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Arlo Thorne was the greatest threat we had. It was a name spoken in the darkest parts of the night, uttered whenever death was near, and when a sight couldn’t be justified or rationalized, it was blamed on Arlo Thorne.
I’d made one promise in my life, and it was in the moment of Zander’s death. Protect my brother. Reluctantly and without grace, I had never broken that promise.
Arlo Thorne was a monster. And he was the worst kind of monster because he didn’t understand that he was one.
Karma was a bitch, and Fate was a jokester. Those pricks were always shoving us together when we least wanted it, but most needed it.
“How the fuck do you know what I taste like?” “I’ve licked.” What the fuck? “I’ve felt,” he continued. “I watched you break, and I watched you put the pieces together.” “Stalker.” “Yes.” “Why me?” “The taste.”
Fuck, he was creepy. A savagely beautiful nightmare come to life. What
“Not when you want to belong to someone.” “Who do you want to belong to?” “Nothing.” Me. I was nothing.
“I hate you for healing me while making me sicker.”
I crashed to my knees in front of Keiran, bowing before this god of sick health and worshipping all the ways he broke me.
When we’re young, we think of death as this long-away thing. It isn’t imminent or worrisome because we've got so much more time left. But what we forget to realize is that time can be the killer.
“I fucking pick you too, Zaden. Every goddamn time. I pick you.”
“I’m scared of losing you. Of missing you. Of wanting you more than you want me. Of pushing you away when you get tired of my phobias. Of having you and losing you in the same lifetime. I…I don’t think I’d survive it.”
“You psycho, Kei?” Cadoc asked. “For you,” Keiran answered Cadoc. “But not for this.”
I was ready to fight for this life I was starting to want.
“I’ll always find you. You chase all sorts of things, but I chase you.” “I chase you, too, remember?” His smile split his paint and morphed his bleeding nose. “It’s what makes you insane,”
“My spirit is a wolf. That’s why I’m only part wolf. When I’m not here with you, I’m watching you through my wolf’s eyes, stalking you with his paws, scenting you with his nose.”
“What do I smell like?” “Mine. My path, my purpose, my tether to this body.”
“You know what’s missing?” I asked him; he clucked his tongue. “I’ve gotten used to this paint being on my face.” I touched his lips and chin, my fingers smudging the black and white together with the red. “I taste it even when it’s not there. But I can’t taste it right now, Keiran.” He shut off the light and pulled it from his forehead. “Taste me.”
“I dreamed you up,” Keiran said. “Made you in my dreamscape.” “And brought me to life?”
“You escaped my nightmare and now I get to live in the dream with you.” “I haunted you too then.”
Keiran had painted him up for war, the skeleton paint on his face was opposite to Keiran’s. The white was black, and the black was white,
it didn’t much matter because if Cadoc died here under the building we called home, I’d bury myself with him to walk in the next life at his side.
I love you, Cadoc. Don’t stop. No. No, not happening. “Fuck you, Zan. You left. He’s mine now!” I warred with my twin to keep Cadoc from his deathly grip. “I’m keeping my goddamn promise to you, so fuck off.”
This was the fucked up part of life; the decision to save the man I hated but needed or the evil man who created the persona of an alter I was falling for.
“Rewrite me. Build my character. Get me through my crescendo of turmoil so we can chase the arc of our romance.”
“You telling me you love me, Kei?” My heart pattered out of control. “I’m telling you I’ll hunt you forever and howl at you for eternity.” So, love then. I smiled, happier than I’d been in…years. “You make the trip to insanity fun.” “I know, but you steer us there.”
“What will I see?” “Me.” “What do you look like?” I was learning how to speak this language faster than I’d ever learned anything. “Something you pulled out of a nightmare and turned into a dream.”
Because a dead man can’t fear a death that won’t come. He will live forever in agony.”
“So, you love me?” I dropped my shirt and tugged his pants down. “Do you love me, Finnegan?” “I trust you.” I kissed his collarbones. “I am not disgusted by you.” I kissed his chest. “I worry about you.” I licked his abs, sinking lower. “You swear too much and speak too loudly, and it no longer bothers me.” I pulled the hem of his underwear down, watching his hard dick spring free. “I tolerate your anger and crave your opinion.” He shivered when I licked the head of his cock, stumbling over his underwear. “I need you, want you, crave you, and miss you.” I took him into my mouth, already
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“Now we’re bound together for eternity. I will walk through your dreams, haunt your nightmares, stalk you in the waking world and bring you to my otherworld. You will never escape me.”
And we had Arlo. Arlo Thorne, the man the world feared and the man who created the men we loved.
