Isaiah (21 page)

Adal looked pained and he clutched at his middle. Dorso had gone silent after his one question, but he was avidly watching them all. Steven stood, wobbled and caught himself with his hands on the exam table. “No, Adal will not want to be away from his mate, and he shouldn’t be. I hurt his mate, and for that I am sorry, Adal. Dorso,” Steven nodded at him,

“My sincerest apology. I didn’t know you were Adal’s, and I am very sorry I hit you.”

“I’m so fucking confused,” Dorso whispered.

“I’ll explain it to you,” Adal promised. “Steven, what should we do?”

Steven stood up straight, looking the self-assured man who’d nearly taken Bae out.

“You and Dorso will remain in Denver, or return there, rather. It’s time for Bashuan’s rule to end, and I’m the oldest son, and the one with no mate. If I fail, there will be less pain and suffering. Only you might mourn me.”

“I would,” Adal said brokenly. “But I can’t take Dorso there. I just can’t.”

Steven jerked his chin up. “I wouldn’t expect you to. You will treat him better than that.

And I will come for you when I have made the lepe safe for us.”

“What a fucking bizarre day,”
Isaiah murmured in Bae’s head.
“I mean, really weird. Should
we help Adal out?”

“We should since he will be your helper’s mate.”

“Good point.”
Isaiah faced Adal. “I know Dorso lives with his parents and three siblings.

I doubt there is any privacy at his place, but I would be more than happy to let you two crash at my place. I’m usually at Bae’s anyway.”

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It was settled then, and before long they were on their way back to Denver, minus Steven, who would shift and make his way back to his lepe. Bae hoped he would be all right.

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Bae was nervous, so nervous it was making Isaiah a little grumpy. “It’ll be fine,” he said for what had to be the hundredth time. “They’re gonna love you, I promise.”

“Uh huh.” Bae glanced out of the window at the scenery as Isaiah drove. Well, he was pretty sure Bae wasn’t really looking at anything real, but pulling up worst case scenarios in his head.

“You already met Tim and Otto, and Mom and Dad and my other sibs. And they all think you’re the best thing since unlimited texting.” Bae laughed and it did Isaiah’s heart good to hear that warm happiness. “Well, it’s true,” Isaiah continued, keeping a straight face.

“And man, can my family text. All of them, not just my parents and their kids. Oh my God, haven’t I read you some of Grandma Marybeth’s texts?”

“Yes, and she even texted me this morning, which was…unnerving.”

Isaiah took his eyes off the road long enough to frown severely at Bae. “You didn’t tell me she texted you!”

Bae rolled a shoulder and pulled his phone from his pocket. “I have been on the verge of panicking all week about this family reunion of yours. I didn’t intentionally not tell you, it just added to the Oh My God I’m Meeting My Mate’s Entire Family fear that’s been poking at me. All she said was, she looks forward to meeting me and seeing me in shifted form.”

Isaiah snorted and risked a quick peek at Bae’s groin. “Knowing my grandma, she just wants to ogle your goodies.”

“Aw, shit, don’t say stuff like that, Isaiah, it freaks me out!” Bae wailed as he cupped his hands, cell phone and all, over his dick.

Isaiah couldn’t even say he had been joking, completely. “Sorry. I’ll guard your goodies though.”

“I just won’t shift.”

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That hurt, just a bit. “You don’t want to run with me? There’s a forest and mountains and so much land…” He really wanted that, to run wild with Bae. The shifting would hurt, but it would be so worth it.

Bae reached over and petted his thigh. “I wouldn’t miss a chance to run with you, especially not when it will be our first time shifting together. Your grandma and everyone else can look for all I care.”

“I care,” Isaiah admitted. “I don’t want anyone seeing you naked. You’re mine, and I don’t want to share.”

“I agree. Even though it’s your family and they’ve probably all seen you bare assed before, I get angry thinking about them seeing you nude now.” Bae huffed and thumped his head back against the rest. “Man, that’s stupid. We shouldn’t be so possessive.”

“I think we should be whatever we are. Not all mates are like us, right? I mean, I don’t know, but I’m working on the assumption mated pairs are as unique as people who are married or partnered and aren’t shifters.”

“I think you’re probably right.” Bae unbuckled and rose from his seat to brush a kiss over Isaiah’s cheek. “I told you more than once, I think you are brilliant. You can see into the heart of a person or a situation like no one I’ve ever known, and you’re smart in every other way imaginable. And you are a phenomenal stud, too.”

“Oh.” Isaiah knew that made him sound like a fucking genius, but this accepting praise thing was hard. It was getting easier, but still. Manners, he needed to use them. “Thank you.”

That felt weird too, saying thank you instead of protesting, but Bae was right, it was rude to argue, an insult to whomever complimented you. The best thing to do was to simply give thanks and let the whole subject drop. “We’re almost there,” he said, ready for the whole subject dropping part. “This is Holton. Don’t blink or you’ll miss it.”

The small town was looking a little worn in spots, some of the houses that had once been nice now looking like they might tumble down if a strong wind hit them. It was kind of depressing.

“It’s quaint,” Bae acknowledged. “I wonder if it will still be here in a hundred years.”

“I don’t know. Maybe there’ll be some influx of jobs and money or something. I hate to think of Holton not being here, even if I did hate this place when I was kid. There wasn’t jack shit to do, and all the cute boys were related to me.” Isaiah chuckled, remembering well how www.total-e-bound.com

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much he hated, and loved, spending summers at his Grandma Marybeth’s when he’d been a kid.

“There were no cute boys in my lepe that I wasn’t related to, no boys period I wasn’t related to, so I understand you, totally.” Bae pointed at someone on the sidewalk. “He has got to be related to you.”

Isaiah nodded. “Yup, that’s my cousin Esau. He’s almost ten years older than me, though, so I’ve never been real close to him.” Still, he waved when Esau looked at them as they drove by. Esau waved back and gestured to another relative coming towards him.

“Hey, that’s your brother!” Bae waved enthusiastically at Jeff. “He’s younger, right?”

“Barely, by thirteen months.” That wasn’t exactly barely, but it sure was close in Isaiah’s opinion. Isaiah honked as he spotted more of his family members. “Yanno, the way our family is growing, the family reunions alone might keep Holton afloat until we all die out, or the sun does the whole dying thing.”

“Such happy thoughts,” Bae chided. “Wow, there’re a lot of them.”

Isaiah grinned as he saw one particular person. “That woman right there, waving us over? That’s Grandma Marybeth, and if I don’t pull over we are both likely to get thumped upside the head.”

“We wouldn’t want that.” Bae pasted on a smile. “Why is this so hard? Your family all seems nice, so I shouldn’t be intimidated.”

Isaiah pulled the truck over and unbuckled. “Grandma Marybeth can be scary, but not to family, mostly. Unless we fuck up real bad and break some of her knick-knacks. God, don’t do that. Or blame one of the little cousins if you do, but that never worked for me so…”

Bae unlocked his door with one hand and undid his seatbelt with the other. He didn’t get to open the door, though, because Marybeth did it for him.

Isaiah had to give it to his grandma, she could be scary, but right then she broke into a smile that would have put the devil himself at ease. “Welcome to the family, Bae Allen Warren.” She opened her arms and Isaiah felt as well as saw the tension leave Bae, gratitude and relief singing from him to Isaiah as Bae got out and stepped into Grandma Marybeth’s hug.

His grandma was awesome, that’s all there was to it. Bae sniffled, and Isaiah knew he was thinking about his own family. At least that wasn’t hopeless. Chul Warren had started to www.total-e-bound.com

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come around, actually calling Bae twice in the past week to discuss things happening in the family. Chul had really listened to Bae during their last horrible face to face visit, and Chul seemed to be breaking free of his father’s manipulations.

“I’m so glad to meet you,” Bae murmured, and Marybeth murmured soothing words as she rocked him gently side to side.

Isaiah knew she was damned glad to meet Bae, too.

* * * *

There was nothing like running in leopard form. For all that it hurt to shift, the pleasure Isaiah experienced as his feline was indescribable. And running with Bae in his very fucking sexy Amur leopard form? Amazing. Bae was gorgeous all the time, but the play of his sculpted muscles under his black flecked golden fur was entrancing.

Bae yowled and nipped at Isaiah’s shoulder. Isaiah turned left. He knew what Bae had in mind, and there were other family members out running, but only he and Bae in this area.

One of the benefits of being familiar with the land and his family members, when one of them called the south end, the others—the adults at least—knew what that meant. That was the snow leopard version of make-out lane, lover’s leap, all those places teens sneaked off to have sex. Except they weren’t teens, and the minors would be watched closely to make sure they didn’t get an eyeful.

Isaiah put some power in his leap and cleared a good dozen feet, Bae hot on his tail.

They pounded through the trees then up a hidden path to a small nook at the base of a mountain. The grass there was green and lush, and the nearby stream contributed to the summer birdsongs with a steady gurgling. Isaiah dropped to his belly and immediately let the shift take him. He needed Bae, ached to feel him mounting up and fucking Isaiah into oblivion.

“Fuck, the thoughts you have,” he heard Bae say just before pain seared through him.

Why it hurt so bad to shift, he didn’t know. Bae didn’t seem bothered, and Timothy wasn’t any more. He had been before he went to Mongolia, but once he’d shifted there, the agony had never struck again. Isaiah thought a trip to Mongolia abounded like a damn good idea.

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Finally his body stopped trying to turn inside out. Isaiah lay panting, curled on his side, and yeah, whimpering every few breaths.

“I don’t like that,” Bae mumbled. “Most of your family members do the same thing when they shift. There has to be a way to help so that you and they can shift without it hurting so badly.”

“D’be nice,” Isaiah managed. He rolled onto his back and stared up at the sky. It was such a vibrant blue that it hurt his eyes. He looked instead at Bae, who would never hurt him, not truly. A bit of scratching and biting…and spanking, those were different things entirely.

“I know what you want.” Bae caught him by the shoulder and rolled Isaiah on to his belly. “You want this.” A soft caress down his flank was followed by a hard slap on it that shoved a yelp right out of Isaiah. “Wow, that’s just beautiful.” Bae stroked over this butt cheek. “More?”

“Hell yeah,” Isaiah said, arching is lower back so Bae would get on with it. The pain from the smack was still rolling around his skin and Isaiah didn’t want it to let up.

“Anything you need.” Bae swatted him again, in a different spot, almost at the bottom of his ass. It sent hot shards of glass into his nerves and Isaiah’s eyes crossed. Bae didn’t give him time to enjoy the pain, he rained spanks all over Isaiah’s backside and the tops of his thighs. Isaiah was a needy, sobbing mess when Bae stopped. His ass was on fire, and yet he craved every touch to it, every kneading and every pinch as Bae kept working the sore flesh.

“You love this,” Bae observed.

Isaiah couldn’t even answer. He was too busy rutting against the ground, his dick aching from the friction. Even though the grass was plenteous, with Isaiah’s weight and the urgent grind of his hips, his dick was going to be raw if he kept humping away.

“You like being sore,” Bae pointed out. He slapped both of Isaiah’s ass cheeks and Isaiah howled and clenched his bottom. “Oh yeah, I can feel you, so close to coming, aren’t you? But you better not, because I’m gonna fuck you, dry and dirty, sweetheart.”

“Please,” Isaiah whimpered. He wanted that burn, the one he’d feel the next day from Bae taking him with nothing more than spit. And despite saying he was going to fuck Isaiah dry, he knew Bae would at least lube him up the only way he could.

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Bae grabbed his hips and pulled Isaiah up to his knees. “Keep your head down. Jeez, your ass is cherry red. So lovely.”

“Fuck me,” Isaiah begged. “Bae, please!”

“Patience.” Bae parted his cheeks and swiped his wet tongue over Isaiah’s hole.

Isaiah keened and spread his legs, giving Bae everything. Bae took it, licking and sucking at his entrance. He slid his tongue inside Isaiah and ran it around the inner rim and Isaiah like to lost his mind.

Then Bae’s tongue was gone, and something much bigger was nudging between his cheeks as Bae held them apart. “Aw, yes,” Bae hissed as he pushed through the ring of muscle. He paused, stretching Isaiah with his tip. Bae spat then rubbed at Isaiah’s ass hole. “I just want to fuck you so bad, split this sweet ass open with my dick.”

“Do it,” Isaiah whispered, anticipation and fear warring for dominance. It’d hurt like a motherfucker if Bae shoved on in without lube and without stretching him good first. One or the other, Isaiah knew he could handle. He wasn’t sure he wouldn’t scream ‘stop’ but was willing to give it a try.