The Beast Within by Terra Laurent Page A

werewolves suffered a weak period after shifting, then the humans hunting them would alter their attack strategies, much to the detriment of the weres.
    And so the nagging human thoughts resume. Aaron pried himself off the floor.
    “Normalcy wins every time, mi hombre guapo.” Carlos’ voice joined his own thoughts.
    Giving in, he staggered over to the European closets lining half of the far wall. He pulled open the doors of the first cabinets and grabbed a T-shirt and a pair of track pants, both of which hung neatly on hangars. Despite his gloomy mood, he chuckled. He had never seen anyone hang sweats before. It was downright strange. He glanced down at the long single row of drawers at the base of the cabinets. Could a man have so many pairs of underwear and socks that he needed every drawer? It was too tempting a question not to look.
    With a quick glance at the open railing and stairs, Aaron squatted and pulled open the first drawer. Socks. He moved to the next. Instead of the expectant underwear, he discovered a pile of porn DVDs, each of them showing beautiful men being pleasured by heavily muscled gods. Cocks in asses. Cocks in mouths. Cum on lips and tongues. Ropes and handcuffs dominated the covers. It turned his thoughts to earlier, and despite the negative situation, the memory of the restraints buzzing against his wrists sent a thrill through him. Before Carlos, he had been content to simply find a nice guy who had his own job and apartment, could tolerate his frequent sudden and mysterious career-related travel and was content to throw a weekly quick fuck and maybe a blow job into the equation. After his transformation, life had been exciting enough. Restraints were for keeping mad weres like him from killing people. Using them for anything else had never entered his mind. Even now he found it difficult separating the notion of sexual bondage from hostile prisoner status. But looking down at the images on the movie covers he felt a stirring of curiosity, the same excitement he had felt earlier with Tony, titillation at the confident certainty of purpose and pleasure the covers conveyed. While he wasn’t keen on being hogtied anytime soon, he wondered what it would be like to tie up Tony and do to him some of the things the photos suggested. The notion made him hard.
    “I see you found my…clothes.”
    Aaron turned his head to find Tony standing at the top of the stairs. He hastily bunched the pants and shirt in front of him to hide his erection.
    “Do they fit?” Once again Tony was wearing that confident, charming smile, the one that sought to assure him they were friends.
    This time, however, Aaron wasn’t sure he could buy it.
    “I think you and my things are a perfect fit.”
    “Again with the double talk,” Aaron snapped. “Here you are hitting on me, or pretending to hit on me, and you just called me in to Kapre. Is this another trick? See if I’m dumb enough to let you tie me up and wait for the cavalry again?”
    “I didn’t report you.” Tony moved closer. He tossed Aaron’s phone on the bed so he could reach it. “Didn’t turn on your red alert tracker, either.”
    “Why not?” Aaron tried to hide the relief from his voice as he turned his back and pulled on the clothes. He faced Tony as he secured his phone in his waistband, thankful the pants were baggy enough to conceal his fading erection.
    “Why should I? You were the victim of an attack. And I’ve seen you shifted. You were no threat to me just now. Just the opposite. You saved my life. Qi was going to choke me to death.”
    “I know.”
    “So, I’m sorry.”
    “You’re sorry you seduced me and made me look like a fool? Or, you’re sorry because you were nearly killed and I had the decency to stop it, despite your asinine behavior?”
    “Both.”
    “Well, then.” Aaron turned away and began closing the drawers. “I’ll have your clothes clean and waiting for you on your desk tomorrow. Braven will have my