“Before I go… will you grant me one desire?” Wrath’s voice caused Bell’s cock to leak and the way the god’s voice hitched mid-sentence, Bell was sure he could smell it. Could smell what he was doing to him. Wrath swallowed thickly, “One thing, please, Belleron.”
Oh hell, he was almost begging him now. “Anything,” Bell answered hoarsely, his mouth inches away from Wrath’s throat. At the mere mention of biting, Bell was going to sink his fangs in and not stop sucking and writhing until he was delirious with blood, lust and power.
“Will you call me… Ira? Of all my forms I’ve never felt the goodness of people more so than when I was him.”
Bell wasn’t expecting that. Wasn’t expecting to be graced with an extremely rare glimpse of Wrath’s vulnerability, a part of his true self.
“In Hispania… long ago. I wasn’t so feared. I wasn’t the Wrath, a distant descendant of Plouton. I was their—Ira—a fire-god. The only god that came to protect them during a brutal war against the Roman conquest.” Wrath held his head high. “And they loved me for it. That was the last time I felt like this.”
Bell would’ve called him by any name he wanted him to. It wouldn’t change how he saw Wrath at that moment, or any other time he’d been there for him. Even if he told Bell to call him ‘destructive terror’s prince of death’, Bell would still want him, badly. “Yes,” Bell whispered. “I will do that, Ira.”
Wrath’s nostrils flared and that was when Bell got the first whiff of the demigod’s heady arousal. Oh hell. It made him squirm in his seat when his pants got impossibly tight. He wasn’t imagining what he was feeling and it sure as hell wasn’t one-sided. However, Wrath didn’t give him the go-ahead to bite. He’d yet to tilt his head far enough, though Bell could still hear Wrath’s blood pumping in expectation. Now he understood that Wrath could feel his hunger, the same as Alek and Wolf did… and he wanted to sate it. His blood was circulating faster in order to satisfy him. Bell couldn’t stop the growl of pleasure that worked its way out of his throat. Wrath’s eyes blazed and the temperature spiked exponentially, yet Bell was unharmed by the heatwaves. The truck’s windows fogged-over to the point where they could no longer see out of them.
“You feel this way because you want me to bite you.” Bell’s voice was so husky he didn’t recognize it, but he couldn’t mask it. “You want to feel my fangs deep in your throat.”
Wrath’s breathing was so heavy, Bell feared if he didn’t allow him to release all that pressure building in him soon, then he’d combust. Wrath squeezed his eyes shut, and Bell scrambled to keep their connection. No! He didn’t want Wrath to go.
When those long lashes fluttered open, and he stared into Alek’s cool, blue eyes, he knew Wrath was gone and he couldn’t help the disappointment that filled him. He’d tried so hard to get through.
“It’s okay, baby,” Alek said as the temperature in the truck came down. He leaned back against the headrest and wrapped one muscular arm around Bell’s waist, pulling him to him. “It’s gonna take some time. He’s not used to those kinds of feelings directed at him.”
Bell released a breath he’d been holding for too long. “Alek, you were there the whole time?”
“I guess technically. We’re on the surface but not intruding. He felt Wolf and me disappearing to give you two more privacy but he panicked and yanked us back to the surface… then retreated himself. He’s down deep.”
Bell sighed. Retreated? He’d pushed too hard too fast.
Alek smoothed his hand up and down Bell’s back as he encouraged him to feed. But his mate’s concern for Wrath was obviously still weighing on his mind because he’d yet to penetrate his skin, though Alek could feel how famished he was. He nestled his mouth against the side of Bell’s jaw. “He’s not gone, babe… just resting. It took a lot of power out of Wrath when we were inside that building. But when you opened your link and touched his mind with your concern, it gave him a burst of strength that had Wolf and me struggling to keep up with. When we felt your heart beat fast for us all, Belleron, the ultimate size of it, the three of us were able to lift half a building.”
Bell accepted his soft kisses, leaning in to receive more. “I wasn’t sure how you’d feel about me and… or if it was okay to… I mean—”
“Hey.” Alek smiled, ending Bell’s torture. He knew exactly what his handsome, virile mate was battling to say. Was Bell wanting to mate with Wrath a version of wanting another, or infidelity? And the simple, definitive answer was—No.