Chapter Ten

Zhang

I woke up feeling very good. I'd expected some sore muscles from all the running—somehow my panda's overdoing would transfer to my human form on the rare occasion we got any amount of exercise, but not today. Warm sunlight flooded the inn room where I'd slept, and my entire body was soft and relaxed.

And pinned under a body that was anything but soft. Shane. The lion. We'd spent the evening together and the night, and I was not in my room but his. Suddenly, I felt more than a little shy. He lay on his stomach, with most of me underneath him, and I desperately wanted to brush my teeth before he awoke. But that was going to be darned hard under the current circumstances. His magnificent form had heft.

I wriggled a little, testing my ability to escape, but I might as well have been trying to get out from under a boulder or maybe a fallen oak tree. Closing my lips tight, I breathed through my nose.

"What are you doing, omega?" growled Shane. "I'm trying to sleep."

"I'm sorry. I just wanted to go…to go brush my teeth so I don't offend you this morning."

His chuckle rumbled through his chest. "I have an armful of warm omega. I'm not worried about morning breath. Unless you are already offended by mine?"

"What? No!" I hadn't even noticed what his might be like because I was focused on the arms around me, chest against me, and mostly erect cock tucked in my ass crack. "I just don't want to ruin your day."

"Do you think anything about you and being in bed here with you could ruin my day?"

"No?" I let my lips part a little because breathing only through my nose did not work for me long-term and I was becoming a bit lightheaded. Could also be because of this alpha overwhelming me with his hotness.

"No." He rocked his hips forward, rock-hard now and prodding my hole. "You're awfully slick this early in the morning, omega."

"Mmm. How can I help it?" I wriggled my ass, bringing his tip inside.

"Am I too heavy for you, omega?" He propped up on an elbow beside me, still mostly on top of me.

"No. You're like a weighted blanket."

He pushed deeper and reached under me to grasp my cock. "I'm your security object? I was going more for sex object."

"You can be both. Oh, alpha!"

He squeezed my shaft and rubbed his palm over my head, gliding over the precum. I closed my eyes and lost myself in the pleasure of his cock and his hand and his body pressing me into the bed. It was mind-blowing. We'd done it a couple more times during the night, and I was a little sore, but it didn't matter because it felt so good, I didn't care if I couldn't sit comfortably for a week.

He sped up, whispering the naughtiest, sweetest things in my ear, his breath somehow sweet even at this time of the day and without a toothbrush. Or maybe, that was just a fated thing. I had no doubt this man was my true mate. Nothing about him smelled anything but amazing. Like cocoa butter and the woodsy cedar scent of my beloved sauna. Magic!

With all that sexy talk, I came fast, and as my cum poured over his fist, he emptied his balls into my greedy hole, and then his knot swelled, tying us together.

"Mark me, alpha," I begged with no forethought at all, and he obliged, teeth sinking into the side of my neck with a sharp agony that mellowed into incredible pleasure.

When his knot finally shrank, and he fell to the mattress beside me, I suddenly realized that I had him mark me when I wasn't even sure I'd see him again after tomorrow.

After we recovered, we showered together, but other than some sexy lathering, there was no more play. Was he feeling like I was? That I would be climbing aboard a train and riding out of his life with his mark on me forever?

Not that I minded the mark.

I just wanted the alpha who went with it.

Dressed, I went back to my room to brush my teeth, remembering how concerned I'd been over my breath, and not that I wasn't now, but suddenly that was the least concerning thing in the picture.

Franklin had a big breakfast waiting for us, and although at first I didn't feel any appetite, soon my shifter nature took over and I did justice to the pancakes and sausage and all the other treats our host laid out for us. As we sipped his excellent dark-roast coffee, Franklin left and came back with a handbill. He set it in front of us on the table.

"I don't know if you have already made plans for the day, but there's a carnival in town, and maybe you'd like to check it out."

Shane picked up the paper and looked it over. "Sounds fun. What do you think, Zhang? You up for some rides and games?"

I was up for anything to distract me from tomorrow when we might well part forever. And also, if this was all we had, I wanted to enjoy it to the fullest. I'd never be with anyone else again. Marked and mated, I was Shane's whether or not he chose to keep me.