“That’s it, Nobyo. Submit to me—give me your body.” He wrapped his hand around Kyle’s cock again and with only three hard pulls, Kyle came hard, his cum surging out into the water in front of him. Taz hummed with pleasure and kept stroking him until he’d wrung every drop from him. Kyle hung in his arms, his body limp with exhaustion, and feeling a little humiliated that he’d come so easily from the movement of the plug inside him.

Taz pulled him back so he was sitting on his lap, still impaled by the plug. He tried to catch his breath, and he could hear Taz doing the same, even as he rubbed and caressed Kyle’s body with his hands.

Taz leaned toward him, concern in his voice. “Are you all right, Nobyo? Did I hurt you?”

Taz tried to speak, to shake his head, but he couldn’t. His breath wouldn’t come, and he felt dizzy and confused. Everything in him ached and he let his head fall back onto Taz’s shoulders, suddenly wanting only to be taken care of. A part of his mind told him something wasn’t right, but his body soaked up the warmth and pressure of Taz’s skin against his. His body felt like it was melting into Taz’s. He was forgetting who he was, becoming little more than this alien’s creature, and he had to put a stop to it.

“I-I can’t-can’t do this. I have to…I need to c-contact m-my family…”

“I’m your family now, sweet one. I will be your whole life from this point on, along with our babies. Don’t fight it, darling. We’ll bond soon and then you won’t feel so unsettled.” Taz’s hand began to work his hand on his cock again, even though it was almost painful, since Kyle had just come. He whimpered a little and felt Taz’s tongue sliding along the side of his throat, leaving a trail of fire. Trying hard to hold onto his consciousness, he blinked his eyes, but it was no use. The darkness enveloped him, and he slid helplessly into it as it wrapped itself around him.

* * * *

Taz was alarmed when his nobyo collapsed in his arms. Damn Tarr and his carelessness. He should have been more careful in dosing his nobyo with the drugs to keep him from shifting. They’d been developed by the prison system on Tygeria to contain the huge tiger shifters on the planet. Though Tygerians usually shifted only at the full moon, which occurred only four times a year, they were capable of shifting at any time.

A prison full of fourteen- to sixteen-foot long tigers would have been impossible to contain. Years before, Tygerian scientists had developed a chemical that inhibited the ability to transform by blocking neuro-transmitters in the brain. It was sometimes used for years at a time with the more violent prisoners, but it kept them a little weak and confused.

The problem was it was developed for Tygerians, not Lycans. He didn’t know how big a dose his brother had given his nobyo, but before he administered any more, Taz would call his personal physician to check his nobyo over.

Taz picked him up and carefully dried his body before carrying him into the bedroom. He laid him on his back and stared down at him while he used his communicator to call for the healer. After receiving assurances that the healer was on his way, Taz sat down beside his nobyo and took his pulse. Not that he had any idea what the pulse of a Lycan should feel like, but he wanted to do something.

He tried to remember the physiology charts of the Lycans he’d studied in the few hours since he’d brought him home, but nothing about heart rate came to mind. He pulled a leather thong from the drawer and put it around his nobyo’s waist, tying it in front to preserve his modesty in front of the healer. A thin flap of leather went down between the legs to cover his cock and balls and then pressed tightly against his hole to help him keep in the new plug. He’d only have to wear the plug for a while, until they’d made love several times and stretched him enough. Tygerians were large and he had no wish to harm his nobyo.

He looked down at him again and put a hand over his chest to feel his heartbeat. Lycan hearts were closer to the center of their chests than Tygerian hearts were. Thankfully, he saw his nobyo’s eyelids fluttering already, and he leaned over to kiss his lips.

“Wake up, Nobyo. I’ve called for the healer and he’ll be here soon. Can you drink some water?”

He nodded and Taz reached for the pitcher by the bed and poured him a glass, then helped him to a sitting position so he could drink. He pushed him back down again afterwards and smoothed his still damp hair off his forehead.

“Do you feel pain anywhere, Nobyo?”

“No, I’m just feeling weak and so confused. I can’t think straight. I-I can’t seem to catch my breath either. I’m worried too, about my family. They’ll be frantic by now. I have to get word to them.” Kyle tried to sit up, and Taz pushed him gently back down.

“That life is behind you now, Nobyo. I’m never giving you up, so they’ll have to accept it.”

“No, I don’t want you to give me up—that is, I want you for my mate, so they’ll understand that, but I have to explain it to them. So they’ll understand. Otherwise they’ll never stop looking for me. They’ll come for me.” He was becoming agitated again, rolling his head back and forth on the pillow, so Taz soothed him by caressing his jaw and murmuring to him.

“Of course, baby. You can talk to your family. But later. Now stop worrying and close your eyes. No one will take you from me. No one.”

He finally seemed to drop off to sleep, and Taz hovered over him while he waited for the healer. His breathing seemed to be getting harsher and Taz was worried. He paced the floor until finally he heard the healer arrive. Pulling on a robe, he went to answer the soft knock on the door.

“Come in quickly, Healer, please,” Taz said to the older man. He quickly explained that his nobyo was a Lycan shifter and about Tarr giving him the drug developed for Tygerians. “Did it harm him in some way? He says he feels very weak.”

The man gazed down at the sleeping young Lycan. “He’ll no doubt feel weak, so long as he’s on the medication, but it shouldn’t have bothered him so much, unless your brother gave him too much of it. His humanoid physiology is much the same as ours, with a few significant differences, but still…let me examine him.”

For the next few minutes, Taz stood by tensely as the healer checked his nobyo. He’d heard all his life about how intense the bond was between a man and his nobyo, but had never given the idea much credence or paid much attention to it at all, really, and they hadn’t even bonded yet. What would he feel like after they’d made love?

He was only beginning to discover how deep the bond could be, and for the first time he understood how much his father mourned when his own nobyo had passed away. He and Tarr had been teenagers and really distressed and grief-stricken, but his father had been downright inconsolable.

The healer began to examine his Lycan, murmuring to him in a low tone, though his nobyo still seemed to be unconscious. Taz watched carefully. After a few minutes, the healer pulled Taz aside. “Has he said if he thinks you’re his mate?”

Surprised, Taz nodded. “Yes, he did. I thought that was strange. He said I was his mate and he couldn’t leave me. I haven’t even bonded with him yet.”

The healer nodded. “Yes, but he’s Lycan. That would account for this lovesickness.”

“Lovesickness?”

“Yes. Lycans have a very strong mating instinct. Once they’ve found their mates, they bond instantly, at a touch, and they mate for life. Did he react strangely the first time you touched him?”

“Yes, now that you mention it.” Taz looked surprised. “He fell back on his backside and looked up at me strangely, then wrapped his arms around my legs.”

“And has he made love to you yet? Completed the mating?”

Taz looked a little surprised. “No, of course not. He’s my nobyo, not the other way around. I will make love to him.”

The healer shook his head. “Yes, but you have a Lycan, and they’re all very dominant. His wolf hasn’t been allowed to claim its mate and that’s what’s making him lovesick. You may have to allow him to top you, though there can be side effects.”

“What kind of side effects?”

“As a Lycan mate, you wouldn’t be able to make love to anyone except your Lycan, no matter how much you might want to. If you were separated from him, the effects would fade over time, but it would take a while. You’d be physically incapable of mating. And if you, as a Lycan mate felt your Lycan was angry with you, you would get terrible stomach cramps. There’s a bio-chemical connection, you see, injected by their sperm.”

Taz looked affronted. “Ridiculous. No! We’ll find another way. I will make love to him, as is only proper with a nobyo. I’ll stop giving him the drug to prevent his shifting and perhaps that will help. I hate to restrain him, but that’s what I’ll have to do, I suppose. I can’t have him getting sick, and I don’t want him to shift. If he does, I’ll punish him. He’ll soon learn to obey his master.”

The healer nodded. “Yes, restraints and a firm hand should do the trick. Fuck him often and tame his wolf if you can. That will help too. You might try the silken flogger on him, but wait until the chemicals from the drugs have cleared his system.”

The silken flogger was an instrument of mild torture, though it certainly sounded tame enough. The silken strands contained chemicals that caused extreme sexual excitement for the victim. He would do anything, agree to anything, to get sex.

“Thank you, Healer. I don’t think I’ll have to resort to chemicals, but I’ll keep it in mind in case he’s particularly resistant to training.”

“Yes, he looks stubborn.”

Taz smiled. “Yes. Well, so am I.”

“Good.” The healer nodded and started for the door before turning back. “Your Lycan will make you an excellent nobyo once you train him, I think. Be careful—he has sharp teeth and claws.”

“Then he’ll find himself muzzled with his claws trimmed, and his ass sore. Have no fear, Healer. No matter how fierce he might be, I can handle him.”