Try. If not for him, for your mate, then who? Who will be worth risking your heart for?
Jaime was. Of course he was.
“You’re my mate,” Finn blurted out, words tumbling over each other in a rush. “My person. I’ve known it from the moment we met in your driveway. Maybe even before. You’re my mate and I love you very much and I want to claim you as mine, if you want that too. But you should know it’s not like marriage. It binds us together, here.” He laid a hand over Jaime’s heart, right where he felt a matching tug on his own, it’s beat frantic under Finn’s palm.
He’d planned how he would tell Jaime. About being his mate, about the bite, about the ‘maybe-balooning-dick’ thing—all of it. As he’d held a sleeping Jaime in his arms last night, Finn lay awake and planned to sit him down, maybe with some space between them so that Jaime didn’t feel overwhelmed.
He’d start from the beginning, and explain that he’d felt a connection right away, even when they hadn’t met in person yet. How when they had finally been face-to-face, he’dknown, and done his best to respect Jaime and not push.
But now that Jaime knew about him, maybe someday he’d be comfortable letting Finn claim him, bite him. If he had a knot, they’d talk about it, try having sex without him shifting. Surely he could just not put the knot in? He could keep himself in check, so he wouldn’t hurt Jaime.
He’d thought through everything, planned everything to be nice, and safe, and as normal as that kind of conversation could be.
But Jaime had never asked for any of that. All Jaime had ever asked of him was to be honest, to not withhold important things from him. Even before he knew about Finn being a shifter, he’d wanted to be included in Finn’s thoughts.
And now that he did know, all he ever told him was how much he liked the wolfy parts of Finn.Lovedthem. Jaime didn’t just tolerate them or ignore them, he sought them out when they came together. He climaxed at the sight and feel of Finn’s teethwrapped around his cock, and moaned and writhed beneath him as he nipped and teased him. He’d been aroused by Finn when he was partially shifted, and repeatedly asked Finn to show himself that way, again.
Jaime wanted all of Finn, in the way he had always needed to be wanted. And as Jaime blinked up at him, eyes wide but not fearful, he brought a hand up to cover Finn’s where it rested over his heart.
Yes, he could give Jaime what he’d been asking for this whole time—what Finn had desperatelywantedto give him this whole time.
It had just taken him a little while to work up the courage.
Twisting them so that Jaime was now the one pinned between his body and the counter, Finn shifted. His claws caught in the material of Jaime’s shirt and his descended canines ached to sink into the soft flesh where his neck and shoulder connected.
Finn met Jaime’s wide-eyed gaze, voice trembling now, and continued. “It’s forever. No matter if we are together or apart, you’ll feel me. You’ll be mine, and I’ll be yours. It can’t be undone. And if you decide you want that, you should know it means that I will bite you, here.”
He moved his other hand up to cradle the place he would claim Jaime, the soft skin warm and inviting. “I don’t know if it will hurt, I’ve never asked. It’s a private moment between people and not something you really ask questions about. Which I know seems ridiculous given the gravity of the act, but, well.”
Finn shuffled, and then added softly, like a question, “I’ll try to make it good for you?”
Jaime still hadn’t said anything, but he kept his hand over Finn’s resting on his heart, and wrapped the other around his waist to pull him close, their hips slotting together. Jaime gavehim a soft smile, eyes glassy and tender, so Finn figured, what the hell.
Might as well rip the bandaid off, as Silas would say.
“Also, if I bite and claim you, it will be very difficult for me to have sex with you without shifting into this form. My wolf wants you, just as much as I do. Maybe because I do. I’m not really sure how it works, but it feels like a mutual decision. Anyway, Silas says that when I have sex in this form I’ll get a knot, and I’ll want to put it in you and it will get stuck. A knot is?—”
“I know what a knot is,” Jaime blurted.
Now it was Finn’s turn to blink down at him, finally stunned to silence after his emotional outburst. Jaime turned bright red and didn’t continue, making Finn wonder…
“Jaime, how do you know what a knot is?” He felt the side of his mouth tip up.
Jaime squirmed beneath him where he was pinned against the counter, avoiding eye contact now and shifting his hold on Finn so that his fingers absently stroked through the fur on his forearms. “Keep going. You were telling me that you want to make me yours and have hot wolfy sex with me and that you love me.”
Finn’s mouth split into a wide grin. “You read werewolf smut, don’t you?”
Jaime cast him a haughty look, nose up in the air. “I may have stumbled on one or two novellas. Short ones. Accidentally. A while back. Not recently.”
Finn leaned in, pressing his smile, teeth and all, into the soft skin behind Jaime’s ear. And licked.
“Unnf, Finn! We are having a moment, and I want to tell you that I love you back!”
His protests were all for show though, because Finn could smell that he wasveryinto this unexpected turn in theirconversation. Also, Jaime was still clinging to him, fingers buried in his fur, and Finn could feel him hardening in his pants.
Interesting.
He nuzzled and chuffed in Jaime’s hair, his scent sweet and strong. “You’ll have to tell me about your favorite parts from those novellas that you’ve maybe read a long time ago.”
