A Walk After Dark Read online

  “Please!” A painful plea escaped from Ty’s lips. At last, Cyn thought, enough of the man has returned from within Ty for him to speak. Now he must bring it home, reinforce his control and help hold Ty to sanity. His grip on Ty’s cock did not lessen. “Please, what?”

  “Let me come!”

  “Who do you ask, Ty? Who is your lord?”

  “You, Cyn. Let me come!”

  Cyn burned to give him what he wanted and to find release with him, but there was more at stake than a moment of passion. While Cyn was born part beast and had had a lifetime to learn control, Ty was newly changed and his control was deeply tied to Cassandra. If Cyn could establish control over Ty’s beast, it would give him a second anchor. Cyn gritted his teeth and continued. “That was not a request. Ask me and I might let you come.”

  A roar of fury came from Ty, and he twisted, seeking to free himself, but Cyn’s fingers formed an unrelenting ring on Ty’s cock while he held his place, thrusting. Finally Ty stilled again. “Cyn, my lord, please let me come.”

  “Yes.” Cyn spoke with relief. He bent to cover Ty’s torso with his own and bit into the muscle at the base of Ty’s neck while he loosened his hold on Ty’s cock. Under his hand, the restrained cum burst from Ty. Cyn finally allowed his own thrusts to speed to completion. His balls tightened, and lightning ran through his body as he emptied himself into the heat of his bond brother.

  A soft moan caught Cyn’s attention, and he turned to look toward the door.

  Chapter Four

  Let your bonds be a source to add to your strength rather than a stress that pulls you apart.

  -- The Book of Unions (given to all his majesty’s subjects upon payment

  of the tax to record and officially recognize the blessing)

  Both Ty and Cyn were covered with sweat, and the room filled with their beasts’ scents. Cassandra panted, leaning back against the closed door. She stood transfixed watching her men, both in their powerful half-beast form. She had returned to the keep to find it in a quiet uproar. She was raced up to the duke’s bedchambers with only the words that he and Ty had been searching for her ‑‑ that something was wrong with Ty, and she was needed now. She had entered in time to see Cyn force the submission of Ty and watch them coming together. The scene, the raw lust on their faces, ripped open the need within her that they always commanded. A soft moan fell from her lips. Cyn turned his head to focus on her, his eyes widening with surprise, then narrowing.

  “Where were you?” Cyn’s voice wasn’t angry, but full of pain. “Why did you leave without a word?” The sound of his hoarse voice made her startle and jarred her mind out of its lust-induced haze.

  Cassandra looked over to the mantel where she had left her note. It was hastily written, but should have told them enough. There was no sign of it there or on the rug before it. “I left you a note. I said I should be back before morning. I was even quicker than I thought. It is barely past dinner hour now. What happened here?”

  She struggled to get past the overwhelming heat of desire, but found herself instead pulling off her clothes and crossing the room. She ran her hands over Ty’s and Cyn’s still-joined bodies, loving the sounds of their rough groans.

  “Cassandra.” Ty’s voice made her name a prayer and an affirmation. “I found no note. My beast…we were going crazy thinking you left. I became unstable until Cyn did this.” Ty looked over his shoulder pointedly at Cyn. “You can release me now.”

  Cyn smiled, his face full of relief he couldn’t hide. “Oh, I don’t know. I rather like you like this.” But, despite his teasing words he gently pulled his body free of Ty’s and then released Ty from his rope.

  They both clasped a very confused Cassandra between them. Feeling the need to comfort, mixed with the aching scent-induced desire, she wrapped an arm around each and squeezed them tightly to her. “Feel me here. I will never leave you.”

  Ty’s hand tangled in her hair and pulled her mouth up to his. His licked and nipped at her lips before joining his mouth with hers, his tongue tasting, touching, and caressing every inch of her mouth, communicating without words his need for her.

  She felt a blaze of heat behind her and vaguely registered that Cyn must be shifting from his half-beast form to another. She broke the kiss with Ty and looked back. Cyn was, once more, in his human form.

  “Shifting forms cleans my body. I would have it clean for I need you too, Cassandra. Do you just return to Ty or to me also?”

  She gave him a smile full of passion and the love she hadn’t yet admitted. “Lie on the bed and find out.”

  Cyn’s brows rose in surprise at the order. His hands slowly left her and Ty’s bodies as if reluctant to let go, but he obeyed. He eased his lean body back onto the bed beside them, his knees trailing off the side of the bed.

  The beast scent was pounding at Cassandra’s mind. She could feel the wetness of her body’s anticipation between her thighs, but she fought to hang on a bit longer, to give both her men what they needed. She pressed a quick hungry kiss to Ty’s chest, then put her hands on his forearms and pushed down. “Release me.” Ty’s struggle to do as she wished was written over his face. Softly she ordered again. “Take back control of yourself, Ty. Release me.” With a swift puffing exhale, he did.

  She twisted to run her hand over Cyn through the ruins of his ripped clothes. “Hands behind your head, Cyn.” Stiffly he complied, clearly wanting to grab her instead. She circled his sex with her hands, giving him a warning look when he started to remove his hands from his head. He subsided, and she began to stroke the flesh that filled and hardened for her. “Must I ever remind you that I have chosen you both?” Bending, she nipped his exposed nipple, then sucked to soothe it. Heat rose within her. She took a deep breath to hold onto her control, to not just sate her need with the willing body beneath her.

  Releasing Cyn, she reached up to touch Ty’s shoulders. He had risen and now stood behind her, waiting. “Ty, take hold of my waist and lift me above our Cyn.” Ty, still in his half-beast form, easily positioned her over Cyn’s ready body. “Now, give me his body.” With perfect strength and control, he slowly lowered her onto Cyn’s cock until they were joined hip to hip. Cyn’s face was a mask of agonized delight, and Ty was breathing harshly in her ear. She slid her hands up Cyn’s chest, only pausing slightly to tease the nipples as she passed over them and then up to grasp the wrists of his clasped hands. She leaned further down to kiss him, squeezing her cunt around his cock at the same time. Cyn gasped and pulled his hands free to hold her head and torso tightly against his body before straightening his arms to hold her above him.

  “Gods, Cassandra!” He thrust up into her again and groaned.

  “Stop.” A fever of desire held her mind, and she used all her strength to stay coherent just a little longer.

  She could hear Ty’s rough breathing behind her, feel his heat, and the soft brush of his fur at her back, but he made no move to touch her. She knew Cyn had taken total control of him to save his sanity, but now, after that near loss, he was unsure of himself. She could give that confidence back to him with her trust. She leaned over Cyn once more so that her ass was exposed to the half-beast behind her.

  “Ty, can you partially change so that you’re covered with the change oil?”

  A pained groan and waves of heat were her answer, and then she felt his rough hand on her hip and the blunt wet tip of his cock circling, then nudging, her anus.

  “Yes, gods, yes. Do it, Ty. Take me. Take us.” Then, he was holding her pelvis and pushing in until he was fully seated in her body as well.

  Cyn’s hands joined Ty’s on her hips, and they began to move in concert, so that Ty’s thrusts rocked her up and down on Cyn’s cock. They had loved like this before, but the intensity of the moment tore a scream from her throat, and she was lost. Only building aching delight, the firm bodies of her lovers, and their hands on her held any place in her mind. Cyn moved his hands to tightly pinch her nipples while Ty’s fangs cut into
her neck muscles, sending her over the crest. Her orgasm caused her muscles to seize and convulse around her men, while her cries echoed off the chamber walls and down the hallway. The rapture held her prisoner until her men shuddered and came with hot bursts of semen in her body. She collapsed over Cyn’s body while Ty briefly draped over them both before carefully pulling free. She felt waves of heat from behind her like he was undergoing a change, but didn’t have the energy to lift her head from Cyn’s sweat-slicked chest to look.

  Cyn curled in a sit-up, taking Cassandra with him until she started to slide from his body as he stood. Then, he caught her with one arm under her hips and the other behind her back. He held her head beneath his chin and nuzzled her, more like a cat than the wolf she knew him to be. But still, it was endearing. “Let’s get you cleaned up, and you can tell us what happened to cause this misadventure.” He carried her into his private bath where Ty, back in his human form, had stepped down into a marble tub filling with steaming water.

  “Hand her to me, Cyn.” Although composed once more, Ty’s face was still shadowed from his earlier ordeal. With playful nip at what she knew to be Cyn’s very sensitive nipples, Cassandra twisted and reached her arms toward Ty, who carefully put arms beneath her knees and behind her back before sinking onto the wall bench in the heated water.

  Cyn sat pressed close to Ty and took Cassandra’s calves across his lap. The hands of both men restlessly stroked along her body in a confirmation that she was indeed there.

  They were all silent for a moment, just content to be safe together. Then Ty squared his shoulders and pinned Cassandra with his gaze. “What happened? You have not left the keep without one of us before. I know we promised that you would have more autonomy as the time you had been our chosen grew, but why disappear with no word?” Ty’s face grew distressed, but he swallowed and continued. “As the hours passed, my beast began to take over my mind. I have seen how restless you were lately, and the thought that you had decided to leave, that you had rejected our bond, took over. My human side knows that would not be your way, but the beast is not so reasonable. What happened?”

  She reached up to press her hands on either side of his face and spoke solemnly. “I have given my word to be your chosen. I would not leave you. You must know that. I left a note on the mantel to tell you what I was doing. What could have happened?”

  “I don’t know, but I will find out.” Even knowing it was not directed toward her, the tightly controlled fury in Cyn’s voice sent shivers racing down her spine. He continued. “Tell me everything that occurred.”

  She pulled herself up straight like a queen on her throne and marshaled her thoughts. Quickly she related the meeting with Harrow. “We rode hard and were able to reach the blossoms in time to collect a good quantity of the pollen. We used my scales to measure what we harvested. It was on your lands so you will get the lion’s share, Cyn, with the finder’s share and half the harvest share to Harrow and another half of the harvest share to me. The pollen is in my pouch now. What I don’t understand is what could have happened to my note.”

  Cyn and Ty had briefly shown surprised appreciation of the fox’s blood find, but their faces were back to set, angry lines by the time she finished speaking.

  “Cela.” Although Cyn spoke, the look he and Ty shared spoke of the same thoughts. “She used to sometimes share our bed and no word came from her when we started searching for you, although I remember seeing her at the door when I sent out the call for you.” The three rose from the water to dry. There was someone they needed to speak with.

  Cela was nowhere within the keep. Barillus, the head cook, said she saw her speaking with the very frightened Lucinda shortly after the order to find Cassandra had gone out. Barok, one of the duke’s personal guards, brought a trembling Lucinda to the duke’s chambers. Timidly the small woman looked around the bulk of the gigantic guard and curtseyed. “Good evening, Your Grace, Lady Cassandra, my lord Tyler. It is good to see you looking yourself again, sir. Um, are you feeling quite alright now?” She looked as though she would like to bolt, but managed to stand firm, if a little behind Barok.

  Ty looked chagrined and remorseful knowing that he had caused this behavior from the usually cheerful maid. “Lucinda, I must apologize for frightening you today. I was very upset that Cassandra was missing, and since you carried some of her scent, I thought you might have been hiding something from me. I meant only to make you reveal what you knew.”

  The fearful look on Lucinda’s face retreated to be replaced with one of relief. “Oh, no, my lord! I would not keep such secrets from you. The scent must have come from carrying Lady Cassandra’s laundry down earlier.” Then her words rushed out like water spilling past a dam. “Does that mean, I mean, I, we, we all thought that you were turning raver after all! You are all right?”

  Ty offered a self-deprecating smile. “Yes, you know that once a brethren, always a Brother Wolf. But, there are some questions that I think you could help us with if you would.”

  Her relieved smile now stretched from ear to ear. “Of course. How can I help?”

  “Cela spoke with you after you left here. What did she say?”

  “Gods, it didn’t make sense at the time. I said I feared Lord Tyler was turning mad, a raver. She said she only wanted to touch her lord again, that she never thought her being missing would cause this. She must have meant Cassandra’s, I mean, Lady Cassandra’s absence. She looked very frightened, but then, so was I. She left me saying she was going to look around the gardens for her, and that was it.”

  Ty rose from his chair, walked over to the maid, and bowed over her hand. “I deeply apologize for having frightened you, Lucinda.” He looked up, offering her a contrite and charming smile. “Will you forgive me?”

  She blushed prettily, apparently having forgotten her earlier fear. “Oh, of course, my lord.”

  After Lucinda left, Cyn turned to the guard. “Find Cela and then bring her to me immediately.” Barok nodded and left.

  Cassandra looked over the fireplace. When the door thumped closed behind Barok, she spoke. “Look here. There is a charred bit of paper about the size of my note. Do you think she deliberately burned it? What did she think that would accomplish? Did she think just because I disappeared for a short time that she could take my place?”

  Ty slid his arms around her waist. “It may well have been just that.” He nipped her ear and she felt his lips against her neck form a smile. “You know how jealous women give into the stupid impulses of a moment.”

  Irritated, she turned and pushed at his immovable body. “Jealous impulses indeed!” Then she saw the teasing light in his eye and calmed.

  Cyn cleared his throat for their attention. “More importantly, I think Lucinda bought your line that you were only trying to get information from her and in no danger of losing control completely. Cela may have just been playing what she thought was a harmless trick, but she has exposed a weakness here, nonetheless.” Cassandra motioned with an impatient wave of her hand for Cyn to continue.

  “Because Ty became bound to you through the chosen bond so soon after he was changed to a Brother Wolf, he has as much control over his inner beast as someone who has been brethren for years. But, that control is tied to you, Cassandra. If you disappeared, his beast might become uncontrollable. What Lucinda feared, that Tyler might become a mad raver, a beast who kills without conscience, very nearly happened.” The concept hung thick in the air as they all considered the implications of Ty becoming mad, a ravenous killer without thought or mind.

  “But you were able to bring him back to himself before I got back. Maybe it was for the best. Now you know you don’t have to be completely dependent on me.”

  Cyn shook his head. “No, that is where you are wrong, Cassandra. Having been born with my beast, I have better control and was able to help Ty for a while today. But, I’m bound to you also. If I truly thought you had run, I would not, I could not, just accept it. No one would be safe.” His expressi
on turned inward as he spoke, almost as though he were relating a nightmare. Stopping, he shook himself and focused once more on her. “But I trust you. I know your pledge is good.”

  Touched and troubled by Cyn’s blunt assessment, she found herself speaking of something that had been on her mind. “Cyn, but you are the duke here. You must eventually marry. There was even gossip of an alliance between you and the younger princess of Birne during my last trading journey before we met. I am guessing you put that off because of Ty’s change to brethren and his chosen bond to me, but no one knows that you are brethren born and that I am your chosen as well as Ty’s. Will you not be forced to marry at some point? How will we deal with that?”

  A wicked smile tugged at Cyn’s lips “Ah, I’m so glad you have brought this subject up.” A wary prickle ran along Cassandra’s spine. When Cyn smiled like that, no one was safe.

  Chapter Five

  Who knows what lies behind the pleasant face?

  -- Old saying

  Cyn walked over to the sideboard and poured wine for the three of them. After handing glasses to Ty and Cassandra, he raised his. “To us, to our union.”

  Puzzled, Cassandra joined him and Ty in the toast and then narrowed her eyes. “What is going on here?”

  Ty pulled her close again with one arm and tucked her head under his chin. Cyn stared into his wine. Cassandra’s sense of foreboding increased. “Just say it. Is the king pressing you into some political marriage?”

  He laughed, amused, but clearly uneasy. Ty’s stiff hold on her did nothing to make her feel better.

  Finally, Cyn spoke. “You are correct that Ty’s change to brethren and his known bond to you have made it easy for me to step away from the proposed Birne alliance. Princess Betiste’s family wants closer ties to our country, and even more, access to my personal military force.” Cyn’s lips twisted into a tight smile. “However, the thought of being so closely tied to one of the brethren as she would be with Ty being my bond brother makes them uneasy. Hah, little do they know how close to a brethren she would be, if she married me.” Cyn’s smile broadened.