It doesn’t appear to have done him any harm. The lacerations are healing, including the tear in his neck. The arm has no scent of infection and Gray has been taking his medication in the intervals when they’re both lucid.
He’s healing well. He’ll be able to get the cast off in a few weeks and then...
Then Jax doesn’t know. From the short conversations they’ve managed to snatch in between sex, he doesn’t think Gray knows either.
Another shiver rockets through his body and a trickle of slick runs down between his legs.
He can’t hold it back any further. He leans over and runs a fingertip over Gray’s chest, marveling at the juxtaposition of soft skin and hard muscle underneath, then puts his hand down flat.
Gray’s breathing shifts and he blinks twice. It’s a second before his storm-gray eyes focus, and then they darken as they take in Jax sitting beside him on the bed, clearly flushed and needy.
Jax runs his hand from Gray’s chest to between his legs. Gray’s dick is still soft, but it starts to fill as Jax’s fingers massage it, then slide down to cup Gray’s balls.
Gray leans over and reaches up for a kiss but Jax pushes him back down again.
“Stay there,” Jax murmurs, not moving his hand. He’s found that the softest touch can sometimes be the most effective. He doesn’t increase the pressure, keeps a single finger running up and down, followed by cupping until Gray’s dick is hot and perfectly rigid under his hand.
“You’re playing with me,” Gray growls.
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“For fun. Now, don’t move. You’ll like this bit.”
Jax shifts down until he is lying on his stomach between Gray’s legs.
He only wants one thing during the first few days of his heat: to be fucked silly. Anything else is just icing and he doesn’t have the time or mental capacity for that.
After the first intense few days, his heat slows and becomes the part that he likes best: the part where he is still stupidly horny and desperate but he’s no longer sex-crazed. He can actually take the time to enjoy his lovers.
And by god, does he want to take his time enjoying Gray, especially if he is only going to have this one heat with him.
He gently parts Gray’s inner thighs and bends down. Gray shifts uncomfortably and leans up on his good arm.
“What are you doing?”
“The good stuff. Lie down and stay still.”
Gray’s cock twitches at the words, and he obeys.
This is the interesting thing about alphas, Jax has found. Out of the bedroom, they’re domineering and ready to beat their chests to show everyone who’s boss.
Inside the bedroom, it’s often very different.
Jax has met few alphas who don’t have a very positive physical reaction to an omega taking charge. It’s kind of fun.
He bends and licks a slow stripe up Gray’s balls. They taste like Gray and he can’t help bending further and just nuzzling his face in them.
Gray’s breath quickens even as Jax feels the confusion radiating off of him. This part is new. Jax has always chosen more experienced lovers in the past, but he’s really enjoying getting to show Gray something new.
He takes his time licking with a soft, flat tongue, taking care to keep his face far away from Gray’s dick, before he sneaks a look at Gray’s face.
The wild man is lying flat on his back, eyes squeezed shut and mouth half-open as he breathes in hard. His free arm lies flat against the bed, fist clenching the bedsheets. His dick is sticking almost straight up, perfectly rigid and all Jax wants to do is lift his head up, wrap his lips around it and sink right back down again until he can feel the head in the back of his throat.
The thought sends a rush of horniness shooting through his body, making him shiver. His dick is pressed into the cotton sheets beneath him and it’s everything he can do to resist rubbing into them.
He is going to draw this out, damn it. They’ve got at least a day or two before the heat fades and he can leave the room. There’s plenty of time.
He keeps licking, letting his tongue circle the soft skin. He keeps his eyes closed and just takes pleasure in thinking of nothing other than the taste and scent of Gray in his mouth.
It’s only when he feels Gray start to squirm and moan that he decides it’s time to move on. He pulls himself up to lean on his elbows and looks up to see Gray staring at him with wide eyes, pupils blown wide with lust and need.
Screw waiting. Jax thrusts his hips against the duvet and is rewarded with exquisite pleasure that makes his eyes want to roll back in his head.
He sinks his mouth down on Gray’s cock, keeping his lips tight. He goes slow, careful not to gag on the full length.
Gray’s hips buck underneath him and the man lets out a cry of pleasure. If Jax’s mouth wasn’t full of dick, he’d be grinning like a Cheshire cat.
He lifts his mouth slowly, then slides down again just as slow, reaching under Gray’s hips to clasp his thighs in both arms.
He can feel Gray’s dick thickening even further, matching his rasping breath. Any longer and Gray is going to come right in his mouth.
Jax slides his mouth up one last time and disengages with a popping sound and not a small amount of regret.
That is going to have to wait for another time. He’s still in heat and while Gray might be an alpha, he does need some recovery time between orgasms. Jax needs to be filled and soon.
The thought of Gray inside him washes away any thought of doing anything else, and Jax’s mind is swept clean of everything except the desire to climb up and ride Gray until they both lose themselves in pleasure.
He spreads his thighs over Gray’s hips and lowers himself down slowly, letting Gray’s dick sink into him inch by inch, but before he bottoms out, Gray’s spare hand reaches and grasps Jax’s waist stopping him from going slower.
“That thing you did. I want to do it to you,” Gray growls. “Now, please.”
“Why?” Jax asks, surprised. No matter how much the alphas he’s known have liked being bossed around or taking the pleasure he gives them, they’ve rarely volunteered to go down on him in return.
The corners of Gray’s eyes crinkle as he smiles, but there’s a rawness and a need in them that makes Jax draw in a deep breath.
“Because you are beautiful,” Gray murmurs, “and because that felt really good and I want you to feel good too.”
Gray eyes are open and honest. He’s watching Jax intently and not even attempting to hide the desire in his face.
He never has, Jax realizes. He’s never attempted to hide anything, even as he’s completely respected Jax’s wishes.
Gray has stepped back when Jax asked. He’s waited when he didn’t understand, and Jax has no doubt that if Jax asked, Gray would get dressed and walk out of the door right now if Jax told him he needed space or didn’t want to do it anymore. He’d be hurt, but he would do it.
And even then, he’d still be waiting, making it clear that he thought Jax was his mate for life, being there until Jax was ready.
Gray wants Jax to be happy. Really wants it.
Jax slides up and over, and lies down beside Gray on his back, thinking.
It feels like quite a realization to come to from the offer of a blowjob, but the world stopped making sense a long time ago.
He glances over at Gray who is lying there, seemingly content to let Jax do whatever he needs to, even if there is a slightly perplexed look on his face.
“Bite me,” Jax says suddenly. “I want you to claim me.”
Gray’s eyes widen in surprise.
“I want it,” Jax continues. He leans over and cups Gray’s face with his hands. “I want you. Everything seems so complicated but it’s not. Not this part. Why can’t I have what I want? You want it. I want it. There’s no reason not to. Not really. I’m being an idiot.”
“You’re not an idiot,” Gray says so seriously that Jax laughs out loud.
He fe
els giddy and relieved as if a weight has been lifted. “I am an idiot but that’s not the point. Just do it.”
He leans over, offering his neck a half inch away from Gray’s lips, so close that he can feel Gray’s breath hot against his skin.
Gray leans forward, pressing his lips against Jax’s neck. Jax can feel his body taut and trembling beneath him as if Gray still isn’t sure.
“Do it.” Jax says again.
Gray does.
GRAY
shampoo and shoulds
Gray pads over to the great double windows and fiddles with the latch. He’s still not quite used to using his fingers so it takes him a minute before he’s pushing the great windows open, letting in a sweeping breeze that flushes their sex-scents from the room.
Gray breathes in deep and listens to the gentle sound of the water from the shower. The sound pulses and dips as Jax moves around.
He wants to get in with him like they’ve done a dozen times over the last week but Jax’s body needs a break. Gray can smell it on him. There’s only so much an omega can handle, even if that omega keeps saying he’s fine.
The heat has finally finished. Jax is back to normal. Gray is as back to normal as he can be while in human form and with his arm still encased in this horrible hard cast.
It’s going be a few more weeks before he can get it off, and finally shift back onto four legs where he can be useful.
Gray stays where he is, enjoying the fresh air and the sounds of his mate close by. On the whole, this has worked out well, he thinks.
He still thinks humans are weird and he’s not sure he’s ever going to get used to them, but that won’t matter as long as Jax is close by, and the last few days have made it clear that Jax feels the same way that he does.
And if he doubts it, there’s the healing bite on Jax’s neck to prove it.
Gray lets out a soft sigh. It’s time to leave the room and go back into the world.
The thought makes his body feel heavy as if he’s swallowed a stone like the wolf in the story his mother used to tell.
He doesn’t want to leave. The fresh air drifting in from the window brings the scents of mating run humans as well as the town. There’s an undercurrent of fear and anger in the air and Gray doesn’t know if that’s because of something his brother has done, or if it’s something the city alphas have done, or whether it’s the Winterstoke alphas. The ash-scented wolf may already be dead.
The water from the shower switches off. A few minutes later and Jax appears, golden-skinned and flushed, a towel wrapped around his waist.
Gray is at his side in three long strides, arms around still damp skin, his nose buried in the crook of Jax’s neck where his scent mingles with the smell of his blood from the claiming.
“Ouch,” Jax says, with a soft smile but he doesn’t turn away.
“You’re not hurt,” Gray says. He can smell it. This is another thing he’s starting to get used to, even if he doesn’t understand it. Humans say one thing and mean another, and it’s not always a lie.
The muscles in Jax’s neck shift as he grins and another whiff of delicious Jax-scent fills Gray’s nostrils. He’d be willing to stay in that position for at least another couple of hours, but Jax pushes him gently away.
“You need to go shower. You smell like you’ve been having sex for twelve hours straight.”
Gray is confused. “I have been having sex for at least twelve hours,” he says before he sees Jax’s face. It’s another human joke. “Oh.”
“Come on. Get going,” Jax says. “I need to check in and find out what’s been going on. Barnes is going to be furious that I’ve been out of commission. It’s the worst time of year for it.”
“What’s commission? Worst time of year for what?”
“Just go shower.”
Gray kisses him again, then he obeys his omega’s instructions. He’s only just shampooing his hair with one hand – another wonderful human invention – when Jax opens the bathroom door letting in a gust of cool air.
“Hey, I’ve got to go.”
“Where?”
“To the clinic. I’ll head home to the packhouse once I’m done.”
“Why?”
“They’re busy.”
Mates doing different things in different places to each other is another human invention and one Gray definitely doesn’t like, but he doesn’t argue. He has everything he wants.
“Okay.”
Jax takes a couple of steps and leans into the shower, kissing Gray on soft warm lips and getting his hair wet.
“I won’t be long.” Jax grins. “Remember to put clothes on before you go out.”
“I will,” Gray says earnestly.
“Course you will.”
The door shuts and Jax is gone.
They’re busy. Busy with what? Mating run people. Jax had explained how it worked. None of it made sense to Gray but that wasn’t new.
Busy with humans that Ash has hurt?
Gray has been confined to this room with Jax for days, and if his understanding is correct, it is somehow scent-blocked so that no one has to smell what he and Jax have been doing.
That means Ash won’t have been able to scent him either. Ash should have gone back up the mountain, thinking Gray had left the area completely.
He certainly wouldn’t have been able to conceive of a place that keeps scents out. Gray wouldn’t have before everything went wrong.
Ash should have. It’s the ‘should’ that is bothering Gray. Should isn’t good enough. Should covers everything and anything
He doesn’t even know if the Winterstoke alphas have killed his brother. Ash and Gray would have done it if in their position.
Gray rinses off, steps out of the shower and takes off the plastic that keeps his arm dry.
Clothes first, and then he needs to find out if his brother is still alive.
JAX
bandages and savages
Alphas. Jax loves them. He does really, but that doesn’t stop them from being a massive pain in the ass. One of them stops causing trouble and another one starts.
Aidan Ronmin is standing at the end of the bed in the omega ward, arms folded, and smiling that irritating over-friendly smile.
“So, when can my favorite omega be released and go out onto the run to finally find his true love?”
Never. Jax never releases omegas back onto the run. Not unless it’s clear that they want to. Cole Bennett doesn’t want to.
That’s obvious by the way he is looking at Ronmin. It’s a combination of hatred and forced pleasantness. Jax has seen that expression a thousand times on the omega ward, and it’s always aimed at some outwardly charming alpha.
“Not this year,” Jax says, making a note on Bennett’s chart so he doesn’t have to look Ronmin in the eye. “That bite needs frequent cleaning and proper antibiotics. It’s far too risky to send him out into the wild. It’ll get infected.”
“Sure, it will.” Ronmin says but he’s smiling broadly.
Smiling like a shark, Jax thinks.
Jax shrugs with a nonchalance he doesn’t feel. “You’re welcome to a second opinion if you like. I can call Dr Barnes for his opinion.”
That’s the other reason Jax keeps Barnes around. He always backs Jax up when some alpha won’t accept his medical opinion.
“No, that’s fine. I believe you,” Ronmin says.
Jax’s shoulders relax. Alphas can be unpredictable, especially those who think they’ve been thwarted.
“So, when can he come home? It’s perfectly clean back in Fort Gosford, I promise. We even have drugstores. I can pick up whatever medication you prescribe.”
That depends on what Bennett tells me when I get you out of the room, you big jerk.
“Soon. Let me just check him over, see where we are and make sure there are no signs of infection. If you wouldn’t mind waiting outside?”
Jax begins moving the curtain around the bed but Ronmin shows no signs of moving.
> “I’m sure Cole won’t mind if I stay, will you Cole?”
Bennett shakes his head. Jax grits his teeth. Alphas.
There’s no one else on the ward currently either – two have been discharged, a third has been sent to Button Oak for further tests, and the fourth is in the shower so Jax can’t use them as an excuse to send Ronmin out either.
He doesn’t say anything, just snaps on a pair of gloves.
“How are you feeling?”
If Ronmin answers for him, Jax will not be responsible for his actions, but either the city wolf senses that or he’s just not that much of a jerk, because Bennett finally manages to get a word in. Even if it is just a single word.
“Fine.”
“What about your neck? It should be a little itchy. That’s the healing, but it shouldn’t be hot.” Jax touches it with careful fingers. Bennett doesn’t as much as flinch even though it must hurt. There’s no heat to the injury, and under the scent of healing flesh and blood, there’s no rising stink to indicate an infection.
“Fine,” Bennett says again.
“Could you lift your shirt for me? Just a bit. That’s it, thanks.”
The bites are healing, but at the sight of them Jax feels his fingers begin to tremble.
This is why he never usually keeps a lover during mating run week, and why until yesterday, he never intended to let an alpha claim him.
He knows they’re not all the same but part of him can’t help hating alphas every time he sees something like this. And there is always something like this.
But whatever his feelings, Bennett’s injuries are healing well. There’s no excuse not to send him home.
“He shouldn’t have done that to you,” he says simply, pulling off the gloves. Ronmin raises his eyebrows and Bennett looks at him like he’s a complete fool. What does it matter what an alpha shouldn’t have done? They do what they want.
Jax ignores both of them. He’s tired of stitching up people who should never need stitches.
Bennett shouldn’t have needed stitches. He shouldn’t have been out on the mating run in the first place. He clearly didn’t want to be there and he just as clearly doesn’t want to go home. The fury in his eyes when he looks at Ronmin is evidence enough of that.
Winterstoke Wolves Collection : An MM Mpreg Shifter Romance Bundle Page 32
