the best snowflake by far. At school dances, Jack Henry’s rhythm and grace had made him a sought-after partner. Later, he’d starred in shows that bordered on professional, put on by the local dance company and featuring him right in the center. Now, he glanced doubtfully at the floor of the cabin, which was taken up almost entirely by mattresses. A few of the uncovered floorboards were warped, and random nails extruded from others. The cabin was hardly a theater.
Jasper turned on the radio, scanning through the dial until Jack Henry pushed his hand aside to hit play on the cassette player. A rock ballad not unlike the ones they’d been singing along to on the drive over filled the room.
“I’ve been practicing something,” Jack Henry said shyly. “For my mate. To show him I was glad we were mates. I didn’t know who he’d be, but I hoped I’d be glad.”
Elias rubbed his chest. This dance hadn’t been intended for him. It’d been intended for Saul or Jasper, for whoever Jack Henry had dreamed about in his room at night while Elias was dreaming about him.
“You-all sit over there,” Jack Henry directed, pointing to the wall facing their dual mattresses. Only a few feet of space separated the bed from the wall, but the three of them arranged themselves in it, sitting on the floor with their backs against the wall, looking at the conjoined mattresses where they would all sleep tonight.
Jack Henry kicked off his shoes and pulled his shirt over his head, then climbed onto the bed. He straddled the juncture where the two mattresses met, dressed only in a pair of blue jeans that cupped his package and hugged his ass.
“You won’t sprain an ankle dancing on something so flexible?” Elias worried aloud.
“This was intended to be a bed dance. If Jasper wants to see me do jetés, he’ll have to wait until I’ve got room for it.”
“A bed dance sounds great,” Jasper said, his voice thick.
The three of them were fully dressed, shoes and all, but the room had already filled with the scent of arousal. With the full moon having peaked last night, they had nothing to blame for being so immediately ready to go except the bond. The bond and—for Elias—the simple fact of Jack Henry’s existence.
Jack Henry started by swaying—rocking to the plaintive rhythm of the music. He closed his eyes, tilting his chin up and dropping his head back to expose his throat. Jasper’s claiming bite sat at the base of it—two round, red marks, permanent like a scar but more beautiful than unmarred skin could ever be. He glowed as he added arm movements, fluttering his hands like butterflies across the wind-blown reed of his body. He touched himself, skittering over the rosy points of his perky nipples and down the centerline of his taut body. Definitely a bed dance.
Elias was between Jasper and Saul. Warmth emanated from them as they sat so perfectly still that he could feel the tension in their immobility. They wanted to jump, to pounce, but they held themselves back, their hands curled into fists, their thighs clenched.
Elias forced his head back against the wall, determined to enjoy and endure the erotic torture of watching Jack Henry dance for them. Jack Henry’s hands moved to his fly as his hips swung in wider circles. He lowered his chin and opened his eyes, making eye contact with each of them in turn as they struggled to meet his gaze instead of focusing on what his fingers were doing, on that slow unveiling, button by button, of what hid behind his jeans.
When he flipped open the last button, an audible gasp filled the room, though he exposed nothing except a flash of lilac. He turned his back to them and circled his ass as he shimmied his jeans down, revealing more of the lilac. He was wearing briefs—very brief ones. A darker purple stained the center where slick had dampened them, and the smell of slick gradually overcame the smell of alpha pheromones as Jack Henry’s grinding motion dispersed his scent around the room.
Jasper growled, a low rumble indicative of desire rather than menace, but the sound made the hairs stand up on Elias’s arms. Jasper was his alpha—his leader and his packmate—but he was also a stranger, one who’d swooped in to claim the man Elias loved right in front of him. Elias didn’t know if he wanted to bond with Jasper or kill him.
Jack Henry