Eventually, I dozed off, almost able to ignore the dirt running through the cracks between the boards like sand through the most morbid hourglass ever made.
When I woke up Lero was asleep on top of me. Something was strapped to my face. I glanced around, trying not to disturb him. A big, blue draconic oxygen tank stood nearby. Had he stolen it for me? Was it giving my body oxygen too or only easing my astral symptoms? How did he know I needed oxygen?”
“You’re awake,” Lero said, sliding off me and sitting up.
“Yeah,” I nodded, my words muffled by the mask.
“You scared me. You showed up, asleep, but not moving at all. Your pulse was weak and your lips…” he said, taking my hand in his. “Your lips were blue, mate. It’s still a bit chaotic here. Getting the tank was easy. Eventually, someone will ask about it but hopefully by then we’ll have told everyone about you. I’m working on the same theory that if food can fuel your body even if it’s not here, that air can too.”
Lero’s bottom lip quivered and everything inside me shattered. I pulled him back down on top of me and held onto him. If I were a better guy, I’d have let him ask his uncle for help straight away. Maybe war was inevitable. The bears and the others who lived here had sprung into action after the explosion. Maybe they could handle it. If not for me, maybe for Lero.
“It’s time for me to try to go back with you,” he whispered. “You need to eat first. It’s more party leftovers but they’re good.”
I gave him a thumbs up about the food. I’d wait until after I ate to tell him that he wasn’t going anywhere near Pami. I needed fed up to be alive even if I didn’t stay that way.
When Lero came back from the kitchen with food, I reached up to take the mask off. I paused just short of pulling it off my head. What if this was the only thing keeping my body alive. I lifted the mask from the front and drew in a big gulp of natural air and felt okay. I’d know if something was wrong with my body, right?
“It’ll be okay. We’ll figure this out,” Lero said.
He wasn’t teary-eyed anymore. Now his face looked bear-like. Both determined and contemplative. Left over chicken and stuffing didn’t get boring for me. Also, who got bored of potatoes? These bears cooked potatoes in just about every manner possible. He’d even brought me home half a pecan pie.
“I am going back with you,” he said, his shoulders set and squared.
I opened my mouth to argue with him but changed my mind at the last second. If he wanted to go back with me, we needed to give him the best shot of being okay when it happened.
“I think we need to exchange the claiming vows first,” I said. “It’ll give us a link. We’ll be able to communicate with each other without Pami or anyone else hearing us.”
“Are you strong enough for that?” Lero asked, his dark brows climbing high on his forehead.
I cocked my brow right back at him. Okay, okay. It was a fair question, but it punched me right in my pride. Either I could open my mouth and sound like the cave-alpha Lero had accusedme of being or I could show him that I had plenty of strength left, even if I didn’t. Of course, the latter was the only way to win the argument before it started.
Leaning over, I kissed him. It started soft as most of our kisses did, but then heated up. I pulled him into my lap and he ground down against my hard dick before either of us even settled in to make out. Sure, we might not have much time before whatever force snatched me back into my body, but I believed kissing was important even if Lero kept ruling out other forms of foreplay. I kissed up and down his neck and ran my hands over his back until he leaned away from me long enough to pull off his holiday sweater bearing a wolf in a Santa hat over his head. It hit the floor with a soft thump, and I made quick work of his fly since his pants didn’t disappear with a mere thought like mine did.
He was fucking beautiful. Every inch of my mate was beautiful. I kissed him again, softly, savoring his warm skin against mine. My pants had disappeared right on cue and I let go of every other thought. I had to. I wasn’t sure how things would play out if Lero came with me but more than that I wasn’t sure we’d have a second time. I needed to keep my head in the present and give Lero something to hang onto if these stolen moments were all he had to remember me by.
He leaned into the kiss, deepening it and wrapping his warm arms around my neck. I slid my hands down to his ass, massaging the firm muscles under his skin. He was slick. Hell, my poor mate had been slick since our first meeting. His tongue swept circles around my mouth and I kept kissing him, reveling in his taste and warmth, and letting him lead the way. I worked to push the thought that one day soon phantom touches might be all he had to remember me by.
Reaching down, Lero took a hold of my cock and what could I say? As soon as his fingers wrapped around my dick and his thumb made a teasing circle around my tip, it got a lot easier to forget about my worries. Whatever was going to happen was going to happen whether or not we enjoyed ourselves for a little moment in time.
He rose up just a bit and lined up our bodies. The breath whooshed out of me as he rubbed my cock against his gushing omegahole. He glanced at the oxygen mask laying turned off nearby, but I shook my head. It had nothing to do with where my body was buried and everything to do with the pleasure and warmth spiraling around my shaft, squeezing all my insides tight.
Only then did Lero’s plump lips twitch into a smirk. He wiggled over my dick, taking me into his body, and surrounding me on all sides. His warmth gushed over me, spreading from my dick as if he had magic that could crawl all over my skin. I kept my hands on his ass ready to help him move if he got tired or caught up in the moment.
Lero kissed me again. I was tucked away inside of him, but still, giving his warm, slick body time to adjust. And I just wanted to keep kissing him. I wanted to be so lost in the moment that I could replay these needy, hungry kisses over and over in my head as I died. That I could carry this feeling of need, closeness, and satisfaction with me through my door of life and death.
My mate started to move, and I let him set the pace, moving only to meet him. He ground around, finding the perfect alignment for all his sweet spots before he started to ride. My fingers dug into his muscular ass and he sucked my lip intohis mouth, nibbling on it. His hands ran up my shoulders and through my hair. He cradled my face as he rode me, our bodies finding that ancient rhythm between themselves. Then I was truly lost to him. Every little movement we made sent a new expression over his handsome face and new sensation dancing through me.
“You should bite me first,” he whispered, reminding me that this wasn’t just about pleasure. It was about evoking the ancient magic we started only the old gods knew how long ago in the Other World. “That way, even if you get sucked away from me, you’ll be able to hear me and know that you aren’t alone.”
My eyes misted over but I refused to give in to remembering that desperate loneliness that gnawed away at my thoughts whenever I wasn’t with Lero. Instead, I kissed him and wondered what the clear magical fluid flowing from the claiming gland on his shoulder would taste like. That’s where the magic was stored in alpha and omega true-mates. The clear stuff came out and the other person lapped it up. It let us know just enough about our mate – the mate we chose so long ago – that we didn’t feel crazy for being head-over-heels in love so soon after meeting them.
When the kiss broke, Lero swept his hair to one side and tilted his head so that I had free reign of his shoulder. I kissed the soft, warm curve of his neck down to his shoulder where his claiming gland lived. I kissed it tenderly. Time pressed in on us but some things couldn’t be rushed. A little moan escaped his lips as mine brushed against his gland. My bear nuzzled the inside of my ribs, silently begging me to get a move on it because he wouldn’t be able to reach out to the bear who dwelt within Lero until the vows were complete.
Borrowing my bear’s incisor, I bit down, puncturing the taut skin over Lero’s claiming gland just enough to free the first drops of the clear magical fluid. Caramel. My mate tasted like Caramel. I lapped up the first few drops hungrily and memories flooded into my brain. I saw his parents and other relatives. I saw his friends or at least how he tried to fit in with the people where he was born. Most of them didn’t shift. Once in high school, one of those kids teased him about shifting and when Lero told him to shut up, he shoved him back into a row of lockers. Lero cold cocked him and the kid crumpled. I felt the terror that spread through my mate’s body as the bully hit the floor. The kid was flown out to Hemlock Memorial Hospital and survived but Lero learned about his own strength that day. He also avoided non-shifters like the plague and treated them like glass when he had to be around them because to him they might as well have been made of priceless crystal. All that stuff culminated with him moving to Nightshade Bear Territory. Here he found his place in the world and I hoped to the old elves and bears and gods and whoever else might be listening that I one day would get to live here with him.
As soon as I pulled away, Lero sank his teeth into my shoulder where my claiming gland was. Only nothing happened. Not one drop of anything spilled out. Not blood. Not the clear magical fluid. I guess, this was the one thing I actually needed my body for. I opened my mouth to apologize – to somehow make this right. Lero shook his head and held my face in his hands.
“Hey, it’s okay. It’s alright. We’ll finish when this is settled. I’m just happy you’ll hear me, even if I can’t hear you. That way you’re not alone and you can find me when you reappear. Okay? This is still a good thing! A very good thing!”
