James glared at him over his shoulder, a low growl rolling up his chest. "Don't let topping me go to your head."

Unable to resist, Kevin dropped a kiss on his nose.

"It's not my head it's going to."

Snatching up the lube, he thoroughly coated his fingers. Sliding in one finger, he waited until James relaxed around it before he moved in and out to loosen his lover's puckered hole. "Ready for another?"

50.

James scooted towards Kevin's hand, trying to urge him to hurry. "Fuck me."

"Not yet."

Carefully adding more lube, he slid in another finger. After making sure his lover had loosened, he added a third.

"Now!"

"You are big on topping from the bottom, aren't you?"

"I'm an alpha, honey."

As far as James was concerned, that said it all, and Kevin couldn't argue. There wasn't a submissive bone in his lover's body. Even as he lined up to sink into James, the other man shoved backwards, impaling himself on Kevin's body.

"Yes, fuck me hard!"

Kevin spread his knees to brace himself better on the mattress. Fingers biting into James's hips, he held on tight as he plunged into the other man, making certain he hit the perfect spot with each slide. The first time for anyone should be special, even if the alpha never let him have this level of control again.

James whimpered on the end of Kevin's cock, clenching and releasing in a gratifying manner, until the wizard couldn't hold back any more. Reaching around, he 51 *

wrapped his fingers around James's hardness, pumping in concert with the motion of his hips, concentrating on making his lover come before he threw his back out.

"Yes!" With a howl, James spurted his release into the pillow. Clenching his ass, he yanked Kevin into orgasm along with him. The smell of their passion filled the room.

Sweaty and satisfied, he draped himself across the strong back of his lover as he tried to catch his breath.

After a sigh and a kiss between his lover's shoulder blades, Kevin fell to the side, gasping.

With a flick of the wrist, James tossed the soiled pillow to the floor, wrapped an arm around Kevin, and hauled him into the little spoon position.

Snuggling in close, he kissed Kevin's neck where it met his shoulder. "You win; you can have me anytime."

His deep voice rumbled against Kevin's skin.

He laughed. He couldn't help it. The satisfaction in his lover's voice fed his ego.

"You were my first. I've never topped before." He felt safe confessing after the fact.

James's smile against his skin sent tingles down Kevin's spine. "And you know I've never bottomed."

Kevin tilted his head back until he met the alpha's eyes over his shoulder. "Don't let me hear of you bottoming for someone else either."

52.

"Are you claiming me?" The alpha's voice held an odd, neutral tone.

Swallowing the lump in his throat, Kevin sighed.

"Not yet, but I have to say the idea isn't quite so scary." In fact, the thought of James touching someone else in the same intimate manner made him more than slightly ill. He rubbed his stomach even as James's hand rubbed his chest.

James held him tightly, conveying his affection through touch and the occasional brush of lips across Kevin's cheek and ear, and all the little bits of skin he could reach.

"Let's take a shower then get a bite to eat."

Kevin nodded. Strangely reluctant to leave his cocoon of blankets, he turned his head and kissed James before sliding out of bed.

The shower was hot and sudsy, but as they were both worn out, it was more about cleaning than anything else.

53.

Chapter Three.

For the next two weeks, Kevin spent more time at the pack house than his dorm. Occasional visits to his room to grab some clothes and catch up with the triplets led to updates on Dean and Lisa's relationship. The pair got along great; he'd never seen his friend look so happy, and Lisa all but glowed when he saw her in class.

Tired after a long day and a bout of energetic sex, Kevin crawled into bed and landed face down on the soft bedding. He could easily stay there forever. A large hand stroked his naked back.

"You okay?" James's deep voice made his body valiantly try to rise again.

"Tired," he mumbled into his pillow.

He lifted his head at the sound of a phone ringing.

"I think that's yours. I'll grab it." James slid off the bed and returned to hand him his still ringing cell phone.

The readout said it was Dean. He probably wanted to go grab pizza or something. It had been a while since he'd hung out with the trio.

"What's up, Dean?"

"Lisa is missing."

"What?" Exhaustion tugged at him. Surely, he'd heard wrong.

54.

"I said Lisa is missing. She was supposed to meet me at the movies. Her roommate says she left to meet me, but she never showed. She's two hours late."

Kevin sat up straight, all signs of sleep fading from his brain. Lisa worshipped at the altar of punctuality. In her mind, if you weren't early, you were already late. For her to be two hours late and not call... it was unheard of.

Dean continued talking as Kevin slid out of bed to find his clothes.

"I called her and got her voicemail. I got worried and went to her dorm. Her roommate said Lisa never came back. She hasn't seen her since she left for our date."

"Maybe she ran into a friend or something. I don't think we need to panic." Even as he tried to soothe Dean, he quietly panicked. In his gut, he knew something had happened to Lisa.

Dean's voice took a hard edge. "How about the fact she didn't call her brother for his birthday? She was supposed to call him when we got together so I could talk to him on the phone. She adores her baby brother and has never forgotten to call him. They haven't heard from her either."

Kevin glanced at the clock. Close to midnight.

"What do you want me to do?"

"Could you grab Jay and bring one of the werekin 55 *

with you? They might be able to track her. I tried calling him earlier, but his phone was turned off."

Kevin didn't feel bad being second choice. If he had an emergency, he'd call Jay first too, though he had a suspicion a certain beta was behind Jay's cell phone shut down.

"I'll see what I can do. I'll meet you at her dorm.

Did you call campus security?"

"Yeah, they said she hasn't been missing long enough for them to intervene."

Kevin privately agreed, but he'd rather err on the side of caution and have her mock him over the fuss, than do nothing and discover later she ran into trouble. There were a lot of potential dangers for a young woman, even one with strong magical abilities.

Hanging up, he turned to see James already dressed.

"You didn't think you were going alone, did you?"

Kevin laughed. "I thought I'd take Jay."

"Good. We'll grab him and Thomas on the way out."

Quickly dressing, Kevin followed the other man out the door.

56.

After collecting Jay and Thomas, they met the triplets at Lisa's dorm.

"Any word?" Kevin asked, hoping she'd shown up and they'd just forgotten to call.

Dean shook his head. "It would be one thing if I thought she was blowing me off, but even if she didn't want to date me anymore, she'd call and tell me. She wouldn't just dump me after agreeing to see a movie with me. She isn't like that."

Kevin silently agreed. When his friend first called, he thought Dean was overreacting to being stood up, but the more he heard, the more certain he became. Something had happened to Lisa.

"Kevin, call your avatar."

"What?" He turned to Jaynell. The other wizard watched him with a solemn gaze. "Why?"

"Gargoyles are great trackers. If anyone can find her, it's Crag."