“No dick sucking. No tasting my slick. None of it,” I said as soon as I locked the door behind me.
I hadn’t even bothered stomping the snow off my boots. I kicked them off and stripped at the door. Vallis’s eyes grew big and his pants disappeared again. He could dress and undress his astral form at will. Then I was on the sofa with him on top of me. Our gazes met for half a second and then his lips were on mine. His tongue darted into my mouth and swept around my own. Isank into the warmth spreading over my body. We were close. So fucking close. If I had to wait another day for him to sink into me I might declare war on this Pami asshole myself. Lock her up in a coffin and fuck on top of it. I growled into the kiss and reaching between our bodies took a hold of Vallis’s hard, smooth shaft. He growled back at me and everything inside me trembled in the rawest way. He kissed me again as I gave him a few teasing strokes before leading him home.
Vallis growled his pleasure into the kiss as I rubbed the thick, mushroom-shaped head of his dick against my omegahole. My slick arousal pooled there and I coated him with it, not wanting anything to stand between us. I almost asked him about condoms and then mentally laughed the question off. He was in astral form. Sure, yummy, salty cum came out of him but it couldn’t get me pregnant.
Vallis thrust forward into my body and everything in my brain sang out in sweet relief. It was finally happening! I was finally with my true-mate and---- Something exploded. Not my dick or his. Not something metaphorical but something much more substantial and loud. Vallis disappeared. Only he didn’t fade. The front door was wide open, and he was running out into the snow butt naked.
I swore under my breath. He might be invisible but I wasn’t. I swung my hand hard, casting the magic to shut the door. Moving things around like that never came particularly easy for me. I grabbed my pants and my boots. Sure, bears weren’t that modest and we had more cold tolerance than most but if this was war, I wasn’t going into battle naked. Was it Pami? Had she figured out that Vallis was astral projecting here to see me? Part of me secretly hoped so because then I could eat her and go save my mate.
A Nightshade guard stopped me from going onto the main street. I blinked at Jeth standing tall and looking slightly apologetic. Nightshade guards were more warriors than cops. They weren’t here to arrest us or enforce arbitrary laws. They guarded the tree line of the village and protected against threats. Sure, they broke up fights and walked people home at night if they were drunk, but outside of the house where Grandpa practiced his magic, I never had a guard tell me I couldn’t enter anywhere. Was this a coup?
“No!”my bear sounded off into my thoughts.“Someone would’ve said something. Mori would make a scene. There is no peaceful coups with Mori around.”
“There’s been an explosion at Mori and Preston’s house,” Jeth explained. “No one was harmed but we have reason to suspect Sharon Claudis is around. I’m not telling you to go home. I’m not even telling you not to walk on the street. That’s Barry’s orders. If you tune in on the group link, he’ll tell you himself.”
Others joined us, using Jeth as a gathering point for information. Those who had worked with guards before or alphas considered combat ready were sent past him. I chewed my lip wanting to remind him that there was nothing scarier than a bear with cubs. None of those alphas were ever going to have a belly full of cubs but yet they were sent to make sure my uncles were okay!
“Lero, it’s not about being an alpha or not,” Jeth sighed and ran his hands through his thick black hair. Jeth was sort of cute but like a lot of bears here I made it a point not to hook up with anyone within the group. Even at my loneliest I wasn’t risking that sort of drama.
“Really?” I crossed my arms, looking past him to see if Vallis was still out there running around butt naked in the snow.
“It’s not. It’s about being combat ready. Believe me, if Sharon Claudis shows up right here in front of us, I’ll let you fight too. It’ll be all claws at the ready. I’ll even welcome your help but Barry said to not let you through. Rumor has it she’s looking for a new omega to date or whatever,” he put a lot of weight on the word whatever. “Some people thinks she wants another kid. So, yeah, we’re all a bit edgy with her running around. Watch out for the others, but keep that to yourself.”
I looked around. I stood alone with Jeth. Everyone else had gone home or been allowed through to help look for her.
“Don’t worry. I’m sure you could eat her face,” Jeth said, flashing me a flirtatious look.
“Is he flirting with you?” Vallis’s voice cut through the snow as he appeared next to me. “Not very good at guarding if he’s thinking with his dick.”
“I think I’m going home, Jeth. Watch out that Sharon doesn’t get you pregnant,” I said, waving as I walked away.
Jeth laughed at my joke and I made a mental joke that he was probably only a quarter cave-alpha. It was so hard not to hold Vallis’s hand as we walked back to the house.
“It was either a bear or a dragon,” Vallis said as we walked.
I had a million questions but didn’t dare speak to empty air aloud.
“Everyone is okay. Searching for the bear but okay. The baby is fine too. He doesn’t even seem all that shaken up by it. Did you forget to tell me that the Snow Demon can make ice statues?”
I nodded because everyone knew Wess turned Preston’s ex into ice for wanting to take their son to Sharon Claudis as a sacrifice. With everything going on, I’d forgotten to mention that one little detail to him.
With all the excitement, that night we didn’t exchange the claiming vows either. We lay cuddled up together talking about how Sharon Claudis had slipped through everyone’s fingers again and again. I hated talking about her because it only drove home the point that there really might not be a single safe space in the world.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Vallis
Fallen Star Territory
Each time I was jolted back into my coffin, more dirt covered my torso. Some of it now fell between my legs and to the miniscule wiggle room between my arms and the wood. This wasn’t good. Not good at all. I pushed up on the wood, hoping the fallen dirt had either lightened the load on top of the lid or had damaged the wood enough for my hand to break through. No such luck. It was almost Yule in Nightshade Bear Territory. Sure, we could speak up before then, but I didn’t have a plan yet.
“I think they’re going to have to be the plan people. I don’t think our brain is getting enough oxygen anymore,”my bear mumbled into my thoughts.
As soon as he said the word oxygen it was as if all of it was sucked out of my lungs. Panic sank into my cells like it hadn’t since Pami first closed me up. I gulped down precious air, wasting it by taking in more than my body actually needed. Everything inside me screamed for me to fight but fight what? The wood wouldn’t budge. All my attempts to use my magic to shape the dirt failed. Something stopped my magic from penetrating outside the wooden death trap. This is where I was going to die. It didn’t matter how many times I got to return to Lero. It didn’t matter how many times my spirit escaped. This would be where they found my body, if it was ever found at all.
“We will live,”my bear said into my thoughts.“But even if we didn’t, Lero would come for our body. He wouldn’t leave us here like this.”
The furry guy was right. Lero would come and take me home with him. Maybe the Snow Demon could turn my corpse into a statue and let my mate keep me around that way. This was the worst part of the isolation. The alternating thoughts of doom and hope. The truth was my fate was a coin flip still up in the air.Sooner or later, the coin would fall and I’d find out what was in store for me.
