by Willa Okati
That was the last straw. Ivoire pushed himself to his feet, angrily swatting away any attempt to help before it could be made, and launched himself directly into Zachariah’s space. “Yes, I am, and so are you, and do you know what, Zachariah?” His voice broke. “I’ve had enough of this.”
Zachariah’s eyes went wide. He took a step back.
Ivoire pressed forward, too angry to care about nicety of manners. “From the moment I saw you, Zachariah, I knew you were different. You’re as unlike the Alpha I chose as night and day. I didn’t know how until I saw how lonely you were.”
Zachariah frowned, his eyebrows coming together.
Ivoire refused to acknowledge that. “And I realized how lonely I was. How lonely I had been. But then we fit together, Zachariah. Just like puzzle pieces, we came together and it was good. It is good! Only you can’t see that.”
Zachariah said nothing.
“And I’m done with waiting for you,” Ivoire went on, jabbing Zachariah’s chest with his forefinger. “I don’t want to go with my cousin. I don’t want to give birth alone, without someone who loves me. Not while you care about me.”
“Ivoire…” Zachariah said, shaking his head.
“No! You love me. I know you do, and don’t you dare say otherwise.” To Ivoire’s dismay, his voice broke and a salty tear fell down one cheek. “Don’t you?”
“Ivoire.” Zachariah’s lips parted, curving into a gruff smile. “You love me? Really?”
Ivoire wrestled himself for control but couldn’t grasp it. He wiped at his eyes. “I do. And you can’t stop me. I’m going to be your mate, Zachariah. Your Omega. We’ve both earned a second chance, and I’m going to take it whether you like it or not.”
At first, Ivoire couldn’t identify the rough sound Zachariah made, but when he realized it was a laugh he stopped and stared at the Alpha in disbelief. “This isn’t funny.”
“Don’t I know it,” Zachariah said. He put his arm around Ivoire, sturdy and warm and safe. “Are you sure? Tell me.”
Ivoire held his head high, gaze locked with the Alpha’s “I’m going to be your mate, Zachariah, and you’re going to be mine. No matter what comes, I’d rather do it with you than alone.” He swallowed. “So there.”
His quiet Alpha didn’t answer in words, but in deed. Zachariah bent his head, and brought his lips gently down against Ivoire’s.
Oh. Before that moment, Ivoire had doubted what Zachariah’s answer to his claim would be, but not now. There couldn’t be any mistaking this. He wound his arms around Zachariah’s neck and pulled him lower. Parting his lips, he welcomed the Alpha in to stake his claim. He even crooked one knee around Zachariah’s to hold him that way.
“My cousin…”
“Is gone, if he knows what’s good for him.” Zachariah tilted his head. “Hear that?”
Ivoire listened, too. All he heard were footsteps walking leisurely away. He licked his lips. “Good. Take me to bed, Zachariah. If I’m claiming you and you’re claiming me, I want to put the seal on it.”
“I don’t have a bed,” Zachariah teased.
Ivoire punched him lightly in the bicep. “Then take me to the floor, Alpha. I don’t care, as long as you take me.”
“You’re going to be the death of me,” Zachariah told him, grinning. “But somehow I don’t think I’m going to mind.” He bent to get his arm under Ivoire’s knees, and with one agile lift had Ivoire in his arms.
Ivoire squeaked and threw his arms around Zachariah’s neck, then smiled so broadly his cheeks hurt. “Is that a yes?”
Zachariah nuzzled his jaw. “Well now. What do you think?”
* * *
The house was cold, and Zachariah insisted on taking the time to build a roaring fire in the fireplace before he nestled them down, naked, in the sheepskin rugs that were as soft and welcoming to a wolf as a proper feather bed, though Ivoire had plans to make sure they acquired one of those, too.
For now, this would do. Oh, this would do.
Ivoire braced himself on Zachariah’s sturdy lap, mouth open as he sank down on the Alpha’s cock. “Oh.” Zachariah filled him to the point where he could feel a delicious stretch, a heady burn, and it made him feel as if his blood was on fire. “Oh, Zachariah. Yes.”
Zachariah’s chest glowed with sweat, and his hands shook slightly as he fought for control. When Ivoire bent to kiss him hungrily, he murmured against Ivoire’s lips. “You are strong. Strong as the earth.”
“You’re damn right I am,” Ivoire replied, his mouth touching Zachariah’s with each syllable. He sat up and guided Zachariah’s hands to his hips. To be filled was good, but to move was better. He rolled his hips until he found a rhythm that pleased them both, shallow thrusts and deep grinds. “Mmm. You feel so good, Zachariah. Don’t stop.”
“Won’t,” Zachariah promised. He kneaded Ivoire’s hips. “God, you are lovely. Don’t leave.”
Ivoire moaned at the sensations inside him. “I won’t. Try and make me go, and I’ll come right back. Both of us.”
“Good,” Zachariah hummed. He rocked his hips up, sliding deeper, and let his hands roam over Ivoire, stroking his belly in seeming fascination, in definite appreciation. “Hot. So hot.”
“The next one will be yours,” Ivoire promised. He twined his fingers briefly with Zachariah’s, then leaned back to display himself for Zachariah’s pleasure. His muscles clenched deep inside, a sort of pulling at his bones that made him cry out. “And soon.”
Zachariah growled. His hips jerked, fucking Ivoire deeper, harder, as if he were already trying.
Ivoire fisted his hair as he rose and fell on the Alpha’s cock. “Soon as can be. Soon as I’m in heat again.”
And Zachariah -- snapped. He lifted Ivoire off him and rolled forward. Too hot and eager for grace, he manhandled Ivoire about until somehow Ivoire was on his hands and knees, with Zachariah behind him.
“Oh yes,” he breathed, spreading his legs. “Zachariah, yes.”
With a growl of dominance and possessiveness, Zachariah slammed into Ivoire and slid home. Ivoire cried out in shocked pleasure. He hadn’t known how good it would feel from this angle, or how deep Zachariah could go. Though he couldn’t get a hand around his own cock, that hardly mattered; he came hard, rolling pulses that wrung him dry.
Zachariah cupped Ivoire’s belly in one hand, fucking Ivoire as deep as he could. “Mine,” he growled. “Mine, mine, mine. Ivoire --”
He shuddered and howled when he came, the sound enough to wring a second, dry orgasm out of Ivoire. His groin jerked with the effort, almost painful, utterly electric. He turned as best as he could in a desperate search for Zachariah’s mouth and managed a clumsy kiss full of shaking breath and willing heat.
When Zachariah slid out, slick with his own spunk, he guided Ivoire down to lie beside him on the soft sheepskins. Without needing to be asked, the Alpha let Ivoire pillow his head on his chest to listen to his heartbeat. He stroked Ivoire’s belly until Ivoire could breathe evenly again.
It didn’t come a moment too soon. The second he could speak, Ivoire looked up to catch Zachariah’s gaze. “Just in case it was in question -- at all -- it isn’t now, Alpha. I’m staying with you. I’m making this a home for both of us, and I’m going to grow a garden to feed us. Love me, and I’ll love you. Deal?”
Zachariah laughed quietly, still a little breathless, but he drew Ivoire up to kiss him. “Done,” he said. “And done.”
Ivoire’s heart swelled. “If my cousin makes any trouble --”
“He won’t.” Cameron snorted. “Lewis knew exactly what he was doing. I’d bite him if he wasn’t Packmaster.”
Sudden understanding filled Ivoire’s mind. Not far past the overgrown barn, indeed! It was a setup from the start, wasn’t it? If he hadn’t been wrapped up in Zachariah’s arms he would have face-palmed. “Oh, that rat.”
Zachariah let Ivoire go long enough to breathe, but didn’t let him go far. He stroked Ivoire’s back. “It’s official if w
e say it to each other now, Ivoire. I’ll be your mate, if you’ll have me. I’ll be a father to your pup, and to any pups we might have together. Will you? You have to say it.”
So many words from his quiet, gentle-hearted Alpha. Ivoire’s face didn’t seem big enough for the width of his smile, but he didn’t try to hold it back. He gave Zachariah everything he had, and his heart, too, when he said, “Yes. Oh yes, Zachariah. I will.”
Their first kiss as a mated couple made his heart sing.
Epilogue
Zachariah
Alpha fathers generally stayed with their mates during delivery, especially with home births, but the midwife had told Zachariah firmly that for every rule there was an exception before showing him the door.
Left without any way to distract himself, he paced the floor instead and bit his nails down to the quick. The sounds coming from the bedroom were muffled, but not nearly muffled enough.
Ivoire, he thought, as if he could send his brain waves through the securely shut door. Ivoire, remember you’re strong.
Strong enough to tame him with the steel daintily hidden in his velvet glove. Despite himself Zachariah almost chuckled, remembering how the Omega had given him what-for the day their Packmaster poked his muzzle into their business.
I know you love me. And Zachariah did. Even more since then. Ivoire showed it in everything he did. Witness this hallway, for one! With Ivoire at his side, helping him, the boxes Zachariah had put off unpacking seemed to almost melt away. Cobwebs disappeared, and windows were washed to let the sunlight in. He wasn’t pacing on bare boards, but on braided rugs that absorbed the shock of his footsteps.
He stopped to wince at the sound of Ivoire’s groans from inside the room.
Remember you’re strong!
Zachariah paused, holding his breath, but the noise had stopped. He pressed his fist to his forehead. Midwife be damned. Five more seconds and he’d break that door down, see if he didn’t! He --
One door opened, if not the one he’d hoped for. The front door, without so much as a knock or a by-your-leave, admitting a gust of frozen air and freshly fallen snow. Packmaster Lewis stepped through, dusting a coating off the shoulders of his voluminous coat. Zachariah had made it for him out of ram’s hides in thanks for his meddling -- if he hadn’t threatened to take Ivoire away for good, Zachariah knew it might not have sunk in, how much he wanted Ivoire to stay.
He wouldn’t say they got along, Packmaster and himself, but they respected each other.
“Anything?” Lewis asked tersely, head cocked to listen before Zachariah could answer.
Zachariah gnawed at his thumbnail. “Nothing.”
No one who didn’t know him would be able to read Packmaster Lewis’s concern in his cool expression, but Zachariah had learned better and could hear the subtext in his quiet, “Hmm.” He raised an eyebrow. “Going to barge yourself in there?”
“Thinking about it.”
“Think harder,” Lewis said. He unbuttoned his coat and held it open wide. “Well? You’re safe inside. Let go of my legs and go latch onto your father.”
Two pups clung to Lewis, one attached to each of the packmaster’s legs. Three years old, there wasn’t a shade of difference between them. Each had their Omega parent’s curly dark hair and wide blue eyes, but while Lachlan was shy down to his bones, Kieran boasted the most mischievous smile a pup could get away with. Though Zachariah had looked, he couldn’t spy a trace of their biological father in mind or body, and was savagely glad of it.
He knelt and waited, arms open, for the pups he’d adopted as his own to run to him. They looked at each other in the way twins had, giggled, and barreled toward him on their short chunky legs.
Lewis watched with that not-a-smile of his, the one that -- if you knew him -- betrayed his hidden amusement. “I’d thought it would all be over by now, or I’d have kept them out a while longer.”
The reminder made Zachariah tense with worry, but he shook it off lest he frighten the children. “Ivoire’s tough.”
“That’s a fact,” Lewis replied. He lifted his head, and smiled faintly. “There. You hear that?”
Zachariah rocketed to his feet, ears straining. Was it -- no -- yes, yes, he did. It grew louder as he listened, a whimper that became a full-throated roar. Kieran and Lachlan stared, wide-eyed.
He thrust the pair of them at Lewis and seized the doorknob the second his hands were free, giving it a fierce twist that all but tore it off the hinges.
Inside, Ivoire was laughing at him, the sweetest sound he’d ever heard. The midwife had propped him up against every pillow they owned, and though white with strain he’d never -- never -- been so beautiful.
Zachariah sagged against the doorframe in relief. “There you are.”
Ivoire’s eyes crinkled with the width of his smile, with appreciation of the words Zachariah had said to him the day they mated. “Here I am,” he said. “And there you are. Strong as can be. And here’s our new son, Zachariah; come and meet him.”
“Damn right I will.” Zachariah’s heart couldn’t have been any fuller. He crossed the room and knelt beside the bed, taking Ivoire’s hand in his and kissing the back. “Because he’s mine. As are you, Omega. And I’ll never let you go.”
“Good.” Ivoire pulled Zachariah in to kiss him. “As it should be, Zachariah. My Alpha. My sanctuary, safe and sound.”
Willa Okati
Willa Okati is made of many things: imagination, coffee, stray cat hairs, daydreams, more coffee, kitchen experimentation, a passion for winter weather, a little more coffee, and a lifelong love of storytelling. She is definitely one of the quiet ones you have to watch out for.
You can reach Willa at [email protected] or visit her website at www.willaokati.com.
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