Out Of The Shadows Read Free Page B

ankles still, the men’s semen beginning to trail a cool line down his inner thigh. He was ashamed of himself for letting them do this to him and of the fact that he too had come, but at the same time it had fulfilled something inside of him that nothing else could.
    He left the bar about ten minutes later, only then realising that he had missed his last bus home. Checking his wallet, he sighed. He didn’t even have enough money for a taxi; what he had would get him half way home, but that was it. Dane leaned back against the wall and raked his hair back from his face with one hand. It was raining heavily, the droplets soaking him almost immediately. How much worse could this day get?
     

 
     
Chapter Three
     
     
     
    It was three o’clock in the morning when Jai heard the knock at the front door. He ignored it to begin with, unwilling to get out of his nice warm bed and up into the cold room. The knock came again and he groaned, dragging himself out from under the covers.
    When Jai opened the door, he just stared at his visitor, half afraid that he would find he’d imagined it if he blinked. Dane stood in the doorway, in the rain, shivering. He was huddled into a leather jacket over a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. He was soaked to the skin from the rain, his dark blond hair plastered to his scalp. Although he was only a year away from Jai’s twenty-five years, he looked so much younger at the moment, young and vulnerable. Jai thought he looked as though he was ready to bolt.
    “I think you’d better come in,” he said.
    Dane followed him in, through the hall and back upstairs. Suddenly, he froze. He looked around, as though realising all of a sudden that they were in Jai’s bedroom. His eyes flicked worriedly over Jai’s attire, nothing more than the shorts he had been sleeping in, his torso bare. Dane began to make for the door again, as though to leave.
    “No you don’t.” Jai closed his door. “You’re freezing,” he said, coming to stand by Dane. “What have you been doing?”
    Dane wouldn’t meet his eyes. “I went out and I didn’t have enough money for a taxi. I had to walk and it started raining. You said before that I could talk to you; I couldn’t think where else to go.” He shivered again, the wet leather jacket and t-shirt not keeping him warm at all. “I’m sorry; I should leave.”
    Jai came to him and began to remove his leather jacket. Dane looked uneasy, backing off slightly.
    “Relax,” Jai told him. “We need to get you warm. Trust me.”
    Dane let Jai strip him of his jacket and t-shirt, boots and jeans, and then led him to the bed.
    “Get in,” he said, laying down facing Dane and pulling the covers back over them both. It was warm in here and he was getting cold in just his boxers. Besides, they needed to get Dane warmed up; even a wolf, with their raised body temperature, felt it if he got too cold.
    “Now, are you going to tell me why you were wandering about in the rain in the middle of the night?”
    Dane huddled lower under the covers, still shivering, and this time he didn’t move away as Jai edged closer and put his arms around him, sharing body heat. It wasn’t uncommon for wolves to sleep together, platonically. They found comfort in touch. Right now, however, Jai was feeling anything but platonic. He kept that thought to himself. Dane didn’t say anything, though, just kept his gaze down, away from Jai’s.
    “Dane, come on. Talk to me.”
    Dane shook his head. “I don’t know what to do; I feel like there’s something wrong with me.”
    “I don’t understand what you mean.”
    Jai angled Dane’s face to look into his eyes, seeing the shame and fear there, and gave him a reassuring smile.
    “You want to tell me?”
    Dane took a few shaking breaths before he began to speak. “I went out tonight. To a bar.” He paused, looking at Jai for the first time. “It isn’t the first time, not by a long shot, but something was different. This guy—I