by Ardy Kelly
“This is going to make it more dangerous for you,” David replied. “Widowed omegas don’t have any protection. They might kill you.”
Chet rubbed his thumb against David’s lips, before taking the omega’s face in his hands. “You’ll be protected by Lone Wolves Ranch if I can’t.”
He leaned in for a kiss. It was passionate without being carnal, possessing without being dominating. It conveyed commitment stronger than any bite on the neck or ring on a finger.
Chet leaned his forehead against David, and cupped his hand around his neck. “Let me know if this does anything for you.” He softly stroked as Ryan had shown him.
David’s eyes fluttered closed and his lower lip trembled.
“It’s working,” Troy said.
Still stroking David’s neck, Chet turned to the wolves. “Would you turn around?”
“You need witnesses,” Troy argued.
Ryan spun his mate around. “Only for the bite.”
Diana turned. “We’ll hear it coming. David was never a quiet one.”
Chet sunk his head into the crook of David’s neck, licking and rubbing the skin as he searched to pinpoint the target area. Yet the more he concentrated, the less focused he became. An enticingly new sensation grabbed his attention. The scent of his mate and his moaning breaths intoxicated him.
Lights sparked before his eyes, as if a mirrored ball reflected the rays of the sun throughout the room.
Chet scraped his teeth against the spot, encouraged by David’s rapid breath.
“There,” David panted. “Yes, there. Do it.”
The sparks of light grew brighter as they crackled in the air, but Chet’s mind was too fogged by his arousal to register the phenomenon.
“I need it,” David moaned.
“What do you need?”
“I need you to…claim me.”
“How?” Despite the urge to sink his teeth into the luscious skin he worshiped, he knew to wait for his mate’s urgency to peak.
“Bite me.”
The last thread of willpower snapped and he wrapped his jaw around the sweet omega’s neck. The skin caught on his teeth, and he pulled it up, away from the muscle below. With a quick snap, he punctured the skin. Blood, warm and thick, dripped across his tongue.
David turned, grabbing Chet, and kissed him deeply. He sucked his own blood into his mouth, as light and shadows danced around the room.
Troy’s voice broke the mood, as it often did. “Is that a fey thing?”
Chet raised his head, and the swirling, twinkling sparkles of light faded. Beyond the light show stood the three witnesses, their eyes wide with wonder. “What are you talking about?”
“You two were sparkling,” Diana said.
As Ryan approached, Chet protectively pulled David closer to him. “The bite is good,” the alpha reported. “Clean and visible. See for yourself.”
Troy pushed in front of his mate. “Do you always light up like Studio 54 during foreplay?”
Chet blinked. “Was that us?”
Diana stepped forward. “David, how are you doing?”
“Are we mated?”
“Once you have sex,” she replied.
“You’re not staying for that,” David insisted.
“Okay,” Troy said. “Time for us to go.” He grabbed Ryan. “Oh, and you two get married this week. Legally. That way we have shifter and human law on our side.” In a flash, they were gone.
Chet took David’s hand. “Is it weird biting you has really turned me on?”
“I’m feeling the same way,” David replied. “Lock the door.”
Chet bounded off the bed, hung the privacy sign, and engaged the lock. “This should buy us a few minutes of privacy.”
“I’m hoping for more than a few minutes.”
Chet stared at the bite mark on David’s neck, as he lazily drew a finger around the skin. “You make me feel like a teenage boy, fumbling around in the dark.”
“You can fumble me, anytime.”
The pre-bite frenzy had left them, dissolving into a slow, sensual passion. They took their time, delighting in the newly formed bond between them as they savored the depth and width of it.
David wanted to say something profound after their mating, but all he could manage was, “I’m starving. Aren’t you?”
Chet laughed. “Don’t forget—I snuck some of those potato appetizers.” He rose from the bed.
There was a knock at the door. Mack’s voice asked, “You two done in there?”
Chet threw on a robe and snuck a peek beyond the door. Adam and Mack were playing cards on the stairs.
“You’ve been there the whole time?” Chet asked.
Adam nodded. “The whole time.”
“Nothing we haven’t heard before.” Mack laid down his hand. “Royal flush.”
Adam cursed. “I never should have discarded that jack.”
Mack stood. “Get your things. We need to move you two up to the ranch.”
David appeared in the doorway, hurriedly buttoning his shirt. “I can’t leave. I’m cooking next Saturday.”
“We’ve got a week to worry about it,” Chet said. “Let’s go.”
Intellectually, David knew he should argue. But emotionally, he only needed to be where Chet was. And Chet was determined to take him to Lone Wolves Ranch.
“Give me a minute.” David began throwing clothes in his duffel bag.
When the newly mated couple came downstairs, all the alphas were waiting.
“I sent our mates home with Ryan and Troy,” Mack explained. “They seemed to be in a hurry to get to the ranch.”
Chet and David tried not to laugh.
Though the drive back resembled a security caravan, the escort proved to be unnecessary. No one intercepted them. The Bay Area pack was gone. For now.
Monday morning, Chet pulled a few strings. They got their marriage license and ceremony without needing an appointment.
David stared at the certificate. “Chester? Chet is short for Chester? How did I not know I was marrying a Chester?”
“Like I said. All you see is a pretty face.”
David laughed. Though Chet was a fast healer, his face was still black and blue from the beating.
It was either the mating bite, the pregnancy hormones, the marriage certificate or a combination that had David and Chet constantly craving each other.
Mack wanted to keep them on the ranch until the issue with Henry was settled but space was limited. Raff offered David a room but not Chet. Mack and Steven offered the couple their guest room.
The thing no one offered them was privacy. Luke and his crew were working overtime but adding a second story meant a lot of structural changes. It would be a month before the house was ready.
A compromise was reached. During the day, David would stay on the ranch, but he would spend his nights with Chet at the Welcome Inn. Chet’s cabin was closer to the ranch, but too isolated if Henry planned to attack.
As an added precaution, a member of Adam’s team would spend the night at B&B on guard duty.
David used the evenings to experiment with various recipes, which provided Trisha, Chet, and the evening’s bodyguard with a free dinner.
At first, David chalked up Chet’s resentment of the security as a sign Mack didn’t believe he could protect his own mate. But the dinners became something close to an interrogation.
By Tuesday, David had enough. “Why do you need to know everyone I met at the ranch?”
“I want to know about your day.”
“Minute by minute?”
Eddy, tonight’s security, laughed. “I thought that was just a wolf thing.”
Chet looked angered by the comment, and David cut him off before he could say something rude. “What is?”
“Jealousy, protection, insecurity.” Eddy shrugged. “Who knows? But wolves are always snarling at males around their pregnant mate.”
Chet huffed. “I heard pregnant omegas smell like catnip to wo
lves.”
“You heard that?” David asked. “I thought you were unconscious.”
“I was playing possum.”
“Smart move,” Trisha said. “If Adam couldn’t get free, what chance did you have?”
Chet glared at Eddy. “So? What’s the attraction?”
Eddy paused, his fork halfway to his mouth, as everyone at the table stared at him. “It’s not sexual. It’s kind of like…comfort food. It makes you feel good. And protective.”
David stood, pulled Chet’s chair from the table, and sat on his lap facing him. “Take a whiff.” He grabbed Chet’s head with his hands and guided it to his neck. “I hope this makes you feel good because you’ve been a bear this week.”
“Don’t say that on the ranch,” Eddy warned. “We’ve got a couple of bears and they find it offensive.”
Chet squeezed David tight. “I don’t like other people smelling you.”
“I can go back to the chili peppers on my neck.”
“Hell, no,” Chet said.
“Turtlenecks?”
Chet shook his head. “They need to see the bite.”
“Just scent him,” Eddy said. “After he showers, kiss and lick his neck. Rub your body against him. See if that works.”
“Thanks,” Chet said begrudgingly. “We’ll try that.”
Each morning, regardless of what time David arrived at the ranch, Troy would be near the entrance. “Don’t forget Wednesday,” he would say. “The Cub Club is dying to meet you.”
Dying appeared to be the only way to avoid it.
Wednesday afternoon, Troy greeted him. “You made it! Hey, everybody. Look who’s wearing a new mating bite! It’s David!”
There were half a dozen men in the room, and Troy introduced him to each one. Some were pregnant; others held infants.
“Chet did pretty good with the bite, not being a shifter,” Glenn remarked.
David looked around the room. “I thought Ricky was coming.”
Troy stage-whispered, “Ricky went into heat yesterday. Those two kept me up all night.”
“They were that loud?”
“No. I had to pull my lawn chair onto Cory’s yard to hear anything.” Troy yawned. “But I got some great dirty talk out of it.”
Several of the club members exchanged knowing looks. “What’s your new story about?” Bill asked.
Troy perched on the edge of his chair. “I’m completely upending the omega romance category. It’s an inter-species romance.”
Steven took David’s hand. “You better sit down. You’re going to want to hear this.”
“It’s the story of a young man who comes from a matriarchal family of incredible wealth and prestige, but who doesn’t know he’s an omega until he becomes pregnant.”
David’s jaw dropped. “Really?”
“Yes,” Troy said, mistaking annoyance for curiosity. “But instead of mating the alpha his family has chosen, he’s going to mate a fairy. It’s Romeo and Juliet with sex. Or West Side Story without the singing. I haven’t decided yet.”
Bill leaned against David. “One book is the price of admission. But it’s worth it, trust me.”
Troy picked up his notebook. “It will be the start of a whole new series that boldly goes where no one has gone before.”
“I’m going there,” David said.
Troy grabbed a pen. “So, let’s make today’s discussion about our mates. David, since you’re new, I’ll let you start. Tell me all about Chet.”
“I really think that’s Chet’s story to tell.”
“Please. If I waited for people to tell their own stories, I’d still be writing Harry Styles fan fiction.”
Steven patted David’s knee. “Troy won’t stop interrogating you until he finds out.”
David sighed. “He is a quarter fey.”
“Of course,” Glenn said. “The earth energy. And he is extraordinarily beautiful.”
The others in the group nodded.
“They’re also fierce warriors,” Sean added.
“Then he’s only part fey,” Troy replied. “He got knocked out by Henry’s wolves in the first round.”
“He was outnumbered,” David protested.
Troy patted David’s thigh. “Whatever you say. After the ceremony this weekend, he’ll have the whole pack to protect him.”
“What ceremony?” David asked.
“Joining Lone Wolves Ranch.” Troy took a second to think. “I guess we’ll have to change it up a bit. First, everyone gathers in a circle under the full moon. Then, the person being inducted walks into the circle in their human form, naked.”
“We’ll have to change that,” David muttered.
“Oh no,” Troy replied. “We’re all very interested in that part of the ceremony.” Everyone in the group nodded in agreement.
David protested. “You’ve got Ryan.”
“Chet doesn’t have anything we haven’t seen before,” Troy said. “Though we never get tired of looking at a new one. I’m mated, not dead.”
“You will be if you touch Chet.” David put his hand over his mouth. “I don’t know where that came from.”
Troy laughed. “You are a wolf! Pregnancy makes us fiercely protective. And we already know Chet needs some help in that department. How’s the sex?”
David turned his head. “What?”
“Does he glow? Do his eyes change color? What about his dick? Is it larger than normal? Does it do any tricks?”
“Troy,” David warned.
“What’s his cum like? Anything unusual? How’s the texture? Does it taste different?” Troy didn’t wait for the answer. “What if fey cum is like cilantro? Your genetics decide whether it tastes good or soapy. Maybe that’s how the fey find their true mates.” He scribbled on his tablet. “You have to suck a lot of toads to find your fairy prince.”
Steven crossed the room and pulled the paper from Troy’s hands. “This is the Cub Club. Not a writing retreat.”
“It’s a perfectly innocent question. I’m just encouraging David to share about his relationship. A healthy home is important for healthy babies.” He yanked his tablet back from Steven’s grip.
“Well,” David said, breaking the tension in the room. “I did want to ask about…um…is it normal for mates to get…a little…possessive.”
All the men burst into laughter.
“I wish it was only ‘a little,’ Sean replied. “Colin shifts every night so he can mark the perimeter of our house. And that’s the least annoying thing he does.”
“I think Alex is paying the neighbor kid to shadow me,” Glenn confessed.
“You all have it easy,” Steven said. “Mack made me carry a walkie-talkie, wouldn’t let me leave the property, or even go into the woods alone.”
“That’s only because you couldn’t shift,” Alan replied.
David cleared his throat. “I can’t shift. Do you think Chet worries about that?”
Everyone in the small group gave him a sympathetic smile, signaling Chet’s possessiveness was only going to grow more intense.
Chapter 17
The first public dinner went off without a hitch. Trisha’s weekend guests loved the experience, and David made enough food to feed the security crew Mack stationed around the inn.
When the meal was over and the kitchen cleaned, everyone drove back to the ranch under the light of the full moon. Tonight was Chet’s initiation into the Lone Wolves pack.
That week, the ranch held a vote to change the bylaws. It wasn’t unheard of. They had changed the requirement for membership from “wolf-shifter” to “shifter” when they began taking in foster kids. Mack had expected some debate over changing the wording to simply “supernatural,” but Sheriff Thompson had proved himself to the ranch over the years. The vote was unanimous.
Most of the pack was already assembled on the lawn. Normally, a few mothers and omegas stayed behind to watch the children but tonight they all insisted on attending Sheriff Thompson’s initiation.
Mack scrambled to find enough wolves more interested in looking after the children than gaping at Chet’s naked body.
As his mate, David was permitted to watch from outside the ceremonial circle. Adam was assigned as his bodyguard. The risk of the Bay Area pack attempting anything was low, but during the hunt that followed there would only be a skeleton crew on security detail.
They both were surprised when Dr. Rob joined them. “Been awhile since I attended one of these.”
“You aren’t attending,” Adam said. “You’re watching from the sidelines.”
Rob sat. “Yeah, I guess so. It’s weird. I feel like an outsider, having been away so long.”
“And your career choice,” Adam reminded him.
“What’s wrong with his career choice?” David asked.
“Wolves are supposed to weed out the weak and sick,” Adam replied. “Keeps the animal population in check. We’re not supposed to heal them.”
“I think it’s great,” David said. “To misquote Michael Jackson, you’re a lover, not a biter.”
Rob smiled. “I like that.”
“It doesn’t surprise me,” Adam said. “Neither of you understand what it means to be a wolf.”
Rob stood and dusted off his pants. “And that’s why we were never compatible. Good night.”
David waited until Rob was out of earshot to ask, “You two used to date?”
“It was just a school-boy crush.”
Howls went up from the pack as the wolves took off on a run.
David rose. “Well, school’s over. You may want to grow up now.”
Alone on the lawn, Chet quickly slid his sweatpants on before trotting to David. Even from a distance, David could see his solemn expression. “Are you all right?”
He broke out in a smile. “You bet. The cool kids just let me join their club.”
David wrapped his arms around Chet’s bare chest. “You look a little worried.”
“No. I just…”
David leaned back and studied his puzzled expression. “What?”
“It’s weird. This whole wolf thing. I mean…it’s not weird, and that’s why it’s weird.”
David rested his cheek against Chet’s chest. “Yeah. I’ve felt that, too. I never thought I’d be showing off my bite like it was a wedding ring.”
