Page 133 of Slow Heat

“No, my pater.” He took Vale’s hands and said, “Now’s not a good time to talk about that either. I want to be here with you and not…remembering.”

“Jason, what happened?”

“He’s going to be okay. Urho’s with him.”

“Oh. I see. The pregnancy.” Vale’s mouth turned down at the edges, understanding flashing in his eyes. “I’m sorry.”

Jason gathered Vale close. “Me, too.”

He pictured his future with Vale. This would be their room. He’d add pictures to the walls of his drawings from his favorite microscope slides. He’d go to school and come home to make dinner for Vale. He’d work in the garden, and Vale would write poetry and return to teaching his classes. It would be a regular, normal, everyday life. And it could be theirs.

“I don’t want children,” he said. “You’re perfect for me just the way you are. We’ll be fine on our own. We’ll throw parties and invite our friends, and we’ll grow old—”

“Some of us faster than others.”

“—and we’ll live our lives as happily as anyone can.”

Especially when life clearly didn’t follow the rules Jason had been led to believe existed. They could only do their best to be happy.

“You’ll want children one day,” Vale argued, nuzzling in close.

“After today, I don’t think I ever will.” He shuddered.

“But that wasn’t the way it normally… I should really stop trying to convince you, shouldn’t I? I’m not doing myself any favors here.”

“And you’re not making any progress anyway. I’ve made up my mind. I want you. And you want me.” Jason nodded firmly. “When everything’s said and done with this heat, you’ll sign the contract—stipulating no births required—and I’ll move in here.”

Vale shivered against him. “Just like that? You’re going to make the decisions for me then?”

“Yes. Because I’m your alpha and you apparently don’t know what’s good for you.”

“Oh, I know what’s good for me,” Vale protested. “I was trying not to be a selfish asshole.”

“And yet somehow you failed completely at that,” Jason couldn’t help but point out.

Vale snorted.

“Urho was right. I should have just told you what to do from the beginning.”

Vale laughed, rolling up onto his elbow to gaze down at Jason. “Oh, you’ve been taking lessons from Urho, have you?” He laughed again. “This will be fun. There’s a reason, darling, he never appealed to me enough to consider a contract with him.”

“I thought you were just waiting for me,” Jason teased.

Any jealousy of Urho had evaporated while Vale had sobbed on his knot. He was quite sure Urho had never elicited that reaction or been declared so perfect. Though, if he had, Jason definitely didn’t want to hear about it.

“Of course. Deep down, I knew you were out there.” Vale rolled his eyes again. “No, darling. He’s old fashioned and stuffy, and his ideas about omega-alpha relations are entirely backward.”

“Hmm.” Jason didn’t say anything else, a bubble of amusement filling his chest at the memory of Vale’s utter obedience to his every word during sex.

Urho was more than a little right about Vale, but Jason wouldn’t push it. It wasn’t his style to be bossy outside of the bed, and he didn’t mind letting Vale have his way about, well, nearly everything. As long as Vale was happy, Jason would be, too.

“Oh, wolf-god,” Vale said, shivering and curling up against Jason. “It’s coming again. Did you want to try that thing you mentioned?”

“You’ve really never done it before?”

Vale shook his head. “But I’m curious.”

Jason rolled Vale over and shoved his legs apart. “Get ready then, because I’m going to show you something truly amazing.”