“I’d give anything not to have to think about what happened,” Mickey whispered. He sighed, entire body shuddering. “I never wanted anything like this to happen. What are we going to do? Especially when you leave?”
“I don’t have to leave,” Houston said. “I said it before. I meant it. I would leave everything to come be with you. To... give my strength to your pack.”
That sounds a lot better than saying my dominance will help here.
But Mickey surprised him again. The omega cuddled a bit closer to him, and the warmth of his body felt better than holding up cold hands toward a fire. “I think I’m really going to miss you,” he murmured. His voice sounded as if he was blushing, and Houston let out a pleased growl. “I didn’t want to miss you. You’re a huge pain and an arrogant jerk. But I... you were helpful. And I liked having you around.”
Now was the time to take a chance. Houston rolled over onto his side, careful not to crush the omega as he gazed down at the shadow of Mickey’s face. Even in this near-blind state, the fine lines of Mickey’s cheekbones and his proud forehead were apparent. Long hair tumbled about his face, making him seem even younger than he actually was. Fierce protectiveness rose up inside Houston and he growled again, staring off around the room as though there were enemies to be intimidated.
“I liked being here,” he said. “Leave it to me. I’ll figure something out, okay? You aren’t going through this alone. You have your pack. And you have me. I’m not going to leave you to face this alone. Those jaguars won’t ever harm you as long as I still breathe.”
Mickey relaxed slightly, but his breathing still hitched with worry. “But it’s because of me that the pack is in this situation in the first place.”
Houston shrugged. “And it’s because of the police that you got your pack in this situation in the first place. The list of blame goes on and on, babe. We all screwed up somewhere. Now we just have to make it right.”
A few minutes passed with nothing more between them, and then Mickey moved. His arms curled around Houston’s upper bicep, clinging tightly. “You won’t forget we’re down here, will you?”
“Of course not! You know I’ll be here every chance I get. You won’t forget I’m up there, will you?”
Mickey huffed. “Like you would let me forget? But, I won’t. I just wonder... how we’re supposed to do this. Neither one of us can just uproot our lives. Not even you. Don’t give me that shit about you doing it if I asked you to, because you know it’s not that simple!”
Houston carefully nestled his face in Mickey’s hair, letting his breath stir against the fine locks. He could have purred, he was so happy. Instead, he wiggled his ass and wished he had a tail to wag. “I know,” he admitted. “It’s not easy at all but we’ll figure it out. Does this mean that... you accept it?”
“I guess.” Mickey grunted, sounding unhappy. Then, he leaned his head toward Houston and relaxed a little bit more. “I think so. It’s hard to get used to. It might take me some time to get used to it.”
He never thought that he would tell Mickey this, but it seemed only fair at this point. “Hey, Mickey... Back when I first saw you, when I was trying to catch you at the jewelry store, I went to bite you. I think my wolf misunderstood. I think it thought I was trying to take you as my mate. That’s what caused all this.”
Mickey said nothing for a very long time, and then he shrugged. “Some dunderhead jerk once told me that we all screwed up somewhere.”
Houston laughed softly, tiredness starting to creep into his eyes. “I did say that, didn’t I? But I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to force this on you.”
Mickey tucked his head against Houston’s chest. “I’m an omega. Your soul thought I belonged to you, and my soul had to agree. It’s hard to accept but I think... with time...”
The sentence went unfinished, and Houston could tell that his mate was growing weary now as well. For a while, they drowsed silently in each other’s arms. Sleep was only moments away for Houston when Mickey spoke up again. “Hey, Houston?”
“Hmm?”
The omega’s voice was soft and wondering, although not exactly afraid. “I think I have something to tell you too. I’m not really sure yet... but I think you might have to show me how you’re so good with kids.”
“Sure, babe,” Houston grunted. Whatever that meant. It seemed like a weird thing to bring up at a time like this, but he let it pass and fell asleep.
Now, trapped inside the police station and longing for a cigarette, Houston wondered how the hell he was ever going to live up to any of what he said. As long as he had paperwork to do, he wasn’t going to be able to patrol. How did he bring this to Chief Elmers’ attention without revealing that he’d been hiding information? He couldn’t.
The hours passed slowly, and the paperwork gradually gravitated from one side of the desk to the other. Only moments before his twelve-hour shift was up, Houston signed his name to the last sheet of paper and let out an explosive groan.
As it just so happened, the Chief herself was walking by with her ponytail bouncing along behind her like an eager puppy. She stopped and turned toward Houston with a strange frown on her face that could almost have been mistaken for a smile. “You’re already done? I hope some of that was legible.”
Houston laughed softly, covering up a groan. All he had ever wanted in his life was a smoke. The urge was even worse than blue balls. “The first half of it might be. Pretty sure by the end it turned into stick figures saying ‘Bang! Bang!’”
The Chief’s frown took a definite turn toward a smile at that. “It’d make more sense than some of the shit I see here. Did you enjoy your time off? I mean, your time healing? Uh, was it enjoyable to be wounded?”
Houston glanced around the room, his sensitive hearing straining for any signs of someone close enough to overhear. “You suck at pretending not to know anything, Chief.”
She shrugged. “How are you and your special friend doing? If I can ask?”
Houston winced a little. “In some ways, better than ever. In others... damn complicated.”
“The best relationships are, aren’t they?” she commented blandly, and then moved off to finish whatever task she was in the midst of. Houston stared after her for a moment, shaking his head as he wondered how right she was. Did everything always have to be complicated?
For a few weeks, life almost seemed to go back to the way it was before he ever met Mickey. Paperwork completed, he was allowed to return to patrolling the streets and he did so with great enthusiasm. The streets of NYC had never been safer than they were right then, as he cracked down on even the smallest of crimes. Littering brought about a ticket. Going even five mph over the speed limit resulted in a ticket too. Arguing with him meant more tickets and, if the arguing escalated, the perpetrator was going to spend an hour in the holding cell jail to straighten them out. No criminal flew beneath his radar. Everyone was going to be safer if he had anything to do with it. Only by doing this could he ensure that even the homeless were safer. If no one was ruining the places where they slept, or risking their lives as they crossed the street, that had to make things better. Right?
He just had to hope so.
Occasionally, he saw someone from Mickey’s pack out and about. He spoke to them if he could, and so far the news had been encouraging. No jaguar attacks, no threats; other underground cities were lending a helping hand, offering what they could in terms of supplies so that the pack could reinforce their homes to offer more protection. The inevitable war just might not come, after all.
Houston even made a few trips down beneath the surface, although he desperately wished he had time for more. Mickey was never present when he went down though.
The alpha always brought along food with him, or anything else he learned that the pack might need, but he couldn’t help to feel that Mickey’s constant absences were making his trips a waste of time. Plus, he was horny and could have used a quick round or two with the omega.
Unfortu
nately, no one seemed to know where he was going or why. It was a mystery.
It was a mystery that would not be solved, even when Mickey showed up at Houston’s doorstep.
It happened in the middle of the night, the faintest of knocks. Houston rolled out of bed with a snarl, bracing himself for bad news. Who the hell went around knocking on apartment doors at two a.m.? He wasn’t close enough to anyone for that, and those few he considered friends would have just given him a call anyway.
So, who...?
“What?” he snarled, flinging the door wide open. He had forgotten to undo the chain before doing so, and the lock ripped right out of the wall with zero resistance.
His eyes flew wide, and his heart leapt up in his chest. The world spun, not with dizziness but with a terrible storm of worry that very nearly carried him away in an instant.
Mickey stood there, but even after a few short weeks it was as though he’d wasted away to nothingness. Already slender, now his ribs showed and his collarbone jutted from beneath the slender line of his neck; his hair had been cut recently but not by a steady hand, and the frayed ends whirled crazily about his face. That, combined with his pale skin and the raven’s wing shadows beneath his eyes, made him seem like something dead.
“Mickey!” Houston burst out. The omega swayed from the force of his shout. “What the hell happened to you? Where have you been? I’ve been looking for you everywhere! I thought...”
I thought you left me. I thought you broke our promise not to forget about each other.
He bit his tongue hard on the words, studying the omega with a more intense gaze now. Although incredibly worse for wear, Mickey didn’t look harmed in any way at all. Rather, he looked as if he had been sprinting full-speed for a fortnight and now badly needed a break.
Questions could wait.
Gently, Houston reached out to his mate. The omega didn’t even protest as Houston folded him into his arms and picked him up, and that was perhaps the most worrisome thing of all.
“You look like you need some sleep,” he murmured to the half-conscious omega. “How about a real bed for once?”
Mickey said nothing, not that Houston expected him to. However, the omega did raise up his arms to wrap them around the alpha’s neck as he was carried back to the bedroom. There was some strength in that grasp, at least. Someone who was dying wouldn’t have the strength to do anything at all.
Houston supported Mickey with one arm while pulling down the covers, and then he set the omega down on the mattress before covering him up. Something frantic in his chest, something that he thought he might be feeling because it was what Mickey felt, calmed down to bearable levels.
Almost instantly, the omega started to snore.
Houston smiled, but it was a strange smile that might have been a frown. He thought he understood the similar look upon Chief Elmers’ face, the weary grimace that recognized there was far too much on the wearer’s shoulders. What else was there to do but grin, in that scenario?
Houston didn’t climb into bed though. Instead, he sat down in the hallway just outside the bedroom and watched the front door of his apartment.
Just in case.
Chapter Twelve
It’s growing inside of me.
Even before he opened his eyes, Mickey had a question. Ever since he accepted Houston as his mate, he had found himself much more aware of the other’s presence. Distant echoes of what Houston felt, or what he was doing at a certain time, came to him in vague impressions that he found himself almost cherishing. If he could feel Houston, he could almost imagine that the alpha was right there at his side as he should have been.
However, he was aware of another presence as well. This one didn’t come or go, but was a constant, almost a pressure, in the back of his mind.
And in his stomach.
He had been aware of this presence for quite some time now, almost immediately after the fight with the jaguars. And there was no mistaking what it was: a child.
A baby.
Growing inside him.
How on earth was he going to tell Houston? Even worse, what if Houston had already sensed it too? If that was possible, Mickey had no idea what he was about to face when he went to go find the alpha.
As for what he had been doing up until now... He shuddered to think of it. He had tried and tried to do it alone, but yesterday it became increasingly more obvious that he couldn’t handle this on his own. He needed Houston. And that was why he came here, when he finally got them off his tail...
“Mickey!”
He braced himself just in time as a gigantic, powerful body came crashing down onto the bed beside his. Bouncing once, he was snatched up by wide arms and cradled roughly against a chest that was really more like a boulder than simply muscle. Then, warm lips crashed against his and he stared right into a steely gray pair of eyes that were at once relieved, furious and joyful.
“Mickey!” Houston shouted again, rolling from side to side on the bed with the omega on top of him. “I thought you were never going to wake up!”
Mickey swatted at Houston’s shoulder. “I’ll go to sleep forever this time if you don’t stop suffocating me!” The pressing bear hug around his body didn’t lessen and he really didn’t mind so much. “How long was I out?”
“Fourteen hours,” the alpha growled. “You had better explain to me where the hell you’ve been and what the hell is going on. I have been worried sick about you!”
I was worried about you too, you big dummy.
“I promise I’ll tell you everything,” he said, feeling a huge weight leave his shoulders just from being able to say that. “Although... could we maybe have breakfast first? And could I use your shower? I kind of really need both.”
Houston nodded, pulling back slightly to gaze into Mickey’s eyes. “Are you okay?” he pressed. His lips curled. “If something has hurt you...”
Mickey shook his head and placed his hands on Houston’s shoulders, pushing lightly at the alpha. “I’m fine now. Shower?”
Houston’s lips stayed curled, although they softened from aggressive to mischievous. “Am I allowed to join you?”
“No,” Mickey said, firmly. “I need you to cook for me. Breakfast.”
“It’s four in the afternoon,” Houston sighed, “but I’ll see what I can do. You haven’t been homeless so long that you forgot how a shower works, right?” Mickey pouted, making the alpha laugh. “I’ll see about getting your clothes washed too. Just go through my dresser and throw something on, in the meantime.”
Then, reluctantly, Houston released Mickey and the two went their separate ways again, although it was for only a moment this time.
Shower controls actually were a bit more complicated than Mickey remembered, dancing naked between alternating blasts of freezing and scalding droplets, but eventually he got it straightened out and settled in for a proper shower like he hadn’t had since the last time he managed to get into a homeless shelter for a night. He shuddered to think just how long ago that had been, and scrubbed at his skin with the soap all the harder.
It took a long time to get fully clean, but he thought it might just be the best feeling in the whole world.
Once he was toweled off, he combed his hair with his fingers and then dashed naked across the hall to get back to Houston’s bedroom.
Wait.
He backed up.
Houston was bent over the stove, fiddling with one of the knobs and with a pan over one burner. His ass jutted out, pressing firmly against the material of his jeans.
Mickey couldn’t resist. It was physically impossible. The breath disappeared from his lungs. His dick started to harden. The muscles in his ass loosened, already aching to accept the alpha’s cock.
The intensity of his own attraction was frightening, but he couldn’t help it. Growling low in the back of his throat, he crept up behind Houston and reached out to grab onto the alpha’s ass.
Just as he was about to make contact, the alpha spun and
grabbed his hand. His steely eyes smoldered, growing hazy with arousal. The front of his jeans bulged out, and Mickey focused his attention there, tearing at the button and zipper.
Powerful hands settled on his shoulders, turning him and forcing him back against the wall. “You think I didn’t feel you watching me?” Houston growled. “I’d feel you from a mile away.”
Mickey wiggled around against the wall, pressing his ass against the corner and letting sharp trembles of pleasure course through his veins. “You just looked so domestic,” he teased. “I couldn’t help it.”
“Domestic!” Houston pretended to be shocked, lowering his head so that he was eye-to-eye with the omega. “Does this look domestic to you?” he demanded, and then kissed Mickey hard.
Whimpering, Mickey let his lips part as the alpha forced his way through. He felt the other’s tongue thrusting toward the back of his throat, straining to claim him, and he accepted it. His body ached for more. He wiggled, rubbing harder against the wall.
Houston noticed.
“What are you doing back there?” he murmured, sliding his hands around to grab Mickey’s ass and hold his cheeks in his hands. “You want something hard between your ass cheeks? Is that it, babe?”
“Yes!” Mickey said, finally managing to shove Houston’s jeans down off his hips. His underwear followed immediately, revealing his bulging cock engorged to its full length.
Houston tangled his hands in Mickey’s hair and pushed down on his head.
For a moment, hesitation split through his need to be fucked. He hadn’t done this before. But he wanted to.
Obediently, he dropped to his knees and took the tip of Houston’s cock into his mouth while maintaining eye contact with the alpha. Houston groaned, pulling softly at Mickey’s hair while leaning back hard against the wall. “Dammit... Suck me. Suck my cock!”
Grinning, one hand rubbing his own swollen shaft, Mickey held Houston’s hard cock in his hand and pulled it deeper into his mouth. The tip tasted sweeter than the shaft because of the leaking droplets of precum, which now ran down the back of his throat as he started to suck; salty and sweet mingled in his mouth, making him crave more. His sucking grew in strength. His hand caressed all over Houston’s cock, exploring the thick hairs and the texture of soft skin over hardness.
Wild Ride: An M/M Shifter Mpreg Romance Bundle Page 27
