...“I’ve not eaten in some time,” Tallin said, “so the food will be welcome. A full moon is close, but I sense it isn’t a good place to hunt. Too much opportunity for discovery.”

“It’s a very populated area. Can you keep your beast under control?” Emmanuel asked.

“It does not control me. I give it free rein when necessary.”

“I sensed during your transformation yesterday your humanity dimmed almost completely.”

Tallin stared at him. “Until we connected. Then you made sure my human thoughts merged with the beast, didn’t you?”

“Instinct. There wasn’t a way to stop it.”

Tallin nodded. The connection between them had been learned at an early age. It was instinctual. As Emmanuel had reached out, Tallin had seceded control. Habitual, undeniable. Alpha to a mate. An elemental sort of recognition, which was one of the reasons Tallin had balked at being chosen to track down Emmanuel. Instinctively, he’d known what would happen. He just hadn’t anticipated it would happen quite so quickly or so forcefully.

Tallin moved to pass by Emmanuel as he left the room. Emmanuel gripped his arm, forcing Tallin to face him. “I didn’t want this and I sense you didn’t either. But it is what it must be. Instinct trumps humanity every time. At least in our world it does. You accept this?”

Tallin met his gaze for long moments before yielding. He bowed his head, and slowly angled it to the side, baring his throat.

“Yours to command, Alpha,” he said, his tone low.

Emmanuel brushed a hand over the naked flesh. Slowly he leaned forward, his mouth pressed to Tallin’s neck. Tallin’s heartbeat quickened, he felt a subtle shifting of his bone structure, a crack, a rush of hot blood through his veins. “Emmanuel.”

Emmanuel growled, then his sharp fangs pierced Tallin’s flesh, spearing deep. Pain and arousal lanced through Tallin. He growled, though it hummed deep in his chest. Emmanuel’s claws bit into his arm. Tallin yielded fully, dropping back against the doorframe.

Emmanuel released him. Tallin’s neck pulsed and his arms where Emmanuel’s claws had dug in, throbbed. He opened his eyes and glared at Emmanuel. He felt the hot blood slide down his collarbone where Emmanuel had marked him, then down his chest, soaking into the crisp white cotton shirt.

“It doesn’t take long for the blood to reclaim you, does it?” he asked, not bothering to swipe at the oozing blood.

“You make me hungry,” Emmanuel said. “Too hungry.”

“There’s always your…Niles.”

Emmanuel flicked back the shirt, leaned forward again, and drew his tongue along the line of warm blood decorating Tallin’s chest. The growl he emitted droned on and on, seducing Tallin even as he fought his own arousal. This was not the place to shift in order to fuck in the way of their kind. There was too much danger.

“I’ve never prepared him—never fucked him. Does that surprise you? You’re the only one I’ve…claimed in that way. Ever.”

Tallin’s heart leapt. “I heard you howl.”

“Self-satisfaction. He’s never watched that either. Yesterday was quite a shock for him in many ways.”

“Why bother to tell me?” Tallin said, a little breathlessly.

“You let Hirmes fuck you. Was it as consuming as when I took you, Tallin? Did you think of me when you gave your allegiance to him?”