The Beta

by Ezra Dawn

  Seeing his pouty face when he says we could already be naked has me laughing out loud. Deciding to put him out of his misery, I use vampire speed to remove the rest of my weapons and our clothes. Pushing him onto the bed, I climb on top of him and press my lips to his briefly. “Where’s your lube?”

  “Nightstand.”

  Leaning over, I grab the lube from his nightstand drawer and move back into position. Before I can ask him if he’s okay with me topping, he spreads his legs and slips a pillow under his hips. His cock is already leaking with precum and I can’t wait to taste. I know our first time will be quick since we’re both being driven by the instinct to claim. If I try to take my time and explore, his wolf will take control and I’ll be on the receiving end. Which isn’t a bad thing since I do plan to bottom for him tonight, but I’d prefer not to test his wolf. I know he’d never intentionally hurt me but if the wolf takes over, I doubt prep will be the first thought in his mind.

  Even though I’d heal quickly and come to enjoy it, I know he’ll be upset once it’s done. So, this time around, I won’t explore every inch of him with my tongue even though I want to. Instead, I’m going to settle for giving him a blow job while I prep him and once our claiming is complete, I’ll take my time with him. “I hope you’re prepared, beloved.”

  “For what?”

  “Now, that I have you under me, we won’t be leaving this room until morning.”

  He grins and says, “I wouldn’t have it any other way. Claim me, Leland. I’m ready to be yours.”

  Winking at him, I grab the lube and pour some on my fingers. “As you wish.”

  “Leland, please, stop teasing me.”

  Leland looks up at me from his position between my legs with a mischievous grin and says, “I’m just making sure you’re ready.”

  Growling, I say, “I’m ready, now get up here and claim me.”

  He winks at me and moves until his cock is pressed against me. When he finally pushes inside, I half sigh in relief, half groan in pleasure. The sun is setting and casts a pink glow across the room that glints off his earrings. Reaching up, I run my hands over the top of his head and pull him down for a kiss as he begins to move. He starts slow giving me time to adjust even though I don’t need it since he prepped me so thoroughly. It warms my heart knowing that he cares so much but I want more than the slow and sweet routine he’s giving me.

  “More. Please. Give me more, minun kaikkeni.”

  Leland nips the side of my neck and whispers, “Anything for you, mon tendre,” and picks up the pace. Letting my head fall back against the pillows, I lose myself in the pleasure he’s giving me until finally, he sinks his teeth into my neck, claiming me as his. As he takes the first sip of blood from my neck, my orgasm hits hard and I gasp at the suddenness of it. Moving my head carefully so I don’t dislodge him, I turn slightly and sink my canines into his neck, claiming him in return. Feeling warmth coat my insides, I smile, and remove my canines from his neck, licking the bite to seal it. Leland takes a few more sips from me and seals the wound closed.

  For a moment, we just lay there in each other’s arms. Leland runs his fingers through my hair while I trace his spine. Then, suddenly it clicks. This is what truly having a mate feels like, what I missed out on so long ago. The emotions I felt back then that I’ve kept buried deep so I wouldn’t feel them well up within me and pour out of me like a flood. Gripping Leland in a tight hug, I bury my face in his neck and let the tears flow.

  “Mon tendre, what’s wrong? I didn’t hurt you, did I? If I did, I’m sorry. Please don’t cry.”

  He runs his fingers through my hair and kisses the side of my head. “I’m sorry, mon tendre.”

  I move from his neck and reach up to wipe the tears away, but he beats me to it. The expression on his face is remorseful and I know I need to explain. He has no reason to be sorry and I hate that I put that look on his face. “Don’t apologize. You didn’t hurt me. I loved every second of what we did. These tears aren’t your fault.”

  “Will you tell me?”

  Nodding, I roll us so he’s laying on his back with me on his chest. He immediately wraps his arms around me and begins tracing designs on my back. Taking a deep breath, I say, “I had another fated mate. We met in 1845 and she was human. Since she had no knowledge of shifters, I courted her but before I was able to tell her about my wolf and claim her, she caught scarlet fever and died. I thought I’d spend forever alone because I missed my chance at having a mate. That was until I scented you in that meeting today. I’m sorry I broke down on you but once the bond was in place, I realized what I had missed the first time and couldn’t stop the flood of emotion.”

  “You don’t have to apologize for your grief, mon tendre. I lost a brother a long time ago. It happened while I was still a child and I know losing family isn’t the same as losing a mate, but I understand your pain and I’m sorry you lost her. What was her name?”

  “Seraphina.”

  “That’s a beautiful name.”

  “She was a beautiful woman and I remember her fondly but she’s part of the past and you, minun kaikkeni, are my future. Now, I don’t know about you but I’m starting to feel a little sticky. How about we take a shower and get something to eat? If we’re going to spend the rest of the night in bed together, we’ll need all the energy we can get.”

  He grins at me and says, “Sounds good to me, mon tendre. I look forward to getting another taste of you.”

  Grinning, I waggle my eyebrows and do my best country voice. “Darlin’ you can taste me anytime.”

  Leland snorts and bursts into laughter. “You’re bad, mon tendre.”

  “Trust me, minun kaikkeni, sometimes being bad is a very good thing.”

  “That mean you’ll play bad cop to my criminal?”

  I raise an eyebrow at him and grin. “Does someone like a little roleplay?”

  Leland doesn’t say anything, just winks and heads into the bathroom. Maybe I can find a police costume online…hmm…wonder if he’d enjoy being soldier to my general. So many possibilities. I’ll have to file those thoughts away for later before I get too many ideas and have to pull out my laptop to research places to buy costumes instead of joining Leland in the shower. Leland is already standing under the spray when I walk in. As soon as I step under the spray, I let out a yelp and hop from foot to foot because the water is so cold. “Are you trying to freeze us to death?”

  Leland laughs and turns the knob to adjust the temperature. “Sorry, mon tendre. I was going to wait, and then I saw this.”

  Before I can ask him what he’s talking about, he holds up a tube of waterproof lube. Slipping my hand in between his legs, I touch a finger to his hole, finding it already slick with lube. “Oh, minun kaikkeni, I do like the way you think.”

  When I wake up, it’s to an empty bed. Catching a whiff of bacon, I slip out of bed and head into the bathroom. Once I’ve taken care of my bladder’s needs, I raid Negan’s dresser for a pair of shorts before leaving the bedroom. Normally, I wouldn’t bother but I can hear Negan talking to someone and I’d rather not flash them.

  Walking into the kitchen, I see Negan standing at the stove with his cell phone pressed to his ear. “Please tell me you didn’t call mom and dad. They don’t need to be hopping on a plane and racing over here at their age.”

  Stepping up behind him, I wrap my arms around his waist and kiss the back of his neck. Standing this close, I can hear what the other person is saying. “Well…”

  “Damn it, Anita. I had everything under control.”

  “You said you had a pissed off vampire coming at you and then hung up on me. What was I supposed to think when you wouldn’t answer your phone?”

  “You could’ve called Joel, or even come to the house. Calling mom and dad should’ve been your last resort.”

  “Well, excuse me for being worried you were dead.”

  “Thank you for worrying about me. I’m sorry I didn’t answer your calls, I was a bit preoccupied
.”

  “Mhm…sure. I bet you just wanted to avoid continuing our conversation.”

  “Probably. You didn’t tell mom and dad about that, did you?”

  “Maybe.”

  “Come on, Anita, really? You know as soon as they get here mom will be all over me about it. I get enough of it from you, I don’t need mom and dad trying to set me up too.”

  “Should’ve answered my calls.”

  “I’m sorry I ignored you but that’s no reason to sig mom and dad on me. I’ve got too much on my plate to deal with overbearing family members right now.”

  “We just want you to be happy. I know losing Sera was hard but that doesn’t mean you have to spend the rest of your life alone. When you left Europe after her death, we were so worried about you and how you’d cope with the loss that I ended up following you. I’m sorry for being overbearing but I just don’t want to see you spending your life being lonely and sad.”

  “You’re not going to apologize for mom and dad, are you?”

  “Nope. It’s your own fault for not calling them very often.”

  “I call them.”

  “Really? When was the last time you spoke to them?”

  “Christmas? Maybe?”

  “That was over a month ago.”

  “I’ve been busy.”

  “You should still make time for family.”

  “I make time for you, don’t I?”

  “No. You answer because you know if you don’t, I’ll keep calling and annoying you until you do.”

  “That’s true.”

  Smelling something burning, I lean around him and see he’s been aimlessly moving the scrambled eggs around the pan while talking to his sister. Deciding to test our mind link, I send him a message.

  Mon tendre, the eggs are burning.

  He looks down and shouts, “Shit! Anita, I’ll call you back later, I’ve burned breakfast.”

  He ends the call and dumps the eggs in the trash. Then, he turns to me and smiles. “At least the bacon survived. Want a sandwich?”

  “A sandwich is fine, but I would’ve enjoyed having you for breakfast more.”

  Negan blushes and says, “I was going to bring it to you in bed but then I saw I had forty-eight missed calls from my sister.”

  “So, I guess we can expect a visit from your parents soon?”

  He nods. “They’ll probably be here tonight. Are you okay with meeting them?”

  “Of course. We’ve already claimed each other so, meeting the parents was bound to happen sooner or later. Speaking of which, what are your plans for today?”

  “I have some meetings today, but I should be able to postpone them for a few days, why?”

  “I’m going to go to the coven house and get my things from my room. Getting my stuff from my apartment will have to wait because the drive is around sixteen hours.”

  “Want me to go with you to the coven house?”

  “If you want to, mon tendre. I won’t force you or anything. Besides, if you do join me, you can meet my parents. From the sounds of things, they’re about as overbearing as yours are. As soon as I arrived, Alistair told me my mother had been talking about setting me up with a man she met at a coffee shop.”

  He laughs and says, “Does she do that often?”

  “What? Set me up?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Every chance she gets. My dad does too.”

  “Sounds like fate did us both a favor.”

  Grinning, I say, “No more disastrous dates for us, huh?”

  “I think the only thing that could be disastrous for us is if I burn the food again.”

  “Not much of a cook, are you, mon tendre?”

  “I can cook, and I’ve made some pretty amazing things before but when I get distracted things tend to go wrong.”

  “I hope you’ll make those amazing things for me sometime.”

  “Anytime you want, minun kaikkeni.”

  “You know, there’s something else amazing that you can show me.”

  “What’s that?”

  “That thing you did with your tongue last night. I’d love to experience it again.”

  His gaze turns smoldering and he pulls me in for a kiss that quickly turns heated. When it becomes imperative that we breathe, he moves to my neck and nips my earlobe. “I’ll gladly do that for you anytime. Now, bend over and lose the shorts, minun kaikkeni. It’s time for breakfast.”

  Winking at him, I take off the shorts, kick them aside and bend over the counter. As he drops to his knees behind me, I think to myself, I could get used to this.

  After spending the morning in bed together, Leland left to get his things from the coven house. I was going to go with him so I could meet his parents but I got a call from the scouting party as we were leaving and had to meet with them so they can tell me what they discovered. Depending on what they have to say, we may be moving on the labs tonight. It isn’t ideal with my parents coming into town but if that’s our only window, we’ll have to take it.

  I’m glad I decided to put Leland on a team entering the lab I’ll be in charge of. Now that we’ve claimed each other, my wolf won’t be happy about our mate running straight into danger if we aren’t nearby. Well, he normally wouldn’t have been okay with it, but now that I know we have a mind link, I have no doubts that my wolf will be just fine no matter what Leland is doing. Whether it’s charging into a lab or taking out rogues for the vampire council. If I wasn’t Joel’s beta, I’d go on Leland’s jobs with him, so he’d have some form of back up. Not that I think he needs back up since I’m sure he’s been an enforcer for a long time, I just want to make sure he’s safe.

  I should probably find out how old he is now that we’ve claimed each other. I know vampires live a long time so knowing his age will give me an idea of how long our lives together will be. We still have a lot of things to find out about each other but that’s what the rest of our lives are for. I hope he wants kids. I’d love to have two or three. Now that fate has given me a second chance to have everything I couldn’t have before, I want to experience it all with Leland.

  Walking into the meeting house, I pull a chair up to the table, sit down, and wait for the scouting party to arrive. We have our best man leading the scout team. He’s a black panther shifter, an amazing tracker, and until recently was the only cat shifter in the pack. If we find something in a lab that could possibly be used for scent tracking, we give it to Kuro and have him follow the trail. We’ve gotten lucky a few times with that method. Some of the things we’ve found led straight to another lab but a lot of the time, the trail goes dead, and we have to rely on using information from the computer hard drives we seized.

  Joel is the only one who knows Kuro’s back story. I have no idea what happened to him but one day, he appeared on pack lands and asked for sanctuary. He’s been a pack member ever since and has proven himself invaluable. I’d like to ask him what happened to put that dark, dead look in his eyes, but he’s been a pack member so long that I’m sure if he wanted me to know, he’d have told me.

  Despite all our efforts when it comes to these labs, I feel like we’re fighting a losing battle. No matter how many labs we destroy, more keep popping up. Deep down, I know that unless we catch Carmine and the coven backing him, this fight will never end. If we don’t find Carmine in the next three locations, we’ll be back to square one with the chase and will have to move on to another lab, hoping we get lucky.

  Hearing footsteps on the front porch, I look up just in time to see Kuro and the rest of his team walk through the door. “What have you got for me?”

  Kuro pulls up a chair and sits down. “I had my men split up to cover all three locations at once. We counted ten guards around the perimeter of each and multiple heat signatures inside. These places are definitely in use but there’s been no sign of Carmine at any of them. We have his picture, so we know what he looks like but, in the short time we’ve been scouting these locations he hasn’t shown up once.”

/>   Kuro holds his hand out to one of his men who hands him a file. Kuro places the file on the table and opens it. “We took pictures of the doctors who came and went. The doctors for each location are different as are their shifts so depending on when we move on the labs, we probably won’t catch any of them. My plan is to send the pictures to a guy I know on the council who is good with computers and can run facial recognition software to see if we can I.D them. If we manage to get positive I. Ds, we can get the council to send teams to their houses and arrest them if they aren’t caught at the labs.”