Chapter Ten

Kirk

All our days eventually rolled into a week. We'd done everything mates could do except go all the way and exchange our vows. Each time we touched each other it grew harder and harder to hold back but I wanted to know Chasten by more than what the claiming vow magic thought was important.

The claiming glands on our shoulders filled up with the clear magical fluid and pulled the flesh taut over them. The magic was ready but I refused to be rushed by fate. Work had emailed twice asking for an approximate return date, but I ignored both of them. I didn't have to answer. I didn't have to tie myself down to a date. I was a member of the Hemlock Wolf Pack like every other employee at the hospital and I refused to sacrifice a minute of the mating moon privilege that granted me. I loved my career but at the end of the day I already loved Chasten more. I'd go back to work eventually but for now I was happy to lay around and watch him draw or let him use my bare flesh as his canvas. His social media feed was filled with photos of the latter.

"Give me the thingy," Chasten yawned late one Friday afternoon.

We had played around and fallen asleep still messy from all the pleasure pouring from our bodies.

"Thingy?" I asked, opening one eye. "I think we're too old to call it that now."

"No, the thingy! The blood sugar thingy!"

"Your glucose meter?" I asked.

"Yes! I'm too hot! Quit fucking with me, Kirk!" He spat out the words, and I sat up. "It's on your side of the bed."

I grabbed it and did the dirty work of pricking his finger. I really started to worry when for once he didn't argue about me doing it for him.

"What is it?" he asked before the test strip had time to do its thing.

"Not sure yet, babe," I said, reaching over to feel his forehead.

He leaned into my hand and met my eyes with a hungry gaze. I swallowed hard and glanced down at the meter to confirm his blood sugar was fine and it was.

"You're in healthy range. I don't think this has anything to do with that," I said, putting everything back in the carrying case and laying it back down on the nightstand.

"What is it then? I'm not pregnant," he laughed, flopping onto his back.

A thin sheen of sweat coated his forehead and the tip of his perfect nose. I let out a long, slow breath before stretching out beside him.

"Sometimes the magic that explodes when true-mates meet up doesn't like to be kept waiting," I said, choosing my words carefully.

"Huh?" He blinked at me and his mouth hung open a second later. "OH! Fuck!"

"That's what it wants," I said, resting a hand on the flat plain of his belly.

"How have we not?!" he laughed and closed his eyes.

"Because it's fun to get to know each other before the magic fills in too many blanks," I shrugged. "Plus, we've still got each other off a lot."

"When you'll let me cum!" he said, letting out a whimper as if the memory made his balls ache.

"I always let you cum – eventually," I said and leaned closer to kiss up and down his throat. "But now," I said between kisses, "we gotta decide whether we want kids now or later."

"I wanna say now but doesn't heat always say now?" he moaned as I grazed my teeth against his flesh, dragging them down his throat.

"Not always," I leaned up to look him in the eye. "That's an outdated stereotype. Your hormones say yes. Your wolf would probably say yes but you do still have decision making capabilities. We know it's an eventually yes. We've made it that far. So, the question is – condoms or no?"

"I think I'd be offended if you whipped out a condom," he said, pushing himself up onto his elbows. "You've cum all over my body but don't want to cum inside me?!"

"I do want to," I said, feeling the words to my core. "So, fucking bad. Hell, at the risk of sounding like a cave-alpha I want to put puppies inside you, but I live in the current era and that means you get the last say on that."

I leaned in close to him and caught his mouth in a long, hard kiss. Chasten kissed me back hungrily, his tongue twisting and twirling around my own. He tasted so fucking good! Everything about him made me want him more. His scent spread over me and the bedroom. Everything smelled like his slickness as the heat radiated from inside him.

As we kissed, Chasten wiggled out of his pajama bottoms and tossed them across the room. They landed with a quiet thud and knocked a book off the dresser. He let out a throaty laugh and murmured something about picking it up later. He spread his legs, bringing his knees up to his chest and I ran my hand down his chest and belly and over his happy trail until I found his dick. Only I didn't stop there even when he whimpered out my name. Instead, I ran my hand over his balls and lower yet to the place where his gooey arousal pooled around his hungry omegahole waiting for me. Chasten growled when my fingers brushed against his slick hole.