Chapter 5

Chapter

Five

R ory slipped away from Fen, who was pretty much eating and sleeping right now, and headed out to corral the kids he was watching today. A bunch of the omegas were making soap, and the kids needed to not be anywhere near the fires and the huge kettles…

“Hey, little monsters!” Rory called. “Here I am!”

“Uncle Rory!” Six little ones came to jump around him as if he were a Maypole.

“Oh, I’ve missed you guys.” He let them dance around him, not bothering to move, just standing until everyone had calmed down. Then he moved and simply sat with them, two cubs crawling into his lap while the others plopped down close.

“Where have you been? Where have you been, Uncle Rory?” little Hannah asked, her eyes as big as saucers.

“Did you hear that a new wolf came into the pack? That he’d been hurt?” Rory asked, and all of the little cubs nodded.

“He’s big!”

“And white.”

“Someone shooted him with a gun!”

“Someone did. It was sad.” Rory offered them all a sympathetic smile. “Well, I’ve been helping him get better. I’m the one who found him, and so I’ve been taking care of him as best I can, helping the healers, and then he’s come to stay at my house with me.”

“Papa says you have a mate,” Elsa announced.

“Does he now?” Rory wasn’t going to admit or deny it. He wasn’t sure if a human could have a mate.

He didn’t see why not, and it didn’t matter because he wasn’t walking away from Fen. He couldn’t. There was something amazing about the man, and he didn’t understand it all, but the fact was, he didn’t want to.

No matter how much teasing from his brothers he got. He was not pretending to be a wolf. He was making a life here, and he couldn’t deny that.

“What’s wrong?” one of the older cubs asked. “What’s the matter, Uncle Rory? You look sad.”

“I’m not. I’ve never been happier.” And that was not a lie. Fen was home, happy, resting. “What should we do today?” It was absolutely time to change the subject. “Should we go gather leaves or maybe look for interesting flowers?”

“Sticks. We should find all the sticks.” Wolf cubs were fascinated by sticks.

“Okay, but no chewing, huh? Sticks can get…stuck.” He chomped his teeth, and the children all giggled. “Shall we go to the kitchens and see if they have any treats to take with us?”

“Oh! I hope there are tarts.”

“I want hand pies.”

They all called out what their favorites were.

Cookies, meringues, peanut butter sandwiches, chocolate drops—they were all about the sweet and full of energy.

He grinned, and they all trooped along to see what there was to eat. And there was such a plethora that everyone was happy. And quiet for a moment.

He took a deep breath and ate his bear claw, trying his damnedest to focus on the kids and not the wolf in his bed.

His focus kept drifting, and he felt…itchy. Like he had to scratch his arms itchy.

“Are you all right, Rory?” John, who was a good friend to him, was there, patting his youngest on the back. John was Keegan’s mate, and he’d thought he was human for years.

“Hmmm? I am.” Okay, he needed to stop making his skin raw. “Just a little itchy.”

“Itchy? Did you get into something?” John studied him closely.

“I don’t think so…” His chest hurt some too. Maybe he was coming down with something.

“You look like you’re not feeling well, man. Do you need to see the healers? I can watch the kiddos.”

“No. No, I need to see Fen, I think.” Maybe he was wrong, but that was the way he felt…drawn.

“Well then, you should go.” John didn’t sound amused. He also didn’t sound particularly worried. “Trust me on this. Every so often, you really need this. You should follow your instincts.”

Rory’s cheeks heated. “Yeah, but I’m not a, you know…”

John rolled his eyes like thrown dice. “I don’t know anything. Trust me, these days. I don’t know anything. I have a family and a mate, and I’m very happy, but don’t ask me because everything that I ever thought I knew, I didn’t know. It’s a thing.”

John did make him chuckle. Rory guessed that finding out all of a sudden that one, you were a werewolf, and two, you were able to get pregnant was just a lot for a dude to process.

Especially one who hadn’t been raised in the universe that he’d been.

At least Rory knew about omegas and alphas and dragons and werewolves and fae.

“Are you sure you have the kids? I know it’s a lot.”

“Go. See. Fen.”

“Right on, going to see Fen.” He didn’t ask again. He just grabbed a couple of more bear claws and ran out the door.

He heard John going, “No, no, no, come on, kids, we’re going to go in here, and it’s going to be time to draw.”

He didn’t care. He just ran across the courtyard and then through the harvested garden to his mate. He needed to see Fen. He needed to see him now.

It wasn’t like there was something wrong. He felt that. He somehow understood that Fen was fine. He just needed to see him. Touch him.

Maybe pretend like they were going to lick each other a little bit.

He chuckled. Not yet. Fen was still recovering. But they could eat pastry together. That was a fine and wonderful thing.

Fen was standing on the front porch, staring at him, eyes seeming to glow, to beg him to jump into his arms and hold on.

“I brought you a bear claw…” He held out the pastry, shocked to see his hand shaking.

“Oh. Thank you.” Fen grabbed Rory by the wrist and dragged him inside, then took the pastry and set it on the entry table.

“I—hello, Fen. I need?—”

So very badly.

“Shhh.” Fen hauled him up against that wide chest, and then Fen’s mouth came down on top of his, lips warm and firm and so good. It felt like heaven, and something that was dangling inside him clicked back into place.

He groaned, his fingers tangling in Fen’s long hair as he held on tight.

The kiss made his blood heat and his cock rise, and Rory moaned, then broke for air, stroking Fen’s cheek. “Are you healed enough to?—”

“Just don’t make me do push-ups,” Fen said with a slow grin.

“No way. You can lie back and let me do the work.” He started dancing Fen back toward the big couch. He would let Fen stretch out, and then he would start at his head and work down with hands and mouth.

He wanted to touch and taste every bit of Fen’s body, and it was deep need.

Deep.

But being pressed against Fen like he was made the itch stop, and it made the pain in his chest ease.

He pushed gently on Fen’s uninjured shoulder, letting him fall back on the couch. Then he started tugging at the soft clothes Fen wore.

“Are you comfortable?” He thought it was only fair to ask.

“I am, love. Never fear that.” Fen curled up to let him tug off the shirt, then lifted up to let Rory take off his pants. Then he put a hand on Rory’s chest when Rory would have come down on top of him. “I want to see you too.”

“Oh.” Rory blinked, then smiled. “Sure. I got caught up.” He wasn’t ashamed of his body, though he wasn’t stunning like Fen. But he worked hard, and that gave him lean muscles and a flat belly…

He yanked off his shirt, then wiggled out of his pants, his dick springing up like a jack-in-the-box.

“Look at you, sweet.” Fen stroked his shoulder, then his chest, fingers tweaking one of his nipples. “So pretty. And you smell so good.”

“You—I don’t hurt anymore.”

“Good. Neither do I.”

Rory had to chuckle. That seemed to make perfect sense to his wolf. “All right then. Let’s make each other fly.”

“Mmmm. Yes. Please.” Fen winked up at him, those bright blue eyes twinkling for him. Fen bracketed his hips with those big hands, pulling him up so Fen’s big cock rubbed against his belly.

His mouth went dry, and he glanced down, noting how much…bigger Fen was than him. Which wasn’t humiliating like it might have been. It was more…amazing.

Wonderful.

He rocked, his hips rolling, his breath already coming fast. “You’re sure I’m not hurting you?”

Fen reached up and across to touch his shoulder with his opposite hand. “Look, sweet. I’m already healing. I just needed to rest and eat, two things I did little of before I met you.”

“And then you got shot.”

“And then I got shot,” Fen agreed. “Kiss me, Rory.”

Rory nodded, bending to press his mouth to Fen’s again. He jumped when Fen’s tongue touched his, and his ass clenched, need shooting through him.

“I can smell you, love. So hot and musky. So perfect.”

“I—We can’t be mates, Fen. You know that, right?”

A little smile played about Fen’s mouth. “No?”

“No. I mean, I’m human.”

“You keep saying that. But you don’t smell human. You can hear me in your head. You itch when we’re too far apart. And you’re wet for me.” Fen pressed one long finger against his back entrance.

He’d asked questions, of course, and had heard rumors and whispers, but he’d never had a discussion about the complications and specifics of sex with werewolves. “Is this normal, right?”

He wanted it to be right.

“More than. I’m going to make you feel so good.” Fen’s touch continued, the steady rocking connection that was building this fire inside the pit of his belly he didn’t know what to do with. Sex had never felt like this. Never. This was heaven. Please don’t stop.

Don’t worry, I’m not going to stop. I want to make love to you. Bring us together. “Tell me you want it too.”

“More than anything.” He needed that more than anything in the history of things. And there had been a long history of things.

“Good.” Fen’s smile was downright wicked, an expression he’d not seen on that dear face yet, and his whole body heated even more.

Fen opened him up, two fingers inside him now, moving back and forth, and he arched, a long moan coming from him. Yes. This was so damn perfect.

He wanted to roar.

He wanted to beg.

His entire body shuddered with all the things he needed right now.

Right this very second.

His world was spinning, and he couldn’t quite catch his breath.

“Help me. I need more. I need something.”

He felt like a virgin, which was ridiculous, but he did. This was more than he had ever?—

He’d never known his nerves could feel so much.

That his heart could be so loud in his ears and Fen could smell so good. Did he smell that way to Fen?

“Better. Better, you smell necessary.” That growl echoed in his very bones.

“Yes. Necessary.” He panted, rocking his hips back against that huge hand, feeling the scrape of his nerves as Fen touched him. Then Fen was lifting him, pulling him up and over, then fitting that broad cockhead to his hole.

“Going to knot you, love.”

“Anything. Please. Anything.” He’d never needed like this, and he intended to have it now.

Fen pushed inside him, and Rory’s thighs clenched, drawing his knees up, exposing himself wider.

That amazing prick filled him and filled him and filled him until he swore when he swallowed he could feel the tip on the back of his throat.

“Oh my God. So good.”

Fen’s eyes flashed. “You’re so tight. You all right?”

“Better than. Don’t stop, please, please.” He thought for a second there was nothing but wolf in Fen’s eyes, and it was so?—

The moon.

He could see the moon in Fen’s eyes.

Rory could feel their bodies moving together, hear the sounds of them slapping together.

But his brain, his soul, was caught there, staring into Fen’s eyes, watching the moon.

Fen laughed, the sound utterly exultant. “Oh, sweet. You feel like home.”

“Fen.”

“Feel me, love. Feel my knot swell.”

“I do. I can—” Rory bore down, letting Fen in deeper, letting them join together harder.

Suddenly something unbearably huge pushed into him, his body snapping around the base of Fen’s cock.

“My knot, sweet. So ready for you. So hot.” Fen growled the words, pushing up into him.

His body squeezed, milking Fen’s prick. “Please. Touch me.”

“Anything, sweet.” Fen’s hands skated over his skin, leaving heat in their wake. Those clever fingers worked over him, pinching his nipples, tugging at his cock.

He arched and groaned, his eyes rolling back in his head. “Fuck…”

Fen chuckled, the sound warm, happy, and sexual. “You’re stuck well and good now, love. I can feel it so deep.”

“Uh-huh. I need to come, Fen…” Or he was going to scream.

“I know, love. I can feel you shaking.” Fen rolled up, abs rippling, and bit him, right at the base of his throat. Marking him.

He growled back, his body bowing, his ass clenching down on Fen’s knot. Rory shot hard, his shout ringing in the cabin, his body on fire.

Fen grimaced, his hands landing on Rory’s hips again as he drove deep, thrusting one, two, three more times before he groaned, filling Rory deep with his seed.

He slumped onto Fen’s chest, shifting to one side as he did, so he didn’t hit the mostly healed wound. They were still locked together by the knot. “Damn.”

“Mmmm.” Fen smiled for him, blinking slow. “That was perfect.”

“ You’re perfect.” He felt so much better.

“I think if you go to watch the kids, I should come with you. Just for the time being.” Fen couldn’t seem to stop grinning at him.

He snorted softly. “Shut up. Aren’t we supposed to be all after-glowy?”

“I am. I’m very afterglow. In fact, that is why I think we need to stay close to each other. Mate bond.”

“Mate bond? Can it really be?”

Fen stroked his back, fingers gentle, trailing along the knobs of his spine. “I think so, yes. I’ve never heard of a human getting wet like an omega, Rory. Tell me about your family?”

“I have lots of brothers. My family has been working for the dragons for over a century.”

“All men.”

“Every one.”

“Hmmm.” Fen tilted his head. “And they worked for the dragons?”

“Yes. And now they supply the wolves.” His brothers were supply experts, and they needed to keep on top of a lot of moving parts.

“But you didn’t stay with them?”

“No.” He chewed his lower lip. “I was restless. I miss the dragons. And I knew I could help out here. So I came up. It felt so good, I asked to come and stay.”

“I’m very glad you did.” Fen kissed his neck.

“Me too. I don’t know what’s going on, but it’s so good.”

“It is.” Fen drew a blanket off the back of the couch and tucked it around them. “Stay with me?”

“Mmmhmm. But if John calls for help…”

“By then we should be able to disengage.”

He hooted. “Well, right now, we’re pretty stuck.”

“I know.” Fen winked. “I like it.” Then he yawned, a jaw-cracking sound.

“Mmm. Nap?”

“Yes.” Fen hugged Rory close, and they both closed their eyes.

He was asleep in moments.