Chapter Seventeen

It was so fun spending all day every day with Pike at work and then coming home to a whole different kind of fun. He has the coffee skills and the people skills, so it was just a matter of learning the Oliver Creek Brew-specific drinks and how we did things in general.

“So three pumps of chocolate, two of caramel for the turtle latte?” He had a cheat sheet but was trying to memorize everything. He’d picked that habit up when bartending in Seattle for a couple of months, and it made perfect sense to me. So, I was helping him practice.

“And for the topping?”

“Espresso whipped cream and a sprinkle of chopped, roasted pecans.” He finished the drink with a flourish. “Want to grade me?”

“All right.” I took the cup and examined the beverage. It was a brand-new item and wasn’t even on the official menu yet. “Looks good.” I sniffed. “Love the combination of scents.”

He was bouncing on his toes. “Taste?”

I sipped, feeling my lips turn up in a smile.

“Do you like it?”

Before I thought about it, I set the cup down and pulled him in for a big hug. “You’ve totally got this. That was the last one you needed to master.”

“You are the best teacher, alpha. I think you can guess that I like learning new things, and I did have some barista training but it was nothing like you gave me.”

I stepped back and picked up the cup again. “Go put this one on the chalk board as a special. Our customers are going to love it.”

Pike also had a gift for working with the chalk. Glen was good, but my omega was a true artist. As I watched, he drew a turtle with a latte on his back in one of our to-go cups. The turtle was heading down a road into the sunset.

“I think we need to celebrate your success,” I told him. “How about we let the animals out after work.”

“Great idea. My bobcat really needs to stretch, and it’s time they got to meet.”

“Exactly. I know just the place too.”

The rest of the day, Pike tried to tease me into telling him where we were going to go, but I held firm. He was the most adorable wheedler, and though he’d been so many places, a new one was just the thing to get him excited. In fact, when he was on his lunch break, I caught him on his phone looking at the surrounding area.

“Hey, you’re not trying to cheat, are you?”

“This isn’t even a bet. How can I be cheating. Did you say it was a park?”

“Nice try.”

I’d noticed that the more fun we were having, the more our customers enjoyed visiting us. Some people who had only been coming in once or twice a week were now closer to daily. Nothing against Glen because the customers loved him too, but word had gotten out that we were a couple, and our romance drew people who liked that sort of thing. None of them knew that we could end at any point. It was also something I didn’t want to think too much about.

But when we finished closing and headed out back to my car, Pike clung to my arm. “Come on, you can tell me now, right? We’re going to be there in a few minutes.”

“How do you know? We might be going hours away.”

“Are we?”

“In the car, omega.” I opened the door and helped him in. “Soon enough, we’ll be there.”

We drove out of town and past the vineyard. There were so many beautiful fields and forests out here, but I had a location in mind that I thought both our animals would enjoy. It was in the foothills that lay in front of the nearby mountain range, and we arrived there in about twenty minutes.

“Here we are.” I went around and opened his door. “I’ve never run into anyone out here, so we can undress right at the car. Trailhead is just over there.”

“Wow, it’s beautiful.” Pike lifted his nose and took in a deep breath. “Pine trees smell so amazing.” He stood and began to disrobe, pausing only when he reached his boxers and I still had not moved. “Alpha?”

“Yes.” I pulled my shirt over my head, my heart beating hard and my bear ready to tear through my clothes to take his fur. Aware of motion next to me, I turned to find that my omega had already shifted into the most adorable bobcat of all time. I wanted to take the time, to pet him and get to know him, but my bear was already past that point, and I dropped my pants and let him have his way.

There was a whole other kind of joy in being free to run in our fur, and the area I chose had a good trail up the side of the hill to an overlook above the lake where we could sprawl and just moon bathe.

Pike’s cat was lithe and quick and graceful, making me wonder why he’d want old lumbering me until I saw the admiration in his golden eyes. We ran for hours, pleased to find that although our bodies were quite different, our speed was similar. At the overlook, we rested and watched the moon’s reflection move across the lake. It was a different kind of intimacy from that shared by our human sides but every bit as valid and moving, and my bear’s pleasure in our mate spread through all of me.

In the car on the way home, Pike rested his head on my shoulder and sighed. “That was one of the most beautiful places I’ve been. All those acres of pine forest surrounding the water, so dark and mysterious. What are you going to do to top that, alpha?”

I whispered a few ideas that had his cheeks bright red and my cock stiff and ready for him.