In honor of The Green’s Hill Novellas that are being re-released this week, I’m writing some more Scorched Haven, which sort of works as a novella on it’s own, doesn’t it?
For those of you who are just tuning in for Scorched Haven, you can find the rest of the stories here:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Part 8
And now for Part 9!
* * *
“I think the car runs better now,” Colton said, sounding surprised.
Zeb nodded, his foot on the accelerator, making sure he went fast enough to keep up with traffic and slow enough not to get noticed. They were still on the back country roads, running a series of frontage lanes and town main streets to crawl east without using the freeway.
“I think the color was more of a surprise than the tune up,” Zeb said pragmatically, and Colton laughed. When they’d gotten out of the service station–after eating their weight in frozen burritos and surprisingly tasty hot dogs–the battered brown coupe had been renovated into a dent-less, crisp green mom-and-dad mobile. “Green’s people–magic, it trips me out every time.”
“You said only those fey can touch the cars?” Colton asked curiously, and Zeb gave himself a mental smack in the head.
“No–see, if they treat the cars right? The salt and herb wash? Then all the fey can touch them. But the metal workers don’t need the salt and herb wash. It helps, but they’re good with metal without it.”
“So Nibbles…” Colton inquired delicately.
Zeb laughed. “I have no idea. But I liked him.”
Nibbles had been the one who had run inside and made them eat more, while, in his words, “Fey-lings, they are experimenting. Not too many chances to help wolves on the lamb.” He’d pronounced the B deliberately, laughing at his own pun.
“I did too,” Colton said. “He was…”
“Kind,” Zeb supplied. “Green’s people are kind. It… takes a lot to get used to.”
“Was that why you went there?” Colton asked.
Zeb hated talking about himself, but he sort of felt like he had to. “Yeah. I… I got pretty fucked up, dropped out of school, was blowing guys for my next fix. You know. Junkie. And one night I blew this guy… God. He was so beautiful.” Zeb hadn’t been Adrian’s only lover by a long shot–but Adrian had a way of making every lover feel like the missing piece in his rich life. Zeb would treasure that blow job, Adrian’s kindness, everything that came after.”He was… a vampire, actually–no, don’t laugh!”
Because of course Colton was laughing. Why wouldn’t you laugh if you found out about one more impossible thing?
“But he was… special.”
“Were you in love with him?” Colton sounded hesitant, like this mattered a great deal.
“No,” Zeb replied promptly. “But I loved him. We all loved him. His lovers–like, his dedicated lovers, Green and Cory, who run the hill now–they loved him most of all. They almost died when he died–“
“How’d he–“
“I don’t want to talk about that,” Zeb said gruffly. “I’m sorry. I just… most of us can’t, you understand?”
“Okay.” Colton’s voice was gentle. “But if he was a vampire and you’re a–“
“Werewolf.” Eventually it would get easier for the boy to say. “The change, it cleans out your blood. so, one minute I was addicted to smack and the next minute I wasn’t. It took me a while to change, though. A couple of weeks. I think because my body was so weak. I needed to recover, you know?”
Colton nodded. “I get it.”
“Well, you–you were strong and well–“
“Until I got shot!” He was laughing.
Zeb couldn’t laugh. “Yeah. Until I got you shot. Anyway– once your wound had healed, you could change immediately. And once you change–“
“Fuck city?” Colton said hopefully. Next to him, on the driver’s island, was a little paper bag filled with lubricant and wet wipes. Zeb approved of the lubricant, but he didn’t have the heart to tell Colton that the wet wipes would be unnecessary. Wolves tasted everything, even if humans weren’t on board with it.
“Sure,” Zeb said. He looked to his left and realized they were passing a lightly wooded field. It used to be an orchard of some sort–there was even a pull-out and a dilapidated fruit stand. Beyond a couple hundred feet of trees, the land started a gentle slope in the general direction of an old irrigation ditch. It was no longer actively transporting water, but it apparently still carried some runoff, because a few trees before the end of the orchard, grass grew again, thick and tall.
Zeb pulled into the parking lot for the fruit stand and turned to Colton. The sun was about to go down, and besides the fact that they’d need rest, the boy was a probably trying hard not to crawl out of his skin.
“We have a tent,” Zeb said brightly. “A couple of sleeping bags–shall we sleep under the stars?”
“Not in the tent,” Colton said, swinging out of the car and stretching. The sky over them was a dark, smoky purple, soon to turn deepest black. “The trees are thick enough to hide us from the road, and…” Colton raised his face to the stars. “I’d really like to make love to you out here.”
Zeb had to give his heart a fierce “Down, boy!” before he nodded. He didn’t want to hurt Colton, injure his probably already confused feelings, but what they had done before wasn’t making love. Zeb had actually made love a couple of times in his life. He knew the difference. But he nodded, so he didn’t squash the poor guy, and together they got the camping equipment–including a little ice chest with about a pound of cooked hamburger patties and bread to eat them with–and moved forward.
Camp was set up in minimal time, and looking around, Zeb realized that the orchard picked up on the other side of the ditch as well. They really were hidden, especially since they’d laid the sleeping bags–zipped together– in the center of the tall grasses. Zeb allowed himself to partially turn and sniffed the air. Rabbits, water, old fruit, frogs, grass, car exhaust, but far less than their first stop– no wolves. A few coyotes, but they wouldn’t be excited to meet Zeb and Colton.
This was a good place. This was a place where they could lie, undisturbed, and Zeb could take his time, kiss the boy slowly, show him some of the good stuff.
He had just completed that thought when Colton’s warm, shape-shifter body aligned itself along Zeb’s back, and Colton moved his hands to Zeb’s shoulders. “Nobody can see us,” he said, quiet as prey.
“No.”
Colton’s hand cupped his throat, capturing his pulse and his breath, and Zeb tilted his head back, baring himself in an ultimate expression of trust. “I know you think I’m going to fuck you and chuck you,” Colton said, licking his ear. “But you have no idea how much I want you.”
Zeb tilted his head and Colton nibbled on his throat. He tried to open his mouth, to talk again about the lust of the newly turned werewolf, but Colton sank his teeth lightly into the tendon on the side of Zeb’s neck. Zeb whined instead.
Colton shifted to the other side, his impudent hands pushing underneath Zeb’s T-shirt, exploring Zeb’s chest relentlessly. HIs fingers found Zeb’s nipples and pinched lightly, and again, and again, and Zeb could barely breathe for the aching erection straining against his shorts.
“And I know you’re going to say it’s new-werewolf lust,” Colton breathed, pulling Zeb’s shirt over his head. He’d taken off his own shirt–Zeb knew because his bare chest, with diamond point nipples, was pressed tightly, skin to sweating skin along Zeb’s now bare-back.
“It is,” Zeb got out in a rush, because oh God, the kid was nibbling at his jaw and shoving his hands below Zeb’s belt line, and Zeb could hardly talk, much less give the werewolf-in-training speech.
“You want to think so,” Colton whispered. “Would make you feel better, right? You turn the kid, he fucks you and leaves you, you go back to being nobody important?”
“Works for me,” Zeb panted. Colton backed up a bit and yanked at Zeb’s shorts. Zeb stepped out of them almost unconsciously, kicking off his shoes at the same time. He was standing, naked under the August sky, staring at the stars while the breeze played over his distended, tingling nipples and his already dripping erection.
And this beautiful, smart, crazy awesome kid seduced Zeb into what should have been no-strings fucking.
Colton’s rough hands turned Zeb around and Zeb looked down into his gold-brown eyes. “You want to think so,” he whispered, letting his tongue flick out and taste Zeb’s pre. He tilted his head back and shuddered. “So good,” he whispered hoarsely. “Come tastes better as a werewolf- they should put that in the brochures.”
Zeb half laughed, but he’d dropped his hands to tangle in Colton’s hair. Colton arched his back, like Zeb meant something to him, and then licked his cock head again. “I know so,” he whispered back, trying to think through the piercing shards of desire. “You, wanting me–fluke–“
Colton swallowed his cock to the root, and Zeb clutched at the kid’s shoulders as his knees buckled. Colton kept up the pressure while he cupped the back of Zeb’s thighs and lowered him to the blanket.
Zeb moaned, arching into his mouth, blind with pleasure, with desire–oh God, he wanted this kid’s mouth on him some more. He wanted his gruff possession, his pretty words. Zeb had longed to be someone special for so long–for just this moment, he wanted to believe it was true.
Colton kept sucking and Zeb arched into his mouth, tangling his fingers in that silky hair. Colton positioned himself between Zeb’s thighs and Zeb felt the spit Colton let slip through as he laved and sucked and milked Zeb’s leaking cock.
It coated his buttocks, his thighs, and when Colton shoved at Zeb’s legs until his knees were bent and his thighs spread, wanton and lewd, Zeb knew what was going to come next. Colton gave his cock one last, long, pulling suck, spending some time on his cockhead before he pulled away. Then, as he positioned himself, leaning on his elbows while he spread Zeb’s cheeks, he began to talk again.
“I’m going to make you come,” he promised. “Again, and again, until you can only say my name.”
“Colton…” Zeb begged. Colton’s breath dustedZeb’s slick, spit-coated pucker, and his whole body was starting to shake.
“And then,” Colton swiped his tongue across Zeb’s taint, “I’m going to come inside you, hard, until I’m part of you.” He swiped his tongue across Zeb’s balls. “And I’m going to do that again, and again, and maybe i’ll bend over and let you fuck me, until I’m crying for your cock.” He parted Zeb’s cheeks wider, and licked his crease, once, twice, tongue falling into ground zero.
“God!” Zeb cried, lost and frightened by the intensity. This should have been over. Colton should have lubed him and fucked him like a virgin sacrifice to an angry god. This careful seduction–this wasn’t planned. Zeb was weak against it.
“Not God,” Colton said, licking some more. “Colton. I’m going to mate with you, if I have to hide you in a cave and fuck you blind for weeks. You need to remember my name.”
“Colton!” Zeb cried as Colton dug in with his tongue. “Colton, please! God, baby, I need to… Need—“
“Me!” Colton pulled Zeb’s cock into his mouth and penetrated Zeb’s asshole with two fingers, all at once. Zeb gasped, crying out, fists flailing into the blanket below him.
“You!” he echoed harshly, when he swore he was going to say, “To come, I need to come!” But it was out already, and Colton sucked him relentlessly, fucking his ass with his fingers until Zeb howled, an animal in human form, and climaxed fiercely into Colton’s mouth. Colton swallowed, repeatedly, then sat up and pulled his fingers out of Zeb’s body. Zeb whined, wanting them back, absolutely pliant and at Colton’s mercy.
Colton fumbled with the lube for a moment before surging up, placing his cock at Zeb’s asshole and pushing determinedly in.
“Yes!” Zeb panted. “Yes, oh God, yes!”
Colton thrust in to the root, and Zeb wondered if he would explode, shatter like stars, join the night he was being fucked into.
“I told you,” Colton panted, pulling out. “Colton. Say my name.”
“Kid–ah!” Because Colton slammed into him, cock filling Zeb in ways he’d not believed an ordinary body could.
“Colton!” he snarled. “Say it, Zeb. Say my name!”
“Please,” Zeb begged, not sure if he was begging for orgasm, or to feel Colton spew come inside him, or if he was begging for amnesty from the torrent of emotions cut loose in his heart.
“Say it!” Colton demanded, fucking him harder, deeper, until Zeb’s soul felt split in two.
“Colton!” Zeb half-sobbed. HIs body was on fire, and Colton’s intense, golden brown eyes were boring into his soul. “Oh God, please, Colton, come… I need to… you need to… oh please…”
Colton pushed up just far enough to grab Zeb’s cock, and Zeb shrieked, almost more wolf than man. Those final, pounding, thrusting moments, locked inside an explosion of emotions and climax and ejaculate, overwhelmed Zeb, destroyed him, until he was not much more than moaning, begging nerve endings, convulsed in one long climax.
And then Colton froze, hips rocketing away as his cockhead got dragged over Zeb’s sweet spot over and over and over again. Zeb howled–full on wolf howl, while still in his man’s body, and Colton raised his head and joined him, back bowed with the force of his orgasm.
Everything behind Zeb’s eyes zinged like stars.
Colton fell on top of him, body still lodged inside Zeb’s, and for a moment they both gulped air like they’d been running for their lives.
“Zeb?” Colton whispered harshly, and he didn’t sound lost or needy or any of the other things Zeb had remembered from being a new werewolf driven to fuck.
“What?”
“Say my name.”
Zeb closed his eyes, knowing the name was probably etched on the muscle of his heart with a rusty razor. “Colton.”
“Look at me.”
Zeb did, raising a hesitant hand to brush tangled hair back from those laser-intense gold-brown eyes. “Looking,” he said gruffly.
“Not fucking a tree here,” Colton said, not angrily, but as though teaching a particularly recalcitrant child a lesson.
“No.”
“Fucking you. Zeb. You’re mine.”
Zeb closed his eyes, because he knew. Colton might not know, but Zeb knew. This felt like everything to Zeb. It felt like every mark of possession he’d ever dreamed of, right down to the dripping, aching, stretched and full asshole.
But nobody wanted Zeb like that. Not for keeps.
“Look at me!” Colton snapped again.
Zeb had to. Pain or not, this was part of him now. “Looking,” he repeated, wrecked, broken, at this kid’s mercy.
“You will know you’re mine,” Colton promised, bringing his mouth down in a crushing kiss.
Zeb responded because he had no choice.
And because he wanted it to be true.
