“Uh huh.” Will was not convinced. “He seems like a douche.”
“Because he’s used to being in control and you hate anybody who is accustomed to control.”
“You’re accustomed to being in control and I don’t hate you,” Will said, sliding up against the bars with a lustful smile. “I’ve never hated you.”
“We have something special, don’t we, boy.” Maddox reached into the cage and caressed Will’s cheek lightly. “But none of us are islands, and even you and I need help sometimes.”
“I don’t want that kind of help. I don’t need that kind of help.”
“And yet you are going to get it. Goodnight, my boy. You start with Master Henry in the morning.”
“No, I don’t,” Will bit back. “No, I fucking don’t!”
Maddox turned and walked toward his own bed, but not before turning back for a brief second and flashing a wink at his boy.
“Hey!” Will rattled the bars. “Don’t you enjoy this!”
“Haven’t you worked it out by now, boy? I am a sadistic monster. Seeing you thoroughly dominated against your will is the next best thing to doing it myself.”
Will let out a shocked laugh. “Asshole,” he cursed.
“Mhm. Goodnight, boy.”
Chapter Three
“LET ME FUCKING OUT!”
“He’s hungry,” Maddox said, somewhat apologetically as Will screamed the house down yet again.
“Of course he is,” Henry said. “Are you sure you want to be here for this? I may have to hurt him.”
Maddox drew Henry to the side. “I understand some force may be necessary. You need to understand that William is my mate. My boy. He is the love of my undead life, and no true harm can come to him.”
“I can’t promise that. He’s basically feral. Been coddled all his life.”
“I can assure you Will has received very little in the way of coddling.”
“What’s coddling to a wolf might look like cruelty to a human. Like I said, you might want to leave him to me.”
Maddox drew in a deep and unnecessary breath, for he did not breathe. Funny how these little human habits persisted long after they were useful. He felt calmer for it.
“I will never leave Will to anyone,” he said. “But I will defer to your experience, and I trust you understand just what is at stake. It is not just a rogue little werewolf you have to deal with. It is me.”
“That complicates matters. I like things simple.”
“Nothing in New York is simple.”
When they entered the bedroom, Will was at the bars, screaming his head off. Maddox hated seeing him this way. It was the worst of human and beast combined; pure animal fury being wailed to the world. Sometimes there were tears in his boy’s eyes before he was fed. It was the resistance of the human side of him, the decent part that just wanted some simple toaster pastry and nothing more, being dragged into a feeding frenzy by his darker side.
“Shut. Up.” Henry gave the stern order as he walked through the door.
“I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!” Will shouted back. His pupils were wide like saucers, dilated to let the smallest amount of light in. Hunting eyes.
“Where’s the key?” Henry looked back at Mad.
Maddox handed the key over, wondering if he was making a mistake but knowing he had to take the chance.
Henry unlocked the cage door. “Today’s the last day he spends behind bars,” he said to Maddox. “These just give him the excuse not to control himself.”
It was not an assessment Maddox agreed with, but he had committed to try.
Rather predictably, the door burst open and Will came out like a wild thing. Unfed, he could not take his wolf form. It was an unfair fight from the beginning. Will launched himself at Henry and Henry flowed smoothly into his wolf body. Will’s fists and his teeth and his rage did not meet another man. They met a wolf. And the wolf had no problem putting him down, superior weight and teeth slamming Will to the floor where he lay beneath the creature, his pulse beneath its teeth. The wolf held him there, gave him no room to move, no space to rage.
Maddox saw the moment Will gave in. The tension went out of his pinned frame. His hands unclenched. He stopped trying to push the wolf away or pull himself out from under it. He lay still. His breathing slowed. He wasn’t panting. He wasn’t raging. He was submitting because he had no choice, because the beast above him refused to give him one. All the need, the hunger, the madness, it was forced to take second place to the beast.
Maddox had done the same himself, of course. Just yesterday he had pinned him down and fucked him. But the submission he got from Will was submission from the human parts of the boy. It didn’t reach all the way to the wolf of him. As Maddox had suspected, it was different coming from an alpha wolf.