The Love of a Mate

by Kim Dare

  “Yeah, I love you too,” Caden told his brother, letting his smile grow into a grin.

  Gunnar humphed and turned away, leaving Caden momentarily alone. Instinctively seeking out his new mate in the crowd, Caden spotted Alfred on the other side of the pack, listening very carefully to what the alphas were saying to him.

  He tried to track the way Marsdon and Bennett’s lips moved and work out the words, but it was impossible, and he had to give up any attempt at it when Talbot stepped forward to shyly offer up his own congratulations.

  Caden wrapped his arms around the little wolf and gave him a brotherly hug.

  “I’m glad you’re both so happy,” Talbot whispered. “So is Gunnar. He’s really pleased you’ve found a mate. He’s just…”

  Caden laughed. “He’s just Gunnar. You’re the only wolf he’ll ever admit he gives a damn about.”

  Talbot blushed, but it was hard to focus on the pretty pink hue in the younger wolf’s cheeks, because there was a low, jealous growl coming from right behind Caden’s back. Turning around, he found himself once more face to face with his mate.

  Before even a fraction of a second had passed, Alfred’s hand was wrapped around his wrist. Caden grinned over his shoulder and waved goodbye to the rest of the pack as he found himself being dragged hastily back to the house to solidify his bond with his mate.

  The other wolves laughed, obviously as amused as hell at the show of jealousy, but no one tried to stop them.

  The ceremonial spot had obviously been chosen for its prettiness rather than its closeness to the house. By the time Alfred’s bedroom door slammed behind them, Caden was more than a little out of breath after keeping up with his mate’s frantic pace over that distance.

  Collapsing cheerfully across the other man’s bed, he smiled up at the ceiling as if it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen in his life. The view was improved even further when Alfred joined him on the mattress, leaning over him and filling his field of vision.

  “My mate,” Alfred said, with surprising tenderness.

  “Yes.” There was as much triumph in Caden’s voice as he said it, as he’d ever heard in Alfred’s.

  The other wolf’s moved his hand to Caden’s wrist and stroked his fingers softly over the skin there. Caden’s arms had fallen to either side of his head as he tumbled onto the bed. It was damn near an invitation to pin him down, but Alfred didn’t immediately accept it.

  “Whatever you want,” Caden whispered.

  Alfred’s eyes left his wrist. He held Caden’s gaze for several long seconds. Caden tilted back his chin, baring his neck and offering up his complete submission.

  Dipping his head, Alfred pressed a kiss to his throat. He nipped softly at the tender skin. The touch of teeth sent a wave of adrenaline rushing straight to Caden’s cock.

  His hips rocked up. He already felt as if he’d been hard for several lifetimes. Now that he was finally free to let his instincts take control, it was impossible for him to hold anything back. A needy little whimper escaped from his throat. “Please?”

  “Tell me what you want.”

  Caden shook his head.

  Alfred frowned slightly, obviously not the least impressed with his mate saying no to him in that particular matter.

  Caden smiled slightly. There really was more dominance in him than any of the other wolves in the pack realised. Gunnar was going to be kept on his toes by the wolf just below him in the hierarchy.

  “If you’re hurt after fighting the other wolves, then—”

  Alfred’s frown deepened. “I’m going to hurt like hell tomorrow, but nothing is going to stop us being together tonight.”

  “Then I just want you to do whatever you want with me. That’s what feels right,” he said.

  Alfred’s frown slowly faded away. A smile twisted his lips. It obviously felt right to him, too. When their mouths came together it was even better. Caden parted his lips and offered complete access to his lover without any hesitation.

  Clothes fell away. Caden wasn’t entirely sure who took them off. One minute they were there. The next moment, the world was full of beautifully bare skin. Caden ran his hands over Alfred’s body, glorying in finally being in the other wolf’s bed and being able to truly be himself with his mate.

  “Perfect,” he whispered.

  Alfred shook his head, but Caden caught his face in both his hands and made him stop.

  “You’re perfect,” he repeated, holding his mate’s eyes as he said it, needing him to know he meant it with his whole heart.

  Alfred caught hold of his wrists and held them easily against the bed. “You’re the perfect one. You’re gorgeous.”

  Caden didn’t deny it.

  Alfred chuckled as he seemed to realise that Caden had been told it often enough to believe it. “And all mine,” he added.

  That made Caden blush in pleasure. It was something he hadn’t heard before—or at least never believed to be the truth when another man said it.

  As they kissed, their bodies rubbed together, and their hard cocks were quickly teased to the edge of orgasm between them. It was all so simple, all so perfect. Until Alfred suddenly pulled back.

  Caden let out a whimpering little protest.

  “No. Not this time.” Alfred said, in a very determined tone. “This time we’re both going to last long enough to actually have sex.”

  Caden wasn’t about to argue with that plan. “Do you have lube?”

  Alfred hastily retrieved it from his bedside drawer.

  “Shall I?” Caden asked, holding out his hand for it. “Or do you want to?”

  Alfred’s fingers curled around the tube as if he was horrified by the possibility that Caden would try to steal it and the right to take care of his mate away from him.

  Dominant down to the core…

  With his lips curving into an easy smile, Caden rolled over onto his stomach, happy to offer his arse to his lover to do with as he pleased. Alfred seemed to lose any sort of inclination to rush, then. He stroked his palm over the full, round muscles, gently squeezing them as he caressed.

  Caden looked over his shoulder and blatantly wiggled his backside in invitation. The move made Alfred smile, but it didn’t make him hurry the hell up. Pulling one of the pillows forward, Caden bunched it up and rested his head on it, looping his arms around the softness as he finally let all his attempts to control the situation slowly fade away. With his cheek resting on the soft cotton, he had the perfect vantage point from which to observe his new mate over his shoulder.

  He really was glorious. Even as Caden watched, he seemed to settle more easily into his newfound role in their relationship. He was in charge and he was thriving on it.

  “I didn’t try to be a better wolf because you’re gorgeous,” Alfred suddenly informed him.

  Caden peered over his shoulder at Alfred.

  The other wolf was still staring at his arse as he caressed him. “I did it because you believed in me.”

  Caden squirmed under the other man’s hand, not sure what to say.

  “A pretty face and a fantastic arse aren’t your real strong points,” Alfred said as he looked up and their eyes met. “It wasn’t your flirting that made me want you, it was those times when you forgot to flirt and I saw the honesty in your eyes.”

  Caden turned his head, half hiding his face in the pillow. In that moment he had the strangest feeling that he looked exactly the same way Alfred looked when he heard words no one had ever bothered to say to him before.

  Finally, as the silence stretched out, Alfred slicked his fingers and slid them between Caden’s cheeks. His touch was so gentle, so careful, and Caden loved him for taking care with him—even if there was really no need for him to treat him like a scared little virgin.

  He tried to be patient and let the other wolf tease and play with him for however long he wanted, he did his best to simply let Alfred’s dominance reign, but eventually he had to reach out and put his hand on Alfred’s arm.
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br />   “I’m as ready as I’ll ever be, love.” He was careful to just offer the information. There was no demand, no suggestion regarding what the other man might want to do with that knowledge. And there was no attempt to flirt his way into getting what he wanted either.

  His restraint was immediately rewarded. Alfred’s hands went to Caden’s hips and pulled him up so his knees were underneath him. The moment his arse was offered up high in the air, Alfred had the tip of his slicked shaft against Caden’s hole.

  There was no hesitation. One jerky thrust had Alfred inside him. Caden tensed at the sudden stretch and he felt the atmosphere change as he let out a little gasp.

  “I’m sorry,” Alfred blurted out. “I…”

  “It’s fine. I’m fine. And I like it a bit rough,” Caden admitted, twisting around and managing to glimpse his mate over his shoulder.

  Alfred didn’t look convinced.

  “With a wolf who I can trust, with a mate who I know would never really want to hurt me more than I enjoy, I like it a bit rough,” Caden repeated. Keeping any attempt at manipulation out of his words was damn near the hardest thing he had ever done.

  Alfred nodded, very slowly.

  Caden dropped his head back to the pillow. As his body relaxed and accepted the other wolf, he nodded, letting Alfred know he was ready for anything his mate wanted to throw at him.

  The next thrust made him gasp again. His mate had taken him at his word on his preferences. The following thrust took his breath away completely. He clutched at the pillow as wave after wave of sensation rushed through him, almost too quickly for him to process. His back arched as he closed his eyes and automatically pushed out his arse for more.

  Alfred’s grip on his hips tightened as his cock pounded deeper into Caden’s hole again and again, laying claim to him over and over in the most basic way another man ever could.

  Caden’s eyes fell closed. All that existed then was pleasure—it existed only when Alfred wanted to provide it, and it was all the more blissful because of that. Caden pushed back into every thrust, desperate to come, and even more desperate to make his mate come deep inside him.

  He clenched his hole around the other wolf’s shaft, trying to milk the orgasm out of him as best he could. When Alfred reached around Caden and took his cock in a firm grip, he knew neither of them would last much longer.

  It barely took a few strokes for Alfred to have Caden howling and clawing at the pillow as he came on his lover’s command. Alfred’s howl soon blended in with his. The habitual discordant note was completely absent from the other wolf’s howl now. The realisation seemed to keep pleasure swirling through Caden’s veins for far longer than he had thought possible.

  Wave after wave of bliss stormed the shoreline of his psyche, almost breaking it down and washing it away, before he collapsed, exhausted, onto the mattress.

  The world was slow and sleepy then. Unable to summon up any desire to move of his own volition, Caden merely allowed Alfred to arrange them as he pleased when the other gamma finally separated their bodies. He soon found himself lying with his head on the other wolf’s chest, the world around him gently rising and falling according to a rhythm of Alfred’s choosing.

  No one spoke for a long time—not until a memory picked that moment to jump up and down in the back of Caden’s mind and demand his attention, regardless of the lethargy in both his body and his brain.

  “What did the alphas say to you after the ceremony?” Caden whispered, his voice softer, sleepier and less flirtatious than he ever remembered it being.

  Alfred made a vague noise in the back of his throat as he encouraged Caden to curl in more comfortably to his side.

  “Just before you got all jealous over me and Talbot,” Caden reminded him.

  Alfred growled at the memory.

  That made Caden smile against his lover’s chest, but it didn’t completely distract him. “What did they say?” he asked again, being careful to make it a request rather than a demand for information.

  “That it’s amazing what the love of a mate can do for a wolf,” Alfred admitted.

  Caden lifted his head. There was just the tiniest touch of uncertainty still in Alfred’s eyes.

  “They were right, you know. I do love you.”

  Alfred smiled slightly, but the uncertainty stubbornly stayed put.

  “I’m going to keep telling you that every day until you believe me,” Caden promised.

  “I love you, too,” Alfred whispered back, with just the hint of a blush on his cheeks.

  “I believe you already,” Caden said. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t want you to tell me every day anyway.” There was no flirtation in his voice then. For the first time that he could remember, there didn’t seem to be any need for it.

  Alfred chuckled as he pulled him down for a kiss. Caden smiled as their lips met. It was just possible that their mating would prove to be the making of them both.

  About the Author

  Kim Dare is a twenty-seven year old full time writer from Wales (UK). First published in December 2008, Kim has since released over thirty BDSM erotic romances.

  While the stories range over male/male, male/female and all kinds of ménage relationships and have included vampires, time travellers, shape-shifters and fairytale re-tellings, they all have three things in common—kink, love and a happy ending.

  Email: kim@kimdare.com

  Kim loves to hear from readers. You can find her contact information, website and author biography at http://www.total-e-bound.com.

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  Total-E-Bound Publishing

  www.total-e-bound.com

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  at Total-E-Bound.