Page 16 of Courted by the Sabertooth (Mori’s Mementos #3)

Beal

Moonscale London

I didn’t know many people on Earthside, but I knew Raiel and that was better than knowing a dozen shifters casually.

A cat doesn’t forget the man who traversed through gateways to bring him a sex potion.

So he came to Earthside and got his car from whatever garage he stashed it in when he wasn’t using it and drove us back to Nic and his mother’s house.

I carried her sleeping form in for Nic, cradling her to me as if she were a delicate flower, because to my mate she was.

She felt small in my arms, like a feather that might be caught up in a gentle breeze and carried off to some far away land.

We tucked her into her bed and pulled her shoes off.

She’d probably sleep for a few days. Dragons had their ways of doing that to recover after such violent events. Justice was hard work.

After she was tucked in, Raiel ran out for takeout and me and Nic showered together. He was beautiful all soapy even if sadness and worry clung to his damp skin. This wasn’t the time for mating or romping but I still couldn’t take my eyes off him.

“Barbs,” he whispered, his gaze down on my crotch.

“They’re soft,” I said, running my fingers through his soapy hair to massage his scalp.

“They stay soft in this form. They make it extra likely that you’ll get pregnant but they’re fleshy.

There’s a potion to make them shift back inside too.

I know they can be intimidating if you’re not used to penises that have them and… ”

Nic pressed a single damp finger against my lips.

“May I touch you?” he asked.

“You never have to ask.”

“But I do because otherwise I might touch you all the time.”

“You won’t hear any complaints,” I said and cupped his chin in my hand when he pulled his finger back. “This isn’t the way I imagined things going. I thought I’d bring something from Tops and make my grand reveal.”

“I don’t need courting gifts,” he smiled softly. “Really. I just need you. I want to say that I don’t need protection but obviously I do. It sort of stings to admit that I would’ve never believed that Jon would actual physically harm me under almost any other condition.”

“You don’t need protecting. I’m merely working on making the world one that deserves someone like you in it, Nic,” I said and pushed his soapy hair away from his face.

“You can say I’m na?ve,” he laughed.

“Having a good heart doesn’t make you na?ve.

It feels wrong to call you that because you loved someone and even when you found out their intentions weren’t the best, you still wanted to believe they weren’t evil.

It’s not your fault that he let you down especially when the bar was so low: Don’t try to take your family’s company and don’t try to kill you.

Maybe take no for an answer here and there.

I hold myself to much higher standards, Nic.

I want you as much as you smell like you want me.

I long to kiss every inch of your body and then take you into my arms and lay my claiming bite on that pretty curve of your shoulder above your collarbone.

To lay that bite so that everyone knows we’re together for every lifetime and if they make the world a place that isn’t worthy of you, I’ll fucking kill them.

Maybe your mother had the right idea. Maybe I was na?ve to think maiming them was enough.

It doesn’t matter. What needed to be done is done and we will be together but not until you have your third courting gift. ”

Nic opened his mouth and shut it again.

“I will help you get off, though, if you like,” I offered.

“That doesn’t seem fair if you’re not getting off too,” Nic said, his voice almost a whine.

His desire was thick in the air, and it was hard to tell him no. He stepped forward and pressed his wet soapy body up against me and my dick answered his call. He was going to be my undoing if I wasn’t careful.

“Pleasure isn’t about fairness, Nic,” I said, wrapping my arms around him and holding him close to me. “It’s about making each other feel good.”

“Exactly!” he sighed. “I want to make you feel good.”

“I haven’t earned it yet.”

“Why do we have to earn pleasure?”

“You do not. I will give it freely.”

“But you do?” he arched a brow.

“Maybe it’s an outdated tradition in your culture. Maybe it should’ve died out long ago in ours but when and if you’re laid up with a big belly and need help reaching your feet you deserve to know you have a mate who will be there to reach them for you every step of the way.”

“I think you’ve already proven that and I really don’t want any more body parts, Beal. I mean that part.”

“I do not plan to bring you more body parts,” I chuckled softly and drew little, soapy circles on his lower back with my thumbs.

“I know what I am going to get you. I think it will mean more to you than body parts. I think I’ve proven that I can keep you safe at any cost and that there is nowhere danger can take you that I will not follow.

Now, I will prove, I can make you happy. ”

“Is it letting me touch you?” he said, his voice tilting up hopefully.

“No, not yet, but my offer still stands. I will blow your mind so that you don’t have enough brain cells left to worry about me,” I teased him.

“That’s a big promise,” he laughed.

“I am a big cat who doesn’t believe in tiny promises,” I said and kissed his forehead because if I brushed my lips against his, I might’ve given in to everything he wanted.

***

After dinner of take out from a local Chinese restaurant, Raiel offered to wash up and I let him.

Nic tried to protest but neither of us would hear about it.

Raiel was family and it wasn’t uncommon for us to help each other out in exciting or difficult times.

We’d just met and his mother was down and out.

This qualified under both of those premises.

So, I carried my mate off to his bedroom despite his complaints.

“You know, you’re not the only one who can play the part of brute,” he sighed.

“You’ve showed me that,” I nodded. “Though, tonight you’re tired and I hope that you’ll allow me to continue playing the role until we get to your bedroom.”

“How do you even know where it is?” he asked.

“It smells like your pleasure,” I shrugged. “I can follow that trail from anywhere, Nic. You are my mate.”

I didn’t need to see his face to know that it was a beautiful shade of crimson.

“And if you will let me, it will smell even more like your pleasure before we fall asleep tonight.”

“What about your pleasure?” he asked.

“Ah, you’re not letting that go, are you?” I asked, opening his bedroom door.

In the dark all the colors blended together inside my night vision.

The bed was prominent and in the center of the room, making it easy to lower him onto it.

I crawled in next to him and spooned around him.

He fit perfectly against me and it took all my control not to fall asleep wrapped around him but Raiel and I still had a bit of ‘shopping’ to do.

I laid there for almost an hour after Nic fell asleep.

When I got up I took off the shirt Raiel had lent me that now smelled like me and rubbed it all over the windows and doors inside Nic’s bedroom to keep the threats away.

When I finally made my way into the hall, Raiel was cheek marking the doorway off Annila’s room.

“Just for protection. I’m not into her. She’s—Er… She’s a woman,” Raiel shrugged. “But I figured she’s family too now and wouldn’t be able to fight off a threat with how deeply she’s asleep.”

“I almost want to call everyone to sit in the yard and watch the house, but I don’t think they’d appreciate that,” I nodded. “I get it. Leaving them alone doesn’t feel right.”

“This is London not the middle of a warzone,” Raiel said but his scent didn’t match his words very well.

“You were there with the crazy lady, right? I mean, when she blew up the bar?” I asked him.

“She didn’t come to the bar to blow it up,” Raiel said as we headed downstairs. “Everything just sort of exploded. One minute I’m pouring this skunk shifter a whiskey sour and the next every window in the place imploded. Some of the glasses and bottles too. It was chaos.”

“But she helped Annila get away,” I said as we tiptoed out of the front door.

“Are we going to be able to get back in without setting off their alarm?” Raiel asked.

“I swiped the physical key and the keycard,” I nodded. “And you’re sure you know where they’re at?”

“Believe me. It’s hard not to notice them. Let’s just shift and get a move on. Besides, everything’s easier to snatch in our real form.”

I had already put the stuff to get back into the house on a little pouch I could wear around my neck.

The cord was a high quality, braided material that would survive the shift.

That way, I’d still have them when we arrived back with Nic’s final courting gift and wouldn’t have to rely on stashing them somewhere that anyone might stumble onto.

“Do you think there’s more of them?” I asked.

Raiel was already sprouting his mane and hair was coming out of his pointed ears.

He clearly wasn’t going to answer me with his human voice.

So, I gave into my cat too. Giving in was easy.

It was always easy. Sometimes I wondered whether my people were cats first who later learned to shift or people who bonded with cats.

There were myths and legends to support both theories but whatever happened occurred so long ago that our written history didn’t go back that far.

Once we were both on four paws, I asked my question again over the group link.

We moved at a steady pace through the neighborhood, sticking to the shadows to keep from being detected.

We weren’t sure if Clarence had called off the hunt for his so-called ghost cat or not.

Either way, the less attention we drew the better.