Jag let him go once he made sure Ros was steady on his feet, as if he was some baby bird that had fallen out of its nest.
“No. Why would he? I know what to do.”
Ros sighed. “So… what is it that you’re doing?”
Jag frowned at him, adjusting the shawl that covered the lower half of his face. Ros had to admit that the guy had the most amazing golden green eyes. “Looking out for you. You’re new and weak.”
Ros snorted. “Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” Jag said and rose to his feet, jabbing the dull end of his spear into the dirty snow. The sun shone through the brown hair that escaped his fur hood, and in clothes made out of scraps and pieces of metal, he looked like the hero of some great post-apocalyptic movie. Even his weapon was crafted out of scrap metal, as if to prove to Ros what treasures lay buried all around his new home.
“I’m not weak,” Ros grumbled nevertheless.
Jag let out a mocking laugh. “Oh, please. One night on your own, and you’d be dead in this weather.”
Ros lost the will to argue this useless point. “Since you’re already here, would you help me pull this chair out?”
Jag shook his head. “We’d have to start with removing the things around it.” He poked the rubble with his spear. “Doable, but I don’t see the point. And if you get hurt, Shane will blame me.”
Ros scratched his chin. “Well… I’ll just tell him it was my idea.”
“He won’t listen. Then again, I don’t know why he just left you on your own like this if you’re his.”
Ros just stared for a while, but then cleared his throat, fighting the sudden sense of urgency in his chest. “Is that what he said? What I’m his?”
Jag smirked. “He’d have marked you with his piss if you allowed him to.”
It was so blunt Ros covered his mouth in shock. “I’m not… It’s complicated. I’m not sure where we stand anymore.”
Jag looked him up and down. “For a college boy, you’re not very smart, are you? He wants to claim you and breed you more than he wants to breathe. It’s obvious to anyone with a pair of eyes.”
A flush rushed up Ros’s cheeks. “You know what, I’ll come back for the chair later,” he said quickly and whistled at Cerberus, who came running in an instant.
“Stay on the path!” Jag hollered as Ros rushed away.
His words kept resonating through Ros’s body and making him rattle. Maybe it really was less complicated than he made it out to be?
Claim him.
Breed him.
Oh, God. There was nothing Ros wanted more.
Chapter 18 – Shane
It had only been a week since Ros had moved into Frank’s home, yet Shane already couldn’t imagine parting from him again. He might have started their whirlwind romance with ill intentions, but it had transformed everything about his miserable life, and he was set on making things right now that Ros decided to risk it all and rely on Shane.
Whenever he entered the room, his scent gave Shane a rush, as if it were infused with gold, and joy, and coke all at once. But not being able to pull the boy close or kiss him was gradually becoming a dark cloud clinging to Shane’s back, cold like a blanket that had just been pulled out of the ocean. Watching his parents’ descent into addiction had scared Shane off drugs, but it couldn’t have protected him from getting hooked on a boy who had decided to give him another chance.
He’d fucked up and hadn’t earned Ros’s trust back yet, but that didn’t change the fact that it was so damn hard to stay away and keep things slow when the boy smelled like a dream and smiled like one too. But breaking his promise to keep things PG would have destroyed all his efforts to be the man Ros deserved, so Shane remained respectful, and kept his hands to himself.
One night, he’d been on the verge of giving in and touching Ros in a way that would have been dangerously close to breaking their unwritten rules. It had been real cold, Frank was out, and Ros had come to watch TV with Shane on the sofa. They ended up sitting under the same blanket and just as Shane sensed the tension rising in a way that would have soon led them into a cuddle, Dex came in to pillage the fridge. The clueless shit ended up staying to watch the show with them, and even forced them to rewatch the first episode.
Shane could have kicked him out, but Ros seemed happy with Dex’s presence and the cockblocking atmosphere it provided. So Shane had gone with it to prove he could wait as long as Ros wanted him to. To prove that he wasn’t scum.