This was utterly insane.
Nobody fell in love so fast. But whether Jag’s feelings came from loneliness or genuine affection, Dane felt the honesty behind them in each of Jag’s hugs and kisses. Even in the freaking fruit salad he’d prepared so Dane could ‘regain his strength’.
Dane swallowed and picked a piece of banana before putting it into his mouth when sorrow hit him like a mallet. He wasn’t worthy of Jag’s naive trust, and he would betray it one day.
But not today. Today, he would pretend the world beyond the junkyard didn’t exist and enjoy the safety of the home they’d built together.
“You’re like no man I've ever met.”
“Every man you met before me is a dumb fuck if they didn’t see what a gem they were letting go. Their loss, my gain,” Jag said proudly and smacked the hairy middle of his chest with a fist.
Dane gave a bitter laugh. “Don’t know about that. The last one seemed to have gotten everything he wanted out of me. Stormed into my life with this big bad boy personality, made me lose my fucking head, had me hack and delete some data, and then decided to get rid of the only witness. Me. Sometimes, I think that this had been his plan all along, from the first time I gave him head.”
Dane’s stomach twisted in protest, but he took more food from the bowl and stuffed his face in order to stop this fucking conversation. Jag didn’t need to know any of this. It was Dane’s fucking problem that he couldn’t keep his pants on when someone offered to satisfy his shameful cravings for a monster in human form.
Jag let out a growl so animalistic Dane flinched and had to do a double take to make sure he wasn’t sitting next to a wolf. “Was that all he had to offer? Good sex? Men like that don’t deserve to own cocks.”
“It’s not that easy to find good sex,” Dane mumbled, ashamed of his short-sightedness. He’d known Rob was bad news from the very start, yet he still hooked up with him over and over, like a diabetic who kept eating cookies despite knowing the sugar was killing them.
“I suppose connecting this way is always dangerous. You’re naked, vulnerable, and overcome with emotions. It’s not your fault he abused your trust.”
Dane had no idea how much he’d needed to hear that from someone else, but Jag had hit the nail on the head. While he should have seen Rob’s behavior for what it was, he wasn’t the one at fault.
Rob was. The sneaky fucking weasel who might have fulfilled Dane’s sexual fantasies but had always been a douchebag about it, as if treating his lover as a person somehow invalidated his masculinity. Dane should have ran when the bastard mentioned he needed something deleted from a computer in his motorcycle club’s office, but instead he’d followed Rob’s lead, did as told, and got beaten unconscious for his services.
“He wanted me to die,” Dane mumbled before swallowing.
Jag put away the bowl and hugged him tightly before climbing into Dane’s lap.
“I will never let anyone hurt you again.”
Dane should have gotten over it all, but when Jag pulled him close, into the reassuring embrace that smelled of water and fresh sweat, the world blurred as tears rolled down his cheeks. Because life wasn’t simple, and he couldn’t give up everything for Jag, no matter how much his stupid heart longed for it.
Chapter 11 – Jag
Jag was so invigorated he could have taken on a wolf with his bare hands. Dane was the best thing that had ever happened to him, and the mate he’d been destined to find. He’d had many moments of doubt after running away from his community. He’d worried that no one would ever accept him, that he wouldn’t fit in, and that finding a man to love him back was just a pipe dream, yet Dane was the sun to disperse all those clouds.
With his unique looks, colorful body, and good heart, Dane was everything Jag could ever dream of. A big strong man to share his life with, to cherish, protect, and provide for. The kind of partner he’d been told he could never have.
His mate had been uncharacteristically tender this morning, demanding more kisses and petting Jag all over, as if obligations and necessities disappeared in the face of blooming affection. But Jag was a sensible man, who eventually untangled himself from his lover’s arms and ventured out of their homestead.
The sun had hidden behind dense clouds, but their shape and texture suggested they didn’t carry rain, so he jogged down the well-known path that would lead him to Frank’s home.
While Jag was perfectly capable of surviving on his own, Frank always invited him to eat, and there was no reason to deny sharing food. Especially now that Jag needed to provide for one more person. A big guy like Dane needed plenty of nourishment, or else he’d start losing the delicious layer of fat that kept him so soft to the touch. Jag hunted for animals and gathered berries in the summer, but his friends provided an endless stream of new foods they brought from the city, like the sweet fruit Rosen had taught him to peel and make a salad with. Some things they ate were far too sweet, or even strange-tasting, but in general, Jag was more than happy to trade the things he scavenged for more variety in his diet.