Chapter 6

Beckett gripped my hand in his and led me toward the stairwell. We'd bolted from the bakery and would probably laugh at ourselves later for even going there in the first place.

The walk back to his room was quiet, uninterrupted, thankfully. There were a lot of people who lived in the hotel, so it wouldn't have been shocking to have one of them cross our path. I didn't know what we would say if we ran into a person. "Hey, sorry, can't talk now, off to go mate."

That sort of behavior, while impolite, wasn't overly rare among shifters. Heck, I'd had someone say it to me before. Still, I didn't wish to broadcast it to the world. This was a private time for my mate and me. Yes, Ralf suspected, but he'd been gentleman enough not to be blunt about it.

He fumbled with his door knob when we arrived, and then we both tumbled inside. The room itself was comfortable. There was no mistaking that it had one day been a hotel room, but it felt more like home than a place you slept for one night.

He had a large king bed that dominated the space. There was a desk and chair, but not much else in the way of personal items. And the desk itself shouted hotel surplus. It wasn't something he'd brought from home. None of the furniture was by the looks of it, and yet, it somehow suited him.

On his desk sat a framed photograph. I picked it up. It was of him and Benjamin when they were just young cubs. Before Beckett's father had moved him away.

"This is beautiful," I said.

Beckett came to my side. The warmth of his chest hit my back. "It's the only picture I have of him."

I placed the photograph down and turned so that I was facing my mate. My arms went around his neck, and I held his stare. "He would be proud of you," I said.

Beckett lowered his lips to mine. I gripped his shoulders while his arms snaked down my body and then grasped my hips. He hoisted me into the air.

"Are you sure this is what you want, Thomas? We can wait. We only just met. We have time."

Despite the fact that he held me in his arms and I could scent his arousal, feel the throbbing hardness of his cock against mine, I knew that if I gave any indication, he would set me down and stop this. I trusted him. He would never hurt me, never jeopardize my safety. He was one of the good alphas, the ones that understood that no was a complete sentence. I'd worked with omegas whose mates or partners missed that grammar lesson.

I licked my lips, still tasting him on me. "I want this. I may have only known you for a few hours, but I've dreamed of you, waited for you my whole life. I'm ready, mate." I was more than ready. "We can wait, though. If that's what you want."

"What I wanted was to scoop you up and carry you over here the second I scented you."

"I'd have been ready then, too." Everything about him felt right. Every single one. I could choose to sit and overthink this for hours, days, weeks even. But the end result would be the same. I was Beckett's and he was mine. The rest was just noise.

Beckett let out a growl and placed me on his bed. Then he pulled off his shirt and pants, tossing them to the corner of the room. He stood before me naked. His long cock jutting out proudly from his toned body. Dark hair covered his thick thighs.

I could've stood there and stared at him for hours. He was sexy in a way I didn't know possible, and his hard length? It begged for me to lean over and give it a kiss… or two.

"Oh my." I licked my lips again because what stood before me was not only a man who would be the center of my world, but he was also a work of fucking art.

"May I?" he asked.

I nodded. I couldn't form words. My mouth had gone dry. This couldn't be real. There was no way the goddess thought I was worthy of such a man.

Beckett stepped close and slowly leaned down. He undid my pants and pulled them off of me. His patience was a million times greater than mine and as he was working on my jeans, I was ridding myself of my pesky shirt.

He gazed down at me, and his eyes sparkled with desire.

"You are exquisite, mate. So beautiful. So sexy. So… mine."

"Show me I'm yours, alpha mine. Show me."

He covered my body with his, my legs opening to allow him to settle between them. I loved the weight of him pressed against me

Slick leaked from my aching hole and pre-cum from the tip of my dick. I'd never been this aroused before. My need was nearly painful.

Beckett kissed my lips, then peppered kisses across my cheek until he reached my neck. He kept on kissing me lower, nipping and sucking at the area where my mating mark would go. All the while his hand trailed down my body and reached between my legs.

His fingers swirled around my entrance, teasing me, letting me know what was to come.

"You taste so good, Thomas," he mumbled against the flesh of my shoulder, his finger slowly entering me. "Soooo good."

"Mmm, I want your mark." My hips bucked, urging his fingers deeper. My cock ached and precum beaded at the tip.

"Soon." He scraped the skin with his teeth, and I cried out in pleasure.

Soon. Not soon. Now. But also, this wasn't something to be rushed.

One finger became two became three, each time entering me slowly at first and then showing me what was to come. Three fingers now stretched my hole. It was so good, but at the same time, not good enough.

"I need you!" I didn't take the time to consider we might've had people within earshot. It didn't matter. They could go outside or whatever. I needed my mate, and I wasn't going to be sweet and demure about it.

Thank fuck I didn't have to be. He must have sensed the urgency in my voice, or perhaps he couldn't hold back any longer either. But in either case, he slowly withdrew his fingers, kissing me deeply as he did and absorbing the whimper that was escaping my lips.

"I've got you, mate." He pressed his forehead against mine. "I've got you."

He grabbed a pillow from beside me and placed it under my hips before settling back between my legs. He lined himself up with my entrance and entered me slowly, his eyes locked with mine the entire time, watching me, making sure he wasn't going too hard or fast.

He held himself up, his body barely hovering over mine. I could feel his warmth, but not the weight of him. I'd have missed it if I wasn't so completely full, his cock the perfect size for me. There was a Goldilocks joke there somewhere.

"Tell me if I am going too fast."

"You're not." I wrinkled my nose playfully. "But I promise."

I rolled my hips again, urging him deeper. I wanted his cock as deep as I could take him. I wanted to feel everything. I wanted there to be no doubt that he was mine.

He took my not-so-subtle hit, entering me fully and then pulling out slowly. In and out he thrust, being ever so gentle. It was sweet and kind, and I'd just about had enough of it. I needed more. I needed everything.

I met his thrusts, bucking my hips as he moved. I didn't ever want him to stop. I wrapped my legs around him, holding him to me, letting all the sensations I was feeling come out in the form of moans and whimpers and gasps. Beckett needed to see what he was doing to me, to see how he made me feel.

Harder and harder, faster and faster he went. My orgasm was close, so freaking close. I refused to come, pushing it back with thoughts of any and everything I could think of that wasn't sexy, from the worms on the ground after the rain to molding bread. If it had an eww factor, I thought it.

It was a fool's errand. Beckett felt too fantastic inside of me. The only way for me not to come within seconds would be to have him stop, and no part of me wanted that.

I trailed my fingers down his back and cupped his backside when I reached the curve of his ass. The muscular globe more than filled my hand. I could make a meal of this man's ass. And one day I would.

That was when it hit me. This man was mine—for always. He was my mate, my always and forever. I got to keep him. This wasn't a dream.

"I'm so close, Thomas."

"Me too." How I hadn't already exploded between us was a freaking miracle.

"I want to mark you." He didn't say it as a question, but it was. If I so much as hesitated to give him an enthusiastic yes, he wouldn't do it. That was who he was.

"Do it," I said. "I need you to mark me. Show everyone that I'm yours. That of all the alphas in this world, the goddess found me worthy of having you." I squeezed his ass and thrust my hips at the same time, drawing him deeper. "Show them, alpha. Show them whose I am."

He watched my eyes for a second and must've liked what he saw there because he started to move again, this time with a new mission. This wasn't his slow and steady, make it last kind of fucking. Nope. He was pounding into me exactly how I wanted it.

He froze, his orgasm slamming into him, my name falling from his lips.

I let out a long moan, and his cock thickened within me. It took me a few seconds to realize what was happening. He was knotting me. I didn't need that knot to know the goddess sent him to me, but it left no room for doubt. And with his history, having his parents split up when a true mate came along—I'd bever been so happy in my life than when that knot started to grow and grow.

His teeth sank into my neck, my dick pulsed and cum splashed between us.

"You need one too," I said. That was the only warning I gave before I struck, sinking my teeth into his neck and completing our mating. My beast was close to the surface and more than ready for the world to see that this alpha belonged to me.

His knot pressed against the walls of my channel, so impossibly big, and I saw stars. I thought that was hyperbole. But no, I literally saw stars, and they were stunning. The pleasure that rolled through me with each subtle move nearly had me blacking out, but I refused to allow it. I wanted to be front row and present for every second of our first time.

Beckett licked over where his mark was, and I shuddered before doing the same to his. It was official. We were mates, not only in words but also in markings. Our beasts were in agreement, Beckett's cat's eyes showing, looking down at me lovingly. My beast was doing the same, only looking up.

A sense of calm filled me, like I floated on a sea of clouds.

Eventually we would have to get up, but for now, I was content in my mate's arms. A place I never wanted to leave.