Page 38 of Overeager (Extra Credit #1)

Eli

O ne year later

Eli rushed through the door, locking it quickly behind him as he called out, “I’m sorry! The store was packed. Everyone’s getting ready for summer vaca—”

He let out a surprised “oomph!” as almost two hundred pounds of pure muscle slammed into him, pinning him to the door. When he’d caught his breath, Eli dropped the bags he was holding to the floor. “It’s already starting, then?”

Noah’s answer was to shove his head into the crook of Eli’s neck, sniffing at him so ferociously it set goose bumps off all over Eli’s skin.

Things had definitely already started, then.

Eli held himself completely still. Not out of fear—never that, not with his alpha—but because he knew Noah needed to get this out of the way.

The start of all Noah’s ruts were always the same—Noah scent marking the absolute life out of Eli until Eli smelled so heavily of alpha that he could have been mistaken for one himself.

So Eli held his back straight against the door as Noah sniffed and rubbed at Eli’s neck, his face, the crook of his shoulder. There was the harsh feel of fabric tugging taut against Eli’s chest, then a ripping sound, and then Eli’s buttons were scattering across the floor with tiny plinking sounds.

Goodbye, beloved shirt.

Ah, well. He should have known better than to wear one of his nicer shirts, anyway, even just to run to the store. He tilted his head so Noah could scent mark along his other shoulder and then his chest, the quiet, growly, snarly sounds he was making going straight to Eli’s cock.

Other than that tiny movement, Eli only shifted to rest a hand on Noah’s upper back as best he could, trying to reassure his alpha with the weight of his touch. To remind him that Eli was here, safe in his arms.

The thing was, Eli had meant to already be here when everything got going, but Noah’s rut had started early. An entire week early, actually, as if in some sort of throwback to the first heat they’d spent together.

But this time they should have been expecting it.

And with Noah’s head bent low, rubbing against Eli’s chest, Eli had a perfect view of the reason why they should have been expecting an early rut—the distinctive bite mark on the right side of Noah’s neck.

Eli’s claiming bite.

They’d wanted to wait until Noah’s graduation last month before they took that step. And when they’d realized Eli’s heat would hit first, Noah had insisted.

“I want you to do it first,” he’d said, his eyes bright with excitement. “I want to be claimed by you, Eli.”

It wasn’t the usual order of things—it was usually an alpha making the bite first and then the omega second—but Eli shouldn’t have been surprised. It was just like Noah to reject the status quo without a thought. Just like him to be too sweet and eager to wait for his own rut.

And now his rut was here. By the time this week was over, Eli would be claimed right back.

“How are you feeling, sweetheart?” Eli asked quietly, rubbing softly with the hand at Noah’s back.

Noah’s only answer was a grunt. That was about what Eli had been expecting—Noah always went pretty nonverbal during the peaks of his rut, although sometimes he’d grind out a questioning “Good?” or an affirmative “So good” out of nowhere.

It delighted Eli to no end that those were some of Noah’s only spoken words mid-rut. That even in his alpha hindbrain, he was always checking in with Eli, always making sure he was taken care of.

Eli could tell by Noah’s pheromones that things were okay, anyway. They were a little intense—what with Eli not having been here when the first wave of his rut hit— but they weren’t harsh and panicked.

Just … rich. Hungry.

As further evidenced by Noah ripping off the rest of their clothes in the next few seconds, big hands grasping greedily at Eli’s bare ass.

“Should we get to a bed?” Eli asked with a laugh.

Noah grunted his version of a negative, pressing Eli down instead.

All right. Fucking on the floor it would be. Not ideal for Eli’s back, but he’d manage.

But right after laying Eli out on the hardwood, Noah cocked his head, eyeing their surroundings blearily.

He scooped Eli up in the next instant, walking on his knees while holding him— a seriously impressive feat—until he hit the living room rug.

He laid Eli out again, this time with the rug underneath him.

Aw. How thoughtful.

Eli raised a hand to cup Noah’s cheek and tell him so, but then Noah was tugging Eli’s legs straight and shoving his head into the crease of Eli’s groin.

Right. Time for Noah to scent mark the rest of him.

Eli went limp, letting himself be manhandled, giving in to the heady pleasure of Noah’s insistent mouth and searching hands. Eli was hard and leaking by the time Noah shoved his legs back to his chest, grunting in satisfaction at what his exploratory fingers found.

Because, yes, Eli was soaked, dripping slick onto that thoughtful bit of rug. He was soaked and loose and open, his body responding as it should to the thick syrup of rut pheromones in the air.

Noah growled his approval once more, and then his fingers were gone, and he was looming over Eli, lowering himself so his broad chest was pressing Eli’s legs as far back as they would go.

Yes. Fuck yes.

Eli canted his hips and tugged Noah down for a kiss just as the alpha pushed that thick, perfect cock into him, and Noah licked into Eli’s mouth greedily, grunting and growling as he gave Eli every inch of it.

He didn’t wait for Eli to adjust, didn’t murmur any words of praise—he just started snapping his hips, slamming into Eli with the same desperate greed he exhibited with every rut, like he was trying to fuck Eli so hard he could burrow inside him, join their bodies permanently, no knot required.

And just like every rut, it was heady and vicious, and it made Eli so wet he could barely hear himself over the sound of slick and sweat and skin slapping skin, Noah’s head shoved against the scent gland at the crook of his shoulder.

Since Noah rarely spoke during his rut, Eli had taken to talking for him, at least as best he could, babbling his approval with words he could only hope made some kind of sense.

“Oh my fucking god. So good. So good, sweetheart. Oh. Oh . Unnngh. Yes, right there—so fucking good . Love you, love you, love you, love you.”

Noah had told him after his first rut that, even if he hadn’t been able to show it in the moment, he’d found it soothing, Eli’s extremely vocal enthusiasm for what they were doing.

He’d described it like a light in the fog, signaling to him that he was right where he was supposed to be.

That he was making Eli feel good, even if he was a little too mindless for finesse.

And when Eli’s words inevitably ran out—when he was too delirious with the relentless pleasure Noah was giving him—he gasped and whined and screamed his enjoyment instead.

The first peak was always quick and furious, and this time was no exception.

It wasn’t long before Noah roared his release against Eli’s neck, his knot swelling against Eli’s ass.

Noah shoved it past Eli’s stretched rim, lodging it inside him with that perfect, wonderful fullness, and Eli spasmed around it, shooting his orgasm between them just as he felt a sharp pain at his neck, followed by a flood of …

goodness. Rightness. A new, steady warmth in his chest.

Noah had bitten into the left side of his neck, a mirror image of Eli’s own claim on him.

Noah had claimed him.

Tears escaped Eli’s closed lids as his inner muscles clenched and fluttered around Noah’s knot, and Noah released the hold of his teeth on Eli’s neck to swipe at them with his tongue, letting out a concerned huff.

Eli stroked his hair, trying to let him know wordlessly that they weren’t tears of pain.

Eli was just so fucking happy.

They lay there for a long time, Noah switching between licking at the tears and the wound as Eli pet him, but Noah’s knot was still fully inflated when he finally rose onto his elbows, meeting Eli’s gaze with new awareness in his eyes.

There he is .

“Are you okay?” Noah asked, his voice hoarse.

“I’m perfect,” Eli reassured him, rubbing his hands along Noah’s spine now. He grinned giddily at him. “I didn’t know if you were going to do it right away.”

“I couldn’t help myself,” Noah told him, with a small smile of his own. His eyes searched Eli’s face. “Is that … okay?”

“Of course.” Eli pressed a kiss to his concerned mouth, grinning again. “Of course it is.”

They’d discussed it all ahead of time, had planned for this rut to end in a claiming bite.

Noah was officially no longer an undergraduate student, and Eli was in no way, shape, or form his professor.

Maybe there was a world in which Eli made them wait longer.

One in which he let Noah grow a little older, one in which he made absolutely certain that Noah knew what he wanted before they took this step.

But it wasn’t this world.

Eli trusted Noah to know his own mind. He’d learned enough to know that trust was just as important as any certain knowledge.

And they’d waited enough already, hadn’t they?

They’d waited to be outed. Waited to be official.

Waited to be public. They’d even waited for Noah to graduate before moving him fully into Eli’s house, right before Eli’s last heat.

Eli had wanted Noah to keep that last bit of the college experience, his apartment with his beloved roommates—he’d held firm on that.

But now they were ready to start the rest of their lives together. There would be no more waiting. No more hesitation.

They both knew who they were, and they both knew what they wanted. Each other. A mate bond. Marriage, at some point.

“How are you feeling?” Eli asked. He didn’t know yet whether the bond would solidify in a way where they could sense each other’s emotions, as some couples claimed.

He suspected it might come with time, as they learned more of the nuances of each other’s pheromones.

For now, he could feel a certain … awareness.

As if the place in his heart where he carried his love for Noah had expanded and filled.

Like Noah was actually there, inside Eli’s chest, loving and being loved by him.

“I feel like this is the best day of my life,” Noah said solemnly.

He’d said the same thing about their first night together. He’d said it the day he’d moved in. He’d probably say the same words on their wedding day, whenever that would be.

Eli laughed, squirming as Noah licked again at the newly tender spot on his neck—Noah would need to keep tending to Eli’s bite throughout the rut, his saliva part of the healing process, as well as part of the pheromone magic that made the bite scar permanent, despite it not being too deep.

Eli knew Noah wouldn’t forget, no matter how far gone he was when the next wave hit.

That was just who Noah was as a person. Caring. Considerate. Loving.

They would each grow, as the years passed, and they would definitely each change in different ways over time, but those core aspects of who they were … those weren’t going anywhere.

And whatever came their way—whatever changes they might go through—they’d talk it out together. They’d compromise. That was just who they were as people. As a couple.

As mates.

“Hey, Noah?”

Noah lifted his head from Eli’s neck, his gaze warm and filled with so much love. “Yeah, baby?”

“This is the best day of my life too.”

The end.