His hands slid behind his mate tenderly, his fingers curving around the small globes of Apollo's ass. Grayson didn't know what packed the stronger punch-the tight heat of Apollo's ass gripping his cock as he thrust his hips upward, or his mate's sudden, wholly unexpected nip at Grayson's neck.
Together, the two sensations proved almost cataclysmic. Grayson hungered for Apollo, so deeply that it seemed to wring him out from the inside. He let his head fall to the side as Apollo's lips explored him. His body began to move at a fierce, demanding tempo. The scent of sex and sweat on hot skin intoxicated him.
Grayson fought for control as the slick friction of joined bodies writhing together damn near sent him over the edge. His hands clamped down on his mate's hips as Grayson slowed their rhythm.
"I don't want this to end so soon." Grayson's husky voice filled the room, sounding just as desperate as he felt.
Apollo's legs tightened around Grayson's waist as his fingers curled around Grayson's nape, his fingernails digging into his flesh. Grayson could just imagine staying locked like this forever. He knew it was an empty wish, not a practical reality, but that didn't stop him from enjoying his mate's tender body.
Grayson was slowly rocking his cock upward, the tortuously unhurried move seeming more intense than when he was thrusting vigorously. Rocking forward, Grayson placed Apollo on his back. Grayson's hand slid under Apollo's ass, lifting his mate higher as he thrust his cock deeper.
"Claim me, Apollo."
Grayson cried out as Apollo struck without hesitation, sinking his canines onto Grayson's shoulder. At the same time Grayson's cock thickened, knotting him inside his mate as his body exploded, his seed feeling as if it was being ripped from his balls.
Grayson gave a deep and predatory growl as he clamped his canines onto Apollo's shoulder, feeling his mate's ass tighten around his cock, ropes of pearly white cum splashing between them. Grayson grunted as he removed his canines and licked at the wound in his mate's shoulder.
They stayed in that position for several seconds. As Grayson breathed in their combined scents, he could almost feel their souls binding together.
"We need to talk," Apollo said, bursting Grayson's soothing bubble.
"We will."
Grayson watched in utter fascination as his mate's eyelids slowly began to slide downward. Apollo had no idea just how sexy he looked lying there well fucked, sleepy. Settling behind the man, Grayson pulled Apollo close, kissing the mark where he had claimed his mate before closing his eyes, feeling extremely content.
Chapter 3
Apollo turned off the shower and reached for the towel he had hung over the shower door. He dried his hair then wiped the towel down his body, wincing when he ran the cotton cloth between his ass cheeks.
Grayson was not a small man.
Apollo was still reeling from the knowledge that he had mated someone. Granted, if he could have listed all the traits he wanted in the mate he chose, he had pretty much hit the jackpot. Grayson was more than simply gorgeous. He was Apollo's secret dream man.
Life was funny that way.
He opened the shower door and stepped out, looping the towel around his neck as he walked over to the mirror. Apollo stared at himself in the mirror, turning his head one way and then the other. He didn't look any different. There was no blaring sign on his forehead that said he was taken.
And yet, he knew he was.
There was no denying the bite mark in his shoulder. Or the obsessive need he suddenly felt for a complete stranger. He didn't even know how old Grayson was or where he came from. He didn't know what his favorite food was, his favorite color, what beer he liked to drink, or even if he lifted the seat before taking a piss.
He knew nothing.
Apollo pulled his hand down over his face, sighing deeply before reaching for his toothbrush. It took little time to finish his morning routine and clean up the bathroom, even less time to pull on a pair of faded jeans, a short-sleeved cotton shirt, socks, and boots.
He had been grateful that the bedroom was empty when he walked back in, but now he began to wonder where Grayson had wandered off to. Even though he knew it deep down in his soul, he wasn't quite ready to call the man his mate yet.
Once he was dressed, Apollo changed the sheets on the bed and then made it. He picked up his dirty clothes from the floor and put them in the hamper. He even straightened the top of the nightstands and his dresser.
When he couldn't figure out anything else to do that would keep him from going downstairs and confronting his mate, Apollo headed downstairs. Except that his mate wasn't downstairs. After a quick search of the house, it became apparent that Grayson wasn't anywhere inside the building, or even hanging around outside.
Grayson was missing.
And Apollo was quickly going into panic mode. He lifted his nose into the air, trying to sniff out his mate. The house was thick with a rough masculine scent that could only be Grayson's. The alluring fragrance was mixed in with sex and lust and … bacon?
It took Apollo a moment to weed out the other scents, separating them from Grayson's until he had a firm trail to follow. He just hoped it led to Grayson. Scent was very powerful among wolf-shifters. This was one of the reasons why.
Apollo squinted at the bright afternoon sunlight as he stepped off his porch and began walking toward the lake-the direction Grayson's scent said he went. He slid his sunglasses over his aching eyes and picked up his steps, anxious to find out what had happened to Grayson.
Apollo considered calling his brothers, but he wasn't quite ready to admit that he had found his mate but didn't know anything about the man. He was pretty sure that the man came from the Sanchez Pack, but not positive.
Panic began to wrap around Apollo when he reached the edge of the lake and Grayson's scent faded. He walked in a circle, gradually making it larger and larger until he came to the conclusion that Grayson had either walked right into the lake or he had been beamed up by a spaceship. There was no other alternative.
Grayson had simply disappeared.
Grimacing, Apollo pulled out his cell phone and dialed his brother. His embarrassment that he barely knew his mate seemed minor when the man was missing. He could always learn more about Grayson once he found him.
"Apollo, I thought you had a few days off."
"I need your help, Ares."
"Of course," Ares answered instantly as Apollo knew he would. His brother was very protective of those he cared about.
"I'm down by the lake in front of my house. Can you bring Hercules and join me here? No one else." Apollo swallowed hard as he glanced around the empty area around him. "And please hurry."
Apollo anxiously paced back and forth along the edge of the shoreline as he waited for his brothers to show up. He knew if he could trust anyone to help him find his lost mate, it would be his brothers.
They had been through hell together.
Ares, Apollo, and Hercules had been directed into the elite soldier area of wolf life by the sudden death of their parents and just about every damn member of their pack. They had been the only ones to survive the massacre that had decimated their pack and then only because their parents had expected trouble and hidden them away.
They had been young, too young to understand why every person they loved and cared about had been killed. But they hadn't been too young to be enraged.
The death of their parents and pack had created not only rage in the three young wolves but three elite soldiers that became legends whispered about in the dark. None but a select few knew their real names, just that they came in the night and left just as mysteriously, but only after they had completed their objective.
As individuals, they were unstoppable.
As a team, they were deadly.
Ares, the oldest brother and the one angriest at the death of the life they had lived, taught Apollo and Hercules to fight with deadly skill, giving no mercy to their enemies. He had taught them every skill he could learn himself, always searching for more ways to be lethal.
Apollo had quickly shown skills with bladed weapons, using them with a swiftness that astounded even Ares. It was known from the time he was barely ten years old and grew bigger than both his brothers that Hercules would be the muscle of the group.
And Ares was the smartest of all of them. He planned, trained, and strategized. He saw things in battle that others did not, giving the three brothers an advantage. He was also the one that the others listened to.
Apollo just hoped Ares had something important to say this time.
He glanced up when he heard footsteps approaching, for a moment hoping it was Grayson. Disappointment rippled through him when he saw Ares and Hercules. If it wasn't his mate, at least it was the two men that could help him find Grayson.
"What's up, brother?" Hercules asked as they came to a stop. "You're not looking so good."
"I found my mate at the party yesterday."
Hercules's face lit up.
Ares smiled.