by Aiden Bates
Even in the moonlight, he could see Darren's cheeks flush. His omega was still not used to compliments, to being told how good and precious he was. Blake intended to fix that. Thoroughly. With as much sex as possible. And as many compliments as he could possibly fit into a day.
"Everything about you is lovely," he said, to watch the flush deepen, to watch his mate squirm.
Darren caught his lower lip between his teeth in that way he did, which always made Blake want to tug it from between them with his own teeth and bite it, or lick it.
"Your mouth," he said. "Your nipples. Your cock."
Darren was looking away from him a little desperately, though Blake could see that his gaze would flick back in the spaces between the words, seeking his face shyly from under a long dark fan of lashes. Blake hid his smile, and uncurled his hand, using only two fingers to stroke his omega's cock, watching them slide up and down the length. He let go entirely, ran his fingertip around and around the head until Darren was whining softly under his breath, little sounds of pleading.
"Please," he begged finally. "Blake. Please. I need more. Alpha. Please."
Blake smiled then, wicked.
"I don't think I will, sweetheart. You'll get it when I say you get it, and not any sooner."
He lifted his free hand a moment from where it was holding those begging hips down, and he stroked hair back from Darren's face, leaned down to kiss the line of the scar his mate was still shy about.
"You'll be good for me," he said. I know you will."
And he saw in Darren's face the resolution, the determination to be good for him, as he had known he would. Darren was a little predictable, but only in the very best of was. He smiled sweetly at his lover's pleading brown eyes, then leaned down and, holding his hips still once more, took just the head of Darren's cock into his mouth.
More traditional Alphas had told him he should not suck an omega's cock. Blake had told them to get lost. He loved the way it made Darren keen between clenched teeth, loved the way his hips jumped as they tried to move against his Alpha's arm, like he couldn't help himself. Of course, Darren could not buck him off, could not shake his hand away. And so he only rocked futilely up against it in the tiny space Blake left him, and made pleading sounds in his throat.
Blake's tongue explored smooth, soft skin, traced the sensitive curves, then teased at Darren's slit until his lover's spine arched like a bow, and his head tossed against the grass. Then, taking pity on his pleading omega, he slid his mouth down, down, taking him until his lips met the base of his boy's cock. It was, admittedly, a little easier on his end than on Darren's, and he moaned around his mate's length as he dragged slowly back up, the vibrations making Darren writhe and toss beneath him, hands ripping out more tufts of grass as they grasped for something to hold onto.
He was so very beautiful, Blake's omega.
Merciful, Blake slid two fingers into Darren and stroked over his prostate as he pulled entirely off his cock.
"Don't come yet, darling," he warned. "I want to see you wait for me."
Darren nodded too quickly, biting down hard on his lip, and moaning.
Another finger, and then two, stroking, tapping, teasing. Darren was pleading with him in continuous whimpers now. Alpha, and Please, and May I? It was a lovely sound, but Blake cruelly shook his head.
"Not yet, darling. You already had one easy orgasm today. Do you think you will get two?"
He pulled his fingers free, and curled his hands around his mate's thighs, opening him wide. Then he gave in to his own aching cock and slid into the slick, tight heat of his mate’s body, groaning through his own teeth. He wasn’t going to last long, after all that, knew that Darren was near the edge himself.
“Just a little longer,” he promised. “Hold on for me just a little longer.”
Darren sobbed, but his answer was “Yes, Alpha,” and just for that Blake leaned down and kissed him hard and slow as he thrust in again, feeling his knot already beginning to inflate. Another thrust, two, and when he slid in again they would be locked together.
“Come for me,” he ordered breathlessly as his omega’s hole took his knot. “Let go, darling, and let me see it.”
It was all the encouragement Darren needed. He spilled over his stomach and chest, sobbing Blake’s name, and Alpha, and Thank you. Blake let himself sink down to his elbows, his head dropping forward to rest against Darren’s chest as he came, filling his omega’s body with his seed. Darren’s fingers reached up and carded carefully through his hair, and they lay for a long time like that in the moonlit night, the breeze sliding cool and soft over their bodies.
Chapter Nine
The next night, they stopped again, and again Blake led Darren into the trees, this time to a little lake that sat at the heart of a park, where the moon shone on it like a mirror.
"This time," Darren said. "I'm going to make it." He said it like a mantra, determination in his voice. "I'm going to shift."
Blake smiled.
"This time," he said. "I believe you will."
Again they walked, this time pacing the edge of the lake, and then they ran, and Darren was fleet-footed in the soft grass, his laughter carrying back to Blake. He had grown healthier in the time they'd been together, eating actual food. Before, he had walked enough that he had kept somewhat in shape, but now he could build muscle, and it was beginning to show in the way he moved, when he ran. Soon he would be as graceful as any wolf in the pack. And as fast. Blake was maybe a little biased, maybe a little more proud that he might be if he looked from an objective point of view, but he didn't think so, and he knew that any other Alpha would be as proud of their omega, particularly if that omega had come through such a difficult time as his own.
He banished the thoughts. The wolf would not come with them spinning around in his head, no matter how pleasing they were. The wolf wanted simplicity, and so he thought only of the night and the moon and the sound of the lake, of Darren running ahead of him, and then he stepped into the wolf's skin.
In the new form, it was easy to overtake his omega, and Darren laughed at him as he ran past, moving like he was chasing rabbits, like he wanted nothing more than to run as fast as his feet would carry him. He ran, and then Darren was beside him, sleek and small and silver-furred, and Blake turned and pounced on him, nipping at his cheeks and his then running, Darren right behind him.
They raced over the grass, two wolves running for the sheer joy of it, and the earth smelled of night, and of the lake, of the little animals they could nose out and hunt if they wanted to. But Blake wanted nothing except Darren, and Darren's bright joy in his own chest. They ran until they were panting and exhausted, collapsing in a little heap of wolf together at the far end of the lake.
Blake shifted back, reached out and scratched gently behind his mate's ears. He was still out of breath, was smiling wide.
"That, my love, was exactly it."
And he hadn't called Darren that before. Maybe shouldn't have. It was soon for that, in the human world. With the bond, of course, emotions moved differently, grew differently. Among wolves it would be no surprise that a well-matched mating pair, if they were not lovers already, would soon find themselves in love.
Darren shifted beneath his hand, and then his fingers were sliding through brown hair, nails scratching gently at Darren's scalp.
"Love?" he said quietly.
"Love," Blake answered.
Darren's smile was heartbreakingly bright. He wrapped himself around Blake as though he would never let go, his face buried against Blake's shoulder, still smiling. Blake stroked his hair, and breathed in his scent, and smiled.
"I love you," he said, in case Darren needed to hear it said aloud, and he was answered with a soft sob, and "I love you too, Blake. God, I love you."
He turned his face against his mate's hair and smiled, and they sat there in the moonlight grass with the sound of the lake beside them, and simply held each other, and it was good. Blake buried his nose
against his mate's throat, breathing in the scent of maple, and went very still. He took another deep breath to be certain, and there it was still, beneath the slightly smoky notes of his own scent in his mate's, cinnamon, sharper and brighter than the maple sugar scent of Darren.
"Darling," he said, drawing back. "Darling, I think..." His voice caught in his throat.
Darren looked up at him with wide eyes.
"What is it?" he asked softly, suddenly worried. "Alpha? Is something wrong?"
Blake almost smiled at that, because it was so very Darren to have learned so quickly, to know already that it was his Alpha he turned to when he was frightened or worried. Not just Blake, but Alpha. Blake's strongest aspect.
"No," he said, fingers still sliding through Darren's hair. "No, sweetheart. It isn't something wrong. It's something very right, actually. And I hope you'll think so too. I hope you'll be as happy as I am."
Darren was still looking at him, questioning, uncertain.
"Can't you smell the change in your scent?"
Darren's eyes lifted briefly skyward as he turned his focus to himself, to his own scent, and then his eyebrows drew together.
"Cinnamon?" He looked back at Blake. "Why cinnamon?"
Blake did smile then. "Because, darling, you're pregnant."
Chapter Ten
Darren stared at his mate. His Alpha. His stomach flipped.
"Pregnant?" he asked, voice hardly more than a whisper. "I'm pregnant? How can you be sure?"
"Because your scent changes when you're carrying. You know it changed when we bonded, that your scent became more like mine, and mine more like yours. When you're pregnant, it takes on notes of another being entirely, the new pup you'll have. Our child."
His voice came out rough, and Darren saw with surprise that there were tears in his eyes.
"If it's a good thing, why are you crying?"
Blake reached up and brushed the tears from his eyes with his fingertips, looking down at them as surprised as Darren was. "I guess," he said. "It's because I'm happy." He wrapped his arms more tightly around Darren, and Darren went willingly into the embrace. "I'm just very happy, darling."
And if Blake was happy, then Darren was happy too. Or he should be, right? He was still a little shell-shocked, trying to wrap his mind around the knowledge that he was pregnant. How had they never noticed, he wondered, in all those check-ups he'd had, that he had parts that definitely didn't belong in a typical male of the species? How hadn't they seen the difference that must have been the one everyone sensed? The reason everyone looked down at him. How had he seen so many doctors that hadn't seen it at all?
Or had they, and they'd simply not told him? Had the families they had housed him with known? Had that been why, in the end, they always gave him up? He shook his head against his mate's shoulder, and tried to turn his thoughts back to happiness, back to Blake, to let himself light up with his mate's incandescent happiness. He could be happy too. He would be. He just needed a little time to get used to the idea.
Except that he was terrified. He didn’t know how to be a father. Or a mother. Or whatever it was that he was going to be to their children. He’d thought he would have more time before he had to worry about it, hadn’t thought he’d get pregnant the first time they slept together. Or, well, the second time. Or the eight time. Or the fifteenth time. He wasn’t really sure of the count. But it was still too soon. They’d only been mated a week, only known each other that long. Darren didn’t say it to Blake, but he was afraid.
Back in the truck, driving through the night toward Minnesota and the lake that his Alpha loved, Darren sat in quiet thought. Pregnant. This time he didn't think of doctors, or caseworkers, or the people who might have known just how he was different. He thought of being with Blake, of quiet nights like this, in their home instead of in a truck, of their children sleeping in their beds, or maybe asleep on the couch beside them, the last credits of some inane children's movie rolling, casting flickering lights on their small faces. And he was smiling. Because he could give them what he'd never had. He and Blake together, they could be parents. They could have children who would be happy. Who would be cared for, and loved, and wanted. Always. He thought of the little one growing already inside him, and laid a hand over his belly.
I'll protect you, he promised silently. I'll love you, and I'll never let you go. No one will ever take you from me.
He looked up from the road scrolling on at their side, and turned his gaze to his mate, who was looking over the steering wheel into the darkness, though he must have felt something of what passed through Darren, because his hands were a little tighter on the steering wheel, his attention a little more on the road. Darren scooted across the seat and laid his head on his Alpha's shoulder.
"They'll be beautiful," he said quietly.
Blake, though he didn't look down at Darren, smiled.
"They will be," he said. "And ours. And I promise you, sweetheart, that we'll never let anyone hurt them. I promise that the pack will love them as much as we do, and they'll be there too, and no matter what happens, our children will never be alone. They'll never be lonely or left."
Darren nodded against Blake's shoulder.
"I believe you," he said. "And I'm okay with this. I mean, I'm more than okay with it. I'm so happy, Blake. I thought I would be afraid. When I used to think about being a father, and raising children, I used to be so scared that I would do something wrong, that I would screw them up the same way I was screwed up. And I knew it wasn't likely anyway, what with being gay and the fact that human males don't really give birth, but it scared me."
"Does it scare you now?" Blake asked gently.
Darren shook his head.
"No," he said, lifting his eyes to look up at his mate's profile in the blue-green light from the dashboard. "It doesn't scare me anymore, because I have you, and I know that you'll take care of us, however many of us there are." He smiled. "I know that you'll help me when I don't know what to do, and that you'll make sure our children don't have the same struggles that I did."
Blake wrapped one arm around Darren's shoulders, steering with the other hand, and held him close.
"I will," he said. "I promise. But I won't need to, darling. Because you're going to be such a good carrier. Such a good parent. You care too much not to be."
Lips curving up into a hint of a smile, Darren pressed a kiss against Blake's shoulder.
"I think maybe you're a little biased," he said. "But that’s okay."
And it was. They drove on into the night, Darren's eyes sliding shut. Sleep carried him away, but Blake remained awake, his arm around his mate, his eyes on the road. They would be in Minnesota soon, and in the afternoon they would be home. He couldn't wait to take Darren inside, to show him the place that would be his, so much better than the single room apartment in some middle-of-nowhere town in Iowa. Blake smiled out at the darkness. They were going to be happy. He knew it.
Now there was only his family to deal with. And they wouldn't be so bad, really. Well, they might be to him. He was going to be getting a lot of the silent treatment for a few days. But Darren would charm them all with a single look form those big brown eyes, he was sure. They’d fall all over themselves trying to make him smile, just the way Blake had. And the rest of the pack would be right behind them.
Darren stirred against Blake’s shoulder, sliding a little farther against him, and Blake wrapped his arm around his mate and gently shifted him so that he lay across the seat with his head in Blake’s lap, Blake’s free hand sliding through his hair. He needed rest while he could get it. There was no knowing if the pregnancy would be difficult once it began to show. And Blake’s family would want to meet him. That in itself, he was sure, would be tiring. He had a lot of family.
The night went on, and Blake drove onward with it, the quiet hum of the tires against the cement, and the steady sound of his mate’s breathing the only noises. Shortly before dawn, he reached up and turned on the radio
as the sky around them went grey with first light, and then pink and orange, gradually fading into blue.
When Darren woke, the sun was high in the sky, and Blake was pulling into his own driveway. While his mate looked around with wide eyes, Blake looked down at the unanswered messages on his cell phone, his parents wondering when he would be back in town. He’d told his family, of course, that he had been delayed, but not by what. That was a message better shared face to face.
This far north, fall was already coming, and the trees were beginning to show red and gold along the edges of their leaves. A wind blew from the north with just a hint of winter’s chill. Darren, walking back to the truck with him, shivered a little, and Blake drew him close, sweeping him up in his arms and carrying him over the threshold.
“Darren, darling,” he said as the door shut behind them. “Welcome home.”
Omega Reborn
Preston Walker / Aiden Bates
© 2015
Omega Awakening Book 2
Disclaimer
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and events are all fictitious for the reader’s pleasure. Any similarities to real people, places, events, living or dead are all coincidental.
This book contains sexually explicit content that is intended for ADULTS ONLY (+18).
Excerpt
"Are you sure it's safe?" he asked in a voice that Blake had quickly discovered was meant to sound belligerent but was only used to cover his fear.