CHAPTER FIVE

C onall pulled him tighter into his arms, and Joel felt his lips kissing his shoulder before moving to look down into his upturned face. "Your love is all I ask of you, and I hope that one day you will find me worthy." He kissed his forehead and buried his face against Joel's shoulder. "The bond will bring us closer, and in time, you will see how deep my regard for you is. Love swept me away the moment you said my name."

Joel, too, felt himself swept away by the tender words. "I see your world and the vast influence that it wields. This city is so much more diverse than I ever thought. The vampire covens alone cover over a quarter of the city and make up for thousands of the population." Joel saw things as if the veil or whatever it was that shielded this reality had lifted just as Conall had said it would.

“Our world has been here a very long time, vampire, shifter, mage, and magics all working and living beside you," Conall commented.

“And looking very human.” Joel chimed in.

"It's how we survive, I suppose, but that image is for those not aware. Now that you see us, you will see us as we are." Joel wasn't sure what he meant, but he noticed the light behind Conall's eyes and the hard angles of his face, which weren't there before.

"It is my vampire coming to the surface. It happens when I'm angry or very much aroused." He smiled. "I am not angry if you're wondering." He smiled, and Joel laughed. He took Joel's lips in a bruising kiss that left them both breathless. "You feel the excitement in my soul, baby."

“Will I know other vampires when I see them?”

“You will recognize them as you will other paranormal beings. You’ll see the alabaster skin and the pointed ears of the Fae, the telltale animal signs of the shifters, and you will see the aura of the magics." Joel was a little taken aback by the discovery that awareness brought with it the ability to see what was hidden.

The understanding that was flooding his mind was heavy and thick but also brought everything into perspective. Life was clear, and things that had confused him and made him question were now making sense. The paranormal world was huge and operated parallel to the human world. He looked up at Conall and ran his fingertips down the side of his face, feeling the reality of the man and his potency.

“This is real.” He stated.

"It is all real, my love." He said and then rolled Joel onto his side and held him from behind for a few seconds before pushing his left leg up to give him access to Joel's swollen, needy hole. Joel saw the light flare in Conall's eyes, red and powerful; he could feel the strength behind them. Joel pushed his face into the pillows and jutted his ass back toward Conall.

Conall held Joel's leg high and, in one thrust, plunged inside, stretching him tight and filling him full. Joel moaned, loving the feel of Conall's large hot cock stretching him going so deep. The sensation rocked through his body as Conall pulled out and plunged back in again, only faster and harder, slapping their flesh and filling the room with their raucous desires.

The deep guttural sounds coming from Conall as he hammered into Joel set his blood on fire. The heat and the need were building to a level that had Joel gripping the shits in his fists and panting for air. "Faster, Conall." He said, and Conall picked up speed, setting a rhythm of thrusts that had Joel reaching his climax in record time.

Joel reached down and began stroking his cock needing the release. He kept rhythm with Conall's thrusts, and the sensations were making his head spin with a pleasure unmatched. This was heaven, and he never wanted to end.

Conall was slamming inside rapidly and vigorously and brought them both to a peak of satisfaction and pleasure. He loved the feel of his beloved's tender hole squeezing him and holding him tight. The flesh was sensitized and aching for attention, and Conall would never deny himself or his beloved. He gripped Joel's leg and hiked it a little higher, spreading him open a little further, and then he hammered his hips, plunging inside and bouncing Joel off his cock. It was amazing and most pleasurable.

It hit him fast, and he came in a sudden burst, stream after stream of his hot seed flowed into his beloved's channel, marking him further and soothing his doubts and anxieties. Joel was pleasuring himself, which was a lovely thing to watch, and he came as soon as Conall bit down on the claiming scar he'd given him and drank, sealing their bond and cementing their connection. Every time they came together, Joel's understanding grew, and hopefully, acceptance would come with it as well.

He lowered Joel's leg and wrapped his arms around him, pulling him tight against his body. He was still inside his beloved, not ready to pull out and separate them just yet. He wanted to revel in the moment, holding his lover as they both relaxed and caught their breath.

"Making love with you is glorious. I've never felt so much so hard and so completely." Joel confessed his feelings, and Conall kissed the claiming scar on his shoulder. Joel shivered and giggled at the touch.

"Your claiming scar will always react to my touch," Conall explained.

“It feels thrilling, and I can’t believe it, but I think I’m getting hard again.” Conall laughed.

"You will get hard whenever I touch that scar." Conall reached down and encircled Joel's hard cock and started stroking him, and then bit into the scar. Joel jerked and panted and then came in a sharp eruption of seed that covered Conall's hand. Joel was breathless once again.

"That was so good," Joel said and watched as Conall lifted his hand that was covered in Joel's seed and licked it clean. "I'm getting hard again," Joel whispered. Conall slowly slid out of Joel's body, reached over, and grabbed some tissues from the bedside table. He cleaned Joel up and tossed the tissues to the side of the bed.

"You need to rest, my love. You have a lot to learn, and it will be coming at you fast now that our bond is complete and our connection solidly in place." He snuggled Joel's back to his chest and held him tightly. This was how he'd dreamed it would be with his beloved, and he looked forward to many happy and fulfilling nights in the future.

Conall was awakened by his phone just before dawn. He took the call but remained in bed with his arms around his beautiful beloved. "What is it?" He barked in a tight whisper, not happy at being disturbed.

"I wouldn't think of disturbing you, sir, but it's Cassius. He's escaped again." Ethan, who was following and advising the teams in the field that were tasked with eliminating the bears, hit him with the bad news. "But from what I can ascertain, he is alone. The businesses have been taken or burned, and the bears have either died or left town. All that remains is Cassius."

"Perhaps he has left town with the others," Conall suggested.

"He's still in town. He's been seen. Reports are coming in, but for such an out-of-shape toad, he's moving pretty fast." Ethan didn't like falling short of someone like Cassius.

"We'll find him, so don't worry. I'll be there shortly. Call up all the information you have."

"Yes, sir," Ethan responded. Conall closed the call and looked down at the gorgeous man in his arms.

"Fuck that bastard, Cassius, always getting in my way." He carefully got out of bed and washed up and dressed while keeping a close eye on his little lover. Joel hadn't woken, but he didn't want to leave him without an explanation, so he sat on the edge of the bed and ran his fingers through Joel's hair until he began to stir. He was so precious that it made Conall's heart hurt to have to leave him, even for only a while.

“You’re up and dressed.” He said as he attempted to sit up.

"Don't get up, sweetheart. It's still early, but I have to attend to something, and I didn't want to leave without letting you know that I will be back as soon as possible." Conall bent and kissed him softly. "You are such a gorgeous young man." He said, dropping another kiss on his plump lips.

"You are amazingly handsome so early in the morning." Joel countered and reached out, taking Conall's hand in his.

“You stay in bed and relax. When I get back, we can pick up where we left off last night." That brought a shy smile to Joel's lips.

"I'll be waiting," Joel said, and after another harder, more determined kiss, Conall got up and left the room. It was difficult to leave, but he planned to take care of business as quickly as possible and return to his beloved.

He'd have breakfast delivered, and they could have a lovely morning of sex and breakfast and then more sex. He smiled at the erotic thoughts and shook himself, and brought his focus back to the business at hand, and that was killing that fucking cretin Cassius Brown.

Joel lay back in the large luxurious bed and closed his eyes. His mind shot back to the previous evening, and all he could think about was Conall and how he'd made him feel. The awareness he spoke of was real, and it brought equal measures of wonder and panic.

The paranormal world was all around him, and as a matter of fact, he was right there in the center of a vampire coven, the Rose Coven, to be specific. He understood who they were and what they were about now.

He grew up in this town, and he'd felt some suspicions about something powerful existing on the edges of normal life. But he never thought it would be so pervasive and so more than just vampires and shifters. It was a lot to take in, just as Conall had predicted, and it would be a while before he treated it as anything other than fantastical, but he would get there.

He checked the clock on the bedside table and saw that it was nearly six in the morning, and he was fully awake. It had been a couple of months since he had the luxury of sleeping in such comfort, but he could not get back to sleep. He sat up and then tossed off the blankets and threw his legs over the side of the bed. He wished he still had his phone, but Murphy had disposed of that early on. He wanted to call someone, maybe Ray at the coffee shop or Milly, his neighbor.

Thinking about his old life brought a wave of melancholy, but he pushed it away. There wasn't anything back there for him. He thought he had a life and friends, and yet no one looked for him. No one cared that he was gone, that he was missing. His family was spread out across the country, and no one kept in touch, so they wouldn't know, and they wouldn't care that he had been taken. He didn't need a phone because he had no one to call.

Joel got up and went to the bathroom, where he showered and dressed in the clothing from last night. The t-shirt and sweats were soft and warm, and he needed some soft and warm right now. He sat in the overstuffed chair by the wall and thought and wondered when Conall would return.

He was his beloved, and that fact was crystal clear now that the bond had snapped into place. It held a deep promise of love and devotion that would span a lifetime. It was the perfect relationship that would grow in love and longing with each passing day. He belonged to the feared and dreaded Conall Rose, Master of the Rose Coven.

That thought, as it hit him, weighed heavy, and he wondered if he was indeed reading this correctly. He'd been manipulated and abused for so long that he often doubted his own sense of reality, let alone an alternate one.

His mind was beginning to spin, and his thoughts were becoming frantic. He needed to calm down, or everyone would be able to feel his panic. The vampires could sense intense feelings like fear and panic, and he didn't want to raise the alarm that he was upset.

"I need some air." There were no windows in the bedroom or bathroom, so he went out into the living room. There was one on the far wall, but it was covered in thick, heavy curtains. He pushed back the curtains and saw that it did not open. The sense of being trapped was crawling all over him. "I have to have air."

Joel put on the slippers that Conall had given him last night and headed for the door. He remembered the route they took to get to Conall’s quarters so he could backtrack and find his way out. He wouldn’t go far he just needed to breathe some fresh air and feel the sky above him and the earth below. He wouldn’t go far, he told himself.

No one bothered him or tried to stop him. That’s when it struck him that he was not a prisoner, and he had the power to come and go as he pleased. He had the urge to go back to Conall’s quarters and wait. But the desire to feel some fresh air on his face won out and he continued on his way.

Once in the garage, he followed the roadway out the back entrance and into the alley that ran between the warehouse and the bar across from it. He noticed then that it was the Blood Rose, the place where his nightmare began. He stood still for a moment, taking it in, and he realized this was the alley he stood in as he waited for Murphy to bring his car around. The stupidity of that moment was hitting him hard as he considered the stupidity of his present moment.

He turned and looked back at the entrance to the garage and then down the alley a short distance to the main street. It felt good to be out in the air, but there was something telling him to go back. There was an attachment pulling at him, insistent that he return.

It was the pull that Conall had spoken of, the connection they held, that gave him awareness and insight and brought their hearts and minds together. He needed Conall in a way that he'd never needed anyone. Conall calmed and reassured him and gave him a sense of support that freed him from the panic and anxieties with which he'd been plagued for so long.

He looked behind him again and then again down the alleyway to the main street. "I'll just go to the main street and feel the openness and breathe the air, and then I will return." He told himself and began walking. The further he got from the warehouse entrance, the more he felt off and in danger. Was it real, or was it a side effect of the bond? He pushed himself to make it to the main street, stopped, and looked around.

It was too early for there to be many people on the street, but there was life and movement, and it seemed normal. It was the normal that he craved. To finally see the light of day and the city at dawn. He'd been kept in a room with the other dancers over the club and was not allowed to leave.

This felt good but also dangerous, and he wasn't sure where the danger signs were coming from. He stood for a few minutes, just taking in the openness and freedom, and then turned to head back to the alleyway. The desire to get back to the warehouse and to the safety of Conall's quarters and Conall's arms quickly overcame his need for fresh air.

Just as he was about to turn down the alley, someone rushed up behind him with an arm around his waist and a hand over his mouth. He was picked up and tossed into the back seat of a long black car. It took less than a few seconds for him to be forced back into his living nightmare.