Conner quickened his pace even more. "What about me?"
Pippen missed a step and tripped, but Conner held him up, pulling him tighter by his side. He was mostly being carried by Conner as they walked back.
"What you said to Silas, about me. Was it true? Or were you just trying to hurt him?" Conner stopped suddenly, jerking Pippen to a stop as well. "Tell me honestly. Were you trying to hurt him or do you really...love me?"
Pippen swallowed his emotion. He'd said goodbye to Conner so many times over the past few days. It had made him long to be closer to him and each night he'd made plans to go to bed in his own bed, only to find himself in Conner's. "Yes. I mean, I think I did. I don't know. I've never felt like this before." Pippen looked up, expecting to see more anger, instead, he saw only adoration. "Conner, I'm sorr—"
Conner's face clouded into a scowl. "Don't say you are sorry," he demanded and then picked Pippen up and hauled him over his shoulder. He ran the rest of the way home, surprisingly almost as fast in human form as he would be in wolf form. Pippen figured it had something to do with him being an alpha.
He burst through the front door of the pack house and did not stop until they were in his room. He set Pippen in a sitting position on the bed and then turned on the lamp. Conner paced from wall to wall. "Fuck, Pippen, you are so confusing," he said on his way back toward him. "I don't know whether to spank you or to kiss you."
Pippen straightened. "You try spanking me and I'll show you where I get my reputation."
Conner laughed. "I love it when you say stuff like that. You are a constant challenge." He sat down beside Pippen and caressed his cheek for a second before hopping back up. "But you were going to leave me. Leave us. Right after Luke told you to knock that kind of stuff off. That was exactly what he was talking about in the meeting you know."
It had occurred to Pippen that there were some similarities.
"But, fuck, you said you love me," Conner said like he was reciting the secret to eternal youth or something.
Pippen blushed. "That can't be that new, you were married—mated—before."
"Arranged marriage," Conner replied quickly. "And I'm beginning to doubt that was a real mating. Nothing I felt with Andrea was anything like this."
"Oh."
"It was the whole reason we left Manchester, to fulfill my marital obligation. There is a huge shifter population in Manchester. I want to take you sometime."
Something about Conner making plans so far into the future made him want to cry. Pippen blinked furiously against the drop-dead embarrassing emotion.
"What I said to Silas, it hasn't changed, Conner. I can't stay with this pack. I can't be sure that I won't blow up one day."
That made Conner to stop in his tracks. He looked up at Pippen from the middle of the room. Pippen shifted, uncomfortable with the clear intent in Conner's gaze. He had transformed from the always happy shifter into something more primal, something alpha.
"You will stay," Conner said with a tone that offered no refusal.
"Conner, I—"
"You will stay, because you are mine." Conner was by his side in seconds, pushing Pippen back on the bed as he kissed him so hard it was nearly painful. Conner's hands traveled up and down his body, exploring his hard lines and crevices.
For once in his life, Pippen was proud of his physique. If Conner was experiencing pleasure from it then it was something to be proud of. Conner thrust his tongue inside of Pippen's mouth. Something he'd done before, but this time, he did it like a conqueror. His tongue was a flag that proclaimed anything it touched as his.
Mine. Could something so amazing be true? Would he even want it to? Pippen's entire body felt as light as bubbles in champagne. His night had transformed so wonderfully from where he'd thought it was going.
In a fraction of a second, Pippen was naked. It was as if the sound of his clothing being cut from his body by Conner's sharpened claws reached his ears after cool air brushed his sensitive skin. He might have been mad about losing his best shirt if Conner wasn't completely naked for the first time. He could see his chest better in the light. He'd seen flashes of the scars before, had felt them earlier, but nothing prepared him for the full, open view. His chest looked almost like a map, raised lines slashed in every direction across his front. That someone could go through that and live was impressive. Pippen's wolf howled at the thought of Conner being harmed like that. If he found them…No, that is exactly what you were just talking about.
Conner gathered him up, banishing any thought that was outside of the bedroom away, as he placed Pippen on the bed with his head in the right direction, he pushed Pippen's legs up, baring Pippen's hole to him. There was no hiding from Conner in this position and Pippen didn't want to.
Conner bent down. Pippen felt his breath before anything as it lightly tickled his back entrance. "Um, Conner, this is…I mean…"
"What are you trying to say, love?" Conner asked him from his position lying down between the other man's legs.
Pippen blushed bright. "I've never had this done to me," he managed to say without choking on embarrassment. He tried so much to look experienced, especially in front of Conner.
"No one's ever made out with your sweet hole before?" Conner asked, with a thrum of excitement in his voice.
Pippen didn't think it was possible to blush any brighter, but Conner's raw words proved him wrong. "No, no one has."
Conner smiled wide. "Good. I'm not a selfish or overly jealous man, but I can't say that knowing I'm the first man to give you this pleasure doesn't fill me with pride." Conner kept absolute eye contact with Pippen as he lowered his mouth and kissed him.
Pippen moaned and squeezed his eyes shut.
"No, love, watch me. See who it is that is giving you this pleasure. Know that it's me. Only me."
Pippen forced his eyes open, making himself watch Conner make love to his hole. When Conner slipped his tongue inside, Pippen nearly lost it. His legs jerked on their own accord, like fish yanked from water. His iron-hard cock slapped against his own stomach when he flopped. The friction of that alone was nearly enough for him to climax.
"What a sweet treat this is, love. How have you kept so many away from it?" Conner murmured before diving back down, enthusiastically lapping at the puckered entrance.
Pippen bit his lip hard. Before Conner, sex had been a chore, at the most, the means to itch a scratch. With Conner though, it was an event, something to be enjoyed on its own with no other agenda.
Pippen wailed as Conner shoved his tongue deep inside of him. He moved it in and out, mimicking what his cock would be doing later. Pippen's balls tightened, full and ready. His climax hit him then, unexpected as it was wild.
"Fuck, yes, baby," Conner said coming back up once Pippen's orgasm had ended. "You look so hot like this, satisfied, covered in your own cum. I never did get dessert earlier," Conner said. He got on his knees beside Pippen's sated form and licked up the cloudy fluid from his stomach and chest. Conner moaned, making sounds of approval while he cleaned up Pippen. By the time he was done, Pippen was ready to go again, his cock swollen and red. It was then that he noticed that in this position, Conner's cock was mere inches away. He lunged forward, mouth open, swallowing Conner's cock, sliding his lips down the entire length the first time. His nose pushed against Conner's body as the man roared.
Pippen was possessed, the only thing that mattered was sucking Conner's hard length. He pushed his lips down further than was comfortable. He couldn't breathe with Conner so deep down in his throat and he loved it. If he was going to die, he hoped it was suffocating around this magnificent cock.
Conner pulled him off with a grunt. "I don't want to come in your sweet mouth, love," he explained. "Get on your hands and knees," he ordered and Pippen scrambled to obey.
The moment he was in position, Conner was behind him. The tip of his cock pushed against Pippen's well-loved hole as he allowed his shifter pre-cum to lubricate and sensitize the area. Pippen moaned, impati
ent to be filled. The head of Conner's cock slid in and Pippen tightened down on it, eliciting a hiss from the beast behind him.
"Love, you are going to kill me," Conner said between gritted teeth.
"But we'll die happy," Pippen replied and then bucked.
Conner gripped his hips, his fingertips pressing in so hard Pippen would have marks afterward. That didn't bother him the way he thought it would. Instead, it spurred him on. He wanted Conner to mark him everywhere. For the first time in his life, Pippen wanted to belong to someone.
Everything he'd gone through in his old pack, trying to belong in this new one, all of it had brought him to Conner. The path to him hadn't been an easy one, but Pippen wouldn't change any of it. Not if changing it meant anything about this moment he was experiencing would change in any way, because this moment, on his knees, stuffed to the brim by Conner's huge length, was perfect.
Conner's thrusts grew harder, determined. Skin slapped against skin and the sound reverberated throughout the room.
Pippen whimpered and strained back, somehow, still wanting more. Conner pushed back, as willing to give as Pippen was to take. His moves became frantic as his orgasm approached. With a groan, Conner buried himself deep inside of Pippen. All of a sudden, Pippen felt impossibly full, more than any moment before this.
He looked back at Conner for a clue as to what was happening. Conner caught his gaze and the look in his eyes took Pippen's breath away. In this moment, happy-go-lucky Conner was gone, replaced by something wild, feral, and all his.
"Mine," Conner grunted, reaching around Pippen to grab his penis, he stroked it with a sure, firm grip. "Mine," he said again. "My mate."
Pippen understood then what the overwhelming fullness was, Conner's cock had expanded, knotting inside of him. Pleasure took him over then, a combination of Conner's hand on his cock and Conner's swollen cock pushing against his prostate sent him into a never-ending orgasm spiral. He clenched his hands, listening to Conner's growls in his ear as he grabbed handfuls of sheet and held on, allowing the sensations to take him over.
Eventually, Conner could pull out of him. Pippen missed the feeling, but was so exhausted, he fell to his side. Conner gathered him close with a strong arm and then wrapped his leg, protectively around his sweaty body. "Mine," he said on a growl.
Pippen closed his eyes tight to fight back the emotions that threatened to erupt out of him. "Yours," he whispered. "All yours."
Chapter Ten
Conner threw a piece of cereal at Pippen as he was prepping a mountain of potatoes. Without looking up, Pippen snatched the soaring cereal piece out of the air and popped it in his mouth. Conner chuckled.
"You two are gross," Frannie said, with no real annoyance. She shuffled to the coffee pot and got to making a cup. "Are we doing more self-defense today?" she asked after she'd taken her first sip.
"I've got to take this to Howling for Felix's pack master induction ceremony," Pippen said, indicating the piles of vegetables around him.
Today was Felix's official induction ceremony. The process was completely foreign to everyone involved, probably because it was the first time Conner had heard of a pack master taking over an established pack after being voted in.
"Okay, I'm against a deadline anyway," Frannie said with a shrug, heading back to her room.
Conner noticed Frannie didn't ask him if he had plans. He smiled. She'd heard Pippen had plans and had assumed. Her assumption was correct. Ever since that night, when Conner's wolf had answered all those questions he'd had. Like why it had been so hard for him to watch Pippen throw himself into danger, or why he couldn't get more than twenty feet from the shifter without itching to turn back—it was all because Pippen was his mate. Conner didn't understand completely, but had his guesses as to why it took so long for him to know for sure that they were mates. Conner's wolf and Pippen's wolf seemed to know what they were doing, though, and now that he'd gotten so lucky, he wasn't going to question it.
They hadn't heard a peep out of Mississippi, since sending Silas back. It seemed that issue was dealt with for now.
Pippen also stopped trying to find reasons to push Conner away every day. The opposite really. Conner was about to toss another piece of cereal Pippen's way when he caught the look. That look that said, take me now on whatever surface you can find. Conner was on his feet and behind Pippen in the blink of an eye.
"I don't think we have time," Pippen whined while arching his back, rubbing his back side against Conner's crotch.
"There's always time for this, love," Conner said, lifting Pippen up and over his shoulder.
He took him into the bedroom that they now shared and kissed every inch of his body before burying himself deeply inside his mate. There were still more questions to be answered. Like, now that he was mated, should he accept his alpha birthright? Should he find a pack to lead? Pippen was just beginning to really shine where he was; Conner did not relish the idea of taking him from all that.
But, for now, Conner didn't have to answer those questions, he could simply enjoy knotting inside of his mate as they both climaxed again and again.
***
Conner carried a cardboard box full of containers filled with different kinds of prepped vegetables.
"Just drop it off on the counter," Pippen said, walking by carrying his own, smaller box. The downtown pack members greeted him like a friend and soon a group of them were asking Pippen about what he had planned for the banquet after the induction ceremony.
"Can I talk to you?" Felix asked him in low tones, clearly not wanting everyone to hear.
Conner caught Pippen's gaze, and was given a small smile. Conner let him disappear into the kitchen.
"What's up?" Conner asked Felix in a low tone.
Felix directed Conner out of the main bar area and to the back, past the storage room, and up a set of stairs that used to house the old pack master, Isaac. It had been refurbished to a safe house for any pack members who had need of it. Furnished simply with an area rug, a queen-sized bed, and wooden desk, it didn't look to be in use at the moment.
"Felix, you're freaking me out a little, man. What is so important?"
Felix rubbed a weary hand over his forehead and against the back of his neck. Conner wondered if he was imagining the new white hairs at Felix's temples. "I'm getting cold feet."
"What?" Conner hollered. "Sorell is going to kick your ass and then I don't think even I can save you from Pippen—"
Felix's eyes narrowed in confusion and then bugged out when he realized what Conner thought. "No! No, God no, not cold feet about Sorell. Never." He sat down on the bed with a thwump. "It's this pack master position. They are a group in need of a leader; they voted me in because I was the closest thing to a leader that they wanted, without being what they got rid of. But Silas wasn't wrong, I don't know the first thing about leading a pack of shifters, beyond simply being a decent person."
Conner exhaled loudly. He knew too well the feeling of believing he wasn't the right person for a job. He had not been the right pack master for his old pack, and everyone had suffered because of it. "Felix, with any other pack, you would be right, the politics and tradition would be everything. But this pack is ready for change. You could be that change."
"If it were just that, I'd give it a shot. But I'm a doctor, man. On my list of priorities I am a husband and father first and then doctor. Does this pack deserve someone who puts it third?"
Conner respected the hell out of Felix for even bringing these questions up. Most men would take the power and do what they wanted with it. But, that also was why Felix was so perfect for the job. Like Luke, he wasn't concerned with having power, but doing good for those he led. But his concerns were not without merit. The downtown pack was much larger than Luke's pack, thirty-plus members and some of them would require much more guidance than anyone in Luke's pack. "What if you had help, a second, but equal in command?" Conner suggested, the idea forming slowly in his head. It wouldn't be so uncommon to
packs that utilized both alphas and betas in leadership.
"Shit, is that sort of thing even allowed?" Felix asked with hope.
"You're the pack master, Felix, whatever you say is allowed, is allowed," Conner said with a smirk.
"I don't just want your advice from this point on, you realize? I want your authority recognized. I want them to look to you as they've been looking to me these past weeks."
Conner wondered when his dreams would stop being answered in the most amazing way. "You only have to be willing to back up your decisions with reasons. In the past, I would have said you would need to be able to back it up with muscle, but that is the old shifter way. I'm with you, one hundred percent."
Back in the main bar room, the pack members had rearranged the tables and chairs into an assembly formation. Rows of chairs faced the front bar, where a podium of sorts had been erected out of a table and chairs. Wafts of smells from the banquet to come later floated in from the kitchen. Conner spotted Pippen coming out of the kitchen, a dusting of flour against his right cheek. He wiped his hands off on his still pristinely white apron. A strand of pale hair flopped down over his right eye and he blew it up and out of his face. His eyes searched the room until he found Conner and winked. He was glowing.
Glowing.
Conner's knees almost gave out from under him in a very unmanly wave of emotion. He'd bet every dollar in his pocket that his mate was with child, or children. Conner's heart pounded. "I'll help you lead this pack," Conner said quickly, from the corner of his mouth. "If you swear to give Pippen a physical directly after this ceremony. I think he is with child."
Felix beamed, though whether it was because of Conner's guess or his agreement to help lead, Conner wasn't sure.
***
Pippen spotted Conner from across the room. His stomach did not flip. It hadn't flipped for a few days actually and Pippen was beginning to suspect there was a tiny reason why. A tiny, unborn reason.
A few months ago, he would have been terrified first and then angry at the idea. Previous to Conner, Pippen being pregnant had been such a preposterous thought that he hadn't ever even entertained it. Him, Pippen, a caregiver, a parent.
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