Epilogue

EPILOGUE

Six Weeks Later

Miko could barely stop himself from bouncing on the tips of his toes as he paced his bedroom, waiting for the early symptoms of his first heat to develop into the full-on, loose-hole, dripping-slick heat he'd heard and read about. The first aches had begun about four hours ago, not long after breakfast, which had proved his start-date guess absolutely correct. This was his second heat, but the first for two huge things: one, he would be awake and aware of it, rather than sedated after an accident; two, he'd spend it with his bondmate.

He and Linus were not mating this time. They'd discussed it with each other, and their respective parents, and everyone agreed it was better to wait. Miko's university schedule had resumed, while Linus had deferred the spring semester and planned to return to school in the fall. Part of his reason was his choice of major. Linus had always intended to play professional soccer for at least ten years post-graduation, so he'd chosen a throwaway major.

But now, after his injury and ongoing recovery, Linus was taking a new interest in sports medicine. It might mean starting over with everything except his general requirement credits, but it was what Linus wanted to pursue, so Miko would support him every step of the way. Even if it meant holding off on mating for at least another three months, maybe up to a year. Once they mated, the provincial stipend they received every month as students would cease, and the only benefit they would receive through university was on-campus housing for mated couples.

Miko had three more semesters before he graduated. Linus had at least that many if he kept his same major, and even more if he switched. They needed to be sure of their decisions before doing anything to drastically alter their income. Sure, their parents would help them out of a jam, but Miko's parents poured a lot of their extra income back into Perks, and the Higgses lived on Isa's retirement fund. Miko had no idea if Tarius paid them rent to help with bills.

So big decisions were coming, but Miko didn't want to worry about them for the next two-plus days. He stared out his bedroom window at the cold, gray day, the sky overcast with billowing clouds that promised icy rain. Spring was right around the corner but not there yet.

A knock on his bedroom door stole Miko's attention from the window. "Come in."

Serge Freel poked his head inside the door and smiled. "Linus was just dropped off. How are you feeling?"

"Good. Weird. I think it'll start soon."

"Okay, well, you know the plan."

"Yeah."

Because of Linus's limitations with his leg, neither of them had wanted to try and spend their first heat completely alone. During heat, emotions and hormones were amped up for both the alpha and omega, and it was worse during the omega's surges. Both were overtaken by the instincts to fuck and knot until sated. During the lucid periods between surges, the alpha would typically cook for, clean up, and pamper his omega. Linus had hated admitting he wasn't sure he could do it all himself, so they'd compromised.

For the duration of Miko's heat, which should last the whole weekend, Miko's parents were staying at the Higgs house. They'd asked retired nurse Serge—who was also a long-time family friend to pretty much everyone in their social circle—to be there as backup. He'd helped Emory Cross through his first heat, as well as a few others, and he'd agreed to help them with anything Linus needed, from laundry to cooking to just being an extra pair of hands.

For the most part, Serge would be out of their way, and Miko planned to do all of the fucking in his bedroom anyway. He adored making love with Linus, but goddess, he was eager to truly experience heat with the man. They'd share their love and commitment in every way possible, until the day they chose to finally mate.

Serge left, and Miko waited, listening for the familiar sound of Linus's crutches on the hardwood floor of the hallway. Over time, he'd come to prefer the crutches, while he continued learning how to walk on his prosthetic. He was getting better each and every week, still attending physical therapy, and he'd had a few appointments with trauma counselors. They both had, following their gala-night taxi-cab-fears confessions. And it had helped Miko immensely.

He still didn't want to ride in a taxi, and he preferred the bus or borrowing a car, but one day he knew he would again.

Linus's familiar shape filled the doorway. His eyes shined with eagerness, and he had a backpack slung over one shoulder, which he carefully deposited on the bed. Extra clothes and toiletries, likely. If they hadn't needed Serge's help, Miko suspected they'd have just spent the whole heat naked, but no one wanted to flash an old family friend.

Miko was insanely grateful to Serge for doing them this favor, when it meant an entire weekend away from both his husband and his first grandson. He knew through Emory that Dex and Serge spent every minute possible with Frey, Gaven and their infant Yvan.

"You got the condoms right?" Linus asked.

"Oh yeah." Miko pointed to the box on his side table. As long as they used condoms when they knotted, they wouldn't officially mate. For mating to occur and their scents to fully mingle, the alpha had to fill his omega with his come during heat. As much as Miko wanted to experience that, he was smart enough to wait. "Ready and willing, alpha."

Linus growled softly then shut the door. Miko recognized the glint in his eyes and immediately took off his long-sleeved t-shirt. Foreplay had become practiced and fun. Kissing and shedding clothes and turning down bedcovers. Helping Linus out of his pants, and then taking his prosthetic off. Miko worshipping not only his alpha's cock, but also the insides of both thighs. His knees, his lower belly, every part of Linus he could reasonably lick and kiss. Working his way up Linus's lean torso to recapture his mouth.

They played for a long time, neither of them in any hurry to come, or to reach for the condoms. As the minutes passed, the ache in Miko's abdomen strengthened as his uterus began descending. Connecting to his anal passage. Once his body completed that step, his hole softened and the first trickle of slick hit his nostrils before trickling between his cheeks.

"Oh, yes, it's starting," Miko groaned. "Fuck."

"Goddess, yes," Linus reached between Miko's cheeks and slipped a finger inside without resistance. Miko wanted more, almost begged for at least three fingers to fill the new emptiness inside him. Linus withdrew a glistening finger and licked it clean, his nostrils flaring with desire. "You are indescribable, Miko. Wow. So soft and hot and you taste like magic."

"Magic slick, huh? Take more."

On another soft growl, Linus rolled Miko onto his back, crouched between his spread legs, and then pushed his thighs up. Bent Miko nearly in half. Miko grunted in surprise as his spread ass was presented to his alpha. He strained to see Linus's face as he stared at Miko's body, seemingly entranced for a moment before snapping out of it.

Miko shouted when Linus shoved his tongue deep inside his hole, plundering and sucking and licking, awakening sensitive nerve endings. The intensity of it was more than he'd imagined, more than he thought his mind or body could take, and this was just a tongue. A knot might make him lose his damned mind.

"Oh, Miko, taste so good," Linus said between licks and panted breaths, as drunk on slick as if he'd gulped a bottle of whiskey. He fed to his heart's content, while Miko writhed and clutched at the bedsheets. Then Linus replaced his tongue with two fingers, shoved in deep, and Miko came on a shout.

The orgasm was unlike anything he'd experienced before, zipping up his spine from his dick to his brain, sending tiny shocks to all parts of his extremities. Come painted his upper chest. Linus kept pumping those wicked fingers, urging smaller jolts of pleasure from Miko's body, creating what felt like one continuous, hour-long orgasm.

He floated on a cloud of sheer joy, even after Linus moved away, willing to say or do anything to feel like this always. And then Linus was back, looming over him, a new sound joining their ragged breathing: the sticky sound of Linus stroking his condom-covered cock.

"Fuck, yes, that," Miko said.

"How do you want me to?"

"Don't care. Need you in me, please. Need your knot."

"You'll get it. As many times as possible until this is over." He lightly pinched Miko's ass. "I am officially addicted to you, Miko Tovey."

Miko grinned then rolled onto his left side. "Like this. On our sides." Their favorite way to make love.

"Okay." Linus scooted up behind him, his cock hot against Miko's cheeks. Miko pulled his right leg forward, knee nearly to his own chest, giving Linus room. Linus lined up the head of his cock and paused, and it took all of Miko's self-control not to shove back. To let Linus lead them. "We won't be legally mates yet, my love, but this will bind us and our promise to love each other, no matter what."

"Yes. I promise. Please. Please ."

The second please broke the last of Linus's restraint—something he'd only had a tenuous grip on since Miko called this morning to say he felt the first heat symptoms. He'd wanted to rush right over and claim his omega, even though he logically understood full heat wouldn't set in for hours yet.

But now they were here, Miko so open and earnest and responsive; Linus's senses full of the incredible scent and taste of the man. He could have drank Miko's essence all day long and into the night, but they needed this first. They needed this more.

Linus used his right thigh and knee to keep Miko's leg up as he pushed his cock through the loose ring of muscle and into indescribable heat and softness. Miko's passage seemed to ripple around him, welcoming him in, deeper, until Linus's hips sat flush to Miko's rounded ass. Miko released an indescribable sound as he reached around to grab Linus's ass. To hold him in or make him thrust, Linus had no idea because he couldn't think to do more than breathe.

Not until Miko clenched hard. Linus growled, pulled his hips back, and snapped them forward. Miko cried out again, a mixture of surprise and joy, and that lovely music helped Linus set a frantic pace. Regular sex with Miko was always magical, them sharing their love with their bodies, but this? He had no real thoughts or words for what they were doing right now, moving together, building toward a climax that would finally knot them together.

Linus didn't want the overwhelming sensations coursing through him to ever stop, but this wasn't their first or last time. Not by a long, long shot. Instead of avoiding the orgasm pooling in his balls, he embraced it. Embraced it for what he knew was coming next. He bit Miko's shoulder as he snapped his hips twice more, and then he came. He imagined his semen coating Miko's insides, rather than filling the condom. Filling him, marking him, making him Linus's.

His hips seemed to jerk on their own, tiny nudges deeper, always deeper, until he felt it. Heat at the base of his cock that began to expand outward, swelling into his alpha knot, nestled just inside Miko's tender rim. Miko panted and groaned, his hips and thighs twitching as he took the knot. The goddess gave it to alphas for the purpose of mating, but she had to have anticipated how much pleasure it would bring both alpha and omega, as they lay trapped together for the next ten to fifteen minutes, knot pressing on the omega's gland.

Linus wrapped his arms around Miko's chest and rolled him a bit more, so he could cover more of Miko's back with his body. He kissed Miko's shoulder and neck, nuzzled his ear. Miko hadn't come a second time, so Linus slid one hand lower. Clasped Miko's hard, damp cock and stroked. Miko hollered something and came, splattering the bedsheet and Linus's hand. Linus thrust as much as he could with the knot, stimulating Miko's prostate and his own erect cock, until Miko moaned and begged him to stop.

Worn and sated, Linus relaxed on top of his bondmate and concentrated on breathing. On existing in this bubble of pure bliss, until his knot began to soften. Once his dick felt normal again, he eased out of Miko and dumped the condom on the floor. Then he pulled the sheet up over them and snuggled against Miko, still-hard cock resting between his thighs.

Miko sighed. "I don't…wow."

"Definitely wow. Epic, even. Now I get it."

"Why everyone says heat is so special?"

"Yeah." He pressed light kisses to the top of Miko's spine. "I'm so glad it was you, Miko Tovey."

"I'm glad it was you, too, Linus Higgs." He drew Linus's hand up so he could kiss his knuckles. "You were there at the start of my very first heat, and I want you there for every one after. For the rest of our lives."

"I want that, too. I love you."

"Love you back."

They still had challenges yet to face and decisions yet to make, a future still unplanned. But as they lazed together in the afterglow of that first surge, knowing many more were yet to come, Linus basked in the knowledge that he had family who loved him, friends who supported him, and his bondmate by his side.

For all that Linus thought he'd lost in that accident, he had, in fact, always had everything he ever needed.