CREVEN
I hadn’t wanted to leave Larkin, but I’d used the last of the gas for filling the generator, and once it was gone, we wouldn’t have any electricity. I had no choice but to run into town and refill the reserves.
He was doing so much better. The medicine had done everything the pharmacist had hoped it would. That didn’t mean I wasn’t worried about my mate. Of course I was. I had a feeling worry kind of came with the whole mate package.
But as it turned out, it seemed like what he truly needed was for me to be away so his wolf could come out. It wasn’t that Larkin wanted to be alone or that he didn’t trust me, but sometimes our beasts do what they’re going to do and having their mate seemed to be the catalyst he needed.
Larkin’s wolf was stunning. Absolutely, positively stunning. And I could’ve watched him all day long. But my fox had other ideas. He wanted to meet him too.
I sort of always thought when I met my mate, our first shift would be hunting and we’d team together for our first hunt and fell larger game of some sort. Maybe a deer, possibly a boar, all depending on who my mate’s beast was.
But that was back when I had a den. And after my father’s challenge, the notion of having a mate was gone. My chance was over. I was marked as unmateable.
Only fate didn’t give a shit about my rogue mark.
They sent Larkin anyway and in a way I couldn’t possibly deny him.
Maybe if I’d walked past him in a market, I might’ve been strong enough to ignore his scent and give him a chance at a better life— one without me.
But we didn’t meet at a store, we crossed paths when his life depended on me.
Well played, fate. Well played.
As I fell asleep on the bed beside him, our animals nestled together, I couldn’t help but be grateful. I didn’t know what would happen from here, but I knew two things for sure— I couldn’t mark him as mine and I wasn’t going to be able to let him go.
When I woke in the morning, I was no longer in my fur, but I was warm. Warm and safe. My mate’s arm was wrapped around me, his leg between mine, holding me to him. Our beasts must have both shifted in our sleep.
I couldn’t think of a more beautiful or perfect way to wake up.
“You’re awake,” his warm breath hit my shoulder.
“Yeah. I didn’t mean to disturb you.”
“You didn’t.” His cheek rubbed against my back. “I just heard your breathing change. Been awake a while.”
“How come you didn’t let me know?”
His erection was pressing against my back. “You were tired and trust me, I wasn’t sad to be like this.”
I turned in his arms so I could face him. He looked so much better—not perfect, but you could really see how the wolf in him helped heal him even further than the medication had.
“You’re so beautiful.” I cupped his cheek. “So completely beautiful.”
“You… thank you for helping me.”
He’d thanked me before, but this time, it felt like it had more weight… probably because he was so much further along in his healing process.
“I couldn’t leave you there. It was hard enough leaving you to get gas.” While I was there I even bought new gas cans to fill, in an attempt to avoid town for as long as possible.
He chuckled. “It was hard for me not to follow you.” He leaned in close, pressed his forehead to mine. “Would you mind if I?—”
Before he could answer, his lips were centimeters from mine. “Say I can.”
I did better than that, closing the short distance and brushing my lips against his once, twice, three times and then we kissed. A real kiss. Deep and filled with affection, but also heat that was close to the surface.
I pulled back, but not too much. There were things to say, things that couldn’t wait as much as I wanted to get back to kissing the sexy man in front of me. “We have to have a conversation. I’m rogue. I can’t mark you.”
He gave a single, tiny nod—one that was barely discernible if I hadn’t been paying attention.
“And you can’t mark me.” I had to be firm.
This time, he looked at me before reluctantly answering, “Okay. But can we still...?”
“I think, as long as we know the rules?—”
He slammed his lips to mine, kissing me hard with a deeper passion than he had before. And this time, the kiss didn’t break. We just kept kissing, our hard erections pressed between us.
Then my hands went down his back and then back up again, gently, sweetly. And once that happened, both our hands just started wandering everywhere.
Our bodies moved together, giving the needed friction our growing erections begged for. I was harder than I thought possible.
I wanted him so badly.
But I was worried.
Worried my fox wouldn’t listen. Worried my fox would act on his own. Worried that Larkin’s wolf wouldn’t understand. Larkin had never been den, and he wasn’t rogue. He couldn’t grasp just how serious a mistake like this could be.
I needed to be the voice of reason for us and that was not my gift. Maybe if it had been, I might’ve seen what was happening in my den and been able to stop it before things got so out of hand.
His hand slipped between us, wrapping around our lengths as best he could and jerking us together and all thought was gone.
It was just Larkin and I and this connection between us.
The scent of slick tickled my nose, and I knew that saying no to this man wasn’t going to be possible.
I decided to go with it and just make sure that I had control of my fox.
He can be ours. Only if you don’t bite.
My fox didn’t answer, but I pushed him back as far as I could and he allowed it. He was willing to give up marking to not have to give up our mate. In an ideal world we wouldn’t have to give up any of it, but we weren’t living in an ideal anything.
I broke the kiss, instead nibbling along his jawline, down his neck, going lower and lower and lower until I reached his erection.
I kissed the tip and a growl built in his chest. Sexy as fuck. I tapped the inside of his thighs and they fell back. I kissed down his length and then lower and lower to his slick hole. I licked his entrance, gathering his slick on my tongue, savoring his taste before breaching him with my tongue.
His hips bucked in response. The moans releasing from him—everything.
And I took him in my hand as I continued to fuck him with my tongue— In and out, in and out, until I could hear a change in his breathing. He was close… too close if I were gonna be inside him when he came.
I kissed his inner thigh, then backed up, skipping over his cock, not wanting him to explode too soon. I licked a path back up his chest, giving his nipples the attention they deserved, before snatching a pillow and placing it under his hips.
“Please, Creven, please. I need you.”
“I got you,” I told him over and over again, as I lined myself with his entrance and slid inside in one smooth motion.
I stayed like that. The two of us joined together. The feeling of perfection, of being whole. I could’ve stayed like that forever.
Larkin didn’t agree.
Begging. Pleading for me to move.
And with his legs up over my shoulders, I did. Thrusting in and out of him slowly at first, then faster, and harder.
He grabbed my arms, meeting me thrust for thrust, making the most delicious sounds.
I wanted this to last, but knew that it wasn’t going to. It couldn’t.
This felt too good. Too perfect. Too everything.
I took my hand back from Larkin, needing to give his cock attention. I refused to come before he did.
I jerked him once, twice, three times, and on the fourth, his cum spurted out on his chest and was coating my hand. As he roared out his orgasm, I picked up my tempo, seeking my own release this time and finding it quickly.
My knot grew inside him, locking us together, binding us as one, as I called out his name like a prayer and collapsed on his chest.
My fox behaved, not once pushing to mark Larkin. My beast wanted this as much as I did. And he knew that if he attempted anything, I’d have stopped him.
At least, that was my assumption. He wasn’t saying anything, just prancing around like he won the lottery.
I refused to let myself get too comfortable with his compliance. I had to stand guard, because with it feeling this good to be in our mate’s arms, I wasn’t so sure I could stop him in the future.
I rolled us over so that he was on top of me, not having to feel my weight.
I didn’t know what to say. So I didn’t say anything.
Instead, I held him close as we caught our breaths and savored the moment.