ReidReid barely looked up from Jasper as the medics carried him out to the street where the ambulance waited. He was aware of the house being filled with armed men from both packs searching through the possessions within the rooms, and, when they stepped out into the street, that the street was roped off, those civilian onlookers curious enough to brave being on the street in this neighbourhood pressing up against the ropes.He saw that the buildings to either side had also been invaded by the pack but had no chance to ask as Jasper was loaded onto the ambulance. Jasper took the spare chair and held onto Jasper’s hand as the ambulance sped off towards the hospital, sirens blaring and lights flashing.Jasper’s eyes fluttered, his mate surfacing from his faint.“It’s alright, Jasper,” Reid leaned forward so Jasper could see his face around the oxygen mask the medics had placed on him. “I’m here.”At the hospital, however, they were separated, with Jasper wheeled off towards the operati
Jasper Jasper surfaced slowly. He could hear unfamiliar sounds, muffled voices in the distance, many different beeps and squeals, and the rattle of trolleys. Reid was snoring somewhere nearby, and that was reassurance that wherever Jasper was, he was with his mate. Hospital, he thought as he fought to open his eyes. He was in hospital. He could vaguely remember moments of consciousness, where nurses and doctors had spoken to him. He remembered Reid crying and holding his hand, and his mother, father, and Charlotte… He managed to open his eyes. Yes, hospital, he agreed with himself. He turned his head and smiled as he saw that Reid slept on an armchair recliner next to him. A figure moved near the door and Jasper tensed as he looked over. A guard stood with his back to the room, adding sugar to a takeaway coffee cup. A werewolf, Jasper realized. He did not know if the man was Compton or Morrison, but his presence recalled to him talking to his father on the phone. His pack had come to
ReidExpensive perfume, antiseptic and leather was a heady mixture of scent that went with the low, wild, and wickedly sensual throb of the music from the live band playing in the club beneath the apartment.Reid leaned his head against the head rest of the couch and arched his back, lifting his arse cheeks from the stick of the leather seat, his hand gripping in Marcella’s wig, feeling it slip and pull against the grip of the glue that held it in place. “Oh… There… Mhm, like that,” he directed her mouth on his cock through his hold on her hair.The forbidden held a special edge of appeal, he admitted to himself. Would he have found a blowjob by Marcella as exciting if he hadn’t have known that ever senior wolf in the pack would consider the act taboo? He didn’t know. But the taboo definitely added to the experience for him, as, he suspected, it did for Marcella.He kept his eyes closed, surrendering to the sensation, the warm, wet suck, the thrust into the hollow of mouth that ended
ReidReid had not taken five steps across the glossy marble tiles in the foyer, his own reflection spilling back to him in tones of amber from the bronzed tinted mirrors that were not all what they seemed, many leading into the monitoring rooms of the 24-hour security team, before he was greeted by his father’s personal assistant, Vincent.“Master Reid,” Vincent fell into step with Reid as they crossed the foyer and pressed the button for the Morrison’s private elevator. “Your father asked for you.”Vincent’s hair had begun to recede two decades before, and despite several efforts to resurrect the hairline of his youth, he was fighting a losing battle – something that Vincent found humiliating, Reid suspected, as in his other form, Vincent was an impressively coated wolf. Probably because, from the neck down, Vincent was also an impressively haired man.Marcella, after a few too many champagnes, had confirmed what Reid had long suspected – that Vincent was a wolf in more than one way,
ReidBefore he returned to his evening, Reid crossed to the family side of the apartment. The moment that he opened the door, the sound of Bizet’s Carmen had his raising his eyebrows and sliding a look at Vincent who still accompanied him.Vincent shrugged slightly. “What preoccupies the king, preoccupies the queen,” he murmured.Reid grumbled his response as he crossed the generously sized lounge room with it’s elegant kitchen, to the glass conservatory that rattled with the sound of the opera. As he entered, he ordered the stereo to silence, and in the stillness that fell, he could hear the trickle of water from the automated watering system, but above it, the snip of shears.He followed that last sound around to where his mother was dead heading the roses.She looked up as he approached. “You got my message.”“I did,” he stooped and picked up a bloom that she’d deadheaded early, the bud at perfection. He breathed in the scent, before tucking it’s stem into his lapel. “What’s the pr
Jasper“This is… Ah,” Jasper pulled a face, gesturing out with his hands, causing the tailor to pause in his adjustments of the fit of the jacket. “I mean,” he continued apologetic to the man. “It’s very nice, I’m sure, but…”“You are the King of Diamonds,” Charlotte laughed at him, flicking the lace fan that she held, the hearts unfolding into a chain of blood-like red against the froth of white. “You have to sparkle, Jasper.”“Yeah,” he drew the word out. “I think I outsparkle the sun in this costume however.” The suit was black, thankfully, but it was embroidered with gold thread and sequins and crystals competed to outshine each other, stiffening the fabric. The trousers were so form-fitting that they left nothing to the imagination, and the waistcoat was cut to emphasize that.The jacket, with it’s stiff fabric, when buttoned offered some relief, covering what felt to be the emphasis of his groin. The tailor, however, was folding back the hem with the obvious intention to pin it
Jasper“He’s coming this way,” Charlotte whispered digging her elbow into Jasper’s side. “Close your mouth.”Jasper forced his lips into a stiff smile as the Knave held out his hand and he accepted it. “Hello.”“Ah, my King, greetings,” the Knave of Heart’s grin was charming and wicked and his hand in Jasper’s lingered beyond a strictly polite handshake. “I promise I won’t steal your diamonds.” His grey-blue eyes held Jasper’s just as firmly as his hand did. Locking eyes in such a way with the masked stranger was intense and intimate, and Jasper found himself flushed and flustered, the throb of his cock echoing the race of his heart.“Just your heart.”Jasper wasn’t sure he heard the words, or simply wished that they had been spoken, and yet they hung in the air between them, sending a shiver of desire across his skin. The rest of the party, the press of bodies around them, the cacophony of voices fighting to be heard over the music, all faded away. They were alone in the ballroom wit
Jasper“Wow,” the Knave commented from behind him. “Look at this place.”The folly had been built as a conservatory in the shape of an octagon, the roof domed dramatically high overhead, and the floor an elaborate mosaic of brightly colored tiles forming flowers, leaves, and curling vines. Roses grew up the supporting pillars to the roof as a testimony to its origins, although they were the only things still growing there other than the marijuana plant in the bathroom that Jasper had brought home with him from college.In his teen years, Jasper had claimed the space as his art studio, fitting it out with lights and a stereo, a bathroom, and a kitchenette. During his last holidays at home, he’d added the wrought iron bed, which had meant that he could work at his art for as long into the night as he liked, without waking anyone from the household with his comings and goings.And that was what he had done since coming home. He spent his days and nights painting, falling into bed when he