Page 101 of Slow Heat

“You’ll appreciate it during heat.” Jason lifted his chin, trying to do what Urho had suggested. He wished the alpha quell wasn’t seeping out of his system. He needed that cool space to keep his head on straight enough to function. “When you’re begging for my dick again and I don’t need to shove you full of an unsatisfactory alpha dildo while I recover, you’ll be happy.”

Vale’s chest flushed and his cheeks above his beard grew red again. His cock twitched, like it was making an effort to rise. “You need to leave,” he whispered. “Or else you need to fuck me on that bed. Make your choice. Do it now.”

Jason growled gently at how Vale had wrangled the upper hand just like that. Now how as he supposed to get it back? “You’re covered in my come. I’ve marked you. You’re mine. Don’t get smart with me now.”

Vale rubbed a hand over his beard, grimacing gently at the come stuck in it. “And your face looks like you just made out with a scrub brush.”

Jason touched his own chin, only just becoming aware of the stinging, raw pain. “That beard’s a menace,” he muttered, and then grinned. “I like it. You’ll keep it. It’ll feel good in all sorts of interesting places. Like against my asshole.”

Vale stared at him and gulped hard. Jason’s smile grew wider. There he was back on top again. Just the way he liked it.

“There’s another bathroom in the hall,” Vale said, pointing toward the door they’d come through. “It has a shower. Mine just has a tub.”

“We can shower together.”

“No, if you stay longer, there’ll be problems with your parents. You’ll be late to your family’s feast as it is.”

“Come with me to it. There’s no reason you can’t.”

Vale sighed and pushed off the doorjamb. “Aside from the fact that I’m strung out on wanting you and unfit for company?”

Jason’s heart waltzed happily. “Is that all that’s holding you back?”

Vale ignored him. “Go on. Use the shower.” He groaned and wiped a hand over his face. “Your clothes are covered with come. I don’t think we have time to wash them.”

“I’ll call my parents and say I’m having Feast of the Expectant Wolf here with you.”

“Jason, no. That won’t win me any favor with your parents, especially your father. Not to mention, the alpha quell has to be nearly out of your system as it is.”

“So? You were just begging me to fuck you on the bed here. Maybe I don’t need alpha quell anymore.”

Vale frowned, looking away. Even that much disapproval cut into Jason like a knife. “Leave,” Vale said, firmly.

“But you’re shaking. I don’t want to leave you alone.”

Vale smirked. “I’ll be okay. I’ve survived plenty of heats, after all. Just wait until you see me then. I’ll be shaking like a leaf.” He squeezed his eyes shut and shivered.

Jason’s chest collapsed under the weight of joy. He could barely summon the breath to whisper, “So you will contract with me then?”

Vale ducked his head, breaking his joy into an equal measure of fear. “Darling, we can’t discuss that now. Tomorrow we’ll meet with the lawyers and then we’ll see.” He pushed off the doorframe again and collapsed onto his bed in a heap. “Run the water for me, if you want to help.” Vale rolled around, smearing Jason’s come across the exposed sheets.

It smelled so good. The evidence of the two of them mixed together. Jason’s heart sang with hope and his cock twitched with renewed arousal. He went into the bathroom and started the tub running, before going back to the bedroom.

Tomorrow would be the end of this waiting, and he could claim Vale as his own. Then they could live together in bliss in this dusty old house forever. Or for as long as Vale was happy here. Jason would learn everything about him, he’d discover what he loved, what he loathed, and he’d uncover things about Vale that annoyed him, made him roll his eyes the way Father did when Pater ranted about omega freedom groups, and he’d learn to love it all. Every last annoying habit and wonderful trait. It was going to be beautiful.

Vale stretched out his long limbs like a cat, and Jason admired his sweetly concave belly dusted liberally with dark hair. The colorful tattoos on his arms beckoned to Jason like mysteries he could solve immediately, if he only asked just the right way. The tattoos appeared to be pink flowers, or maybe they were clouds, wolf-god’s face, a star, and perhaps a sun on one arm, and echoes of those themes on the other.

“Your tattoos…”

“Go,” Vale said, waving his fingers toward the open door.

“But—”

“The tattoos are a story for another time. You should go now.”

“Not without a kiss goodbye.”

Vale started to protest, clearly afraid of where it would lead, but Jason gripped his head firmly and kissed him hard. Vale melted and pulled Jason closer.