Nischal [leopard spots 9] (8 page)

“Fuck me,” Preston muttered against his lips.

The words were like being doused with icy water. Nischal stopped rutting and yanked his body under control. He pushed himself up until he was on his hands and knees above Preston. “No. When I fuck you, you’ll know who and what I am, who and what you are to me. My mate.”

Preston’s lips twisted as anger pinched his features. “What do you want from me? Fucking hell, you want me to start believing in elves and unicorns too?”

Nischal canted his head. “Those things aren’t real. I am.” He shifted, held himself to his leopard form and let his breath gust over Preston’s face. Slowly, he lowered himself and rubbed his belly and chest over Preston’s, letting the man feel him.

Preston grabbed handfuls of his fur and moaned softly. He lowered his lashes and began petting Nischal. Nischal gave him a little while to work out that this was real, that he was real, then he shifted again.

“Oh my God,” Preston mumbled.

“Don’t faint on me again, please.”

Preston’s awe changed into irritation. “I have never fainted in my life!”

Nischal couldn’t have hidden his doubt of that claim if he’d have tried, which he didn’t. “I would consider what you did in the shower and here when I first shifted fainting.”

Preston glared, his red eyebrows pulling together over his nose. “That was because of the tranquiliser and the shit the doctor gave me to help me with the pain I was feeling. If I hadn’t had that shit, I wouldn’t have, um, I wouldn’t have blacked out.”

Nischal kept from snorting somehow. He instead buried his face against the side of Preston’s head and hoped the man hadn’t seen him grinning. “I am sure you are right.”

“Who’s that Kapuk guy you were talking about before?”

Nischal considered his erection and Preston’s, but decided getting off again could wait. They needed to talk. “Does this mean you believe me now?” he asked as he rolled off Preston to lie beside him.

Preston turned onto his side to face Nischal. “I think so. I don’t know. Tell me how it’s possible. Who’s Kapuk? How did you end up caged and here?”

Fair questions that Nischal would happily answer even if his cock wasn’t happy about it. That part of him could wait. “My brother and I were raised by our mother. She was captured and, we believe, killed, as I mentioned.”

“That’s awful,” Preston said before sucking his bottom lip in between his teeth. A coughing fit hit him and he touched his throat. “Ow.”

“Do you have anything for the pain?” Nischal asked, looking at that bruised skin. It wasn’t as black with bruises, but it was darker, red and purple in spots. “A warm drink, perhaps?”

“I just need some ibuprofen.” Preston got up and dug a bottle from a pair of pants lying on the dresser. “I don’t want anything narcotic.” He took a couple of pills out and popped them in his mouth, then he fetched a bottle of water from the small refrigerator in the room. He opened the water and chugged it, his Adam’s apple bobbing with every swallow.

Nischal almost gave up on talking then and there. Focus. “Ah. We saw her get captured. We were only fifteen. We were born in the same litter. If we had any siblings, we never knew it. Our mother didn’t shift into human form often—”

“You are a twin?” Preston asked as he glanced away.

Nischal nodded. “Like you.”

“How do you know that?” Preston snapped his gaze right up to Nischal’s. “How long were you with Suraj? Did you see Paul?”

As much as he didn’t want to answer, Nischal couldn’t lie. “I did. Over a year ago, but he didn’t look like you.”

Preston sat up. “Did you see what happened to him? Is he…is he dead?”

“I honestly don’t know,” Nischal said as he sat up, too. “I wish I could tell you something definite, but I can’t. Sabin and I saw your brother. He was thinner, bleached blond hair and I don’t remember the freckles. Like other men before, he went with Suraj into his trailer. Sabin and I had been locked into our cages then. We heard screaming, but the drugs in our water—” He shook his head. “I just don’t know. I remember the yelling, then it was morning and we were being moved again. It wasn’t the first time, nor the last.”

Preston’s eyes welled and he twisted around to pound a fist against the wall. “Fuck!”

“I’m so sorry,” Nischal murmured, his heart aching for Preston. “I wish I knew more.”

“How long did he have you?” Preston demanded. “Did he know what you and your brother were?”

“I don’t think he did, or he’d have capitalised on it somehow,” Nischal answered. Most likely by selling them for extra-magical parts. He and Sabin would have been cut up and parcelled out to the highest bidder.

“That’s disgusting,” Preston ground out. “God, that’s awful.” He had a greenish look to his pale skin and Nischal realised he’d shared his morbid thought with Preston.

“It’s only the truth,” Nischal told him. “Sabin and I were a good cover, I suppose. He had us for almost two years, I think. Maybe longer, I don’t even know anymore. We were captured in the mountains. It’d been a worse winter than usual. Kapuk had died on us, and we were starving. Careless.” Nischal got angry at himself every time he thought about it.

“Sabin wanted to wait until the blizzard passed to hunt, but I argued that we’d be even weaker by then. Our best option was to find some other animal holed up, maybe even hibernating. I all but forced Sabin out that day, and we ended up caught by Suraj.”

“He didn’t take proper care of you,” Preston said as he looked Nischal over, making Nischal extremely aware of every one of his jutting bones. It took everything he had in him not to try to cover himself up.

“He gave us enough food and water to keep us alive.”

“You and Sabin were a way for Suraj and Yangani to traffic young men,” Preston murmured. “Paul was one of many, I think, and now with both Suraj and Yangani dead, I don’t know if the FBI will ever find him or the others.”

Nischal wrapped Preston in his arms and pulled him as close as they could get considering their positions.

“Everything is so fucking bizarre,” Preston continued. “I can’t process this. I can’t figure it out, what’s real, if I’m just fucking crazy or what. I don’t know, and I don’t know where Paul is, if he’s alive or not.”

“Sh,” Nischal soothed as he held Preston. He didn’t mean to shush him, but to comfort Preston if he could.

Preston curled closer and clung to Nischal. “I can’t figure out how this can be happening, but it must be, which means you are you. You’re a man who can turn into a snow leopard. Are there more like you and Sabin?”

Nischal shrugged. “I don’t really know. There might be other types of shifter, other snow leopard ones. We were pretty isolated. Mom was very hermetic. She never would tell us about our father, or where she came from. It wasn’t until after she died that we even met another shifter.”

“Kapuk.”

Nischal smiled at the odd pronunciation from Preston. “Yes, Kapuk,” he repeated, emphasising the last syllable instead of the first as Preston had done. “He was ancient, almost a hundred, if he was telling the truth. I think he was. He told the truth about mates, because I can feel it in every part of me, this bond stretching between you and me. It’s going to pull tighter, bring us closer.”

Preston nudged Nischal onto his back and rolled halfway onto him. “And what else did he say would happen between us? What does it mean, that we’re mates, if we are?”

“It means we were made for each other,” Nischal said as he ran one hand up Preston’s thigh and over the swell of a sweetly plump butt cheek. “It means that we are drawn to one another—our souls, our hearts—and we always will be, in this life and the next, and the next.”

“Reincarnation?” Preston seemed to consider it for a minute then he hitched a shoulder in a shrug. “I guess it’s possible. Anything is, considering that I saw you turn into a leopard then back into a man. My mind has been blown and is now opened to numerous possibilities it would have rejected before.”

Nischal wasn’t sure he trusted that easy capitulation. “Not long ago you were claiming this was all a hallucination.”

Preston gave him an arch look. “Can you blame me? I never would have imagined shifters existed, but you’re here, you’re real. I can’t keep denying it. If I’ve lost my mind, it doesn’t feel like it. Nothing else has changed about my world except that I’ve learned of you and your kind.”

“Nothing else?” Nischal asked as he pulled Preston on top of him. “Are you certain of that?” He cupped Preston’s ass as Preston straddled his hips.

Preston hissed and placed his hands on Nischal’s chest, right over his nipples. “Okay, I’m so fucking horny I can hardly think. That what you mean?”

Nischal hoped he didn’t appear to be too smug as he brought a hand around to cup Preston’s cock. “Yes.”

Preston tipped his head back and moaned as he rocked into Nischal’s fist. “Oh, God, that feels so good. Would be better if you’d fuck me, but I think…” He broke off on a moan as he shuddered and rutted harder, faster.

Nischal got it, though. Preston had begged to be fucked when he had thought it wasn’t real, but now he was repressing that need as much as he could. His body was making demands that he couldn’t completely ignore. Nischal wouldn’t begrudge either of them some relief, and he’d be patient. He was dying to fuck Preston, but he could give the man a little while to adjust. Hopefully Preston would come around quickly.

Preston began rubbing his palms over Nischal’s nipples and heat zinged from them directly to Nischal’s groin. His cock throbbed and he planted his heels flat on the mattress. His dick just needed a little more friction, and if he could line it up in the fuzzy orange-haired crack of Preston’s, it’d be perfect.

Except Preston had other ideas, coming up and off Nischal’s hips, tugging at his wrist. Nischal let go of Preston’s fat cock and Preston blew him a kiss before leaning down and giving him a real one.

“Wanna suck me?” Preston asked against Nischal’s lips. “While I suck you?”

Nischal knew his eyes had to be the size of boulders as he nodded rapidly, his mouth watering.

Preston winked at him then manoeuvred around until his hot, wet-tipped shaft was dangling above Nischal’s lips.

Nischal fisted it at the base then he released it to palm Preston’s low-hanging sac.

“Nice,” Preston said in a strained voice. Then he licked over Nischal’s cock head and Nischal’s entire nervous system shorted out. He jerked and twitched randomly as arousal hit nerve after nerve. “Mm, wait until I deep-throat this monster dick of yours.”

Nischal wanted that, very much. He wanted to do it, too, but Preston’s cock was so thick he wasn’t sure he could take much of it.

Preston’s wet, hot mouth surrounded Nischal’s glans and it was incredible, so much more pleasurable than Nischal had ever thought possible. He arched and pushed farther into that silky cavern and Preston let him.

At the same time he left off fondling Preston’s balls and resumed his grip on the base of Preston’s cock. Preston’s thighs quivered beautifully and Nischal gave his shaft a little tug. Preston spread his knees farther apart and brought the tip of his length to Nischal’s mouth.

Nischal eagerly took the crown in, sucking, craving every taste of his mate he could get. Preston whimpered and took Nischal’s cock in deeper.

Nischal’s fledgling attempt at giving head sputtered to a stop as his jaw dropped open on a wave of ecstasy. He tried to moan, but Preston took his open mouth as an invitation and pushed in deeper. If Nischal hadn’t kept his hand on the root of it, he’d have had a throatful of dick he wouldn’t have been anywhere near prepared for.

Even so, his jaw ached as he remembered to suck, like Preston was doing to his cock, coming back up the length, tonguing the veins and melting Nischal from every point of contact with that talented mouth of his.

Nischal managed to seal his mouth tightly around Preston’s cock, and hang on while Preston started fucking his face. Not hard, and Nischal’s hand on the base kept Preston from going too deep. Preston’s pre-cum had a bland yet salty-sweet taste to it that Nischal decided he liked. He flicked his tongue over Preston’s slit every chance he got, seeking out more of that flavour.

Preston moaned and whined around his cock. He sucked Nischal harder, faster, and took him deep into Preston’s throat.

Nischal bellowed around the thickness in his mouth as his balls drew up tight. He clamped his free hand onto the back of Preston’s neck and shoved up hard into that heavenly mouth.

Preston stabbed his cock into Nischal’s mouth in short jerky movements. He keened and the first salty jet of spunk splattered onto Nischal’s tongue.

The taste of it set Nischal’s climax off, shooting him into overdrive as he held Preston still to take his load. Nischal somehow remembered to swallow and breathe through his own release though he wasn’t sure how.

Preston flopped over on his side as if all his strength had left him—or as if he’d fainted again. Nischal raised his head up enough to assure himself that Preston was still conscious.

Preston looked back at him with a silly grin on his face. Nischal’s heart began belonging to the man right then, though he kept the realisation buried for now.

“I think I can do this,” Preston said several minutes later, once he’d stopped panting. “I think I can accept this because, my God, that was better than any blow job I’ve ever had before.”

Nischal propped himself up on one elbow and peered at Preston. “So, not bad for my first time doing it?”

Preston sat up so fast he made Nischal dizzy just from watching. “That was your first time?” Nischal bobbed his head. Preston gulped. “Why didn’t you say so?”

Nischal noticed that Preston’s voice was even scratchier and he winced as he realised he’d been shoving his dick down the man’s already sore throat. Nischal got up onto his knees and reached for Preston. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”

Preston slapped at his hands. “Hold up. I’ll live. Answer my questions.”

Nischal was startled by the chastisement, and maybe a little turned on as he pulled his stinging hands back. “Uh. When would I have had sex? I told you, we were pretty isolated. It was me, Sabin and Mom until she was captured. Then it was me and my brother. I assure you no amount of curiosity or horniness was going to lead to us exploring together. Then there was Kapuk, and just no.” Nischal shuddered. “He was ancient. Then we were caught.” He shrugged. “There was never an opportunity, and I’m glad of that now.”