A Moment in Time(4)

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.