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That last part was exactly what Rand wanted, but he took his time, wanting his Master to feel it the way he did, all the way to the root. Not just the root of his cock. The third marking linked the soul of vampire and servant. Rand wanted that bond. What's more, he wanted to know the path to the very center of a vampire's soul. This vampire.
Cai had thought the absence of a finish line meant he could never quit. Whereas Rand had tried to draw his own before it was time. For the first time, he realized he was glad that he'd failed. And that the vampire had never given up.
Rand could feel Cai intertwined with his thoughts, listening, feeling. Having his own reaction, and it wasn't a bad one.
Rand wrapped his arm around Cai's chest as he thrust inside him, setting a slow, easy rhythm that gave them an excruciating stroke on each forward and retreat motion. Cai had adjusted his hips toward Rand to make the angle work. While one hand was braced against the rock, the other gripped Rand's forearm as the feelings built. Rand closed his eyes. He wondered if the vampire realized how much of himself he was giving. Rand didn't need access to his mind. He could feel, scent, taste and simply know, deep inside, what was happening in the roller coaster of Cai's emotions and physical response.
Then Cai's mind opened even more to Rand, so wide he felt like he did when he was running full out in the forest, leaping and twisting through endless passages, open and closed spaces.
Hell, I might as well let you all the way in. You're already there. Know more about my thoughts than my mind could ever tell you.
Rand smiled against his shoulder, brushing his lips against the flexing muscle. He didn't stop with that, rubbing his cheek there to enhance the contact, the marking.
Marking could be an act of dominance, of connecting, of recognition. Of ownership. Rand felt some of all of that, and the vampire didn't seem inclined to argue. At least at this second. That was miracle enough from the contrary male.
"Fuck you," Cai muttered. Rand slid his palm down Cai's chest, over the taut bud of his nipple. Along the sectioned stomach muscles, to the iron evidence of his arousal. Curling his fingers around it, Rand began to stroke it in rhythm with his thrusts, his fingers playing, caressing, nails digging in at unexpected moments, thumb rubbing over the slit and spreading the thick fluid gathering there.
Cai groaned at the sensation. They moved together, Cai's hand slamming against the rock, sending a vibration through them both. Then the vampire was coming, body jerking, beautiful, animal-like sounds breaking from his lips.
Come for me, wolf.
Rand was already hovering on that precipice. His movements became stronger, more forceful, a growl meeting Cai's snarl as he thrust deeper, harder, into his ass. He let his release fill the vampire, wet heat. His teeth were set to Cai's shoulder, fingers digging into his chest as he took them to the end of it.
Or to the beginning.
As they finished, they slowly slid down so they were kneeling together. When Rand pulled out, they were nested hip to hip, shoulder to shoulder. So much of the wolf was with Rand, even in human form. Rand proved it when he slid an arm across Cai's chest and laid his cheek in between his shoulder blades. It was a sheltering, protective move that also drew comfort. A balance. Rand was good at balance. Cai wasn't.
Even so, Cai turned his head to meet the shifter's mouth with his own. The annoyance and anger about Rand's stunt, his irritability and confusion about the things he didn't understand, had receded. The kiss wasn't edgy and angry. It was soft, tender, long and heart-altering. When Cai finally raised his head, he realized he'd turned, was framing the shifter's face to hold him still and savor his mouth. Rand was gripping his forearms.
Rand had called him Master. More than once. Cai liked that, way too much.
"Don't get used to it," Rand said, in a voice laden with that sexy, post-coital thickness. "Asshole fits you a lot better."
Cai tried for a smile, failed. He couldn't get used to it, because he still hadn't agreed to this. And Rand damn well knew it, even if he was pretending otherwise. "How about the kid thing?"
At Rand's bland expression, Cai shot him a don't-bullshit-me look. "I know you want them."
"There's a lot of ways to do that. If we decide to expand our pack, we can."
Before Cai could point out just having a servant was freaking him out, Rand pushed onward. "Dovia's father is ill and the wrong kind of wolves are circling the door, right? Leona is a servant. Brian thinks Greenwald has less than a couple more years to live, because he's having less success controlling his disease. When he dies, so will Leona. Before Dovia is thirty years old, a fledgling among born vampires, she'll be alone."
Cai narrowed his gaze at Rand. "When did you have this discussion with Brian?"
"When I met with him to discuss the marking, I also asked him about that." Rand's eyes sparked with a pointed complaint about Cai's note and taking off, but he continued, leaving that alone. "Sounds like she'll need a vampire willing to mentor her, protect her. Why not us? You live a long time and, as your servant, I'll be around quite a while. I bet Lyssa would support that, because unlike Tyra and Chavez, we don't have any designs on Dovia's wealth."
Cai drew back and sat down, rubbing his forehead. "You have us adopting a vampire and taking on the cadre of opportunistic sycophants around her. Even before we pick out curtains."
A slight smile touched Rand's firm mouth. "I don't have us doing anything. I'm just pointing out the possibility. We can be a big or small family, but it starts here, you and me, the two pillars holding up whatever we decide to put under its roof."
He curled his hand around Cai's forearm. Cai had drawn up his knees and linked his arms around them. Rand was totally missing that this conversation had turned Cai into a vertical fetal ball.
Noticing it, vampire. Just not mentioning it, to spare an insult to your manhood.
Cai coughed over a half laugh. That explosion in his chest still hurt, but it was hurting less. He found that even scarier, because it meant he was listening to Rand.
"We have time to decide," the wolf said. "We'll go to the desert a few months, think it through. Hell, I'm still working through shit, too. This whole vampire-servant thing, it messes up my head sometimes. You've seen it."
Rand took a breath. For the first time, his gaze skittered away from Cai's, which sharpened Cai's attention on him. "When I was there at Fane's, late at night, and then here in Atlanta, the few days in the hotel... That despair...the grief. When I realized you might be gone for good, and that feeling came back, I knew--"
Cai was out of his curl in a blink. He had Rand by the throat and on his back, his body pressed to him and fuck, he felt so good. But Cai didn't let that detract from the red haze covering his vision. "Never," Cai snarled. "You got it? I don't care whether we're a family or not. That thought's never crossing your mind again. If it does, I will put a flagpole up your ass to give you something else to think about."
Rand blinked up at him, and slowly a smile tugged his lips in a sensuous curve. "There's my Master," he said.
"Fuck. Fudge. Darn." Cai sat back on his heels and rubbed his hand across his face once more.
"If you
'd let me finish before you had your caveman moment," Rand said, earning that narrow look again, "I was going to say I realized those feelings wouldn't ever push me down that road again. And that's because of you."
Rand sat up and touched his arm, but his face remained resolute. "I'm more than capable of deciding where I want to be, and who with. You told the Council not to take that from me. You don't get to do it, either. You don't want me, I'm gone. But you'll have to make me believe it."
"Fuck me." Cai sighed. "Well, in those touchy-feely animal movies, they do it by throwing rocks at the wild creature and screaming, 'Go! I don't want you anymore!' And the wolf or deer or water buffalo or whatever goes away, looking back like he's really hurt. Though he usually comes back at just the right moment to save the day."
"You tried that tactic once before. Not falling for it again. And you throw a rock at me, I'll feed it to you," Rand promised.
"I throw a rock at you, and you'll be knocked unconscious. Or have a great big through-and-through hole through your head."
Rand adjusted so they were sitting shoulder to shoulder. "Have you watched any TV since Lassie?"
"That kind of scene has been in plenty of dog movies," Cai said defensively. "And Lassie's been in syndication forever. Some of the people I've taken...I've stayed at their houses a few days. Watched their TV, that kind of thing."
"Oh." Rand sobered, making Cai wish he hadn't brought it up. But then Rand nudged him. "Did you mean it, about not killing humans anymore?"
"I'm considering some changes in my diet. You know, only criminal assholes from here forward. Got to expend my rage against life somewhere."
At Rand's look, Cai sighed again. "You wondered why I didn't razz you about not knowing how to arouse a woman. I was told I could have sex with a human before I killed them. I thought that meant rape, and I had no stomach for that."
He shook his head. "Lodell pointed out that if I could make it pleasurable, make them think something else was about to happen, then they wouldn't suffer. And since I still killed my prey, the Trads would feel I was being ruthless like I was supposed to be. That's why I learned how to pleasure a woman. As a way to make her death more humane. I actually envy you your innocence, because it's for the right reasons."
