Love is Always Write Anthology Volume 5

which he took him in.
    Above him he could hear Harald's breathing speed up. As Alex felt Harald's cock hit the back of his throat he began to increase the pressure of his suction.
    "Alex!" Harald suddenly gasped out. His body jerked as his balls drew up spilling his seed into Alex's mouth. Alex continued to suck gently as he swallowed, before bathing the quickly softening cock with his tongue.
    Pulling away, Alex looked at Harald and smiled at the older man's rather dazed expression.
    ****
    The oil lamp next to the bed threw out a circle of soft light. Propped up on one hand, Alex lay on his side watching Harald as he lay on his back next to him, still sleeping. To Alex there seemed to be something horribly right waking up next to this man, which he found both extremely comfortable and downright disturbing.
    He was lost a thousand years from his own time, but a part of him didn't want to go back. Instead, he found himself wanting the man lying next to him.
    It had been a quiet evening. They had both been tired when they returned from the loch, the hectic events of the day quickly catching up with them. After sharing a simple meal, Harald had led Alex to his room where they'd lain on the bed and talked for some time. They'd talked about not just the stark differences in their lives, but the similarities, until both must have fallen asleep. At some point in the night Harald had pulled the heavy blanket over the pair of them, but Alex had been too deeply asleep to notice. He'd woken to find himself wrapped in Harald's arms, the bigger man curled almost protectively around him.
    Alex was contemplating leaning over and kissing the man again when a sudden scream of terror from somewhere outside the house shattered the early morning stillness. Rolling off the bed Alex reached for the clothes they'd discarded the night before. Harald had woken with a start. His early years of training as a warrior in his foster father's house making him react instinctively as he leapt from the bed. Pulling on his chainmail tunic over the linen shirt and trousers and pushing his arm rings up past his elbows he was dressed in under a minute. Alex settled his kilt on his hips and pulled on his boots before following him.
    Harald barely slowed as he picked up his weapons and the round shield which were stacked in the great room. Tucking the short sword in his belt, he pushed the leather strap at the back of the shield onto his left arm, keeping the longer blade held low in front of him Alex was armed with only the sharp knife he'd taken from the kitchen the day before, which again he tucked into his belt. As he raced after Harald towards the front door he pulled one of the heavy axes off the wall where it was displayed. He swung it a couple of times in front of him, trying to get a feel for the balance of a weapon he didn't really know how to use.
    As they reached the grassed area where Alex had first regained consciousness, in the centre of the farmstead, they were joined by other men. The eight men who made up Harald's household were the only ones fully armed with swords and shields. The others, free men who worked the farmstead, were armed with pitchforks, scythes and axes.
    From the far side of the farmstead, where the cattle byres stood, thick black smoke rose into the air. The pained and frenzied bellows of the trapped animals made Alex's stomach turn. From the same direction a lone figure was racing towards them across the grass, his face pale.
    "We're under attack, the Picts are coming," he gasped out as he reached them. "Thor save us all, the Picts are coming."
    "How many?" Harald asked shortly, but the man just shrugged and shook his head. "Lothir, take the women, children and thralls, get them to safety. If necessary go all the way to Obar Dheathain. Raise the alarm, get help for us." Harald commanded swiftly.
    The short blonde haired man to whom he spoke nodded then clasped his arm to Harald's.
    "Luck!" he said curtly before racing towards the meeting house.
    Harald looked at the men around him as he said grimly, "I expect they will come at us in a single wave. They will be quick and heavily armed, but untrained. If we stand together we can defeat them. There will be eight of us at the front of the shield wall, the rest of you behind us. We will hold them back as long as we can but if the wall fails and they swarm us be ready to fight."
    "They're coming," one of the men pointed with the short spear he was brandishing.
    "Fall into