“You’ve never been with a male before, have you.”
Apex opened his mouth. Closed it. Then figured, fuck it. “No, I haven’t.”
The smile that came back at him was slow and very, very satisfied. “How fun. I look forward to this even more.”
With that, Callum began jerking himself off properly, the pumphard and fast, the head of his cock breaking out of the surface of the pool, the wolven’s head falling back, his lips parting, his rib cage expanding and contracting—
The orgasm was delicious, kicking come out into the pool, and Apex had an irresistible urge to jump in and capture it all, swallow it down, feed off the release.
But he didn’t move. Even as his eyes consumed the pleasure and his mind swirled with anticipation, just as his body hungered to spin the wolven around, push him face-first over the lip of the pool, and mount him from behind—
His ears were hearing something that wasn’t right.
Off in the distance, there was a howling, the sound loud enough to carry down the passageway to this private fuck cave the wolven had very clearly put to good use before.
And then came the shouting.
That got Callum’s attention. His head snapped back to rights and he looked toward the head of the rock tunnel.
“What is it?” Apex demanded as he got out his gun.
“Hunters. Motherfucking hunters.”
Sure as if a switch had been thrown, the wolven shed the mantle of passion and hopped out of the pool, pulling his pants back on and going for a cache of weapons.
“They’re from that hotel that’s being built. They come at night into the territory and try to pick us off in the dens, but at least most of us have other places to live, with this being our sacred community space.”
The male checked the bullets in his gun. “All we can do is defend what is ours and bury the bodies. What we do not need is them finding out about our real truth as wolven.”
Callum turned and started for the passageway. When Apex fell in behind him, the male paused and looked back.
“What are you doing?”
Off in the distance, there were more howls.
Apex leaned into the guy. “Didn’t I already tell you? I’m very, very good at killing things.”
There was a split second of silence.
Then that wolven with the magic palm and the perfect body sealed his lips to Apex’s.
“That’s a rain check,” the male said roughly. “And also, a thank-you.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
As Callum emerged from his den, Lucan was already running to him sure as if his cousin had come to get the four-pawed cavalry activated.
“They’re hiking up the trail,” his cousin said. “And it’s not hunters.”
“The guards from the prison?” Callum glanced back as his predator stalked out. “They found us?”
“It’s not that hard. We had other things on our minds than remaining strictly hidden. My mate’s staking out behind here. We need to get positions ready—”
A bullet whistled by and pinged off a vein of rock.
“Fuck,” Callum said as they all ducked.
Another howl floated up in the night air from somewhere on the left, and Callum knew which wolven it was by the ascendency of notes.