by Flynn Eire
“Deal,” I easily agreed. “I love him.” I watched as all their jaws dropped open. “I have for a while but it was never the time to tell him and now isn’t either. He deserves better than that. So you going to help me or not?”
They looked at each other, but it was Verge who went first. “He loves chocolate. Chocolate anything.”
“No, fruit,” Lance corrected. “My aunt sent me a care basket and Wally ate the chocolate-covered cherries and blueberries from it without any shame.”
“Add it,” I told Zibon. “What else?”
We got about six or seven more things added before Wally came back with my coffee. He carefully set it on the tray, and I smiled at him, remembering how he loved to be goofy.
“I need some sugar.”
“I put it in there,” he told me.
“No, I need some,” I clarified and pursed my lips up at him. He blinked at me a moment before swallowing down some chuckles. Then he actually did it, leaning in and giving me a quick kiss.
But he didn’t pull away or sit down. We stared at each other for a bit and I knew I wasn’t the only one who’d felt the zing from just that quick kiss. I watched as he slowly leaned down and gave me another one, this time not so playful.
Then again.
And when he touched my face this time, I was done for. I grabbed his arm and yanked him closer as I swiped out with my hand and knocked trays out of the way before laying him down on the table. I moved over him, attacking his sweet lips as I fisted his hair. Wally moaned as he threw a leg over my hip and I reached down and ripped his sweater to shreds before moving my hands under his shirt.
“Wait, stop, too fast,” he gasped, ripping his mouth from mine. I froze, letting my head fall to his chest.
“I’m sorry. I-I didn’t mean—this wasn’t my—”
“I know. You were playing. It was cute. It just felt—”
“Yeah, I know,” I agreed.
“Holy shit,” Zibon hissed. I turned and looked at him, raising an eyebrow as I saw all of Wally’s friends staring at us as if they’d never seen people making out before. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph. Is this how it always is between you guys?”
“Pretty much,” Wally chuckled as he lowered his leg. “There’s a reason I never really slept when I went to his room.”
“Only after we passed out from the third or fourth time,” I agreed, kissing his chest.
“Roarke, do you ever come in here and not break shit or make a mess?” Alexander bellowed. I glanced up and shrugged. “We fell.” The man raised an eyebrow at me. “He was getting sugar for me and slipped.”
Wally busted out laughing from under me, slapping his hand over his mouth but not in time. I couldn’t help it, I joined right in, thrilled to hear that sound again. He was still laughing as we got off the table and back into our seats. His friends helped us clean up our mess, and still, Wally was laughing.
“You okay?” I asked as he finally stopped wiping his eyes.
“Yeah, it’s just wow. I mean, I didn’t know we still had that in us. And I wouldn’t have cared if you had screwed me right in the middle of the cafeteria except then I wanted you to bite me and…” he trailed off as he looked away.
“It all came crashing back down on you.” He nodded and I kissed him, my heart soaring when he kissed me back. “We’ll get through this.”
“How can you be so sure?” he asked, and I finally saw that was what a lot of his fear was from.
“Because I knew we still had that plus we had breakfast this morning in us and last night where you were upset with me but turned to me for comfort and I wanted to be there for you,” I explained. “We’re the whole package, Wally. I promise you we are.”
“Even if you weren’t, with sex and chemistry like that, I’d get signed up in a heartbeat,” Mark muttered, setting another broken plate on the tray. “I almost creamed myself and no one got naked. I want to be a fly in your room for one of your marathons. Three times? I mean three times? Yeah, marathon.”
“That wasn’t a marathon,” Wally hedged, staring at his friends. “That was every night. I mean, he went three times but I got way more turns.”
“What!” they all exclaimed. I bit back a smile. Well, it seemed they were officially in my corner.
Wally headed off with his friends for training and I finished throwing everything away before seeing Alexander since he was next on my list anyways. I sat down by him and his mate, ignoring the hate looks I was getting. I’d heard the rumors about how they’d hooked up after all.
“Oh, save it. You did the same to Dimitri and I didn’t even try to undo my mating with Wally,” I drawled.
“Well damn,” Dimitri sighed, tossing his fork on his plate. “Didn’t that just take the wind out of my pissed-off sails. Nicely done, Roarke. What do you need?”
“A bigger room. I’m allowed to switch since I moved up to five but I’ve been holding off because Wally and I have been up in the air. We still are in his mind, but we’re permanent now so I want permission to switch or trade, or however you guys do it and that way we can move in together and not just have him move in with me.”
Dimitri stared at me with his mouth hanging open for a minute before he recovered. “You planned that. You were holding off asking until you and Wally figured things out?”
“Yeah.” Neither of them said anything. I sighed, scratching my chin. “Look, I know I jumped the gun last night and was an asshole, and you guys all think I was an asshole to him before, but we misunderstood each other on a lot of things. We’re working it out and he’s getting that now. Other than that, it’s between us, though I will say, he was never just sex or a booty call to me. Wally’s it for me. So can I have a real room for us or not?”
Alexander stared at me a moment before nodding. “There are two vacant on the top floor for the higher-level warriors. You and Wally can take your pick and then choose what color you want it painted before you move in.”
It was my turn to be shocked. “Um, thanks. I didn’t think you’d be so—”
“Understanding?” he chuckled, waiting until I nodded. “As you said, you were not the only one who messed up when they met the person they wanted to mate. You are not as old as I am, but age hardens us, makes us forget how to be normal with another person. My Dimika has taught me this and I pray Wally does the same for you, Roarke, because you deserve to be happy, as we are.”
“You weren’t so bad,” Dimitri murmured as he stared at his mate with so much love in his eyes I could feel it.
I wanted that. I would have that with Wally if it killed me. I just had to work my ass off to get it.
After breakfast, I went on the supply run, making sure to get everything on Zibon’s list in spades, plus an ample supply of booze. No, I wasn’t trying to turn my mate into an alcoholic, but I figured I liked to have a drink now and again, and if our room was fun and a nice place for him to hang out with his friends to study, he wouldn’t be gone that often from me.
Then I had a better idea and made us turn around and go back to the liquor store. I got a bunch of funny looks as I carried out several cases of high-end booze, but I’d also talked to Matteo last week and again before leaving about what the post-trans were worried about most for their warrior tests and this was what would end up helping Wally most.
No, he wasn’t going to be the one drinking it.
When we got back, the others unloaded the stuff for the kitchen and camp and I hurried off to find Wally after picking up keys from Alexander. Since one of the stops had been a home improvement place, I’d been a total dork and picked up paint samples and a whole array of those papers with different shades on them. I found him with Matteo and his buddies, working in the gym, and it hit me I didn’t know how to handle this.
Matteo was giving me a funny look and I realized he was reading my aura. “Go with your gut, Roarke.”
“My gut has no idea what to do,” I growled. “Which is probably why you’re seeing all kinds of confusion in my
aura.” I cleared my throat and nodded to everyone else when I noticed I had their attention now too.
“Dumbass, that’s your gut’s way of saying just ask,” Matteo drawled, rolling his eyes.
Well it made perfect sense when he said it like that. I cleared my throat again and walked over to Wally. “So I have a surprise, and while I’m getting to like your friends, I kinda want this part to be just us. I mean, part of it they can help on, but I can tell you it while they’re here if you want, but it’s for just us so…”
“Are you asking them to suddenly be busy?” Wally asked, his eyes shining with mirth.
“No,” I sighed, setting down the bag I’d been hiding and scratching my chin. I knew it was a nervous habit I did when I couldn’t think of what I wanted to say or just needed to think in general but it gave me something to do to not feel completely useless. “I’m allowed to change to a bigger room once I’m in the top five. I didn’t want to until we were real so we could move in together and not just you with me so you didn’t feel like you were turning into Nate.”
“Hey!” Nate bitched. “What’s wrong with turning into me? I’m happy.”
“You also never sit with your old friends or study with us,” Wally snapped. “You went off and became Matteo’s mate instead of Nate Hathus and I said I never wanted to be like that.” He moved closer to me, ignoring Nate’s grumbling. “I made one off-handed comment. You waited to claim a bigger room until we were more just so I didn’t feel that way?”
I shrugged. “Yeah.”
“You’re kinda awesome when you actually tell me things and what’s going on in that big brain of yours,” he muttered, moving even closer. “Are you asking me to move in with you?”
I wanted to say, well, I mated you so yes. I got this was one of those things like handholding Wally wanted to experience and not skip. Maybe only subconsciously—but still he did. I pulled the keys out of my pocket and held them up. “Babe, you wanna move in with me? We can pick from two rooms. I got paint samples too.”
He nodded and hugged me. I accepted the simple gesture, soaking up his joy like an addict who needed a fix.
Wally pressed his lips to my ears and I couldn’t help but shiver. “You didn’t want them all coming with us and chiming in on which room and paint, right?”
“No, not particularly.”
“Me either.” He glanced over to Matteo who waved us to go ahead, looking all too happy to get rid of us after we’d upset Nate who was talking with the other post-trans.
I didn’t know the situation and I wasn’t about to jump in but it was just one comment Wally made so it couldn’t have been that big of a deal. I had a feeling Nate simply got caught up in being newly mated and had ignored his friends some… Nothing that couldn’t be easily fixed by spending some real time with them.
We ended up picking out the corner room that had an extra few feet to it and the closet, so it was kind of a no-brainer. Then he was so flattered that I’d not only picked out a sample but a whole gallon of the color I thought matched his light mocha eyes perfectly that he agreed to let it be the color of our walls.
“Why that color?” he asked.
“It’s my favorite color now,” I answered simply. It was the truth. Nothing was more beautiful than Wally’s eyes and the color was so breathtaking, nowhere near the plain I’d heard him say they were, that it was my favorite.
“I love you, Roarke,” he blurted, his eyes going wide at the admission as his cheeks heated up.
I dropped the paint can and stormed over to him, pushing him up against the wall and surrounding him as I mashed my mouth down to his. We made out for as long as we could before the need for air burned at our lungs. Then I pulled back and stared into those eyes I adored so much. “I love you too, Wally. You have no idea how much I love you, but I do. I swear it to you.”
“I’m beginning to see that.”
“I don’t want to have sex until you do for sure,” I admitted, telling him something I’d realized on the drive back from supplies. “In your mind it was just sex between us, and until you know that’s not how I felt, how I do feel, I don’t want us to have it.”
“You’re serious,” he whispered, his hands shaking on my back. I nodded. He swallowed loudly and then smiled. “Okay, but I don’t think you’ll have to wait long.”
I threw back my head and laughed. Of course he wouldn’t punish me. It wasn’t Wally’s style. He just wanted the pain and hurt to go away. He didn’t have a mean bone in his body. That was one of the reasons I loved him. It would never even occur to him that he should make me jump through hoops or work to fix things.
He just wanted them fixed and us to be happy.
We called some people and had the room painted before dinner. I was glad it wasn’t raining for once because we could open the windows and let it dry out. Then we headed down to dinner, and when I saw the vast majority of the camp was there, I stood up on my chair and let out one hell of a whistle.
“Everyone’s reporting to the gym in an hour for something I have set up to help the post-trans who are taking their warrior tests soon,” I announced. “Any—”
“Just because you’re trying to make amends with your mate doesn’t mean the rest of us should get dragged into this shit,” George, one of the warriors who was leaving soon and had let me pass him up in line called out.
“Actually I had already planned this after talking with Matteo last week,” I drawled. “And if it was just for Wally, I wouldn’t need so many of you. This is also some brushing up for the warriors at the camp. I’ve discussed this with Alexander and it’s got his approval.” I smiled when lots of their eyes focused on the number one at our camp.
“Everyone will be participating,” Alexander confirmed without even standing or looking up from his meal. “I’m not happy that someone new coming in was able to fly through our ranks and get to the number five spot so easily, even a skilled fighter like Roarke. We’ve obviously grown soft and reliant on guns. That will end. Anyone who doesn’t show up will be facing me in the ring because it will be a direct challenge. Rune will be keeping score of it all because he has an overnight project and we can’t risk him getting injured.”
I thought that one odd, but it wasn’t my call and one out wasn’t a big deal. “Don’t worry, it’s just sparring I have planned, and some help for the post-trans who will soon be joining our ranks and we should want to help on our own,” I added, not wanting them to go into this with egos and pissed or someone could get hurt. “See you there.”
“What are you up to?” Wally muttered, giving me a funny look as I sat back down.
“You’ll see.” I bit back a smile and hurried to eat, knowing I had a lot to do and less time to do it in. I hoped he’d get how much went into the planning of all of this, and while only that day I’d realized how to throw in the incentives and extra fun, I’d come up with the idea and orchestrated this before I’d mated him.
So it wasn’t just me buttering him up. Well, okay, maybe a little bit, however it wasn’t for biting him, but everything from before. I wanted to groan. I did have a lot to make up for.
9
“Is your mate trying to make up for everything in one day?” Zibon asked me as we stood outside the gym, waiting for whatever was going on inside to start.
“I don’t know, but damn, he’s really doing an awesome job,” I chuckled. I’d already told them about the room, the paint, the no sex, the I love yous… All of it.
“Alexander was like that,” Dimitri offered quietly. “They’re old. Apparently that makes them dense to love and relationships after so many years of bloodshed and killing. I saw it with Matteo and Nate too—though that was more on both sides.”
“Heeeeeey!” Nate bitched.
“It was,” Dimitri snickered. “But once you kick them in the right direction, it’s like they get that tunnel vision on how to fix things and make you happy if they really love you and there’s no stopping them.”
“Yeah, he
’s right actually,” Nate agreed. “Matteo and I only really have the problem of him not getting things because when he grew up shit just wasn’t done like that. Think of it, you learned from your parents what you want or don’t want in a relationship. So did they, but hundreds or a thousand years ago. Either way it’s so outdated they simply need their course righted sometimes.”
“So I simply need to grow a pair and learn to speak up more and we’ll be okay,” I surmised, nodding. Then I rubbed my stomach. That wasn’t my strongest attribute.
“Or tell us and we’ll take him out back and beat him up until he gets it,” Mark offered. “He listened to us earlier when you went to get his coffee.”
“I knew that was weird he asked me to get it,” I groaned, feeling like a tool. “What were you guys—”
I didn’t get to finish because the doors opened and I was more curious to see what we were in for than the details of my friends and mate conspiring behind my back.
My mate. It was still so weird to think of Roarke that way. But instead of it making me want to freak out, it now was starting to warm my heart. I really did believe he loved me and a lot of what had happened was just us not understanding each other—fuck ups on both sides.
We all filed into the gym and sat on the bleachers where Matteo told us to. Then he nodded for Roarke to start.
“First of all, we’re just sparring, so these aren’t formal challenges and no one’s place is at risk,” he explained before pointing to the huge whiteboards that had been wheeled in from the command center conference rooms. “The post-trans need more practice and we’re going to help them over the next week at night with some tournaments while beefing up our own skills. I did this once for Matteo’s class and it was incredibly helpful to the post-trans.
“So the higher-ranked warrior will fight with their non-dominant arm. Sixteen and lower will fight as normal. Everyone call out their moves after they’ve done them while sparring.” I bit back a smile when lots of people groaned. “Stuff it. We all could use more work with that—myself included. There have been times my right has been injured and I’d wished that I was better with my left so now is the time to work on that. We may readjust the numbers if the post-trans are getting creamed.”
