It wasn’t unheard of, and I’d certainly done it before, especially when I’d been spending most of my days learning the language.
Usually, though, I didn’t have vivid dreams ofbeingJapanese. Of living in the house we were supposed to be staying in. Of wearing hundred-year-old traditional Japanese clothing, and... frankly, of being myself, but not myself.
I dreamed of everyone around me calling me Igarashi-san, as they were doing in the city. Of an older woman calling me Kosuke-kun, the way my grandmother had done until I told her I preferred Dakota. Weirdest of all, in the dream, I was a self-important fuckhead. Barking orders, sneering like a douchebag, even occasionally treating the older woman like she was an inconvenience.
I’d learned well from Jax that being the man in charge didn’t have to mean being a bossy asshole who got offended when someone else’s opinion differed from his, so that was just weird.
The strange dreams instantly fled my mind, though, when I woke, warm and secure, but also... lying in dirt.
Jax was wrapped around me, and that was amazing, but also, we were lying naked at the foot of a tree. Damn, this full moon thing was a mess. Was I always going to turn into a human disaster when the full moon neared? Chase Jax through the woods and hop on his dick right in front of people? Thank fuck he’d had the foresight to get us alone, because that could have been incredibly awkward if my family had been around.
They were already iffy enough on the whole werewolf thing, and some clearly thought I should put my wolf behind my magic in importance.
It was like they didn’t quite understand that werewolf Dakota and mage Kosuke were the same person. Trying to explain to them that I was never going to be the Igarashi Kosuke they wanted... well, there was no point. They simply didn’t listen.
Given the immense separation between wolves and mages, they couldn’t seem to wrap their brains around being both, and thought I had to choose between the two in every case where they differed. It was probably like being bisexual, and told that if you were in a same-sex relationship you were no longer bisexual, just gay.
But fuck that. Yeah, I was gay, but I was also a werewolfanda mage, and no one was going to make me less of either. Not my pushy family, not Prudence’s patient magical tutelage, and not being in love with the pack alpha.
The pack had been the ones to teach me that. I was who I was, and I should be proud of that. Accepting of that.
Fuck anyone who thought otherwise.
Fingers carded through my hair, and I opened my eyes to find myself looking up at Jax. He didn’t seem annoyed that we were lying on dirt. No, he smiled at me, and as always, there was... love. It was love in his eyes. Every time he looked at me.
I slid my arms around him and leaned up to kiss him, softly, on the lips.
“What was that for?”
“For being you.” I slung a leg around his hips and pulled us tight together. “Because I love you. Because no one ever loved me before you, and I had no idea what that felt like. Thank you.”
His smile turned a little sad at that, and he leaned down to press kisses across my cheeks. “It’s not hard to love you. It’d be harder not to. I’m sorry you were surrounded by assholes for your whole childhood. But I’m not sorry we’re the ones who found you. You’re the best addition our pack has ever made.”
Ever.
Jesus, the things that came out of his mouth. He couldn’t have been more perfect if he’d tried.
Tightening the leg I had thrown over his hips, I tugged him even closer. “Fuck me.”
One perfect eyebrow lifted. “Right here?”
“Here was good enough last night.”
“Last night, you were high on moonlight and the chase.”
I reached up, cupping his face with both hands and kissing him again, this time less chaste and sweet, more filthy, pushing my tongue between his lips so hard and fast our teeth almost clacked together. “And now I’m just high on you. On being here with you, lying in the damn dirt and still wanting you.”
He didn’t have any more questions after that. Just rolled me onto my back and pulled my knees up along his sides to open me to him. He didn’t even look away, just continued kissing me as he lifted my ass with one hand, and guided his cock into me with the other.
It was just as perfect as it’d been last night.
Jax above me, Jax below me. The scent of him, the feel of him, the slick sound of him sliding inside me.
This was the best life, and I’d never willingly give it up.
We moved together, right there in the dirt, ignoring the rocks and tree roots beneath us. All I could feel was the perfection of Jax’s cock inside me.
Really, it was all just further proof that my family was wrong. It was good to be a werewolf, and heal from every inconvenient scrape and bruise before they even formed. Who wouldn’t want that?
