No Mate of Mine

by Lisa Oliver

  “But that still doesn’t explain how Donoghue knew who we were, or what pack to get in touch with,” Roger said. He had to admit he hadn’t worried too much about the security of the club when they were carrying out the rescue either – he just assumed that Steel and Levi had got it covered. He’d been too fixated on getting Cam to safety.

  “Teric got in touch with the Council yesterday, about us having an Omega wolf here,” Dante said. “We didn’t see the harm in it, because we thought Donoghue was human. But the movements of all Omegas need to be kept up to date because they are so rare, and important for pack security. The Council wanted to ensure that Cam was here by choice, so Teric explained the situation – how Cam was found, that you are his mate, things like that. It would seem that Donoghue had already contacted the shifter council about his missing primary donor. But he didn’t mention that Cam was an Omega. He just said that his ‘reason for living’ had been stolen by a wolf pack.”

  “So Donoghue doesn’t know that Cam is actually here then?”

  Dante shook his head. “He knows. Some chatty Cathy on the council told him there were only three gay packs in the entire of the United States – Tulsa, San Antonio and here. A messenger from Donoghue came last night, along with a Council representative, who had apparently spilled the beans. Teric’s message to the Council had just confirmed the vampire’s suspicions.”

  “At the moment things are at a stalemate,” Pearson said. “At least until Teric talks to the Council again. Last night I had been ordered, by the Council, to liaise with Donoghue about Cam leaving the pack and returning to New York. Even though Cam is an Omega, if he had agreed to be Donoghue’s primary donor, then that contract could be as binding for as long as Donoghue held him to it. We have three days to hand Cam over. Cam, you are probably going to have to talk to the Shifter Council representative at some stage and confirm your story.”

  “But it’s my word against his,” Cam said in a low voice. “No one will believe me, I’m just an Omega.”

  Roger looked into Cam’s eyes – not as bright as they usually were, and rimmed red from tears. But Roger had never seen a more beautiful sight. “You just tell the truth, little one,” he said softly. “I promise you the Council will know the truth. A vampire might not be able to smell a lie, but the Shifter representative will be able to. Tell the truth and he will believe you.”

  Cam searched Roger’s face like it held the secret of life itself, and Roger let him. He might be slightly miffed that his little mate didn’t believe in him completely, not yet. But that was okay. Roger was a force enough on his own, when it came to protecting his mate. With the pack behind him, there was no way he was letting Cam go.

  And maybe that showed on his face somewhere, because Cam gave a small smile, and said simply, “I trust you,” and that was more than enough reason for Roger to make his hurried goodbyes and get out of the Alpha’s office. His mate needed to be rewarded, yet again, and Roger was just the man for the job.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Cam didn’t even have a chance to look around the nicely appointed apartment that Roger took him too after leaving the office. Roger got the door closed, and then he attacked Cam with a fit of passion that Cam had only fantasized about. His clothes were ripped from his body only to be discarded on the floor somewhere, before Roger pushed Cam up against the wall beside the door, and took Cam’s lips in a kiss that could only be described as scorching hot. Cam was shocked for a moment. The meeting had been more than stressful and while Cam wasn’t sure what half of what was said actually meant, he knew he had to trust that his mate would look out for him. Unfortunately just the thought of his ex-master trying to find him was enough to be a cock block of epic proportions.

  But Roger was insistent, forcing Cam to focus on the here and now and the hot and horny mate who was demanding his attention. When Roger nipped his bottom lip, Cam felt his own lust rising, right alongside his cock. He opened his mouth for Roger’s tongue, moaning as his mate’s taste flooded his senses. That wickedly sinful mouth wasn’t the only thing that was busy. Already hands were pulling aside his butt cheeks, lightly probing his entrance. Cam could feel his body respond. Now that he was mated, his body’s response was automatic. If aroused, he would always be ready for his mate.

  “Hot damn, those stories were true,” Roger groaned against his mouth. “You’re already prepped for me. That is so hot.”

  “Only for you,” Cam managed to gasp before Roger plundered his mouth again. Cam felt some fumbling and heard the sound of Roger’s zipper being wrenched open, before he felt the stubborn thrust of a large cockhead demanding access to his ass.

  “Got to have you,” Roger moaned. “Got absolutely no fucking control when I’m around you.”

  “You have me,” Cam assured his mate, jumping up and wrapping his legs around Roger’s hips. Seconds later he felt the tinge of a burn as Roger pushed deep inside of him, setting up a punishing rhythm from the first stroke. Roger was almost frantic with his need – Cam could feel it in every thrust, Roger’s big hands holding him steady as he banged Cam against the wall. Cam’s cock was trapped against Roger’s shirt and while the denim material was coarse against his shaft, the friction was enough to get Cam to the edge in double quick time and he did everything he could to try and hold off. But Roger wouldn’t let him.

  “Need you to come with me,” Roger grunted, his hips moving impossibly faster. “Need you to come around my cock. Fucking need you to grip me in that tight little ass of yours until I haven’t got an ounce of spunk left in me. Now do it. Come.” As soon as he had finished speaking, Roger bent his head, biting hard over Cam’s mating mark. Cam screamed as his body flooded with pleasure, his cock spouting like a fountain, his ass muscles clenching around Roger’s girth, pulling his orgasm from him, just as his mate had demanded. Cam floated in a haze of pleasure, confident that Roger wouldn’t let him fall.

  Unhooking his teeth from Cam’s skin, Roger bellowed out his name as Cam felt his insides flooded, his mate lightly thrusting through his own orgasm as if to prolong the intensity of his feelings. Finally, when Roger had stopped moving his hips, but staying deep inside of him, the big man rested his head against Cam’s on the wall.

  “Holy fuck,” Roger said, still panting heavily. “So fucking good. You are abso-fucking-lutely amazing, my little wolf. What you do to me.”

  Cam was sure he had a soppy grin on his face. He’d never had anyone take him with such need. Drive him to such heights of passion, all the while making sure he got his own pleasure as well. Sure, Donoghue used to fuck him and so did his friends. But no one had ever been that overwhelmed by him that their control snapped. No one had ever wanted him with the passion that Roger had shown him in just a matter of minutes. It was heady and intoxicating and Cam thought it was something he could definitely get used to.

  But now Roger was looking at him, a tinge of concern in those hazel eyes. “Are you okay? I didn’t hurt you?”

  Cam shook his head. If Roger couldn’t tell how happy he was when he had a wicked grin on his face, then his mate wasn’t as smart as he thought he was. He stroked down Roger’s reddened face with one hand, loving the sharp cheek bones and puffy lips, and then because it seemed his mate still needed reassurance he said, “That was wonderful. I’ve never…” Cam trailed off, unsure what to say. He might not have the verbal skills that so many others had, but he could tell the truth – what he felt in his heart. So that’s what he did.

  “I’ve never had sex before that hadn’t involved pain, until I met you. I never believed it could be so good, so hot. I’ve only ever been taken when it was part of a scene and most of the time I didn’t, couldn’t enjoy it because I was usually whipped like fuck, or cut up before it happened. You’ve shown me something so much…” Cam struggled to find a word.

  “More?” Roger said, and Cam was pleased to see the concern wasn’t lurking in those hazel eyes anymore. The feelings there now were a lot deeper and while Cam didn’t recognize wh
at they were, it gave him a warm glow inside.

  “More,” Cam agreed.

  “I imagine after care was a bit of a non-event as well,” Roger said, carefully easing his cock out of Cam’s body, but holding onto Cam’s hips, taking them through into the bathroom. “We will talk about it later, but for now, we bathe, we eat and then, we will snuggle up on the bed together, and maybe you will let me explain a bit more about the things I like to do when I’m not overcome with the need to plunder your delicious body.”

  Cam giggled. He really didn’t mind his mate being overcome with lust, he was starting to think he might have a similar problem. And while the idea of talking about anything to do with being a sub bothered him a little bit, the promise of a bath, food and a cuddle all helped ease his nerves. Besides, he reminded himself, while Roger might not want to be called his Master, he was a Dominant, and if Cam could learn how to please his mate, then that would be an added bonus.

  /~/~/~/~/

  “So,” Roger said some time later, as he lazily traced patterns up and down and around Cam’s slender shoulders. “Can you tell me what you know about limits, safewords and contracts?”

  He kept his words soft, trying to be as unthreatening as possible. The two men had enjoyed a lovely time in the bath, where Cam had shown off his oral skills yet again, and then Cam had cooked up some kind of stir fry with some meat Roger had found in the small kitchen. He wanted to take his mate down to the club dining room later, so they could have a huge dinner that didn’t require cooking or cleaning up afterwards, and that wasn’t going to happen if Cam got too upset with him now.

  Cam frowned, the action causing one thin line across his forehead. “I know what the words mean in theory,” he offered, as though worried that Roger would get upset. “A safeword is supposed to be something that a sub can say and the Master stops whatever he is doing. I’m not sure what you mean by limit and I thought a contract was a business thingy, although I know Devin mentioned it in the office earlier. Am I close at least?”

  “Definitely close,” Roger said, with a quick kiss to the top of Cam’s head. Cam might not have had the protection of those things himself, in his relationship with Donoghue, but he had been living at that club for four years. It wouldn’t have made sense if he hadn’t picked up at least some aspects about living in the BDSM lifestyle.

  “In this club,” Roger emphasized, “a safe word is always respected. It is a word that a sub chooses, that they wouldn’t use in the normal course of a scene. If the sub says it, then the Dom or Master, will stop what he is doing and give the sub aftercare so they can talk about what went wrong.”

  “That’s fine if the sub can talk. I wore a gag most times, unless Donoghue wanted me to yell for him.”

  “Even if I gagged you,” Roger said, not sure that he ever would, but hoping Cam could learn more from what he had to say, “you would have a scarf in your hand, or a bell or something, so that you had a way to communicate if you wanted to stop. Communication at all times is really important. There are some Doms that can almost read their sub’s mind, they are so quick to pick up on body cues. But in every scene done in this club, both in private or public, the sub can stop at any time and that is respected. Pearson won’t have it any other way.”

  “But in those private rooms that I saw today,” Cam said, his brow once again furrowed in concentration, which Roger thought was pretty darn cute. “How would Pearson ever know what was going on in there?”

  “All of us enforcers have to work on the Dungeon Master roster, little one. The Dungeon Masters keep an ear on everything that goes on in the rooms, and there are also panic buttons in every room if something goes wrong. Very few of the rooms are totally private, except for the ones we enforcers use, Pearson’s room of course, and a couple of others. But even those rooms all have monitored cameras in them. Only Pearson’s doesn’t.”

  “And Dante’s big enough to look out for himself,” Cam said with a little giggle. Roger smiled too. He had never dreamed when he had first taken Cam in his arms, that his mate could feel so comfortable with him in such a short time, but he wasn’t going to knock how good that felt, or take it for granted.

  “I take it you don’t have a safeword?” Roger said.

  “Never been asked for one, no,” Cam said, clearly thinking hard. “But if I had to have one, I think I would use the word white.”

  “Uh huh, well that could work because I can’t see how white could come up normally in a scene between us, although most subs would use the word red to stop. What made you think of that one, little wolf? Is it something you can remember easily if you need to?”

  “It’s the color of my fur. That one thing that makes people look at me differently. The one thing that changed my life for the worse. I can’t ever forget how different I am.”

  “You’re a good kind of different,” Roger said, not happy with Cam’s logic but understanding it. He decided to move on.

  “Okay white is your safe word, that’s good. You can use that anytime you want something to stop.”

  “Even if we’re not in a scene?”

  Roger thought about it for a moment, and then nodded. “Yes, actually that is a good idea. If there is anything that makes you feel uncomfortable, or someone, then you say white, and I will make sure whatever is happening stops. Just make sure you say it as one word, rather than in a sentence, otherwise I might get confused.”

  Cam nodded, his head clearly thinking about where he might use the word white in a sentence.

  “If we are in a scene, it is also a good idea to have a word that means slow down,” Roger continued. “What that means,” he explained as he saw the confusion on Cam’s face, “is, say for example we are doing wax play and I go too fast for you, or you can’t handle the sensations. Then you can say your slow down word, and I will stop long enough for you to tell me what is wrong, but we will probably continue the scene, maybe with some modifications.”

  “So if I say white, the scene stops completely…”

  “And I give you some aftercare and we talk about what caused you to safeword.”

  “But if I say…” There was that delicious frown again as Cam was obviously thinking about it. Roger wanted to kiss that frown away. He wanted to kiss a lot of things, but this talk was important. He wanted Cam to feel safe with him no matter what they were doing.

  “Ice-cream,” Cam said.

  “Ice-cream?”

  “I’ve never had it,” Cam said softly. “But I’ve heard it’s delicious.”

  Well his mate would be having ice-cream that very night. Roger would see to it personally.

  “I think, if ice-cream was something that you think you might like, then we should use that as your ‘go’ word. The word you use if I ask you if you are okay, and you want to continue with what we are doing.”

  “Can’t I just say I’m okay?”

  “You could,” Roger agreed, “but sometimes it is good to have a word that means everything is more than okay and you are really happy to continue.”

  He hoped he wasn’t confusing his mate. In some respects it was hard to believe Cam had been a sub for four years. The man knew how to kneel, to stand and present himself and was more than respectful to authority figures, and Roger had no doubt Cam could take any pain that he could dish out. But the working together aspects of a scene, where both parties got so much enjoyment out of what they were doing, seemed to be totally missing from Cam’s past experiences.

  But Cam had clearly been thinking again because he said, “Cabbage.”

  “Because?”

  “Because I don’t like eating it very often, but I know it can be good for me, but it’s not something I would chose for myself?”

  “Perfect.” Roger smiled down at the man in his arms. At least now, if he ever wanted to do anything with his boy, apart from fuck him into the mattress, or up against a wall, he remembered with a grin, Cam would have some safewords he could use. Now came the harder part.

  “Right so
we have white for stop everything, no matter what or where. Cabbage for slow down in a scene, so we can work out what the problem is and ice cream for you being more than okay and wanting to continue. Yes?”

  “Yes.” Cam said firmly.

  “Good. Now, limits and contracts. We’re mates, so we wouldn’t normally have a contract, but non-mated members do use them. Even if they are only having a one-time scene with someone else, the two men would have a short contract. It explains the length of time the contract will work for, hard and soft limits for the sub, the Dominant’s responsibilities to the sub, and an acceptance of the contract by both parties. It’s a safety measure that works for the sub, especially in this club. If two people aren’t mates, but they decide to go for something longer than one scene, a contract can be drawn up for that as well.”

  “But what happens to a sub if he is under contract to one person and then meets his mate?”

  “A mating trumps everything, sweetie,” Roger said with a grin. “Any contracts, collars or verbal agreements are automatically void, if a person meets their mate. All paranormals understand that, and there are no un-mated humans in this club. In fact, I don’t think there are any humans here at all at the moment, not that it couldn’t happen of course.”

  “So, would I need a contract if I…?” Cam was fidgeting now and Roger wished he could see what his boy was thinking. Whatever it was, was clearly difficult for Cam to talk about. Stroking his hand down Cam’s leg that was flung over his thigh, Roger waited him out. Cam would learn in time that there wasn’t anything he could ever say to him that would be wrong.