It was a gathering of misfits—the freaks people associated with black magic and drugs, all moving in a flow of chaos to music so loud they felt it within. 

People came to this old, emptied cornfield every year at the cusp of fall for a weekend of partying. Vendors stocked with junk food and beer surrounded multiple stages where bands growled lyrics about anarchy and death. The faint smell of burning autumn struggled under the weight of sweat, grease, and weed as clouds of fake smoke created a permanent mist among the crowds. 

Kace had separated from his friends a while ago, finding himself tucked out of sight in the arms of another man who wouldn’t take maybe later for an answer. He pulled Kace into the shadows between two tents with a grip tight enough to be both romantic and threatening. 

The stranger—Dio—caught him in an arousingly deep kiss and slid his hands down Kace’s pants until his ass was half-exposed. Then, the man’s large hands squeezed and spread him shamefully wide, teasing Kace with the fear of being seen—and embarrassment flared across his face.

Kace reached back, but Dio used his firm hold to forcibly grind their hips together and rub their cocks hard. His eyes fluttered shut, and he pinched Dio’s hand, wordlessly begging him to slow down so he could breathe. 

But Dio smacked his ass, keeping Kace from escaping and picking up the pace. He countered their movements, spreading tiny spasms from Kace’s thighs to the tip of his now-dripping cock.

I-I’m gonna cum! Fuck! I’m…cumming!

Dio lifted Kace onto his toes just as a tremor climbed to the top of his spine, and all his muscles went stiff. 

Cum drenched his pants, and Kace let out a panicked, fading cry. 

Dio slowed his hips and drank down Kace’s shivering moan.

Finally, their kiss separated with a wet, saliva-threaded gasp. 

Kace nearly fell back, but Dio prevented it, laughing as he held the shaking puppy-boy in his arms. The vibrations of his orgasm lingered fresh in between his soaked thighs, buckling his knees and making his nipples painfully hard. 

After the sparks faded, Kace caught a glimpse of the man’s devilish grin and struck his arm. Not to hurt him, just escape. Dio met him halfway and let go of Kace’s ass, leaving the poor guy fumbling to pull up his leather pants before anyone saw. 

“Asshole. You seriously—ah!” He stumbled face-first into Dio’s chest and lingered there, taking a second to let the embarrassment run its course. 

Dio laughed and rubbed Kace’s back, babying him as he mumbled into his muscles. 

“You’re so fucking cute,” The man said, bringing Kace closer by his jaw then whispering into his ear with a voice meant for making eyes and bodies wet. “Should I lick your pussy and say I’m sorry?” 

Kace melted in a moment of absentmindedness but quickly shoved Dio away before the man noticed his flushed face. “Pervert!” Though it was he who had to take a step back.

Dio was too big to move without Kace giving it all he had. Everything—his arms, chest, stomach—was solid muscle covered in tattoos that appeared like they’d been cut and scarred into his dark brown skin before the ink even touched him. Not tribal patterns or pin-up girls, but ancient inscriptions and strange, almost scary carvings that consumed his naked flesh. 

A scar sliced his left brow in half, connecting with another running across his forehead, and he wasn’t shy about them. He had his dreads pulled back, so there wasn’t a chance of hiding or distracting anyone from admiring the silver pierced around his face like a constellation in the night sky.

“You seemed to love it.” The man crossed his arms with a smile so damn sexy that Kace nearly agreed to give him whatever he wanted. 

I might do that anyway.

Kace hated to admit how starstruck he was after he bumped into Dio. The man was too handsome to be standing in front of him at that moment—a manifestation of every silver-tongued prince who held him in his dreams. 

“I should go find my friends.” Kace turned away, hiding the bright red hue of his cheeks.

“What for?” Dio reached out and began playing with the cross dangling from Kace’s ear. “I’m sure you’ll see them again.” 

Kace mumbled shyly, then looked to find Dio’s feral grin inches from his face.

His dark eyes carried a sliver of light caught within them like crescent moons.

They kissed, one that made Kace feel light-headed and heavy-hearted. Dio caressed his honeyed curls and stroked the tawny skin of his cheekbone with a tender touch. 

“Ahem.”

Kace immediately stepped back, and the two turned to the field outside the concert, where a young woman stood drowning in shadows. 

She was lovely—jeweled umber skin and eyes glistening like starlight behind strands of silver-threaded braids. Her presence weighed like darkness after twilight, but she was so still that the only movement seemed to come from the cigarette embers and smoke rising around her. 

“Am I interrupting?” There was no emotion in her words nor hidden within the strange glimmer of her eyes. 

“Not at all,” Dio said, wrapping his hand around Kace’s waist possessively. “Kace, this is my sister, Anais. And her friend—” 

“Maddy,” The other girl said, who paled in comparison to Anais, though anyone would. 

Kace lifted his hand. Maddy waved back with a perky smile, but Anais kept her poker face strong and her arms crossed casually. 

“You ready?” She asked but didn’t want his answer before she started walking away. 

Maddy looked between the three of them, then followed Anais as if by obligation. 

“Come on,” Dio said, guiding Kace forward. Not toward the festival but away from it, where artificial light became nothing but untouched darkness. 

“Where?” Kace asked. He stopped, but Dio kept a hold of his hand. 

“The woods.” The man nudged his head to the dark forest beyond the cleared field. “We have a fire going and some friends waiting.”

Kace bit his lip in hesitation.

Dio chuckled, suddenly embracing him and kissing the pout from his lips. He squeezed Kace’s ass, groping the thick flesh and pecking a trail to the soft space under his jaw.

“You’re so perfect.” Dio buried his face into the side of Kace’s neck, inhaling the perfume clinging to his throat—no, something deeper than that. “I just want to eat you up.” 

Kace glanced back at the festival and suddenly felt guilty. His friends were there, probably worried—or probably not. Maybe they were thinking the same thing he was, that Kace would catch up with them later or another day. 

And Dio was right. It’d be a night’s waste to search for them. 

His amber eyes returned to the man holding him as though Kace was everything he desired and more. Such a thought made his heart skip. Of course, Kace knew that couldn’t be true, but oh, how he wanted it to be. 

A soft flush prickled across his cheeks, turning his nose embarrassing red and Kace swallowed a sigh after Dio kissed his forehead. 

“If you’re uncomfortable or, hell, if you get bored, we’ll come back for some overly priced snacks and lukewarm beer. My treat,” Dio said, grinning.

Kace smiled and shrugged. “Okay.” 

And together, they walked hand-in-hand toward the forest. 

Anais and Maddy were already at the treeline, disappearing down a throat of crippled branches. 

Walking was a little uncomfortable as Kace could feel how wet his pants were, and he’d opted to go bare tonight, which seemed like a good and horrible idea. Yet, the dirty feeling made his body desire more than just kissing and dry-humping. He wanted to be fucked, and he could only imagine how good Dio’s thick cock would feel. 

I bet he’d reach my stomach. 

Kace blinked away his thoughts after Dio brought their hips together unexpectedly. 

And, in a moment of amusement, the man forced Kace to feel how hard his cock was. Hard and so, very big. 

But Anais and Maddy were too close, and Kace pulled away. 

“Pervert!” Kace hissed, smacking Dio’s hand as the man could only chuckle at his reaction.

Even then, Dio kept his arm wrapped around Kace’s waist—a touch he couldn’t help but reciprocate by tucking himself closer to the man’s large frame and closing his eyes. 

Kace followed Dio’s steps, though it felt like he wasn’t walking at all, being swept across the dead earth in a dance-like motion. 

A whistle pierced the air, and Kace opened his eyes to bright flames and dancing shadows. 

Before them, under the misshapen corpse of what once was a tree, a fire sat surrounded by logs where two other people waited. 

One, a young woman dancing dangerously close to the flames, performed in front of an enticed man dressed in tattered, faded clothes. He watched her, eyes filled with lust and hands clinging to the rips of his jeans, as she moved her body to music nobody else could hear. Her dark-river hair fell past her hips and caressed her lily-white skin like a playful kiss. 

Kace noticed she wasn’t dressed for an autumn night—in fact, he wasn’t sure what she was dressed for. 

She wore very little, a loose shirt and shorts that clung to the highest part of her thighs, made from fabric thin enough to expose the dark glow between her legs and the outline of her breasts. 

“That’s Yuna, our younger sister.” Dio led Kace to one of the emptied logs.

Maddy took a seat with her bag kept close, and Anais leaned onto the god-tree behind her. Her cat-like eyes watched embers and ash fly away into the night. 

Yuna let out a fit of laughter—tired, almost delirious, and she stopped dancing. 

The guy beside her whistled again, clapping and murmuring explicit compliments that made Yuna grin. A serpent ready to strike. 

He noticed Kace staring and waved. “Hey, I’m Mason.”

“Kace.” 

“Nice night, ain’t it? Full moon, black sky, no one around to hear anyone scream.” With every word, Mason’s eyes traveled up Yuna’s body, up her long, lovely legs to the visible pink of her nipples. 

Kace said nothing. 

“I-I heard some creepy stories about this forest,” Maddy chimed in. “My friends say it’s haunted.”

“Haunted? It’s fucking possessed.” Mason took a swig of his beer, then wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “I hear them, y’know. the ghosts—see them, too.”

Okay, Mason. Kace rolled his eyes.

“Devils roam this forest, ones summoned by witches who kill kids and use their blood to reach the moon.” He stiffly waved his arm through the air in a drunken daze. 

“So, the Devil spends all his time in a forest where people come to piss during overpriced festivals with wannabe bands?” Kace asked, unimpressed. 

Yuna laughed, making Mason wheeze until he coughed out everything in his throat. Maddy cracked an unsure smile, and Kace noticed Dio watching Mason closely—his eyes unusually wide. 

“Sounds funny until you’re face to face with one in the woods.” Mason’s dilated gaze looked them over one by one, rolling like a doll’s every few blinks. “They’ll corner you. Tell you something good, something sweet, and then they’ll tear your soul apart.”

His voice rose, spit dripping off his chapped lips—and Kace stood.

“I’m out of here,” He said, walking out of Dio’s grip and heading toward the festival. Or he hoped.

Yuna laughed again, amused by his uneasiness, drunk on something Kace didn’t want any part of. He listened as their hysterics faded behind him before Dio’s voice came hurrying after him. 

“Kace, baby! Wait.” The large man caught up to him and spun Kace around in an annoying careful gesture.

Kace pushed the man away, though maybe not as hard as he should’ve, as part of him wanted to stay in Dio’s embrace. “Enough, I just want to go. No offense, but that dude, your sister—”

He sighed. 

“They’re just a little too wasted to be around.” Kace stopped, realizing how rude that might’ve sounded, and he nibbled on his lip. “Sorry…”

“No, it’s fine,” Dio said reassuringly. His heart-throb smile didn’t falter. “They’re just a little wild, that’s all. It’s a special night. I said we’d leave if you didn’t want to stay, didn’t I?” 

Kace looked up at him with big, apologetic eyes. He nodded.

“So, we’ll say our goodbyes and head back together.” 

For a man he’d only met a few hours ago, Dio was unbelievably smooth. Kace couldn’t even imagine his future husband being this caring, and he hugged the man in a moment of giddiness. 

Dio hugged him tight before taking a step and brushing a curl off Kace’s forehead. “Come on.” 

“Wait.” Kace pulled Dio closer, their bodies meeting as he stared into the man’s crescent eyes. “Let me take care of this.” 

His fingertips traced the long, thick mound running down Dio’s leg. The exact length Kace felt pressed against him all evening, and he gave it an eager squeeze.