8. Dominic

Chapter 8

Dominic

I loved sex. It was an amazing stress-reliever, and I’d quickly discovered that it was going to be one of my favorite activities to do with Frederick. That and just lying in bed with him naked. I say naked because I hadn’t experienced it fully clothed yet. I was certain that would come at some point. For now, naked it was.

It was sometime in the middle of the night now, but I couldn’t tell you exactly what time. We’d had sex a couple more times after we’d claimed one another, and I certainly had no complaints about any of it. Frederick had satisfied me in all ways, and it had been such a relief to learn that he had no issues with me taking charge. Somewhat that was.

“Are you hungry?” Frederick asked as his fingers trailed up and down my back. I was currently using him as a body pillow while thinking about how drastically my life had changed over the past few days.

“Maybe. What did you have in mind?”

“Honestly? I was thinking about a thick juicy burger and fries. It’s not something I have often, but we really worked up an appetite.”

“A burger, huh?” I smiled up at Frederick. “I could probably go for a burger.” I set up and did my best to get comfortable in the middle of the bed. “I want cheese on mine though, and I’m not ready to get dressed just yet so if you really want your burger, can I suggest we eat them in bed?”

Frederick pushed up to lean on his elbow as he stared at me. “I won’t say no to that. I don’t usually eat in bed, but then again I don’t normally have someone in my bed with me.”

“So, I’m special, huh?”

Frederick suddenly looked serious. “Yes, Dominic. You are special. And I’m not just saying that because you and I were fated to be together. You are a good person and anyone who meets you will know that immediately.”

It was going to be difficult to not fall for Frederick quickly. I had thought that it would be easy enough to keep things between us without involving emotions, but already he was proving himself to be a threat to my heart. I didn’t believe that he would intentionally hurt me. Nor did I think that would not reciprocate my feelings. I was just struggling to let myself go and fully trust him.

Frederick sat up and crossed his legs in front of him as I had done. When he reached out and laced his fingers with mine, I gave his hand a squeeze and looked directly at him.

“You are special, Dominic. I hope you realize that, and that I’m not just saying it because you’re my One.”

I nodded at him. It was difficult for me to except praise such as that. For so long, I hadn’t experienced it.

“Now, about that burger,” Frederick said. “Is there anything other than cheese that you want on it? And fries. What type of fries do you want? Do you like ketchup with them?”

“Yes, to the fries and ketchup. I don’t care what type, just as long as there are lots of them. As for the sandwich, I would like lettuce and tomato on it.”

“That is all quite doable,” Frederick said. He held out his hand and like the magic that I know he used, there was a plate on it with a thick cheeseburger and a pile of crispy, looking fries.”

I took the plates and after I settled it on my lap, I looked up to see that Frederick had similar looking plate and pile of food. “So tell me where it is that you fell in love with cheeseburgers,” I said as I picked up a cry and took a bite.

“Honestly, I can’t remember exactly where. The council has a full-service cafeteria that they have themed meals every day. As a backup, they always have cheeseburgers, hamburgers, and the like.”

“Do you eat at the council often?”

“Every day. I eat there most days for breakfast, and every day for lunch. There are times that if I’m working late, I will swing by and grab something for supper as well. If I am out on assignment, obviously I eat with the team and, we usually just get room service at the hotel unless we know where something is good exceptional.”

I picked up another French fry and ate it while nodding slowly and listening to him. “You are a warlock though.”

Frederick nodded. “I am. As are you.”

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. “I only meant that you were a warlock and you can have whatever you want to eat no matter where you’re at.”

“Ah. Yes, that is true. That was actually quite handy when we were in South America. We were on assignment down there, and what was supposed to be four or five days at most ended up being two weeks. It was a difficult assignment, but successful. Well, as successful as things can be when you rescue, close to two dozen captive, paranormal.”

My heart aches at the thought of not only those that were held captive, but also for the enforcers who were the ones that rescued them. It had to be difficult to see others subjected to such horrors.

“You and the council are doing a good thing, you know. Don’t think that what you’re doing isn’t having an impact on others. It is, and I hope you realize that.”

“I do. I sometimes wonder, though if it’s enough. When we were in South America, we had another shifter with us. He wasn’t an enforcer, and we happen to find him already there.”

I sat the fry down that I had been going to eat. “What happened?”

“He was searching for his brother. He had been missing for close to a year at that point and…” Frederick trailed off, somewhat lost and thought. “He had gotten a phone call from his brother and thought that he could just hop on a plane and go down and try to find him. Levi had been able to mention something about Cartagena, so Ledger thought he would go get his brother. We found Ledger in a sketchy cantina down there. He was really lucky that Sebastian happened to pick up on the fact that he didn’t really belong there and that he was being tailed by some not-so-nice guys.”

“Were you able to get him out? What about his brother? Did he ever find him?”

Frederick nodded. “Levi was actually one of those that we rescued in the jungle down there. And it turned out that Ledger is Damien’s mate,” Frederick looked at me. “Damien is one of the hellhounds that works with the council.”

I had never met a hellhound until Warwick. “So they had a happy ending. Or, at least a somewhat happy one?” I asked.

“Levi has struggled. He isn’t the same from what I’ve been told. But I don’t think anyone who lived in that type of situation for so long is ever who they were before it all happened. Damien has been a huge support to his mate, but I know that Levi completely refusing to have any kind of contact with his brother, his hard on Ledger.”

I would imagine it would be. I didn’t have any siblings, so I couldn’t relate. But even the thought of having to go through what he obviously did, was terrifying.

“I’m sorry.” Frederick raised his head and gave me a confused look.

“Why?”

“That all has to be difficult. I can’t imagine what you enforcers had to go through when doing that assignment. Let alone what those poor captives were subjected to.”

“Council does their best to take care of not only those that we rescue, but the enforcers as well. After assignments like that, we are all required to have at least one session with one of the council psychiatrists. It has helped a lot.”

That was good to know. Personally, I had never visited a psychiatrist, but I certainly wasn’t against it if needed. “Do you have a lot of assignments such as that one?” I asked. I picked up my cheeseburger and took a bite while Frederick answered.

“Some. There are some assignments that are what we consider super easy. Sometimes we are sent to pack or a den here in the states and we have to deal with an issue that they are having. Then there are covens that we somehow discover and we are suddenly we are in the middle of a massive and overwhelming assignment where we are in rotation between here and Italy for several weeks.” Frederick shrugged. “It really all depends on what is brought to our attention.”

I felt bad. I shouldn’t because ultimately the fact that they ended up investigating my coven was the reason that I was here with Frederick. It was destiny for certain, but I didn’t know how it was that we would have met one another any other way.

“Are you going to continue on the assignment with my coven now?”

“I will. Just because the two of us have claimed each other does not mean that I can’t still be on this particular assignment. If you would rather that I be moved to a different one, I can ask Master Edison and see if he is willing to pull me from this particular assignment.”

I shook my hand with a mouthful food. I could certainly understand why it was that Frederick was craving a burger. It was quite delicious, and although I hadn’t realized it at the time, I was actually quite hungry.

“No. I have no reason to ask that you be moved to a different assignment. Just be careful.” I wasn’t in love with him yet. I was falling, and as I was thinking earlier, it wouldn’t take much for me to completely fall in love with Frederick. But just because I wasn’t in love with him yet mean that I didn’t care about his well-being. Of course I didn’t wish for him to come to any harm.

“I am always careful if possible.”

My eyes widened at his response, and when I looked at him, he shrugged at me. “If possible?”

“What do you want me to say? I can’t control everybody else, and I do try to be careful. Things happen, though. My cousin, although he wasn’t hurt badly, he did sustain quite minor injuries, not long ago in Italy. But none of us go looking for trouble. Well, except maybe the hellhounds. They’re a different kind of paranormal altogether.”

I chuckled about the hellhounds while eating more of my fries. “I appreciate the fact that you don’t go looking for trouble.”

Frederick’s hand on my knee had me looking up at him. “Is me being an enforcer for the council going to be an issue for you?” Frederick shook his head. “I don’t have to work. Neither do you. I have more than enough saved for both of us to live comfortably for the rest of our lives. My family is very fortunate in who they are.”

“I don’t have issues with you being enforcer. If that’s what you want to do, then I am all for it. I have always worked, and although I know that I do not have nearly the nest egg that you I do have some. I imagine that it won’t take long at my age for my first fertile period to hit. I really do want to focus on our child or children. But I am not against going back to work.”

“There’s no need. Not if you truly don’t wish to.”

I swallowed my bite of food before answering. “I never thought I would actually have a family. At my age I just didn’t see it is happening. Now that it’s a possibility I don’t want to miss out on anything.”

Frederick reached for me and gently rubbed his hand up and down my arm. It was such a sweet gesture. “You can be a stay-at-home dad. There are a lot of them here in the council. You might be one of the older ones, but don’t let that bother you.”

“I won’t. You know, in all of the talking that we did yesterday we never talked about children. Well, how many you wanted.” I would be happy with one, but would prefer at least two. I knew it wasn’t completely up to me though.

“It’s going to sound incredibly cliché, but I will say the same thing. A lot of the other enforcers have told their mates. I’m not the one who is carrying the baby or babies if we have more than one pregnancy. We will have as many as you want, and as many as we are blessed with.” Frederick ran his hand up and down my arm again.

“Two?” If I had been century or two younger, I might say I wanted more. As it was I was probably a little past what was considered prime childbearing years.

“If two is what you desire, then that is how many we will have. My parents are going to love any all children we have, but don’t feel like they are going to be overbearing. They live in Spain and I don’t see them as relocating simply because I’m here and I found you. “

“Do you wish to move back to be near your family?” I asked.

Frederick shook his head. “My parents may not be here, but I do have family in the area. There are a couple of uncles and their Ones, as well as a few cousins. Our family is pretty tight-knit, and I’m excited that our children will get to grow up with my cousins’ children. I think you’re going to really like my cousins. I know they were all hoping that I figured out how to fix my mess up.”

I looked down at myself and then made a show of looking over at Frederick. I reached out and touched the claiming mark that I had placed on his ribs. I made eye contact with Frederick again and smiled. “I do believe it is safe to say that you did indeed fix any mess up.”

Frederick threw his head back and laughed again. He had done that a few times now and it was certainly something that I wouldn’t tire of hearing.

Frederick reached out, and after he touched the claiming mark on my hip, he gave me a wink. “I think I’ve at least started fixing my mistake. I don’t believe I have fully made up for my blunder, but I am certainly going to continue doing everything I can to make things up to you.”

I wasn’t going to argue with him. I knew that he felt absolutely terrible about what had been said. As expected, I had been able to see for myself firsthand how Frederick felt about that through our bond. The ability to have that bond with him was one of the reasons I was as willing to mate with him as I was. I knew it would allow me the opportunity to settle any insecurities I had. It had done that and more.

“How is your food?” Frederick asked.

I glanced down at my plate and realized that there was only a bite of my burger left, and a handful of fries. “Obviously it is quite good. But I think you already knew that.”

“I did. You seem to be enjoying it, but I wanted to make sure.”

“Well, you have no need to worry. It is quite delicious.” I picked up a french fry and held it up. “Especially these fries. I’m not sure what makes them so delicious, but these ones are top-notch.”

Frederick smiled. “It’s the peanut oil. It is by far the best for frying French fries.”

Peanut oil. I never would have thought of that, but it wasn’t exactly something that we cooked with in Italy. Sure, I had traveled extensively when I was younger, but it had been quite some time since I had been able to get away from the coven.

“When you are finished, would you care to take a bath? You mentioned earlier that you were unsure as to win your first fertile period would arrive. Perhaps if we spend some time in the tub in close proximity, we might be able to help speed that up.”

I glanced down at my plate and held it out to Frederick. There was very little food left, and since I didn’t really know where the dishes needed to go just yet, I handed it off for him to deal with. Its weight disappeared from my hand in a blink. I then took the opportunity to scoot off of the bed. I at least knew where the bathroom was, unlike the kitchen, and soaking in a tub with Frederick sounded like the perfect way to end the day. That and bathtub sex with him was something I was certain I was going to enjoy.

I glanced back at my One and winked. “A soak sounds perfect. But are you ready for round five?”

Frederick’s normally blue eyes darkened. He made a noise and then started after me. I didn’t exactly try to get away, and when his arms wrapped around me just outside the door to the bathroom, I closed my eyes and leaned into his embrace.

“I’ll always be up for another round with you,” he whispered next to my ear. I felt my body react, and hoped that we never lost this spark that we seemed to have. It was unexpected to me, but something that already I cherished.

As we entered the bathroom, the massive tub came into view and I groaned at the thought of spending time in it with Frederick. Now that was a tub, and I knew we would have so much fun in it. The steaming water was inviting, and I didn’t even hesitate to step into it. Frederick was right behind me, and once he was situated, I positioned myself in between his spread thighs and leaned back against his chest. We both moaned and I closed my eyes. This was certainly a good way to end the day.