Page 12

B lue drops to his knees so quickly, I’m worried he might have hurt himself for a moment. I can hear him whispering, ‘ Need you. Need you. Need you. ’ over and over like a prayer as he grabs the button on my jeans. Undoing it with deft fingers, he pushes my jeans and underwear down just past my balls before burying his nose near the crease of my thigh.

Seeing him so desperate for me, so needy and beautiful, makes pre-cum leak from my flushed tip in anticipation. I would spend days on end buried inside him if he’d let me.

He wraps his pale hand around my shaft, pumping it twice roughly, drawing a long groan from me as my hips buck in a half-aborted thrust.

“You little shit,” I tease as I sink my fingers into his silver hair and yank his head back to look up at me.

Dark eyes stare up at me as he sticks out his tongue, laying it flat under my cockhead, as he continues to tease me. But it doesn’t last long, his eyes hazy from the heat peak, and I know he won’t settle without this. Without me. There’s a certain power, and responsibility, that comes with being an omega’s alpha partner.

“Want me to feed you my cock, baby?” I ask, my voice thick and husky as I take myself in a firm grip and tap my dick against his waiting tongue, smearing my pre-cum over his cheek and the bridge of his nose.

It’s messy, downright filthy, but exposing him to my pheromones every way I can will take the edge off his pain and ease the heat discomfort until I can get him back to my apartment safely and fill him with my knot.

Closing my eyes, I groan. Goddess, I was going to see him stretched out on my knot again, his hole puffy and clenching around me. That was a memory I’d relieved several times over the last twenty-four hours. My mouth salivates just thinking about him gaping wide open for me. But first I was going to come down his throat, and maybe a little on his face, if he was a good boy.

“Please, Mad. Please. I need you.” He begs, blunt nails biting into my thighs as he tries to direct me into his mouth.

Slowly, I push the tip inside, but Blue is a greedy boy, trying to swallow down more of me. With a slow roll of my hips, I inch my way deeper into his wet heat, drawing it out so that I don’t come too soon.

His nose is nestled in my pubes as he swallows, throat constricting around my shaft. Humming in pleasure, he sends vibrations through me, and I can feel the precum leaking over his tonsils.

“I’m going to fuck your face, baby.” I croon, stroking his hair before thrusting hard. Mine. “Give you what you need.”

Sex with Blue isn’t like anything I’ve ever experienced before, and I don’t know if that’s just because he’s my Faded Mate or because there’s just something about Blue. he gives it his all, as if this will be the last taste or touch he’ll ever get to experience.

Looking up at me, dark eyes swirling with a heat haze, the dim light refracting and for a moment, I swear I can see an entire galaxy reflected in his gaze. This man is the new center of my universe. Mine. Mate.

“Just like that, love,” I praise with a grunt. Mine. Fuck! Mine. He makes that needy little mewling noise I love so much as I pump my spit slicked shaft in and out, framing my dick perfectly with his pillowy lips. “Fuck, your mouth was meant for sin.”

Spit trickles out of the corner of his mouth, running down his chin. Fuck, he looks beautiful. How have I been so lucky to land a mate like this? One so desperate to please.

“You look so perfect on your knees for me,” I tell him as I watch the way he thrusts his hips. He probably doesn’t even know he’s doing it as he chokes on my cock. Omegas are incredibly sensitive when they’re experiencing their heat or a heat episode. I bet if he carries on like this, he’ll come hands free in his jeans.

Blue pulls off my sloppy cock, wiping at his mouth with the back of his hand before begging to be dicked down.

“Please. Please fuck me, I need your knot.” His voice is all scratchy and husky, making my groin tense as I hold back on my orgasm.

“I know darlin’, but not here,” I promise, pumping out more pheromones for my greedy little love. He deserved the finest silk sheets, champagne and plump pillows, but the best I can offer him is my bed back in the apartment with the cotton quilts. One day, I promise myself silently, one day I’ll give him everything. I’ll never let him doubt how I feel about him.

Swallowing me back down to the base, he fondles my balls, massaging them between his fingers as a fresh load of warm spit drips down my sack.

Obscene sounds fill the dark alleyway as he gags and chokes himself on my meaty shaft. I’ve never had a lover suck my cock like this, like he needs it more than air. Blue touches me like he might die if he can’t and that’s intense, driving me crazy with every frantic, frenzied connection.

My balls tighten under his dexterous fingers. The pressure, the heat is too much and when he moans, shooting into his jeans like I predicted, it’s enough to push me into the abyss.

My orgasm slams mercilessly into me, dragging me into the undertow of the swirling storm he’d conjured with his mouth. Fuckkkkk.

Grabbing Blue’s head, I use his hair to keep his mouth on my dick as I wrap myself around him, shooting my cum down his throat in gushes. He takes everything I have to give him, like the good boy he is, and as I pull out, I give myself a couple of strokes, squeezing a few more ribbons out, just for him. It streaks across his nose and cheek before I wipe the last droplets over his swollen lips. Seeing my cum marking his face makes me want to devour him whole.

With gasping breaths, as he comes down from the high, Blue slumps back against the red brick, his face relaxed as he sits there. His eyes are glazed over and cum drunk. I think this might be one of my new favorite sights, almost as much as when I’m fucking him.

As he slowly comes back into himself, I can practically see the need still pulsing away beneath his skin as he moans and reaches for me with a small whimper. The scent of apples is strong, mixing with my own pheromones so that we're almost dripping in them.

If I didn’t get him back to my place soon, I was going to give the good citizens of Aurora Pines a show they’ll never recover from. Shrugging my jacket off, I drape it over him before leaning down and wrap his hands around my neck and pull him into my arms. His clothes are sticky with cum, and I can’t wait to peel him out of them when we get back to my apartment. I might even lick him clean if I’m feeling patient.

I only live a few streets away, so ensuring Blue is tucked away under my jacket, I get us there quickly. Luck is on our side as we manage to get back without running into anyone other than Mr. Jones, who gives me a knowing look as he wrinkles his nose and goes inside his apartment. It’s probably because everybody else in this town is apparently in The Antler, given the way I couldn’t seem to get five minutes alone with Blue earlier.

Carrying Blue into my room, I lay him down carefully on top of the sheets and strip away his clothes, careful to leave his undershirt on.

“Look at you,” I say, leaning back to admire my omega. My mate . “My perfect, dirty Blue.”

“I’m going to need you to fuck me now,” he chuckles, watching me as I remove my own clothes and I’m glad some of his awareness has returned. His gaze is hungry as he waits for me to lose my jeans and I milk it for all it’s worth, flexing and posing while he raises a brow at me.

“Anything for you, love.” He doesn’t understand yet how true those words are. But one day he will. Crawling onto the bed between his spread legs, I kiss a trail from his knee to his groin. The sweet smell of a slick fills my nose, my mouth waters as I’m eager for a taste.

“I want to feel you for days.” He might say he wants it hard and rough, but I know how to read the signs of his body. And I know that my pretty little omega needs me to fuck him slowly and gently.

With my hands behind his thighs, I push his legs up until he hooks them with his arms and holds himself open for me.

“Look at this hole, still puffy and swollen from all the knots I gave you already.” I like him exposed like this. It shows how much he trusts me and how much he wants this.

Pushing my finger through his sticky slickness, I tease his sweet rim, watching the muscle flutter beneath my touch.

“Urgh, was it only yesterday? Then why am I so desperate for you?” He throws his head back against the pillow and I watch him swallow as I push the tip of my thumb inside him. “What is it about you?”

The column of his neck is strained, marked from our last encounter, and I resist the urge to climb up his body and sink my teeth in. The need to claim him as mine is simmering away under my skin, but he isn’t ready. There was still too much between us.

Even if his human side hasn’t caught up, his shifter nature knows who he belongs to. It’s why he didn’t want to be apart from me any more than I did him. He can write it off as being part of his heat, but I could feel it in my bones.

My fingers move over his balls, cupping and fondling them until his cock is twitching, leaving sticky marks all over his toned stomach. Unlike when he sucks my dick, I don’t believe in dragging it out and teasing him. Placing my hand near the base of his shaft, I swallow him down until I gag. I can feel his balls tighten in my hand and I know that he’s loves it, even without the soft mewling soundtrack.

“ Yesyesyes, oh fuck yes !” While he’s distracted by my mouth, I push two fingers inside his tight channel without bothering to prep him.

“ Fuckkkkkkkkk ,” he exhales with the invasion. He’s still so tight and hot around my fingers, despite me spending four days stretching him to fit around my knot. Blue’s body clamps down as if it’s trying to suck me inside him.

I pull off his cock with a soft pop, laying a sloppy kiss at the base of his shaft before I take his balls into my mouth and suck on them.

“Fuck, I love how filthy you are.”

Adding another finger, I pick up the tempo, making sure to brush against his prostate every couple of thrusts so that his cock is dripping pre-come and the slick keeps flowing out of his ass. No one will ever turn him inside out the way I can, because he was made for me.

Pulling away, with spit trailing from my mouth to his body, I line my cock up with his entrance, and unlike his last heat, I slowly notch my way inside, torturing us both. Inch by agonizing inch.

Leaning down to claim his mouth in a kiss, I swallow back a laugh as he fists his hands in my hair and wraps his legs around my waist, trapping me against him before thrusting upwards and impaling himself on my cock.

“Impatient brat,” I growl, biting down on his earlobe as he bucks his hips, using me like a dildo.

Letting him have his fun for a few minutes, it’s not long before he gets bored with doing the work when all he wants is to be taken care of. My little pillow princess.

“Mad...” he whines, arching into me as he scratches at my back, trying to pull me closer.

Grabbing his ankles, I position them on my shoulders. The change in position allows me to fuck him harder, deeper, the angle punching against his prostate with every thrust. He fists the sheets, tearing at them as I bury myself inside him, pumping my cock in and out until it feels like I’m almost ready to crawl out of my skin.

Our skin is sticky and sweat covered, the room smells like us and right now, nothing else exists. The apartment building could crumble around us and they’d find me in the dirt, still fucking him like it was my reason for living. Everything is perfect at this moment.

Letting one of his legs fall back down to hook around my waist, I wrap my hand around his cock and jack him in time with my thrusts.

“Yesss,” he cries, mouth open as I drive into his body.

“You’re mine,” I demand, my chest heaving as he grabs my face and pulls me closer.

“Yes,” he breathes against my lips, swallowing down my air before he kisses me, shattering us both as I bind us together with my knot.

This peak passes much quicker than the last one, lasting only two days before Blue is back to his senses and no longer clawing at my back like he's trying to crawl inside my skin. A part of me is pleased that once again we’d gone without condoms, because now I’m more certain than ever that Blue’s my mate and to see him grow big with my child is something that makes my chest feel like it’s about to burst.

I stroke his hair and down his spine as he lays across me, my knot still buried in his ass. That last round, he’d ridden me slowly, teasing us both with the lazy rolls of his hips until he orgasmed so hard, he got cum in my chest hair.

“We’ve never talked about why you’re in Aurora Pines.”

“I’m a freelancer and I followed a job here,” I say as I twirl silver strands between my fingers. I don’t want him to ask about the nature of my freelance job, so instead I share other truths in the hope of distracting him.

It makes me feel shitty to hide this from him, but now, when he’s vulnerable and soft, isn’t the right time to admit that I was sent to track him down. “I’m from Clearwater, where I grew up with three brothers. I was raised by my mother, my father left before I was ten. I have two beautiful nieces, Devon and Lottie.”

His breathing is steady, and for a moment I wonder if he’s fallen asleep, but then he places a tender kiss just above my nipple, a silent plea for me to continue.

“Because I travel a lot, I moved back home with my mother. My brothers will often stay there too, so it’s never a quiet house.”

“That sounds nice.” There’s a soft sigh as his fingers run through my chest hair, snagging slightly where I’ve been sweaty and sticky. “Are you a mama's boy?”

Chuckling, I think for a few moments about how to answer. “A few years ago, I would’ve said no, but then my mother got sick and now I get anxious if I’m away from her for too long. So, honestly the answer is yes.”

“Oh, I’m so sorry. Is she... Is she okay?” Pushing up to look me in the eye, Blue unintentionally rocks on my knot, making me grin.

“She’s in remission and she’s a fighter. We often joke that the Goddess isn’t ready to meet her again yet, and that’s why she’s still with us.” I don’t linger on the topic because my mother’s illness isn’t something to be sad about. She is still with us and that’s all that mattered.

“What about you? Where’s your family?” I ask gently, even though Abiel told me about Blue’s parents being important members of The Warren.

Through some of the forums I’d managed to dig up, I learned that parents inside The Warrens didn’t keep their children. They were moved around to spread out access to resources and based on which areas of Warren life they might go into. I couldn’t find much more than that, but I guess it meant that Blue had never really grown up with his parents. Why was Abiel pushing the family card so hard when, in reality, Blue probably couldn’t pick his parents out of a line-up?

He confirms my suspicions when he says, “My parents gave me away and I was raised by someone else. When I was old enough and able to, I left. There was nothing there for me.”

There’s a strange detachment there and I recognize it well, having gone through training to deal with people who have trauma. He disassociates, taking himself out of the situation that might be painful for him otherwise.

“So, who looks out for you?” My fingers continue to move up and down his spine in a soothing pattern. I can’t get enough of him, I don’t wanna stop touching him. I place a kiss on his lips before he settles back down with his cheek squished against my pec. I’ll give him whatever comfort he needs for the rest of our lives.

“Tuesday, who you saw at The Antler earlier is one of my closest friends. We met not long after I turned seventeen.” I pick up notes of sadness in his scent, and I want to swallow them down, so he never has to feel them again.

Tuesday, the jewelry thief, has been friends with him since he was a teenager. Does that mean that Blue knew The Ghost? Had he been forced into a life of crime just to survive? My thoughts begin running wild and I tense, making Blue glance back up at me. Taking a deep breath, I force myself to calm down mine. My mate. Protect. Safe. I wasn’t going to let anybody hurt him ever again. And he’d never be alone for as long as he’d have me.

“I also have another friend called T, who’s been by my side since I was fifteen. They are my family.” He pauses before grinning at me. “And obviously, I moved here, and that’s where I met Shep, Maisie and Ciro.”

Happiness. Anxiety. These are woven into the apple fragrance that surrounds my little mate. A small part of me is relieved that he’d spent the last twelve months building a family and that the people of Aurora Pines had welcomed him with open arms. Blue deserves to be loved unconditionally. Another part is angry at myself that I haven't found my way to him sooner.

“Not all families are bound by blood. In fact, I always think that the best ones are the ones you make yourself,” I murmur, as I place both hands in his hair. My knot has begun to deflate and cum trickles out of his sloppy hole while he places kisses down my sternum and over my nipples teasingly.

I’m too tired for another round, as I suspect he is. It’s more for comfort. For intimacy. We aren’t ready to breach this bubble we’ve built around ourselves the last two days.

“Tuesday is staying here in town for a little while, but I would really like it if you got to know him better.” Blue looks up at me again, his cheeks flushed and his silver hair all rumpled as he rests his chin on his hands over my heartbeat. “I mean, if you’d like that. Because I...I really like you.”

He means he loves me, but he doesn’t recognize it yet and after the life he’s lived, I’m not surprised. He still hasn’t figured out what we are to one another and that’s okay. I don’t need him to say the words. I know they’re buried in there somewhere.

“Love, I’m not going anywhere. I’d be honored to meet your family.” I can feel the bond between us pulsing, getting stronger. When it’s the right time, when all of our skeletons are out of the closet, I’ll claim him as my mate and there will be no doubt over what we mean to one another.

A few hours later, while Blue is taking a shower, I hunt around for my phone and call Jason. I need more information about Tuesday Reynard. He answers after the first ring, sounding breathless as he launches straight into speaking.

“Have you seen my email?” He demands, and I blink. It wasn’t like him to get worked up. We’d teamed up for countless cases over the years, and Jason always kept his cool. It was one of the things I’d admire most about him.

“No, I’ve been a little preoccupied.” Sitting on the edge of my bed, I run a hand through my hair. I’m careful to keep my voice down, because I still haven’t told Blue who I am. “What’s going on?”

“Tuesday Reynard has been spotted in Aurora Pines.” Jason sounds keyed up, but I say nothing. How am I supposed to admit that I already know exactly where Tuesday is? Because he’s in Blue’s cabin right now, living his best life as one of my mate’s closest friends.

Jason’s voice lowers, “And I think...that The Ghost is there too.”

“What? Why?” My chest tightens as if I’ve been sucker punched.

The Ghost was in Aurora Pines? That made no sense. Why now? Yes, we thought they worked together, but that didn’t mean he was here. They were rarely in the same cities at the same time. What were the chances they were both here now? That was more drama I didn’t need right now. I already had enough on my plate.

“The robbery you sent me—it makes sense that the two of them are up to their old tricks again.”

I’d seen the article and suspected, but I didn’t really think I was on to an actual lead. “So, you think that whoever is with Tuesday is The Ghost?”

There’s silence down the line before Jason scoffs.

“I’d bet my job on it, Stirling.” He laughs bitterly, and I think I hear him slamming something down on a desk or into a wall. Had he just punched the wall? “What I can’t quite figure out is how The Warrens and The Husk fit into all of this, but something in my gut says they’re connected.”

“Huh?” What did The Warren have to do with any of this? Was Jason conflating two different things because he was suspicious of The Husk?

“I started piecing together the things you sent me and it was Axia who noticed it.” I can hear papers being shuffled around, and the sound of a marker being dragged across a whiteboard. “The Husk moves around, going from Warren to Warren. But there’s a pattern emerging. They’re in every city only a few weeks before there’s a hit by The Ghost.”

That wasn’t unusual because, despite the numerous Warrens across the globe, there was only one Husk council. So, in reality, it makes sense that they would move, travelling around to visit each Warren to carry out their duties. That alone isn’t enough to be a cause for concern, even though I understand where Jason is going with that train of thought. It’s an odd coincidence. And ‘odd’ always rings alarm bells.

“I need more time to do more digging, but is The Ghost one of them maybe? The forums you found talked about using children to make money and maybe...maybe The Ghost is just some poor kid being exploited.”

I think about the stolen items that Blue supposedly has tucked away somewhere in a hidden vault. What if he'd stolen already stolen jewels from The Husk to start his new life? Could The Ghost be someone he knew back at The Warren?

I didn’t want my mate involved in this mess any longer. As soon as this call was over, I was transferring the money back to Abiel and emailing the contract termination email that had been sitting in my drafts folder since my stay at the cabin. I was done with this mess. I needed to focus on Blue and my family now.

“I don’t know, man. It sounds—”

“I know, I know. But something is off with that weird little rabbit cult.” Jason sighs, sounding like a balloon being deflated down the line. “Barker said I needed more evidence before I could get within ten miles of an investigation, so I’m going to keep digging but keep your eyes open. Things are strange in Aurora Pines.”

He’s got that right.