Mads
Eighty Years Ago – The story Caspian didn’t need to hear
Mads should have kept the goods under wraps until marriage. Then again, he’d not learned that lesson before. He’d been promised the world and left behind.
He’d been seeing Baron on and off for a year, visiting in the night to secure his place with the next Eclipse coven head. And there he was for his fortnightly romp in the hay with the squirrel-dicked asshole, and he’d gone and gotten himself a pedigree familiar.
“Want to piss him off?” Mads drew a hand down his chest. He’d spent a good half hour jerking off and getting a little sweaty, ranking up his omega scent to lure Baron in. Something in sweat, especially aroused sweat, drove alpha mages wild. The way Marquis’s pupils dilated told Mads all he needed to know about his interest.
“More than anything, but I do not think having intercourse with you would improve my headspace.” Marquis took a step closer.
“Might improve mine.” Mads flicked a brow and lay back, kicking off his poorly shod shoes and holey socks where the hobnails dug into all the wrong places.
“My brother did you wrong, but that’s… How about we talk?” Marquis took another tentative step toward his bed then another.
“Talking is good, too.” Mads procured a wand from within his shirt and flicked the roughly-hewn thing to extinguish his lamplight. Moonlight flooded the room, the blue-white lightmade his hair appear to glow and kissed his skin in ways he’d been told were utterly salacious.
“Just talking.” Marquis reached the edge of the bed and leaned over, caging Mads in with his arms. He really was a handsome alpha, square-jawed and hair as black as the devil’s own. In his eyes were the true fires of the Eclipse coven name. “Why are you after my brother? You could do better.”
“Better than the Eclipse coven head?” Mads scoffed.
“Station isn’t everything. He’s an absolute cad. He lies as much as he breathes. He steals, and I swear by the goddesses that he will burn this coven to the ground in a ring of fire.” Marquis’s breath shuddered as he spoke, pure violet light in his eyes circling his pupils so brilliantly.
“And you would be better?” Mads traced a finger down his throat and collarbone.
“Probably. Remains to be seen if I am.” He lowered himself over Mads and placed a cool kiss over his temple before embracing the omega to roll onto their sides. “And I’d be absolutely no better than him if I made love to you like that.”
Mads melted into his arms. “But I’ve been told the Eclipse have the finest wands of all mages.”
“That’s the general opinion, yes. I make a fine one, too.” Marquis drew Mads’s head to his neck, and the scent of him flooded his nostrils. Clean flesh, a hint of rosemary in lye soap, and if perfection had a scent, it was there, too.
Mads purposefully wiggled his hips to brush their groins together. Sometime in all the commotion, they’d grown hard, and he shivered. “I can say that you have a fine wand for certain.”
“You’ve not even seen my wa—” Marquis halted and lifted his head to stare Mads down. “Was that a cock joke?”
“Indeed, it was.” Mads inhaled deeply and pulled Marquis in to touch their noses. “What will you make of it?”
“I’ll file it away for later. For the moment, you’re not acknowledging your pain. And what if my brother changes his mind and wants you back?” Marquis lifted a brow and smiled, his teeth so white and square.
“He won’t. He’s got a fine familiar there.” Mads rolled his eyes.
“If he finds out that you’ve been chasing my heels, he’ll want you back. He always wants what I have. That’s how he operates.” Marquis tucked a strand of errant hair behind Mads’s ear. The gesture had a sweetness to it. And Marquis didn’t look at him like a piece of ass, like he was something to fuck and keep on his side. Mads knew he was a gorgeous male, a treat for alpha eyes, or at least for those that were of his persuasion.
“Then I’ll reject him. I don’t want someone who would toss me aside without as much as a polite note via post.” Mads sniffed.
“Or a call.” Marquis sniffed indignantly.
Mads’s mood soured. “If my family could afford a phone.”
“How old are you?” Marquis sat up and stared him down.
Fuck.
“Old enough.” He stared Marquis down until he relented. “Twenty-nine.”
Marquis rolled off him. “You’re barely of age to be courting, but I wouldn’t do so without your father’s permission. A little young, though. Where did Baron meet you?”
Mads picked at his ear with his pinky finger and huffed. “Ask who? My dad died a while back. Baron came round trying to buy the wish off me.”
