by Aiden Bates
He was talking, he thought, saying words. Begging his Alpha for more. Begging to be taken. Claimed. Owned. Repeating himself. But he didn’t think his Alpha would mind. If Raul felt anything like this, he wouldn’t even notice. Gavin arched deeper, his body begging the way his mouth did. He was grateful for the hands on his hips – holding him steady. Grounding him.
Raul thrust in, knot sliding in too, wider this time than it had been. Gavin moaned with pleasure-pain burn as it cleared the muscle, and then it was filling him, stretching him wider than he’d ever been taken, pressing hard into his prostate as Raul slid all the way in. The rhythm was steady, perfect. Gavin let Raul hold him up, sinking against the pillows that propped his hips up for his Alpha. His legs felt too weak and trembling to take his own weight. His hands were tangled in the bed sheets, knuckles white.
“Tell me you’re mine,” Gavin growled against the nape of his neck. “Tell me you belong to me, omega.”
“Raul,” he answered, low and trembling. “Claim me, Alpha, please. I’m yours. Always. No one’s but yours.”
He rocked into the thrusts. Moans caught in his throat, stuttering with pleasure as Raul took him up on that offer. Took him entirely. Claimed him. He held Gavin’s hips in place and his own moved, lithe and smooth.
“Yes. Mine. Gavin. Omega. So good for me.”
Gavin was so full. Raul’s strokes were shorter, just barely pulling the knot out. He pressed his mouth to Gavin’s neck, licking at the curve where it met his shoulder, the place where the mating bite would go. Gavin shuddered back against him, whispered please. And then the knot was there again, was slipping in again for the last time, tying them. Raul’s teeth sank hard into Gavin’s neck. Raul’s release filled him with liquid heat. Gavin came again beneath him, gasping against the mattress. Colors bloomed silently behind his eyelids. The world spun, and then righted itself.
“Good,” Raul was saying when Gavin came back to himself. “Mine.”
His hands stroked over Gavin’s body, gentle and sure. One arm wrapped around Gavin’s waist to hold him as he cleared the pillows out of the way and settled them both against the blankets, drawing him close. He pressed kisses to Gavin’s shoulders, licked gently at the still aching mark his teeth had left behind.
“Was it everything you imagined it would be,” he asked against Gavin’s skin, a smile in his voice.
Still a little breathless, Gavin laughed.
“I think I may never move again. You’re going to have to carry me everywhere, Alpha.”
He felt Raul’s smile widen.
“I can cope with that, now that you’re mine.” His hand stroked gentle circles over Gavin’s stomach.
“Mmm. Always yours, Alpha.”
Gavin snuggled closer back against Raul, the warm body holding him close, and let his eyes slide shut. Yes. It was everything he had thought it would be. More than. And he had certainly waited long enough for it. But it had been worth the wait. Worth all those months of sneaking around in the woods to avoid the prying eyes of the packs. Worth everything.
Warm and safe in his Alpha’s arms, Gavin slipped into sleep.
Omega Rising
Omega Awakening Book 5
Preston Walker / Aiden Bates
© 2015
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).
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Prologue
When two hearts become one, they become one forever.
The past is a part of a present, and the present is a part of the future. Time is not a thing that can be counted. Time does not move when the clock moves it. Jason knows time moves when Luke is moving. Luke knows time moves when Jason is still.
It is a heart touching to heart thing, a hand brushing to hand thing; time is a thing of lips and eyes.
Some of us remember. Some of us forget. But those that remember carry our memories with them, and those that forget carry the newness of a first kiss. A first touch. A first glance.
A thousand kisses can become a first kiss.
A thousand memories can become one moment.
Chapter One
Summer was coming to an end. The first official day of fall wasn’t for a week yet, but this far north that didn’t mean much. Overhead the leaves were already fading to gold and orange and yellow, and they fell from trees to plaster themselves to rain-wet cars and congregate in the gutters. Luke Martinez kicked a little pile of them along the edge of the curb and huddled a little deeper into his sweater as a chill wind curled around his shoulders. It was a good feeling, being wrapped up warmly in the grey autumn afternoon.
Luke liked fall. Liked the spicy scent of the fallen leaves, and the crunch of them under his shoes. They weren’t doing much crunching at the moment, of course. The rain had made them soggy and clinging, but Luke liked the rain too. He’d never really been happy in hot weather. Most people up here felt pretty much the same way, he’d found. That wasn’t really much of a surprise. You couldn’t live somewhere it snowed eight months out of twelve and hate the cold. Or you could, but you were going to be pretty miserable doing it.
It helped that wolf shifters usually ran hot. Luke wasn’t really bothered by the cold most of the time–he’d come from an Alaskan pack, after all–though when the temperature dropped down into the negative thirties he was as glad as anyone else to spend his time indoors. That didn’t mean that he couldn’t enjoy the soft warmth of fall sweaters even before the snow came.
His messenger bag bumped against his hip as he walked, swaying with the motion of his steps. Luke had one hand wrapped around the strap, the other held his camera tripod. He passed a woman wearing a long knit scarf, returning her friendly nod with one of his own. Up ahead, his little white car came into view, parked against the curb, and he smiled at its familiar form.
When he reached the car, he leaned the tripod against its side, fumbling in the front pocket of his bag for the keys, then dropped his things gently into the passenger seat and slid into the driver’s. He turned the key in the ignition, and the car started up with a little cough and a slightly rattly purr. She wasn’t exactly the prettiest thing on four wheels, but she took him where he needed to go, and that was all he required.
Pausing to check his mirrors, Luke pulled out into the quiet street and turned the white car toward downtown, rolling past houses that, despite their fading paint and weather-worn edges, sat in neat little squares of lawn. Superior wasn’t a bad place to live, all told, though whether or not it exactly lived up to its name was up for debate. It was a good place for him, though. A good place for those who wanted city life with close access to the forests and hills of northern Wisconsin.
The Superior pack was a decent one, too. Big enough to be sec
ure in its holdings, and friendlier than some of the packs in the deep woods. The strong ties to the even bigger Duluth pack meant that it would take a pretty heavy force to pose a threat to them, and Luke was confident in the ability of the local pack Alphas to handle one if it happened. Five years ago, there’d been some trouble with a sudden influx of hunters. Luke hadn’t been there to see it dealt with personally, but from what he’d heard they didn’t need to worry much about a repeat performance.
Raul was an Alpha worth following–strong, but not arrogant about it, and willing to question tradition where it could be changed without harming the pack. It was one of the reasons Luke had joined the Superior pack in the first place. He wasn’t exactly the picture of a traditionalist omega, no matter how much his Alpha father had tried to make him one. Shaking his head, Luke turned onto Highway 35, which would take him across the bay to Duluth and I-35, and from there to Jay Cooke State Park, where he intended to do some shooting along the St. Louis River. Gigs like the one he’d just finished paid the bills, but Luke preferred nature photography to the baby pictures he’d spent the morning shooting for one of the pack members.
One day, he’d be paid to take the pictures he liked shooting. Luke curled his fingers a little tighter around the curve of the steering wheel and promised himself that day wouldn’t be too far off. Soon, he’d be traveling the world, selling his photos to National Geographic. His father had laughed at the ambition, but Luke had never let that stop him. He wasn’t going to let any Alpha stop him.
Being unmated at twenty-five wasn’t exactly what most omegas aimed for. Most mated as soon as they were out of their teens. In more traditional packs, they paired off right out of high school. Luke had prospects, before he left Juneau. He came from good bloodlines, and he wasn’t exactly ugly. Alphas seemed to like the glasses and the way his dark hair was always flopping into his eyes. His slim, long-limbed build was classically omega. It was pretty much the only thing about him that was. Luke had turned them all down and left for the lower forty-eight against his father’s wishes, and he hadn’t once regretted it.
Well, that wasn’t strictly true. He regretted being told not to bother coming back if he didn’t come back with a mate; he regretted that his decision had made his mother cry. At twenty-five and completely prospect-less, he was looking at the possibility that he might never find an Alpha to take home to his parents, but he had the pack now. The other omegas didn’t seem to understand his lack of interest in a mate and children, and the Alphas seemed to understand it even less, but no one had ever treated him like he meant anything less because of it. Luke was grateful for that, and grateful to the pack for taking him in and treating him like one of their own.
As he left the city behind, trees rose on his left in place of houses, and Luke relaxed a little into his seat. He liked the convenience of living in the city, but he would always prefer the wild places. Most shifters did. A nod to the wolves that sat under their skin. Luke reached for the radio dial and turned on the music, letting all thoughts of home and his father’s last words to him drift away on the sound.
Chapter Two
Under the overcast sky, the river was the color of slate. Luke set his camera up on the bank and stood for a moment looking out over the water, listening to the sound of it tumbling over the rocks. The air smelled like wet stone and decaying plants. It was quiet in the park this early on a Monday; most people were still at work or in school. Luke preferred the solitude.
He took a breath and leaned over the camera, watching the rush of the river through the viewfinder, adjusting the aperture. The shutter clicked. Clicked again.
Clouds parted and the sun spilled through, lighting up the edges of the ripples with silver. Luke readjusted the camera settings and took another photo.
Behind him, leaves rustled. Luke turned.
The first thing he registered was height. Broad shoulders under flannel. Luke breathed in, and smelled salt and the cool, earthy scent of stone. The stranger was an Alpha. A flush of unfamiliar heat washed through Luke, and he felt his cheeks warm. He hadn’t had such a strong reaction to an Alpha since just after his first heat, when he was just discovering his body and all it had to say to him.
“Hello,” Luke said quietly, dipping his head in respectful greeting.
“Omega,” the Alpha answered neutrally, voice low and rough-edged. There was no censure in it for his informal introduction, no indication that the Alpha took any issue with his lack of deference. It settled the part of Luke that had bristled at the presence of the strange Alpha, soothed the nerves that always came with a first meeting.
“Luke. If you’d like.”
He thought he saw the hint of a smile on the Alpha’s mouth, though it was hard to tell. The taller male looked exhausted, Jason thought privately, as though he hadn’t slept in days.
“And I’m Jason.”
Jason was older than Luke by maybe a decade. His eyes were warm brown, darker than the ash brown hair he wore tied back in a short tail at the nape of his neck. He was carrying a heavy frame pack over his shoulders. In the lines of his face, Luke could read experience, and a distant pain. Under his gaze, the air had weight, pressing down on Luke’s shoulders, catching in his throat. Luke resolutely ignored the part of him that wanted to bend to those eyes, to sink to his knees in the soft grass and let himself be used. He was an omega, but he wasn’t a doormat. He wasn’t going to just fall on his face for the nearest knot.
“Just passing through?” Luke asked, like part of him didn’t want to run his hands up the breadth of the Alpha’s chest and the feel the firm muscle under sun-browned skin. And what was it about Jason that made him feel this way? Why was he hot and flushed and wanting after just a breath of the Alpha’s scent?
“Settling down for a while, actually,” Jason answered. “I’ve heard good things about the area.”
Luke smiled at that. “You’ve heard right, then. The Duluth pack is a good one.”
“That your pack?”
“Superior,” Luke said, shaking his head. “But they’re pretty closely joined.”
The Alpha took a step, and swayed a little. Luke found himself moving forward like he thought he was going to catch the heavier body. He wondered how long Jason had been traveling, how long it had been since he’d had a place to really lay his head. The Alpha looked like he needed a good meal and a soft bed. He wanted, with an intensity that surprised him, to take the Alpha home and take care of him. Cook for him. Let him rest.
“Are you okay?” Luke asked.
Jason looked at him for a moment, as though he was deciding what to say.
“I am tired,” he admitted. “I’ve been traveling a long time.”
It surprised Luke to hear the words said so easily. Most Alphas wouldn’t admit to an omega who wasn’t their mate that they had any kind of weakness at all. Wouldn’t confess to being anything but strong.
“Honestly,” Jason continued. “I’m considering setting up a bedroll right about there-” He gestured to the line of trees behind Luke. “And calling it a night.”
Luke glanced back at the trees. Before he could quite stope himself, words were coming out of his mouth.
“I’d be happy to drive you into town,” he said quietly. “If you’d like. I’ve got a car with me. It’s not far. If you’d rather sleep out here, I understand that, but if you’re looking for a bed, I can get you to a hotel.”
Jason looked at him, head tipping slightly to the side.
“You’d drive me in?” He sounded surprised.
“Just trying to help,” Luke said.
For a long moment, there was silence between them, and then Jason nodded, shoulders slumping a little under the weight of his pack. “A ride would be nice,” he said.
His father would be utterly scandalized, Luke thought as he packed up his gear and led Jason toward the lot where he’d left the car. Letting a strange Alpha ride alone in your vehicle wasn’t something a good, chaste omega did. Luke swallowed a laugh at
the thought of the expression that would be on his father’s face if he heard the story.
They reached the car, and Jason unbuckled the straps that held his pack on, slinging it into the trunk and then sliding into the passenger seat. Luke waited until Jason had buckled his seatbelt to get behind the wheel, then turned the key in the ignition. The little car rumbled to life, and he started toward home. It was an hour and a half’s drive, but Jason could always sleep in the car.
Jason mumbled leaned his head against the window, unselfconscious about it in a way that Luke would never have expected an Alpha to be. He supposed Jason had an advantage, though. In a strange Alpha’s care, Luke would be on edge, worried about what might happen if he let his guard down. Jason had no such concerns. But all the same, Luke had never met an Alpha who would be so openly… human in front of an omega. And it wasn’t just that Jason was older than most of the Alpha’s Luke spent his time around. The older Alphas in his home pack had been, in some ways, even more concerned about appearances than the younger ones.
As Luke drove, rain began to fall. It streaked down the windshield of his car, and the world seemed to close in around them. Luke enjoyed the rain. It was good to be warm in the car, with the sky low above them and the rain tapping on the roof, equally good to be out in the wet and windy day. Under the thrum of the car’s engine, he could faintly here the steady, even sound of Jason breathing. The Alpha had fallen asleep almost as soon as Luke had started driving. Sometimes Luke glanced quickly to the side, at where Jason was leaning his head against his hand, his eyes closed and his lips slightly parted. He found himself smiling as he turned his gaze back to the road. It was nice, driving with someone else in the car. Alphas often rubbed him the wrong way, but he liked Jason. Liked the quiet, steady presence and the complete lack of posturing. It was refreshing.