What If He Finds Out?!

When Kyle turns around, their eyes hold each other, trapping him in a gaze that is far too deep, too dangerous.

He wants to look away, wants to turn around because he knows... he knows he is making a terrible mistake.

But he is unable to.

Helpless.

"I'm sorry," Alpha Lucan whispers, voice raw with a desperate longing as he leans closer, the air around them crackling with something fierce, uncontrollable.

He leans even closer, resulting to their lips connection.

Kyle doesn't pull away. He shudders violently.

This is his first kiss, and even if he has never kissed before, he knows deep in his trembling heart, that nothing about this feeling is ordinary. It is consuming. It is soul-deep.

The heat of Lucan's lips against his, the way they mold and press so hungrily, so tenderly, knocks the breath from his lungs.

Kyle can't help it, he moves closer, instinctively snuggling into the kiss, wanting, needing more of this impossible connection that makes every inch of him ignite.

Lucan's arms snake around him, wrapping him in a cage of possessive warmth.

His broad hands find Kyle's neck, fingers caressing up, threading into the softness of his hair.

Every tender tug, every brush of his thumb along Kyle's sensitive scalp, draws a small, broken moan from Kyle's lips.

It's unpreventable, uncontrollable, like the storm swirling inside him.

Kyle should be terrified by the possessiveness and dominance in Lucan's touch, but instead, it pulls him deeper, it calls to something primal inside him.

And he's just grateful, too grateful that those hands don't stray elsewhere, even as he can feel the tension in Lucan's body trembling with restraint, as if holding back an ocean.

Their mouths move in a maddening rhythm, slow but devastating, tongues brushing tentatively at first, testing, tasting.

Kyle's body locks up for a moment at the intimate invasion, but then melts, sweetly, helplessly, as Lucan coaxes him, deepens the kiss, drawing a shivering gasp from him.

His tongue strokes against Kyle's, slick and warm and tasting of longing, of desperate, years-long craving.

The kiss grows wilder, messier, like Lucan cannot get enough, like he would devour Kyle whole if he could.

The force of it makes Kyle's body weak, his toes curl against the mattress. Lucan kisses him like a starving man, like Kyle is the only thing he has ever needed to survive, and still, there's a frightening tenderness threading through it, something devastatingly careful, heartbreakingly reverent.

Kyle clutches at Lucan's shirt as the world tilts, his mind blank of anything but the alpha's taste, the delicious friction of their mouths sliding together again and again.

A low growl vibrates in Lucan's chest, echoing into Kyle's very bones, and Kyle realizes with a jolt of terror and wild exhilaration just how badly this man wants him.

It is madness.

It is fire licking under his skin.

And still Kyle doesn't pull away.

He wants more.

But eventually, his body betrays him, his lungs scream for air. Kyle whimpers softly into Lucan's mouth, desperate, before wrenching himself away, gasping, chest heaving.

Lucan, panting just as heavily, still chases after him, leaning in, going for Kyle's lips, their lips brushing in feather-light touches as if Lucan cannot bear even an inch of distance.

But Kyle moves back a little further, trembling.

Lucan doesn't force him.

Instead, he lies back, dragging in great gulps of air, his broad chest rising and falling rapidly.

His arm snakes out, catching Kyle and pulling him, fitting him against the pounding rhythm of his heart. On his chest.

Kyle lays there, stunned, feeling the erratic thudding under his cheek, hearing the low, vibrating hum of Lucan's voice.

"I'm sorry for being so clingy," Lucan murmurs, voice roughened by emotion. His hand slides up and down Kyle's spine in soothing strokes, even as it trembles faintly. "I cannot help it. You have no idea... how long I've been looking for you."

Kyle stays still, swallowing hard against the knot in his throat.

"For six good years," Lucan continues, voice cracking, "I spent alone. Facing the judgements... the mating seasons... the gnawing emptiness where you should have been. It was torture." He exhales shakily. "I wanted to give up. I thought maybe the Moon Goddess actually forgot me, cursed me... maybe I wasn't meant to have a mate after all."

Lucan's chest vibrates with a self-deprecating chuckle, though there's no real humor in it.

"I hate to admit it, but sometimes..." he pauses, voice lowering, "sometimes their words got to me. I cried once, just once, thinking I'd never find you. The missing piece of me."

Kyle closes his eyes, biting his lip hard against the strange twist in his chest.

"And now that I've found you," Lucan breathes, arms tightening possessively around him, "I'll never let you out of my sight."

Oh God, Kyle sighs inwardly, heart pounding. This is bad, really bad.

"I don't care about anything else," Lucan says, fervent. "Whatever pack you are from... whatever boundaries that could come between us... I don't care."

He chuckles again, softer this time, almost shy. "I must really love you already."

Kyle squeezes his eyes tighter shut, willing himself not to feel anything. ~Whatever the boundaries? Yeah, not when you find out that I'm actually a man.~ Kyle thinks.

"Tomorrow, I'll present you to my parents. To my pack. And to the Moon Goddess herself..." Lucan's voice drops to a reverent whisper.

His words thrum through Kyle's body, each syllable anchoring him deeper into this dangerous warmth.

Lucan goes quiet then, simply holding him.

After a long moment, his voice rumbles again, low and deadly, "Was someone chasing you? Were you in danger? Did someone try to hurt you? Before those men, were there another threat?"

"No," Kyle says simply, although he is lying.

"But you looked like you had been running for days," Lucan presses gently. "Did you lose your way home?"

Kyle hesitates. Then he speaks.

"No. I don't have a home."

He feels his eyes sting with the burn of unshed tears, memories of a lifetime spent running, hiding, surviving.

Lucan's arms tighten around him, a protective growl rising low in his throat.

"I'm here now," he promises fiercely. "You have a home now."

Kyle swallows, blinking rapidly.

"How about your pack? Do you belong to this pack or another?" Lucan asks carefully.

Kyle hesitates again. Then he lets the lie slip smoothly past his lips.

"I don't know," He answers, voice soft. "I don't even know my parents. Someone took care of me... said he found me at the edge of the forest. He died last night."

Kyle forces his voice steady, weaving the lie carefully. "His relatives... they burned the house. Said I didn't belong. Said I should find another place for my pathetic life."

It's true that Kyle doesn't know his pack, but everything else is a lie.

He knew this questions would come sooner or later.

Silence.

Lucan doesn't question him, doesn't doubt him. He just holds him closer, breathing him in, fitting their bodies together like puzzle pieces meant to be.

The silence stretches, warm, heavy, until Kyle's eyelids droop. He fights it, but the steady rhythm of Lucan's breathing, the intoxicating safety of his embrace, pull him under.

As he teeters on the edge of sleep, he hears Lucan murmur against his hair, voice vibrating with fierce tenderness:

"Now you belong with me. Give me permission soon... so I can mark you. Claim you. After that, nothing... nothing, will ever come between us."

Kyle freezes.

He knows what marking entails. He'll need to mate with him.

And he can feel the searing hunger just barely leashed inside Lucan, the overwhelming craving simmering under every touch, every kiss, every breath they share. The longing in Lucan.

He knows it won't take long before the restraint collapses. Before Lucan demands to mark him.

Before the truth, the body he's hiding, will be exposed.

Panic knots sharp and painful in his chest.

He has to leave.

He has to escape.

Soon before Lucan can't hold himself back anymore.

But sleep is relentless, dragging him down into its depths. It's dangerous to fall asleep now, in Lucan's arms, because what if he somehow notices Kyle is not a girl.

And as darkness takes him, one thought clings, stubborn and burning behind his closed eyes:

He must get away before it's too late.