Page 21 of His Unicorn Alpha (Shifters Sanctuary #3)

A fter shifting back to my human form following an extended nap, I had to admit that I felt better for it. In fact, I felt good . It was actually strange to feel energized after weeks of lethargy and discomfort, but as Micah helped me climb back into my sweatpants and stretched-out t-shirt, I stretched and grinned salaciously at him.

“What?” he asked, smiling back at me.

“You are going to so much effort to dress me when all I can think about is getting us both undressed again as soon as possible.”

I felt his surprise, sudden and sharp, roll through our bond before he followed it with simmering arousal. “I’m totally on board for that, sugar.”

Even though the verbal confirmation was unnecessary, I still melted at the endearment. Opening my mouth to suggest we just undress where we stood, my plans were foiled by my brother’s exasperated “I’m still here.”

Micah and I turned to find Eric sitting on the grass maybe fifteen feet away, his knees raised and his arms folded atop them. He gave me a sardonic smile. “Shifting helped?”

“The nap helped,” I corrected him. “I felt even more exhausted and ungainly while shifted. It was not a pleasant sensation. However,” I cast a quick glance towards my alpha before looking back at my brother, “we can share sensations and even mental images through the bond while shifted.”

Eric sat up straighter and brushed his unruly blonde hair back from his face. “Really?” his blue eyes gleamed with interest. “Is it easier to do in shifted form than your human form?”

“You realize you just put an end to our sexy fun times, right?” Micah muttered at my side. “We’re back to being lab rats again.”

“We can always sneak away to my lab,” I informed him with a playful waggle of my eyebrows.

“Nope. Nuh-uh. No.” Eric interrupted, getting to his feet and dusting his hands over his denim-covered thighs. “You’re not defiling my labs. Take your hormones back to your place. I’ll take notes later.”

Winking at Micah, I replied over my shoulder with a distracted “If you insist.” Then I took my mate by the hand and practically dragged him towards the clinic’s parking lot.

I had no idea why I was so extremely horny so suddenly, but I didn’t particularly care. It had been too long since I had last felt his knot, and I did not wish to wait any longer if I could help it.

The need built during the few minutes’ drive between the clinic and our home. I hadn’t felt so overwhelmingly desperate since before Micah and I had bonded. It felt as though my body —my omega — was trying to tell me something, but I had no idea what.

All I knew was I needed my mate inside me immediately.

As soon as we were inside the house, I slammed the front door and shoved Micah against the cool, painted surface, slanting my mouth over his. He kissed me back with the same intensity, likely feeling my desperation through our connection and mirroring it, and the sensation of his tongue twining with mine momentarily cooled some of the burning need.

It was only a short reprieve.

I could feel my slick pooling in my underwear, and my veins felt as though they were on fire. My skin was flushed and heated, and my heart hammered.

“I’ve got you, sugar,” he murmured, running his hands down my sides, “let’s get you somewhere comfortable so we can take care of this” —he slid one hand beneath the ridiculously protruding mound of my belly and rubbed at my erection through my sweatpants— “okay?”

I whimpered and nodded. Even at my most insatiable point during this pregnancy, I had never felt so out of control of my body. There was horny and then there was…whatever the hell this was. “Please, alpha.”

“Aww, baby, come on.” Gently pushing me backwards, Micah guided me to the bedroom with a hand on the curve of my spine. We paused at the foot of the bed and he asked, “How do you want to do this?”

It had been a few weeks since he had last fucked me and my belly had grown much more cumbersome in that time. Despite my desperation, I did not think I had the stamina to ride him, nor did I think my back would withstand the ordeal. If I was careful not to put weight on my stomach, I could get on my hands and knees, but my back twinged at that idea, too.

Following that, I shielded Micah from the guilt I felt at mentally dismissing the idea of attempting to lie on our sides. For the first time since we had met, I couldn’t help thinking that he wasn’t quite endowed enough to give me what I needed in that position, at least, not until he grew and knotted. I ached to think it, and I would never say the words out loud, but that was the reality of the moment.

“A pillow beneath my hips might help if I’m on my back,” I eventually decided. “It might be easier for you if I am near the edge of the mattress, too.”

He nodded and moved to gather pillows, then stopped and dropped them in a pile. “Wait,” he told me, smiling softly, “I have a better idea. Do you trust me?”

“Always,” I answered without hesitation.

Then he turned on his heel and slipped into the ensuite bathroom. Moments later, the sound of running water met my ears and Micah reappeared in the doorway. “What if you ride me in the tub?” he asked. “The water will take the weight off your back, and you’ve got enough slick happening that I don’t think the water causing friction will be an issue.” He shrugged, adding, “We might get water everywhere, but I can clean that up afterwards.”

It was so thoughtful of him. My eyes welled with appreciative tears and a lump formed in my throat. “Perfect,” I told him, unable to say more.

“C’mere,” he extended his arms. “Let’s get you out of those clothes again.”

He undressed me with care, tossing my slick and precum soiled underwear and sweatpants into the hamper. Then he peeled off his own jeans and shirt, revealing his unblemished skin and long limbs. Though neither of us could see it beneath my gravid belly, my cock jumped and strained at the sight of my mate on display for me.

He was such a beautiful man, inside and out.

It still boggled my mind at times that he hadn’t loathed me for my actions, that he hadn’t turned tail and run away, that he had wanted the future I had paved without his consent. Setting aside the mystical aspects —the bonding, the knotting, the shifting and the fact that I was a dragon and he was a unicorn— it still seemed unbelievable that a beautiful younger man like him would want an older, chubbier man like me.

But he did, and I would thank fate and my lucky stars for eternity.

“Okay,” Micah said, pulling me from my emotional musings, “I think the bath is good to go. Let me help you in.” He followed through by taking my hand and steadying me as I awkwardly swung my leg over the tub’s side.

The water inside was just shy of hot, and I knew it would ease the constant ache in my muscles even while I planned on bouncing in Micah’s lap. Never had I been happier to have insisted on a comically large tub when I had remodeled the bathroom. Being a large man to begin with, I hadn’t wanted to feel cramped in it. Now, there was enough space for both of us, and I was excited to be taking advantage of the fact.

Micah climbed in and settled with his back against the enameled side of the tub, stretching his long legs out beneath the water. He held my hands as I lowered myself on top of him, crossing my ankles behind his ass. With my belly in the way, it took some maneuvering before we found the right angle and positions for me to sink down on his cock but the moment he was inside of me felt like a revelation. Like coming home after an extended time away. I wanted to weep with relief and happiness.

“Gods, sugar, this feels incredible,” Micah panted as I started to bounce gently in place. Water sloshed over the sides of the tub and slapped on the tiled floor, but I did not care. It only added to the ambiance of the moment — the soundtrack of our lovemaking as our heavy breaths and moans echoed off the walls.

I had to admit, being submerged in the bath changed the sensations I had become so used to. Because the water was not lubricating, I swore I could feel the veins and ridges of Micah’s cock inside me, even though I was producing so much slick. I was surrounded by warmth, and I felt lighter and more agile than I had in months. When his hand slid from my hip and into the gap formed by my distended abdomen, I moaned with unrestrained pleasure, feeling his fingers close around my neglected cock.

“Oh, fuck ,” he growled out, “keep clenching around me like that and I’m going to come before you do.”

“Do it,” I demanded, deliberately squeezing around him this time. I delighted in the way his expression contorted. “Come for me, darling. I need it. I need you to fill me up.”

I couldn’t explain why I needed it so badly, but my omega would not be satisfied until he came. I felt as though I was on fire and, idly, I wondered whether this was akin to being in heat…though that made very little sense as I was already heavily pregnant and unable to conceive.

“Oh, Jesus-fuck, Bran…your scales…”

Wet fingertips came up from my other hip and brushed my temple, setting off renewed jolts of pleasure through my body and I let out a guttural, “ Nnnngh .”

The bliss I felt must have shot through the bond because that was enough to set my alpha off. His grip on my cock tightened as his hips convulsed and I felt his cock swell.

“Fuck, sugar. I’m coming,” he warned me, his voice strained and low. “Fuck, uuunnngh. ”

I allowed his orgasm to consume me. The pleasure of it raced through the bond and into my own nerve endings as I also relished the feeling of his cock growing and swelling and locking his seed inside me. His knot put pressure on my prostate and I was done. My back arched and I came with a cry, barely riding out my own orgasm before he was coming again. The sensation of him filling me did exactly as I had anticipated, cooling the heat that had been devouring me from the inside.

With my heart racing from the come down, I slumped and gripped the edges of the tub to keep me upright, grinning lazily at the feeling of Micah’s cock jerking inside me, the jolts of pleasure through the bond matching each twitch.

“Don’t move,” he demanded, sounding wrecked. His usually glorious hair was wet and stringy around his face, and his forehead and pink cheeks glistened with perspiration.

He had never looked more gorgeous.

“I… oh. ” My hand flew to my belly as it tightened with a cramp.

Micah’s grimace and annoyance at my movement immediately morphed into concern. “What’s wrong?” He attempted to sit up straighter, yelping at the tugging to his knot.

“Most likely Braxton Hicks contractions,” I replied, frowning down at my belly as I rubbed my hand over the area, ignoring the phantom, lingering pain. “Orgasms can sometimes trigger them.”

“And you didn’t think to warn me— ah, fuck. ” He cursed and came again when I tensed and groaned through another mild cramp. “Shit,” he caught his breath, “are you okay? Are they supposed to come so quickly together?”

I bit my lip. “They can be erratic,” I answered, but my brain was already leaping through other potential scenarios. Scenarios where these were not Braxton Hicks contractions but the onset of labor.

Because, I realized after the fog of my heat-like desperation faded, semen contained prostaglandins. In pregnancies, when deposited near the cervix, prostaglandins helped soften the cervix to prepare for dilation. Additionally, oxytocin was the hormone produced by the body during orgasms, and oxytocin was also the natural form of the synthetic hormone, Pitocin, which is often given to patients via drip for formal inductions of labor.

While I didn’t have the same physiology as most pregnant people, I was still an omega. I had a sneaking suspicion that the science of labor worked similarly, though my body would develop a birth canal for the actual event. After all, magic and shifter biology still had some science working in the background.

So, I was heavily pregnant. and I had just had a lot of prostaglandins and oxytocin introduced to my system, and I was cramping at what might just be fairly regular intervals.

The signs all pointed to early labor.

Not wanting to panic my mate unnecessarily, I attempted to keep my suspicions to myself. Carefully shielding my feelings was harder when we were intimately connected, but not impossible. So, I did my best to remain calm and nonchalant, even when another cramp tightened my belly. I even managed not to clench around Micah’s knot, though that took effort I wasn’t certain I would be able to maintain if the cramps continued to increase in strength and rhythm.

Five more cramps later, and I was certain a pattern had established itself, and I was no longer able to conceal the pain from the bond, or from my expression.

Thankfully, though, Micah’s knot had begun to deflate enough that he could pull out of me. I heaved a sigh of relief and eased myself backwards until I was resting against the other end of the tub.

Micah watched me for a moment, then, more calmly than I had expected, asked, “They’re not Braxton Hicks contractions, are they? I mean…those last couple came through the bond…"

Taking a wobbly breath, I shook my head slowly. “I…do not think they are, no.”

He steeled his jaw and nodded. “Okay.” I could see his anxiety written plainly on his face, but I didn’t feel it through our connection. I assumed he was shielding his concern from me, and I appreciated it. I had enough of my own. Licking his lips, he asked, “What do you need me to do?”