10. Joe

Chapter 10

Joe

Now that Waylan was beside me, I couldn't hold on to him tightly enough. Something had happened that day in the barn. It was like a key I'd been holding had finally found the lock it was made for.

Waylan's distance and coldness was confusing but also understandable. I'd been trying to find a way to explain to him that I knew who he was, that I understood his need for solitude, his love of peace and quiet. He made absolute sense to me. But at the same time, I felt like such a dopey kid next to him. He was strong, magnificent, steady, and wise.

What could I offer him? I barely knew who I was.

I took his pushing me away as a sign that he didn't want me. I thought I could handle that, but I couldn't. Whether he wanted me to or not, I loved him. Deep in my bones, I knew I was made to be his.

Now that I'd found him, I couldn't lose him.

On top of that, my growing lust for Waylan had become ridiculous. It was debilitating. Night and day, my thoughts centered on my alpha. When I closed my eyes, I saw Waylan. In my dreams, I saw Waylan. That morning, I woke up and felt defeated by it all. Like, if I couldn't have him, I'd die.

Not figuratively, but like my heart would give out, and I'd actually die.

Then he was there, pinning me down and climbing on top of me. There was a new energy to Waylan. A hunger for me that drove my excitement even higher.

He was rough, exactly how I wanted it. There would be plenty of time to be tender in the future. Right now, I needed him to show me how much he wanted me. Waylan flipped me onto my stomach and teased my ass with his cock. Leaning over me, he brought his mouth next to my ear, then licked and bit my earlobe.

I shuddered with pleasure and pushed back against him, begging for him to take me. I wanted him more than anything, ever. Then, finally he gave me what my body needed when he pulled my hips toward him and slid his throbbing cock inside me.

I groaned and cried out as the world around me disappeared. I could only feel Waylan, hear Waylan, smell Waylan. With zero grace, I reached around and grabbed at his ass with one hand, pulling him deeper into me.

My alpha panted and moaned, thrusting harder and faster.

As if our bodies were made to be together, each of our movements were in complete harmony. Both of us were building toward climax when Waylan suddenly grabbed my hips and slid in even deeper.

Our bodies suddenly locked together, and we both came at the same time, crying out as we pressed against each other, covered with slick and sweat. A flood of warmth filled me as Waylan emptied inside me.

I lost myself completely in the waves of ecstasy I never fully could have imagined without my alpha. My home.

With us still locked together, Waylan curled around me and held me in his arms. Every once in a while, he shuddered and squeezed me again as waves of happiness and peace rolled through me. I heard songbirds outside and golden sunlight began to fill the trailer.

Despite the work that needed to get done, I wanted to spend the whole day in bed with him.

We lay like that for a long time, Waylan still hard and inside me, with my body slotted perfectly into the arc of his. Our breathing settled into a matched rhythm as I laced my fingers with his and gently squeezed.

Eventually, after what felt like an hour, he relaxed and slid out of me. I rolled over so I could see his face, happy that one of the great things about us was that we didn't need to speak to understand each other.

By just looking into his eyes, I could almost feel his words before he said them.

"I think I love you, omega."

Even though I felt it too, it surprised me to hear Waylan say the words out loud. I'd woken up that morning thinking I was destined to a life of loneliness, loving someone who didn't want me. Instead, he'd just spoken the words I most wanted to hear. "I think I love you too, alpha."

We did end up spending the day in bed, making love again and again, each time better than the last. By the end of the day, I felt like we could write our own romance novel about hot sex.

But there was an entire harvest of pawflower to cure and process, so the next morning, we were back to our routine with a few changes. I moved into Waylan's house and began to slowly make it more homey. Surprisingly, I was really good at it, even though I'd never had a home of my own to take care of.

We spent most of our time in a comfortable silence, working side by side in the barn or in the house as the air grew more crisp. We tended to the chickens, the vegetable garden, and the property like we'd been doing it together for a lifetime, and my feeling of being home grew stronger by the day.

Several weeks went by like this—working during the day, making love at night…and on our lunch break…and in the mornings. We couldn't seem to get enough of each other, and I felt both of us falling deeper and deeper in love.

Once the pawflower had cured, Waylan began to show me how to form it into bricks, a process that would take a couple more months, and then it would be picked up for distribution.

His boss, Esteban, would be coming down to pick up the finished bricks when they were ready.

I didn't think too much more about Waylan's boss or the business side of things. I figured that was better left to Waylan, and I could make myself scarce while Esteban was around.

Once the weather warmed up, I set up an outdoor dining area on the back patio. One night, while we were eating out there, Waylan brought up Este again.

"He'll want to get some information about you, since you're a shifter."

I nodded and dished more pasta onto Waylan's plate. "That's fine. I don't have anything to hide."

"I know, and once he knows you're a fox, he'll feel fine too. But we've had trouble in the past with other packs who wanted to make a move on our lands. But gray foxes are usually solitary, or at least, not organized."

"Hey!" I playfully tossed a piece of garlic bread at him. "Who are you calling disorganized?" He didn't mean it that way, but I couldn't shake his words. Gray foxes are usually solitary. It pained me to admit it to myself, but I was beginning to understand my dad more and more. Maybe one day, I'd pick up when he called me. Maybe.

Waylan laughed and dipped the piece of bread that I'd thrown at him into the pasta sauce.

I loved watching him eat food that I prepared for him. Something about feeding him left me feeling very satisfied. After dinner, we had our usual routine of cleaning up, then shifting to our fur and going for an after-dinner walk around the perimeter.

Back home and in our skin, we went to bed, where we shared each other with ever-growing intensity. Our wordless routine, and I loved it. I didn't think anything could ever come between us.