Chapter Twenty-Three

Dakota

The matingmoon house was dark when I woke up with my head still resting against Cardian's chest. It was dark and warm and toasty. Sweat prickled on the back of my neck.

Shit! Shit! Heat. Probably heat. What else would make me so hot?

"Told you so," my wolf chimed into my thoughts.

Inside his inner sanctum, he was stretched out on his belly with his tail wagging. His tongue lolled from his mouth when he panted. I wiggled around, not willing to sit up yet, but all too aware of Cardian's hard, thick dick poking into my thigh where it rested over his waist. I licked my lips and tried to will my heartbeat to resume its normal pattern.

"Morning," Cardian yawned, stretching one arm out above his head. "Well, sorta."

"It's dark outside," I chuckled, stating the obvious. "Maybe we've moved to your sleep schedule."

"I don't think we'll have a steady, stable sleep schedule for a bit." Cardian said.

"You mean until we get used to each other being around all the time," I teased him. "You should know the house is like ten degrees hotter than it really is."

"Huh?" Cardian blinked and then his eyes lit up with the realization. "Oh! Do you need me to do anything? Turn the thermostat down or get you an ice pack or anything?"

"I'm going into heat. I don't have a concussion," I laughed, wiggling up a little bit to steal a good-morning-in-the-middle-of-the-night kiss.

Cardian's lips were cool against mine as his tongue pushed them apart and snaked up into my mouth. I sucked on the tip of his tongue for a second before releasing it to dance around mine. His hands slid to my hips and then further over to grope my ass. His squeezes sent little bolts of longing throughout me.

"Hey," Cardian said when the kiss broke, "I just realized we haven't exactly discussed kids and now with you going into heat it's probably now or never if we want any say about it. I found a bunch of condoms in all the bedrooms and both bathrooms. So, we can have a say. I know that heat and the true-mate response make that more difficult, but if you don't---"

I put my hand over his mouth to stop his rambling.

"I love the sound of your voice, but shut up for a minute," I growled and uncovered his mouth.

"It's hot when you're all bossy," he said and squeezed my ass again until I moaned.

"I want a family. I want the chance to give a family what I was never able to have from my parents. So, if you're okay with it, we can let nature take its course," I said, trying not to think too hard about his long, thick cock filling my omegahole up.

Cardian's nostrils flared as the aroma of my arousal filled the borrowed living room.

"I have no objections to that plan," he said, squeezing my ass again. "In fact, it's probably the best battle plan I've ever heard laid out."

"Remember that if we ever have the occasion to go into a war room together," I grinned and kissed him before he could get too caught up in making up wars that we might have to deal with in the future.

We kissed long and hard, our tongues dancing between our mouths. I gave into the kiss and what our bodies wanted. Wiggling around, I pushed Cardian's shirt up around his neck so I could touch as much of him as possible. Laughing, he sat up and pulled it off over his head and then stole mine too, for good measure.

In a swift vampyric motion, Cardian had me on my back with his tongue teasing the hard peak of my nipple. I sucked in a hard, sharp breath and ran my fingers through his hair. His hand found my dick, stiff under my jeans. He squeezed and stroked me through the denim until I thrust against his hand, wanting more from him. Each touch bumped up the temperature of the room, but it didn't matter how hot the house grew as long as I was with Cardian. I'd kiss him and suck him on the rim of a volcano if that's the only place we could find to be alone.

I lost myself to his mouth as he kissed from one nipple to the other, sending shimmies of desire up and down my back. He dragged his tongue down my stomach, tracing the outlines of my lean abs. He stopped and kissed my navel. A distraction tactic, as he undid my fly and freed my dick from its fabric prison.

A sigh of relief escaped my mouth, as the cool air of the room played on my bare, hard shaft. Still kissing and licking my belly, Cardian took me in his hand and stroked. A sigh bubbled over my lips as his affections eased the urgency building inside me from the heat. He teased me with slow deliberate strokes before letting go of me. I opened my mouth to complain but a second later my legs were in the air as Cardian tugged off my jeans and underwear. They landed on the floor with a soft thud. I almost told him to strip too, but his mouth was on me before the words finished forming on my tongue.

His tongue twirled around the blazing head of my cock, his breath cooling the fire just enough for the licks to feel delicious. Cardian's hands caressed all over my body as he worked me over with his mouth. I sank into the sofa, forgetting that heat brewed in my belly or that Scott smelled like he might pop any day now when we left their house.

Instead, I thought about Cardian and how many ‘stars' had to come into alignment for us to meet this time around. For once, it felt like the universe was on my side and I was going to take the fullest advantage of that fact.

Cardian's hand ran down my thighs leaving behind a trail of goosebumps as it traveled to my balls. With his fingertips, he teased the textured skin of my scrotum until my heels dug into the sofa and my hips arched up seeking even more affection. He squeezed them, varying the pressure and stoking the fire inside my belly.

"Alpha," the word trailed over my tongue as his mouth sank low on my shaft.

He looked up my body, meeting my gaze. My hunger mirrored back to me in his eyes. I licked my parched lips and ran my hands down my body to his shoulders. The heat-fueled fire blazed inside me. I needed him there too to combat the flames. Heat meant either drowning in desire or drowning in pleasure, I'd choose pleasure any day.

Despite the fire inside me, Cardian took his time. He kissed and licked back up my torso. He stopped to tease one nipple and then the other until my back arched high offering him my flesh for whatever pleasure I could steal from his mouth. He licked up my throat and across my shoulder until he found my swollen claiming gland. I winced as he placed a promising kiss atop it.

Under the taut skin the gland was filled with the clear magical fluid of the claiming vows. The glands laid dormant for most of our lives only coming to life and filling with the bonding fluid once we encountered our true-mates. It was the exchange of this fluid that bonded us together. It filled us in on important memories, changed our scents to smell more like each other and ‘taken.' Mostly importantly to me – it opened the mating link. The link would give us the same ability to communicate as a family or group link, but it was private and just for us. It was the link that allowed true-mates to move through life in tandem, seeming to always be in sync. I wanted inside Cardian's head almost as much as I wanted his thick cock inside me.

"Do you like those pants?" I asked Cardian, drawing his attention back to me.

"What pants?"

"Your pants. The ones you're wearing."

"Umm… why?" he laughed, leaning his head back enough to meet my gaze.

"My wolf is considering tearing them off."

"Oh, really?" he smirked at me and grabbed both of my hands to hold them against the arm of the sofa.

"He's not the most patient sort, you know."

"Is he okay in there?" Cardian asked.

"He's just horny," I laughed.

"I meant because I don't have an inner beast and all."

"He's fine. Like always, he feels what I feel. He's just not as gracious and patient as I am."

"Good. I was worried there for a second."

"That he was too patient?" I laughed.

"No, that he was lonely because I didn't have an inner beast."

"We're not lonely around you," I said, and my eyes shifted to that of my wolf.

Cardian claimed my lips in a long hard kiss, still holding my hands above my head. I grabbed the hems of his pants legs and tugged. I didn't make any progress due to his belt, but it reminded him that if I ‘escaped' his pants were dead meat.

When the kiss broke, Cardian held my hands in place gazing into my eyes for a long second before he stood up. A chill shimmied down my spine as his scent filled my head. I'd never wanted anyone in my life as much as I wanted this man. He pushed my knees to my chest and told me to keep them there.

"What? Want a view to change to?" I teased him.

"Maybe," he shrugged, his fingers pausing over his fly, "or maybe I just want you ready for me."

"I've been ready for you," I said, slipping my hands under my thighs to hold my legs in place, "you're the one taking your time."

"I want to savor and memorialize every moment we're together," he said, undoing his belt buckle.

"You can savor it all a little closer to me," I grinned.

"I plan on getting close to you," he smirked, "really close."

"Then put your dick where your mouth is."

"That would be a trick."

"One I'd watch," I shrugged as best as I could all, bent up like a pretzel.

"I bet you would," he chuckled, finally undoing his fly to finish undressing.

Cardian was fit. His arms and thighs were marked with muscles that I wanted to lick and bite.

"There'll be time for that later," my wolf whimpered into my thoughts.

He was right. If I was in heat, nature would plan out how long our matingmoon would last, not us.

Cardian sank one knee onto the sofa and ran his hand up over my dick and kept going until his fingertips brushed against my throat.

"Fucking beautiful," he growled and the fire inside me burnt hotter.

He ran his hand back down the length of my body over my chest, belly, cock, and balls right down to my slick, needy omegahole. Slick arousal pooled outside of it and with gentle circles that made me writhe from his touch, Cardian coated his fingers in my natural lubrication.

He stroked himself as he moved onto the sofa properly bringing up his other knee as he knelt before me. My gaze followed his fist as he worked it over his long thick cock. Then Cardian shifted his weight forward. The thick head of his cock brushed against my slick omegahole, and I gasped as my nerve endings lit up.

"Ready?" Cardian asked, his voice low and gravelly.

"Been ready," I nodded as he rubbed the head of his cock over me again.

He rested one hand possessively on my thigh as he used the other hand to work himself inside me. Aided by the heat and my slickness, my body opened to him, welcoming him inside me. I let out a long breath as he thrust forward, serving me up inch after inch of himself.

He growled, his expression screwed up with concentration and pleasure as he sank balls deep into my body. I squeezed him tight as my brain adjusted to the delicious, almost overwhelming fullness pressing at me from the inside. Cardian's weight settled against me, and I wrapped my limbs around him to hold him in place. He thrust again and I arched my hips to meet him. It didn't take us long to find the rhythm between our bodies. Our heartbeats pounded in time as I clung to him, riding out the waves and spirals of pleasure dancing between us.

He kissed my throat, trailing his tongue up and down, keeping pace with his steady thrusting. Bit by bit, his attention turned to my claiming gland again. This time, I bent my neck away from him, giving him free reign of my claiming gland. He licked up and down the side of my throat, his tongue playing at my pulse point. For a second, I thought he'd bite me right there just for a taste. The sharp points of his fangs grazed against my flesh, but he pulled away, turning back to my claiming gland at the last second.

"I promise to always love and protect you," he murmured against my skin just before his fangs sank into my claiming gland.

The sting came and went like a lightning bolt leaving behind the rivers and streams of the clear magical fluid as the only evidence it ever happened. Cardian's nimble tongue lapped up the fluid from my gland and drank in my memories. My life wasn't that exciting, if you didn't count my parents dying when I was young. I didn't think there were many surprises hiding inside the magic for him. Unless it was magic itself – some of my spells or research.

Even as he lapped up my memories, our hips rocked together building friction and stoking the fires of heat blazing through me. I clung to him as he finished his half of our claiming vows. I swallowed hard as he pulled away, having dried up all the magical fluid. He claimed my lips in a hard kiss. His tongue whipped and spun around mine, leaving me breathless and a little dizzy.

"Your turn," he said, moving so that I could reach his shoulder.

His claiming gland was prominent enough that I didn't have to search around for it. I placed a promising kiss on it and the fluid within sloshed under my lips. What would I see? What would I hear? How would it feel to finally be connected heart, body, and soul to my true-mate?

My impatient wolf forced his canine tooth out of my mouth and urged me on. I didn't bite hard enough at first, trying to be gentle. Then I chomped down, Cardian swore and thrust into me hard. I opened my mouth to apologize but didn't have time because the clear magic fluid was already trying to make its great escape.

I chased it down with my tongue as Cardian's dick rocked inside my body. His memories came on slowly as if they were hesitant to show themselves at all. The Lost Fang Coven dwelt within a fortress unlike anything I had even seen. Thick impenetrable walls blocked out most of the sun when anyone bothered to venture out into the world during the daytime. It was safe and snug. It was guarded and laughter filled the halls in more memories than not. Whispered conversation seeped through the walls because vampires couldn't do much besides tune out their predatory hearing.

The faces of his parents and siblings drifted in and out of view. Most of the adults didn't seem to age at all or if they did it was even slower than us shifters aged. Laurni was everywhere for minutes of the memories and then he was gone. One little battle and one of the greatest guardians the Lost Fang Coven ever knew was gone. His pain echoed through me, and I gripped him tighter. Battle was always fucked up. Good people died alongside the worst of them.

"Everyone better behave," I gasped for air, pleasure and memories fighting for my attention. "We'll get them again like we got the Mundanes Before Magic. I'll protect you."

Cardian let out a hearty chuckle and nuzzled into my neck. He wasn't afraid of dying. That was the least of Cardian's worries as his emotions dripped down onto me over our mating link. He didn't want to lose anyone else he loved.

"I'm heartier than you think," I said and kissed his temple.

Our pleasure mingled together over our newly opened mating link until I couldn't tell where mine ended and his began. Our bodies pushed forward, thrusting and rocking faster, stoking the fire in my belly. Every thrust pushed us closer to the edge. I tensed against him, my balls drawing up tight to my body. His mouth claimed mine in a hungry kiss as his thrusting picked up pace. I clung to him, and he reached between our bodies to take my hard, throbbing dick in his hand. He stroked me in time with his pacing until I howled in pleasure, spilling semen between our bodies in long spurts. We were a mess, but it was a happy mess.

Cardian panted above me seeking out his own pleasure, even as I writhed under him. He sank deeper and deeper and then his thrust became quick and shallow. His dick shook inside me, trembling before releasing its warm, sticky seed. Our bodies rocked until there wasn't another drop of pleasure left to milk out of either of us.

Despite the mess, we drifted off back to sleep. Wrapped in his arms, I was safe and sound, even in heat growled in the recesses of my mind.