Salt lowers his gaze to my chest, then lightly touches my shoulder with his fingers and says, "Eliano… this might be hard to believe, but I kind of fell for you that day you saved me on the prison bus."
I raise my eyebrows, because what he’s saying sounds crazy to me. I was so sure he hated me then.
"Wow. I could swear I pissed you off."
Salt shrugs a little, slightly flustered. "It was all on the surface, the way I acted!" He shakes his head. "I remember the moment they grabbed me and started pulling down my pants, that awful thought. All those years I didn’t want to have sex with anyone. I wanted to save it for someone special, someone who, in my eyes, deserved it."
His voice softens, so unlike him. He closes his eyes.
"In my secret fantasies, the ones I barely admitted to myself, I dreamed of meeting someone I could share those first moments with. And then, on that bus, it was about to be taken from me in such a brutal way. I knew they’d tear me apart, that I’d bleed, that I’d suffer horribly. And then… you showed up. For me, that moment was special in a way I really can’t explain. We were strangers, each of us headed to this island for different reasons. And still, you helped me. They tased you, they beat you, yet you fought for me, for a guy who had been only rude to you. There are so many bad alphas, like Senu always said, but there are also ones who are… perfect. And for me, that’s you."
His confession leaves me staring at him, stunned. I never would have guessed he felt that way, judging by how proud and almost aggressive he seemed back then.
Salt’s hands slide up my chest and then to my neck. My hands answer the movement, gliding slowly over his hip and higher, slipping lightly under his T-shirt. My fingertips brush his bare skin and he squeezes his eyes tight. The temperature spikes instantly, our breathing quickens.
"I could not bear the idea of them hurting you. I wanted to claim you, to be the only one for you. I wanted you all to myself…" I whisper hotly, leaving wet kisses over his neck, as he moans softly.
"You saved my little star and claimed it for yourself…" he mutters. "It’s only yours… forever."
I suck a hickey on his neck, purposefully over the line of his collar. He’s mine. Mine.
"I’m gonna use it a lot, a loooooooot…" I murmur.
Our lips meet, and we exchange slow, erotic kisses.
"I discovered something a few days ago, but I didn’t tell you because I felt stupid," Salt murmurs into my mouth.
"What is it?" I ask, even though my focus is already slipping as I feel his lithe body pressed against mine and his hard length pushing into my thigh.
Salt breaks the kiss and looks at me intensely, "I can do this thing…" Then he opens his mouth. It looks strange at first. My gaze drops to his teeth and then, suddenly, bam.
Two thin mating fangs slide out from his gums. Normally, betas can’t do this.
"Oh fuck!" I blurt out, shuddering slightly, already knowing what he wants to do as his fingers tug at the collar of my T-shirt.
In a kind of stunned fascination, I stare at those pearly white, needle-thin fangs. A sharp rush of arousal tears through my entire body. I lean in, drawn by his energy, and see his eyes focus on my gland.
Suddenly Salt lets out a sweet, vibrating sound in AO, one that translates as,You are mine. I claim you.
A moment later, another sound follows, lower this time, with that specific vibration every alpha recognizes instantly. It’s a request for permission to mark my gland.
I know that True Mates can mark each other outside of heat, so I respond immediately with a low, inviting, accepting vibration.
And even though this is probably not an objectively perfect moment, considering we’re hiding in a supply closet that reeks of floor cleaner, it happens.
Salt steps closer, as I bend to make it easier for him, my hands sliding farther under his shirt, gliding over his bare back,teasing along his spine. Salt trembles, his cheeks flushed a deep red, his pupils blown wide.
I feel it, that moment, the sweet tension in the air, his readiness.
And then, in one sudden movement, Salt’s teeth sink into my gland, and at that exact moment we both… climax.
Damn. Coming in your underwear is obviously not ideal, but I don’t care, because this isit.
A pink wave spreads through our bodies and we shiver as an even stronger energy of our mating bond, now working both ways, settles within us.
Salt and I become one, a fully mated couple, deepening our Bond and fusing us together, energetically and emotionally.
Right at the moment when Salt’s teeth are still sunk into my gland and I’m drifting on the sweet currents of a strange, marking orgasm, I hear footsteps passing outside the door. It sounds like a group of people, and I know exactly who just walked by.
