“Hey, what do you say? Should we shift and run it off?” he asked.
I shifted immediately. My wolf and I were completely aligned. If Jules wanted something, he was going to get it. Stat. I blinked several times. It felt strange for my wolf to be indoors. Wrong almost. It made me feel skittish. I took a few paces toward the door.
“Sully,” called Jules.
I stopped moving and looked back at him. He walked over to me and ran his fingers through the thick fur on my neck. Then he crouched down, wrapping his arms around my neck. His eyes were serious. Vulnerable. I’d read somewhere once that boys sometimes find it easier to tell their secrets to a dog. I was no dog, but I was a distant relation. The look on Jules’s face told me that might be true for him. He pressed his face into my fur and whispered, “Stay close, okay? Don’t run ahead. I don’t want to be far away from you today.”
I looked up at him and bowed my head slightly. I didn’t move until he shifted and when he did, we made our way into the forest side by side. As we ran, I thought many things. It was far from the type of run that brought mental clarity. Thoughts churned around in my mind. Some were insignificant and I can’t remember them now. Some were about Jules. I was worried about how he was feeling. I was watching his gait for signs of discomfort. I couldn’t see anything that concerned me, but as I watched him move at my side, I couldn’t help noticing that the ridge of his back only came up to my shoulder. It didn’t make sense. His wolf was huge. I’d seen it clearly when we played fetch. He was as big as any one of The Brothers. If he was that big and I was looking down at him, it begged the question; how big was I?
It was a pressing question for sure, but it was far from the most pressing. As we ran through the woods, the smell of heat seeped from Jules’s pores. Strong heat. Intense heat. My efforts to break it hadn’t made so much as a dent. His heat was stronger than ever.
I looked into his wolf’s eyes. I saw Jules looking back. Just Jules. The sight of him made my insides feel like they’d turned to mush. It was a good thing wolves can’t speak because if I could have spoken then, I’d have said, “I love you.” I wouldn’t have been able to hold it in. No way. I might have been big and strong, but I wasn’t that strong.
When we got to the peak near the bend in the river, we caught a scent. A stag. Our ears pricked up at the same time. We scented the air, taking the measure of our prey. He was young and fit. A worthy opponent. It was a long, drawn-out hunt. I didn’t run ahead. I didn’t leave Jules’s side. When we brought the stag down, I was the one who made the kill. When it was done, I lowered my head to honor the stag.
I looked up at Jules. He took a few steps back and sat on his haunches, watching me. I bit down on the stag’s neck, but instead of tearing and eating, I lifted it up and dragged it over to Jules, dropping it at his feet. He looked down and considered my offering. I could tell he knew what it was: a gift from an alpha to his omega.
After we’d eaten, we found a sunny spot in a clearing and lay down to sleep. Jules lay close to me. So close, our shoulders were touching. He sighed and blinked a few times. I could tell he was wired so I turned my head and lay my neck over his, gently pinning him down. His breathing lengthened and it wasn’t long before he was sound asleep. I followed him into slumber, but before I did, I closed my eyes and offered up a prayer, a plea, my heart’s truest desire.
Love me back.
Please, love me back.
It was twilight by the time we woke up. The woods were coming alive with the sounds of nocturnal critters waking up for the night. We’d slept so deeply we’d shifted back to human form. When I opened my eyes, Jules and I were a mass of long arms and legs. He disentangled himself from me quickly and stood up. We walked to the river to bathe. I didn’t say much. Jules chattered loudly about everything and nothing. He walked in front of me. I made no effort to avoid watching his ass as he moved. I knew when I was beaten. And believe me, his ass had me whipped.
At one point, he turned back and smirked at me. “You fixing to spank me again?”
My throat went so dry, the best I could do was croak, “Uh, um, no. I won’t s-spank you.”
He shook his head at me, flicking his eyes to the sky. He turned and kept walking. The way he moved was so sexy, I couldn’t take it. His cheeks hitched up and down as he walked. Left then right.
“Unless you ask me to,” I whispered. I didn’t mean to say it, but I couldn’t help it.
The sound of his laughter rang out across the valley. A gray jay called out in consternation. A robin fluttered its wings and took off from its perch. I hung back when we got to the river. Jules dove straight in.
“Get in here, Sully,” he cried. “The water’s amazing.”
I waded in, careful to stay up-river from him. The scent of his heat had grown so powerful, I didn’t like my odds of behaving if I got doused in it. Jules came over. I took careful breaths through my mouth. He splashed my chest and then raked his fingers through my chest hair.
“You’re a mess,” he said, casting his eyes down at the dried blood on my body. He was right. I was a mess. I was a mess in more ways than one. He scooped up a handful of water and poured it on my chest. The water was icy, but he followed it with the warm touch of his palm. My senses were shot.
Cold hot.
Hot cold.
I wasn’t sure what to say or think or feel.
“Y-you’re still in heat,” I spluttered.
“I know.” He said it like it was obvious. So obvious, he couldn’t understand why I’d feel the need to point it out.
“I’m only telling you because I don’t want you to get mad that I was keeping it from you again.”
“I know that, too.”
I pushed down a smile. “Well, since you seem to know everything today, do you happen to know why the hell you’re still in heat?”
I myself couldn’t fathom a reason. Everything I’d ever heard about omegas and heats centered around the fact that heats were broken by copious amounts of fucking. What happened between us last night was the definition of that. Last night, I fucked Jules for hours.Hours. I knotted him. I brought him to orgasm every time a wave hit him. I was literally stuck inside him till morning. Honestly, I was at a loss as to what more I could possibly do.
