by Taylor Rylan
“You’re getting rid of me, aren’t you? Because I can’t give you cubs?”
“What? Where would you ever get such a ridiculous idea? You’re my mate. Period. You’re mine. Forever. I only want you. Cubs or no cubs, you’re it for me, Linus. Understand?” I asked as I reached up and wiped the tears from his cheeks. My little mate nodded, and I hoped this meant he would be as excited about the prospect of fixing things as I was. “Come on. Let’s go downstairs and talk.”
“Okay,” Linus said as he got up off the bed.
We left the bedroom hand-in-hand, and when we got downstairs, I pulled him into the den where he had the fire already burning. I sat on the couch and tugged Linus’s hand until he sat on my lap.
“Sweetheart, I have some news to share with you.”
“So you’ve said. You said it was good news though.”
“I hope so. Edison came by to see me today. He said he heard you talking to Arik about wanting to go on suppressors last night. He also asked why you didn’t want kids.”
“I do. You know I do, but it’s just so much. It hurts each month when I’m not pregnant again.”
“Sweetheart, it’s only been two months. We have time. But he might have discovered our issue.”
“Really? So I don’t have to go on suppressors?”
“Honestly, I don’t want you on them, ever. I want as many cubs and kits as we can get.”
“Right now, that’s zero.”
“Yep, for now. Sweetheart, do you remember when we claimed each other?”
“Of course. Who could forget that? I mean, when an alpha claims his omega, that’s something you don’t forget.”
“True. But sweetheart, think about that night. You were brought to me already having been in heat for several days.”
“Yes, I remember. I was afraid you weren’t going to knot and claim me. I really needed your knot, and you kept letting me help myself or at least you finally helped me a little, but it wasn’t enough.”
“I realize that. And I’m sorry. But do you remember what happened?”
“Sure. You teased me and then you finally got around to claiming me. When I bit you, I didn’t think your knot was going to go in.”
“Sweetheart, does anything about what you just said seem off?”
“Nothing really. That’s how it works, isn’t it?”
“Trust me, I didn’t pick up on it either. Linus, you bit me first. That’s not how it normally works. Usually the alpha is inside you, and when the knot becomes too difficult to pull out, the seed starts releasing, and then the alpha bites his omega. After he bites into the neck, the omega does the same. But it’s usually after. You bit me first.”
“What does that mean?”
“According to Edison, I need to claim you. I haven’t don’t that yet.”
“What do you mean? We’re mated. We can talk to each other through our mate bond. We bit each other.”
“All true. But again, you bit me first. Edison said next time you go into heat, I need to claim you. That means, I’ll bite you first, and then you’ll bite me.”
“What does that do for us? Other than cause pain?”
“Oh? No love bites for you, huh? I seem to remember you begging for me to bite you more than once since then.”
“I was only picking. You know I love it when you get rough with me. Does he really think that’s what the issue is? That that’s what will fix our problem?”
“If nothing else, it can’t hurt, can it?”
“No. I’m more than willing to give it a try. I want—”
We were interrupted by the buzzer on the oven going off, signaling the lasagna was ready.
“Let’s pull it out of the oven, and then get everything else ready. It’s going to need to cool anyway,” I said to my little mate who had a hopeful look on his face. We went to the kitchen and turned off the buzzer on the oven, and when I went to grab the hot mitts, Linus already had them on his hands, so I opened the oven and backed out of the way. He put the pan of lasagna on the counter to cool, and I turned off the oven.
“The table is already set. What else do we need to do?”
“Nothing. Just wait for the lasagna to cool. Everything else is finished and ready. I have the salad in a bowl in the fridge, and there’s the bread you’ve been eyeing since we came in here.”
“You know how much I love your bread.”
“I do. Which is why I keep making it for you, alpha. It’s super easy to make, and it really isn’t a problem. I like to do things for you.”
“I appreciate that. But don’t forget, I like to take care of you, too.”
“I know you do, Gage. I don’t have a complaint about you. You’re more than I could have ever hoped for. Did you get your paperwork finished?”
“I did. Emerson came in and wanted to talk about something else, but I only had just a little paperwork left.”
“Oh, yeah? What was it he wanted to talk about? Or can you not say?”
“He didn’t say not to. He thinks he scented his mate.”
“Really? That’d be awesome. No, wait. Are there any unmated bears left?”
“Except for Cassie, no. Not that I’m aware of anyway. It’s also possible he scented someone passing through. It could have been someone stopping for supplies, it could have been a human, or it could have been someone from the pride. I’m not sure. I called Grayson and he was going to give Emerson a call once he got home.”
“Oh wow. That’d be wonderful if it turned out to be Cassie. I know she’s been so discouraged since she didn’t scent her mate when we arrived.”
“Is she eighteen yet?”
“No. She’s several months younger than me. I want to say that she’ll turn eighteen next spring.”
I groaned thinking about how much of a pain Emerson was going to be if Cassie turned out to be his mate. If she wasn’t yet of mating age, that poor wolf was going to be miserable for the next five months.
“What?”
“I was thinking how bad it was going to be having to work with him if Cassie is his mate.”
“Why?”
“Well, if she’s not yet eighteen, then they can’t mate. That’s going to drive his wolf crazy.”
“That doesn’t make sense. If they can’t mate, why can he scent her then?” Linus asked me. He had a point though. Maybe it wasn’t Cassie after all? Maybe it was someone in town.
“Sweetheart, I don’t make the rules. I’m just relaying the conversation. You’re the one that asked.”
“Hmm. That’s just depressing. You ready to eat? I want to talk some more about your news and what Arik talked to me about.”
“Sounds good to me.”
Linus — 14
“Mmm.”
If Gage didn’t stop moaning with every bite of food, I wasn’t going to be held responsible for my actions. I was already horny. He’d been gone all day. I was ready for some personal attention. Is this what it was like to be an eighteen-year-old male? Ugh.
“Something wrong, sweetheart?”
“No. Just trying to figure out how to get you to stop moaning. You’re killing me, alpha. My dick is already half hard. How is it that you can eat?”
“I’m sorry, Linus. I can be quiet. I’m being a bad mate. Do we need to go take care of you first?”
“No. That’s not what I was after. I was just wondering…no, I was thinking that maybe this is what it’s like to be an eighteen-year-old.”
“Well, your heat is due in a few more weeks, so it’s not that, right?”
“I just had one so I’d say that it’s not that. But who knows? Things don’t seem to be the norm with us.”
“That’s true. Do you feel like you are?”
“Not really, no. But you didn’t knot me before you went to work this morning. Maybe that’s why?”
“Well, we were a little late getting up. I’m sorry, sweetheart. Do I need to set the alarm for earlier?”
“No. Please don’t feel like you have to kn
ot me before you go to work. I don’t want you to think I’m needy or whining. I think I need to find something else to do during the day. I mean, your house is so clean and tidy. There’s nothing to do except cook.”
“Sweetheart, it’s not my house. It’s our house. What’s mine is yours. Always will be. When I gave you a tour, you’d seemed interested in the library. Is that over?”
“No. But you mentioned how they were your mom’s books. I didn’t want to hurt any of them. Also, I wanted to make sure it was okay to read them.”
“Linus, absolutely nothing is off-limits to you. You want to read a book in the library, have at it. If you want to spend the day shopping, go for it. If you want to redecorate, I’m all for it. Same goes for anything else. I just ask that you please don’t go out in the woods shifted without me. It’s safe, for the most part. But we do have wolves and bears that aren’t shifters, and I wouldn’t be able to handle it if anything happened to you.”
I realized that my mate was seriously upset about that prospect, so I got up out of my seat and climbed into Gage’s lap. He almost instantly calmed down, he wrapped his arms around me, and gave me a tight squeeze.
“I’d never go out without you. Promise.”
“Thank you. It’s not that I don’t trust you, or that I don’t want you to have freedom, I just don’t want anything to happen to you.”
“I know, alpha. How about we finish supper, and then we can snuggle on the couch in front of the fire? Or maybe we could camp out on a pile of blankets in front of the fire? That sounds romantic.”
“Hmm, it does. I vote for that. The rug alone is quite soft. If we add several blankets, we should be quite comfortable.”
“Great. Finish eating and then I’ll get dessert.”
“There’s dessert, too?”
“You know there is, silly,” I said as I mock glared at my mate and got up off of his lap to return to my seat and finish my own dinner. I wasn’t yet pregnant, but Gage still had that need to feed me. I honestly think it was just an alpha thing. My dad was constantly pushing my mom to eat. Me too, for that matter. So there, alpha thing.
We finished while talking a little more about what Edison had said, and what in turn, Arik told me. I was willing to give it another go, especially after I thought about it more. Maybe I was just a little different from other male fox omegas. Who knew? But I did know that I loved my mate with all that I had, and if going on suppressors caused him that much anxiety, it wasn’t worth it. Besides, he was more than willing to spend a week with me each month while I was in heat. I was just thankful that Alpha War was understanding, both as Alpha as well as Gage’s boss.
“Linus, this chocolate cake is so moist. How do you do that?”
“You’ll probably be surprised how easy it is. It’s a really simple recipe, and I think what makes it so moist is the boiling water in it.”
“Water? Really?”
“Yep. The batter is really runny when it goes in, so that might be the reason.”
“Huh. I never would have thought about putting water in a cake recipe.”
After we’d finished several pieces of cake each, we laughed and teased as we cleaned up our dinner dishes together. It was something we did each evening, and I really cherished doing little things like that with Gage. I went to the den and added more wood to the fire while Gage ran upstairs and grabbed a pile of blankets and pillows for our make-shift bed in front of the fire.
“You know, maybe we should find an extra-large futon or something for in here. We could set it up as a couch during the day, but if we wanted a bed, we could just lay it down,” I suggested when Gage came back into the room.
“We could do that. If that’s what you want. We can look online for one if you’re serious. I meant it when I said you could redecorate the house. I never really did anything with it after I lost my parents. The decorations were all mom’s doing, and I know they’re not to everyone’s tastes.”
“That’s not what I meant at all. The house is beautiful. Arik even agreed. I was just thinking that maybe it would be less work for you is all if we’re going to spend nights cuddled down here together. I might take you up on that offer though. Just not on the entire house.”
“Linus, I want you to feel like this is your home, too. You need to be comfortable and enjoy it. This is your home now. So if you want to make changes, please do so, sweetheart.”
I nodded at Gage and then went back to helping him spread out the blankets on the floor. After he deemed them satisfactory, I started to crawl onto them but my mate stopped me.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
“I thought we were going to snuggle in front of the fire?” I replied as I watched Gage stalk towards me. I knew exactly what he wanted and what his intent was by the look in his eyes.
“Sweetheart, you know as well as I do, it’s pointless to get in our cocoon with clothes on. And it works so much better if you’re naked when I knot you.”
I gulped and stood there helpless as Gage yanked my shirt over my head.
“So beautiful. I’m going to do some wonderfully wicked things to you tonight, mate.”
I moaned as Gage leaned down and gently bit at my earlobe. He went directly to my claiming bite and gently bit on it as well. I felt a familiar wetness and knew that I was leaking and more than ready for my mate.
“Alpha, please,” I begged.
“I promise, I’m going to give you exactly what you want and need, sweetheart.” Gage finished undressing me, and then quickly removed his own clothing. Taking my hand in his, he gently pulled me to the pile of blankets, and then down on them. Always thinking of me, he placed me closest to the fire, and got behind me. But I didn’t have to worry, my mate alone was more than enough to keep me warm. Lying next to Gage was like being wrapped up in an electric blanket. But Gage pulled a lightweight blanket on top of us, and then wrapped his strong arms around me. I felt his hard cock poking me in the backside, and I had to smile.
“What?”
“Nothing. I like that I turn you on though,” I replied honestly.
“Sweetheart, you don’t even have to be naked, and I get turned on by you. I’d think you know that by now,” Gage said as he kissed down my neck and shoulder. I sighed and then giggled when he got to a particularly ticklish spot on my back.
We took our time exploring each other’s bodies, and when Gage rolled onto his back and pulled me on top of him, I was more than willing to ride my alpha and bring us both the pleasure we wanted.
“Love you so much, Linus,” Gage said to me as I sunk down fully on his hard length. We both moaned when my ass hit his hips. After taking a few breaths, I started rolling my hips like he enjoyed so much. In no time, I was painting his chest with my release, and Gage simply lifted me up and off of his thickening cock. I found myself turned in mid-air, and then Gage was thrusting back into me. I leaned forward and grabbed his thighs for support, but for the most part, I just held on for the orgasmic ride my mate was giving me. He thrust his cock up into me at a rapid pace, and in no time, my cock was hard and ready to explode again.
“Sweetheart, need another one from you,” Gage said as I felt his knot start to pull at my entrance. He was getting close, and he was about to explode inside me. I thought about how wonderful it was going to feel, and that was all it took for me to orgasm again.
“Gage!” I shouted and moaned through my release as I sprayed my mate’s legs with my second orgasm. He grunted behind me, and then I felt it. His knot fully inflated and we stuck. He wasn’t able to move any more, and when his knot pushed on my prostate, I had yet another, although much smaller, orgasm. I fell backward onto Gage’s chest as I felt his cock throb and pulse as it filled me with his warm release.
“Love you, Linus. Get some sleep, sweetheart,” Gage said as he rolled us to our sides and pulled the blanket up over our damp bodies. I was already completely relaxed and more than half asleep. He knew I almost always fell asleep when he was knotted inside me. H
e always wore me out.
“Love you,” I mumbled as I drifted off to sleep. I woke up the next morning, in our bed, upstairs. I was comfortably sore in the expected places, and I realized that I’d slept in and Gage was already at work.
“Good morning, sweetheart. You were out this morning. I did try to wake you.”
“Mmm, it’s okay, alpha. I understand. I’m very sleepy. What time is it?”
“It’s almost lunchtime. Would you like to come to town and join me for lunch?”
“That sounds good. Do you want me to bring you something?”
“No. We’ll go over to the diner. Sound good?”
“Sounds great. Can I shower? I need one.”
Gage chuckled at me before responding. “Yes, of course you can. We’ll go when you get here. But take your time and enjoy the shower. I knotted you twice last night, and I’m sure the hot water will feel good.”
“Yes, it will. I’ll hurry though. I’m hungry. See you soon. Love you.”
“Love you, too.”
I got up and went to the oversized bathroom and turned on the water so it could warm up while I emptied my bladder. By the time I flushed, the water in the shower was steaming, and I climbed in and groaned at the feeling. It felt heavenly. I could easily stay in the shower while the water heater emptied, but I had a mate that was amazing, and he was waiting to take me out to lunch. I didn’t want to keep him waiting any longer than necessary, so I reluctantly washed, rinsed, got out, and dried off so I could get dressed and head to town to meet Gage for lunch.
Gage — 15
“War?”
“Yeah, Gage. What’s up?”
“I’m concerned about Linus. He was supposed to come meet me for lunch, but he’s still not here. I’ve checked on him through our bond, but he’s sleeping. He shouldn’t be sleeping again. He didn’t wake up until almost lunchtime.”
“Gage, go home and check on your mate. Has this happened before?”
“Only when he’s about to go into heat. But he just had one a week ago. He’s not due for several more weeks.”