Epilogue: Damon

" O n your knees."

They were my favorite three little words, especially when drawled out by my sexy mate. I scrambled to obey.

Ollie and Beck were looking after Cam overnight, with the tradeoff being that Rex and I would form part of the guard for the kids and other vulnerable shifters during the following night's pack run, and I was taking full advantage of a childfree night at home.

Kneeling naked on the bed, already gagged and blindfolded, and holding a bell in my hand in case I needed to safe word, I was practically vibrating with desperate excitement already.

I could hear Rex's quiet movements around the side of the bed, but I couldn't see him. Through the bond, I could feel his answering enjoyment of this scene, though.

There was something equal parts arousing and relaxing in letting Rex tie me up. Sometimes, we went with basic bondage, but when we got the chance, I loved letting him decorate my body in intricate shibari patterns before rendering me immobile and fucking me senseless.

With Cam staying at Beck and Ollie's, this was one of those times.

The silken shibari rope caressed my heated flesh as Rex began the first tie of the night, wrapping around my chest. I tried to follow his slow, deliberate movements, picturing the design in my head. As he crisscrossed over my shoulders and around my pecs, weaving decorative knots, I guessed it was a diamond chest harness – one of my favorite shibari patterns to look at.

Once finished with my chest, he repeated a similar pattern around my waist, down over my abdomen and then framing my crotch. I was leaking slick down the insides of my thighs, but with the tightening rope surrounding my cock and balls, I was achingly hard and leaking precum, too.

Through it all, I kept as silent as possible, made easier to achieve with the gag in my mouth. But, even so, I was still vibrating out of my skin with the need to see Rex's artwork. He was a master with rope, after all.

Cowboys and rope , I thought happily, a match made in heaven.

"Good boy," Rex said when he finished tying the last of the knots. "I think you deserve a reward."

I whimpered as he removed the gag from my mouth, but instead of taking away my blindfold, he ran the sticky, blood-hot head of his cock over my lips. I sucked him into my mouth greedily, delighting in his resulting moan, and in the way his fingers carded through my hair, holding my head in place.

"That's it, kitten. Fuck, just like that."

I sucked and licked and bobbed my head as though this prize would be taken from me at any second. Knowing Rex, it just might.

I could feel more of my slick trickling down the insides of my thighs, my arousal incited by the pleasure I could feel through the bond. Rex's pleasure, which I was responsible for.

When he pulled away, I whined in protest.

He chuckled. "Hold on, darlin'. I want you to see how beautiful you are."

The fingers in my hair moved to pull the blindfold up and off my head. I blinked a bit to adjust to the low light of the room again, and then looked towards the mirrored wardrobe doors, directly across the room from the foot of the bed.

He was right; I did look damn good all trussed up in his decorative bondage.

"I'm not done with you yet, baby," he murmured, then took hold of my wrists and brought them behind my back.

My cock jerked and dribbled with anticipation.

Yes.

I closed my eyes and enjoyed the feeling of completely submitting as Rex tied my wrists together, then my ankles, then the two separate ties as one. I was hogtied while kneeling, and I couldn't even be bothered snarking about a cowboy's choice to hogtie his partner, because it felt too damn good.

Then it got better .

After reclining on the bed, Rex used his alpha strength to manhandle me until I was straddling his lap, the latex-covered tip of his cock teasing at my slick hole. He held me steady by my hips and thrust into me, causing us to both cry out at the sensations of ecstasy zipping through the bond on feedback loop. He held me in place as he rocked up into me, and soon the room was filled with the sounds of our lovemaking.

Flesh slapping flesh, the wet sound of my slick squelching around his cock, our panted breaths and quiet groans…it was nothing short of perfect. I couldn't move my hands or legs, and my head was floaty from just how cherished I felt.

"I'm…I'm gonna come…" I warned him as the building pleasure became almost unbearable. I knew he could feel the tightening coil of pending release through the bond, but I couldn't help babbling anyway. "Rex…please…right there…" I tried to bounce in place and oh, God, yes !

I practically whited out as my orgasm crashed over me, with the answering echo of Rex's own following directly afterwards. Smaller jolts of bliss came next as I clenched around Rex's knot and he came again and again, weaker but still just as pleasurable.

He groaned and pushed himself up into a seated position, grimacing through the additional stimulation to his knot, reaching around me to release the tie binding my hands and feet together. With a look of concentration on his handsome face, he also undid the ties on my wrists and ankles, so we could fall to the mattress more comfortably.

Sated, I began to drift to sleep, lulled there by the way his fingers were gently trailing over the remaining ropes over my torso.

"You're perfect, kitten," he murmured, sounding awed. "I still can't believe you're mine."

"I'm glad." I yawned and closed my eyes, smiling softly. "You're kind of stuck with me, cowboy."

Then I drifted off to sleep, thinking about just how perfect he was, too.

* * *

"And you're sure you don't want to trial the birth control Eric and I have created?" Brandt asked, bouncing Cam on his lap while Duke and Rory tumbled around on the rug, fighting over a stuffed toy wolf. They had two of the things, of course, but like most siblings, each one wanted whatever the other had.

I felt the stab of sheer panic coming from my mate through the bond and I snickered, shaking my head, not even bothering to look over at him, where he was rolling around in his puma form, entertaining a bunch of older kids, who were still too young to shift. I didn't care what he said, he was a natural dad.

"No, Brandt. I'm not being a guinea pig. What if they fail?" More of that panic raced through the bond. I sent back a wave of exasperation, still looking at Brandt as I gestured to the brawling toddlers. "I don't need that in my life, thanks."

We were on guard duty during the monthly run. There were additional security sweeps around the property, and Sage was still investigating my theory about tapping into magic to create magical protections, too.

In the year or so since the attempted abduction of our children, our pack had not only become far more security-conscious, but had also grown significantly. We had yet to connect another omega with a ‘hidden alpha', as Eric was still calling them, but people were leaving their cult-minded packs and coming to us for sanctuary on a weekly basis.

Unsurprisingly, Morstein's rants about the ‘Neo-Shifter Movement' had increased in answer to his gradually dwindling flock. Some of the newer shifters had even reported that their packs were reconsidering their structure and ties to Moonmusic, which was probably also making Morstein mad. However, if enough packs pulled away from him, he was just one man and he'd do less damage without their support.

I'd also had the shock of my life when Brandi had stopped wearing scent blockers and revealed that she was also an alpha. A female alpha. My mind had been blown, but Beck and Rex had been relieved to have the additional alpha backup as the pack continued to grow.

Due to the expansion of our pack, the human townships in the area had also become aware of our existence. However, Beck and Eric worked overtime to make connections and prove that we weren't all that different to them. That had meant that they'd had to warn the humans about the other kinds of shifters, too, but they were both convinced that we were making allies among our neighboring towns and that would only benefit us in the long run. I was on the fence about that.

Some of the local scientists and doctors had also offered their help and equipment towards Eric, Ollie and Brandt's research, and many businesses were willing to employ the new shifters moving into the area, too.

Where we had started as a fledgling, mottled pack, we now felt far more substantial and powerful. With three alphas at the helm, most teething issues as we expanded were dealt with efficiently and quickly. But that also meant that we needed to be even more vigilant against attacks from the old-school cult-y shifters.

I really needed to think of a better way to describe them.

The Moonmusic sect, maybe?

Either way, the more they lost followers, the more tithes they were losing. Their bid for not only financial control, but social power would only become more desperate over time. Eric was having a larger building built for town meetings, but also for times like this, where the most vulnerable members of the pack were even more defenseless and exposed.

Still, none of that detracted from my personal happiness.

Brandt pretended to be affronted. "You believe my calculations are off?"

"I believe that no birth control is one hundred percent effective."

"Amen to that," Lena huffed and dropped into the seat beside me, rubbing her hand over her heavily pregnant belly. "A word to the wise: the implant can fail during a heat."

I laughed, while Brandt sighed and told her, "Your implant was due for replacement. If you hadn't left it so long, you and Brandi would still be pretending you were happy just dating."

"You're a town doctor," she complained at him, "you're supposed to be professional and impartial."

He shrugged. "I've been here since the beginning. I'm your friend, too. If you want impartial, switch to one of the new doctors."

Yeah; the town had expanded so much that we had a proper doctor's clinic in the main street and everything, but I still worked for Eric and Brandt in what they had rebranded to their fertility and birth center.

Lena rolled her eyes and pouted. "I don't wanna."

"My, how the tables have turned," Ollie teased her as he wandered into the room. He seemed to take great pleasure in his friends' situation. I assumed there was a story there, but that was their business. He sat beside her and placed his hand over her belly, smiling when one of the babies inside kicked. "Weren't you the one placing bets that it would be Beck and me having more babies?"

"Shut up," she batted at him, but she was laughing. "Mark my words, Smith, that alpha of yours will knot more babies in you yet."

Ollie had taken Beck's surname after they'd gotten married in a very elaborate ceremony in front of the whole pack at the last Christmas parade. He shrugged and looked over at his kids, his eyes lighting up with yearning. "I wouldn't mind," he admitted.

Over on the mat, Rex groaned and sent me a look —and accompanying feelings through the bond— that told me not to go getting any ideas.

I rolled my eyes at him.

As if my feelings would have changed from three minutes earlier.

"Anyway," Ollie said, redirecting the conversation, "Beck and Sandy's friend and former housemate is finally coming to stay for a while. I've only met Micah a few times, but he means a lot to Beck, so can we all please play nicely?"

As Brandt became unusually silent, I gave Ollie an insulted look. "Since when do I not play nicely?"

Ollie pointed at me emphatically. "You fight with Dex every time he comes into the clinic."

"That's because he's an ass—" the growl from the mat reminded me that there were little ears listening. Damn it . "—ssssassin."

"An assassin, huh?" Ollie repeated with amusement.

I glared. "You know what I actually wanted to say."

"Not that it's an excuse," Brandt cut back in, sounding a little off . I supposed that he had actually been there during Dexter's formative years centuries earlier, so he knew him far better than we did. "But Dexter is…going through some things. He's not usually quite as abrasive. "

I couldn't exactly say I couldn't relate, could I?

Back when I'd met Rex in that bar, I'd been sarcastic and dismissive, too. I'd been miserable in my pack, and if he hadn't come along and upended my life, who knows where I would have ended up.

Probably still miserable, sneaking out and turning down sleazebags in random roadside bars .

With a bit more empathy, I nodded. "Maybe Dex and I just need to have a proper conversation."

"Speaking of," Ollie gave Rex a pointed look and my mate let out a sigh before pushing to his feet and trotting out of the room. When he came back, he was fully clothed.

He took my hand, nodded at Ollie, and then walked me out onto the porch.

"What's going on?" I asked him.

We were bonded, but I couldn't get a read on his feelings. They weren't masked, exactly, but it almost felt like he'd worked out how to muddle them across the connection between us.

He looked out into the darkness and took a deep breath before he turned back around to face me…and then dropped to one knee.

My eyes widened.

"Rex…?"

"I've been thinkin' about the best way to do this for a while now," he started, then pulled a square ring box from his pocket, which made my heart stammer, "and I'm still nervous as hell." He paused and chuckled, then, looking up at me with amusement and adoration. I felt those emotions clearly through the bond. "I'm pretty sure I fell head over heels for you when I caught you tellin' some guy that you didn't speak English just to turn him down. And even though we're bonded together already, I still want everything with you, darlin'. Even if that's more rugrats at some point down the line, or if you decide you want to leave this pack and move to Aruba, I want us to do it all together. So," he opened the box, while I stood there gaping, the cool breeze and twinkling stars the only witnesses to this magical moment between us, "will you marry me, Damon?"

Nodding, I thought back to that life-changing night as well, and remembered what I had told him then. "Just so you know," I let all the love I felt flow through the bond to him, and repeated the words I had spoken, setting off a chain of events neither one of us could have predicted, but that I didn't think either of us would take back. "For you? I'll speak any language you want."

As we kissed in joyful celebration, I hoped that the same words would bring just as much unpredictable happiness to us in the future, too.

The End