His heart was thumping; both of theirs were. Carefully, Ottis lowered his hands from his face.
Doc was still wearing the lace mask, andonlythat mask. Now that Ottis was looking closer, he saw the shadows of unevenly healed skin, the vicious ropes of scars pushing against lace. Doc’s lips were pressed tightly together, but what stood out most was the look in his eyes.
It wasn’t a complete reveal, but it was very close, and Doc’s heart was pounding.
“Thank you,” Ottis murmured, gently cupping Doc’s cheeks through the mask. “This gives a whole new meaning to ‘lace kink’.”
Doc snorted, his mouth pulling into a tiny smile—the first that Ottis had seen. His heart leaped.
“Really?” Doc said.
“Face kink, lace kink, it’s all the same in this case,” Ottis said, gently smoothing his thumbs over the covered bumpy skin. He touched the other parts of Doc’s face too, the unblemished skin, and the parts with lighter scarring. “I think you look fine.”
Doc finally relaxed, his shoulders going loose. His eyes crinkled. “Does that mean you don’t want me wearing the pickup line mask?”
“You can wear anything you want,” Ottis said solemnly. “But you might get omegas flocking to you with those pickup lines. Actually, maybe not.”
Doc laughed. Ottis couldn’t stop staring. This was what Doc looked like, every time he had laughed with Ottis. He was amazing.
“You’re still looking?” Doc murmured, almost shy.
“Well, yeah. You haven’t scared me off.”
Another grin. Doc scooped Ottis into his arms, falling slowly onto the grass so they landed together with a small thump.
To Ottis’ delight, Marcie crawled over, yanking out pieces of grass. She dropped them on Doc’s face and ripped up more grass, holding some out to him.
“She’s going to destroy your lawn,” Ottis groaned.
“She’s too small to,” Doc said, accepting Marcie’s grassy gift.
“Famous last words.”
“Would you like to sleep out here tonight?” Doc said. “Under the stars. Granted, we won’t see many because of the city’s light pollution.”
Ottis flopped onto his back. Between Marcie dropping pieces of grass on his face, he spotted some stars through the wispy clouds. “I don’t mind. I used to do this with my pack, except there aren’t many great stargazing spots in the forest. Too many trees.”
Large fingers slipped between his own, holding his hand. “Yeah? Any good memories?”
Ottis snuggled closer to his alpha. They were both looking at the sky, but occasionally, Doc would turn and peek at him instead. “Some good memories with my pack. But you know, this might be my best memory yet.”
Doc grinned. Ottis couldn’t get enough of that smile.
Ottis woketo bits ofsomethingraining down on his face.
It smelled like the outdoors. It was grainy, too.
Dirt.
He shook it off, cracking his eyes open.
Fingers of sunlight reached across the sky, chasing away the velvety blues. When he turned his head, he found Doc next to him, sound asleep, the lace mask still covering half his face.
Another sound caught his attention. It sounded like paws scratching at earth, but... tiny paws.
Ottis looked the other way and caught a spray of dirt to his face. He gagged, spitting it out and sitting up. “Marcie?”
Then he saw the landscape around him.
