Adri sighed and pressed his fingers to his temple as Rafe spun his office chair so they were facing each other.
“When was the last time you got a good night’s sleep, kitten?”
Adri looked away from Rafe’s piercing inspection and shrugged. The doc already knew the answer, so there was no point in lying. Rafe had shadowed his every move whenever he wasn’t busy with his own work. He’d probably had even less sleep than Adri.
That thought had him looking back up at Rafe as his forehead furrowed in concern. The doc had dark circles under his eyes, and his skin was paler than it should be.
“I could ask you the same,” Adri said.
“Come on. It’s the full moon. We’re going to go run for a reason other than chasing down terrorists until we’re too tired to keep going and then get at least four hours’ sleep before we go back to work,” Rafe said, pulling Adri to his feet and into his arms.
Adri couldn’t resist the urge to nuzzle into the base of his neck as Rafe held him close, drawing in deep breaths of his scent.
“I don’t have time for that,” Adri said, but there was no force in his words.
“Alpha’s orders,” Rafe said.
Adri stiffened as his jaguar snarled inside him at the suggestion that someone was telling him what to do or where to go.
“Hush, kitten. You wouldn’t want me running in the forest alone, would you?”
“I know what you’re doing,” Adri complained as his jaguar flipped from fuming to focussed on their mate in less time than it took for him to draw in another heady breath.
“Enticing my mate into fucking under the open sky?”
Adri’s cock swelled so fast it ached, and he bit down hard on Rafe’s collarbone before spinning him to press him up against the wall so he could taste every inch of his throat with rasping kitten licks. A smirk stretched his mouth as Rafe drew in a sharp inhalation of surprise before gripping his hips hard enough to bruise and grinding them together.
“What’s wrong with fucking on my desk?” Adri whispered.
Rafe reached up and wrapped a hand around his throat, squeezing just hard enough to make him feel thoroughly owned without triggering a defensive response.
“Let me take care of you, kitten.”
Huffing out a breath, Adri pulled back. “Fine.”
They were some of the last to arrive at the pack lands. The braziers on the grass beside the edge of the forest were mostly surrounded by the very young or old, watched over by a few of Angelo’s enforcers, along with Marco, Vin, and Rocco. The Alpha’s eyes flashed with satisfaction at their presence as they approached, but Adri kept his contrary annoyance to himself. He didn’t fancy getting smacked into the dirt when he was already exhausted and running on fumes.
“Not running with your mates tonight?” Rafe asked the vampire and the witch standing nearby.
“We’ll watch over the house until everyone’s back,” Rocco replied.
“Come run with me,” Marco said, stripping off his shirt.
“You made your point about where I belong already,” Adri huffed, tugging his clothes off with more force than was necessary and ignoring the satisfied smiles passing between his mate and his Alpha.
“Hearing it and feeling it aren’t the same thing,” Marco replied right before he shifted into a huge black Alpha wolf that was intimidating as fuck.
Rafe grabbed his nape, pressing a hard kiss to his lips before shifting as well. Adri took a deep, silent breath and let his jaguar take over, sinking into the sensation of his muscles and bones transforming.
Rafe was still taller than him in this form, but not as solid. His silver and black fur reminded Adri of the sexy silver Daddy vibes his mate had going on as a human. With his instincts riding him so much harder in this body, Adri butted his head up under Rafe’s chin, a soft purr vibrating in his chest as Rafe softly bit down on his ear in response.
Marco slunk closer as they pressed against each other, his looming presence pure dominance. Twisting to face him while still pressing into his mate’s side, Adri let the Alpha press their muzzles together briefly before rubbing his face along Adri’s, scenting him. Rafe’s wolf let out a low grumble of complaint, but quickly tipped his head in submission as Marco gave him the same treatment.
Throwing his head back, Marco let out a long, loud howl to the moon above them, his body focussed on the forest beyond them as, one by one, their packmates out running responded to the call until a symphony of connection sang into the night. Adricouldn’t howl, but he added his jaguar’s roar to the mix before dropping his head low to tear into the forest, catching his mate by surprise.
Rafe and Marco’s amused yips followed close behind him as they tracked him into the forest, especially when he took the first chance he could get to bunch his muscles under him and launch himself up one of the thick tree trunks and into the canopy. He’d always preferred to stalk at height. The trees were close enough here that he’d be able to keep an eye on the wolves from above as they moved through the forest, so long as they didn’t try to run all-out.
As they made their way into the darkness, his jaguar became more playful, dropping down from above unexpectedly as Rafe and Marco ran together and slipping off into the shadows before they had a chance to do more than brush against him. The cat side of himself was having the time of its life. The human side was wondering if he’d ever live this down.
