Warmth rolled through me at his declaration, but I knew it wasn’t true. “Ari, what you lived through, you were already a survivor. You were already one of the strongest beings I’ve ever met.”
My mate leaned in for a kiss, slow and lazy before pulling back to meet my eyes. “We’ll finish that after the run tonight,” he said with a laugh, “but I really don’t want you to leave the brigade for me, for us. It isn’t necessary, I swear.”
I nodded, my beast pressing my control now that the time to run with his mate was approaching. “Okay. I’ll tell him to scotch the paperwork.” I pressed another kiss to Ari’s lips before stepping back. “You ready to go?”
When Ari raised his head and released a tentative howl, all I could do was laugh.
Epilogue
Roger
“Are you absolutely sure we should be doing this?” My voice caught in my throat, coming out as more of a growl than a question as Ari sank down over me, his body accepting my intrusion like we were truly made to fit together.
“I really, really am,” Ari hissed in response, his eyes dark and chest heaving as he ground down against me. “Oh, Alpha!”
Ari was due any day and still couldn’t get enough of me, of us together. No matter how many times I suggested that he lie back and let me suck him off, Ari insisted on me fucking him, filling him up and knotting him. His gloriously ripe belly left us with a fairly limited list of options for the deep penetration he loved, but me on my back, my hands gripping his hips as he used me for his pleasure was his favorite and that was exactly where I was as I stared up into my mate’s face, still not sure how I could deserve him.
Ari leaned slightly back and I automatically moved my hands to support him, my cock pulsing inside him as he moaned my name, barely shifting his hips to rub his sweet spot against my hard length.
“Do it, Alpha,” Ari pleaded with me. “I need it, Alpha. You know I need it!”
Not only couldn’t my mate get enough of me, my sweet, innocent Ari had developed a near addiction for one of the most taboo bedroom activities in my repertoire. Well, it would have been taboo if he was still fully human, but the fact he preferred to stay in his human form while I changed inside him, to have my already hard cock stretch him to the point of pain as it morphed into the beast’s much larger one made it seemverytaboo.
Like Pavlov’s dog at a bell, my beast shoved his way free, barely giving me time to shift my hands so my claws wouldn’t tear the tender skin there – Ari already had a set of scars from the one time I hadn’t moved fast enough. Above me, Ari whined and moaned as my bones stretched and reformed, the movement shifting his weight on top of me.
“You’re okay?” My fangs and elongated jaw muffled my words, but I knew he’d understand them, it was the same thing I asked every time he wanted this from me.
The absolute bliss on Ari’s face assured me he was, but he knew I worried that I’d hurt him, that I needed the words, so he always gave them to me…and usually in the dirtiest way possible, knowing it would have me filling him up in no time. Once again, he didn’t let me down.
“Oh, God, Alpha,” Ari panted, his face slack with pleasure as he ground down against me, trying to reclaim the inches he’d lost when the beast emerged. “You fuck me so good, you feel so good! I need your cum filling me up. Want you to knot me and lock it inside me for hours.”
His hips rotated and rocked at the same time, the pressure making me see stars.
“Roger, please,” he groaned, his absurdly tight ass clamping down, strangling my cock until the beast snarled, shoving up into Ari with a lack of care that had me fighting to control him and Ari screaming in pleasure, his entire body tensing when the beast was finally completely engulfed in his body.
The beast howled and we came, flooding Ari’s body with the hot seed he begged for. Ari’s orgasm hit and he began to convulse as my knot flared, locking us together.
“Now, Roger! Please!”
It was a gymnastic feat to twist up far enough that the beast could sink our fangs into Ari’s neck, reopening the claim wound once again and bringing on the second climax that burned the world around us to the ground. As often as my beautiful mate begged me to claim him, I wasn’t sure that the bite was ever going to fully heal.
I collapsed back on the bed and rolled to my side, easing Ari with me as our bodies throbbed as one.
“Jesus,” Ari moaned, the leg he had hooked over my thigh twitching helplessly. “Christ, Roger, that was so good.”
Have I mentioned Ari was also a master of understatement?
I chuckled weakly. “It really, really was,” I agreed, “but I thought we agreed that you were going to talk to the doctor before we did that again?”
Ari’s eyes flitted open and he gave me a little smirk. “I think we just agreed I would ask the doctor if it was safe for us to have sex this far along and he said as long as we were careful.”
I rolled my eyes and brushed his sweaty hair out of his face. “I think we’re going to need to re-evaluate your definition ofcareful.”
“Mmm,” Ari’s grumble was completely non-committal. “You’re going to be late for work.”
I snorted. “Again. Pretty sure they expect it at this point. Damn good thing they put me on a desk until after you deliver.”
Ari sighed and snuggled closer. “I love you.”
