Evans, Gabrielle - From This Moment [The Moonlight Breed 7] (Siren Publishing Everlasting Classic ManLove) Read online

  16 Gabrielle Evans

  conviction that Zavion was his true mate, his sienota. Apparently, the

  little fox-shifter had acted on pure instinct without really understanding why or what it meant.

  “I’ve never had a mate, didn’t even know they existed until a couple of months ago.” Zavion wrapped his arms around his midsection and rounded his shoulders like he was trying to curl in on himself. “I think about you all the time.” His cheeks tinted pink with the confession. “I dream about you.” The blush darkened to a bright red and crept up to the tips of his ears. “I think you’re gorgeous, and I have this weird urge to rub all over you until you smell like me. I just didn’t know what any of it meant.”

  It had been a complicated situation from the beginning, and Cian possibly hadn’t handled it as well as he could have. Although he’d been unsure which twin he was fated to be with, he’d always felt

  more drawn to Zavion.

  Unfortunately, that had proven to add to the problem rather than give him a solution. While he’d felt something more for Zavion, he hadn’t been sure if it was from a mating bond or just general attraction. What if Zuriel ended up being his intended? Picking one twin, only to find out he was destined to be with the other, was a recipe for disaster.

  Then there was the issue of how Zavion had come to be in Haven

  in the first place—naked, scared, and nearly starved to death for both food and affection. It had been mere luck that Cian and his brothers

  had found Zavion and his friends inside that cave in Missouri.

  After all the hell he’d been through, both inside that shithole lab he’d escaped from and while on the run from the men who operated it, Cian was wary to make any kind of move that might seem untoward. Maybe he should have just sat the brothers down from the start and laid it all out on the table. He couldn’t go back and change the past, but he could start building a brand new future with his mate.

  “We’ll take our time, Zavion. You can ask me anything. I have nothin’ to hide.”

  From This Moment 17

  “Why did you choose me? Is it just because I smell better than Zuriel? I mean, you just said you can’t tell us apart.”

  “Not true.” Reaching out to take Zavion’s hand, he tugged the man to him once more and wrapped him up in his arms. “Oh, darlin’, it’s not what you’re thinkin’. You are in every bloomin’ thought I have. I love your smile and your laugh. I’m lovin’ the way those big blue eyes are lookin’ at me right now.”

  “So, it’s not just because I smell good?” There was so much uncertainty in his tone, but he wasn’t trying to pull away again. “I mean, if you want my brother…”

  “Zuriel is right breathtakin’ . How can I not think so when you two look so much alike? No, I don’t want your brother, but I’m hopin’ we can be friends.” Dipping his head, Cian skimmed his nose up Zavion’s throat, inhaling deeply. “Aye, ya do smell mouthwaterin’, but that’s just a bonus.”

  How did he explain it so that Zavion would understand? Yes, he smelled amazing. Yes, Cian found every inch of his lithe body gorgeous. Sure, there had been a bit of confusion in the beginning, but the more he got to know Zavion, the more he thought about him until it had almost become an obsession.

  Yes, the twins were identical in a lot of ways, but there was just something about Zavion that made his heart beat quicker and his legs go weak when they were together. While Zuriel was very outspoken and eager to form relationships, Zavion was a bit more reserved. That guarded reservation didn’t make him seem unapproachable, however. In fact, Cian found it endearing as well as refreshing.

  Zavion’s smile alone could clear the darkest of clouds. His heart

  was as big as the wide open spaces, and he truly listened when someone spoke as opposed to simply waiting for his turn to speak. They hadn’t known each other long, but Cian felt he could tell the man anything, and he never had to worry if it would go beyond the two of them.

  18 Gabrielle Evans

  Gods, his sweet mate was just beautiful inside and out, and there were times Cian thought he’d go mad if he couldn’t get his hands on the little fox. How did he explain all of that to Zavion? How could he make him see that it went well beyond scent and physical attraction?

  In the end, he settled on the truth.

  “I like your brother fine, but it’s not him I think of when I’m lyin’ in bed at night. Yes, your scents are almost as identical as your looks, but it’s a fair bit more than that. You are the one I can’t get out of my head.”

  “Then why did you wait so long?” Zavion wasn’t going to make it easy on him, but that was fine. Cian didn’t want a doormat for a mate, who just rolled over and accepted everything he said as truth.

  “We don’t just pick our mates, Zavion. Fate guides us to each other.”

  “I know.” His cute button nose wrinkled. “Well, I mean, I didn’t.

  Boston kind of explained some of it to me, though.”

  “Well, now, while I’m feelin’ all confused, not sure which of ya is my mate, I was hopin’ it would be you.” He pecked Zavion’s lips when he started to argue. “Let me finish, darlin’. I hoped it was you, but I couldn’t be sure, what with your brother always glued to your hip. What if I’d followed my instincts, but Zuriel ended up being mine?”

  The growl that rumbled up from Zavion’s chest was full of possessive rage, and Cian smiled at the sexy sound. “You are mine.”

  “Aye, I am,” he confirmed. “But what if I wasn’t? Fate chooses our mates, and we can’t run from that, no matter how much we try. Just look at Boston. He tried runnin’, but he didn’t get far, did he?”

  Cian was pretty sure that Boston was damn glad his mates had been stubborn enough to chase after him. It had been pointless for him to try to deny his connection in the first place. Cian’s brother, Flynn, was a persistent asshole, and he could be very persuasive when he needed to be. Boston hadn’t stood a chance against the Irishman or his little vampire mate, Malakai.

  From This Moment 19

  “So…” Zavion trailed off, and his eyebrows drew together in

  concentration. “If you picked me and found out I wasn’t your

  mate … ” His eyes rounded comically. “Oh, that would have been ugly. Zuriel would have never forgiven me.”

  “Precisely. I don’t want to come between you and your brother, Zavion. I know how important he is to ya.” Cian had five brothers of his own, including a twin, and there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for them. If one of them made a play for his mate, however, heads would roll.

  “He is.” Sucking his bottom lip between his teeth, Zavion bobbed

  his head slowly. “So, you really are my mate?”

  “Yes.”

  “You’re really mine?”

  His need for reassurance was adorable. “Aye, my little fox, I’m truly yours.”

  “So if I wanted to kiss you again, that would be okay?”

  “More than okay,” Cian answered, his voice growing deeper, huskier. Inching backward, he eased down to the edge of the bed and pulled Zavion between his thighs to compensate for their height difference. “We don’t have to do anything you’re not ready for, though. As fast or slow as you’re wantin’.”

  In response, Zavion dove into his lap, grabbed his face in both hands, and attacked his mouth with enough heat to set the room ablaze.

  * * * *

  Yes, his br
other was very important to him. They’d been together since the womb, and no one on earth knew him better than Zuriel.

  They shared absolutely everything. Well, not this time. Cian was his, irrevocably his, and Zavion wanted him unlike anything he’d ever wanted in his life.

  20 Gabrielle Evans

  As his tongue swirled with Cian’s, his gut twisted with clawing need, and he couldn’t get close enough. He couldn’t suck enough air into his lungs, and he didn’t care. Those ebony locks were just as silky as he’d imagined them to be, and that hard, sculpted body was

  so warm, so inviting.

  A little voice inside his head insisted he was moving too fast. It

  had been what, three minutes since he’d discovered Cian was his

  mate? His attraction to the guy wasn’t anything new, though. He’d been lusting after the hunky Enforcer for months, and now that Zavion had his hands on him, all that pent-up desire was exploding from him, and he couldn’t stop it if he wanted.

  Feelings, emotions, commitments, loyalty, devotion, love—those were all words that just confused him and made his head hurt. Sex, however, he was good at. Slow and sensual, raw and primal, and any combination between was as easy as waking up in the morning.

  Then the reason those things were so easy for him came rushing to the forefront of his consciousness, dousing his ardor in a bucket of icy self-loathing. Shoving at Cian’s chest, he shot up from his mate’s lap like he’d been launched from a cannon and shook his head so fast it

  made him dizzy. “I’m sorry.”

  Cian looked stunned for only a moment before an easy, understanding smile tilted the corners of his mouth. “I’ll not lie and say I didn’t enjoy it. Feel free to ravish me whenever the mood

  strikes.” He held an outstretched hand to Zavion and wiggled his fingers. “Now, c’mere, and tell me what has you in a panic.”

  That smooth accent and soothing tone coaxed him forward right back into Cian’s arms—which, of course, was right where he wanted to be. “You know about The Hive and why I was there, right?”

  “I know most of it, yes.” There was a sugary sweetness to his tone that was more frightening than if he’d shouted. The smile on his lips didn’t quite reach his eyes, and his fingers flexed on Zavion’s hips, biting into the flesh in a bruising squeeze.

  “Cian?”

  From This Moment 21

  His hold became loose and tender once again, and he stretched his neck to peck Zavion on the forehead. “Apologies, darlin’. You were sayin’?”

  “And you know I’m a Desirable, right?” He winced when the grip on his waist tightened again. Maybe he should get to the point before Cian pinched him in half. “What I am. Does it bother you?”

  “Aye, it bothers me,” Cian answered immediately. “It bloody well pisses me off is what it does. If you’re wantin’ to know does it make me see you any differently, the answer is no.”

  “I can’t change what I am.” He wished he could. Every night, he tossed and turned, wishing with everything inside him that he wasn’t such a freak. If there was some magic pill he could take that would erase everything The Hive had made him become, he’d swallow it without question.

  “I’m not askin’ ya to,” Cian replied gently. “I think you’re pretty amazin’ just how you are.”

  The sentiment was sweet, but it didn’t fix anything. “Do you know exactly what a Desirable is?”

  “I know some.”

  “I can change my appearance at will, to anything you want. If you wanted me to have brown hair, I could do that.” He took a deep breath and forced the magic through him, making his hair grow out to his waist as the blond transitioned to a dark chestnut. “Or, say you liked bright green eyes instead of blue.” Another shiver up his spine, and from the look on Cian’s face, he knew his eyes were now the green he’d described.

  “Zavion.”

  He wasn’t done, though. “Maybe you’d like me to be taller so that you wouldn’t have to bend so far to kiss me.” The lengthening of his bones and muscles was a little painful, but within seconds, he’d grown six inches from his normal five foot three.

  22 Gabrielle Evans

  “Zavion, stop.” Cian brushed the long dark locks back from his face and cupped his cheek. “I know what ya can do, and this isn’t necessary. Change back for me, darlin’. This isn’t you.”

  No, it really wasn’t. A few ripples of whatever magic coursed through him and he was back to his regular appearance. “That’s not all I can do,” he whispered, shame and embarrassment heating his cheeks.

  “I know that, as well,” Cian confirmed in a voice barely louder than a whisper.

  Maybe he knew all of it, and maybe he didn’t. Either way, Zavion had to get it out, had to purge himself before he combusted under the pressure. “Any kink imaginable, anything you could ever want, from foreplay to needle play, I can do it. I only had one year of training, but it was extensive.”

  A soft, dangerous growl rumbled through Cian’s chest, and his nostrils flared as fury flashed through his eyes. When he spoke, though, his words were calm and measured. “That is not who you are. Bad things happen, but they only define us if we let them. You are desirable, Zavion, but you are no longer a Desirable, not if ya don’t want to be.”

  “I don’t want to be,” Zavion confirmed. “I don’t want to be a

  freak.”

  Cian’s fingers massaged the back of his neck, kneading the tense muscles there. “What is it ya do want?”

  “I just want to be normal. Well, normal for a shifter. I want my friends and family close. I want to shift when I want and not have to call anyone Master. I want to eat cold pizza for breakfast. I want to go camping, fishing, hiking, and all those other things I’ve never done. I

  want to have sex with who I want, when I want, and because I want

  to, not because it’s written in a fucking contract!”

  “Now, those are all right fine things to want,” Cian answered with

  a quirk of his lips. “I’m thinkin’ we might have a problem on this

  From This Moment 23

  whole ‘sex with who you want’ part, though. I’m not the sharin’ sort,

  ya see.”

  The response brought him up short for a heartbeat, and then snorts and giggles began to escape him until he was laughing right from his belly. Cian just had a way of making everything seem less formidable, and Zavion couldn’t have been more grateful. Now that he wasn’t feeling like he was going to vomit or shatter into a million pieces, maybe it was a good time to mark one of those things off his list.

  “I promise you are the only one I want in my bed, Cian Murphy.” Straddling the man’s powerful thighs, he looped his arms around Cian’s neck and pulled him closer until their lips were only a breath apart. “Sharing is overrated, anyway.”

  24 Gabrielle Evans

  Chapter Three

  The injustice Zavion had suffered at the hands of The Hive was unacceptable. They would pay dearly for what they’d done to his mate, but right then, Cian had very different things on his mind—like acquainting himself with every inch of Zavion’s body.

  Clothes were discarded and flung about the room haphazardly. Their lips locked, their tongues dueled, and the only time either of them came up for air was when Zavion pulled Cian’s shirt off over his head. After months of depriving himself of his mate, Cian couldn’t get enough of that delectable mouth or all the creamy, naked skin on display just for him.

  Zavion’s eagerness only added to the intensity of the experience, spiking Cian’s urgency to a higher level. At twenty-six, he was no blushing virgin, but never had he wanted someone like he did Zavion. An animalistic need to mark what belonged to him, to ensure that no one sought to claim what was his, rode him hard until it all but consumed him.

  He couldn’t count the number of ways he’d fantasized about taking Zavion. Wet dreams about the gorgeous fox-shifter had become an almost nightly occurrence. It probably should have c
lued him in as to which of the twins he was fated to be with, but still, he’d

  chosen to err on the side of caution.

  With no more doubts or uncertainties plaguing him, he was free to live out those late-night fancies until they both dropped from exhaustion. And that was exactly what he intended to do.

  Turning to the side, he pushed Zavion’s back to the mattress and insinuated himself between his mate’s thighs, still locked in a battle of

  From This Moment 25

  tongues, lips, and the occasional scrape of teeth. His cock throbbed to the point of pain, dripping translucent drops of pre-cum that smeared over Zavion’s hip.

  If Cian had ever had a type, it was definitely the man writhing beneath him. He didn’t much discriminate, but if given the choice, he’d always preferred the smaller, more petite men. Big, bulging muscles did absolutely nothing for him. Not that he was narcissistic, but he had plenty of muscles he could admire in the mirror if the mood struck.

  Mostly, he figured his preference came from a desire to be needed. He was a protector, a champion of the weaker, and had been since he was a little boy. With men his own size, it was a constant struggle for dominance, and he just didn’t have the patience for it.

  Zavion’s fingers tangled in his hair, and his legs wrapped around Cian’s waist, driving all thoughts from his mind other than getting inside his mate as soon as possible. It wasn’t very romantic of him, but with his Thoroughbred demanding he claim their mate and cement that last piece of the bond, he was fighting tooth and nail just to

  remain gentle with his smaller lover.

  Their naked cocks rubbed together as Zavion humped up against him, creating a friction that had Cian trembling with restraint. “Can’t go slow,” he warned through gasps for air. Gods, his mate deserved so much more, but there would be plenty of time for that once he could actually think beyond, “Mine. Fuck. Yes. Now.”