Kelvin #5: MM Fated Mates (Tangled Tentacles), page 2
I wonder if that Thalassa accountant has any fresh leads for me yet.
Chapter Two
Kelvin
Kelvin couldn’t help but think about how quiet the building seemed without Todd, his mates, and the girls, as he wandered down the hallway to his office.
Alexi appeared out of the conference room, as usual carrying a baby in his arms. Marin if Kelvin wasn’t mistaken. The boy was really starting to take after Alexi. “Kelvin, where’s Todd? I’ve tried twice to reach out to him and he’s blocking me.”
“And you’re surprised by that? You made your feelings clear, and Todd made his clearer. Get your head out of your a-s-s and see sense. Markov is mated to Cassius. He’s been through so much. He saved Markov.” Kelvin jabbed at his office door, his mind full of what he’d seen on the hard drive only hours ago, “He saved Markov from the clutches of a damn madman. One who killed our parents. Doesn’t that count for something?”
The argument had been raging for days. Alexi was hard-headed and so stubborn, at times like this Kelvin wanted to boot his damn ass.
Alexi’s cheeks became a deep crimson as he answered through their link. Cassius denied his mate for years. He put Azim at risk.
For a fucking good reason. This is getting old. You and Victor are causing a rift in this family. Cassius had his son taken, was blackmailed into hoping to keep him alive, then told he was dead. It’s in the file. The dude on the boat has clearly documented, the precise fucker, what they did with Riley. Yet, he's survived and had been cared for. Someone out there used Cassius. How the fuck would you feel if that happened to Marin?
It couldn’t. I’d never let anyone take my child.
Ooh, your arrogance. You work, you have to leave your babies. Danik was kidnapped. How easy was that? You have a short memory, brother. Markov has saved your ass more than once, and Victor’s. Get over yourselves before you two find yourselves isolated from the rest of us! On that, Kelvin spun on his heel, the nagging decision about whether he should go and see Special Agent Fallows in person made for him.
It wasn’t often he needed space from his family, but right now he’d had it up to the back teeth with Alexi and Victor. He also wanted to take some of his own frustration at how Fallows seemed to think Kelvin was his personal researcher, out on the man himself. Kelvin also needed the FBI lab and staff to work on the envelope and paper that had arrived the day before from Markov. Kelvin didn’t have access to the specialists the FBI had, or he did, but they’d only ask too many questions, ones he wasn’t prepared to answer. Fallows owed him and it was now time to collect.
In his apartment he packed a bag, one that would last him a week if needed. He dithered over bringing the bag Markov had brought from Andromeda’s ship as he packed his laptop. Going with his gut, he packed everything he had. For all of Fallows’ faults, the guy had a lot of cunning and understanding of those he hunted.
Whatever animal he was, Kelvin would bet his ass that he’d be the same in his animal form. The man was damn tenacious besides being rude and demanding.
Packed, he headed out the door and down the stairs, going out of the building via the back exit to ensure he didn’t meet anyone. The sun was dipping low in the sky as he got in his truck and settled in for the duration after his sat nav advised it would take him ten hours to get to his destination.
Before starting the engine, he placed a call to Fallows knowing the man would answer regardless of what he was doing. The man, like him rarely appeared to sleep.
“What do you have for me?” was the curt response.
Used to it, didn’t mean Kelvin liked it. “Good evening, Magnus.” He used his first name knowing it pissed off the other man. They’d had a conversation early on when Kelvin had started working with him and Kelvin had asked what his name was. He’d got very uptight about it.
“Fallows or FBI guy, which you seem to love, but not fucking Magnus,” he snapped. “Why the call?”
Kelvin shook his head and started the engine. “I’m traveling up to you. I need to talk about some stuff… in person,” he added when there was a sound like Fallows was going to say something.
“You can fill me in on the information requests I’ve given you and why I’m still waiting.”
Kelvin, not one to lose his cool, breathed deep, twice before he answered. “Yes, we’ll talk about your demands when I get there. Give me the address of the best place to talk privately.”
Fallows rattled off an address that appeared to be a house on the city’s outskirts near a forest from what the sat nav indicated. Kelvin didn’t question it, he needed privacy and could handle himself if needed. His dealings with Fallows didn’t suggest the guy was playing for the wrong side, but still, he made a mental note to text Todd the address as well as get his kraken to give it to his brothers too. Knowing that Markov had been cut off from his kraken ensured Kelvin didn’t take anything for granted regardless of Andromeda rotting on the seabed.
“I should be there about breakfast time. I take my coffee hot and sweet.” The call ended with a grunt and Kelvin tried not to think about how pissing off the other man gave him a perverse sense of pleasure.
One look in the rear-view mirror, Kelvin sighed and pulled into the traffic. His brothers really needed to be happy for each other. They were all mated, and Kelvin would give up all his treasures for the same honor.
His kraken was in agreement and pissed at him for not getting out more and confining them to the office. Todd’s mates just landed in his lap. He pointed out when his kraken started to grumble.
That might be so, but he’s the youngest of us and still, he was mated before you.
Please, Markov is older…
And found his mate before you all.
Okay, point taken. It’s still not that damn simple.
The rest of the car journey was spent with an even grumpier kraken than usual.
By the time Kelvin managed to find the dirt road, not that it could be called a road with the number of ruts in it, to the large house, his ass was numb.
He got out of the car, the sun was climbing in the sky and bathed the wooden structure making it glow a beautiful golden color. The single-story house was sprawled over a large area. There was no sign of anyone, but Kelvin’s kraken stirred and got pushy. Tentacles formed and touched the earth, digging in.
Kelvin’s whole body shook at the realization of what his kraken was doing. The door in front of them opened so fast it banged against the doorframe sounding like a gunshot. The semi-naked Adonis who jumped down the steps in a fluid move, with rippling sinewy muscles, made it hard for Kelvin to gather his thoughts.
Then his damn kraken started to sing in his head.
He’s my mate… no fucking way! All these months and… holy fuck. Well, isn’t that just the damn sea snail!
Chapter Three
Magnus
No… yes… no… oh, fuck. Skidding to a stop, Magnus rubbed his face, and checked what he was seeing again. There was a man… no, not an ordinary man. Make that, there was a sexual god digging holes in his driveway with tentacles. Magnus rubbed over his eyes again. Yep. Not a coffee delusion. That man had tentacles coming from his arms, possibly his legs too, and they were moving... in my direction!
Magnus couldn’t believe his eyes. He’d already been home when Kelvin had called. He’d just worked, and worked, and drunk some bourbon, and then worked some more. Somehow, he’d fallen asleep, because when he heard a car coming up his driveway – which never happened – he realized as he stood up, he’d been dozing slumped over his coffee table.
And now he was seeing tentacles – tentacles, that along with the man, was coming towards him.
“Use your nose. Sniff.” Yep, that was the voice that automatically hardened his cock every single time he heard it - the Thalassa guy. Kelvin.
Magnus responded automatically, sure he was still asleep, and what he was seeing was some kind of out-of-body dreamscape experience or something.
So, he sniffed. And his nose was hit with something that did not belong in a forest – the smell of the sea. It’d been so long… and the smell was so poignant, Magnus’s eyes filled with tears. Now the tentacles made sense. But the impact of Kelvin’s unique scent didn’t stop there. It flowed through Magnus’s body, causing his heart rate to increase, his blood to start pounding through his veins and his lungs felt as though they might burst.
From the first time they’d spoken, his cock had always known what Magnus hadn’t dared dream of. And now, as his fangs dropped and his animal side was roaring in his brain, Magnus didn’t think – he leaped. He was vaguely aware of tentacles coming around him, or rather Magnus was going to assume that was what was sliding down his back before cradling his ass and pulling him close. It wasn’t unpleasant and the tentacles weren’t pushing him away – and fuck, if being pushed away by anyone significant isn’t the story of my life – but Magnus wasn’t going think about his messy history right now.
Lips were right there for the taking. Lips that had spewed words of condescension, sometimes bordering on rudeness. Lips that could snap at him, dig at him, and were so often impatient with him, but now Magnus understood that Kelvin just didn’t know who they were to each other, just like he hadn’t. And now he did, and by everything the Fates stood for, Magnus was going to taste those lips.
The shoulders under his fingers were strong and solid. The chest he was leaning on could easily hold his weight. Magnus knew that the same as he knew his own name. But those lips… Damn, I want to consume those lips.
Even as he thought it, Kelvin was one step ahead of him, closing the gap between their faces as a hand fisted in Magnus’s curls. And yes, Magnus had enough brain power to recognize that felt weird – he had what felt like hands on his back and ass, and actual fingers in his hair. But then Kelvin’s lips hit his, in a surprisingly soft move, and Magnus groaned. It’s been far too long.
The kiss turned heated – how could it not? They were mates and even if the human sides had issues, animal spirits never did, and they were more than capable of pushing their human sides for more. Magnus moaned again as Kelvin’s tongue invaded his mouth, mapping out his teeth and gums. Magnus wasn’t going to be passive. He was too tired, too stressed, too fucking everything to just stand there and let the man with extra appendages take over their first kiss.
He pushed with his body, and then he pushed again, and the two of them tumbled to the ground, Magnus making sure he landed on the ground with Kelvin on top of him. But he’d forgotten about the tentacles and before he knew it, Kelvin was underneath him and he was suspended about two inches in the air above Kelvin’s chest.
“What the fuck?” Magnus pulled his lips free, panting heavily. “I didn’t… your clothes… they’re dusty.” He strained against the tentacles hold, trying to get his body closer. Just a little rub off. Come on…
“You worry about things way too much.” Kelvin reached up and caught his lips again as the tentacles let Magnus down. Body rubbing against body, the ground gave them a base instead of wavering on feet. Magnus’s hands were moving like crazy, trying to find a way into Kelvin’s clothes, all the while enjoying the firm muscles he could feel through the cloth.
Rolling - one way and then the other, their bodies plastered together as their lips remained fused. Breathing was one inhale, then lips clashed again. It was as if neither man had eaten for a month and then found a steak. Dust kicked up as they moved around, and gravel dug into Magnus’s back and hips, but by all that was holy, Magnus wanted. He had never wanted anyone, or anything more than he wanted Kelvin in that moment.
His fangs, which had retracted during the initial kissing phase had dropped again as their passions surged, and Magnus caught the edge of Kelvin’s lips with one of them. That small dot of blood hit his tongue, and suddenly the magnitude of what was happening smashed into his brain, and it seemed Kelvin’s too, as he pulled back.
“We should…” It was gratifying to see Kelvin was mussed, flushed, and looking so damn sexy. “Inside? Can we…?” He coughed and then added, “I believe you promised me coffee?”
Magnus took a moment. He noted his and Kelvin’s bodies fit perfectly. Panting was still his only noise, until a thought hit his brain and he groaned.
“Babe? What’s wrong?”
It was sweet Kelvin was so concerned. But now Magnus felt like a heel. “I think I drank all the coffee waiting for you,” he said shaking his head. “I don’t suppose you’d fancy a cup of Chai tea?”
Chapter Four
Kelvin
It showed how pissed he’d been at his brothers and how much he hadn’t been thinking to mention he’d like coffee, when he set up coming to meet with Magnus. He hated the stuff and only drank it to be polite.
Part to blame was Magnus for Kelvin’s brain not being fully functional with the sexy man plastered to his body in a way he never wanted to stop. The thinking part of his head had vacated its normal position and was now firmly located at his groin. Quite happy to remain there, which his kraken had no problem with.
At the look of concern Magnus was giving him, Kelvin’s slow smile spread over his face. “If I’m honest I prefer Chai tea. Coffee is something I only tolerate when the occasion calls for it.”
“I’ll remember that,” Magnus muttered looking as flustered as Kelvin felt when the other man finally rolled off him and went to stand. The feeling of disappointment came from both him and his kraken who refused to withdraw the tentacles stroking Magnus’s silky-smooth skin.
Give him a moment, will you!
Why?
Because maybe he doesn’t want our mating to happen in the dirt, outside in a public place?
You are aware, as well as me, there is no one around.
Let him go!
No! Every time you pretended not to react to him, I figured there was something. Now I’m proven right, there is no point in waiting. I want my mate.
I didn’t pretend!
I felt your frustration every time.
Yes frustration, nothing more.
The snort was very human-like, and Kelvin resisted rolling his eyes when Magnus’s gaze narrowed on him before he glanced at the tentacles still wrapped around his upper body.
Giving Magnus a smile that he hoped showed none of the fact he was arguing with his animal half, Kelvin got to his feet, his kraken continuing to misbehave. “Sorry, my animal is…”
One dark brow rose as Magnus stroked one hand down the tentacle current working its way around his chest to his nipple. “Touchy feely?”
A flash of heat coated Kelvin’s cheeks, one that matched the one coursing straight down his cock at the low moan Magnus released as he played with the pebbled nipple. “Not normally but seeing as we’re mates, he isn’t in the mood to be denied.”
Honestly, you’re making me look like a sex starved animal, Kelvin pointed out to his kraken who was happily embedding barbs into Magnus’s skin.
There was another low moan and Magnus’s eyes drifted to half-moons, the glitter of desire was hard to resist when there was a flash of sharp incisors. “Let’s go inside,” Magnus stated in that bossy, demanding tone.
A tone that got Kelvin frustrated and… aroused. He marched after Magnus, his tentacles stretching and pulling in a delightful way when they were still holding all those rippling muscles.
He didn’t have time to do more than sweep a gaze over the room before he found himself pinned to the door that he’d shut. His mouth was once more captured in a kiss that made every molecule inside him dance with utter joy. He’d never felt more alive and for a moment he regretted the missed opportunity of claiming his mate so much sooner.
You have him now.
The loose-fitting sweatpants Magnus wore were pushed down by tentacles. Kelvin groaned into Magnus’s mouth at the lack of underwear. The hard, pulsing cock was a solid weight against his thigh. The scent of Magnus’s arousal was intoxicating and stole whatever resistance Kelvin might have had ─ not that he’d much when Magnus kissed him like he was rare and precious. It was heady when mixed with the feelings of desperation coming from his mate.
“Step out of your sweats,” Kelvin murmured between kisses, his lips not wanting to stop what they were doing when his mate tasted like the sweetest, fine wine.
“Fuck, your tentacles, what are they doing to me?” Magnus gasped, his legs lifting one at a time to shake off the pants. Booted to the side, Magnus’s body plastered to Kelvin’s his hips rolling in a sexy thrust.
“Claiming you,” Kelvin replied, kissing his way over the bristly jaw to Magnus’s ear, then down his throat. His teeth scraping a path over the sweet tasting skin. “Your taste is so fucking addictive. I can’t get enough of you.”
The whimper was fucking music to Kelvin’s ears as he nibbled on the tasty skin and unleased yet more tentacles.
Magnus shuddered hard and Kelvin flipped their positions. The thud against wood elicited a moan but it sounded anything but pained. Magnus rubbed his cheek over Kelvin’s, the sensation got Kelvin’s heart thundering against his ribs at the repeated move. “You’re mine,” he murmured, his hands tugging at the clothes Kelvin wore. “Need to rub my scent all over you.”
Kelvin’s cock which was painfully hard, bucked as he gasped, trying to get his head to form hands to work to help him give Magnus what he wanted. I need my hands.
No, you don’t. As if to prove Kelvin wrong his kraken tore the button-down at the seams. The trousers met the same fate and were torn from his body with no regard. The ripping sounds didn’t deter Magnus who had continued to rub his face against Kelvin’s now bare chest. Kelvin’s underwear met a similar fate and when his kraken went for Kelvin’s shoes. He got his body to do what it really didn’t want to and pulled away from Magnus. “Not the shoes, god damn it.”
