Page 15

Chapter 15

Atlas/Fluffy

A iden was snuggled up in my arms, his head buried in my chest, but he was starting to stir a bit. I had been awake, enjoying the feel of him in my arms, and I wondered if I should get up when he woke. That tended to be our routine, but something had changed last night, and I wasn’t sure what it meant.

Liam and Quinton hadn’t come back to the house. Liam had let me know they were staying in the main house, because Quinton seemed to think that Aiden and I were going to have sex. I wasn’t sure if Aiden had said something or not, but it seemed like that might have been his plan.

He had kissed me, and it had taken everything in me to hold back and not maul him. I wanted to let him lead things, though. But then he’d gotten all sorts of nervous—I could smell it on him—so maybe that wasn’t the right course of action.

Talk , Fluffy grumbled.

I breathed a sigh. Yeah, I supposed this probably required some conversation. I didn’t want Aiden to get upset, and if I didn’t ask what would upset him, then I couldn’t avoid doing it. Usually Aiden told me everything that was on his mind, but last night he had smelled off, and yet he had reached down to touch me anyway. He hadn’t told me what bothered him.

I didn’t want Aiden to do something he felt bad about.

I knew that he had touched his captor, and maybe it had reminded him of that? Or maybe something about the kissing had made him feel bad? The problem was that I had no idea.

I growled a little in frustration, and Aiden lazily patted my chest.

“No growls, Fluffy,” he muttered sleepily.

Then his hand went from patting to rubbing, and he pushed his hips into me. I could feel his hard cock, and I was sure he could feel mine. I sniffed at his neck, and he shivered. He smelled aroused and content and happy—no sour note to his scent.

“My mate,” I rumbled, because I felt the need to say it.

“Mmm,” Aiden said, and he somehow got even closer to me, so we were pressed full body against one another. I growled at the feeling of his shirt against my bare skin, because I wanted skin. He seemed to know, because he scooched back and pulled his shirt over his head, then I felt him pushing his sweats down under the covers. “You too,” he said sleepily.

He didn’t need to tell me twice. I pushed my sweats down and kicked them off frantically, and Aiden ended up chuckling at the ruckus under the covers. He seemed to want to stay under the blanket, so I wasn’t going to disrespect that, but my legs flailing under the sheets to get the sweatpants off probably did look comical.

When we were both naked, he scooched closer to me again, and I grabbed onto him, holding him close. His skin was warm and soft against mine, and I sniffed his neck again, which made him groan. He still smelled aroused, maybe a bit amused, and happy. I held him close, our bodies pressed tightly together, his head pressing into my chest.

If all he wanted was to lay together, skin to skin, I would be happy. Then I felt a tiny lick against my nipple. It was like a butterfly touch, it was so light, yet I rumbled in approval anyway. That seemed to spur Aiden on, because he did it again, licking my nipple more thoroughly.

I couldn’t help pushing my hips forward, and our cocks were perfectly aligned to rub up against each other. I stopped myself from doing it again, but Aiden made a whining, plaintive sound, so I pushed forward.

He smelled so good, like sunshine and warm afternoons in the forest, with a musky tinge that signaled how turned on he was.

I thrust forward again, and he met me, our cocks rubbing together, the heads catching each other and sending tingles through me. It was exquisite, and Aiden met my next thrust, too, making that whining sound again. I sniffed at his neck, and I couldn’t help biting down a tiny bit.

He bucked against me, moaning in pleasure, rutting his hips against me faster. I bit harder, and he cried out. I grabbed his ass in my hands to help us grind against one another. Pleasure sparked through me, and Aiden’s little sounds and his smell only made everything more intense.

“Atlas!” Aiden cried out, and I could sense a level of frustration in that cry. Our cocks rubbing together felt amazing, but I knew it wouldn’t be enough to drive us over the edge. I wanted Aiden to come apart in my arms. I wanted to give him pleasure.

I pulled back from where my head was nestled in Aiden’s neck, and I reached down between us to grab both our cocks in my hand. Aiden looked at me, and the smell of his arousal grew stronger. I was sure there were flames in my eyes, and there was no way to make them go away.

“Let me give you pleasure, Aiden. Can I make you come? Can I make you feel good?” I asked.

“Yes!” Aiden cried out, bucking against me again.

I tightened my hand, sliding it up and down our cocks, the heads bumping, the precum we were both dripping making the slide silky and smooth.

“Do you like that, mate? Do you like my hands on you?” I asked.

“Oh god, Atlas. It feels so good,” he moaned.

I sped up, squeezing and twisting my hand at the top, frantically pumping. I leaned my forehead down against his.

“I love being so close to you. I love your smell. I want to be covered in your cum. I want to taste you, mate,” I murmured. “Would you like that?”

“God, Atlas, yes. Yes,” he panted.

His arms gripped onto my shoulders, pressing tightly, and I rumbled in pleasure.

“I want you to mark me. I’m all yours. Anything you want. I’ll give you anything you want,” I whispered.

“Atlas!” he cried out, and he reached his lips up to kiss me, frantically tasting me and nipping at my mouth as I did the same. His body was thrusting against me, his breath was heaving, and I felt his warm cum coat my hand as he came on a cry, our mouths still pressed together.

It was my undoing. Feeling him release onto me, smelling his cum—I couldn’t hold back, and my own orgasm washed over me. I pressed my forehead against his, slowing down to milk the last of our release. When Aiden gave a soft sigh, I stopped moving my hand.

I didn’t want to let our dicks go, though. We felt so good together in my hand.

Aiden opened his eyes and looked at me, a small smile on his face.

“Can I clean you up?” I asked him.

“Yeah,” he said, still smelling warm and soft and sated.

I ducked down under the covers and licked at our release against Aiden’s stomach, despite him giving a funny little yelp of surprise. He didn’t smell upset, though, and his dick twitched, valiantly making an effort to rise again. I grumbled happily at his taste, and his hand reached under the covers to grab me. He didn’t pull me up, though. He threaded his fingers through my hair and caressed my head.

I licked him clean and grabbed my sweatpants at the bottom of the bed to wipe myself off, then I came out from under the covers, smiling.

“You taste good,” I murmured, drawing him into my arms again.

“That wasn’t what I expected when you asked to clean me up,” Aiden murmured, but he didn’t sound upset.

I kissed his forehead, rubbing my hands against his back as he burrowed into my chest.

We laid like that for a few minutes, but I sensed Aiden starting to get restless. I loosened my arms and looked down at him.

“Talk,” I said. Probably not the most well phrased, but Aiden seemed to know what I meant.

“So, that was good,” he said. “I mean, that was great!” he hurried to add. “Like, really great! I liked that. A lot. And there were no icky feelings.”

“There were icky feelings last night,” I said, because that must have been the sour note I smelled on him.

Aiden sighed. “Yeah, there were.”

“Why?” I asked. “What made the icky feelings? I won’t do whatever it was again.”

That seemed like an easy question to me, but Aiden sighed again, burrowing into my chest and rubbing against me before he muttered, “It isn’t that simple.”

“Explain,” I said, then remembered to tack on a “Please.”

Aiden laughed a bit, then he rolled onto his back. He got comfortable and rested his head on my shoulder. He seemed to be thinking. That was ok. Sometimes words were hard, and I cuddled next to him while he put his thoughts in order.

“Helene is always telling me to give myself grace and be kind to myself, and that healing doesn’t magically happen. I liked kissing you last night. I was nervous that kissing might be a trigger for me, but it wasn’t. I guess when I didn’t know what to do next, that became kind of a trigger. When I was kidnapped… He would hint at what he wanted, and I knew what I was supposed to do, or else I’d get punished, so I did it,” Aiden said.

I couldn’t help the growling low in my chest, but Aiden just pet me softly.

“So it was like I was taking control, even though I had no control? I don’t know if that explains it well. But I think that I was thinking I needed to do something or you’d get mad, even though I know you wouldn’t get mad, but that feeling is sort of ingrained in me.

“And I guess this is where giving myself grace comes in. I guess anyone who is going to be with me is going to need to give me grace, too. I won’t always know what will trigger me. You stopped right away, because you sensed something was wrong. Maybe that’ll always work, or maybe I’ll want to talk through it, or maybe I’ll just want to switch gears and keep on doing something. I don’t want my ick feelings to be an automatic end to an intimate moment, because sometimes I may have them, and sometimes I might want to push past them.”

I nodded my head. “I will always give you grace, my mate. You just need to tell me what you need, especially if I’m not giving it to you.” I leaned down to kiss his forehead.

“Yeah, that’s hard sometimes, but I’ll try. I really liked that you sort of asked me about what you were going to do before you did it today. That was nice. Like I knew I could show hesitance or ask to do something else. I liked that we were naked, too. Maybe that’s weird, but a lot of times I was fully clothed when… Well, you know, and I think being fully clothed weirdly makes me feel like I’m not important or not powerful or something. I don’t know. He was mostly clothed a lot of times, too. Like I just undid his pants and…” Aiden trailed off and sighed.

I squeezed him tightly and kissed his forehead again, not wanting him to get lost in those bad memories. I said, “I love being naked with you. I will always be naked with you if you want.”

He laughed at that. “Well, maybe not always, but I feel like it helped. You helped, Atlas. And I’m sorry that I may get weird sometimes, but?—”

I cut him off. “Don’t ever apologize. You are strong and amazing and beautiful, and you give me so much. I wouldn’t want anything else in a mate but you. You’re perfect for me.”

Aiden sniffed at that, but I didn’t smell sadness, so we held each other, snuggling and enjoying our skin touching.

* * *

Aiden and Quinton had off today, so we were able to snuggle in bed until Aiden’s stomach growled. He and Quinton must have been on the same breakfast schedule, because not a minute later I heard Quinton rather loudly talking as he walked up to the house.

“Hopefully they’re ready for company, although I still think we should have texted first,” Quinton said.

He was talking to Liam and… Jude, by the smell of it. I heard a caw and realized Corbin was with them too—sometimes he could disguise his scent as well.

Oh, goody. Almost the whole gang. I sighed as the door banged open loudly and Quinton called out a greeting.

Aiden just chuckled, though, getting out of bed and putting sweatpants and a t-shirt on.

Don’t want clothes , Fluffy growled, and I sighed in resignation.

People meant clothes. Very annoying.

Aiden was looking at me and smiling, almost like he knew what I was thinking. “Breakfast, then our morning walk?” he asked.

We always took our morning walk with me in Fluffy form, so rather than get dressed, I changed into my hound form.

Aiden grinned at me, so I knew it was ok, and I followed him out of the bedroom, where the pack was waiting in the kitchen area. Jude had already started cooking, and Aiden grumbled about him not messing up his kitchen organization as he went over to help.

Corbin and his crow were sitting at the table, Quinton was putting plates and silverware out, and Liam was, as usual, glued to his computer.

I walked over next to Corbin, sitting down and giving a head nod to his crow. The crow nodded back at me, pushing a peanut over for me. I knew better than to refuse a crow gift, so I took it from the edge of the table with my mouth, much to Corbin’s amusement.

“We’re going to need to build another cabin, I think,” Corbin said quietly to me.

I tilted my head at him.

“And the one we built will need a bedroom door,” he added.

I gave a low rumble of disagreement. Aiden didn’t like bedroom doors.

“I don’t think you and Aiden will be staying there,” Corbin said. I could see that Liam was listening intently, despite staring at his computer. Jude was busy chatting with Quinton and Aiden, though, and I knew the humans couldn’t hear Corbin’s low voice.

“I think Quinton and Liam will eventually take the main house, and Aiden likes this space and is comfortable in it,” Corbin said.

I thought that over. He wasn’t wrong. Aiden did love this little house, and he was happy here. I had assumed Liam and Quinton would stay here and we’d sometimes want our own space, but last night Quinton and Liam had stayed at the main house. Aiden had liked the cabin and thought it was beautiful, but I hadn’t sensed a strong desire for him to make it his home.

If Corbin wanted to stay in the cabin in order to get away from Jude, since they were both sharing Dexter’s old house, I could totally understand that. Jude was pack, but he was also annoying as hell. But that still didn’t explain why we needed another cabin.

“Someone else will need the cabin,” Corbin explained, “and eventually Jude and I will want our own spaces, so I’ll need a cabin too. Not too close to the existing structures.”

Huh. I wondered vaguely who would need the cabin. Did he mean Wilder? Wilder usually liked to stay with the pack, so I thought he would stay with Jude and Corbin when he got here, but if this town was going to be a more permanent home, perhaps Wilder would need his own space.

With that thought, the guys started bringing over breakfast, and Aiden set a plate of bacon and eggs on a chair so it was at my level. I gave him a doggy grin and dug in as the rest of the pack sat and started eating. Quinton and Aiden were discussing something about a yoga class, Corbin was eating and feeding his crow, Jude was humming under his breath as he ate, and Liam was clicking away on his computer, taking a bite every now and then.

Happy , Fluffy rumbled, and I agreed. We were with our pack, and everyone was content. If we stayed in this house, that was fine with me. I was happy to live anywhere, as long as Aiden was with me. He was my home.