Leopard's Spots 2: Oscar by Bailey Bradford

until he was gripping Josiah’s wrists instead. With slow, measured steps, he began walking backwards, pulling Josiah with him.
    “Jothiah, wait.”
    Josiah ignored Bobby. The idiot could get himself up and inside. He wasn’t hurt that bad and he shouldn’t have provoked Oscar anyway. Oscar’s expression tightened, a fierce gleam lighting his eyes. Josiah heard movement behind him, likely Bobby pushing to his feet.
    “Jothiah, look, jutht lithen to me for a minute.”
    The sound Oscar made wasn’t quite human, a rough rumbling, not a roar or a purr or anything Josiah could put a name to. Josiah wanted to drop to his knees and worship Oscar, something he’d have to examine later as it was not a reaction someone who was supposed to be an alpha should be having.
    A touch to the back of his shoulder startled him as Bobby tried again. “Joth—”
    “No!” The word sounded like it was ripped from Oscar, shredding his throat as it burst out.
    Josiah stumbled as Oscar spun him away from Bobby. He could hear it in his mind, Oscar’s voice repeating mine mine mine ! The possessiveness zipping into him seemed tinged with not a little bit of surprise. Oscar hadn’t expected to feel like he was, and Josiah flushed with pleasure at causing such a reaction.
    “Fine,” he heard Bobby mutter, “but you coulda told me you found your mate. I wouldn’t have fucked with him like that if I’d known y’all hadn’t done the deed yet.”
    Josiah was ready for Oscar, attuned to him now in a way he’d only heard of mates being. When Oscar tried to lunge around him, he gripped hard. The bite of Oscar’s claws piercing his skin flooded Josiah’s groin with heat. “Fuck me,” he demanded, and Oscar stopped trying to get to Bobby, pivoting fast and almost dragging Josiah. Almost, but not quite, as Josiah was just as eager to get into his apartment as Oscar was.

Chapter Ten
     
     
     
    It’d hit him like a freight train, this need coiling around his spine and pressing into his groin. Every heartbeat set the rampant desire throbbing more intensely, and Oscar couldn’t control it or himself. He was acting like a beast instead of a man, growling and snarling, attacking and dragging his mate away. Part of him wondered if this was what happened between Lyndon and Levi the first time they’d had sex, but mostly he didn’t give a shit. He just needed Josiah, now. Conversation, questions, all the things they’d have to work out could wait.
    “Careful,” Josiah muttered.
    Oscar cocked a brow at him as he took another step back.
    “Stairs,” Josiah explained.
    Oscar twisted around enough to see that he was indeed now at the steps leading to the garage apartment. He turned back and watched Bobby stumble into his house. Oscar couldn’t believe he’d gone nuts and lost his temper, but he’d had it with being bullied, and maybe that wasn’t what Bobby had meant to do but it’d sounded like so many other times Oscar had been tormented. The memories had rushed back in a flash. One minute Oscar had been having the most erotic experience of his life, the next he’d been in a rage.
    He wasn’t going to think about it now. Not now, when he was leading an unhesitating, obedient Josiah up the stairs, not when the scent of Josiah’s arousal was mingling with his own and firing up even more pinpricks of desire in Oscar’s body.
    He stopped on the last step and let go of one of Josiah’s wrists long enough to reach back for the doorknob. It turned easily, and he made a mental note to lock it once they were inside, since Josiah obviously didn’t bother doing so.
    Oscar had always worried he’d be nervous his first time, as self-conscious as he was about his scrawny body, but he wasn’t feeling even a hint of nervousness now. How could he when Josiah was looking at him like that? So much desire, so much want, as if only Oscar could satisfy him.
    Which was the truth. Oscar felt it down to the marrow of his bones. He may not have known