to check out the murder scene. Opening the cabinets and doors revealed a set of clothes hanging up that looked like they belonged to the dead man, some toiletries and nothing else.
“Nothing strange here except for the gun,” Adrian said while searching under the bed.
“Why don’t you check your computer and see if you can get any background on him.” Adrian turned to confront his lover. “Talan, we came for a romantic getaway. Why would I bring a computer?”
Talan laughed and kissed his mate on the forehead in an affectionate gesture. “Because you can’t help yourself. Now where did you hide it?” Adrian sighed. “I might have tucked a netbook in the clothes but that’s all back at the other cabin.”
“You didn’t leave anything in the Hummer?”
Adrian shook his head. “You know how much I hate that planet-killing vehicle. Good thing they aren’t going to make them anymore.” He gave Talan a smug smile.
“I’d better hurry and get you one for Christmas then.” Talan couldn’t resist tweaking his tree-hugging mate. It wasn’t that the lions didn’t care about the environment—they just didn’t worry about it as much as Adrian. For the first time he wondered if it was a wolf thing or just an Adrian quirk.
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Amber Kell
37
Adrian gasped. “That’s just mean. I’ll make you suffer if you get me one of those pollution producers.”
Talan laughed. “I hear they’re making some really nice eco-friendly SUV’s.”
“Maybe. I’d have to research their stats and cost.”
“You do that.” Talan hoped the new car in the garage at home would meet his mate’s expectations. He’d called a couple of radical conservationists and they’d recommended the new electric model currently waiting for a certain wolf’s attention.
Laughing, Talan wrapped an arm around his mate and squeezed him gently. “Rest a bit, love. I’ll make us something to eat…if there’s any food in the fridge.” He worried for the first time they might not have enough food to make it through the winter storm. He’d hate to have to go out and take down a deer in the snow.
Talan pulled on his pants in deference to the chill in the cabin. He didn’t want to freeze off any of his manly parts before Adrian got to play with them. His usual laid-back mood had vanished during their attempted murder and Adrian’s injury. Now he was in protector mode. Anyone who came at his mate would lose an arm, a leg, or something else essential.
Relief rushed through him at the amount of meat in the freezer and the assortment of fresh food in the fridge. He wasn’t much for vegetables but he knew his mate enjoyed them.
“Kade said he was going to do an extensive background check on Darren in case he was into something we didn’t know about. Out here in the middle of nowhere, he could’ve been doing anything.” Adrian peered over Talan’s shoulder. “Oooh, at least there’s food.”
“Yeah, we’ll be set for a while. You hungry?”
Adrian shook his head. Tendrils of his hair brushed across Talan’s shoulder, bringing back his desire on a wave of need.
“We can eat later.” Normally he’d lift Adrian up in his arms but he worried about his lover’s injury. Although it appeared healed on the outside, sometimes it took longer for wounds to heal internally. Instead, he wrapped a careful arm around the wolf shifter. “Come on, let’s get back to bed. I’ll let you have your way with me and then we can have a nap before we solve the puzzle of the psychotic killer.” Adrian laughed as Talan had intended but the laughter faded once he’d stripped Talan free of his pants, pushed him onto the bed and swallowed his cock.
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Amber Kell
38
Talan bucked beneath his lover’s ministration, gasping when Adrian pinned his hips and prevented him from moving further. The silent message was obvious.
Don’t move, I’m in charge
.
With a soft whimper, Talan spilled into his lover’s soft mouth, his lion too submissive to roar.
Adrian climbed back up Talan’s body, success shining in his eyes. His mate loved to give a good blow job and Talan could attest to his lover’s mastery. Reaching into the drawer, Adrian pulled out the lube.
“I’m going to make you feel so good,” Adrian promised.
Talan relaxed in anticipation of his mate’s touch. He knew he’d be tight but Adrian’s patience and love would get him through the initial discomfort. He didn’t really enjoy bottoming—he couldn’t come from a dick in his ass—but if Adrian needed to reaffirm his life and their bond, Talan would give him whatever he needed. That’s what humans didn’t understand about truly bonded mates. What one mate needed, the other gave—no questions, no explanations and no negotiations.
“Relax, baby,” Adrian crooned at him as if he needed to sweet talk him in bed.
“I have done this before, you know, even with you.” A dismissive snort punctuated his words.
A wicked smile crossed Adrian’s face. “I know, but you’re tighter than a virgin’s vagina.”
“And how would you know that?”
“I’ve been around.” Adrian’s eyes flashed with hidden knowledge.
Before Talan could question this scrap of information, Adrian slicked up a finger and plunged it inside, hitting the special spot that made Talan howl as well as any wolf. He might not come this way, but his mate would still make it enjoyable.
After a great deal more preparation and sweet nonsense dripping from his beautiful mate’s lips, Adrian filled Talan with his cock. The long, hard column slid up Talan’s ass and he growled at the sensation, the submissiveness. His Alpha temperament, encoded in his DNA, didn’t appreciate the invasion but his human half wanted Adrian with a fiery passion.
“Fuck me,” he said, gritting his teeth to hold back the lion crouching inside.
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TALAN’S TREASURE
Amber Kell
39
“I will, I will.” Adrian’s sing-song tone was in direct odds to the intensity of his expression as he pulled out then pressed back in, hitting Talan’s prostate with unerring accuracy. Adrian growled, baring his teeth, letting Talan’s lion know who was in charge.
Talan’s lion backed down and Talan relaxed, letting Adrian do all the work. “Let me know if you start to hurt,” Talan said.
He’d take over if Adrian started to fade, flinch or show any signs of pain. It was his job to protect the smaller man—though not weaker by any means, even injured. Talan still had visions of how easily his mate could kill with his claws.
“I’m fine.” The easy movements Adrian used to slide inside him told the true story. His wolf had healed and healed well.
Talan arched his back, pushing his lover further into him, taking everything he could.
Who knew when he would get up the nerve to let the other man lead again?
From the rough movements and gasps coming from his lover, Talan knew Adrian was close to coming. “Do it, my mate.”
Adrian gritted his teeth. “Not without you.” Wrapping a hand around Talan’s erection, he pumped him in time to his hip movements until Talan couldn’t dare to do anything but come.
They fell into a tangled heap, the smell of sex perfuming the air, and the boneless wolf shifter collapsed on top of him.
“Sleep, my love,” he whispered, running his hands over Adrian’s head like he would when petting the wolf.
A sleepy murmur was his only reply.
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TALAN’S TREASURE
Amber Kell
40
Chapter Four
Adrian woke with a gasp. Nightmares clouded his mind. Dreams of being shot, of unbearable physical pain and the mental anguish from his lover mixed together in a troubling dreamscape.
“Shhh, I’ve got you.” Still half asleep, Talan cuddled Adrian close and made soft consoling noises as if trying to ease his pain.
“I know.” Adrian patted Talan’s hand. His mind spun with the possibilities. Someone out there wanted them dead but he didn’t know who. Now he wished he’d got to know his relative a little better.
Kissing Talan’s hand, he slid out of bed and slipped on his boxers. “I’ll make us something to eat.” His stomach grumbled as if anticipating the meal.
Talan grumbled but settled back down on the bed.
Smiling at his adorable mate, Adrian left the bedroom. He glanced outside and saw the snow was up to the window. “Crap.” There was no way his brother could get him out of this while the wind still blew so fiercely. Talan had told him of the conversation with Kade. It warmed Adrian’s heart that they were getting along.
Adrian found eggs and a steak in the refrigerator and started cooking. Talan ate a tremendous amount of food. Even with the well-stocked refrigerator, he hoped the groceries would hold out.
He was completely unprepared for the banging on the living room window. Tracing the noise with his gaze, he saw a thin blond man shivering and peeking inside. Startled, Adrian paused a moment before deciding what to do. Even though the timing of a stranger turning up with a killer on the loose was suspicious, Adrian was confident that he and Talan would be safe if they stayed on guard. But if he wasn’t the killer, he’d never forgive himself if he didn’t help the guy and he froze to death.
Adrian quickly unlatched and pushed open the window. With an awkward stumble, the man crawled inside, bringing in snow along with him.
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Amber Kell
41
Shaking with cold, he regarded Adrian with wary eyes. “I didn’t know if anyone was here. I got turned around and I’m not really sure where I’m going. I’m Philip Townsen. I’m staying at the lodge by the creek. Sunset something.” Fuck, the only lodge nearby was five miles away. “I’m Adrian. You’re way out of your way by about five miles. Why don’t you go take a hot shower and we can talk afterwards?”
“Okay.” The man headed towards the bathroom.
Adrian noticed with interest that he appeared to know which way to go. Of course, there was only one corridor so it didn’t take a rocket scientist to figure it out.
After a moment he heard the water start up. He threw on more eggs and another slab of steak. He hoped this new guy didn’t cause problems, but he couldn’t exactly leave him out there to freeze to death.
“Who’s in the shower?” Talan asked, strolling into the room wearing boxer briefs that hugged his ass and thighs in a distracting manner. “I almost joined him until I followed your scent in here.”
Adrian laughed. He would’ve been jealous if his lover hadn’t looked disgruntled instead of intrigued. Talan was his from nose to tail and Adrian never doubted it. It was rare for shifters to cheat on their mates, though it did happen occasionally with flawed matings.
Feeling along their mating connection, he knew his wasn’t flawed…it was perfection.
He flashed Talan a wide smile. “He said he came from the lodge.”
“How did he smell?”
Adrian shrugged. “Not evil?” he offered. “I didn’t sniff him that closely. He was freezing to death.”
“What was he doing out there?”
“Skiing.” A voice said behind them.
They turned to see Philip walking back out with a T-shirt and a pair of tight underwear of his own. He gave them a self-conscious smile. “Sorry, but my pants were soaked. Shit, you two are shifters, aren’t you? I heard some wolves owned the property, but I guess I was sort of expecting…”
“Wolves?” Adrian asked, lifting his brow.
Philip blushed bright red.
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Amber Kell
42
Adrian laughed. “Philip, this is Talan. Talan, Philip. Why don’t you take Philip to the bedroom and get him some clothes?” Adrian hoped he conveyed that Talan should get dressed too.
Talan nodded and led the half-naked man back to the bedroom.
Humming, Adrian worked on their breakfast.
Philip paused inside the doorway. “I take it you’re not a wolf shifter?”
“Lion.”
“Ahh.” Philip’s eyes turned towards the bedroom door. “So is Adrian, um, seeing anyone?”
Talan let out a low growl, pleased when he saw goosebumps prickle up the human’s arms. “He’s seeing me. He’s my mate.”
“Sorry, man. I had no idea.”
Despite his obvious embarrassment, Talan was surprised when the other man didn’t appear to want to let the subject drop.
“And shifters don’t share their mates?”
Talan stepped close to the human. With careful precision, he let his fingers shift into claws. Wrapping his hand slowly around Philip’s neck he held him still. “Just so we’re clear, if you ever touch Adrian, I will rip out your stomach with my teeth and feast on your liver.
Do you understand me?”
A river of fear poured off the younger man. “Y-yes, sir. No t-touching Adrian.”
“Good boy.” He released Philip and patted him on the head. “Now let’s see if there are any clothes that’ll fit you.” Pleased he’d made his point, he smiled at Philip as he pulled out a pair of jeans that looked like they’d do well enough. He also found a second pair that, with a little cuffing, should fit his mate’s shorter body.
He also grabbed a T-shirt. No sense in exposing more of Adrian’s flesh than necessary to the needy human.
The snow had better let up soon or there’ll be more than one death to
investigate
.
“Everything all right in here?” Adrian appeared in the doorway.
Talan smacked Philip on the back of the head when the man’s pheromones supercharged in response to seeing Adrian.
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“Ow. I can’t help it. He’s sexy.” Philip glared at Talan even as his scent changed to fear.
“Yes he is, but he’s
my
sexy man.”