Joel, however, had other plans. He gripped my short hair and tugged hard enough to sting, and I let out a hiss. “Stop holding back, alpha. I can take it.”
I flashed him a manic grin. “Are you sure about that?” To give him just a taste of what that would look like, I snapped my hips forward with bruising force, and he let out a moaned gasp.
“More,” he purred, wrapping his legs around my waist and grinding into me.
I needed to trust my mate to use the safe word if he needed me to stop. And so, keeping an ear open for peaches, I set a punishing pace. Oh shit, the way our bodies moved together, slippery with slick and sweat, it was unreal. Joel clung to me for dear life, barely able to catch his breath between the moans and whimpers he made.
“Yes! Don’t stop!” The pitch of his voice rose as the urgency crested, until Joel absolutely shattered beneath me, crying out with a desperate plea to the gods, to heaven and hell, but most importantly, to me. His cock erupted between us, throbbing his cum in an arc across his torso, and with each consecutive thrust, smeared into our skin.
It was so hard not to mark him, nearly impossible as my own climax built up inside me. Words lingered on my tongue, begging for me to voice them—I love you. I felt it, fiercely and irrevocably, but I bit them back. My mate would tell me when he was ready to hear them.
Just when I thought I couldn’t contain myself a second more, I slammed home inside him and came hard enough that the world went white around me. My knot, nothing more than a useless piece of my anatomy until now, swelled from the base of my shaft and filled every bit of space inside his channel. My soul was stripped bare of anything beyond the sheerest joy and love and bliss. Our bodies were locked together, along with our heart and souls, as they were always meant to be. Then, with my ears ringing, I collapsed against him, shaking.
Eventually, I became aware of Joel’s fingers as he threaded them through my hair, soothing me. “So… was it worth the wait?” he asked.
I laughed against this throat where my face was buried. “Without a doubt. I would’ve waited forever for you.” I lifted myself up on one elbow to kiss across his chest, up his throat, to his awaiting mouth. “But please don’t make me wait that long again. Now that I know what I’m missing, I might be addicted.”
“Is an hour too long?”
I gave an experimental tug on my knot, making Joel squeak in surprise, before it devolved into a needy whine. My answering grin was full of sharp teeth. “Make it half an hour and you have a deal.”
Chapter 18
Joel
IreallywishedIcould’ve called in sick this morning, but after I’d missed a few shifts last week, plus anticipating time off for my heat, I knew I couldn’t afford to miss any more. And so, sleep-deprived and every muscle in my body aching—not to mention my poor abused hole making it impossible to sit down—I’d forced myself out of bed and into the shower. I’d had to lock North out of the bathroom, because with what that man could do with a bar of soap? I knew I wouldn’t have the willpower to leave.
I’d also given him strict instructions not to stalk me later, because I would be far too tired to run. I would just have to lie down right there on the sidewalk and let him eat me, end of story. RIP fated mate.
The morning shift at the café was torture. Everyone was all chipper and well-rested, and if I weren’t so sexuallysated, I would’ve been jealous of their full night’s sleep. There’d been very little sleep had at my apartment last night. I lost track of how many times I’d woken up with North’s hard-on pressed against me. It had been far too easy to angle my hips back and let him slide right in. Sometimes it had been slow and sensual, sometimes frenzied and desperate. Either way, every time he knotted me, he sighed in my ear, “Mine.”
Even now, standing in the aisle of the pharmacy, I felt horribly empty without him inside me. I squirmed, getting slick at the mere thought of seeing him again. Which was why I needed to restock my supply of condoms. That box I’d had at home was already over half gone—after just one night! That man was voracious, not to mention a quick learner. If I hadn’t known better, I would guess he’d been studying years for that final exam. He could peg my prostate without even trying, and not once did he leave me unsatisfied. He’d somehow clocked every single sound I made and then perfected how to make me repeat them. I’d come so many times that I swore I was dehydrated. I’d be sure to pick up some electrolyte drinks too.
I debated the various condoms—glow-in-the-dark, ridged, extra-large, tingling lube, flavored—and then my eyes strayed to the bottom row where the club-size boxes were. Oh yeah, I’d be needing one of those. Sighing, Igrabbed a 50 pack, which was unfortunately the largest they had. At the rate we were going, it wouldn’t even last a week!
I went to grab a second box, but I paused as my eyes drifted to the display on the shelf to my left. This was the family planning aisle, so I wasn’t sure why I was so thrown by the rows of pregnancy tests. I’d passed them plenty of times. Kedi had even used one after a particularly debauched party and a one-night stand with a couple alphas. Simply put, these tests were a part of life.
Instead of grabbing the condoms, my hand drifted over to the tests, and I plucked one off the shelf, reading the back of the box. I didn’t need it, I wasn’t late, but… what happened when I did need it? How would I feel if I were pregnant?
What would having a baby with North be like? To feel a life growing inside of me and know that it was half of his DNA. I already knew he would go feral watching me grow round with his child, and there was no doubt that he would make a great father. He would dote on me, on our child, his protective instincts made for this.
Without thinking, I set a hand on my stomach. I thought of Kedi’s fear of an unplanned pregnancy, of his relieved tears when the test turned up negative. But whenI imagined potentially having a baby with North, it wasn’t fear or uncertainty I felt. It was… hope. Excitement.
We were mates, promised by fate to be blessed with love of the purest form. The kind that lasted forever. And like North had said, I could deny it, but why would I, when it meant being happier with him than anyone else could ever make me?
And if that was true… then what was the point in waiting to claim my future?
North had insisted there was no rush. He’d been patient with me, letting me lead, more than willing to let me take my time to get comfortable with the idea of shifters and fated mates. As a human, there was a socially expected timeline for these things. Dating, then moving in together, then marriage, and a few years down the road, trying for a baby. To do anything faster or out of order raised eyebrows. And even then, waiting didn’t guarantee there would be no divorce in your future.
But Northwasn’thuman. And our children wouldn’t be either. We would be part of his pride, and no shifter would ever dare judge the speed of fate.
So when it came right down to it… how did I feel about having kids with North?
With blood rushing in my ears, I slowly lowered the box of condoms back to the shelf, and even though I had noneed for it—yet—I found myself walking to the checkout with a pregnancy test, instead—along with a six-pack of sports drinks for the dehydration.
My smile was beaming when I found the choice was easy. And I smiled the whole way home.
Kedi took one look at my smile, though, and sneered, making the stud in his dimple sparkle. “Ugh, you’re so happy it makes me wanna barf. Can you at least pretend to fight with your mate for my sake?” His hair was navy blue today and still smelled faintly like the chemicals used to dye it. I wondered how he could stand it, with his improved shifter senses.
