Page 25

Teddy

The next morning, we had leftover pizza for breakfast. We ate in silence while we waited for room service to bring our coffee. Mori had texted me to remind us that he was off on his own for the day and we should spend the day together as true-mates did. He didn’t say it directly, but I figured he wanted me to chill out Othoni before he got knocked over again.

“Do you think he’ll ever forgive me?”

Othoni yawned after reading the text. He was so sexy in the morning with his messy bedhead and sleepy lidded eyes.

“I do,”

I nodded. “I think he already has. He just doesn’t want it to happen again. He probably has hangups about violence given his sire’s side of the family. We all try hard not to be like our parents even when we already are.”

“I’m not afraid to eat someone. Not Mori. Just in general,”

he yawned again. “I’m not going out looking for a fight but we all fight back home. At least, we’re trained to protect the pard. Mostly that includes learning to let the jaguar take over. Though, I feel like I should’ve practiced more on making him sit down and stop it.”

“I think it’s hot. The whole protective thing,”

I shrugged. “Not so much knocking Mori over but the whole attitude.”

“Good because I don’t think it’s going anywhere anytime soon. I’ve seen it a little bit with some of the folks back home. It’s rare but occasionally the pard does get true-mates. Though, I haven’t seen someone go after their friend.”

“Hey, you know Mori and I didn’t plan to meet up here and fuck, right?”

I cut to the chase. “I’m not saying you thought that but Marsin asked me about it before you all ever got here. It was never like that.”

“Oh, believe me I know. Mori wouldn’t with you. Usually, I’d take that as an insult, but I think I’d wear his tail as a trophy hat if he wanted to right now,”

he said and gnashed his teeth into another slice of pizza.

“Well, I didn’t want to seduce him either,”

I said all of it leaving a bad taste in my mouth.

“What?”

he asked, leaning over to sniff my shoulder. “Are you mad that Mori doesn’t want you? Mad, isn’t exactly what I’m smelling.”

“I think this is one of those times I should shut up,”

I laughed and leaned back against the pillows. “I’m not sure what I’m feeling and talking through it aloud never works out.”

“So, you don’t want to seduce Mori but you’re mad he doesn’t want you?”

he arched a brow in my direction and sat his pizza down.

“I think it’s more the fact that you two talked about it enough for him to say he didn’t want to. That’s so fucking weird, mate. Really weird. I almost want to call Sequin and ask him if that’s how omegas talk when alphas aren’t around.”

“Sometimes but it wasn’t about you, not really,”

Othoni shook his head. “It was about what his parents wanted and didn’t want. Though, sometimes we do talk about who we don’t want to sleep with but it’s for safety. Sometimes we have a bad feeling or just want our friends to know that whoever is a no-go. That way we can have each other’s backs. It wasn’t like that. It wasn’t a vibe you gave off. I think your life intimidates Mori a bit. Hell, it intimidates me. Like how the hell do you get on a ship and fly to another planet? No one was certain the damn place even existed!”

“Well, I wanted to go, and my dad said he wouldn’t do it without me and Sunny,”

I started to explain.

“How were you not scared?”

“Who says we weren’t?”

I asked. “Sometimes you do the thing because it scares the shit out of you.”

“That’s what Mori was talking about.”

“If I only get to be me one time, I’m not letting something little like fear hold me back and in the face of oblivion fear is such a tiny fucking thing, mate.”

“That makes me---- You do remember how we met, right?”

Othoni asked, scooting to the end of the bed.

“That’s a different sort of fear. It’s not like not sky diving when you want to but you’re afraid. Floods, tornadoes, whatever can wash your little fluffy ass away. That’s a survival instinct in overdrive.”

Othoni froze for a second as if he thought about what I said and then he came back up onto the bed properly with me.

“At least someone gets it,”

he said and leaned his head against my shoulder.

“My guess would be that your instincts and intuition go into overdrive because you will lead the pard someday. Don’t worry, though. If a storm comes like that after you’re in charge, I’ll shift and sit on everyone, so no one gets blown away.”

“I know you’re teasing me but thank you.”

“I’m serious. No cat-nadoes on my watch. No, sir,”

I smirked and stole a kiss.

***

As soon as breakfast was over, Othoni was ready to be outside. Our room at the B&B only had one window and it didn’t let in enough fresh air for his liking. He didn’t have to speak up about it for me to see how his nose crinkled up and how restless he grew whenever we were inside anywhere for too long. We roamed around town and did a little shopping at some of the local shops. Othoni bought clothes because of course he did. I didn’t know an omega who could enter a clothing store on Earthside and not buy something.

While he tried on outfits, I tried to imagine us building or buying a little house here in the Appalachian Wolf Pack Territory. It probably wasn’t where Othoni wanted to settle down, but my imagination ran a little wild. We could have the whole kitten kaboodle. The two-story house with a basement to hide in when storms blew through. A big back yard for the kids to play in. So many kids. A swing set and a sandbox.

After lunch we headed back to the B&B for a nap. Othoni kicked off his shoes and crawled into bed, but I stripped down to my underwear. I lived too long on Starscale 1 to stay in clothes too long. Putting on a shirt almost felt like sacrilege.

“Where is his?”

my dragon asked.

“His what?”

I shot the question back to my inner beast as I crawled into bed.

“His scale!”

“Huh!”

I said, stretching out next to Othoni and pushing up his shirt to expose his chest.

“Huh? What?”

Othoni laughed. “If you wanted me to flash you, you only had to ask.”

“You don’t have a scale,”

I said, tapping over his heart.

“Uh, mate, are you tired? I’m a jaguar. We don’t have scales,”

he laughed and pulled me down for a long, slow kiss. With his tongue dancing inside my mouth, I almost forgot what I wanted to find out. My scale was still there. Marin’s was there and Astral had one too. Where was Othoni’s? Only I didn’t ever want to stop kissing him to find out.

“All Starscales have star-shaped scales on their chests like I do,”

I pointed out in between kisses.

“I have a star spot. I’ve always had one. It’s on my belly,”

he whispered back. “Maybe destiny was prepared for you to be an alien.”

“I am not an alien. Neither are the Starscales. They came from the Other World just like Moonscales did. Seriously, sheesh. I’m going to buy you a history book and read it to you like a bedtime story.”

“Eh, no thank you. A Moonscale history book would give me nightmares,”

Othoni laughed and pulled me on top of him. His hands found my ass and kneaded his fingers into my flesh. I let out a low draconic purr into the kiss and he held on tighter. We were both hard again. Though, we were that way most of the time since meeting each other and the smell of his sweet, slick arousal was never far off. I ground down against him and he hissed against my mouth at the sudden pleasure.

“If you keep that up, we’ll need a shower before we take a nap,”

he whispered.

“Do you want me to stop?”

I whispered back, pressing my forehead against his.

“Nope,”

he shook his head. “The water bill is included in the price of the room.”

It wasn’t sex. Hell, it wasn’t even skin on skin but rubbing against him took some of the edge off my constant need to touch him. He was fucking gorgeous in all the right ways. He was hard and soft and smelled like a home I only imagined before. I held onto his face as our tongues danced between our open mouths. He tasted sweet like he always did. His fingers dug into my ass cheeks, urging me on as spirals of pleasure wrapped around my dick. His body heat consumed me as we thrust and ground together until his teeth dug into his lip.

“Cum for me, mate,”

I whispered against his lips. “Cum so I can. I need to so badly. Please.”

His tongue sank into my mouth again as he ground up faster, digging his heels into the bed. His body went rigid with the orgasm and his nails dug into my flesh. I exhaled into the kiss, my dragon’s purr morphing into a near growl, as everything inside me drew up tight and then exploded. I kissed him again and again even after there wasn’t anything more to be drawn out of either of us. His lips on mine was a medicine I didn’t know I needed until I met him. More than ever I understood why my sire kept conking out after Mum died. If I ever had to live without Othoni I would simply fly into the sun and say fuck it.