I tried to take my time undressing, but it was nearly impossible when my entire body itched for the hunt. I could hear him stumbling through the brush, cutting back and forth, then a splash as he took off down the shallow streambed. He was no doubt trying to disguise his scent, but he might as well be a walking bakery for how aromatic he was, his pungent slick making my mouth water.
Kicking off my shoes, I shucked my pants and underwear, leaving them all in a pile in the grass. It had to have been three minutes by now—probably. “Ready or not, here we come!” I called loudly, before I let the shift take over.
We dropped to all fours, muscles flexing as we arched our back in a stretch, claws digging furrows in the dirt. Our eyesight had sharpened, and with a low rumble that vibrated in our chest, we jogged slowly into the trees, blending into the shadows.
If Joel thought being chased in the city was thrilling, then he had another thing coming. The forest at night was our playground. Our paws were nearly silent as we paddedthrough the underbrush, following our mate’s scent, ripe with adrenaline. We kept to the gaming trails where we could, then along the stream. We caught up quickly, and I caught the faintest hint of blood where he’d scratched himself on a branch. Joel had gone quiet now, hiding in the close-growing trees, but it would do him no good. The closer I got, I could pick up his gasping breath, the pounding of his heart.
When I caught sight of him, though, he wasn’t even trying to hide. He was simply standing there, chest heaving to catch his breath.
This wasn’t what we’d planned. I shifted back to human so I could check on him. “Why’d you stop? Are you hurt? It’s almost like you want me to catch you…” But my words trailed off as a caught a full whiff of him.Shit. Joel was going into heat. My gums ached with the speed with which my canines descended, my cock jumping to full mast. Fists bunched at my sides, I took a shaky step back. “Joel… if this isn’t what you want, I need to leave.” Another step back, harder than the first as my resistance slipped.
He was shaking his head, though, eyes wild and pleading as he stumbled forward, reaching for me. “Don’t… don’t leave. Thisiswhat I want. It’s all I can think about. I want you and everything that comes with it. The pack, the kids, the future… Please.” He tilted his head to the side, exposing his neck. “No condoms this time. Breed me. Mark me.”
I could feel my rut coming on, and my control was fraying by the second. “Joel…” I pleaded, unsure whether I was begging him to use his safe word or for him to prove to me that this was all real.
Closing my eyes tight, I held my breath to keep from being overwhelmed by his scent as it curled its way into the cracks in my armor, splitting me apart from the inside. But then Joel’s hands were on my face, his lips on my mouth. He kissed me, hard and possessive, licking through my mouth until I finally gave in and opened my eyes.
“I love you,” he said firmly, his eyes clear enough for me to believe he knew what he was saying.
“I love you too, omega mine,” I gasped, resting my forehead on his. “Forever.”
“Then we are in agreement.” His grin went from sweet to wicked before my very eyes, eyes glazing as he allowed his heat to take over. “But you’ll have to catch me before you can claim me.”
I kept my grip on him loose enough that he had no trouble wrenching free when he pivoted away, darting through the woods. When I gave chase this time, it wasn’t as my jaguar, but as a man. As the alpha who was going to claim his mate.
My feet bare, skin exposed to scratching branches, I had to be a bit more careful as I hunted my mate this time. But as my alpha hormones took over, I was feeling no pain. I could feel the instinct to breed my mate slowly trying to steal my logic, but I forced myself to think. I didn’t want to lunge at my omega and fuck him against a tree, somewhere where he might get hurt, and it would all be my fault.
Joel was running for real this time, but he wasn’t being stealthy about it. He got louder the more desperate he got to be filled. It was clear he was turned around out here, and so it was easy to herd him back toward the grassy meadow where we started.
I timed my attack, so that just as he broke from the trees, I pounced, tackling him to the grass face first. He cried out, struggling beneath me, and it almost scared me how good he was at playing the hapless victim. But the scent of his slick was overpowering, and while he scrabbled to get away with one hand, his other reached back and started to push his pants down.
“Still green?” I growled in his ear, my words garbled around the razor-sharp teeth filling my mouth.
“Oh fuck, yes! Green!” he wailed.
Without another word, I grabbed the waistband of his sweats and tore them down the back to expose his ass.Oh gods, I allowed myself the luxury ofburying my face between his slippery cheeks, taking one long drink of his sweet slick, before I pinned him down by the back of the neck and forced his legs wide.
“Mine,” I growled, before I plunged my cock deep inside him. He was so slick, his heat making his rim soft and pliable, that he yielded to the intrusion immediately.
Joel searched for something to hold on to as I fucked him hard enough to drive him across the grass. “Oh fuck… oh gods… North!” There was no need to muffle his shout; there was no one for miles to hear him scream.
We both gave in to our base needs, my hips plowing forward to bury myself as deep as I could get in his channel. His ass clamped down on my cock as if to hold me there, trying to suck out the seed that would breed new life. There was no guarantee that he would get pregnant this heat, or if we would have to wait and try again, but to give in to this need to breed my mate, it was the purest form of bliss I’d ever known.
And as his wails hit a fever pitch, echoing through the woods, he clawed at the neckline of his sweatshirt, stretching it to expose his neck for me. “Bite me, please!”
With a fist in his hair, I pulled his head to the side, then stretched his shirt until it tore. His tattoo, my jaguar’s pawprint, sat there on his shoulder. It was just the first signthat we were meant to be together. And now, I would add a second.
As my balls clenched hard, filling Joel’s womb with my cum, I sank my teeth deep into the curve of his neck, right above the tattoo—where it had always belonged. His blood flooded my mouth right as the mating bond snapped tight between us, tethering our souls, and Joel gasped. My knot forced its way in, stretching him and locking my seed inside, and Joel at last fell still beneath me.
He blew out a long sigh of relief. “I can feel you… your jaguar,” he whispered. “It’s so perfect. Thank you for claiming me.”
“It was you who claimed me,” I said, “from the moment I laid eyes on you.” He let me lick his wound to stop the bleeding, and then we made a nest from the pillows and blankets, cuddling to wait for the next round of his heat.
Kitten or not, we were building a family together. Forever.
Chapter 20
Joel
