Cry Wolf (Big Bad Wolf, #5)

by Charlie Adhara

Cooper felt the brief, alarmed pang of recognizing your parent as mortal and unfamiliar.

“I see you’ve been speaking with the voice I hear in my head at three a.m. while paralyzed with anxiety. Good, good.”

He leaned closer to Cooper. “Do you want me to fight someone for you?”

Choose a location significant to your relationship? Most of ours are crime scenes.”

“Eli,” Cooper said as Dean crashed to an astonished stop beside him. “In the flesh.” Eli flourished his hand and crossed his legs, as prim and elegant as a tea party. “And the fur.” “And not much else,” Cooper noted.

“A technically true statement, if characteristically lacking in flair,” Eli said archly. “Antony and Cleopatra met. Romeo and Juliet met. It’s what happened after that’s become the stuff of legends.”

They’d only been moved into the house for less than a month and Cooper was still waking up most nights positive they were under siege, only to have Park roll over, still half asleep, and identify the “attackers” for him. Jus’ a fox. Same owl as last night. Come back to bed. Frogs. Yes, I’m positive. Yes, that one, too.

“What are you doing right now? Be honest,” Park added swiftly. “Don’t act like you’ve rigged yourself up to the headboard with a couple of dildos and a blindfold or whatever.” Cooper snorted. “So that’s what does it for you, huh? Honestly, right now I’m sitting on your bed bench thing, looking at myself in that big haunted mirror of yours, trying to remember if I’ve ever actually had sex before, and if so, did I like it.” “You have. You did. I did, too.” Park’s tone was very conversational, like they could be talking about anything. “In fact, you’re very good at it. So much so that sometimes it’s all I can think about. The way your scent changes when you want to fuck. The way you look at me across a room like I belong to you, like you know all you have to do is crook your finger and I’ll come running over, begging for it. The satisfied little grunts that turn to whimpers when you just start to lose control. The way you taste right before you come down my throat.” Cooper exhaled a little shakily. In the mirror, his reflection was wide eyed and clutching the phone now with both hands.

Park still sounded completely unbothered. “Sometimes I can’t stop thinking about it. Like in the mornings, when I wake up, before I go on my run, and you’re still asleep next to me. And you smell like sex. And you’re making these needy little noises and rubbing against me. All I want to do is roll you over and rut into you. I think about it so much I have to get up and jerk off in the bathroom instead. I have to bite into my own hand so I don’t wake you.” “You could do that,” Cooper said. His voice cracked and he had to clear his throat.

“Someday I’m going to snap and give you what you’re so clearly desperate for. Is that what you want?” “Yes,” Cooper whispered. “I want it. Tell me.” “It would be some early morning after we already fucked the night before, so you’re still a little sweet and soft and open for me. I could put you on your side and work my fingers into you easily enough that you’d think you were still dreaming. I would let you use me how you like. Let you rock on my fingers while my other hand would stroke your body, tease you, touch you everywhere except where you need it. And when you try to reach for yourself, I’d trap your hands behind your back.” Cooper made a soft, involuntary sound. “Why?” “Because it’s my turn to do whatever I want. And what I want is for you to wake up hard and wild and desperate for it when I finally work my dick all the way into your tight little hole. So far gone already that the only thing you can do is lie there and take it as I wrap my arms around your body, trap you against my chest, and grind deep and slow. Yes?” “Yeah,” Cooper choked.

“People like to throw around words like closure and forgiveness, but I’ve long suspected that’s because they don’t want to admit how often healing is cruelly arbitrary. Some things just hurt until they don’t anymore and no one can tell you why, so they pretend you must have gotten closure.”

“He’s just...” Easily enamored with beauty, softer and more delicate inside than anyone else could ever guess from looking at him, a bit of a secret hedonist—

“I left you something hot in the kitchen,” Eli said around a spoon, not looking away from the TV. “Should probably go check on it before it boils over.” He waved him away dismissively. Cooper just rolled his eyes, unwilling to spar before caffeine, and made his way into the other room. Then froze, astounded. “Oliver?” Park was standing at the stove poaching eggs. He looked up and smiled. “Finally. I was beginning to worry El—” Cooper walked right up and hugged him.

“If you’re buttering me up to break the news about your overnight guest, it’s too late, the jig is up,” Park said, a little brokenly as Cooper delicately nosed along the tendon of his neck. “Don’t be ridiculous. If I wanted to butter you up,” Cooper said, kissing the hollow of Park’s collarbone, “I’d do something more like this.” He dragged his lips up his throat until he could mouth at the soft, vulnerable spot below the chin and felt Park go boneless against him. Cooper kneaded his hands gently up Park’s back, enjoying the play of powerful muscles there, the obvious strength, docile and trembly beneath his hands.

As far as building a pack went, Cooper had contributed Boogie, and though she certainly doted on Park, that wasn’t exactly the same thing, was it?

Sophie turned to Park. “You know, it’s never too late to call off this engagement. You’re a catch, you’ll find someone.” Park sighed. “I was cursed by an old witch to find him charming.”

“My bright, clever boy.” Neil smiled, and Cooper felt a flush of heat through his body that had nothing to do with pleasure. He leaned forward. “Don’t talk to me like that.” Neil matched his pose, bringing their faces closer together. “What’s the matter? Don’t like it when I stroke your ego anymore?” “Nah. You never could quite get the rhythm right.”

In short, their life together. The mashing together of two different people from two different worlds who had sort of just fallen into each other, wholly unexpectedly, unwillingly, uncontrollably.

For both of them, the last year and a half had been as much about feeling safe enough to heal as it had been about falling in love. An opportunity neither had taken for granted. It had been Cooper’s joy and privilege to see Park open to him slowly, softly. To catch more and more frequent glimpses of the sweet, vulnerable man behind the blank mask and call him his.

Cooper knew they were in it for the long haul like he knew the world was round or Mother’s closing monologue of Psycho.

Cooper didn’t just want to make it. He wanted them to thrive. He wanted Park to feel the sort of nurtured, safe, joyful, happy that he’d given up on as an abandoned child. Cooper would get it back for him if it was the last thing he did. That was his own personal vow that had nothing to do with human matrimony rituals and everything to do with the man Cooper wanted to be for himself, for Park, for their lives together.

Eventually Cooper let go, and Park looked over his shoulder. “That’s the third hug of the day, you know,” he said, curiosity burning in his expression. “My diary entry tonight is going to be rife with exclamation marks and hearts.”

“Thinking about what?” “Oh, nothing new. Just how I’m going to love the ever-living fuck out of you for as long as you let me,” Cooper said.

“Is this foreplay or the start of a training montage?” He arched his spine suggestively. “‘Cause if you want, I’ll let you teach me how to bend my knees properly, either way.”

Park’s hand rested defensively over his pocket. “Tell you what, if you’re so curious, why don’t you put these legendary ten years of experience in the field to use and come take it from me?” A surprised laugh escaped Cooper. “Is that a challenge? “For me? Not at all. Not even if I was blindfolded. With one hand behind my back.” Cooper snorted, but couldn’t deny the flicker of excitement and interest as well. Park’s cockiness awoke...something in him. Competitiveness, perhaps. Or something even more primal.

“Hey!” Cooper protested. “Can you see?” “Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind,” Park said, smirking. “And the ears. And the nose.” “What does love smell like then?” Cooper said, taking a step back with one last reassuring squeeze to Park’s thigh. “At the moment, a bit like catnip, unfortunately,” Park said, but smiled fondly, looking much more relaxed now.

The blindfold wasn’t going to slow Park down any more than sticking a clothespin on his nose would slow down Cooper, and from the amused quirk to his lips, Park had always known it.

Cooper took a long, uninhibited look and couldn’t regret the turn things had taken. Blindfolded and barefoot, with his shirt untucked and the first couple of buttons undone and his hair in disarray from Cooper’s fingers, Park should have looked utterly vulnerable, but he didn’t. There was a predatory sort of stillness to him as he easily tracked Cooper. The juxtaposition of it was, well, erotic, for some reason. Like the blindfold had done nothing but highlight certain qualities Park usually kept hidden.

Cooper had the sudden sensation of being on the edge of another exhilarating fall. You’ll have this forever, he thought suddenly. This moment. This memory. No matter what happened in the future, no one could take away the fact that imperfect Cooper Dayton had found his ...

He lasted twice as long before Park caught him around the waist and tugged him close. But having anticipated this, Cooper was already shooting his hand up between them to grab the back of Park’s neck. “Got you,” Cooper said. Park went strangely motionless, not even breathing, the wolf of him docile and submissive to the dominating touch at his nape. Cooper knew instinctively he could claim his prize—the mystery item that had started all this—and Park still wouldn’t move or protest. Instead, Cooper leaned in and nudged Park’s nose with his own. “Kiss?” he asked softly. Park’s arms immediately came up around him and pulled their mouths together, one hand fisting into Cooper’s hair, the other cupping his ass and pulling him firmly closer and closer until Cooper had to break away with a gasp.

He stood, quickly shucking his clothes and rescuing the lube from his pants pocket. He tossed it underhand at the couch and felt a flicker of adrenaline when Park caught it in the air without sight.

Cooper pressed his lips to Park’s. It didn’t have the finesse of a kiss so much as it was breathing together, panting into each other’s mouths.

When he finally began to move, rolling his hips, his own dick brushed maddeningly against Park’s shirt, wilted with the humidity of their sex-hot bodies. Cooper fumbled at the buttons and yanked it down to his elbows, trapping Park’s arms at his sides. The sight of him restricted by his clothes sloppily pushed to the side, blindfolded and sitting low on the couch, and the way he felt distractingly large inside Cooper with every circle of his hips made soft pleasure sharpen into a different need. Cooper began to ride him properly, with intent. “God, you feel so good,” he gasped, bouncing in Park’s lap. “So deep.”

Park dug his head back against the couch cushions and whined, clearly struggling to keep still. “Cooper, my Cooper...” he ...

“How are you so beautiful,” he whispered, and tentatively rolled his hips. Park’s eyes fluttered and he abruptly growled, ripping out of his tangled shirt with a flash of claws. Free, he grasped Cooper’s ass firmly, holding him in place on his dick as he stood. Cooper gasped and clung to Park’s back as he was picked up and turned around before being eased down on the couch. Flat on his back, legs bent and spread with Park positioned between them, pressing his thighs back, Cooper grabbed the blindfold hanging loose around Park’s neck.

“Fuck me. I want you to fuck me.” “How do you want me to fuck you? “Hard,” Cooper begged. “So hard I can’t move tomorrow without remembering who—who I belong to.” Park snarled, pulled back, then slammed into Cooper. At this position it felt impossibly deep, and a prickle of tears appeared as Cooper’s heart launched up into his throat. Not pain, exactly, but surprise and that bone-deep ache of being completely and utterly taken.

“Whose ass is this?” Park demanded. “Tell me who owns your slutty little hole?” “Yours, yours,” Cooper said. He started to moan, approaching the edge now, punctuated by gasps and the slap of flesh on flesh.

“I got what I came for.” He snorted with his eyes closed. “Came for, heh.” His face landed heavily back on Park’s chest. “Your surrender is all the reward I need.” “It’s true. I did surrender,” Park murmured, sounding soft and even a little surprised. “I surrender everything to you, heart and soul.” Cooper hoped he said something nice back before he drifted off completely, but couldn’t be sure. With Park, sometimes it was hard to tell what was real life and what was just a really lovely dream.

“You’ve seen her show?” Cooper asked, surprised. “Oh, yeah. More than once. Years ago. She had a minor role. The little town of Crete had to deal with a new monster every week. They never did werewolves, which was disappointing, but there was a siren named Sebastian on season five that, ooof.” Park blew out a long breath. “Let’s just say he could wreck my ship any day.” Cooper laughed, astonished. “Oliver Park, I’m literally speechless.”

“It probably won’t fit perfectly, but I promise you won’t be too embarrassed to be seen with me in front of your foundation friends.” Park laughed. “Cooper, there isn’t a room in the world I would be embarrassed to walk into with you by my side. Not even if you were wearing a sunflower on your head.”

“But in addition to being my partner, my...whatever the opposite of alpha is, the horizon that my first and last thought touches every day, and my hands-down favorite lay, you’re also my best friend, Oliver. And maybe that doesn’t sound as big of a deal because, you know, not a lot of competition. But it’s true. You’re my best friend and you make me feel like I can do anything. I just... I want you to feel that too.” Cooper cleared his throat. “Uh, the bit about feeling supported, I mean. I’m not demanding you say I’m your best friend back. I haven’t made us half-moon bracelets or anything.” Park’s eyes crinkled as he smiled softly. He put his hand on top of Cooper’s and entwined their fingers. “Have I told you I love you recently?”

“You can always tell me what you want out of life and I’ll always be first pick on your heist team ready to help you get it.” “As often as I like?” “Dreams change. People change. Please just don’t stop giving me the chance to change with you.”

Behind him, Eli shifted his position, tucking his long face alongside Cooper’s thigh, and without thinking, Cooper let his hand drift into the fur behind his neck. Enough of the anger eased for him to sound calm when he spoke.

“But I’d be lying if I said seeing you like this—put together and unfazed while he walks away frustrated and stinking of lust—doesn’t make me want to take you apart piece by piece right here and now.” Cooper raised an eyebrow, feeling the starting prickles of arousal in his balls tighten and solidify into a pulsing want as Park continued. “I’d also be lying if I said it doesn’t make me hard as stone knowing to everyone else you’re untouchable and in control while I can turn you into a shaking, dripping, begging mess.”

“I’m going to play with you as long as I please.” He squeezed Cooper’s cock quickly through his briefs. “And by the time I decide I’m done, you’re going to be on the floor, ass in the air, begging like a whore.”

In reward, Park’s hands got a little rougher, massaging the cheeks, pulling them apart, until finally he tugged Cooper’s shirt up, completely exposing him to the air. Cooper let out an embarrassing whimper, clenching shyly, feeling that initial moment of vulnerability. Park groaned softly and then slapped his ass with his palm. Cooper gasped, jerking forward. “Don’t hide from me,” Park said, smoothing over Cooper’s ass cheek with the flat of his hand, and then slapped the same spot once, twice more. Cooper whined and shifted in place, trying very hard to relax. He looked over his shoulder to see Park examining him very intently before abruptly bending to kiss where he’d spanked.

“Waist up you look entirely respectable.” He tapped the head insistently against Cooper’s hole, jerking himself off against him. His voice was getting grittier. “Waist down you’re presenting to me like a good little cock slut.” Cooper moaned, pushing back, and felt heat splash across his ass, and then again, followed by the slow slide of it down his crack, his balls. Park made a small, wounded sound and seemed to gather what he could and push it insistently into Cooper’s hole, until it was all just too much and Cooper whined, pleading.

“You are my favorite part of living,” Cooper whispered. “I’d do anything for you.” It was a confession more than anything else. Not necessarily something he thought was right or took pride in, but dug from the deepest and most private part of his mind, unsightly and true. “I’m yours,” Park murmured simply. And for the first time, Cooper didn’t see it as having a power and dominance over him that he’d never wanted, but as a rare and fragile responsibility that Park had gifted Cooper in love.

“You’re about to own a resort,” Cooper reminded him. “We’re about to own a resort,” Park corrected, scanning the auction offerings.

“He’s a slippery, piquant bastard who believes a marquess’s rapier is an achievable personality type, and so horrifically attractive he looks like—like singing woodland creatures help him dress in the morning. I can’t stand him.” “Clearly,” Park said, amused. “Sometimes I look like a woodland creature. And I helped you get dressed a couple hours ago. I can hum a little tune next time if it makes you feel special.”