by Jena Wade
Another swipe, and this time I chased it, my body pleading with him to do more. “So very needy,” he praised, swiping once more. “I could worship your body like this all day.” His head popped up. “But I won’t. My omega is impatient and can’t wait.” His finger pressed against my entrance. “You want me here and not just my tongue, don’t you.”
Gods, he was going to kill me.
“Yesssss,” I cried out.
“You want me to do this.” He breached my entrance slowly—it was everything and yet not near enough. He continued to work my hole, my hips bucking of their own accord. One finger, then two, then just as I thought a third was about to join in, his fingers fell away completely.
“More.” He officially brought me to the one syllable level of communication.
“No more waiting, omega mine.” He pushed himself up, lining up his cock with my hole and slowly working his way inside.
“Kiss.”
He covered me with his body, his cock still fully seated, and did just that. He kissed me, all lips, tongues, teeth, as he slowly began to move in and out of me, my hardness trapped between us. I met his moves with my own, our slow, leisurely, passionate motions quickly becoming faster, deeper, and more erratic. We would need to do slow later… I needed this… gods, how I needed this.
Ours.
Mate.
Claim.
My wombat was right there with us, insisting we mark him—make Gio ours forever. He already was, but this wasn’t about that. That would come—he needed to be patient. Maybe… not patient enough to stop the climax rushing through me, my cum shooting out between us as Gio’s body went faster, harder, his shoulders shaking as he called out my name, his cum filling me.
I was so full and suddenly fuller and fuller… like he was becoming one with me. SO complete. So perfect. So… his eyes welled up. What was…
“Fated mates,” was all he said as he rolled us over so that I was on top of him, his body still connected to mine. “I knew it from the first second that I scented you, but… you’re really mine.” A tear dripped out of the corner of his eye.
“What—because I—” I knew that other shifters didn’t hold on as tightly as wombats but I didn’t think it was cry worthy. Wait—didn’t—it stops when we finished.
This wasn’t me holding him, it was…
“Yes, my sweet, brave, amazing omega… because you brought out my knot.” He hugged me close and now I was crying too, a half memory of knowing that knots were the sign of true fated mates—a sign I had thought was a fairy tale and now was experiencing for myself.
Fate sent him to me—me.
I closed my eyes, wanting to hold onto this feeling—this feeling of being wanted, loved, and everything he wanted—for just a little bit longer before it would fade away and reality would return.
Chapter Thirteen
Gio
I woke from a deep slumber. I tried to move, but a heavy weight held me down. Whatever it was sat right on my torso, and I was unable to lift my body. My muscles ached, and it took me a moment to remember why. Then it all came rushing back.
Me. My mate. The shower, the bed, the shower again, and the floor? I was pretty sure we’d had sex on the floor. Each time we’d spent locked together by my knot.
I’d known Thorne was my fated mate. My wolf had told me so. But experiencing the knot, knowing for sure that he was mine… It was indescribable.
I opened my eyes and found my wombat curled up on top of me. I smiled as I looked at his sleeping form, his breathing even and calm. He had put on a lot of weight since coming to live with me. He was now the size of an actual adult wombat with all the heft to go along with it. Though, in his human form, Thorne was sleek and sinewy.
We lay there for a few moments. I let him sleep. Last night had been intense. We’d confirmed what we already knew. We were mates, fated. Meant for each other in every way. I’d knotted Thorne so many times I’d lost track.
I knew once Thorne woke he would be upset that he had shifted to his wombat form again.
I wasn’t thrilled by it, but I wasn’t going to let it sour the mood.
We were mates. We may not have officially claimed each other, that would come later when we had a ceremony and claimed each other with a bite. But as fated mates, it was likely that my seed had taken root in Thorne and we’d have pups of our own soon.
We had equal chances of having a pup or a joey. I would be happy with either one. I knew Thorne would too.
I wanted to lie there forever and just hold my mate close to me. Eventually my bladder forced me to move him off me.
Thorne awoke with a snarl and sat upright. It was an odd thing to see a wombat sitting on his haunches in the middle of a king-sized bed, but there he was. He looked down at his hands and let out a cry. His shoulders drooped and he fell onto all fours.
“Can you try shifting back?” I asked. If he kept progressing like he was, it was likely that he’d regain control of his shifts. I hoped.
His eyes closed, and he sat quietly for a moment. Eventually, he opened his eyes and huffed out a breath. His whiskers flared.
No luck.
“It’s fine,” I said. “You were human for quite a while, we’re making progress.”
He led out a growl, letting me know my early morning optimism wasn’t hitting the mark. I chuckled.
“I know you’re tired of hearing that, but I can’t help it if it’s the truth.” I sat next to him and pulled him back into my lap. “It’ll be fine, Thorne. I promise you that I’m here for you every step of the way. No matter what state you’re in, okay?”
He huffed out of breath again, which I took to mean that he accepted my support, but he didn’t like it. He hopped down off the bed and scrambled out of the room. I followed.
In the kitchen, he tried to reach the handle on the fridge, but was unable to. He looked up at me and his nose twitched.
Maybe we could set up a sign system. “Yes” and “no” cards or something like that. Perhaps he could type on a computer to give me responses. Considering how the TV remote usage had gone, I wasn’t holding out hope. Given his sheltered upbringing, I doubted he’d know how to use a computer anyway.
“What would you like for breakfast? Pancakes or an omelette?”
He chuffed, which I took to mean he wanted an omelette. When I grabbed the eggs out of the fridge and he bit my ankle, I realized my mistake.
“Pancakes it is then.”
Thorne sat at my feet while I fried up a few pancakes and dished them onto a plate. Then he sat with me at the table. He didn’t bother with a fork, thankfully. Though, it would have been a sight to see. He did manage to squeeze his own syrup out of the bottle.
“I could make a fortune with you on YouTube, you know.”
He set the bottle down and cocked his head to the side as he looked at me.
“It’s a thing on the internet where people upload videos. I take it your wisdom didn’t have much outside world influence?”
He shook his head.
I couldn’t wait to teach my mate so many things about the world. “It’s like the streaming stuff I showed you on the TV, only anyone can put videos up there. Mostly cats. Just imagine if you could make money off of videos. I’ll show you.”
I pulled out my phone and navigated to the app. I found some of the most popular cat videos and hit play.
He stared contemplatively at the phone. Every once in a while he let out a loud chuff, which I took to mean that he thought it was funny or ridiculous, or some combination thereof. When I tried to take the phone from him, he gripped it like it was his most prized possession. I chuckled and left him alone. If cat videos provided him with a distraction, then I was just fine with that.
After breakfast was done. I cleared up our plates.
“How about we get outside today? It might help take your mind off the shifting thing. I can take you into our territory a little bit.”
He nodded his head once and headed toward the back of the house. He was ou
tside on the deck before I could toss my clothes to the floor and get outside.
I didn’t waste any time shifting to my wolf form. My wolf towered over my wombat, but he never cowered or backed down. I nudged him with my snout, putting my scent on him, and he rubbed against my legs. Soon the two of us were running through the woods.
Thorne was surprisingly fast for a smaller creature. He had no problem keeping up with me. We made our way to the north side of the property, where I knew we would find a nice meadow to play in.
When we got there, Thorne took off at a run and did a tumble in the grass, rolling around like a wombat ball. He would stop and burrow into the dirt with his claws digging holes, then he’d come up with something and show it to me.
We laid in the meadow for a while. Me, laying there quietly, with Thorne against my side.
Happy. Content. Perfect.
If only he could shift.
Chapter Fourteen
Thorne
I woke up in the corner of the room chilled, my fur gone. Every time I thought I was making progress with my shifting, something like this happened. At first I thought my wombat had more control than I, but I was quickly figuring out neither of us did. Sometimes we just came together, with both of us using everything we had, and shifts happened.
If only that coming together could be planned or focused or something. Because as it was everything about it felt like a fluke.
I stretched my arms and legs, rolling over to push myself to stand, surprised my wombat chose there of all places to sleep.
“Gio?” I called out. For all I knew he had gone to work, his scent residual. I’d been the one insisting he not stick around when I wasn’t really here. And he knew the difference—could sense when human me was around or when it was the wombat Prickles as he called it.
He said it was a good thing he loved both of us, and at first I thought he was being nice, but having come back while his wolf and I were running together, I felt the truth of his words first hand. Gio didn’t care about parts of me, while putting up with the rest. He cared about all of me, and sure, he wished I had control—who wouldn’t want that for their mate—but he accepted me as is, broken and all.
“You’re awake.” He walked out of the bedroom to where I now stood buck ass naked. “I was going to move you soon. I would have right away but you were hating on the vacuum.” That sounded about right.
It also told me I hadn’t held my skin in at least a day; one of my last memories was me throwing a pillow at his head while he put it in the closet. I wish I could remember why, but he turned around with that smile, the one that said we were about to get naked so…
Gah, I hated how I missed chunks of time and couldn’t shift the way I needed to and how unfair this all was to Gio.
But as much as I hated it all, I loved Gio and was selfish enough never to leave.
“It’s loud,” I said, referring to the vacuum. “The table is set.” I counted the seats. Three. “Who’s all coming?”
“Just Lissy. The other spot was for you.” It had silverware, which I had been known to use when human me was close to the surface. This last shift it had not been.
“You thought I’d be back?”
“I sensed it… in your sleep… you felt closer.” He half shrugged, as if it wasn’t a huge deal that he could feel me that way. It was. “Did you want me to set a shower… possibly join you?” His eyes raked me up and down.
“Don’t you need to cook something?”
“Lissy is bringing casserole and won’t be here for,” he glanced at the microwave, “forty-two minutes.”
“We could get very clean in forty-two minutes.” I sashayed over to him, swaying so my cock also swayed back and forth, already filled thanks to a combination of his scent and morning—or was it afternoon—wood?
We did get very clean, after getting very dirty, and were still getting dressed when Lissy showed up, casserole and all.
She looked tired… more than tired. Pure exhaustion level tired. I knew her responsibilities as pack healer had to be taxing. She was only one person, and there was a lot to do for a pack this size, but it was odd to see her so… down.
“I can take that.” I took the casserole carrier from her and brought it to the table to set it up as Gio hugged her and offered her something to drink.
“I’m glad to see you today.” She smiled. “I’ve been thinking about you a lot. How have your days gone?”
I walked into the bedroom to get the calendar, which was what she was really asking. How long was I human versus wombat. Gio had added a third notation of a heart written over the P for when I was Prickles, but also close enough that I knew what was going on and could communicate in a fashion. When I came back out with it, they were huddled together over a salad bowl, their eyes too serious.
“What’s going on?”
“Other than your mate thinking these go in a salad?” She held up a fiddlehead.
“Really? That’s what this is about?” They both nodded. Talk about me biting off trouble. “That is a fiddlehead and is delicious. They shouldn’t even be harvestable right now, so the fact that my mate hunted them down for me should have you feeling honored to eat them.”
Gio puffed out his chest at my praise and Lissy rolled her eyes, not hurt by my far too theatrical explanation of the little green shoots.
“Next time I’m bringing the salad, too.” She picked up the salad Gio prepared and brought it to the table where we sat down.
“And Byrom and the Betas are coming over after lunch and she’s being a vault, not saying a word,” Gio added.
That explained far more than the delicious little shoots of fern goodness. Although she masterfully scooped her salad onto her plate with none of them. Good. More for me.
We ate a delicious meal, all of us talking about the reason she came. She’d just returned from her trip, and from the way she circumvented the topic, she had more to tell Byrom than the weather was nice.
“Were you wanting me not here?” I finally said, no longer able to ignore the gorilla in the room. “Because I don’t want to go. I know I’m fucked up, my connection to my wombat broken. But I can handle whatever it is you have to say.” I picked up Gio’s hand, “We can handle it.”
Because the honest truth was that without him I wouldn’t be able to. I needed his strength, mine alone was faltering.
“I know you can, and no one wants you to leave.” She stood up, taking her plate with her.
I mouthed sorry to Gio. He shook his head and leaned in for what I thought was a kiss, instead whispering in my ear, “You are so much stronger than even you know.”
We cleaned up, and just as the last dish was being rinsed, there was a knock at the door.
“I got it.” I jogged over, expecting to open it for Byrom and instead coming face to face with Mia.
“Am I early?” she asked.
“No, they aren’t here yet.” I stood out of her way. She wasn’t technically a Beta, but she was a leader in this pack nonetheless, her role as teacher one of the most prized by the pack members.
“Who? I thought I was going over pack history with you today.” I looked in her hands. Sure enough, they held a pile of books. How had I missed that?
“Come in, Mia. We’re having a briefing on my trip. You will save me a trip.” Lissy grabbed the books from her hands.
She came in and we chatted as the others arrived. Suddenly the house felt too small. And it wasn’t even the size. There was just so much raw power in it that my wombat was starting to poke his head up.
Oh no. He was not taking over. I needed to hear this.
I pushed him down the best I could, crossing my fingers he’d been in control long enough that he was weakened by it. I wasn’t sure if it even worked that way for him, but it did for me, which was how he took over so easily after a day or so.
“Now that everyone is here,” Lissy announced all official like, “let’s get on with it.”
She explained in great
detail her entire trip and everything she had learned, my ability to focus thwarted by my wombat wanting to flee. Given that the room was full of alphas, flight was better than the fight option. I didn’t get it, though. They were our friends, their power never used against us. My wombat didn’t care about any of that.
I was going to have to ask Gio to catch me up on the details. I got the main take-away. She had a plan or at least had confidence that they could come up with a plan.
“Lissy, don’t take this the wrong way.” Byrom stood. Anytime someone led with that, there was no right way to take it. “Drawing your strength from ours sounds unwise.”
“Alpha, with all respect, when the light healer taught me how to draw my strength from the pack, he was not suggesting I take it from you. Hardly. I would just use the power of our bonds as a pack to assist me.”
“I have to agree with Alpha,” Darren said weakly. His brother was the one killed that night I was rescued, the one sucked in by the dark healer’s darkness, the one who betrayed his pack. He knew what we were getting into better than most of the people in the room, he saw what was at risk in the realest way. “Dark healers pull their power from others… how is this different?”
“This is different because you give freely, that instead of us waiting for her to strike again, for us to wonder who will be the next to die alone the way Byrom and Lyle’s parents did, the way our aunts and uncles did, the way Ozzy almost did, we will fight as one to take her down and put an end to this all.” Her heart was racing, the sound of it pounding in her chest echoing loudly. “We can do this… together. We just need to believe in ourselves. We owe it to our pack, our elders, our children… this fight determines our future.”
“That is for me to decide.” A vein on the side of Byrom’s head was pulsating.
Shit.
First her heart and now the vein on his head. My wombat senses were starting to take over. No. No. I couldn’t let that happen. I had to be strong. I had to be present.
“Alpha, I respectfully disagree.” Lissy stood up. She was not backing down. “We can’t let this go unchecked and I have a path that can help. No one else here does.”
