Page 20 of The Devil on my Chest

“Either partner can move. It depends… Oh, gods that’s good… It depends on the position.” His voice might have risen up at the end, but Rocky was busy remembering what sex was about.Except this time he was with Mal, and it wasn’t sex. It was love action. Yes, love action. Rocky would die on that hill.

Mal took him at his word, rocking back as Rocky thrust forward, tentatively at first, but Rocky could feel it when Mal caught onto what they were doing.He matches. We fit. It’s fucking incredible. I always knew it would be.

Rocky had to lean over Mal’s back. He had to bury his nose in Mal’s neck. Their scent swirled around them, and Rocky opened his eyes, spying the scar he’d left gleaming on Mal’s neck. They were moving faster, totally in sync in body and breath.

I will take him with me.It was Rocky’s last coherent thought. His fangs dropped, his wolf surged and as his teeth sunk into the scar all over again, Mal stuttered and then howled as the smell of spunk hit the air.

Yes. Yes. Fucking yes.Rocky’s balls emptied, sending his spunk deep into Mal’s body, and as he disengaged his teeth and licked over the mess he’d left on Mal’s slender neck, he smiled. He was still smiling when they were sharing their first bath two hours later.

Chapter Thirteen

It had been one of the best days of Mal’s life. He and Rocky had got up quite late, and Rocky had made him breakfast in the well-stocked kitchen. Admittedly he’d made one hell of a mess in Cyrus’s immaculate kitchen, but Mal was well used to cleaning up after him, and this time Rocky actually helped him. The food was delicious, filling, and it was fun making plans for the day over the dining table.

They had spent the day out on the town. Cyrus’s driver, Jim, was remarkably well informed about the different historical places close to where Cyrus’s apartment was. Rocky got to marvel at the Statue of Liberty, although he wasn’t keen on all the tourists getting in their way.

Walking along the waterfront hand in hand was fun. One of the good things about New York is that no one seemed to mind two men holding hands, nor did they have trouble with Rocky’s obvious shifter status. Mal was someone non-paras might wonder at, but Rocky walked as though he owned the world – a common alpha wolf trait. Unlike smaller cities, like Jackson, New York embraced diversity and most people there were too engrossed in their own lives to give a damn about anyone else.

Mal finally got to see Times Square – a bucket list item of his - although he regretted it within the first five minutes of the car parking. After spending so many years in the quietness of Arrowtown, the lights, the cars, and the sheer number of people quickly proved overwhelming. After grabbing half a dozen hot dogs from a street vendor for lunch, Rocky asked Jim to take them back to the apartment.

There was another surprise waiting for Mal after he’d taken a nap. Rocky had ordered them fancy suits from a shop Jim knewthat Cyrus frequented, and later that evening Jim took them to a quiet restaurant where apparently Cyrus had a permanent table.

“It’s our first official date,” Rocky said when Mal protested the prices on the menu. “I’ve never been able to spoil you before and now I can, just this once. You know the food is going to be good. I scented three other shifter couples here as we walked through, and the great Cyrus himself endorses this place.”

Mal forced himself to relax and it was a fun evening. The booze flowed, the food was excellent with big portions Rocky appreciated. When Mal couldn’t finish his, Rocky was quick to clean off his plate too.

“I’m doing this for you.” Rocky grinned as he swapped out their plates. “With the prices you were worried about, I know you’d hate for this to be wasted.”

By the time they got back to the apartment, sharing a last drink for the night before bed, Mal was quietly beaming, completely content for the first time in a long time. They curled up on the couch together – it was as comfortable as it was big, and there was a game on the big screen television. Rocky had turned the sound down and seemed mostly interested in tracing patterns up and down Mal’s arm, cradling a can of beer in his other hand. After the hustle and bustle of the day, it was lovely, enjoying a quiet closeness with his mate, and Mal hoped that they could hang on to those same peaceful feelings when they went back to Arrowtown.

“You know,” Rocky said quietly, “you never did tell me how you ended up on the streets. You’ve gotten my story out of me, so don’t you think it’s time to share yours?”

Mal glanced at his mate. “I thought we weren’t going to be revisiting history again,” he said as a sinking pit started toform in his belly. “It’s not really a time in my life I’d like to remember.”

“No, and I understand that,” Rocky said. “But that’s like the last part, the last missing piece of the puzzle – where you came from and how we ended up where we were.”

Mal thought for a moment. “Rocky, I don’t really know what you want me to say,” he said at last, because his mate deserved that much. “It’s not only that I don’t want to talk about it, but I’m also not sure you’d understand my early situation even if I did tell you.”

“You’re not giving me a chance to understand if you don’t tell me.”

Sighing, Mal gave into the inevitable. Clearly it was important to Rocky, and if Mal was being honest with himself, he’d been just as persistent when he wanted to know about Rocky’s background. If he wascompletelyhonest to himself, not all of that was about the origin of the curse. Mal had been just as curious.

“Admittedly, from what you told me about your pack situation, your experience was totally different from mine. You were also pushed out of your pack while you were still a child. I didn’t get to leave until I was seventeen.”

Mal hesitated a moment and then he continued. “I had to live with the fact that I was the lowest of the low for most of my life. When I was born, my parents were just normal every day, beta wolves. You know, nothing special or anything else. They had brought a son into the world, it was meant to be celebrated. But the alpha of our pack…I don’t know… You have to remember this was before paranormals came out. Not long before, but it was before paranormals came out and let’s just say my pack alpha had some weird ideas.”

“Weirder than taking on a coven, not believing in curses, and killing the source of the curse before it could be cured?” Rocky took a swig from his beer can.

“There’s more than one kind of weird as you know. You only need to be patrolling the streets of Arrowtown on a Saturday night after Cam’s bar has closed to know that.” Mal leaned against Rocky’s shoulder. “My alpha was the type that kept his pack completely hidden from humans, for example. We lived in a very remote area, and barely saw a half a dozen humans a year, if that.”

“I’m still not seeing how that made you feel so bad for yourself. I mean, you’re amazing, and I hope you realize that now.”

“Thanks to you.” Mal flicked a quick smile at Rocky’s solemn face. “The issue with my pack was…well it started pretty much from when I was born, or so I was told. On the first full moon after my birth, I had to be presented to my pack. It was a ritual all families in the pack went through. When I was presented, supposedly a time for celebration, my alpha claimed I had the stench of omega wolf about me, and male omegas were no use in his pack. From that moment on…let’s just say my life was shit.”

Rocky looked at him in shock. “How could that prick say something like that? Nobody would have known about your omega status until you shifted for the first time.”

Mal shook his head. “It’s not like I know why he’d say anything at all. I was apparently a smaller baby, but you know, a lot of the babies born in our pack were underweight. And it’s not like I could talk to my parents about it either, because after the alpha decreed I was useless, they barely bothered to do the minimum for keeping me alive. I was told – I think I was about thirteen at the time – but I was told I was lucky the alpha was so gracious, and they didn’t have me culled at birth.”

Rocky growled. “That was a barbaric custom, and it always has been.”

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