Chapter Eleven

My mate has hidden depths. Cyrus was annoyed not because Ness was wrong with what he was saying, but because he was right. And it wasn’t Ness that Cyrus was annoyed with, it was himself. He was stunned that Ness hadn’t demanded he give up his family, give up his way of life immediately. In truth, if Ness had done that, then Cyrus would have to comply. Mates came before all else in a shifter’s life.

But no, Ness hadn’t done that. In fact, as Cyrus finished off his steak, he could almost see the spreadsheets and lists in Ness’s brain, cataloging his murder mistakes and coming up with a list of solutions so it wouldn’t happen again. It was Ness’s way of protecting him, and viewed in that light, Cyrus felt doubly special.

Pushing aside his plate, Ness had already finished his meal and was nursing his coffee, Cyrus held out his hand, hoping Ness would take it. He did. Just that simple touch sent a huge sense of relief cascading through Cyrus’s body.

“I’ve clearly made some fundamental errors and allowed other mistakes to be made in this situation. What would you suggest I do now, given how the death was a human-on-human matter and will likely be investigated by the regular law enforcement officers? You mentioned the keycard and that does bother me, but Roman and Jon are likely in the air by now, so it’s not like I can call and ask them if they thought to collect it.”

“It’s not like I’ve even run a murder-for-hire business or ever considered the ramifications of a revenge killing. This is far more your expertise than mine.” Ness shook his head. “But if you’re asking, assume the keycard from the hotel is in the dead man’s pocket. Have his personal affects been left in his room?”

Cyrus pulled out his phone with his free hand, unwilling to let go of Ness, thumbing through his hotel reservations and checking on the room status. “The room is still showing as reserved in his name. He’d booked to stay here for a week, so housekeeping won’t even try to access the room until Saturday.”

“What do you do in cases where a person has stayed beyond their booking time and their things are still in the room?”

“If we can’t get in touch with the client, which does happen sometimes. The whole point of a casino is to encourage people to lose track of time. But if it happens, then the room is cleared out and the personal belongings are held in a secure locker in the basement until someone comes along to claim them.”

“Sounds logical.” Ness was clearly still thinking. “The room will already have someone else waiting for it, and the fastest way to encourage someone to get in touch with you to pay their account would be to move their things.” Ness was quiet for a moment, stroking Cyrus’s fingers. Cyrus wondered if his mate even knew he was doing it, but it felt nice.

“The van isn’t connected to the hotel in any way?”

Cyrus shook his head and then frowned. “I imagine it’s in Jon’s name and he is listed as an employee of this hotel, which isn’t going to look good.”

“No, but you are a rich shifter business owner who has numerous hotels and businesses and likely thousands of employees. You can’t be expected to know what they all get up to. Provided no one knows the brothers and their whole family escaped the country on your private plane, the situation could be written up as a case of two rogue hotel workers and some unfortunate client who lost his money in Vegas. Nothing to do with you.”

“No one will know they are on the plane.” Cyrus was certain of that. No passengers were ever listed on any trips to or from Sicily. It was a habit from the old days when the mafia ruled Las Vegas, but it was a rule that proved useful on occasion. “Anything else?”

“Maybe next time something like this happens, at least make sure the deaths don’t occur on hotel property. It’s not good for business.”

Cyrus had to chuckle over that. “You’re determined to look out for me in your own way, aren’t you?”

“You said yourself it’s what mates do. I did not go into this mating wanting to change you. My parents tried to do that to me for centuries, and I hated it. Is there anyone else in your made family who is paranormal, too?”

“No.” Cyrus sighed. “Blade left the business as soon as he could to build one of his own, so that’s a definite no, my darlin’. Everyone knows to stay away from a shark doing business. Even before they knew what I was, many people got that sense there was something ruthless about me and were understandably wary around me.”

“And you capitalized on that, which is not a bad thing,” Ness hastened to add. “I imagine you don’t have any trouble getting respect from others, whereas I’ve not always been as lucky in that. I’m not saying it’s easy, either, having a family who is all governed legally , by a different set of laws than us. But it is something you need to keep forefront in your mind.”

Yawning, Ness added, “Is there anything else I should know about your business that might slap me in the face at a later stage and you believe I need to know now? Only I don’t know about you, but even though it’s only lunchtime here, I didn’t get a lot of sleep on the plane…”

The look Ness gave him was accusing and heated all in one go. The perfect combination as far as Cyrus was concerned. “I’ll show you our room, give you a tour of our suite, darlin’. I’ll even tuck you into bed, if you like.”

“Like you won’t be under the blankets with me.” Ness laughed, and as his mate was right, Cyrus just smiled and showed Ness his bedroom.

/~/~/~/~/

It was quite a few hours later and Cyrus and Ness were still in bed, limbs entangled, just enjoying their physical closeness. The room had dimmed, although not completely. Despite the window coverings, the sky in Vegas seemed to get brighter at night, and Cyrus didn’t believe he’d ever seen it truly dark.

Outside of the room didn’t matter at that moment. Cyrus felt a lot more settled. Ness was the type of man who wouldn’t let a person touch him if there was anything unusual or uncomfortable between them. And there had been plenty of touching on both sides. Cyrus was dithering, thinking about getting up to go and eat or to order more room service and have dinner in bed when Ness stirred.

“What’s it like having anal sex?” His mate’s voice was warm, deep, and full of sleep.

“I’m probably not the right person to ask, darlin’. It’s been five hundred years or more since I’ve been on the receiving end of someone’s dick, and when it came to penetrating others…” Cyrus trailed off. No shifter liked to talk about past partners or hear about them. “From what I have heard from others, everything’s different between mates, with senses and sensations heightened. I can believe that because the blow job you gave me earlier is more exciting to me than anything I’ve shared with others before. With you, a simple kiss is enough to rock my world.”

“I think you’re flattering me.” Ness turned in his arms, and Cyrus marveled at how easily their bodies fit together, legs entwined, Ness’s hands falling naturally on Cyrus’s chest and his hip. “I can feel the bond between us.” He tapped Cyrus above his heart. “I know we’re joined at a soul and physical level, but it’s as if my beast knows there’s more. Is that just my puberty hormones talking?”

Cyrus shifted his arm so he could stroke his mate’s unruly hair. “No, darlin’, my shark feels it, too, and I started puberty at twelve years old and was finished with it…” Cyrus cut himself off – he could remember the moment and the person he ended his puberty with. “I was fourteen when things settled down.”

“Slut,” Ness teased.

“I did it on a dare and times were different back then. It wasn’t a time of my life where enjoying yourself was encouraged.” Keen to move on, Cyrus said, “We’re heading to Arrowtown for the weekend. We can talk to your shifter doctor there about birth control.”

“But will it work?” Ness looked genuinely worried. “He’s probably going to recommend condoms, but I’ve never heard of a shifter brand of condom, and I feel… I have an ache inside, deep in my belly…”

“You’re worried your beastie needs my spunk inside of you to feel truly claimed?” There was no other way Cyrus could say it.

“I don’t know. I’ve never heard of a male of my kind getting pregnant, but then it’s like I said, none of the living beasties I know of, and there truly aren’t that many, but they are all in male-female bond matings.”

“Is that something we can ask your doc about, do you think? Maybe, because there are so few of your kind, maybe you can’t get pregnant and it’s only me who could?”

“I thought that was possible in all non-furry shifters and other paranormals.”

“I think you’re right, darlin’. I was just clutching at straws because I want to do that with you, and yes, I mean both ways, more than you can know.” Cyrus cupped his mate’s strong face, stroking his thumbs over Ness’s cheeks. “It’s just a few more days. We’ll get this meeting of yours handled, make sure there’s nothing going to cause problems for the hotel with that other business we’d dealt with today, and then fly out to Arrowtown and see the doc as soon as we can. Agreed?”

“I’ve never felt this way before,” Ness confided quietly. “It’s disconcerting and makes me feel bad as well. I mean, what does it say about me that you wring the most amazing toe-curling orgasms from my body, and I still feel something’s missing between us when the pleasure subsides? Something that genuinely makes me ache inside.”

Cyrus wasn’t going to dismiss his mate’s concerns. From the sounds of it, the doc did that for long enough before finally telling Ness he was likely going through a hellishly delayed puberty. And then a thought hit him. “You said, back when you first opened the door to me, and I told you who I was, that Doc was right. Was that about finding your mate.”

Ness frowned as if remembering and then said, “Yes. Doc had tried to find out how I got to adulthood without going through such an important developmental stage. I mean, if you look at it, if any species fails to become sexually aware or ready to procreate, then that species would die off.”

“And you genuinely never thought about sex until recently? Not in all that time?”

“The world doesn’t revolve around sex. I was busy working, and my life was full enough.”

“I didn’t mean to upset you, darlin’.” Cyrus realized Ness was feeling defensive and understandably so. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like to live for more years than most people could comprehend and never think about sex. “You said Doc believed you might be going through puberty now - thinking about sex, getting urges you’ve never had – because it was your body’s way of preparing to meet your mate.”

“Doc is another unusual shifter – he’s a Komodo dragon – and what a lot of people don’t know about him is that he spent years, decades even, studying the possibility of our animal spirits knowing we’re due to meet our mates before that person even comes into our sphere of existence.

“Apparently he knew about his mate, a bull shifter who works as a deputy in Arrowtown, a good couple of years before they claimed each other. Admittedly, they were living in the same town, but Doc mentioned once that he believed the urge to move to Arrowtown after his previous bond mate’s death was because his animal side knew Joe would be there even though it never crossed his mind to keep an eye out for his fated mate.”

“Fated mates have always been ascribed to…well the Fates, but then we’ve never known why some people are born with their dual spirits of man and animal, when so many other people aren’t. Do you think it’s possible our animal sides are more in tune with the Fates than we give them credit for?”

“I don’t know, but anything’s possible.” Ness chuckled. “How did our conversation go from me describing a physical ache to us discussing the meaning of life as a shifter?”

“I think they’re related,” Cyrus said gently, pressing his forehead against Ness’s, breathing in the essence that was uniquely Ness. “I think, given that you come from a species where the total number of your kind is less than a hundred, that your animal side was not only preparing to meet me, but to breed as well.”

“The mind boggles at what a mix of you and I would look like in their shifted form,” Ness said after a long minute. “Shall we go out for dinner? You can show off your casino. I’m fairly sure I haven’t been in this one.”

A conversation to be continued on another day, Cyrus thought as he gently kissed his mate.