Page 10

Imri

Night was drawing in when I heard the alert. Since our last visitor, Rowan tweaked the spell so I could tell when it had been activated without one of the kids having to tell me. He’d also ensured the look-away aspect of the spell was stronger. People could walk directly up the dirt path to the house before the magic took hold and sent them into the woods and far away from the house.

Paranoid, maybe, but I had to ensure the safety of the kids. Until we had adoption papers, anything to prove they were mine, I didn’t want to risk discovery. Besides, I was a predator in nature, I needed to protect my den from threats, even little rodent like ones.

“Imri? Want me to come with you?”

“Not necessary. Stay here with the other two. Don’t let them raid any snacks before bed, they’ve had too much sugar as it is. Oh! And make them brush their teeth if I’m not back in an hour,” I said while I threw on some shoes to go check things out.

This time I was going in my human form, hoping secretly it was the little creature again and I could tempt him into shifting so we could talk.

I only wanted to warn him, gently, away from the woods. To tell him to stay away for his safety. At least, that’s what I pretended to myself. What I really wanted to do was see his face, to see what he looked like. He smelled so damn good he just had to be a pretty omega.

Plus, I also wanted to know what kind of beast he was. I’d never seen anything like him!

“Okay, I think they are over to the south of the house. They must have gotten pretty turned around. D’you think I made the spell too strong?”

“Only one way to find out.” I was supposed to be immune to the effects of it. Rowan had keyed all of us into the spell. My parents should also be able to find the place because they share the same blood as me.

In a matter of moments, I was in the yard.

“Imri! Wait!” Rowan rushed to catch up with me. “Take this stone. It will tug your hand in the right direction.”

“Perfect. Go back inside, okay? Be back soon.” I ruffled his hair, making him jerk away with a muffled curse.

Sure enough, the stone picked up on our intruder’s location pretty quickly. I walked through the woods with growing difficulty. These paths were overgrown, completely wild. It had to have been some time since anyone traveled this way.

The path I was using got too narrow for me as a man. I decided to shift and hold the stone in my mouth. I tried it first just in case and the thing still worked.

Stripping quickly, I took the time to fold and place my clothes on a branch. It felt like our visitor had paused in their wanderings. Probably lost.

I let the shift fall over me. My dingo was always there, ready to take control. He felt extra antsy to get going and find this intruder though. I was vaguely concerned about it, put on edge by his need to claim what was his.

With my improved senses, I didn’t need the stone anymore. I dropped it not too far from where the little beast was. I could tell it was the same one as before. They shared the same scent. It was intoxicating, drawing me forwards like I was under a spell.

He was in his human form, and fuck me, he was cute! Sandy brown hair with golden and red highlights woven in the strands. The most stunning pair of blue eyes I’d ever seen. They were the blue of the sky on a summer’s day. There were freckles dusted along a straight, pert nose, and over high cheekbones. His lips were a rosy pink and full. He wet them after greeting me. While he was pale, he had a healthy, pink tone to his skin. I could smell sweat on him, likely from exertion from all the walking he’d done. He was far from the road.

In short, he was perfect. If there was an example of the ideal omega to me, then it was him.

“Why is it that I feel so safe around you when the other one scared the living daylights out of me?” Without thinking about it, I shifted, standing naked before him.

He jerked back, falling off his perch in surprise.

“Fuck!”

“Is that a curse or request?” I went over to him, extending a hand to help him up. This close, his scent was overwhelming. The omega in him was clearly reacting to my pheromones.

He took my hand easily. My fingers brushed over his bare wrist. No wonder his scent was so strong. I would have never been able to smell him if he had his bracelet on.

“Oh, shit! I’ve lost another inhibitor. My parents are going to kill me.” He held on to me even as he sat back on the stump, defeated. His skin was warm and silky soft. It heated further under my touch.

“Do your parents know you’re out this late?” I teased.

The omega in front of me dropped my hand with a frown, sitting up straighter, full of indignance. “I’m an adult. I don’t report to them.”

“Is that right?” I raised an eyebrow at his fiery spirit.

“Yeah, I’m twenty-two. What about you? On the run from the retirement home? Does your nurse know you’re out here, gramps?”

A laugh burst free. “Touché, little omega.”

He blushed prettily. “You’re not the dingo from before. From years ago, I mean. ”

I was surprised he had the presence of mind to notice the difference between me and Uncle Malik. This had to be the shifter he scared.

“How can you tell?”

“Your scent. I think the other one was a beta. His scent is long gone from my stuff.”

Huh. He’d learned a lot from the brief encounter. Despite what had happened to him, he didn’t look angry at my uncle, or wary of me, which was a pleasant surprise.

“That was my Uncle Malik. He hated scaring you, but he had shifter sickness—“

“Oh, no! I’m so sorry!” His compassion was a sign of his sweetness. “He only scared me, didn’t hurt me. Is he okay?” He stopped, halfway to my side. “You said was. He’s gone, isn’t he?”

Of course, he knew the outcome for shifter sickness.

“Yeah, he hung on for a few more years than he really should have, but he died a couple months ago.”

“I’m so sorry for your loss.”

He touched me again then, as if he couldn’t bear not to be in contact with me somehow. I felt the same. There was this desperate need to have him close to me. I needed to say something to keep him with me a little longer.

“Not that I mind, but the woods can be dangerous. Why did you come here?”

His blush deepened. “The town made me a laughing stock after the first time—“

“I’m sorry about that. Malik hated being a part of that deception. In his condition, though, he could have really hurt you.”

My hand automatically reached out to brush the hair out of his eyes. We were so close, and at the height he was sitting, he was up close and personal with my dick. I could see the effort he was making not to look at it.

“Now that I know what he was going through, I’m sad for him and grateful it wasn’t worse than it was. He just scared me, that’s all.”

The pull I felt to him was magnetic. I could sense his sweet pheromones clouding the air between us, stronger than they should have been.

“So you came out here because you knew I wasn’t the same dingo? How could you be sure I wouldn’t turn on you like he did?”

“You followed me all the way to the road. I fled because I was scared at first, then because you were guarding your territory. You could have done anything to me and it would’ve been my fault. I was breaking the rules. You kept me safe and got me out.”

He picked up on that, huh? This little omega was fascinating.

“Could I try something?” he asked timidly.

“What is it?”

“Lean down a little.”

His face tilted up. He let go of me to cup my face. In an incredibly slow move, he drew our faces together until our lips were only a breath apart.

“Is this okay?” the sweet caramel scent of his breath washed over me.

Without answering, I closed the distance, pressing my lips to his.

Who I was, who he was to me, snapped and reformed in that moment. This was my fated mate. The omega I’d dreamed would come.

The kiss deepened, his mouth opening to my tongue as my hand cupped his neck, directing him to get more of his addictive taste.

Finally, the world felt right.

I felt the surge of pheromones from both of us this time, reacting to what we were to each other, encouraging us to mate, to cement a bond, to breed. The omega’s skin flushed with heat and arousal as his scent sweetened further.

Worse, I could feel my rut responding to him entering his heat.

We were so fucked!

Breaking away from the kiss, I tried to put some distance between us, even though it physically hurt. There was this ache in my chest while my cock was harder than steel. It leaked a bead of precome as the omega followed me.

He pulled off his shirt and began unbuttoning his jeans. The primal omega urge to mate after being thrown into a heat.

I went to him and stopped his hand. “No. We can’t.”

“Why?” he whined. “It hurts. You’re my mate. I need you.”

This close to him, I could see his pupils were blown wide. The scent of his slick made my mouth water.

“I should get you home before we do something we’d regret.”

“I could never regret you. We belong together.”

“We don’t,” I denied. It felt like someone stabbed me in the chest to say the words. I hated this, but there were three reasons at home why I couldn’t have him. I wasn’t too out of my mind to have rational thought. Close, but not there yet. The longer I spent around his incredible body and scent, the harder it was to deny I wanted him with my very soul.

“Not even once?” He kissed me then. I couldn’t help but return it. The feel of his body against mine was so right. His mouth felt too good.

He pulled away, pushing his pants and underwear down and kicking them and his shoes off. “Help me, please. It hurts.”

His thighs glistened with his slick. His heat had come on so fast and was already intense. I couldn’t imagine the pain he was in. He needed me. Needed my cock, my knot, to break it.

Seeing the desperate way he was clawing at his skin, the panic on his face, broke me.

I stalked the short distance between us. I hoisted him into my arms while I fused our mouths together. My fingers found his cleft, sought his leaking hole, and plunged inside. He was so wet and warm. His body was already open for me.

“Ready?” I asked as I broke the kiss.

“Please!” His begging was so cute .

Pressing him into a tree, I raised his leg over my hip, I notched my cock at his hole and slid inside in one slow movement.

His moans were like music. Every sound he made while I thrust inside him lit me up with joy. This was perfect. Nothing would ever come closer to perfection than having my fated around my cock. Being so deep inside him, we were one.

Over and over, I plunged my cock into his wet hole, his inner muscles hugging me so tightly I struggled to hold back my orgasm. I needed him to come first. His noises were like music, his face flushed as he clung to me.

“More,” he begged. I gave him what he wanted, pumping my hips harder.

The scent of his blood had my rhythm faltering. His back must have gotten scratched up from the tree. I turned us, his weight nothing to me in this state.

My hands took his hips in a firm grip while I used his body to bring us both pleasure.

He came with a squeal I absolutely had to hear again. I went to my knees, lowering him to the ground and fucked him harder until he came once more, milking my cock until my knot grew .

It had been a long time since I’d knotted anyone, but the instinct to shallow my thrusts was still there. My hips jerked in small movements as my knot expanded and slipped inside my mate’s body. He shuddered as we were locked in place.

Tied together, my come filled him, seeking that inner part of him, his womb. My dingo wanted to fill him with a pup, to claim him. This early in his heat, I couldn’t. Not yet.

Even with the kids waiting for me at home and the risk my mate posed, I still wanted to keep him so badly it hurt.