by Aiden Bates
Gavin flushed, but a smile curved his own mouth in answer to theirs. “We met by accident one day, in the woods. Everything else just sort of… happened.”
Darren laughed. “If it’s any consolation, I mated the first Alpha I ever met. Two hours after I met him. So, you know. You’re doing better than I did.”
That Blake and Darren had mated shortly after they met, Gavin knew. But he hadn’t known it had been so quickly.
“How did that happen? If you don’t mind me asking?”
“To make a long story short,” Darren said, “I went into heat after he came through my checkout line at Walmart. I’d never been around other shifters, you know. Blake was waiting outside to ask what I was doing in Iowa, and by the time my manager sent me home I could hardly walk straight. Blake picked me up and took me home.” Darren smiled. “He offered to help me through my heat, and the rest is history.”
“Nicholas and I had such a conventional courtship,” Grey said, shaking his head. “I feel like I’ve missed out on all the adventure.” His voice said he didn’t feel that way at all. “We met at an all-pack meet, and he asked my father permission to court me before two weeks had passed. From what I hear, it was a terribly awkward evening. Poor Nic. He’s really bad at talking to people. Especially people he hardly knows who happen to be the father of the omega he wants to mate.”
Omega solidarity, Gavin thought. They hadn’t treated him like he’d done something wrong. Had even shared their own stories, like his wasn’t anything out of the ordinary. He smiled.
Chapter Fourteen
The ceremony itself was something of a blur. Gavin spent most of it focused more on Raul than on anyone else, including the pack Alpha reading the rites. He agreed to each of them, hands in his Alpha’s, and was glad when the reading was over and the mating pronounced official. A cheer went up from the guests, and Raul pulled him in close with an arm around his waist and kissed him slow and sweet. The kiss, he definitely remembered.
After, there were pictures in front of the falls and along the lake shore. That was less a mating thing than a wedding thing, but Raul had wanted them, and his sister had pointed out that they would appreciate having them later on, so Gavin had agreed to them. It was easy enough: stand here, stand there, and turn this way. Raul was next him, warm and steady.
“You doing okay?” Raul leaned in to ask when they had been seated for lunch.
Gavin nodded, turning to smile at his Alpha. And Raul really was his Alpha now. Officially. No one could take that from him. Tonight, they’d finish the mating, and Gavin shivered a little with anticipation.
“I’m great,” he said.
“Good,” Raul said, stealing a kiss before he straightened up again.
From the table nearest the front, Gavin saw Larentia smiling at them. She looked so much like her twin–the same raven hair and warm dark eyes. He hadn’t had much chance to speak to her before the ceremony, though Raul had made a point of getting them both in the same room more than once. But she had told him how happy she was that her brother had found a mate. Her own mate, a slim beta with hair as dark as her own, sat at her side.
There were no speeches. Raul had asked Gavin’s father if he would like to make one, and the answer had been an absolute no. They’d decided against having any others, and warned their friends that they had no intention of staying for the party after lunch. They were headed up to Thunder Bay for the night, and from there to Seward, where they would spend the next two weeks.
Talk had died down, and plate had been cleared. They stood up to announce their departure. Friends came forward to wish them a good trip and a happy mating. When Gavin moved to shake Grey’s hand, the other omega pulled him in close for a hug, and Darren did the same. He also got a hug from Larentia, who bent down to whisper in his ear that he had better take care of her brother. Last was his father, who stood looking at him awkwardly for a moment before Gavin reached out and initiated the hug himself. After a startled instant, his father’s arms closed around him. They stood like that for a moment, and then they broke apart and Gavin smiled up at his father.
“Thank you,” he said, low and heartfelt. “Thank you for this.”
His father shook his head, tears standing in his eyes but not falling. “You don’t need to thank me, Gavin. Just make the most of it. Enjoy what you have, because it’s special.”
Gavin smiled. “I will,” he promised.
Raul shook his father’s hand, and then the line was over and they were walking away. They took Gavin’s baggage from the back of his father’s pickup, and threw it into the back of Raul’s. A few miles down the highway, Gavin turned in his seat to look back at the forest unrolling behind them, and then he turned back to Raul and smiled. Raul took one hand from the wheel to lay it on the center console, fingers curling around Gavin’s when Gavin laid his own hand in the waiting palm.
“Ready for tonight, sweet thing?”
Laughter answered him. “I think,” Gavin said. “I’ve been ready for a long time.”
Chapter Fifteen
They reached Thunder Bay in the early afternoon. Gavin leaned against the door, watching the unfamiliar city pass them by. Their cabin was another half hour’s drive beyond that, near Dog Lake. Raul insisted on carrying most of the luggage in, and then, to Gavin’s shocked delight, insisted on carrying him in too. He grinned at Gavin’s laughter as he dropped him down onto the bed.
“I thought I’d never get you someplace with a mattress,” he said, already stripping Gavin out of his shirt.
“It was starting to look hopeless,” Gavin agreed, lifting his arms to let his husband pull the shirt from his body.
His shoes were next, and then his pants. Though laughter greeted Raul’s haste, Gavin didn’t have any more interest in waiting than his lover did, and he sat up as soon as he was free of his pants, intent on helping Raul’s state of undress match his own.
Raul let Gavin take off his shirt, stripped himself out of his own pants. And then they were stretched out on the bed, skin to skin, with a luxury of time they’d never had before. Raul’s fingers tangled in Gavin’s hair and pulled him in close for a kiss that started slow but didn’t stay that way. His mouth was hard against Gavin’s, hungry and bruising, and Gavin wrapped an arm around his mate’s broad shoulders and gasped against his mouth.
The kiss broke for an instant, giving both of them time to breathe, and then they were pressed together again, bodies rocking, skin sliding against skin. Gavin could feel his Alpha’s cock, hard and hot against his thigh.
“Waited so long for this,” Raul breathed, still close enough that Gavin could feel the warmth of the words on his skin.
Then, without any warning, he shifted back on the bed and instead of pulling Gavin after him he flipped him easily onto his stomach. His alpha’s weight pinned him there, face down, his Alpha’s body settled on top of his own. Gavin whimpered, and Raul’s thighs slid between his. He spread them wide, spreading Gavin’s wider.
Raul reached past Gavin and pulled a couple of the pillows from the end of the bed, slotting them under Gavin’s hips, lifting him with an arm hooked beneath him before he dropped him back down against the pillows, so that his hips were lifted from the bed with something to rest against.
“Alpha,” Gavin breathed, trembling already, but not with fear.
He arched his spine, pressing up for more of the kisses that Raul’s mouth was brushing against his back and shoulders. His Alpha’s hands stroked flat-palmed down his arms and then up again to curve over his shoulders. They traced the muscles of his back either side of his spine. Open and exposed, Gavin writhed under the touch.
“Please.”
Raul slid backwards so that he sat between Gavin’s knees. As he moved, his hand came down, slapping against Gavin’s upper thigh, and Gavin moaned with the slight sting of it, legs slipping a little wider, spine arching.
“Oh, good boy,” Raul growled against his spine.
He cock was pressed against Gavin
’s thigh, hot and hard, letting Gavin feel how much his Alpha wanted him. His hand fell again, leaving another handprint on the sensitive skin where Gavin’s leg met his body, making Gavin jump and gasp.
“Raul,” Gavin moaned. “Alpha.”
Raul pressed his lips to the red skin he’d left behind, soothed the burn with a flick of his tongue. Gavin could hear the ragged, wanting edge to his Alpha’s breath and it made him writhe with renewed desire. He wanted to hear his Alpha groan. Wanted to know that he was pleased and sated.
“Beautiful,” his Alpha’s voice said above him. “You’re so beautiful, omega. Keep your legs spread wide, baby. Reach back and hold yourself open for me. I want to see you.”
Gavin obediently reached back, body weight settling onto his shoulders, and curled his fingers around his buttocks, pulling them wide for Raul, exposing himself further. His cheeks flushed hot. He knew Raul must be able to see how ready he was, how slick with want and need.
Raul dropped his head with a low growl that shuddered along Gavin’s spine, his tongue sliding from Gavin’s hole to the base of his cock, and Gavin keened and arched into the wet heat of it. Just that touch, and then it was gone, and Gavin made a low, pleading noise, disappointed at the loss. Raul chuckled against his thigh, and flicked the tip of his tongue over Gavin’s hole, groaning in echo when he moaned.
One of Raul’s fingers was there, then, sliding inside him. And then there were two, stretching him open for Raul’s tongue. They pressed outward, and his Alpha’s tongue slid into the space between them. Nothing they had ever done was like this, had prepared him for this. It was more than he knew how to take, and Gavin sobbed his Alpha’s name as Raul’s tongue flicked deeper, in and out, curling inside him.
“Please.” Gavin whimpered, writhing back into the thrusts of Raul’s tongue that were driving him mad. He couldn’t keep still. Further pleas tumbled from his lips, syllables stumbling and drawn out. His toes curled. His hips hitched. Much more and he would definitely come. He couldn’t concentrate on anything but the way it felt, and Raul wasn’t stopping. His fingers stroked over Gavin’s prostate, tapped against it, and his tongue was still teasing at the rim of Gavin’s hole. Another low growl made Gavin moan against the blankets.
“I can’t. Alpha. Please. I have to -”
Gavin was sobbing in earnest, pleasure washing over him, filling him, leaving him shaking. It was so much. Too much. The tongue and the hands and the growls against his skin. He tried to speak again, to tell Raul that he was going to spill if it kept on, but the words wouldn’t come to him.
Raul reached down, hand sliding between the pillows and Gavin, and curled warm fingers around Gavin’s slender length. When Gavin rocked into the touch with a whimper, he ran his thumb in circles around the head, pressed it to the slit and spread the wetness over the smooth skin. His tongue moved faster. Deeper. Even if Gavin hadn’t been right on the edge, there was no arguing with the way it slid along the shaft, the way his fingers rippled over wanting flesh.
They played this way sometimes. Pushing to the edge. Seeing how far Gavin could take it, how long he could last. Gavin wasn’t sure if that’s what they were playing this time. If he needed to wait. But he didn’t think he his Alpha would be so cruel. A keening moan escaped from behind his teeth. It had to be a yes. He couldn’t hold back.
“Alpha,” he gasped again, just in case. “Alpha, please.”
“Yes,” Raul growled in answer. “Yes, baby. Come for me. Come for me now.”
And that was it. Gavin came with a sob and his Alpha’s name on his lips. His body trembled, back arching and face turned against the mattress. It went on and on until he thought he would fall to pieces. Even before with Raul, he had never come like this. When it was over, he collapsed against the pillows holding him up, muscles going limp. His thighs twitched with aftershocks, and Raul smoothed his hands down them, warm and approving.
“Beautiful, sweet thing. So perfect for me. So good.”
He slid up Gavin’s body to lay behind him, tight to his back and pressing kisses to the nape of his neck. Strong arms wrapped around Gavin’s sides, crossing over his chest. This was one of his favorite parts, something he’d never had enough of during those brief encounters in the woods. The arms holding him, and Raul’s voice low and soft in his ear, telling him how good he was.
Gavin smiled. It was perfect. This was perfect, and they should have done it so long ago. His eyes slid shut and Gavin relaxed into it, just for a moment, let himself enjoy the afterglow. But Raul was still hard, and after the space of a few heartbeats, he shifted in his Alpha’s arms, moving to turn and face him. He lifted his eyes to his Alpha’s face. There was still something he wanted, after all. He’d had his Alpha’s fingers before. Now he wanted the rest. Wanted his knot. He told him so, leaning up to breathe the words against the curve of his Alpha’s jaw.
Raul made a low, hungry sound, and his arms wrapped tight around Gavin’s waist, pulling him in. “You’re going to have me, baby. Going to claim you, make you mine.”
His fingers ran gently through Gavin’s hair, and Gavin leaned into his touch. There was another kiss then, Raul’s mouth against his, slow this time. Sweet. Like they had all the time in the world, and maybe they did. Raul moaned, and Gavin gasped. Raul kissed him harder, then, licking into his mouth, and his hips rolled against Gavin’s, dragging his cock against the soft skin of Gavin’s thigh.
“Now, please.” Gavin begged against Raul’s mouth. “I want you now, Alpha. Want all of you. Want you filling me up. Taking me. Owning me. Want to be yours.”
Gavin rubbed his hips against Raul’s cock and Raul moaned against his lips, grinding back against him, growled “Good boy” into his mouth.
Raul’s fingers slid down between his thighs, into the valley of his buttocks, and stroked over his hole. Gavin moaned, arching into the touch, into the teasing press of them when they didn’t fill him the way he wanted them to. Raul laughed like he loved the way that Gavin begged for it, and then they were in, pressing warm inside him again. Gavin rocked into them with a moan.
Long fingers teased the sensitive bundle of nerves inside him, tapping too gently against it. He rubbed circles, first one way and then the other, and it was too much. Not enough. He wanted Raul. Wanted his Alpha’s cock. Wanted to be filled up with him. Raul knew.
“Please,” Gavin gasped. “Alpha. Stop teasing, please.” He was shifting, small motions. Needy. “Come on. Want you.”
Raul’s fingers slid out of him, wrapped around his cock instead, sliding along the half-hard length to coax the blood back to it. The he caught Gavin around the waist, rolled them again, and Gavin pulled himself up onto his knees. One big, warm hand closed around his hip, and then the head of his Alpha’s cock was sliding inside him, and Gavin was rocking back against it, trying to get more. He had waited so long for this, for his Alpha. Had waited so long to be Raul’s.
“Fuck. Alpha. Raul. Please.”
His mate dragged his cock nearly all the way out, then pressed it back in, deeper this time. He was so filled, stretching open around his Alpha. The toys had never been like these. Even his Alpha’s fingers hadn’t been this good. Hadn’t opened him so wide. His legs parted wider, inviting–silently asking Raul to go deeper.
Raul reached up and stroked Gavin’s side, then dropped that hand to his hip too, and he thrust slow and smooth. Another. And then another. Deeper and deeper with each one until Gavin could feel his the swelling knot at the base of his Alpha’s cock. Then he stopped, waited there, still rocking in little thrusts, but not pulling all the way back.
“So good,” Raul was gasping against his neck. “So good, omega.”
Gavin’s back arched, and he rocked back against the length inside him, circling his hips to rub against that knot. He wanted it inside him. Wanted to be knotted and claimed and taken.
“Ready, baby?” Raul’s low, rough voice asked against his ear. “You want to take my knot, omega? Want me to make a mess of you, pretty bo
y?”
Gavin nodded, too quickly, bucked back against his Alpha. Raul withdrew a little, then lifted his hips high and drove in.
“Fuck,” Gavin heard him gasp, voice soft and wrecked.
It was so fucking good.
“Gavin...” His Alpha’s voice said.
Raul was pulling back, almost sliding out of him. Gavin whimpered as the knot promised to stretch him around it again, but Raul didn’t pull out. Instead he thrust in hard, filling Gavin up, grinding against his prostate.
Gavin swore, his voice a sob. He had thought he was full before, but god. The pressure of it against his walls pulled a moan from him. He writhed, body shuddering. Another stroke against his prostate. He was so full.
“Can’t– Raul. Oh, Alpha. Didn’t know would be like this. So good.”
He rocked against the length, the knot that filled him.
“Need you, Alpha. Want you. Take me. Make me yours.”
Raul’s hands on Gavin were gentle. One slid up Gavin’s body, fingers catching a nipple between them and tugging gently. Then he drew back, slowly pulling his knot out again. Gavin writhed in his hands, cried his name. His spine arched deeper, trying to follow. It was too much, stretching him open. His voice faltered with the pull of it.
Raul pressed a kiss to his shoulder, and then he began to move. He held Gavin’s hips, steadying him. Another warm brush of lips, and then he pulled his hips back, drawing his cock out until just the head remained inside. Then, slow, he pushed back in, filling Gavin steadily until he could feel the knot again. He pressed it nearly all the way in, and then drew it back. Fractional movements of his hips, so that he fucked Gavin with nothing but the knot for a few thrusts, stretching him, opening the muscle as much as it would go. He growled, and Gavin whimpered.