Heartsblood (Dark Hollow Wolf Pack 10)

Marco bit his lip and shifted his eyes toward the floor again, but he nodded, arching up again and groaning as Nicky raked his cock over Marco’s prostate.

Marco moved his hips along with Nicky’s and Nicky stroked faster as he felt his orgasm clawing at him, tightening his balls. Marco’s whole body tensed as Nicky drove deeper and faster still. Nicky knew he was close, so he rubbed his cock hard again over Marco’s prostate and felt him shudder as his orgasm claimed him. Nicky followed, coming so hard he couldn’t even make a sound. He strained against Marco, burying himself inside him, and he might even have lost consciousness for a split second or two as the stars exploded behind his eyes and rained down around them.

Afterward, he collapsed on top of Marco, loving the feel of that hard body against his. He didn’t yet have the knot that Jax, the only other mate who knew anything at all about the Bloodlust, had told him would eventually come, but he found himself longing for it suddenly, wanting to fill Marco up, tie up with him and hold him there for hours, fucking him over and over again.

Finally catching his breath, he rolled off Marco and lay beside him on the floor, his heart still pounding in his chest. Marco turned over too and lay on his back staring up at the ceiling. He turned his head to look over at Nicky, his eyes dark with some emotion. Nicky reached for him, but Marco sat up quickly, flinching away. He glanced back over his shoulder at Nicky, his face angry and confused, glaring down at him.

“What the fuck was that supposed to be?” he said bitterly. Nicky’s mouth fell open in shock but before he could answer, Marco surged to his feet, grabbed his clothes off the floor and stomped into the bathroom, his muscular back stiff with fury.

* * * *

Centuries ago, the Romans built a fort on a rocky hill near the base of the Pyrenees in what is now France. By the twelfth century, the Château de Foix occupied the same space and overlooked the small village below. The castle housed various noblemen over the centuries, and at one time the first of the great Hunters, a nobleman named Gaston Phoebus. Considered to be the greatest huntsmen of his day—he actually died of a stroke while washing his hands in a stream after a bear hunt—he wrote a book about hunting different animals, as well as describing animal behavior. But bears weren’t the only animal Gaston hunted. And they were far from the worst.

The village of Foix was attacked time and again by the vicious mountain timber wolves, great slavering beasts who came down from the mountains and killed the peasants indiscriminately and who were said not really to be wolves at all. Late at night, when the townspeople huddled around their hearth fires, trying to hold back the darkness, they whispered that the wolves were actually Werewolves—terrible, fierce creatures who could be men and women by day and then change into wolves when the moon was full so they could feast on human flesh.

The great Hunter Gaston fought a valiant fight against these wolves, but when the attacks became too frequent and the losses too great, he was forced to employ a necromancer to help him in his fight against the creatures. The necromancer, called Yvain Benauges, went out with the Hunters and observed the wolves carefully. He noted the leadership of an alpha pair, a strong, beautiful male and female, who were both bloodthirsty and deadly. He directed Gaston’s Hunters to direct all their efforts to tracking and killing the alpha male, whose body turned into a pale, handsome man, his features strong and stark in death. Yvain drained the werewolf’s heart of all its blood. With the blood and his unholy secrets, the necromancer made a magical elixir he called the Bloodlust.

He told the Hunters the compound would make the wolves more vulnerable to attack, but he lied to them. He had other uses for the blood. He drank the elixir himself and turned into one of the werewolves. Since he had taken on the characteristics of the alpha male whose heartsblood he drank, he found and mated the alpha female, knowing that the compound would make the alpha female fall in love with him. The necromancer and his mate then led their pack and ravaged the countryside for the next hundred years, despite the rage of Gaston and his descendants at the necromancer’s treachery and betrayal.

The new alpha pair was even more terrible than the one that came before. A reign of terror prevailed over the next century that decimated the population of Foix and the surrounding towns and increased the popularity of the Hunters, as they were the only ones who tried to stand against them.

Finally, the Hunters were able to trap and then kill the alpha female, and they found to their joy that her death also destroyed Yvain, the necromancer, who was unable to live long without her. The remaining wolves in the pack fled, arriving eventually in America, along with the many descendants of the alpha pair. With them, they carried the Bloodlust in their own blood. The d’Alisandes were among these descendants.

Cade d’Alisande put a finger on the page of the old book he’d been reading aloud and looked up at Marco. “That’s all the book says about it. This necromancer took something he called the heartsblood of the alpha and added his magical compound, but it doesn’t say what the compound was or give any clues as to how to make it.”

“Damn it,” Marco said, standing up to pace around Cade’s office, wincing a little. Two hours had passed since his sexual encounter with Nicky, and Marco was still sore. It had been a long time since he’d bottomed for anyone, especially someone as strong and determined as Nicky had been. He actually wasn’t sure how he felt about the whole thing. It wasn’t the forced seduction—he’d been about to do the same thing himself, really, and he could have stopped Nicky if he’d wanted to. Nicky gave him his chance to simply get up and walk away.

He and Nicky both liked it a little rough—they always had, though he usually played the role of aggressor. But something about what happened between them that morning was different. There had been moments when Nicky had seemed almost like a stranger.

“I was hoping it would give us some clue as to what was in that hypodermic needle that Tate used on Nicky in the attack,” Marco said. “Aren’t there any more books that mention it?”

“My father’s still looking, but this is all he’s found so far.” Cade frowned at Marco. “What about Nicky? Is he any better?”

Marco shook his head. “No, not really.” Marco ran a hand over his face. “I don’t know. He’s not shifting anymore, but now I think he’s afraid to and he’s holding his wolf inside as he becomes stronger. Forcing him down. I’m worried about him, Cade. This thing is affecting his personality. He’s quieter now and moodier. More irritable. He’s lost interest in things he used to love, like his art, and he stays to himself a lot. It’s changing him physically too.”

“Well, you knew that would happen. Since I first met Jax, he’s grown six inches and gained ten more pounds of muscle.”

“But Jax was your natural bloodlust, if anything about this process can be called natural. It wasn’t forced on him by some crazy chemicals Jeremy Tate made up in his laboratory.”

“Still, the effect has been much the same so far, right?”

“I guess so, though Nicky’s changed in other ways too. He’s much more aggressive.”

“Jax too, but again, that’s to be expected. He’s a wolf now, not a human. Not to mention an alpha. I know it has to be harder on you, since the dynamics of your relationship were well established with Nicky before this happened to him. I had only just met Jax, and we were still trying to figure things out.”

Marco fell down in a chair by the fireplace. “I don’t think I know how to handle him very well anymore. At times he seems almost like a stranger.”

“But he’s not. It’s Nicky—just a different Nicky, that’s all. And one you’d better learn to come to terms with if you feel for him the way I know you do.”

Marco stared into the fire for a long time, try

ing to find the right words to make Cade understand. “It’s not just that he’s acting aggressive and dominant. I know I’m still stronger than he is, but even if he were to one day become more powerful and challenge me for the leadership of the pack, then I’d like to think I’d give in gracefully. After all, it’s the way of our kind—the strongest wolf in the pack always leads. I know that. Nicky is brave and good-hearted too, and I trust him with my life.”

“But?”

Marco smiled. “Nicky’s judgment isn’t always the best. Or at least it wasn’t before, and I haven’t seen any signs of improvement. I’m not sure if he’ll be a good leader. And this wolf inside him…he’s afraid of it, and I can see why. The times I saw it, the thing was out of control. Wild and full of hatred.”

“Then it’s up to you to help him bring his wolf under control. Who else but his alpha could do it?”