Pushing to his feet and brushing off his knees, his legs stiff from kneeling, Viggo rubbed his eyes and looked down at his husband. The sun had gone down, leaving just a sliver of moon to shine through the canopy above, but that was more than enough for Viggo’s eyes to take in every detail of his mate.
Bjorn looked peaceful, his head tilted back, mouth open with a sliver of drool trailing down his chin. Viggo was tempted just to lie down next to him.
A sniff of the air, moisture and the possibility of thunder tickling his nose, dissuaded him from that course of action. He bent down, stroking Bjorn’s cheek, and when Bjorn didn’t so much as nuzzle into the touch, he knew that he could move him without waking him up.
Carrying Bjorn in his human form would be ungainly and difficult, so Viggo decided he would expend the energy it took to change outside of the full moon, even if it meant dealing with a massive hangover in the morning.
Leaning his head back, Viggo loosened the grip on his human form.
The change was slow, lacking the speed and power granted by the full moon, spreading out from the center of his spine and down into his legs with a painful crack. His shoulders broadened, his arms doubling in size, his thighs expanding into veritable tree trunks. Everything, from his pecs to his balls, grew big and hulking, while the angles of his face shifted into something aggressive and menacing.
Licking over his dagger-like fangs, designed to tear and render, Viggo bent down and scooped his now much smaller mate into his arms.
It was rare for Viggo to be shifted with Bjorn still in his human form, and it felt strange to be so much bigger than his usually towering mate. Contrary to their human forms, Viggo was taller than Bjorn when shifted, standing almost eight feet tall compared to Bjorn’s more modest seven feet and two inches.
Bringing Bjorn close to his chest, laying his head to rest against the bulging mound of his pectoral, Viggo made his way through the trees, ducking branches and stepping through the undergrowth with ease. When Bjorn didn’t stir, his breath tickling the hairs on Viggo’s chest in a way that made him want to bend down and kiss his brow, Viggo sped up, sacrificing a bit of Bjorn’s comfort for a more speedy pace. Despite his increased speed, it took Viggo almost two hours to make it back to the house.
Pausing outside the front door, Viggo stilled his breath and listened for any noise inside the house. He couldn’t hear anything, but he still decided to shift back into his human form before entering the house.
It was far too early to expose Sebastian to see him like this, especially when he wasn’t expecting it.
Humans, even the ones who had grown up around werewolves, tended to be intimidated when faced with eight feet of hulking muscle and teeth that could tear out a liver in less than eight seconds.
Keeping Bjorn in his arms, Viggo leaned against the wall and concentrated on letting go of the change. It didn’t take long, his body happy to shed the extra mass, but Viggo still staggered when his arms shrank and Bjorn nearly slipped his hold.
Bjorn grunted, a discontented sound, and nuzzled into Viggo’s shoulder. Viggo held still, waiting to see if Bjorn would wake up, but the seconds passed and Bjorn kept on sleeping.
Kissing the top of his head, Viggo twisted his body to open the door without further jostling his mate and stepped into the house. He kicked the door shut and made his way up the stairs, pausing in the hallway outside of Sebastian’s room to listen and see if he was awake.
By the sound of his breathing, Sebastian was asleep, and Viggo relaxed. He owed the boy an apology, but that could wait until morning.
With Sebastian accounted for, Viggo entered his and Bjorn’s bedroom. He laid Bjorn down on the mattress under the covers, climbing in after him without giving a single thought to washing up or brushing his teeth. He pressed up behind him and held him tight, molding his body along Bjorn’s back and tangling their legs together.
Closing his eyes, trying to calm his raging thoughts and go to sleep, Viggo nestled his nose into the base of Bjorn’s neck. He breathed in his scent as he listened to the steady thrum of his pulse, letting it comfort him. The steady beat was a glaring contrast to his own racing heart, his heart still fueled by the rush of adrenaline that had hit him when he realized someone had hurt his mate.
Lying there, ruminating on his failure to protect the person he loved most, Viggo knew it would be a long time before he finally drifted off to sleep.
12
SEBASTIAN
To his relief, Sebastian didn’t see Viggo again before he went to bed for the night. After Viggo had left, Sebastian had spent an hour calming himself down and reminding himself that even at his angriest, Viggo had never made a move to hurt him. When his hands had stopped shaking, he’d headed down to the kitchen, listening carefully to make sure that Viggo was still out of the house, and made himself a sandwich for dinner.
Before carrying the sandwich upstairs, Sebastian had noticed the large plastic bag on the counter and, in a moment of curiosity, looked inside.
He wished he hadn’t. The bag contained nothing but dildos and butt-plugs, the largest of which was some sort of fantasy creature appendage measuring at least fifteen inches long, with a bulging knot thicker than his thigh, the whole thing seated on a pair of fake balls the size of softballs.
It would have been funny if not for the possibility that Viggo might want to use it on him.
Viggo had shown pretty clearly that he didn’t have a good understanding of how the human body worked – his shocked guilt at the sight of Sebastian’s bruised inner thighs was proof enough of that – and Sebastian didn’t want to think about what could happen if Viggo got impatient when stretching out his hole.
In a fight between Sebastian’s anal ring and Viggo’s muscles, Sebastian didn’t have any misconceptions about who would win.
After seeing the bag, Sebastian had rushed back upstairs and eaten his sandwich, after which he’d called his mom.
Nobody had come by to pick up the bag Sebastian had asked her to pack, and Sebastian had to spend a whole twenty minutes convincing her that Viggo must have simply forgotten because of his work emergency and that the incident was not a deliberate attempt toshow Sebastian his place.
When he’d finally hung up the phone, Sebastian was bone-deep tired. He was having a hard enough time trying to convince himself that his life wasn’t fucked to hell, and having to convince his mom as well was exhausting.
