by Aiden Bates
"Please," he begged finally. "Please. Alpha."
"You're being so good for me," Blake said, voice muffled against Darren's hip where he had been biting another purple mark in the fair skin. "Be good for me just a little longer. It will be worth it, sweetheart, I promise."
"Yes, Alpha," Darren answered, voice catching a little on the word, ripping over a sob.
Blake added another finger.
And that was almost enough, felt so good. Darren's eyes were closed, his fingers still curled in the blankets, his head tipped back against the pillow to bare the long arch of his throat.
"Alpha," he breathed, and again. "Alpha." And there was no plea for more in the words, only desire. He just wanted Blake. Just wanted whatever Blake wanted to give him.
The fingers slid free, and Darren whimpered, but then his Alpha's mouth was over his, claiming him, muffling the little pleading sounds that he couldn't seem to stop making, and he opened under the kiss, pliant and wanting. And then it was Blake's cock that was sliding inside him, finally, finally, moving in easy where he was slick and already opened by his Alpha's fingers.
"Good," Blake pulled back to say. "God, Darren. Beautiful. My perfect boy."
"Thank you, Alpha," Darren gasped. "Oh, Alpha, thank you."
There was a big hand in his hair, tangling there to guide his head up for another, deeper kiss, another hand wrapped around his hip and holding him as Blake moved. He couldn't rock down against his Alpha's length, could only take what his Alpha gave him and no more. Darren writhed against the hold, his arms wrapping tight around his Alpha's shoulders, and took it.
Chapter Five
Blake loved the way his omega melted beneath him at the slightest touch, loved the little sounds his mate made, like he couldn’t help the way they slipped from him as Blake’s fingers worked over his prostate. He’d left a scatter of bright bruises along Darren’s hips and thighs. His omega’s skin took his mark so easily. There were so many things to love about his boy. He couldn’t quite resist the urge to bite down on the soft place where Darren’s shoulder met his neck, to leave another mark there so everyone could see that Darren was his and his alone. He growled softly at the thought, felt Darren shudder underneath him with need as the sound washed over him.
“Tell me what you want,” he demanded.
“You,” Darren answered instantly. “Just you, Alpha. Please. Your hands. Your mouth. Your cock.”
“Greedy,” Blake said, voice fond. “But I happen to like you quite a lot, so you’re in luck.”
He leaned down and kissed Darren hard, tongue tracing the curves of his mate’s mouth. Both hands slid to Darren’s hips, pulling the slight body down against his own, into each thrust. Darren was writhing under him, moaning, looking up through half-open lids with dazed eyes. He was the most beautiful thing Blake had ever seen.
“Please,” Darren breathed.
“Just another minute, darling. Hold on for me a little longer.”
Darren nodded, the motion jerky and uneven. Blake was close himself, his knot swelling, and he groaned as it slid through the tight ring of his mate’s body, heard Darren’s moans echo the sound. Another thrust, and they were locked together, and Blake rocked against his omega, Darren writhing as the knot rubbed over his prostate.
“Alpha,” he was begging, voice tight in his throat. “Alpha, please.”
“Yes, baby. Yes. Come for me.”
The syllables on Darren’s tongue might have been his name, but they were jumbled, stumbling, tangled up in a sob. His body tightened and shuddered under Blake’s.
“Good,” Blake purred. “Beautiful, sweetheart.”
This time the kiss was gentle, lazy. Blake was still coming, spilling into the warm, tight body. He slid a hand into Darren’s hair once more, stroking gently through it, turned them both so that they were laying side by side against the pillows.
“I love you.” Darren’s voice was soft, already slipping into sleep.
Blake smiled against the back of his neck.
“And I you. Always.”
----
When they woke, the sun was already high in the sky, and they were still curled around each other, Darren’s back rising and falling against his chest. Blake took a long moment to simply lay there in the comfortable warmth of the bed, holding his omega close before he woke him with slow kisses against the nape of his neck and his jaw. He had one more day before he had to go back to work, and he intended to take every advantage of it.
"Wake, darling." His voice was soft, but Darren swatted back at him, grumbling sleepily under his breath, and Blake laughed. "Don't you think that behavior is a little less than satisfactory, love?"
"No," Darren answered, slurred and rough with sleep. "You're trying to wake me up. It's justified."
"I'm trying to wake you up,” Blake answered, laughter still in his voice. "Because I thought we might go out on the lake today before I have to go back to work. And because you've had plenty of sleep."
He threw back the blankets and left the bed, reaching across the mattress to slap his mate's thigh.
"Come on, sleeping beauty. Up and at ‘em."
Darren didn't seem any more inclined to get out of bed than he had been a moment before, though he'd jumped when Blake slapped him. With a sigh, Blake reached in and pulled his mate out, gathering him up into his arms and kissing his sleepy mouth until he opened his eyes and looked up at his Alpha, arms wrapping around his neck.
"There you are," Blake said, smiling down at those half-lidded eyes. "I thought you might never wake up."
"I'm pregnant," Darren said, giving him a look that attempted annoyed but mostly just managed to look half asleep. "I need my beauty rest."
"Any more beauty rest and you'll be simply too luminous for the rest of us mortals to behold," Blake answered. "And besides, we're going canoeing today, and I want us to have enough time to enjoy the afternoon before it gets dark."
"Fine." Darren leaned into his chest, pressing up for one last kiss before he moved back and began digging through his duffle bag for something to wear. "I'm awake."
"I thought I was going to have to start resorting to a water pitcher, so that's probably a good thing for you," Blake said, laughing again as he searched his dresser for an outfit of his own. They needed to get Darren some more clothes. And Blake would need to clean out space in the dresser and closet for him. He found himself looking forward to the chores. It would be good to see Darren with some more things of his own, with some space that belonged to him.
Dressing was a matter of a few short minutes, and then they went down and had breakfast, sharing kisses between bites of the fruit Blake cut up. It was a long and leisurely process. When they had cleaned up from that, Blake packed a lunch while Darren watched. The lunch was technically dinner, as it was already nearly noon, but Blake didn't particularly care about the semantics. What he cared about was Darren, and watching his omega's eyes light up as they paddled along the shore line. He linked his fingers with Darren's and led him out to the truck, lifting him in before he took the canoe out from under its coverings and settled it in the bed. It was not a long drive to the shore.
Blake lived close enough that he could see the lake from his back porch, and he pulled into the parking lot at the dock in just moments. When the canoe was sitting on the water, Darren looked at it dubiously.
"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.
He laid a gentle hand on his mate's shoulder. "Safe as houses,” he promised. "I would never do anything to put you or the baby in danger. I promise."
Darren looked up at his face for a long moment, and then he nodded, and stepped into the canoe. It rocked beneath his weight, but settled quickly after Blake had stepped in. Blake took up the paddle and began steering them out toward deeper water.
For a long minute, Darren looked terrified, eyes wide as he took in the expanse of the lake b
efore them, the way the canoe rocked on the little waves, but then he seemed to relax, and he sat in the bow, looking out ahead of them with excitement in the stretch of his spine. Blake watched him with a smile. It was good to see him so happy. He wanted to show Darren everything there was to see in Silver Bay, every stretch of shoreline, all the secret places where he had spent his childhood. This was a good place to raise children. A good place to have a family. It was a place where Darren could grow. And not so far away, there was the national forest. On full moon nights, though they no longer were tied to its cycles, Darren's pack held a revel in the woods, running wild together in their wolf forms until dawn came to send them back to their beds. Blake couldn't wait to take Darren.
His thoughts turned, as he paddled, to the conversation of the night before, and the worry that hunters might in fact have followed them from Iowa. He wondered how likely it was, how much time they were willing to spend on a single wolf. But if they had given up on him, would he even have lived long enough to meet Blake? Surely not, Blake decided. They would have killed him to prevent him carrying on the line. His heart sank. The chances that they were not following, which he had hoped to be great, were looking more and more slim.
If they had followed, though, he meant what he had said the night before, and he knew their Alpha did too. They would not let the hunters harm their mates and children. They would not let their pack be destroyed. Sooner or later, the hunters would give themselves away, and then the wolves would make their move, and they would all be safe. This would stay a good place to raise children. It would stay a place they could be happy. Blake watched his mate look out over the water with wonder in every line of his body, and silently vowed that he would never let anything ruin this for them.
Chapter Six
Darren fell into bed that night exhausted. But it wasn't the kind of exhausted that he had always been after hours of working double shifts at Walmart and the call center. It was a clean sort of exhaustion. The kind of tired that came from spending the day learning to paddle a canoe over the wide grey expanse of Lake Superior. They had stopped for lunch in Palisade Head, sitting on the shore and watching the waves roll over the surface of the lake while they ate the sandwiches Blake had packed for them. Turkey with tomato and lettuce. Darren had smiled down at his sandwich as Blake had handed it to him, remembering when he had told his mate that it was his favorite. Back before Blake, when everything had been different, it had been the sandwich he'd had when he was really lucky. Now, he thought, curling up in the bow of his mate's body, he could have that whenever he wanted. It was as novel as the warmth of another person beside him in bed. As sweet.
Blake, who had spent days on the lake before, didn't seem as tired as Darren was. In fact, he didn't seem tired at all, Darren thought, as Blake reached down and slid a hand between his thighs, rubbing his cock through the soft fabric of his boxers.
"You falling asleep on me?" The words were fond, amused.
Darren shook his head.
"No." It was possibly a bit of a lie. But his hips were starting to rock into the touch, and he was getting hard under his mate's hand, and he thought he could stay awake long enough for this.
He always wanted Blake. Wanted his mate over him and touching him and inside him. It wasn't just the sex, though the sex was amazing. He remembered thinking it must have been, that first morning after the heat had started, thinking that he wanted to try it when he would have clear memories of it. He’d gotten his clear memories of it, and he had been very, very right. But it wasn't just that. It was the way the warm weight of Blake's body over his own made him feel safe. Made him feel loved. With Blake, he always felt like someone special.
And maybe it was selfish, but he liked the fact that Blake couldn't leave him. Wouldn't ever walk away. Everyone else had left, but he and Blake were tied to each other in more ways than one. Were bound together by a bond that promised to hold for the rest of their lives. Darren buried his smile in the pillow so Blake wouldn't ask him what was funny, and turned off the thoughts spinning around in his head, giving his full attention to the way his mate's big, warm hand felt on his cock.
"Mmm," he breathed, rubbing his hips back against Blake's, feeling the already hard line of his Alpha's cock against the curves of his buttocks. "Alpha. Feels good."
Blake made a noise like a growl behind him, and then he was flipping them so that Darren was on his back, looking up into grey eyes, and his hands were pulling Darren's boxers down.
"The sounds you make," he said as he yanked his own off. "God, Darren. I've told you before, but you're irresistible, baby. Can't get enough of you. Want to lick every inch of you. Want to fill you up and never let you go without my touch again."
That sounded just fine to Darren, and he made his appreciation of the plan clear, wrapping his arms around his Alpha and pulling him down close for a kiss that was as urgent as the heat between them had suddenly become. He thought he could almost feel sparks jumping from his skin to his mate's.
"Want you," he said when the kiss broke, and he wasn't tired anymore. He felt electrified. "Want you so much, Blake."
He liked it like this, sometimes, when he felt less like an omega and more like the person he thought he had been. When he and Blake were both hungry and wanting, hands exploring bodies and hips rocking against each other.
Of course, he liked it the other way too. Liked that a lot. Fuck. Blake's hands were so big, and sometimes they would close around Darren's hips and flip him over easy as anything, and Blake would hold him in place while he licked up the cleft between Darren's buttocks and bit marks into the backs of his thighs and filled him until he sobbed with the stretch and the need and perfection of it. And he was wrapping his arms tighter around Blake, arching up into him. God. Everything they did was hot. Really, really hot.
"Fuck me," he breathed against his mate's mouth. "Alpha. Please. Fill me up with your knot. Need it. Need to be yours."
"Always mine, sweetheart," Blake growled against his ear. "But I don’t mind showing you."
His hand was on Darren's leg, then, lifting it up over Blake's shoulder, folding him nearly in half. His fingers sild down, found Darren slick and ready and wanting, and he groaned, didn't waste any time pushing in, filling Darren with a single thrust. Darren's spine arched, his teeth sinking into his lower lip.
Blake was looking down at him, and Darren heard him growl again. His Alpha's mouth was there, then, gently tugging his lip from between his teeth, soothing the faint ache with his tongue before he nipped sharply at the softness of it.
"Every time you do that," he growled. "I want to bite you."
"Don't have a problem with that," Darren answered, breathless. "Bite me, Alpha. Want to feel it. Want your mark on me."
The noise Blake made was enough to have Darren's hips bucking against his cock. God, he was hot when he got going. There were definitely perks to being an omega. Perks shaped like a really well built Alpha with a growl that could turn anyone's insides to jelly.
Teeth closed hard on the thin skin at the base of his throat, not enough to break through, but enough to leave an aching bruise behind, and Darren whimpered, fingers curling until his nails dug into the nape of his Alpha's neck. That only seemed to make Blake want to bite him more, because there was another bite and another mark, and then another, like Blake was biting a collar of bruises into his neck, to make sure everyone knew that they couldn't have him. Couldn't ever touch him.
Darren wondered what it would be like to really wear a collar for his Alpha, shuddered a little at the thought with something that might have been arousal. The wolf in him hated the idea, but the human wouldn’t have minded such an obvious sign of ownership. But there was the mating mark. And that was enough.
As though he’d heard Darren thinking of it, Blake’s teeth closed over the mark, gentler there than they had been elsewhere, but still pulling a bruise up inside its lines. Darren bucked under him, gasping, moaning. That spot was so sensitive. They hadn’t explai
ned to him exactly why it worked the way it did, but god it felt good. Felt like Blake was claiming him all over again. Light flashed across his eyelids, and he thought that he might come then and there, just from Blake’s cock in him and Blake’s mouth on his throat.
And it was like Blake knew that too. Blake knew everything, Darren thought sometimes. His Alpha was reaching down and curling a big hand around his cock, holding tight, stopping the orgasm that was arcing through him, and Darren sobbed.
“Alpha. Please.”
“Do you want to come?”
There was that Alpha growl, shuddering through Darren’s bones and making him whimper.
“Yes. Please. Want to. Need to, Alpha, please.”
“You sure, sweetheart?”
Darren nodded a little too fast, clutching at his Alpha. “Yes. ‘M sure. Please. Let me. Alpha.”
He wasn’t sure how he was still making words. Wasn’t sure, in fact, that he was still making words. But Blake seemed to know what he wanted either way, so it didn’t matter.
“Okay, baby. Come for me, then. Come on.”
The hand loosened around him, stroked up to the head of his cock, and Darren was coming almost before the words had finished leaving his Alpha’s mouth, spilling over Blake’s fingers with a shudder and low moan.
But Blake didn’t stop stroking him. That big hand was still wrapped around him, sliding up and down his cock, and Darren bucked under it, body shaking.
“Oh. Fuck. Blake. Please.”
“You said you wanted to come, I thought?” There was a smile in his Alpha’s voice. Darren could see the wicked edge of it in the words, even with his eyes closed. “Is that not what you asked for?”
It was what he had asked for. And it was so much. Too much. Darren found himself nodding, though, his mouth too full of moans to make words, and Blake leaned down and kissed him, swallowing the sounds until they were just muffled whispers between their mouths. But his hand left Darren’s cock, slid up his body to toy with his nipples, while his cock kept moving, sliding in and out of Darren, stroking over the sweet spot inside him. Darren writhed.