by J. D. Light
He did a pretty good job of hiding it most of the time, but Presley still struggled with feeling used and dirty after everything that he'd been through, and it tended to make him feel like he was inferior. I'd had to pass him off to another psychologist when we became friends, but I would never forget the day he broke down in my office, telling me why his skin was so raw when I notice a spot that looked especially angry.
He'd sat in the bottom of the shower and scrubbed his skin until some of it actually came off, and he still hadn't felt like he was clean enough to be around some of the others.
"What?" Presley asked on a whisper, his face almost looking hurt.
Fields nodded, doing his best to give the other man his most charming smile. "You know me. You trust me. You know I won't do anything like those men before, and then you'd be safe. You'd never have to worry about someone trying to take you ever again."
He blinked at his friend for a long moment before taking a deep breath and just walking out the door. I started to stop him, since I didn't like him running around without someone to guard him, but Fields immediately moved to follow.
"I'll watch out for him," he promised, not even bothering to look at the rest of us as he called Presley's name and jogged to catch up.
I cringed, shaking my head. "He's going to be so mad at me for calling Fields in, but those two were idiots if they didn't realize what was going on between them."
Someone snorted, and I turned in that direction to find my Pops smirking at me with a raised eyebrow and I pursed my lips in disapproval of his amusement.
I wondered just how many people had thought the same thing about Hunt and me. How many people had just been sitting around waiting for us to realize we were meant to be together?
My gorgeous mate had apparently paused in trying to get his shirt inside-right, so he could put it on during the Presley and Fields exchange, because he was still standing there with the thing held out in front of him, so I wasn't surprised at all when Briec ripped the thing from his hand, laughing triumphantly before ripping a sleeve off.
"Damn it, Briec," Hunt said, just before the rest of the shirt hit him in the face, and she turned and tossed the sleeve in the trash, then dashed out of the room.
When everyone filed out of the room, including Hunt since he was going to wander around to see if anyone had a shirt that wasn't missing a sleeve, all that was left was Bennett and me, and I eased down into my chair with a sigh when he smirked over at me.
"You knew, didn't you?" I asked after a moment.
He shrugged, reaching out to snag the picture off the desk. "Probably. But what did I knew this time?"
"That Hunt and I were mates."
He shrugged, plopping down in the seat that Presley abandoned. "Well, obviously I didn't know you were mates, but you guys have been connected since you were less than a day old. We’ve talked about this already… didn't we?"
He meant when my dad had appeased him by reminding him that he called it when we were little, but… "I thought you were full of shit."
He huffed, canting his head and pursing his lips. "The first time he saw you, he was completely fascinated. At first, we all just thought that he kept calling you his Beebee, because we'd introduced you as Harris's baby brother, and he just thought you were his too, but that wasn't it at all." He laughed, before settling into a surprisingly sweet smile. "He actually growled a little bitty bear growl at a lady at the diner that accidentally bumped your car seat one day. He couldn't even shift yet, but you should have seen the terrified look on that human's face. I was used to Lexington growling at people. It was why we started using the booth in the corner and stashing her as far from the aisle as possible, but Hunt was my sweet boy who smiled and greeted every person who passed by. We had to start putting him away from the aisle too, but only because we couldn't make it through one meal there because he drew the attention of every person who passed by."
I laughed, thinking about our near-permanent seating arrangement at the diner. "We still make him sit on the inside. It seems like everyone wants to talk to him."
Bennett looked serious, but not in a worrisome way. More serene than anything. "I knew you guys were special, but you needed to find each other on your own time. Now tell me I'm the best uncle ever for bringing the love of your life into this world."
I rolled my eyes, but then met his gaze. "He is the love of my life. Always has been."
"And he looks like a mixture of Thompsyn and me."
"Ew," I whined, letting my head fall back on my shoulders. "Don't do that. I swear if you just ruined my sex life, I'll drown you."
He laughed, climbing to his feet and stumbling his way to the door just as Hunt came in. The big man blinked at his father curiously for a long moment before grabbing him by the shoulders and pushing him out the door, slamming it and throwing the lock.
"These fucking people drive me crazy," he grumbled.
That growl. I might just get fired for what I was about to do in my office.
Chapter Seven
"Can you do that thing you did when one of the witches on Terra Mortis was using a tracking spell to steal people's socks?" I asked Briec, as we all sat around in Dyer's parent's living room, trying to come up with answers on how to stop this witch from tracking more chosen.
Briec smiled, nodding. "You mean track it back through the spell itself?"
"I guess."
"That's not what happened," Laramy supplied dryly, and Briec gasped, turning in her seat to glare at the woman sitting next to her in the large chair.
"Shut up, my love. Haven't you ever heard of mate-mate privilege?"
"No," Laramy said, raising an eyebrow before turning to look at me again. "Though she probably can track the spell back, that wasn't what happened in that case. That was just what she told Mitch."
"He was just so pissy about not having mated socks," Briec groaned, letting her head fall back on her shoulders. "Who the hell gets that pissy about mated socks?"
Laramy watched her for a long moment, blinking. "Everyone. Everyone gets pissy about not being able to find the mate to a sock." Again, she turned to address me and then the rest of the room. "Briec was the one who cast the spell to steal socks, and then when Mitch called her in to work on it, because he could tell by the scent of the magic that it was witchy, she pretended to follow the trail back to Samantha."
I gasped, widening my eyes as Briec huffed. "You framed Samantha for that?"
"She had it coming. She's not as good of a person as everyone thinks she is."
"Nobody thinks she's a good person now… because you framed her for stealing socks."
"Did you do that at my house?" Dad demanded. He was sitting on Papa's lap, oddly calm this morning, and I didn't think I wanted to know why, since the only time I remembered him being like that when we were growing up was when he'd gotten laced weed for immortals and when he and Papa had gotten pretty hot and heavy the night before, and he hadn't gotten much sleep. "Because I couldn't find one set of matching socks this morning."
He threw his legs up on the table, pulling the bottoms of his jeans up to reveal two very non-matching socks.
"No way, Ben-Ben," Briec said, holding her hands up and blinking innocently. "I'm clean these days. No more magic for pestering the people I love." She made a heart crossing motion, but as soon as he nodded and looked away, she smirked over at me, nodding her head and mouthing, I did that.
I chuckled, finding her funny despite the fact that she sometimes drove me nuts. "Do you think you could track this one back, Briec?"
"I can try, but I don't think it will work. I could feel the shields on the spell. Someone is using a proteaugeo. It's a stone that's made to amplify the magic and protect the magic wielder. They're usually used by apprentices while learning a new craft."
Flynn frowned, sitting forward. "You think an apprentice is doing this?"
She shrugged, pulling out her phone and tapping on the screen. "If I'm right, there really isn't any way to
tell. The stones are primarily used for that these days, but that doesn't mean they are always used that way. Kross is really good with these things. I'll send him a message. There are several different types, and some are rarer than others. If I can get a feel for the thing, I can explain the characteristics to him, and he can research it and not only tell me what kind of stone it is, but also who might have one."
◆◆◆
Dyer waited until I fell on the couch before climbing into my lap, straddling my hips and wrapping his arms around my neck. "I love you."
"Hmm," I hummed happily, leaning forward to rub our noses and then our lips together lightly. "I love you too."
"No, I love you. I'm in love with you."
I nodded slowly, smiling. "I love you too."
He smacked my shoulder, giving me a hard glare. "Don't act like it's a given. We hadn't said it yet."
"It is a given, Beebee. I think I've been in love with you since we were kids. I just didn't realize that's what it was. I needed you around constantly and I always dreaded the idea of you getting a boyfriend, and you flat-out told me not to get one when you were eleven."
"I wasn't very good at sharing," he said, cringing, and I laughed, remembering the time he punched some poor little fellow second grader in the face when he told me I was his new best friend… and then there was the kid from swim lessons.
He sighed, probably thinking about the same things. "I never really wanted boyfriends. Why would I want to spend time with some guy who doesn't snuggle me as good and doesn't even get half of my jokes when I can just skip all the awkward shit and just hang out with you all the time."
"Exactly. I never really wanted boyfriends either. My longest relationship was about three dates, and I ditched him the minute he tried to keep me from one of our video calls."
All he'd done was ask if I could take the call later, and I'd all but picked him up by the back of his shirt and the band of his pants and slung him out onto the sandy beach that had been my front lawn on Terra Mortis.
"So where are we putting down roots? Or hell, where are we not putting down roots?"
I blinked, tightening my grip on his hips. "You'd really leave Purdy?"
Sliding his face softly against mine, he hummed happily. "I would for you. I love my family, and I love our leap, but I can't be away from you for another day, much-less another three years. I'm going wherever you're going."
"I think I want to stay in Purdy."
Again, he jerked back slightly so he could get a better look at me, a hopeful smile on his face. "But I thought you were worried about people thinking you were riding your parents' coattails or something."
"I was, but I love it here. I've missed this place and these people so much. I honestly don't know if I would have made it that long without seeing you if it hadn't been for our once-a-month visits and video chats. Maybe being with all of you guys is more important than making a name for myself. And someday, when we have kids, I want them to grow up here."
You know, so that our strange leap family can traumatize them the way we'd been traumatized.
"Kids?" Dyer whispered, his face bright and happy.
"You want kids, right?"
"I mean… I think I'd really like that, yeah. Are you thinking adoption or…?" He glanced down at my belly, and I chuckled. I was definitely going to be looking crazy when I was hugely pregnant, but the idea of having little babies that looked like a mixture of us seemed pretty perfect.
But so did the idea of taking in and loving some little shifter kids who needed parents. "Maybe both?" I asked, shrugging. "I think I'd like to have a bunch of kids."
"That sounds perfect," Dyer said in an awed voice that told me he meant it.
He was perfect.
I pulled him closer, still a little in shock that holding him like this and kissing him was something I got to do now. The man I'd loved my whole life was finally mine.
"I've always been yours, Hunt," he whispered, his lips gently dragging against mine.
"Did I say that out loud?"
"No. I could just read it in your expression, and I recognized that feeling."
I kissed him hard, completely overwhelmed in that moment.
The kiss turned from sweet to stunningly needy in just a few moments, and when my mate groaned against my mouth after a particularly hard grind, I couldn't handle having so many clothes separating us anymore.
"Let's go see if we can't try to make a baby," I whispered when we finally pulled apart, but I was already standing and striding to our bedroom.
I'd moved my stuff in his room that morning, since we hadn't really had much of a chance to before that, so it was now officially our room… where we were going to be spending some of our long life together.
Our very, very long life together.
"Soon," he said, pulling back to stare at me with those beautiful green eyes, completely consumed with need… for me. "But right now, I really want you inside me."
I stopped dead in the middle of the hallway, my body a war of need and anxiety. I wanted that so damn bad it was actually a bit painful, but my fear of hurting him was fierce.
"Beebee, I don't think it's a good idea so early on. I don't think you realize how much I want you. I don't know if I can stay grounded enough to know if I'm hurting you."
"You will. Hunt, you have been my protector whether I liked it or not for twenty-three years. You are so in tune with me and how I'm feeling, sometimes you know something is wrong with me before I do. If I so much as wince, you're going to be so focused on me and the pleasure I'm getting, you'll stop immediately… Again, whether I want you to or not."
I smiled, shaking my head. "I love you so damn much, Beebee. Your faith in me was the only thing that got me through those years without you close. Just knowing that you believed I could do it was what kept me from quitting when I was at my most homesick."
"I love you too, Hunt. Of course I have faith in you. You're one of the steadiest people I know."
I definitely took that as a compliment, given that his Pops was one of the most respected alphas around.
Leaning in, I kissed him again, softly at first, just enjoying the sweetness of the moment, but as soon as his tongue did a long, slow drag against the roof of my mouth, the dam of sweetness holding back the lust burst, and I wrapped my arm around his waist and lifted, rolling up to my knees before pinning his back to the mattress with his head at the foot of the bed.
I worked my hand beneath his shirt, letting my palm rake along his perfect skin roughly, loving the way he pressed into it like a cat demanding petting.
As always, slowly removing his clothing had me so horny, my hands were shaking with anticipation. He was just so beautiful, and I desperately wanted inside him, wanted to feel his perfect body accept me inside.
When he was beautifully exposed, I moved my hands over him and then my mouth, kissing a path down one side to his hip before hooking the back of his knees and pressing them to his chest to expose his hole, and then I kissed the sensitive skin just behind his balls, making him whimper.
I loved the sounds he made and the soft way he said my name, and when I pressed my nose to just under his balls and swiped my tongue over his hole, he groaned low and ground himself against me.
I opened him slowly, using my spit to ease the way, and between his taste and scent and the way he felt squeezing me on top of the way his body moved and the sounds he made, I was a wreck by the time I shakily removed all my clothes and slathered possibly a bit too much lube on my dick.
"I love you," I whispered as I leaned over him, bracing on one elbow beside his shoulder and leaning down to lightly drag my lips against him as I pressed my throbbing head against his hole.
"I love you too, Hunt. It feels so perfect being yours."
I pushed in slowly, my entire body shaking with tension as I forced myself not to get too far gone in the moment, but that only lasted the first inch, because as soon as his hot, tight body molded around my dick, that f
eeling of rightness that always happened when we were coming together one way or another, hit me directly in the ass, and I sank into his body with a single, solid thrust.
Fucking nirvana. Heaven. Absolute perfection.
He grunted, and I immediately snapped out of it, my eyes shooting open and down to look at his face. "Beebee?"
He bit his bottom lip, rolling his hips slightly, before gasping, "You feel so fucking good, Hunt. Jeez, I knew this would be just as perfect as when I sink into your ass. No wonder all the mates are always sneaking off. I don't ever want to stop doing this. Like not even for food."
I chuckled, relief filling me… and also lust at the idea of keeping my mate naked constantly, only surviving on each other's touch.
I leaned down, just holding my lips lightly against his as I started to move inside him. I loved the noise he made into my mouth as I did. It was growly and needy, and I was worried I was going to blow entirely too early when he latched on to my bottom lip with his teeth and flicked the skin with his tongue.
He moved with me, his beautiful body writhing against mine in a way that fascinated me enough, I needed to look down to see it.
We were stunning together, and I'd get to do this for the rest of my life.
When he cried out, shooting between us and shuddering against me, I was blindsided by my own orgasm, and roared as his body milked me. I barely felt his bite as I latched on to his shoulder until another release hit me hard, just as more seed spilled from his body.
"That was fucking perfect," he whispered, his body noodly enough that even his mouth was being lazy.
I chuckled, but it took a lot of effort, and only lasted the length of a huff. "Well, at least I know we're never going to have trouble sleeping."
He nodded, but didn't comment, even as I probably smooshed him into the bed. Surely he'd smack me if he couldn't breathe. Surely.
When I finally got the strength to roll off of him, he whimpered, trying to follow, and I helped, pulling him against me and pulling the blankets up around our shoulders.
There was still cooling cum on both of our stomachs, but I honestly didn't care. It would probably suck later when it was stuck in my hair, but that was a problem for then.