Mason's Mate

by Abigail Raines

  There are rabbits in the woods, I think to myself. Don’t you want a nice rabbit?

  The wolf apparently does not want a nice rabbit and I finally give up the ghost and make my way back through the woods to the house. I see Mason’s car in the driveway. I hadn’t quite realized how much time had passed.

  When I walk in the door I see Mason on his phone in the living room. He looks over at me in surprise and says, “No yeah, actually she just walked in so… Yeah, I know.” He turns away and I hear him sigh heavily. “I know. We’ll talk about this later. Okay...bye, Xander.”

  Mason hangs up his phone and spins around again to face me. “Hi...my brother can be annoying.”

  “Okay,” I say. He has some look of expectation on his face and I don’t know what it means, but I’m thirsty, so I just let him follow me to the kitchen as I pour myself a glass of water. “Why was he annoying?”

  “I told him kinda what’s happening between us and...he’s never come close to finding a mate. I don’t think he understands what it’s like really.”

  “And what’s it like?” I ask him. I kick the toe of his shoe and he smiles slowly.

  “It’s like whenever you walk in the room, you bring the sun with you, Alice.”

  That makes me gasp a little. I wasn’t expecting something so...poetic. “Wow.”

  “Yeah well…” Mason shrugs. “That’s what it’s like. Anyway… I’m glad you went out. I was ah…” He scratches his chin and squints. “I was worried for a minute. Not used to having somebody to worry about.”

  “Oh, I was just in the woods for a bit,” I say. “I was trying to shift but it didn’t work.”

  “It’s fine. You don’t have to explain yourself.”

  “Well, I can leave a note,” I say, stepping a little closer. He wants so badly for me to feel free. He would let himself worry to death before he asked me to do something reasonable like leave a note. “You don’t need to worry.”

  “That might be a good compromise,” he says, chuckling to himself.

  “Did you have a good day?”

  “Board meeting was boring,” he says. He reaches out to play with a lock of my hair. He so rarely touches me without a whole lot of build-up or waiting for me to touch him first and I move a little closer. “Wanted to be here with you. Not used to this wanting to be around somebody all the time… Makes me feel a little crazy. Makes my wolf restless.”

  “I make your wolf restless?”

  “Absolutely.” He kisses me though, more heatedly then he has before and when I feel his tongue in my mouth I moan to encourage him. He lifts me off the ground a little bit and I wrap my arms around his neck. “Did you have a nice time?” He asks me.

  “Oh, yes.” I’m going to tell him what I did in his bed, but not yet. I’m going to save it for later. It makes me feel good to have a kind of secret to myself that’s not serious.

  When Mason makes dinner, I insist on making the salad this time and then I watch him make the stir-fry and ask him questions about cooking. Apparently, I ask a lot of questions because I see him trying not to laugh.

  “Don’t tease me!” I say, wagging my finger in his face.

  He grins at that and then ducks his head to bite my finger and it immediately feels as if we’re a couple already, as if we’re mates and it’s just another night making dinner together. His eyes meet mine and he lets my finger go and kisses my palm before going back to his stir-fry.

  You’re mine, I think. It doesn’t seem like it’s up for debate. He’s mine and I want him forever. I find myself choking up and I clear my throat, shifting from foot to foot in Mason’s big kitchen.

  “You alright?” He asks.

  “Yep.” I lean against his shoulder and watch him cook.

  I don’t know if the fates or the gods or whoever decides these things can hear me. But I find myself praying to whatever’s out there that I can keep Mason Tremblay. I don’t need his big house and his fancy foods, nice as they are. But I think I need him. Sometimes I think he even needs me.

  At dinner I find myself imagining what a future with Mason might look like. Maybe I could go to school. It’s something I’ve always dreamed about. I don’t have a high school diploma but the last couple times I poked around the library, I found out you can take a test that’s as good as a diploma and then you can go to college. Or maybe I should get a job first. Then I think of the postcards stashed in my backpack. Sometimes I feel that before I can do anything else, I’m going to have to deal with those postcards.

  “I’ve been thinking,” I say, interrupting the silence. “I’ve been thinking, maybe I should try to find my mother.” I’ve mentioned that my mother was exiled from Hardwidge for failing to follow the rules of the pack. All I have to remember her by are the postcards.

  “Did she ever try to contact you?” Mason says.

  “No… I mean, I don’t know for sure.” Thinking about my mother always makes me feel strange. It’s like my wolf wants to howl about it and I won’t let her. I’ve always thought of my mother as somebody I would find if I could ever get out and she would help me. I imagine us reuniting and yet...the thought of it doesn’t make me feel better like it used to. Not since I met Mason. “She could have sent a letter and maybe they found it first or… Maybe Hardwidge didn’t let her talk to me, I mean.”

  “Right,” Mason says. “Yes, that’s possible. Well, I’m sure I could help you find her if you have any leads. Even a name if she’s still using the same one.”

  “I think the best leads I have are my postcards,” I say softly. I’ve never showed them to anyone. They were always my little secret, my bit of hope. Nobody at Hardwidge knew about the postcards. Mason is looking at me like he’s interested and waiting for me to go on, but I wave my hand. “I’ll explain to you sometime. If...If I ever decide to look for her.”

  That night in bed, I feel there’s some expectation of what’s going to happen and I want it but I also find myself paralyzed with nerves. Mason, of course, isn’t acting like there’s any such expectation. He spoons up behind me and holds me like usual and the only difference now is that he kisses the back of my neck. I watch him playing with my fingers, his arm wrapped around me. I don’t understand why I feel like this. I’ve been the one making the moves but with the reality of sex with Mason, I’m both excited and scared.

  “I want you,” I whisper. “I always want you, but I’m...I...I don’t know why I’m so nervous to…”

  “It’s okay, sweetheart,” Mason whispers back. “We don’t have to do anything. Or...you know, we don’t have to do everything.”

  That makes me curious and I roll over to face him. “What do you mean by that?”

  Mason takes my hand and lays soft little kisses along my knuckles. “Well… We can just kiss or touch. It doesn’t mean we have to have sex. Or we can just lie here or… Whatever you want, honey.”

  “Maybe...maybe we could just…” I kiss Mason and he kisses back, matching the slow slide of my mouth against his. “We could just...touch then?” I kiss him again and slide my hand up under his shirt, feeling the muscles of his stomach quiver under my fingers. His skin is so warm and he feels so solid under me. His breathing changes as he kisses me. He likes the way I’m touching him and it makes me smile against his mouth. I rake my fingers through his dusting of chest hair and lean into the touch of his hand sliding over my hip. “Touch me too,” I say in his ear.

  Mason pulls back and kisses my neck and he mimics my touch, his hand sneaking up under my tank top. When his hand covers my breast, I moan and pull him closer. I throw my leg over him and we sort of writhe together, enjoying each other without further intent. I can feel him though, hard in his thin pajama pants as he presses against me and it makes me want to know what it would be like to make him come.

  “Can I touch you here?” I ask, pressing my palm to the thick hardness of his crotch.

  “Yes,” Mason breathes. “God yes, Alice.”

  He kisses me and I pull his pajama pants
down a little and press my hand to the v below his stomach, raking my fingers through the hair there that leads to his cock as it springs out. Mason’s breath is short and I feel him tremble a little and when I touch him he gasps.

  I think now is the perfect time to tell him what I did earlier in the day. I want it to arouse him even more. I want him to feel good knowing he made me feel so good just thinking about him. “I did something today… Um, I went to your room…”

  “Yes?” He sounds mildly confused, distracted by pleasure as I stroke him slowly. He’s so thick and hard in my hand. I’m not a virgin. I fooled around with a couple guys from Hardwidge, desperate to find somebody who was as scared and lonely as I was. It never turned out well. But it’s been a long time. Once I knew better, I avoided the men. None of them could hold a candle to Mason, of course.

  “I laid on your bed,” I whisper. “And I thought about what you told me. That you got so turned on, you had to leave and jerk off, thinking of me. So I lay on your bed and touched myself…”

  “Oh…Alice…” Mason kisses me, his tongue plunging into my mouth. His hands rest on my shoulders and I can feel them shake as I stroke him a little bit faster, his cock just a little bit slippery. He thrusts into my hand and I can feel my clit, swollen in my panties, swollen and wanting him. But not tonight. Not yet.

  “It was so good, Mason,” I whisper. “I thought of you kissing me and holding me and how you want me so badly. And I could smell you all around me, your wolf and your self, I love the way you smell. I touched myself and I came so hard, Mason, thinking of you inside me-”

  Mason cries out and tenses up and I feel the pulse of his cock as he comes, warmth spattering us both. I keep stroking him as he moans into my neck, disregarding the mess as he presses into my hand.

  “Ah! Okay…” He laughs a little and pulls my hand away finally and lies back, catching his breath. “Jesus… I didn’t expect that.”

  “I know you didn’t expect it,” I say. I grab his hand and kiss his palm. “That’s why I wanted to do it.”

  Chapter Eleven: Mason

  This time when I wake up, I don’t run away. For that, I’m rewarded with the sweet, soft sounds Alice makes when she wakes and rolls over in bed. I reach up to play with her hair and watch the way the morning light plays along her skin.

  “Good morning, nice wolf,” Alice says, pecking me on the chin.

  “Good morning, sweetheart.”

  Alice is cheerful this morning. I’ve seen her mood improve by leaps and bounds since she’s been here, but now she seems freer. I’m mulling it over as we brush our teeth in the bathroom. She leans on the counter and looks at us in the mirror. Or rather she looks at me looking at her. She spits and rinses and I toss her a towel.

  “You know,” she says, “I feel like… It’s like when you talk about how you feel, I feel like I can too. It makes it better.”

  “Really?” I’ve been told I need to open more, about a million times. The odd thing is, I’ve also been told I’m good at reading other people’s emotions and understanding them. I suppose I’m just not always great at dealing with my own. “In that case, I’m feeling…” I spit and rinse and wipe my mouth and then wrap an arm around Alice, pulling her into a deep kiss. “I’m feeling happier than I ever remember feeling. How are you?”

  “Same,” Alice murmurs. We end up making out in the bathroom for a while. Alice hops up on the counter and I step between her knees so that she wraps her legs around me.

  I think we spend an hour in the bathroom before we actually go down to the kitchen.

  I start work late but I do manage to focus. I just feel so good, it seems to override my distraction. Although, it is a little difficult to know that the object of my affections is right there in the other room, on the couch, wearing the cute yoga pants that Luna bought her.

  Around lunch, Luna herself shows up. I could kick myself for not inviting her over sooner. Alice has been in a much better mood for visitors. I tell the girls they should eat together and take my lunch in my office as I work, but it makes me smile to hear the occasional burst of laughter.

  When I go into the kitchen to get myself some water, I pass the dining table where the two of them are sitting together, quietly. When I toss Luna a smile, the two of them look at me and burst into giggles like they’re kids. It definitely warms my heart, but it also makes me blush. I can just imagine what they were just talking about together.

  “Having a good time?” I say, raising an eyebrow.

  “Oh yes,” Luna says, seriously. She pats Alice’s hand and smirks at me. “And I know you’ve been having a good time.”

  “Ugh.” I rub my eyes and hightail it out of there, too mortified to say anything else. It’s worth it though, I think. I like that Alice has a new friend and the next time I walk by them, I hear Luna saying they should get Michelle and have a real girl’s night out. The thought of Luna feeling so at home with my family and friends actually makes me choke up and I feel a little ridiculous.

  Luna stays for a while with a promise to take Alice shopping at some point. When she leaves, Alice seems so happy and even a little bit hyper, bouncing on her toes in the living room, pulling books off the shelf by the television and examining them for a while before putting them back.

  Alice looks so cute that it’s making me want to haul her up into my arms and take her to bed.

  So I go for a run, even though I’m not finished working and there are two clients I’m supposed to call. I run up to my bedroom and change into jogging clothes and downstairs, Alice is on the couch with a book. Except that she’s also taken a popsicle from the freezer and the sight of her lips wrapped around it as she raises her eyes to look at me is just too much.

  “I’m going on a run,” I mumble.

  “Oh, okay-”

  “Be back.”

  In the woods, I breathe deeply. I’m half hard and all it took was Alice innocently eating a popsicle. But it’s also her good mood. It’s also her smile. Sexy is sexy, sure. But the sight of Alice happy just turns me on to no end. I shift and set off at a trot and quickly start running through the woods full out, tromping through puddles and mud, enjoying the familiar scents and the earth under my paws.

  At some point, I hope, Alice will be able to shift again. I can smell the wolf on her. I feel like she’s dying to get out and she’s just a bit shyer than Alice’s human is about living this new life. Maybe Alice’s brother scared her too much or maybe she’s confused by life away from Hardwidge. But someday, I’m sure, I’ll be able to see her. And I bet she’s beautiful.

  I don’t run too long. I go for about forty-five minutes but I go hard, trying to get all my restless energy out. It doesn’t necessarily work, but it sates me for just a little bit.

  When I come back, I’m sweaty and breathless, and I peel off my shirt as I shut the door behind me. Alice looks at me and her eyelashes flutter. She gets to her feet and sways a little on her toes, rubbing her arm.

  “Good run?” She says.

  “Yeah,” I say, still trying to catch my breath. When her gaze moves up and down my body, I finally pick up on what’s happening and I can’t help but smile and maybe I flex my abs just a little bit.

  Alice and I stand there staring at each other for an interminable few seconds before she throws her arms around my neck, knocking me back as she kisses me. I can’t help but laugh into her mouth but then nobody’s laughing as our kiss deepens and she pulls me along to the couch.

  “Now,” Alice whispers.

  “Are you sure?”

  “Now.”

  Actually making love to Alice is a fantasy come true. I feel as if I have to savour every moment. I want to memorize the way her lips part when my fingers so much as graze her collar bone and the way her breathing changes as she settles on top of me. She straddles me on the couch, having taken off her shirt and looks down at me as I run my fingers through her hair. It doesn’t take much to get me hard with Alice as she presses down into me, seated right
on the bulge of my cock beneath my jeans and I take a breath, my hands moving from her hair to her shoulders, watching her face as she presses her palms to my chest. We explore each other, all our impatience disappearing as we take our time.

  Alice takes off her bra and I caress her breasts, my thumbs rubbing little circles into her nipples before she leans down to kiss me. She slides out of her pants and gets on top of me again, wearing a little pair of blue cotton panties now. I grip her hips, bucking up into her, the friction of us pressing in each other and the barrier of the fabric, a giddy kind of torture.

  I let Alice set the pace entirely, never wanting to rush her, as she continues to play with me; tracing shapes onto my chest and lazily kissing me even as she grinds up against me, until I’m trembling, embarrassingly close to coming in my jeans.

  Then all at once she unzips my jeans, her own hands shaking, and shoves them down with my briefs, my cock springing out. We make eye contact with each other, some silent agreement passing between us and achingly slowly she guides me inside of her and I feel Alice, the heat of her, fitting so perfectly around me as I throb and shake before she tentatively begins to move, bouncing just a little bit on top of me again and again and again until I’m arching to meet her and the two of us cry out as we come, our pleasure one pulsing thread connecting us until we can’t bear it anymore.

  “I want to show you something,” Alice says after dinner.

  We’ve had dessert and coffee and we’re cuddled up on the couch watching the “show about the alien” kids which it turns out is Stranger Things except Alice started watching it in the middle so I go back to the beginning. I pause the show and raise my eyebrows in question. Since we made love, we’ve been all over each other. It took forever to fix dinner because we kept fooling around , it took even longer to actually eat it. But Alice is looking serious now and I pick up her hand, kissing her knuckles, trying to be encouraging. She takes a breath and mumbles that she’ll be right back, heading up to her room. Alice can be a little unpredictable but it’s something I love about her. There’s every chance she sounds serious and is actually about to show me her favorite passage in a book she’s reading. I find it all pretty charming.