by Hawke Oakley
Gabriel let out a long, exaggerated sigh. He wrapped his arms around my neck and bumped our foreheads together. “Unfortunately, very easily.”
“So… Is that a yes?”
“Maybe.”
My hands drifted down to his hips, then down to the waistband of his briefs. “Maybe?”
Gabe smiled. “Seriously, Dante. What do you think?”
“Me? Well…” I murmured as my fingers absentmindedly roamed my mate’s skin. “I love having a son. More than I ever thought I would, to be honest.”
Gabe hummed. His palms were pressed firmly to my chest. “And?”
“And I think it would be fun to have another,” I finished with a shy grin. “You don’t hate the idea, do you?”
“No, not at all,” Gabe said with a mischievous glint in his eyes. His arms gripped tighter around my neck as he pulled me close. “But you know… That means Lorenzo’s gonna be doing a lot more babysitting around here while I have my quiet time with you.”
I growled playfully. “I’m sure he won’t mind.”
“Really?” Gabe purred. Now he swung his leg over my side and heaved himself up so he was straddling my waist. “Then I guess you better get to work, alpha.”
An electric shiver shot down my spine. Just that single sentence and the way his amber eyes burned with arousal turned me on fiercely.
“I want to do things a little differently this time,” he said. I watched curiously as he stripped, putting on a show for me. I licked my lips. When he was naked, he reached down and tore my own underwear off, never breaking eye contact with me. I shuddered. I loved it when he took control.
“Anything you want, babe,” I said.
Gabe purred. “I know.”
He spat into his hand - which made me shudder from how hot it was - and lubed up my cock with it. I was already hard, but I felt myself throb at his touch. Something glistened between his thighs. With a gasp, I noticed his hole was already slick. He must have been hornier than I thought.
“Don’t move,” Gabe ordered me.
He didn’t have to tell me twice. I laid still, watching as he carefully aligned the tip of my throbbing cock with his slick hole. As he slowly eased his way onto my dick, I groaned. I’d never get tired of that hot, wet heat enveloping me. The tight pressure was fucking incredible.
I grasped his hips as he straddled me. Warm fluid from his slick hole seeped on to my skin. Gabriel moved his hips and bit his lip - we was completely in control.
“You look good down there,” he commented with a smirk.
I licked my lips. “You look sexy up there.”
Gabe lifted his hips - just enough so that only the tip of my cock was still inside him - and then slammed down.
Stars exploded in my vision. A long, drawn out moan escaped my lips. Unable to control myself, I bucked my hips up wildly, thrusting into Gabe from below. He didn’t seem to mind. His head was thrown back as he let out sounds of pleasure.
As he rode me, I grabbed his cock and pumped it frantically. Gabe lost his mind. He screamed with pleasure, bucking and thrusting his hips, riding me hard. It didn’t take long for both of us to come. When the orgasm hit Gabriel, he screamed my name and dug his nails into my hips desperately. I followed soon after. My knot expanded, holding Gabe in place while I thrusted until I came - I shot my thick load up inside him, riding out my orgasm until it finally relented.
With my knot still intact, Gabriel sighed and glanced at me. He shot me an exhausted grin. “Well, if this works out, I hope you’re ready to take care of another baby.”
“Oh, it'll work out,” I promised with a satisfied smirk.
As soon as my cock returned to its normal size, Gabe slipped off and returned to my side. I quickly cleaned us both up and tossed the tissues to the floor, unable to care about anything except my mate and sleep at this point.
Gabriel let out a huge yawn and stretched before curling up in between my arm and chest. He laid his cheek down on my pec and nuzzled my hot skin.
“We have six months to think of another baby name,” he murmured.
I chuckled. “You need more time than that?”
Suddenly, Gabe groaned. “Oh, gods, I just realized something.”
“What?” I asked, confused.
“Your dad is gonna flood the nursery with stuffed animals again,” Gabe complained.
I laughed. “You’re right. We shouldn’t tell him.”
“Absolutely not. We’re having this baby in secret. Otherwise I’m gonna drown in teddy bears.”
I nodded in mock seriousness. “Of course. That settles it. Nobody can know. We have to go deliver the baby in the woods. It’s gonna have to grow up under the stairs.”
Gabriel cracked up and playfully smacked my chest. “Dante, we don’t even know for sure that I’m pregnant yet and we’re already thinking about another baby like it exists.”
“Trust me,” I growled. “If you’re not already pregnant from that, there’s a lot more where that came from.”
“Good,” Gabe murmured. “The mind-blowing sex almost makes up for the six months of gestation and hours of horrible labor pains.”
“Almost?”
Gabe grumbled. “Hey, you try pushing a baby out your ass.”
“Babe, I would if I could,” I said with a shrug.
He smiled, then laid his head back down. My arms resumed their normal position curled around his shoulders. I closed my eyes and appreciated the warmth of his breath as he inhaled and exhaled softly across my skin. This was the perfect moment - I wanted to take a mental snapshot of this and never forget. My mate’s scent, his gentle yet sassy voice, his soft skin… Everything about him was simply perfect.
“Dante,” Gabriel murmured.
“Yes, love.”
“I’m glad we claimed each other,” he said. “You know, with the whole magical biting thing.”
I kissed his hair. “Me too. I’m glad you agreed to it.”
“I love you, Dante,” he said. “More than I ever thought I’d love an alpha in my life.”
“I feel exactly the same way, Gabe,” I replied. “I love you so much.”
He nodded gently and pressed a small kiss to my skin. “I’m happy. And excited to spend the rest of my life with you and our children - however many they end up being.”
My heart twisted with affection and I laughed. “As much as I love you and Noah, let’s just try two kids for now. Deal?”
“Deal.” He grinned.
The End
The Panther’s Pretend Mate
1
Raja
A pig changed my life.
No, wait, that doesn’t sound right, scratch that - a wild boar changed my life. That sounds more dramatic.
The summer heat and sweltering humidity bore deep into my skin as I lounged in my hammock, my forearm draped over my eyes. The hammock swung gently from the tree as the warm breeze trickled through the thick rainforest. Only underneath the dense canopy was the temperature a bit cooler. I’d stripped down to my shorts and was attempting to doze through the midday heat when familiar chatter coming from below roused me from my lazy nap.
“It’s a big one. Biggest one in the whole rainforest, I swear it.”
“Don’t believe him, he’s just making it up.”
“This is just like the time he said he saw that rhinoceros but it was just a big rock…”
A now indignant voice replied, “It is not a lie! I swear on my mother!”
A serious threat. The other voices fell hushed. Intrigued now, I peered over the edge of the hammock. I already recognized the voices as my cousin Koto - who was the one swearing on his mother - and my friends from the clan, Bodi and Zumi.
Zumi made an exaggerated display of rolling her eyes that I could see even from up in the canopy. “We know you’re up there eavesdropping, Raja, so you might as well just come down.”
With a dramatic sigh, I shifted easily into my animal form - a black panther - and slunk down the tree tru
nk. With my sharp claws and powerful muscles, I leapt down gracefully to the earthy ground below. When I landed, I shifted back and tossed my windswept black hair over my shoulder.
“Hey,” I announced. “So, Koto, you saw the biggest what in the rainforest? Respond fast before I make an inappropriate joke.”
Koto shoved me. “A wild boar.”
“Damn, I was hoping you’d say a rooster.”
Nobody laughed at my crude joke.
“It was the biggest boar I’d seen in my life,” Koto continued, ignoring me. “It could feed our entire clan for weeks.”
“And are you sure it’s not just a boar shifter from the Skrofa clan?” Zumi asked.
We all knew we weren’t the only shifters in the rainforest. The chiefs of each village all knew each other, and we had a pact not to hunt or disrupt the lives of other shifters. We rarely ran into others like us simply because our territories were fairly distanced, but other chiefs could visit neighboring clans for big events and the like. Our own people, Pardus clan, lived deep inside the rainforest for our own protection. As leopard shifters, we needed to protect ourselves from human poachers hunting for a pretty and expensive pelt.
“I’m definitely sure,” Koto said seriously. “It didn’t have the gait or intelligence of a shifter - it was just walking around stupidly and snorting in the dirt. It smelled like a regular boar, too. Besides, Skrofa clan territory is practically on the other side of the island! If we did attack a shifter, he could just shift back to normal, and then we’d yell at him for being on our territory.”
Bodi and Zumi exchanged glances. It was clear now that Koto wasn’t lying, and the boar was safe to hunt, but that meant they had another problem - taking down the boar itself. Hunting an adult male boar was already nothing to sneeze at, but if it truly was as monstrous as Koto claimed, it was possible somebody could get injured during the hunt.
The meat would be a huge boon. As a small clan shunned and feared by the nearest humans, we had nobody to trade with or purchase from. Everything we ate came from our own hunting efforts. But lately, the rainforest was lacking any game bigger than a small deer, and that wouldn’t feed an entire clan, so we were stuck eating fruit and leaves in our human forms.
And frankly, as a carnivore, I was getting sick of it.
“I’m in,” Zumi said, instantly convinced. “When do we go?”
“I’m going to let the chief know first, and get his blessing,” Koto explained with a glance in my direction. The chief was my father, Eka.
“Let’s go now,” Bodi suggested. “I want to go as soon as possible!”
Without another word, they all shifted into their leopard forms and made a beeline for the chief’s hut among the canopy. They were all normal leopards - a deep gold with black rosettes, great for camouflaging underneath the dappled rainforest light.
Unlike me.
I grunted to myself in frustration as I watched them go. Of course they wouldn’t invite me. Why would they?
Who would invite someone who wasn’t allowed to leave the village?
But today I was feeling particularly defiant. Instead of wallowing in my misery, I shifted and ran hot on their trail. I leapt up the thick tree trunk, digging my claws into the vines, and hauled myself up to the wooden platform nestled among the trees. I shook out my pelt before shifting back and joining the others. They all noticed me, but nobody commented on my presence.
Koto knocked on the door three times.
My father emerged. In his age, his black hair turned a majestic silver, contrasting sharply against his brown skin.
Koto kneeled, took the elder’s hand and kissed the back of it. A sign of respect. After the chief grunted warmly in acknowledgment, Koto stood back up.
“Chief, respectfully, I would like to ask to arrange a hunt with Zumi and Bodi,” he said.
It didn’t phase me that he talked about me like I wasn’t even here. I was used to that at this point, but it was still annoying.
Koto continued. “I saw a giant boar in the rainforest earlier. It would feed us for weeks.”
The chief hummed. “Not Skrofa clan, I hope.”
“No, I’m sure it wasn’t.”
“Hm. Will the three of you be enough?”
As he spoke, his eyes drifted over to me. For one stupid second, I felt a flash of excitement, like he was finally going to let me come along. But when Koto spoke, the chief stopped looking at me and I became invisible again. I crossed my arms and leaned against the rough wood wall. I might as well have been an insect on the wall.
“Yes. We are the strongest hunters in the clan. We can have the boar killed and returned to the village by tonight,” Koto said.
“Very well,” the elder said. “You may go.”
The defiance and irritation of being ignored bubbled up inside me until I spoke out. “What about me?”
Zumi’s jaw dropped. The other two stared at me.
My father, of course, had the same calm and stoic expression he always did. “What about you, Raja?”
“Can I go on the hunt?” I asked.
Koto’s eyes bulged out of his head, as if he couldn’t believe the incredibly stupid thing I’d just said. I wanted to slap the expression off his face.
“Raja, you know you cannot leave the village,” the chief said gravely. “It’s just not safe.”
I gestured to Koto. “Why is it safe for him, but not for me? Just because of my coat color?”
“That is part of the reason, yes. Everyone knows how much rarer a black leopard is. God forbid, if there were any poachers in the area, you would be the prize they are after.”
I curled my lip. “That’s not fair! Why do I have to assume there’s always poachers out there when the others don’t?”
The elder didn’t budge. “Life is not fair, Raja. And that is not the only reason.”
Anger stewed in my belly. I narrowed my eyes. “Because I’m an omega, right?”
“You are the only one in the entire village. Combined with your rare coat color, you are a walking target.”
“But humans don’t know I’m an omega,” I protested. “Only other shifters would know that.”
“And there are others like us in the rainforest,” he said sternly. “Despite our truce pacts, you cannot assume there are not bad people out there. If they are lacking omegas, they will not hesitate to grab you. I am not losing my son to poachers or other shifters. That is final.”
That was it. Just like that, I got completely shut down again. My thoughts and feelings didn’t matter - the only thing he wanted was for me to stay home like a good little boy and do everything my parents told me. I wasn’t a person - I was a fancy decorative piece on display in a cabinet, tucked away behind glass so no harm could ever come to me.
And I was tired of it.
“Fine,” I muttered.
I shifted into my panther form and ran from the hut as fast as possible. Leaves and vines whipped past my face as I climbed up the trees until I was at the very top of the canopy. I looked over the rainforest. I growled deeply in my chest, my tail lashing with irritation. This was the only place I could get away from it all - and even then, it was still inside the village.
My chest burned. An entire world existed outside and I wasn’t allowed to experience it. Jealousy seeped through my veins when I thought about Koto and our friends going out to hunt later. They were free to do as they pleased, while I was shackled to the village by fear.
The defiant gears turned in my mind. Koto and the others were hunting tonight. If he was right and this truly was a monster boar, would three hunters truly be enough? Those three claimed they were the best hunters in the clan, but that didn’t make them immune to a charging boar’s tusks. A single charge would leave them gutted.
A warm breeze rustled the leaves in the canopy. Only from this vantage point could I see the world around me, a lush green rainforest island and the ocean far off in the distance. From here, I felt invincible.
A thought wo
rmed its way into my mind. Who could stop me from going? I dug my claws into the branch beneath me in anticipation.
The others were heading out to hunt from ground level.
What if I joined them from among the trees?
My tail flicked in excitement. I was not a large leopard. As an omega, I was lithe and agile - especially with my catlike reflexes and skills. Picking my way through the treetops was no problem for me, and that way I would have an eye on every single thing happening in the rainforest below. Maybe I could even ambush the boar from above and deliver the killing bite.
I licked my lips. My mind was set on it now. I was an adult man, a powerful jungle cat - omega or not, I deserved freedom. Tonight I made my own choice.
I would be hunting.
2
Raja
The rainforest was quiet.
After a light drizzle in the afternoon, the skies cleared and darkened for the evening. Rainwater trickled from the broad-sided leaves down into the ferns cluttering the ground. Only with a sharp eye could one see the three leopards prowling in the undergrowth.
The chief wished them one final goodbye and offered a prayer for success. Now, Koto, Bodi and Zumi were off on the hunt, following the boar’s musky trail. I lingered behind at first, wishing them off with a fake smile and a wave. I made sure everyone saw me. But once my father retreated to his hut for the night, I was off.
Even in the cover of darkness and with the added camouflage of my pitch black coat, I still needed to be careful. As big cats, we had sharp night vision. My movements were slow and cautious. Unlike any other time, I did not want to draw any attention to myself.
I knew every inch of our village like the back of my hand. I had a mental map of every tree, every vine, every opening in the canopy - all intricacies I needed now to accomplish my task.
Tracing the path in my mind, I began my route, leaping from familiar tree to tree. My claws dug into the bark and I carefully timed each jump to make minimal noise. Soon, I neared the boundary of the village.
